Streets of Fandom, Friday morning

[raven_unhollow]

Raven prowled through the streets of Fandom, keeping a wary eye out for any villagers foolish enough to be out by themselves (herself excluded, of course) or those who had gone hollow. She was also looking for any of these new visitors to the island she'd both sensed and heard about. Some of them felt...familiar in a way, though she couldn't

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[uncertain_dume]

Kanan's morning had been rough. Being thrown from a roof by what appeared to be a giant, monstrous version of himself had a funny way of doing that, really. But now that he'd managed to re-gain his bearings, collect his (very colorful) dalmatian, and get away from that place, he was feeling...

Well, not better, really. He'd bandaged up his skinned hand and had gone so far as to actually reassemble his lightsaber, which he was wearing openly at his hip, a weird, almost unfamiliar symmetry to the blaster he had on the other one. The Empire was the last thing he needed to be concerned about, here, and it wasn't like he was fooling anybody who had any idea who the Jedi were in the first place. Probably.

The Force was chewing at his head, rattling the inside of his mind, telling him to make his way to the Park. So... here he was, with a technicolor dog, doing just that and looking less than pleased (and possibly a little traumatized) as he went.

Space, he needed to get the hell off this island.

[raven_unhollow]

"It is unwise to be wandering about alone," Raven said, teleporting from the roof she'd been crouched atop to the street behind Kanan.

The dog didn't count. At least not unless it proved itself a fighter, but the technicolor canine was probably going to attract some of the creatures that roamed the former town.

"You should go to the village. It is safer there."

[uncertain_dume]

Behind him? Raven, that was positively sadistic. Kanan jumped, spinning on his heel, hand reaching for the saber at his hip and halfway to having it ignited before he registered that the person standing there... probably wasn't going to throw him off another roof.

Stance, meanwhile, hunkered down and growled.

"The goal wasn't to wander, believe me," Kanan said, taking a deep breath before straightening up again, moving to clip his weapon back to his belt. "I needed to get out of that apartment. The village... is that the quiet space in the park?"

[raven_unhollow]

Sorry, Kanan, Raven firmly believed people wandering alone should get a good scare.

Again, herself excluded, of course.

"Yes, the park," she said. "It is protected as best we can manage and safe from most of the horrors that wander the island."

She tilted her head, eyeing his lightsaber. "You are a Jedi?"

[uncertain_dume]

Deep breath, exhale. Right. That was a question he hadn't been asked in a long while from anybody who wasn't a Jedi themselves, and the answer was... complicated. More than a little.

"Close enough," he settled on, briefly looking to the dog and giving him a little nod and a silent wave of reassurance through the Force. Stance settled down, the growl fading in his throat, and he looked up at Raven curiously, giving his tail a cautious wag. "That won't be a problem, will it?"

[raven_unhollow]

Raven gave Stance a look and stretched out her hand so he could sniff it. He made her think of Philia for a moment, but she quickly shunted that pang of loss aside.

"No, it is not," she said, returning her gaze to Kanan. "I have counted Jedi among some of my closest friends. My name is Raven. How did you come to be in this place?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Would you believe I woke up here?" Kanan winced a little as he glanced up toward the rooftops. Stance, meanwhile, trotted over to sniff the offered hand, and then, deciding that Raven wasn't all that bad after all, licked at her fingers for a few moments. "In... what was my apartment, at some point. Looks like it's seen better days, though."

He shook his head. Shook it off. This wasn't even the worst situation he'd ever been in. It just kind of looked like it.

"Good to meet you, Raven. Kanan."

Much like the big Jedi-looking monstrosity that was haunting the roof of the MCA. He was going to continue not thinking about that, okay?

[raven_unhollow]

Given that throughout her life in Fandom, Raven had often woken up someplace other than where she went to sleep, that wasn't surprising to hear. But it did explain why some of the presences had felt so familiar.

"You are from Fandom? Another Fandom?" she asked.

[uncertain_dume]

"A much cleaner Fandom, apparently," Kanan agreed, nodding and looking around. "What the hell happened here?"

It looked... well... he'd seen less war-torn towns back during the actual war.

[raven_unhollow]

They'd been to other Fandoms before and fixed them, or at least ended the horrors there. The vampire Fandom. Umbridge's Fandom. Maybe this was the same thing, only in reverse? No, she couldn't let her hopes get up.

"I am not certain," Raven said. "Something began to corrupt those who dwelled here, and there was very little we could do to fight it. It changed people. Turned them into monsters. There are not many of us left who have not gone hollow."

[uncertain_dume]

"Hollow," Kanan echoed, frowning thoughtfully as he looked up at the rooftops. "Good word for them."

The thing he'd faced had certainly been empty, after all.

"And they can't be fought?"

Sure they could. But who wanted to kill their friends? Especially since there was always that tantalizing hope that a cure might yet be found?

[raven_unhollow]

"They can be," Raven said. Karla. Out there in the woods, probably luring some fool to his or her death. She had to stop her.

"But they are many, and we are few," she said, "and some, like what was once the Principal of the school, seem almost impervious. Others are merely shells of their former selves, staying close to places that were familiar in life and mindlessly attacking any who might come near. We destroy them when we are able, but simple survival is the most important concern for us."

[uncertain_dume]

Well. That was horrifying. And it explained... a lot.

"It's the sensible concern," Kanan allowed, nodding faintly as Stance trotted back to his side, leaning himself up against his leg. "Hence the park. Strength in numbers, that sort of thing."

Or keeping all your eggs in one basket, but he wasn't about to say as much. After all, they'd been surviving here a lot longer than he had.

[raven_unhollow]

"It is all we have left," Raven said. "Scattered, we are weak and easy prey. Many more would be dead or...lost to us forever."

A fate worse than death as far as she was concerned, twisted bodies and just faint echos of the mind that was once there.

[uncertain_dume]

"And now..." Kanan paused for a moment, reaching out with the Force to be sure. It was oppressive out there to say the least, but there were enough familiar minds that he felt confident in saying, "now you've got us, too. Tripping through the streets with no idea what's out there. Betting you've got your hands more full than you have in a while."

He very nearly left it at that, but a whim, some part of Caleb that he'd tried to bury deep down, had him adding, "How can I help?"

[raven_unhollow]

To anyone else Raven might've said, "Stay out of the way and do not get killed." But largely due to Anakin and Tahiri, and what she knew of other Jedi like Jaina, she had a lot of respect for Jedi and their abilities.

"Remember yourself," she said. "This place has a way of eating away at your memories. Guide any others who are not hollow to the village where they can be safe. And, if you are able, put those who were once our friends to rest."