fandomhigh | Laying Low for Beginners, Thursday, Period1

Kanan was looking far more at ease today in front of his class than he had the first time he had taught it. But then, the first time he'd taught it had been a complete surprise to him. This time, he'd actually chosen to. And so he grinned at the room before starting his lesson the exact same way he had once before.

Don't worry, he had to stray eventually.

"Let me tell you about my day yesterday." See? Had to stray eventually. "Yesterday, I made my way to the boat races, which I had been signed up for by... hell, I don't know, probably a moose. I've got a lot of odd skills under my belt, so I wasn't too worried about whether or not I'd do any good. Hell, I was paired off with a pretty big guy. Two of us rowing that boat really should have done pretty well, right? Well. We came in third to last, because instead of rowing the boat, I got a rainbow-soaked lesson in how to play rock-paper-scissors by a man who wants to put droid arms onto a fish."

He paused.

"Hell if I know why he wants to put droid arms on the fish. We might never find out."

At least he actually sounded fairly amused by the whole ordeal. He hadn't really wanted the fish anyway.

"This workshop, we're going to be putting a lot of work into improvisation," he continued. "Since a big part of laying low is how well you roll with the weird stuff, whether it's rainbow rain or arms on fish. I'm Kanan Jarrus. Yes, this is a class about avoiding notice and keeping out of trouble, and no, I'm not actually actively working on laying particularly low around the island these days. That isn't going to change my first lesson any; learn how to tell a good story. It's a skill that we'll be working on polishing over the next few weeks, among other things, but today we're going to give it a bit of a warm-up. Introductions."

You all got a break from it yesterday. No complaining. Kanan didn't know most of you anyhow.

"I'm going to want three things from you. I'm going to want your name, I'm going to want to know what you're taking this class for, and how about we hear you tell the class what it is you did yesterday. Don't be afraid to embellish, either. Have fun with any of the three of those things. This isn't quite going to be two truths and a lie, but if you do end up adding any blatant untruths, I want you to stick to it. Every time you come to my class for the rest of the summer, remember that lie you told. Commit to it. Make it your new truth. Because if you can't even keep your story straight for an hour a week for six weeks, you're gonna have a hard time doing it out there."

And had Kanan himself embellished any of what he'd said? Yes and no. But his real name wasn't anybody's business but his own, and he'd spent a decade perfecting his story to go with it.

"And if any of you storytellers has any interest in being my assistant for this class... sure, I could probably use one of those, too."

[OOC: Open! I've missed teaching with this nerd.]

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She had an excellent sabacc face, Kanan had to hand it to her.

"You're too kind," he said, grinning. "I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't been able to compete."

What he'd done could barely be considered 'competing.'

"I wouldn't have wanted to you break down in tears." Which was true in itself, but she had hardly expected that to happen.

"And we all know how sensitive I am about boat racing."

In that he wasn't. At all.

"And prone to crying."

Not that there was anything wrong with that, but she didn't think it was an accurate description of Kanan.

"All the time," Kanan agreed easily. "I try to keep it on the down-low, but sometimes you just have to let those tears flow."

The last time he'd actually had a good cry was roughly a decade ago. And it had actually been more of a not-so-great cry.

"And what if you hadn't got to learn how to attach droid arms to fish," Breq added. "That could come in handy."

"I suppose if I ever end up founding an underwater boxing club or something, sure," Kanan agreed.

He could not for the life of himself think of any reason why a mechanical singing fish with arms would be good to have around.

Neither could Breq.

"So was it a good day?"

"You know, overall, I think it was? I didn't win. Didn't even come close to winning. But it wasn't a total loss either. I enjoyed it."

"Winning isn't always the important thing, is it?"

That, at least, wasn't a lie.

"Nah," Kanan agreed. "Sometimes it's worthwhile just for the trip and the meatballs on the other side of the boat ride."

Well. That was... deep.

Edited 2018-05-17 20:22 (UTC)

No, but it wasn't really a lie, was it?

"I missed the meatballs."

"Well, you didn't go rowing," Kanan said easily. "There had to be something to make it worthwhile for anybody who didn't get a fish."

"I thought we agreed that rowing was enough in itself," Breq replied. "Of course, it makes you hungry."

"It makes you hungry," Kanan agreed with a grin. "Anyway, I had to bring some back for Hera."

It was important.

Basically, doing anything for Hera was important.

Kanan had it bad.

While Breq's face was blank as usual, Kanan could probably sense amusement, and the mental equivalent of 'awww'.

"Having her starve would be bad."

Not that Breq thought that Hera needed much help to find food for herself.

"I mean, this is Hera," Kanan replied, and so help him he wasn't going to blush. Much. "If I didn't come home with food, she'd probably just order delivery anyway."

Kanan was hardly the first person to blush like that in front of her. At least Breq didn't think he'd break down and cry on her if Hera left him, but she's had had to deal with that a lot too, so she'd manage.

"Hera seems like someone who can take care of herself."

That wasn't a lie.

Yeah, Kanan was completely enamored with her, but that didn't mean he couldn't live his life without her.

Probably.

"She'd probably kick me out if I didn't agree," he confirmed.

And he'd let her.

Even if it was his own apartment.

"Is it her apartment?" Breq asked ~~even though she couldn't read the narrative. She just assumed it might not be.~~

"... No," Kanan admitted. "No it isn't."

"So you'd let her throw you out of your own home?" Breq asked, then remembered they were in class, and perhaps this wasn't an appropriate question.

Kanan grinned, and shrugged.

"Maybe not for the sake of meatballs," he allowed.

Whatever. It wasn't like he was too attached to the place anyway.

"She has a ship to live in."

Hera had taken Breq to the moon and to see the solar system.

"She does," Kanan agreed. And he was not going to mention that he had his own room on that ship. "It's a nice ship."

It wasn't capable of thinking and carrying on a conversation, but he kind of loved the Ghost.

Re: Introductions!

justice_undone - 2018-05-18 19:03 (UTC) - Expand