Second Floor Common Room, Wednesday Morning

[endsthegame]

After the gym and his morning swim, Ender decided to have his breakfast in the common room this morning. He was at least mildly curious as to the news of the day, and sometimes TV was just more simple than going through all of his newsfeeds.

So with a bowl of cereal in hand he sat down to catch the morning news. Jane had been snarking at him about recent developments back home - so the news from the 2170s, he was more than up to date on - which had put him into a certain historical frame of mind. Some of the riots going on in the Middle East bore a dangerously close resemblance to what was going on in Alai's neck of the woods, and...

...he would have continued to pontificate on that if the first thing that had turned up when he put on BBC News hadn't been a story about a cat.

A very important cat, apparently.

Ten minutes later, they were still talking about the cat, and Ender was starting wonder if the entire universe would turn into one giant cat macro one day.

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Comments

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Cat macros made the world go round, Ender. The sooner you realized this, the better.

Now, if Ender would be so kind as to not notice the pink as Tony made a dash for food, that would be great for him. Though less hilarious.

[endsthegame]

Ender was about to open his mouth to greet whoever that was, actually. Pink hair wasn't completely unusual around here, after all, but that meant it was probably a str--

"...Tony?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Don't ask. Just--don't ask."

[endsthegame]

Ender processed that.

"Did you lose a bet?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"In my defense, I never expected her to take me up on it."

[endsthegame]

"Famous last words," Ender supplied, dryly. "Who was the bet with?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Ramona. Ramona Flowers," Tony replied, taking a seat on the couch.

[endsthegame]

"Ah, the girl with the hair," said Ender. (See, he did get out and meet people. Sometimes.) "How long are you keeping it? I might have to make a list of pink hair cracks."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"If I change it back, she changes her back and wins."

And Tony was not a quitter, damn it.

[endsthegame]

"Dishonour over losing a war," Ender said, "You have shown your colors today, Stark."

... Let it not be said he wouldn't occasionally actually indulge in such wisecracks.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, now he does. "...I'm going to reprogram your laptop to play bad pop music for that."

[endsthegame]

"Good luck with that," Ender said. He was not going to add anything to that statement that could turn it into a challenge, thank you.

Even if it would be interesting to see Tony go up against Jane...

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony sighed and flopped back. "Fine, I'll build something annoying then."

[endsthegame]

"Don't let me stop you," Ender said, easily. "So, other than going pink, how have you been?"

The British reporter on TV was still talking about the cat.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Hid in my lab all weekend. It was relaxing."

[endsthegame]

"Build anything interesting?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Hooked up my X-Box so I could play with a friend back home."

You know, his only friend back home? Oh, and worked on the shielding of the suit. But, shhh.

"Oh, and did a test run on that security program."

[endsthegame]

That caught Ender's interest, at least, and he sat up a little. "Did it hold out?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"So far, yeah," Tony replied, able to forget about the pink in favour of science. "But we won't know for sure until someone actually attacks my systems."

[endsthegame]

Pink hair really wasn't all that interesting when it came right down to it, was it?

"Which we can hope will be later rather than sooner," Ender supplied. "I imagine you've got some files on there you don't want everyone breaking into."

Somewhere, Jane just pricked up her ears and heard a challenge. Way to go, Ender.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Mostly unfinished projects and ideas."

Oh, and the suit.

[endsthegame]

"How's the company?"

These things were related.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony looked away and shrugged. "Been keeping an eye on Stane. He's talking to the military about some sales."

[endsthegame]

"It's a lucrative market," Ender said, after a moment. "As far as business is concerned..."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"It's not what Stark International does. We don't make weapons."