♦ postcode envy // a tryout

[skywishes01]

x

the crew:
anath / the pilot
benvolio / the co-pilot-slash-tech expert
calliope / the resident alien

username: skywishes01
name: ray quinton
gender: male
a tryout for iuno's readopt ♥

no posting please! / pixel creds

[skywishes01]

[ anath. ]

They weren't supposed to stop. Not here. They had a deadline to meet, goods to deliver, and they were running out of time. But... she was curious. What kind of person would be here, all alone, in this part of the galaxy?

So she didn't even realise she was bringing the ship down to land until they'd touched down in a haze of dust and heat. Her copilot - term used loosely - looked at her quizzically. "What are you doing?"

"Just give me a second. I'll be right back."

The hydraulics on the door announced her exit with a loud hiss. The boy was still waiting there, in the middle of this desert wasteland of a planet. They'd been flying rather low; but she still wasn't quite sure how she spotted him, a lone figure trekking slowly across the land.

He looked... tired. His clothes were clean enough, but worn, tattered, and the rucksack on his back was worryingly small. He was staring at her, at the ship. She could see the guardedness battling with the exhaustion in his eyes; but he held her gaze, steady. A quiet determination, she thought. He's a fighter.

Like me.

"Hey." she called out, jogging towards him. "What's your name?"

The boy was silent, studying her face intently- before allowing a small, easy smile to slip onto his face. "Ray."

"Well, Ray." When she looked back on this moment, she knew she would have no idea why she did what she did next. "I don't know where you're going...

"... but do you want to come with us?"

262 / 1000

[skywishes01]

[ benvolio. ]

He fit right in. A missing puzzle piece, the final cog in a machine you didn't know was broken. Magnetic. That was the best way to describe him, Beni thought. Your eyes couldn't help but follow him around a room; you wanted to be near him, talk with him, smile with him.

He was good at that. Making you feel special. He was more than willing to help Anath out around the ship, and he'd proven himself quite the cook. (Which was nice; even Beni could appreciate the change from their staple freeze-dried meals.) And he'd talk with Calliope, sometimes for hours on ends, on everything from this universe to the next; animals, chocolates, that pretty view out the window. He was a good listener, as well- probably the only person who could put up with Beni's own rambles about software and code and supercomputers.

And yet, and yet- there was so much they didn't know. He was connected to everybody and nobody, all at once; after all, where had he come from? Who really was he? They knew very little about his past, his history. Like a distant star, Beni mused; easy to love, hard to truly understand.

Easy to befriend, yes. But hard to make him stay.

He was a distant star, and under the soft smiles and twinkling eyes, his heart belonged to no one.

490 / 1000

[skywishes01]

[ calliope. ]

She couldn’t exactly say when it had changed. It probably didn’t exist, really, that single split-second moment when you stopped being one thing and became another. He wasn’t untouchable, distant anymore. His smiles were that little bit wider, eyes a little bit brighter, laughs a little bit louder. And his heart, she'd seen, was much bigger than anyone realised.

When she’d realized it? That she knew, at least. They’d stopped off for refuelling - a rather small, shady moon, run-down and smoky and grey. Ray had wandered off, as usual; he’d never been one for sitting still. When they’d gone looking for him, they’d found him cornered in a dark alleyway, five with knives against one without.

And it was that instant, when the white-hot rage flashed through her blood, that she knew.

“Leave him alone.” Calliope could sense the pure anger in Anath’s voice as she activated her gun.

The leader - though he hardly deserved that title - whipped around with a smirk on his face, which quickly faded when he saw her. “Oh...uh, Annie! Didn’t know, he was, one of yours.” The vindictive glee was hard to resist; everyone in the galaxy knew that picking a fight with Anath was a bad, bad idea.

“Don’t call me that, Vito. Now scram.”

When they'd all run off, a soft voice broke the tension. Ray’s. “Thank you.”

“Don’t be silly.” Calliope answered. She skipped over to engulf him in a hug. “You’re one of us now.”

And he was. Time was a miraculous thing indeed; making strangers into friends into family.

755 / 1000

[skywishes01]

If someone asked him who he was and what he was doing in this universe, he'd show him the picture.

He never meant to stay. A week, maybe. Two, tops. Running away from Earth was exactly that; running, and if he stopped, he knew the memories would catch up with him. Because love only hurt in the end, wasn't that right? He told himself that. But he still couldn't make himself leave. One more day, he'd plead with his heart. Just a little more time. The three of them - they reminded him what it was like.

They reminded him why it was worth it.

It wasn't the best photo. The angle was weird, half of their faces were cut off, and the focus wasn't great. But when he looked at Calliope's wonder-filled eyes, and Anath's half-smile, and Beni's sheepish grin - it warmed him, just for a moment.

And him, in the middle of them all. Usually he hated photos of himself. Always fake. He always looked fake. And yet, somehow, here, in this selfie, with these people, it was real.

Hiding it had been useless, after all. He knew what kind of person he was. Not by description, no. Confident, friendly, cool, nice? That was for others to decide; the only thing he controlled was his heart.

And he knew, looking at all of them, together, that he was them, and they were him, and his heart beat for them all.

998 / 1000