Roleplaying
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Seminars
| When: | 17 November 2004 |
| Who: | Bronwen (as Breanna), Elizabeth, Oreniel, Pan |
| What: | What kids with creative minds can get into before an adult puts a halt to their fun. |
Midtown - Austin
Midtown is a mix of government, schools, and parks. Right in the center of Midtown is the University of Texas at Austin. It's an impressively large campus that has buildings all over this section of the city. The governmental buildings surrounding the Capital and it's massive lawn bustle with people moving to and fro. Being the Capital of the state itself, the State Senate and Capital Buildings are always open to the public, twenty-four hours a day.
Breanna York pauses at the top of the steps of the Austin PD and takes a deep breath of the evening air. Giving the area a cursory glance, she makes her way down towards the sidewalk and waves to the occasional officer that she recognizes.
Elizabeth emerges from one of the buildings affiliated with the university, a bundle of papers tucked into the tote bag slung over her shoulder. As she walks, she reads through one of the papers - a xerox copy of some article or other. Every now and again she glances up in an effort to avoid collisions with lampposts and similar inanimate objects.
Pan jogs along the street. On her shoulders, is another child, who appears to be 8. Pan is giving this little boy a ride. And she's speeding up. "Rrraaah!" Pan yells as she charges through the street, "Bwahahahahaha!"
'Wheee, hehehehe! Faster! Faster!' the boy demands.
Oreniel is out on the streets finishing a delivery for once. Yes, he has an employment in the city. Well, in this case 'finishing' means he's dumping a set of empty seedling planters into a trash can on the street outside the University's physical plant.
The long-haired woman turns towards the sounds of joyful shrieking. "Does anyone else have the sense of something possibly going wrong?" Breanna asks her fellow cops with a sigh. She watches the pair approach and debates about stepping in.
Elizabeth looks up at Pan's rather... vociferous... approach and says aloud, "Oh dear." She backs away hastily, trying to coordinate putting her article safely away with backing up on a busy city sidewalk - with dubious success.
Pan says, "Raaaah!", as she practically charges Bronwen since she's the closest cop. "Roar for the good members of the police department!" Pan yells.
'Raah!' The kid says.
"You can do better than that!"
'RAAH!!' The kid bellows. Of course, she'll stop before impacting.
Oreniel looks up, looking far more amused at the tableau then most of the other adults and heads towards the police station, brushing the loose dirt off his hands as he walks. Though the perceptive witness should note he's staying at the edge of the sidewalk, apparently poised to leap aside...
"Bloody blades," Breanna mutters under her breath as she braces her lower legs for an impact while reaching out with her arms to try and scoop the boy off of Pan's shoulders. "Are you two crazy or simply have a wish to get hurt?"
Elizabeth knocks into a pedestrian or two in her scramble, and offers quick apologies. "Sorry, sorry," she mutters, finally getting her article stowed away. She turns back to the scene and... "Pan? Are you harassing the poor woman?"
Pan slows just in time for the little boy (who 'whees' again) to be scoped up by Breanna. Pan jerks her head towards Elizabeth and says, "Nuh-uh!", she scrunches up her face, realizes the boy isn't on her shoulders anymore before looking to Bronwen and saying, "Hey! Give 'im back! We were just playin'!"
Oreniel steps forward a bit. "Easy now," he murmurs, and notes louder, "The child was being a child. Isn't taking him a little excessive?"
Breanna turns her amber gaze towards the man. "Let me get this straight," she asks as she gently sets the boy back on his feet but leaving a hand on his shoulder. "You think it's a bit excessive to remove the potential danger of either one of these children falling, hitting the sidewalk, other pedestrians, or being hit by some of these idiotic drivers?"
Elizabeth makes her way down the sidewalk to a more comfortable conversational distance. "Pan..." she sighs. "You do realize that even if you don't hit anyone, people startled by you and trying to move out of the way might, yes?" She rubs her elbow discreetly and grimaces. "Like, ah, I did."
Pan humphs, "I know what I'm doin'. S'why we're screaming, give people lots of prep time.", she crosses her arms, "Ain't illegal.", she mutters stubbornly before looking over to Elizabeth, "Sorry 'bout that," but she doesn't seem intent on changing her mind anyway. Oh my.
Oreniel doesn't flinch at the eyes. "No, I think not even attempting chastisement before moving onto punishment is a bit excessive, and could teach the wrong sort of lesson."
Breanna simply raises an eyebrow at Oreniel. "Who said anything about punishment?" she responds before turning towards the young girl. "Now I realize that running and dodging slower pedestrians could be considered fun by some... wouldn't it be just a bit safer to do so in the park where a landing would be much softer than concrete or asphalt? The only wheeled danger there are bikes, skateboards, and rollerblades."
Elizabeth stifles a snicker at Breanna's words and can't help but glance at Orion. She doesn't say anything to him, though, choosing instead to address Pan. "Pan? Even if you do know what you're doing and it's not illegal, it still seems to have upset the lady. Why not just apologize to her for upsetting her, since she's already put your friend down?"
"I'm not running in front of cars, sheesh," she attempts to pull the 8-yr old back and wrap her arms around him protectively, "Safer, 'lright, but you lose something if it's -totally- safe," she glances to Elizabeth and mutters, "Sorry Miss Officer,"
Oreniel nods, and murmurs, "Agreed," to Pan, and says to Breanna, afte an apologetic glance at Elizabeth, "I think that woman there would have a strong opinion against rollerblades, ma'am, but the 'punishment' I'm talking about is just taking the child away from the person responsible for it..."
Breanna looks skywards for a few seconds as if looking for some sort of sign or a bit of patience. "I'm not going to call Social Services over something as ridiculous as this. I removed the danger. Simple explanation there, sir," the cop answers, easily letting the boy return to his companion. "As for running out in front of cars, I never expected that. I simply have little faith in the ability of the majority of license holders to actually follow the rules of the road. Ever listen to the news reports at rush hour? It's mayhem because every driver believes that *they* are the king or queen of the road. Sure, whatever. And technically I'm a detective, but officer will work in a tight pinch."
Elizabeth smiles faintly at Orion's mention of rollerblades. She looks over at Breanna with renewed respect and says, "You're police detective, Ma'am? That must be interesting work."
Pan mehs at the mention of cars, she doesn't seem too worried about them. She murmurs something into the kid's ear. The boy shakes his head in response.
Oreniel sighs a bit sadly at that. "Well, detective. Have a safe travel home. I should be going."
The female detective simply shakes her head at the entire little group. "To be honest, not really. The way in which society can turn on itself or degenerate in new and interesting ways can get to be disheartening after a while," Breanna responds. "Fortunately I know that there is some good out there to balance the negativity."
"I like to think that the overall trend of things has been positive," Elizabeth murmurs. "After all, do we not now live in a representative democracy in which the regime changes regularly without a bloody coup? Such a society seems and indicator of progress to me."
Pan murmurs something to the kid and he nods this time. He hefts the boy up onto her shoulders again and says, "Swirly, swirly." Pan says, "Nice to see you 'gain Miss 'Lizabeth.
'Bye Miss 'Lizabeth' the boy says as they 'walk' away. It's still a quickwalk, but it's not a charge anymore at least.
"Pah!" Breanna exclaims. "It's battles with words. And a large waste of time for the most part. How long does it take to get anything through legislation? Months? Years? And if the government isn't re-elected, the entire fiasco starts all over again. You need to look more closely at the common lives of people. Take away the pretty finish and what do you see?"
Elizabeth waves to Pan and the boy as they leave, saying gravely, "Good-bye, Pan and company." She looks back at Breanna and says, "For the most part, I see well-meaning people resolving their differences and finding ways to do well by each other. Sure, the government is largely inefficient - and that's not a bad thing, in most cases. It gives the people a chance to work things out for themselves."
Breanna snorts as she turns back towards the police department. "Sure they do. Remind me to pull up the number of domestic disturbances we have had to answer in the past year, as well as the results of them including those that turned to violence. Welcome to this stark reality," she says over her shoulder before disappearing back inside the building.
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