2nd Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[endsthegame]

Ender woke up with his head cushioned on a pillow. His neck felt a little crooked. He must have slept badly last night; he couldn't remember what dreams he'd had. He sat up.

There was something heavy and metal stretched out against his leg. He picked it up. It looked a lot like a desk, but you had to push the sides up to see the screen, and touching the screen didn't do anything.

He pressed buttons for a while. He should probably get up and explore, but he couldn't see anywhere he wanted to go from here. The most important thing was that Peter wasn't here at all, and in the face of that, sitting quietly while he tried little patterns of code on the old computer seemed like a really nice way to spend his day.

He reached up to press his fingers against the comfortable weight of the monitor on his neck. It wasn't going to last.

[ ooopen. ]

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[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

And then about a dozen identical looking boys bounced into the room.

"HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI!" they all called out and the descended on the kitchen like a plague of locusts. "FOOOOOOOOOOD!"

[endsthegame]

Ender knew sometimes strange things happened. But there were a lot of him, and Ender found himself looking anyway. "I'm not sure if there's that much," he called after Jamie.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Then we all have to go to the grocery store and get more!" one of the Jamies called out.

[endsthegame]

All those boys could make up their own playgroup. He wondered if that was lonely or not. Ender didn't know how to react, though, so he did as he always did and kept quiet. He did lower the top of the computer, though, and peered curiously at the kitchen. Would anyone pop out? What do they call themselves, he wondered. One and two and three, or did they just not think about names, like bees.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

And then a bunch of Jamies ran into the CR each with their own bowl of cereal.

"Hi!" One of the called out. "We're Jamie Madroxxeseseses."

[endsthegame]

"Hi," Ender replied, and folded his arms over his laptop. "Do you have any individual names?" They were like a pack, and that made the odds bad.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Watcha doin'?" a small blond girl dragging a fluffy pink teddy bear behind her asked.

[endsthegame]

"Programming this desk," Ender said. The girl looked familiar. He tilted his head to get a better look, pressing his hands to the top of his laptop. Oh, right.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Is it fun?" she asked diffidently as she hesitantly approached him.

[endsthegame]

"I'm pretty good at it," Ender said. Being good at things had kept Ender alive, had kept him smiling at his secret enemies, always inventing the methods that they used. He didn't know if that was fun, but he knew he was good at it.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Can I try?" she asked hesitantly. She didn't want to intrude.

[endsthegame]

Ender turned the laptop a little. No Peter, and no Valentine. He wondered if the people who listened in to his monitor every day were here, or if they'd just vanished, leaving it a dud.

What would happen if no one was listening?

"It's to make text dance across the screen," he said.

[momslilassassin]

Everything was so loud today. Ben didn't like loud.

He peered into the common room, blue eyes wide, and then made a beeline for the kitchen.

And stood there, looking up and chewing on his lower lip.

He hated being short.

[endsthegame]

Ender looked up from his desk again in time to watch Ben walk through. He studied the exit to the kitchen for a moment or two.

He should say something. He couldn't think of anything clever to say. "Hi," he said, to the kitchen.

[momslilassassin]

Ben gave him a little wave and went up on tiptoes to try to look for food.

That didn't help at all.

[endsthegame]

"You should get something higher."

It was very basic advice, and it didn't really need a lot of work. "There are chairs."

[momslilassassin]

Ben scampered over to one of the chairs and began dragging it back towards the cabinet. He didn't need to use the Force. The Force was scary and hurt. He was going to be a pirate-soldier-hero-pilot-mechanic just like Uncle Han when he grew up.

He pulled a box that looked vaguely like cereal (it was a box of popcorn. Not being able to read was a serious disadvantage) and opened it, then frowned.

That wasn't right.

[endsthegame]

Ender watched him for any signs of hostility for a little while, but he just seemed confused. Don't say anything, nothing to say.

He seemed very little, and with that red hair he looked a lot like a carrot. Ender closed his laptop.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

There was another short person in the common room, this one had a fuzzy pink teddy bear dangling from one hand. "Hi?" she offered tentatively.

[momslilassassin]

Ben gave her a cautious little wave.

He wasn't a huge talker, no.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

She waved back with her teddy bear. "Do you have any food?"

[momslilassassin]

He shook his head, looking sad. And he was hungry, too.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"But I'm hungry," she whined, as if that were his fault.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack popped in for a bit of food, and found a box of cereal and a bowl. Now, for the milk...

[endsthegame]

There were a lot of people coming into the room. Ender studied Jack's back with careful eyes for any sign of movement towards him, then dropped it.