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[candor1]

Fulcrum; go
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[OOC—update: Just specify in subject line which game!]

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[candor1]

That's okay. I just want to hear.

[And be on hand.

Not because Kay can't protect himself better than anyone else could. Not because Cassian intends to do anything or knows what it would be even if he did. He doesn't have a blaster.

But… he needs to be there.]

[reexamined]

I'll leave my communicator on.

[Which should help in hearing what's being said. He wishes he had time to rig up something that would let Cassian maybe feed him the right lines to say, but there wasn't any time for that now.]

... If he believes me, he may want me to accompany him for a while. But I will see you later.

[candor1]

[Hux won't have the means to reprogram Kay here. Or do much of anything else.

Nonetheless, it's difficult for Cassian to bite back all the cautions he wants badly to blurt Kay's way, even though that would be insulting Kay's superior ability to run all such scenarios himself.

He also bites back any tempting instructions. Much as he wants Hux to understand his own irrelevance and powerlessness here.

It's best not to tempt such things.

Cassian only says at last,]

Don't do anything you don't want to do. Okay?

[reexamined]

Well, I don't want to call him "sir."

[ If he's asked to, that's going to be even harder than lying. So he's going to just say "General" as much as possible. ]

[candor1]

[Kay can't see his face but Cassian's lopsided smile will be audible in his voice]

That's fine.

[This is important]

He doesn't outrank you.

[Those systems are not here. And Kay is no one's underling.]

[reexamined]

I know.

[ But it's nice being told it, anyway. This isn't the first time Cassian's said something along those lines, but he's definitely the only one who had said anything like that at all. There's a certain fondness in Kay's tone, that's only there for that brief moment, before he "sobers" up. Can't be sounding any kind of sentimental, right now. ]

He should be here soon. I'm going to stop responding now.

[candor1]

[In instant acquiescence, shorthand:]

G'luck.

[Cassian mutes his transmission, so no background noise on his end will betray Kay.]

[candor1]

[The meeting ended. Cassian waited until all was clear before comming Kay again.]

rendezvous : backyard ?

[They hadn't set many codewords—hoping that needn't be their life any more… but that would indicate not the actual yard, but a clearing in the woods behind #003.]

[reexamined]

[ Kay waits a while, a good while, for Hux to be out of sight, before taking out his communicator to look. ]

Yes. Give me fifteen minutes.

[ The walk should only really take ten at the most, but he's trying to be careful. ]

[action?]

[candor1]

[Being able to go directly, Cassian will be there first. Staring at a plant, either trying to catalog it, or remember that nature is good even if people can be bantha fodder.]

[reexamined]

[He's in the woods as well soon enough, stomping on a few lovely plants along the way unintentionally. Sorry. Those wildflowers are totally dead now.]

Well.

It could have gone worse.

[candor1]

[It's okay about the flowers. They'll grow back.

Something something metaphor.]

You did good, Kay.

Wish I knew more about him personally and the moment in time he's from.

[Or do I… Maybe better to just turn his back…

…but that can also be an invitation to shoot him in it…]

Whose file did he show you?

[reexamined]

[He says nothing on being told he did a good job, but Cassian probably know he's internally preening.]

He's from our future.

...And the file he showed me was yours.

[It's not going to be easy to lie about not knowing anything about Cassian. He could at least have done better at avoiding giving away anything important about anyone else, because no one else has told him anything too deep. But with Cassian, he knows almost everything.]

[candor1]

[He's from our future… Cassian nodded heavily.]

I know. What happens between Luke and Han's to his time is what I wish I knew more about.

[…or perhaps doesn't.

If it's all for nothing…?!

But at Kay's second answer…

Cassian's eyebrows go up. But he doesn't seem… quite… alarmed. Maybe not as much as he should be.

It's almost… affirmation.

Guess I did get under his skin.

Again, maybe not the most strategic of feelings… but given how Hux had made Cassian's fingers curl and skin crawl… Good.

And Cassian would far prefer it being himself to being Jyn.]

What did he have?

[on me?]

[reexamined]

[Kay would laugh, if he, you know, felt the urge to ever do things like that.]

Absolutely nothing of importance. Your name, your username. Your self-confessed allegiance. No doubt he wants me to find out more.

[But then, a bit more seriously-]

I don't think I can pretend I don't have any answers about you.

[candor1]

[Cassian thought about it for a moment, considering Kay and the file and the free molecules between them.

At last…]

I could give you a thesis to stick to, if that would help. I know what idea I'd like to get into Hux's brain.

That our pasts are not relevant here. What drove me back in our universe, anything I did, does not apply in this world. …You know. It's not like I'm going to steal more Death Star plans.


[ooc: steals your own line in the name of retcon ;-) ]

[reexamined]

[ Kay nods, in agreement and in the plan. And, in complete contradiction to his nodding- ]

He's absolutely not going to go for that.

...But it's worth a try.

[ ooc: lmfao perfect, it all circles back! ]

[candor1]

[tight, twisted smile]

No, he won't. But yes, we must try.

[try everything before hostilities first]

So how are you feeling about it?

[reexamined]

[ Or, in Kay's case, try that one solution, and then give up, and resort to hostilities. ]

I feel that my second meeting with him will go a lot less smoothly.

[candor1]

I don't think he'd actually know how, even if he somehow could—

[Cassian's scorn for Hux was clear—so was his protectiveness of Kay]

—but why don't I try to see how much more impossible I could make it for him to switch you off? High ranking officers could well have been given a trick for circumventing normal safeguards.

[He still doubted it. But not worth risking Kay to be overconfident]

I'm past overdue to give you some touch-ups anyway, if you want.

[reexamined]

I'm almost forty years out of date, according to him. If there was a failsafe I have built in to security droids that you're unaware of, but he is- as statistically unlikely as that might be- it's even less likely that, given the time difference, that those failsafes would still apply to me.

But I won't turn down security upgrades, if you think you can manage it with the mediocre tools and computers they have here. And I certainly won't turn down touch-ups. It's been a hundred and twenty four days since I last had one.

[candor1]

[Cassian nodded, agreeing with Kay's assessment. But also giving him a sympathetic smile and a light knucklerap on the casing]

Far too many. …I've been meaning to pay Revan a visit. He probably has tools I can borrow.

[Not to mention… if sides were to be drawn, and Hux did have alliances less illusory than his assumptions about Kay… trying to strengthen some of their own…?

Ugh. Cassian doesn't give voice to that one. As if Kay couldn't figure it out himself.

As well as the possibility that Revan, if they decided they could trust him, might well be a much more subtle and adept programmer than learn-just-what-he-needed-to-shortcut-and-jerryrig-the-rest Cassian.]



[ooc: didn't plan either of these! but dovetailing again maybe…???]

[reexamined]

He has apparently been making droids here for some time. I would be surprised if he didn't have at least a few resources we could use or borrow. And he likes me.

[Look, see, he can make friends!! Kay watches Cassian give his usual knucklerap against his casing, and usually he just lets it happen as a means of acknowledging the friendly interaction, but he's never had a way to "return the gesture" so to speak.

Until he recalls something he saw with some frequency in the city.]

Cassian, I have also learned something else recently. It isn't about Hux.

Make a fist with your hand again.

[ooc: works for me!!]

[candor1]

[Cassian knows people can like Kay. He does, after all. Since it's rare, though, it's usually noteworthy, valuable intel in one direction or another. This direction suggests likemindedness in respecting the equal validity of mechanic (vs organic) sentience, not minding brutal honesty, being adaptable to being personally challenged, not having a rigid notion which can be offended of rank/galactic order. For Cassian, it's reassuring, maybe heartening, to know about Revan.

This next makes Cassian raise an eyebrow. Though he does as Kay says—with palpable wariness. Cassian suspends his fist, like pausing holo mid-punch]

[reexamined]

[ Kay also makes a fist with his hand. His hands are much bigger, and so thus the fist size is also big, and he hesitates for a moment. Gently, he bumps his fist to Cassian's. ]

This is aptly named a "fist bump." It's an Earth indication of companionship.