2nd Floor Common Room, Tuesday After Classes

[endsthegame]

It had been a while since Ender had put in any effort to spend time out in the open. He wasn't really avoiding anyone - he never really was - but he had been busy: with colonists, with research, with the mess going on in Ben's universe.

It had been a while, and he was planning to change that, at least right now.

So when his classes had finished, he ambled into the common room and put on a documentary about insect hives. Took out a notepad, just in case there was anything to take notes on that he didn't already know - he'd spent a lot of time comparing Earth insects to Formic behavior in his time - and sat back.

Maybe not the most fascinating material. But if worst came to worst, this was just going to be a quiet moment by himself. He was fine with that, too.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle, likewise, seemed to be in a mood lately to try and mingle with people more than she had been, and a report from Shalapa back at the Amazon village could just as easily be read in the common room as it could in her room (or out in the stables, out loud to Baru). She was just beginning to unfurl the scroll when she came through the door, glanced over, and smiled.

"Afternoon, Ender."

[endsthegame]

Ender glanced up to identify the new arrival, and his mouth twisted into a quick, friendly smile to match hers. "Gabrielle," he greeted. "What brings you here?"

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"A comfortable couch and the prospect of company," Gabrielle answered, and held up the scroll in her hand. "Why should reading be a solitary activity, anyway?"

[endsthegame]

"I wouldn't be able to come up with a good counter-argument if I felt inclined to try," Ender said, gesturing towards one of the seats. "Which I don't. Anything interesting?"

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle nodded in thanks and went to curl up in an armchair. "There's always something interesting if you're up to looking for it," she mused. "News from home, that's all; reports from my tribe on the rebuilding efforts. We had some trouble recently, but things seem to be coming together again, thank the gods."

[glacial_queen]

"Hey," Karla said, coming over to give her roommate a hug. They hadn't had a chance to talk much since Gabrielle had come back, but Karla had noticed a change in her demeanor. "Good news?"

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"Karla." Gabrielle happily set the scroll aside to return the hug. "Good -- mostly, I think, yeah. The tribe's recovering pretty well from what happened, and Shalapa seems to be getting comfortable as their leader."

. . . probably the leather outfit helped with that whole change-of-demeanor effect, huh?

[glacial_queen]

That and the sais, really. Karla wasn't too upset to have her friend give up the idea of strict pacifism (call her cynical, but she didn't actually believe it could work and had worried for her friend), but was sad that whatever Gabrielle had gone through to necessitate the change in outlook. "I'm glad to hear that Shalapa's settling in and things are getting back to normal. Sometime, I'm going to have to get the full story from you."

Wine and chocolate night, Gabs. Just say the word.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Okay, those too.

"You do know what you're in for when you ask for the full story from me," Gabrielle began, playfully but with a slight hint of warning in her tone. "But I do owe you that much, at least. If you're willing to hear it, I'll even spring for the chocolate, how's that?"

See, she knew how the wine-and-chocolate-night thing went.

"I'm sorry I worried you," she added. "But I couldn't stand aside when my people were in danger any more than you could."

[life_inshadow]

Tara wandered in for a snack, then glanced from the documentary to Ender and his notepad and back to the documentary.

"Insect behavior?" she asked with some skepticism. "Um, that's -- not something I ever thought about." That was diplomatic. "Also, hi."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle glanced up and over from her scroll and offered a quick smile. "I haven't been listening too closely myself, but it seems interesting. How are you?"

[life_inshadow]

"Not bad," Tara said, flashing a quick smile back. "It's been ... interesting."

She gave Gabrielle a once-over. "I like the new hair."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

It had grown out a little bit in the season hiatus while she was dead, hadn't it? "Thanks. I thought I'd try another new look," Gabrielle said lightly, then teased, "You know it's always loaded when someone says 'it's been interesting,' don't you?"

Or maybe that was just her own ridiculous life skewing her perspective. Because really, that was her default response to the same question.

[life_inshadow]

"Hadn't thought about that, but you ... may not be wrong," Tara chuckled. "I got some kind of good news and heard something really ... sort of strange and unsettling, so it averages out to 'interesting.'"

Getting into college good: learning you're dead in an alternate universe bad. So.

She shrugged, a bit. "How are you?"

[endsthegame]

"Everyone has their hobbies," Ender said. "Insect behavior just happens to factor into mine."

Just probably not in any way Tara would immediately think of...

"But hey, Tara. Don't let the insects scare you off."

[life_inshadow]

"I'm not scared of them," Tara protested, not entirely truthfully. She wasn't much for creepy-crawlies. "We can keep watching. Anyhow, m-maybe it'll have something about, uh ... insect reflections."

Which made ever so much sense if you didn't do magic, really.

[OOC: I get a twitch if I don't make this joke on every possible occasion.]

[endsthegame]

Short pause.

"Insect reflections?" Ender echoed. "Some kind of self-awareness test?"

Yeah, he had no idea.

[[ and nobody needs you wrecking innocent, important facial muscles! ]]

[glacial_queen]

"Because you're too busy thinking about college now?" Karla teased. "I don't even know what getting ready for college entails!"

Her trip to Fandom had been kind of hurried; she'd come with everything she'd had vanished and that was about it. Actually preparing to go away to school would probably be very different.

[life_inshadow]

"It's a lot like getting ready for boarding school," Tara said, then teased, "uh ... except for the part where we sacrifice a goat. Warren's cool with that, right?"

She couldn't keep a straight face through the second sentence.

[glacial_queen]

"He's checking up on the best breed of goat possible," Karla assured her. "You know Warren. Why sacrifice a common goat when you can get a purebred, super-fancy goat instead?"

Which, you know, was exactly how Warren would approach a goat sacrifice if there were to be one.

[glacial_queen]

Karla was counting down the weeks until graduation. Poking her head into a common room and seeing not one but three of her graduating senior friends as well as anyone else who may show up in there meant that this was an opportunity she couldn't pass up.

"Kiss kiss," she called, giving the room a smile that was perhaps slightly on the wistful side. "Look at everyone being social today."

[endsthegame]

"All three of us," Ender agreed, looking up with a smile. "The whole mob."

[glacial_queen]

"Fandom better watch out," she drawled in return. "We might begin to rampage at any moment."

[endsthegame]

"Gabrielle and I can bludgeon everyone in our path with our reading materials," Ender agreed, "While Tara terrifies them with their insect reflection."

Hey, you learn a new idea, you use it.

"It'll be terribly scary."

[aliceseesthings.livejournal.com]

Alice had been ridiculously unsocial lately, which wasn't at all like her, and so she'd resolved to change that.

Her first attempt was going to sit in the second floor common room. She gave a little wave as she entered the room before plopping down into a chair with the magazine she'd brought with her.