Kanan and Hera's apartment, Saturday morning

[futurespacemom]

Master Kiwiiks had been surprised to wake up and find herself...here, wherever here was again.

Not to mention in bed with someone she didn't recognize.

She slid out of bed, found some clothing, and went into the main room to kneel and meditate. The currents in the Force were just as chaotic as she vaguely remembered from before, and it was always best to have information before doing anything.


[For the one there, but open post!]

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[futurespacemom]

"I've been here once before," she explained. "I don't remember much of it, but it was only a few days, and odd, but not difficult."

She held her hand out to the cat to sniff. "Where are you from?"

[uncertain_dume]

Frumpkin regarded that offered hand with a wary feline eye, glancing to Caleb and only moving to sniff her hand when Caleb gave the faintest nod of his head.

"North," Caleb replied, vaguely. It didn't matter much that he didn't know where he currently was. He was from north of somewhere, north of where he had been, and he wasn't about to launch into specifics with a total stranger. "I am from... north."

He looked her over speculatively.

"And yourself?"

[futurespacemom]

Master Kiwiiks smiled, amused. "Lots of planets have a north. North of where? I'm from Tython most recently, Shili originally." She rubbed the cats head and sent it soothing and friendly feelings through the Force.

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb gave Frumpkin maybe the faintest of betrayed looks as the cat started to purr, knocking his cheek against the hand that was giving him attention.

"I have never heard tell of either," he noted, with a 'cats will be cats' sigh. "You are from outside of the Empire, I take it?"

[futurespacemom]

"Of course!" She gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm from the Republic. If you're from the Empire...well, you don't feel Sith, so you must have had a difficult time of it."

She smiled again and let the cat go with one last pat. "Why don't we see what sort of food we can find? I'm hungry, and I imagine you are, too."

[uncertain_dume]

And he had most definitely had a difficult time of things, at the hands of the Empire, in fact.

Just, maybe not that Empire.

His air of puzzlement really wasn't going anywhere at the mention of the Republic, and what in the world was a Sith? Still... he couldn't say he wasn't hungry, not with the way his belly loudly betrayed him at the mention of food. There was still a chewing thread of concern for where Nott might have gotten off to, but who was to say that he hadn't been the one to go missing?

He certainly felt missing.

"... I am," he allowed. "Famished."

[futurespacemom]

Master Kiwiiks nodded and headed for the kitchen. "There must be something in here..." She went rummaging in the refrigerator. "Hm. These look like eggs, though I couldn't tell you what bird they're from. This is definitely some sort of meat."

She glanced at Caleb. "You're human, yes? Not an herbivore?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Ah... yes," Caleb replied, giving a quick glance down at himself. Still human. Though, really, what were the odds of going to sleep and waking up as anything else? And he hadn't cast any manner of disguise before she'd shown up in the doorway, so... "I am human."

What she was, on the other hand, was totally beyond him.

Besides 'Jedi.'

[futurespacemom]

Togruta. This morning. So.

She nodded. "All right, we can probably make something of this." It was bacon and eggs. She held them in her hands and looked around. "Hm. Think this is a cooktop?" She tried the dials and got heat, so it was a good bet. "Right. Now all we need is something to cook in."

[uncertain_dume]

"Might I suggest trying the cupboards for a cooking pot?"

Narrated Caleb from the kitchen doorway.

On Tuesday, Kanan would be thankful that Caleb hadn't wandered in. This here was one stinky wizard.

[futurespacemom]

Master Kiwiiks was capable of tuning out unpleasant scents, fortunately. And she wasn't going to blame anyone escaping the Empire for what they might smell like.

She nodded at him. "Good idea." It took a few tries, but she eventually found one, and put it on the heat for a moment before putting the meat slices in and then managing to break an egg next to it. And then just staring at it for a second. "These are very strange eggs. I've never seen them this color!"

[uncertain_dume]

... Okay, Caleb would bite. Curiosity had him tentatively stepping into the kitchen and looking at first the carton of eggs, then at the one that was sitting in the pan.

"It... looks like a normal chicken egg to me," he observed.

[futurespacemom]

"Really?" she asked, curious. "I've never seen a chicken egg before. Or a chicken. Well, they smell okay, anyway." She went looking through the cabinets again and found a fork. She smiled and handed it to Caleb. "Turn it when it's done enough for you, I guess. Or scramble it."

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb... took the fork. And stared at it for a moment, and then stared at the stove, and then grimaced the tiniest bit before easing his way into the kitchen with the odd woman.

It wasn't that he minded cooking so much as he was a paranoid, paranoid guy, and kitchens tended to be full of heavy things and sharp things.

And now he had a cat winding between his ankles. As was the natural law of the universe when cats and kitchens mixed.

"Danke," he muttered as he stepped in front of the... the strange stove.

[futurespacemom]

"You're welcome," she said, understanding the intent if not the actual word. She suspected that anyone who'd been on hard times would appreciate being in control of their own food.

"Should I see if I can find some milk or caf or juice or something? Or there's always water."

[uncertain_dume]

"Water will be fine," Caleb replied, watching his egg intently while Frumpkin kept an eye on things behind him. As it cooked, he used the fork to nudge the edges of it into a neat sort of order, rounding it off so that the egg was frying evenly in the bacon grease.

It was something to put his focus into, somewhere to channel his anxiety.

"Water is always good."

[futurespacemom]

"Water is important to most forms of life," Master Kiwiiks agreed. She found a couple glasses and filled them from the sink. "Sometimes simple is good." She kept looking and found plates and another fork, and set it all out on the table.

[uncertain_dume]

And wouldn't eating at a table that wasn't located in an inn be novel, too?

Caleb nudged the edges of his egg a few moments more, and then attempted to use the fork to flip it.

The yolk broke, and he made a faintly disgruntled face at it. So close.

"I am not one to turn up my nose at simple," he noted. "... Particularly not when waking up in a strange home I may or may not be welcome in."

He hadn't even seen a single book in this place, yet. He was kinda judging whoever lived here.

[futurespacemom]

"As we've woken up here, whoever's house it is will simply have to indulge us," she answered. "Should they show up, we can come to an arrangement, I'm sure."

Because Jedi.

"Will you tell me something about yourself, Caleb?" she asked. "How did you come to be free of the Empire?"

[uncertain_dume]

It really was a shame the 'record scratch' sound wasn't really something that existed in Wildemount. It was very much the sort of noise that belonged right there in tandem with the faint intake of breath, the way Caleb's entire posture tightened before he almost mechanically reached for a plate, to put some bacon and his - sigh - broken egg onto it.

"Free of it?"

That would sound way more casual if he was talking to someone who couldn't sense that he was pretty much just constantly screaming internally, right then.

[futurespacemom]

Fortunately (or unfortunately for Caleb), she could.

Master Kiwiiks sent waves of soothing through the Force. "Wherever this is, the Empire holds no sway over it. You are free, at least for now." She eyed him sympathetically. "Do you still live under it at home, then? I'm sorry. I wish I could help you."

[uncertain_dume]

After a few moments, Caleb gave a slow, almost relieved exhale. He wasn't sure why, really had no idea quite what to make of it, but suddenly and inexplicably, in spite of the conversation at hand, he felt just a little bit more at peace.

"I will be fine," he replied. He didn't believe that, really, but he was going to say it. "I must find my friend, though."

Maybe she'd gotten The Itch again. Maybe all he had to do was go looking around the town for deep pockets belonging to oblivious locals and there would Nott the Brave be.

He was not so sure this would be so.

[futurespacemom]

Master Kiwiiks nodded. "I imagine your friend is still back where you came from. When you return, you'll find them there. For now, use this as an opportunity to learn."

[uncertain_dume]

"... About bacon and eggs?"

Caleb did not think he was here even remotely for 'bacon and eggs,' no. But he couldn't imagine why he was here, and latching on to the banal was infinitely better than discussing his escape from the Empire.

"It makes little sense," he noted, "that I would be brought here, as would my cat. But not my travel companion."

Okay. It actually made more sense than one might think. Frumpkin was, after all, less 'cat' and more 'fey entity who preferred to be a cat.'

[futurespacemom]

"I've already learned about them," Master Kiwiiks said, smiling. "Now I know what a chicken egg looks like. You can learn about this place, I can tell you of the Republic and the Jedi if you like. All of life is learning."

Especially when you were a Consular.

"The ways of the Force are strange at times. All we can do is try to discover what it's trying to tell us."