fh_trips | Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday

Entry tags:

spring break 2012: rio de janeiro

Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday - Evening

The night is for terrible things, not the day, silly ~~narrative~~ revelers. Especially when the night is clear, warm, and filled with the sizzling sounds of sssssamba! It might be Lent now, but it's still Rio, and it's still Friday. Time for dancing on the sand, in the clubs, and if you think there's no dancing in the streets anymore, you must be walking down the wrong street. Turn left by the man with the saxophone; drop a tip in his hat and he'll tell you where to go from there.

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[OCD: Rooms / Cipriani Restaurant / Pool / Bar do Copa / Platforma Samba / Restaurants and Clubs / Elsewhere / Daytime / OOC / My mom ]

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"Not that that usually stops you," Topher pointed out, grinning.

Ben wrinkled his nose up at him. "Yeah, yeah. I told Ender I wouldn't."

Other than Jaina, but that was family.

"You have a lot of self-restraint," Topher decided. A beat. "...even when you're sad!"

TOPHER.

"What makes you think I'm sad?" Ben asked.

Topher paused. "Ender said there was bad stuff," he settled on.

"There's always bad stuff back home," Ben said with a little frown. "We're kind of war-torn."

If you looked carefully, this was Ben opening up. Sort of.

Topher squinted. "You specifically?"

Well, he'd said 'we.'

"We the galaxy," Ben clarified. "But Jedi tend to get rather specifically torn up, since we're kind of on the front line of whatever the war of the year is."

"One time you said you were tortured," Topher blurted out.

"It happens," Ben said with a little shrug.

Just because it had happened to every member of your family didn't make it normal, Ben.

"Not... really that much?" Topher said, shrugging a little. "You're not... I mean, you're upset, right?"

"There's not a lot being upset about it would do for me," Ben replied. "I'd rather just move on."

In Ben's world "move on" and "ignore it forever" were kind of the same thing.

"By talking." No, Topher. Not by talking.

"Not my preference, no," Ben said with a slightly wry smile.

"You could try?" Topher encouraged hopefully.

"You really don't want to hear this," Ben warned quietly.

Topher looked a little uncomfortable for a moment, and wondered if he might've made a bad call, but then steadied. "No, 's okay," he said. "Go ahead."

Edited 2012-02-25 20:23 (UTC)

Ben took a deep breath. "This is just between us, okay? Not Tony or Ender or Peter or Billy or anyone else."

With Topher, Ben had learned it was best to clarify.

Topher was just starting to rattle off that list in his head before Ben added the last part, at which point he just nodded. "Yeah, okay," he promised.

"The last trip home was rough," Ben admitted. "I got outfought by a couple of Sith and ended up in a Force net."

He paused, trying to figure out how to describe it. "Think of it like fencing, but made of energy. They caught me in it and started squeezing."

Which explained the scars that used to be on his face.

"Ender hit the guy with a speeder--" and now it dawned on Ben that to do that, Ender would have had to see into the building, and shitshitshit, but none of that showed in his face or tone, "--so I was fine, just a little cut up."

He shrugged. "All in all, I prefer Rio."

It took Topher a moment to process what that net must have been like, and then he started looking just a little sick.

"They were going to... dice you."

"Sith are generally considered evil," Ben said, nodding.

And, glancing at Topher's face, founding himself very glad he hadn't started with the story about how his cousin had tortured him for a few days, or what Tahiri had done after giving him the scar on his back.

Topher hesitated. "Is that what your dad is? Ender said -- it was 'cause of him."

"Dad's not a Sith," Ben said vehemently. "He's just a little...focused on the endgame."

Whatever that would be.

"So he let you get hurt?"

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