The deck of the Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Friday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's "use the time difference to instantly age liquor" scheme had not worked. Apparently the Baltimore on the other side of the causeway wasn't quite the same Baltimore that he could sail to from Fandom's port. Which was terribly disappointing, as it meant any, say, winning lottery numbers he tried to pick up probably also wouldn't do him any good. And, like, what was the point of traveling through time if you couldn't make money off of it? Come on!

He was no stranger to disappointment, though. After a quiet morning spent fishing (out past where he'd worked out the line between 2019 and 2008 likely was, where he could be reasonably certain nothing he caught would turn out to be sapient), he was feeling pretty good, lounging on his deck, a couple fresh-caught sea bass chilling in a cooler, strumming his ukelele.

He was starting to enjoy this quiet little island. The locals were friendly, if a little bizarre; his class was fun -- though really, how did all of them end up doing that worksheet?!; the weather was frankly gorgeous; and best of all, no one had tried to arrest or kill him in weeks.

Oh yeah. He could definitely get used to this.

[because of course Duke plays the ukelele. Open deck = open post!]

Comments

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden wasn't going to complain about the playing. It was at least preferable to the zombies, Duke hadn't seemed too bad when they had met, and most importantly, he had mentioned having good booze. Seivarden hoped he had been honest about that.

She also wasn't going to make any sarcastic comments about the ship, because it was a ship that was supposed to sail on water, and not some kind of excuse for a spaceship.

"Enjoying the afternoon?" she called to Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

And keeping his ship looking old and busted on the outside was good for the smuggling business!

"Seivarden," Duke greeted with a nod and a smile. "Sunshine, fish to grill up later. . . . Yeah, my afternoon's going great. Yours?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"Not to bad."

Really boring, that was why she was here.

"You fish?"

[betterthanaplan]

"I live on a boat." Duke figured that should be answer enough. "You ever have fresh sea bass?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"I've had fresh fish of course," Seivarden said. "Not here very often though. And I have no idea what a sea bass is."

She leaned against the boat, stepping aboard without an invitation would be improper, but she was hoping for one.

[betterthanaplan]

"Big tasty fish," Duke explained. He set his ukelele aside. "You want to come aboard, I'll show you. So long as you're not squeamish about meeting your food?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm not," Seivarden said, stepping aboard. "We used to have a lot of fresh fish when I was growing up. It's harder to get on a spaceship though."

She grinned. "So is the water around here good for fishing?"

Maybe she could get both good booze and fresh fish from Duke. Prepared fresh fish, since she couldn't really cook.

[betterthanaplan]

"Around the island? I wouldn't guarantee it. But you go out far enough, and the Atlantic is full of tasty flesh." He pulled one of the black sea bass he'd caught. "I figure I'll gut and grill these suckers in a little while, break out the bourbon." He gave Seivarden a knowing look. "Wanna join?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm not going to say no to that." Seivarden grinned. She nodded towards the sea bass. "That looks good."

[betterthanaplan]

"That it does." Duke tossed the fish back in the cooler and leaned back in his seat. "So what have you been up to?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"Oh, the usual," Seivarden said truthfully, taking a seat. "What about you? Apart from fishing?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Tested a theory, but it didn't pan out. Apparently my world isn't quite the same as the one on the other end of the causeway."

[1000yearstoolate]

"What was the theory?" Seivarden asked. "I'm assuming you had a reason to think it might be."

Duke didn't come across as stupid.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack went to see if Duke was still surviving with his faculties intact. One eyebrow went up when she heard him playing a uke.. because that meant the jury was entirely out.

"Is that a good thing, music calming the savage breast or whatever the fuck, or is it a wordless cry for help?" Jack asked.

Also hi, hope you're well?

[betterthanaplan]

"Jack," Duke greeted, a little pointedly but with a grin. "Hello! How are you?"

[biotic_psychotic]

She arched a brow, "More curious now because you didn't actually answer the question. Hi, Duke. So? How are you?"

[betterthanaplan]

"I prefer to at least get casual niceties out of the way before I field questions about my mental state." Duke nodded. "I'm doing just fine, thanks for asking. Enjoying a quiet Friday."

[biotic_psychotic]

"I never really saw the point in any of that social stuff," Jack drawled, "Glad to hear you're doing good, though really you gotta work on that jinxing shit of yours. Sayin' it's a quiet Friday is just begging for a rain of frogs or something."

[betterthanaplan]

"Then I'll get an umbrella." Oh. Honey. "There are not one but two Duke-alikes on the island, one of whom is dead. Frogs sound great."

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack paused and reflected on that statement. "So long as the dead one isn't Kanan, it's fine. You get used to shit like that here. I mean, you could wake up tomorrow and have spawned an exact clone of yourself who turns evil and goes around killing people. At least the two who live here aren't that, right? You're rolling with the weird. That's all to the good."

[betterthanaplan]

"I am rolling with the weird," Duke agreed. Apparently it was going to be good practice. "And as far as I know, Kanan's fine. Probably jumping around shadow-fencing in the park as we speak. That seems to be his thing."

[biotic_psychotic]

"He's got an allergy to gravity," Jack agreed with a grin, "It helps him meditate, I think. At least we'll be able to tell you apart. One's allergic to gravity, one's musically inclined, one's dead."

[betterthanaplan]

"Also a drunk. And Japanese. He's pretty easy to filter out, really." Duke shrugged and gave the ukelele a final strum before setting it aside. "And I'm not so much 'musically inclined' as 'prone to spend long periods alone on a boat'. You'll find I have many miscellaneous skills."

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack didn't comment on the drunk part. Of all, that was the part that could change.

"Man of many random skills. At least you know how to keep from being bored. Makes you less boring than some."

[betterthanaplan]

Yeeeeeeah, Duke kept almost as much liquor around as he did water. He really had no room to talk when it came to drinking.

"Thank you. That was very nearly a compliment."