This is what comes from poking about in foreign kitchens

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

((set sometime shortly after this)

Fett did a few quick scans of the surrounding areas as the park continued to fall apart piece by piece. Nothing repaired itself, nothing reappeared in its proper place. He hadn't been so sure that the plan would work, in fact.

But even given that, he should have been prepared for every possible outcome.

He was only ever used to having a target, a purpose, and so he thought of it as one target at large as he continued down the sidewalks, firing his blaster rifle at windows, cables and offending signage. Fett made his way back to New Orleans Square with one thought on his mind.

If this did all go to hell, he hadn't had the chance to even ask Sunshine what she thought of it. That seemed almost morally wrong, somehow. She had been the only person in this place whose opinion had counted for something in a whole alternate dimension of madmen and impossible things.

He found her under her doorway, staring out at the changed landscape and looking... really exactly how he had imagined she would, given the circumstances.

"Are you hurt?" he asked on approach. As good a way to start a conversation as any, if you're a bounty hunter.

Comments

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"What? I'm - no, are you?" He looked fine, not that it was particularly easy to tell with him. "What's...?" She waved at the destruction. "Are we under attack?"

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

She didn't even.... He tried to remember if he'd seen her at the meeting.

"No, they're... there might be a way out. The explosions are an attempt to distract the park security to see whether or not a group can get past the locked door down below."

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

There was a locked door down below? "Below where? And...distract...?" She winced as another of the skybuckets, one that had been teetering on the top of its tower for a while now, slid rapidly down the broken cable and crashed into a nearby shop's roof.

"Can we, um. Talk inside?" Hopefully no one was planning to blow up her building...

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"It was found by an elderly man," Fett told her, moving inside as he spoke to avoid wasting time. "Out of character with the rest of the establishment. Many believe it is the way out of the park. Someone noticed that when the park security had to handle two events at once, it seemed to get distracted. The group was hoping that if enough destruction was caused, then the security force would get confused and they would have a better chance at opening that door."

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

Sunshine tried to assimilate this as they headed inside. She shut the inner doors of the restaurant, more out of early training than anything else; if she'd had a lock and chain she would have used them reflexively. "How do we know if it works? I mean, that's...that's a lot of destruction, so far..."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"Destruction that's holding," he pointed out. "At least for the most part. The Doctor has been making periodic announcements to let us know what is happening. So far it seems to be having an affect." He set his rifle aside out of habit; this was no place to carry a gun.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

She watched him put the weapon down, one hand going up, unthinkingly, to rub at the scar across her upper chest. "So. A way out of here?"

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"It is the popular theory." For all they knew, opening that door might destabilize their entire existence in this place and they could all up and die. But that was definitely not a talk he wanted to have with her right now, particularly when her body language was already broadcasting some nervousness on her part. "I had thought it would prove useless."

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"It's weird to think about, isn't it?" Her hand dropped as she became conscious of her own fidging; she found a clear bit of counter and pushed herself up to sit, legs dangling. "Not that you ever came here on purpose, or that you want to be here forever, but because it's not so much part of your daily life, you get into the habit of not thinking about it. Or...I do, anyway."

"I guess a lot of people really do want to get home, though."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

'Weird' wasn't exactly a strong word in Fett's vocabulary, but he did almost know what she meant. "You have some semblance of a life built here. I... I am not used to being without my work. Going back," not home, for the only home he had known since his father's death was Slave I and a ship was portable as anything, "would give me order."

He leaned against the counter next to her (for a definition of leaned), pulling the jetpack off his shoulders and setting it down out of the way. "It would be strange to leave after everything that has passed in this place."

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"Exactly. It's...well, I mean, it's not that I don't miss home. My family, the coffeeshop. My friends. And I - there are things I need to do, I guess. Responsibilities." Both of the cinnamon roll baking and the trying (probably in vain) to save the world varieties.

"I never forgot that. But I used to think all the time, what happens when I get back? Will time have kept passing for everyone else? Will they all have thought I was - well, the last time I disappeared on them, you know, it wasn't a happy situation. Or maybe we'll just be dropped back where we left, in which case...how do we explain it to anybody? Or do we just not say anything, pretend like nothing's happened?"

She knew her life was vastly more social than his - and she'd always tended to think of herself as a bit of a loner, albeit a loner at the center of a closeknit community - but... "Stop thinking or forget about life here because it just never comes up there? Because that's just..." Words failed her. She bumped his shoulder lightly with her own, in lieu of words.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"I have no one to tell," Fett admitted. "So there are fewer worries on my end when I return." Not that he approved of that situation, or that he hadn't spent many hours contemplating exactly what would happen if he suddenly up and disappeared for a couple of years in his own galaxy. He could only imagine the stories that would crop up then, who would take credit for his demise.

There were only a handful of things (less) in Fett's life that he could ever recall missing, ad he wasn't one to dwell. It wasn't that he needed his galaxy, it was that he knew it.

That bump in the shoulder prompted something of a bump back, one that he didn't realize he had given. "I won't forget," he promised.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"Well, you should have someone to tell," she said, almost fiercely. "Hell, I mean, it's bad enough my going back and having all these things I can't tell anyone. But I already had that, and at least people back home would just think I was nuts if I told them about this." As opposed to most of the secrets she'd arrived with, which could have gotten her thrown in jail or a government labratory. The same secrets nobody here gave a skegging crap about.

She glowered down at her lap, almost childishly. "I don't like thinking of you not having anyone. And I don't want to have to not forget."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

Her vehemence surprised him, but not nearly as much as her concern. Perhaps it was because he had so few friends over the course of his life, little-to-no female contact, not enough experience to teach him what to expect in familiar company when the conversation turned sour. The last friend he had gotten into a real scrape with had died.

And worst of all, he had nothing to say that would make it sound better. Only questions. "What do you want?"

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

She could...not hear, exactly, but sense somehow his surprise. She suspected very few people would've, and that, and the fact that he was surprised at all struck her painfully. "I don't know," she told her knees, then looked up and gave him a skewed smile. "I really doubt it'll be as simple as a hallway with a bunch of labelled doors beyond the locked one. 'This way to the universe with magic.' 'This way to the universe with spaceships.'"

"I guess life's not fair is a constant wherever you are."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

Even if it were that plain, it wouldn't be simple. Her world, his galaxy. Small towns and cities that covered entire planets. Baking and tracking. How had they managed to come this far, even on neutral ground, was something of a mystery.

He unbuckled a wrist gauntlet, pulled the glove off his left hand and placed it in hers.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

Yes, that had occurred to her, too.

She squeezed his hand blindly.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

He squeezed back. In fact, he nearly understood the point of it as he did it.

"I hadn't expected..." Any of it, obviously. But least of all her. Least of all a reason to stop in the middle of doing what he knew to go and do something he didn't.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"I know," she said, rubbing the side of his index finger with her thumb. "It's been...I don't even know what to call it. But you're what I'll miss."

"I mean," she qualified, looking down, feeling she was getting too mushy, maybe, "It's been nice getting more sleep. I've come up with some new recipes, too, although I'd have to change the names of at least three of them. And the sun all the time, that's nice. But mostly, of the things that made this place okay, it's..." You.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"Yes," he said. To all of it, to the truth for once. He wasn't any better with words than he had been the day she met him, but at least he wouldn't pass over it the same way he had tried to avoid sugar at the beginning, like a disease or a vice, something he couldn't afford.

"I don't think I would have come out of this with my mind intact." It was too true for his liking, the way she'd grounded him in reality, even if it had been a highly distorted honey-colored one.

Suddenly everything went quiet and dark (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/317246.html). Fett heard the Doctor on the comlink at his belt: "Fett, if you can hear me… you can tell anyone who asks that there's a hole in the door."

And instead of doing the responsible thing, he switched the comlink off and left the others to find the news in their own way.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

It had been a honey-colored reality, here: a place of limited danger and long, indistinguishable days, with only the responsibilities she'd assigned herself. She'd tried to ground herself with the routine and hard work of making food, feeding people; she'd liked to think it was helping others, to have at least the reality of a good meal made by hand, but really it was structure, fear of drifting. She felt more anchored at this moment than she had in...years, maybe.

"They got through the door," she said, probably unnecessarily.

She could see in the dark. She would've almost preferred darkness for this moment, but she could see everything around her with inhuman, bewildering clarity: the movement of the water in the river that edged the restaurant; the small scraps of life that were the flowers in the vases at each table; when she looked down, their hands joined.

Her hand tightened in his. "What do we do? Do we just...wait?"

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

A hole in a door wasn't quite the same as getting through it, and Fett had to wonder exactly what they had discovered. His visor had gone automatically to night vision, but he found he didn't care for the eerie green light, and flipped a switch at the base of his helmet to get rid of it, leaving everything in shadows.

"There would seem to be few other options." He paused and considered, her grip on his hand keeping his mind from wandering. "Unless you wanted to go and see it." He hadn't thought to ask yet, which was stupid of him.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"Not - " even a little bit she was going to say, but she found a perverse, unreasonable part of her was rather curious. It still wasn't quite enough to overwhelm the part of her that just wanted to cling to whatever safety she had left, for as long as she had it. " - unless you do," she modified.

"I've never really been the type of person to push the big red button that says 'don't push this,' not unless someone's holding a gun to my head." Which didn't stop her from getting caught in the ensuing big fiery explosion when someone else pushed the button.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

And he was curious too, but Fett knew better than most how badly things turned out when there were too many people working in the same place. Different perspectives could be helpful, but not if they slowed others down. "Maybe. If it stays quiet for long enough."

At the comment about button-pushing, he smiles just a little underneath the helmet. "I don't typically unless someone truly aggravates me." Which was usually difficult unless the person was being exceptionally stupid.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

Sunshine nodded in agreement to this plan. Which still left the question of what they did in the meantime.

She couldn't see his smile, but his words brought out an answering one on her own lips. "I don't think I've ever seen you that aggravated," she said, in a faintly teasing tone. And then, a little more wryly, "Although Shiva knows, you've seen me lose it in all kinds of ways."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

rethread!! (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/317464.html?thread=18307096#t18307096)

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"I've dealt with angry Sith Lords," he replied, almost to himself. "You're not that bad." As for himself, "I become... terse." Was that a joke? Maybe? It might have been, in as far as jokes could also be very true.

"It's a good method for handling Trandoshans with entitlement issues."

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

She laughed. "I'll remember that, the next time I have one of those to handle." Another little shoulder-bump.

She took a deep breath, then said, purposefully light, "I'd...take you with me, you know. If that were an option. If I didn't think you'd find my world way too...claustrophobic? It would be a mess, really, but still."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

"I hope you won't," he said, a bit too gravely to be serious, leaning a bit closer after that second bump. "Hearing how people in your world react to undesirables, I can't imagine what they would do with a seven foot tall talking," -he had seen the way park residents had reacted to the T-Rex- "reptile that has problems with anger management."

Being light at the next was the right way to go, as it prompted him to be frank in return, made it seem like a much safer topic of conversation than it actually was. "I would do the same. If I didn't think you'd find my galaxy too... eventful. I doubt you'd care much for the people I commonly have contact with, in any case." He didn't care for them either.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

She snorted. "That probably wouldn't go over too well, no. Although you never know: one of our regular bums around the coffeeshop, Gat Donner, is a small-time dope peddlar who fiddles around with his own mixes. Every now and then, when it goes wrong - or, um, right, depending on how you look at it - he turns into an eight-foot bright orange talking lizard. He doesn't have much of an anger management problem, though. Mostly he just tells fortunes. The SOFs," it was so funny to be talking about all of this, to be thinking about home again, "check in on him every now and then, mostly just because his fortunes come true slightly more than chance would allow." Sunshine shrugged.

"My life was..." hesitating, then admitting, "a lot more eventful than I wanted it to be, in the months before I came here. I guess...I guess I'm grateful for the rest, considering I'm going to have to go back to all that. But I wish...I don't know."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

This was ususally where the disconnect happened for Fett; it was one thing to be born a large lizard, another entirely different thing to become one because you did some sort of... magical drug. "I always thought fortunes came true because someone got it into their head that the outcome was unavoidable and let it happen." He didn't let anything happen. There was always a choice to make when it came to creating circumstances.

So why didn't he have any control over this?

"I'll have a lot of work to do," he told her. "It takes quite a bit of money in my galaxy to retire quietly somewhere no one will come looking for you." Which was really the plan of late, though no one in his galaxy was aware of it. That and make enough money to be treat his cancer and probably get his knees replaced at some point. Blessings of being a clone; they all were made to run so well, up to a point. Then it seemed to be one giant systems failure.

He turned his head to look at her in the dark. He would have wished too, if wishing had ever amounted to anything in his life.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"Or you're in the wrong place at the wrong time," she suggested. "I mean, some things there's just no way to prepare for." Like, oh, being inexplicably stuck in a magical theme park.

In some ways, psychologically, it helped to be used to feeling helpless before fate, and having to act anyway.

"It doesn't sound like too much to ask," Sunshine said to his plan. She let her head drop against his shoulder for a moment. Which...wasn't that comfortable, really.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

Of course there were things that you couldn't prepare for. But Fett had never had anyone predict that sort of fortune for him. In fact, he was usually the one who refused to yield to destiny. He had always believed his will was stronger than anything.

Then again, his will had done less than nothing in this place.

"I'd thought so. Found out a little while later than I was very wrong. People do seem to hold grudges against a simple businessman." He had that same thought as her head came to rest on his shoulder plate. But he couldn't exactly remove it without dislodging her a little, which was slightly awkward in that it aknowledged that he was concerned for her comfort while he was--

Nevermind.

He reached under her cheek and the plate, unlocking it and pulling it off.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

"See: life's not fair as a universal...or multiversal constant," she agreed.

She lifted her head, smiling a little as he took the plate off. She really did seem to attract the oddest kinds of friendships.

"People sometimes don't leave you alone even if you're just a coffeeshop baker. Just because you," she hesitated for a moment, never having admitted this, even really fully to herself, "you've got the potential to be, um. Powerful. A lot more so than you would've chosen to be." Or they would've chosen you to be, since it meant you were maybe more than they could control. And now she felt like she'd taken off all her clothes, and not in a good way.

She hurried on, voice small, trying to put that behind her. "I guess it's hard to just...bow out of a story once it gets going. You keep being drawn back in, by other people, by responsibilities. I'd like to believe in...peace, someday."

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

((Wow, lj. Way to notify me on every other thread. But not this one. *murders it with a spork*))

"I hope you get it," he said. "No one I know deserves it more."

It was more personally honest that he had been with anyone in... ever. And he certainly didn't take the time to wish many people well. He didn't necessarily wish them ill either, but getting his praise was a great rarity to come by.

"It's one of the hardest things anyone can endure," he found himself adding, as though diluting his comments with more words would disguise how much he truly.... "that kind of potential. Doesn't matter if you hone it or not, it will always be there. People have sixth senses for it, so they will notice, even if they're not sure what it is. It's good that you do what you do. At least you are making an effort to attract less attention." His job would sadly never afford him that.

"You know," he admitted, thinking that he perhaps sensed some discomfort on her part, and removing his helmet as a sort of afterthought to it, "I never really thought of life on the whole as being fair or unfair. The universe simply is or isn't. It's indiscriminate. But for you...." For a woman who lived in a world of magic and wards and symbols, maybe it just wasn't. Maybe it couldn't be. "I would rather you were safe."

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

The clasp of their hands was very firm now, very warm, as she'd once held onto a vampire's hand as she drew him into the light of the sun. As though she were trying to hold back some sort of pain from him with that one point of contact.

"I would rather - all kinds of things for you," she said, fiercely, against his jumpsuit-covered shoulder. "Things you wouldn't even think to want, I'd want you to have. Cookies, and tea, and - " And she didn't even know what she was saying, she had a feeling she was embarrassing herself, but she couldn't seem to stop babbling.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

It was more awkward for the fact that he could not think what he had done to deserve those wishes. Even given how much more she knew him than anyone else in this place, than anyone else back where he belonged, he did not believe he had earned this from her. He was not the sort of man who deserved a head on his shoulder.

But it did not stop him from turning his chin and resting it atop her head.

He thought of himself much in the same way she thought of herself; a loner in the midst of a crowded community. And yet the code seemed different when it came to each other.

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

And she'd had quite a few odd, close-yet-distant men in her life so far: from inarticulate but intense-eyed first boyfriends to sorcerer-cooks to, yes, honorable bloodsucking monsters. All of them held apart from her somehow, even as she shared her body or their heart's blood. She really didn't have any idea why.

She felt his chin on the top of her head and snaked one arm up around his neck to hold him.

[lasting-justice.livejournal.com]

He had no memories of ever being touched like that. Not even by his former wife, though the fact that they had shared the same profession might have had something to do with it. There was a brief stiffening in his posture that relaxed away quickly, though some part of his brain seemed to view that contact as a danger to his survival in a very basic way.

But, more than anything, he was angry at the fact that he had no way of knowing that she would be safe. After all that this place had put them through, it was unjust in every way possible that they never know the fate of any of these people whose lives they may have altered.

"Do you... know of any way to communicate across vast spaces?" There was a hint of wryness in his tone, an indication that he knew that chances were slim, and thought himself a tad foolish for needing to ask.