That One Warehouse, Friday Afternoon

[uncertain_dume]

There had been a class, and a lesson about sharing, and Caleb now had himself a tiny wolf puppy and a whole host of questions. Why did he have a tiny wolf puppy? Why did the wolf puppy have rainbow spots? Why were all the buildings here made out of wood and such? Why were the streets made out of stone? The stairs weren't that weird; it wasn't like there weren't stairs in the temple, after all, but where were the other Initiates? Where were the Masters? Maybe this was a test, but if it was one, he had no idea what was expected of him.

He'd found a practice saber in the room he'd woken up in, and had been wandering around with that clipped to his belt - almost like a real Knight! - all day so far, and his after-class wandering had taken him to a strange part of town, kind of more empty than the rest, with bigger buildings and fewer people. He'd paused at the doorway with the obvious lightsaber burn on it, and then, after a little deliberation, had slipped inside.

Mats? A medkit? A bunch of weapons that looked even more harmless than his training saber... Maybe this was his first real clue about what he was supposed to be doing. If this was a test, and he'd found his training grounds, then little Caleb Dume was going to train.

Just as soon as he could get Kyber-the-rainbow-wolf-puppy to stop trying to wrestle with the more loose bits of his tunic. Just as soon as that.

[OOC: Open! Less spam right up front from me today until I figure out where my kids are going to actually be later in the day.]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Would it be weird that there was a call coming in now? Because there was.

[uncertain_dume]

It was only weird in that it took Caleb a few moments to figure out how to answer the phone!

... And in that he was, like, six. Also that.

"Um, hello?"

Was that what you were supposed to do? He'd never really used a comm before, either.

[thatwaslucky]

"Hi," Rey said, and paused. "Kanan?"

The fun thing was, this could be a few different things here!

[uncertain_dume]

There was a pause on the Fandom end of the conversation, too, before the little voice volunteered, "Caleb."

So... yes? But also no!

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh! Hi!" she said, and added, "I'm Rey."

This was weirder over the phone.

[uncertain_dume]

"Hello, Rey." There was another long pause, and then, finally, "Why did you comm me?"

A pause.

"I think this is my comm."

He'd never had one of his own before. It was kind of novel.

[thatwaslucky]

"I was calling my friend. The frequencies must have gotten crossed," she said after a pause. "Are you in Fandom?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Sure enough, Summer decided to risk leaving the store in little tiny Apu's capable hands while she took a lunch to swing by the warehouse and see if Kanan had any good stories about any of his students being all wee and smol, and she really did want to know if he still had that cookbook from last time this happened.

"Yo, BDG!" she greeted as she came in. "Where you--"

--small kid struggling to escape a clearly playful Stance in the middle of the warehouse--

"--at. Ohmygod, yes."

Yeah, this could make up for her not being six again.

[uncertain_dume]

"BDG?" That earned a little kid, baggy robes and all, blinking up at her, and then looking down at the wolf puppy - he'd named it Kyber, okay? - and then around the room. "... There aren't any droids in here."

He wasn't sure what make a BDG was, but he couldn't assist her in finding the droids she was looking for, sorry.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"No," Summer agreed easily enough with a faint smile. "Not this time, anyway.

She tilted her head at him, looking him over. "So what's your name?"

It had been different last time, okay? She didn't know what he'd come up with this time.

[uncertain_dume]

"Caleb," the little boy replied dutifully, looking thoughtfully up at the girl. She didn't seem strong in the Force, which seemed kind of like the usual around here. That, too, was strange. "I'm Caleb."

So, nothing new and exciting. He reached down to pick up the floppy little puppy.

"And this is Kyber."

Kyber until Monday, folks.

"What's your name? Why were you looking for a droid?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Caleb," Summer nodded, "right."

Good; no new layer even deeper into his past that she'd wind up having to pick at, which was a relief. So help her if she needed to unveil something different any time he went and was a different age.

"And Kyber, of course. Good to meet you. My name's Summer, and I actually wasn't looking for a droid, just a guy I call BDG. You haven't seen him, by any chance, have you? About yay tall," that hand she lifted as an approximation of height then brushed her chin, "goatee, ponytail, always pretends to act like a big grump even though he really isn't? It's nothing important, though, so no big deal if not."

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb frowned thoughtfully, and then shook his head a bit.

"You're the first adult I've seen all day," he replied, a little apologetically anyway. "What do you need him for? I can tell him you were here if I see him..."

[unusual_sith]

Lana had also found herself wandering around this strange place, wondering if it were real or some Force hallucination. She wouldn't put it past the instructors to do something like this to see how she'd react. She hadn't found any other students yet, though.

A lightsaber burn on a door could be a sign, though. Narrowing her eyes, she crept through the door slowly.

[uncertain_dume]

Inside, she would totally find the littlest Jedi fighting a losing battle against a small puppy.

As they do.

"Kyber, no, Kyber I need to train," Caleb protested, attempting to dislodge the puppy from his tunic.

[unusual_sith]

Who was this? With the cute puppy? That was a very cute puppy. Was this some sort of test? Was the cute puppy deadly? Was the boy?

Lana was just going to sit out of view and watch for a while.

[uncertain_dume]

Yeah, maybe Caleb's trial today was going to be his attempts at training while he's got the puppy with him? Because training was totally not happening.

Nope. Instead he was going to sit his butt down on the floor and try to meditate, instead. Yes, with the puppy licking his chin.

...

A few moments later, he opened his eyes and looked directly toward where Lana was sitting.

"Hello?"

[unusual_sith]

Lana still eyed him dubiously. At least he seemed like another initiate, even if she hadn't seen him before. She looked around and made sure they were alone before coming out warily. "Are you supposed to be here? Are we supposed to be here?"

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb watched the girl intently for a few moments.

"I feel like I'm supposed to be here," he replied, sounding pretty certain about it. "Are you supposed to be here?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan hadn't seen Kanan during his shopping and errand run with Hernando, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Hernando had gone down for a nap after the excitement of the morning.

Kaidan went looking. He headed to the warehouse in the vain hope that Kanan would be Kanan-shaped. The hope was dashed the minute he walked through the warehouse door. His heart gave a constricting sort of lurch in his chest for a moment. He'd half hoped Kanan would be an adult, but he hadn't expected the sight of Caleb to hurt so damned much. He took a breath and swallowed, centering himself. Forcibly reminded himself that this was the good part of Caleb's life, when he'd been at the temple. When he'd been safe and cared for. It helped.

He still wanted to punch the island right in its stupid face, though.

Walking inside, he moved to sit down against a crate, so he wasn't looming. Looked over at his friend and offered him a lopsided smile. "Hi, Caleb. Do you recognize me?"

Peebee had. Liam hadn't. Hernando hadn't. Kaidan had no idea how he'd look or feel to Kanan.

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb looked at the man thoughtfully for a moment, reaching down to pick up Stance Kyber and hugging him close while he considered the person in front of him.

And, finally, he shook his head a little.

"I don't recognize anybody here," he said, though he seemed oddly resigned to that fact. He'd accepted hours ago that this was probably some kind of trial. He didn't feel like he was in any danger, at least. "No. Who are you? How come you know me?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan swallowed and considered his answer. Couldn't lie, couldn't exactly tell the truth. Had to mean every word he said. "I'm a friend of Kanan Jarrus. He's a Jedi, but he can't be here right now. He knows you. He told me about you, and he'd want me to check in on you since he's not here, so.. here I am, making sure you've got a safe place to stay and enough food to get you through the next couple days, and to find out if there's anything else you need."

He gave tiny!Stance a smile. "I see you found your puppy."

[uncertain_dume]

That... that all seemed to check out, so far as Caleb was concerned.

"The lady on the comm talked about..." He hesitated a moment. "... Master Jarrus?" He'd never heard of such a man, but that didn't mean much. There were thousands of Jedi all across the galaxy, after all. "Too. If he knows me, does that mean this is a trial? I'm too little for my Initiate trials, but maybe there's some 'nother one..."

He hugged the puppy a little closer. Stance wriggled right on in.

"This is Kyber," he said, smiling at him. "... He's mine? The lady on the comm said he'd follow me but I didn't know if that meant he'd get to stay. Why do I have a wolf? None of the other Initiates get wolves. I don't think. Do you think maybe they do and they just don't tell us as part of the trial?"

The one he was clearly on right now.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan listened. "The lady on the comm? Was that Hera? Or ..Rey, I think her name is?" He'd mentioned her. The one who graduated. Tip was still on the island.

"Same guy, yeah," Kaidan nodded, "He prefers to go by 'Kanan'. This.. is definitely not your initiate trials, buddy. I'm not sure it's a test at all. I'm not a Jedi. I know you'll be here for the next couple days, and that Kanan would want to make sure you were kept safe, but I don't know why you're here. Maybe so you can experience places other than the Temple."

He smiled at Stance Kyber. "Kyber, huh? For the colors, like the crystals? Yeah, he's yours. He'll stay with you as long as you're here. I don't know if there are any other Initiates on the island right now, much less if they have puppies. If you meet any and they want one, we can get them their own. Kanan left Kyber for you."

[uncertain_dume]

"Because they don't have colors until they do," Caleb confirmed with a little nod, looking at his puppy with a spirited attempt at a serious look on his face, but there was no disguising just how absolutely thrilled he was at the prospect of being able to keep the wolf all to himself. A moment later, he looked back up at the man, frowning a little in thought. Trying to look very serious about this task that was apparently placed before him, now. "Experience places other than the temple?"

He... supposed that kind of made sense.

"What do I need to experience here?"

He didn't want to let anyone down, he'd have to go and do the thing.