uncertain_dume | MCA #3, Friday Afternoon

Entry tags:

MCA #3, Friday Afternoon

... You know what? Kanan was an adventurous guy, sure. But not even having a magical raccoon tail that let him fly was enough incentive to go and stand in the park working on his lightsaber forms today. And so, after class, he made his way back home, avoiding the swooping sun and flying over the quicksand (thanks propeller butt) and just settling in on the floor in the living room to meditate.

With a dog in a frog suit jumping on him every so often, demanding playtime.

He took that in stride. Mostly, he was getting increasingly more worried about Rey. As the day wore on without another check-in, he was seriously edging toward getting Chopper to help slice his phone to see if he could pinpoint exactly which reality he was going to have to get himself a Portalocity ticket to. One week of silence, he could reason away with things being a little more exciting than usual on Jakku. Two weeks? That was unlike Rey.

If nothing else, maybe she just needed a new phone?

He could hope it was that.

Hell, it wasn't that, was it?

[OOC: Open for calls or if you have any reason to be visiting his apartment! CW: Thread with Jack contains frank talk of alcoholism and self-destructive behaviour.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Don't worry, Jack. No matter who I become, I'll still happily join you on trips to the corner store to get weird Earth candy."

Once a trash man, always a trash man, apparently.

Had to lean into the lighter tone. Was beginning to fidget, to pass his shirt from hand to hand.

"Oh goody," she said dryly, "Because I don't think we've introduced you to circus peanuts yet." She was able to let go and step back. Actually noticed the clothing and gave a quiet snort of amusement. "Shit. I think I owe Kaidan money. Put your shirt on and stop showing off your quarter-bounce belly, Kanan."

And Kanan replied to that with an amused little snort before pulling his shirt on again.

"Credit-bounce back home," he mused. "I might prefer quarters, though. Credits have corners."

Ah, light banter. This was far, far more comfortable territory, right here.

"Your stomach's not that great," Jack teased him, also leaning hard into the banter and away from.. you know.. feelings. "Our credits are circles too."

Beat.

"Sorry about your fursuit."

"My what?"

Furries weren't really things where he was from, apparently.

"The 'I'm pretending I'm a raccoon' onesie you were wearing," Jack said.

Helpfully.

"Kind of what started this shit today."

"I've been thinking of it as a Loth-cat," Kanan offered. "The tail's about the same."

Look, he'd been one before.

Multiple times.

He was allowed to make that call.

"... I'm afraid to ask how having a tail and fluffy ears wound up with you showing up at my door and making me strip," he added.

"Huh," Jack said when she thought about it, "Yeah, it would be wouldn't it? Ok. Tooka fursuit."

You're welcome.

"Kaidan's having a shitty month." Understaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatement. "I asked him if he'd seen you in the suit and wondered what you were wearing under it. Trying to make him do the flailing 'stop making me picture people naked' dance, you know?" She lifted a shoulder, "Backfired. He called it about you being fully dressed. When I said 'or not', he said when you're naked he can see the scars. He was a medic. So. I mean. He told me." What that scar meant. Why it hurt Kaidan to think about it too much. Because he knew, too, what had come after. And he knew what that meant better than Jack did.

Beat.

"So yeah, he's doing great today too." Nope. "I'm awesome." Said in the tone of 'it's opposite day'.

Well... Hell, that story was a journey from start to finish, wasn't it? Kanan frowned a little, stooping down to pick his armor up from the floor. He considered it a moment, and then tossed it over to the couch. He'd pull it on again later. Fumbling with fasteners while everything was made of squares was a pain in the ass anyway.

"First serious injury I ever got," Kanan noted. "Named my dog after the reason it didn't kill me. Everything that came between..." Sigh. "You didn't know. Wouldn't have. It isn't like I've ever stripped down for you and outlined every time I've nearly died before."

Long pause.

"Or all the stoopa poodoo I've done that could've killed me since. Kaidan knows I'm not in that place anymore, at least. I was dry since... just before he wound up on the island, actually. Over a year now. Year and a half, almost."

Which meant, mostly, that he'd been treating himself like mostly disposable shit until that recently.

Jack nodded and shrugged a shoulder. "He knows. He said as much. But he doesn't know about New Years. I didn't tell him because it didn't matter." She'd stolen the drink. "It matters to me. You matter. No more stupid shit, ickle. It'll hurt more than you now." A beat, "And it'll really hurt you because I will kick your ass, do you hear me?"

"No more stupid shit," Kanan agreed, smiling wryly. "I hear you loud and clear, Jack."

Hell, she'd piffed away his tooka suit over terrible life choices made before he'd met her or Kaidan. He didn't doubt she'd beat him senseless if he pulled that nonsense again.

"And Jack? Thanks. For the check-in. For New Year's. For being family."

He used to drink because he'd had nobody and nothing. Not even himself.

That wasn't true, now.

"You're stuck with us," Jack shrugged. "If anyone in this family's going to be a self-destructive, adrenaline junkie binge drinker, it's gonna be me. You're better than me. You've got a future and you're going to do a lot of people a lot of good while you're here so let's keep your ass in the game as long as we can." Another shrug, "Gives me a future too and I'm a selfish bitch."

It gave her a purpose. Being around for them - all of them. Making sure nothing took them out early. Shepard had been more than fucking enough. She wasn't sure she could take losing another of them but being the vanguard for any of 'em, making sure she was around to watch their back? That was a thing she could do. Maybe the only thing she'd ever really been good at. She was pretty sure if the Cerberus shitheads, if any of those program people from Teltin could see what she was doing with her life, they'd consider it a failure.

But.. She didn't. Not anymore. That wasn't nothin'.

"And anything that keeps you in the game longer, Kaidan and I will appreciate," Kanan noted. "Might make me selfish too."

Having people to live for?

To die for, maybe, but to live for?

That was still so damn new.

"Good, be selfish," Jack laughed at him, "about damn time you learned you're able to have things for yourself and not like.. some ascetic monk who drinks yak-butter tea or some shit."

So. You know. Like most Jedi.

"And someday you'll get some actual furniture up in this bitch. Kanan, what the hell?"

Kanan glanced around the living room. A sofa. A coffee table.

Hera kinda insisted they be there.

"... What? It's fine to me?"

It was way too much to keep track of.

Jack arched an eyebrow, "Yeah, because you were raised like the aforesaid ascetic monk. One of these days, I'm taking you shopping."

Run, Kanan.

Kanan paused for a long moment at that.

"This isn't going to end with me trying to put together furniture for a week, is it?"

Because he remembered Kaidan's IKEA haul, Jack.

Be lucky you hadn't been tagged in for hers. "I don't know," Jack smirked at him, "How fast can you put together furniture?" She bumped his shoulder with hers, "Nah. We'll get you some shit for the walls and another chair, maybe a dining table and chairs."

"I had a perfectly good dining table until the shark storm," Kanan muttered.

He'd just fixed that wobbly leg, too.

"... What would I put on the walls?"

"And that was how long ago?" Jack asked pointedly. "Art, Kanan. You put art on the walls. Pictures of things you like to look at."

Beat.

"So, you know, we should probably frame some pictures of Hera." Mostly teasing. Hera lived here too, after all, and she might be confused to see her own face on the walls.

Beat.

"Maybe a Tooka. Kaidan got a really good shot of you with a stuffed Tooka in your mouth.."

Ahem. Kanan wasn't blushing. Shut up.

"... Please don't make me stare at myself as a tooka for the rest of my time on the island, Jack. I already have a portrait of me that way in my office, you know."

Thanks, Sabine!

"Wait, you do?" Jack laughed, "How have I never seen this? I haven't seen your office, now I'm gonna have to go look at it. But fine, fine, no Tooka. You can change art around, you know. Isn't like you glue it to the walls, Kanan."

Beat.

"You don't. Use glue, I mean. You put in a nail or tack and the back of the frame has a wire you hang it from. We can get you pictures of like, your ship or something instead. Maybe the Ghost too. Yeah?"

"Sabine painted it there, it's on the inside of my office door," Kanan sighed. It was him, at the Homecoming carnival, soaked and miserable.

It was adorable.

"But I think Hera would like that. The Ghost, I mean..."

"So we get some shots of it in orbit, yeah? Not difficult," Jack shrugged, "Get some of the Escape too, nice nebula backdrop or some shit, make it artsy."

"'Artsy,'" Kanan echoed, looking amused. "You know somebody with a good camera?"

A photographer, he was not. "I suppose I could ask Sabine to paint them both. She's probably hurting for something to do when the island isn't trying to kill us all."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject