the mysterious disappearance of peter quill ✧ buzzfeed unsolved & peter quill
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inspired by: this post
summary: in a shocking turn of events, an episode of buzzfeed unsolved becomes solved.
word count: 1,331
warnings?: okay i don’t know how accurately i was able to portray ryan and shane but let’s pretend i did well,
Twitter was always a mixed bag. Especially when you were a person in the public eye, it could be particularly difficult trying to navigate social media. When it’s your job, you have to. You have to interact with people who have opinions on you, no matter how good or how bad. And, sure, while you usually weren’t directly interacting by replying or retweeting or liking or whatever with people who are intensely negative towards you, you still have to see them in the search of the good.
Ryan was usually the one to go through Twitter, especially since he was the one seeking out comments to include in videos that he was in charge of. It could be fun, sometimes, seeing people’s different theories about the cases they’ve covered, seeing the cool edits and amazing fan art, and the like. Today, though, was a lot more interesting than normal.
In looking through the tags for himself and Shane, he found a thread that sparked his interest. In the last season of Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime years ago, they had covered the mysterious disappearance of eight year old Peter Quill from St. Charles, Missouri. Quill was the child of a single mother, raised by her and her father. Unfortunately, Quill’s mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She didn’t live long after her diagnosis. In the immediate aftermath of his mother’s death, Quill was reported to have ran out of the hospital, crying, and was never seen again. Search efforts for the boy quickly ran cold. It was almost as if someone had dropped down from the sky, picked up the boy, and flew far, far away from his home.
Shane, naturally, had mocked Ryan when he regaled the theory that Quill had been abducted by aliens. Admittedly, Ryan knew that it was a ridiculous claim. Even in a world where there were genetically enhanced super soldiers, scientists who transformed into giant green rage machines, and people from literal legend, it did seem a bit off the wall to divert to the classic “UFO picks up person in the middle of a field” scenario. But, the beauty of Buzzfeed Unsolved was throwing in the outlandish theories in the mix of the more realistic scenarios to lighten the mood.
The episode had ended as it always does, with Ryan declaring that the mysterious disappearance of Peter Quill would forever remain unsolved. After going through the Post Mortem episode discussing the viewer’s comments on the episode, Ryan admittedly hadn’t given the case much thought. Sure, it was an interesting case and was one of much intrigue, but it wasn’t something that kept him awake at night, frothing at the mouth for any kind of answers.
And yet, the answers came.
Maybe.
He wasn’t sure yet.
A Twitter user had complied a thread discussing the case of Peter Quill. The user had gone through much of the same background as Ryan had done when filming the episode, but they made an interesting divergence from the typical “this case will remain unsolved” conclusion. No, instead, they had found footage of a group of heroes battling against the formidable Thanos as they tried to reverse the Blip that had happened in the five years previous.
They had compared a screenshot from the footage of one of the heroes to that of young Peter Quill. Included in those pictures was another picture from some sort of aging up software, showing that the hero from the battle could potentially be an adult Peter Quill. And, while that was compelling on its own, the user didn’t leave it there. They included a clip from the footage where someone called the man “Quill”, and the man responded.
Holy shit. Was this the answer? Had Peter Quill been alive this whole time? Had there been some sort of validity to the “been abducted by aliens” theory? Does…does he call the Avengers for comment? Can you call the Avengers? Were the Avengers even still technically an organization when half of the members are dead and one’s off-world? What the hell was he supposed to do?
With shaking hands, he pulled up his email and began to type:
To whom it may concern:
Hello, my name is Ryan Bergara. I previously worked for Buzzfeed on the series Buzzfeed Unsolved with my co-host, Shane Madej. Two years ago, we had done an episode regarding the disappearance of Peter Quill. It has since come to my attention that one of the heroes that had fought against Thanos may be the very same man.
I was wondering if you had any comment on this?
Sincerely,
Ryan Bergara
Still trembling, he clicked “send”. And now…he waits.
Ryan had gotten a response faster than he was expecting and he couldn’t be more excited about what he was told. He had to work fast now to make sure they could get some content out of this. He called a meeting with Shane and the two of them sat in one of the filming rooms, Ryan waiting for just the right moment. He had wanted this to be a surprise since it was rare that he was ever truly able to catch Shane off guard.
When the camera began rolling, Ryan cleared his throat before looking at Shane. “So, I suppose you’re wondering why you’re here today.”
Shane laughed into his cup of coffee. “More concerned that you’ve finally lost it.”
“What, was my email not normal?”
“I’m not entirely convinced you were speaking any language,” Shane said. “All I got out of it was that I needed to be here or you would track me down. Probably could’ve made it far, actually, but I wasn’t in the mood to run today.”
“Good, ‘cause I wasn’t in the mood to chase you.” He shuffled through the notecards he had. They were mostly for show, to make it seem like he was more prepared than he was. “Do you remember that episode of Unsolved we did about the disappearance of Peter Quill?”
Shane stared at him for a moment, before saying, “Wasn’t that the kid you said was abducted by aliens?”
“I didn’t say that, I said that’s what other people were saying,” Ryan defended. “Yes, that’s the case. Do you remember how the case ended?”
Shane threw his head back laughing. “That’s a terrible question! It was unsolved or else we wouldn’t have done an episode over it!”
“Well, what if I told you that we might have a solved case on our hands?”
“Oh, what, was he actually abducted by aliens?”
“Yeah, actually. This ship came down and picked me up, and now I’m called Star-Lord and—”
Shane whipped around, staring at the now-adult Peter Quill standing in the doorway. “What the fu—”
“—Peter Quill is our new history master!” the Professor announced. “Come fetch your coveted cup you have so rightly earned!”
“Cool!” Quill said, getting up from his seat and taking the small trophy. “Oh, it has jelly beans!”
“Don’t ask where those come from,” Ryan advised, laughing to himself.
After they had announced to their viewers that Peter Quill had, in fact, been abducted by aliens, Ryan and Shane invited him to be on an episode of Puppet History. They were recording one that same day, and needed a guest star after the previous one had to drop out last minute. Some of the Guardians were still having their injuries from the battle treated, so Quill agreed to film.
“Ryan, how does it feel to lose to someone who hasn’t been on Earth in over two decades?”
“Doesn’t feel great, Professor,” Ryan said with a shake of his head. “I really thought I had an advantage, but there is no advantage when the game’s rigged, is there?”
“You just think it’s rigged ‘cause you lost!” Quill said.
“Yeah, no one likes a sore loser—HEY GIVE HIM BACK!”
Quill jumped up, dropping his trophy. “Rocket, give the man his puppet back!”
