Making the best of it (Draco)

[Anonymous]

After dinner, Perch retreated exhaustedly to his room.  Everything hurt: feet, knees, shoulders, neck... physical training plus classroom time seemed to have battered his body into a ball of ouch.  And he had a pounding headache.  It wasn't easy trying to keep everything inside all the time.

But noooo, Stage 1 Candidates don't get psychic training.  He thought, vaguely, that he might try to learn something on his own, but what?  How to shut it off?  I just want to go home.  Had he really just though that?  Pathetic, Perch.  But he was used to his mom and dad, their thoughts were like a warm bath.  Which he could really use.  Perch bent to sniff at one armpit.  Yeah, just a little.  But not yet; he was too tired.  At least they let the candidates have terminals, he could flip through the VCN and see if they were blocked from World of Warlocks or whatever.  He didn't even like World of Warlocks, but at least he could talk to his friends and have some chill time.  

Who would be on?  Niko was jealous of the whole Candidate thing (crazy, in his opinion), so he probably wouldn't want to talk to him.  When they were face-to-face Perch could ease him around, but probably it didn't work over distances... damn, he missed Niko now.  Niko and Rawls and Val.  He'd had another dream about Val the other night.  But when he keyed in she wasn't on.  Just Rawls.

Perch: heyo...
Rawz:  yo sup?
Perch: nm u?
Rawz: m levelin up dawg
Rawz: hows trainin?
Perch: u no, sucks like... man iunno
Rawz: ur allowed online?
Perch: yea they just track it or sumthin
Rawz: dope
Rawz: dun worry, I wont put up like.. all my plots to blow up the citidel
Perch: shuttup man
Perch: srsly not cool
Rawz: shit man, chill
Perch: this is serious
Perch: u there?
Rawz: yeah sry talkin to Val
Perch: she over?
Rawz: yeah
Rawz: she says hi
Perch: oh... yeah
Perch: i miss u guys
Rawz: aw
Rawz: shit yo, u makin me blush
Rawz: hey u have magbl there?
Perch: havn't checked
Perch: hang on
Rawz: kk
Perch: yeah they do!!
Perch: i mean they gotta convert a trainin room
Perch: but liek yea
Perch: ... u there?
Rawz: mhm
Perch: ok den, ima go check dis magball shiz out
Rawz: tty Diddy
Perch: tty Razzle

Well.  Shit.  

Oh well.  I mean, they have other stuff to do.  It wasn't like Val and Rawls were like... anyway, he'd get through this Candidate thing in four years tops.  Three.  There were people who didn't date until they were eighteen.  Next time he'd talk to Val and she'd be like... Val.

Yeah.  Whatever.

He switched his terminal off and kicked his chair back, then went to his stuff.  They'd let him keep his magball gear, so he got it out, strapped on his helmet, and tapped his racket against one foot.  It fizzled to life, which was good, he'd worried the magnet field had gotten screwy when he'd gone through security screens.  He knew magnets could mess up dragons, but not magball rackets probably.  Yeah.  

He took off the stupid sweaty Candidate-gray jacket and put on his magball shoes and a loose gray undershirt, then grabbed his racket and generator and headed out, trying to remember the floor plan he'd pulled up on his terminal.  About fifty floors down and through a corridor... and then left?  or right?  

It took about an hour to get there.  He had to ask directions from some Pilot guy, who smirked at him.  And then there he was.  Magball.  The door slid open when he tapped in his code.  There was a touchpad on the wall of the big room, and when he entered the option he wanted, the walls shifted and the laser lines came up.  Play ball, motherfuckas.

All at once, all the frustration of his new candidacy melted away.  He could forgive the Aedolian military anything: they could make a kickass magball court.  

He came out only an hour later, drenched in sweat, his shirt sticking to his ribs and shoulderblades itchily, his racket vibrating in his hand.  He keyed out and the court whooshed away.  Leaving, he was too keyed up from playing to notice where he was going, but he caught a flash of another person's surprise--just a little too late.  He bumped into someone going the opposite direction.

"Oh man--I'm sorry!"

[Anonymous]

It felt like forever already,Vaughan’s bright orange-red hair was growing out, his normal black hair making it obvious that he wasn’t a natural red-head. Math. While he was getting better at it, his talents were still more artistic and musical. He groaned before standing up and slamming his books closed and storming off. Sucked. Totally sucked. Under one arm was his text book and papers, the beginning of some random poem-possible-song he’d wrote when he was getting sick of the stupid math.

He’d been in there since before dinner doing simple school work, hadn’t eaten, sure he’d taken a small nap on his books, but the beginnings of a freaky-ass dream woke him up and he resumed his math. Physical training was just as important! Vaughan wasn’t too awesome at that either, but he was far worse at the regular schooling. Dropping out when he was 14 to pursue a music career, while not exactly a good idea had done it’s job.

Vaughan had become something like a star. Unfortunately, he’d gained magical brain powers and his lack of schooling came back to bite him on the ass.  Grumpy, hungry, tired and zoning out, the red headed ex-singer was taken by surprise when he felt someone bash into him. Or he bashed into someone. Either way, there was Vaughan, someone else, and some bashing.

“Whooaa...” Vaughan shook his head, a dizzy spell at the sudden movement, his books and the papers scattered around the hall. “Aaahh... Sorry.” A small smile was shown to the taller boy and Vaughan pushed his hand through his hair before bending down to pick up his books and the loose paper. “Sorry! I was zoning out.” He laughed awkwardly still on his knees gathing his things before looking up quickly and reaching out for a handshake. “Hi! I’m Vaughan, stage 1 candidate. Ex-Singer, ex-weird-porn-looker-atter, and now... I’m... Well...” Vaughan frowned to make a face then smiled, “ I’m weird. Hi!”

[Anonymous]

Holy...

What...

He'd known Vaughan Liik from Indigenous Fairies was in training.  He'd glimpsed him here and there, but they didn't have any classes together.  Perch had taken this as a matter of rote.  Of course you didn't brush elbows with the famous people.  There was some sort of invisible barrier.  Crazy thinking, Perch!  Stupid thinking, was what his dad liked to say.  He'd met plenty of famous people anyway, with his dad and mom, but they just weren't into the underground scene, so it wasn't like they were gonna have the Indigenous Fairies over to dinner.  That was the mystique, right there.  

He probably could've convinced them to, but he was... what?  Shy?

Yeah.  He was blushing like some screaming little ninny.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry.  Shit, lemme..."

He fumbled Vaughan's attempt at handshake and dropped to his knees beside the singer, the ex-singer, fumbling to help him gather his books.  His own racket and generator clattered forgotten to the floor around him.  

Weird porn?  What?  Perch had never actually seen porn, his parents' block on their home VCN was pretty good, and he didn't really want to look at it anyway, it seemed kind of cheap.  He had movie magazines anyway, and weird dreams about Val, and imagination.  And stuff.

"Uh... hi, I'm Thuce... I'm Perch, you can call me Perch."  He looked up and tried one of his charming sideways smiles.  Get ahold of yourself, Perch.  He's just a guy.  He doesn't even look that old.  Is he shorter than you?  "Here."  He'd gotten a stack of books together.  "I, uh, I know your band."  That sounded patronizing, didn't it?  'I know' sort of implied he had packaged and dismissed the whole thing.  OK.  Try again, which he did, standing up and holding a hand out to Vaughan.  Vaughan.  Whoa.  Whoa, man, whoa, Niko wasn't gonna believe this.  "I mean, I'm a fan."

Wait, that sounded creepy.  No, no, it was OK.  "I like your stuff."  There.  Hot damn, he wasn't usually so flustered--ever.  It didn't help that he couldn't get a mental read on Vaughan at all; certainly not in the space of a few seconds.  Anyway, it didn't always work, not on other psychics, it seemed, and not when he was riled up or surprised.   "I'm sorry I bumped into you, I was kinda distracted.  You know they've got a magball court option in there?"

If Vaughan Liik liked magball, and he was the one to tell Rawls and Niko and Val about it, that more or less made the whole military deal worth it.

[Anonymous]

The red head straightened up a little when he heard a clatter, he looked around then stared at the person he bumped into. Vaughans hand reached out for the boys dropped items before he blinked at him. Why would he just drop his stuff? Vaughan moved to put his own things in a nice pile reaching over the boy to get his stuff for him when he introduced himself. The teen froze then looked down and smiled, “Thuce? Is there more to that? Perch. I like it. Ah... Your-eh?.”

Hands out to grab his books, he accepted them with a grin and frowed at his full hands. Now he couldn’t return the favour and get Perch’s things for him and -oooh, he was a fan. Well, that explained why he dropped his own stuff to help him with books and paper. Vaughan bit lightly on his lip and eyed the things.

Vaughan listened, his smile growing with each small phrase.

Cool! He knew them.

Cool! He was a fan!

Cool! He liked his stuff. Their stuff.

“I... Thank you.” Vaughans grin was wide and genuine, as awkward as it was sometimes, it made him all squishy and giddy inside when his craptastic day was turned around by a person who enjoyed listening to the music he helped make. Of course the mini-freaking out was cute and entertaining and Vaughan chuckled quietly, his books safely tucked under one arm as he slowly stood up, using Perch’s hand as a helper. “It’s okay, I was zoning out and I didn’t see you either.” Vaughan chewed on his lip when the boy - Perch - mentioned magball.

“Ah, I remember that! I haven’t played it in ages, I was too busy with... Well... IF. I forget how to play it honestly, but I liked it when I did play it!” Vaughan smiled again and reached for Perch’s lonely racket, not having enough hands for the generator. “You know, you shouldn’t drop stuff so easily. Paper doesn’t get hurt from falls, technological stuff like this does.” He stuck out his rather long tongue, showing off the peircings before smiling again and looking around.

Hm. What to say, what to say. “Unfortunately, being here forced me to quit that part of life. Which sucks, it was going good for-“ He paused and looked up, “... I hate you.” Vaughan moved the hand with the racket around and moved to stand beside Perch, measuring himself. “Damn, you’re like an inch taller than me, you eat your Wheaties don’t you?” Oh well, Perch was still super excited to meet him!

That made up for the inch or so of their heights. Still... Ouch.

[Anonymous]

He was nice, too.  Really relaxed, down-to-earth.  Perch was impressed.  Weird how celebrities who acted normal were actually more impressive than the other sort.  He'd met the other sort, particularly Patricia Prior, who'd been tremendous fun, actually, because he'd sort of managed to think her into awkwardness.  

Anyway, he got a very real vibe from Vaughan.  Perch himself was probably emanating waves of absurd, worshipful happiness, but tried to tone them down.  Chill, chill.  Chillaaaax, as Rawls would say in this situation.  Pff.  Rawls would be drooling all over himself, who was he kidding?  The only one of the four who stood a remote shot of behaving in the presence of an IF member was Perch.  Niko would just be mean, he always did that with people he was jealous of.  Val would go all fangirly.

And he liked magball.

He liked magball.

Sort of.  But why split hairs?

"Oh, I know," Perch said quickly, leaning down to pick up the generator, which he tucked under his arm.  Vaughan really did have a long tongue, it wasn't just a holo stunt.  Wicked.  Experimentally, he probed the side of his mouth with his own tongue.  Long tongues were supposed to be hot, but his wasn't that impressive.  Who'd said that, anyway?  He still couldn't figure it out.  What did girls like about long tongues?  Oh yeah, Niko had told that joke about the ugly guy at the bar... the punchline was 'I don't know why all the girls like him, the guy just sat there at the bar, licking his eyebrows.'  Probably none of them knew what the heck that joke meant, Niko always pulled stuff like that.

But with Vaughan, it did seem pretty classy.

He'd really wanted him to like him.

He'd tried doing it before, but never so consciously:  Like me.  Like me.  Like me.  Like me.  Usually the thought-compulsions worked.

"--I hate you."

Whoa.  Generally it wasn't that ineffective.  No, wait--he was just measuring their heights, standing right next to him--

God, Perch, calm down, you're acting like you're hard for him or something, ya pansy.  Shuttup, Niko.  Weird how friends got into his head, even when he was really the one with the skill to get in theirs.  It happened.  It was how people worked.  

He was taller than Vaughan?  That was pretty chill, actually.

"Uh, we're still growing.  You know.  I am kinda on a health kick, though.  Protein, Wheaties, magball... uh hey, Vaughan..."  There was no reason to be so nervous.  "Do you want to play sometime?  There aren't that many players around, it might be a chill time, even though training kicks ass pretty hard."

Like me.  Like me.  Like me.

[Anonymous]

While Vaughan’s current telepathy was his strong point, the little class he had with Gabrial got his mental shield juices flowing. Or got them to stop flowing and form a nice semi-hard mind-keeping out wall.  Or something like that. The red head could simple smile and tilt his head to the side, he was hearing mumbles. While his sheilds were up, Vaughan wasn’t really good at the whole ‘don’t think of it while you do it’ thing, maybe putting up sheilds and managing to listen to people came hand in hand one day.

Though right now, it was near impossible. Vaughan frowned slightly and leaned closer to Perch, trying to phyiscally listen. Nope, no mumbling. Must be all in the kids head. The singer paused for a second and nearly smacked himself in the forehead, well, that explained why it’d been so quiet in the library. Usually there was that underlying hum of un-walled up thoughts, nothing precise, at least not when he wasn’t listening.

Which he wasn’t doing now.

Vaughan turned and smiled and Perch, still curious what that Th-whateveritwas was going to end up as.  Ooo, Vaughan was still growing, “I’m aiming for at least another five inches.” He nodded before smiling brightly again, “I’d love to play!” He held out the racket Perch, smiling still, “I don’t have any equipment or anything though. But yeah, just come bother me! Or mail me or something.”

maybe being physically exaughsted before bed would help keep the nightmares at bay. Everything else just wasn’t working lately, but Vaughans smile and the bright lights of the hall way made him not look as tired as he was. In the morning though, under the bathroom light, Vaughan figuered himself to be a walking corpse.

“So, I got picked up at the end of a concert, how’d you get pulled in here? From a regular doctor check up?”

[Anonymous]

Huh?  Vaughan made a weird motion, tilting toward Perch and frowning, like he was trying to listen to something.  What?  Oh man.  He was probably... he probably heard him.  Oh well, ignore it.  It was like an embarrassing fart or something to psychics, probably.  He didn't have to actually confess to it like it was a big deal.  People probably did it by accident, like he did sometimes at home.

He took the racket from Vaughan, who seemed to have moved on from his confusion or whatever, and hefted it.

"Dude, I have an extra."  It was to grow into, so if he used that--because he was probably better--better than Vaughan Liik!  Whoa.  Kind of cool.  He hadn't thought Vaughan would be so short, but he was an impressive guy anyway.  And so nice.  He'd have to be careful not to start fanboying and following him around or something.

"You can use it if you want, anytime."  He tucked it under his arm and shrugged, smiling crookedly.  

How'd he get drafted?  

"Yeah, just a checkup."  He thought his dad might've paid off the doctors the first two years he was eligible for Candidacy, but he'd never tried to probe to find out.  Anyway, secrets like that--he'd need some training before he'd be able to root them out and anyhow he always felt bad when he did too much.  Getting people to like you was nothing.  Everyone did that really, and what was not to like?  

"Hey, man, are you a'right?  You look kinda..."  Kind of drawn, a word he had read in one of his school-books.  He got it now.  Drawn like drawn downwards by a force, like something melting.  "--I mean, we're all tired.  I should go take a bath, too, I'm mad sweaty."  He made an exaggerated face and twisted up his nose in fake revulsion.  "Where do you live?  I dunno if I can find my way back to my room, it's crazy here."

[Anonymous]

Just a checkup.

That seemed so much better than being pulled aside after a show and getting a ‘Congratulations! We’re ruining your dreams and throwing you into hell!’ Sure it had been Gabriel who did that to him, and it had been in a nicer form of words than the ones Vaughan imagined him saying, generally when he replayed it in his head Vaughan added a few heorics and was dragged off for attacking the Pilot.

In reality, everyone stood kind of stunned, Pari had cried and clung and Vaughan went off quietly the next day to the ATC. So far it had been as bad as he thought it would, but finding the odd chipper person, like Perch, made it a little more bearable.

Still sucked ass though. Vaughan pressed a hand through his brightly coloured hair and smiled at Perch before moving his hands above his head in a lazy stretch. “ I’ll hit you up for a game of ‘Ball some other time, maybe I’ll let you beat me.” A big grin, Vaughan obviously joking, good at sports he was not and Perch would be horribly disappointed when he found that out. Even if he sucked, having someone to do anything nice here with would be a blessing.

Bunch of two faced bastards, all of them. The red-heads mood brightened after he coughed out a laugh at Perch’s face. “Well, I’m actually not to sure where my dorm is either, I remember my room number, but that’s about it. We’ll look together. You’re a stage one, right? So we’re probably at least a little bit nearby...”

Moving his hands to rest in the uniform pants pockets he smiled again and skipped once before walking and looking over his shoulder. “ I think I remember going down this hallway. Hey! Since we’re going to be candidates together, you should tell me about yourself. Got a girlfriend at hooome?” The end of his voice lifted up in a sing-song teasing manner and the grin on his face was wide and the way his eyebrows wagged up and down it would take someone extremely innocent and naïve to not grasp the meaning of them.

Vaughan had a sneaking suspicion that Perch would be one of those people but he could fix that. In time.

[Anonymous]

"Yeah, 1067."  Perch screwed up his face.  One of the few things he could remember accurately was numbers; the layout of the building, however, still escaped him.  If he'd been able to pull up a diagram on the VCN it would be easier, but it seemed like they blocked Stage 1 Candidates, or maybe Candidates in general, from the building plans.  

"I think I came down this hallway, too."

He wasn't sure, but he wanted to go with Vaughan, who looked supremely at-ease and cheerful.  He skipped.  But Perch hadn't gotten that vibe off him at first.  No; he'd seemed dejected, exhausted...  Maybe he'd cheered him up?  Maybe he liked having fans.  Yeah, must do.  It must be hard, going from IF fame to Candidacy.  

"Hey! Since we’re going to be candidates together, you should tell me about yourself. Got a girlfriend at hooome?”

Perch blinked.  That expression--what did that expression mean?  The eyebrows.  Niko said all sorts of things, lewd things or high-brow things, things Perch didn't care to know, there was no reason he should know them--and all of those things danced in the space between Vaughan Liik's eyebrows.

"Oh, uh."  He thought, briefly, of Val, a flash of smile and a cloud of disheveled blond curls.  If anything, she'd go with Niko, who claimed to have felt her up once.  Rawls said he was just joking, but Perch knew how compelling Niko could be.

 "--sort of.  No.  No, I don't.  Do you?"  He paused, blushing, and took a hop-skip to catch up with the older Candidate.  Oh wait.  Everyone's gay.  What if he has a boyfriend--that'd be awkward--not that Perch would mind.  He could tell Val.  Maybe she'd get over her crush.  "Hey--what's your room number?"