7. Video

[sleepallthewayhome]

[Hey, it's Newt again. She's sitting next to some books by an inn bed and if you look off to the side you can see one of those newer pokemon, the blue one, sitting next to an Eevee. The Eevee seems to have a plastic dolls head with them. There is also a Luxray sitting next to them as though keeping them safe from something.]

Hi. I have a question for people who went to school.

What are the really important things you learnt there? I only got to grade two before- ...I came here and there's no schools but I still want to learn stuff. I know reading and math are important. And there's spelling and science things but I don't really know what the other stuff is.

What's important to learn?

Comments

[thegreenhornet]

That's pretty sad of a thought. [Britt crosses his arms] Okay, say that again but now say it like you're trying to convince me. Come on, put your soul into it.

[sleepallthewayhome]

You said something I didn't believe all the way.

[Though to be fair, she has a lot of other dark and depressing theories....she just believes in them too much to use them like this.]

Like I'm trying to convince you. ...okay.

[She'll take a moment to sort through, how to say it. Well she straightens up and her voice gets very serious.]

The adults here don't care about the kids. They send them out of their houses when they're ten, and then they don't even let them work the same hours as adults. So that means the kids have to travel more to earn money battling. And then they're in more danger. But adults don't care because if they did, they'd travel with their kid. Parents don't just leave their kids behind. That's not right.

[thegreenhornet]

[Britt nods, visibly pleased]

Wow, not bad! I almost couldn't smell the bullshit. [Newt has quite the way with words for someone her age, he judges. It's a good start!] You got the base right. See? You're learning and you didn't have to go to a stuffy school for a million years.

Now all that's left is to practice, and then you'll have a lot of people listening to you in no time.

[sleepallthewayhome]

[Yes, victory. Newt is a small child, getting people to listen to her is an important skill.]

Okay. I'll practise that too. I'd like people to listen to me. ...I think more people do here. But practicing that sounds like it'll be good to do.

[thegreenhornet]

There's plenty of people that will listen to you. Hell, I bet the people from this world would believe anything you say. They're not very bright.

[Or more like they're not very observant]

[sleepallthewayhome]

Yeah but sometimes that just makes it harder to make them believe you if they've already decided something.

[thegreenhornet]

You gotta try anyway. You're never gonna get better if you don't try.

[Believe in yourself!]

[sleepallthewayhome]

I guess.

What about people like the lying lady who claims she's everyone's mom? I don't think anyone can convince her she's wrong.

[thegreenhornet]

That's different. You can't convince her because she's a better liar than anyone else. It takes a lot of guts and bullshit to look at adults in the eye and tell them 'hey, I'm your mom'.

[It would be admirable if it wasn't so goddamn creepy]

She's out of our league.

[sleepallthewayhome]

Oh...that makes more sense. People kept saying that they felt sorry for her. But I think she's just lying and she's terrible.

[Newt has mom issues and this hadn't helped.]

Why do you think she lies about that?

[thegreenhornet]

Maybe she's just lonely, I dunno. But she sure seemed to get a kick of pushing me out of the house five minutes after I realized where I was.

[He sounds so bitter about that. Way to be rude, "mom"]

[sleepallthewayhome]

Even if she's lonely she shouldn't lie about things like that. It's mean.

[thegreenhornet]

Come on, you never lied because you needed something?

[Britt really needs to stop tempting Newt into lying]

[sleepallthewayhome]

....well yes.

But I wouldn't lie about really important things.

I told her my mom was dead, I saw her die. ....she should have stopped then.

[That last bit is quieter. Also, she'd also just gotten away from a highly traumatic event, taken away from her new mom and this lady was like, hey I'm mom. It's a miracle Newt didn't attack her.]