fandomhigh | Summer Games, Wednesday Morning

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summer games

Summer Games, Wednesday Morning

Today the park was set up with the normal bleachers for observers, and also thoughtfully provided cheap plastic rain ponchos for people who wished to observe without being in the blast zone. There didn't seem to be a single adult manning any of the food stations, which could explain the choices: heavy on super spicy junk food and no salad to be seen anywhere.

The most noticeable difference from last week, though, was probably the weedy teenager with the, frankly, hilarious haircut wielding the megaphone today. He had a little ponytail and a braid looping down over his right ear. It was a lot of look. "Right!" he yelled. "So I woke up today with this set of instructions next to my bed: apparently I'm in charge of doing paintball today, which sounds surprisgly not-stupid for a school event! We're going to be in two teams, so listen for your name since I don't recognize...most of them."

He shrugged that off. Must be another weird Fandom amnesia day or something. And paintball was way more important than giant gaps in his memory, right? "Okay, this is Team Red: you wear the ugly red jumpsuits over there--" he pointed helpfully, "--and your paintball guns and don't forget your eye protection and blah blah don't poke your eyes out, etc. Team members are: Ahsoka, Verity, Kaidan, Miguel, Paris, Aloy, Vanessa, Peter, Jaylah, Peridot, Tip. Alec, Amaya, Steve, Cara, Seivarden, Tony, Sabine, Jason, Summer, and Theron."

He waited for those team members to get moving. "Okay. Team Blue is: Aphra, Astrid, Rosa, Jaina, Kanan, Eliot, Beaker, Liam, Hannibal, Manfred, Hera, Kathy, Sidon, Magnus, Uma, Cristina, Breq, Bobby, Wade, Reno, and me." He consulted his paper again, then made a face. "Okay, we were supposed to just stay in the park, but that sounds incredibly boring, so I'm going to give us five minutes to make a quick plan with our team and then say that the entire island is fair game for as long as it takes one team to take out the other team."

Complete anniliation. Surely that boded well for his future life choices! "Last man, woman, or--" his eyes drifted to Beaker, confused, "--other...standing wins for their team and gets to take home the--" he squinted at the paper again. "Terrifying fish thing?"

On cue, the fish flew into his hand. Over the past week, it had been modified again: now to smell like pumpkin spice, put off small fireworks and holographic projections of flowers with smiley faces as it flew, and telepathically project "The Song That Never Ends" into the minds of anyone too close to it.

Anakin hated this thing on sight.

"For the first time in my life, I'm considering losing," he said, staring at the fish. "Anyway! Teams, get together and plan! You have five minutes and...go!"

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Alec really, really wasn't sure about this. "Yo, we're playing this for real?" he asked. "Can't we play, like, the arcade version or something?"

Steve was busy rolling up the bottoms of his pants, but he glanced over at the other kid. "Why wouldn't you want it to be real? It's just paint."

"Just paint that's propelled outta a gun at three hundred feet per second," Alec retorted. Which was probably enough to knock this scrawny kid right over. As well Hardison knew, also being fairly scrawny. And asthmatic. "Just paint that slams into you hard enough to leave bruises. We're supposed to have safety gear! Where's my helmet! I'mma take a paintball to the eye, get all infected, probably loose the damn thing..."

"There are goggles," Steve said, handing some over. "And I always have bruises, so at least that won't be new--"

Alec snagged those like he was afraid the other kid might snatch them away if he didn't, and then fussed trying to fit them over his glasses.

They were not flattering glasses.

"Beat up a lot, huh?" he asked with the long-suffering tone of someone who understood.

"It happens," Steve said with a little shrug. "I'm gettin' better at ducking."

Whereas Alec was getting better at avoiding situations where he'd get jumped in the first place. Well, at least he had been until he'd gotten up this morning.

Ugh, that jerk.

"I find it's easier to hit back in other ways," he said. "Like hacking into the school database and tanking all their grades."

Steve was confused by your slang, Alec!

"Hacking?" he repeated. "Like with an axe?"

That was because Steve was oooooooooooooooold.

"What? No! Like with a computer!"

"A what?" Steve asked.

So so oooooold.

"A computer," Alec said, because repeating it would clear everything right up. "You know, magic box, keyboard goes clackity-clack, access to the wonderful world of the internet inside?"

Steve gave him a completetely confused look. "...no?"

"You Amish or somethin'?" Alec checked. Because who didn't know about computers these days?

Re: Team Red, Assemble!

heroic_jawline - 2018-06-11 09:37 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Team Red, Assemble!

geniuswithasmartphone - 2018-06-11 22:32 (UTC) - Expand

"It'll be fun!" It would not, but Tony was terrible at backing down from challenges.

Guh. Hello, uhh, guy. "Uhh...yeah sure, maybe," Alec said, blinking up at Tony and trying to play it cool. "Uhh, your jumpsuit's lookin' pretty...you know. Good."

Alec, this wasn't playing it cool. Not at all.

"Thanks!" Tony looked down at his painfully 80's get-up. "I mean, it can't be that hard, right? My buddy is ROTC and I've seen him do this kind of stuff."

Somewhere, Rhodey was laughing his ass off.

"Yeah, you look like a pilot or somethin'," Alec said quickly. "From that old movie with Tom Cruise in it."

Which he only knew because his Nana liked it, a fact for while he was suddenly very grateful.

"It's.. its not old." He totally made Rhodey watch it with him. Multiple times.

It had come out the year before Alec was born. It was definitely old.

"R-Right!" Alec stammered. "I mean, like..." He couldn't think of a good excuse. "What's it called again? I think I've only seen it, like, twice."

OH GOD, TONY WAS SO OLD.

At least he could possibly end up a silver fox?

"Top Gun," Tony replied, grinning at the poor kid. "Rhodey told me it's not accurate at all, but he's a sourpuss."

"Who cares if it's accurate?" Alec asked, shrugging. "It's really cool and that's all that matters, right?"

Sure, he'd been mostly bored by the movie both times, but clearly he hadn't been watching it right.

"Uhh, I'm Alec. By the way. In case--in case I didn't mention that yet."

So suave.

Oh yeah, you gotta watch it with the 'maybe I'm into guys too' mind frame, Hardison.

"Tony," he replied. "'s cool. I don't really know anyone else here's name. Other than Steve."

Ahh, that was his problem. He'd watched it more as a kid, before he'd started realizing we was into anybody.

"Steve? Oh, the skinny kid that seems really into this," Alec said. "Uhh, should he really be playing?"

The kid seemed pretty frail. And this was from walking nerd Alec Hardison right here.

Time for a beach volleyball montage to awaken new feelings, Hardison.

Tony sighed, glancing back at Steve. "He's, like, super stubborn. And I made sure we brought an inhaler. You wanna hold onto one in case he gets away from me?"

Well, not so new now. As this painful conversation with Tony was proving.

Alec reached into his back pocket and produced his own. "Got one already," he said.

Why did you collect fragile nerds, Tony?