fandomhigh | Basic Strategy, Monday, Period 4

The girl standing before the assembled group did not precisely appear prepared to talk. In fact, she looked a shade terrified of public speaking. Tyrion was certain she hadn't gotten that from him.

At her father's insistent nod, Joanna finally began to speak.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Joanna, Lord Tyrion's daughter. He's having me run class today because ..." She didn't really understand the because, and she trailed off there to look to her father.

"Because public speaking is an essential life skill," Tyrion supplied. "No one will take you seriously if the cat steals your tongue when you're nervous." That last bit was aimed at all of them, not just his daughter.

"Right," Joanna said. "That. So you're all, guests included, supposed to stand up for three minutes and say something about your child or your parent. If you have neither, spend your three minutes talking about..."

She looked to Tyrion again, and he shrugged. "How lucky you feel?" he tried. "If you feel lucky at all. Anyhow, it is a class presentation day, as the lady said. I'm sure you're all ingenuous enough to come up with something to say." He glanced back to Joanna to finish. "Do you want to wrap this up?"

Joanna nodded. "Take a few minutes to prepare, then begin with" -- she stabbed a finger into the group -- "you."

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"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww," Ben replied.

Maturely.

And now there was more flaily hitting. The circle of violence, Ben. The circle of violence.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!"

"Please tell me you named this child Bean," Ben said between snickers. "Because in this screwed up world, up must be down and right left."

"I wish," Karla groaned. "That would have at least shown a bit of self-awareness for how crazy this is. We named him Aindric."

The origins of which were probably obvious.

"Has Ender met him?" Ben asked.

Karla shook her head. "Not unless he met him through Peter." She ducked her head, looking chagrined. "I might not have reacted well," she admitted. "When I found out who sired him."

"And the understatement of the year award goes to..."

"How bad was it?" Ben asked. "Shrieking, door slamming?"

Karla groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Some of that, yeah."

She was the worst parent ever. Well, besides Peter, obviously.

"He didn't expect quite that kind of reaction. I guess we...get along..in his reality." More than just long enough" to reproduce, apparently.

Ben skipped the obvious questions of "how?" and "really?!"

"Drug problem?" he offered instead.

"His or mine?" Karla snarked, then shrugged. "I'm left with that or complete mental break as my only options, I think."

"What was the kid like?" Ben asked, kind of weirdly fascinated by the idea. "Has he taken over the universe yet?"

"A sassier version of Wiggin?" Karla said with a shrug. "I didn't really get a chance to know him. He was dark-haired and smart; soft-spoken but with a snarky streak." Beat. "And he had a Jewel, of course."

Peter Wiggin's offspring. With Craft.

Ben preferred to think of it as Ender's nephew--it kept his brain a little less broken.

"A powerful one?" he asked. "Not that it would matter much."

"Light Jewel, but he could get a dark one after his Offering," Karla said. "And I'd put a Wiggin with a White against most witches with a Sapphire or lighter and still bet on the Wiggin nine times out of ten."

Basic Strategy, Monday, Period 4

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