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.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine snorted a little. "Next thing you know, Demosthenes will become a Utopian, praising the benefits of reverting back to a more natural state of technology."

[endsthegame]

"You could grow your hair long and live in trees," Ender intoned. "We'll throw out all the oil and nuclear fission and be monkeys instead."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"And then get bombed," Valentine mused, "by the monkeys who then evolve since we forced them out of their niche."

[endsthegame]

Ender looked at her. "That's very Demosthenes," he said. "I think you'll need more work before you'll manage to hit 'Utopian'."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Mm." It was very Demosthenes, too, and she no longer even had to think about it. It all just came up. "I really should stop putting it off, then."

[endsthegame]

"You're in high school now, Val," Ender said, with more than a little irony, finishing off his sandwich. "Procrastinating is part of the package."

[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.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"I've even got a workshop on slacking," Valentine pointed out with a slight grin. "I plan to get you notes, but I think note-taking might be against the ethos of the class."

[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."

[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."