(the legionnaire's lament)

[recanting]

The Bookshelf seems hell bent on only giving him Ian Fleming novels. It had been amusing for the first couple of times, but after a while novelty had worn off. Especially considering how badly Alex wanted to read something that didn't pertain to his old life back in England. Not to mention the fact that he thought James Bond was all in all a pretty

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[teenagerenegade]

It's not unusual, finding someone standing over something like that, with that look particular look on his face. Charlie's been on the island for long enough to barely even mark it with more than a glance. Those moments are almost always personal; he doesn't want to be a dick and interfere. His face is still kind of a mess and he brushes his fingers against the tape across his nose as he smiles.

"My Mom had one like that," he says, quietly. "My Grandfather earned it, I think. Or one kind of like it, anyway. An American version."

[recanting]

Alex hears the voice and his head lifts, very acutely knowing that there was no time in which the Rec Room was empty from few times he's seen it or passed by. And he doesn't mind the company either way, because it's not like he's received anything to be ashamed about. If anything, the child in him wants to run around yelling: THIS IS MY DAD'S to the entire island. Mostly because Ian Rider had never told him very much about his parents, and he therefore never had any answers when people would ask him the inevitables. What were they like? The answer was always the same. I don't know.

"Seems like something good to keep around," Alex replies, and then slowly turns around, trying to hide the wince that appears on his face when he takes in the broken nose and the tape on his face. "...Were you in a bad fight?"

It doesn't seem polite to suggest that it looks like he lost, though. And badly. So Alex adds: "I suppose the other guy looks worse."

[teenagerenegade]

"The other guy was a fluffy unicorn," explains Charlie and he's really, really hard to embarrass, virtually impossible, but maybe he does blush a touch at that. "But my boyfriend totally disemboweled it, so it's all good. Nose'll be fine. Might even give me some character."

[recanting]

It's hard not to laugh.

It's very hard not to laugh. But Alex is trying his best because he doesn't want to be unkind. He's heard things about the stuffed toys attacking on Halloween, but those were vague terms that he hadn't really believed. Well, magical or not, he now had to concede that there was something pretty weird going on here.

Fighting down the urge to smile, he shakes his head. "That's alright then. I hear the killer toys were vicious, anyways."

[teenagerenegade]

Charlie knows exactly how ridiculous the whole situation is. His head's stopped throbbing and his nose doesn't really hurt unless his jars it. So he figures he's winning.

"Yeah. It was pretty rough. I've seen people live almost normal lives with noses like this though."

[recanting]

"I think so, yeah," Alex promises that he's not trying to poke fun, even if that's very much what it looks like at the moment. He's simply impudent by nature. This is the reason why he clears his throat and adopts his most serious face, trying to put things to rights. "Anyway, I didn't mean to laugh or anything. It probably hurt pretty badly when you got it, I bet."

[teenagerenegade]

A serious expression sits on Charlie's face almost as well as it does on the other kids. He holds it for a moment or two before he flashes a grin.

"Worst pain ever," he says, and then he offers his hand. "Hey. I'm Charlie Bartlett."

[recanting]

It's that moment when Alex decides that he likes this kid, Charlie Bartlett, because he hadn't managed to hold his serious expression any longer than he had. The offered hand is accepted, although languidly in that teenaged boy way, not in the way that he shook the hands of adults and the eventual megalomaniac he crossed paths with. "I'm Alex Rider. Nice to meet you."

He had a grand total of four friends back home. He wasn't exactly a boy who many could relate to, even if they didn't know about his side job. It was weird that people on the island were so outgoing, but then, when you're stuck on a desert island you might as well be, he figures.

[teenagerenegade]

"I haven't seen you around," he says, with a little tilt of his head, a crooked grin. "Which doesn't mean that you're necessarily new - I've kind of been in recovery for a couple of days and I work in the Psych office a hell of a lot, so..."

[recanting]

"I'm pretty new," he agrees amicably enough with a shrug. He used to think that he was good at hiding his emotions and faking it, but people on this island all seemed to have a built-in radar when it came to newcomers. "Oh, don't tell me you're a psychologist."

He looks a little young, but then again, so is Alex who has quickly learned to have no expectations from an island whose youth all seemed to be extraordinary in some manner.

[teenagerenegade]

"Yeah," says Charlie, having the good grace to look ever so slightly embarrassed. "I qualified earlier int he year. I don't really have any patients yet."

[recanting]

Alex wasn't the biggest of fans, and it would only get worse if he knew that Ms. Blunt had secretly hired people to analyze him after every single mission. He didn't, though, and so this teasing was harmless. "Well, congratulations," Alex nods, and he means it too. People didn't trust adults, for the more part. Maybe they'd trust a kid to hear their problems instead.

Obviously this train of thought didn't apply to himself. "Did you go to school for it and everything?"

[teenagerenegade]

"I trained here," says Charlie, nodding. "I mean, I was really interested at home, but I was too young to do anything about it. I'm twenty soon, so I guess I'd be in college at home."

He shrugs.

"You find things to keep you busy and live a life, I guess."