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

[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?"

[thatwaslucky]

"The one who turned," she clarified.

[momslilassassin]

Ben bit his lower lip and nodded. "Okay. Jacen was my Master. He was always...intense. Dedicated to discovering the why behind everything, if that makes sense. He was never satisfied with the general Jedi answers about the light and dark sides of the Force and went exploring on his own for five years, learning different philosophies of different Force users throughout the galaxy..." he glanced up at her from where he'd been staring at the rocks he'd sent spinning. "I don't know if you have those."

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't know," Rey admitted. "Where I'm from, I seem to pretty much be it."

No pressure.

[momslilassassin]

"That sounds lonely and scary," Ben said sympathetically.

Wait.

"What happened to Dad?"

[thatwaslucky]

"He's gone in my time," she said after a moment, maybe just slightly hesitant to get into details considering what apparently happened to his mom.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's lips thinned just for a second as he read between the lines. "Did he train you at all?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Not really," she said, reluctantly. Maybe she didn't want to make someone seem bad to their kid. There were still quite a few issues she hadn't even touched here yet. "After everything, I scared him."

[momslilassassin]

"That takes some doing," Ben said softly, rotating the rocks a little faster now before letting them fall back into the water. "So you're currently just winging it? That sounds scary, too."

[thatwaslucky]

"Not exactly. I have Kanan, and your grandfather's offered to help."

So, a padawan and Darth Vader, this should be fine.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's eyebrows shot way up because...yeah. "Those are some interesting choices."

[thatwaslucky]

"The alternative is me," Rey pointed out. Maybe Leia. Please give us Leia. "I'm good with them."