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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Yes, but she felt older. Did he know about the secret things in the world that existed just outside the notice of regular humans? PROBABLY NOT.

"Would you prefer 'buddy'?" she asked, giving him a smile. "Or 'friendo?' It's not like I know your name."

Even if it sorta felt like it was on the tip of her tongue.

Well, he kind of was one of those things, himself.

"Liam," he said, and oh god, that smile of hers was making that fluttering feeling even worse, what was happening. "My name is Liam."

Edited 2018-06-07 05:09 (UTC)

How did she know that? Maybe this kid was some kind of low-level projective telepath? He clearly wasn't a Cuckoo, but maybe something else? Lilu, perhaps, like Artie and Elsie?

"Hey," she said, playing with her hair a bit. "I'm Verity." If he wasn't going to give his last name neither was she. Saved her from having to come up with a fake one. "You part of this whole..." she waved around at the group "whatever this is?"

He didn't actually have a last name to give, not yet. Not that Verity could possibly know that.

His eyes went a little wide as she said her name, though, because he knew that name. Verity had been his first friend, the one who'd imperiously declared that her family would adopt him.

But they'd been smaller then (you know, all of yesterday), both of them, and now... well, now they weren't. And Liam wasn't sure what to do about any of the feelings he was having regarding seeing her once again.

"I guess so," he said, with an awkward shrug. "They called my name, but I don't really know what it is we're supposed to do."

"Yeah, same," Verity said, giving him another smile. He was awkward in a way that reminded her of Alex, which was also a little weird because she didn't want to be comparing cute guys to her dorky older brother. "About the name calling anyway. It's paintball, though. We put on ugly jumpsuits, we get our guns, and we take out as many of the other team as we can. What team are you on?"

"I've never played," Liam admitted. By which he meant much of anything, not just paintball. "I'm on the blue team."

"Careful there, Liam," Verity said with a little wink. "I'm on the red team. And I have a lot of experience with games like these. You want a couple of pointers?"

Again, this felt so weirdly familiar.

And Liam couldn't help the look of crestfallen disappointment that flickered across his face as Verity informed him she was on the opposite team. "I don't know how much good it'll do, but sure," he said.

"Well, have you ever held a gun before?" she asked, like this was a perfectly reasonable question to ask a teen.

To be fair, in some parts of the country, it was.

"I know how to operate one," Liam said, which wasn't precisely what she'd asked, but even as she'd said the words, it was like the knowledge of what to do with a firearm just... came to him.

She gave him a bright grin. "See? Look at that. You're already ahead of the curve, Liam."

It was weird. She just--really liked saying his name. It reminded her of something, back when she was little...

And honestly, Verity could read a phone book and Liam would be perfectly happy to sit there and listen, but the way she said his name...

"Yeah?" he said shyly. "Anything, um, anything else I should know, Verity?"

She stared at him for another few seconds, trying to chase down that weird childhood memory, before shaking her head and snapping her back to the present day.

"Hmm? Oh! Oh yeah, so I shouldn't be telling you this, since you're the enemy, but...the easiest way to win these things? Is to pick a spot and wait for people to come to you. There are always impatient people willing to wander around and get spattered."

Or run into traps.

"Thanks," Liam said, reaching up to run a hand through his hair, sending it sticking up in even more directions than it had been previously. "I'll, um. I'll keep that in mind."

He so badly wanted to ask if she remembered him at all, but Miguel hadn't seemed to, and he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with the disappointment if her answer turned out to be no as well.

How could she remember him? She'd never been here, even if she did feel like she knew this place. Or knew his name, too, for that matter.

"Hey, no problem," Verity said, dropping him a wink. "Just remember, all this nicey-nice goes out the window once we start. I see you out there, I'm pegging you with paint!"

Liam laughed. "I'll keep that in mind. But, um. Maybe after, we could... go get something to eat? I mean, all that running around, we'll use a lot of energy..."

Liam. You were babbling.

"What, like dinner or something?" Verity grinned, absolutely elated. "Tell you what, you find me after the game is over and we'll see what kinda restaurants this place has."

"Okay," Liam grinned at her. "I'll look forward to it."

She gave him a smile that was surprisingly genuine instead of going with flirty and cool.

"Me too. See you later, Liam."

Summer Games, Wednesday Morning

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