fh_trips | Kellerman's Resort, Tuesday Morning and Afternoon, October 13th

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fall break 2009: kellerman's

Kellerman's Resort, Tuesday Morning and Afternoon, October 13th

The weather at Kellerman's continued to be favourable, as the autumn sun shone down on the fields and streams of the area. The staff of the resort were busy but happy to help, bustling through the corridors and courtyard.

The boards outside were advertising a white water rafting trip today, for anyone willing to go out and risk the rapids; for the less adventurous, a trip to see the Cascade Falls might just do the trick.

[[ Cottage and Room List | Rooms | Activities Barn | Indoor Activities | Outdoor Activities | White Water Rafting | Cascade Falls | OOC | OCD up! ]]

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Ender glanced at her. "Your life isn't a company's balance sheet," he said.

"Sure it is. That may not be all it is, but it's certainly a part. I'm alive because I'm useful." It wasn't quite that simple, but it wasn't inaccurate.

"'Alive' and 'life' are two words with a few fundamental differences between them," he pointed out. "They look at you and see that balance. That doesn't mean you have to co-opt that idea as your own."

Which made him think strangely - or maybe not so strangely - of Dink.

"How should I look at it?" Triela challenged. As if she had all that much of a choice about that.

"If I answered that for you," Ender said, dryly, "It would be thoroughly missing the point."

Definitely Dink: he would have had a few words, here. "That's a question for yourself," he said, "Why you do the things you do. And don't say 'because I'm good at it', because that's as pointless as saying you're putting in screws because you have a screwdriver."

"I do what I do because I'm ordered to." Which was a simplification, and she knew it. She also did some of the things she did because she cared about people.

"Stop pretending to be a screwdriver, Triela," he said, and picked up his pace. "Or a well-outfitted Swiss army knife."

Triela scowled. "Maybe I will. If you stop pretending to be all mysterious and detached." He'd hit a nerve there, apparently.

Ender smiled at her. "Ah, but I am mysterious," he noted, "Just obnoxiously so."

"And I'm not exactly inclined to take advice from obnoxiously mysterious people," Triela pointed out. Not angry anymore, just... annoyed.

"So what do you want to know?"

Triela considered that question in thoughtful silence.

"Something true. About yourself. Which you haven't told anyone else." Might as well demand something big. And... it would be revealing if he weaseled his way out by picking something inane.

"The one thing I can tell you in that regard," Ender said, after a moment's pause, "Is that back home, my life is so well-covered by the press I'd be hard-pressed to find something as secret as that."

"And you gave hundreds of interviews and told them all your secrets?" Triela asked pointedly. "It doesn't have to be something no one else knows. Just something you've never shared."

Besides, Triela didn't read any of the papers from wherever Ender was from.

No, but that particular caveat would make it hard to find something in particular. "I didn't have to," he said, "Because there's very little I said or did back home that wasn't taped."

Which was something he hadn't literally told anyone else.

Well, it was news to Triela. And she considered it.

"Why?" Her tone was hesitant. As if she weren't sure he'd answer that.

"Because I've been a person of interest from the day I was born," he said, simply, "You're not the only one on this island a government ever took an interest in."

Some things made a little bit more sense all of a sudden.

"Direct modifications, or just... the sorts of things you can do with kids when you control their environment?" Triela had done quite a bit of thinking on that particular subject.

"You don't need to outfit kids with cyborg limbs if it's their brains you want," he said, as light as he ever got. "So there's mine. Has my advice ranked higher in stature yet?"

Triela nodded in agreement. He was right about that.

"Well. It does mean you might actually know what you're talking about," she pointed out.

Ender's mouth quirked up. "Maybe," he said, "But I wouldn't be calling myself an oracle just yet."

"I don't think I'll ever accuse you of that," Triela snorted.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Maybe we should swap stories sometime."

"Maybe," he repeated.

"It's a date."

Maybe she was serious. Maybe she was just trying to get a rise out of him.

"Are you going to be offended if I say you're not my type?"

It was pretty hard to get a rise out of Ender, really.

Re: Cascade Falls

sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com - 2009-10-13 20:30 (UTC) - Expand

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