MCA #3, Monday Morning

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan hadn't really intended to last night, but there'd been a dog and a busy work shift and a lot of thinking to do with not a whole hell of a lot of answers, and while his day had ended with him falling asleep on the couch wondering why the hell a Jedi would carry a blaster and hide his lightsaber, this morning had brought a certain sort of clarity to the answer that had led to a good few minutes biting back the rising taste of bile in his throat as the last ten years of his life all caught up to him again.

He was dimly aware that maybe he should check on people. Make sure Hera was doing fine, call up Kaidan and let hm know he had checked back in, mentally. Do the same with Jack and Kitty and see how Eliot was faring after the weekend. But instead he was just sort of sitting on the couch, eyes shut, hands buried in his too-short hair while he quietly reminded himself that Jedi didn't hate, even if in this moment, he very thoroughly hated this island, this morning, and the person he'd become, instead of the person he apparently could have been.

... And his hair.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

First thing Kaidan did when he woke up was check on Kanan. He'd check in on Jono later.

He sent him a text, figuring that Kanan could ignore it if he needed to but factoring in his curiosity for at least checking it.

"You need breakfast or anything?"

[uncertain_dume]

Took Kanan a few minutes, yeah.

"I might need something a little more stiff than breakfast."

Shut up.

He didn't care.

[spectre_alenko]

Uh huh. Well.

"Buddy, we don't have that kind of friendship." Unlike Jack, he did go for the low-hanging fruit.

"I can bring juice and blueberry muffins and company, if that'll do for now?"

[uncertain_dume]

Sure, I'll take those, too.

He probably should have mentioned the hair.

... Nah.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan squinted at that. Right. Keeping Kanan away from booze today.

He went on a quest for muffins and juice and craft sodas because he was totally a hipster at heart.

"Blueberry or banana chocolate chip?"

The second he sent that, he realized the answer.

"Nevermind. I'll get both. See you in a few."

[uncertain_dume]

Catch you then.

It would give him a few more minutes to just sit on the sofa holding his head in his hands. that was great, right?

[spectre_alenko]

It didn't take all that long and then he was kicking lightly on the apartment door. His arms were full of a big paper grocery bag. Probably best not to ask how he'd bypassed the door at ground level.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Congrats on having a cell phone straight up blowing up that morning, BDG, because Summer had almost stopped mid-Sparkle-radio to shoot the following text, but her curiousity and a need to just sort of process what she'd heard once she got back from the Rickmergency^TM of the weekend delayed it from being completely immediate.

I DEMAND PICTURES.

And Rick owed her big time for making her miss out on experiencing this first-hand.

[uncertain_dume]

Nothing like Summer and all-caps to break up a perfectly good session of trauma heaped onto a vague sense of humiliation.

... Kanan had kind of needed it.

And so the reply didn't come in words, so much as a selfie that was trying a little too hard to not look vaguely distraught.

Much short hair. Such clean shave. Wow.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Wow didn't even begin to cover it, BDG.

And Summer's response was definitely a bit delayed, especially for a Summer-response, not because she was particularly busy at the store, but because she kind of needed to focus on remembering how to breathe again after laughing so hard. It wasn't even initially that bad, but then she went and looked at it again, and that made it worse, and then again, which made it even worse, and the next thing she knew, she was pretty sure she was dying.

And how do you even respond to that? Maybe, in a way, Grampa Rick had actually save Summer by stealing her away this weekend, because she almost died from the picture. She definitely would be a ghost haunting some clean-shaven bus driver's flat ass right now if she'd seen this in the flesh.

But, eventually, the response came:

No.

But it was followed almost immediately by:

Actually it's not all that bad. Who knew there was actually someone kinda cute hidden underneath all that bad hair?

But it was suuuuuper weird.

[uncertain_dume]

I was vaguely aware. Once this grows back, the cute's gone for good, though. Never again.

Another few moments, and then he added another text.

I look way too much like I did at fifteen.

This was bad for a few reasons. The very least of which being that, you know, he looked kinda fifteen. At least his jaw had filled out some since then?

[somethingwithturquoise]

And Summer briefly wondered if all of BDG's super-special-Jedi-power-thingies could pick up on a faint sympathetic smile and a mental head-pat over text, because both things were definitely there.

Want me to scour the shelves? Im sure there's got to be something here that might help with rapid hair growth. and if not: ski masks. or we should have a shipment of fake green beards coming in any day now for st. patricks day

She was a problem solver, that Summer. And, yeah, that face was definitely a problem.

[uncertain_dume]

Just what I need, a green beard.

... Well, according to the island he'd have a son with green hair someday, so that wasn't entirely outside of the realm of possibility.

I just need to keep my head down for a bit. Isn't like it takes too long to grow a bit of a beard back. The hair'll take a little longer, but... hell, I mostly wore it long so I could pull it tight back.

Maybe he'd luck out and stumble over a wallaby! Not that he knew what a wallaby was.

[futurespacemom]

Hera woke up that morning, took a minute or two to realize that everything was fine, then realized Kanan wasn't in bed and went looking for him.

It didn't take long to find him.

"Well...that's a look."

That hadn't mysteriously disappeared on Monday, apparently.

[uncertain_dume]

"It's very..." Kanan was quiet for a few moments, scraping his mind for words. He settled on, "Caleb."

Fitting enough, he supposed. Inconvenient.

He ran his fingers through his hair and heaved a sigh.

"But hair grows."

[futurespacemom]

"it does," Hera agreed. She sat next to him and wrapped an arm around his waist. "You grew it once, you can grow it again."

Or get extensions.

[uncertain_dume]

... He was not getting extensions.

Kanan sighed and leaned against her, nodding a bit.

"Yeah, I'm not worried about that," he admitted. "Might have to do a few missions on the ship or wearing a bucket where I can, though."

At least until his beard came back in some.

[futurespacemom]

"We'll find some of those," Hera agreed, leaning right back. "Or get you a mask or something. Pretend you're Kel Dor," she teased.

[uncertain_dume]

"Pretend I'm Vidian," Kanan countered, raising his eyebrows. "Wouldn't that be fun?"

... No.

Never.

Not in any reality for any reason.

[biotic_psychotic]

You're also getting a text from Jack because she'd seen that hair.

How much screaming did you do when you looked in the mirror?

Also were you ok and did you need anything. Those parts she kind of inconveniently left out.

[uncertain_dume]

Haven't looked in the mirror yet. Remember the haircut just fine without.

He was far, far too Caleb. It was twisting around in his chest, wanting to come out as a scream anyway.

Hair grows.

Hair grows. Hair grows...

[biotic_psychotic]

It'll grow back. At least it doesn't look quite so much like a blind guy took a knife to it anymore. We could always shave it more.

No, Jack.

[uncertain_dume]

Hey, now. It had looked much better than it would when a blind guy actually did decide to take a knife to it. In a cave. As you do.

That's fine. It's plenty short already. I'll get... product or something to keep it out of my eyes once it's started to grow. Getting it that long again will be a great time.

Keeping his entire head covered back home. He predicted a lot of undercover runs as a Stormtrooper in his near future.

[biotic_psychotic]

You can always borrow some of Kaidan's hair goop. He buys that shit in bulk.

He did not.

Need me to get you a hat?

Or anything.

[uncertain_dume]

Depends on the hat.

Or whatever.