The Park, Friday Afternoon

[uncertain_dume]

It wasn't like Kanan was going to let something like a new batch of students stop him from showing up at the park for his weekly sword lesson with Tip.

Sure, one of those students was a Mandalorian, and sure, most of Mandalore seemed to be on the Empire's side, and sure, that had him somewhat worried, but Sabine seemed to have a pretty level head, going by the... two conversations he'd had with her so far. Hell, she'd even asked to be his TA yesterday, which was promising? Probably?

Erring on the side of caution, his lightsaber was broken down into its component pieces and was being safely stored away in various places on his belt for the time being regardless. It felt strange to be going through somewhat restrained versions of his usual forms using a bamboo sword, but if he pretended he was just trying to learn some of the Earth martial arts that he'd seen during his time here....?

This felt weird. Maybe he'd just play fetch with his dog again until someone showed up for a spar or a lesson.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

"Back to swords?" Rey greeted him when she showed up.

Shh, she liked the lightsaber.

[uncertain_dume]

"For the time being, anyway," Kanan agreed, though he was making a face at it. "The lightsaber is temporarily out of commission while I figure out some things."

Sorry, Sabine. Kanan liked you, but that didn't mean he trusted you yet.

"Maybe this time next week, I'll have an actual metal sword to try out instead," he added. "I asked the blacksmith in town about having one made, but that's going to have to wait until she's got her forge set up. In the meantime she says she's willing to lend me out something a little more robust than the old bamboo."

Not that he didn't like you, old bamboo. It was just that you were useless for sparring against basically anything more robust than more bamboo.

[thatwaslucky]

"So you're going through some changes across the board," Rey noted. "Why a metal sword?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Gratuity came back with one over the break," Kanan explained. "I'd like for her to be able to get used to using it, since it has a totally different heft from the bamboo swords, but what I've got at the moment would either damage her weapon, or end up cut in two by it."

And as much as he would love to get hacked up by that thing...

"It'd make it easier with a few other sparring partners I've got," he added. "You, Peter... it makes sense to at least have something around here that's on par with the weapons everyone else is using."

[thatwaslucky]

"And we aren't exactly all walking around with lightsabers, either," she said. "How many sparring partners do you have?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Two? Three? Depends on the week and whether there are compatible weapons," Kanan replied wiht a little grin. "Peter and I haven't had a good spar since he left his spare sword with himself in the future, so mostly it's you, these days."

He'd poke some of the other Jedi around for a spar, but that felt weird for various reasons.

Still, he couldn't deny that he'd probably learn a lot from Skywalker...

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm sorry, did you say he left his spare sword with himself in the future?"

Hey, after two years some things still sounded weird! It almost felt like an accomplishment.

[uncertain_dume]

"Weird island thing," Kanan offered. "Everyone got pulled to... some point in the future. The lucky ones got to meet themselves as... mostly themselves, just losing their memories. Or didn't get to meet themselves at all, because in that future they were already dead. The unlucky ones got to meet themselves as monsters."

And somewhere in all of that, his tone had gone dead serious, instead of his usual easygoing banter.

"We ran into people from that reality again later. They came here, and brought slugs."

He was not a fan of the slugs. At all.

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh. I figured he just time traveled," Rey admitted.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden brought Issa to the park as usual, putting her down on the grass as soon as she caught sight of Kanan and Stance. While the cat happily ran towards her friend, Seivarden stayed as far away as possible from Kanan and his dog. She had seen enough of Kanan this week, really, but Issa deserved to play, so she was here.

She found a bench and poured herself some tea, hoping that Issa wasn't going to decide to climb trees.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan, meanwhile, was kind of secretly hoping that Issa would end up climbing a tree again. Was that petty? Sure. But it didn't hurt anything unless he drove her up one himself, so he wasn't going to fret too much about it.

Stance, meanwhile, was being a Good Boy, sitting next to the bench, waiting for Kanan to give him the okay to go play. But boy oh boy, was his tail wagging happily.

There was some obedience training going on lately, apparently.

[1000yearstoolate]

Issa was a cat and a lot less obedient, and Seivarden had let her loose anyway. Soon she was right in front of Stance, reaching out a paw to poke his nose. That was their greeting, wasn't it?

[uncertain_dume]

It was! And Stance gave that greeting the answering sneeze that was necessary.

And then he leaned down to lick her right across the head.

Because greeting.

[1000yearstoolate]

Greeting.

Issa made a playful attack on Stance's paw.

[uncertain_dume]

And Stance tried to prance out of the way, which was an interesting sight to see, considering he was still trying to keep his butt planted on the ground.

Kanan still wasn't giving him the only to move, no. He wanted to see if 'stay' was actually working, these days.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden looked up from her tea, making sure that Issa was ok. She usually let her know when she wasn't, bur Seivarden... worried. That surprised her when she thought about it.

Issa realized that Stance wasn't moving for some reason. That meant she had to attack his other paw.

[uncertain_dume]

Stance... was trying to prance the other way, now. It was not working out so well, overall, and he was bound to lose his balance and flop over at any moment.

[intotheout]

"What, you pull a muscle or something?"

Yeah, Tip definitely noticed that restraint, and his lightsaber being all tucked away again. And was covering up her concern with smartassery, as was only good and right.

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm being careful until I know where I stand with the new kids," Kanan replied, spinning his bamboo sword in his hand and nodding toward her. "Not usually necessary, but one of them is from my neck of the multiverse."

[intotheout]

"Really? Which one?"

Tip had skipped the welcome picnic this year, so she didn't know as many of the new kids as she usually would by now, but she figured she'd managed to meet several over the course of her classes, at least.

[uncertain_dume]

"She's in my class," Kanan offered. "The one in the armor."

She had a name, but he figured this early in the game it couldn't hurt to just describe her instead.

[intotheout]

"And the cool hair!" Sabine was hard to miss. ". . . The Empire is into brightly colored paint-jobs?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Not generally," Kanan replied. "Mandalorians aren't either, generally. But there are no small number of Mandalorians who have allied themselves to or are in the service of the Empire. I'd rather not take that risk."

[intotheout]

Tip narrowed her eyes at that. "Madalorians who are a . . . community? Species?" It was hard to tell with Kanan's universe. Sabine looked human, but that didn't mean anything. "I mean, I totally get being cautious, and it looked like you guys had a decent conversation in class if nothing else, so it's not like you're not giving her a chance and all, but. I mean. You sound a little creepy."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan sighed.

"Residents of a planet of people who have been raised up to be warriors for thousands of years," he explained. "If you want somebody dead, you hire a Mandalorian. The troops who killed off the Jedi Order were all cloned from somebody claiming to be of Mandalorian descent, though they disavowed him once he took up bounty hunting. Mandalore is largely allied to the Empire. Hell, the Jedi once fought a war against Mandalore, there's no love lost between her people and mine. She seems decent, but... let me at least approach this semester cautiously. Please."

Hell, he'd made her his TA. That didn't mean that he was ready to hop onto the Radio on Monday and announce that he was a Jedi. Allow the unlikely survivor of a genocide his wariness, Tip.