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]

"She's alive, she's free, and she's not there," Kaidan agreed tightly, "There's that, at least."

[suitably_heroic]

"You really get worked up about all this stuff, don't you?" Atton said casually, tilting his head. "See a lot of injustice in your life? Or are you just one of those guys who goes crazy when the world doesn't look the way he thinks it should look?"

He was betting on the former.

[spectre_alenko]

"Little of column A, little of column B," Kaidan said dryly, "I've seen enough, and in spite of it, I want to believe that people are, as a whole, basically decent. Multiple universes seem to be going out of their way to make me think otherwise. It's annoying."

[suitably_heroic]

"Or maybe you're just naive," Atton said.

[spectre_alenko]

"Possible," Kaidan agreed calmly, "We had slavery in my galaxy too, so it's not all sweetness and light, but on the whole it seems less outright miserable than at least two others."

[suitably_heroic]

"What, no wars raging where you come from?" Atton said. "'Miserable' usually depends on what part of your galaxy you're standing in."

[spectre_alenko]

"Not anymore," Kaidan said, eyes darkening a moment until he shook it off, "Before the war I was in, the last one was when humans first discovered space travel. They didn't realize there were other species out there who had prior claim to certain territories. It was more a giant misunderstanding than anything else, and it didn't last very long. Skirmishes, sure. Every galaxy is going to have its 10% of assholes, and we had the Batarians."

He really didn't like Batarians.

[suitably_heroic]

"But your galaxy only has the 10 percent, so you have to come to me to get your pound of moral outrage so you can feel good about yourself," Atton said. No judgment.

Well, some judgment.

But Atton was bad at breathing without judging people.

"That's comfortable, right?"

[spectre_alenko]

"My war involved flying around the galaxy fixing a bunch of inter-species skirmishes that would never have happened if the species involved had been able to get their own heads out of their cloaca long enough to evolve a minimum of empathy," Kaidan said wryly, "Considering that there was a galactic threat, worlds burning, and the species involved still weren't able to pull their heads out long enough to concentrate on the larger problem, I really don't need stories of your galaxy if I want to get my moral panties in a twist."

"It's not some sort of oppression olympics," Kaidan added, "Hearing about the horrors of some other galaxy doesn't make me feel good. It makes me wish there were something I could do to lessen them. It makes my heart ache for my friends who came from there, and it makes me glad that they survived it without becoming monsters."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton let out a soft snort.

"Space, I get it, you are such a karking Jedi," he said.

[spectre_alenko]

"No, from what I understand, I'd be the exact opposite of a Jedi," Kaidan said, tilting his head a little, "They're taught to suppress emotions. Not to get angry, not to feel fear. That's not what I was trained to do at all."

[suitably_heroic]

"You're like the Jedi because you have that righteous do-gooder attitude going on," Atton specified, waving his hand at Kaidan. "The whole suppressing emotions thing, that's just the trick the old guard used to avoid exploding and killing everybody."

[spectre_alenko]

"It beats the alternative," Kaidan said easily, "I mean, sure, I could be the type of guy to go around taking body part trophies and making jewelry out of them, but that's just so unsanitary after about a week. Less, in this weather."

"Jedi don't do the whole emotional popsicle thing in your time? Or, only the 'old guard' do?"

[suitably_heroic]

"There's only five of us, plus an ex-Jedi who refuses to join, Revan's widow," Atton said. "We have other things on our mind."

[spectre_alenko]

"That would do it," Kaidan allowed, thinking about it, "I take it Force sensitive kids aren't just coming from Jedi lines, then."

[suitably_heroic]

"Most Jedi don't have children," Atton said lightly. "Bastila and Revan are an exception. Most of us just get born somewhere in the galaxy, and we either wind up with the Jedi, or we don't."

[spectre_alenko]

"So I've heard," Kaidan acknowledged, "They must have loved each other an awful lot. Bastila and Revan, I mean."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged. "They dismantled Revan's empire together," he said. "I guess that creates some kind of bond, taking on a whole army."

[spectre_alenko]

"Did you know them, or were they before your time?" Kaidan asked, mostly just curious.

[suitably_heroic]

"I know Bastila. She's a pain in the ass. Brings her kid to the Temple some days," Atton said, snorting. "Revan... vanished a few years ago."

[spectre_alenko]

Reciting history, were you?

Kaidan processed that, then snorted, "Hell, Atton, from you, I can't tell if she's actually a pain in the ass or if you like the lady."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton's part in this story was super complicated and thus not relevant. Ayup.

"She's a snooty damned schutta who thinks she's better than everyone," Atton said, pulling a face. "You probably know the type."

[spectre_alenko]

"Schutta?" Kaidan asked, distracted by the new word and mentally trying to spell it in Aurebesh, "But yeah, I know the 'butter won't melt' type. I have, after all, met Seivarden."

[suitably_heroic]

"It's a bad word," Atton said merrily, because he didn't want to make this shit any easier. "But yeah, think Seivarden, except she actually did something - invented a new Force technique at 18, then saved the galaxy - so she's worse."

[spectre_alenko]

"So at least she kind of has a reason for her hubris," Kaidan noted, filing away the bad word. He'd ask Kanan about it later. "Unlike my local pain in the ass."