fandomtownies | The Devil's Nest, Tuesday Evening

Get you ID inspected, pay your cover, and let Emma put a nice big X on your hand.

Where Tiny is trying to hide from the tiny blonde.

After that whole mess with Jareth, Ender had felt-- responsible, to a point, to check on Emma ever so often and see how she was doing. He knew she'd hate knowing that, though; that she had probably been avoiding him to avoid being reminded of the whole issue to begin with.

So he made sure that thought was nowhere near the front of his mind when he got down to the bar. Which wasn't that hard, considering the fact that part of the reason why he had nothing to do was because Ben had taken off after Tony today, and his friends had a bad track record with taking off after cryptic messages.

"Emma," he said, sitting down at the bar with a quick smile. "A glass of milk, please?"

"Tiny, go check IDs and work the door," Emma ordered, pointing sternly at the coat-check. "Don't worry, I know better than to serve Ender."

"You do know we have juice and sparkling sodas too, right?" she asked, starting the hunt for the milk once Tiny had slunk off. "While I'm sure you're a growing boy, darling, I won't tell if you want something a bit less wholesome."

Ender smiled briefly. "Wholesome works for me right now," he said. "My bones are still growing. Besides, anything with caffeine in it isn't a good idea this far into the evening."

God knew he didn't need more reason to be awake at night.

"Shall I warm it up for you, to help you sleep?" she asked, teasingly. "Ah. I found 2% and skim, pick your poison."

Ew, milk.

"Skim," Ender said, easily. He could broadcast 'too wholesome for words' like the best of them. "But I think I'll take the risk of drinking it cold. How've you been, Emma?"

He wasn't exactly expecting an in-depth answer.

Emma snorted and poured him a glass. "Are we talking about before my ex-boyfriend dumped me by-proxy at graduation, or after?" she quipped. "It's been a long few weeks."

"And you, mister Wiggin? What have you been up to?"

"Not all that much," Ender replied. Which was true. The past few weeks had been downright trauma-free for his standards, despite continuing awkwardness with his roommate and the fact he was steeling himself to take a step back from that. "I've been boring for your standards."

He took a sip of his milk. "Long few weeks...?" he inquired. "If you want to share. If you don't, I'm still trying to choose a decent movie to subject Karla to, and I'm open to discussing suggestions."

"Family," she said dryly. "I do believe you are familiar with the topic." Mean, Emma, but pushing Ender's 'family' button was fun.

"Then my boyfriend runs off in the middle of the night, and my roommate is in the clinic. Typical Fandom High hijinks. I'm sure if you actually get Karla to sit down long enough for a movie, she'll complain about 3/4ths of it."

"She hasn't given me any grief the last couple of times," Ender said, lightly. He was made of stronger stuff than simply jumping at the mention of his relatives-- especially with Peter being a touch more tolerable lately. "I wouldn't call a clinic visit a 'hijink', specifically. That's Triela, right?"

"Yes, she collapsed at her graduation party," Emma replied. "I'm hardly a specialist on cybernetics, but I can tell you from a telepathic standpoint that her brain is not in the best shape."

[sorry, fell asleep on laptop again]

Ender felt some genuine sorrow wash over him, but he felt a little disconnected, too. As with many things. "What's the prognosis?"

Emma just shook her head. "While I am certain that her handler would go to the ends of the earth to help her, I doubt the rest of her agency feels the same way."

"As is often the case," Ender said, quietly, "with secretive paramilitary organisations." He took another sip of his milk. It didn't cost him a great deal of brainpower to make the next jump. "I take it they'll be hauling her in for study."

"If they do anything beyond the required autopsy, I might be inclined to take a field trip and show them what little girls can really do when they get ticked off," Emma stated firmly. "I understand them needing to know what happened, to prevent it happening again, but there's no need for barbarism for science's sake."

There were a great deal of things Ender could say to that - like that the bodies of the dead were often desecrated for much flimsier reasons, or that he wondered if the protection of Triela's body would be worth so much more potential pain, or that he understood why they might try to do more to prevent the rest of their tools from breaking down, or that he could understand Emma wanting to protect Triela's dignity.

He just smiled vaguely. "You might have to explain to the dear doctors what is and isn't barbarism, then," he said.

Emma just raised an eyebrow and gave him a Look. "I have no issue with actual, methodical study," she clarified. The girl lived with Hank, after all. "They can even take samples for future study."

"But Hilshire needs a reasonably-whole body. The others need something to bury and mourn, and I will not tolerate her sitting in jars or being dumped on the scrap pile. An ounce of respect costs them nothing, and to not provide it would cost them much."

"Ah, but what is one limb less, or more, to a late student of Fandom?" Ender asked. Partly devil's advocating, making a point, mostly just indulging his Wiggin sense of humor.

Emma's lips quirked slightly. "Then you can explain that to Karla."

She'd even bring popcorn.

Ender's lips quirked up. "I've delivered enough limbs to Karla for one lifetime," he said, thinking briefly of that time with the vampires. "I'll have to see Triela, then."

"Sooner would most likely be better than later," Emma acknowledged. "Which is horribly depressing, but true."

"And here you most likely thought you could get a glass of milk in peace here."

"If I wanted to be sure I got a glass of milk in peace, I would have stayed in my room, with the doors locked and all the windows shut," Ender said, putting his glass back down. "Or at the very least not come here on your night."

Yeah, Emma had kind of assumed so.

"A Wiggin's gone a-hunting for a telepath, then," she mused, grabbing a sparkling ginger soda for herself. "I would say curiouser and curiouser, but it's really not."

Wiggins were generally nosy. This was a trufact.

At least Ender was the least-nosiest of the bunch...

Well. At present.

"You graduated," he said, lightly. "I think I'm allowed to drop by and see how you've been doing. Offer my congratulations."

Riiiiiight.

"Do you ever say or do anything straight-out?" Emma asked. "Or does it give you stomach pains to do so?"

There was a flicker of irritation there. "Now that's rude," he said. "I am, in fact, here to see how you're doing, because I care, and because my sister would care."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Please don't pretend you sought me out, at work, out of shallow graduation goodwill," she clarified, sighing. Even as she told the suddenly attentive weetiny bit of her that had had that crush on Val to be quiet. "That's demeaning to both of us. You usually run deeper than that, Ender."

"Fine," Ender said, after a moment. "You've been avoiding me, and while I have no intention to cause you any discomfort by showing up, I wanted to know where your mind was at before your potential depature. " He locked his eyes on Emma's. "And before you start, that's not me casting aspersions on your ability to take care of yourself. The fact that you're here at all proves enough, as it has for months. Years, really. There. I hope that was satisfactory."

Edited 2011-05-04 19:27 (UTC)

"You can rest assured that my eventual departure is not for many weeks, as I'll be working here for the summer," Emma replied. "So you have plenty of time to deplete my milk supply."

"And I have not been avoiding you--" just, conveniently not in his area. "--but I think I'm as sound of mind as I can be, given my new transition to graduate. I'm to attend ESU in the fall, double-majoring in education and business, with minors in psychology and biology. I have a TAship and a job, sans-boyfriend and able to party, and hopefully now without family for a nice, long, duration."

Ender's eyes had still been fixed on her until about halfway into that explanation. then he sat back.

He refrained from saying anything as smartassed as 'I hope that didn't hurt too much' - it wasn't really in his nature.

"Val will be happy to hear it," he said. "She's been bored out of her mind - the gossip will do her good."

Really, if he thought that was Emma wearing her heart on her sleeve and being completely truthful, then he deserved the irritation of her being bitchy.

"That's what she gets, for gallivanting off and leaving school," Emma replied. "Utter boredom, away from the salacious gossip of the masses."

Someone was still slightly sulky about that, yes. "I'd be doing mutant studies, if any college offered that during my time period, but alas, the genetically-different are still seen as rare freaks."

Ender, believing anyone was being completely truthful?

That was funny.

"I can't see you taking that lying down," he commented. Idly.

"I don't just 'take' anything lying down," she replied. Totally dirty. "But being 'out' like I am here would be a recipe for disaster."

That didn't mean she didn't have other plans.

Of course it was dirty. Sigh. "True," Ender said, "Which is why I figure you're planning something already."

Hey, she'd asked him to be honest.

Have fun!

The exclusive lounge where the owner might be lurking.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!

The Devil's Nest, Tuesday Evening

Hostess Reception

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The Dance Floor & Lounge

The VIP Section

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