MCA #6- Thursday all day

[solo_sword]

When Jaina first arrived four/eleven years ago, she hadn't thought she'd be here this long. At times she'd practically been running for the nearest portal that would take her anywhere but here. So the fact that she was even a little bit upset about leaving Fandom now was kind of a shock to her. She never once thought she'd be leaving here feeling even the slightest bit centered, or thinking that maybe dating shouldn't be off-limits forever (she knew she still wouldn't have time for it but that was not the point), or feeling like she could handle the next few years even knowing what might happen.

She wasn't actually leaving until first thing Friday morning, but she didn't want to be upset when she left. She just wanted to get up and go before she had a chance to think about it. So she sent out an email to let people know today was the last day she'd be around and give them her contact info in case she didn't get to see them, and set about to doing all the last-minute tasks she had to get out of the way. Things like making sure her X-wing and Sneaker were both in working order, cleaning, packing up another box to send off for home because she had too much stuff to take along to fit in said X-wing, wondering how the kriff that had even happened, things like that. In related news, moving was annoying.

A lot of things had changed during Jaina's collective time in Fandom, but one thing definitely didn't: keeping distracted so she didn't have to think was always going to be her default coping mechanism.


[Jaina's last post in Fandom. If you think you got/want to have gotten an email, you did. Totally open with SP during work. *CLINGS*]

Comments

[solo_sword]

"I will," she promised, though she wasn't even sure at the moment if her own Tahiri was around or still on Dagobah. "And it might be a day or two before Zekk gets back from his last thing, so we'll see how crazy I go waiting."

[weetuskenraider]

Hey, if you were going to get exiled for divulging secrets, there were worse places to end up than D -- okay, theoretically there were worse places.

"Doesn't your phone have an app or two for that?" Tahiri asked. "Unless you've already beaten all of those games with the birds."

[solo_sword]

"I do have someone's high score to beat," she said thoughtfully. "I forgot all about that. Thank you."

Sorry, Eric, now she had a mission again.

[weetuskenraider]

Aaaaaaaaaaand blink. Also blink again.

"Sithspawn, you were serious?"

[solo_sword]

"I get bored!" Jaina explained. "And the challenge was posed, I just got distracted from it."

[weetuskenraider]

"Must have been something impressive to distract you from that kind of challenge," Tahiri noted. What? She could completely see Jaina using the whole thing as an exercise in strategy.

. . . nobody show that game to the Gamorreans.

[solo_sword]

...For all she knew, that was why Eric asked her out. "I think I just got really busy," she said vaguely.

[weetuskenraider]

"Here in Fandom?" Tahiri raised an eyebrow. "Apart from the thing with the flying turtleducks, it's been pretty quiet lately."

Okay, the island moving didn't really count as quiet.

"Unless you've been trying to establish some kind of rapport with the Vikings . . ."

[solo_sword]

Well... "I have actually gone over there a couple times," she replied. "I know someone from that time and area, I couldn't not. Even if I can't understand a thing they're saying."

[weetuskenraider]

Ahem. At least Tahiri had no idea there was another implication to what she was saying?

"Maybe I should do that," she said thoughtfully. "Getting practice dealing with unfamiliar cultures and communication problems before I head home can't hurt."

[solo_sword]

"It's definitely interesting. They're friendlier than I would have thought, too." Great, now everything sounded entendre-y now. "Just beware the smell." There, fixed it.

[weetuskenraider]

"You forget where I grew up," Tahiri said lightly. "Actually, it smells a little better here than some big cities I can think of, as far as I'm concerned."

[solo_sword]

"I was in a bar with them and apparently baths weren't a thing," Jaina said. "Maybe it's just that particular mixture of things."

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh." Baths hadn't been a thing for Tahiri all that much, growing up, but that had been more due to water being at an extreme premium on Tatooine, and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't spent a lot of time taking advantage of the refresher facilities in her room at the Temple for the first few months she'd been there. So it didn't take her long to do the mental (and olfactory) math and make a face. See, now she was thinking about Mos Eisley. "Ew. Yeah. At least it was a memorable experience?"

[solo_sword]

Jaina couldn't judge too much, not if she'd ever had to travel in a cramped X-wing for any length of time. But still, it was worth noting. "It was. I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to see more of it," she said with a little frown.

[weetuskenraider]

That just brought it right back around to the whole issue of leaving, and Tahiri couldn't hide a reaction that could only be described as 'wibbly.'

"I know it won't be the same, but I can send you holos?" she offered, then sighed. "Sithspit. You were here before I got here. It's going to be weird being here with you gone."

[solo_sword]

Jaina let out a sigh of her own. "It's going to be weird not being here. It'll be okay, you'll get used to it in no time," she assured her.

[weetuskenraider]

"That's what I'm trying to tell myself," Tahiri mumbled. "I've said enough goodbyes to know you get used to it, but this is a little different because it's you."

[solo_sword]

That was so going to earn her a bigger hug in a minute or two. "I'll still be around whenever I can," Jaina told her. "Don't think of it as goodbye, think of it as just a little bit more time before we see each other again."

[weetuskenraider]

"In other words, like it or not, I'm sort of stuck with you now?" Leave it to Tahiri to still try for a joke.

[solo_sword]

"Yes. Except for the 'sort of,'" Jaina grinned.

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh. Well." There was nothing at all convincing about the put-upon sigh Tahiri tried to feign. "Good thing for you, then, that I think this is a good thing, huh?"

[solo_sword]

"It does make things easier," she nodded. "I am going to miss you, you know."

[weetuskenraider]

"As if I wouldn't miss you," Tahiri replied, half-laughing. "You know, seeing you here on my first day was when I started to think that maybe things would be all right? I won't forget everything you've done to help me."

[solo_sword]

See, this. This was why she hadn't wanted to say her goodbyes and then get in her ship the same day. "I'm glad I was able to," she said. "And I can't say you being here didn't make things seem more normal. If a little brain-breaky at times..."