The Park on Sunday morning - picnic.

[hernando_fuentes]

The puddle of children had woken in the morning and asked to go to the park. After feeding them - and shooing the teenager out of his kitchen so he could have the privilege of making breakfast - Hernando walked them all to the park.

The children knew the way and it wasn't that Hernando was any sort of helicopter parent except yes, perhaps today a little bit, he was. Sparkle was making a quick dash into town to put a 'closed today on account of children' sign on the door of his store but planned to join them later.

Hernando had packed an entire antique picnic basket full of food and snacks and put Quinn to work hauling a rolling cooler behind them. The children had acted as if this were a usual thing and that made Hernando smile a bit. Abney was wearing the folded picnic blanket as a superhero cape and was running ahead with her arms out, making zooming plane noises.

There was way more food than the children would need, even if one was a growing teenager. To his rueful chagrin, Hernando found that the store had decided to help when he spread the blanket out and began to unpack. The basket never seemed to empty. He set out only enough plates of sandwiches and baskets of fruit for the moment and let the children go run. There were thermoses of tea and sodas and waters in the cooler as well.

Once free of her superhero cape, Abney lead the way to the playground and commenced burning off the energy. Quinn was more interested in reading a book but he, too, occasionally joined his sister in playing.

[Open park with picnic food! Come let the kids play together!]

Comments

[unusual_sith]

So vicious!

"Oh, she's strong enough in the Force to have traced me down, and that's probably how she found you, too," Lana said. "I have no doubt she could make herself heard if she were in trouble."

She shook her head, utterly bewildered. "How in the galaxy can I have a daughter, and with a Jedi?"

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan gave his shoulders a shrug.

"My guess is you went about it the usual way," he offered, because he was helpful like that. "At least you only have the one."

His were both confusing in their own special ways.

[unusual_sith]

"Thank you for that." Honestly, Kanan. "I didn't even know there were any Chiss Jedi!"

Because that was the takeaway here.

"I have no idea how she came about for any number of reasons, but she's...a bright spark, isn't she?"

Still bewildered, here.

[uncertain_dume]

"She's definitely got it," Kanan agreed with a nod. "She seems like a good kid."

A brief smirk.

"And a bit of a handful. If I'm pulling even half the babysitting duty she insists I do, I really have to wonder about what I'm doing with the rest of my time."

[unusual_sith]

"And I have to wonder what's so dangerous if the Sith and Jedi are getting along enough for two of us to marry," Lana said.

At which point Marshan noticed her.

"Mommy, help!" she said, still giggling, "I'm being eaten alive!"

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was thankful for that distraction, yes. It saved him from having to actually answer that question.

"Stance is a vicious, vicious beast," he said instead, grinning. "Careful, he might lick your whole face clean off, and then what?"

[unusual_sith]

Lana shook her head and went over to lift the little girl up and fend off the vicious beast with a ruffle of his ears.

"We can't have you without a face, can we?" She swung Marshan up into her arms and carried her back to Kanan.

[uncertain_dume]

Stance all too happily trotted alongside them, too. All the better for keeping an eye on his prey, probably.

"I have it on good authority that faces are pretty important," Kanan added, still grinning a little.

[usual_suspects]

"Most people need faces," Marshan agreed, grinning up at them both. "Except Miralukas have no eyes, so they maybe only have half a face?"

[uncertain_dume]

YOU MONSTER

Kanan gave a soft laugh at that.

"Pretty sure they have a full face," he replied. "That's the face they were born with, they'd probably take exception to having someone suggest otherwise."

[usual_suspects]

Marshan thought about that solemnly, then nodded. "They have different faces, but they're still whole faces. Like how Ithorians don't have extra faces just because they have two mouths. Are there people with more than one face?"

[uncertain_dume]

"The Troig, Danzikan, Yuvernians, and Dyclops all have two heads," Kanan offered. "Paaerduags are two beings in a symbiotic relationship. So, two faces, all of them."

He was probably missing a few. It was a vast and varied galaxy, after all.

[unusual_sith]

"I've only heard of half of those," Lana said curiously. "I'll have to do a bit of research, I think."

"Take me with you!" Marshan piped up, swinging her body upside down in Lana's arms.

Lana laughed. "You'll have to ask the older version of me about that, little devil. I'll be researching from the library."

[uncertain_dume]

"Hey, maybe she can help here," Kanan joked. "How's your High Galactic, huh?"

He grinned a little, settling back.

And then blinked up toward the MCA and squinted.

...

"Hey."

[unusual_sith]

"She was reading the books in the library just fine until she got bored," Lana said. She followed Kanan's gaze. "Hey what?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Hey, that's my--"

And that, of course, was when the Escape flew off of the roof and did a circuit of the park, once normally, and a second time upside-down, so that the teenaged boys within could wave hello before taking it up higher.

"... Son, stealing my ship."

Well then.

[unusual_sith]

"Do you normally have a son?" Lana asked, waving back at the boys, a bit bemused.

[uncertain_dume]

"Do you normally have a daughter?"

Honestly, Lana. Did Kanan look old enough to have a teenager?

[unusual_sith]

Hey, there were all kinds of human varieties!

"Just checking."

Marshan started squirming, and Lana let her down, and she ran over to Stance and started tussling with him again.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan stared at the sky for a few moments more, and then sighed. There wasn't really anything he could do about the ship situation from down here.

At least Jacen knew what he was doing behind the controls of a ship. No kid of Hera's wouldn't.

"Sometimes," Kanan sighed, "this island makes me think thoughts that are not very Jedi-like."

He wanted to punch the island in its face.

[unusual_sith]

"Only sometimes?" Lana asked.

[uncertain_dume]

"I allow myself one un-Jedi-like thought per day," Kanan replied.

Which was absolute bunk.

"The island gets today's."

[unusual_sith]

"How often does anything else beat it out?" Lana asked.

[uncertain_dume]

"Every so often, somebody goes above and beyond."

It was rare. But it happened.

[unusual_sith]

"It sounds like there's a story behind that," Lana said.