Second Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[endsthegame]

Local Earth news wasn't really all that important to Ender. He played no part in it, and had no reason or opportunity to interfere. Still, after checking the local news feeds last night, he found himself a little curious as to what was happening in the Middle East right now. (Maybe a little part of him felt like he owed it to Alai, or maybe it really was just plain curiosity.)

So morning found him sitting out in the common room with one of Karla's books at his side, watching BBC News's coverage of the situation in Egypt. Between it and Al Jazeera, he felt like he was getting a decent enough picture.

He was trying to remember what they'd learned about this before. Battle School had not been heavy on the political history of the world, and Ender hadn't previously taken the time to request info back home on the outcome of the Middle Eastern troubles in this time.

Ah, well. If he got bored, he could always pick up the book and start sniffing around in Blood history from a few millenia ago, instead.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony had been looking around for something that could be considered food. That wasn't microwaved. It was a pipe dream today.

But he could make do with cereal upon seeing someone he knew in the room. "Hey."

[endsthegame]

Ender glanced away from the news report. "Hey, Tony," he said. "Morning. Hungry?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Did you make something?" Oh, getting his hopes up.

[endsthegame]

"No," Ender said, nodding at the counter, "But I got the cereal out. I have no illusions about my culinary ability."

Unlike certain people he knew.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

...not it.

Tony glanced over at the cereal. "Works for me," he said going to grab himself some. "What are you watching?"

[endsthegame]

"Unrest in Egypt," Ender said, motioning at the screen. "The Egyptians are rebelling against their government. Last night the president refused to step down, but he's fired their government - they're just not satisfied with that."

As one could tell by all the fire.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Huh." This version of Tony? Not so much up on world events. "How do you fire a government?"

[endsthegame]

"By being a despot who's been in power for thirty years thanks to sham elections," Ender provided. He'd been watching for a while now. "Give or take."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Ah, that makes more sense," Tony replied, just taking the box of cereal with him to the couch. "And people aren't going to step in and help?"

[endsthegame]

"The American government has a stake in the Egyptian government staying as it is, as do several others," Ender said, "But I think they all know which way the wind seems to be blowing, so they're being standoffish. Understandable; it's a clear 'principles versus practicalities' situation. Not a nice tightrope to walk on."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"You're very into this," Tony remarked around a mouthful of cereal.

[endsthegame]

"Not particularly," Ender said, shooting him a wry smile. "'But politics is war carried out without bloodshed'..."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

That got a snort. "Yeah, I'm not really interested in either. Other people are more suited to that kind of thing."

[endsthegame]

"The thing about it is that when you know the basic laws of it all, a lot of it isn't hard to guess at," Ender said, waving his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"People aren't that easy to read," Tony replied. "Machines are easy. Machines follow logic and try to murder me order."

[endsthegame]

"Reading people has never really been hard for me," he said. "Technology changes with time. People, thankfully and regrettably, don't."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony shrugged, never really finding it hard to keep up with the tech part. Because he was a nerd. "The people part was more my dad's thing."

[endsthegame]

"What makes you say he was good at it?" Ender asked, interested.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"People liked him," Tony replied with another shrug. "Like, really liked him. The entire company pretty much showed up for his funeral."

This could be colored by the fact that he was now dead and could do no wrong in Tony's eyes, but...

[endsthegame]

Most likely at least a little. "I doubt everyone liked him equally much," Ender prompted. It was making him think of that memorial service again, and the way Raven had almost become a saintly caricature of herself.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony inspected a piece of cereal, jaw clenched for a moment. "Company was a lot--different when I went back there."

[endsthegame]

"Who's running it right now?"

Ender would have to put his thoughts on the topic of why people thought about the dead in such a one-sided way in the fridge. For now.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Hey, hey. Tony would learn the hard way about this later on.

"Obidiah Stane. He's running it for me until I'm eighteen apparently."

[endsthegame]

Ender was going to grow up to be the ruthless way for other people to learn about this. Did that help?

"And you don't like what he's doing with the place."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

...maybe a bit. Still!

"Everyone seems--I don't know. Worried? No one even looked up when I was there and they have all these new security guards."