Wee Gremlin Campfire, Friday Morning

[endsthegame]

He'd woken up finding himself unable to change out of the loud, short pants Ender was pretty sure he hadn't been wearing the previous day. He wasn't going to make a problem with it, so with a minimum amount of fuss, he left his alcove and settled by the campfire outside.

Working the fire proved to be nice, simple work; for the time being, he could pretend it was enough. His notepad laid by his side. He'd return to it eventually.

[ open campfire, j0. ]

Comments

[withoutverona]

"I've been here since January," Romeo supplied.

Then: "I think I may be almost used to it, as much as it seems to exist to thwart me when I say that. Though I'll be more happy once my girlfriend stops being a rabbit." Especially as she'd noticed Romeo was sitting, and was squirming in his arms to be put down.

[endsthegame]

"People turning into animals," Ender spoke the words slowly. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time something like this had happened, and so he tilted his head at the rabbit thoughtfully. "I guess asking for a reason why this happens is a little much."

[withoutverona]

"If I knew why it had happened, I might know how to turn her back," Romeo pointed out.

(Dojima's ear twitch was indignant. There was nothing wrong with her and she was perfectly happy being a rabbit, thank you very much.)

"I don't think we can even pretend the island has reasons within the ken of man."

[endsthegame]

"There's always a reason," he replied. He was tempted to reach for the bunny and make certain it was real, but he held still. The idea that there wasn't a reason was as frustrating to him as any of the chaos about the island; it rested squarely at the fundaments of his annoyance. "We're just not in the know."

[withoutverona]

"But what purpose could the madness all possibly serve?" Romeo asked, letting go of Dojima so his hands were free to gesture. "I was a shrew once, and I assure you I learned nothing. And all I've learned from caring for Yurika this week is that I've no want for a pet rabbit, as attached as I am to this one."

The rabbit hopped over to snuffle at Ender's shoes, seeming real enough.

"Unless," he added, musing, "something bad would happen to them as people that is being avoided because they are not..."

[endsthegame]

He lowered an almost tentative hand to brush across the bunny's head. Real enough, yes. The idea that she'd been human seemed preposterous. If Ender hadn't seen better over the past few weeks, he'd think someone was playing a game with him.

Or maybe they were. They always were. "It's a frequent thing," he said, "So there have to be rules."

[withoutverona]

Romeo considered this. "Rules," he repeated.

"But if there are rules and we don't know them, how is that different from there being none at all?"

[endsthegame]

"Nothing in terms of accepting it," he said, because that had, by now, become the staple of his life. "But it means someone is controlling it." The same of their bodies, even. He wondered if Graff had known.

[withoutverona]

"You sound like Ms. Atreides," he informed Ender, closing his eyes. "Or like some priests I knew, at home. The question is almost if there is a destiny, then, if these things happen because God -- or the like -- willed it so." His tone left that matter open.

This was turning into a heavy conversation for first thing in the morning, but Romeo didn't mind.

[OOC: LJ is being slow and particular about my notifications.]

[endsthegame]

"It's not God that worries me," he said, with a shrug of his shoulder. God? God was religion. And religion hadn't been allowed back home, not for a very long time. He remembered repressed celebrations of it around the Battle School, but to him, it was a fictional concept. "It's people." Where one always controlled somebody else.

[ having the same issues; evil LJ! ]

[withoutverona]

"If there's someone on the island with the power to do things like this, they keep it very quiet," Romeo said.

"Though," he realized, "if there were, he or she would. Otherwise people would torment them about whats and whys."

He rather agreed people were more frightening.

[endsthegame]

"Funny," he said, his gaze caught on the fire again. "Knowing the whats and the whys tends to be important." He'd learned that lesson with enough time. "But I guess it doesn't matter. There's always someone in the driver's seat."

And maybe free will was just an illusion someone funny had come up with to spite them all.

[withoutverona]

"If there is and I should meet him, I'd probably have a few choice words to say," Romeo shrugged, and it wasn't clear if he were scowling at the shorts or the rabbit. "Do you really think there's such a person?"

This was intriguing.

[endsthegame]

"There always is," Ender said, with a shrug of his shoulder and the first stretches of anger showing under his apathetic, jaded mask. "Someone always tries to pull the strings."

[withoutverona]

"But who?" It wasn't that Romeo didn't believe in evil, but there was no one on the island who could be in charge.

That he knew of.

[endsthegame]

"I think why is usually a better question," Ender replied. That made it easier to see what was going to happen-- although he'd given up on expecting to find a way he couldn't be surprised. "But that one never gets answered."

[withoutverona]

"It would if one might find the person in charge and talk to them," Romeo aid, then got interested in the fire. "If they even knew themself. Sometimes one doesn't."

[endsthegame]

He shook his head, focusing his own interest on the fire. "People only speak the truth if it's beneficial to them," Ender pointed out, "And even then, you can never be sure."

[withoutverona]

"I don't like to believe that," Romeo said, quietly but firmly.

[endsthegame]

"Then you're naive." Ender shifted, more for the benefit of his mind than his body.

[withoutverona]

Idealistic Romeo could and did accept; naive he could not.

And who was this boy to judge him either?

He glared, then, in the mild tone of one exercising infinite and undeserved patience, said, "You might call it that."

[endsthegame]

"That's alright," Ender said, his own tone equally mild but without the edge. Distant, more than anything. "It probably makes you a better human being."

[withoutverona]

Romeo just shook his head; there was no way to argue that one in detail, and he didn't especially want to. "Just less cynical than you are."

[endsthegame]

There really wasn't, and so Ender literally shrugged it off, reaching over for to add some more wood to the fire. "Probably," he said. "But we're both equal in Bermudas."

[withoutverona]

That got a flicker of a grateful human smile. "Though I've also got the shirt to match. Or clash, as it were," Romeo noted. "Perhaps it's whoever controls the island's idea of a school uniform."