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andorerso · 4 years

Note

I have a rebelcaptain prompt for you if you wish to take it: Pirates (You can use it any way you want, feks the gang dresses up as a pirate crew, or that they are pirates)

Thanks so much for the prompt! I wasn’t gonna write anything for Halloween but it really inspired me. I'm really not a pirate person though, so I don't have a lot of knowledge about... pirate stuff, I guess. Basically, I just based the setting on my memories of playing Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. Italics are flashbacks, the rest is present day. Hope you enjoy and happy Halloween, guys! :)

She’s close, after all this time, she’s finally close to finding the goblet. She can taste it in the air, in the saltiness of the water; something is coming, something is changing.

Bodhi says, as he’s been saying for years, that she should forget about it. Move on and pillage other ships like normal pirates do. But how could she? She’s spent the last nine years looking for Captain Skywalker’s chest and she can’t give up before the finish line. No matter how dangerous it gets.

Bodhi, bless his heart, is just a little superstitious. Most pirates are, to be honest.

“It’s haunted,” he often warns her.

“I’ve heard,” Jyn responds every time.

It doesn’t scare her. She’s haunted too, has been her whole life, and she’s managed just fine so far. A few more ghosts won’t bother her. It’s the absence of them that might.

Jyn stands barefoot in the sand at sunrise, watching the waves crash against the bank. The early morning sun paints everything in a lovely shade of pink and gold, its warm rays like gentle fingertips across her skin, the soft breeze caressing her body. Nothing exists but her and the water – and memories long-gone of a life she never truly got to live.

She’s buried them all at sea, and times like these are when she feels most connected to her dead, each of them waiting below the surface. She feels almost as if they’re calling out to her from the deep, asking her to join them.

She couldn’t, not yet, but when the time was right, she would walk into the sea and disappear for good. Let the waves claim her body, let her become a part of them forever. It’s a peaceful thought. She’s always belonged to the sea, and she belongs with the rest of them, the ones that the water has already claimed for itself. It’s home to her, and home is calling her back.

For now, she settles for the sunrise. Just take a moment and watch the sunrise, a voice whispers in her ear, in her memories. Just come watch the sunrise with me, Jyn. Come on and be with me. You’ll have time for sparring later.

Jyn lets out a quiet breath and kneels next to the bank, her fingers grazing the water as if touching skin she’s once worshipped, as if reaching for a lover she’s once had. It’s a connection between them, this water. A link to him, a link to the past, a link between her and wherever he is now. Somewhere peaceful, she hopes.

A soft but sad smile tugs at her lips. “This one’s for you, my love.”

Jyn sits in a seedy tavern in Havana, eyeing Captain Andor with suspicion and a glare that screams, ‘try me and see what I can do.’ She has a hand on her knife in her pocket, the other lazily resting on the pistol in her holster. It’s an open warning, almost a challenge, but Captain Andor doesn’t rise to the bait.

If anything, he seems unbothered. Almost frustratingly calm.

Jyn would think that’s foolish or cocky, or perhaps he’s underestimating her simply because she’s a woman; but somehow, she doesn’t believe this is the case. There’s something about him that’s genuine. It’s not cockiness, she thinks, it’s confidence – and his confidence is earned.

He’s a dangerous man if the stories are true, but she’s a dangerous woman herself. If they could learn to trust each other, there would be no one better to find the hidden treasure of Captain Skywalker than the two of them.

The trust part, she’s not good with. But although she’s not sure yet what to make of the man in front of her, she’s willing to see if it works out in her favor.

“The goblet is haunted,” he comments lazily, though he doesn’t sound like he believes it. Jyn raises an eyebrow.

“I’ve heard.” Her tone is dismissive.

“According to legend, it brings back the dead you’ve lost,” he continues. “You find it and it gives them back to you.” A wry smile twists on his lips. “But then they will drag you down to hell with them.”

Jyn holds back a bitter laugh. How many times has she heard that story? How many times has her father conveniently forgot about the last part? How many times has she been left at strange ports with strange people while he went on his wild adventures to find the goblet that would bring back her dead mother? Her father had been a man of science once, but the loss of his wife weighed heavily on him, and sinister voices whispering in his ear convinced him that finding the goblet was a way to make their family whole again.

In truth, Orson Krennic was probably just a money-hungry, cruel, and bored aristocrat who had nothing better to do than manipulate vulnerable men into doing the dirty work for him. Jyn resents both him and her father for that.

No, she doesn’t want the goblet to bring back dead people from the grave. She doesn’t believe in those childish stories anymore. She wants the goblet to sell it.

And she wants it to prove that she could do it. Do what her father couldn’t. Finish what he started.

But she isn’t about to share that with Captain Andor.

“It’s a golden goblet with ruby stones. It’s just money.” She pauses, shrugging her shoulders. “And the legends make it easier to sell. What naïve and wealthy widow wouldn’t want a relic that brings back their beloved spouse?”

Captain Andor’s lips quirk up, barely noticeable. “If you leave out the part about being dragged to hell.”

Jyn finally lets go of her pistol and reaches for the jug of beer on the table. “I find that part,” she begins, her tone conversational, “is very easy to forget.”

This is the one.

Jyn knows in her heart that she’s found it. The island is unmarked on any maps, and the entrance to the cave is underwater, hidden by seaweed and algae. Her lungs burn when she breaks surface, gasping for breath as she pulls herself up to the cave floor.

This is the one.

It sings in her veins, pulses through her body. She’s going to find it, finally, the goblet, the treasure – everything she’s been looking for in the past nine years.

“It’s haunted,” Bodhi’s voice echoes in her mind.

Jyn stands, undeterred, and marches forward to the heart of the cave.

She hopes it is.

Jyn glares menacingly at the cruel-faced guard as he opens her cage and walks towards her. Her hands might be shackled but she has a mean kick, and if he tries anything –

To her surprise, the man reaches for the chains behind her and unlocks her hands. They clatter to the floor with a loud noise, but Jyn continues glaring at the guard in suspicion.

“You’re free to go,” he grunts.

“What?” She doesn’t trust this one bit.

Where’s the catch? Henry ‘Scar Face’ Whitlock is not known for his mercy. She stole his goods, blew up one of his (smaller) ships, and stabbed three of his crew members. One of them bled out. Another lost an arm.

She expected to be hanged or quartered for it – made an example, for certain.

He can’t just be letting her go now. It has to be a trap.

But what would he gain from such a lie?

“Move,” the guard says and gives her an unnecessarily forceful shove that sends her flying against the walls of the cage. If it wasn’t for the small chance that she was about to walk out of here scot-free, she would have kicked his legs out for that.

But if she’s really free… could it be true?

As she gets up and uncertainly walks up to the main deck, she half expects to be stabbed in the back. It’s just too easy – but she can’t figure out why they would trick her like this when they could just tie stones to her feet and throw her overboard. It’s only when she sees Cassian waiting for her next to Captain Whitlock that the situation begins to dawn on her.

He’s saved her somehow. Of course he has.

For a wild second, she thinks he traded himself for her – he would be entirely capable of it, but where’s the profit in that for Whitlock? He has no grudge against Cassian, only against her, and she can’t see why he would accept such a deal unless he realized that Cassian’s death would be a greater punishment than her own.

But she’s not that transparent yet. She thinks.

She hopes.

Then Whitlock gives her a foul grimace that says he would still very much kill her if he could, and gestures, with some reluctance, towards the ramp leading to the harbor.

“Get out of my sight, Erso. And don’t fuck with me or my crew again, or even your captain won’t be able to save you next time.”

Jyn doesn’t say anything until they reach the shore safely, burning with a thousand questions. A part of her still expects them to be ambushed at the last minute, but Whitlock and his crew watch in silence as they walk off the ramp and disappear into the night. How Cassian managed to pull it off is beyond her, but if anyone could, it would be him.

When they’re an appropriate distance away, Jyn can’t hold herself back anymore. She stops and rounds on Cassian, eyes wide and demanding.

“What did you give him?” she asks because if she’s sure of one thing, it’s that Whitlock didn’t just let her go for free.

Cassian lets out a quiet sigh and shrugs. His eyes, glowing in the soft light of the moon, won’t quite meet hers. There’s something strange about him. Like he’s trying desperately to underplay it.

Which doesn’t bode well for them. Jyn’s heart lurches – what the hell did he do?

“I gave him my ship,” Cassian admits quietly. For a moment, Jyn hears nothing but the song of the cicadas as she tries to process this information.

“You gave him your ship?” she echoes, breathless and eyes wide.

“Yes,” he confirms, very even, very steady.

“Cassian,” she begins, her words slow as if she was talking to a child, “captains need a ship. We need a ship. Where are we going to get a new one? We don’t have that kind of money! What about the crew? Kay is going to kill you –”

“Jyn, he had you,” he cuts her off, his tone leaving no room for argument. As if that trumped everything else. Jyn blinks at him in shock, half delirious with – with –

“You’re crazy,” she breathes in awe. She can’t take her eyes off him. Nobody has ever…

Nobody has felt – nobody has done –

Nobody has made her feel like this before. Like she matters. Like she’s loved.

“You treated your ship for me?” she asks, half laughing, hardly daring to believe it.

Cassian shrugs again, but there’s a smile on his lips, a smile just for her. It’s small and kind and full of devotion.

“It’s just a ship. What kind of captain would I be if I let my first mate die?”

“You’re crazy,” she laughs again, and that same second, impulsively, springs forward to kiss him. It’s been a long time coming, she thinks as Cassian kisses her back without hesitation, his hands tangling in her hair. Two years of working together, two years of building a relationship that couldn’t be betrayed, couldn’t be replaced. Jyn doesn’t remember a time that his presence didn’t leave her breathless, that a soft comforting touch on her shoulder didn’t make her long for more. Maybe in those first few days, in the beginning – but quickly, very quickly, he became everything to her, and she could never go on without him.

It’s been a long time coming, yes. And now she’s going to enjoy it.

It doesn’t bring her peace.

She didn’t think it would. But she thought it would give her satisfaction, at least. Look, Krennic, I got your little treasure. Look, Papa, I finished what you started. Look, Cassian, I did this for you. For us.

But it’s just… underwhelming. She can’t even bring herself to sell it. It would be worth more than the rest of the treasure combined, but she stares at it in her cabin during the night and she can’t sell it.

What use is it? Nothing would bring them back, bring him back. The money she’d get from the goblet, it’d just feel tainted, wrong. Blood money.

Maybe she’s irrationally attached but who can blame her? Her father spent half his life looking for the damned thing until a storm swallowed his ship whole and he was never heard from again. His obsession with the goblet had killed him and Jyn had hated it then, hated it more than ever, but still, she’d become similarly obsessed. Just to prove something.

And then it brought her Cassian. It gave her something after it took so much. The years they spent looking for it together, that was her treasure.

And now that he’s gone, she can’t relinquish it. If she does, what else is left of them? Only her memories – and memories rot.

Jyn sighs under her breath, sitting at a corner table of an inn with Bodhi, drumming her fingers on the wood as she stares out of her head. What is she meant to do now?

Bodhi watches her in silence for several minutes and Jyn is distantly aware that he seems contemplative, but she’s too lost in her own head to question it. Eventually, he lifts a hand to still her fingers.

“Liana,” he begins, and Jyn’s eyes snap to his. Bodhi is a good man and she trusts him more than she trusts anyone else, but even he doesn’t know her real name. It’s just easier this way – Jyn Erso dropped off the face of the earth five years ago, and she had to stay gone. But she thinks Bodhi has always known it’s not her true name, and he doesn’t mind. “Have you noticed anything weird since?”

She rolls her eyes and begins drumming her fingers again. “Don’t start, Bodhi. I’m not haunted.”

“I’m just asking. You should really sell it.”

She knows why he’s saying that. The legends, of course. Whoever is in possession of the goblet will be dragged to hell by their dead loved ones. Well, she’s been the proud owner for a few days now and she’s seen no signs of ghosts and no signs of hellfire. But if any is yet to come, Jyn is sure it’ll be entertaining.

“I can’t.”

“Isn’t that why you wanted it?”

“Yes,” she says, then stops. “No.”

“I don’t understand you sometimes.”

Jyn snorts, looking away. “I don’t understand me sometimes.”

And that should be the end of it. Jyn with her goblet and her money and the lack of purpose in her life now.

But fate has a different plan for her. And maybe she is fucking haunted.

Because when her gaze sweeps over the tavern, she swears she sees a familiar face push through the crowd and disappear out into the night.

Jyn stares at the door for long a time, frozen in place, her heartbeat running wild in her chest. The white noise in her head blocks out everything else. She thinks Bodhi might be calling her name, asking if she’s okay, but she can’t answer, can’t even turn her head to look at him. She stands on trembling legs, her body carrying her towards the doors – and then she’s running, taking off in the direction that she saw him heading.

The streets are dark and deserted. Only the sound of waves and the singing of cicadas break the silence. She looks around wildly, looking for a retreating shadow in the night or perhaps the sound of footsteps nearby, but there’s nothing. Nothing but the wind and her loudly beating heart.

She couldn’t have… did she imagine it? Perhaps she had too much to drink, Bodhi stuffing her head with his nonsense, but she could have sworn…

Jyn shakes her head, trying to let the fresh air clear her hazy mind of these childish thoughts. Bodhi is panting behind her, calling her name, her fake name, and Jyn finally turns to look at him, seeing his wide eyes filled with worry.

“Are you okay?”

Jyn gives a sharp nod, trying to ignore the wild beating of her heart. Better not to plague Bodhi with her hallucinations, he’s worried enough about her as it is. No need to fuel the fire.

“Just thought I saw someone who owes me some money,” she lies, ignoring the skeptical look he gives her. “It’s not a big deal.”

It can’t be.

She would be very cross with Cassian if he was really here to drag her to hell.

Cassian’s fingers are soft on her cheek, stroking her skin, carding through her hair. Her own hand rests on his chest, feeling his heartbeat steady under her palm. They’ve been silent for minutes but she hasn’t stopped looking at him, couldn’t stop touching him. She’s never felt intimacy like this before. Like someone could look at you, see your soul, see all the darkness and pain that you hide inside, and still choose to stay. Still decide that you’re worth the trouble.

She’s naked in front of him in more ways than one and she’s never thought it would feel so wonderful. So freeing.

Cassian has taught her a lot more than just love.

“Did you think we’d end up here when we first met?” she wonders, her tone quiet, matching the tranquility between them. Cassian chuckles.

“I thought you’d kill me in my sleep one day.”

She scoffs at that. “You didn’t seem afraid.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Hmpf. So ready to throw yourself at death’s door. You know, I actually thought you might have traded yourself for me.”

“I would have,” he admits, honest as always. “If that’s what it took. But not unless there’s no other choice.” His eyes bore into hers, dark and deep and almost frightening in its intensity. Her heart beats a little faster at the sight. “I don’t want to leave you behind.”

She swallows. “Please don’t.”

Cassian strokes her cheek, a gentle smile on his lips.

“I love you.”

It’s not a promise but it’s enough. Jyn beams back at him.

“I love you too.”

Who cares about the stupid goblet as long as she has him?

Jyn wakes to the sound of music in the middle of the night. For a second, her mind is pleasantly blank, merely enjoying the soft melody filtering through the window of her room.

Then she thinks:

Cassian. Cassian used to play like that.

And then:

Cassian is gone.

Blinking herself awake, Jyn sits up in bed. Her eyes dart around the room she’s rented for the night but nothing seems amiss. Her hand hovers above the lantern on the nightstand but a strange irrational part of her doesn’t want to draw attention to herself. She blames Bodhi for that.

His words, and Cassian’s, ring in her mind.

It’s haunted.

You find it and it gives them back to you. But then they will drag you down to hell with them.

Thinking about the sighting of Cassian from earlier, she gets out of bed and ambles to the window. The curtains are drawn and her fingers hover above the fabric, hesitant, somehow, to withdraw them. She’s trembling.

Jyn takes a deep breath and pulls back the curtains.

Cassian sits on a bench on the street, his eyes trained on his banjo. Jyn gasps in shock and reels back from the window like she’s been burned. He seems… so real. Sitting there, his fingers flying over the instrument, playing some slow, sorrowful melody that tugs at her heartstrings. A song of lost love.

He’s come for her after all.

Frozen on the spot, her breathing harsh and gasping, all she can do is watch as he plays his banjo. He never takes off his eyes the instrument and he doesn’t seem to notice her. Her room is on the second floor so she has a perfect view of him sitting outside, illuminated by the moonlight, while she remains shrouded in the darkness of her room.

But if he’s come for her… surely, he knows she’s here.

Jyn’s legs give out, and she sits under her window, pressing herself tightly against the wall to just… listen. She listens to his song. Listens to the melody, haunting and beautiful, like he is himself. Every sound, every note pulls at her heartstrings. A song for the lost and the dead.

And Jyn sobs. For him and for herself, for her parents, for everyone she’s ever lost. She sobs, quiet and gasping, until she has no more tears left, lulled back to sleep on the floor by the melancholy tune that Cassian’s ghost is playing.

Cassian comes to her in a dream. It’s a familiar one; one she’s seen many times before, and one she will see many times more. He’s not dead and not alive – he’s a revenant and he’s hers, just for tonight, until dawn breaks and morning takes him away.

But he’s different this time. Sturdier, steadier. Buzzing with a kind of unquiet energy that she’s not used to. Like he’s waiting for something. Jyn doesn’t want to mention it, their stolen moments together too precious to tarnish, but it weighs her mind with questions.

When their time comes and he gets up and heads to the door, she reaches after him. She does this on every occasion, tries to convince him to stay, tries to forcibly, physically make him stay – but her words are different this time, her desperation becoming an inferno, and his response is a mystery.

“Cassian,” she calls out to him, struggling to sit up and catch his arm. He’s already at the doorway, between life and death, between her and the sea, looking back at her and hesitating. “Don’t go. How could I live in a world where you don’t?”

He takes a step through the door, where nothing but the empty awaits him and gives her the strangest of smiles. “It’s almost time, my love. Almost time.”

“I think I’m haunted,” Jyn admits to Bodhi the next day, and he gives her a hard look. She thinks it’s the tone of her voice, sad and defeated, that stops him from telling her “I told you so.”

“What happened?” he asks instead, and Jyn shrugs, eyes downcast, looking at the mug on the table, the tea untouched and growing cold.

“I saw… someone,” Jyn admits slowly, pausing before she adds, “Him.”

Bodhi never had the chance to know Cassian. She met him after Cassian was already… gone. He knows a little about him; she’s admitted to having a dead lover in her weaker drunken moments, but she’s never talked about him much. Jyn always has preferred to live in denial, and Bodhi knows better than to ask.

Still, she knows with the way she says it, the way she gives him a meaningful look, that he knows who she’s talking about.

“I think he’s come for me.” She pauses, a bitter laugh escaping her mouth. “It makes sense. The goblet always was our adventure. It’s how we met, you know.”

The look Bodhi gives her is a mix of pity and worry. Jyn is uncomfortable with both, even though she knows he means well. Luckily, he doesn’t try to say anything stupidly comforting like “I’m sorry” or “it’s all going to be okay” because he knows her better than that, and he knows she might punch him in the mouth for it.

Instead, he looks her in the eye and tells her, “You should really get rid of it, Li. Before it’s too late.”

Jyn nods. She knows he’s right.

But some part of her is not ready to let go yet.

It takes less than an hour for everything to change.

Jyn wakes up that day like usual in the captain’s cabin she now she shares with Cassian and goes to sleep that night in a holding cage of a navy ship, alone in the world once again.

Krennic has a personal grudge. And so does she. So naturally, she can’t resist the opportunity to raid his ship, steal his cargo, and leave him wounded and nursing a broken ego.

In hindsight, she should have killed him then. But she thought the humiliation would be a more suitable punishment.

Six months later, he comes back with a vengeance and a small navy fleet, blowing a hole through their ship with his cannonballs. They fight valiantly when his crew boards their slowly sinking ship, but it’s a lost cause – Jyn knows it’s a lost cause, Cassian knows it’s a lost cause, and Krennic, especially, knows it’s a lost cause. He seems very pleased with himself too, and Jyn would punch the smirk right off his stupid smug face if her hands weren’t bound behind her back by one of his henchmen.

“Well, well, well. Didn’t think I’d catch up to you, did you?” Orson Krennic asks, strutting in front of her like a peacock, hands clasped behind his back. Jyn spits in his face.

Krennic blinks once, twice, before he slowly wipes at his eyes with a headkerchief he produces from his breast pocket. The backhanded slap he gives her stings, sending her sprawling to the floor.

“You touch her again,” Cassian growls, straining against the guards holding him back, “and I’ll break every bone in your hand one by one.”

The glance Krennic gives him is dismissive, like Cassian isn’t even worth the time to look at. He gestures to the guards next to Jyn who haul her back to her feet. She stands proud, chin high, glaring at him even as her hands are tied behind her back. His ring has left a mark but she’ll be damned if she’ll let him humble her.

“Very feisty, aren’t you? I wonder if you’ll keep the same attitude once I have you locked away in Wobani for life.”

Jyn doesn’t react outwardly but her heart beats faster. Wobani is infamous for its cruelty and inhumane methods. Nobody leaves, not unless they’re dead. Only the worst of the worst, the most dangerous criminals end up there.

She supposes she belongs among them.

Another gesture from Krennic and the guards haul her towards the railing to transport her to Krennic’s ship. Stardust is slowly sinking and she knows it’s the least of her worries, as most of her crewmates lay dead at her feet, as Kay lays dead at her feet, but her heart aches at the sight. They’ve bought this ship together, Cassian and she, after he gave away his old one to Whitlock. It’s theirs. And it hurts to see it go down.

“What about him?” asks one of the guards holding Cassian.

“Leave him,” Krennic answers easily, a sick sort of smugness in his voice. “Let him go down with his ship, as all good captains do.”

“No!” Jyn shouts, struggling against her captors harder. She shouldn’t give away her weakness – she knows, she knows she shouldn’t give him ammunition – but Krennic has made up his mind anyway, so what difference does it make?

Too upset to think rationally, she begs him. “Don’t do this. He’s worth a lot more to you alive. He has a bounty on his head higher than mine.”

“I don’t need the money, you silly little girl,” he tells her, dismissive. “I just want you put away for good.”

“No!”

Jyn continues struggling as she’s dragged away, followed by Krennic and his guards. She watches the men holding Cassian tie him to the mainmast, making sure he can’t escape, before joining the rest of them. Krennic’s ship pulls farther away and Stardust sinks lower and lower into the ocean, but her gaze never leaves Cassian as long as she still sees him.

His eyes are regretful, apologetic. He looks resigned to his fate, a man who’s more concerned about leaving his lover behind than dying. Jyn knows he remembers their conversation in bed just as much as she does.

I don’t want to leave you behind.

Please don’t.

She watches until she can’t see him anymore, until he’s just a dot on a faraway slowly sinking ship. And Krennic, perhaps to drive the nail home, fires once again.

Stardust goes up in flames, pieces of wood scattering into the ocean, the mainmast falling with a loud splash. It takes a second and it’s all gone.

Jyn wails until she no longer has a voice. That night, a part of her too is gone.

She can’t bring herself to sell it so she settles for a compromise. She’s going to return it to the cave where it belongs, let some other poor clown find it if they can. It was never meant to be hers, never meant to be anyone’s, perhaps, but everyone has to learn from their own mistakes.

It should be fine, except the cave is gone. Which is ridiculous because she found it not even five days ago and it was here, she could have sworn the entrance was here, but somehow, she got lost or confused and disoriented, and the damn cave is gone. She dives underwater looking for the entrance several times, resurfacing periodically to catch her breath. All the while, the goblet weighs heavily in her hand, almost like –

It’s a stupid thought, but it’s almost like it’s trying to drag her down. Down into the deep where Cassian awaits her. And the more time that passes, the more she feels like this was a bad idea. She should have told Bodhi where she went, she should have brought him with her – she should just go back and sell the damn thing, but when she looks around, all she can see is water and water and more water. When did those dark clouds roll in? How could she have not noticed a storm approaching?

As soon as she realizes what’s happening, it’s like the sea comes alive around her. Jyn knows she’s in trouble. The waves toss her around like a ragdoll as she fights to stay above water. It keeps pulling her under, spraying saltwater in her eyes and mouth as she gasps for air and moves her limbs desperately to try and find land. She’s an excellent swimmer, but nobody can win against a storm.

She’s not sure how long she fights against the waves, but she’s getting exhausted. Her legs feel heavy, and it’s harder every time to push back to the surface when she goes under. The goblet weighs her down – distantly, she realizes she’s still holding it but she can’t make her fingers let go. Her strength is fading and still, her fingers remain locked tightly around its hilt like they have been welded together.

Then she hears it. Jyn! A voice calling her name, loud and desperate, a voice that sounds like…

Cassian. He finally called out to her.

She sees him in the distance before she goes under, blurry like a mirage. She knows why he’s here. It’d be so easy to join him, she realizes as the water engulfs her again. So easy to let go. Maybe it’s time, she thinks, and her fingers finally loosen around the goblet.

I’m coming, my love.

And just as she’s about to sink down into the deep, a hand seizes hers and drags her up, above the surface where she gasps and takes in large gulping breaths, coughing up water from her throat. Her lungs burn and her head feels dizzy, her vision blurry and darkening. But she can still make out Cassian’s face above her, staring at her with what seems like worry and relief at the same time.

“Are you here to take me with you?” she breathes, half resigned to her fate. She doesn’t hear his answer, if there is one, and she falls under with the comfort that at least her last moments were spent in the embrace of Cassian.

Jyn spends four months at Wobani before she and a couple of inmates manage to escape during a riot. The news spread quickly, causing unrest across every island from there to Havana. Nobody escapes Wobani, but they do and that doesn’t sit right with anyone. The people are scared, the authorities under pressure; there’s a massive search on every port across the Caribbean Sea. It means Jyn Erso must disappear. For good.

She takes on the name of Kestrel Dawn and returns to the place where she’s last seen Cassian alive. It’s the only thing she can think to do – he’s gone, Stardust is gone, Kay is gone, and the only person left alive who knows that a man named Cassian Andor once existed is her. It’s not enough, but as she stands on the beach at sunrise and places a bouquet of wildflowers on the water, she feels it counts for something.

It’s there, somewhere in the sea, that he lies at the bottom, waiting for her. As she looks out at the never-ending body of water, she feels a calm wash over her. He’s one with the sea now, everywhere, all around her, always with her.

The waves lap at her bare feet, the tide rising higher and more insistent. She feels like it’s trying to tell her something, trying to call her home.

She smiles, taking a deep breath. “Not yet, my love. Not yet.”

Jyn wakes up in her cabin and for a moment, all is normal. It takes a second to remember the storm, her losing battle against the waves, and… Cassian.

She sits up slowly, and Bodhi is suddenly by her side, pulling the blanket higher up her body like a worried mother hen.

“Thank god you’re awake! How are you feeling? You gave us quite the scare, Li,” he says all in one breath, and barely stops before adding. “Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?”

“I…” She squints, still a bit disoriented, staring off into space as memories slowly trickle in. She turns her head towards Bodhi, a realization sitting on her tongue. “I think he saved me.” Tears fill her eyes, too emotional to hide them. “He wasn’t here to take me with him, he was here to save me.”

She believed the legends, she’d given into thinking that he was here to drag her down. Appropriate revenge for a man who had been sacrificed like that for no good reason at all.

But that wasn’t Cassian, it couldn’t be. He’d never harm her, and he didn’t – not even in death. He wasn’t her grim reaper, he was her guardian angel.

“Liana,” Bodhi begins slowly, then awkwardly trails off. She can tell he’s not quite sure how to say what he wants to say.

“What?”

“I did save you,” says a voice from the doorway, and she knows who it belongs to even before she turns her head. Heartbeat in her throat, she lifts her head towards him, slowly, half-afraid that she’s not going to find anyone standing there.

But there he is. Leaning against the doorframe in all his glory, brown leather pants, and a loosely tied white shirt hanging from his frame, dark strands of hair curling against his neck. It’s longer than in her memories, and he’s thinner, too – too thin.

But he doesn’t seem so ghostly in the daylight, with the sun behind his back, and Bodhi looking at him too. He seems quite real, in fact. A gasp is stuck in her throat, her mouth dry at the sight of him. How is it possible…

When her gaze finally meets his, he seems just as shaken, awed, disbelieving. Jyn sits up fully, unable to look away as she methodically moves her legs off the bed. His eyes are misty and his hands are trembling a bit – but god, the way he looks at her… it’s the look of a man finding shelter in the middle of a storm.

He used to look at her like that in their private moments – when he was inside her, when they were in bed basking in the afterglow, when she cut down enemies with a single swipe of her sword before he even lifted his pistol.

It’s that look, more than anything, that convinces her this is real.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” she says at last, the only thing she can think to say. How are you not dead? Where were you?

“I’ll leave you two be,” Bodhi says. Shamefully, she’s forgotten he’s even in the room. He squeezes her shoulder in comfort before he goes, and she watches him give Cassian a small but encouraging smile as he passes him.

Once he’s gone, Cassian clears his throat. His gaze finally drops, the loss of its intensity making her chest tighten.

“I did save you,” he repeats, his voice rough with emotion. “I saw someone in the water. I didn’t realize it was you until… I was looking for the goblet.”

“I don’t understand,” Jyn gasps, shocked at how high her own voice sounds. She can’t swallow around the ball lodged in her throat.

“I’m not a ghost. I’m not dead, I never was.”

He still hasn’t moved from the doorway, almost like he’s too afraid to come closer. Jyn’s hand tightens around the bed frame.

“I saw the ship sink.”

“It did. And I almost drowned,” Cassian admits, his voice strained. The small laugh he lets out is humorless. “I don’t know how I survived, I really don’t. I guess I was just lucky that those idiots didn’t tie my hands well enough and I was able to break free before the last cannon hit the ship. I don’t remember much after that. I grabbed a plank floating in the water, just trying to hold on. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever make it to land, I must have been out there for days. I was trying so hard not to give up… for you. I had to make it back to you. But I was getting so tired. Eventually, I just…”

He shrugs, a small defeated gesture. His eyes drop to the floor, his shoulders hunched. He looks guilty, ashamed, and Jyn wants to get up, gather him in her arms and never let go, but she has to hear the rest of his story.

“I was washed ashore the next day, barely alive. It was a small remote island, no cities, no villages, no ships. No one lived there. I had no way back home. I was stranded there... for five years.”

He lifts his head up, and the despair she finds in his eyes almost has her doubling over.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again,” he admits, small and heart-wrenching. Jyn closes her eyes, letting her tears run down her face and onto her lap.

“And then?” she croaks, her voice trembling.

“A merchant ship came by about three months ago. They took me back, brought me to Havana. I tried to look for you. I heard you escaped Wobani, but I couldn’t… well, there were no more mentions of Jyn Erso after that. No word of you for five years. I figured you had gone into hiding but I didn’t know how to find you. All I could think to do was… find the goblet.”

A sad smile plays on his lips, his eyes glassy.

“But you found it first. And I found you.”

Jyn takes in a shuddering breath, her whole body trembling.

“It’s gone. I think I let go of it in the water.”

“Good,” he breathes. His eyes find hers again, looking for a sign, an answer. When Jyn gives it to him, inclining her head just so, he cuts across the room in long strides and kneels in front of her. His tear-stained cheeks now match hers.

Tentatively, he takes hold of her hands, and a small desperate sound escapes her mouth at the touch. Her eyes flutter shut when his other hand reaches up to cup her cheek, trembling as she presses her face against his palm.

“Jyn,” he begins, voice hoarse. She can hear the fear in his tone. “Do you still…”

“I do,” she breathes without opening her eyes, without waiting to hear his question. “I do still. I do.”

She tugs on his hand to pull him up, and he goes willingly, his mouth finding hers like it was five years ago and they hadn’t been broken by the world and its cruelty yet. She clings to him desperately, clutching at the collar of his shirt, fingers slipping into his hair, trying to pull him closer as much as she can. The only thing that matters is that every part of her is touching every part of him.

She breaks away, the sound on her lips a strange mix between a laugh and a sob. His lips find her forehead instead and she buries her face in his chest, tears still in her eyes, but listening to his heartbeat steady under her hand.

There’s so much to talk about. So much to catch up on. It feels like a fever dream – she’s afraid to wake up and realize it hadn’t been real. But Cassian holds her tighter, and she knows that in his arms, nothing can hurt her.

They’re finally home.

#rebelcaptain #therebelcaptainnetwork #dailyrebelcaptain #my fics #pirate au #anonymous #replies

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koltarmi · 4 years

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A Truth Universally Acknowledged - Chapter 4

Read it on AO3.

Okay, so I know the last time I updated was almost three years ago, but a pandemic does weird things. This has been sitting in my files forever, so I might as well post it. Maybe more to come if I the mood for writing strikes?

_____________________________________________________

Orson Krennic.

Jyn examined the picture of the man on her laptop. His perfect corporate smile held a sinister edge to it.

‘So monsters do have names,’ she thought.

She had run directly back to the apartment after leaving the exhibition hall, sending a quick text to Bodhi that she wasn't feeling well.

She had locked herself in her room and pulled out her laptop to find anything she could about the man.

The few results that had turned up were disappointing. Jyn found articles that sung his praise as a genius inventor and businessman. There was a short blurb about his accomplishments on the Empire’ s page about executive members.

There was no mention about her parents, the lab they had worked in, or the project they had worked on. His name was never mentioned in the court case. After all, she had read it enough times to know it by heart.

Despite all of it, Jyn knew with certainty that Orson Krennic was involved with the deadly project and he had somehow escaped scot-free.

She considered filming a vlog to make sense of everything, but quickly dismissed the idea. Unexpectedly, talking about her life in the vlogs had become almost second-nature to her. She found the messy thoughts in her head seemed to finally make sense when she was in front of the camera and talking to her audience.

No wonder people liked going to therapy.

Some soft knocking on her door pulled her out of her thoughts.

Bodhi peered through the door. “Jyn, why are you sitting in the dark?”

Jyn looked around, just noticing that the sun had set some time ago. “Research?”

Bodhi squinted at her, as if narrowing his field of view would help him see through Jyn’s lies.

Jyn sighed and set aside her laptop, carefully angling it so her roommate would not see her the results of her obsessive internet search. “I’m so sorry, Bodhi. I felt this sudden nausea and I just couldn't stay in there anymore.”

He nodded. “I just want to know if you're alright.”

“Perfectly fine,” she replied. There was no reason to worry Bodhi with her newfound information. Jyn asked Bodhi how the rest of the convention was. Thankfully, he had plenty to say and the topic of Jyn’s sudden sickness was dropped.

__________________________________

To Jyn's great misfortune, it appeared that Cassian Andor had become a permanent fixture in Baze’s cafe. He frequented it even without Chirrut tagging along to flirt with Baze.

“He just sits in the corner and scowls,” Jyn said to her camera which was recording her latest vlog. “He’s probably the type of person who spends hours at Starbucks writing his screenplay. I mean who wears a bowtie and a newsboy cap? The man also once wore a god forsaken scarf in the middle of summer. ”

A small part of Jyn was aware that making fun of his fashion choices was petty. Before any feelings of regret or guilt could sink in, she would remember his callous words at the wedding. He was stuck-up, cold, and rude to everyone except Chirrut or Kay.

To Jyn, that was more than enough to justify her thoughts of him.

Her viewers, however, seemed to have a different idea.

ACxHaley721 - i know it’s kinda weird but does anyone else kinda ship jyn and cass?

ktash - SAME

Jess04 - mE TOO!!!!!

kkcecex - I’m not saying enemies to lovers trope, butttttttt… ;)

sayohwell6 - YO, JUST SEARCHED UP CASSIAN ON GOOGLE. HE’S HOT AF.

Joan Walsh - omG what’s their ship name?

Maria L - It’s gotta be Jyssian!

Jyn stared blankly at the comment thread. This had to have been some sort of joke. She had expressed nothing except hatred and contempt for Cassian Andor. How could these people possibly think that she could be in a romantic relationship with Cassian? She couldn’t even stand being in the same room as the man.

Jyn forced a half-hearted laugh and closed the tab, dismissing the ridiculous comments.

____________________________________

After the fifth day in a row with an empty inbox, Cassian caved and called Leia.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can work on?” Cassian pleaded. Even the sight of the San Francisco skyline from her office couldn’t soothe his restlessness

Leia sighed. “Cassian, everything is fine down here. Need I remind you that you’re on vacation?”

Before he could even protest, Leia looked at him sharply. "You want this company to succeed?"

"Of cour-"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes, Leia I-"

"Then wouldn't you agree that for a company to succeed it's CEO shouldn't die at the age of 29 from a stress-induced heart attack?"

Cassian kept his mouth shut.

Leia smiled. "Glad we had this talk. Why don't you go out to that coffee shop you've been visiting daily?"

Cassian blinked in surprise. "Have you been asking Kay to report on me?"

"For your own good," she replied. Leia's eyes drifted to left of her screen as she furiously began typing something out on another tab. "It is odd though..."

"What?" he asked.

"Kay says you've been visiting the shop everyday, but I know you only drink coffee when you're working overtime or on a big project."

Cassian hesitated before he said, "They have good tea."

Leia refocused her gaze on him. "It's summer."

"Iced tea," he amended.

She leaned back in her chair and hummed. "Jyn Erso is certainly an interesting name for an iced tea."

Cassian froze at the name. "How does Kay..." He drifted off mid-sentence before realizing his mistake. "Chirrut told you."

"In my defense, I didn't ask. He just told me."

Cassian sighed. It seemed his plan to dissuade Chirrut from playing matchmaker had failed.

"I would love to meet this woman who can make you so flustered. I feel like we would be great friends," Leia said with a grin.

"Except you can't do that because you have to stay in San Francisco to take care of Pemberley," Cassian said. "You and Chirrut working together to meddle in my romantic life would be a nightmare."

Leia smirked. "Oh, so you do like her in a romantic sense?"

Cassian groaned.

"So have you asked her on a date yet?"

"Of course not!" he spluttered.

Leia shook her head in disappointment. "You poor awkward soul. From Kay and Chirrut's messages, you seem to like this girl a lot, despite being unable to hold a conversation with her. Want some advice?"

"Not really."

"Just start simple. Buy her a coffee and ask about her interests. Maybe you'll find something in common."

Cassian finally looked back up at his screen. "Is Han doing well?"

The silence stretched between them before Leia said she had an important email to finish and hastily ended the video call.

#atua #rebelcaptain fic #rogue one fic #my writing

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sugiraj-mga2020mi5016 · 3 years

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Research about VFX

R.Sugiraj ,had more interest in watching fantasy movies in television from the realizing period of time on the particular Subject of the movies so; I want to get acknowledgement on the production of the related fantasy movie movies in this regard one day I have got this opportunity through the friend of my brother with the deep discussion to him about the fantasy movies this opportunity has changed my life of ambition on VFX From 60’s to present time of period we can acquire some clean point of view on the matters in VFX further to; nowadays the technical Affairs have been developing very fast and this type of development will make in fluence on the world of movies also. In this above relation; we are able to compare how to use the techniques in movies in previous period and the usage of the related techniques are being developed at the present time here I fond some notes from the Web first we take a look into the VFX History “While a wide variety of devices had been invented that projected moving images in one way or another to an enthralled public as early as the 16th century, cinema itself is widely regarded by most celluloid historians to have begun in 1895. It was then that the Lumiere brothers showcased their first successful method of both filming and projecting moving pictures in Paris, the Cinematographer. And given the long and glorious role that VFX have played in the evolution of cinema since, it's not too surprising that the first special effect was created not long after. The French effects pioneer Georges Melies is widely credited with the first stop action shot, and he certainly did stumble upon it independently, but It was Edison camera operator Alfred Clarke who got there first, deliberately pausing his shot and substituting a dummy for the body of an actress during a scene recreating the beheading of Mary Queen of Scots. The date was 28th August, 1895. Melies' independent discovery of the same technique may have been an accident — famously his cameras hand crank jammed and took around a minute to get going again by which time the street scene he had been filming changed completely – but he certainly took that happy accident and ran with it, effectively becoming the world's first impresario of effects films. In films such as Indian Rubber Head (1902) and the 21 minute epic (for the time) A Trip to the Moon (also 1902) he pioneered a range of VFX techniques such as the split screen / double exposure process, and was very much part of the European movement that saw film as a loose narrative joining together special effects sequences. This was eventually to prove his downfall as audiences started wanting more sophisticated, narratively focussed fare, but over the course of 500 titles and 10 years he pushed the technology as far as any individual in the early period. Model Hollywood Meanwhile, in the US, news films were recreating scenes from real life events with the increasing use of models for growing audiences. These saw the development of classic practical effects - explosions created using gunpowder, burning cardboard buildings shaking in earthquakes, wooden models pulled along by string, water pistols recreating the jets from a fire hose and so on. They weren't very good, as a generation of craftsmen, technicians and money men all grappled with the new technology, but the audience's tastes at the time were equally undemanding. By the 1910s, however everything had started getting a lot more sophisticated. The first VFX specialists started to appear (though they wouldn't start getting credits until the mid 1920s) and pioneered the use of techniques such as using glass mattes for scene extensions. Industry giants like DW Griffith also started developing the visual language of film using techniques such as shot transitions, iris-in and iris-out for dramatic effect, and so on. The 1920s saw Hollywood really get into its stride, with extensive use of model effects in particular in historical epics such as Ben Hur and the Thief of Baghdad, while Cecil B deMilne led his Israelites though sliced walls of double-exposed jelly to simulate the parted waters of the Red Sea in The 10 Commandments. But the '20s really belonged to the Germans, who were streets ahead of their American counterparts in technique and execution, and in particular Fritz Lang's astonishing Metropolis (1926). The shape of things to come The film is still visually stunning nigh on a century later, Lang throwing all of the top technologies of his day at the project and using matte painting, rear projection, compositing techniques, and pushing the art of miniatures further than ever before to make the animated cityscapes of the film's impressive opening sequence. It was also the first film to successfully use the in-camera, optical technique invented by Eugene Shuftan, the Shuftan process. This used a combination of angled mirrors, paintings and live action to create the impression of live actors occupying huge sets, and is essentially seen as a primitive precursor of bluescreen. Certainly it helped give Metropolis the sense of scale which is a hallmark of the film and a central metaphor for the alienation of the individual. The 1930s are perhaps best characterised as a decade of cautious progress. Rear projection, travelling mattes, miniatures…all these techniques saw steady development, with rear projection especially becoming popular due to the demands of the primitive new audio technology of the 'talkies' making location filming nigh on impossible. As a result, by the end of the decade, rear projection screens as large as 14.5 m were in use, with the key to success being matching both the lighting and the focal lengths of background and studio camera exactly. The introduction of optical printers around this time led to huge improvement in image quality, especially when combining the disparate elements for travelling matte work. If you're looking for touchstones from the decade, King Kong probably stands out along with many of the horror movies made by Universal Studios, with the highlight from that canon being the creative use of the Williams process to achieve the invisible scenes in The Invisible Man (1933). This essentially involved filming an actor wrapped in black velvet with an airtube running up his legs against a black velvet draped set to get the images of his empty clothes walking around. These were then copied to high contrast film in a complicated process involving multiple sandwichings of exposed and unexposed film. By the time we get to Orson Welles' classic Citizen Kane (1941), you have a film that was reliant on special effects to tell much of its story, but also one that was not even nominated for an effects Oscar as the majority of them were invisibles. However, it took many of the VFX techniques of the day to their absolute limits, combining matte paintings, miniatures and optical printing techniques in particular to produce Welles' final masterpiece. Add in unconventional lighting, strange camera angles, deep focus shots elaborate camera movements, extremely long takes, non-linear storytelling, and the first appearance of many of the editing conventions that would become part of the filmmaking repertoire for decades to come, and you have the last great movie of the early days of film special effects, and undoubtedly one of the greatest all time. However, it was 1941, war raged across Europe, and for the still embryonic visual effects industry, colour was about to change everything”(redsharknews.com) 60′s Era Had Huge Expectation For The VFX Because They Try To put Into The Real Time Action Footage And If It Failure That Effect To The Whole Industry But Unexpectedly That VFX Work Good And Huge Victory Of VFX Here I Give The Example Work In The 60′s VFX The 60s were the decade of some truly impressive practical effects that had moviegoers in complete "aw" at what was transpiring on the screen. One of those ground-breaking moments were with the infamous skeleton battle scene in Jason and the Argonauts(1963). Created by Ray Harryhausen and done in complete stop-motion animation, he was able to bring these skeletons to life in the film, and integrate them with the real actor. This is a very famous sequence in the effects industry(plural sight Website) For VFX Here Ray Harryhausen Worked As A Stop Motion Model Animator And He Is Work In Mysterious Island (1961) According The Statement Above I Attached Jason and the Argonauts VFX Image Current Era’s 2010 To Upto Date Now The VFX Part We Can’t Called VFX Part We Called As A VFX Industry Because Of Huge Growth Of The VFX Now Days We Can’t See Any Film With Out Any Single VFX Scene Because Of Audience They Loved See The VFX Effect In The Film That is The One Reason Of VFX Got Huge Growth Even I Tell You VFX Huge Welcome To The Television Drama Industry Now the techniques of VFX has widely Developed on the Sector of Mini Cinema And Advertisement Field too in this way the wide techniques are being used in VFX My opinion Of VFX Industry Growth now We Come To The Hollywood Movies Called (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, Avator, Air Bender ) Now we look little bit of deep into the Indian drama industry Earlier days Indian dramas not have a VFX site but they try to including the VFX into the dramas for example from My acknowledgement that “marmadesam, Vidathukaruppu and velan Serials have that VFX site little bit they using Green Screen Techniques in the Drama in that Earlier Stage Nowadays Indian Drama Industry Does not Make A Single Scene Without VFX Scene For Example Mahabatratham ,Nagini, Nanthini Serials

This Serials Currently Going On Indian Tele Drama clearly we can saw that VFX Site How Much Influence into this drama industry going to follow that VFX Technology that the reason earlier I mansion that VFX Will Rule the Cinema industry And Before going to the Hollywood Moves We look for that VFX Step into advertisement side also Like Indian cricket player Dhoni acting that advertisement and that advertisement have VFX part of that and other advertisement belong to coca cola advertisement and they used 3D Monkey character into the Real time ACTION Footage Now We Look Holly wood Side here i mention that Suresh Antony He Worked on Avengers EndGame, Venom, Gurdians of the Galaxy and He Said That” Vfx is Mostly Used in The Real Time Action Footage ” he Worked on the Thomas character Making too The world of effects in films has definitely come a long way from special effects to the dominated realm of visual effects. In the past few years, we've seen movies constantly trying to push the boundaries of visual effects, trying to achieve more realistic and believable visual effects that can hold up next to the real actors and not know the difference. To get a great glimpse into where we've come just in the past decade, take a look at Gollum in The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers and compare him to Gollum in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As technology advances and the tools used to create these out of this world characters so do the quality of what is on screen. The recent release of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes features extremely realistic apes, and many advancements in terms of motion capture and the visual aesthetics of the apes like the rendering of the fur. For example, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was one of the first films to use motion capture on location, and not in a specifically designed motion capture studio. More films are being shot largely on green screen stages, leaving the rest of the film up to the VFX artists. VFX is as much of a part as many blockbusters like The Avengers or Pacific Rim as the actors themselves. While VFX is often seen as icing on the cake of a film, it's becoming more of a centre piece. If you want to share some of the films that inspire you as an artist, whether it's with practical effects or visual effects (plural sight Website)

Conclusion In the consideration of the two period (60’s, Present) we can genuinely understand the vital development of VFX in Addition to this; we can get into knowledge that the get continuous development in technical field surely engage the improvement in the production of movies in VFX and will give various view of thoughts about VFX in the Long Run

Reference “While a wide variety of devices had beeninvented” https://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/530-the-history-of-vfx-part-one-from-mary-queen-of-scots-to-citizen-kane

#with out images

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