Voicetesting/considering places

[teekay]

It's all right. I understand why they wouldn't accept me. I'm not even a teenager.

But you should make sure to tell them that I'm very responsible. Gavra said it herself - there's no one else she'd trust with a flock of Sevens! I may have been on a lot of adventures, now, and seen a lot, but if there's one thing I know, it's babysitting.

And I guess now I know how to keep people safe.

So do your best. If I can, I want to make sure no one ever goes through Transition again. If adults have teekay, kids won't have to work all of the time. They'll be able to learn to read when they're little. There won't be any more fagins.

Everyone will be on equal ground.

I want that. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.

Comments

[crypto_godress]

Wait, the hell kind of not-reading shit are you talking about?

[unmakeme]

[What Natasha is taking away from this is that someone is exploiting children, keeping them illiterate, making them take care of each other, and she'd bet money that Transition isn't anything good.]

Is that the deal you want to make? To give adults teekay?

[Whatever that is.]

You should be sure that single change will give you what you really want before you ask for it.

[teekay]

We don't learn to read until we go through Transition. And become teenagers.

[crypto_godress]

What.

That's stupid. Like grade-A pure unadulterated unfiltered stupidity. Farm fresh. Whose rule is that?

[teekay]

It will.

[ She sounds confident of this. ]

Teekay is what makes kids and preteens so important. If you give that to everyone, there's no reason to be afraid anymore.

[teekay]

I don't know. Everyone's?

[crypto_godress]

Okay, then everyone is stupid. I learned to read when I was like. Four.

[Admittedly there was kind of a desert island-ish situation so things were boring, but. Still.]

[unmakeme]

[Once, a very long time ago, Natasha had believed that if the Red Room was gone, it would stop bad men from making broken girls like her. She'd been very wrong. Sometimes it was difficult to see the forest for the trees.]

You... should think about it a little more. Be very certain, before you shake on it.

What is teekay?

[teekay]

[ w a t ]

When you were four?

[teekay]

I don't have to think about it. This is what I want to do.

[ She understands what's wrong with her world, and she knows something has to be done to fix it. ]

Oh. Telekinesis, is the formal word.

[crypto_godress]

Yeah. And I never had to work, either, although I mean - I was all by myself mostly, so maybe it's not the same.

Point is kids are supposed to be chewing on books from the time they pop out, okay, it's called modern parenting or something.

[teekay]

Well, it's illegal here. I got in a lot of trouble, and I wasn't that early.

[crypto_godress]

Trouble.

[unmakeme]

[Whoa. Hold the phone.]

So you world is full of uneducated, telekinetic child labourers, and no adults manage to keep this power?

[Yeah, that world is kind of fucked as soon as someone with half a brain figures out why the system is so flawed.]

[teekay]

I lost all my Hive points.

[crypto_godress]

Are you a bee?

[Seriously what are you talking about.]

[teekay]

Yes. It goes away at puberty, when you become a teenager. For everyone.

[teekay]

What? No! [ She laughs. ] A Hive is where kids and preteens live.

[unmakeme]

[The thought of this place makes Natasha angry and sad at the same time. She doesn't like it.]

It's a good deal to make. Selfless.

[teekay]

...not completely. [ In fact, she thinks it might be a little selfish. ]

I don't want to lose my teekay either.

[crypto_godress]

So they stick your tiny baby bee butts in a hive with no books or fun and make you work until your brains stop doing the fancy bee magic that can fuck them up, and then they let you out?

[teekay]

There's fun. There's lots of games, and activities. The rules aren't bad, and mostly they're just there for safety - like no flying in a hallway with more than two other people. No balcony takeoffs. That kind of thing.

And it's not bee magic. It's just teekay.

[unmakeme]

Of course you don't. It's part of who you are. Do you ever remember being without it?

[teekay]

A little. Not much, though.

[unmakeme]

Not wanting to lose part of who you are, that doesn't make you selfish.

[It's a lesson it took Natasha a long time to learn. That you don't have to sacrifice all for the Motherland, that you don't have to give up everything you are to someone simply because they tell you that you owe them.]

That makes you... human.