MCA #3, Saturday Morning

[uncertain_dume]

Well, this was an awkward way to wake up.

That was the first thought through his head as he realized he wasn't in the bed alone. There was somebody else in that bed with him - lekku, warm to the touch, a Twi'lek, though he couldn't dredge up a name for her if his life depended on it - and just the fact that he was waking up half-curled around a person whose name he couldn't even remember was enough to jolt him awake just that little bit more.

There was something at the food of the bed, too and a quick glance down didn't betray much in the dim morning light beyond that it was some kind of animal, maybe the Twi'lek girl's pet? Which meant that he was definitely the one intruding here. Made sense. He didn't recognize the room, either. Couldn't even remember the situation that put him here in the first place.

Hell, he must've been pretty drunk last night, then. Couldn't remember the girl, the place, how he even got to be here...

His own name...?

"Wait, what?"

Oh, he had a bad feeling about this.

[OOC: For that lovely green lady! Or any visitors that might take place after the Hera thread!]

Comments

[uncertain_dume]

The apartment was... sparse. The furniture it came with, mostly. Very little in the way of personal belongings, at least that seemed to be Kanan's.

Lots of dog toys, though. Stance was a lucky boy, already trotting into the apartment to pick up his favorite plush flying saucer toy to show it off to Kaidan. See how great it was? It had been chewed right to hell and it was the best.

"I know what caf is," Kanan promised, smiling crookedly. "The 'what' of things seems to be a bit swing and miss. The 'how' in a lot of cases is straightforward. It's the 'why' that I'm having difficult time with. If... that makes sense. I'm not completely sure it made sense to me and I'm the one who just said it."

[spectre_alenko]

And Kaidan was absolutely down for a game of tug with Stance. He nodded at Kanan, "It makes sense. Seems to me that the amnesia flu didn't blank you down completely but targeted just the personal stuff. Which is better than it could've been."

He laughed a little helplessly, "And, Kanan? 'Why' is always your favorite question. You run your brain down so many rabbit holes asking that question.. but I probably know most of the immediate answers. Which 'why' did you need right now?"

[uncertain_dume]

"There's going to be a lot," Kanan warned, hand reaching up to run awkwardly through his hair. "Everything from, 'why do I know caf but I didn't even know my dog is a dog?' to, 'why am I so calm about this?' It doesn't feel right, but it feels safe and I don't know how to explain that without sounding...?"

He waved a hand around.

"Either crazy or blindly optimistic, but it doesn't feel like either."

[spectre_alenko]

"There always is a lot of 'why's," Kaidan grinned. He followed the familiar Caleb gesture of hand through hair and offered, "Do you want a hair tie? You probably have a million of them around here."

The rest.. He tilted his head and asked, "What's the word 'Jedi' mean to you?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Hm? Oh, I... probably. It'll keep me from eating it every time I open my mouth. Thanks," Kanan replied, vaguely.

It was awful and he had no idea why he didn't just cut it. Problem solved.

The rest, indeed. He opened his mouth to reply, and had to close it again, frowning a bit at the weird pang in his chest.

"Apparently, it means an awful lot."

Good to know.

"Explains a bit, too."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan nodded slowly. "Yeah. You're reacting to what you feel in the Force. That's why you're calm and you know you're safe. If you get a bad feeling about something, Kanan? Listen to it."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan nodded slowly.

"Follow my guts," he echoed. "That, I can do."

That instinct was about all he really had for certain, besides whatever he was being told now. It didn't seem like much of a stretch from there.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan threw him a lopsided smile, "You usually do. The reason you know caf is because there's caf where you're from. The dog is an Earth thing and from what I gather, you don't have Earth where you're from. That's this planet. So I suspect that things regular to your, er, home, will be things you remember but stuff you learned since coming to the Island won't show up. Maybe. Not real sure."

Lifted a shoulder, "Example? What species is Hera?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Twi'lek," Kanan supplied immediately.

...

"Okay, point taken. So, what's Earth, exactly? The system, the galaxy...?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan smiled wryly. "Milky Way galaxy, Sol system, Earth in this galaxy is the only inhabited planet. Which is going to be real strange for you to hear right now. That's not how it is where you're from, not even where I'm from."

[uncertain_dume]

"Huh. You've named your galaxy," Kanan intoned, faintly amused. "... And it sounds like a whipped dessert or something."

See? Earth continued to be cute.

[spectre_alenko]

"That's because we've got more than one galaxy, though even in my time, so far as we know only the Milky Way is inhabited," Kaidan said wryly.

[uncertain_dume]

"That sounds like a weird thing to assume," Kanan replied, frowning thoughtfully. "I mean, my galaxy has hundreds of thousands of different sentient species alone. What would have to happen for an entire galaxy to be completely devoid of life?"

[spectre_alenko]

"A lack of evolution," Kaidan said dryly, "This is a very young system compared to yours, from what I understand. It's also different than the Sol system in mine, which isn't the only system that's inhabited."

[uncertain_dume]

"That sounds a little more like it."

A pause.

"Your galaxy also has a Sol system?"

His head hurt.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan took a breath. "Yeah. This island is kind of a weird nexus that links a bunch of different realities. My system's pretty much a mirror of this one, only mine isn't empty." He lifted a shoulder, "Jack has a picture of this one set up in the holosuite downstairs if you wanted to check it out."

[uncertain_dume]

"Holosuite? Oh, she's got a starmap up?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded.

"Sure, I'd love to see that. And then maybe you can explain 'nexus of different realities' for those of us who woke up without names or context for pretty much anything this morning."

[spectre_alenko]

"Yup," Kaidan agreed, "Though I'm going to be a jerk and not explain the nexus thing because it'd take until Monday and by then you'll remember everything about it anyway. To sum it up: Lots of people from lots of different places and times and realities all living on one little island on this planet."

[uncertain_dume]

See Kanan. See Kanan's eyes go wide in awe.

"That sounds... amazing! All of them bringing their own histories, their own philosophies, their own discoveries with them? And they all just... gather here? We've all just gathered here?"

He wanted to sit EVERYONE down and ask them so many questions.

So many.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan laughed helplessly. He couldn't help it, that was pure Caleb right there. It was a delight and it was also painful because he knew how Kanan would feel about it in the morning. This was who his friend might have been.

If the Empire hadn't basically murdered this future.

"Yeah, buddy. We have. You'll remember all about it on Monday but if you've got more 'why', go ahead and throw it at me. I'm used to it."

[uncertain_dume]

"I'll start making a list," Kanan promised, grinning. Noticing that pang of... something... vaguely. Kaidan seemed troubled. It sobered up his own enthusiasm slightly. "How long until Monday is it, anyway?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Two days, buddy," Kaidan assured him, "24 hour days here, so probably about 40 hours left?"

He watched Kanan sober up and could basically guess why. "You'll remember everything on Monday, Kanan." Both a promise and a mild warning, "It'll all come at you hard because when you have weekends like this it always does. I've been there for a couple of 'em now so.. y'know.. I'm looking forward to having you back at peak-Kanan on Monday but also wishing you didn't have to get kicked in the head with the memories again. That's all it is."

The weird feeling you were no doubt picking up from him.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan eyed Kaidan for a long moment, processing that.

"Must be some memories."

He ran a hand through his hair. Sighed and reached to wrestle the toy from Stance as the dog pranced around with it, just daring him to try.

"I guess whatever comes, comes."

He would be Kanan on Monday, for sure.

Probably less with the 'peak.'

[spectre_alenko]

More like peaked meaning sick-looking, yeah.

"Yeah," Kanan agreed quietly, "But there's some good ones in there, too. You'll be ok. You've been through this exact same shit before. I just, y'know, hate that you have to."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan reached out to rest a hand on Kaidan's shoulder. Offered him a small, crooked smile.

"The fact that I'm going to have to means I've done some living, that's all," he said, gently. "I'll still be here when the remembering is out of the way. Like you said... I'll be ok."

Eventually.

But he'd get there.