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pingou7 · 7 years

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A car, two cops and a stardust — a RebelCaptain road trip fic

by @pingou7 pingou for @thestarbirdfromtheashes Starbird

(aka the Road trip fic Diego Luna’s filmography made me write)

Notes : I blame the RebelCaptain fandom (especially you, @runakvaed) as well as Diego Luna's movies and his brotherhood with Gael Garcia Bernal, let that be said. This is based on a prompt given by @thestarbirdfromtheashes, so I dedicate this story to her.

Read and enjoy, and please consider leaving me a few words.

Summary:

As the dusty roads criss under Kes Dameron's old car, Cassian Andor lets the wind mess with his hair through the open window. Dust, sunshine, laughter, its easy to recapture the taste of days long gone.

(...)

At a gas station near Corpus Chirsti, when they climb back after taking a piss, both jump out of their skins as a random brunette, eyes thunderous, hisses dangerously from the backseat :

"Just pretend I'm not here."

More on AO3 (or under the cut)

Part 1

Kes is singing slightly out of tune "Quiero qué me quieras", his fingers tapping the stirring wheel rhythmically and it's easy to forget the decade and half that has passed since their first road trip, freshly eighteen in the mountains of Mexico. Only there's less cigarettes and better booze — if quite the same amount of junk food.

Shara didn't want to go with them, so they were told to have their Buddy time, since she couldn't handle them getting all cranky and shit, her son being enough already. So Cassian handed his life's keys to Kay, and both kissed her goodbye before they hit the road.

At a gas station near Corpus Chirsti, when they climb back after taking a piss, both jump out of their skins as a random brunette, eyes thunderous, hisses dangerously from the backseat :

"Just pretend I'm not here."

She is dirty, has a split lip that is still oozing blood, but her green eyes are burning with the wilderness of desperation. Kes frowns, but before the guys can say anything, people pass in front of them — three men who have a few nasty bruises on their faces, one with a baseball bat, a female cashier and a cop — and inside she has crouched down between the seats.

The group looks like they're going out for blood — hers perhaps — so when Cassian signals silently to Kes to start the car and get out of here, he does.

Several minutes pass in silence, until Cassian tells the intruder that the coast is clear. Kes tells her to put on the seatbelt or get out (fatherhood made him a bit stricter on security rules) and they hear the telling click in return. Outside the world is still moving but you could cut the air with a knife, until Cassian feels more than she hears her exhaling her thanks. Eventually curiosity gets the best of Dameron, and he addresses the stranger as the car goes on the highway up to San Diego as if she didn't disrupt their plan:

"Even if you're not highjacking our car and just want to hide from law, you might have chosen a better one."

No acknowledgement from the backseat at all, but he sees her looking at them from the review mirror, so Cassian elaborates, much to his brother's amusement:

"For starters, the thing is a shit, Dameron here is only keeping it running for sentimental value. Also, his wife kept the proper car."

"You're the one to talk, you left your decrepit convertible under Kay's custody," Kes grumbles.

"I didn't have much choice," the woman snaps guardedly, their usual banter doing nothing to put her at ease.

"I suppose not, but then you didn't know we're both cops, did you?"

"Shit, stop the car, I gotta go," the woman panics, the hand already on the handle.

Cassian doesn't know why he turns to her, reaching out across the seat to touch her wrist. From the corner of his eye, he sees Kes rising an eyebrow, but there's a tingling feeling that makes the skin of his arm dance.

"Listen here, we're cops, but we're also going on vacation. If you're on the run, we won't report you. We'll leave you in San Diego if you wish, no question asked."

"You will?" she asks dubiously, freeing her arm from his grasp.

"We will?" Kes echoes in Spanish.

"Yes," Cassian replies sharply, glaring at his so called best friend until he nods. "C'mon, she needs help. How many girls have you known to pop up in your backseat?"

"Usually, they're relatively undressed. And far more eager to please than this one."

"Don't let Shara hear of that, Cabrón, or Poe's gonna be an only child for sure."

"Who says she's not aware already? I may be married, but you're the one living like a monk. At one time you knew how to use the restricted space of a backseat."

"Not with each other I hope," the girl chimes in dryly, while Cassian feels the tips of his ears go hot with rising blood.

"Sorry to disappoint," Kes replies with a smirk, "but we're brothers in all but blood, no that you have any business knowing that, Miss Pretend-I-don't-exist."

She purses her lips, and tries to get comfortable. Not the talkative type then. Cassian lets the radio fill the silence and tries to shut his brain off. Surely they ought to hear more about her, gather information? They are bloody detectives, for Fuck's sake.

He offers her a tissue from the glovebox and a bottle of lukewarm water for her to clean herself. She takes them, and their fingers touch slightly. The sensation is still far too potent considering the briefness of the contact, and reflexively he stares at her face, looking for an hint in her green eyes freckled with gold, but finding none. There's blood on her puffing knuckles too.

"So, did you get in a brawl with the guys there?"

"Would you believe me if I said I have nothing to do with them?"

Neither cops dignify that with an answer and she sighs. A few seconds pass once more as Kes takes a turn, then her voice graces their ears again:

"Look. D'you have a phone I can borrow before you drop me off? Sorry to bother you, but I'd like to call somebody. It's important."

A boyfriend? The possibility struck Cassian like a thunderbolt, and he feels numb from the force of it. Not because he'd care about her romantic status, but because usually he's not one to jump to conclusions. Her bruised fingers may sport no rings, it doesn't mean she's unattached though.

He hands his phone, reasoning he should have her contact in the phone memory just in case. She dials a number and Cassian doesn't even pretend he's not eavesdropping as he turns down the volume of the latest bachata tune. Kes really has a shitty taste, but it's a rule that the driver picks the music, and besides, it's not the point.

"Bodhi, it's me."

"Jyn! Jyn, where are you, are you okay? Jyn, talk to me please, tell me you're fine."

The hysteria of the man carries up to them and even sunny Kes frowns back at the woman in the rearview mirror. Cassian feels in his guts like something is really wrong, this is no hitchhiking business, or someone who stole some stuff at the gas station and didn't wish to be caught.

"Bodhi, for Heaven's sake, calm down, it'll do me no good to have you panicking over nothing. I'm fine, I got out okay, you hear me?"

"You're safe?" the man — apparently named Bodhi — asks in a tiny voice, almost childish, which puzzles Cassian a bit.

"For now I am, they're not going after me. I got a drive to San Diego, I'll search for help there, and I'm going to get you next."

"No! No it's too soon, you gotta stay under the radar, they'll be looking for you, just, just keep on moving. Just for a bit, please, don't, don't stop to San Diego or anywhere yet, just drive around, drive so they won't find you —"

Even without the speaker on, the panicked rant and the hyperventilation that seems to go with it is plainly audible in the car. The nagging feeling is back full force and Captain Andor and Sergeant Dameron look at each other over the console, knowing they've already heard too many things to retain any semblance of frivolity.

"Wait, what do you mean, drive around? I can't just stay on the move for the sake of it, I have to go and see you at some point!"

She's clearly aggravated now but a different voice, gruffier, older, calmer, feels the line suddenly, and the sound of it seems to relax the fugitive.

"Little sister, Bodhi will be okay, Chirrut and I are looking after him. It's you that needs to be careful. They are looking for your father."

That piece of information gave her an unexplainable sense of dread, clearly echoed on her features, and Cassian gets the urge to hold her hand again, to show support or something. Kes has stopped the car completely, pulled it over for now, and all his attention is focused on her distressed face too.

"It's ridiculous, I don't even know what he's up to, let alone where he is!"

"We know that, and Bodhi told them as much, but still. Stay hidden until we can pick you up, not the other way around."

Then the woman — Jyn, his mind supplies automatically — get hung upon, having received all the instruction she needed, or so the man on the other side of the line thought. Jyn is deeply troubled as she hands him the phone back and her scowl doesn't mask her shining eyes.

"I can tell the phone call hasn't gone as well as you expected then... Jyn."

"Obviously, good cop, or whatever your name is. There's not much privacy in that old piece of junk, is it?"

"Hey, I resent that!" Kes exclaims.

"Beg your pardon, it's true that beggars can't be choosers... Does fine specimen of vintage car sounds more respectful?"

Kes snorts as he turns the contact again, resuming their trip, but even as her blatant sarcasm brought a fleeting smile to Cassian's mouth, his best friend clarifies:

"You mistake my meaning, my car is a piece of junk but I'm offended because you thought Cassian was the good cop. Usually that's me! Not to mention I've driven you around so far, I think this is pretty nice of me."

"True," Jyn concedes with a nod, "and it you seems like good enough blokes, as far as cops go, but soon I'll be out of your hair. I must get going, find other ways to move further than San Diego for a few days. I guess you already knew that from my conversation, right?"

"Ignore him," Cassian says pointedly, searching for her conflicted gaze. "Whatever threat you're under, I’d be happy to help, if you think it's necessary. You're also welcome to join us, if you're put in a higher danger when traveling alone."

"Don't you mind him, he's got a hero complex. And he's paranoid," Kes interrupts at her surprised expression.

"I can tell," she mumbles, swiftly putting it back against her full lips — to hide a smile?

Cassian feels offended but doesn't say so, knowing it would just give Kes a topic to rant about, likely revealing a few intimate details to their ungrateful guest in the process. He had just wanted to do the right thing and somehow he's the one being criticized, yet again.

Dameron sees him brooding and after a heartbeat or two of uncomfortable silence, it's him who asks:

"So do you agree? Whoever is chasing you would never catch you as long as you're with us. We're rooting in a tiny village near Mexico City for a week, if you're on the run until someone reaches out, it's a sound plan."

"What would you get from it? For all you know, I might be a criminal, a thief or a murderer."

"We already know you're not above borrowing cars and getting into fistfights. And that someone likely dangerous is looking for your father. We know the name you use, your physical description, the phone number of someone named Bodhi and if needed, there's blood on the tissue. I'd say we're all better off sticking together then, keeping an eye on you, don't you think?"

Kay would have been horrified by Cassian's bluntness, disclosing the assets at their disposal like this, but he trusts Jyn and Kes isn't overly concerned either. Finally Jyn must have thought the offer worthwhile, because she nods, leaning back on her seat and reaching out to a bag of crisps next to her.

"So, where are we headed?"

"Bernal, a pueblo magico three hours away from Mexico City."

#rebelcaptain #fanfiction #cassian andor #jyn erso #kes dameron #modern au #roadtrip #pingou writes #aesthetic

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theconservativebrief · 5 years

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The Mexican government said Tuesday that it will award Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, senior adviser, and man in charge of many, many things at the White House, with its highest honor for foreigners.

The decision is facing an intense backlash in Mexico, where Trump has angered many with his rhetoric and aggressive stance on a border wall.

The Order of the Aztec Eagle — or La Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca, in Spanish — is the highest honor Mexico’s government bestows on foreigners. It is awarded to individuals who’ve done a great service for Mexico or for humanity. Previous recipients include and Roberta Jacobson, the former US ambassador to Mexico, Bill Gates, and Queen Elizabeth II.

Now Trump’s son-in-law will be added to the list.

Kushner is set to receive the honor Friday at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Outgoing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will bestow the award upon him for “his significant contributions in achieving the renegotiation” of the trade deal between Mexico, Canada, and the United States — the USMCA, or the deal formerly known as NAFTA.

“Mr. Kushner’s participation was decisive to beginning the [USMCA] renegotiation process, avoiding a unilateral departure by the US from the treaty,” Mexico’s foreign affairs department said in a statement. “And his constant and effective involvement was key to achieving a success in the negotiations.”

Critics in Mexico reacted swiftly and furiously to the news, objecting to decorating the son-in-law of a president who has used derogatory language about Mexicans and has insisted Mexico pay for Trump’s border wall.

“Kushner is the son-in-law of someone who called Mexicans “killers and rapists,” historian and essayist Enrique Krauze tweeted on Tuesday. “Giving him the Aztec Eagle is an act of supreme humiliation and cowardice.”

“[Jared] Kushner is the son-in-law of someone who called Mexicans “murderers and rapists.” Giving him the Aztec Eagle is a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice.” https://t.co/51xDA76iNA

— E. S. McIntyre (@ESMcIntyre) November 27, 2018

Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor and director, said the decision to give the award to Kushner diminished “whatever value this decoration would have had.”

Qué nivel de humillación auto infligida, demeritando cualquier valor agregado que esa condecoración pudiera tener. Vergüenza. Tremenda. Y ni se diga del encabronamiento que nos causa. https://t.co/Ab6MFbJNyo

— Gael Garcia Bernal (@GaelGarciaB) November 27, 2018

The pushback has forced President Peña Nieto to defend his decision, saying that he wanted to credit Kushner’s important role in the success of the NAFTA renegotiations. ”I want to recognize someone who has been a great ally of Mexico,” the outgoing president told reporters, on Tuesday, according to El País.

Enrique Peña Nieto is deeply unpopular in Mexico, and this award for Kushner isn’t likely to win over detractors who already felt Peña Nieto let himself — and by extension, Mexico — get bullied by Trump. Incoming leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who is taking office on December 1, has promised to take a much tougher stance against the US president, but bitterness persists about Peña Nieto’s stance toward Trump.

”It is the ultimate Peña: He is finished, defeated, humiliated, but he still doesn’t care and offers this award to Kushner to almost show it off,” Carlos Bravo Regidor, an analyst at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City, told NPR.

It’s a bad look for Peña because it’s hard to separate Kushner from Trump and his broader policies and rhetoric. Kushner played a role in the NAFTA talks, and reportedly helped keep negotiations on track with both Mexico and Canada.

Though Trump has touted the deal as “historic,” the trilateral trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the US is basically a revised version of NAFTA, with some important changes on the margins. But the USMCA isn’t even a completely done deal yet. The agreement still needs to be signed by all three countries, though that’s expected to happen at the G20 summit, and needs approval by lawmakers, including the US Congress.

But Duncan Wood, the director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, said Kushner might have helped stop Trump from tearing up NAFTA altogether — and helped salvage parts of the bilateral relationship that became extremely testy during Trump’s tenure.

Kushner had “an outsized role in keeping things civil and keeping things moving forward,” Wood told me.

Of course, that fact alone isn’t enough to quell the controversy. Kushner might not have had to engage in such behind-the-scenes maneuvering had his father-in-law not publicly antagonized Mexico.

Trump’s policy toward Mexico often seems tied to insults. He’s frequently demanded that the country pay for the border wall, accused Mexico of taking advantage of the US through NAFTA, and more.

Mexico has punched back, literally, with Trump piñatas and taking public stands against Trump’s policies, including widespread condemnation against Trump’s family separation policy at the US-Mexico border. President Peña Nieto traded barbs with Trump, but many Mexicans felt that their president didn’t challenge Trump enough. That failure made Peña Nieto even more despised in Mexico than Trump, as the joke goes.

Given this antagonism, Kushner’s award is a bit perplexing. But Kushner has been intimately involved in the US-Mexico relationship, and forged close, if controversial, ties with the Peña Nieto government even when he and Trump were doing battle.

Kushner’s foremost connection has been with foreign minister Luis Videgaray. The two seized control of bilateral relations, particularly in the early days of the Trump administration. Kushner and Videgaray became close during the Trump campaign. Videgaray (then finance minister) was tasked with doing the outreach to Trump in 2016, according to the Washington Post, which culminated in that strange Trump campaign detour to Mexico.

Their friendship was beneficial to each of them: Videgaray, by gaining ties to someone in Trump’s true inner circle, gained clout in the Mexican government. Kushner, seen as the conduit to his father-in-law, found people willing to work with him in Mexico. According to the Times, Kushner and Videgaray met dozens of times in the 15 months of Trump’s presidency.

“Jared and Videgaray pretty much run Mexico policy,” a US official told the New Yorker in an article published last fall. “It’s all pretty much just between them. There’s not really any interagency relationships going on right now.”

This approach, of course, had its critics, who saw Kushner as personally managing the relationship and cutting out the policy experts at places such as the State Department.

It also did little to stop the public feuding between Peña Nieto and Trump, or to harness Trump’s rhetoric about Mexico, which kept ties strained — and showed the limits of Kushner’s influence.

Still, Kushner was dispatched to Mexico as a mediator on occasion, including a meeting in March with President Peña Nieto after talks with Trump crumbled. Kushner also reportedly helped broker some agreements on border cooperation, including one to combat drugs.

“It’s true — Jared has been a positive influence,” Gerónimo Gutiérrez, Mexico’s ambassador to Washington, told the New York Times in March. “Our dialogue is not limited to the White House. However, if we didn’t have that dialogue with Mr. Kushner, the relationship would be much worse off.”

Kushner’s perceived power means it’s not surprising that Mexican officials would publicly praise him, and people in the White House that talk up Kushner’s diplomatic prowess have their own agenda. But it’s clear that Kushner was positioning himself to be a key player in the relationship, and it seems that work paid off.

Kushner, along with other advisers, helped convince Trump to renegotiate a trade deal, rather than totally scrap NAFTA. In an April interview with the Washington Post, Kushner hinted as much, claiming that he explained to the president the “plusses and minuses” of unilaterally pulling out of NAFTA.

The US, Mexico, and Canada began formally renegotiating the trade deal in August 2017, and reached a compromise more than a year later, on September 30. Reports suggest that Kushner worked on the sidelines, and helped smooth over rocky points during the negotiations, with both Mexico and Canada. And he definitely was seen during talks:

Hey, it’s Jared. I’m outside. Can someone let me in? … Jared KUSHNER, the president’s son-in-law … I’m here for the NAFTA negotiations … Can someone unlock the door? … There are reporters out here asking me about the op-ed, & it’s getting awkward. pic.twitter.com/in0FHsTtIr

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 7, 2018

But Wood, the Mexico expert, told me that Kushner’s award was more about the broader bilateral relationship than about USMCA. Kushner was able to keep the dialogue going, Wood said, even when Trump’s actions threatened to create a serious rift with a close economic and security partner.

Of course, there are reasons to look skeptically on Kushner’s diplomacy and what he accomplished, especially since it’s done little to tamp down Trump’s bellicose approach to Mexico. Honoring Kushner for shadow diplomacy to help preserve a relationship that Trump himself made precarious in the first place isn’t particularly satisfying. It also feeds the public perception that is Peña Nieto is backing down or deferring to Trump one last time.

Mexico is about to get an entirely new government under the leadership of the incoming leftist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who takes office on December 1. (Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife, will reportedly be at AMLO’s inauguration.) AMLO has promised tougher stance against the US, but Mexico will still have to work closely with Trump for at least the next two years.

Which means there’s another reason Peña Nieto chose to honor Jared: to possibly secure future investment in his commitment to Mexico. “By giving this award,” Wood said, “you’re hoping to stay involved in the bilateral relationship.”

So far, AMLO and Trump seem to have gotten along much better than expected. But AMLO has little diplomatic experience, and relations between Mexico and the US are still under strain. AMLO’s incoming government is reportedly working with the Trump administration on a plan to keep asylum seekers in Mexico as they await processing in the US, a deal that could be tricky to strike and could implode if tensions flare, or if Trump starts tweeting.

Kushner, now part of the Order of the Eagle, could be the one interceding again.

Original Source -> Jared Kushner is getting an award from Mexico, and Mexicans aren’t happy about it

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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