The Park, Friday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

The medic had freed Atton from his kolto bath again on Thursday morning. Another full day of observation, and he was good to go, with a bunch of patches in his pocket and an abdomen that still hurt if he bent the wrong way.

And then Mical had put him on the Ebon Hawk and sent him back to Fandom. (The Hawk was to make a point: stay there, don't come back. Otherwise Mical would've just kicked him through a portal.)

He wasn't planning to stay there. Not for long. Not with Mira out there, dealing with this problem that Atton was beginning to suspect was bigger than they'd anticipated.

He didn't bother to go back to the apartment - he didn't want to run the risk of running into Sparkle just yet - but stumbled down the stairs and walked down to the park.

That alone was probably more exercise than he should've given himself. He winced at the sound of his own breath as he sank down on a bench.

Space.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

"Right, fine, that's why you're wincing," Kaidan said, then shrugged, "It's your abdomen. If you want to press the muscles and earn yourself more soreness than you need to have - your choice." A beat, "Have you seen Sparkle since you've been back?"

[suitably_heroic]

Seriously, trust Sparkle to pick up a mom-friend.

"No, I've been here for like half an hour," Atton said, pulling a face. "He's not my babysitter."

[spectre_alenko]

He's your friend and he's been worried, and you bloody knew he would be, which is why you patted him on the head and told him you were going for a cakewalk, and probably why you're avoiding him. Kaidan thought.

All he said was, "He has your cake."

[suitably_heroic]

"And another--"

Pause.

"My what?"

[spectre_alenko]

"Cake," Kaidan answered, slightly amused at the mental derailment, "Caramel, chocolate, it reminded me of your coffee. I thought you might like it, so I brought one back for you and gave it to your roommate for transpo."

[suitably_heroic]

"Space, you really are the mom-friend," Atton said, pulling a face. "Thanks? I guess?"

Sorry, Kaidan. He only had one nice person in his life and he liked to yell at said nice person.

[spectre_alenko]

"I stick with my strengths," Kaidan agreed blandly, "Though this was an attempt to bribe you into talking about your galaxy, not a get-well gift. I hadn't known, when I bought it. Found out when I walked in on Sparkle making himself dizzy with fumes."

No, it had really just been because he saw caramel-chocolate cake and thought Atton might like it. He just thought hearing about it in terms of a bribe would make him less twitchy. Jedi and emotions - Kaidan was learning.

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah, well, you didn't want to deal with any of Atton's, Kaidan. He was like one of those chocolates that had a small layer of fake anger on the outside and then a firey inferno of real anger and self-loathing on the inside, and opening that up was good for absolutely no one.

"And the faster we stop talking about it, the sooner it's going to heal, and then there won't be anything to talk about," Atton muttered. "Except back home. What did you want to know?"

[spectre_alenko]

He really didn't. He had enough of his own anger to deal with atm.

He shrugged, "Everything, which is a pretty big order. My galaxy is pretty parallel to this one, with a major diversion about 150 years in this planet's future. From what I've heard, things in yours are nothing like." He shrugged, "I'd never met a Twi'lek before, and they're one of your races, right?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Yep. They come from a planet called Ryloth, originally," Atton said. "They've been around for a long time. Though if you're looking for info on any of the other Force users around the island, I have to tell you, I'm about four thousand years early."

[spectre_alenko]

"I'm already getting all the information I think I can handle on that side of things, thanks," Kaidan said wryly, "It's not making me think well of Jedi as a whole, though. So, Ryloth - warmer than average climate?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Not warmer than average, but the weather's very unstable," Atton said. "Heat storms alternating with snow storms, high winds, you name it. The Twi'leks who didn't get shipped off by slavers tend to live underground."

[spectre_alenko]

"Slavers," Kaidan said flatly. Oh yes, this galaxy was getting better and better by the moment, "Didn't? Past tense?"

[suitably_heroic]

Let he who be without sin...

Atton snorted. "No," he said. "Still the easiest way to make a few credits on Ryloth, from what I hear."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan's jaw tightened so hard he was half expecting his teeth to crack. "Are these the Hutt things I've heard about? Or is it more widespread than them?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Hutts, other criminals, other Twi'leks..."

Atton shrugged, and reached into his jacket to root around for a packet of cigarettes.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan made a mental note to bring spare thermal clips if he went on a milk run with Kanan and Hera. Kanan liked to take potshots at troopers, but Kaidan had nothing against them. Slavers? Slavers the cosmos could do without.

"Four thousand years," Kaidan said, thinking aloud, "Between you and them, and that shit's still going on."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton found the pack and pulled out a cigarette. "My universe likes to do things in cycles, unfortunately," he said, "Our bad habits are hard to break."

[spectre_alenko]

"Oh? Other than slavers, and Hutt who I've been told are just generally bad news all around, are there other bad habits I should know about?" he asked.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he muttered, "Goddamnit.. her people were slave-raided for thousands of years."

[suitably_heroic]

"Gambling, corruption, a big religious war every century or so," Atton said, waving for a moment.

He stuck the cigarette between his lips and lit it.

"One big cesspool of misery and violence, that's home."

[spectre_alenko]

"What are the Jedi up to, in your time?" Kaidan asked, "I keep getting the impression they're some sort of warrior monk police force, but this.. this is a whole lot of time for crap to stew."

Without the Jedi squashing it.

[suitably_heroic]

"The Jedi work for the Republic in most time periods," Atton said, "And the Republic's not putting a great deal of effort into fixing it, I guess."

A beat.

"We just had a little war that set most of the Republic on fire and killed off the entire Jedi Order, so don't look at me over this one."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan processed that. Atton was from thousands of years prior to Kanan. This wasn't the same purge; it couldn't be.

"The Republic sounds like a real piece of work, I can almost see why someone would firebomb it. Sounds like it rebuilds, though. Cyclical, like you say."

Not a good cycle, no. Republic builds up, Jedi Order builds up and aligns with them, and somehow they manage to piss off enough people in their galaxy that they periodically got nuked back to nearly nothing. That didn't bode well for their governance.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton breathed out a big plume of smoke and leaned back, ignoring the twinge in his gut as he did so.

"My Republic wasn't fast enough to act when the Mandalorians rolled in," he said lightly. "When they did jump into action, the army was outnumbered and outflanked, and the Jedi were so scared after the last war that they decided to stay out of it and left us to die."

[spectre_alenko]

"Mandalorians," Kaidan turned the word over, "The ones with the armor the troopers ripped off. They were the aggressors, in your time? And the badass, plasma-sword wielding space wizards ..sat it out."

Yeah, the Jedi weren't really winning any points here.

"So much for 'there is no chaos, there is harmony', I guess."