Room 424 [evening]

[momslilassassin]

An afternoon thinking he was a little girl had not been exactly what Ben had been planning, though the distraction had been kind of a relief.

...not that he'd admit that.

He was in his room, carefully examining his air vent to see how the gremlin had gotten in and looking to see if there was a way to discourage them from returning without breaking the terms of the treaty.

The door was open a crack.

[OOC: Post is open completely!]

Comments

[solo_sword]

Jaina frowned. "Okay, that part does sound bad."

[momslilassassin]

"I giggled and skipped," Ben said, making a face. "Not my favorite things."

[solo_sword]

"At least it's over?" She was trying for a bright side.

[momslilassassin]

"And I'm fairly sure there isn't footage," Ben said, nodding.

[solo_sword]

"That's just not fair," she decided. Everything of her got captured on film somehow. Or on Artoo. "So, tapdancing aside, how are you doing?"

[momslilassassin]

And up went the shields. "Fine."

[solo_sword]

She didn't even blink. She was getting used to that kind of response from him. "I know there are things you can't or won't tell me. Just give me an adjective that's not 'fine'."

[momslilassassin]

"Fantastic," Ben tried.

[solo_sword]

"Truth?" she asked. She knew better, she was just curious whether he'd actually admit it when he had to know she knew better.

[momslilassassin]

He shrugged. "Not as good as last time."

Translation: people died.

[solo_sword]

Since she probably wasn't going to get an answer about how he was doing, she tried, "How's your dad?"

[momslilassassin]

"Back to being himself," Ben said, and that much was true, even if Luke had aged about a decade in a month and a half.

[solo_sword]

That had to be a good sign. "Good. Right?" It was kind of weird when she didn't even have outright questions to ask.

[momslilassassin]

"Reassuring," Ben said with a tiny smile. "Something has to stay the same." And when Luke had flailed, so had everyone else, or so it had seemed to Ben.

[solo_sword]

"About time you had some sort of reassurance," she said, definitely relieved to see some sort of smile from him.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nudged his shoulder against hers. "How are you? And you can't say fine either."

[solo_sword]

She took a breath, answering, "I'm okay. I mean it. I know, it's weird."

[momslilassassin]

"Did you see him before he changed back?" Ben asked. He hoped the answer was no.

[solo_sword]

"A couple times," she replied. "It was probably the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, which is saying a lot." And yet here she was, okay with it.

[momslilassassin]

"It is," Ben said with a little shudder. "There were a lot of...parts."

[solo_sword]

"Yeah." And hence the reason she wasn't going to be sleeping normally for a while. "But I think it was just so far from being him that it's not even really registering, if that makes sense."

[momslilassassin]

And maybe this was why his Jaina was having an easier time with the Jacen thing than he was. He couldn't make that distinction.

"Kind of?" he said.

[solo_sword]

"At that point, John was dead," she said, and yes, she still had issues with that. "What was left was so far removed from him that it just couldn't be him. I think it goes without saying that he wouldn't be going around throwing his own body parts-" And others, ew. "-at people otherwise. And when it's over, by some stretch of credulity, you're left with the original. And it's just... different. I don't know."

[momslilassassin]

"It seems a little unfair," Ben said, addressing his toes. "How come we can bring those dead people back and not...other dead people?"

[solo_sword]

"Because it doesn't work that way," Jaina said simply. "People don't normally come back from the dead. The fact that there was any way to make that happen was really kind of luck."