fh_trips | Kohala Coast, Hawaii - Morning & Afternoon - Friday

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spring break 2011: hawaii

Kohala Coast, Hawaii - Morning & Afternoon - Friday - February 25th

With only two days of vacation left, time was running out for the guests to enjoy the blue skies and warm ocean breeze of Hawaii. Luckily, there were still plenty of things to do at the resort, for anyone who wasn't worn out from all the fun yet!

[ Guest Quarters | Resort Activities | The Spa Without Walls | Beach Activites | Tidepool Education | OOC ]

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"And here, that's how I was going to guess you passed the majority of your vast amounts of free time up there," Karla said, bending down to snap a picture of a colony of sea urchins. "Sigh. Another illusion shattered."

"Sorry," Ender said, unrepentantly. "So I'm afraid your volleyballing plans are quite wasted on me. Were there any other adorable animals you wanted to shove me at, or have we moved on to sports in full?"

"No, I think we've quite exhausted the topic of sports, sadly enough," Karla decided. "So I'm going to have to default back to terrorizing you with baby sea creatures until I can figure something else to devil you about."

Hey, it kept Karla amused.

Ender sighed. "I suppose we should pick a moral quandary and just run with it," he said, "but now that just feels desperate."

"Oh, like any other day that ends in 'y'?" Karla said. "Nonsense. There must be something more fun we can chatter about while I make heavily veiled comments and drop subtle hints about aspects of your personal life."

Don't say you weren't expecting that exasperated groan. Don't say it. "Let's keep my personal life out of it."

Yeah, you would like that, wouldn't you, Ender?

It was good that Ender always kept that hope alive, it really was. Part of his 'never-give-up' mentality or something.

"That was the unspoken benefit of beach volleyball," Karla said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, we mutually agreed not to get involved with that. So, did Valentine mention that she and I chatted?"

"Of course she did," Ender muttered. It would have been too much to hope she'd kept herself contained to Ben, who at least had the decency of not bringing her up. He briefly considered pretending like he thought she was talking about the other Valentine, then felt fairly immature for the thought and brushed it aside. "No, she didn't mention it."

Edited 2011-02-26 06:58 (UTC)

"She said she wasn't allowed to fetch me a bottle of tequila, even with seven children clinging to my skirts and calling me 'mommy,'" Karla informed him brusquely. "I think that was very unfair of you to have made a rule like that."

Guess who was enjoying this conversation already? Just guess!

"I think that rule is incredibly sensible," said Ender. Of course he thought so. Duh. "Especially when you have seven children with you. One of them might get hurt if you're not paying attention..."

"I'll be happy to lock you in a room with them for several hours and see how hard you cling to your abstaining ways when you're done," Karla said wrly. "Besides, I would have foisted them off on their mothers, fathers, and various unsuspecting relatives first. I'm not that bad with children."

Taking another picture of the reef, Karla asked, "So, was this the first year of children for you?"

"I'd cling to them twice as much, considering that's the only way I'd be able to keep control of the situation."

Everyone else could drink; Ender had no intention of ever downing even a drop of alcohol.

"And yes, I suppose it was." Somehow, he didn't think adding 'so do we absolutely have to talk about it' would work.

Maybe he could just be extra difficult...

"Just 'suppose'?" Karla asked. "That's hardly the precise answer I would expect. I'd say you got off lightly with just two, but considering your genes combined with his would make Valentine quite the handful."

Yes, of course Karla was going to press. Now the world could finally witness exactly what happened when an irresistible force met an immovable object.

"And that's not even counting Olhado--who was a stepchild of yours, I hear?"

Do go on, Ender. Do.

"Yes, he was, in some future," Ender said, squashing his irritability because he didn't need to give her more fuel for the future. "Apparently I married his mother, and he's got siblings."

Let's talk about Novinha's kids, then!

"His mother must be some female," Karla said with a low whistle. "I'm sure Valentine handled her unexpected stepbrother much better than Jaenelle Mara did. And her unexpected half-sister, too."

No, no, let's keep it right here, thanks.

"She was fine with it."

Ender could do laconic all day if he wanted to, you know, Karla.

And Karla could doggedly keep pushing for that information anyway.

"That doesn't strike you as odd?"

"Not really," Ender said, with a slight shrug. "Why should it be?"

"Even with the knowledge that these children represent different timelines and, thus, present no danger to her immediate timeline, it is in the nature of most children--Hell's fire, most people--to be possessive of things they consider theirs. Including their parents." Karla snorted, giving Ender a wry grin. "Not to insult you by saying any daughter that springs from your loins would ever be considered normal."

He recognised that Karla was trying to draw him into a discussion about this, especially on a topic he had, for once, worked very hard not to think about. "Thanks," he just said. "I figured yours spent the whole weekend yelling at each other."

This topic knocked him just an inch too far off balance to be too subtle about it.

"That's not entirely true," Karla replied, unruffled. "They spent plenty of time yelling at other children and occasionally just yelling. In short, my children acted like children. I see nothing wrong with that."

She dropped her jocular tone. "Considering in exactly half those futures I am somehow gravely ill and an invalid, and several of them also speak of war that has happened or is imminent...well, I'm glad to see them acting as children. Fearless, boisterous children."

Some of Ender's repressed irritability fell away at that. "You're of tough stock," he said, "I'm not surprised that crawled into the next generation. Which shows some hope for the future..."

There may have been some expectation of that when she'd mentioned it, yes.

"Stubbornness and a tendency to bite, more like," Karla said easily, though without a resumption of her earlier smile. "Though it's odd. I've never really saw myself as the maternal type, seven children aside, and an eighth from last year."

Ah, so that's where they were going. He should have guessed.

"Well, as Ben likes to say, Fandom rarely provides us with any that are actually possible," Ender said, "So I think for the moment you can probably breathe easy."

Why yes, he was missing the point entirely on purpose.

Karla would utterly unsurprised to discover that Ender had a better idea where she was going with their conversation than she did. Sometimes it felt like their conversations were like chess games and he was always thinking five moves ahead.

"If I had any indication that was actually going to be my life--mother to seven children, I mean--I'd be stowing myself away on your ship as you head off to Eros," she replied.

A thought occurred to her and she was asking it before she even consciously decided to. "Do you want kids?" she asked. "Not, 'do you think having kids would be a good idea?' or 'can you ever see yourself having them?' because I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that, but...I dunno, deep down where your instincts are, do you want them?"

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