The best part of luck is that it will change ...

[twelve_not_fourteen]

'It's nice to have things going right for a change, isn't it?'

Fourtity came in peeks and waves for him.  Now and always.  Bad fortune was always sure to come.  Knocking him down, often, and dragging him under waters that seemed far to cold for any one man to withstand.  Tides so strong he had to wonder how he could possibly manage to find his footing again and stand; while the sea threatens to swallow him up.  The crash, again and again - eroding earth into sand.

As surely as the cruel tide of misfortune comes, however, so too does the gentle peace of fortune.  A time to sink his feet into the sand and catch his breath again.  Soaking up the light of the sun as it's rays reach all the way in.  When they finally get in, the beams stoke something inside of Han that is powerful.  Something that is easy for him forget about when he's been so busy trying to keep his head above angry water.

Your peace, Han Solo, comes in the form of a plan finally coming together.

It makes him smile in a way he just can't help.  The Captain walks through the Nexus and even the sounds of his boots striking the ground seem different, today than they did days ago.  The steps lengthened.  His footfalls lighter.

This morning, if you should find yourself out and about, you'll find Han in the parklands of all places.  He is nursing black coffee from a tall paper cup.

Comments

[brave_heart_verity]

She's not pretending, she's scared. Her father left, her mother disowned her, the world ended and Loki never came. On top of dealing with all of that, she's undergoing profound personal changes. Her sense of permanence is shot; she's surprised that the sun still rises in the east.

"Yeah? You have animals that purr that you keep as pets?" She's just talking about cats, man. Cats are cool and sometimes are assholes. Kind of like her.

She's all smiles at the idea of seeing more of him before he goes. "That would be nice. One last chance for fun before you go back to being the best captain in the galaxy?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"We have all kinds of animals that purr." He says with a shrug. "The one I'm thinking of, you wouldn't want to keep as a pet."

It's nice to see a more real smile out of her. At least, he thinks that one is. Apart from that day at the range, he's been keeping his distance. It's ... not exactly easier that way, but a different brand of hard.

"Anything in particular you want to experience together?" She's better at coming up with the things to do, he thinks, because she's been here longer. Otherwise he'll figure out something.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Oh." His answers are usually accurate, but they're often frustratingly vague.

Yes, Han, that's a real smile. She's still got a few left for emergency situations. Keep playing nice and you'll get to see more of them.

She'd be flattered to know she's making this look easy because, in reality, she's been finding it extremely difficult to find ways to entertain him. The lack of obvious enthusiasm has left her doubting herself more than she'd care to admit. Yes, dealing with her lack of self-esteem is something she'll be working on in therapy soon. Once she's done with the crisis situations.

And if this is the last time they'll be doing this for a while? she wants it to be special. "Oh, I'm sure we'll think of something. We could go to a concert, or we could go visit the Windy Cliffs. They say that if you jump off just right, you can fly."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"You want to jump off a cliff together?"

Sure, she said fly, but ... is that not also a way to put it? In any case, the suggestion has him grinning an honest, if a bit impish smile.

"I think that sounds perfect for us, sweetheart." The formerly familiar term of endearment slips out, but he doesn't try to backpedal because of it or take it back. "Either we'll fly together or fall on our faces trying."

[brave_heart_verity]

Did he think that was going to discourage her? Because she's grinning now. "Yes. That's pretty much exactly what I said." After all, flying is just falling and missing the ground. And if anyone knows flying, it's him.

The endearment is well-received. She's not really built to smile this much; if he keeps this up she might actually crack. "I think we'll manage. And if we don't, at least we'll fall together."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han reaches his free hand through his scruffy hair and looks down at the ground smiling slightly to himself. Just for a moment, as if ... well, he doesn't even know why he needs to break the look between them in that moment.

"I'll try not to hold it against you that you knew somewhere I could have been flying and you didn't tell me about it till now." He teases.

[brave_heart_verity]

Her gaze slides away after he does, and when he looks back she's fussing with something in her basket. She's still smiling, and if not so painfully widely, maybe that's for the best.

The teasing gets a huff from her. "You are the soul of generosity. I've obviously been holding out on you and didn't just hear about it the other day."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Obviously." He echoes. "It's just as well. If I had hung around and had too much fun, I might never have raised enough money to get the Falcon fixed."

It feels odd to say that, even in the jest that it was meant. As if he could ignore the fact that his ship needed to be repaired. It claws at him the way that a child's cry inspires action in a parent.

"So." He says with a slight nod at her basket. "Gathering flowers. Is it just because or is there a plan for those?"

[brave_heart_verity]

"We're very distracting around here." She tries to carry on with the joke. Her gaze lifts briefly to his face again to see how well it's received.

"Oh, alchemy ingredients. Shade-Seeker and I are going to be experimenting with whether the native species work as well as the ones from Tamriel. And I think he wants me to practice this part before he brings me someplace dangerous to get the more exotic ingredients."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Some more than others." He murmurs. Which says more about him, he thinks, than it probably does about anyone around here. Han tends to make acquaintances everywhere he goes, but real friends? Not as often.

"That all sounds very reasonable." He tilts his head to the side thoughtfully for a moment. "Does the danger ... what you might have to do later, I mean, make you uneasy?"

[brave_heart_verity]

She can't really imagine how she's distracting, but she doesn't understand most of what's going unspoken between them, so. Just one more thing to add to the list.

"A little nervous," she admits after some reflection. "I'm not sure I'll have the heart to shoot a cute furry animal that looks like a pet, but that'll probably change after one tries to eat me." Wolves are fucking mean in Tamriel. "And I won't be going alone, which helps."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Her friend Han is a storm of feelings sometimes. It's hard enough for him to navigate them much less anyone else. At least he's letting her in enough to see some of them this time? It tends to hurt her more when he doesn't.

"Well that's something." He says with a nod. "I gotta believe you've been training enough to be as prepared as you can for it."

[brave_heart_verity]

Storms she can navigate. Feelings, not so much, it seems. But she does prefer not being shut out entirely.

"Yeah. He's a famous hero back home, so I'm sure he can manage to deal with wolves or wandering daedra, and it's not like he's asking me to help close the gates to demon-lands or anything." Ver rubs the back of her neck a bit, because when she says that out loud it sounds really bad.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Magic." He murmurs, shaking his head. "I don't know if it's ever going to make sense to me, but I'm glad it serves you well."

[brave_heart_verity]

"The gates to demon-lands don't make sense to most people, don't worry about it. None of them have been seen around here in months."

Isn't that reassuring?

"Most of the magic he does doesn't make sense to me, either."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Well that's a comfort. He thinks. Overall there's a little too much magic around here for him to comfortably ignore. It's one of the aspects of the Nexus he accepts as the norm, but is none too fond of.

"I didn't even know there were different kinds."

[brave_heart_verity]

Magic isn't something she's ever been able to ignore, so she's been trying to roll with it. It hasn't screwed her up too much. Yet.

"Yeah, in Tamriel there's... six or seven where he's from? And magic from different worlds sometimes works differently too. It's very confusing. So I just focus on the couple of things I can do and try not to worry about it."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Seems like the best course of action."

Though, beyond that, he's really not sure what else to add. Nor what he would do with a 'demon' beyond trying to blast it - which, to be fair, is his initial instinct for every hostile.

[brave_heart_verity]

She wouldn't mind seeing how a scamp does against a blaster either, should it come to that. Anything that's going to be shooting fire at her is not her friend.

Ver can tell it's time to change the subject. "So do you think I should do the culturally sensitive thing and go with just my bow, or should I take every advantage I can and get myself a blaster?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

There is the vague impression that she's asking what he thinks knowing what he'll already say. That said, he wont hesitate to live up to those expectations.

"Bring the blaster." He says, as serious as he as ever been with her. "I've yet to come across a weapon that I would rather rely on."

Though, that does make him want to ask, "I take it you've got yourself one."

[brave_heart_verity]

She had a pretty good idea what he'd say, yeah, but that doesn't mean she doesn't still want and value his opinion. And she might have been wrong.

"You wouldn't worry about the implications of bringing foreign weapons into a culture that's never seen anything like them before?" It's a serious question, but there's a look in her eyes. It might be a mischievous sparkle, if she were capable of such things. But she couldn't possibly.

"Not yet. But if I'm going to keep practicing, I probably should get one of my own."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"By that logic, bringing yourself to that place if they ain't familiar with our kind could be viewed as an affront to their culture." He says with a shrug. You could make yourself crazy trying to find every possible way you might offend someone and still inadvertently do it anyway, after all.

"Besides, you don't strike me as the type to start shooting at the drop of a hat. If they do something that makes you want to draw a blaster, I would want you to have one with you."

"If we can figure out a charging system for the pack, I'd happily give you one of mine."

[brave_heart_verity]

"That's a good point." Fingers brush over her hair as she considers some of the things she'll need to do before she goes. "'Our kind'? They have humans. Human-looking people. It's... complicated." And possibly extremely racist, she's not sure yet.

The idea of her with an itchy trigger finger gets a laugh. "Me? No. I'm more likely to want to make friends with the cute little whatever." What? She likes animals. She has to like something.

"Really? Thank you. That's very generous." She's surprised more than she's the recipient than that he's capable of it. She knows how very little she deserves from him right now and everything beyond treating her with basic respect is a gift in her mind.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"I was trying to fix up the other blaster like mine for you." He murmurs. "Before I ... go."

It was going to be a surprise. She awfully good at figuring out his surprises before he has a chance to give them to her. He's going to possibly have to get sneakier about it.

[brave_heart_verity]

It's not like she's trying to, and she really didn't see this one coming. She'd been thinking maybe he'd come with her to help her pick one out. One more chance to see him.

"Thank you," she repeats quietly. "That's a lot of work to put in. I'm really grateful." She wonders if he decided this before or after. Probably before. There's no way of asking now. "You realize you don't get to complain about my wanting to treat you to breakfast now, right?"