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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"I've never played much of anything," Liam admitted.

"Rough schools, huh?" Kaidan asked sympathetically, "Can you shoot? Not that this is real shooting, but the mechanics are the same."

“Never been to school,” Liam admitted. “But yes, I know how to shoot.” He’d never picked up a gun himself, of course, not in the whopping three days he’d been alive. But his mother was a soldier, and he’d been born with her memories.

Oh god. A homeschooled kid, and didn't that answer just sound like it walked straight out of Prepper Bunker Live. But: He could shoot. That was reassuring.

"It's mostly like a pellet gun," Kaidan explained, "or an air rifle. Kiddie guns." Well, Kaidan, that would be appropriate now, wouldn't it? Even if it did totally offend his teenage sense of dignity. "Aim, fire, and pray it has anything near accuracy."

Why did everyone assume he was homeschooled?

(Probably because that was a far more common occurrence than 'born with the full genetic knowledge of his parents')

"And this is supposed to help us... build a team?"

Liam was still working on the concept of 'fun', yes.

Kaidan shrugged, also baffled by the exercise, "I dunno, man. It seems a strange choice, to me. I can understand using it as a practice for unit cohesion, but, uh, usually not the first damn day?"

This whole thing was confusing.

"Unit cohesion?" Liam echoed. "Is this Volunteer training, then?" he did seem the type, even if the majority of the other young people milling about didn't so much.

"Doesn't seem very voluntary to me, since they called our names into teams," Kaidan said wryly, "I thought this was a military boarding school originally, but maybe not."

Despite the name, capital-V Volunteers were all about coercing young people into service. So that would fit the pattern, except;

"Good point. And I don't even know how they got my name, anyway." He should probably be more concerned about that.

"Probably from whatever registration forms your parents filled out," Kaidan suggested.

That startled a laugh out of Liam.

"That would be kind of hard, considering they don't know I exist."

Kaidan's eyes widened, "How do your parents not know you exist? I mean, at least one of them had to give birth to you, right, so she should know? I think if I were female, I'd remember squirting something the size of a melon out my..er.. myself. Or is that some sort of metaphor I'm missing?"

"Not if your memory of it was erased," Liam said, suddenly finding the grass at his feet extremely interesting.

"Oh," Kaidan said with sudden and sincere sympathy, "That sucks rocks, man. You get stuck in foster care or something? You got a place to stay here, like in the dorms or something, right?"

"Something like that," Liam nodded. "There's a house not too far from here. Me and a couple other kids, and I guess some people who are supposed to... supervise? Or something?"

That sounded completely familiar. Jump Zero had been like that. "I managed to score a place to myself," Kaidan confided, "So far, apparently no supervision."

Because that wasn't the worst plan ever.

"It has a video game room downstairs, if you and your suitemates want to come over sometime?"

"I've never played video games either," Liam admitted. "But that could be... fun?"

See, Reno? He was trying!

Never..played..video..games. Kaidan was silently horrified. This poor kid! Kaidan could only imagine the kind of abuse by neglect that would take.

"It is fun," Kaidan encouraged, "Definitely come over. It's at 77 Godiva. If I'm not downstairs in the game room, there are stairs in the back up to my housing."

Well, maybe if he'd had a childhood that had been measured in years rather than minutes, video games might have found their way into his experience.

As it was, this was going to be weird enough when he was restored to his adult self, with memories of being an "age" that he never actually had been.

"Yeah, I'll definitely have to check it out, um-" he paused, realizing he didn't know the other guy's name.

Kaidan caught the pause, grinned, and introduced himself, "Kaidan Alenko."

"Liam," he replied in kind. No 'Kincaid', as he hadn't taken on that identity just yet. "Just Liam." He wasn't sure if he had any sort of claim to either of his human parents' last names, given that neither knew he existed.

"Good to meet you, Liam," ~~again</> said Kaidan.~~

Yeah, having to introduce yourself multiple times was one of the weird quirks of Fandom.

"Good luck with the... paintball, I guess?" Even if they were on opposite teams. Liam wasn't terribly invested in the outcome, truth be told.

"Yeah, you too," Kaidan said. He wasn't very invested either. He just didn't see the point. It seemed like a bad plan to be shooting at other kids, even if it was just paint, on the first day of a new school.

Summer Games, Wednesday Morning

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