itstopped | Re-Entry 14: Spam/Video/Spam

[Spam for the Lab]

[It's not unusual for Felix to stay in the lab all night if the wardens let him. He insists that he doesn't need much sleep -- so far, this has actually seemed to prove true -- and he tends to get on tears with things that interest him enough. This particular evening, something on Iris's bioreader has him absorbed, and he just doesn't make it back before it's too late to be worth going anyway. In the wee hours of the morning, he winds up drifting off at his station.

He doesn't wake up when the flood rolls in, but a little while later, a young boy -- 11 or so -- wakes to find himself, not in bed, but surrounded by a veritable sea of shining scientific equipment. His eyes widen.]

Cool!

[Video]

[He found two keys in his pocket and he's not sure which is the right one, but going to this one felt more normal, somehow, so it's Dean's room in the background. Felix settles the camera carefully on the desk, fiddles with it for a second, then settles, sitting conscientiously straight-backed.]

Okay, um... [He hesitates, reaches over to fiddle with the camera again, then nods in satisfaction and sits back again. He smiles, but sort of politely.] Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I'm having a good time at camp. [Or... whatever.] I'll be back in a few days. I saw a bioluminescent bacterium and something called a bat flower. [What? It was cool.]

So... have a good weekend, I guess. [His polite surety fades a little. He shrugs awkwardly, then waves again and switches off the feed.]

[Open spam throughout the flood]

[He's heard that this place is a prison, but it's certainly not like any prison he's ever heard of. Not like the ones in the movies, anyway. He'll be busily exploring throughout the flood, poking his nose into just about any place that will let him in, up to and including the infirmary, the CES, the pool... and of course the library.]

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Yes, um, Trip. I woke up here. [And he's not 100% sure where he is, although it somehow doesn't occur to him to be alarmed, but he certainly knows that it's full of incredibly cool stuff. He keeps his hands behind his back, but his eyes stray to the petri dishes he'd been examining when Trip came in.]

Right. [Maybe they. Should talk about that. Later.

But there's a lot of other stuff to focus on now, and at least he's seemingly accepting his presence without too much fuss. That definitely made things easier.]

Well, this is the lab. You've got a room on the first floor - same one as the dining hall - if you want an actual bed to sleep in. [And he does notice that look.] One of the projects interest you?

[It does, and while he hears the explanation, it doesn't quite penetrate in his distraction. He'll find the room, later, and ultimately eschew it -- it's as much the room of a stranger to him as any abandoned cabin would be. He nods vaguely at the information, but at the question, he actually looks up, slightly guilty again.]

Sorry. Someone at that station -- [Which is, in fact, his.] -- is working with bioluminescence. I just wanted to see.

[Trip just chuckles, not unkindly.]

Something tells me he won't mind you taking a peek at it. [What with it being Felix's project and all.] You wanna get breakfast, or you wanna poke around a little more first?

Would that be all right? I won't touch anything. [He keeps his hands behind his back to prove the point, one hand gripping the other wrist tight.] Do you know what everything is in here?

Some of it. I don't spend a ton of time in here - I'm usually helping out with the engine room or maintenance and repair if Dean needs an extra set of hands. But Iris is working on some bioreader research and Megamind's trying to figure out a way to reconstruct planets that have been destroyed. I'm sure if they're around, they'd be happy to chew your ear off about them.

[He keeps the observation of how if they're kids, they're still probably likely to chew your ear off - they're chatty and all - to himself.]

[His mouth opens in a small 'o.'] How do you rebuild a whole planet? [Pause.] ... How do you destroy a whole planet?

I don't really know the specifics of what he's trying to work on, [He and Megamind aren't exactly particularly chummy, and whether that's because of a bad first impression or what, he's never really put much thought into.] But natural disasters can do a pretty good job of it, [He hesitates a little before continuing.] And other stuff.

[Like superweapons. :V]

[Also like homicidal robots with nukes, but for this boy, the Cylons are a memory of a generation past, something he won't even think about outside of a classroom for thirteen years. At which point, of course, they will be nearly all he thinks about.

Right now, the idea of destruction on that level is absolutely foreign to him, and well outside the scope of anything he can really process. His brow furrows with thought for a second.]

But I guess if something went wrong on one planet, you could just move the people to another one. Like, um, my mom moved to Picon after the citydome collapsed on Troy... like that.

Yeah, I guess so. ["As long as you've got time to do that" the sort of morbid part of him chimes in. The people on Earth hadn't had a chance to do that. His sister couldn't just move to another planet after what happened.

But he knows there's no use dwelling on that, and he's definitely not planning on giving Felix the details on how things weren't always that easy. The guy was cynical and jaded enough as an adult, he wasn't eager to crush the innocence out of him as a kid.] Was it hard for her, moving like that?

I dunno. I guess not. It happened before I was born... that's how my grandma died, so I guess it was sad then, but she doesn't really talk about it ever now. [A thing which will, of course, become a proud Gaeta family tradition a few years down the line.]

Uh-huh. [Well, at least that's an idea of where he got that from. Or. Something.] Where do you live now?

[He hesitates, because he's probably not supposed to give out too much information to strangers, but... this is a stranger in a uniform, and he's not exactly a stranger, anyway.] Penrose Harbor. On Picon. Do you know it? [He looks expectant, now, like Trip should, but before he can say anything the young Felix clarifies:] It's just south of the big Fleet base in Queenstown, on the big island.

[He shakes his head. He knows it's a matter of time before Felix finds out that some of the people here are from Earth, but he's not exactly sure how best to break the news to him.] Never been there. What's it like?

[He hasn't yet, and he looks skeptical now.] You've never been to Queenstown? [Like, what kind of officer are you, Trip, really.]

It's... Picon. Lots of movies and TV shows and stuff film there, so you've probably seen it, anyway. It's cool, I guess. We live almost right by the beach and the piers -- my dad takes me fishing sometimes when he's around, if it's not too cold. He says he'll take me ice fishing sometime... but there's a lot going on.

I'm sure he'll find a time to squeeze you in. [He hopes. He's done enough with his parents that it's always kind of sad to think about kids who didn't have that shot, because seriously. You're only a kid once.]

Can't say I've ever been ice fishing, but my grandpa used to take me out on the gulf when I was younger.

I guess. [He gives a one-shouldered shrug, like he's used to this particular conversation.] He's busy. They both are. It's okay. There's lots of other stuff to do.

Like what? [He's curious. Felix obviously still likes science, but he doesn't know too many details about his inmate's life before shit kind of hit the fan.]

Well, I'm learning all about medicine right now. I used to do astronomy stuff, like... making rockets and things. Star charts. But I don't want to do that anymore... I like taking pictures sometimes. And drawing. And when I was a kid I used to make buildings, but then I got bored of that... [This has all been very matter-of-fact, but then he brightens.] And I've been learning a lot about the Fleet, too.