Brilliant, on a curve of Skywalker

Ben was moving to a different dimension in a few days, had gone through a not insignificant amount of trauma in his own dimension not so long ago, and hadn't exactly talked to anyone about it.

Which was why he had pizza, sodas, and Italian Guys Driving Stupid Carts on the Wii.

To repress more. With Tony.

[OOC: For the bro!]

Ben didn't want to overanalyze why he slept better when Ender was in the room: it was just a fact he'd accepted along with his roommate's weird aversion to owning socks. Ben was currently sprawled out in his own bed for once, breathing steadily and untroubled--at least at the moment--by nightmares from his trip home.

Of course, he was now getting to his fourth hour of sleep, so he'd been waking up soon. Insomnia was a pain in the ass.

[OOC: For the roomie!]

Ben hadn't exactly slept in a week, and adding that stress to a healthy dose of getting his ass kicked by a minotaur and a few uncomfortable reminders that gravity worked, he'd passed out on his bed and slept for a solid 16 hours.

For Ben, that was an insane amount of rest.

And now he was up, drinking the largest cup of coffee the Perk produced, and poking around at bits of his astromech droid. Just a normal Sunday, really, if you ignored some of the bruises on his face.

[OOC: Door and post open!]

Normally, Ben had a very defined routine on Mondays: run, lightsaber practice, classes, lunch with Ender, then an afternoon of either research or socializing.

Today he stuck to classes, and then returned immediately to the dorms without stopping for food. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to head down to the cabins again, and he felt safer in his own room at the moment.

...And its fascinating, fascinating ceiling. Which he'd been staring at for hours now.

But he was fine.

The door was firmly closed.

Given the past few weeks, it was really more surprising that Ben's nightmares hadn't started sooner:

( Dream sequence, ho! )

Ben woke up screaming.

[OOC: For the roomie, should he wish...]

Ben had been slightly worried when Ender hadn't shown up for class, and more so when he'd taken their traditional coffees to an empty Stark's.

He trotted back to the dorms, wondering if Ender had come down with something--it wasn't like him to just skip out on class or work--and felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as he approached their room. He could tell already that no one was home, but he opened the door anyway.

Both coffees hit the floor when he saw the note.

He ignored the "don't worry" and the thing about Caligula, focusing instead on "eye of the storm."

Ender was gone, disappearing like Val had. Ben shoved aside a furious--and pointless--surge of hate for Graff. There was no proof it was his fault.

Yet.

He stared at the piece of paper for a long while, hoping that maybe rereading it a few thousand more times would help him to understand what the hell Ender was doing.

He'd forgotten to close the door behind him.

( You should have a bad feeling about this. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the lovely glacial_witch. NFI, but OOC is loved and fed pie.]

With the amount of stress he was under, a part of Ben was surprised that the nightmares hadn't started sooner.

( Cut for gratuitous flashbacking (and torture) )

With a cry of terror, Ben bolted upright in bed, then clapped both hands over his mouth to stop any further noises from coming out and sat there trembling and gasping for breath.

[OOC: Mostly for the roommate, if he is so inclined, but establishy otherwise.]