Room 324, Saturday Early Evening

[wwiii]

Warren had just about had enough of... everything. After heading Karla off at the Causeway, after getting his bearings and picking himself off the ground and trudging back to his room, he'd done more... well, more moping with the rabbit. It wasn't until a few hours wore on that he reached for his phone, thinking maybe he'd call someone, or check to see if maybe there was new news about... anything at all, that he realized that there was a message waiting for him.

Not five minutes later, Warren's wings were pressed up solidly against either wall, his chest was heaving, and he was staring blankly at the remains of his phone, punctured clear through by his claws, and sitting splintered on the floor.

It wasn't like there was anybody left who was going to call him, after all.

Warren was done, damn it. He was just... fucking done with it.

[Open with some slight SP heads-up, since I'm still animating and running largely on energy drinks.]

Comments

[endsthegame]

"I think Karla has been here so long, she's lost some perspective on what her duties really are," Ender commented thoughtfully. He shook his head. "But I'll take that up with her," he said.

That was going to be a fun conversation.

"As for you-- I hope you know you still have a couple of people you can fall back on, if you need someone."

He was not making the mistake of treating any of these people like soldiers.

[wwiii]

"At least one or two, huh?"

Warren wasn't sure how many people were still left. But Ender was sitting here, and Wesley hadn't gone back to his world or anything, and that was worth a lot.

"I probably will," he admitted a moment later. "I mean, I... wasn't so great at holding it all together before."

He'd been pretty good at faking it. But that wasn't exactly the same thing.

[endsthegame]

Maybe, but that's where it started.

"But you're still walking and talking," Ender noted. Having cleaned everything up, he picked another seat - this time on the closest available bed. "I mean, obviously that's not everything. As far as holding it together goes, though, everyone's chief concern is just that you keep getting out of bed every morning."

[wwiii]

"It's as simple as that, huh?" Warren finally managed the smile that he really wasn't feeling at the moment. "I guess now that I have something to do, there's not really any excuse for me not to."

In the grand scheme of things, he really had no idea what they'd be able to do with a catalogue of physical mutations and similar, but if nothing else, it was something to focus on.

[endsthegame]

You never knew; maybe these Auditors were some brand of Omega-level mutant.

"Good," Ender said, "Because if I don't catch you in the library at 9 AM sharp, I'm showing up with a bucket of ice water."

He was joking.

Probably.

[wwiii]

"I'll set my alarm and aim for eight," Warren promised. "And if I can remember any of my... my dad's research on mutants between now and then, I'll make notes."

There would probably be a large stack of information about what caused natural physical mutation, and another stack of the bits and snippets that worked into how his father had found a way to reverse it. The actual limits to it would be vague, though. He'd worry about that one in the morning.

[endsthegame]

Ender nodded once. Honestly, he expected that the only real gain from this would be one more person walking around being useful instead of breaking and collapsing on them, providing another drain on people's spirits.

But you never knew.

"Anything you can remember is helpful," he said. "And I'll ask Ben if he wants to drag you out for a drink or some pool."

[wwiii]

"That'd be good too. I mean, so long as we don't do too much drinking or something."

Though, really, Warren couldn't see them getting too wild and crazy if they went out drinking at the moment. At least, not to the point where somebody would find themselves being Force-launched at a ketchup pig on the wall or anything.

[endsthegame]

"And they shall be known by the trail of the sordid voicemails," Ender said.

[wwiii]

"Slightly fewer than usual," Warren promised, maybe a little sullenly. A bit. "Bobby was always a pretty big help when it came to us acting like total idiots."

Because Bobby had been an amazing enabler.

[endsthegame]

Ender offered him a sympathetic smile this time. "I never did work out everything you guys got up to," he said.

It was a better question than 'how did he go?'.

[wwiii]

It was, somewhat, yeah.

"Honestly, neither did we." Really, by the time they woke up on those mornings-after, they couldn't usually remember most of what they had been up to the night before. "But we usually assumed that it was awesome."

As could be evidenced by how bad the hangovers were. And usually the lack of clothing and the presence of assorted barnyard animals.

... Which was completely unrelated to the lack of clothing.

[endsthegame]

Ender chuckled softly. "Probably a defense mechanism," he said, "I think I've heard Ben muttering about how the hangover had to be worth it."

[wwiii]

"On the plus side, I don't have to worry too much about thinking that it's a good idea to record any stupid things we do, now."

See? Phones were totally overrated in the first place.

"Even if half the fun the next day is in looking at the photos and trying to guess what in the world we were actually doing at the time.

[endsthegame]

"Something stupid and irresponsible," Ender guessed. Look, he wasn't a drinker. At all. And he didn't sound too judgemental. "But as long as it lets you guys blow off steam and nobody gets hurt-- Topher's hairdo doesn't count."

[wwiii]

"Topher's hair was a sacrifice for the greater good, and nobody can convince us otherwise," Warren decided. "Besides, it got better."

Fandom was pretty awesome for fast recoveries from things like sideways mohawks and rainbow wings, fortunately.

[endsthegame]

"And now you have me wondering what greater good Topher's hair has served," Ender mused.

[wwiii]

"... We might have donated it, maybe?"

Warren had no idea, really.

"I'm sure somebody was amused by it who wasn't us, at least. That has to be worth something."

[endsthegame]

"Uh huh," Ender said. "Didn't you also buy a bar...?"

[wwiii]

Warren shrugged at that.

"Either Tony, or me, or maybe we went splits on it. I'm not entirely sure, and I'm afraid to look at the deed. Either way, I doubt it's there any more, so that doesn't matter so much, right?"

[endsthegame]

Ender gave that a one-shouldered shrug. "It'll start mattering again soon enough," he said.

[wwiii]

"It better," Warren replied. "At the rate we're going, there won't be another bar that'll let me or Tony or Ben through the doors in no time."

Mm, banter.

[endsthegame]

"You're terrible influences," Ender told him, "Or at least Tony is. I'm not sure."

Actively trying to distract Warren now? You betcha.

[wwiii]

"What it is they say about people being more stupid in crowds? I'm going to blame it on that," Warren decided.

Because that was totally what it was. A drunken hive-mind.

[endsthegame]

"And with that kind of logic," Ender said, "I'm almost tempted to come along to test that theory."

He was not really a hive-mind kind of guy.