AU week

[imthepilot]

OOM - The uncertainty of death at sea vs the inevitability of death on land.
OOM - Shuffled like cattle from pen to pen.

{ooc: warnings for death, desperation, violence, implied sexual assault, and an attempt to write the experiences of a refugee without first-hand knowledge.}

“I feel guilty leaving the girls to set the cottage on their own.” Bodhi comments as he opens the door.

“They seemed pretty happy to me.” Galen answers brightly. “I think they were looking forward to decorating. We’d only be underfoot.”

Bodhi shrugs awkwardly. “As long as we bring them back food, I guess. I can’t remember the last time I went out for dinner.” He does but- it’s not a good memory. He looks around, not sure if they meant to wait to be seated or if they just sit. And there doesn’t seem to be anyone at the bar to ask.

{ooc: Refugee!Bodhi and Sea Rescue Volunteeer!Galen. Both or either are taggable. Neither have been to Milliways before and haven’t noticed it’s weird yet.}

[tiny tag: Galen Erso}

Comments

[galen_erso]

Galen just finds a table and sits, pushing another chair out for Bodhi. It's not exactly a posh restaurant, after all.

"You'll know what they like," he says. "We'll try the food, and bring back the best for the girls."

He rather liked the way Malika and Pema immediately went about making the rather spare tourist bungalow feel more like home, with the few sparse heirlooms they had brought, and promised to take them shopping in the little town tomorrow. It'll be mostly stuff made for the tourists that failed to turn up in as large numbers as in other years, but it'll do for the time they'll have to wait here.

"They don't seem to have a menu, just a specials board," he adds.

[imthepilot]

"Pema's mostly vegetarian. Or she was when she could be." In the months before they fled you ate what you could get hold of and you made the most of it. "Malika's an omnivore but she loves pizza above all things." He looks around, reading the board before coming over to join Galen.

There's an air of wariness about him. Not aimed at Galen, just... in general. As if waiting for sirens.

[galen_erso]

"The specials board is a bit strange," Galen observes. "No charge for anything? That can't be right. Unless this is just for the people from the centre, but why should it be, in the middle of the old town, where the tourists go. Or they have enormous amounts of slightly iffy eggs."

Galen sincerely doubts that the hungry, skinny Rooks can deal with slightly iffy eggs; they don't have the reserves, fluid or otherwise, to risk getting sick from a bargain. As one does, living in scarcity, be it in a war zone, in an economically slightly unstable Eastern European country, or as a student on a meagre grant.

"We can asks if they have pizza. With no eggs."

[imthepilot]

"Sure. Iffy eggs." Which sounds almost funny with his accent, "Sound like a very bad idea. I know I could do with some red meat."

[galen_erso]

"Yes, so could I," Galen says. "No iffy eggs, even if they're free. So, who do we order our steaks from, though?"

He looks around. "Odd fish, that. But we're no eating fish here tonight, even if it's close to the sea."

[imthepilot]

"And the things in the tank. The big bug things. They remind me of something I saw in the natural history museum." Before it was bombed too.

[galen_erso]

Galen really looks at them. Those aren't just big crab they are...

He gets to his feet. "Fuck my life," he murmurs softly. "Those are -- they can't be -- they're really trilobites!"

He's been approaching the tank and stares at them.

"Bodhi, they have live trilobites here. Iffy eggs, living fossils, no waiters -- what in blazes is this place? Could you please pinch me really hard?"

This starts feeling like a dream. They had been walking into that cute little restaurant in the old town, and suddenly -- trilobites??

[imthepilot]

Bodhi doesn't pinch him, but he does kneel down by the fireplace. To admire the firefish. "Are we... did we die?"

[galen_erso]

"It almost feels like that," Galen says, turning around to put a hand on Bodhi's shoulder. "As if reality suddenly shifted."

[imthepilot]

"As long as the girls are safe." It's going to the refrain of his life. He stands up, pulling Galen into his arms. "And you're here."

[galen_erso]

"I am here, with you, all the way," Galen says. "We can try and get out the door we came in through, though, to check our aliveness status. Perhaps people here just like to mess with people's perceptions, and these beasties are animatronics. Like some sort of geek prank central everybody reads about in the guidebooks, but we don't have one. If the bar's name is 'The Gaslight' or something like that, we'll know."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi checks the door, which opens easily. The street outside looks exactly like it did a few minutes ago. He tries the bar and is presented with a non-alcoholic beer and a beer mate that reads Welcome to Milliways.

That makes him laugh. "Not Gaslight. Milliways. That's ever better."

[galen_erso]

"Like the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?" Galen says. "Douglas Adams? Yep, definitely a geek space, then. These just turned up on their own?"

[imthepilot]

"Apparently." Bodhi grins. Because it's nice to know Galen is a geek too. "But drinks seem to appear on the counter. Maybe it's a robotic thing."

[galen_erso]

"Well," Galen says. "I really want to know how this works. But I want to get to know you better a great deal more, so let's just leave it at 'robotic geek prank place' and come back another time to get at the root of all this."

He turns around to face Bodhi again, looking into his eyes.

"Steak to eat in, and a extra large huge vegetarian pizza with everything except meat to take back?"

[imthepilot]

Bodhi isn't blushing. Really he isn't. It's just warm inside the bar.

"Sounds good." The steaks as well as the getting to know you bit.

[galen_erso]

The sudden attack of the heat looks so cute on Bodhi, Galen just smiles and leans in to kiss him.

This is a geeky tourist place, so he's sure nobody will take offence.

"Yep," he murmurs against Bodhi's lips, "you're more interesting than machinery. A lot more interesting. Bah, machinery!"

Followed by another kiss.

[imthepilot]

No-one even looks at them sideways. Which shocks Bodhi even more than the kiss. And then makes him kiss back deeper. "We... we should order some food before we... um, get distracted."

[galen_erso]

"And have nowhere where to be properly distracted, either," Galen says. His idea had been to quietly sneak through the bungalow once he was certain the girls were asleep, their stomachs full of pizza and their heads full of new plans.

"What is that?"

Something squeaked near their knees. Something that looked like two large and well-fed rats, carrying a tray between them that held two plates of steak with thick, luscious fries and a pile of greens, as well as what looked suspiciously like a hotel room key.

[imthepilot]

No, Bodhi wasn't blushing before. But now he is. Because yes, that does look very much like a hotel room key. Which he notices even more than he notices the rats. "Oh." Which is all he manages to say.

[galen_erso]

"Seems we already ordered?" Galen says, reaching down to pick up the tray, but the rats are faster.

The table is set, complete with a small glass of red wine for Galen and water glasses and carafe for them both, as well as a coaster for Bodhi's beer, before he could so much as try to lift it.

The hotel room key sits in the middle of the table, in a small bowl lined with a pale yellow napkin, and a lotus flower, like a ceremonial centrepiece.

"Huh," Galen says, lacking the wits for any other reaction just now. "Erm, thanks."

To whoever is remote-controlling those amazing animatronics.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi is still to... flabbergasted. Yes, that's the word.

"Um. Yes, thank you." There's a little flag on Bodhi's steak, letting him know it's Halal. He toys with it, a little shocked but touched. He hadn't thought to ask because... well, he hasn't had any such choice of a long time. Food was food. And religion didn't matter if you were starving.

[galen_erso]

But now, there is no starvation -- there is plenty, and it's all for them.

Galen sits at the table again, and picks up his glas.

"To us," he says. "To the girls, including Jyn. And to the future."

Including the immediate future that hotel room key implies. Perhaps they can send somebody back to the bungalow with pizza while they, well, enjoy what the key and the lotus flower seem to promise?

[imthepilot]

"To us. And those who matter to us." Bodhi's voice is a little hoarse with emotion but he does his best to hide it behind a sip of beer.

He cuts a slither off the steak, chewing it slowly. Savouring the incredible taste.

[galen_erso]

Galen follows suit, eating a piece of intensely delicious steak, done just right, followed by a fry dipped into the cold, spicy-pale sauce that comes with the dish, and some of the crisp greens that taste of somebody's garden, not a large greenhouse far away. There are even tiny, dark, green striped tomatoes.

"Whoever they are, they can cook," he pronounces.