Stark Industries [all day Friday]

[momslilassassin]

After leaving Fandom Jaina a brief (and not terribly helpful) update about his adventures last weekend where he'd been slightly electrocuted but was otherwise Completely Fine, Really!, Ben settled behind the counter with an enormous cup of coffee and some of the data Ender had forwarded him about Shakespeare.

It never hurt to be too prepared about the next assignment.

The shop was open, though, if your iPod had decided to stop working or something.

Ender | Topher

Comments

[endsthegame]

"I come bearing meats and other items of a Skywalker-placating nature," Ender announced upon his entry.

[momslilassassin]

"You may stay," Ben declared, beaming at him. "Ho, kreetle."

[endsthegame]

"Ho, Ben," Ender said, dropping the box of Thai food in front of him. "How's the day been?"

[momslilassassin]

"Uneventfully, so far," he replied. "Just catching up on some research."

[endsthegame]

"Anything interesting?" Ender asked as he pulled up a chair.

[momslilassassin]

"You gave it to me, so I think so," Ben said, smiling.

[endsthegame]

"A smartass flatterer, now there's something," Ender said, opening up the container. "Any thoughts, then, that you might like to share?"

[momslilassassin]

"Nothing that fascinating," Ben said. "I can send some of the molecular breakdowns on to Cilghal, now that she's mostly done with the barvy Jedi."

He sighed. "Turns out that the Horns didn't get uncrazied while they were in carbonite."

[endsthegame]

Ender ran his hand through his hair. "Do they know if the other young Jedi are actually fine?"

[momslilassassin]

"No," Ben said, sighing again. "Dad's theory that as long as he keeps smacking pieces off of Abeloth she stays out of our heads seems to be holding up so far."

[endsthegame]

"It's still not any kind of long-term solution," Ender said.

[momslilassassin]

"Not really," Ben agreed. "He's got her cornered on a planet where neither of them can really use the Force. Maybe that'll even the odds some."

[endsthegame]

"Probably not, unless the Force lies at the root of her ability to shift shapes," Ender said. "He'll be at a disadvantage."

[dollpocalypse]

"So... what was up with you and Tony almost getting killed?"

Hello, Topher. How was your day going?

[momslilassassin]

"Hello to you too," Ben replied with a slight smile.

[dollpocalypse]

"Hi. You don't look like you almost got killed," Topher assessed. In his totally professional opinion, yes. "That's good."

[momslilassassin]

"Well, you know," Ben said. "Kind of used to it and all."

[dollpocalypse]

This was a fair point.

"So you're okay?" he checked. "All... bacta'd up?"

Someone had a fretting problem, yes.

[momslilassassin]

"Pretty much," Ben said airily. Bacta patches didn't really work on electrocution, but he didn't want Topher to worry. "Have you seen Tony yet today?"

[dollpocalypse]

Ben was the nicest. Topher relented, and nodded. "Yeah, I went by earlier. Brought him a broken phone to fix." Tony had been very pleased. Because he was Tony. "You?"

[momslilassassin]

"I need to finish up my shift here first," Ben said, "and then I go back to glower at the paparazzi. He's getting stircrazier?"

That was totally a word.

[dollpocalypse]

"He fixed the phone with a fork and made it work in space," Topher said after a brief pause. "So yeah."

Oh, Tony.

"But he keeps saying he's okay. And I can't tell."

[momslilassassin]

"He's not," Ben said. With anyone else, he would have asked what they thought, but Topher still wasn't that great with human relationships.

[dollpocalypse]

Astute, Ben. Very, very astute.

"So... what do we do?" Yes, it was a 'we' now.

[momslilassassin]

"The phone thing was good," Ben said. "Give him stuff for his hands to do and he'll probably start talking."

Or that might just be Ben.

"I'm going to take him out for a drink when he's allowed again."