fandomhigh | Urban Survival - The Uglier Side of City Living, Wednesday, Period 2

Okay, Sparkle (complete with bandaged hand, sigh, gremlins) was actually in a fairly functional mood today as he sat on the teacher's desk at the front of the class.

"So, last week we discussed reasons that people might end up on the street," he shared. "And the week before, we talked about basic needs, which we had, uh, some disagreement about."

Because teenagers, he supposed. It hadn't been that long since he was one himself.

"This week we're going to jump right into discussing things that might make it difficult for a person to claw their way back up from the gutter. And then I want you guys to dig deeper into things that might complicate that even more. Let's start with poverty, then, since it's the most obvious one. The obvious solution to that is to get a job, right? Except that you're homeless, you're probably wearing dirty clothes and you haven't had a proper shower in ages and how is a potential employer going to get in touch with you? There are some places that have services that will take messages and let you use a phone, shelters that will do what they can to facilitate something like that. Not every city does that. And not every shelter is necessarily going to be helpful."

Sparkle shrugged.

"What else is holding you back from getting that job? Is there prejudice to take into consideration? Sexism? Racism? Homophobia? Maybe there actually isn't any work to be had. What is it that left you jobless in the first place? There are a lot of barriers to consider, things that make it harder to get up from rock bottom once you're down there. So, go on. Discuss. Bounce barriers and dig in deep and dirty, and next week we'll start picking apart those problems and actually get into how to survive out there."

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Getting back up again.

Jalian d'Arsennette

Ahsoka Tano

Ada Miller

Gratuity Tucci

Rufus Shinra

Shiemi Moriyama

Comparatively short today, even for a Sparkle class.

Rufus listened, and Rufus thought, but while he had a few things he thought might be possibilities, he left them unsaid today.

He just wasn't in the mood.

Talk about barriers that might hold a person down when they're trying to get off the streets again. Feel free to use any of the examples from the last two weeks, and go ahead and speculate as to how one might go about overcoming them.

"Injury," Jalian suggested. "Language," because she had experience of that one, "people being stupid?"

Because everybody had experience of that one, right?

Oh god, did Sparkle ever have experience with that one.

"So, there's not much you're going to be able to do about stupid people - trust me, I've danced that dance before - but what about injury and language? Those are definitely barriers, so how does one overcome something like those when they're down and out?"

"Ignore them," Jalian suggested. "Pretend you know more and aren't as injured. Avoid people."

"It is a city," Sparkle pointed out, reasonably. "Avoiding people is easier said than done, and isn't going to do much to help you get back on your feet again. Not if you're planning on making an honest living, anyway."

Which, granted, was sometimes fairly optional.

"I thought we were supposed to survive," Jalian said.

So...honesty definitely optional.

"You are. But some people are better at surviving without getting arrested than others," Sparkle pointed out. "I mean, I'm not going to tell you guys not to steal something to eat if you're starving to death, but prison actually kinda sucks."

Which was why he was here, instead of in Toronto.

"So, you need to not be caught," Jalian said reasonably. "An injury could help, if it makes people feel sorry for you, or look away. The language would still be a problem, though."

"Lack of identification?" Because you'd faked your death and being caught being you would have very bad consequences.

"Oooh, yeah. That's a tricky one. Especially since it takes money to get identification again in most places. Hard to do if you can't get a job without it."

This crap fed into itself so tidily, it was a wonder anybody ever found their way out of that situation at all.

"Your own confidence," Tip suggested. "Looking for a job is hard enough even when the rest of your life isn't a total mess. You've got people yelling at you and telling you you've done everything wrong and that being where you are is your own fault. Even when you know they're wrong, if you hear enough of that it can still sink in. It's hard to sell yourself to an employer when you think it might be too late and you've ruined everything already."

"And that's a hard one to fix if nothing ever starts going your way," Sparkle agreed. "So, any suggestions for what to do about that one?"

Really, if Tip had any ideas, Sparkle would love to hear them. He still struggled with confidence, and he wasn't even homeless and unemployed these days.

"Being afraid of people?" Shiemi suggested.

"Yeah," Sparkle replied, tilting his head thoughtfully. "That'll make it hard to do things like get a job, for sure. Especially if your fear of people is something so crippling that it's why you're homeless to start. So, any suggestions for how to get over that?"

Uhm. She was working on that one!

"Find someone," she suggested tentatively. "Someone who can help make you want to try?"

Here he is to chat.

If she is also here to chat.

She was. And she was thinking about how jobs didn't typically pay you enough to get even a hotel room on day one, so it wasn't like having one was a magic cure-all, either.

It kind of seemed like homelessness itself might be the trap Sparkle had mentioned.

Kinda phoned it in on class today, my apologies. Was sick yesterday, had a deadline to hit, and it is raining in my damn apartment after last night's storm. Go team.

Edited 2017-01-25 13:15 (UTC)

Urban Survival - The Uglier Side of City Living, Wednesday, Period 2

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