Steps from the shadows, all trenchcoat &amp; cigarette &amp; arrogance

"It's not everywhere," Peter said. "Some places don't observe it. And some do, but change on different days."

Earth really was odd in a few ways, he supposed.

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"... Your planet makes no sense."

Just in case Peter wasn't aware.

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"I'm pretty sure that no-one anywhere has ever claimed otherwise." Peter shrugged. "No-one sane, anyway."

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"Well, I never claimed to have known a sane person from here, either," Kanan pointed out, grinning faintly. "I'm not sure if Earth is crazy because of the people, the people are crazy because of Earth, or something somewhere in the middle, but it's got to be at least one of those."

And he'd come back. So.

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"Probably in the middle," Peter said. "We pretty much all grew up crazy together."

He eyed Kanan. "You can't tell me you've got a whole galaxy with no weird customs, though."

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"Oh, no, it's all weird," Kanan agreed easily. "But it's a weird I understand, and that makes all the difference. And if it's a weird I don't understand, then hey, it's a big galaxy. I probably just missed something somewhere, and the odds that I'll encounter it again are pretty slim anyway."

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"This is a big galaxy, too," Peter pointed out, grinning. "If you travel around, you won't see our weird again, either."

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"Big, but backrocket," Kanan snorted. "If there is other life out there, in this same galaxy, they clearly haven't gone out of their way to say hello. I mean, I could go looking, but where the hell would I re-fuel?"

But even that was weird, for the record. A whole galaxy with only one sentient species in it? Didn't seem possible.

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Excuse you, Kanan, but Peter wasn't human. Just because there was only one planet, didn't mean only one sentient species.

He shrugged. "You'd have to find a place. Maybe there are some. It's not like Earth's gotten very far out yet."

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"Eggnog incident?" Verity asked, though she did accept the invitation to come inside. "Wait, are you saying your pipes are filled with absinthe?"

Which made the 'eggnog incident' even worse to contemplate. It was bad enough she smelled like a gin distillery mixed with lime. The idea of smelling like eggnog was a hundred times worse.

"...How the hell did that much absinthe get into the plumbing?"

Poor, precious lamb. So new!

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That was lying propaganda and Kanan had made the right choice!

"That's one way to make me feel better about my gin-and-lime-juice shower," Verity said, sitting down with a drink in hand. "On the plus side, that's a hell of a cocktail to wake up to. I guess I should just be glad I didn't try to take a bath."

A sip of her drink and then she was offering her hand. "Hi, I'm Verity. I'm new, as everyone keeps pointing out."

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For a moment, all Verity saw were Hera's lekku and hastily averted her eyes, thinking the other woman was a Gorgos medusa, or, more colloquially, a greater gorgon. Verity had never met a greater gorgon before, but that was in no small part deliberate on both sides. Most greater gorgons avoided humans out of fear of another attempt at extermination and Verity didn't want to chance being turned to stone with a glance.

"Hi," she said, a little awkwardly, carefully not making eye contact. "No, I live in the other apartment building in town, but I didn't know what apartments were inhabited and didn't feel like knocking on a bunch of empty doors, you know?"

And it was about then that Verity realized Hera's...hair-tentacles?...were not actually snakes at all. And if they weren't snakes, then it meant Hera was not a gorgon and--okay, now Verity was making eye contact and offering more than just a polite smile. "Hi," she said again. "I'm Verity and the pleasure is mine."

Much easier to be personable when the other person wasn't a giant snake-woman ability--and possibly the inclination--to petrify you!

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... Eh, he started human, anyway.

"True enough," Kanan allowed, "but from the sound of it, nothing's gotten very far in, either. And even if I find a place with fuel, there's no guarantee it's compatible with Escape, either."

He wasn't going to go experimenting with his baby!

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Kanan grinned and reached over for the handshake.

"And I'm Kanan. I wasn't going to ask if you were new, but yeah, I haven't seen you around."

Which could just as easily have been a testimony to how often he didn't get out, these days. Clearly he needed to start doing more of his drinking in bars.

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But drinking at a bar cost money! Drinking at home (or in Constantine's house) was free!

"It's okay, pretty much everyone does," Verity asked. "I moved here about a month or so. Thought I was settling in okay, but this was pretty unexpected."

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True enough! And Kanan preferred to drink other people's alcohol over his own whenever he could help it.

"That's this place all over," he chuckled, shaking his head and lifting his glass. "Pretty unexpected. What brings you here, Verity?"

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Verity's instincts were to lie, but there was a green woman hanging out here with no one seeming the warier and alcohol was coming out of the taps. If this place wasn't safe to be open about cryptozoology, nowhere was.

"My job," she admitted. "I'm a cryptozoologist and my family heard about the teal dear and the alots on the island. I'm here learning more about those species and keeping an eye on the cryptids in Baltimore for the next year."

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"I have no idea what half of that means," Kanan shared, leaning forward and smiling apologetically. "You're here to study the local wildlife?"

He paused, and then decided to clarify, "I'm not exactly from around here. If there's something special about the deer and the alots, I really wouldn't know."

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"So you just have to put up with the weird around here, then," Peter said, grinning.

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futurespacemom

Well, that was a weird greeting. Hera wasn't really sure if it was good or bad.

"Nice to meet you. You don't see a lot of twi'leks, then?"

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"How often do you suppose the weird around here will involve free alcohol?"

Priorities.

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"I believe you're my first!" Verity said cheerfully. "I thought you were a greater gorgon for a moment because of your...uhh...cranial appendages?" Hopefully that was a non-offensive way of saying 'head tentacles'. "And to make eye-contact with a greater gorgon if neither of you are taking precautions leads to a very painful death, so I was being cautious."

It wasn't like cockatrice and basilisk petrifaction that was reversible if treated in time. While it was possible there was a cure for greater gorgon petrification, Verity hadn't heard about it.

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Uh-oh, Kanan. You'd released the nerd.

"They're both species that are unknown to most human scientists," Verity explained, animated with enthusiasm. "The specific coloration of the deer--and at least some of their behaviors--set them apart from their various cousin and I haven't even figured out what phyla they belong to, never mind narrowed it down further."

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talentforlying

"It's green, it's Saint Pat's, and the island has decided to try and be funny again. This time, it actually succeeded," he said dryly. "Not bad, for a sentient bit of rock."

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