Second Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[endsthegame]

Ender had been inside during yesterday's attack, knowing full well there was little he could do except make trips downstairs to make sure support was well-organised. These invasions had a habit of taking care of themselves, though, and so he hadn't been too concerned-- using Ben's brief absence to rewatch some of the videos he'd been sent.

That hadn't been a smart idea. He'd gone back to his Formic research.

But now it was the-day-after, and he'd been awake for a larger chunk of the night than usual. So eventually he removed himself from his room and pottered into the common room, where he rifled through drawers until he'd come up with a stack of leftover sandwiches from yesterday.

They were sparsely topped - just cheese or ham or both - but there were many of them, so he left them sitting on the table in the middle of the room. He curled up on the couch, laptop on his legs, and worked.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

If there was one thing to be said for Zack, any one thing at all, it was that he had something of a sixth sense when it came to locating leftovers, no matter what common room he had to migrate to in order to find them. Today, that quest for food meant that he was wandering around in civilian clothing because his uniform was covered in zombie fish guts. Kind of uncomfortable, losing the armor, but it was too early in the day for him to care too much.

"Are these a free for all?" Because if they were, he was going to stack up two or three of the cheese ones and just mow them away right there and then.

[endsthegame]

Ender looked up from his laptop - and immediately shut it, to communicate across that he was going to make some time for Zack. "As free as can be," he said, "I liberated them from the fridge; I think they're yesterday's."

[puppy_fair]

"That would make sense," Zack mused, making himself a bit of a cheese sandwich-sandwich. The two or three that he'd been planning on turned into a stack of four, which he squashed down between his hands so that he could actually get it into his mouth. "The support group had a bunch of stuff set up in the lobby yesterday by the time I made my way back in. There really wasn't any lack of food on standby, from what I could see."

A pause, a thoughtful chew of giant sandwich, and then a headtilt later, "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

[endsthegame]

"No, I was just catching up on some email," Ender said, smoothly. "Nothing really exciting; definitely doesn't match up to flying piranhas."

[puppy_fair]

"The fish were kind of exciting," agreed Zack, actually taking a moment from his very important sandwich eating to grin and flop himself down on a nearby chair. "One of those short-lived invasions, though. And just as messy as the flying fish types ever are."

[endsthegame]

"I don't exactly have a lot of experience with flying fish," Ender admitted freely, and put his laptop aside. "So I'm going to take your word for it. And take it as fact you were outside fighting them yesterday."

[puppy_fair]

"Almost all day," Zack laughed. "It keeps me busy around here, you know? I don't do too well when I have to sit still for very long."

Which was truth in a painfully obvious way, at this point. He was already shifting his weight about on the chair, trying to get more comfortable. It was a wonder that he wasn't trying to do so by taking the chair upside-down, yet.

Give him time. That was completely a possibility, too.

[endsthegame]

"I think humanity invented hobbies to deal with that," Ender suggested. Amused, most definitely, and shooting the chair a quick look.

It was very possible, yes.

"But that's just a theory."

[puppy_fair]

"Well, yeah," Zack allowed. "And, I mean, I have hobbies."

Squats counted, right?

"But there's not too much to keep a person really active, unless I sign up for the cheer squad or something when clubs start up again. Swimming or something, maybe? There is that pool downstairs, even once the ocean gets too cold to go splashing around in..."

[endsthegame]

"If this was any other town, I'd suggest a soup kitchen or a track team or something," Ender replied. Squats really didn't count. "Out here, though-- I honestly do think 'defeating invasions' is a very good way to spend your time. Even if it's just practice."

[puppy_fair]

"Yeah, but they're maybe once a month or so if I'm lucky," Zack sighed, demonstrating once again that he had a very odd concept of the meaning of the word 'lucky.' "That leaves a lot of time in between to just bounce around, right? What do you do to keep busy?"

[endsthegame]

"I work," Ender said, with a slight shrug. "And I pretend it's relevant work. That takes up a lot of energy, you know -- self deception."

[puppy_fair]

That response got a bit of a wry smile out of Zack.

"Tell me about it," he replied. Because, really, if there was one thing that Zack was good at embracing, self deception was pretty much it. "I had a job at the Fina in town for a bit there, but I never really was any good at it."

The dishes tended to get worried every time Zack came in with a smile on.

[momslilassassin]

"Ho, Ender," Ben said, snagging a sandwich and flopping onto the sofa. "Being social today?"

[endsthegame]

"Or at least something approaching it," Ender agreed, shutting his laptop. "I think everyone's hidden away for tonight's three minute dates event."

[momslilassassin]

"You didn't sign up?" Ben asked with a smile. "It seems like something you'd love."

Only not at all.

[endsthegame]

"I've done it once, I don't need to do it again," Ender said, stretching out his arms.

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned at him and poked him in the arm. "You mean three minutes wasn't enough time to discover your soulmate? I'm shocked."

[endsthegame]

"Oh, I'm sure if it's right, you can find your soulmate in under three minutes," Ender said, dismissively. "I'm just not looking."

Interpret that as you must.

[momslilassassin]

Ben took a bite of his sandwich as he mulled that over. "Because you've decided you don't deserve to be happy?"

Ben, shockingly, chose what's behind Door Oblivious.

[endsthegame]

Ender, shockingly, had expected him to; even relied on it. He knew he was skirting the edge of danger, sure, but he knew it wouldn't connect.

"Because as much as you'd like them to be, relationships aren't the be-all end-all of human happiness."

[momslilassassin]

"Neither is being alone," Ben countered.

[endsthegame]

"Depends on the circumstances," Ender replied, "In both cases." Not that he was bouncing that subtly back to Ben, or anything.

[momslilassassin]

Ben glanced over at him. "You think I need the talk about attachments being dangerous?"

[endsthegame]

"Don't be such a Jedi about it," Ender said, shooting him a quick glance. "Life isn't as black and white as 'attachments are dangerous' or 'attachments are good'. It's about circumstance. A fact I sometimes wonder your religion understands."