open ✧ i was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars

[realists]

Who: Jyn & Elsa & you lot
Where: 4106, Casa de Disney (not actual) Princess
When: June 10-12
What: Jyn & Elsa's backyard has become a refuge for wildlife and thus an impromptu petting zoo
Warnings: There's innocent smooching, it's gross.

[Open]

---

✧ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴇɴᴀɢᴇʀɪᴇ

Jyn and Elsa's house is on the very edge of the residential district -- a nice concession from whatever set up this whole place to give Jyn only one neighbor. This means, though, that when the creeping doom of the wall surrounding the woods makes the predators a little more bold, Jyn and Elsa find themselves with a small collection of woodland creatures seeking refuge in the backyard.

The first day, Elsa is still recovering from the camping trip from hell which Jyn completely understands, so she says nothing, going out to the bookstore to grab an armful of books about the native wildlife (birds, trees, small forest animals). When Elsa is feeling better, Jyn shows her the flock of deer that have taken up residence in the backyard along with a family of rabbits making a warren of their back deck and a family of groundhogs ruining the begonias lining the edge of the yard.

That's happening.

Jyn has always been something of a naturalist, thanks to her mother, but a lifetime of fighting and running from the Empire had left her little time to actually study the nature around her and no one to encourage her to do so after her mother died. Now she has more time than she knows what to do with, which is almost stifling, and the town she's found herself in seems determined to remind her of her mother's roots, shoving a petting zoo full of animals into her backyard. Well, okay, she gets the point. No need to hit her over the head with it.

Whether it's feeding fruit to the deer or scooping up wayward baby bunnies who have gotten caught in the lattice work under the deck, Jyn finds herself spending the majority of her time outside again, sun turning her shoulders and cheeks pink. More than once she can be found in the front yard with her hands on her hips, having a staring contest with a deer that thinks it can eat the flowers by the front door.

Usually however, she has her head in one of her books, trying to figure out how to deal with these animals making themselves at home in their backyard. The upside is that the deer are eating the grass so no one needs to mow the lawn.


( find elsa in a top level below )

Comments

[dendrites]

❆ for jyn.

Elsa sleeps like the dead.

This is rather unusual for someone who takes that early to bed early to rise saying very seriously, but the camping trip had completely thrown her for a loop and she would rather not face the world for a while. Regain her energy. Collect herself again and try to get to the bottom of why she had fallen so ill in the first place.

Why did it happen?

Her head buzzes with suspicion but Elsa has not yet spoken a word about it to anyone yet. It takes her a full day of rest before she emerges to get acquainted with the strangeness in her backyard. This change, she can take. Energy sap = bad. Animals = good.

When nighttime comes, she has pulled two chairs out for the two of them – roommates who have since bonded somewhat over the short time she has returned – with a Holland lop bunny in her lap, nestled in the fabric of her shirt dress. The crickets chirp slowly tonight as the temperature cools, or maybe that's just how things are around Elsa.

❆ ota.

For some reason, she feels an inclination to chat with the deer who are bold enough to stick around. Elsa may be especially self-possessed and slow moving around animals but they do seem to enjoy her presence. The foxes playfully nip at her heels on her way to work

In the afternoon, she might be attempting to play fetch with that same Holland lop from before, but he seems more keen to to eat the dandelion instead of bringing it back to her. Ah well, she tried. The front yard is at least weed free now.

Do watch for the baby fox scurrying around, though. She's always up to no good.

[realists]

Jyn pads out barefoot, book and flashlight tucked under her arm and a mug of tea in each hand. Elsa is an excellent roommate, quiet and neat and as unobtrusive as Jyn tries to be. The organization of the cabinets had been a marvel Jyn had made Cassian skive off work in the middle of his shift to look at and she doesn't really mind the very slow brightening up of the house.

Sinking down in the chair, Jyn sets the book and flashlight on the grass next to her, passes the second mug to Elsa, bringing her own tea to her lips and settling before she says anything.

"Are you feeling better?"

She doesn't know what happened, not really, but Jyn herself has been through some stuff, she can maybe relate to whatever had happened just from her wealth of shit experiences alone. But maybe Elsa just really doesn't like camping.

[dendrites]

There are a few things that Elsa has not quite forgotten and one of them is her knack for organization. The house is a little more put together, with decorative themes emerging as she slowly works in pillows and couch covers, decorating her own room and spreading outward.

It may just feel like a home.

The animals are temporary, she understands, and doesn't turn up her nose at the right of them. It is the least she can do after seeming to barge in on Jyn's life here. She smiles faintly, stroking her fingers through soft brown fur. "A bit," she tells her honestly, "still rather worse for wear but I don't think I've recovered entirely from my first injuries. I should be fine in the morning."

[realists]

She nods slowly, letting the tea warm her fingers, ignoring the phantom twinge in her shoulder at the mention of injuries. Elsa's so new still, it hasn't even been a fortnight since she arrived on Jyn's doorstep and she is clearly not the kind of person made for constant injuries the way some people are.

Her mouth slants down in a frown.

"Aside from that, how was the camping trip?" Also why would you willingly chaperone teenagers, but Jyn doesn't ask that.

june 12th

[ouzel]

There is, in fact, a small fox that attempts to untie Cassian's shoe laces while he observes Jyn's roommate trying to teach a rabbit to fetch; said rabbit seems much more interested in eating the weed flower she'd helpfully pointed out, and Cassian shifts the grocery bag in his left arm while his bemused expression goes from this to the fox chomping at the laces of his boots.

This is like. Some kind of weird fairytale nonsense. Now Cassian just has to wait for the big bad to come snaking out of the woods like a giant miasma and it'll all make sense.

"Hey," says Cassian. "You must be Elsa."

One day Cassian will feel far enough from his prior life of a lying liar who lies to introduce himself in the first round of a conversation, but today is not that day.

[dendrites]

Well, he isn't off in regards to the fairytale nonsense.

"Hello!" Elsa smiles and sits up on her knees, brushing her hands over the front of her dress. The lop, though weed-lses, still hops back over to her because they are Friends, at least, and he is maybe hoping for another thing to munch on since she looks like the woman who knows where to find it.

"You must be – Cassian?" That seems like the correct assumption to make, going from what Jyn has told her in recently. She pushes herself to her feet after another pet of the rabbit's head before extending her hand to him. "Do you need help with your things?"

[ouzel]

"I am, yes." He nods, once, before shaking his head at her follow-up question. "No, I have it. I know Jyn hasn't been shopping, so I thought I would bring food over." Before she manages to completely over-do it on junk food and boxed cereal.

"Are you interested in dinner? Any food allergies?" Might as well jump right into the 'cook for everyone' mode, it's a lot more comfortable than discussing what is or isn't remembered (or what is or isn't happening between him and Jyn).

Either way, Cassian gives the fox a small nudge before starting his way on towards the stairs. "Jyn's spoken well of you."

closed ✧ only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars

[realists]

While she is reckless and impetuous, Jyn is fairly predictable in her habits and some things she just does every day, regardless of how she is feeling. Running is one of those things. Injured, ill, she will run anyway and the weird happenings at the camping trip have done nothing to change her loop around the city and through the national park.

Or so she thinks.

She gets dizzy the closer she gets to the trees but she keeps going, used to fighting through all kinds of pain and exhaustion and this is nothing new, even if she knows better enough to keep skirting the tree line. She should know better than to be near the woods at all, but while Jyn's tiny ember of hope had kept her alive when she wanted to give up, it didn't make her any less reckless. The dizziness increases, seemingly exponentially, as she feels the strength pulling at her limbs, but she keeps stubbornly moving until her knees give out underneath her. Shit.

Pushing back to her feet she tries to keep going but her legs give out again and she can feel the sting of pain from her skinned palms and knees. Shit, again.

Ever obstinate, Jyn forces herself back to her feet, pain from the effort shooting sparks behind her eyes. This is stubborn on a level she would only apply to Poe, but it seems she can't even let him win at that. Regardless, her blurred, tunnel vision finds her walking deeper into the woods when she collapses for the third time.

Well, fuck.

[ouzel]

Cassian knows Jyn; as well as just about anyone other than Jyn can claim to, he supposes.

It's something he prides himself on, if he's being honest. He knows her habits, her patterns, he has a familiarity with the types of things she enjoys. Food and tea are easy, for sure, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel a rush of positive feelings when he has a hand in bringing her some sliver of enjoyment.

So he knows that she'll go running despite any pain she's in, any sickness or discomfort. That doesn't mean he doesn't worry. Worrying subconsciously for roughly the amount of time it would take Jyn to detour to, say, Poe's residence, before worry becomes anxiety becomes Cassian armed and grabbing a jacket before he starts off to retrace Jyn's steps.

It takes him a little while (and Cassian refuses to call out her name until he actually spots her) - when he does find her, however, he's struggling not to throw up. The wall, he presumes, is to blame for this; Jyn's stubbornness is to blame for the fact that she's not facing the opposite direction back towards town.

The panic is currently fighting over the desire to throw up but Cassian is used to ignoring both, so instead he swallows it down as he crouches next to her. "Jyn. Jyn?!" Please wake up, please be responsive, please...

[realists]

At some point, Jyn had tried to heave herself up using a tree as her ladder but it did not work and she'd slumped next to it instead, feeling weaker than she'd had after one of the beatings in Wobani.

Cassian's warm fingers on her cheek stir her more than his voice and her eyes flutter open, glassy and heavy with exhaustion. It's Cassian. Automatically she breathes into a weak smile. She assumes she is hallucinating because he hadn't even been with her, she's imagining him here, coming back for her again.

Her mouth works to explain what happened, but all she manages to spit out is: "Fell."

Obviously. Regardless, her fingers lift to curl weakly around his arm. "Go away." If she's struggling, he must be too, he has to leave and the only way she knows how to say that is telling him to go away. Leave!

[ouzel]

He manages to muster enough energy to frown at her deeply, leaning back and taking a breath before steeling himself to put one arm beneath Jyn's knees. "Not leaving you." If he sounds pissy about it, well. She can blame the fact that the wall is trying to literally steal the air out of his lungs right now and he's decided to try carrying her away from this disaster. "Can you hold on?"

To his neck, preferably, but shoulders or even just his jacket will do. Cassian will wait until she manages to grip before taking a breath and using the tree at their side to help him stand up; the moment he does he realizes that any stalling in momentum and all will be lost, so he staggers in the direction of the next nearest tree immediately.

June 11th

[volitaunt]

Poe is in a good mood, which he knows runs counter to everything going on right now. The expanded suppression field, the animals pouring into town (he has his own congregation of skunks living under the back porch. Rey is out, or he would be sharing these with her and telling Jyn and Cassian to come over before he eats them all.

There's also the temptation to invite the General, but he's still. Mildly weirded out by the thought of being within her social circle, instead of just ("just") under her command.

Jyn's is his first stop, because he knows she likes fruit. They have this in common.

He catches her out front having one of those deer-based staredowns and covers his mouth to hide a grin not particularly well.

"She blinked. I think you win."

[realists]

"She's eating Elsa's flowers." Maybe it's not just this deer, but she caught this deer, so this deer is taking the brunt of the blame. Still, Jyn steps forward toward the deer and it promptly turns tail and flounces away with a sullen wiggle of the white tufted tail and Jyn turns her attention to Poe.

And his accessory.

"What's that?" Feed her. She straightens up, pushing her hair roughly back from her face and squinting a little.

[volitaunt]

Jyn cares that a deer is eating her roommate's flowers, and that's a collection of facts that he needs to take a moment to bask in.

It's cute. Undeniably, undebatably sweet. "I need to meet your roommate."

In the mean time, though, he holds up the sack. "Koyo melons. My dad grows them. I just... found them, sitting on the front step this morning. I figure call Cassian, split a few open..." HAVE A NICE DAY WHERE THINGS DON'T SUCK.

[realists]

"She works... somewhere." As if explaining Elsa's absence. Elsa has a job like a good person and productive member of society, while Jyn is a leech. :)

But she gestures toward the front door, inviting Poe inside with his melons inexplicably from home because she will never turn her nose up at food, especially fruit, even if it means she has to have manners.

She heads toward the house herself, bounding up the steps unmindful of the grass stains on her knee and feet. "You got a package of melons... from a different galaxy." Just to clarify.

feel free to stop him from getting his meal tbh

[bird_thing]

Some of the wood's predators are more bold than others. Or, in Tobias' case, it's a rather calculated combination of the fact that with the forest in a disarray the rest of the predator bird population has gotten mean and desperate enough that he'd honestly rather avoid them if he can, as well as that there were a rather unfortunate number of people in this unfamiliar town that he'd gotten to know in his last two weeks here well enough to be at least mildly concerned about their well-being after everything that's been happening.

What that means here and now though is that Tobias is being forced to hunt for food in town now, as opposed to his natural habitat, something he's not terribly thrilled with for a number of reasons.

First and foremost being? The type of animals he eats are the type of animal people are usually the quickest to protect, and if he's forced to hunt in town people are far more likely to catch him in the act and take offense to it. But you know, he's gotta eat. He woke up this morning with the mortifying memory of Rachel catching him eating roadkill once and it's not a memory he's keen to revisit.

So when he sees a whole line of baby rabbits toddling slowly after their mother in the yard of one of the houses in town? He doesn't spare much time for second thoughts, just falls into a dive for the littlest one at the back of the line.

[realists]

Jyn loves the bunnies. They're so cute and fluffy and she likes the way their little noses wriggle around and they remind her of the bulbas on Skuhl, tiny and fragile and light. But Jyn is, beyond anything else, the daughter of a woman who loved and revered nature.

When the beautiful hawk swoops down and dives for the tiniest bunny, Jyn doesn't move a muscle from her spot sitting in the grass, leaning back against the deck stairs as she eats half a bagel.

She does, however, grade the bird, in a fashion. "Oh well done!"

What? It was a good dive, nice form, aimed for the weak one. She is self-aware enough to know that she is often considered the weak one so she has a little judgment that he couldn't aim for better prey but also, easy target. You go birdie, get your dinner, be your best self.

[windchasing]

It takes Pietro a while to put things together, sometimes. A very long while, when you consider how quickly he observes the details he fails to connect, but social awareness isn't his forté, and Cassian's knack for discretion doesn't help. But Pietro doesn't miss the fact that Jyn is over at Cassian's house before him from time to time, or hanging around Go Ask Alice, or that more often Cassian can be found heading over to 4106, which Pietro eventually notices is Jyn's house. Not only in the afternoons or evenings after work, either; he notices Cassian come down the street from that direction once in the early hours of the morning, and he's not an idiot. He's quite good at jumping to conclusions, thank you.

But he doesn't know much about Jyn. His policing of his siblings' social lives has a patriarchal bent neither of his sisters probably appreciate very much, but Cassian is not entirely exempt — it's just that he doesn't remember Jyn being around town for long, and there's been insufficient gossip. He'll have to find out himself. And soon, if they're going to be spending that much time together.

So the next time he sees her out running through the neighborhood, he shows up alongside her. Just falls into step, easy as can be. It seemed less rude to him, somehow, than showing up at her house uninvited.

"What are your intentions with my brother?"

Proper introductions, it seems, are not part of the plan. He's not that concerned about his manners.

[realists]

A lot of things happen in a very short amount of time. A guy runs up alongside her like he's meant to be there, same guy questions her intentions with his brother -- oh hello Pietro -- Jyn's pace falters enough to trip on her own stride and almost faceplant against the asphalt, she catches herself just enough to avoid falling again today. The abrasions on her palms and knees are damning evidence she hit the ground instead of a deer this morning.

What are her intentions with Cassian?

"I don't know! What are his intentions with me!" Actually, no, Jyn can guess those: to never leave her and spend every day reminding her than she is loved and make sure she is safe from herself as best he can. Cassian hasn't laid out some plan, because he doesn't want to pressure her, presumably, because her emotions are a ticking time bomb, but Jyn doesn't have to be told his specific plans to know some things.

(A small weight settles in her chest, an idle sadness she doesn't have anyone to voice these concerns on her behalf.)

Look, she just wants to hold his hand for the rest of her life. "I don't have intentions."

[windchasing]

There are a lot of things Pietro could do in that moment, not the least of which is catch her before she falls on her face — but she's got it, and anyway, Pietro isn't sure he likes her that much yet. The motion of his hand after her is slight, and quickly retracted.

"Everyone has intentions." Obviously. Like she's some difficult child, though there's a note of hesitation in it too, like he's not actually sure emotions work the same way as everything else. Interpersonal relationships are complicated and unpredictable and he doesn't actually get them when he stops to think about it. But everyone has an agenda, as far as Pietro is concerned, except family, and she isn't that.

"You spend an awful lot of time with him to not have any idea."

[realists]

"He is my friend," Jyn answers, a frown turning her mouth solemn. He is more than a friend, even without the romance tied into it. He is her best friend and her teammate and her partner and the only person to ever come back for her and she died in his arms. There isn't a word that quite encompasses the gravity of their relationship and so she has given up trying to force the square peg of their life into a round hole, unwilling to list everything he is to her.

"Shouldn't you be asking him about this? He's your brother."

Why this? She has been an orphan and on her own for too long to be equipped to deal with this, beyond the fact that she was an only child of only children, she didn't even have cousins to grapple with much less siblings.

either/both + ignore if too late

[allfornothing]

Crowe does a fair bit of jogging. And, with the woods closed for it, she's been alternating routes around the town, to keep herself from getting too bored or too complacent.

So it is in a relatively early morning that the running steps approach the yard, slow down, and there is Crowe, staring at the collection of small animals gathered in the fenced area. She's not trying to go in, mind you. Just staring.

"... whoa." Eloquent, yes.

[realists]

"Yeah," Jyn says, straightening up from where she was crouched by the fence with a groundhog in her arms. All casual like. "It's a bit odd, they just came out of the woods the other day and decided our backyard is the best place to stop."

Which is fine, the deer are grazing and the rabbits have made a warren and the groundhog is snuffling at Jyn's shoulder like she's hiding treats in her shirt.

[allfornothing]

... she's hiding treats in her shirt, isn't she.

"Considering what's in the woods..." Crowe squints. "Okay, I'm not an expert on animals, but that's some very intelligent behavior." Look. Humans and fences meaning protection... that's pretty intelligent for most animals, isn't it?

But as Jyn doesn't seem to be having that much of a problem with it all, that leaves a whole different question.

"You guys in need of anything? Like. Food or stuff?"

What. She doesn't know a lot about caring about animals, but some things just make sense in a certain sense.

[realists]

She is hiding no such thing! She might have snacks in her pockets, but that's just because she really likes trail mix and is constantly hungry.

"I think they're just avoiding the woods, which is weird, yeah. I saw some in the park, too." Grass, of course, because that seems to be part of their natural habitat, but she definitely agrees with Crowe. It's weird. Luckily she doesn't mind because animals.

"They're eating the grass and half the garden, I think they're fine." The groundhog's claws dig into her arm and she winces, prying it away from her and putting it down.