That approval and praise might be easily given on Furiosa's part, but still after all this time it's so rare for Rey to hear anything like that that is catches her by surprise every single time.
And it's worth more, from a woman like Furiosa. She's someone who has clearly suffered through a lot, has seen the worst of people, and this is something that Rey will always hold close to her heart. Good woman, as simple as that.
"There was a robot with a map," she says to start, using the generic terms she's learned since coming here. "A map to someone very important, important enough to destroy an entire settlement with no care for who might live or die. During the air raid we were trying to escape, but the ship we wanted exploded before we got to it, so we had to settle for a different ship. It was all covered in tarps so I didn't know until I'd started it how powerful it was, and my friend and I, we shot the rest of the fighter ships out of the sky and escaped with the droid."
"You got out safely? You, your friend, and your robot?"
She asks, as the truck comes up to speed. It's double what you'd expect of something on old earth, but maybe nothing to someone from Rey's world, but she should be able to feel the engines heaving the mass forwards, against all odds.
She's a little distracted, leaning with her face closer to the window so she can feel the wind and enjoy the honestly impressive speed such a large vehicle can manage. When she looks back at Furiosa to answer, she's smiling again and not bothering to try to hide it.
"Yes, we got away. The ship is... well, it belonged to someone else, but it's mine now." Hers and Chewie's, her home and her co-pilot. She misses him more than she ever thought she would, the big hairy carpet. "I'll show you, if you'd like. After this."
Much after, though. The war rig might be old fashioned and a little crude, but it's amazing all the same.
She agrees, immediately, and begins to show her the ropes in earnest.
"The rear view mirrors get shot out often, so you have to learn not to rely on them. That means twisting to look back- but not often, in case of traps on the road. There's a hole in the roof that you can stand up and shoot out of, but that also means you need to be aware of people dropping in on you from above. I've had people lifted out the top of my cab by polecats- men on the tops of narrow poles, vaulting in and back again- and I've had a chain thrown around my neck and been dragged up into an impromptu near-hanging. That's why I keep this-"
She shows her, how the head of the gearshift detaches and lifts to reveal a narrow blade.
When she had asked to see the the war rig, Rey hadn't thought that this would come along with it. A lesson in how it works, what to look out for, even where a hidden weapon is... it's a lot more trust she would ever expect out of someone that doesn't know her, but then again Rey has been short on trust her entire life. Expecting it in others is still something she hasn't started doing yet.
And that's twice now that she's heard a story about Tommy saving Furiosa's life. First from dinosaurs, now from attacks from the sky.
"It sounds like you're ready for everything that could possibly be thrown at you."
"You wouldn't say that if you could see my scars from over the years."
She admits, as she begins to show her the other guns disguised around the cabin.
"I'm just ready to keep myself on even footing, that's all. Anyways- this whole thing was destroyed, back home. We crashed it on our last run, Max, Nux and I. Have you met Max or Nux?"
One of these days, someone is going to ask her if she's met someone and she'll be able to actually say yes. There's just so many people on this ship, easily ten times more than she's used to, and she hardly ever seeks anyone out on her own. Isolation will do that, probably, but then someone she's finding herself liking asks her if she knows someone they like and it almost feels like a failing when she has to say no.
"Not yet," she says instead, because that sounds a little more friendly than just no. "They're your friends?"
"I ran into him in the hallway my first week, his first day. We were both so wary, he set off my instincts, and I almost tried to hit him, stone cold, out of nowhere, just for looking like a predator. I caught myself thinking it, and started laughing, and so did he. We've been close since."
Rey smiles a little at that, because if there's any way to meet up with someone again that seems like not a bad way to do it.
Of course, her first one on one meeting with the only person from her world she knows here had involved stopping him going on a rampage during the mess with the explosions and dragging him to Zero on his first day, so probably anything is better than that.
"When you say he's enthusiastic," Rey starts, moving her staff out of the way so she can settle in her seat more comfortably, "what exactly do you mean?"
After a moment of considering that, Rey shakes her head.
"I try not to doubt this place," she says quietly. "I can't, I need it to work just like everyone else. But then I start hearing things like that and I can't help wondering if the Admiral actually knows what he's doing."
She says, immediately, shifting to a slower pace in her truck, so she can focus on what she's saying a little better.
"You can't be a warden here and not have questions. Part of your job, when you're assigned an inmate, is going to be to protect them from the things that happen here, fighting tooth and nail and with every bone in your body. Most of us begin to resent, or even hate the system, as it is- just think of it this way. You're here to save one person. Leaving won't do a thing for them."
There's no considering for that, she says it immediately and with conviction. She can't leave. She'll fight her way back if she's taken before she's finished here, tooth and nail just like Furiosa said. It's the only way she knows how to fight, so at least there's something comforting about that being what's expected of her.
Tommy isn't much of a surprise after the breach and their conversations even before that, but Furiosa offering herself as a source of comfort does surprise Rey. Her eyes go wide, her mouth even drops open a little, and it takes her a second to collect herself.
"You don't even know me," she finally says, and the engines are so loud it almost gets lost in the noise with how quiet her voice is.
She tells her, glancing sideways at her, and admitting;
"And I have- beliefs, that I grew up with, about women and other women, particularly older women with younger. You work here, with me, that means we're on the same road, and I've been on it a few months longer than you. That means we're in it with one another."
Again, it's not what Rey is expecting. It sounds so true, and if Tommy trusts this woman enough to want Rey to meet her that's got to mean something. But there's more to it than that, something Rey never really expected to find.
"No one has ever said that to me and meant it," she admits, because that's what has her so unsure about this when there's a part of her deep down that just wants to accept it. "No one helps each other on Jakku, you're lucky if someone moves your body if you drop dead in the sand."
But Furiosa means it, and she's starting to learn to trust people here. Putting her faith in them is still difficult, but it's a step she wants to learn to take.
"If were in it together, that means this goes both ways. You have to let me help you too."
"I'll try not to be. I've never asked for help before."
She's never had anyone to ask for help, so dealing with her own problems is just something Rey does without considering other paths to take. It's been her, only her, since she was five years old and that's a habit that won't be easily broken.
With support from someone like Furiosa, though, it doesn't seem quite so impossible.
"You get used to it more quickly than you think strictly possible. Someone here once told me that we all are likely to underestimate our ability to change- inmates and wardens alike."
She says, with a thin smile.
"That's my last bit of advice- expect to feel yourself change. Don't resent it. You're asking them to, after all."
"I think I've changed a great deal. I know how to express things now that I would never have been able to say at home. I've never had trouble reaching others- but I've been allowed to know so many. That's been new. And it's made me different."
Rey knows absolutely that she came here scowling and wary and that's just recently something that's started to fade. It took her nearly a month and a half to even start considering people here people she liked, and one or two have become people who might be friends, but for the most part? She's just not good at being around a lot of people.
"I don't see much of a scowl now," Rey says, smiling a little as she glances towards the other woman. "In fact, I think I'd call you nice."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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And it's worth more, from a woman like Furiosa. She's someone who has clearly suffered through a lot, has seen the worst of people, and this is something that Rey will always hold close to her heart. Good woman, as simple as that.
"There was a robot with a map," she says to start, using the generic terms she's learned since coming here. "A map to someone very important, important enough to destroy an entire settlement with no care for who might live or die. During the air raid we were trying to escape, but the ship we wanted exploded before we got to it, so we had to settle for a different ship. It was all covered in tarps so I didn't know until I'd started it how powerful it was, and my friend and I, we shot the rest of the fighter ships out of the sky and escaped with the droid."
no subject
She asks, as the truck comes up to speed. It's double what you'd expect of something on old earth, but maybe nothing to someone from Rey's world, but she should be able to feel the engines heaving the mass forwards, against all odds.
no subject
"Yes, we got away. The ship is... well, it belonged to someone else, but it's mine now." Hers and Chewie's, her home and her co-pilot. She misses him more than she ever thought she would, the big hairy carpet. "I'll show you, if you'd like. After this."
Much after, though. The war rig might be old fashioned and a little crude, but it's amazing all the same.
no subject
She agrees, immediately, and begins to show her the ropes in earnest.
"The rear view mirrors get shot out often, so you have to learn not to rely on them. That means twisting to look back- but not often, in case of traps on the road. There's a hole in the roof that you can stand up and shoot out of, but that also means you need to be aware of people dropping in on you from above. I've had people lifted out the top of my cab by polecats- men on the tops of narrow poles, vaulting in and back again- and I've had a chain thrown around my neck and been dragged up into an impromptu near-hanging. That's why I keep this-"
She shows her, how the head of the gearshift detaches and lifts to reveal a narrow blade.
"-to hand. Tommy saved my life once that way."
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And that's twice now that she's heard a story about Tommy saving Furiosa's life. First from dinosaurs, now from attacks from the sky.
"It sounds like you're ready for everything that could possibly be thrown at you."
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She admits, as she begins to show her the other guns disguised around the cabin.
"I'm just ready to keep myself on even footing, that's all. Anyways- this whole thing was destroyed, back home. We crashed it on our last run, Max, Nux and I. Have you met Max or Nux?"
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"Not yet," she says instead, because that sounds a little more friendly than just no. "They're your friends?"
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And yes, she'll vouch for both of them.
"Max has a good head on his shoulders, and Nux is- enthusiastic."
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Furiosa seems like the type that would keep an eye on someone she cared about.
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She admits, sitting up, scanning the road ahead.
"I ran into him in the hallway my first week, his first day. We were both so wary, he set off my instincts, and I almost tried to hit him, stone cold, out of nowhere, just for looking like a predator. I caught myself thinking it, and started laughing, and so did he. We've been close since."
no subject
Of course, her first one on one meeting with the only person from her world she knows here had involved stopping him going on a rampage during the mess with the explosions and dragging him to Zero on his first day, so probably anything is better than that.
"When you say he's enthusiastic," Rey starts, moving her staff out of the way so she can settle in her seat more comfortably, "what exactly do you mean?"
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It'll be a lot clearer than Furiosa trying to put the words together.
"He died saving my life. But, he's here as an inmate."
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"I try not to doubt this place," she says quietly. "I can't, I need it to work just like everyone else. But then I start hearing things like that and I can't help wondering if the Admiral actually knows what he's doing."
So far all signs are pointing to no.
no subject
She says, immediately, shifting to a slower pace in her truck, so she can focus on what she's saying a little better.
"You can't be a warden here and not have questions. Part of your job, when you're assigned an inmate, is going to be to protect them from the things that happen here, fighting tooth and nail and with every bone in your body. Most of us begin to resent, or even hate the system, as it is- just think of it this way. You're here to save one person. Leaving won't do a thing for them."
no subject
There's no considering for that, she says it immediately and with conviction. She can't leave. She'll fight her way back if she's taken before she's finished here, tooth and nail just like Furiosa said. It's the only way she knows how to fight, so at least there's something comforting about that being what's expected of her.
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Is what she means.
"Tommy and I in particular, but the others, as well."
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"You don't even know me," she finally says, and the engines are so loud it almost gets lost in the noise with how quiet her voice is.
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She tells her, glancing sideways at her, and admitting;
"And I have- beliefs, that I grew up with, about women and other women, particularly older women with younger. You work here, with me, that means we're on the same road, and I've been on it a few months longer than you. That means we're in it with one another."
no subject
"No one has ever said that to me and meant it," she admits, because that's what has her so unsure about this when there's a part of her deep down that just wants to accept it. "No one helps each other on Jakku, you're lucky if someone moves your body if you drop dead in the sand."
But Furiosa means it, and she's starting to learn to trust people here. Putting her faith in them is still difficult, but it's a step she wants to learn to take.
"If were in it together, that means this goes both ways. You have to let me help you too."
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She agrees, with an approving nod.
"We're doing the impossible, here. It takes standing on one anothers' shoulders."
Which she trusts. Believes in. Wants to relearn, since the last few years haven't precisely given her the chance for it.
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She's never had anyone to ask for help, so dealing with her own problems is just something Rey does without considering other paths to take. It's been her, only her, since she was five years old and that's a habit that won't be easily broken.
With support from someone like Furiosa, though, it doesn't seem quite so impossible.
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She says, with a thin smile.
"That's my last bit of advice- expect to feel yourself change. Don't resent it. You're asking them to, after all."
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She surprises herself a little, admitting that, but it is true.
"Do you think you've changed much since coming here?"
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She admits, thinking it over.
"I think I came here scowling and wary."
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"I don't see much of a scowl now," Rey says, smiling a little as she glances towards the other woman. "In fact, I think I'd call you nice."
(no subject)