fandomhigh | 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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After this morning, Kitty had come out to see what was happening here, and good lord, was she the only adult here? What was the island trying to tell her with this? Also was there any food that wouldn't make her want to die later?

Whatever, she was sitting to watch. And record stuff with her phone.

Hey, Kitty! Heads-up. Caleb was being dragged bodily from person to person via a rainbow dog, and even trying to reason with Stance about it didn't seem to be doing him any good.

"Come on, buddy," he murmured, tripping along behind Stance as he trotted over to Kitty, "you can make friends, but no jumping up this time, okay?"

Meet Caleb Dume, a card carrying member of the Stupid Padawan Hair Club for Boys.

Yeah, it was hard to mistake the dog.

"Need someone to hold him?" Kitty offered.

"I might," Caleb admitted, frowning a little at Stance, who, now that he'd found Kitty, was wagging his tail and panting happily up at her. At least this time, he was actually listening when Caleb told him not to jump. "I might have underestimated just how excited he is to be out here spending time with people."

He bit his lip for a moment.

"But he seems to know you?"

"Yep," she said, reaching over to pet Stance. "He's safe here if you don't want to worry abouy him the whole time."

Caleb gave a little sigh that was way too relieved, and then turned his smile up (he hadn't hit his growth spurt quite yet) at Kitty.

"Thank you," he said, honestly. "I thought letting him get out for some fresh air would do him some good, but if I'm going to play the... shooting paint game... I probably ought to keep him out of the line of fire."

"Yeah, he would not enjoy that for long," Kitty agreed. "Know which team you're on?"

"Not really," Caleb admitted, a little awkwardly. "I didn't hear my name, but it looks like blue is down a player, so I thought maybe nobody would notice if I just sort of... slipped in?"

That was posed as a question, but Caleb absolutely intended to try anyway.

Edited 2018-06-06 12:39 (UTC)

Kitty was pretty sure she'd at least heard his name, so she tilted her head slightly and paused. "...What's your name?"

"It's Caleb," he volunteered, in case she'd heard it and he somehow hadn't. He reached a hand up to run awkwardly through his hair. "I just got here last night from Mygeeto, so maybe it's possible they didn't have a chance to put me on the list yet."

"..Yeah, I'm sure that's it," Kitty said, because this was a temporary event and she didn't want to be the one doing the confusing, since that's how she'd spent her morning. "I'd say the blue team is probably the right place for you, then."

Caleb nodded, and smiled a little. He'd noticed that moment's hesitation, but there was a lot of confusion going on today, so he didn't really think much of it.

"Yeah, that's what I figured," he replied, sounding thankful. "And if it turns out that somebody does mind, they'll tell me. I probably could have used a little more rest today anyhow."

Yesterday had been eventful, and Caleb kind of just wanted to sleep until his Master was out of the bacta tank again.

"Let me guess: you had an interesting wake up?"

She related, Hera.

"I woke up next to somebody I don't know and then I was jumped on by this guy," Caleb confirmed, waving at Stance, who was looking up happily at both of them. "So I didn't really wake up until after I fell out of the bed onto the floor."

He was Jedi, he was grace.

He was adorable.

"Not the best way to wake up, probably."

"I mean, there are worse ways," Caleb offered, smiling up at her wryly, "but I have yet to come across a more confusing one..."

"You're not going to want to jinx that," Kitty said quickly

"Jinx it?"

Yeah, Caleb wasn't getting less confused.

"You know, like you say something figuring it'll never happen, and then surprise?" Kitty explained.

"Okay, but..." Caleb waved a hand around, looking for words, and then just settled for running his fingers through his hair instead. "Is that actually a concern, here? I've already heard some weird things about the place."