Fixer-Uppers, Monday

[endsthegame]

Ender listened to radio every day, despite the large amount of mostly apocryphal information it provided. It wasn't in his nature to pass up on a source of information. As such, he'd managed to come to the conclusion something terrible had happened while Karla was gone

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[momslilassassin]

Ben walked through the door with lunch in hand. "Ho, Ender," he said, grinning.

[endsthegame]

Ender's head came up from behind his laptop as it usually did. "Ho, Ben," he said, pushing himself away from the desk. "About time."

[[ *TACKLES* WB!! ]]

[momslilassassin]

"You missed me that much?" Ben teased, holding out the coffee. "Or just the caffeine?"

[endsthegame]

"Caffeine," Ender said, without blinking, and took the coffee. "As well as the food. The sunlight is making me more active and I'm starving."

[momslilassassin]

Ben snorted. "I'd hate to see you pine away right in front of me," he said. "It'd be far too overdramatic."

[endsthegame]

"I can swoon, first, if it helps," Ender deadpanned, and then took a long sip of his coffee. "Normally I'd try to avoid talking about the weather, but we seem to have a Fandom event on our hands."

[momslilassassin]

"It's nice," Ben said with a happy smile, "or it's a portent of a vast planetary climate cataclysm. I think I'd prefer to just enjoy the warmth."

[endsthegame]

Yeah, Ender would still rather avoid talking about portents. Not that that was relevant. "I saw people setting up a party on the beach," Ender offered, "I'm probably not going, but it seems like a prime opportunity for you to bask in the sunlight."

[momslilassassin]

"Only for a little bit," Ben said with a rueful smile. "I didn't get Dad's ability to tan, sadly."

And he wasn't really one for taking his shirt off in public where people could spot his scars.

[endsthegame]

And if the narrative had been written around anyone but Ender, we might have made some kind of crack about shirtless Bens here.

But it wasn't, so this remained safely in the realm of the Deadpool.

"I suppose I'd rather not see you turn into a lobster," Ender agreed, offering him a wry smile in return.

[momslilassassin]

"Around here, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a bad sunburn could turn me into an actual lobster," Ben said, "which would be inconvenient."

[endsthegame]

"Don't go sprouting a carapace, Skywalker," Ender ordered, "Or we're going to have to set you up with an ice-cream IV."

He leaned back and set his coffee down on the counter. He wondered whether to breach the topic of Karla with Ben, or not.

[momslilassassin]

Ben took a sip from his mug and peered at Ender over the rim. "Something on your mind?" he asked.

[endsthegame]

He sighed. "You should probably go find Karla later today, if you're not going to the luau."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded thoughtfully. "I'd been meaning to. Something big went down a few days ago and her emotions have been kind of all over the place ever since. Do you know what happened?"

[endsthegame]

"Raven's been a little off for a while now," Ender said, reaching for his coffee again. "Last week, she was trying to weave webs to produce visions, but she wasn't getting far beyond 'bad things ahead'. Then she vanishes and this happens, and I haven't heard a word about Raven in days."