"Does anyone here have an interest in... Space?"

Max stood next to Daniel, smiling and staring at what looked like a sea of campers due to his short height. Nobody really passed him any sort of glance, as they were just mostly focused on the terrifying blond man that started spatting the same useless bullshit he did with every camp. It was the whole negative emotions come from space rant that Max was forced to sit through every time they cleansed a camo together. He would never admit it to anyone, but they've done this so many times, that he recently started to doubt him.

He frowned, and locked eyes with the ground. He knew that silently doubting stuff like that was a bad habit, and would probably end in him getting in trouble if he mentioned anything about it.

His heart pounded louder than he wanted it to, and he felt his shaky hand reach into his pocket.

"Okay, I'm going to stop you right there."

Two necks snapped, one louder than the other. Max pushed his other hand into pocket to prevent anyone from wondering why he only had one hand in his pocket, and stared at the kid who interrupted Daniel.

"Are you suggesting that the massive explosion responsible for the creation of the universe is also responsible for some sort of endless, radioactive evil?"

It was Neil.

"Oh, no. Not at all! The Big Bang didn't create the universe. It was just a side effect of the Millenia Wars, started by Zeemuug and the Galactic Confederacy!" He wiggled his hands in the air to emphasize his point.

"Right." He rolled his eyes.

Max had a lot of small trinkets in his large front pocket, but the deadliest would have to be his crooked knife. It was originally meant for sacrificing small animals or much larger animals to please whatever God Daniel believed in at the time, but the more he heard the kid drone on about how he was wrong, the harder he gripped on the weapon's handle. He wasn't planning on pulling it out right now, as that would result in him getting it taken out or getting them both kicked out before their plan had even got put into action, but he knew he was going to have to if someone would attempt to hurt Daniel.

Daniel scooted closer to the one that spoke out until he got uncomfortably close, grinning from ear to ear.

"You must be Neil. David told me about you were quite the... inquisitive little fellow."

"Hey, buddy. let's try to recognize some.. personal space here..." he made him back up, pushing his face away.

"Why do you feel the need to question everything, Neil?" His neck cracked, "What good has it led to?"

"Well. For one, I'm not walking around, talking about "Zeemuug"."

"But, are you happy with your life? Are you at peace? Or do you find yourself filled with anxiety and doubt?" He took a large step back, and looked over at Max, expecting him to nail the minimal lines he was allowed to say, "Doesn't the world seem awfully scary?"

"It does!" Someone agreed before Max could've said it himself.

Daniel looked over at the kid.

"Well, what if I told you it didn't have to be?"

"I don't really know what you're selling here, Daniel... But I am buying it."

Max laughed a little.

"Then help me, help you, help others!"

The brawny kid grabbed the theater kid, and started choking him out.

"Yeah! I'm helping!"

"Excellent! Now, who else wants to help and reach ascension?"

"What's going on here?" David asked, poking his head through the doorway. Behind him was Nikki, one of the only campers that Max knew by name.

"Hello David! We were just about to-"

"We already have activities for the day planned out," someone deadpanned from the crowd, "We were focusing on what Nikki signed up for."

Daniel's smile didn't change.

"Oh, I see."

"Don't worry, Daniel! You can watch the rest of the campers, while I give the new camper a tour!"

Max looked up at Daniel, silently hoping that he would get it and convince David to let Max come along with them.

But Daniel didn't meet his gaze. He was smiling, his eye was twitching, and he was trying his best not to crack his neck.

"Of course!" He said finally.

"Great! Nikki, could you help him along?"

Nikki didn't dare touch Daniel's hand to lead him out the door, she only motioned for him and the other kids to follow her.

Daniel shot Max a final angry glare before he disappeared, leaving Max with chills.

Once everyone was out, David looked down at Max, and grinned as wide as he could.

"Let's get started, huh?"

Max didn't find the tour very entertaining. David's overall enthusiasm reminded him of Daniel's whenever he had to force his happiness to please the other counselors or kids they came across, just neverending and not sounding like it would break anytime soon. There was a video he got to see near the end of it. He was excited at first to find that he'd get a break from hearing David's annoying voice ramble on and on about how great everything was, but was quickly disappointed to find that the video was almost exactly that, just in terrible quality. Still, the counselor seemed to like it, so Max had to sit through it.

When it ended, it took Max everything he had not to sigh in relief.

When he saw Daniel walking towards them, face stretched into one of the worst forced smiles he saw him in, Max immediately turned to David.

"When's dinner being served?" He asked softly, tugging on David's shirt to get his attention.

"Thanks for reminding me, Max!" He ruffled his hair, stopping as soon as Max slapped it off.

The campers all filed into the mess hall, with David not too far behind them.

"Max." Daniel grumbled, tugging at his sweater and pulling him back even though he knew he wasn't going to leave without him. When the ten-year-old looked up, he was almost frightened to see that Daniel wasn't smiling, but frowning. He was obviously annoyed, but not mad to the point where he'd crack his neck every 5 seconds.

"What happened, Daniel? Do we need to leave again?"

"no, we're just... delayed a little. We need to stay here a while longer than I would've wanted."

Max's face visibly lit up.

"Can I hang out with the other kids?"

Daniel tried to glare at him, but his expression remained somewhat peaceful.

"Why?"

"I don't know, I guess I thought it will help to get close to these kids because, you know, we're going to be here a while, and the other counselors and campers seem to be very close." He successfully kept himself from stammering.

Daniel muttered to himself for a minute, almost turning away from him completely.

"Well?"

Daniel looked back, and the kid visibly tensed, but was relieved to find that Daniel wasn't going to hurt him.

"Go ahead."

Max sprinted towards the mess hall, only to step inside the building as quietly as he possibly could to avoid having any attention drawn to himself. He was happy to see that, once Nikki had spotted him, that she was excited to find out whether or not Max wanted to sit with her and Neil.

The answer was yes. Yes, he would like to hang out them.