"En't nobody stronger than Dad," Luke stated confidently, approaching the garden with his usual unconcerned, easy-going nature. For the most part, Luke was a fairly simple kid to deal with---he tried to stay out of trouble, he didn't ask for anything except a couple of tools and something to tinker with, and he stayed out of his parents' way. Knowing full-well that neither of his parents were experienced yet with having kids, he tried to have mercy on them and stay out from under foot. --And anyway, it wasn't as if he really wanted much from them: the occasional hug or kind word, not to be smacked when he did something wrong or stupid (they'd promised not to), a place to sleep, and food to eat. Since they provided all of that, Luke had decided that they were doing a pretty good job.
Stepping into the Hyperion's gardens was like stepping into another world entirely---there was something oddly eerie about it, as if it didn't quite fit with the rest of the hotel. As if it didn't quite fit with reality.
And then he saw him---Mantis.
Seated on a bench, easily as still as a statue, Mantis was a strange, colourless figure of black and white. Too skinny for anything resembling health, bald and scarred, face hidden beneath the dark, forbidding gas-mask, the only sign that he was alive at all was the soft, rasping breaths heard muffled from beneath the dark plastic.
At their approach, Mantis rose gracefully to his feet, turning toward them and offering a quizzical tilt of his head. --So this was the boy. He was.. small, and curiously awed, and Mantis felt himself smile quite involuntarily. "Look like your father?" he queried, amused despite himself, and the boy turned abruptly red, surprised and impressed despite himself.
"You read my mind!" he gushed, and beamed, turning the glance briefly up at Jaina. "Don't he look sort of like Dad, though?" he insisted, already warming to Mantis, where he'd normally be quiet and suspicious. "Maybe you never saw Dad in the mask and all the black, though.. and Dad's definitely taller and stuff, but still!"