Stark Industries | Saturday

[dollpocalypse]

So apparently Portalocity sucked, but that wasn't enough for Topher's parents to let him stay at school for Thanksgiving. He'd been hoping they would decide it wasn't worth the risk of him getting lost on some other planet somewhere, but halfway through his shift today he got the e-ticket in his email. Ugh

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[momslilassassin]

"Hey," Ben said, poking his head into the shop. "Did I leave my backpack in here?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher glanced up from the fridge he was working on. "Maybe?"

Look at him being all helpful.

[momslilassassin]

"I was a little distracted," Ben explained, leaning over the counter and pulling it out. "There! What's wrong with the fridge?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Clogged evaporator," Topher reported, prodding away at the machinery with his head inside the fridge. Because that was totally safe. "Distracted how?"

[momslilassassin]

"Stuff," Ben said usefully. "Portalocity's being a pain."

[dollpocalypse]

"Seriously," he agreed emphatically. "I can't believe my parents are still making me come home for Thanksgiving. I could end up in some other galaxy or something!"

Or bang his head on the top of the fridge. Which he did. Oops.

"Ow," Topher grumbled.

[momslilassassin]

"A galaxy without turkey, even," Ben agreed. "Ender's trying to get his sister to visit now."

[dollpocalypse]

"Huh." There was a pause, which he spent tinkering away with wires, and then: "Wouldn't that be, like, kinda weird?"

[momslilassassin]

"Val visiting or a place without turkey?" Ben asked.

[dollpocalypse]

"Val."

A beat.

"I pretty much just eat stuffing and cranberry sauce anyway. So."

[momslilassassin]

"People are disappearing in Ender's world and he'd rather Val not be one of them," Ben replied. "Peter can deal."

[dollpocalypse]

"Wait, disappearing disappearing?" Topher checked, retreating from the fridge to look at Ben. Because there were so many other kinds of disappearing that it could be. "How do you mean?"

[momslilassassin]

"I don't know," Ben admitted. "We don't have enough information not to rule out kidnapping or really, really bad portal connections or whatever. Why, are you hearing that kind of stuff too?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Nuh-uh." He shook his head, looking concerned. "Like, totally-evacuated-their-house-and-left disappearing, or packed-their-toothbrush-and-undies-and-hired-a-dog-walker kind of thing?"

[momslilassassin]

"Like 'no records in the system of their existence' disappearing," Ben replied.

[dollpocalypse]

"Whoa."

Okay, now that it sounded like a creepy movie, Topher was officially invested in this.

"Did you try looking at caches? Archives, that kind of thing?"