driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: The most daring pilot of the Resistance, Poe Dameron!
Broadcast: Video
Action: if anyone else is on the Marsiva!
When: At this very moment

[He wakes up with a little gasp, immediately alert. Poe's not the world's lightest sleeper, but this bunk is way too comfortable, and it doesn't have the vague locker room smell of a Resistance base or the much mankier version that builds up after living in the cockpit of an x-wing for a couple of days.

Definitely doesn't look familiar.]

Huh. What the--

[This is not the first time in recent memory that Poe's woken up in an unfamiliar place. It's a sad measure of his life that this is by far the best one yet. He's not lost in a burning-hot desert with a pennelx-egg-sized bump on his head and no memory of who he is. Yep, still Poe Dameron, first thing he checks. And he's not strapped to the galaxy's most uncomfortable chair and waiting for the next deeply unpleasant conversation with either an Imperial interrogator or Kylo Ren (jury is still out on which of those was actually worse, he tries to not think about it at all).

So really, it could be a lot worse. Even though there does seem to be something going on with his neck, which is probably bad.

Sit up, look around, look down. Well, he's still got his orange flight suit, insignia and everything, but it's clean. So... that's nice. It's also a giant, flashing, hi, I'm with the Resistance sign, which is--good? Bad?

He slips out of bed and tries the door. Open. Okay. Peers out.]

Hello?

[Yeah, great move, Dameron. Warn the laundry-loving kidnappers that you're up and about. Excellent spy work. Well. Why not.]

Jess? Karé? Iolo?

[Maybe this is just some kind of elaborate prank. Sure, Dameron. And while you're imagining things, how about--]

...Finn?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Meanwhile, Poe's suddenly keenly aware of the fact that he's talking to a casualty of the war against the Empire. Does General Kenobi know? It doesn't feel like something a guy should just drop into a conversation. It's weird.]

My dad said something like that recently. But... that's why I'm out there. Why most of us are, I think. We have to keep fighting against the dark, and remember that it wasn't a waste. It was another step.

[ It seemed more of a cycle than a step in any direction. Was Obi-Wan and Padme now the only people who remembered a life when there wasn't a war looming over the horizon?

And again, the Jedi were gone. Wasn't Luke supposed to fix that? ]

No. It's never a waste. Still . . . something doesn't make sense.

Which part of it?

I couldn't say.

[ From the sudden arrival of Snoke to the Knights of Ren . . . something about it that he can't quite make sense of. ]

I guess that's fair.

I grew up in the middle of it and I still don't understand how the First Order got so much power.

[ He nods. ]

I know now what Palpatine did. And how it worked so well. I was there at the start of it all.

[That's. So. COOL. He probably shouldn't think about it quite that way, since the war wasn't exactly a great thing. But this is General Kenobi. He's still not over it.]

How'd it work?

It was the culmination of many things, I'm afraid. The Senate putting him in power. The existence of the Separatist plot. The Jedi being put in the public's eye along with becoming Generals.

All of these things slowly degraded the Jedi's power over time while the Sith grew.

...becoming generals degraded the Jedi's power? [That really doesn't scan. But what does he know about Jedi? Basically nothing. Because they're all dead.

Well, other than Luke. And that tree on the ranch. He's still not sure what's up with that, but Luke said it was important, so... Jedi stuff.]

Jedi are peacekeepers. We are warriors only as a last resort. We should have never been front runners in a war.

Stopping a war early seems like a pretty important way to keep the peace.

Not like that.

[ Though he does agree. . . . Or had agreed, long ago. Now the war has worn him down. ]

How do you think it's should've gone? [Not sarcastic. Curious.]

[ How seems like an obvious question, with no straightforward answer. ]

Perhaps we should have tried harder to bridge the gap between the Separatists and the Republic.

Do you think that would have made a difference?

Sometimes you can talk people around, or plant your heels and drag them. But sometimes... I think sometimes people have already made up their minds.

I like to think it could have.

Guess we'll never know.

And I don't think we've been at a stage where talking could do anything since. [Not once the Empire started, or the First Order. Talking to fanatics doesn't work too well.]

No, usually with names like the First Order or Empire, they don't seem conducive to negotiations.

But organizations with names like Separatists are? [Also a genuine question.]

I didn't really pay that good of attention in history, I admit.

I can't say I know the Separatists that well. Senator Amidala is more likely to shed more light on their situation.

As for the name, it's only to signal separating from the Senate. Which I can't say I blame them for.

That's right, you knew Senator Amidala too. [Wow, so many important people! This is so exciting.]

Was it bad?

She's here too, if you want to talk to her.

[ He pauses. ] It was bad on a different scale.

That would be... wow. That would be something. [Be cool, Dameron. Be cool. You handled meeting General Organa okay. Sort of. Eventually.]

Bad, but not as bad as what came after.

The fact that it is still ongoing, that the war has yet to end is . . . bad.

[ Bad for the balance, bad for the Jedi, bad for everyone. ]

The Force is out of balance.

Yeah, generally.

[Well, this just leapt right over his head.]

...okay, so how do you fix the Force? [Well, he's a pilot. He's pretty direct about things.]

Re: [ video ]

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