Rutherford B. Hayes Campfire, Wednesday Morning

[endsthegame]

It'd become obvious from the radio last night that Valentine was doing her best to look as social as she could, butterflying from one place to another. Ender registered it all with his own brand of careful instinct, and fed the information into the plan that had slowly started to come together since just before he'd sent in for his transfer.

He knew now where he stood, back home, and Val could actually be an asset. In order to do that, though, he had to look as if her presence was actually doing something - otherwise they'd just send someone else, and not all of them he trusted as he did Valentine.

So this morning found him by his own campfire with a few sandwiches, courtesy of Ben's mouse droid. He'd thought about bringing marshmallows or the kind, but that would have looked too uncharacteristic, and anyway, it wasn't really the time for it.

[ open like a campfire is, yo ]

Comments

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

No, Valentine didn't quite know what she was doing up and about again, especially after yesterday and the fact that she'll be slo-o-o-ow, but she was, as though not quite ready to sequester herself in her own alcove with her de-- laptop. Probably because she knew that, once she started that, she'd stick to it.

"He lives!" she commented, skipping throwing up her arms, and taking a seat nearby. "Morning, Ender."

[endsthegame]

"I think I'm still too young for the chances of dying in my sleep to be significant," Ender said, looking up from his sandwich. "Morning, Val."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine would skip the argument about it being more experience than age, as well. "Got any more of those sandwiches?" She would not be against avoiding another diner-like incident.

[endsthegame]

"Sure."

He nodded his head at the little stack that he'd put on the mouse droid's back for easier access.

"Out of campfires to eat at?" he said, "I thought I wouldn't see you around for at least another week."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"That's what I was thinking that about you," Valentine said, reaching for a sandwich with an interested tilt of her head on exactly what they were stacked on. "I was just going out for a walk."

[endsthegame]

"It's a gift from Ben," Ender said, without missing a beat, and then switched tracks. "You've been busy."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"I've been bored," Valentine corrected. "I keep thinking of starting some work, but I'm putting it off. I want to spare my cabinmates the trouble of me throwing that laptop out a window with frustration for the archaic technology."

[endsthegame]

"It's not exactly a desk," Ender agreed, easily, shrugging as he took another sandwich. "But if you wave away the need for a touch-screen interface and the vastly diminished capabilities, the underlying principles haven't changed much. I built a new system into mine."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine was not in the least bit surprised. "You'll have to show me sometime."

[endsthegame]

Ender took a bite out of his sandwich. "I didn't expect you to need more than a text processor."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine shrugged a little. "How bohemian."

[endsthegame]

"Retro chique," Ender corrected her. It could've been blamed on the time period if Ender's sense of humor hadn't always been relentlessly weird to begin with.

[glacial_queen]

Wednesday was a no classes day. That meant plenty of time for exploration. It was her fifth day on the island--though Saturday technically shouldn't count, and she'd seen little more than her dorm, her cabin, and the classrooms.

Stepping out of the cabin, she revised her plan a bit. For one thing, there were sandwiches present, and any food she didn't have to scrounge for herself was a gift from the Darkness. For another, the sandwiches seemed to belong to people she knew, or at least recognized. Ender from the spying class was there, as was another girl from that class. They didn't look like they were having any kind of private chat.

"Kiss kiss," she greeted, strolling over. "Willing to barter for one of those sandwiches?"

[endsthegame]

"You can have one for free," Ender offered, glancing over to identify the newcomer, "I'm just trying to bribe people into voting for me at the Student Council in fall."

He laid the amused sarcasm on fairly thick.

[glacial_queen]

"Ply me with food, and my vote is yours," Karla laughed. She sat across the fire from Ender and the girl and asked, "How are your classes so far?" The question was directed at both of them.

[endsthegame]

"Mine have been informative." Just not in the ways they had been intended to; Ender knew most of the subject matter they'd been going through, but talking to people like Karla had been a good thought exercise. "Or exercises in futility. I've got one that mostly seems to cover cursing."

[glacial_queen]

Karla raised her eyebrows. "Cursing? That's a little...odd for a class. What kind of curses are you learning? I thought you didn't have magic. Why would they teach that at school?"

[endsthegame]

"Not magical curses," he said, with an amused look. It really was interesting, a universe with such different paradigms of his own. "Just verbal ones. It's intended to focus on teamwork between two people, but the professor is an eccentric."

[glacial_queen]

"Acclimating to this place would be so much easier if there weren't so many damn things that mean one thing in Kaeleer and something utterly and completely different here." She massaged the bridge of her nose. "You are all very odd."

Excuse me, pot? This is kettle. I'd like to speak to you about your hue...

[endsthegame]

"From another's perspective, so are you," Ender pointed out, gently. "We're still learning each other's language." He considered her. "So what does a curse imply, where you're from?"

Ender could make his guesses: he knew a little bit of mythology, now that he'd been left here on his own for so long. Military strategy had stopped interesting him a while ago - and it looked to him like Karla needed some listening ears.

[glacial_queen]

"Magic, of course. Craft. Used for particuarly nasty purposes. Anyone with suffient Craft can do stuff like that, but real curses come from Black Widows. We spin tangled webs that weave illusions that can't be broken, and can entagle minds, forcing people to wander through the Twisted Kingdom." For all that the subject was dark, Karla was very enthusiastic about discussing it. "Yesterday, Peyton was asking me if I could turn someone into a toad. I explained that actual transformation was impossible, but I could probably spin a tangled web so everyone thought I had, or one to make that person believe he was a toad and always had been."

[endsthegame]

That was a dark subject, however. It was a crystallized, more literal image of what Ender had done in his own way, allowing people to believe what he wanted them to. Valentine was better in her own way at it; it was a Wiggin trait in full.

"So your power affects mind, and not matter," he summarized. He had to make sure not to antagonize her so much that she'd use that on him. He got manipulated enough as it was, and that nearly made him slant a look over at Val. "Keeping the psychology of the other person in mind?"

[glacial_queen]

"That's another word I don't understand," Karla confessed.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine recognized the other girl from spying class as well, and gave her a little wave when she came over to join the...er...party.

[glacial_queen]

"Hi. I don't think we were really introduced in class. I'm Karla."