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The Perk [Thursday morning]

With Chris at home screaming his way through getting his molars, there just wasn't a coffee big enough on the island for Anakin today.

"Yes, the large one," he told the skeptical barista. "In the bucket. Black."

Like his old helmet. Ahem.

[OOC: This is in no way life-as-RP. Rly. Open!]

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When finding yourself on a strange planet, one of the first things Aeryn was used to doing was finding the locals to see just what kind if crisis they were getting dragged into this time. So she'd searched till she found an establishing that looked like it had people in it and walked in.

All right, she had no idea what this place was supposed to be. Okay then.

Anakin grinned as he turned around--his Force-sense had ~~mis~~informed him about who was behind him. "Hello, stranger!"

No, really, Anakin, it's a stranger.

Aeryn didn't know what was worse: that friendly locals usually meant something terrible, or that she was going to get stuck trying to be polite. If polite was even something she could do. Of course that thought was put aside from the fact that a glance at the menu board told her that she didn't even recognize the writing on it.

"What is this place?" she asked, since maybe this person would be friendly enough for answers.

Anakin's Aeryn would be rolling (well, smiling slightly, at least) to think of him being thought of as a friendly local.

"This is the Perk," Anakin said, frowning. "Did Tal hit you with something?"

"Who?"

Oh, this was probably about to get interesting.

"Your son?" Anakin said slowly. "About so high? He took apart a sentient toaster and you gave him ice cream for a month?"

So the locals were friendly because they were crazy. Good to know upfront.

"I have no son," Aeryn said, eying him. "What is this 'the Perk'? I've never heard of a Sebacean colony there."

And it finally dawned on him (blame the lack of sleep and caffeine): "You have no idea who I am."

Aeryn just shook her head. Her expression had a tinge of 'you just figured that out' to it, though.

Anakin tried to remember the first time he'd met Aeryn: was it Logan's pool party that first week? It had been so many decades that she'd just been a part of his life that he felt weirdly nervous introducing himself again.

"I'm Anakin Skywalker," he began. "I'm the Dean of Students at the high school up at the castle at the top of all of these steps. You're on a planet called Earth," and he gave the navigation coordinates. "You didn't mean to be here?"

If you really wanted to floor Aeryn, tell her that.

"Earth," she repeated, eyes wide. "I'm on Earth?"

So, that'd be a no to meaning to be here. And the one person who did mean to be here of course wasn't with her.

"You're on Earth," Anakin confirmed, nodding. "On an island called Fandom."

Well, that was a lot of feelings she hadn't wanted to deal with today. She'd discovered already that she couldn't seem to get back to Moya the way she came, so running back to her Prowler to tell John wasn't the number one priority. And anyway, she didn't particularly want him to come back here, and she knew people's reactions to aliens now, and this wasn't somewhere she really wanted to be alone.

"You think you know me," she said slowly, because that was a good question to maybe help any panic building up. It was possible it'd make it worse.

Anakin nodded, smiling softly. "I know--and this will sound insane--a different version of you. You're one of my very best friends."

"You're right, that is insane. I don't have best friends." What she had now was debatable at almost any moment.

"I know," Anakin said. "Neither do I. We shoot children with paint pellet guns every month. It's a sport here."

Also: awesome.

That turned out to be a very different image in Aeryn's head than it actually was. For some reason.

"...Right. Listen, there was some sort of cloud I followed here, and now it's gone. Is there any way you know of to bring it back?"

Well, Anakin was bad at making friends, even friends he'd already made once?

"Not that I know of off the top of my head," he said, shifting back into being a pilot. "What kind of cloud?"

If it helped, she was a tad preoccupied right now.

"Cloudlike. Strange," Aeryn said with a shrug. See, this was why she should pay more attention to detail. "I was investigating it and ended up here."

Anakin wondered if this cloud was linked to all of the weird stuff that had been happening in the last few months, but he wasn't going to mention it. No need to spook Aeryn any further. "Can you get comms back to your people?" he asked. "You might be grounded for a while."

"Nothing so far. I lost communications once I went into the cloud. I think it was some sort of interference." She hoped. She so hoped. "I don't suppose you have any idea how long this grounding will be."

"I don't," Anakin said, sounding sympathetic. "I can show you where the hotel is, though, and the portal agency in town. Though I do have to warn you that Portalocity isn't exactly known for its reliability."

"A portal," she said dubiously. "How does that even work?"

If Earth had portals, she was sure John would have mentioned it over the years as a way to get home. Probably several dozen times.

"This island isn't like the rest of Earth," Anakin explained. "It's an interdimensional nexus, where various sentient beings--and talking pink ponies-" because Aeryn needed to be warned about Pinkie, "--from all over the universe end up here for school or work. Some of them didn't exactly plan on being here. Portalocity tries to connect us to the rest of the universe, but there's a lot of universe and sometimes things get screwed up."

"...Yes, of course, that's exactly what I needed today," Aeryn said dryly. "But you're saying I could get back?"

"I only know of one student who couldn't get through the portal," Anakin said, "and even that lifted after he graduated. You'll get to go home."

That was a relief... till Aeryn realized that she still had no idea where to go. She probably couldn't take a portal to Moya, and no matter where else she went she didn't have an easy way to find her way back there.

"That sounds great," she said, trying to keep hope alive because it was too depressing not to right this second.

Anakin knew Aeryn's expressions in general well enough not to push this one. "Do you want to try a coffee?" he offered.

"No," she said automatically. Then, "What is it?"

"Warm caffeine," Anakin said. "It's the preferred food of people here. It comes in varying degrees of sweet, but I like it just plain."

Freak.

"Are you paying?"

Friendliest ever.

Anakin laughed. "Yeah, I can pay."

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The Perk [Thursday morning]

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