fandomhigh | Discovering Earth, Friday, Period 2

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Discovering Earth, Friday, Period 2

When class met today, Hannibal had a sketchpad under one arm, and was dressed in a jaunty and very Italian suit and hat. Not that the students could probably tell the difference. He was also in a very good mood for a number of reasons, only one of which was their destination.

"Good day, class. Today, we will be visiting Rome. Specifically, the Colosseum. The building is roughly two thousand years old, and is the largest amphitheater built on Earth. It is considered a World Heritage Site, and for good reason - it's one of Italy's most identifiable symbols. It was recently cleaned and renovated, and now the public can even visit the tunnels underneath that were used to house and bring in scenery, beasts, and gladiators."

"Sounds like something some of the more infamous Hutts from my galaxy would love," Kanan mused, scratching his beard and smirking faintly. "And two thousand years old? That's kind of cute. Earth, you're cute."

And Kanan, you were an ass.

Hannibal was used to it by now; he simply gave Kanan a slightly exasperated look.

"In its heyday, the Colosseum was used for everything from dramas, to gladiatorial combat, to sea battles - they would flood the entire floor and bring in boats. There are currently plans to complete the renovations and open it to hosting cultural events, although it may be some time until that happens."

"I'm guessing they aren't planning on flooding the place again," Kanan noted. "Now there's something I'd love to see."

What? He'd seen plenty of space battles. But boats? On the water? Not so much.

"It does sound fascinating, doesn't it? So." Hannibal waved them through the portal. "Enjoy the history and the architecture, or if you prefer, the shopping and food of Rome. I'll be staying a bit longer to take it all in myself, so there will be a later portal as well."

Maybe he'd call Jono and see if he wanted to join him.

"We'll see if I stick around," Kanan added, looking thoughtful. "Old ruins like this always kind of creeped me out."

He'd been raised a Jedi. This was patently untrue.

And Hannibal, who wasn't fooled, gave him a curious look for that, but decided not to bring it up in front of the students.

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"Is it all snow-capped mountains?"

You know, like Alderaan?

"No," Hannibal said. "There are islands, prairies, and tundra. It covers a number of climates."

Because that was how planets worked, Kanan.

Kanan's running theory was that if all sentient life in this galaxy was from Earth, this planet had to overcompensate by being everything to account for it.

"Huh. Weird."

Look, they weren't talking about ruins anymore. Kanan was going to just linger on conversation about Earth Alderaan for as long as he was able. Or at least until the class period was over and he could make a break for the island.

Hannibal knew what he needed to about the ruins; he was perfectly happy to discuss Space Canada.

"What is Alderaan like?" He grinned. "How is the food?"

"The food is fine," Kanan replied, grinning faintly. "I mean, that shouldn't be too surprising. There's a lot of focus on education and the arts there, so I'm guessing the whole place would be right up your alley."

Right up until someone blew it up. That would put a bit of a damper on it.

"I think I'd enjoy that, then," Hannibal said.

If they left before the boom.

Hey, they had nearly a decade before that, anyway!

"Well, then maybe someday," Kanan replied, shrugging. "I mean, if nothing else it'll be another good excuse to stock up on fresh nerf."

One could never have too much nerf.

"I look forward to trying nerf," Hannibal said. "And maybe you can introduce me to some of your galaxy's melons. Return the favor."

"Oh, definitely," Kanan chuckled. "If I'd been thinking, I would've brought over some of the fruit that Hera and I brought back, when we came back from Gorse."

Which... was a whole other thing that he'd been merrily Not Dealing With, so he was going to just continue right along.

"I picked up a bunch of jogan fruit- think of a purple, striped... not quite apple. It's hard to come up with an Earth flavor that compares. And Hera stocked up on meiloorun. Just crazy about the things, I guess."

"And what is that one?" Hannibal asked. "And can I tempt you to bring them to my house if I offer you both dinner in return?"

"That one's the melon," Kanan offered. "I can't quite put a finger on anything really close to that, either, but I imagine Hera could be persuaded to part with one in exchange for a decent meal."

Not that Kanan's cooking wasn't decent. But... comparatively.

"I'll look forward to it, then." Hannibal eyed Kanan. "Do you have a phone yet?"

Kanan snorted and shrugged his shoulders.

"It's on the to-do list. Especially now that I know I'm going to be hanging around. Mostly I've just been too busy to go get one set up."

This... was actually true. From a certain point of view. Drinking, trying to meditate, and swinging around spatulas counted, if you were Kanan.

"In that case, I'll have to send you an actual invitation. On paper."

Quite prehistoric. It was possible Hannibal was trolling him now.

Hey, Kanan would take that trolling with a grain of salt.

"I bet Hera would get a kick out of that. Either that, or I'd have to talk her out of throwing her hands in the air and just leaving such a primitive world behind," he chuckled. "Actual paper. Do people even use that here anymore?"

A beat.

"Besides for weddings?"

"Some of them, yes," Hannibal said. "Books are still largely on paper, for one thing. Myself, I sketch on paper," he tapped his sketchbook, "and write invitations and cards. I also use paper for my patient records. I find that books written in my own shorthand are more secure than anything on a computer."

"I suppose it would be harder to slice a piece of paper," Kanan mused.

... Which was a hilarious statement basically everywhere but his own galaxy.

"And around here, with the things your patients would be telling you, that's probably for the best."

Fortunately, Hannibal could get it from context. "Hacking, we'd say here, of breaking into a computer system. But yes, I take confidentiality very seriously. Also, I enjoy writing. There's a preciseness to calligraphy that can be quite lovely."

"Hacking," Kanan echoed, and then frowned a bit and shook his head. "I like slicing better. Sounds less like a butcher job and more like somebody went in with some kind of precision to do the job."

Kanan had Opinions. Always had, always would.

"And calligraphy sounds like quite the art. I don't know that aurebesh lends itself so well to it, but High Galactic... uh... whatever it is you call your more common alphabet here... certainly seems to."

Hannibal nodded. "It does." He flipped his sketchbook to a new page and wrote his own name with a number of calligraphic flourishes as demonstration. Then he thought for a moment and held the pad and pencil out to Kanan. "Show me your aurebesh."

Kanan looked thoughtfully at Hannibal's calligraphy, and then shrugged, took the pencil and paper, and wrote down his own name.

Then he passed the pad and pencil right back.

"It's nothing fancy," he noted. "The pencil doesn't do it much justice, really. Some of the alphabet has tapering that's hard to get with a tip like that. But there it is. I could write out the entire alphabet, if you wanted."

"Please," Hannibal said, delighted. "Are the letters a one-to-one correspondance with ours?"

"For the most part," Kanan agreed, "though we have a few extras besides."

He turned the notepad to a fresh page, shrugged, and started writing them out, then writing the name of each letter and the sound it would correspond to in the High Galactic/local Earth alphabet, for reference.

"Like thesh, for the 'th' sound. Or nen, for a 'ng.' And then there's the punctuation..."

And now he was writing that out, too, with ease.

"English used to have letters for those, but they were mostly supplanted by our current alphabet," Hannibal said, watching as Kanan wrote the letters. "Some of these look more like runes, or Hebrew. Other alphabets," he explained.

"Are they ones that I'm going to want to learn if I'm sticking around here for a while?"

He'd noticed that some of the places Hannibal had taken his classes in the past had used different alphabets, of course. Now seemed like as good a time to ask about them as any.

Discovering Earth, Friday, Period 2

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