The park- Monday afternoon

[thatwaslucky]

Rey didn't have much of anything to do today, On Jakku, that had usually meant fixing something up that she already had to sell, on the Falcon it meant helping Chewie with repairs. Always something to help be better prepared for whatever was coming. Here, apparently, that meant figuring some things out.

She had found some stones and was attempting to skip them across the water. Quite a few had sunk, because s desert-bound girl hadn't ever had reason to do this before, so there was a lot of sinking of rocks until she realized which shapes worked better. And then once she could get it to start skipping, she started trying to control where the stone skipped, frowning in concentration and flicking out her hand to try and piish it in the direction she wanted.

She wasn't perfect by any means, but to her constant surprise it was actually going better than she'd thought, and it got easier every time.


[Expecting one, but open!]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben was cutting through the park with a last ice cream cone before heading home to grab Val from camp and paused mid-step to watch the rock skipping.

"You're using the Force," he commented in an inexplicable a Coruscanti accent.

[thatwaslucky]

And a stone went plopping into the water.

"You can tell that?" Rey asked, surprised, and then thought about that. Of course you could, if you knew what you were looking at, or feeling.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded, moving closer. "It's part of the reason for the exercise," he explained, "at least how I learned it. To be able to feel how everything connects to everything else and how a Force user can manipulate that."

He smiled. "Hello. I'm Ben."

[thatwaslucky]

Oh, that was a disconnect.

"You're Luke's son," she realized.

[momslilassassin]

"I am," Ben said, nodding again. "Have we met before?"

[thatwaslucky]

"No," she said, and went with, "Professor Skywalker told me about you. I'm Rey."

She didn't assume anyone knew who she was.

[momslilassassin]

"Nice to meet you, Rey," he replied easily. "When are you from?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I think about the same time as you? Very different iuniverse, though."

Learned that the hard way!

[momslilassassin]

"How different?" Ben asked, reaching through the Force to send stones skipping and leaping over each other like a wee show-off.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey was definitely watching that, wondering if she could do that herself.

"Are you sure you want to hear that?" she asked, because she was the bearer of bad news to pretty much everyone so far.

[momslilassassin]

"In my universe, my cousin turned to the Dark Side, killed my mother, and then got killed by his own twin sister," Ben said. "So...go ahead."

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh," Rey said, blinking. "Well... you apparently don't exist but there is a Ben Solo who turned."

[momslilassassin]

"Jaina's brother is named Ben instead of Anakin?" Ben guessed. "That's gonna annoy Granddad."

[thatwaslucky]

"He knows. He didn't really focus on that part." There'd been so much other awful ground to cover. "You're very calm about this."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm still processing," Ben said, "and I've spent a very long time learning how to control my emotions." He smiled. "I have two Force-sensitive children at home. I can't having them picking up everything I'm feeling all the time."

[thatwaslucky]

"How many Skywalkers are there here?" Rey realized.

[momslilassassin]

Ben laughed. "You are not the first to ask that," he admitted. "At the moment, just me, my husband Andrew and our two kids, plus Granddad, his wife and two kids. But they live off island, and we're heading back to Andrew's galaxy before the picnic. But if you stick around here, my cousin Jaina tends to show up every now and then to check in on Granddad, and my grandson Cade--aren't timelines fun--shows up to steal livestock with Sparkle." He made a face. "I don't ask."

[thatwaslucky]

There was something about that that made Rey both happy and sad at the same time, like here they got a real family. And in her universe... not so much.

"It's good that you have that," she said, seriously.

[momslilassassin]

Ben gave her a sincere smile. "I'm very lucky," he agreed. "So you've run into a Ben Solo but haven't been trained as a Jedi. Were you stuck on a desert planet with no knowledge of the Force? Because that's Dad's story, too."

[thatwaslucky]

"So I hear. I was. Until I accidentally stole Han's ship."

That she flew now. Life was funny.

[momslilassassin]

"The Falcon?" Ben asked, laughing. "You stole the Falcon?"

He tilted his head. "Or did you steal the Loooooove Commander?"

[thatwaslucky]

There was a long pause.

"...The what?"

[momslilassassin]

"Lando's ship," Ben explained. "Uncle Han and Aunt Leia borrowed it one of the times they were on the run. It was hilarious."

[thatwaslucky]

"You'll have to tell me about it sometime."

Now was still a little raw.

"Do you mind talking about your cousin?"

...That would not hurt less, Rey.

[momslilassassin]

"Which one?" Ben asked. "Jaina, Jacen, or Anakin?"