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The Causeway | Morning | Sunday | February 20

It was just about time to depart for the annual Fandom High Spring Break trip. Portals had been called, arrangements had been made and now all the group had to do was wait for the scheduled portals to appear.

The causeway was a mess of students and adults, carrying bags and talking excitedly about whatever plans the might have for the upcoming week. It was chilly in Fandom but the group was about to head to the sunny shores of Hawaii. Hope you packed your sunscreen!

[This is the general HAI WE ARE GOING TO HAWAII POST YAY. Feel free to ping on in, talk to each other, be excited, etc. Up early for maaaaaaaaximum slowplay!]

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Quirk of his mouth to slightly alter the line of that vague half-smile - Ender had a whole catalogue of smiles that weren't really smiles - but he did briefly follow the line of her gaze. "Probably," he agreed. "But I doubt that'll keep Ben from complaining about it anyway."

"Well, that's because he's impossible," Tahiri replied, shrugging lightly as if to say what can you do? "I know this is a strange thing to say, but thanks for asking me along."

"It is fairly strange," Ender said, after a beat, "But I've learned to expect that from the Jedi. I was glad to have you there."

He had a whole bullet list of reasons in the back of his head, too.

Of course he did. "I was getting a bit restless without an actual mission," Tahiri admitted. "And it was good to remember that not everything I'll be expected to do is imminent death and destruction all the time."

She gave him an apologetic look as she added, "Your world is a bit complicated."

"I think that's the kindest way anyone has ever put it," Ender said, ruefully. "Though it's just as simple and as complicated as any other world; I just happen to come from a complex nook of it. You're welcome to ask me if you have any questions, by the way."

"I may have a few," Tahiri agreed. "Seeing as my first look just happened to be the awfully complex part of it. Though," she added, aware of how open and forthcoming he generally seemed not to be, "the causeway might not be the best place."

Even though no one seemed to be remotely considering serious topics at the moment.

"I don't mind," Ender said, honestly, and stuck his hand in his pocket. "But if you'd rather do this another time, it's fine, too."

"I didn't want to bring up anything in a possibly inappropriate situation," Tahiri answered, "but I am wondering how exactly you and your Jeesh --" she hesitated slightly over the unfamiliar term -- "ended up with so much responsibility, or at least the expectations of it, so soon."

Ben had said they were like Rogue Squadron, but Rogue Squadron had had decades to build on the reputation they had now.

"Now that's a complicated story," Ender said, with another brief not-quite-smile. "I told you that we used to be under threat by the Formics. At some point, we decided to hit them back, rather than wait for them to come back. So we sent all our best pilots at all the big Formic targets, and because of the way our spaceflight works, it would be decades before they'd get there. We had the manpower down, in other words. The military leadership... not so much."

Tahiri nodded. "Ben explained that aspect of the spaceflight," she began, but she could guess at where he was going with this. "It more or less fell to you, then?"

"You have to realise that both previous engagements with the Formics were mostly won by luck," Ender said, after a brief pause. "So what to do when the fleet finally got there-- that was the big problem. The International Fleet decided their best bet for good military commanders would come from children, because they'd be more creative, quicker to respond, less burdened by conventional thought. They set up Battle School. Everyone on the Jeesh and myself, we've been in Battle School since we were six years old-- and we're the ones who were picked to command the third invasion."

Edited 2011-02-20 20:17 (UTC)

"And the third invasion was the successful one?" Tahiri guessed. It went along with the whole Rogue Squadron analogy, after all. "It's . . . that makes sense, that line of reasoning. Force knows my friends and I made it through some tests and things that adults never would have managed."

Though the price -- she knew that pretty well, too.

"And now you've got an awfully cemented reputation."

Ender's mouth twitched. "Cemented enough that the world can't hold it, apparently," he said. "I'm at Fandom because I've been exiled from Earth since the war."

Which was . . . not what Tahiri had been expecting somehow, so she blinked, several times, caught (figuratively) flat-footed.

"Oh," she said finally, although she managed to regain her equilibrium fairly quickly. "I would never have realized."

The last couple of days made a bit more sense now, though, as did the colony governorship he'd mentioned once. "Why the kriff would they have -- I'm sorry, I'm trying to understand, but . . ."

"I'm terribly inconvenient to Peter," Ender said, "And a target for any would-be world conqueror with pretentions, but I think the former is a bigger thing. He certainly has had a hand in how things proceeded. A few horrible things happened during my time at Battle School," which he was not going into, "enough to form a case for a court-martial against Graff. Which didn't stick, but the allegations of my 'criminal insanity' were enough they decided it was prudent to keep me away from my home planet. Politics."

Edited 2011-02-21 10:25 (UTC)

"Politics," echoed Tahiri with the faint tone of disgust that came from never having had the patience for them. "You took the fall for it."

It was inherently logical to her Yuuzhan Vong sensibilities. The rest of her opinion was far less in favor.

"But because of the rest of the Jeesh being associated with you, they'd like to ship you all off." Considering what was developing in Alai's portion of the world, that also made sense if she chose to think about it from a more paranoid point of view. "Given your spaceflight technology . . . it'd be permanent."

She huffed. "Convenient."

"Oh, I'm still a hero," Ender said, though he didn't sound like he was really all too into that fact. "But I'm also a threat. Much like how my Jeesh is still a threat, for their abilities as much, if not moreso, than their association with me."

He shrugged one shoulder. "It is very convenient. We go away, Peter takes over the Earth, all the pieces fall neatly into place. But it's been a long time since I've even bothered to pretend that Graff is nice-- and Peter's very clever, even if he is a slumbitch. Something like this was pretty inevitable."

"I didn't exactly get the best impression of Graff," Tahiri admitted. "Or your brother."

She'd have apologized for that, if it hadn't already been clear that Peter Wiggin wasn't exactly held in the highest esteem.

"I know far too many people who fall into that hero category," she offered as if it was some consolation. "Enough to know I'm grateful I've always just been on the outside of it."

[OOC: GIVE ME MY NOTIFS, LJ.]

"Like I said," Ender said, with the briefest of smiles, "Neither of them are very nice. Maybe both of them are doing the right things right now, though. I don't know. What happens on Earth isn't my business any more. I'm hoping to wind up on the outside, too. Given time."

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The Causeway | Morning | Sunday | February 20

Re: Mingling!

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Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!

Re: Mingling! - NFB, plz!