uncertain_dume | MCA #3, Wednesday Morning

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MCA #3, Wednesday Morning

Kanan had gone to bed last night satisfied with the direction his week seemed to be headed. Already Tuesday and he'd mustered the will to ask a Master for any help she could give him in getting him back on the right track, and his new favorite recreational activity had traded in the Bloodwine selection for a juice bar. He'd set his new training remote by his holocron in a drawer in the room he shared with Hera, and he'd just sort of collapsed into bed, pleasantly exhausted, after putting forth minimal effort to at least shrug out of his armor and remove his weapons.

Caleb had woken up the next morning, still clothed in his robes, blinking hazily up at the ceiling. Mygeeto had been... eventful. He'd gotten his first kill in battle, and there had been no glory or satisfaction in it-- only the chewing hurt that had come in the wake of the pain and fear and anger he'd felt when Sear had killed Stance with a sudden shot to the back. Yesterday had involved a battle, and then a funeral, and then an emergency trip back home so that Master Billaba could heal up after her fight with Grievous. He'd collapsed in bed without so much as changing, and so waking up today still wearing his robes was more or less to be expected.

Less expected was the pair of Twi'lek lekku that he first saw when he opened his eyes. Caleb blinked at them blearily in the dim morning light. Had he stumbled into Sammo's bed by mistake? No way, Sammo would never let him live that down. But then the dog jumped up onto the bed to join them, having noticed he was awake, and--

There wasn't really much else for it. Kanan Jarrus had fallen in to the bed last night, and this morning, with a start, Caleb Dume was unceremoniously falling out of it.

"Ow."

[OOC: For she who lives there!]

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Hera woke at the thud, quickly assessed things, noticed they weren't in danger, and relaxed.

"Kanan?" she called, a little amused. "You okay down there? It wasn't my fault this time."

The voice that replied to Hera, from down on the floor, was decidedly more puzzled and was lacking a certain sort of timbre that she might have been expecting otherwise.

"Kanan? Your fault? Wh-- hey!"

Sorry, this confusion was being interrupted by a dog climbing up onto Caleb in order to try to lick his face clean off.

That...wasn't quite Kanan's voice. Hera sat up and scooted over to his side of the bed, looking down.

OH. Okay. So, she seemed fine, but Kanan was...this. Who was still obviously Kanan - his ~~eyebrows~~ face was pretty distinct.

She blinked down at him. "Hi."

Caleb's eyebrows were great, excuse you.

"Uh," he attempted, and mostly failed, to try to get the dog back out of his lap. "Hi?"

Seriously, he had no clue what was going on right now, but there was a really pretty girl staring at him over the edge of the bed and here he was, being tackled by a... bright... wolf... thing. That mostly just wanted to slobber on him.

They were great! Just very distinctive (with apologies to Eliot).

"Hi," Hera repeated, then shook her head. "Do you know me? I'm Hera."

Caleb shook his head, still a little bewildered, and then reached out to shake her hand. Awkwardly.

"Caleb," he offered. "I, uh, I usually don't wake up next to people I don't know, I swear."

Or anybody. He was the tiniest Jedi.

"I know, I - Caleb?" The name hit her after a second. That was different. "Okay. And no, we're friends. Only you're older when I know you." Oh, this was going to be a fun explanation.

"You're in a place that does weird things sometimes. I've woken up as a boy before, you've woken up as a girl, we've woken up as other species. Apparently you're a younger you now. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true."

"A younger me," Caleb echoed, staring up at her as the dog attempted to try to lick inside his ear. Oh, that was weird. He squirmed a little, but frowned and looked up at her again anyway. "... You know I should just tell you that you've gone barvy and then try to find my way back home, right?"

But...

"But you aren't lying."

So. This was weird.

"I'm not," Hera agreed. She made an exasperated noise and tried pulling the dog back. "Stance, stop that. He's just excited because you're down at his level," she explained, climbing out of bed. "Stand up, you'll be fine." She offered him her hand again.

"Stance?" Well. That came out a little too tightly in Caleb's throat. He looked at the dog, bit his lip, and then reached for the offered hand before he could get tackled again. "His name is Stance?"

Well. That was a wound that was still a little more raw than he would have liked to admit.

"Yes?" Hera looked at him curiously. "You named him that. I don't know why." She just stopped herself from asking; if it wasn't something Kanan had told her, she didn't want to take advantage of this.

"He's a good dog, though." She ruffled the hair on Stance's head. "He's a dog," she added. "This place has weird canines."

"This dog's a wolf," Caleb said quietly, looking down at the happy pup. "Why is the dog a wolf?"

It was easier to ask completely unrelated questions than to stand there hurting. But there was a tightness in his throat and a burning in his eyes, and he was reaching up a hand to swipe the sleeve of his robe across his eyes anyway.

"I think maybe people here are just confused about... about dogs."

Edited 2018-06-06 15:38 (UTC)

Oh, tiny Kanan. Whatever the story was about this, Hera was glad she hadn't pressed.

"I think maybe they are," she agreed. "I've seen a few of what they call dogs here, and they all look more like wolves. No scales or anything."

She paused, thinking. "Want to come help me feed him? We can get ourselves some breakfast, too."

"Yeah," Caleb replied, pulling in a deep breath and running his fingers through his hair. Okay. Composure. Pulling it together. See? He was fine. He was a Jedi. Of course he was fine. "Please. That would be good. I haven't had a good meal in a couple of days."

He hadn't had an appetite yesterday at all.

"Well, I can't promise this one will be good," Hera said wryly, "but I'll do my best." She led the way into the kitchen. "We've got eggs and bacon and toast, anyway."

She found Stance's food and set it on the counter. "You can fill his dish, if you want." She pointed to it. "I'll get started on the rest."

"I've been eating Republic rations for months," Caleb said easily. "You could probably scrape something off the backside of a bantha and I'd be thrilled with it right now."

He reached for the bag of dog food, gave it a little shake, and was almost immediately tackled by an enthusiastic pup all over again. At least this time, it earned a laugh.

"C'mon, buddy, I can't pour this if I can't get to your bowl."

"Oh, good. I think I can best the backside of a bantha, anyway," Hera said, grinning.

She got out the juice and food and started in on everything, leaving Kanan to take care of Stance.

"It is a really low bar," Caleb agreed, attempting to navigate around the dog for another few moments before just kind of closing his eyes and reaching out to him. See? If he just took a seat for a second, he could give him food. Maybe he'd even overfill his dish as a treat? Was that a treat? How full was too full?

Whatever he'd done, Stance was quite happy to park his butt for a minute while Caleb filled his dish to practically overflowing, and then nodded and gestured that it was fine to have at it.

Stance dove for it.

Hera smiled back at them both as she got everything into the pan. She had no idea how much this version of Kanan would eat, so decided on just as much as adult him. And then added a little extra, since he said he hadn't had a good meal in a while.

Rations. He'd been on Republic rations. And he was how young? Oh. Hera realized what must be going on and barely stopped herself from throwing her arms around him and hugging him for dear life.

She took a deep breath to make sure of her voice. "You're fighting the Separatists, then?"

There were a few moments of quiet before Caleb replied to that.

"Yeah," he said, finally. "We're fighting the Separatists. We have a little bit of leave right now while my Master recovers, though. She took two of Grievous' hands, but he did a pretty bad number on her back in the process."

Which were all easier things to talk about than a lot of the rest of it.

"We chased him off, though. I mean. She'll be fine. She's pulled through from worse."

And now he was babbling.

"I'm really glad to hear that," Hera said. "Ryloth's not exactly getting off easy, either, but I know everyone's doing their best."

She came and handed him a glass of juice. "It's orange," she explained. "Not just the color, that's the name of the fruit. It's not too imaginative, but it tastes good anyway."

"I'm sorry we haven't been able to do more for you," Caleb replied, and he meant it, deeply, as he reached for the glass. "I've been to Kardoa and then Mygeeto, and the time between missions seems to take forever while we recover. The Separatists really will do anything. They tried to blow up the temple last year."

He'd faced both Sears. He'd watched both Sears die.

"Your Master Windu helped a lot," Hera said. "We still get skirmishes sometimes, but without the Jedi's help, a lot more twi'leks might have died. Even my father had to admit that."

She went back to turn the bacon and stir the eggs. Hope you liked them scrambled, little Kanan, because that was what you were getting.

Little Kanan would take whatever food was put in front of him, would be briefly confused by most of it, but would absolutely eat it without complaint.

"He's not a fan of Jedi?"

Hey, he could understand that. Maybe not well, but he'd felt just how sincere the Separatists were in their contempt for everything the Order stood for since they'd become involved in the war. It wasn't hard, from there, to imagine how some people might feel when the Jedi didn't deal with the threat quickly enough, or with few enough casualties, or when they simply couldn't at all. There were a lot of expectations riding on those robes, Force or no.

Edited 2018-06-07 01:30 (UTC)

Hera smiled over at him. There was an edge of bitterness to it, but it wasn't directed at Caleb. "It's not personal. He doesn't really trust anyone that doesn't put twi'leks first, last, and only."

Caleb chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment at that, then kind of ducked his head and stared down at his juice. He'd try it in a moment, really.

"I suppose that's his right," he settled on. "But what's happening on Ryloth isn't only happening on Ryloth. If we don't fight it everywhere we can, it's only going to get worse for everyone. Even the Twi'leks."

Hera's smile at that turned warm, and she risked the eggs for a minute to come over and put one hand over Kanan's. "I know. He doesn't quite understand that, but I know."

The touch of her hand on his was... it was warm. Gentle. Reassurring in a way Caleb had never really realized something so small could be. He blew out a little breath, tried on a little smile, and glanced back up at her.

"There are more worlds than there are battle-ready Jedi," he said, finally. "All we can do is our best. But none of us intend to do any less than that."

"I know," Hera said again. She did, too. And there would be so many fewer of them, but she couldn't let herself think of that.

Instead, she got back up and went to get plates. "I know you all do the very best you can."

Caleb watched her in silence for a moment before finally turning his gaze back down to his juice. He actually took a mouthful, this time. And it... wasn't bad. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but the citrus had been a pleasant surprise.

"But this war won't last forever," he noted, still staring down at his glass when he lowered it again. "Nothing ever does."

For better and for worse.

"Nothing ever does," Hera agreed.

She scooped the eggs and bacon onto two plates and brought them over, along with silverware.

"There you go. Better than a bantha's backside."

"See," Caleb smiled a little as he reached to take one of the plates, "I had faith you'd step over that bar."

That low, low bar.

"... Thank you for this."

"You're welcome," Hera answered. "We still have some meiloorun in the cooler if you want, too. And I don't share my melon with just anyone, you know. But everything in here is as much yours as mine, so help yourself whenever you like."

She did a quick mental inventory of everything, glad that the only holos with adult Kanan in them were on the Ghost. She didn't need to be answering questions about why he wasn't in robes.

"How did you get meiloorun on Earth?" Caleb sounded duly impressed. "... You don't know a clone named Big Mouth, do you? He can find them pretty much anywhere, no matter what."

And they were always a treat for a kid on rations, so Caleb appreciated them every time.

"I don't know anyone named Big Mouth," Hera said. "We just went to a market in the Mid Rim. Got meiloorun, caf, nerf, and a few other things Earth doesn't have much of." Plus they'd picked up medical supplies for Tarkintown, but that was another can of worms.

"Oh," Caleb replied, blinking. "... You have a ship, then?"

NEAT.

"Best ship in the galaxy," Hera said fondly. "The Ghost. She's a light freighter, perfect for grocery runs and checking out the local system."

"What system is this, anyway?" Caleb glanced toward the nearest window, curious. The best he was getting so far was that the sky was blue, apparently.

"From what I can tell, I think the locals call it the Sol system?" Hera shrugged. "Sol just means 'sun' in the language they named it. There's only humans for a native sentient race, as far as I can tell, and they don't really have space travel yet."

Caleb looked maybe the tiniest bit baffled, now.

"Wait... the Sol system? Do they not realize that suns are what make up every system? Some of them have several? How are there only humans if they don't have space travel? Maybe a stranded colonization attempt somewhere? But then you'd think they'd have evolved by now..."

He was going to just keep this up for a while.

"I guess their lack of space travel explains why I've never heard of it, but it doesn't really explain how we got here, does it? Without them getting all... afraid or something? How advanced are they?"

He looked around the kitchen.

"... I mean, they look like they're doing okay."

It was way more fancy than anywhere that he could picture himself living.

Hera laughed at all the questions. "Okay - they don't know of any other populated systems, and they can't get anywhere else, so theirs is the only one that matters to them."

She ticked the answers off on her fingers. "I don't know how there are only humans - they think they evolved here, and maybe they're right? We got here through portals, and I don't know how they work, but except for this island nobody seems to have heard of them.

"What was the last thing? Oh - they've just started to send ships into orbit and to their moon, and a few unmanned craft further out. They mostly have flat pictures and videos instead of holos, and their vehicles still use wheels, but they're not too badly off."

She... she had answered his questions? In point form? All of them?

Caleb's heart was doing weird little dizzy things that he was going to just pointedly never think about for the rest of his life, right then.

"So they're just getting started," he surmised, "but they're still more advanced, technologically, than... say... Ewoks, or the Lurmen."

If that was all it took, Caleb, a lot of things made sense.

"I don't think I know much about the Lurmen," Hera said, "but they're definitely more advanced here than Ewoks. Taller, too. And mostly less hairy." She ruffled his hair.

That's right. Kanan had managed to avoid becoming attached to somebody that way for most of his life because he'd secretly just been waiting all that time for someone to humor him.

... Plus she was really pretty and had a good head on her shoulders.

But definitely mostly that humoring part.

"Hey," Caleb protested, wrinkling his nose and reaching up to try to straighten out his hair. "Really?"

Hera grinned and wrinkled her nose back at him. "I can't help it. Humans are funny like that."

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MCA #3, Wednesday Morning

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