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]

Ben chewed on his lower lip, then nodded. "Maybe."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher wrung his hands a little. "I don't -- like that."

[momslilassassin]

"Me either," Ben said, "but Ender's not going to stay here forever."

[dollpocalypse]

"Still," said Topher, stubbornly. What if he got rejected again? Who would he whine to?

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not really wild about being left behind myself," Ben understated wildly.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher mumbled something that sounded a lot like "But you have Ender."

[momslilassassin]

"And it took four years for him to even consider asking me along," Ben said, "and he's still not sure it was the right decision."

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, that's dumb," Topher pointed out, with all the tact of a very very tactless person.

[momslilassassin]

Ben snorted. "Have you ever tried to convince a Wiggin that they're wrong?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Yuh-huh," Topher said.

[momslilassassin]

"And how did that work out?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher paused.

"It did not."

Work out, that was. It had been a bit of a failure. Damn Wiggins.

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not saying I'm going to stay behind if he tries to change his mind," Ben replied, "but I'd have to approach it from an angle other than 'hey, you're wrong.'"

[dollpocalypse]

"Is he gonna miss it here?" Topher asked suddenly. "And, like, his friends and stuff?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben waged a quick mental battle between being polite and the truth, and settled on something in between: "Ender tries not to dwell too much on that stuff."

So...a lie.

[dollpocalypse]

Pause.

"You said 'tries.'" Yes, Topher, Ben knew what he'd said.

[momslilassassin]

Ben shrugged a shoulder. "We all have our defenses. Ender's is not letting people get too close."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher processed that.

"Do you have one?"

TOPHER.

[momslilassassin]

"Not really," Ben said. "Want to play video games?"

Ben, that's a defense mechanism.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher blinked at him once. Then twice.

"'Kay."

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned. "I'll kick your ass."

[dollpocalypse]

"Nuh-uh."

Mature, Topher.