Chilly Boulder [early afternoon, Wednesday]

[momslilassassin]

When Ben walked into Chilly Boulder, the staff immediately stopped their gossiping about Tino and the barista girl (because everyone was talking about that, you know) and looked sad.

"Come on, guys," Ben wheedled. "Your profits aren't going to take that much of a hit when I leave."

They told him that he was wrong, then made an obscenely enormous sundae for him that they insisted was called the Ben. The price tag on it, they hoped, would mitigate the loss of Ben's departure from the island.

Ben laughed and sat down at a table. It was going to take all day to eat this much ice cream.

[OOC: He's expecting a cousin, but is happy to talk to anyone. *Clings like crazy to him*]

Comments

[solo_sword]

Jaina's portal had gotten here later than she'd planned, and then there'd been the question of what to do with her stuff, so she'd gotten to the ice cream place to meet Ben a little later than she'd wanted to. She felt slightly better about that once she saw, the... well, the Ben.

"Okay, I think you might have developed a little bit of a problem with this stuff," she teased.

[momslilassassin]

"I think I'll be able to take a bath in the bowl when I'm done," Ben said, standing up to give her a tight hug.

[solo_sword]

She hugged him back just as tightly, since she hadn't seen him since before everything happened and now he was going to be leaving and it was like the hug had to do double duty here. "It's so good to see you."

[momslilassassin]

"You too," Ben said, clinging more than was his usual wont. "I'm so glad you made it."

[solo_sword]

"Me, too." She'd had to rush things a bit back home, but there were certain things she wasn't compromising on right now; having enough time to see her cousin after months before he left for however long meant she was going to make it happen. "How are you doing?"

[momslilassassin]

"Sure, start with the tough question first," Ben said with a sigh, flopping back into his seat. "I've had better months?"

[solo_sword]

"That seems to be on par for August," Jaina said, sitting across from him. "What's up?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben picked up his spoon, toyed with it, and put it back down. "I went home, and, well, you know home. Sith, torture, blood loss, tentacles--I'm done."

[solo_sword]

"What do you mean you're done?" she asked.

She who still planned to go back to the Jedi once she had her head on straight was a little wary here.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin was going home for a few days before classes started back up, but before he did there was a stop he absolutely had to make. Some people had corrupted him into this whole ice cream thing, see.

He was already dressed for travel, jumpsuit and boots and lightsaber clipped to his equipment harness, when he spotted his cousin and the sundae.

"Sithspawn, I think I've seen baby banthas smaller than that."

[momslilassassin]

"Me too," Ben admitted, chuckling. "Hey!"

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

If it was the size of a small creature . . .

"What are the odds that it might come to life and try to eat us?" Anakin wondered. It was a serious question, okay?

[momslilassassin]

"Higher now," Ben said, looking at the sundae suspiciously. "Come here and help me attack it with a spoon."

That'd teach it.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Did the odds of person-eating creatures rise at a ratio directly proportional to the number of Skywalker relatives in the room? Probably.

"Okay," Anakin agreed easily enough, snagging a spoon on his way over. "Is this their way of telling you they're really going to miss you?" he asked as he dropped onto a stool and dug into the sundae.

It was a very large spoonful. That would be discouraging to any people-eating ambitions it might have.

[momslilassassin]

"It's apparently called the Ben," Ben said, snickering. "So yeah. I'll be eating this into tomorrow."

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"There are worse things to have named after you, I guess," decided Anakin, which was more true than he realized.

[momslilassassin]

Ben hoped that the wince he had at that could be brushed off as a reaction to too much cold ice cream.

"Like a drink special in a cantina you're not even supposed to know exists?" he asked.

[glacial_queen]

No it wasn't. Not when there was a Karla to help.

"Oooh!" Karla said, grinning when she spotted him. "They're finally debuting the Ben! I've been waiting for this for days!"

[momslilassassin]

Ben laughed. "Need a bathtub when I'm finished?" he asked. "And you better be grabbing a spoon."

[glacial_queen]

"If you didn't offer to share with me, you'd've ended up face first in that..." It could barely be counted as a bowl. "...Washbasin?"

Karla snagged a spoon the waitress was holding out for her and joined Ben at his table. "What're they talking about? Who's writing poetry?"

[momslilassassin]

"Tino," Ben said, rolling his eyes. "Some barista at the Perk is all excited about it."

[glacial_queen]

Karla grimaced. "Tino? Really? Ew. That's terrifying."

That was hardly nice, Karla. On the other hand, it was a mental image she didn't need to have, either.

"No more information," she decided. "Or else I'm not going to be able to help you finish this ice cream."

[momslilassassin]

"Then don't ask them about it," Ben said. "They can recite the poetry in unison."

[glacial_queen]

"...You asked them about it, didn't you."

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah," Ben said. "That's twenty minutes of my life I'll never get back."