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!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, so Cristina definitely didn't care about anything and was only here to make fun of people, and she'd done everything in her power to make that abundantly clear.

But there was a tiny Asian book nerd over here, reminding Cristina a whole lot of herself at that age (a whole three or four years ago). So she got the honor of being the person Cristina chose to be nice to.

"That's a good one," she said. "You've got taste."

And this time, Kathy even knew she was Korean! Bonus!

Kathy started, not expecting anyone to come over and talk to her. Nobody ever came over to talk to her. She was the quietest girl in class for a reason. "O-Oh?" she asked, giving Cristina a tentative smile. "You read it already?" She looked at the cover, like she needed a reminder of what she was reading. "I'm about halfway done and, umm, I am really liking it."

Someday these two would meet when they were both themselves. And they'd have no idea what to talk about.

"A couple years ago, yeah. Make sure you get the sequel before you finish it. You're going to want to pick it up right away."

Hey now. Kathy was one person on the island who would know what a cardiothoracic surgeon was! They could talk about Stanford and medical programs and how Kathy was an EMT!

"I'll, uhh, have to see if my library has a copy when I go back home," Kathy said, ducking her head a little shyly. "Or if the library here does, I guess, if they'll let, umm, program kids use the local one."

Because she was going to be here for a few days, which meant she would be long done with this book and several others by the time she got back to LA.

Daring in a way she wouldn't be if she wasn't speaking to the only other Asian girl in a sea of white faces she added, "Hi, I'm, umm, Kathy. Nice to meet you."

Well sure! But they'd have to get past the whole "so you're not actually an idiot southern belle or a mousy teenager" awkwardness first.

"Cristina." She gave her a small smile and a nod, since handshakes were for adults. "And if they don't let you check out a book? They're a bunch of fascists and you should just take it anyway."

Well, that was clearly never going to happen.

"Oh," Kathy said with big eyes, "I could never steal a book!"

That would be wrong.

"Sure you could," Cristina said. "It's easy. You just stick it up your shirt and walk out."

Cristina had never stolen anything in her life.

Pfft, not with that set of instructions she hadn't.

"But it would still be wrong," Kathy protested. "Especially from a library!"

"Breaking an unjust rule isn't wrong," Cristina said. "Martin Luther King said that. Or -- Gandhi, maybe. And letting people read books is the whole point of libraries, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but if I steal it, nobody else is going to be able to read it, either," Kathy pointed out. "If they choose not to lend it to me because I don't have a library card, they can still loan it to other patrons."

"So, give it back after. Or loan it to people yourself. Be the change, or whatever."

"Do you steal from libraries a lot?" Kathy asked. Because Cristina seemed really gung ho about this whole 'stealing' thing.

"No," Cristina admitted. "They also don't usually tell me I'm not allowed to take books out."

"Same," Kathy admitted. "But I'm also just not very...umm, brave?"

She'd been thinking 'foolhardy,' but went with the nicer version to be polite.

~~And both statements were untrue anyways~~

"Maybe not yet," Cristina said, looking her over. "But you're, like, a fetus. You can learn brave."

"That sounds like the kind of thing someone sets out to do, right before they get killed," Kathy said, frowning dubiously.

"You're not going to get killed for stealing a library book."

"No, sorry! Umm, I just meant in general," Kathy said. "You know, setting out to learn to be, umm, brave?"

Summer Games, Wednesday Morning

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