cafeteria | mid afternoon | wednesday | 25 november

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Apparently, there was a holiday tomorrow. From what Jonas had gathered from the books he'd read, it revolved around a lot of food, togetherness and was descended from a shared meal by two very different groups long ago.

Needless to say, Jonas had never celebrated Thanksgiving in the Community. Besides ceremonies for Days of Birth, nothing had really been celebrated so Jonas found these specially singled out days as half a curiosity and half enjoyment.

And, while today wasn't the holiday, Jonas found himself in the cafeteria, idly picking at his food (mashed potatoes had a very strange texture) and paging through a book on various holidays. Christmas would, undoubtedly, be the next thing he looked up that. That holiday just seemed...complicated.

[open, sure!]

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[vanillajello]

"I remember, you mentioned that," she said with a light smile. "Yeah, no appliances. But there are sharp knives involved."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I should be able to handle utensils," he said, laughing a little. "Appliances I can't do but silverware, I can. My hands are pretty steady. Is this holiday only about food?"

[vanillajello]

"Well, I guess being thankful is pretty important," she shrugged, "but really, I'm more focused on the food."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Can you be thankful for anything or are there specific parameters?" Books were good for general knowledge but even Jonas knew that the way things were celebrated tended to different from person to person, society to society.

[vanillajello]

"Just... whatever you're thankful for. I don't think anyone's going to tell you're doing it wrong, whatever it is," Kate said, after a thoughtful pause.

"Unless you're thankful for something horrible, like... puppies drowning or something like that."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Oh no, of course not," Jonas said, frowning and shaking his head. "No, I'm sorry for the strange questions. I've been reading about holidays and some holidays are restrictive on what to do and when to eat and I was just checking to make sure I had all the information on this one. We didn't celebrate any holidays where I'm from."

[vanillajello]

"Don't worry about it. Asking questions is good," Kate said, giving a little dismissive wave with her hand. "But seriously, no holidays? Bummer."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"We celebrated birthdays," Jonas told her, shrugging. Of course, everyone celebrated their birthday on the same day which was strange but he kept that to himself. "No one in the Community knew about holidays so we didn't celebrate them. There was no way to know."

[vanillajello]

Kate raised an eyebrow. "So you, what? Didn't even know about the concept of holidays? Didn't you celebrate anything other than birthdays?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Jonas thought about it and then shook his head slowly. "No, we...didn't." He blushed."It's hard to explain," he said, pushing around some mashed potatoes.

"Assignments took place on the same day as the--" He stopped there, having almost revealed that whole 'birthdays all fall on the same day' and shook his head. "It's a different place."

[vanillajello]

Kate watched him with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Yeah, I can tell." She decided not to poke at it more.

"Anyway, you're here now, and ready to face the holidays."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I don't know if I'm so much ready as curious," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. "After this holiday, I'll have to do some research on Christmas."

[vanillajello]

Kate chuckled. "And you're going to find out that's kinda about food, too. But mostly presents, and stress."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I've noticed that a lot of American holidays revolved around food," he laughed. He couldn't really fault that sort of thing though. It was a good thing to revolve a day around. "We never ate this much back home. Three meals a day and that was it."

[vanillajello]

"We just revolve around food in general," Kate smirked. "Until we get too fat to revolve around anything. But food's good."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"My younger brother is very taken with ice cream," Jonas shared, grinning warmly. "Are you staying on the island for this holiday?"

[vanillajello]

"Ice cream is the best," Kate grinned. Then she nodded. "Yeah. I'm going home for Christmas, though."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I'm not," he said and though he might have sounded wistful, he didn't sound upset. "Mostly because there would be no Christmas if I did."

Or because he had, no doubt, that he'd be Released.

"I'm certain that there'll be some sort of celebration here," he decided. "And I'd like to see it."

[vanillajello]

"Oh, there'll definitely be some sort of a shindig here. It would be fun to stay for that, but I think my parents want me home," she shrugged. "But I'll probably be back for New Year's, so I'm not missing all the fun."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"And yet another holiday," Jonas said, laughing again. "I'd never known the end of a calendar year was so inundated with holidays before arriving here."

[vanillajello]

"Maybe it has something to do with it getting darker. More holidays so we don't get all depressed," Kate mused.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"The presence of darkness causes depression?" He hadn't even gotten close to delving into medical conditions, mental or physical.

[vanillajello]

"I think it can," she shrugged again. "But I don't know, I kinda like it." Beat. "The dark, I mean, not depression."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"You can see the stars in the dark," Jonas pointed out. Even without knowing the names or what they meant, he'd found himself fascinated by those points of light in the sky. "It's quiet when it's dark. I find myself liking the stillness."

[vanillajello]

"I'm not a big fan of quiet, at least if you ask my brother," Kate said, smiling fondly when she mentioned Moosh, "but I'd kinda have to agree."

She'd been standing on the roof, smoking, some restless nights when she couldn't sleep. It was calming.