7437/What, It's Not All Fun and Games

What, It's Not All Fun and Games
Date of Scene:	19 August 2021
Location:	Madison's Apartment -- Palm Tree Apartments
Synopsis:	Irie comforts Maddie after a traumatic experience, and suggests she consider other teachers. And then the two remember that being friends is more fun than trauma.
Cast of Characters:	Madison Evans, Irie West

---

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison and Irie had made plans for an evening of mini painting - and so Madison had the paints set up on her desk, her daylight-bright desk lamp switched on, and her minis lined up ready to go with two cups of water in place - one for regular paints, and one for metallics.
    But it isn't Maddie who answers the door - instead it's Gladys, all smiles as she gestures Irie in. "Maddie's in her room. I think she just finished setting up her paints. If you girls need any snacks, let me know, alright?" she invites with a friendly voice.
    Madison herself was currently settled on her bed, however, a stuffed ewok hugged to her chest as she leans back against the wall behind her.

Irie West has posed:
Irie is a little surprised that it's Gladys that answers the door and not Madison. Usually her friend is super excited to see her and is all but bouncing in excitement. So Irie has a feeling that something is up. She nods to Gladys, "Thank you, Ms. Evans," as she makes her way to Madison's room.

Knocking on the door before opening it to announce her arrival she peeks her head in and sees Madison curled around her ewok. "Hey, Mads," she says, voice sounding concerned. "Is everything okay?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh. Um, yeah. Good! Fine!" Madison answers, as she gestures for her friend to shut the door to her room. "I primed those figures for you," she adds in what would pass for a bright voice from most people - but somehow lacked the sheer blinding power of Madison's usual brand of cheer. But indeed - whatever minis Irie may have found at the store have been spray painted white with a primer and set on the desk for her friend. She gives her ewok another tight squeeze, before she starts scooting her way forwards to sit on the edge of her bed.

Irie West has posed:
Irie gives her friend an unconvinced glance as she sits down at the desk. "You're not fine," she declares, folding her arms. "Out with it. Spill it. You can't fool me."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison shoots the door a worried look, but since it's shut firmly, she leans under her bed to pull out first one, then a second, shorter wooden practice katana. "I, umm, have a teacher who's showing me how to use these. And I guess I- umm. I guess I just never..."
    She lets out a sigh before shifting gears. "I mean, you help fight crime, yeah? Do you ever- does it get bad, sometimes? Do you ever- have you ever seen someone... die?" she asks uncertainly.

Irie West has posed:
It's rare to see Irie scowl like this. The normally upbeat girl is taken by surprise by Madison's question and this isn't the kind of thing that somebody should have to face when you're 16. Or even when you're 5. She silently gets up and sits next to Madison on the bed and wraps her arms around her.

"Once," she says softly. "I... really can't say anything about it other than there was more than one person who died that day. It was /terrible/. It's not something you get used to, and I still get nightmares from it from time to time."

"What happened?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Once. That was a little reassuring, wasn't it? Only once?
    Madison leans into the other girl's presence, her gaze directed towards the floor as she continues to hug her ewok to her stomach. "I mean. I didn't //see// someone die. Or at least - I wasn't //there// it's just-" She lets out a huff of air. Is she being silly? Childish, to be bothered to much by something that she didn't even-
    "I think... um, my teacher, she wanted me to understand how- how serious and dangerous these things can be. These fights. What- what I'm learning. And she put this- gave me this... well, it was like a VR headset, yet? So it was like- like I was really there. And she showed me this- it played a video of this fight she was in, and she just- I mean, parts of it played out in slow motion, and parts of it- it was like watching a movie, but it wasn't a movie, 'cuz it was real, and she cut this guy open, and he //died// and I saw it and it was like I was right there only I wasn't even there at all and she told me about some of the awful stuff he'd done, and how many people he'd killed, and how he was just- he was real, //bad// guy, and he would've killed her, if she hadn't- if she didn't kill him, but I just..." There are tears streaming down her face now, though her voice remains quiet. She can't let her mom hear //any// of this.
    "I want to help help people, but I don't want to //kill// people and I don't want to die, Irie!" Is she being an idiot? Is she in over her head already? Maybe her mom is just... right?

Irie West has posed:
"What a jerk," Irie says sourly. "It doesn't /have/ to be like that at all, and showing that to you was real mean." She rests her chin on Maddie's shoulder and continues to hug. "I mean, yeah. Swords are meant to seriously hurt people, but you could always use those wooden swords instead. Sometimes when you fight crime, you're gonna end up hurting somebody. You just need to be taught how to do that without /really/ hurting them you know?"

She lets out a heavy sigh. "What she did was wrong, Mads. She shouldn't have showed you that. Plenty of people practice sword fighting without having to see that kind of thing. I think you should find somebody else to teach you."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Maybe she just- maybe she just wanted to make sure I- I knew it could get bad?" Madison says uncertainly, reaching up with one hand to wipe at her eyes. "I'm not- It's not a mistake wanting to learn, right? If- if we have gifts, and powers, we should help people... I just don't want to //kill// anyone." She continues to struggle to keep her voice and her breathing quiet. Gosh, what would her mom think she heard her sobbing in here with a friend over.
    "Maybe I should turn the music on," she suddenly realizes.

Irie West has posed:
Irie untangles herself from Madison so she can get the music turned on. "She probably thinks she was doing you a favor, or trying to discourage you," she concludes, once she's sure they're not going to be overheard. "Because she figures that if /she/ ends up killing people that means that /you/ will too. You don't /have/ to kill anybody. Killing is a choice, and you can choose not to."

"There are lots of people who are better suited to teaching you how to fight." She says, putting her hands on her hips. "Ms. Wing at the school offers lessons, for example. Or... maybe the Themysciran embassy. I know they're doing lessons, too. Think about it! You could be an Amazon! I know it's not as cool as being a Jedi, but it's close, right?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "She said that," Madison admits. "That I don't //have// to kill. I just..." She lets out a sigh. "Jedi are supposed to have lightsabers. Viv thinks I'm being silly, and childish, and that lightsabers aren't even real, or possible, and that they're too dangerous, and- I don't know. Maybe they are? Spidey said he'd help me make a lightsaber if I learned how to fight with swords first. //He's// the one who- who suggested my teacher," she admits.
    "I'm just so //confused//." And she's squashing the stuffing right out of that poor ewok. Figuratively.

Irie West has posed:
Irie isn't exactly sure how she feels about Madison trying to become an /actual/ Jedi. "I think..." she begins, scowling. "I think that if Spider-Man made an actual working lightsaber it /would/ be very dangerous to wield. I just can't see how you'd use it in a way that doesn't do some serious damage to people," she says, wincing. She doesn't want to squash her friend's dream.

"Maybe... maybe Spidey can come up with something that's /like/ a lightsaber but stuns people instead when you hit them with it?" she suggests hopefully.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "...I guess. Maybe. It just feels like cheating but-" Madison lets out that heavy sigh again. "I just don't want to kill anyone. I mean, even must like... cutting off an arm would be awful. You know?"
    She stares down at the floor - then says in a thoughtful voice, "Maybe I have both. The longer one - you know, the katana - can be the stunning one. And then I have a little tiny shoto dagger one that's- that could be use for cutting stuff open like the Jedi do, and stuff like that? I mean, some Jedi have two lightsabers, like Samurai."
    Yeah. Talking about hypothetical laser swords is a lot less traumatizing than thinking about what she'd seen in that recording.

Irie West has posed:
Irie looks thoughtful for a few moments before nodding. "Yeah. I can see that. Like a little utility lightsaber." She grins at her friend, "I think you should go with that. Besides. Bad guys cheat too. Sometimes you just have to cheat better."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah," Madison agrees, reaching up to wipe at her eyes again. She's really, //really// trying not to think of the image of that blade cutting into someone in slow motion, and all the gore that spilled out. The fight was //seconds// long - and it was awful. Just awful.
    "Yeah..." she repeats. "I guess I, you know, get it a little better. Why my mom doesn't want me... doing any of this stuff, you know?" she adds quietly.

Irie West has posed:
    "Yeah," Irie agrees. "It's /dangerous/, but fun! And you get to help people, so it's all worth it. And your mom just cares about you, like moms do. My mom didn't want me to go out crimefighting at first, too, but my dad convinced her that, well, since we didn't know how much time we had left, that we would spend every minute of our lives to the fullest!"
    "And I think you should, too!" Irie says with a huge grin. "Live your life to the fullest! Be the Jedi you know you can be!" She quiets down a little and looks surreptitiously left, then right. "And don't let your mom find out."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh, God, she would lose her //shit,//" Madison agrees solemnly. She has no intention of letting her mom find out! She's silent for a moment before asking uncertainly, "Irie? How, umm... How do you deal with that? Not knowing how long- I mean. There's counselors and stuff at the school, yeah? Do you talk to any of them?" she asks,
    Her tears seem back under control as she looks aside at her friend - but the stuffed animal is still clutched tightly. She doesn't seem ready to give it up anytime soon.

Irie West has posed:
    Irie draws her legs up into a crosslegged position up on the bed. "Honestly? I don't really think about it all that much," she admits. "I just figure.... I get the same lifespan as anybody else on this planet: A lifetime." She shrugs, "Sure it may not be as long as other people get, but there are people out there who die young for one reason or another, so it's not like I'm /guaranteed/ to live until I'm 80 or whatever."
    "I just figure that if I live my life to the best of my ability, then I've lived a full life no matter how long it lasts," she concludes. "Still. I'm working with GIRL to see if we can halt the process." She gives Mads a huge grin, "Just because I'm okay with it it doesn't mean that I still can't look for the cure."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I hope you can," Madison says seriously. "I just- well. I mean, I hope you're okay with it. I'm //glad// if you're okay with it. I just - I wanted to say - I wanted you to know it's okay if you're not okay with it, and if you ever wanted to talk to me about it - that's cool. Or if you wanted to talk to a counselor or something because the school has counselors so-" She gives a shrug of her shoulders.
    "I guess I'm just saying I was a little worried is all and I want to make sure you're okay and, you know, getting help. If you need it. 'cuz... yeah."

Irie West has posed:
    "I appreciate it," Irie says, heartfelt. "But it's my brother who was really bothered by it. We weren't really aware of the age up process after we got out of the toddler stage." She shakes her head, "It's just not something you're aware of and you have no concept of anything different. When I got this body, we had a little heart to heart and he wanted to let me know that we didn't have a lot of time on the planet and he was super serious about the whole thing and I was like, 'Well, duh, yeah. We're /4/.'" She giggles at the memory and shakes her head. "I love him but he's kinda dense."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "I really hope you see him again," Madison says quietly. "I mean, either that like - you fix things, so you can just be like - I mean, 30 or whatever when he's born, and then you can - would that be weird, helping raise your twin brother?" Of course it would be weird Madison!
    "Or maybe you can find a way Back to the Future - like the movie! And then- well, I'd miss you, but I'd get to see you in fifteen years, yeah? When //I'm// 30."

Irie West has posed:
    "Yeah me too," Irie says quietly. "That's the thing that sucks about this whole deal. It's not the whole age up thing. It's the being stuck in the past where my family is all in the future." She sighs and shakes her head, "The Wally here is... He's cool, I guess. But he's not my dad. Not yet at least. And I can't even go /see/ my mom without breaking the timeline."
    Her melancholy is quickly replaced with a grin, "But if I /hadn't/ come back I wouldn't have been able to join the Titans, and made all my friends there, and I wouldn't have been able to be friends with /you/." She, then, flings herself at Maddie for another hug.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah," Madison agrees as she returns the hug. "If you weren't here - if you were't aging weird - we wouldn't be friends." Her arms tighten around Irie as she adds, "But, if it meant you were happier, then- well. I'd be glad to say goodbye."
    Hugging a friend, it turns out, is much better than hugging a stuffed ewok. Even if stuffed ewoks are pretty damned awesome.
    "Still. I guess... we're here now. And we're friends now. And we should have fun now. Yeah?"

Irie West has posed:
    "Yeah!" agrees Irie. "You got all the paints and stuff set up for mini painting, so it'd be a shame if we didn't do that."
    She squeezes her friend once more, and disembarks the bed to go sit on one of the chairs that's next to the table. "What are we painting today?"

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison wipes her eyes one last time before finally, carefully, setting her ewok down on her bed. Good ewok. //Stay//.
    Climbing to her feet she follows Irie before remarkingly, "Well - I primed the minis you bought at the game shop the other day," she explains. "And I primed up the heros from the Heart of the Empire box," indeed - there sits Ko-Tun, Jerrod Kelvin, and Drokatta with their respective character cards to help her with her color choices.
    "I mean - since you bought the Heart of the Empire box - if you wanted to try painting any of the heroes, you could," she offers.

Irie West has posed:
    "Well, the stuff from the Heart of the Empire is /yours/ to paint," Irie says. "I gave it to you." She pours over the different minis that she got and picks out the one she got of Zuckuss. "This guy always made me wonder about him, this funky bug bounty hunter." She holds it out and turns it around in her hand. "What kind of story did /he/ have? I mean, all anybody ever talks about is Boba Fett and IG88, but nobody talks about /this/ guy."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh he's a Gand Findsman known as 'The Uncanny One.' He paired up with a droid partner named 4-LOM. And they mostly took on Rebel and New Republic contracts - aside from that one job from Vader. They even tried to rescue Han from Boba Fett but failed. And even 4-LOM got like... blown up, and lost all his memories, and they parted ways, and Zuckuss had like... schitzophrenia and multiple personalities and ended up in a psychiatric hospital on Coruscant," Madison babbles off easily.
    Everyone knows this stuff, right?
    "Yeah. He's a pretty neat character. People don't talk about him often enough."
    Deciding to start easy, Madison blue-tacks the wookiee figure to a wine cork so she can start painting him brown.

Irie West has posed:
    Brown seems to be todays theme in painting, since Zuckuss is mostly browns as well. "So he wasn't entirely a bad guy, right? Except for that one stint he did for Darth Vader?" she asks curiously. "And 4-LOM is the droid that looks like him, right?" She mirrors Madison and blue-tacks Zuckuss onto her own wine cork. "And what's up with 4-LOM? Why does he look like C-3PO but with a Zuckuss head?"
    It's true. Irie doesn't know all of this stuff, but that's what she has Maddie for. She asks the questions and Maddie can ramble on for /hours/ about this stuff, and Irie likes listening to Maddie ramble. It's a symbiotic friendship.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Honestly? 4-LOM was probably more interesting! He wanted to know how Zuckuss used his Findsman abilities - but that's Force stuff! And he's, like - you know. A //droid// right? Can droids even use the Force? But - oh. That's getting ahead. Umm, he was just a protocol droid, on a cruice liner, but the computer changed his programming a little. And he was getting bored. And he started robbing the passengers. And then he left, and ended up with Jabba, who changed his programing //more// and made him a bounty hunter. And paried him up with Zuckuss. And that's when he wanted to learn about the Force. And Zuckuss got hurt real bad on a job - and the Rebels healed him - and that's why they started working for the Rebels and New Republic, yeah? But when they were trying to rescue Han - that's when 4-LOM got like WRECKED. And when Zuckuss tried to fix him, he lost all his memories, but still had all his programming, and he didn't care about the Force anymore, or about Zuckuss, so he left and went back to working for Jabba. Such a bummer," Madison remarks with a loud, heavy sigh.
    "...but you didn't get a 4-LOM mini, right? Do they even make one of him? That would be pretty sweet..."
    As she talkis, she's casually slathering on a brown paint for the wookiee fur - several shades lighter than what she actually wants. Washes always darken the mini more than you expect...

Irie West has posed:
    Irie pulls out her phone and brings up a picture of Zuckuss to try to get an idea of what kind of colors she's going to need. Lots of browns. Hrm. She nods along as Maddie talks about 4-LOM and scowls. "If I had known that I would have seen if I couldn't have gotten a 4-LOM mini to go along with Zuckuss. Sounds like they worked well together."
    Sticking out her tongue she starts off with a really light shade of brown... almost a yellow, and oh so carefully paints the hands of the figurine. "But a droid interested in The Force," she muses. "Maybe droids can use the force? I mean, look at R2D2 and all the wacky stuff /he/ was able to pull off." She looks up at Maddie, grinning, "The Force must have been strong with him."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Maybe. But I don't know. I mean, the Force binds all //life// together. And droids aren't alive. Which is interesting, because even though they're definitely not alive, you can certainly make the arguement that they're //people//." Madison has her gaze locked onto her mini as she paints, her elbows on the desk, and the heels of her palms pressed together. "But then again - you can move non-living stuff with the Force. Like a rock, or a droid. But can non-living stuff //use// the Force?"
    She giggles before she adds, "There's a short story - in a comic book - about //Skippy// the droid. He's the R5 unit that has the bad motivator - you know? When Uncle Owen buys R2 and 3PO? Well - in the story it's because Skippy sees a bad future for the galaxy in a Force vision if he lets Luke take him instead of R2. So he lets Luke think he's broken, so he'll get left behind, knowing that means he'll be on the Sand Crawler when the Empire shows up and he'll get destroyed."
    There's a moment of contemplative silence before Madison adds, "I've never had a Force vision..."

Irie West has posed:
    "I don't know," Irie says doubtfully, having moved to a darker, yet still lighter shade of brown. The hands didn't take much to paint. Her posture and focus is much the mirror of her friends, elbows on desk, heels of the hands pressed together. She looks up from her painting, "Do you want be the one to tell Viv that she's not alive?"
    "I don't think things have to be /organic/ to be alive," she says, turning back to her work. "I just think that if people started thinking that droids were alive then there'd be ethical issues with how they're enslaved and treated throughout the galaxy."
    She's focused on getting the paint within the lines, so to speak when Madison speaks up again. "Don't worry," Irie says. "You'll get one sooner or later. I believe in you."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "There's a scientific definition of life, though," Madison points out. "Organic matter that changes and grows and reproduces and consumes resources and produces waste. Yeah? I mean, I'm not saying Viv isn't a //person// and- huh. I mean, she's not alive - but she can die? Well - be destroyed. She could be destroyed, and that's bad, because she's a person. Yeah? So it'd be the same as dying. She likes science. You don't think she'd acknowledge that scientifically she's not a living thing?"
    She sounds genuinely puzzled and curious. After all - Irie knows her better.
    "Maybe we just ask her what she thinks? You know. As a matter of scientific and philosophical inquiry. But yeah, droids are totally enslaved - with the restaining bolts and memory wipes and all that. Because I don't think R2, or 3PO, or BB8 are alive. But they're still people."

Irie West has posed:
    Irie looks thoughtful as she mulls all this over. "I see what you're saying. That /aliveness/ and /sentience/ are separate things. Something can be one or the other... or both! Or neither." She drops her hands and nods. "Yeah. Let's ask Viv."
    She gets out her phone and pokes at it a couple of times calling her synthezoid friend. "Hey Viv?" she asks once the phone is picked up. "Would you consider yourself to be alive?" A beat or two as Vivian answers. "Yes, but is that /alive/?" Another answer. Irie shrugs and says, "Fair 'nuff," and hangs up.
    Turning to Madison she says, definitively, "According to Vivian, she is, in fact, alive.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Huh. I kinda expected her to answer the other way," Madison muses thoughtfully - before giving a shrug of her shoulders. "Though honestly, it's the sentience that more important, really. I mean - it's okay to kill a chicken, right? It's alive. But it's a //chicken//. And it's delicious.
    "But is it okay to destroy R2-D2? Or, you know, Viv? Clearly not. Because they're sentient. They're people. So if you can prove something's sentient - if they're alive or not doesn't even matter anymore."

Irie West has posed:
    "Right," Irie agrees, taking up position again to resume painting. "This is why I say that droids can use the Force. If the force flows through /everything/ then it must flow through droids, and if droids can be sentient or a person, then it stands to reason that they'd be able to use the Force!" She grins at Madison, "It probably isn't /easy/ for them, though."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "But there isn't a single canonical Force-wielding droid," Madison counters, as she washes her brush. She moves on to a gunmetal color to start painting the Wolverine-claws on Drokatta's wrists. "You really think they're out there - but the Jedi are just //ignoring// them? It doesn't seem likely that in all of Star Wars history there isn't a single Force wielding droid, if Force wielding is possible for them."

Irie West has posed:
    "Hm..." Irie says thoughtfully, still working on the one color she's /so/ much slower than Madison is on these things, but that's because Irie wants to make everything /perfect/. "If Jedi don't see them as /people/, then maybe, yeah. I don't think most people see them as people, so the clues that would mean that a fully sentient droid is capable of using the force would be missed, and so they just bumble along in life without any real training. Like R2!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah, but who says you need training to use the Force?" Madison counters. "//I// haven't had any training. All it takes is one droid floating a datapad towards them and the Jedi would go 'Whoa! That droid can use the Force!' And it never once happened in any of the books, or movies, or nothing," she points out.
    She lets out a sigh before adding, "'course, the books and everything are just stories so- I don't know." She frowns deeply as she continues adding the metallic color to her mini.
    With no real end to the debate in sight, the two friends continue their painting - eventually ending the evening arguing about whether or not //Jar Jar// was a force user. A fact that neither of them actually care about in the least.