entranceway | 004

[When the video turns on, there's Riley, and she's holding up what looks to be at least a few sheets of posterboard. On the very front is a drawing of a smiling planet that looks like it's holding a heart.]

Ooookay, so it's come to my attention that there are a lot of people here that don't know about Pluto, the last planet in Earth's solar system. I'm going to change that. First things first! This is what Pluto looks like. We got pictures back recently and it looked like it had a huge heart on it. [And she'd totally called it before the pictures even got recieved too, having always said Pluto had a lot of heart.]

I couldn't get the actual picture so I asked Maya to draw it.

[And she drops that top piece of posterboard, revealing something that looks like a bulleted list???]

The first important thing is that Pluto used to be a planet. Eventually a bunch of scientists decided it was too small to be an actual planet though, so they called it a dwarf planet instead. From the time it was discovered to when it got demoted to a dwarf planet, it didn't even have a chance to go all the way around the sun! Because it's that far away from us! That's pretty unfair, since Pluto never really got a chance.

[She huffs.]

That's why I still call it a planet, though. I'm always gonna believe that it's a planet, even if everything says it can't be. We don't know what it could do or anything about it because it's so far away. I just wanted to make sure that everyone here knew that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh good; another voice belonging to the "Rip Hunter is a dick" faction.]

No, I am not looking for a fight, particularly not one with a child. I'm offering a different point of view that your friend likely hasn't considered, one that may help her better come to terms with the true impact of the change in labels.

[Yeah, they kind of run in packs around here. It's a big faction.]

She doesn't need to consider different points of view. She's perfect just the way she is.

You do realize I didn't say there was anything wrong with her. Her presentation was rather charming in its own way.

[Seriously, it had been tooth-achingly sweet.]

But there also isn't anything wrong with being able to consider a broader view of things than one merely wants to believe.

Everything is wrong with that! If she starts learnin' new stuff, then she learns about the bad stuff and she stops believing in all the good stuff and then she turns into every other jerk out there and innocent people gotta be protected from knowing too much!

[She's got a lot of opinions about this okay.]

[That--is actually not where Rip saw this going at all. He pauses for a moment to mull that over. When he speaks again, his voice is purposely gentle.]

From how you've said that, it sounds like you're very aware that there is a lot of "bad stuff" in the world to learn about. But that hasn't stopped you from believing in your friend, has it?

There ain't a lot of good people left. Someone's gotta look out for them to make sure they stay good.

I mean, look at you. Knowing all that stuff -- what's it done for you?

I somehow doubt that any answer I could provide regarding myself would be to your satisfaction.

[And beyond that? Rip isn't going to make the argument that he's a good person. He cannot.]

Do you consider yourself to be a good person?

Nah it's too late for me. But she's something special.

And if you do anything to wreck that, don't think I won't break your nose.

You're threatening a fully grown adult for daring to contradict your friend, all in the name of protecting her innocence, and you don't see the good within yourself?

Most people would consider such loyalty to be a positive trait, even if your proposed methods are decidedly less so.

Are you making fun of me??

[Some of those words were out of Maya's vocabulary range. Her default assumption is that the missing contextual holes are insults.]

Not at all. If anything, it was meant to be a compliment.

[And then it does click; this girl might indeed be a great deal like Mick. Someone who prefers a more straight-forward brand of speech.]

I was pointing out how your loyalty and faith in your friend are good things, in spite of the fact that you don't seem to think so.

Yeah, well.

[She's not sure how to take a compliment, actually. She brushes it off, stiffly.]

Like I said, good people don't stay good without help.

Indeed.

But knowledge and goodness aren't mutually exclusive things. I won't pretend to be an example of it, but one need not consider Pluto a planet to be good.

But one might want to consider that being right isn't as important as letting someone be happy.

If your friend's happiness is truly so fragile as that, then there are far greater concerns here than the classification of Pluto among the scientific community.

Yeah and my concern is that you ought to stop picking on someone like her.

Have you actually looked at the conversation I'm having with her? I highly doubt even she would consider herself "picked on."

And my point is that there are far harsher truths than this that she will have to face, simply by virtue of being in this world. If you truly have so little faith in her to think that she can't handle this, then I dread to see what will happen during future events.

She's fine in events. We take care of each other.

[She's fine because she has to be fine because everything falls apart if she's ever not fine.]

I have no doubt that you'll try your best to do so, and that you will even have others looking out for you as well.

[Leonard and Mick both seem fond of the girls, after all.]

Yet what I've said still remains true.

You're just trying to have the last word now aren't you?

Not at all.

It's my occupation to consider the future, Maya. To think about what actions and events might lead to what ends, how individual choices affect the unfolding of time.

You're almost desperate to protect Riley from what is in the grand scheme, a small truth, yet we are forced to live in a world fraught with peril. I'm concerned about what your drive to shelter her means, either about her or about you, especially in the context of this realm.

004 | video

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