Cassian Andor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
candor1) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
maskormenace2017-04-19 09:07 am
candor1) wrote in maskormenace2017-04-19 09:07 am
Entry tags:
- anakin skywalker | darth vader,
- archie | broceidon,
- † alfie solomons | n/a,
- † cassian andor | fulcrum,
- † cosima niehaus | n/a,
- † count dooku | darth tyranus,
- † han solo | n/a,
- † kotetsu t. kaburagi | wild tiger,
- † motoko kusanagi | the major,
- † nike lemercier | n/a,
- † normie osborn | n/a,
- † sabriel | abhorsen
[video]
[He's had plenty of time to toy with this gizmo (all technical terms, thank you mental projection of Kay that's moved back into his brain now that it's not too painful because there's a real Kay again, shush), but still hasn't put himself on it for more than a brief response to Catelyn Stark.
For all his well-[founded?]-honed mistrust of open networks, it has chastened him that he could have found Jyn and Kay much more quickly if he'd used it from the start. For all the research he does, it's unignorable that he's wasting a huge amount of this powerful resource by relegating himself to observer, not participant.
…And there's one or two other imPorts he's learned about that… have caught his attention. He's wondering if he'll catch theirs.
So, network, hello: months after his arrival (albeit a good percent of them spent unconscious): Human. Male. Age hard to tell: either in his thirties-forties or face prematurely hollowed and lined. Hair: dark, cut as if by himself with a tool not meant for such use and no mirror. Eyes: several galaxies' worth. Shirt doesn't look like anything specific to those who wouldn't know the style, instantly recognizable as Corellian to those who would.
Then he smiles—in a way that seems entirely effortless, genuine, and engaged—and some of the agedness falls away. The eyes crinkle and sparkle. He seems approachable and warm. Even the haircut is transformed into seeming less unloved and more boyish. It gives this stranger the face of a friend.
His accent, when he speaks, sounds Hispanic toEarth American ears.]
I was wondering, if you're willing to share—
[on an open network, though that's not necessarily a good barometer of the network itself]
Are you still in the job you were assigned? Yes or no, how is it going for you?
I've read the introductory material on this. I'm wondering about personal experiences.
[He's tried to go beyond the official literature, including as much of the backlog as he could find or slice. Which is also why he doesn't repeat Godric's question (to which the answers were exceedingly helpful—and a few that sent a shiver up his spine. But pull it together, don't apply superstitious thought to the superstitious thoughts: that's what common cosmological models do).
As if in afterthought, and as if with self-conscious awkwardness, he adds]
…and hello. My name's Cassian.
For all his well-[founded?]-honed mistrust of open networks, it has chastened him that he could have found Jyn and Kay much more quickly if he'd used it from the start. For all the research he does, it's unignorable that he's wasting a huge amount of this powerful resource by relegating himself to observer, not participant.
…And there's one or two other imPorts he's learned about that… have caught his attention. He's wondering if he'll catch theirs.
So, network, hello: months after his arrival (albeit a good percent of them spent unconscious): Human. Male. Age hard to tell: either in his thirties-forties or face prematurely hollowed and lined. Hair: dark, cut as if by himself with a tool not meant for such use and no mirror. Eyes: several galaxies' worth. Shirt doesn't look like anything specific to those who wouldn't know the style, instantly recognizable as Corellian to those who would.
Then he smiles—in a way that seems entirely effortless, genuine, and engaged—and some of the agedness falls away. The eyes crinkle and sparkle. He seems approachable and warm. Even the haircut is transformed into seeming less unloved and more boyish. It gives this stranger the face of a friend.
His accent, when he speaks, sounds Hispanic to
I was wondering, if you're willing to share—
[
Are you still in the job you were assigned? Yes or no, how is it going for you?
I've read the introductory material on this. I'm wondering about personal experiences.
[He's tried to go beyond the official literature, including as much of the backlog as he could find or slice. Which is also why he doesn't repeat Godric's question (to which the answers were exceedingly helpful—and a few that sent a shiver up his spine. But pull it together, don't apply superstitious thought to the superstitious thoughts: that's what common cosmological models do).
As if in afterthought, and as if with self-conscious awkwardness, he adds]
…and hello. My name's Cassian.
Video
Greetings, Cassian. The work we are granted is very often foolish and poorly chosen, in my experience. Still, I made the best of my given assignment for about a year before I decided to embark upon a new path.
[They had made him a singer for a metal band, in some ill-advised joke. But Dooku had seized on it as a chance to influence the media, and through the media, politics.]
Video
Cassian doesn't actually recognize Dooku from the history of the Clone Wars. When it would have been most relevant, Cassian had been a child, and the circles he'd traveled in on the Outer Rim were not so well-resourced (nor disposed) as to do much research. Once in the Alliance… Intelligence operative or not, there were certain subects he'd… benignly neglected. If they weren't useful, memory storage better allocated elsewhere… and if they were going to render him… incapable of… …There were some he'd been gently advised to leave alone, and, once or twice, had actually taken the advice.
For instance, how insurgent cells like his, despite intention, had actually contributed to the way history played out.
Unless a particular figure or line of record became relevant again, it had been far, far better to move forward, not look (too closely) back.
But Cassian does recognize Dooku. Not from a file, but from a memory.
…And if he's tired of running from something (even memories) that won't stop attacking, then standing and fighting becomes the necessity.
At the very least: turning and facing.
Unlike Dooku's, Cassian's accent is not Core Proper, but his knowledge of correct address is. (And how he knows Dooku's title at all, he leaves hanging.)]
Hello, my lord.
Care to share details?
Video
Certainly. They placed me in the entertainment industry, of all things. I was made a singer for a performing band in the genre of... 'heavy metal,' they call it.
I've since left that life behind, however. Now, I am a professional orator, although I also maintain an involvement in local politics.
[He would have been a professional politician, if he hadn't been defeated in an election last year. Not that he's still bitter or anything.]
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[He hasn't researched this place quite as well as he should—though it seems he's going to have access to a cheat in the form of Kay's work—but he did scan enough to see which mental models would translate.
A surprising many.
Kinds of power broken down like this were concepts familiar across both universes. —Parts of them. His insurgent cellmates would look at him like he was crazy. That was Allied Intelligence-speak.
He was idly curious to what Dooku might make of his speaking them. In an Outer Rim accent no less. Though any reaction, if it came at all, might be delayed. To after real introductions…
If it were a more aimless exchange, Cassian would question the nature of 'heavy metal', along ironic lines of seeing if it might be something to suggest to Kaytoo. But the subject is already on the table, why not go for it at once]
I've heard a bit about your political pursuits from a friend of mine. Though not necessarily the local ones.
Video
[That gets a smile. Dooku wasn't expecting such ready recognition of his tactics.]
Our gracious hosts advertise themselves as a democracy. If that is the case, they should be open to persuasion through soft methods- criticism in the media for instance, and lobbying their representatives.
[And if such persuasion fails, the Count will be perfectly willing to unleash 'harder' methods of his own.]
Might I ask who your friend is? Perhaps we already have acquaintances in common.
Video
But for all he speaks more like her, the Count is not, somehow, of the same cut as Mon Mothma. There's more of the alternative in his eyes.
Still watching Dooku's reactions, not paying much mind to his own affect:]
Jyn Erso.
Video
[The Count's mouth twitches downward. There's a good chance this man already has, at best, a wary impression of Dooku then. Jyn doesn't seem like someone who would stay silent about the Confederacy's imprisonment of her family.]
I had a most... interesting talk with her, when she arrived. She strikes me as a most formidable individual, regardless of any unfortunate history between us.
Video
Dooku's phrasing choice set off a note in Cassian's mind. Being polite, diplomatic, yes… but… in a way that seemed… aimed to… well, recognizing that Cassian was likely to ally with Jyn (having called her 'friend') on issues, and obviously figuring that that would entail being antagonistic to Dooku… complimenting Jyn and downplaying their political differences and solely interpersonal was the countermove geared to potentially…
…well, avoid inherited animosity, yes. But it felt possibly a bit more pointed, like courting a potential shift of loyalty…?
But then Cassian was jaded. And always considered the possibility of more deviousness and intent than was usually actually at play. Too early to know.
So… he'll play.]
She is. I wouldn't think you'd have known one another long enough here to have personal history. Unless you mean past politics. In which case… [lifted one shoulder to indicate shrugging] Partisanship doesn't always endure. There was a time she and I would have expected to be enemies.
Video
[False remorse, expertly delivered with the practiced air of a seasoned politician. But is is Cassian's last words that draw Dooku's attention the most- he is always interested in the forces that split people apart or bind them together.]
I know all too well how fragile and changeable an allegiance can be... How allies and enemies can shift. Might I ask what once divided the two of you?
Video
Outwardly, Cassian gave a small, somber smile.
Internally, he was thinking, Ask me directly. Is it because if I show you mine, it may also reveal yours?]
We hadn't met yet. But if we had, we would have been on opposite sides of that war.
[Their opposing "cell"s.
But history was so muddied, that wasn't something he, at least, was inclined to worry about. They'd been on the same side when it mattered. And when they really chose it, as opposed to their parents or circumstances choosing them.
…Unrelated to this conversation, but at the back of his mind, Cassian felt an aching warmth and respect for Bodhi Rook. Who needn't have chosen any of it. Who hadn't been born in prison or grabbed by an insurgent from a riot or had to fight against a father's shadow or be indoctrinated so well as to be rendered good for nothing else—nor left behind by a temple destroyed or a program rewritten—all in all, whose life hadn't necessarily been entirely focused on the war from before he could have done otherwise. He'd worked for the Empire because they were the only ones offering jobs, nothing more, and in a nonviolent civilian capacity. Bodhi had had the option to live a life. And he'd chosen to give it up. Because whether or not the war was affecting his life as directly, or his impact on anyone else being directly negative, he had an awareness of the larger picture. And had chosen it freely.
Cassian didn't want his own name remembered by anyone. Nor had the others he'd recruited to Rogue One. They'd all given up their legacies long ago; this had been an opportunity, much as anything else, to atone.
But he hoped there was a memorial to Bodhi somewhere.]
Video
[A sigh, unbacked by genuine remorse.]
Shall I take it, then, that you were on on the Separatist side of the conflict?
[Since Jyn's family was on the Republic's- or, at least, certainly no friend to the Separatists who had imprisoned them. The Count sounds a hopeful note- could this be a potential ally, from his own world?]
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Cassian keeps his own suddenly roiling feelings well behind an impassive face.
On the one hand, he knew now from the sweep of history that they'd… cosmically…
…the only survivable term was "backfired".
Difficult to disentangle: on some atomic level, he found himself profoundly mistrusting this man. Already feeling used. Even before reaching this, the subject he'd been trying to flush out.
On the other hand, they'd been family.
Which would make Dooku a kind of…
No.
Stop.
Cassian's voice reveals nothing in giving the official designations.]
Sullust Team Nebula, 3357 through '61. Sullust Team Fissure, '61 through '62.
[Renamed at Case Officer death. Though drastic overturn of resistance fighters in an insurgent cell was… routine.
And it had felt redundant by then anyway. Already become a different unit, to Cassian, in '60, at Xol Khriou's vanishment.
…Not that "Nebula" or "Fissure" were what they called themselves. Their secret verbal handshake, and nicknames/call signs among the other cells who actually communicated with one another, were whichever variety of Sullustan wildlife served one's current purpose. For team spirit, sense of purpose, or battle rally: "Rockrenders" (fire-colored cave dwelling reptiloids who literally ate Stormtrooper armor). To express (grudging or affectionate) approval: "Ash Angels" (not really that complimentary since those were scavenger birds, but the word had mythic quality regardless of reality, and at least they could fly). And that often as an answer to the more condescending "Ash Rabbit" (which had seemed to be Cassian's personal—and much loathed—nickname for the first few years. He later learned that every child soldier was an Ash Rabbit. In some kind of… self-aware… tragic… snark. Kids should be owning rabbits, of preferably some other planetary variety, as pets. Not living that particular reality.
The name would vanish when some fundamental shift made one stop being thought of as a child.
Cassian had graduated from Ash Rabbit to Rockrender at age…
eight.)
By any name, Cassian wonders if Dooku will have known of them.
Either way is not necessarily indicative of whether Dooku's telling the truth about being the Separatist leader.
The cells were never sure their own leaders knew of them.
They often wondered… if they were truly connected to anyone or anywhere else in the universe at all.]
Video
[The Count did not keep track of each and every unit of rag-tag guerillas the Confederacy had sponsored across the vast, bloody breadth of the Clone Wars, but Team Nebula/Fissure had distinguished itself enough for their name to cross his desk at one point. And Dooku rarely forgot facts like that, a trait which has often served him well.]
It sounds as though that part of the war was a long time ago for you, however. When the Porter took me here, the war was in its third year... not long after the fall of Cato Nemoidia.
[And before the beginning of the offensive above Coruscant. The final battle in the grim farce of the Clone Wars.]
Video
Known. Remembered.
…Great, rabbit. Now get up and keep moving.
His legs felt weak but it didn't matter 'cause he was sitting. So all he really has to work on is keeping the viewscreen steady and his face impassive.
He mostly succeeds. Facially. There is the tell of him placing the comm on a flat surface to look into, rather than keeping it aimed in his hands.]
Yes, sir.
[…the address feeling less calculated or deliberate. No, not enough for actual loyalty, far from it. Still too many questions. Still the deep gut tension, molecular-level instinct, of distrust, perhaps dislike. Even if it weren't for Jyn, he'd still be wary of Dooku.
But all that can still be true… while connection established.
But think. Second decisive battle of Cato Nemoidia. Hadn't been as aware of it at the time, learned after the fact in Intelligence training.]
3258.
[A question if not inflected as one.]
Yes. I'm here from 3277.
[…he's distracted. 3258 was a date that had just come up]
Is there a term in usage for common eras within common origins?
[waves? generations?
So far their personal history seems divided into three such.]
Video
[The Count shrugs. The fine points of calendar-keeping do not particularly interest him at this moment. The samplings of galactic history brought by the Porter are another matter, one that is very interesting indeed.]
Here, we have representatives from the time of the Clone Wars, the time of the Empire, and even from the days of the Old Republic, thousands of years ago.
Video
But that was partly why the thought would wait for later.
Also not to address right now, but preserved for later analysis… the different categorizations.
Cassian's division of three hadn't included Old Republic. It had been Clone Wars (represented by Dooku and, as he was about to confirm…), Galactic Civil War (Luke, Han), and… in between (whatever he, Jyn, and Kay were).
He's since learned that the calendar changed the year—the week—they died, not because it had been the end, but because it had been the beginning.
How might the historical record read…? The Battle of Scarif was the first major engagement between the Alliance to Restore the Republic, thereafter solidifed as the Rebel Alliance, and the Galactic Empire. It marked the beginning of the Galactic Civil War.
Strategically—in loss of resources and life—Scarif had been an Alliance defeat.
The names again in his mind. And they were the smallest portion of the toll.
—Yavin had been an Alliance victory.
Hence, "Battle of Yavin" being the date, not "Battle of Scarif".
Good. Cassian would take Yavin's name being remembered and celebrated over Scarif's every time.
Especially since history was named by the victors.
It was more than enough, quieter validation, that the victory had been enabled by the apparent, initial defeat.
A beginning rather than an end was not perhaps what they'd most privately wished for, if any of them had allowed themselves such wishes. But in fact… maybe all, maybe more, than they could have hoped for.
…None of which was why he'd asked.]
I've met another representative from the Clone Wars here, who came from the same year as you.
[Leaves all the inevitable questions there unasked to see which Dooku independently chooses to answer]
Video
And I think I can guess who it is. Tell me, what do you think of young General Skywalker?
[Or whatever he goes by now that he has... broken with the Jedi Order and the Republic.]
Video
And Yavá help them all: he was a general.
Bad enough he was a (nominal) Jedi.
Cassian's not going to say much on an open channel. And certainly not plainly. But switching to private would be conspicuous—and not quite ready to confer privately with this man.]
High ideals can suffer from being abstracted without reassemblage to the greater whole.
[aka: convictions can sound good while being at complete odds with others' reality]
Video
Ideals are one thing that boy has never had any lack of. But he has taken things further than I ever expected him to, very far indeed.
[He frowns thoughtfully.]
We fought many times in the Clone Wars. But I have no desire to bring our quarrel to this world. Let us hope that he will feel the same way.
Video
It made his mouth tighten. And his chest hurt.
He went even warier when someone told him exactly what he wanted to hear. Especially so obviously skilled a player at the game as Dooku.
…Cassian wondered if he was compromised. If continuing to talk with Dooku was going to make it harder for him to extract clear intel.
Intel—no. Stop.
Try. There was something to be learned. If not about reality, then about the speaker.]
Are you aware of anything after your departure?
Video
I have been told that a dark future awaits. The Confederacy defeated, an Empire rising... and that I do not survive the Clone Wars.
[He hasn't accepted it. Not yet. He and Palpatine will rule together- that has been the Grand Plan for almost thirteen years, the star he has followed through the many trials and sacrifices of the war. Surely there has been some mistake, surely the history the others think they know has been distorted.
He cannot simply fail, after all he has done. It is unacceptable.]
I would of course appreciate any further information you can provide.
Video
[Something he'd already been considering. And on another channel, had offered General Grievous.
He's not entirely sure to what end. And sharing information feels on some level incredibly uncomfortable.
On the other hand… they have more in common than different, here. And perhaps it will be a compelling way to… oddly… put old battle lines behind them.
Have them written… which psychologically tends to put things in the past.
And move on.
…He would suggest a one-on-one debrief. Except… that lingering deep-gut wariness of being alone with Dooku in the flesh.
Even over a visiscreen. The near-atomic sensitivity to a master manipulator.
To whom Cassian may be particularly susceptible.
…Which… perhaps he tries to get ahead of… in offering this quiet, more personal addition.]
I'm sorry. You're not alone. A few of us are here from the moment of death.
Video
[Not yet, anyway. That will come once he has better established what bond this former Rockrender may still feel to the Separatist leader. The sharing of personal information is a good sign in that direction though, and Dooku's eyes widen with sympathy:]
'Us?' Surely you don't mean...?
Video
Yes, my lord. Killed in action.
It'll be notated as Rogue One mission in my report.
[Perhaps disseminating the information is unwise since sometimes people port back out. But he doesn't believe that if they do they go back to their origin, or can change anything if they do. He can't say why he doesn't but he just… doesn't. More likely they're probability reflections/fragments/discontinuities, or… in any case, the inevitable bottom line: the universe-breaking power to make this possible in the first place is not worth second-guessing to try and circumvent or control. They might as well take advantage of this chance. And he thinks the best way to do that is probably to come to grips with their old politics being a thing of another place, and, for them, regardless of timelines, in the past. Psychologically, putting things in writing tended to have that effect.
Perhaps even yield some sense of perspective.
If only that…
…
Brow furrowing, Cassian at last gives voice to… what he doesn't know how to anticipate Dooku answering. But may be worth finding out.]
…It's difficult, looking too far forward… our actions may not have the repercussions we'd planned. …The Separatist movement… may not have had the impact we'd wanted.
Video
[The Count shakes his head slowly, then sighs.]
I suppose you would know more of our legacy than I would. But I can guess at how the Confederacy is remembered: as a justification for the Empire's grip upon the Galaxy. A menace invoked by propaganda.
[It's a bit more than a guess, considering that was what the Separatist movement was intended to be from the beginning by Palpatine and Dooku. The Galaxy had to be forced to recognize the costs of division, rebellion, and disorder, so they could be more willing to accept the new path ordained by the Sith.]
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