Society Said No, So I did it Anyway - Rogue One Oneshots

In Which Jyn is a Mill Worker

Song: Millworker by James Taylor

Now my grandfather was a sailor

He blew in off the water

My father was a farmer

And I, his only daughter

Jyn Erso was raised on a farm

 Her mother died when she was six so it was her and her father.

Sometimes her father's friend, Saw, would come and visit them, but he soon left after.

Her father would leave for large chunks of time, leaving Jyn with Saw. Jyn and Saw got along very well. 

One day, Saw took her up to see the lake in all its beauty. He had told her to pack for the night and she did. They settled into the little motel and Jyn's eyes closed.

When she awoke, there was a note on the bedside table wishing her well and good luck.

She hardened her heart after that.

Took up with a no good millworking man

From Massachusetts

She met Cassian at a bar. She was having a rough time

He bought her a drink and they started talking more after that

They had no one to go to their wedding except for three friends

Baze died of tuberculosis, Chirrut drowned months later

Bodhi fell into machinery and was never the same.

Who dies from too much whiskey

Cassian left to drink more and more, mourning the loss of his friends

Jyn was begging him to come home to their children

He died of poison.

And leaves me these three faces to feed

Jyn mourned but kept up her spirit for her children

She got herself a job for them

Millwork ain't easy

Millwork ain't hard

Millwork it ain't nothing

But an awful boring job

Every day is the same for Jyn

Clock in.

Work work work.

Break.

Work work work.

Come home for the dinner Carina cooks

I'm waiting on a daydream

To take me through the morning

She wishes she could leave everything behind

Become someone else

And put me in my coffee break

Where I can have a sandwich

Jyn sits in the small room, eating her packed food

Other people talk quietly to each other

And remember 

Then it's me and my machine

For the rest of the morning

And the rest of the afternoon

Jyn knows there won't be many other available jobs for her

And the rest of my life

Now my mind begins to wander

To the days back on the farm

Before her mother died there weren't many memories

Everything blurred together

I can see my father smiling at me

Swinging on his arm

But then he left her.

For something she didn't understand

I can hear my granddad's stories

Of the storms out on Lake Eerie

Where vessels and cargos and fortunes

And sailors' lives were lost

Everything Saw had was lost to him, including Jyn.

But it's my life has been wasted

She ruined her chances of another happiness

And her children's

And I have been the fool

Jyn chastises herself every day

To let this manufacturer

Use my body for a tool

She is tired always

I'll ride home in the evening

Staring at my hands

Swearing by my sorrow that a young girl

Ought to stand a better chance

When she left that farm, everything good and happy disappeared 

She thought there was hope when she finally met people who didn't leave her

But they did, in their own way

So may I work the mills just as long as I am able

And never meet the man whose name is on the label 

She needs more to provide

She won't ever get it.

Me and my machine

Jyn falls on her machine

It was an accident

For the rest of the morning

There is no funeral, they have no more money

She is buried next to Cassian

And the rest of the afternoon 

The mills are filled with her sorrow

For the rest of my life