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open ✧ i was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars
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]
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✧ 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 )
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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. 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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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Forgive her, she her smile just got to be a little too big and she has to duck her head because she means to be composed and also in recovery after such a strange and traumatic event. There are a few reasons why the first half was, at least, good and she hesitates to divulge them right away, still figuring out her comfort level here.
"It was fun," Elsa says simply. "Really, it was fun. It feels like something I used to do when I was younger – I believe I did. Roading marshmallows with friends around a fire..." A sigh.
"I think I've regained some important memories."
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She's curious, but not enough to press.
"I'm glad. Hopefully they weren't bad, the memories." All of Jyn's are but she thinks she has to be something of an anomaly. She hopes she is something of an anomaly. "I used to camp when I was very small."
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"No, not at the moment," she replies cautiously. "I was feeling like my old self for a while there." What she believes is her old self, anyway. Before the energy depletion.
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"It does get easier," Jyn offers with a shrug. Everyone told her that and she genuinely got sick of hearing it when she couldn't remember anything useful at all, but having her memories back did make dealing with not knowing the intricacies of Earth life easier.
She can't speak to remembering life here, but she seems to be an outlier in that respect.
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"It's all familiar in a way, this place, more like a dream than anything else," she muses, leaning back in the chair as she allows her posture to relax. "The town, the people, the clear skies..."
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"Maybe it reminds you of where you were born." Jyn doesn't mind talking about the past, even when she passes the notices telling her not to, because she has nothing tying her to this place except people from her past, but she's tentative to broach the subject with Elsa because she doesn't want to get the pale woman in trouble.
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"I've memories of somewhere else with more water, taller buildings. This place is – it makes me think of another place that I've visited, that isn't ..."
Her voice fades away and she tries to find the words, but they refuse to come to mind. Elsa sighs in exasperation at herself. "I'm not of this place and yet I am. I don't know."
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Jyn cannot relate, but that doesn't mean Elsa's alone.
"I was raised on an island. It was full of rocks and scrub brush, but the water was so blue." Not that she ever went in it, the idea of Wreans terrified her when she was eight and it was cold as balls. Eventually, if they wanted to go swimming, the recruits found the grotto. "It was called Wrea."
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She makes a soft noise as she tries to find the right words to say.
"I remember snowcapped mountains, nothing like anything I've seen here. And yet, I distinctly recall school in Wayward Pines." Her fingers form a beat against her chin, thoughtful. "I remember caring about someone I've recently run into here."
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"Oh? Do they have a name? Maybe I know them." Jyn, please, you have a social circle of like three people.
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"Gladio," Elsa replies with hesitation, the name familiar on her tongue. "Amicitia. We went to school together. I – I used to help his sister with schoolwork."
She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, her hands returning to her lap. There is so much more, she thinks, so much more than that.
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"I don't know him." He is a boy, though, now she knows that. "I'm sure he's nice."
june 12th
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.
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"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?"
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"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."
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"I've no food allergies that I know of and I would happily sample anything you are willing to share." Diplomatic as ever even if she wants to insist that he not worry about her, yet still accepting of his cooking so as not to offend. Jyn had mentioned it, she believes, but Elsa does not feel it is her place to take when they are only just meeting each other.
"Jyn has spoken well of you," Elsa answers with a neutral sort of smile, opening the doors for him.
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Elsa gets the door and says that Jyn has spoken well of him and Cassian stops himself from asking if there's anyone she didn't speak well of (because Cassian is nosy and he isn't sure what 'spoken well of' actually means, in this circumstance) so instead he swallows and nods. "We're...close."
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Standing in the foyer, Elsa waits for Cassian to join her inside before letting the door close. She does not lock it, lest Jyn come in though she knows that she is currently out for the moment.
"What is your food specialty, Cassian?"