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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[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.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Why don't you like the quiet?" Jonas wondered. "If there's even a reason. I know some people just prefer noises and sound. I always liked quiet. It allowed me time to think."

[vanillajello]

"I don't know, I just like music a lot, and sound in general."

She paused for a moment, then added, "And maybe I just don't like thinking." It was said jokingly, but something about the tone seemed to suggest there was some truth to it.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Jonas picked up on that tone and nodded, deciding not to question it further. "I suppose, if it's too quiet, your mind has the opportunity to think some rather strange things. I found myself wondering about things that can be made into sandwiches the other day."

[vanillajello]

Kate chuckled softly. "That's not strange, that's just useful! Did you come up with anything interesting?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"...ice cream?" Yeah, he had a one track mind sometimes. "I don't think it'd work very well though."

[vanillajello]

"No, I don't think it would," she agreed. "There are ice cream sandwiches, though. But they're not at all like sandwiches, really."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"They're are?" For someone who had a brother obsessed with ice cream, he'd yet to hear about these. "They use actual bread?"

[vanillajello]

"No, they're more like two cookies with ice cream between them," she explained. "Which is really just pure genious. No way you can go wrong with cookies and ice cream."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like a lot of sugar," he said and grinned. "I didn't know those were an actual sandwich. I might have to try one. Do they use different types of ice cream?"