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[ poe is so done for. he cannot possibly survive how strong his (biased) gay feelings are.

something about that sentiment rings true. finn lets it rattle around while simultaneously trying not to. ]

If you can't trust your orders, you probably should get discharged. [ says finn, a hypocrite who can literally still remember his part of the before the awakening novel?? the first order doesn't discharge tho, he's gonna call these two duck looking things different ducks. ] Better off not being there.

I don't disagree with that. [ he snorts, but also ... why would you do that when you could be a giant drama queen and lead a mutiny??? jk, that was mostly for distraction's sake. not that he wasn't feelin' it, tho ... okay, maybe it was 90/10. but you know what, that's another story for another time. maybe in like ten minutes or something. now we're just going to focus on the one story. maybe finn doesn't want it, but poe talked to himself in the desert for five million years, look at him go with a captive audience.]

My squadron kept running into First Order ships when we were patrolling. I lost a member of my squadron to a First Order freighter, and the Republic still wouldn't take them seriously as a threat. I got a direct command not to provoke the First Order. They actually threatened me with charges if I went after the freighter that got my teammate. But, I can't ... I can't just ignore something like that. [he shakes his head.] It's not right.

So I didn't. I took my squadron out on patrol where we just happened to run into the freighter ... and followed it right into a staging point. [he actually laughs a little at the memory — a small chuckle — because there's enough distance now for him to appreciate how ludicrous his life is.] We barely got out, and I was gonna be served with a court martial. General Organa ended up recruiting me for the Resistance, so I decided to go where people actually cared about what's happening to the galaxy. Resigned before they could discharge me, basically. It wasn't looking good.

[ in spite of all his conscious efforts...... the corners of finn's mouth twitch up. not for the story, strictly speaking, because it's kind of a sobering story?

more because there poe goes talking again. no reservations. there he go. here stories a special man. a man who went against direct orders and left before he could get court martialed.

maybe he should think that's a coward move. he can't commit to the motion though. ]

Everybody cares about what's happening to the galaxy. Just not all from the same direction.

[ it's not too surprising to hear that the new republic took that stance on it. chaotic and complacent, that was sort of the Mood during the mandatory morale sessions against them. ]

Some people care more than others. Some people think as long as nothing's happening directly to them, it's okay to just stand by and see what happens. Don't wanna make a move until it's too late. [he shakes his head.] I could never be like that. I'm just not wired that way.

[ he huffs. ]

I never would've guessed.

[ poe dameron, unable to sit still? prone to doing reckless impulsive shit like breaking a single stormtrooper out of a huge well-staffed ship?? sounds fake can't be realistic. finn will try to think of that fondly when he wakes up for his half-asleep 3am cry later. ]

There are stormtroopers who think the same way. It's what they tell us we're here for. Taking action. Protecting the galaxy.

[ they go light on the fact that they're fascist villains. ]

[ mmm that moment when you gotta think about how there are people just like you on the other side. like, obviously. he knows finn is a person. he knows how stormtroopers are made. from ... people. he gets that part of the picture enough but maybe he is missing out on seeing the forest for the trees??? like there's gotta be some jackass stormtrooper who's just as turn down for what as everything about him —

oh wait that's the one SITTING NEXT TO HIM RIGHT NOW. or at least, it was. but no maybe there's one who's like him and finn except turning down for what ... for evil.]

I guess everyone's the hero in their own story.

[philosophical genius poe dameron.]

Some of the stuff we do ... some of the stuff we've been through, it's hard to justify it if you don't think you're the one in the right.

[hell he always thinks he's the one in the right and he's still constantly on the run from guilty thoughts from accidentally murdering like half the resistance with his good intentions and refusal to quit. those guilty thoughts will never catch him. nope.

but then there's the obvious: stormtroopers would only think that way because they're being brainwashed to think it. by sociopathic space nazis. that's cool.]

[ turning down for what... for evil. i mean, it's not wrong.

everything was so much less complicated yesterday when he had no idea what was happening or if he was waiting for death. now everyone is the hero in their own story and thinking about justifying what they do. is that how people think? is that how people understand it?

he doesn't think about the negotiators in the mining colony.

that's a lie. he does. he thinks about it instantly, and "it's hard to justify it if you don't think you're the one in the right" sticks itself to the memory like a fresh coat of paint. shifts the world off-track, leaves behind the feeling of living a foot to the left of himself.

reaching up to run his thumb over the edges of the ring, finn thinks-- something was wrong, there, and he only really has the authority to decide that what was wrong was him. just something inside him, too big for the first order, too small for anywhere else, no idea how to make it break down into something that could just fit and work.

he was the only one who couldn't fit. ]

You're probably right.

[ he still can't justify it. he doesn't think he'll ever be able to. maybe he was never supposed to even think about justifying it, and he was just supposed to pull the trigger and move on.

so poe probably is right about this. it doesn't seem like too horrible a betrayal to acknowledge that. ]

[hux is probably the closest equivalent that we know of. he's very turn down for what for evil. search your feelings, you know it to be true.

he watches finn when he doesn't respond right away, watches him ... mull something over? it's hard to tell. he doesn't want to press. it's like walking on eggshells, one wrong move and this calm they have going currently could break away into another meltdown. they're talking about heavy stuff ... he probably struck a chord. he knows. he struck his own damn chord.

but he wants to know re: finn. because he cares. can he make it better? probably not. but at least he could have the opportunity to try.]

You okay? Thought I lost you for a second there.

Hm? [ oh right. his bullshit. the stuff that crawls up his spine and nests in his skull. and maybe the fact that last time he got too quiet, he tried to vault out of their ship like a feral animal.

he kinda wishes he could vault off of the subway. but that's a lot less feasible than leaving a parked ship. and his bullshit would just tag along with him so like. meh. what would be the point. ] It's fine.

[ finn misses having a helmet. when you're wearing a helmet, your face can do whatever it wants and nobody will be any wiser to it. he's always been bad at schooling his expressions right out of the gate. when he isn't expecting to have to. sometimes even when he is expecting it. sometimes it's good to frown in secret. ]

I was just thinking. I do that sometimes.

[ he feels like he could basically shut down for 10 minutes and poe would still be there waiting when he started back up though. that's probably some kind of trust. ]

[he knew he should've put finn in the window seat. mr. flight risk over here. not that it would have stopped finn if he really wanted to bolt off the train. climbing over poe is much less of an obstacle than (basically) a seat belt, even though he'd put up more of an actual fight than one.

but he has tried gentle pushing, and it has proven to be not very effective. time to ... leave it alone for now. he guesses.]

Oh yeah? Guess that makes one of us.

[a rare self-burn for the sake of levity. it's a sacrifice he's willing to make.]

[ finn: attempts to book it
poe: i should have let him have the fucking window seat

sometimes a person wants to dissociate and bang on their drums all day. what do u mean it's not good to repress all your trauma and emotions until an inevitable meltdown and then start right back up again. ]

We can take turns.

[ this is what he's talking about, though. he never has to say anything. does he still feel like there must be a right or wrong answer to some of the things poe talks about? sure. but if poe asked a question and he said "i don't want to talk about that," poe would probably like. stop talking about it. he's like a walking threatless, will-not-hurt-you-actively force field. the worst thing he's threatened to do was stun finn and drag him to the hangar to arguably save his life.

this is the least realistic person in the world. he's just good?? not perfect and he definitely doesn't always say the right thing but he's so... good. it's wild. he almost makes it easy to forget what they're running from and how it probably ends. he makes it easy to not want it to end. he makes it dangerously easy to want to try, to want to make sense.

now, we call this the emotional equivalent of leaving a cheeto in the middle of a parking lot to lure an injured animal into the open, and heck if finn isn't very cautiously seeing what happens if he starts to edge towards that emotional cheeto. will he ever become a stable disaster over an unstable disaster???? i hope so. ]

What do you do with what you can't justify?

[UNLOCKED. what did he unlock? he has no clue but it's a thing. it's putting a key in a door and fiddling with it a little bit and then it magically unlocks. only there's probably deep-seated trauma behind that door but you know what. he asked for this. he can barely handle his own shit, but he's decided to take on some of finn's shit, too. keeping the shit separate was a lie. he wants to know everything about finn. that's his m.o. and that includes things that are painful and hard to talk about, inasmuch as finn wants to actually talk about them.

it just means sounding a little more together than he actually is. less like someone who is constantly on the run from his guilty thoughts. ]

You mean bad calls? Yeah ... I've had my share of those. Sometimes things come down to the wire and you make the wrong choice. Maybe you thought it was justifiable, only to find out it wasn't. [he shakes his head.] And there's nothing you can do to fix it. It's happened. It's done. You just gotta learn from it. Be better next time.

[and he did, didn't he? he learned from his mistakes. too bad they were ... enormous mistakes ...

and maybe this is another one for his greatest hits list. maybe it's going to backfire on him in ways that remain unseen. but it feels right. (just like all his other mistakes.) it's going to work out. he knows it. (yep. still just like all his other mistakes.) ]

[ they need chewie or leia. the only two star wars who have enough of a handle on their own shit to be able to take on another person's en masse and help them with it. rip.

it's all still something to think about. it's what he wanted to do after. be better. fix his mistakes. he almost says something like no, what do you do with commands you can't justify.

but he guesses poe just doesn't follow them. that was a whole thing. they sort of. have that in common? only poe was a lot more yolo maybe, and has possibly done it more than once to his own memory. still. take the cheeto by the horns. until disaster inevitably must strike again. ]

I couldn't follow orders. On my first deployment. Thought that was why they sent me to reconditioning, for a while. [ to have another chance. to be better next time.

apparently he got another chance and completely biffed it tho. which he wasn't expecting. ]

[he nods like ah yes, orders you can't follow. this is also a familiar story. he doesn't know what he can contribute to finn's story. how much he can contribute. what was his first deployment? was it jakku? all the things he doesn't know make him wonder. has he been through this multiple times? that hurts a lot to think about. but if that was true, then maybe ... well, finn was his finn when he'd met him. messy and fearless. if that was true, maybe there was a chance he'd get better. that poe was right, that there was some light, some goodness in finn that the first order would never be able to take.

too bad that's all a fanfiction poe wrote just now. if only ... he had learned literally anything about the love of his life. all he can offer is his own pov. ]

Yeah, if it's an order ... I think you always have to be true to yourself. I've went against orders. That's what I'm doing right now. And yeah, maybe sometimes it blows up in my face. Turns out ways I didn't expect. I made a couple of those bad calls because I didn't want to follow orders, and it cost a lot of people their lives. [here come the guilty thoughts. they found him. he biffed it on the sidewalk and now they're here to beat him up.]

I regret those, but if an order doesn't sit right with you, I think the worst thing you can do is to just blindly follow it. You have to do what's right, because there's a lot of people out there who won't. So there are things I don't regret, too. I don't regret how things went with the New Republic, because it got me to where I needed to be. And I don't regret you.

[and that's important, he thinks. it's important to make sure finn knows that. even if finn was broken now, even if he'd been winter soldier and straight up tried to kill him for offering help, he wouldn't have regretted it. doesn't regret it. if he hadn't tried, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself.

maybe that meant that he wasn't fit to lead the resistance, because he wasn't ready to sacrifice one for the many. but he hadn't. he worked around that. the only collateral damage in the bad end scenario of this would be himself.]

[ when you get so into the person you long for that you write an entire fanfiction about them in your head. the full hundred percent commitment. incredible. ]

Tell me if your mind changes. It won't hurt my feelings. [ all 2.5 of them. fear, confusion, and "idk exactly what this is but i can't make myself try to stop having it."

finn adds the words to his tiny dragon's hoard of nice things poe says that he doesn't totally know what to do with, which in its own way is the same as just accepting them, which is kind of what... one does with nice things that poe says. it's maybe the best coping mechanism he's even evolved so far.

and poe can hold onto his Feelings about this, as perhaps one of the best, most stubborn no-regrets candidates for this situation. bc i can almost guarantee that if finn goes to sleep on this road trip, he comes back up at full disaster mass and tries to pvp everything in his vicinity no matter how nice it was to him on the space subway. he'll need a no-regrets guarantee more than ever. ]

[i mean that's what you gotta do when you don't know anything about the person you're in love with. make up elaborate but probably incorrect stories about their lives. that's what's up.]

It won't.

[he says it with such finality. it won't. case closed. brick wall meet brick wall. finn could wig out and pvp him right now and if finn won, he'd go down like "rip myself but at least you're free now." he's actually thinking these dramatic thoughts like the fucking drama queen he is. any life they (or maybe just he in this finn killing him and/or running away scenario) eked out in the coruscant slums or hitching a ride to wherever, no matter how messy and chaotic and unstable, it was better than whatever the first order had given finn. treating him like an animal, locked up in a cage. he knows that with the same complete certainty that he knows he doesn't regret his actions.

this is probably a fast train. so even though it's a thousand levels, they've also been having philosophical discourse for a while now. they learned a lot about each other. bb-8 was off pickpocketing people. it's been a great time for everyone. anyway poe glances at the display for the first time literally since they sat down. they're on like. level 1700.]

Not much longer now.

[ it's good that they didn't miss their stop. that would've sucked for them. life is already hard enough.

two dudes, chillin on the fast train, and they both are brick walls and they're both gay. thank god bb-8 will be able to provide them with rando pocket change to live on. they can become a traveling entertainment trio. living on good clean family bonding, growing closer. anticipating the most dramatic turns in events, together. finn's still pretty sure the first order's gonna bust in like this is an episode of punk'd at some point.

and poe dameron is the most decisive person in the entire galaxy, he thinks, probably. he doesn't know a lot of people. but poe never seems to half-ass committing to anything. he's full-tilt the whole way, "oh i'll leave the resistance and go with you if you don't stay," "i'll never change my mind, i won't regret rescuing/kidnapping you today." literally everything finn ever got taught about how stubborn rebels are was true. amazing. ]

Fine by me. [ there's only so much train interior even finn can continue to be fascinated with. realistically. ] Be good to get back to walking.

[ hence the finnpoe mood of the day. ]

[ the gif is too real. it's poe pretty much at all times but especially in this moment. he's still not worried about the first order finding them, mostly because he trusts and believes in the first order not finding them here but also he just doesn't plan ahead. that's not really a thing he does. living that only ten seconds ahead at a time life. like a toddler. or a gerbil.

and that's how he can 100 emoji his way through everything. it's super easy to go full-tilt when your brain doesn't even put consequences up on the radar. except for the occasional moments of clarity when he's like "oh yeah consequences" but he tries to avoid those as often as he can. ]

Yeah. [ he hates sitting still and not being able to do anything. and that's what sitting on a train is pretty much. but he got some good finn time out of it, so ... maybe it wasn't the absolute worst? ] There might be a lot of it. I'm not sure ... we could get lucky, but it'll probably be awhile before we can get something in working order. Just trying to think about it realistically.

[ everything's got its highs and lows. sitting on a train included. ]

"Realistic" is good. Hell of a lot easier to trust "realistic."

[ like, something about it is comforting to hear in this context. thinking about something realistically. it could be a while. he can swallow that, work with it. it has more to hold onto than promising things will be fine. ]

[he glances at finn but doesn't say anything. of course he trusts realistic. because realistic is more negative and he can't get him to drink his idealistic koolaid. poe is only realistic when he has to be. like right now, when they're essentially going dumpster diving for a ship.

the train rolls around to level 1782 really quickly, and then poe is leading finn out by the hand with bb-8 rolling behind. they walk through another subway station which i'm sure is equally as disgustingly fascinating as the one they set off from (but poe will stop for a moment if finn would also like to take it in), and then they're taking the stairs into

you guessed it it's a junkyard. idk what else finn could expect from poe's descriptions of where they were going, but in case there was any doubt: it sure is a junkyard. it's walled with scrap metal and guess what! not just old broken discarded ships, but also airspeeders, hovertrains, and billboards. the true essence of coruscant…'s trash. also included: rats. not creepy mutant star wars alien rats, just normal rats. sniffing around, going about their business. what a great place. poe dameron really knows how to treat a date.

speaking of poe, he's taking all this in like yep this sure is … a lot. he didn't really know what to expect. he probably did a quick datapad search like "where does coruscant throw out their trash" and was like yep that's the level for me. that's as far as he got into that particular plan. and now he's arrived and doesn't even know where to begin.]

This is … we can do this.

[on a scale of nervous wreck to completely self-assured, that was like a 4/10.]

[ this is the plan that google got them. holding hands in a sea of garbage. garbage castaways. maybe they can build a shabby hut for emotional breakdowns during construction hours. a place to think about how if rey and/or rose were here, this shit would probably already be on lock.

there's definitely more to look at in the junkyard than there was in the gross subway stations. which doesn't feel like necessarily a great thing. but does anything feel like a great thing to finn rn?? not especially. at least... there's plenty to pick from... and it is interesting. his positive thought for the month. the rats are. they're sure there.

man what a dump. why is he only just realizing how filthy everything's been? maybe a little overwhelming. that's a drop in the bucket. ]

We'll find out one way or the other. [ finn isn't gonna make assurances about whether or not they can do this. ] Better view than a holding cell. If that helps.

[ he's trying, he doesn't know. "hey poe if or when we do get recaptured, thanks for taking me to see a lot of cool junk beforehand." ]

[it does actually help. no matter how severe his internal crisis may be right now, at least he did this much. at least this much was worth it to finn, too, even if it didn't feel like a hell of a lot to poe. he squeezes his hand. still gonna be otters until the day they die.

(also, there was a fugitive camp here back in the empire days, so ... maybe they'll have neighbors???) ]

Yeah, a little. Doesn't mean there's not room for improvement.

[he exhales a small sigh. it's okay. he can do this. he's gotten out of jams with even less to work with. he is a strong capable person.]

I'd ask you to help me look, but I don't even know what I'm looking for. Something on the smaller end that seems mostly whole. I guess that'd be a good place to start.

[ finn and poe: living in junk in domestic... mostly-dread, while at least one of them gets progressively more keyed up and prone to breakdowns by the day.
their neighbors: harold...

finn doesn't mind indulging in being otters. intermittent ottering is a big factor in keeping him tethered to this mortal plane. he's kind of a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, and then someone tried to clean up a little and used him for garbage with a lot of hard edges that are barely being contained.

he's almost starting to wonder if the first order wanted him to be a disaster instead of being put together and put back to use. not really the kind of thing he can ask them later. they're gonna have different priorities. ]

We won't start it any faster standing here. Might as well dig through some garbage.

[ this is the worst and best date of his life honestly. ]

You got it.

[finn taking the initiative. he's so proud. he starts to move forward through all the junk, finally letting go of finn's hand with the caveat] Stay close to me, okay? Not because — [you're a flight risk] I just don't want us to lose each other around here.

[inserts a montage of them digging through trash for awhile. a long while which is why i'm ff'ing ok. the majority of it really is like ... things that would make sense to be trashed on coruscant that are of no use to them — e.g., those speeders, trains, and billboards??? he kind of mutters to himself as they go along, being goldilocks about it. it's thrilling. there are also rats.

eventually, he eyes something and motions finn over.]

Hey! Look at this! [he motions at the ship like finn will have any kind of educated opinion about it.]

I think this is our best bet. [probably because he's tired now.] It's pretty good, right? We've got a whole frame, and ... [he comes up closer and beats his fist against the side, sort of testing the structural integrity and

a huge metal panel falls off from above and tries to kill him. COOL.]

... I can fix that.

[ fucking incredible. poe almost died by accident. finn admires this ship with all the investment of a dude who doesn't know anything about ships, who has never had cause to care about ships, and who figures it can't be any worse than anything else. at least there's that. ]

If that's our ship, I think the only alternative is learning to fix it. Without getting yourself flattened.

[ he still can't drive ok. right now, the mission is clear. do whatever poe says will help, hope that if it feels like kid gloves it's actually just poe assigning shit based on his whole "was i really actually even alive before last week or did that come built in with the processing" experience level. get poe to the rebels to... pay his life debt?? and bounce. he can't foresee anything that would make him want to hang around.

objectively, it would be a prime chance to get some intel back to the first order. it would be like getting his blaster out and putting a bolt through poe's head right now. a thing he theoretically could and should do, as a stormtrooper. kill rebels, go back, die either in a little cell or as part of a big fancy execution. a thing part of his brain is always kind of going on about doing, because the first order is everything and it gave him everything.

what does he want? (to kill rebels and go back and be where things make sense and aren't constantly terrifying.) a bagel. (LITERALLY JUST KILL THE REBELLION.) two bagels, which he probably orders while crying.

these are things he could do but if he's just slated for jailtime and execution when he goes back, like... why hurt this temporary teammate who has literally only been good to him beforehand? that doesn't sit well. ]

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