McDonell Benedict "Kazuhira (和平)" Miller (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
warandpeace) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou2016-02-05 08:25 am
warandpeace) wrote in thisavrou2016-02-05 08:25 am
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☄ Audio
[Mama Miller is having concerns about the smaller people on board. He often claims to not like children, but he remembers what it felt like to be treated like he should be an adult. He's so good at business because he was running one at the age of ten, because his mother had become ill. He's seen so many child soldiers have their lives stripped away. He thinks that with a little bit more support, they won't grow up to be the type of people he would hire.]
[Better survival rate in general.]
It's come to my attention there are not only a lot of refugee children on board, but a few among the crew as well.
I'm dubious about giving those sorts of jobs to children. Not my call to make, though. What I do think is they should have some sort of education. Reading. Writing. Math. The basics. There's a decent library for materials, and I suspect people willing to tutor. And some activities that don't involve the mess hall or cleaning bathrooms.
They're crew, but they're still kids. They deserve all the advantages of being one.
[Mama Miller is having concerns about the smaller people on board. He often claims to not like children, but he remembers what it felt like to be treated like he should be an adult. He's so good at business because he was running one at the age of ten, because his mother had become ill. He's seen so many child soldiers have their lives stripped away. He thinks that with a little bit more support, they won't grow up to be the type of people he would hire.]
[Better survival rate in general.]
It's come to my attention there are not only a lot of refugee children on board, but a few among the crew as well.
I'm dubious about giving those sorts of jobs to children. Not my call to make, though. What I do think is they should have some sort of education. Reading. Writing. Math. The basics. There's a decent library for materials, and I suspect people willing to tutor. And some activities that don't involve the mess hall or cleaning bathrooms.
They're crew, but they're still kids. They deserve all the advantages of being one.
no subject
but tbh i think any kid vanished onto a magic spaceship has earned some summer vacation. if they want to participate, great, but i'm not going to conscript anyone unwilling. i'm sure anyone who does choose to participate would appreciate your help tutoring.
the library's great, but some of these books are crazy out of date, or look like they're from places where the basic rules of stuff are just different. it's going to take a little bit of curation.
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But I know I've been appreciating reading some histories other than my own. I've spent the last decade or so as a base commander, but I do drill instruction and survivalist education on the side. [At least he did before the attack.] There was no ill intent meant.
We had to take responsibility for some child soldiers on our last base. Thanks to a bad egg, it didn't go so well. Hope it goes better for you guys here. [Something that still bothers him, as he did sink a lot of his own money into that. He really wanted them to have all the chances they wouldn't have had to, otherwise.]
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[ She's thinking of Red, and Dave, and every other too-capable kid who only gets thought of as a skillset, as a worry totem, as a threat. She hopes that somewhere, out there, they know. ]
sorry if we seem a little stressed out. two of us got here about five minutes before this turned into an action movie. but i do mean it about the tutoring. there are going to be areas we can't cover. i'm hoping we can put out a survey or something about that. get people interested ready to help.
i think we're probably going to have to default to "how stuff works in this world" w/physics and stuff like that. it's the most immediately useful anyway. no clue how we're going to teach reading with everyone seeing it in their own language, but maybe the translators are just that good.
[ PRIVATE: ]
i think we have some mutual concerns about some of this. how badly did things go at your base?
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They came from a group of child soldiers, survivors of village massacres, led by a sociopathic child calling himself "White Mamba". He was strong even for a fully grown man, and would bully the other children into obedience. But he promised them in following them, they would avenge their fallen families.
He helped a traitor repair a weapon we had impounded, then stole it and left with the children, holding one of our pilots hostage.
He said it was their last chance to face the world with no regrets. He never intended for them to survive. I think without him, though, they would have wanted to stay. I certainly didn't want them to go back into those warzones. It just took the one bad influence cutting them off from the safety net other adults could have provided. I know some of the children here have had to fight, and will probably continue to do so. But that shouldn't be all they have in their lives.
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[ Alice knows where her own instincts lean. Sometimes, you need to amputate — but that's not the kind of thing you tell a stranger. Particularly one with an expert opinion. ]
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I would have killed the traitor who helped fix the robot.
Probably just keep the leader locked up until he agreed to behave rationally, emotionally capable or not.
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[He almost let Snake kill some when they were given a hit, just knowing how terrible their lives would be. But the moment he saw the other alternative, he took it.] Someone from my future is here. One of my students. He knows that that boy is partially responsible for my future death, as an adult.
But I don't think I could do it.
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[ Or at least, he wouldn't be going on the tutoring roster.
It’s — reassuring, to be reminded that the methods she’s become accustomed to are still, you know, pretty fucked. That even in a violent position, there's more than one way to unravel a knot. ]
if it helps any, there are probably infinite universes where that doesn’t happen. a whole bunch where he grows up okay.
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...Though if I have another option that still accomplishes the same ends, I'll take it.
What will you do if you have to teach someone like that?
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[ That they have one of those is a hell of a novelty. Even if the name 'safe space' makes her wince. ]
well. if they weren't as randomly-assigned as the rest of us.
[ There's some hesitation before the next message comes, as Alice tries to determine how much to say. If there was ever a topic not to spill her guts on, it's Martin fucking Chatwin. Maybe that's why she wants to, so badly. ]
2/2
maybe i'll ask you while i'm at it. but i don't think it's anyone's lone decision. at least it shouldn't be.
thank you.
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I don't think any job on this ship is going to be simple. Most of us are out of our depth. Good luck with it.