I don't like sand

December 1, Year 7
Outside Horizon
Open tag!​

She didn't remember falling asleep. The night had been a long one, filled with raucous celebration, and clearly at some point she'd come crashing down off the high of defeating the Empire and allowed exhaustion to drag her down into slumber because right now the sun was beating against her closed eyelids and demanding she open them. Delaying the inevitable Leia threw an arm over her face to block the light, her mind already racing ahead to remind her of all the things she had yet to do, all the work that lay in front of them now that they'd accomplished their goal. It hardly seemed fair, but they couldn't expect every last Imperial to surrender just because their leader was dead - if anything it was liable to make a portion of them lash out all the harder.

She rolled onto her back, realizing as she did that the surface below her wasn't familiar, shifting strangely underneath her. Patting the ground beneath her and finding sand sliding through her fingers at least had the benefit of jolting her awake, the sun's gentle wake-up taking on a harsher tone as she sat up, forced to squint as she scanned her surroundings with a mounting sense of terror clawing its way up her throat. Sand. Sand everywhere, replacing the forest of Endor's moon as if it had never been.

Adrenaline propelled her to her feet before she'd even taken it all in, not that it mattered once she had - it took every ounce of her self control and several minutes of forcing herself to take deep breaths to fight down the panic that was threatening to consume her. Whatever this was she could figure it out, she just needed to think rationally. ...Except that there was nothing rational about moving from a forest to desert while one was sleeping. She'd been surrounded by an entire tribe of Ewoks, not to mention members of the Rebellion - it wasn't like she could have been carried off without someone noticing.

And yet…

Logic had no explanation for this, and the longer she stood there the more she realized just how hot it was. Standing around waiting to die of thirst wasn't going to do her any good and after another scan of the horizon Leia picked a direction - one that had the suggestion of a rise in elevation, she thought - and started walking. Finding water should be her priority, after that she could worry about finding someone to demand answers from.

 

After being dragged into a dark oblivion, Jamison's vision returned promptly-- the sudden change from pitch darkness to blinding sunlight causing him to wince and squint. His right arm had been freed from the vines for him to use to block his eyes from the burning sun, and after taking a whirling glance around himself, he saw the last tendrils of the groping foliage recede away into the hot orange sand beneath him. "Uhh..." It was quite unheard of for Junkrat to be speechless, and it didn't last long. "...Wull THAT'S diff'rent."

He picked himself up and checked that his artificial limbs weren't damaged nor his precious explosives stolen before glancing around at the desert surrounding him. The faint buzz of toxic radiation was no longer in the air. This was not the Outback. "...Roadie?" He called, finding his obnoxious voice wavering just a wee bit. Only his own echo replied, and it made him feel very, very alone. "Blimey, where ya gone off to, mate? Can't leave a job halfway through..." He mumbled, halfheartedly trying to make a joke and place the blame of this odd situation on somebody else.

Junk wasn't afraid, he decided. He was angry. Angry at being robbed of his gold, robbed of his mate and bodyguard, robbed of the chance to exact his revenge on the bloody Queen. In fact, HE was the one who had physically been stolen this time. That was a first. What had happened wasn't absurd, he was used to absurd. What had happened was downright rude, and he was going to do something about it. Seeing a flickering settlement in the distance, he started marching towards it, hoping it wasn't a mirage in the heat.

Before long, he caught sight of another figure walking through the hot shimmering air, looking a bit more miserable and worn than he, who was used to ungodly heat. "Oi!" He called in his heavy Australian accent, waving his metallic arm above him with much more energy than he should posses underneath the sweltering sun. The orange steel glinted in the light, as intended. Again with much too exuberant of energy for the climate, he hobbled closer. "Out for an aftahnoon stroll?" He joked with a giggling laugh.

@Leia Organa

 

Intellectually Leia knew that deserts were hot and arid places, but she discovered as she trudged on and on that there was a vast gulf between knowing that in your head and being physically subjected to it in all it's miserable glory. Unsurprisingly, she was not a fan, particularly given she was still in the dress she'd been wearing last night, the thick fabric doing nothing to help reduce the heat, and the only positive in the whole situation was that the more she walked the more clear it became that there was some kind of civilization further ahead. She just had to get to it.

Thus far her walk had been a solitary one, so she could perhaps be forgiven for starting at the sound of a voice behind her, wheeling around to face its owner as if expecting an attack. And, honestly, the man's appearance didn't exactly reassure her, though her obviously wary expression was smoothed away with the ease of long practice. Diplomacy first, to buy her time to figure out if she was truly in danger or not. "Nothing like a bit of exercise, don't you agree?" Her smile was swift and wry, suddenly starkly aware of just how sweaty she was. The last thing she wanted to do was stand around and have a chat.

"Would you care to join me?" If she was lucky she'd be able to pry some information out of him; he certainly seemed in good spirits and she could only assume that likely made him a local.

 

"Eh. Got nothin' else ta do." Jamie shrugged exaggeratedly and held his hands behind his back like a mock-gentleman as he did indeed join her stroll. He eyed her for a moment when her gaze was turned away, not noticing that she was rightfully wary of him. People being paranoid and careful was a normal thing to him. If anything, she seemed overly friendly and trusting. Inviting him to partake in her afternoon stroll? Foolish girl.

But unfortunately, it didn't look like she had very much on her worth robbing. Bummer. "So, uh, what's this wasteland called? And what're you called?" He asked, glancing around before jutting the accusatory question towards her. Her hair looked strange, and she was sweating a lot. Had she never felt the gentle heat of the desert sun before?

"Hey, you seen any bloke bout yay tall,--" he hopped upward to attempt to bring his reaching fingertips to the correct height. "--wearing a shark mask, who goes by the name Roadhog?" He asked, half hopeful and half accusatory. "How about a hovercraft full o' gold and uh... dynamite?" Surely such precious things couldn't have gone far, right?

 

She should probably be worried that he was so quick to join her, but it was better to have him where she could see him than have him at her back, though he was quick to dash her hopes of getting any answers out of him. Pushing a damn tendril of hair from her face, Leia shook her head, some of the smoothness of her manners falling away in the heat. The blasted, Force-cursed heat. "I was hoping you could tell me." She eyed him sidelong for a moment, before deciding that a little honesty was unlikely to make her position any worse. "I just woke up here...where ever here is."

The question of her name was seemingly ignored, though in truth she was debating the pros and cons of using her actual name when he plowed ahead with more questions, questions strange enough that she found her steps flagging as she tried to sort through them. Or maybe that was just because she was tired of walking. Either way the confused and skeptical look on her face said plenty on its own, and after a moment of being at a loss Leia spread her arms wide to indicate the desert around them. "You've seen the same things I've seen. Sand, sand, and oh! More sand." Had she inadvertently fallen in with some sort of babbling idiot? She didn't know what dynamite was, and she didn't see much point in asking, especially with someone new approaching, stopping to stare at them without saying a word.

A chill worked down her spine despite the heat, though Leia kept her back straight and surveyed the girl as coolly as she could manage. "Are you from the town? My name is Leia and this is…" she glanced at her original companion, crazy or not she might as well know his name. It seemed all three of them were going to be stuck together for the remainder of the walk.

 

The lady seemed as clueless as a duck, and just as out of place in this desert. He wasn't going to get any clues out of a loony person who decided the middle of a desert was the best place to take an afternoon nap before her afternoon stroll. She also seemed to have zero idea what he was talking about when he asked if she'd seen Roadhog or his treasure trolley, which was basically her giving him a 'no' as an answer. Dropping his animated arms, his shoulders sagged. "Oh, well... that's alrigh' mate." He excused her daftness, though he was mostly muttering to himself to assuage his fallen hopes.

Junkrat glanced around at her presentation of the sand around them, as if he'd failed to notice just exactly how much of it there was. Another person was nearby, whom he raised a bushy blonde eyebrow at. She looked as if she'd know where Roadie was, perhaps having traveled straight from Junkertown itself. The stranger's silent approach and visual similarity to the denizens of the apocalyptic town made him a bit more wary of her, but if she was looking to mug them, she'd have another thing coming.

The clueless woman seemed to try to introduce them, and after a moment of ignorance, Jamie straightened up and took his late cue. "Junkrat! Atchyer service!" He chirped with a mocking bow, again possessing far too much energy for the sweltering heat they were suffering. Well, he wasn't suffering at all. This was room temperature for him.

He was definitely not at their service, but it was a phrase of greeting that he'd heard before, and it sounded fun to present himself as some sort of chivalrous jester-- at least for a few moments before his arrogant rudeness revealed itself again. "Which way's tha town?" He barked the light demand at the newcomer, unable to care less about who she was or what her name was. She was definitely from Junkertown, and she knew the way back to the place where he'd been kidnapped from. That was all that mattered to him.

 

Junkrat? His name was Junkrat? Leia couldn't stop herself from shooting a glance at him sidelong, the polite smile faltering for a moment at the revelation. That wasn't even a name, it was more like a title, or an insult, really. Something he'd chosen for himself if she had to guess, and she supposed not entirely unfitting based on the way he looked. She gave herself a little mental shake to get back on track - the sooner she could get to whatever civilization existed here the sooner she could find out where she was, how she'd gotten here, and - most importantly - get back to the rest of the Rebellion.

Though she got the girl's name the rest of her answer was lost to the voice that spoke in Leia's head, making her start. "Luke?" Her companions were forgotten as hope swelled in her chest. If Luke was here then she wasn't alone, maybe whatever had happened to her had happened to everyone, and before she could even begin to ask where in all this blasted sand he was he appeared at her elbow as if conjured by her thoughts.

Leia embraced him without hesitation, throwing her arms around his neck even as he was speaking. She missed in that first second the differences between the man she'd known for the past several years and the one who stood in front of her now, caught up in her relief at seeing him. When she pulled away, though, hands still on his shoulders, and got a good look at his face, the smile on her's flickered and died. This wasn't Luke, this wasn't the farm boy grown into self-assured Jedi that she'd seen just last night. This man was far older, and Leia stepped back towards Junkrat and Amber as surprise and confusion gave way to the beginnings of anger.

"Who are you?" The question was sharp, eyes narrowed as she surveyed him, trying not to betray the racing of her heart or the slightest tremble in her fingers. Being angry instead of being hurt was something she was good at. "Why are you trying to impersonate my brother?"