log; poe & amilyn WHO: Poe Dameron & Amilyn Holdo WHEN: Now-ish WHERE: Deck 12 SUMMARY: An introduction WARNINGS: None particularly, some vague references to TLJ events.
This entire situation was still fairly overwhelming to Amilyn, but she wasn't about to deny herself the pleasure of warm sunshine and crystal clear waters. Once she got her hands on a swimsuit and sunglasses, she took herself, a towel, and her bright purple hair right to the side of the pool, where she found a spot to sit with her long legs stretched out into the water and her face tipped up to the sun.
It was a strange place. She's never been on a boat this big before, a floating city, really, she considered it. It contained such an odd mix of modern and ancient. On top of that, the people she had found herself around were unlike many she'd met. And she had met a lot of beings over her many years, whether from the senate or the Resistance.
When a shadow fell across her face, she craned her neck up to see who had stifled her sunlight. Lowering her sunglasses, she smiled, lips pressed together. "Well, hello there, captain," she said.
Poe hadn't introduced himself when the Vice Admiral had arrived, and part of that had been that while he knew of her, he didn't know her, but he supposed anyone from home and anyone from the Resistance he should introduce himself. So when he'd seen Amilyn Holdo near the pools he'd grabbed a second drink from the nearest waitstaff and he'd headed her direction.
Admittedly, he was a bit more nervous about doing so now, after what Leia had told him, than he would have been had he just done so on her entry. He knew that Leia and it seemed also Amilyn had lived through things he hadn't, or perhaps she hadn't lived through things. Either way, it was an awkward piece of knowledge to hang over him.
Still, he offered her a smile. "Commander," he corrected almost automatically. "Although, not here I suppose. Just Poe is fine. Can I offer you a drink?"
His correction didn't phase her. It also didn't necessarily make her think he hadn't lived through to the same point she had, considering that the Dameron she knew would (and did) do the same. "No, no Resistance here. At the moment, of course, it seems there's no need to fight against any kind of terror, unless of course you count being ripped from the edge of the universe and deposited in an unfamiliar land a terror." She could consider it that, if she wanted. But she didn't.
Amilyn held out a hand for a drink. "Thank you, Dameron," she conceded, not quite ready yet to give in to calling him Poe. Too familiar.
Poe handed it over, nonplussed by the last name rather than the first. Although it occurred to him after the fact that if she was from later it was odd that she referred to him as Captain. But there was no Resistance here, no First Order, and no military structure, the formalities within then weren't useful.
"You're welcome," he gave a friendly smile and sat down on the lounge chair next to her. He'd heard of her before, and she wasn't precisely what he'd anticipated, but he supposed it was hardly the first time that would be the case. "I guess you didn't much more than get settled than get pulled here."
She removed her sunglasses, folding them up and setting them on the ground next to her. "No, not particularly," she said simply. "Though I'm unsure how settled anyone can be in a place like this, especially when one's life was moments away from an entirely different turn."
With a tilt of her head, she regarded him for a moment. "I understand that you've been here for a while, am I correct?"
"Well, and the coming and going here isn't particularly settled," Poe shrugged. "Not that much about fighting with the Resistance is settled here. It's actually a little similar - long periods of intense boredom with the possible threat of losing friends ever present. There's just not the less boring fighting part," he paused. That wasn't entirely true because there had been things on the island, the black hole back on the other ship, and the mass of creatures and aliens when they'd been in the 1950s. "Generally, anyway," he amended without detail.
"I've been here for a while yeah. When I arrived we were on an island that nobody seemed to be able to get off. It did not have a well stocked bar like this ship does," he tipped his drink towards her before taking a sip. "Then Tumbleweed. There are some people who've been here longer than I have, but not many."
"What do you find yourself doing then," she asked, "if you're not flying your little ship and making trouble." Amilyn smiled a little behind her drink before taking another sip.
Poe raised an eyebrow at the description, 'little ship' was hardly how he would describe his X-wing. He'd put a lot of energy into making that ship sparkle, and not just in the aesthetics of the paint. But he took a drink and swallowed the irritation behind a smile. "Well, here, enjoying the beverages," he raised it towards her in a semi-toast. "At home Rey and I have been working on putting together our own business, which we were a little closer to getting done just before we got swept here to sip cocktails and do nothing of any import."
Not that he entirely minded, but he wasn't really used to it either. Even if bathing shorts and an open shirt wasn't the worst uniform for one's day.
An X-wing was certainly smaller than, say, the Raddus, if one were being particular. Which Amilyn was not. It was meant to be a slight, and she lifted a shoulder in a shrug. Then she let her eyes drift purposefully to that open shirt of his before lifting back to his face.
"What business are you considering?"
"We both got our pilot's licenses all official like. It's not space travel, it's just planetary transport, and nothing as spiffy as what we're used to at home, but it's better than nothing at all," Poe glanced out across the water. He honestly truly missed his X-wing, and maybe if they were lucky, they'd end up on some planet with space travel as they had when they'd been on the space cruise. It seemed… unlikely to the extreme, but a man could hope.
"Ultimately we'd like to have a small passenger service from Tumbleweed, and maybe freight stuff. We're still working out details, obviously. Up until the past month we didn't have the planes so it was very uncertain whether we could make it work."
He turned back over. "So how are you finding things? Are you feeling settled?"
That was ambitious, Amilyn thought, and not too far-fetched either. She could pilot a ship if needed (especially if it was simply turning it around and hitting the hyperdrive…) but it had never been one of her great strengths. "That sounds like a lot of work," she said.
She shook her head. "I'm not certain how one ever feels settled here when it's not where one expected to be." At that, she met his eyes. Amilyn had expected to be dead, and this was so far removed from any idea of the afterlife she had that it was hard for her to feel like this was where she was supposed to be.
"Probably more than we realize," Poe said good naturedly. It was difficult figuring out all of the different licensing and things they needed to navigate. "But I've never been one to run away cause things were difficult, and Rey's got plenty of experience with hard work too."
He suspected there was more behind that, but he wasn't a Jedi, and Leia had only told him so much. He wasn't certain he wanted to commit to that conversation considering that he already felt as if he'd been chided by Leia, and, on top of that, he felt guilty because while he couldn't imagine having done the things he'd done, it seemed he had. Probably, he hoped, he'd had a good reason for thinking it was the right call, but he still wanted to say that he wouldn't ever lead a mutiny on one of the General's ships. It didn't feel right.
"I suspect that's true," he said finally. "It's a bit off-putting during the best of times to wake up suddenly somewhere else."
"Especially not when one didn't expect to wake up at all," she said casually. She stretched her toes out to flick at the water a little. "I've always had a head for business," Amilyn continued, "if that's a side of what you and Rey are doing that you need help with. Though I imagine Leia would be very good at that too, if you preferred her."
"I could see that," Poe said hesitantly. There was a giant Bantha in the room that he was continuing to ignore and really he should stop doing this. "Leia told me a bit about things. Last thing I really remember is being back at the base after Starkiller," he explained. "But I'm glad you're here. It's good to have allies."
Supposedly they were, although really who knew what she would consider him. "I appreciate the offer, and I'll pass it on to Rey. So far we've not gotten to that point, and here, well I doubt we will for a while."
Yes, she had been told that some people might have different or unfinishing memories. "Back to D'Qar?" Amilyn asked, surprised. "Like a chain with many kinks in it," she murmured into her glass, shaking her head.
"How long do you suppose we'll be here?" Amilyn asked. "Based on your experience, of course."
Poe wasn't quite certain what she meant by that, but he decided to let it lay for the moment. The question she'd asked could be addressed, although he didn't have an exact answer. "It feels like most places we're there for a few months," he lifted his drink to his lips and took a sip. "The last time we were on a ship, we ended up docked at different places - but it was a spaceship, not one for water so I don't know if it'll be different this time. I am guessing we won't be docking on Coruscant. If form follows though, we'll be here for a month or two, maybe even three. We tend to go back to Tumbleweed, so while I can't say it'll happen for certain, I suspect we'll end up back there if you stick around that long."
"Do any of us have a choice in the matter?" she asked, not at all defensively but rather curiously. "I don't know if I'd choose to go back only to die, but I also worry that being here means that my goal was not met." Amilyn finished her drink and set the glass aside, looking at him again.
Poe took a drink and his brow furrowed over the cup as he stared into it for a moment. "Best any of us can tell, we're taken back to the point where we came from. Without any break in that timeline. Our home timeline doesn't miss us at all.
"In terms of choice, well, there doesn't seem to be much. We're here for as long as we're here, and then we get returned. I've been here for a while now, over a year. But Finn's not been here for near as long. Leia - well, one of them has been here for a while, but our Leia, the one we know, only for a few months." He tilted his glass slightly before taking another drink. "If there's a pattern to why people get to stay or be returned - I don't think anyone's found it."
Amilyn didn't dislike the chaos in the universe exactly, though she did appreciate understanding what was going on around her. "As I said, kinks in a chain. Pulled taut then released." She scooted to the edge of the water and slid her fingers into it. "The duplicates concern me. Is that possible with everyone?"
This question surprised Poe a bit, but upon an instant's reflection it made sense. Two Leia's, and Holdo was presumably an acquaintance of one, but not the other.
"I suppose I don't see why not," he said, although as he said it he realized uneasily that meant he could end up with a twin someday. "If there are parallel universes out there, then perhaps there are infinite numbers of them, and anyone could end up with a second version of themselves - but with different history."
"I've always considered that every choice we make fractures off into an infinite number of possibilities, but I've never considered the possibility that I could tangibly see that. Which is ridiculous said aloud like that. If there are infinite number of possibilities, then this must be one as well."
"I don't believe it's something that's very comfortable to think about," Poe shrugged lightly. It did raise the question, naturally, was there a timeline in which they were all living without the threat of the First Order? Without something coming back to destroy the Republic that his parents had fought to restore hope for? Was there a timeline where Leia had her son as a Jedi then? Where he'd stayed a pilot in the Republic military because the Republic wasn't going to stick its head in the sand about threats. "But yeah, I think that's part of this. It's kind of a rabbit hole you can go down isn't it?"
"Too many thoughts all at once," she agreed, "yes. Perhaps the best we can do here is to take things one moment at a time. Not that I don't do that already but I'm holding too much onto my last moments and not my next." This time when she looked at him, she smiled and regarded him a little differently than before. What did it matter, she thought, what might have happened between them before when it was beginning to be clear to her that it hadn't happened for him?
Poe nodded, returning the smile and relaxing a little. "I think that's about all we can do here, and while there isn't a big fight to be fought like there is at home, there are still small things we can do to help. Easier in Tumbleweed, admittedly then here on this ship, but they're there if we look for them."
"I will keep an eye and an ear trained for them then," she said confidently. "Thank you, captain - Poe, I suppose here, if you're comfortable with that."
"I am," Poe chuckled, an easy grin springing to his lips. "I don't suppose there's any point in standing on formalities when we're so far from home."
He finished off the last of his drink, and put his hands down on his knees. "I hope I'll see you around some more."
A smile quirked at her mouth and she looked at him for a lingering moment before speaking. "I'd like that."
"Then I'm sure it'll happen," he stood up and nodded, "enjoy the sun," before he headed back in the direction of the stairs to the cabin decks.