Around the dorms [Sunday morning]

[momslilassassin]

Half to give Ender some time to process Val's disappearance and half because it was a good idea, Ben was putting up hand-written posters on various bulletin boards:

Relatives and/or friends back home gone missing? Leave your information here, or contact Ben (555- LGCY or Ender (555- ENDR)They didn't have the first idea of what was happening, but

Comments

[glacial_witch]

Karla had been doing some follow-ups on her own. "I don't necessarily have names, but I have universes affected," she said quietly. "Dinah, Momoko, and Priestly all have people missing. And--not just people. Places. Like, buildings and countries and whatnot. People are missing from Jono's world, too. The never-existed kind of missing."

As opposed to the usual kind of missing that people usually underwent in Jono's world.

[momslilassassin]

"Countries?" Ben repeated, blinking rapidly.

[glacial_witch]

"Priestly told Momoko that the Japan in his world has vanished," Karla reported. That had taken Karla awhile to comprehend. "Maps just have blank spaces where they used to be. No one's heard of them. Momoko's got whole streets and parks buildings missing. And no one but her had ever remembered otherwise."

[momslilassassin]

"That's really...disconcerting," Ben said, falling back on Wesley's word. "Val's gone too," he added quietly.

Which would explain the posters a bit.

[glacial_witch]

"Oh shit."

Not the most helpful thing to say, but what else was there? Especially since Karla didn't have anything that could help.

"Better to leave him alone for today?" she asked. "Not in the mood for visitors?"

She didn't think Ender would be up for sharing his pain with many people. Or any. Maybe Ben.

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah, he's gone quiet," Ben said. "I'm giving him some time to himself."

[glacial_witch]

"Probably for the best," Karla agreed. As if Ben didn't know him so much better. "You'll let me know if there's anything I can do, right?"

Odds of that being true were about 100 to 1, but she couldn't not offer.

[momslilassassin]

"I will," Ben promised. "Right now he's packing on about sixteen tons of 'I'm totally fine' emotional armor, which is complete kuso, but if that's what he needs right now, I'll let him do it."

[glacial_witch]

"If that's what it takes to get him through," Karla murmured. "He'll feel better working than falling apart. And once we get everyone back--"

Which they would, dammit, they would

"--Yeah. He'll be fine. They both will."

[momslilassassin]

Ben looked slightly less than convinced but he nodded anyway. "He just needs a little time to himself," he said. "Force forbid anyone see he has emotions and all that."

[glacial_witch]

You stop raining on Karla's parade, Ben, or she would hit you.

"Well, it's not like he could show them to anyone before," she pointed out. "You know what Battle School was like for him. Being alone is probably the only time he can--" She broke off when she realized she was lecturing Ben on stuff her already knew and probably better than she did.

"So, Raven and I saw how fast it happened yesterday," she said, changing the subject entirely. "We were talking about someone else and with one breath, the kid we were talking to knew her and by the next, he'd never heard of her at all."

[momslilassassin]

Ben had a tiny smile on his face because, yes, he had a passing familiarity with how Ender's mind worked before Karla got to what she and Raven had experienced. "Where did that happen?" he asked. "On the island?"

[glacial_witch]

She shook her head. "We went back to the mansion," she said. "He'd left all of his stuff in storage--his guitar, Didi's last letter, a completely ridiculous looking hat." That last got an amused glance directed Ben's way for a moment. "Stuff like that. We asked out guide to let a few people know that Jono was safe with us and he agreed to carry the message--only to turn around a heartbeat later to to ask us who we were talking about, because he'd never heard of her."

[momslilassassin]

"That's creepy," Ben admitted. "I didn't get the specifics from Ender about Val, but I'm betting it was about that quick, too. He's been on the phone all weekend."

[glacial_witch]

"So whatever this is can vanish someone's whole life in seconds, as well as devouring whole swathes of land and property, leaving no one the wiser."

This wasn't nightmare fuel at all.

"I've got to get home and see what I can dig up on Zuul."

[momslilassassin]

"What's Zuul?" Ben asked, frowning hard.

Please let it be something he could hit.