Fourth Floor Common Room [Saturday noon-ish]

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela was sitting, almost completely still, with a cup of tea in front of her. It had grown cold, and was still at least half full. Her chin was propped in her hand and she was staring off at nothing.

There was also a small cheesecake in front of her with a small slice on a separate plate. She'd eaten a bite or two before she got distracted.

It was a good bet that she wasn't going to eat the rest of the cake. And it was just sitting there.

[Potential and unpredictable bouts of SP as I am visiting folks, but it's still a common room!]

Comments

[endsthegame]

Ender was a little restless. It wasn't an uncommon thing at all, but he suspected something else fed into it. In an effort to repress anything that wasn't useful, he found himself wandering the premises.

The fourth floor brought food and Triela's uneasy company. It'd do for now. "Ho."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela's head snapped around in that way that signaled she had been surprised. "Hey, Ender," she said calmly, voice attempting to cover the moment of inattention.

[endsthegame]

So she could be surprised. He filed this away by way of sheer habit.

"What're you up to?" Still not the king of small talk, our Ender, but he was helping himself to the cake already.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Tea and cake," she answered despite the evidence that she hadn't been having much of either, arching an eyebrow at his uninvited (but not unwelcome) attack on the cake. "Bout of nostalgia, I suppose."

[endsthegame]

It hadn't taken Ender long to realise that help yourself was the unspoken rule to food in the common room. If she'd reacted at all beyond that, he would've stopped. Instead, he heaped some onto a plate. "I didn't think you'd be into tea parties."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'm not especially," she shrugged casually. "But there's a ritual to them that I've found useful in calming people down." She flashed a quick smirk, "But there's not as much call for them here as back home."

[endsthegame]

"Are you trying to calm down?" Really, it was the logical question. He took a seat on another couch with his plate.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"No need. I'm already calm. It's just been a while since I had tea and cake." Which she hadn't had much of. Apparently whatever she had been thinking about was quite engrossing.

[endsthegame]

Tea and cake wasn't exactly a subject Ender was an expert on. He took his fork to the cake, then shoveled a piece into his mouth. "At least the cake isn't bad," he offered, lowering his fork. "I don't know about the tea."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's not bad either." In fact it was rather good. Triela's search for tea a couple of weeks ago had turned up some nice surprises. She took a sip from her cup, ignoring the fact that it was cold.

"So what have you been up to?"

[endsthegame]

"Not enough tea, it seems," Ender said, setting his plate down. "Working on my latest project. Did you get through the weekend unchanged?"

Yep. Small talk. Completely up his alley.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"No." Her voice pitched down ever so slightly at that. That might have been the very thing on her mind when he walked in.

"You?"

[endsthegame]

"No," he echoed. "But I seem to still be okay."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It was different. I learned something from it."

[endsthegame]

Which warranted the question, "So what did you learn?"

He and Triela weren't quite at the joking stage with each other.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"My conditioning affects even the weird things that happen here. I don't remember what it was like to be a kid."

It was weird remembering what other people had done but not having any personal context for it.

[endsthegame]

He tried to imagine what it would be like, not to have any knowledge of that part of your life. It meant her memories would probably be a lot like icebergs now, solid, but unknowable.

"But you remember the weekend?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Sort of." Triela settled her chin in her hand again. "I remember what happened, even what I did, but I don't know why I made the choices I did. It's all... fuzzy."

[endsthegame]

That fit his theory.

"They must've put a lot of money into you."

A little bitter, maybe.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"That's an understatement," Triela snorted. "The budget the Agency has must be a huge pain to keep buried."

[endsthegame]

"Poor them."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's better than getting under-funded," Triela pointed out. "At least I work most of the time."

[endsthegame]

"Most of the time," Ender echoed. He knew how that worked. "And when you don't?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"They've got so much invested in me that they fix things quick." It wasn't a bad life. In some ways, at least.

[endsthegame]

"That's a relief," Ender said, and took another piece of his cake. He glanced towards the kitchen. He might as well get some tea while he was at it.