“Eh?” Cassian squinted and rubbed his knuckle against his ear. When he spoke, he chose his words carefully: “Did you say something? I can’t hear you with that muzzle on your face.”
But he pushed off the railing and walked to the staircase that would lead him down to the ground floor, carrying more confidence in his step that he felt. He put a hand into the pocket of his orange trousers and grabbed his network device. Andor thought he might message Jyn to tell her to return to the dorms from her walk around the grounds, but he thought better of it. He didn’t want to worry her unless there was something worth worrying about. That said, he didn’t let go of the device. He thought he might throw it at the stranger’s head if he needed to distract him long enough to duck away.
“This is Hotel Block.” Andor gestured with a quick head throw once he reached the bottom of the staircase. He kept his distance still, with one hand on the rail, in case he needed to pivot quickly and run back up to the other level. “Congratulations. Whoever it was that brought us here decided that we didn’t deserve any comforts.”
And that said a lot about this stranger, as far as Cassian was concerned. If people were put into these blocks because they were alike, or because they deserved this kind of treatment, Andor imagined that his blockmates were somehow as terrible a person as he was, or had done the same kind of terrible things.