riverview | Video. A Friendly School PSA.

[The feed opens with a huffy looking Laura, sitting in front of the screen like it's a PSA announcement or some such — and judging from the glancing up at what must assuredly be a teacher, it's exactly that. Or something. She scowls at the camera again before looking down at the paper held in her dainty little hands that have totally never hurt anyone ever, no sir. She reads it blankly, and it's very clearly she's the worst podium speaker in the entire universe:]

I have agreed.... to read aloud, so that I will not be suspended for the week.

I would like to formally apologize for anyone I have ever stabbed, kicked, punched, or bitten... It was not my intention to hurt anyone and I will try my best from this point on to control my temper, both — in the complex and at school. [She wrinkles her nose, looks deadpan at the camera, and continues.] I am sorry to Tabitha for shoving her nose in the grass during recess. Even if it was because she was being unkind to another student, it does not give me the right to use... 'force'.

And I am sorry for using... Spanish expletives toward Jared, and hitting him in the throat with his own backpack. Even if he was being rude, it does not... excuse violence. [She looks so annoyed, save her.] From this point on, I will do my best to stay in school... for the whole school day. I will try not to leave past the wall.

[She puts the paper on the desk, calmly.]

... And I will not steal the chocolate milk from the cafeteria anymore.

[More gravely:]

But if Susan insults my accent ever again, I will shove her into the trash ca—

[huh the feed ended suddenly how about that

... she's in detention now]

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Well, Darling, I wasn't born this old, that's how. I think you're like to find a fair few of us who've been there.

[ He pauses for a moment. He shouldn't be saying this at all, wouldn't a responsible adult not encourage this?

...Good thing he's never much cared about being "responsible." ]

Not as often as I'd like, but a fair amount, yes. I was worse at your age, I think.

I am Laura, not Darling... I don't know a Darling.

[He's at least on a topic she can understand well, though...! Very familiar.]

I do fight a lot... I don't hurt kids the same as adults, though.

Kids aren't as bad as adults.

It's not a name, it's-- [ Right, terms of endearment are right out, then. ] --not important.

[ His brow furrows a little at that explanation, however. Bullying he gets. Countless kids have been there, though it pings on that deep, buried, horribly visceral level there anger is old but never quite dead. This, on the other hand-- ] Adults?

[ It's a careful question, void of any of the casual ease the earlier conversation might've had, where anger and nostalgia mixed with a little vicarious schadenfreude. This is different. Gravity shifts entirely. ] What do you mean?

[Oh, we're at this hurdle of the conversation — Laura is very much getting used to explaining, because if she doesn't? Well, it'll just be weird. And people won't really get her very well, will they? Especially when the claws come out. Still... she's not sure how much she can really trust him, what with being a new face and all.

That said, she's always fairly confident she can stab anyone who would betray her sliver of extended trust. Fairly.]

I lived in a bad place, before.

It made people outside think it was helping kids, but they were teaching us how to hurt people.

[And they were hurt, too, in the process, of course. She says it all fairly straight forward, a casual energy to it, albeit just somber enough to not be about the weather.]

[ Child soldiers. He doesn't need to hear it explicitly to understand her meaning. Well, fuck. He's traveled the world enough to know that asking, as disbelief really wants him to, whether that still happens or not is a moot point: of course it does. He's simply been lucky enough that in his specific line of work, the depth of criminal depravity (sometimes his own, sometimes that of the corporations fighting the wars they're hired for) hasn't crossed that moral event horizon.

He doesn't look all that shocked. He knows he doesn't, and frankly, that feels even worse. But he can wish all he wants to that something like this was still scandalous and unfathomable, that won't bring any ounce of innocence back on either side. ]

Sounds like you were lucky to get out.

[ People struggle to remove themselves from less complicated affairs, at least. ]

And that's all the more reason to be subtle, even when people deserve it, hm? Much harder to place blame.

I can handle blame... but I understand what you are saying.

[Look at that, she's actually listening to the point made.

Small victories Eames. Enjoy that, this kid is stubborn as hell.]

... I just have a bad temper, sometimes.

If it makes you feel any better, you recognized that a helluva lot earlier than I managed to.

[ The kid will be alright. Probably. ]

And alright, maybe not blame. The less she can prove means less she gets away with. In theory, it's an easier way to get her to shut it. Just don't learn that a broken bone too late, alright?

[ Though whether he means Laura's or Laura breaking someone else's remains to be seen. ]

I won't break her bones. It wouldn't be fair to fight her seriously.

[See? She can be very fair! Only to kids, though. Adults is off the table.]

[ Protip, Laura: adults usually deserve it. ]

No, of course not. [ Does he sound amused? No, never, that would be encouraging this. ] All I mean is throwing things is a bit obvious. Hit her in a way she can't prove, and who's getting in trouble?

[She nods firmly.]

I will be less obvious.

[E AM ES DON'T TEACH HER THAT]

... Who are you?

[ It'll take a little work; subtlety is a slow thing that requires patience to utilize and patience still to learn. But the kid seems to have a solid head on her shoulders, all things considered (all things he's been able to glean, at least).

SOMEONE should teach her that. And he has faith. ]

Right, sorry. The name's Eames.

Eames? Like a gun.

[Clearly that's what your family lineage was going for, right? Right.]

[ It's actually the first time he's heard it put so succinctly. ]

Interesting reference for an-- [ God, he's going to get this wrong. ] --eleven year old?

[Well he's totally right on the money, but — ]

I'm not a typical eleven year old, I think you know.

As much has been apparent, yes. [ It's so hard not to slip into terms of endearment, Laura. SO HARD. ] You spend a lot of time around them? Guns, not "typical" kids.

[ The time around "typical" children is precisely the whole reason for her post, he remembers that too. ]

[... She's cut through quite a few of them, for sure.

With a nod, she considers what to even say about the subject.]

I don't like guns... Getting shot hurts.

Video. A Friendly School PSA.

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LAURA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm crying | [private]

:'))) | [private]

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sorry i got waylaid

its all good man as u can see i can get steamrolled by life as welll

<3

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