The beach, Friday evening

[vdistinctive]

Eliot hated this island. He hated whatever sicko had decided to kidnap three random teenagers and throw them into a bed together, and he hated the two other teenagers who'd gotten kidnapped, and he hated all the other random teenagers running around this weird-ass creepy place, and he really, really hated that all of those things had made him completely lose his cool yesterday.

So in the grand tradition of moody teen dramas set in coastal towns, he was moping on the beach, glaring at the ocean. There was probably even going to be rock throwing, too.

He'd spent his entire life wanting to escape his tiny Oklahoma town, and when he finally did it turned out he just brought all that terrible along with him.

How fucked up was he.

[can be open, certainly!]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan needed to process the weird. New school, no note or call or anything from his parents, no idea why he'd been shipped across the continent to this place with kids from the far fringes of civilized space. He thought he'd even seen a kid on fire, but he was filing that straight into the oubliette of 'nope'.

You kill one teacher, and suddenly your life just goes straight to the hot place. This had to be some form of parental punishment. There was no other explanation.

He was skipping class. He assumed he had classes, but since nobody had provided him with a schedule, he felt this was fair. Hiding out all day in the gameroom had been pretty sweet.

Deciding to go for a walk on the beach in the evening, Kaidan figured he'd have it all to himself since the sunbunnies would have beat a retreat as the sun was going down.

He was wrong. There was at least one other kid on the beach, and it looked like the dude was having a worse day than Kaidan was.

When his walk took him near enough he wouldn't have to shout, he shot the guy a semi-concerned look and asked, "Hey. You ok?"

[vdistinctive]

"Fine." Eliot threw another rock into the ocean. Much, much harder than necessary. "Why wouldn't I be."

[spectre_alenko]

"Look on your face, body language, the fact that you're trying to assault the Atlantic Ocean with very small rocks.." Kaidan replied wryly, "Why wouldn't you be ok?"

[vdistinctive]

"I'm not trying to -- I'm just throwing rocks. It's a thing."

[spectre_alenko]

"A thing," Kaidan repeated, in a tone that all but drew the air quotes around it, "Sure. Ok. Well, you have fun with your useless repetitive motion. Far be it from me to intrude on your cranky man-moment."

[vdistinctive]

"Man, don't be a dick."

Like Kaidan never tried any sort of comforting repetitive motions.

[spectre_alenko]

"You first," Kaidan said, cocking his head to one side.

Kaidan's comforting repetitive motions weren't really something he'd do on a beach where people could just walk by and interrupt.

[vdistinctive]

"I'm just standin' here. You're the one gettin' all up in other people's business."

[uncertain_dume]

Yeah, the party was all well and good, and Caleb was a big fan of new experiences, but maybe a whole entire party was just a little bit too much new all at once. And so, as soon as he felt like it would be polite to excuse himself and take off running, he did exactly that, slipping away and then making his way to somewhere a little more open, a little less loud.

He'd gotten plenty of loud over the past few months. It almost made him wish he was back in the bacta tank again.

He'd taken a moment to weigh his options from there. There was the apartment, though he wasn't certain he was quite feeling up to facing the constant, low-key worry he felt from Hera from time to time. There was the park. The park seemed nice. But he'd been there for a lot of the day already, and it seemed to get no small amount of traffic. He would probably explore the preserve another time. But the beach...

Well... he felt like maybe it wouldn't hurt to head to the beach. The ocean would be another something new, and meditating to the constant roar of waves sounded like something he was in desperate need of anyway.

He paused when he realized, a few steps onto the sand, that he wasn't entirely alone. And there was a lot of anger simmering just a stone's throw away. After hesitating for a moment more, he squared hs shoulders, and then... just kind of casually picked his way across the sand. Just a kid out enjoying a walk on the beach. You know. Super casual.

[vdistinctive]

How the hell was a guy supposed to enjoy a good moody snit brooding session if people kept coming by?

Eliot was totally going to just ignore him and keep throwing rocks in the water, but then he got a good look at this kid.

"Nice hair."

Come on. Who could possibly resist making a dig at the guy with a pink and blue striped rat-tail?

[uncertain_dume]

Nice people, probably.

But for now, it was enough to get Caleb to stop, and then turn to look at the other boy curiously.

"You like it? I think I got suckered into it on a dare, but it's growing on me. So, thanks."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot frowned. He wasn't used to people not noticing his sarcasm.

"Yeah. 'Lost a bet' was going to be my guess. Seriously, dude, pink?"

. . . He actually kind of liked pink, but that was just one of the things he liked that he could never, ever tell anyone.

[uncertain_dume]

Hey, Caleb totally noticed the sarcasm. That didn't mean he was going to let himself be baited by it.

"What's wrong with pink?"

He reached up a hand and ran it through his hair, tousling his blue streak around a little in the process.

"It's bright. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but I think it actually kind of makes me happy."

[vdistinctive]

"It's girly," Eliot said. "With the blue it just makes you look like you've got a baby shower on your head."

And don't get him started on the whole "wearing contrasting bathrobes in public" thing.

[uncertain_dume]

Wow, there was a lot to unpack, there.

"Girly? Some of the strongest people I know are girls. That's maybe not actually the insult you think it is." He reached for his braid, holding it up between his fingers. "If this means I compare even a little bit to any of them, then I'll definitely keep it this way for a while."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot rolled his eyes. "I ain't saying girls are bad. I'm saying you're not one."

Which . . . was for some reason important.

[white_oleander]

Astrid had another letter from her mother, a letter that she was not ready to open quite yet. Plus, something weird was happening on the island, she didn't exactly know what, she didn't want to know what, she'd been avoiding it because she was so, so done with weird. She was just tired of roommates in space armor, little green gem girls and big red fish guys, of sanctimonious teachers and Captain America videos. Okay, maybe not that one, those videos would never get old, but she was also tired of East Coast weather and castles on islands and mothers in prison. She wanted just a small slice of goddamn normalcy; she craved it like she craved her mother's laugh, like she craved brushing her hair or drifting in the apartment complex's swimming pool until the wee hours of morning.

She thought maybe, just maybe, if she went to the beach, she could almost pretend she was back home. She could almost pretend that her mother wasn't behind bars, she was just off dancing in the moonlight with some handsome man whispering slurred Barcelona Spanish into her ear, and they'd come back for Astrid after they'd made love in the sand and they'd drive up the coast with the top down on his sleek black convertible...

Just maybe...

...but, of course, when she got to the beach to brood, she was surprised to see that there were already other people there doing exactly the same thing.

"Oh, come on!"

She knew she should have gone back up to the dormitory roof instead!

[vdistinctive]

"The hell are you yelling at me for?" Eliot scowled. "I was here first!"

[white_oleander]

Astrid sighed, kicked at the sand a little, dislodged a rock, and then swept down to pick it up. "I wasn't yelling at you," she assured him, as she tossed the rock into the ocean, trying to skip it, but it was no good, it was too lumpy. "I was yelling at the universe in general."

Which didn't seem enough, so she elaborated a little.

"I honestly didn't think anyone else would be out here."

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, well, there wasn't a minute ago."

Poor Eliot. He'd picked the wrong broody cliche.

"What the hell do you have to mope about?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid scoffed a little. "What the hell do you?" she asked. "Sorry, I guess I didn't realize someone else already cornered the market on being mopey."

[vdistinctive]

"Well, I woke up two days ago somehow several thousand miles from home, in a strange house, in bed naked with a crazy chick and a dude, neither of whom I knew from fucking adam." Eliot smirked. "You?"

[white_oleander]

"There's probably a good number of people who would think that was a good thing," Astrid pointed out, not answering the return question because she definitely didn't come out here to get into a pissing contest with some guy she didn't know. "And just because you don't doesn't mean you get to call dibs on being mopey."

[vdistinctive]

Yeah, Eliot wasn't sure where anyone would be perfectly happy waking up unexpectedly in a strange place with naked strangers. Even setting aside the whole homophobia issue.

"Just makin' conversation, sweetheart," Eliot said. "Since apparently I ain't getting any alone time out here tonight."

As far down the beach from Spencer as he can get.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan found a quiet section of beach, from where he couldn't even see Mr. Aggro Jerkface. He really didn't need his calm damaged any further, so he practiced his centering, then began making a small rock cairn.