Room 307, Sunday Morning... Through Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

So lately? Topher had been getting a little bit better at getting people. He wasn't great at it or anything, wasn't even really good, and still needed to ask a lot of questions, but at least by now he knew what to ask. And who to ask, and how to ask, and just generally the right way to figure things out.

Which he thought he had, yesterday. Figured stuff out, that was. Because... Billy. There had been Ben's advice and everyone else ever's implications and he'd been pretty sure he was right. Because of, like, the scientific method, where Ben and Kenzi and Tony and Peter and Ender were all test subjects and they'd all given him data to suggest that: yes, Billy was okay, Billy was cleared, he should try this with Billy, because it wasn't like he was ever going to get anywhere with anyone else this kind of thing made people happy, and Billy made Topher happy and maybe it would be a good thing. To try it. And he'd thought he was right. Been pretty sure, as a scientist, that his data proved his hypothesis.

Except he definitely had not been right, because he'd tried to do what everyone else thought he should do and wound up getting laughed at.

So. Fuck that. Fuck talking to people. Fuck going outside, too. Today he was buried under all his blankets and reading a comic and wondering why it wasn't helping him feel better yet.

Any second now.

[[door closed, post open, emo within]]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

"When he what?" Ben asked, eyes going sharp and protective.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher bit his lip. "Um." Yep, totally not the best thing to almost say. "Dies?" he squeaked.

[momslilassassin]

"In some crazy world where he also created a Peter," Ben snorted. "I'm not putting a lot of thought into it."

That was a lie.

[dollpocalypse]

"You were there," Topher said quietly.

TOPHER.

[momslilassassin]

"Some version of me," Ben corrected sharply. "Ender's not dying."

[dollpocalypse]

"Ever?" That did not seem like a very realistic plan.

[momslilassassin]

"Not the way Peter saw it happen," Ben said vehemently.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher bit his lip. "How did he... how did he see it happen?"

That had not come up in conversation yet in SP.

[momslilassassin]

"It's not worth mentioning," Ben said because he was stupid stubborn.

[dollpocalypse]

"But you freaked when I said it could happen," Topher reminded him gently.

[momslilassassin]

"I don't like thinking of things happening to him."

That was hugely unconvincing.

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, yeah," Topher said. "I don't like thinking of things happening to Peter either--" which was, you know, a comparison that would probably have been better left unmade-- "but you're all..." He waved a hand. "Out of sorts, or whatever. What happened?"

[momslilassassin]

"I woke up with Peter in my room," Ben said, trying to shift the subject slightly. "I'm allowed to be out of sorts."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh."

Pause.

"Oh, ew."

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah," Ben said dryly. "Not a highlight."

[dollpocalypse]

"So that's what's bothering you?" Topher checked. "Not the Ender possibly dying thing?"

TOPHER.

[momslilassassin]

"In a thousand years, give or take some," Ben replied. "That's a pretty good run."

Other than the marrying a woman who joined a convent and pretty much hated Ender thing.

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, it is," Topher agreed, brow creasing a little as he tried to sort out how that worked. Space travel, he decided, and left the analysis at that for now. "So he, what, just got sick or something?"

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah," Ben said. Dying of boredom was ridiculous.

[dollpocalypse]

"Sorry," Topher offered. "Um. But. He made it past Peter?"

Topher, in no universe was that an appropriate thing to say.

[momslilassassin]

Ben blinked. "I didn't ask. Peter's not really my priority."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh," Topher said. "No, I mean, he did. Other-Peter said."

[momslilassassin]

"Well, it makes sense," Ben admitted. "The difference in space travel for them...Peter might not even be alive by the time Ender and I get to the first colony."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher bit his lip.

"Or... me and Tony and Billy and everyone," he said quietly.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's shoulders slumped. "It's a possibility," he murmured. "It's another reason I couldn't just let him go by himself."