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"Alright!" Mace calls, "Everyone in a circle!"
He watches the assorted children and Padawans scramble into place.
"We'll start with You Laugh You Lose. Hopefully the title is sufficient explanation."
"What happwens if you lose?" Cody asks.
"Then you sit down." Mace explains. "You're still allowed to help make people laugh, but you won't get a turn anymore. You shouldn't speak again until the game is over."
Mace's children all relax slightly, and Mace decides nothing productive can come from following the line of thought about why that might be. He still has to release a now familiar flare of protective rage into the force. "Boil'ika, do you want to start us off?"
An osik-eating grin spreads over Boil's face.
"What do you call a spwider weawin a suit?"
"I don't know," one of the Padawans recites obediently, "what do you call a spider wearing a suit?"
"Business legs!" Boil proclaims in glee.
Mace snorts at the unexpected nonsense of it, and then has to sit down in shame. He usually wins. This is appalling form. He shouldn't have underestimated his children.
"What?" Asks the Padawan, utterly confused.
Longshot is howling with laughter, which sets off a few of the other children and one of the Padawans, and they all sit down.
"Wax'ika." Mace calls.
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?" Another Padawan asks, extremely cautiously.
"Salad man."
"Salad man who?"
"Salad man is cold outsiwde." Waxer says gravely "And he needs a jacket."
A couple more children sit down, and Longshot has tipped himself over with the force of his laughter. Cody looks extremely unimpressed. Mace feels like he should have remembered that small children don't always grasp the finer intricacies of crafting a good joke. He refuses to be charmed, and he also absolutely refuses to ruin their fun.
"What you get wen you crowssin a kwyat dragn an a nuna bird?" Wooly asks without prompting.
"I don't know, what do you get when you cross a krayt dragon and a nuna bird?"
"Nothing but death!" Wooley declares dramatically.
The Padawans are looking a mix of confused and delighted, and absolutely besotted.
"Hey," Crys says, turning to Peeler "what's for late meal, bantha?"
There's a round of quiet snickering, and more of the children sit down.
"Poo, sir." Peeler says, attempting to imitate a high Coruscanti accent, "It is the Naboo way."
That takes the majority of the rest of Mace's children out, including Obi-wan, who sits down and rests his head against Cody's leg. He should have known that they were of an age where bodily functions were peak humour. He eyes the handful of Padawans that just sat down with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" One defends, "it was funny."
Crys and Peeler high five, pudgy little hands smacking together, and several of the Padawans audibly coo.
In the end, it's just Cody and a Padawan left. Cody looks like this entire game is beneath him, an image somehow not ruined by Obi-wan leaning against his legs. He raises his eyebrows just a fraction, and Mace's children howl with laughter. The Padawan remains straight faced.
"My name is Mace Windu," the Padawan starts, and Mace pinches the bridge of his nose, drawing more laughter from the assembled children, "and I have a terrible secret to confess." The children all lean forward, laughter temporarily caught behind bated breath. "I poop glitter." Going straight for the known weakness of toilet humour there. Strong tactical acumen. The other Padawans burst out laughing, but Cody remains unmoved.
"Is dat a thing dat matters?" He asks.
Longshot is actually crying from how much he's laughing, tears streaming down his face.
"No picking on him." Cody says, flat. "S mean. S not as if he can help it. Just jewlous cos you have borin poops." Cody seems utterly serious still, and the laughter quietens down to chuckles, then tails off entirely. The two combatants study each other in the silence, plotting their next move. Wooley starts humming something dramatic that Mace doesn't recognise, underscoring the tension.
Suddenly Cody moves. Hands coming up either side of his head, palms out, fingers splayed, thumbs pointing towards his ears. He crosses his eyes, sticks his tongue out, and wiggles his fingers.
"Blep, blep, blep."
The Padawan breaks into cackles, shocked into laughter by the ever stoic Cody's sudden and unexpected descent into silliness.
"Course Cod'ika wins." Wooley says on a sigh. "S obwious. Spent all the years not laughin at Gen'ika."
"Hey!" Obi-wan pouts.
"Cod'ika not knowin how to laugh." Boil points out.
"Nah," Waxer says, "Cod'ika laughin at your sufferin."
"Dats why I makes you wun laps." Cody informs them.
"Now," Mace says, it's time for a new game. "We're going to walk around the room and greet everyone we meet while pretending that we're pirates."
"Boil'ika! My old fwend!" Waxer cries, arms waving expansively. Actually, looking around, all of his children have adopted the same mannerisms. Unfortunately familiar mannerisms. "Will you cawe to join Wax'ika on a wewy pwofitible adwenture!" Mace pinches the bridge of his nose. His children have met Hondo Ohnaka. This is a fact that will not do any good for his sanity.
Something tugs at his cloak, and he looks down to see Cody, one hand fisted in the material.
"Can we do councwil members next?" He asks in a whisper. He's radiating suppressed mischief, and this does have the potential to be highly amusing.
"Now you're all members of the Jedi High Council!" Mace calls.
Most of the Padawans are bent over, miming walking with a cane, and are clearly impersonating Master Yoda. Several of the others seem to be doing impressions of him, and he narrows his eyes at them. Obi-wan has slapped both hands over his face with a muttered "uh oh." Mace isn't entirely sure who that's supposed to be, but then he registers the rest of his children. Half of them are clutching each elbow in the opposite hand, and the other half are stroking imaginary beards. There's an almost simultaneous chorus of "Hewwo dere!" By his side, Cody is broadcasting highly amused smug satisfaction. The room quickly dissolves into chaos with hands clasped dramatically to chests, and a lot of rapid blinking, which Mace can only guess is supposed to be fluttering eyelashes. He's definitely never heard so many people being called "my dear" at once, either.
"Look! The nenemy!" Boil cries. "Imma start takin off my cloves!"
Wooley has made a direct line to Cody and is asking for his lightsaber back. Artery seems to be having a vast amount of fun stalking the others and watching them run away screaming.
The force is full of glee and laughter and love. It's overflowing with it. Mace's children have deliberately dropped what they have of their shields so that Obi-wan could feel them. And Obi-wan is laughing along with them, happily scolding Boil.
"No, no, no. Dats not how to do a pwopper cloak dwop. Hawv to do it wight. Not so easy as looks. Wewwy easy to get tangled."
Mace isn't surprised adult Obi-wan had been on the Council. All of his children are incredible.
Mace sits everyone down again, and hands out datapads with the script on.
"This year," he says, "We're doing Jack and the legume stalk. I've already cast most of the Padawans, so we'll need to find parts for our new additions."
Cody raises a hand.
"Can I be a twee please?"
"You want to be a tree?" Mace clarifies. That is not usually one of the more coveted roles.
"Can I be a lobstwer?" Boil asks.
"Ooooh," Waxer squeals, "Can I be a lobstwer too?"
Mace is fairly certain that lobsters are not traditionally present in the usual tellings of the story. But this is the Jedi temple. Usual is for other people. He looks over at the Padawans, who are watching his children with little hearts in their eyes. Not one of them looks like they're prepared to deny his children anything.
"Yes," he says on a sigh, "you can be trees and lobsters. If you want speaking parts, we'll have to make some changes to the script. Does anyone else have a preference?"
"Gen'ika should be the goose." Cody suggests. "Cos he's fewal an hissy."
Obi-wan hisses at him, stops, realises the trap he's just fallen into, and pouts.
"See if I lets you have da gowlden egg." He mutters.
Cody looks completely unbothered by this threat. Probably because Mace has yet to see Obi-wan deny any of his friends anything.
"I'm a twee." Cody points out. "Why do I need a egg? Alweady have sunshine. Not needin gold."
There is that.
The pouting intensifies.
"Imma be a howwible goose."
He doesn't seem genuinely upset, and he's sparking with a sense of mischief and plotting in the force. Mace eyes him suspiciously, but decides it'll be more fun to enable whatever he's up to.
"So." He says, "Obi-wan is a horrible goose. Anyone else?"