InsaneJournal

Who: Rey and Bo
What: Having lunch and making new friends
When: Within the last week?
Where: A cafe
Warnings: Brief mentions of accidentally killing people, otherwise very low!



Rey had made a pledge to get out and make friends. She was naturally a loner, but meeting people in her dreams, and on the network, had made her realize how lonely her life was. If only she could figure out how ‘friends’ worked. That would be a good thing. She was smart, she was sure she could do it. And if Bo turned out to be dangerous she had her lightsaber.

Well, Luke’s saber. Which was hers now. And she had… a feeling on that. Something the Force was telling her that she wasn’t ready to confront.

She settled into a seat in a cafe and folded her hands nervously on the table.

Considering how Orange County liked to unexpectedly get weird, Bo also didn’t travel unprepared. She had the Siracon with her. It was a bit easier than walking around with her dagger constantly strapped to her thigh, even if she missed the feel of it being there. Which was a sense that carried over from her dreams.

But she liked making new friends, and she’d seen something all too familiar in Rey when they’d spoken. So she’d invited her to lunch, hoping to make friends with her. Bo understood what it felt like to be alone, and it was the worst feeling in the world. So hopefully she could help Rey feel a bit less lonely.

Arriving at the cafe, she spotted Rey was already there, and she smiled as she approached. “Hi, sorry I’m late. Kind of underestimated driving time. Forgot to account for traffic.” She apologized with amusement as she sat down.

“I cheated,” Rey said. Her smile was big and toothy and warm like the sun. She gestured out front towards a very….odd looking motorcycle. It was like someone had put together parts from five different bikes of differing makes and models. “Weaved through traffic like you’re not supposed to do.” She held out her hand in greeting.

Bo looked out the window and saw the bike, eyebrows lifting as she looked back at Rey with a laugh. “That’s totally not fair!” But of course she was only teasing. She took Rey’s hand and shook it. “It’s nice to meet you in person, Rey.”

“The pleasure is mine, really. Have you eaten here before? I’m not really sure what to get, my natural inclination is everything.” Rey had never been a picky eater. Too many times going hungry to not take advantage of every meal. But she was still willing to try new and tasty things.

“No, I can’t say I have. I’m still somewhat new to town and still have a lot to experience around here.” Bo said with a smile. “Though I have yet to encounter food around here that I don’t like, if that says anything. Though it probably doesn’t narrow the field down at all, does it?”

“Well, maybe we could experience some of it together!” Rey was breaking the cardinal rule of Star Wars, and that was ‘don’t flirt until you know you’re not related.’ Not that she was flirting, she wouldn’t know how to if she tried.

“And that doesn’t really narrow it down, no, so I guess we’ll go on a culinary adventure!”

“I definitely wouldn’t mind!” Bo didn’t exactly mind flirting. She was a natural flirt, though she wouldn’t do any serious flirting considering she was in love with Lara. But playful, innocent flirting? She would do. Hell, she did it all the time with Kenzi as it was.

“I’m going to have to start with a chocolate shake.” It was one of her things. Of course, milkshakes tended to be her thing with Kenzi, but she felt like chocolate and ice cream, so a shake it would be! “Beyond that, there’s several things that look good on the menu!”

“A chocolate shake sounds divine.” Rey flipped through the menu, eventually settling on a sandwich that looked too big for her frame but she’d still manage to devour like it was a light snack. “So I’ll think I’ll have one of those too. And chips, I’m craving chips.”

Bo ended up settling on a burger. She never was one to count calories, she’d burn them off easily enough. “When you say chips, do you mean fries or chip-chips? Because isn’t the term for fries in England chips?” Bo was getting well acquainted with British-isms being around Lara.

“Yes,” Rey said, which may or may not have answered both of Bo’s question and from the playful smile on her face she knew it. “Fries. I have to remember that. Strange how a language can differ from one plan--country to another, even when they share the base language!”

“Cheeky,” she teased with a laugh. Which may or may not have been a word added to her vocabulary courtesy of Lara. “I know, it’s kind of weird. I mean, I’m from Canada, so sometimes I side-eye American English just as much as I wonder about British English.” She did catch the near-slip of the word planet, but Bo wasn’t about to sit and pull that topic out. She’d just have to silently flip out, and then tell Kenzi later that she met a Jedi. Because she was convinced Rey was a Jedi.

“Americans have such a funny grasp of the language. Or lack therof.” In her experience, especially in Phoenix, non-native speakers tended to speak it better than many so-called native speakers she’d come across. But then Phoenix was filled with a lot of people that deserved swift boots to the fanny. Rey wasn’t convinced she was anything. Gifted with something, perhaps. Beyond her skils with machines. She couldn’t deny that she had power. She’d mind-tricked that storm trooper, she’d fought Kylo Ren and she’d felt the force flow through her. But did that make her a jedi?

“They seriously do. But I just won’t go into it much. I’ll try to decipher what they mean by following their conversation, and if I can’t get it? Oh well!” Bo said with a chuckle. True, Rey may not technically be a Jedi yet. She’d need training and such first, but Bo was assuming Rey would take that path. She didn’t seem to have the temperament to fall to the Dark Side. While lonely people may tend to brood, Rey definitely didn’t give off malicious vibes that were needed to embracing the Dark Side.

The Dark Side could call just about anyone from the light. Rey still remembered how it had felt. Kill him it had told her.

“That’s the fun part with languages.” She grinned at Bo. Between dreams and real life she knew a bunch. English, French, Farsi, Wookie, Binary, Huttese… “Its like putting together an engine, but with words!”

“I wouldn’t know about that metaphor. The only other language I can even attempt to speak is French. Canadian French, at that. Languages never were my thing.” Alcohol and sex, however, those were Bo’s things. She had other strengths, of course, but she felt nothing compared to her knowledge of alcohol and sex.

“According to some people, Canadian French isn’t really French, but then those people are snobs and not worth our time.” Rey tucked some hair behind her ear, then reached for her chocolate shake as it arrived.

“And they’re probably French. The French can be rather picky about those things. From what I hear, anyway. I’ve never been to France or really met any French person.” Bo was not very traveled outside of North America. She’d been all over Canada and the contiguous United States, but beyond that, she hadn’t been anywhere.

“Those might be the some people to which I was referring.” Rey grinned at her. She’d met a few French people, most of them were nice, but she’d overheard a few things while she was learning. “They’re not really that bad or anything. There was a bloke I learned from when I was living in London and working in my...in a shop.”

“Oh cool. Are you from London or somewhere else in England?” One of these days, she’d travel more. At least she’d soon have a legitimate passport, even if it was under the name she no longer identified with. “What kind of shop did you work in, if I may ask?” She was curious, taking a drink of her milkshake.

“London, but that’s like saying you’re from New York, innit?” Her eyes crinkled up with her smile. “There’s so much neighborhoods and they’re all different! And I worked as a mechanic. I still kind of do but I’ve been looking for some place that’s hiring and not having too much luck, actually. Freelance work is… well it’s work.”

“Yeah, it is. New York is a country unto itself, mostly. From what I know of London, it’s probably very similar to that.” She smiled. “A mechanic? Oh man, would you be willing to do some work on my car? I’m so not a mechanic, and I don’t always trust mechanics at chain garages. I kind of have a deep love for my car and need it to be in good hands.”

“Different parts of London don’t quite get along.” Rey shrugged her shoulders, as if there wasn’t anything to do about it. And they didn’t get along not along,but there were friendly rivalries. Especially in sports. “I’d love to do some work on your car!”

Rey smiled sheepishly. “I can’t afford to do it for free but I can give you steep discounts.”

“Oh jeez no, I’d definitely pay you. I’d never let anyone do things like that for free. You deserve money for your time and effort!” Bo said with a smile. “I drive a ‘67 Camaro SS convertible. She’s a total beauty, and I wanna keep her running smoothly. If you wanna get a first look at it after lunch, you’re totally welcome to!”

“That’s a nice car!” Rey might have even worked for free on a car like that, if she didn’t need to, you know, eat. Food was important. Food and water. Mostly food. Rey could eat a meal for someone three times her size. As evidenced by the arrival of her meal and the way she dug into it like she was expecting it to be taken away at any moment.

“Thanks! I managed to save enough to get it when I saw it at a used car place a while back.” That would’ve been the time Bo would’ve liked to have had some of her succubus powers. She could’ve used that emotional manipulation power to get the guy to have given it to her for nothing. Or next to nothing. But she turned to her food and started eating. She noticed the way Rey dug into her food, but didn’t say anything. She remembered that feeling from the early days after having run away from home and having no money.

“You lucked out. It’s a sexy model,” Rey assured her. Hopefully it only needed minor work. She’d take a look at it before doing anything serious so she could let Bo know if the car was going to be a money sink. But if someone loved their car enough,a money sink was usually worth it. “I’ll just bet I’ll fall in love with her.”

“I definitely did. It’s yellow, not exactly my favorite color, but I don’t have the heart to give her a paint job.” Bo had thought about painting it a different color, but she’d grown fond of the yellow over the years. And Rey was quite right, Bo didn’t exactly have a limit to what she’d pay to keep her car running. Even if it meant going broke in the process. “She is rather charming, I have to say, so you just might fall for her.”

“Did it grow on you? I’m not really an artist but I’m sure we could find someone who could do your baby justice.” But Rey understood how something you didn’t like at first could grow on you. You could even love it after a time. “Yellow is a good colour, you know.”

“It did grow on me, actually. Besides, I don’t think it would look as cool painted black.” Bo didn’t have much of a color palette when it came to these things. She tended to default to black. Though red was tempting. She’d consider the blue of her eyes when she was ready to chi-suck someone, but that color might grate on her after a while. “It is, depending what it’s on. I tend to be rather monotone, most of my wardrobe is black with a few other colors mixed in, but not many.”

“I do like yellow, but my favorite colour is green.” Rey’s eyes seemed haunted for just a split second. “Though I honestly can’t tell you if that was always the case, or if my dreams have influenced me there. But green is a very good colour.”

“Green is a good color.” Bo agreed. “Sometimes it’s difficult to tell where the line between dreams and reality ends.” Thankfully, none of Bo’s emotions crossed over from her dream world. Well, the love anyways. She felt the heartbreak and anger her dream self did, but the love was blissfully absent. Which meant if Dyson or Lauren decided to suddenly show up in Orange County, she wouldn’t have the messy emotional issues from her dreams attached.

“It is. It’s not a colour I got to see often on Jakku. It was a whole planet that was mostly desert.” And while she knew multiple biome planets like Naboo existed, it sometimes seemed like planets in her dreams were themed. “So my first time seeing a place that was mostly green was...emotional.”

And then Rey was talking about planets in Star Wars and Bo shoved a huge bite of food into her mouth to keep from squeeing or blurting things out that she shouldn’t. Using the time it took to chew and swallow the food in her mouth to listen to Rey, she was formulating a completely normal response. “So you’re from a completely different planet in your dreams?”

Yes. Good Bo, that was a normal response. Flailing and ranting about Star Wars to someone she’d only recently met was not a good idea.

She nodded, smile turning into the high beams, “Yes! I wasn’t born on Jakku, I actually don’t know where I was born. I was...abandoned there. But there are lots of planets. Billions of them. I had this flight simulator where I taught myself to fly. Eventually I got so good I’d intentionally cause failures to see if I could recover from them. It started to get boring otherwise, unless I just wanted to relax.” She looked so proud of herself. “Aside from a lot of other planets I flew around on I simulated Jakku too.”

“Oh wow, that would be totally awesome. It must’ve been a cool way to learn how to fly. I’m kind of totally jealous about that, by the way. I’d totally like to fly.” Though she was more meaning with the whole having wings or just the superpower to fly. But no, she had the Wonder Snatch, as Kenzi liked to say. “Did you ever get to actually fly and not just do it on a simulator?”

“It’s amazing! I’ve taken a few lessons to fly a real plane here. I can’t wait until I can, you know, land.” She probably could, after her dreams. But she wasn’t allowed to. “They say it’s a controlled crash.”

Rey straightened a bit. “I did! I got to fly...well I thought it was garbage but it turned out to be this really famous ship!”

“That’s totally awesome, actually, learning how to fly a plane. What kind of plane are you learning to fly?” And again, food and drink saved Bo from blurting out the fact the ship was, in fact, the Millennium Falcon. But she grinned. “Hey, that makes it all the sweeter that you got to fly a famous ship!”

"It's such a silly name. Millennium Falcon." Rey giggled. "But she flies like a dream! You'd think a freighter would fly like a lopsided coffin, but now, she's...." Rey sighed. "She's wonderful. And she hadn't flown in years but as soon as she was in the air it was like she came alive. Like she'd been waiting for the right hands to come along. To guide her again."

How could she explain that a ship was alive? No different from a droid, or any other machine. And machines were alive.

“It does seem like she was just waiting for the right pilot to come along and fly her somewhere new.” It would be a total dream to just be on the Millennium Falcon, but to fly it? That would be a whole new level of awesome and badass. “So your experience flying her must’ve been an amazing one.”

“It was! At least until she broke down and then her original owner found us. Well, one of her owners but,” and Rey got even more excited. “But the really famous smuggler owner!!!”

She might have bounced in place and nearly squealed.

Bo nearly choked on her milkshake when Rey said she’d met Han Solo. Han Solo!! But to her credit, she managed to swallow and then cough a bit, playing it off as though the milkshake had gone down the wrong way. “Hopefully the owner wasn’t angry and thinking you stole the ship?”

“Well I set him straight, since we stole it from someone who stole it from someone else who stole it from someone else who stole it from him.” Rey grinned, it was so crazy but it just had the ring of truth to it.

“At least you set him straight on it!” Bo couldn’t help but to laugh a bit at the story. Though it was a good one, she had to say. And plausible. People stole things all the time, after all.

“Then things got bad and there were these disgusting creatures that tried to eat us, but we escaped and he did this amazing” and at this point Rey was talking with her hands and a very expressive face “Maneuver and jumped to light speed from right inside the cargo bay!”

“Eww, but at least you got away from those things!” Bo’s nose scrunched a bit. And then she blinked. “Wait, that’s a thing? You can jump to lightspeed from a cargo bay? That seems like it should be pretty impossible to do.”

"Like Han solo said, he never knows it's possible until he tries it!" She only hoped she was as good a pilot as him. Talking about Han made her entire chest ache. She was making a great effort to not utterly hate Kylo Ren for something he'd never done. It worked. Sometimes. "So much kept...happening though....what about you? What are your dreams like?"

“Well that’s true,” she said with a smile. “My dreams are kind of stupid. Well, the people in them keep being stupid. In my dreams, there’s an entire race of people called Fae. Basically anything from fairytales or mythology is real in my dreams and they’re called Fae. The Fae are divided into two sides, the Dark and the Light. Though if you ask me, there’s no difference between the sides, they pull the same shit regardless of anything.” She took a breath. “I was raised by humans and never knew about this world of Fae, but I’m Fae. A succubus, to be precise.” She paused there, waiting to see how Rey would react to that before continuing.

“So you’re kind of urban fantasy then, and I’m sci-fi fantasy?” Rey smiled, her face wrinkling up into an expression that could only be described as adorable. “I think I get that. The world isn’t black and white, it’s filled with shades of grey.” She picked at her food, her voice taking on a teasing note, “You’re not going to try to seduce me are you? You’re very fetching but I’ve never had time for romance or anything.” Though if Bo had some kind of super seduction, it wasn’t working on her. She winked. “I’m not sure brunettes are my type.”

“Yeah, I think that’s an accurate description!” Bo laughed a bit. She leaned back a bit, eyeing Rey as though she were seriously considering seducing her, but she was just teasing. “I could if I wanted to, but I’m pretty certain my girlfriend would kill me.” Bo winked back. “ Though I have more than one method of seducing people. One of my powers is emotional manipulation through skin-to-skin contact. I can insight lust in people and make them do what I want or tell me what I want to know. Likewise, I can calm people down when they’re extremely upset.” Bo still was very much in hate with the succubus thing, but even she could appreciate the perks that came with being Fae.

“That’s fine!” Rey laughed. She’d prefer to avoid that kind of awkward thing anyway. She sat back a little bit. That sounded a lot like what she’d done with the Force, and it made her uneasy. “You’re being very candid about that power.”

Bo tended to avoid using that power herself. Except for that instance where she’d needed to calm Lara down after a particularly bad dream she’d had. She could only see herself using that power to calm people down. She wasn’t like her dream self and needing to manipulate information out of people or needing free meals because she had no money to pay for them. “It’s one of the easier aspects of my powers to talk about. I’m not happy about what I am. And I can kill people. My dream self has killed quite a few people because of her succubus nature. She didn’t know what she was or how to control her powers, so any lover she had ended up dead.” Her face grew serious, even troubled. “I could kill my girlfriend just by kissing her. It’s...not a nice feeling.”

Rey nodded, a frown on her face. She’d killed people. Stormtroopers. Another scavenger once. Life was hard on Jakku and if you didn’t know how to fight you died. “There’s a...big difference between killing someone in combat or on accident, than doing it maliciously. Or when they’re defenseless.” She touched Bo’s hand. “I don’t get the impression that you’re a monster, Bo. I suppose I have a good feeling about you.”

“I know, but it still doesn’t alleviate the guilt of hurting someone.” Her dream self still very much blamed herself for Kyle’s death. And, well, she had killed him. That was the trauma her dream self was running from. Bo smiled softly. “Thank you, Rey. I do appreciate that. Though it’s difficult to think I’m not a monster when technically, I am a monster. Or a demon, really, going by the lore on succubi.” It was difficult to separate the two, and it would take her a while to look at herself and see the good, and not just the monster that she felt she was.

“There are monsters, and then there are monsters. I think I know the difference.” Kylo Ren was a monster. As much as the Rathtars were and in some ways worse. Rathtars just worked on instinct.

“And then there is being raised by extremely conservative, deeply religious parents who taught you that sex is evil. Then you find out that oh, hey, you’re a sex demon! But I’m working at accepting it little by little.” It wasn’t like Bo could change the fact she was a succubus. So she would need to learn to live with it.

“Screw them!” Rey smiled, then playfully poked Bo’s arm with a finger. “The only person who matters when it comes to accepting who you are is you. No one can tell you what to do or believe…” She sank back in her chair. “You just have to...learn to accept it first.”

“Precisely why I ran away. Both here and in my dreams.” And she’d never looked back in either case. She didn’t want to. “I will say it’s slightly easier when there are people who accept me for who and what I am. I had been scared that my girlfriend was going to want out after I learned what I was in the dreams, and what I’m becoming here. But she didn’t, and that...means more to me than I could ever actually say.” Lara and Kenzi still had a lot of battles to fight with Bo’s self-esteem issues, but Bo knew this battle would be easier because she had people who supported her instead of reviled her for what she was.

Rey had spent most of her lives in one place or the other. Only moving a few times here, and staying on Jakku as long as she could remember elsewhere. She didn't know what it was like to run away yet she could emphasize. Everyone always left her.

"She sounds rather special."

“She is,” she said with a warm, loving smile on her face. “More than I think she knows. If it wasn’t for her and for my running into someone I met a few years back, I wouldn’t have stayed here. Orange County is starting to feel like home, which is weird to me. I’m used to moving around.” And Bo was thinking she was going to be stopping and getting something for Lara on her way back home.

“That’s so cute!” Rey leaned her chin on her hands, smiling at Bo. There was so much warmth coming off of the succubus that it made Rey feel warm and fuzzy herself. She didn’t know if she’d ever find someone that made her feel that way, but as long as she could be around other happy people she’d probably be okay. “Hope I can go to the wedding.”

The mention of the w-word was startling. And Bo didn’t quite know how to handle that. Yes, she loved Lara, yes she was going to be moving in with her (...at some point…), but she wasn’t ready for marriage yet. That was the scary part. Very scary part. However, she managed to not choke or have a heart attack. Instead, she managed to breathe a bit. “If there is a wedding, you definitely are invited.”

Giggling, Rey waved a hand. She somehow got the impression she'd made Bo uncomfortable, so she tried to laugh it up. "I'm pulling your leg!"

There were some things that Bo was not yet ready for, and marriage was one of those things. But she reminded herself that just because the word had been thrown out didn’t meant she was about to walk down the aisle with Lara. She scratched the back of her head. “I’m totally fine with that. I mean, I could always use longer legs.” She said with a laugh, also trying to laugh it off.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t have a problem with that,” Rey teased. Really, who would? “I don’t suppose I could ask you for dating advice? If it comes up, I mean.”

“No, I don’t think she would,” Bo laughed. At the question, she smiled. “Of course you can! I’m not exactly an expert on dating, but I will definitely do my best to give good advice.”

“Well, if it ever comes up, you’ll be the first person I ask!”