Video; un: ilikehorses

[shoplifter]

[Laura's been trying to adjust. Part of her wonders if coming here wasn't a grave mistake — she'd come thinking there are more like her, people who would accept her more willingly, and in a way, that's true. However... There are a few... annoyances. Grievances. Her rather overworked case worker Linda has been making sure she goes to school. Today isn't the best day for school, though. She's quiet and 'weird' and the other children usually aren't fond of her and her quiet but present danger.

And for Laura, well. She doesn't do well with anyone 'teaching' her. She's had too much of 'teaching' the last eleven years of her... eleven years.

She may or may not have punched another kid in the eye.

She may or may not have ditched school.

And now she sits on the top of a rather tall and dangerous brick-ish wall in the city, her feet hanging precariously off the edge. Close by, the shadow of a tram wooshes by, and somewhere out there, Linda the Case Worker is having a heart attack. Laura, however, seems more puzzled and annoyed than anything. She sits with a potentially stolen bag of mini-donuts, her favorite glasses pressed up on her forehead and her lovely albeit mildly damaged unicorn shirt clear and vibrant.]


Why do children have to go to classes? 

I can learn outside of school.


[There are mean children that exist. She's never ran into children who are so exclusionary; after all, mutants had to stick together.

And teachers aren't bad, but something about the set-up bothers her, in ways she's not sure how to explain.

Maybe it's harder to blend in than you'd think. Not that she had gone into this with any high hopes.] 

Comments

[shoplifter]

[She is suddenly too eager to run off and find this zoo.]

Are the animals happy? Are they safe?

[supersweet]

It's all good.

[ He swings his legs absently. ]

We can go now if you want. They have a student discount.

[shoplifter]

[Oh, boy, eagerness is x2 now. She looks at him more intensely.]

What is that? Discount?

[supersweet]

[ Hmm. Jon looks a little crafty. ]

It means you pay less because you go to school. A lot of places make things cheaper for students. Food, attractions, books . . .

[ This might actually be the best way to get Laura to go to school. ]

[shoplifter]

[....... Oh man, that does sound nice. But.]

Why not sneak in?

[laura no]

[supersweet]

[ Jon shrugs. ]

Because these places need money to run and the animals need a home. So while sneaking in is cool and all, it's important to make sure they've still got a place to stay.

[shoplifter]

[Damn you.]

... It's good to have a home for them.

[Spoken in defeat, as she dusts her pants off. She's precariously close to the ledge, but like Jon, she doesn't seem very worried about the height.]

[supersweet]

[ Jon isn't completely hopeless. ]

Yeah. So you wanna go?

[shoplifter]

[She stands quiet in her thoughts. Zoo.

Well... She can't lie to herself; it sounds great. Standing straighter with her half-eaten bag of mini donuts, she nods.]

[supersweet]

Sweet! Let's get going.

[ Jon glances at a suitable place to jump off before he does and waits until Laura does the same. ]

It's not too far from here.

[shoplifter]

[... Alright, alright, you win. She follows quickly, effortlessly jumping down as well. When they're on the path and starting on their new little adventure, she gives pause before offering the open donut bag toward Jon.

Do you want one, man? They're really good.]

[supersweet]

Thanks!

[ Jon beams, taking it politely and having a bite. He eats heavily, though he doesn't burn as much energy as his father. ]

Which animals do you wanna see first?

[shoplifter]

I don't know.

[It's a genuine uncertainty, certainly.]

I haven't seen any before. Only horses.

[supersweet]

Oh! Well, they have lions, tigers . . . a few alien-ish animals. Reptiles and sometimes a few fish tanks. We can see all of them, I'm sure.

[ Hopefully. The zoo tends to be a all day thing, but Jon is sure they can make it work. ]

[shoplifter]

[She tries to match these names up with creatures she's heard in passing.]

Like snakes and lizards.

[The nurses had mentioned reptiles. Snakes, lizards, things like that. It was mostly because of Gideon. Poor Gideon. He was a mutant like the rest of them, but worse, the world would know it by looking at him; he'd have a hard life with humans.]

[supersweet]

Yeah, like that! See, you know some stuff already.

[ He gestures with his hands, trying to show how big and wide some animals are as he rambles on. ]

I kind of like big animals because they always move so slowly.

[shoplifter]

Slowly? Doesn't that make it easier for them to be attacked?

[Her trained side is flummoxed by the thought. She's not sure where she'd be if she moved slowly in life. Re-captured by those bad people... and perhaps put down with a bullet, maybe. She tries not to entertain those thoughts.]

[supersweet]

[ Jon doesn't pick up those thoughts. Though if she had mentioned where her fears come from, Jon would have understood. His parents had been overprotective for those very same reasons. ]

Not all animals need to move fast. Plus, in a zoo, they don't really need to. A zoo is like . . . a luxury hotel for animals. They rarely need to do anything.

[shoplifter]

I like hotels.

[But she looks to be thinking quite intensely about all this.]

The people who work there, they're nice to them, sí?

[supersweet]

Yeah, always.

[ Jon shifts the backpack on his shoulders. ]

I've never met a bad one. You can't work there unless you really love animals and know what you're doing. The same kind of goes for schools. Sometimes, they may not always get it but they're not there for the money.

[shoplifter]

Bad people aren't always there for the money.

[But she says it without much fight to it. She understands what he means, even if she has a hard time seeing it so easily, herself. Maybe that's supposed to be logical... supposed to be what anyone thinks. She has a hard time telling what 'normal' thinking is. She continues walking along.]

You like your teachers?

[supersweet]

[ Jon shrugs halfheartedly. ]

I'm not gonna trust them with my secrets or anything, but I trust they'll do right by me as a kid.

[ It helps that Jon is a walking lie detector. It doesn't always work, but being able to perceive the truth in someone's heart beat has helped him out a lot. ]

They just have fixed ideas of it. Doesn't mean they're deliberately trying to make things worse. Adults are kinda like that. They have their own ideas about everything. And sure, they listen but they don't always get it.

[shoplifter]

I don't trust them, but... some are good. Some are very good.

[Nate's mom, she was good. She wanted to help her. She died because of her.

She looks down, saddened, hands fists in her pockets.]

I don't want the good people to... get hurt.

[supersweet]

[ Jon pauses. That's an interesting thing for a kid to say. Especially someone close to his age. ]

Then you should learn how to protect them.

[shoplifter]

[She shakes her head.]

... Sometimes that isn't enough.

Sometimes it doesn't matter -- how well you fight.