WHO: Sue Kim and Nick Langer WHAT: A talk about current events and Sue makes Nick an offer he can't really say no to. WHEN: Wednesday, May, 26, 2029, around lunchtime. WHERE: A park in District 0 RATING: PG/PG-13, just a little swearing.
SUE: Sue Kim was upside-down on the monkey bars, her ponytail nearly touching the ground. "You know," she quipped, looking sideways to where Nick was sitting, over by their skateboards and bags, "These always seemed so much bigger and scarier when I was a kid."
They'd come to the playground in the East Village of District 0 to practice some more moves, and just generally hang out. Sue'd packed a picnic lunch, as was her custom - this time she'd had some leftover homemade kimchi, or what passed as kimchi with the few ingredients they'd had available. A week had passed since the raids, and they were still weighing heavily on her mind. There was only so much time she could spend worrying about that sort of thing, though. There were exams to study for, and friends to worry about, and jobs to do. Spending time in the park with Nick was a welcome break.
"It is kinda creepy, though, not having any kids about," she planted both hands on the woodchips and stretched, arching her body beneath the bars from which she hung. "But I guess we wouldn't be able to come here if there were kids. It's weird, all these remnants of people who used to live here, that have all been herded off to other places. All the playgrounds in the other Districts must be super crowded now. If they even have any." It was unlikely that children's entertainment was a high priority when housing was built for the foreign nationals. But then, the foreign nationals probably didn't have that many kids, either.
NICK: "Yeah, I never really went on the monkey bars," Nick replied, pushing his skateboard back and forth with one of his feet. He wasn't sure why exactly, or maybe he just couldn't remember it. "But, I guess a lot of things seem like that when you're little."
He thought about what Sue said for a moment and decided he was glad there weren't any kids around. The relative peace and quiet was nice. Of course, being in District 0 meant Nick was still on high alert for any cops that might be about. A day in jail had left him even more paranoid than he'd originally been.
"I never really thought that before," he began and paused for a second. "You know, it must be even creepier in places like California… not that we can even visit there to find out, though." He couldn't help sounding a little bitter about it. Inhospitable though his old home might be, it was still his home.
SUE: With a gasp of exertion, Sue swung herself back up so she could grab the bars, pulling herself on top of the jungle gym. She looked down at Nick, quiet for a second before she shrugged. "Yeah, I don't like to think about it too much," she admitted, though she smiled easily as she talked. "We were in the air, right, so once we landed in Arizona, I never got to go back..."
"I think I prefer it that way, actually. To remember everything as it was before. I know that San Diego didn't even bear the brunt of it, but after five years... you know, you see those pictures in the history books, of Chernobyl and that one town nearby, all those years later? I just can't think about how it is now." By now, her smile had faded into a sadder expression, and she faltered, up there on the bars. Had she been at home in bed, chatting with Sora, she might've curled her knees up to her chin, but that's not possible here. So instead, she stretched out, laying back on the rungs and staring up at the sky and the trees.
"Why'd you stay for so long?"
NICK: It made sense, in a way, Nick thought. But at the same time, he couldn't imagine not being able to say goodbye, to have some kind of closure. It was bad enough, he thought, that he'd never been able to properly say goodbye to the people he lost.
"I don't know," he answered slowly, staring absent-mindedly at a swingset on the other side of the park. "I guess I didn't have anywhere else to go." It was the only reason Nick knew how to articulate but there were, of course, other reasons Nick stayed so long.
He frowned and furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to think of how to explain himself better. After a second or so, he seemed to give up and shrugged. "Whatever, it was dumb and I'm here now," he said. "It's a lot less boring, at least."
SUE: "I didn't say it was dumb!" Sue protested, rolling over so she could look down at Nick again. "It makes sense," she said, clambering over the bars until she could lower herself from them. "I mean, everyone running scared, but not really knowing what they were running from..." she offered a conciliatory grin as she dusted the rust off her hands, leaving streaks on her shorts.
A breeze picked up, lifting refuse and seedpods briefly into the air. She had to brush her hair out of her face as she came back to where Nick was sitting, flopping down beside him and kicking her own board underneath her feet. "I was reading the blogs the other day," she continued, again taking on a more serious note. "There are a lot of people that think the government is totally wrong about the radiation levels, and how long it'll take before we could go back. I just don't know if I'd want to. Even though I seriously miss surfing. Like, oh-em-gee." Gravity clearly doesn't sit well on Sue; she can't stay too long a serious topic before switching back to something lighthearted. Still, it's clear from the way she was looking at Nick that she didn't expect him to start talking about trestles.
NICK: "Reading blogs? That's dangerous stuff," Nick said, half-teasing. At least Sue's lightheartedness could sometimes rub off on Nick, too. But there was a hint of truth to Nick's offhand comment -- it seemed the more he read on some of the blogs, the more pissed off he got about things. There seemed to already be enough things going on that Nick really didn't need any additional anger.
"Um… I think I'd go back, yeah. At least I have a house there, if it's still standing. But, I didn't even want to leave in the first place, really," he admitted. Nick studied Sue for a moment. He wasn't used to her more serious side, but he figured after recent events, people should start questioning things. "The government," he said with disdain. "They just don't get it. Or maybe they don't even really care, but that's, like, their job, isn't it? It's like that stupid Housing and Relocation Act…," he trailed off and just shook his head instead of finishing his thought.
SUE: Questioning things was exactly what Sue was doing lately, though she wasn't really finding any satisfactory answers. "Yeah," she said, eager to vent her frustrations. "There's that, too. Like, is it seriously protecting us? From what? I'd really like to believe that the government has our best interests at heart, but you know, sometimes it really feels like we're just being thrown into ghettos, and they're just driving wedges between East Coasters and refugees and immigrants!"
She sighed, shoulders slumping. "But then again, there are a lot of people in the city with nowhere else to go, and if it weren't for designated housing, then where would we go? It's just super messy either way, and then people like us, and Sora, get caught up as casualties." Her skateboard rocked back and forth between her feet, below the bench they were sitting on. "I just don't know what to think." Again, her gaze found Nick's, inviting his opinions on the matter.
NICK: "Well, I think it's bullshit!" Nick probably would have chimed in with his opinion whether or not Sue had invited it, at this point. It was hard not to be angry at these things, especially since he and many people he knew were personally affected by them. Nick also didn't usually have anyone to vent to and it was kind of nice to be able to do so.
"The thing that bothers me most about it is that in a way they're almost making some people break the law. Like… when I got a NIC, they wanted a local address which a lot people don't have, you know? So I gave them a fake address and now I have this stupid thing that's probably only a little better than not having one at all. And --," Nick interrupted himself with a short, but bitter-sounding laugh, "what I really don't get is why they won't let the foreign nationals go home."
SUE: "You could have given them our address!" Sue exclaimed, switching tracks from 'broad issues' to 'individual problems' the minute Nick reminded her of his NIC trials. "That would've been fine. In fact, if you don't have any place good right now, you should totally just stay with us for a while, too. We've already got Sora staying, and there's plenty of room!" She paused suddenly, checking her own enthusiasm with a cautious finger in the air. "...well. Dad would probably make you sleep in the gym, but we've got cots and stuff, and food. And, unlike Sora, you'd actually be in the right district, as bullshit as those laws are."
Despite the nature of their conversation, Sue looked very pleased with herself. It was frustrating, thinking and talking about issues that she could only affect in the most inconsequential of ways. Dealing with a friend's problems, though - that, she could solve. It was much more satisfying than trying to think a way out of the mess that was the Housing and Redistricting Act. "I totally agree, though," she tacked on, more as an aside than anything else, "It really is stupid that they won't let the foreign nationals go home."
NICK: "Oh… really?" Nick said, rendered somewhat speechless for a second. Before he started thinking too long about the ramifications of actually having a place to crash for the first time in a year and a half, a doubt crept in. "Your dad wouldn't mind? Even just a floor somewhere would be cool," he added. It was hard not to feel somewhat awkward about the current situation, so in an attempt to avoid eye contact, Nick gazed down at his well-worn shoes. "It's cool if not, too, though. I mean, I'd understand." He finally glanced back up at Sue and gave her a half-smile.
SUE: "No, of course not!" Nick's half-smile was returned full-force, and didn't falter even as she amended her statement once again. "Well, you know, he'll give you shit for it, but you can't take that seriously. We'll just have to try not to have some torrid affair under his roof," she winked, hamming it up to make up for Nick's awkwardness. "If we can manage that, you should be just fine."
Jumping up from the bench, she hopped on the skateboard, pushing herself around the seating area. "In fact! I should be asking you if it's okay. It will mean, like, sooo much more time with my Dad! That's enough to make anyone take pause!" Now she was laughing outright, though no one could ever mistake her laughter for disrespect towards her father. She was simply teasing, without him present. (Besides which, there was more than a grain of truth to what she was saying, particularly if the listener was a young guy, like Nick.) "Here, I'll message him right now."
NICK: Fortunately, Sue's joke about torrid affairs didn't make him feel even more awkward and he laughed. "Yeah, I don't know about that," he said, also joking.
"But, I can handle your dad," Nick said, more seriously and a little more confidently than he actually felt. "He's not that bad, really. If I could live with my grandmother for a year, well… it'll be fine." Besides, Nick was starting to realize that Shin's gruff exterior was just that -- an exterior. Plus, Nick figured he could probably come and go as he wanted. It may sound weird to someone who's always had a roof over their head, but sometimes even the thought of living somewhere, even just semi-permanently, made him feel a little claustrophobic. Of course even Nick knew that the pros far outweighed the cons.
SUE: "That's the spirit!" Sue glanced up from her iHolo, fingers already flying away at the holographic keyboard. "Hey, you wanna get some hot dogs before we head back to D3? I am starved."