This is the REAL Attayear chapter 33.  Parts of it (especially at the start) are very similar to the prank version that was up yesterday, but you might want to read those parts through with the same level of detail as you usually read, because parts are definitely altered as well.

For those of you who haven't read my other fics and might have been wondering about the seeming randomness of the jokes/puns at the end of the prank chapter:

1.  The code and the oath is a reference to my Xiumin fic The Blood Brother Code.

2.  Exoplanet/Endoplanet, The Stag, superspy (but sadly not telekinetic superspy antlers) and the superpowers are all references to my Chen fic On Ebb.

3.  The shirt rip and "surprise, motherf*ckers!" from Luhan is a reference to my Sehun fic Deer Luhan, With Love and also featured in the second TBBC April 1st chapter last year.

(For any of you wondering about my Kyungsoo fic, that had a separate prank chapter all to itself :D)

Most of the boys on the Attayear initially seemed to want to make the best of a bad situation.  Some requested to go out and explore, which Minseok and Jino advised against because of the colonialists, and the rest were happy to take the opportunity to learn more about the machine that they were in and help with repairs, especially those who were also doing engineering.  After the fight between Minhwan and Baekhyun, a lot was made of the fact that they would have to put aside differences and work together if they wanted to survive and get anything done, but it was clear by mid-afternoon that the students had already begun to take sides and that it wasn’t going anywhere soon.

The rotas had been replaced by a rolling list of shifts that people needed to manage around the clock so that the Attayear would be in the best shape possible as soon as possible and so that there was always an active team doing something.  Breaks altered between a fifteen-minute one every two hours and a four-hour one every six hours, and by the time the third of these short breaks had rolled around, Jino had already had to separate five small scuffles because tensions were so high and everybody was looking for somebody to blame about their situation.

Jinsu was joined in the injured brigade by two technicians and five boys who’d all been hurt down in the engine rooms when the Attayear had been completely out of control.  Several were sporting broken limbs of some kind and all were covered in cuts and bruises, and Jongin’s friend Taehyun, who was with them, had nasty burns on his hands and arms.  He offered to let Jinsu see under the bandages with a detached sort of joviality, and Jinsu refused.

Several others who were still fit for manual work also had burns, but from the conversation of the others as they did less strenuous stuff like check all the joints, screws and equipment generally in the Attayear for any defects and finding ones that needed resecuring for the more able-bodied to deal with, Jinsu discovered that one technician and one of the boys from the school that had won fifth place had burns so bad from the overheating equipment that they were going to need hospitalisation the instant they were back in the present.  The oldest technician, who was also qualified as a nurse, had managed to scrape around in the sickbay to treat them as best he could, but it wasn’t certain whether their lives were out of danger.  It was a sobering shock to Jinsu, but, selfishly, information she hoped wouldn’t get out, because Minhwan was bound to make a meal of it.

Make a meal of it Minhwan did at the end of the third long break after Jino had lost his cool with seven boys who’d thought it was a good idea to go out exploring beyond the crater at the top of Mount Baekdu, but not in the way that Jinsu had thought.  It was one of the occasions when about half of them had a break at the same time.  Jinsu had managed to hunt Chanyeol down after a three-hour nap and had proceeded to spend some time sitting in the kitchen with him, since he was starving after all the manual labour (not that either of them were particularly competent cooks) and wanted to forage.  She reckoned her cousin had eaten his way through almost an entire box of fruit by the time he was done, but that wasn’t as important as having company and somebody who was actually family to talk to about her worries and insecurities about being given the mammoth task of trying to combat the coding.  Jongdae was probably the only other person she could have confided in like that, but when she’d initially gone to look for him, it was to find him passed out on his bed with his head over the edge, snoring away as though he hadn’t slept for days.

“This is so dumb,” Chanyeol said, absently biting into the rind.  Jinsu normally would have taken it off him, if not for overhearing Junmyeon telling somebody during the previous break that watermelon rind was both edible and healthy, even if it tasted awful.  “I had no idea you were so good at coding.  Baek told us you were the one who shut down most of the machine by yourself, though it looked like he’d much rather go through a round of thumb screws than admit that.  Sehun wouldn’t stop asking him how both of you had managed to come out of the computer deck alive after being left there with no supervision and Baek mentioned some rubbish about making sure you didn’t screw up and get us all killed because Minseok had asked him to, but Baek is not a computer scientist.”

Jinsu was not in the least bit surprised that Baekhyun had tried to downplay her role.

“Why didn’t I know my cousin was so intelligent?” Chanyeol lamented to himself.  Jinsu tried to think of something witty to respond with rather than the truth of because you never got to know me, but before she could, both of them jumped at loud shouts breaking out not that far away from the kitchen.  Heart skipping a beat, Jinsu grabbed at Chanyeol’s shoulder (she was sitting in his lap), and turned to face him, almost whacking her head against his.

Chanyeol groaned.  “Is that Minhwan again?  Can we just kick him off and leave him here when we move on?”

Jinsu had to admit that the idea was beyond appealing.  In fact, she’d wondered back in Balhae whether or not that might be possible, because Minhwan probably would have been best buddies with Hae Insu, but there were two problems with that – the first being that it seemed unfair to unleash somebody like Minhwan on people who already had one massive tool like Hae Insu to deal with, and the second being the havoc that could be caused by deserting anybody in a different timeframe.

“Grandfather clauses,” she pointed out, not bothering to hide her disappointment.  “Unless he has the self-restraint and sense of duty to become a hermit, no.  Just imagine what his kids will be like.  He’s enough of an aspiring megalomaniac and we live in a century where it’s sometimes possible to constrain that.”

They both flinched as somebody else shouted back.  Then Chanyeol sat up with a start, almost ejecting Jinsu from her human seat.

“, I think he’s fighting with Baekhyun again.  I need to go break this up before somebody gets murdered.”

He was right, and it took all of about ten seconds to find the fight, which had already attracted quite a crowd.  Fortunately, it looked like it hadn’t got physical, but it also looked like it wasn’t far off.

“You could have got us killed because of some dumb family feud!” Minhwan was bellowing.  “Have you seen the burns Juyoung has because of the stunt you pulled while we were trying to contain the boilers?  You’ve placed all our lives in danger—”

“I haven’t done anything—” Baekhyun spat back, his hands balling into fists at his sides.  His body was quivering with tension and Jinsu wouldn’t have put it past him to go in for the attack at any moment.  Minhwan looked j