OPEN RP POST • STAR WARS MINGLE ⭐️

[forceshadowed]

whatever it is you've been doing
you are now in Canto Bight!


That's right. It's just like those jamjar games. One moment you're minding your own business, and then... poof!
You're in Canto Bight for no apparent reason.
(Or you've always wanted to be here, and you finally did it. Whatever, we're not the cops.)

That's not the weirdest part, though. Because you might be seeing double.
It's like the time-space continuum collapsed over the city
and now doubles and multiples of you or people you like hate want to kill know are appearing.
So go have fun with that!



HOW TO PLAY:

• Toplevel your character. Different version/AU, different toplevel please.
• Add a short background or link to an info post, and indicate prefs. TELL US WHAT KIND OF SHENANIGANS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. Shipping, smut, family reunions, dark side shenanigans, murder, a Ben Solo smackdown...
• Troll Reply to others.
• Lather, rise, repeat.
• Please note that while the intent of this post is for characters from various Star Wars verses to mingle, you don't need a Star Wars character to play! All characters are welcome — characters AU'd into SW, characters having interacted with SW characters in games and memes, fandom OCs, ship babies, etc.
• Have fun and be excellent to each other! ♥

Comments

[seenitbefore]

Almost, almost he takes that bait, caught by a reflexive flare of pure blind fury - too sudden, too close to the bone -

But in the next breath his good sense reasserts itself, and he laughs a little. Of course that's the angle; wouldn't he do the same thing? Would he have the effrontery? Probably. "Good try," he tells the stranger with his face, flashes a deliberate smile. "But no. What is it you're really after?"

[candor1]

Likewise: nice try. "Right now, figuring out who and what the pfassk you are." Cassian kept his arms loose at his sides—where he could quickdraw his weapon if the other did so. But hands, for the moment, empty. "Where I stand: Either you're here to trick me, or something's tricking both of us. Either way, we gotta tell each other something. How's this: I'm here from the data vault." There were a few in his past but only one he'd refer to as The. …He added: "With her."

(Same.)

[seenitbefore]

This makes, if possible, less sense than the rest. "You've lost me."

Watching him is disorienting, uncomfortably intimate - microexpressions he knows from the inside, movements whose every nuance he can feel in his own nerves, little tics he'd forgotten he has. On some visceral level he can't help but trust the man: I know you. On another, almost as deep, he can't help but distrust: I know what you're doing.

The speech patterns, on the other hand, are just barely less familiar, enough to steady him a little, remind him that he's not looking at a mirror out of phase. He keeps his own expression flat as long practice can make it. "I don't know any her." Not in that tone of voice.

[candor1]

Cassian stared levelly for a long minute. Was this a pass or a fail on that one…? Somehow, admission of ignorance seemed more genuine than feigned. Could this be him from sometime earlier than Scarif? …If so, wouldn't he remember this?

Finally: "It's 3277*, for me. You?"

[seenitbefore]

He blinks. It's an explanation (or non-explanation) that hadn't even occurred to him. He's not sure whether to feel proud or annoyed that the other got there first, and he turns it over for a moment or two, considering. "You're telling me you're future me." Ridiculous, but then so are most of the other possibilities, really. Cassian permits himself a short sigh.

"Okay, sure. What am I doing here, then?"

[candor1]

Either Dorosz or Sira. But Cassian shook his head. "No. I'm not giving that up without something from you. Convince me you're not a counteragent in a holomask." Those things never looked nearly as convincing, without a lot more masking layers, as the man standing in front of him looked; but that wasn't the point. "Something unrelated to work." Ha! he had no personal life. But something that couldn't be used now against anybody… like the name of the Separatist who'd saved him from the Carida riot, or the one toy he remembered from before that, or what Maddell had called him in her trainer evaluation, or that he was allergic to Jogan fruit or something.

sorry in advance for the punch in the feels

[seenitbefore]

A laugh hisses through his teeth, because really? "Nothing's coming to mind," he says dryly. "If it does I'll let you know. --Where's our mutual friend? Maybe he can figure it out, save us all some time."

If this guy can actually produce a counterfeit K-2, Cassian reflects, then being outnumbered two to one will be the least of his problems. But he doubts it. "Besides, if you really believed that, you'd have dealt with me already. At least I'd hope so."

occupational hazard with our guy ;-)

[candor1]

Closing the vault door now.

Goodbye.

(No, Kay, please)

Cassian's vision doesn't waver; but he doesn't hide the gravel in his voice. "Kay's not here.

"But there, again, I've given you a name."

And his blaster was in his hand and aimed at the other man. Possibly a poor move—escalation—but feke it. "Bring something to mind. Or I'm done talking."

[seenitbefore]

"--I'd hate to think I was slipping that badly after a couple of years." He stands very still, refuses to react. Watches the minute calculations behind his own eyes, fascinated. You won't do it. Not quite yet. You know I can tell, and you know I can't be certain, and I hit something just now, didn't I, you don't show it but I can tell that too--

Abruptly he says, "That first question, that was just to get a rise out of me. See which way I'd jump. The answer wouldn't have proved anything to you. You don't need proof now, but you know you're going to get an answer anyway, because you know exactly how far I'll push you. Yeah?" And he raises his hands carefully, unhurried, to buy the moment he needs to steel himself.

"I got drunk when I was ten. Cried myself to sleep. Hated myself for that in the morning." He manages a thin half-smile. "Still do, sometimes."

[candor1]

Not unguessable, that… but okay. Cassian exaggeratedly took his finger off the trigger and shifted the aim of the muzzle away from the other man's face. (Though didn't reholster.) " 'A couple of years'? When is it?"

(Was this something like the kyberblast dropping him through space-/time-, or…? He and Kay had talked about the infinite dimension model, once… he hadn't really allowed himself to entertain it… what ifs were pointless enough as it was…)

[seenitbefore]

Cassian represses a sigh. "Like I said. End of seventy-four. Or it was, ten minutes ago." He flicks a glance sideways toward the door he came through, and back again, faintly wry. "I assume you know the rest. So: where are we?"

[candor1]

End of seventy-four. Sira, then. But again: shouldn't Cassian (now) remember this—meeting himself?

Cassian finally lowered his blaster, shaking his head and frowning. "Looks like Canto Bight. And I was here in '74. But I can't remember how I got here just now. I was just in the Outer Rim. Abrion sector." Still wasn't keen to give names that could affect things, like 'Scarif'. "And by 'just in' I mean literally—like ten minutes ago."

[seenitbefore]

That gives him pause; he frowns sharply, straightening. "Well, I wasn't." He casts another look down the alley toward the open street, but the heap of whatever, if it is in fact sentient, plays dead very convincingly. "Unless that's what this is, but I'm guessing not. I hope not, that kind of thing gets recursive fast. What do you mean, can't remember?"

The latter is almost casual, except of course that it isn't. They both know it. He does it anyway, reflexively, trying to fit the pieces together in his head.

Kay's not here. In that repressive, toneless voice. And, I was with her, as though it should be self-explanatory.

[candor1]

"Sorry…" Maybe it was disorientation, but other!him had lost this!him. "What's what this is?"

"I mean I can't remember. I was there. I blacked out. Then I was here. I'm missing half my gear; I'm suddenly uninjured when I should have broken ribs, a bruised spine, fractured limbs, internal bleeding and a concussion; yet I'm still wearing these feking things—" He indicated the Imperial uniform trousers and boots, "—like I was, there; I have no idea if I have a ship, a mission, or any allies here… none of this makes sense. Unless I'm hallucinating or… the thing that happened to me right before I blacked out… augh, I don't know, created a hole in space-/time- and dropped me through." He gestured vaguely at the other!him. "Not sure which seems more likely given… this."

[seenitbefore]

Well, that's... a lot of uncomfortable implications to be going on with. Cassian eyes his double narrowly, torn between conflicting instincts: to press for more details while they're forthcoming; to back off the subject before he hears more than is good for him. That faint hesitation sends ice creeping down his spine.

He bites his lip, considering, and presently says, "So it might not actually be ten minutes. You don't know how long you were out."

[candor1]

"That's true. Fair to say I didn't get here under my own power. If someone dropped me off—they had to keep me fully out and heal all my injuries and then not leave a trace of themselves… still doesn't make sense."

[seenitbefore]

"No," he agrees. "But neither does walking into a building and then walking out half an hour later onto a completely different planet. I don't have time for this," suddenly exasperated. "I have work to do, this is crazy."

[candor1]

(Walking onto a beach, actually. Never mind.)

Cassian closed his eyes and exhaustedly gestured. "Of course. Never put yourself ahead of a mission before. Why start now." Moment to rub temple, then—what the hell: "Sira, right? Don't suppose I could help." 'Cause what the Fest else should he do right now?

[seenitbefore]

"What's that supposed to mean?" sharply. He's used to that sentiment coming from well-meaning colleagues; it's acutely disconcerting to hear it in his own voice. "Is this a vacation, am I supposed to be enjoying this?"

Flicker of movement at the far edge of his vision, a shadow across the mouth of the alley: it registers as a chill down the back of his neck before any conscious thought. "And no, I don't see how you could." He shoots a glance at the newcomer - burly, reptilian, flashy dresser, moves with assurance - and adds in a sulky tone, "You don't know everything just because you're older."

(We're not here, there's nothing here worth noticing, just a petty family squabble between humans.)

[candor1]

Did he really distrust himself this much? …Well, sometimes, yes. When he suspected himself of being compromised. Not terribly often, but this was pretty extreme.

This!Cassian followed the line of That!Cassian's eyes to the newcomer, and also adopted a more casual stance, slipping his blaster inconspicuously under his sleeve.

"It's supposed to mean," he muttered back, "I'm not ready to let you off my radar just yet. And not liking my chances of being turned lose without you. If helping with your prior commitment"—not gonna call it mission with someone else in hearing range—"keeps me on you and speeds things along, that's good for me, too."

[seenitbefore]

"It's not like you can do anything about it now, I'm already way behind schedule--"

"Hey," a deep rasp interrupts. The newcomer is looming over them, tongue flicking irritably as xe looks them over, unimpressed: the one still windblown in his shirtsleeves and shiny boots, the other looking clean-cut and drably respectable. "You boys got business here or what?"

Kriff. Cassian folds his arms, shoulders hunched defensively, and directs a pointed look at Cassian. Your move.

[candor1]

Fine. "Yeah," Cassian said, looking back at the newcomer with [deliberate] openly matching irritation. "Do you?"

[seenitbefore]

"I'm the manager, softshell," jabbing a heavy digit at his chest. "And I didn't engage any double acts, so--"

"Great," Cassian says, aggrieved, and turns his shoulder to xem. "Now look. I'm not gonna hang around for this." He starts to edge between them toward the exit, catching the other's eye for a moment. Let's get out of here.

[candor1]

More easily done for this Cassian, probably. He spread his hands to the manager and turned away, following his double.

[seenitbefore]

"Anyway," he says as they emerge into the street and the hoarse muttering ("rassin' humans... like they own the place...") recedes behind them. "So what, you think you've come back? Not that I went ahead, or - sideways, or something?"

He eyes the distant roofline again. It's remotely possible, he supposes, that he's been maneuvered halfway across the planet, instead of halfway across the galaxy, but not much more likely. Besides, his... companion seemed pretty confident, and he's always had a good memory for places. Places he's actually been. "Or we both did."