Room 307, Tuesday Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

Nothing to do? Why not check on some spybots? Well, that was Topher's motto, anyway.

Topher clicked through the interface, going camera by camera -- huh, random blurry scuffle on the roof, what was that about? -- until he got to the one that spent the most time chilling in Peter's room. It seemed to be working, although, okay, that was weirdly close to Peter's desk. He was going to have to work on its spacial recognition or something so it didn't just climb on top of things and wind up filming Peter's freaking emails... huh.

Look, it wasn't like he could just not read it when it was all zoomed in on the screen like that, okay?

I can only hope that, in the event of success, you will choose to emulate Washington, MacArthur, or Augustus rather than Napoleon, Alexander, or Hitler.

Colmin

...what?

Okay, there were totally about five tabs being opened right now, and only four of them were to figure out who the hell those people were.

[[open door, open post! spybots nfb and all with the permission of the majestic lockestheway. eta: initial subject of the ender thread is gonna be nfb as well, la, but the fact that he stopped by and there was gaming is okay.]]

Comments

[endsthegame]

Ender hadn't spoken to Topher in some time, and he felt it was about time he checked in with the boy again. He knocked on the door twice before crossing into the room. "Hey, Topher."

[dollpocalypse]

"Hey," Topher said, shoving his laptop shut mid-Google search and sticking it on the side table. "What's up?"

[endsthegame]

The sudden closing of the laptop caught Ender's attention - he used that strategy himself... a lot. Actually, he'd gotten in the habit of doing it all of the time.

"Not much," he said lightly. "So I thought I'd stop by and see what was going on."

Or check in to see how Topher was coming along. One or the other.

[dollpocalypse]

"Noooot too much," Topher said, with a slightly twitchy glance around the room to make sure that he didn't have any spybots lying around here that Ender might be able to spot.

Paranoid? Maybe a little.

"Mostly just bored," he added. "Did you know your guys' desk thingies don't have Angry Birds on them?"

Topher Brink: Best liar ever. Or something.

[endsthegame]

Not even remotely.

"We have other games in my time," Ender said. "I don't know whether Peter's downloaded any to his desk, though."

Just a stab in the dark as to the ownership of that desk...

[dollpocalypse]

"He has not," Topher confirmed. Sadly. "Sad, really. Any recommendations?"

It was the best conversation topic he could come up with under the circumstances, okay?

[endsthegame]

"I can think of a few," Ender said, though he had little interest in them these days.

But he figured that if he wanted to get Topher to talk about what he'd been doing, he'd have to get there in a roundabout way.

"Mind if I pull up a seat?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Go for it," Topher invited. "Dave's bed is pretty comfy."

Best. Roommate. Ever.

[endsthegame]

Ender shot Topher a mild look, but since he wasn't exactly the kind to defile anyone's bed, he simply sat down on the edge of it. "Hand me the desk?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher did a quick mental inventory to try to recall if there was anything incriminating on it, then handed it over. "Aaaall yours."

A beat.

"Except not really." Because it was his, okay.

[endsthegame]

"Thanks for clarifying that," Ender said dryly. He activated the display, fingers idly playing over the holographic interface as he searched for some dumbed-down version of one of the Battle School Game Room games that had been released a few years ago.

"So, what are you working on?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Me? Working?" Topher scoffed. Badly. "Nah, I was just emailing, uh, my parents." Because that was totally a thing Topher was likely to do. He realized that problem a minute too late, and added, "And Tony. Also."

[endsthegame]

"He lives right across the hall from you," Ender pointed out, making sure he sounded amused.

[dollpocalypse]

"Yep," Topher confirmed.

What, like he couldn't be lazy?

[endsthegame]

Hey, back in the Stone Age, before they were roommates, Ender and Ben hadn't had any trouble going out of their way to look each other up.

... though possibly a bad example.

"What's so important you have to mail him about?"

He began the install procedure on the game.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher side-eyed. "Stuff," he said, looking wary.

[endsthegame]

"Secret stuff, by the sounds of it," Ender said lightly, then busied himself with the install.

[dollpocalypse]

"What?" Topher sputtered. "Noooo! Not -- secret! Psh! I mean. No! C'mon."

Wasn't that credible?

[endsthegame]

"You don't have to tell me," Ender said, "But right now you're not doing a very good job of making me believe it's of no interest me."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher drew in a little on himself. "So?" he mumbled.

[endsthegame]

The game finished its install procedure, and Ender offered Topher the desk back.

He smiled a little. "It's not my intention to make you uncomfortable, either," he said. "You're just making me curious, that's all."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh," said Topher, visibly relieved as he took the desk back. "I mean. It's just... stuff." He scratched the back of his neck, then added, "Like, you know. Things. That I'm not supposed to talk about."

[endsthegame]

Well, Ender already knew about Tony, and Topher knew that, which led him to suspect...

"Peter?" he asked. He sounded wry. "Of course."

He nodded at the desk. "It's a tactical shooter, by the way."

[dollpocalypse]

"What? No!" Topher, this strategy never worked. Seriously. "I mean. Really. It's not him. At all."

Less deceptively emphatic this time, but the hugely wide eyes still sort of gave him away. Whoops.

[endsthegame]

"Topher, I'm from several years in Peter's future," Ender pointed out. "There's very little he can do that'll surprise me at this point."

[dollpocalypse]

"Or not do," Topher said hastily. "'Cause he isn't doing anything."

[endsthegame]

Ender observed him for a moment.

"You want me to walk you through the game?" he asked.

Mentally, he was trying to work out roughly where in the timeline Peter fell out right now, and whether anything significant had happened. Had Peter taken Topher in confidence about something? It didn't seem like him.

[dollpocalypse]

"I bet I could fi--"

Topher glanced at Ender and remembered that time with the zombie game.

"Yeah, okay."

[endsthegame]

"Okay," Ender said, getting up off the bed so he could get closer to the desk. "The controls are pretty simple for this type of game, but this system involves a different kind of key orientation than you're used to. It's not really like typing forward or backward like you do on a 21st century computer..."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher followed, settling next to Ender. "Got it," he said, and he took another minute to process the layout of the desk and figure out how it could be used in the game. "So to move, you just swipe like this?" he tried, gesturing.

[endsthegame]

"Exactly," Ender said, "Whereas you can shoot by moving like this..."

He performed a hand gesture.

[dollpocalypse]

"Got it," Topher said again, nodding intently. Then with a glance up at Ender, he asked, "Single or multi?"

[endsthegame]

"The original game was multi," Ender said. Most games from Battle School were. "This one is more single-player oriented, though it's still got multi options."

[dollpocalypse]

"Wanna?"

Brilliant idea, Topher. That was sure to end in... well, a sweeping defeat.

[endsthegame]

"Sure," Ender said, tapping them back to the main screen and activating the multiplayer function.

Poor Topher. Again.