ataraxion | 01 ✧ Video

[The video comes on to reveal a normal-looking 15 year old boy, lying on his bed in his quarters on the thirty-third floor. It looks like he was messing around with the smartphone and accidentally started recording. He makes a stupid face or two for the camera, but once he realizes it's actually going out to people he sits up and looks sheepish.]

Uh, hi. So... I wanted to say thanks for the smartphone, I guess. Always wanted one of these. Too bad it comes with a price of "holy crap I'm stuck in space."

[He looks off to the side, worried. Then back to the camera.]

Look, I get that nobody knows why we're here, or how to get home or anything like that. But it sucks, okay? And I can't be the only one who feels like saying that. I mean, I have stuff I need to do back home. [Under his breath, he adds,] And I'm totally gonna get expelled if I miss any more school.

We don't... have to go to school here, right? There isn't some space high school they're gonna drag us to, is there? 'Cause the only thing worse than chess club is space chess club, am I right?

[No one is laughing at your joke, Sam.]

Right. Well, uh. Later!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Be grateful we don't have Shi'ar battle school here. [ Peter's grinning a bit, like he's having fun here, but honestly- he worries about kids, so... ]

So where're you from?

Would you like to maintain some sort of education here?

You're not going to get expelled.

Shi'a-what now? [ He's trying to think if he's heard of Shi'ar before.... Nope, doesn't think so. ]

Middle of Nowhere, Arizona.

I'd, uh, prefer not to have to. Unless I'm gonna be here for like a really long time, in which case I probably ought to.

But there's probably, like, a library I can check out, right?

Well that's a relief. But really, how can you be so sure?

Aliens. They're kind of like bird people. [ Don't worry, Sam. He's sure you'll hear of them eventually. ]

Oh good, brother in arms. I'm from Middle of Nowhere, Colorado.

Are they on this ship?

How'd a guy from Colorado end up hanging out with bird people?

[as he speaks, stiles holds up fingers in front of him to count off his points.]

One, pretty sure that if-slash-when you go home again, you don't lose any time. You'll go back to the same time and place you were originally taken from, like you'd never been gone at all.

Two, you've already been here a week, yeah? Even if you went back home and had been missing for that long, people are gonna be way more worried about your safety and well being than they are that you missed a bit of school.

And three, if you're really worried, you can always play up some sort of traumatic fugue state or amnesia and yeah, maybe you'll have to see a therapist for a little while but dude. School will go super easy on you for a bit after. They might even offer you time off with a sort of 'work at home' system for a bit until you get your feet back under you.

So really, if school is your biggest worry, don't. Worry. Don't worry.

[ Sam almost laughs. This guy doesn't have any way of knowing that he's disappeared for weeks at a time before. Yeah, his mom was worried about him, but he's pretty sure Principal Philbin's getting sick of his shit. ]

So, it's like they push pause on our lives, while we're here?

And, uh, technically school isn't my biggest worry. [ That honor is reserved for his family not getting evicted. ]

[well it's obviously not stiles' fault that sam doesn't know how to work the mental health angle okay. even if every time it's happened to stiles he wasn't necessarily working an angle.]

From what I've gathered from my friends, it would seem that way, yeah.

[he tilts his head a little consideringly.] Good. School should only be your biggest concern if you're, like, getting ready to apply for colleges soon and panicking about your future.

[like stiles should have been doing while he was being possessed by a thousand year old fox spirit, whoops.]

What's wrong with chess club, though?

You mean your friends have gone home and come back?

[ Sam is super jealous. Not that it's a good thing they've come back, though. He just doesn't want his mom to be worried about him. ]

I was only ever in chess club 'cause the principal didn't think I was learning anything in detention.

[stiles shrugs one shoulder, mouth quirked wryly.] Apparently so did I, though I don't remember any of it.

And well yeah, of course you're going to hate chess if it's some kind of punishment, geez. You're not supposed to learn stuff in detention, you're supposed to go quietly out of your mind with boredom.

[or was that just stiles?]

Weeeeird.

[ Now Sam does laugh. ]

Yes, exactly. And it's not even my fault I end up there so often. It's all that big dumbass Moffet's fault.

[stiles rolls his eyes] Oh man do I know that feeling. I had a chemistry teacher who totally had it out for me because my dad miiiiiiight have questioned him about his involvement in a crime, and he found every possible reason to get me into detention.

I can't imagine why, though, it just meant he had to spend even more time with me in the end.

Ugh. I know all about being held responsible for stuff my dad did. [ Or didn't do, as the case may be. ]

Eh, it's usually my dad having to deal with stupid shit I've done, so I guess I can't really hold it against him for trying to do his job.

[a pause.]

Besides, he's dead now.

[another beat before stiles realizes he might need to clarify a bit more.] My chemistry teacher, not my dad.

[ Rich almost replied over the devices... before he registered that this was just Sam, not Nova, and he remembered the time when he was hiding his identity. So he finds him, later. ]

... don't let Quill knock the Shi'ar down. They are great fighters, and some of them are great people, too. Different, but great.

You okay?

no school
dont tell edgeworth :P

Never know, space chess could be way better.

[For a second there Sam felt really bad.]

Yeah well, when your dad's the school janitor, a lot of people will hold it against you.

Huh? [Oh yeah, the bird people.]

Oh yeah, I'm fine. You know that guy?

k who's edgeworth?

Nah, man, chess is boring no matter what.

[That's not to say he didn't learn some strategy from it.]

Peter? [ Rich's smile is full and warm, not a trace of the usual wryness or complication about it. ]

He's a friend. Was my second-in-command during the bad war, and, well. We've kept in touch.

[ His eyebrow arcs up, a bit. ]

He's more or less leading the team that Gamora and Rocket are on, actually. Used to be on Knowhere after I suggested it, but I gather they moved out of there, after... [ One-shoulder shrug. ] Things happened.

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