♻ 005 | audio

[tucky]

Okay, I got a question - why's there so many kids here? You can't turn a corner without running into an imPort kid.

[This... may be a slight exaggeration. It almost does feel that way to Tiffany, though; she came through the Porter from a totally kid-less environment. She'd seen child visitors to the prison in passing, but hadn't interacted with one in years until coming here - and that's not even touching on her own vague Kid Issues, which are currently heightened after her conversation with Jesse about her past.]

I mean, it just seems kinda cruel, you know? Porting in a bunch of kids without anyone to look after 'em. I mean, unless the people here are meant to look after 'em, but come on. How many of us are the type? And I know I would've missed my mama something fierce if I was taken to a whole new world when I was little; some weird fucking stranger wouldn't've cut it.

... Hell, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong; I could be wrong. Never really knew what to do with kids myself, so it ain't like I know how they think - how y'all think.

So never mind, maybe.

Comments

[tucky]

I am registered.

... But I guess it don't matter much 'cause I like where I live. If they want us to stay around the Porter they'd probably say we couldn't leave, though, right?

[dragony]

Obvious restrictions result in backlash. "What do you mean, I can't leave? No way am I staying in a place I'm told to stay!"

They already get enough of our ire for the tattoos and everything else.

[tucky]

I like my tattoo. Do most people hate theirs?

[dragony]

It's hard to be fond of something you had no choice in.

[tucky]

Ain't hard for me.

[dragony]

Lucky you.

[tucky]

What's so bad about 'em? They're just tattoos.

[dragony]

They're "just" modifications to our bodies made when we're in no position to agree to them—or to prevent their application.

Treatment like that is something humans generally reserve for criminals and livestock.

[tucky]

Criminals or livestock, huh.

[dragony]

Yeah.

Other marks of branding, generally, are something you sign up for yourself.

[tucky]

I bet we got criminals here.

[dragony]

Generally speaking, someone has to commit a crime before you can take judicial action against them.

[tucky]

Yeah, I know. I bet we got people here who committed crimes.

[dragony]

Uh-huh.

If it's only a bet, does that mean you can't name a single one?

[tucky]

I could.

[dragony]

Excluding yourself, if applicable.

[tucky]

I wasn't gonna say myself.

But it I was, why excluding me?

[dragony]

Because if the only criminal you can name is yourself, that's not really a sign you know anything about anyone else, is it?

Hardly justification.

[tucky]

I ain't saying I'm a criminal.

But there's all kinds of people here, and I been told that there are criminals. Criminal imPorts.

[dragony]

I said if, didn't I?

You've missed the point entirely, anyway.

[tucky]

Okay, then what's the point?

[dragony]

Regardless of "if" you can "bet" there are criminals among our number, the fact is that a government generally can't treat a person as a criminal—which would include something like forced branding and geographic tracking—without that person having committed a crime or there existing reasonable, justifiable suspicion that they have already committed a crime.

Being the victim of kidnapping, regardless of the point of origin, isn't criminal. Any crimes committed before that point, if they exist, are impossible to discern or prove, and thus cannot be considered. Beyond that, we are not comrades; even if one person is proven to be a criminal, the rest cannot be held guilty for that same crime.

[tucky]

Jesus. That's a lot of shit just for one little tattoo.