fandomtownies | The Park, Friday Afternoon

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The Park, Friday Afternoon

The island was quiet. Kanan's usual Friday student was in some snowy place somewhere, and the weather was, while not ideal, at least not raining on his head.

Hera was a nexu. Stance continued to be a dog. A dog who wanted to play with the nexu.

So, Kanan could come to the park to run through lightsaber forms, but instead he was going to come to the park to let Stance chase the ducks and let Hera... probably eat the ducks. He was not going to be the stupid person who tried to tell a four-eyed, two-tailed, giant quilled cat with a mouth like a bear trap what to do at the park. Just so long as she wasn't eating his dog, he was going to consider it a win.

He was going to have to do so much explaining to Chopper at some point about why Hera wasn't at the scrapyard for her shift today, but he was going to do that... later. For now he had found himself a place on the grass to meditate while the two critters wreaked havoc behind him.

He was keeping an eye on them, honest. In a manner of speaking.

[OOC: Open if there's anyone left on the island!]

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Kanan paused for a moment himself.

"... In fairness, I'm pretty sure Hera turning into an animal is strange even by Earth standards. Back home, there are some races that can shapeshift, but that isn't quite the same thing."

He looked down at Hera thoughtfully. She was licking one wickedly-clawed paw, not seeming to care much about the two humans who were chatting about her, or the dog who was trying to get her attention.

"And she isn't one of them," he added. "I was mostly talking about things like the technology and the customs. The island's weirdness is something else entirely."

"The technology is really primitive." Seivarden shook her head. She guessed they would agree on that. "And most of the customs are completely impossible to understand. At least you can find decent tea, if you look for it. Unless you go to that tea shop."

Kanan broke into a little laugh at that.

"What, the Perk? Pretty sure that's because it's a coffee shop, not a tea shop," he offered. "Hell, the stuff I drink is closer to coffee than tea is, and they can't even get me a decent cup of that." He paused, and then added, "Come to think of it, I have yet to meet somebody who can actually get what they ordered from that place, unless they walk in and order whatever's seasonal."

Which, this time of year, meant pumpkin spice. Which Kanan was fine with, but sometimes he just wanted a damn cup of caf.

"So it's not just me, then."

Although by now Seivarden had become quite unpopular among the baristas.

"You would expect there to be another place by now, considering the service. They have tea, I can't see why they can't at least try to make it decently."

Kanan shrugged his shoulders at that.

"I imagine if you were to ask them to put in a special order, they'd at least consider it. If not, there are other places that serve tea that you might have luck with. J,GoB, that pastry shop? They usually have coffee and tea to go with what they're serving. A few of the restaurants, too. Come into Luke's, I'm sure Eliot would be more than willing to put in an order for whatever it is you're looking for, even if we do mostly do food there."

"Lukes? Is that a place where you work?"

That sounded potentially promising, and she couldn't stand staying in the apartment as much as she did.

Also, she couldn't cook.

"Yeah," Kanan replied, shrugging his shoulders. "It's the diner down on the corner of Black Swan and Unicorn. They can make pretty much anything in the kitchen, the counter staff just needs to shake them down for it, sometimes."

Kanan enjoyed the shaking part, he wasn't going to pretend otherwise.

Seivarden doubted the 'anything' part, but at least she might get something decent to eat by the sound of it. She would just have to try not to think about that people had cooked it with bare hands.

"Any specialties I should ask for, though?"

"Sunday is pancake day," Kanan offered, grinning faintly, "though I wouldn't exactly call that a specialty. I've only been on this planet for a year, so I'm still not as familiar with the local delicacies as I could be, especially the seasonal ones. Do you have any restrictions on what you can eat, first?"

"Do you serve fish?" Seivarden asked, avoiding the question. "I expect you do," she added, "Since we are on an island. And do you permit customers to eat with their hands?"

Because that was really unappetizing.

They were... odd questions, but Kanan shrugged his shoulders all the same.

"We serve fish," he agreed. "And there are some foods around here that are meant to be eaten with the hands. Though there are booths to sit in where you can't see people doing it, if you'd rather not."

He was guessing, based on the gloves and the tone of voice, there, but he was pretty sure that wasn't something this person was asking in hopes of being able to do so, too.

"Oh, good," Seivarden replied. "I went to that picnic where everyone ate food with bare hands and it was quite unciv... unappetizing. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that custom."

She wrinkled her nose.

Kanan's eyebrow crept up a little at that slip. Well then.

"Where I'm from, it's not necessarily that it's not civilized, it's that the civilization in question isn't the same as mine," he noted, idly. "Unappetizing, that's fair. But some civilizations are different, that's all." He let out a little chuckle. "Most civilizations, where I'm from. There are thousands of different sentient species in my galaxy. Some of them would have quite a bit of difficulty with a fork."

The idea of different civilizations didn't work for a people whose name for themselves literally meant civilized. That meant that everyone else on the island was, from Seivarden's perspective, uncivilized. She tried to be generous and not think too much about that. And considering the difficulties with buying clothes, she decided not to push the issue.

"I suppose we shouldn't expect other people to ~~be civilized~~ have the same customs.

"No," Kanan said after a brief pause while he debated just how much he wanted to push the issue, "we shouldn't. It's a big universe out there." A beat. "A big multiverse out there. I'm sure everyone is doing something wrong in somebody's eyes."

He shrugged and looked down at Hera, who had decided to claim his foot as a pillow to rest one very small portion of her rather large jaw on.

"So long as it isn't doing anybody any harm, it's generally for the best to just accept that what we know isn't all there is to it. Maybe learn a little something. You can only improve yourself by looking to understand the perspectives of others."

Ugh, he sounded like such a Jedi. This place was getting to him.

For someone who had spent her adult life as part of a military force ~~invading~~ annexing other planets in the name of spreading civilization, Kanan's last statement was questionable.

"That's... a way of seeing it, I suppose."

Seivarden felt she was really making an effort.

The sad thing about being Force sensitive was that Kanan could tell she was making an effort, and he still wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her.

So he just raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.

"I mean, I can't personally think of a situation where more of an understanding of one's surroundings has been a bad thing," he pointed out.

Because there was being stubborn, and there was being stupid, Seivarden.

"It can be useful." Seivarden couldn't really argue with that, although her idea of usefulness was most likely different from Kanan's here.

She decided against mentioning that most places improved after annexation. Again, making an effort.

That was probably for the best, because Kanan would not be held responsible for the nexu bite that would follow.

"Especially if you're stuck here," he added, shrugging his shoulders. "Did me a world of good once I accepted that the island wasn't going to just let me get up and leave."

"So you are stuck here too?" Seivarden said. She looked at the nexu at Kanan's feet.

"It's frustrating."

She didn't have a home in her own universe, but at least she knew what to expect. And at least she could find kef, and calm her mind a little.

"I was stuck here for a while," Kanan agreed. "I'm not, anymore. This place doesn't hold on to people forever, but for the amount of time you're here, it can't hurt to have some idea of what to expect in this place. Being here and staying ignorant doesn't do anybody any favors."

Despite having nothing to go back to, Seivarden would return to her own universe the moment she could. Things might have changed for her there and this place had shown her it could be worse.

"Not ignorant, no." Judgmental was something different.

Sometimes, being judgmental was a symptom of stubbornly remaining ignorant.

"Not ignorant, huh?"

Kanan wasn't completely convinced. Funny, that.

"I suppose you've learned a lot about this place since getting here, then? I've love to compare notes sometime."

Seivarden might be uninterested in learning about other cultures, but it wasn't due to stupidity.

"Oh?" she said with a deliberately unconvincing smile. "Do you?"

Kanan's answering smile was the sort of bright, almost vapid smile of a man who had spent a lot of his life convincing others that he was an idiot mudlicker while at the same time watching the galaxy with the alertness of a hungry shriek-hawk.

"Well, I do know enough about this place to be able to find a decent cup of tea."

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