[ One day he's gonna bust binary wide open and get all the gossip he could ever want. But then he'd also have to live knowing it. He's adaptable though. He's adapted to bigger and more terrifying things than Poe and John taking shore leave together. It's gonna be okay.
Finn narrows his eyes like he's half-convinced that's supposed to be a trick question somehow. Like he's trying to solve the puzzle of why Poe is like this as a person, just in general. He pulls a face. Does that thing that isn't quite a shrug, as much as it is a hands spread, is this relevant somehow gesture. ]
Yeah? [ He already knows Poe's not, so at least the basics are out of the way on both sides? Now that they've been living together for like three months. Give him two seconds to make these puzzle pieces Fit and board the realization train. He literally just said he knows what shore leave is. Duh. The topic's on the table. ]
It's not-- officers get to take shore leave. Planetside and everything. Troops might get some downtime between details day-to-day, a couple of hours. Depends on what's happening. But I mean, that's. [ Okay you know what, he's putting the bacon down so he can gesture better, and sighing through his nose.
He's aware that Poe wasn't raised in the whole First Order... atmosphere, and that sometimes the things Finn understands as givens don't necessarily translate. He's very glad that Poe doesn't understand some of these things as givens. He'd be a lot less Poe if he did, and Poe being Poe is a good thing.
But it's sort of like if someone from the Quarantine walked up and asked "hey, so what's a Wookie?" You never think it's something you'll have to genuinely explain. It's just... a Wookie. There are just ways that things work. Stormtrooper sex politics have always been one of those things. ]
Okay, uh. So officially, downtime is for approved literature and vids, staying in the barracks, extra training. [ Card games. Solo runs, as it were, a feat at least marginally easier to manage. Which he's absolutely not going to talk about because he has limits and they're very clear limits. ] Unofficially, I guess-- if you find someone who's interested, and you've both got free time at the same time, and you figure out how to get privacy in the middle of the First Order... then you could make something happen. In theory. It's not like they don't teach us how these things work.
[ He waves his hand again. Like it helps him with this at all. Maybe as if to say "I would literally rather fly into another cannon than go over First Order sex ed details with you on this or any day, preemptively." Or maybe as if to say "stealing babies is their whole gig, yes. unapproved ones from clueless soldiers fumbling around aren't the ideal." ]
Never heard about anyone managing it. But it runs a little close to "personal loyalties" on paper when you're in the same cadre or anything, so. Not like they'd be bragging.
[ Because the person you made look bad in training the other day would probably report you just to get commended for their attentiveness and loyalty. Anyway this would be easier with a powerpoint presentation. ]
[ Poe pokes absently at the bacon as Finn speaks, watching his friend's face instead of what he's cooking.
It all sounds kinda shit, actually, which isn't surprising, because it's the First Order. Of course anything that encourages personal loyalties or, y'know, fun of any kind would be Against Regulations.
The bacon is burning. Poe hisses and stabs at it, trying to fork it (heh) out of the pan and onto the waiting plate and managing to scorch himself with hot grease in the process. ]
[ His best friend is a bacon disaster. God, look at him go.
(Finn, are you not a bacon hypocrite for not paying attention to the pan, either?)
Finn kinda shrugs it off. With an actual shrug this time. ]
It's not as bad as it sounds, as long as you don't know better. Just another regulation. Not the kind of thing you suffer over.
[ Get what you earn, get what you deserve. Extra incentive to make officer corps someday. One more way to exercise power and control over an army and remove all the agency from their lives. He knows better now. Obviously.
It's easier to separate the baseline simmer of his "tear the First Order apart with your teeth" anger from this particular line of conversation, partly for how weird it is to be on the subject and partly because... yeah. It was never an issue that bothered him much when he was still a stormtrooper. His problems turned up in different areas. ]
[ His thought process mostly flows along the lines of does it matter, initially.
Yeah, John's his commanding officer, but he knows a commanding officer's business isn't his business. They're not exactly friends. And there's not cause for outrage as far as he can tell, either, it's not his place to make calls on who Poe associates with. Now, if Poe were saying he's been having sex with Hux and thinks he's got a chance of turning things around here-- well. There'd be more blasters involved by now.
Finn assumes this line of questioning comes from a place of polite consideration, as many things do when they come from Poe, and not from the misplaced concern that he might not be able to deal with it, which as far as he knows isn't Poe's style. ]
Can't get any weirder than this conversation, Poe. [ HE'S NOT GONNA LIE ABOUT THAT? This whole morning is a write-off. ] Pretty sure I'll manage.
He turns off the stove and claims the last of the bacon before bringing the plate to the table, dropping into his own chair and setting it between them.
Poe exhales and leans back, taking a piece of bacon and crunching down on it. He's trying to figure out something to say, something that shows how much it means to have Finn's permission, even if he doesn't need it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Finn narrows his eyes like he's half-convinced that's supposed to be a trick question somehow. Like he's trying to solve the puzzle of why Poe is like this as a person, just in general. He pulls a face. Does that thing that isn't quite a shrug, as much as it is a hands spread, is this relevant somehow gesture. ]
Yeah? [ He already knows Poe's not, so at least the basics are out of the way on both sides? Now that they've been living together for like three months. Give him two seconds to make these puzzle pieces Fit and board the realization train. He literally just said he knows what shore leave is. Duh. The topic's on the table. ]
It's not-- officers get to take shore leave. Planetside and everything. Troops might get some downtime between details day-to-day, a couple of hours. Depends on what's happening. But I mean, that's. [ Okay you know what, he's putting the bacon down so he can gesture better, and sighing through his nose.
He's aware that Poe wasn't raised in the whole First Order... atmosphere, and that sometimes the things Finn understands as givens don't necessarily translate. He's very glad that Poe doesn't understand some of these things as givens. He'd be a lot less Poe if he did, and Poe being Poe is a good thing.
But it's sort of like if someone from the Quarantine walked up and asked "hey, so what's a Wookie?" You never think it's something you'll have to genuinely explain. It's just... a Wookie. There are just ways that things work. Stormtrooper sex politics have always been one of those things. ]
Okay, uh. So officially, downtime is for approved literature and vids, staying in the barracks, extra training. [ Card games. Solo runs, as it were, a feat at least marginally easier to manage. Which he's absolutely not going to talk about because he has limits and they're very clear limits. ] Unofficially, I guess-- if you find someone who's interested, and you've both got free time at the same time, and you figure out how to get privacy in the middle of the First Order... then you could make something happen. In theory. It's not like they don't teach us how these things work.
[ He waves his hand again. Like it helps him with this at all. Maybe as if to say "I would literally rather fly into another cannon than go over First Order sex ed details with you on this or any day, preemptively." Or maybe as if to say "stealing babies is their whole gig, yes. unapproved ones from clueless soldiers fumbling around aren't the ideal." ]
Never heard about anyone managing it. But it runs a little close to "personal loyalties" on paper when you're in the same cadre or anything, so. Not like they'd be bragging.
[ Because the person you made look bad in training the other day would probably report you just to get commended for their attentiveness and loyalty. Anyway this would be easier with a powerpoint presentation. ]
no subject
It all sounds kinda shit, actually, which isn't surprising, because it's the First Order. Of course anything that encourages personal loyalties or, y'know, fun of any kind would be Against Regulations.
The bacon is burning. Poe hisses and stabs at it, trying to fork it (heh) out of the pan and onto the waiting plate and managing to scorch himself with hot grease in the process. ]
That's. Awful. It's awful, is the word.
no subject
(Finn, are you not a bacon hypocrite for not paying attention to the pan, either?)
Finn kinda shrugs it off. With an actual shrug this time. ]
It's not as bad as it sounds, as long as you don't know better. Just another regulation. Not the kind of thing you suffer over.
[ Get what you earn, get what you deserve. Extra incentive to make officer corps someday. One more way to exercise power and control over an army and remove all the agency from their lives. He knows better now. Obviously.
It's easier to separate the baseline simmer of his "tear the First Order apart with your teeth" anger from this particular line of conversation, partly for how weird it is to be on the subject and partly because... yeah. It was never an issue that bothered him much when he was still a stormtrooper. His problems turned up in different areas. ]
no subject
[ Still shaking his head. He puts the last of the bacon into the pan and rests his hip against the counter next to the stove. ]
You're okay with it, though? Me and John? Won't make things weird for you?
no subject
Yeah, John's his commanding officer, but he knows a commanding officer's business isn't his business. They're not exactly friends. And there's not cause for outrage as far as he can tell, either, it's not his place to make calls on who Poe associates with. Now, if Poe were saying he's been having sex with Hux and thinks he's got a chance of turning things around here-- well. There'd be more blasters involved by now.
Finn assumes this line of questioning comes from a place of polite consideration, as many things do when they come from Poe, and not from the misplaced concern that he might not be able to deal with it, which as far as he knows isn't Poe's style. ]
Can't get any weirder than this conversation, Poe. [ HE'S NOT GONNA LIE ABOUT THAT? This whole morning is a write-off. ] Pretty sure I'll manage.
no subject
I dunno. We can get pretty weird.
[ TOO MUCH INFORMATION? TOO MUCH INFORMATION.
He turns off the stove and claims the last of the bacon before bringing the plate to the table, dropping into his own chair and setting it between them.
Poe exhales and leans back, taking a piece of bacon and crunching down on it. He's trying to figure out something to say, something that shows how much it means to have Finn's permission, even if he doesn't need it.
He settles on-- ]
Thanks, Finn.