we are not shining stars

i'm alexis. 18. aspiring astrophysicist. neil degrasse tyson is my hero. i totally don't work for a secret government agency.

[almost-proengineer]

Listening to Alexis talk made Ben choke up with tears. He wanted to hug his friend and tell her everything was okay, but that would have been an obvious lie. When she finished he turned to her and hugged her fighting back the tears that were starting to form in the corner of his eyes. He was suppose to be the strong one at the moment. “It’s okay,” he said moving his arm up and down her back, “it’s okay, Alexis, you’re okay. What happened, happened, you can’t change what you’ve done already, next time I’ll keep on eye on you, okay? Just relax, you’re safe now.”

[alexislind]

Thank you,” she said quietly. “I just… it could have been any of us. What if it was me, or you? My advisor? Your advisor?” She hiccups, but it comes out half like a sob. “I love you guys, but sometimes I can’t help but feel like I made a mistake. Even though alcohol poisoning happens at every school - just not the professors.” Alexis sighed again, wiping a tear from her eye with her sleeve. “I can’t lose anyone.”

[almost-proengineer]

Ben quickly pulled on his jacket, got his phone and got on his feet. He’d been back at the dorms by the time the lockdown was announced. He wasn’t feeling the party, so he left early and tried to catch up with some of his coursework. That became impossible when he learnt the news. Unfortunately this wasn’t Ben’s first time dealing with death, so he knew how to keep his emotions on the background and focus on helping who he could. Alexis’ texts gave him a great way to keep his mind occupied.

Getting into the boiler room was easier than he expected as he knew one of the guards. He slipped through the crowd looking for Alexis and found her sitting on the ground in the back corner of the room. 

“Rough night, ay?” he asked sitting down next to her

[alexislind]

Alexis lit up slightly when she saw Ben come into the room, scooting over to make room for him in the corner. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said, her words slurring slightly. “It was so great and then it was so bad and I never want to drink again this is awful I’m not even supposed to drink on my meds and I’m just sad glad that you’re here Ben I love you so much.” She finished her run on sentence by leaning her head on his shoulder and sighing, fighting back tears.

[alexislind]

ben ↝ alexis

ben: ofc its worth it i gotta save ya

ben: hang on tight im coming for ya

ben: u can keep messaging me tho it might take a while for me to get there

alexis: donb't get in trouble

alexis: i don't want to zlsoe you too

[alexislind]

ben ↝ alexis

ben: do they let people in tho?

ben: i feel like i should be with u tbh

ben: questionable life choices aside

ben: how are you?

alexis: i'm scared

alexis: yi wtan to go to bged

alexis: yohu could try to snasek in

alexis: but idk if its wonrth it

[alexislind]

ben ↝ alexis

ben: gosh bro

ben: where are you???

ben: (am i actually happy i didnt drink too much?)

ben: im kinda okay i guess i mean im not dead so u can say ive had a better night than some

alexis: i'm still in the boiler room

alexis: they won't lemt us leaev

alexis: il'm never drinfking ajgain

[alexislind]

alexis ↝ ben

alexis: ben ben nbe ben lare you okay

alexis: i'm so drukn and wi ened a friend

[almost-proengineer]

“I am seriously aching for some One Direction right now, do we know someone from comms that could fix this?”

[alexislind]

“I haven’t seen Ava around yet, I bet she could. I heard “Steal My Girl” earlier, though, so we’ll just have to wait for it to come back around.”

[almost-proengineer]

“I was just thinking of dancing, but this music just isn’t my style. I thought the comms would have hacked it and gotten something reasonable on already?”

[alexislind]

“Apparently comms has already hacked it, and this shit is all their doing. Just because they’re winning the House Cup or whatever sort of Hogwarts competition they’ve got going on here doesn’t give them excuses to play this crap.”

[agentvalerie-deactivated2015122]

Somehow she managed to grab another drink from someone passing by, and soon she was downing that. “God knows, I certainly haven’t heard of any other colleges gettin’ down to Kidz Bop.”

[alexislind]

“No Homo somehow manages to be the worst of the playlist, though.” God, when that one had come on, it was all she could do to not drown all the alcohol in the room. That horror was one she did not intend on living again.

[agentvalerie-deactivated2015122]

“Give me a ‘sec—” She wasn’t drunk enough for this yet. She brought whatever she was drinking to her lips, tipping her head back as she skulled the rest of it. “–Alright, now we can do the Kidz Bop Slide.”

[alexislind]

“Same,” Alexis said dryly, taking another swig of her beer. “Is this just a SHIELD thing, or do all colleges dance to Kidz Bop at their raves? It’s almost enough to make me consider transferring. Almost.”

[nexusbeinga]

“On a normal night I definitely would not do the Kidz Bop Slide but my brain has melted and,” She glanced down. She was tapping her foot. “Apparently my feet want to dance. So let’s go. Let’s do it. You will be witness to my downhill spiral.”

[alexislind]

“We’re here, right? In some ways, we’ve already spiraled.” Alexis cha-cha’d real smooth, as if to demonstrate. Even middle school bar mitzvahs hadn’t been this cringeworthy. “Who created Kidz Bop? I’m gonna volunteer them for my one-way trip to Pluto.”

[alexislind]

Don’t let ops or comms tell you otherwise, but this was totally scitech’s party. Alexis leaned against the wall of the Boiler Room, cradling a beer bottle and looking around for someone she knew. Technically she wasn’t supposed to be drinking with her meds, but one bottle wasn’t going to hurt her. She’d done the math. (She was an astrophysicist, not a chemist, but... same difference. All the same to an ops/comms student, anyway.)

Despite the rave being a supposed “secret”, the entire school, both student and faculty, was here. Alexis was pretty sure she’d seen Professor Coulson threatening to sing karaoke earlier, and everyone knew Skye had hacked the music. Besides, there wasn’t a way it could get weirder than the last dance. Absentmindedly, she wondered what the teachers’ RateMyProfessors pages looked like.

Finally, she saw someone she knew. “Hey!” she said, coming up to them. “Care to do the Kidz Bop Slide?” Or turn it off all together? she added silently.

[wrpalmer]

Send “✆” for a morning text. Send “✉” for a text that wasn’t sent. Send “☎” for a rushed text. Send “⁇” for a drunk text. Send “ø” for a late night text. Send “✘” for a hateful text.

[alexislind]

TFLN \\ to: alexis

(403): I just saw that blonde chick you wanna bang rolling down the hall wearing a Thor mask..

> (587) Wow. We're meant to be..

(603): you just stared at your feet and said some shit about the molecules dancing and how you had just solved physics.

(248): i can't wait to go to hell

> (1-248) yeah...all of my friends will be there for sure

(856): i stole nothing, broke nothing, and stabbed nothing. aren't you proud of me?

(518): Dude I wish you were here. I'm innthe back seat and it looks like outer space and everything feels like rice. idk. wtf.

(456): im naked on webcam to her boyfriend, but im playing neopets at the same time, so its all evened out

(253): You just kept taking about baking cornbread and doing your physics. Even drunk assed random you is a better student than me.

(317): sweetheart all i remember is you throwing up and saying "i thought things would be better now that barack obama is president"

(519): Of course i made out w him. He was painted green. You know of my secret longing for the Hulk.

(717): this text is just filler to avoid a lull in the conversation

[alexislind]

TFLN \\ from: alexis

(862): I need to cry about outer space to someone. Can I call you?

(978): If we try hard enough and believe in ourselves, we can still make it to Wendy's before they close

(203): you called me drunk last night to talk about summoning sex demons with magic WTF

(919): i want to platonically make out with them, platonically. in the back of this minivan

(618): I may have just tried to argue quantum entanglement as the reason I was still in her bed.

(720): The ONLY reason I am doing laundry is because all my sweatpants are dirty.

(978): I also need to get my life together but instead I just eat spoonfuls of Nutella. We can't win 'em all

(314): I can already tell this is gonna be one of those parties where we sit across the room and text about people.

(210): did you know gatorade and rum go really good together

> (1-210) Are you doing depressed science again

> > (210) maybe

(408): I just made easy mac in my blender. Beat that.

(720): All of my friends are hooking up and here I am, the lone demisexual, looking for someone to eat these tostitos with me.

(323): GOOGLE HAS JUST RELEASED AN UPDATE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO CATCH POKEMON USING MAPS. Pack your shit, our time has COME.

[alexislind]

samsongregory:

Samson laughed, loudly, at the pun, running a hand through his hair. “Wow, okay, that was a good one. I doubt the winter will be quiet though, if I have anything to do with it. I like screaming snowball raids, personally.” He paused when she said scitech, and he looked around for a moment. “Oh, well shit, I’m completely nowhere that I thought I was. You do all the smartsy shit?”

“I suppose it’s the ‘smartsy shit’,” Alexis said. “But really we just fuck around all day and call it science. And then try to write equations that describe it later. Besides those, it’s actually pretty fun. But I guess everyone would say that about their own divisions, and find the other ones incredibly boring. No offense,” she quickly added with a smile. “What division have I just offended for you?”

[alexislind]

agenteleanorsummers:

“Hopefully it’ll cool off before ops has to do anything major outside. I’m comms, by the way. Eleanor. Are you science?”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Alexis said. “It’s been great, being here, getting to study what I love. I’m Alexis, by the way. Sorry.” She offered her hand for the other girl to shake.