Room 204 [afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

"Last load," Ben said from behind a pile of metal. "Think we could start our own branch of Stark's right here in the room?"

His side of his new room was already neatly organized--not that he had much that wasn't droid parts--and he was talking mostly to hide his nerves.

Given the room's other occupant, he wasn't sure why he was even trying.

[OOC: For the roommate, and then open!]

Comments

[endsthegame]

"I feel terribly underappreciated," Ender told her, fondly.

[glacial_queen]

"And woefully misunderstood, I'm sure," Karla added sympathetically.

[endsthegame]

"Entirely," Ender agreed, grinning. "I'm not sure how I'll survive."

[glacial_queen]

"From what I hear from our fellow students, the trick is to go up on the roof, brood magnificently, and possibly write some poetry to ease the pain of your soul." Karla was helpful! "And you already have the roof part down!"

[endsthegame]

"I'm not much of a brooder," he admitted. Well. Not the way most people brooded, anyway. "And I think that if I wrote some poetry, I'd be strung up for daring to get near the written word." Liar. Probably. "But my ego is satisfied by your assumptions to the contrary. How are you, Karla?"

[glacial_queen]

"I'm good," she said, merrily shunting away anything that wasn't good to the back of her mind. "Went to the beach with Leda today. Practiced my lines a bit. Took it easy after the picnic. You? Besides spending all day getting that one moved in?" She jutted her thumb over her shoulder at Ben. "Looking forward to class? And the play?"

[endsthegame]

"Always," he said, grinning lightly. "It's been quiet. I'm not sure whether that should fill me with dread."

[glacial_queen]

"Maybe the island got tried of playing tricks and thought we deserved a bit of a break?" Karla suggested hopefully. "Though maybe we should have a guard on the stage, just to make sure there isn't another maple syrup incident.

"Oh! I showed Geoffrey and Zack the ghosts," Karla grinned. "They were appropriately impressed. Do that should go over well with the audience."

[endsthegame]

"As long as we make sure none of them are armed upon entry," Ender returned, wryly. It was likely that some of Fandom's new denizens might start shooting if they weren't careful enough.

[glacial_queen]

"Great," Karla said with a laugh. "The production is halted because some of a mass panic. Though do we mark it up to the curse, Fandom weirdness, or just plain old human nature?"

[endsthegame]

"I find that few people lose any money betting on the latter."

Not that Ender was exactly a misanthrope.

"But I think we could get away with blaming the curse."

[glacial_queen]

"Do you know, until I started reading this play, I didn't actually know what curses were, besides bad words that end up with you chewing peppercorns in the kitchen?"

Not that Karla ever had to do such a thing. Truly.

"I'd heard of hexes, but only because they were in landen children's books. But even most of those hexes were plain old basic Craft. But we don't have any kind of 'bad' magic at home. It's all just Craft."

[endsthegame]

"It depends on how you define 'bad'," Ender returned. Thought was grafted onto his face; he'd been thinking on this one a lot, himself, for some reason. "If we're talking about the inherent evil of some brand of magic, then yes, I doubt it truly exists. No matter what Ben may say about matters in his universe. But common Craft used to hurt without reason - spells made mostly to do harm - that isn't 'bad' to you?"

He paused. "Or if the witch chooses to do someone harm, but believes it's in a good cause, despite what the opposite party may think..."

[glacial_queen]

Karla was also very thoughtful. "Craft can be used for evil, of course it can. But Craft is just a tool. I can use a hammer to build a house--okay, well, I can't--or to break a shin. I can use Healing Craft to heal your knuckles or skin you alive."

Telling was that she didn't add the the 'no I can't' disclaimer after that.

"The same Craft that can weave an illusion to bring someone out of the Twisted Kingdom is the same Craft that can trap a mind within that illusion and force someone in. It's all the same Craft, it's simply the intent that changes. Do we change what we call a hammer when it is used with malicious intent?"

[endsthegame]

"The name is irrelevant," Ender pointed out. "We might as well call it the 'evil use of a hammer'; the evil use of Craft. Either way, the end result is the same."

[glacial_queen]

"Which I won't argue with," Karla said. "Using Craft for evil is evil. But that doesn't mean evil Craft exists. Which is what people are talking about with this curse. A branch of evil Craft that can only be used in a harmful way. You said you don't believe in such a thing, and honestly, neither do I, but until I came here, such a possibility had never even occurred to me. It's very odd."

Karla gave him a curious look. "Is it always harm when a witch--or anyone--does something against the opposite person's will?"

[endsthegame]

"A curse is nothing more or less than magic used in a way to harm," he said, "People put a name to it because it makes it easier to categorize. It's as simple as that."

There was a pause. "My sister would tell you that we are all manipulated by each other no matter what," Ender noted. "Still, that doesn't make it right on principle." He would know.

[glacial_queen]

"Not all manipulations are bad," Karla said quietly. "I think a lot has to do with who is manipulating, why, and to what affect."

[endsthegame]

"And who is the final judge of that?" Ender asked, his own tone light despite the distance he felt from it. "Is the divisive point the one where the manipulator loves you? Who is the final arbitrator who decides in which way the equation matches up?"

[glacial_queen]

"I don't think there's a single hard and fast rule," Karla admitted. "And if there is one, love isn't it. When love comes into the equation, things can get...messy. Love can propel people forward to doing truly amazing things, but love can also..." she trailed off and shook her head. It didn't matter.

"Again, I guess it comes down to the reasons someone is manipulating another and the affect it has on the person who is being manipulated. Everything has a price, but what that cost is and who pays it affects whether or not the deal is worth it."