Second Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

[endsthegame]

When he'd taken the book out of the library, this hadn't been completely what Ender had planned on. It was with no small bit of mostly carefully-hidden confusion that he'd moved on into the common room, an odd green kitten with eyestalks resting on his shoulder.

He sat down and tried to ignore the quiet buzzing and bleeping noises the cat was making. This was all just par for the course, at this point.

[ open common room, y0 ]

Comments

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Do you think that it would be easier to look around with eyes like that, or no?" Viki asked mildly as she watched the green kitten.

[endsthegame]

It was her again, and the incessant questions. Ender shrugged once. "Maybe," he said.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"I suppose it would be hard to say if you've never tried it," she conceded. "Was it a book? I had books earlier this week that turned to kittens."

[endsthegame]

"I've heard about it on the radio," he said, reaching to scratch the kitten behind the ears. Its stalk-eyes blinked at him. "But I wasn't expecting it." That had been a mistake.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Neither was I," she confided. "Though they were quite adorable and they did eventually turn back into books."

[endsthegame]

"That's a relief." Ender's fingers had found the cat's spine and it purred in an oddly alien way. "I'd like to read this one."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"What was it about?" she asked, peering at the kitten. "Mine were on knitting, and came with a bunch of yarn. Kittens like yarn, you know."

[endsthegame]

"Aliens," he said. He'd been hoping that Fandom could have provided him some more information on the buggers, but so far... "The books didn't agree."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"They seldom do, I think. Books have their own opinions on things."

[endsthegame]

"Or at least the cats they turn into."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"That too, though from what I understand they don't normally turn into kittens elsewhere."

[endsthegame]

"No," Ender said, slowly, "This is my first time with a kitten book."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"It seems to like you," she said encouragingly. "Maybe you should keep it."

[endsthegame]

"It's from the library," he said, with a shake of his head. "I'll return it once it's been read."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"You can't read a kitten though," she clarified. "That's what I meant."

[momslilassassin]

Ben was coming back from a handwavy trip to the shooting range when he saw Ender in the common room.

"Huh," he said. "New species?"

[endsthegame]

"Actually," Ender replied, looking up from the cat-- he was pleased, he had to admit, to see a familiar face that didn't immediately spell problems. He was a little tired of it. "It used to be a book."

[momslilassassin]

"That's different," Ben said with a smile, flinging himself onto the nearest sofa. "But my cousin was a kitten in Leadership class today, so I'll believe anything's possible."

[endsthegame]

"I saw that." The cat on Ender's shoulder let go of a purring noise that might as well have been computer-generated. "She'll snap out of it. It's the island."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "She's not really cut out to be...cute and fluffy."

The expression on his face made it very clear he'd never thought of using those words to describe Jaina before.

[endsthegame]

"I was a plush toy for a few days," Ender said, frankly. It was an ordeal he still didn't really want to think about, but it had happened. Another strike towards the randomness of the island, which continued to frustrate him by its inability to act with any kind of sense, although he was starting to get a hang of the rules. "She might be cute and fluffy, but it sounds like a step up."

[momslilassassin]

"At least she's mobile," Ben agreed, "and can fight back if someone tries to do something too obnoxious. A plush toy doesn't have many choices."

Ben's mind was already racing through the tactical options left to an inanimate plush toy.

[endsthegame]

"They don't," Ender agreed. "I needed a proxy. The one I got wasn't much use." Although he should give Hannibal credit for even taking him out of the dorms in the first place-- but that wouldn't have helped him if anything had happened.

[momslilassassin]

"I should write up a list of people to contact in the inevitable event of me turning into something else," Ben decided, "so I don't end up living with the gremlins by accident or something."

[endsthegame]

"But you'd have to find a way to communicate the information." Which meant thinking creatively-- for once, Ender had something to do. It pleased him more than it probably should. "Unless you intend to walk around with a collar all the time." Hm.

[momslilassassin]

"And tattooing seems a little excessive," he mused. "Maybe a letter somewhere that designated people know where to find?"

[endsthegame]

"And decide on a signal," he said, after a moment of thinking about it. "If you can trust your people."

[momslilassassin]

"That's where the hard part comes in, huh?" Ben replied.

[endsthegame]

He thought of Fly Molo, Crazy Tom, Bean, Alai, Petra-- everyone. It was only for a fleeting moment. "Yes," Ender said, evenly, "But it's not impossible." It had, after all, always been the adults who had been the enemy. Among your peers, you could find... some on your side.

[momslilassassin]

"Back home Jaina's a little...different," Ben said thoughtfully, "but here I think I could trust her. Maybe Karal."

[endsthegame]

"Karal seems like a good man," Ender said, neutrally. He'd thought Graff was a good man, too, but that had turned out to be false. Even if he had turned out to be on his side in some way, in the end.

[momslilassassin]

"He knew the version of my father who was here," Ben said, "but seems to like me for me." He shrugged. "We'll see how long that lasts."

[endsthegame]

Which just posed the question... "Your entire family showed up here, didn't it?"

[momslilassassin]

"A good chunk of it," Ben admitted, "but from different timelines. Grandfather, father, cousin and a girl who used to be with another cousin..."

[endsthegame]

"Can't choose family," he replied, a little dryly, but it couldn't be helped. What would his life have been like if Val or Peter had been here? "I won't have trouble keeping you apart."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm the smart one," Ben said, eyes twinkling.

[endsthegame]

He had to smile, at least reflexively, at that. "My siblings and I are all the 'smart one'," Ender replied, "Maybe it'll do you some good."

[momslilassassin]

"How many siblings do you have?" Ben asked, glancing over.

[endsthegame]

"Two," Ender replied, and because no one but him seemed to care here, he added, "I'm the Third."

[momslilassassin]

Ben heard the capital, even if he didn't understand exactly what was significant about it. "Were they supposed to stop at two or something?" he asked.

[endsthegame]

"Overpopulation," he said, sounding like that explained everything. Background, siblings, it had never mattered in Battle School, and before that, being Third had been a burden, and the truth was that now, he just didn't know how to talk about it. It was easier to keep to the bare facts.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "My cousin Anakin was the third in his family, too," he offered. "He was a hero."

[endsthegame]

"Was a hero?" Ender asked, leaning a little further sideways into the couch. He didn't need to ask the question to know what that implied. A lot of heroes died. Still...

[momslilassassin]

"When I was a baby," Ben said. "There was a war."

Another war. There was always another war.

"He was sixteen or seventeen?" The specifics had always been vague. Aunt Leia didn't like to talk about it. "He led a group of seventeen Jedi--all about our age--on this really dangerous mission. Half of them didn't come back."

[endsthegame]

There was always another war. Ender could understand that undercurrent as easy as breathing. There was always another game, another battle, another war, and somehow, hearing that same tone from Ben's mouth reminded him once again that this island, for all it was worth, was a fantasy castle at best.

"Including your cousin," he summarised. He didn't need to ask that one. Did you win the war played through his mind, but he realised that he just didn't (want to) care.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "Jaina was there too," he said softly, "and her twin brother Jacen."

[endsthegame]

"As in the cousin who turned into a cat...?" He nodded pensively, sounding more rhetorical than anything else.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "It was a lot more recent for her," he said. "Sometimes the timeline kind of sucks."