fandomhigh | Home Ec, Tuesday, Period 1

"Right," Eliot said at the top of the class. There was a retractable projection screen over the front board, and little tins of stovetop popcorn on each desk. "So I was supposed to show you this thing at the beginning of the semester, but I been arugin' with the school board about whether or not you even need to see it. And . . . I lost." He was regretting his 'don't hit the school board' policy right now. "So today we're watchin' a video. A sixty-two year old video. About studying home ec." He gestured to the popcorn. "But since it's only ten minutes long -- and next to useless -- you're going to pop some popcorn first. It's cooking. Sort of. Basically, put that thing on an open flame until it gets all big and puffy and then you have a tasty treat. Or burned bits. Eat it, throw it at the screen when the video says something dumb . . . popcorn's useful for lots of things."

Eliot may or may not have lived in a house with a redneck fire alarm in his time.

"So, yeah, you might notice that we ain't covered a large chunk of this stuff in this class, either." Like the history of costuming. "If you're mad, take it to the school board. Fair warning, they're about as weird as you'd expect for the board of a school like this. Possibly weirder."

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"I'm not really certain," Hanna said, nibbling on some of her popcorn. "I mean. It was just assumed that everyone would have children, I know, a few decades ago. But this seems...excessive." And a bit creepy, all of it going back to the home again.

"It's like... all they expect to be in life is a... home-maker?"

Peridot frowned a little.

"I thought humanity took pride in letting people be what they wanted to be?"

This sounded weirdly rigid, for Earth. More like Homeworld, really. A place for every Gem, and any Gem out of place had no worth at all.

"This is from sixty-two years ago," Hanna said, thinking aloud. "Which is right after we had a world war. Perhaps they wanted everyone to replace the lost population?" No, that didn't make it any less creepy. "I know there was no reliable birth control available until about fifty years ago. So. Maybe it was more likely that more people would just -- accidentally have children?" After all, Hanna herself had started out as just that kind of 'accident'.

Peridot rested her chin in her hands and sighed.

"After our people came out of a war, we did start to rebuild our lost population," she allowed. "Though we don't have to waste time raising our new Gems the way you humans do. I suppose there's more to learn in that regard."

"I don't know anything about small children. Or babies." And Hanna was totally fine with that, thank you. "I know things about baby animals. They're more fragile, and need more care. And they cry more." The sled dog puppies always needed more cuddles when they were little. "Wait. So Gems, they just, are they born understanding things the way adults do?"

"We aren't born, we're made," Peridot explained. "And when we start life, we know everything we need to know in order to contribute to Gem society. It's actually a really fascinating process."

If you liked waiting around a few centuries for rocks to form.

"Ohh." Well, that made more sense, when Hanna thought about it. Peridot was closer to a crystal, or a rock, than anything mammalian and squishy. "Sort of like having a program on a jump drive, it sounds like." She smiled a little. "My father was the homemaker in my family. My mother died when I was tiny. This movie is ridiculous." She paused and asked, "Who takes care of the littlest Gems?"

"Littlest Gems?" Peridot looked down at herself. "We... take care of ourselves. I'm perfectly capable."

She was taking that question entirely too literally.

Hanna paused, and shook her head. "No, I meant the youngest ones. The ones just-- finished? New?" She blinked. "Unless, I guess, they wouldn't need it at all. Are you little or young for a Gem?"

"Oh!" Peridot's eyes widened a little in recognition. "No, no, new Gems don't really need caretakers. Unless managers count. It's out of the ground and right to work, for us."

She paused a moment, and then added, "By Gem standards I am pretty new, though. Only a couple thousand years old."

Only.

"Thousand?" Hanna asked, not sure if her grasp on English was failing her. Then wondering if her grasp on numbers was. "How long are your years?? And, I. You're in school here. But you must already know so much..."

"I was using Earth years," Peridot replied, shrugging a little. "And I know plenty... about doing my job on Homeworld. But I'm not on Homeworld, and I don't really know anything about... about anything that isn't my job."

And she couldn't go back.

"Ohhh." Sort of like Hanna, only much, much more extreme. She nodded. "I know how to take care of myself, but not how to blend in. At least I didn't, when I first came here. I'm getting better." And she didn't hide under picnic tables any more. "What was your job, on your homeworld?"

"Technician," Peridot replied. "I was a technician. And a certified kindergartener."

She paused for a moment, and then added, "We make new Gems in the kindergartens. That's all."

Apparently the term confused a lot of people around here.

Home Ec, Tuesday, Period 1

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie

Re: Pop popcorn, watch the movie