dollpocalypse | Room 307, Tuesday Evening

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Room 307, Tuesday Evening

So for Topher, today had been noteworthy due to a variety of circumstances, the most obvious of which being:

1.) His best friend was apparently a world-famous political blogger who'd saved a whole bunch of kids' lives
2.) Said best friend had just been forced to go into hiding to avoid being killed by a Belgian psychopath
3.) Topher's room was still full of paint fumes, and
4.) It was his sixteenth birthday.

As a result of all of that, plus the portal-lag that came from the round-trip excursion to Peter's universe, Topher was just a little bit exhausted by the time he got back to his room in the evening. Too exhausted, in fact, to indulge in his usual birthday tradition of a cupcake and a couple rounds of laser tag at the nearest arena. So instead, by the time he got to his room, he flopped down on his bed to try to repress concerns about Peter by playing Tetris on his phone.

At least he was kicking ass at it, so, you know, there was that.

[[open! billy | dave | kenzi | ben ]]

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It was so, so tempting.

"The politics thing?" Ben replied, choosing to be merciful instead since it was Topher's birthday.

Ben was so, so kind.

"That," Topher agreed, nodding. "You know... that?"

If Peter knew about this, he would probably be pissed, Topher decided.

Wrongly. But.

Ben snorted. "Of course I do. I have from the second I met him."

Well, that seemed a touch unfair.

"Well... me too," Topher countered. Because he wanted to be cool too.

"No you didn't," Ben said with a little smile. "Peter's to smart for that."

Fine, fine, Ben, you won the title of best Wiggin sidekick. HAPPY?

"Well," Topher grumbled, "I know now. Does he end up being okay?"

"The one at home for Ender seems to be doing okay," Ben said, choosing to continue his mercy and not mention the part where he was helping to raise Bean and Petra's kids.

Oh, good. Because ewwww.

Well. Awww. But ew.

"Achilles never found him or anything?" Topher checked. "'Cause. I mean. Right now he's trying to figure out how to, you know, hide or whatever."

Shut up, he was worried.

And now Ben was teaching Topher really terrible Huttese curses!

"Achilles"--and yeah, he had the pronunciation right--"is an asshole. But Peter came out the other side just fine."

Topher nodded. "Good. Okay. Good."

Beat.

"Um. More of an asshole than kidnapping those kids and trying to shoot up Bean's house, you mean?" Because those curses sounded pretty emphatic.

"Toss in a 'and tries to take over the world' to the mix," Ben said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh." Well, shit. "That's not good."

Ben had a "well, what can you do?" sort of look on his face as he nodded. "But Bean's still alive, even if he's one of the most annoying people in history, so that can help."

"Oh my god he's so annoying." FINALLY. SOMEONE ELSE ACKNOWLEDGED THIS. "Peter snapped at me for saying so. God."

"He'll change his mind if he spends more than an hour with him," Ben said, "especially if Bean gets onto a spiel about how the sun shines out of Ender's ass."

Hello, Topher. Welcome to why Ben can't stand Bean!

"...ew," said Topher, who had never much wanted to know about the contents of Ender's ass, metaphorical or otherwise. "He's a big Ender fan? That would explain the sunny disposition at meeting Peter, I guess."

"He was part of Ender's jeesh," Ben said, nodding. "They all think Ender's astral, but Bean especially."

"Well," Topher grumbled, "you can like both of them."

Or... he could. It was pretty much just him.

"Bean's just spent more time with Ender," Ben said. "It doesn't help matters that Peter got Ender exiled from Earth, either."

"To keep him from getting killed!" Yes, Topher. That could be said without the arm-flailing.

"Altruism wasn't Peter's primary concern," Ben replied flatly.

"Sure it was," Topher said immediately. "He was all... you know. Worried. When it happened."

Ben arched up an eyebrow. "Because it was his brother or because it would mess up his plans about being Locke?"

"Because... neither," Topher said, giving Ben a weird look. "Because people dying is sucky."

It had been so long since Ben had thought about something in those terms that he looked momentarily stunned.

"...that too," he stammered.

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