EP - tiny!Emcee

[i_am_your_host]

The door works in the strangest of ways.

So when a certain someone is holed up in his room, his younger self, his much, much younger self, enters the bar.

Small and pale and undernourished, the elfin ten-year-old boy (who could be mistaken for even younger than that) is dressed in secondhand school clothes from a distant era: knickerbockers and knee socks, a cardigan and cloth cap. He stares at his surroundings with large brown doe eyes.

Has he been here before? Perhaps in a dream? Why does it feel so familiar, when the door shouldn't have led here at all?

But this is a pub, and the little boy knows pubs. He goes up to the counter, peeking over it on tiptoes, to look for the barman. But there is none. How odd.

Even odder is the glass of milk and the plate of cookies that suddenly appear out of thin air.

This must be a dream.

Comments

[i_am_your_host]

The boy is quiet again for a moment. He seems to think a lot before he speaks.

"My name is Hansel."

He even smiles a little, his cheeks dimpling (in a very distinct way), because it's a brand new name he's been given.

"It's very nice to meet you, Herr Cassian."

And he takes a bite out of a cookie, tempering himself to not cram the whole thing in his mouth.

[childofrebellion]

That time reassures Cassian, because learning to be thoughtful and quiet is always safer.

The dimples make him blink as they are familiar, "Its good to meet you, Hansel. This is Milliways and the counter is named Bar, she's alive and you can ask her for what you want."

He doesn't think comparing her to a droid would help in this case.

[i_am_your_host]

"Alive?" he giggles, his smile brighter, his dimples deeper. "A bar can't be alive."

A napkin appears, with a drawing of a winking smiley face.

"--Oh."

[childofrebellion]

"A lot of Milliways can feel like a story, a nicer one,"

One where there's more hope and happy endings are possible.

[i_am_your_host]

"Or a dream," he murmurs as he eyes the glass of milk. He wraps both hands around it and brings it closer so that he can take a careful sip. It tastes so good that he gulps down a few more mouthfuls, leaving him with a milk mustache.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian sips his caf and nods, its been a long time since he had nice dreams, "Yes, but its real."

[i_am_your_host]

He licks his lips, and then wipes them with the back of the napkin.

"Yes, I think so," he says, as if tasting the cold milk has affirmed this.

Turning to Cassian, he asks, "Do you know this place very well?"

[childofrebellion]

"Fairly well, I'm still learning about it. What would you like to know?"

Milliways keeps creating new complications but he can answer questions. He remembers being that age and wanting to ask but doing more listening.

[i_am_your_host]

"I don't know," he says quietly, glances around the room over his shoulders. "I feel like I've been here before, but I don't remember anything about it."

He eyes Cassian up and down. "You aren't from Berlin."

[childofrebellion]

"Time can be strange here. No, I'm not. I'm a pilot, a captain fighting in a long war in a galaxy with no Earth,"

He taps his rank on his jacket, its the simplest explanation and the truth and he feels certain this is Emcee somehow. And it matters to be honest as he can with him as their worlds are too alike, seeing him young is reinforcing that.

[i_am_your_host]

These are things that sound more like fiction than fact, but the boy is trying to take Cassian's word for it.

"You fly an aeroplane?" he asks, somewhat awed, because airplanes are still quite new in his time.

[childofrebellion]

"No, a ship through the stars but it can fly in the air too. It looks like this,"

On his datapad he finds an image of a U-wing and projects it, making the wings move to show how it can adjust.

[i_am_your_host]

The boy's eyes grow as big as dinnerplates.

"How did you do that?" he gasps with obvious delight, reaching out to try to touch the projection but then drawing back. "I've never seen anything like that before."

[childofrebellion]

"You can touch it, its called a holoprojection and made of light. It won't hurt you,"

Cassian moves the datapad over to Hansel and moves his hand through it, slightly disrupting the image but not breaking it.

[i_am_your_host]

He mimics Cassian's gesture, waving his hand through the image. He tries to pinch a wing between his fingertips, and he giggles.

"Do you have more pictures-- holo-- what was the word?"

[childofrebellion]

(OOC: Sorry for disappearing. Catching up on some much needed sleep.)

"Holoprojection and I do,"

He looks on the pad to try and find something interesting to a boy. Finally he finds an image of an X-wing.

[i_am_your_host]

"Holoprojection," he repeats slowly. He learned a new word today.

"Where is the propeller?" he then asks, curiously 'touching' the nose of the ship. "How does it fly without one?"

[childofrebellion]

"The engines are here," He points to the engines on the foils and the various weapons, "This is a starfighter, it also has weapons here."

[i_am_your_host]

Hansel doesn't understand how an engine on a plane without propellers might work, but now here is another concern.

"Why does it have weapons?"

[childofrebellion]

"Because there's a war going on and the galaxy's a dangerous place,"

Cassian adjusts the angle and shows how there are sort of propellers deep within the engines.

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh," he says softly with a thoughtful frown.

The image is so detailed from all sides, it's like looking at a model.

"Are you fighting in the war?"

[childofrebellion]

"Yes, I am. I get close to the enemy to learn what I can and do what damage I can,"

Cassian rubs the back of his neck, he remembers fighting when he was as young as Hansel, throwing rocks, winning his way closer to Imps by looking small and sad.

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh," he says again, growing quiet.

He doesn't like fighting.

"Do you have pict-- holoprojections of animals?"

[childofrebellion]

He looks down at his drink and then searches on his datapad finally finding a picture of a bantha,

"Yes, I think I do."

[i_am_your_host]

Hansel's eyes light up.

"What is that?" he asks with a laugh.