UN: Ollin [Text]

[unpocoloco]

Hola, everyone. I'm that one evening TA from Aube, for those who don't know.

I'm sure by now we've all noticed the little issue of extra little ones running around. Now obviously there's no good way to explain all of this, so I thought maybe we could all gather our stories here so we don't get our wires crossed. You know, share names and other details and stuff.

I also thought it might help if some of us could maybe use babysitters in given times. That way there's less of... pretty much all of us running around.

Also, remember that lots of these kids can probably figure out the internet so mind what you say.

I'll go first:

I'm "Señor R.", I'm looking after "Héctor (just Héctor) who also goes by Teto". He is "an entirely normal kid with no special abilities or anything so nothing to worry about there but he's a bit of trouble sometimes and may need wrangling" and I'm "not at all available during the day and could really use someone who is".

You all do the same but replace whatever's in quotations with the appropriate names and details. Then we can sort of reference back here as we go.

[OOC: Dated somewhere before Teto and Avery wind up in the infirmary probably but wibbly wobbly time.]

Comments

[panpiping]

That isn't my fault! I've never heard of humans that young in a car by themselves. I didn't think it was allowed! But don't worry! Nothing else quite like that has happened. It isn't the ones I helped create that I'm worried about teaching. As much as I'd like to, I know it wouldn't matter. They don't get to stay. It's the rest of you! (Most of you are very very young to me.) You need to remember what it used to be like so you can be free of all the boxes and terrible things they put you in.

[unpocoloco]

[He scrubs at his face.]

It's not allowed but kids don't understand that.
Or they think it's worth it and don't understand that it's dangerous.
That's why they have guardians to try and teach them these things.
The key point being that nothing else has happened yet.

Ay, Wist, it's nice you're trying to help but this isn't freeing for everybody.
Some people had terrible childhoods and remembering that makes them feel the opposite of free.
For some it's just more sad to see them happy.
Humans grow up and change so we can better look after ourselves and we don't need guardians to look after us all the time anymore.
We give up some things, yes, but it's for other things that matter to us, to make choices.
Does that make sense to you?

[panpiping]

It isn't about what happened. It's about who you were and what you felt. You said they will do things because they feel it's worth it... They have hope and opportunity inside them still. Hmm... When I was younger many many years ago I had guardians that gave me up so they could get their baby back! When she returned, they didn't look at me at all anymore. Is it like that?

[unpocoloco]

Not all hopes are good hopes, Wist.
Sometimes you think you have a dream as a kid and it turns out it's not what you want at all.
It can mess with what you really want.
Hope and opportunity are useless if you don't know what to do with them.

No, it's not like that.
That sounds really sad, actually.
For you and for that family.

It's more like...
Say you saw some flowers and you really liked them.
You could pick them once, take them with you, enjoy for a little bit.
That's what kids do.
When you're older, you know that if you wait, if you take a seed, if you care for it just right, work hard, then you can grow the flowers in a garden. They'll last much longer and it's possible you may always have them.
But first, before any of that, you have to decide not pick the flowers, even if you want to.
Kids make choices for whatever's right now.
Those older make choices for the future. They make that hope into something real.

[panpiping]

You just said people will always make mistakes! And I don't want to take away anything, just bring the hope and opportunity back. Don't give up, skeleton! That sounds like a lot of work. I don't get it. I mean I understand teach a man to fish but I don't understand what you're telling me by telling me this.

[unpocoloco]

The point is that they learn from them!
The point is that adults are children who know better, even if they haven't finished learning!
The point is that I'm trying to help you learn that this wasn't okay!
It's not okay!

[Super not going to address the Skeleton thing. Just going to pretend that's about being skinny, like usual.]

Ugh. Okay.
Just don't do anything like this again.
At least ask first.
Can we agree on that?

[panpiping]

[mmmMM] If I said I could agree that would be a lie, and I don't do that. I'm not stopping anyone from learning! I'm helping them learn! ... What's so bad about them? They're all wonderful and they won't be here forever...

[unpocoloco]

The kids aren't bad.
The bad part is where this leaves everyone.
There are people looking at their pasts and seeing what they've lost and they can't change it back. They can't undo who they are now.
And the people whose pasts were painful, don't you think seeing that might set those older back again?

You know a lot of people are unhappy. Even if you don't get why you have to understand that some part of this hurt them. And if you're trying to help, that should be the opposite of what you do. That's why you should ask.

What's going to happen to these kids?

[panpiping]

If it hurts, they can work to make it better. They don't have to sit in the boxes, doing what they're told, and dying slowly slowly slowly. Their lives are shorter than most, but it doesn't mean they can't try to live it. I do ask for most things, like if someone would like to be a lizard, or if not existing is the only way they won't trap someone in a tiny tiny box, but I don't know how else to make you understand how things don't have to be this way in this instance. They're going to go back when the magic and wishes fall away from the memories. I will miss them, but at least they will still live in you! That's something...

[unpocoloco]

Most of these people are already working to make things better, Wist.

Maybe that's what's missing here.
The fact that things might just be the way they are because they do have to be this way sometimes.

But that's good I suppose.
Good to know where they're going.

[panpiping]

But I know things don't have to be like this! You were all gone... (that isn't true, I'm sorry. Most of you were gone.) But then you came back! You went back to where you're miserable into your boxes... I don't understand.

[unpocoloco]

...I'm not sure I do either.
Can you explain what you mean by that?
I'm assuming these boxes are metaphorical but
gone where?

[panpiping]

I don't know. You weren't in the boxes. I went to play my song but my audience was gone until it came back again.

[unpocoloco]

...
Do you mean the march break?
That week of vacation?
With the boxes being the dorms?

[panpiping]

I don't know. Maybe??

[unpocoloco]

Okay.
Well, I'll say if it is, humans like those boxes.
We live in things like those.
They make us feel safe.
Not having those kinds of boxes, whatever shape they're in, makes us feel unsafe and is usually kind of bad, though some humans get used to it.

We try to work hard for our futures, but we also do try and make times where we aren't working.
Called vacations.
In a school, like this, there tends to be at least one for every season.
We come back because if we do that forever then our futures fall apart.
If you don't have a future then you can't have any vacations ever.

[panpiping]

I've been in a HOUSE before! It was different! It was a lot of boxes you could come and go through whenever you wanted. It was a big box! These boxes are smaller and they put a lot of you in there and you can't talk or move, or if you're moving you're being made to fight. ... I see. I have taken a vacation before. Why can't vacations be always? You say the future falls apart but it will always be there.

[unpocoloco]

The future in general will always be there but our time in the future could be ruined.
There's a whole system humans have to follow.
If we don't we can't get the things we need, like houses or food or medicine or other people who care about us or
you know
being alive.
Life gets really bad if we don't have these things, which means we have to try harder for those things.
Which means less vacations.
But on the other hand, hypothetically, if things are fair, the more we do the more vacations we can get in the future.

[He can't believe that he, a former homeless man, has to describe capitalism, this might just be the worst.]

But we can talk in these boxes. And move.
I don't like the fighting thing either but that's one of those cases where if people don't they won't be alive very long.

[panpiping]

But why? Why is that the system? Who makes you follow it? It doesn't sound fair or fun at all! It just looks like they're killing you, and then you go in the smallest box.

[unpocoloco]

Everybody follows it and everybody has to follow it.
Because humans need each other to get by, we can't survive alone.
We call it a society.
Sometimes the systems change but it's really, really hard to do that and sometimes makes things worse.
It's not great, no, but it's not like we can't find good amongst each other.

[Why is this happening, why is he being punished personally?]

[panpiping]

[Because you're the one who decided to try and explain it to them, Héctor.] But it used to be different! Change was so possible when you were young, when you made wishes. Why can you not plant the seeds AND take a blossom? Is it so impossible for humans to live and survive at the same time?

[unpocoloco]

[He wouldn't have to explain if she understood! Or if this had never happened in the first place!]

It was possible when we were young because we had those older taking care of us.
It's still possible to live and survive if we balance it.
Which means, sometimes, we do things we don't want to so later we can do the things we do want to later.

[panpiping]

It sounds really stupid. All that suffering for just one week a season? And when you're free, you just watch someone else go through it?

[unpocoloco]

Wist, I didn't decide how it works it just works that way.
But I keep telling you there's good parts.
Getting to look after kids can be one of those good parts!
You just have to be ready first.

[panpiping]

Hmm... Okay, but!!! My way is better. And! Your humans that aren't ready can use this to try and be ready! Just so long as they aren't cruel to the children.