#p;starter

@connectedtoeachother This was not a conversation they thought they’d ever be having. After all, what kind of person didn’t know what Christmas was? Even those who didn’t celebrate the holiday knew what it was. Or, at least, that was the case with most people. But Angelica wasn’t like most people, was she? She had grown up sheltered. No, not just sheltered... disconnected. They had purposely made a point of keeping her apart from some of the most human aspects of life aside from just surviving to live another day of experimentation. There were so many pretty lights hung up in the small town nearby, it was clear that there was a celebration of some sort. And, of course, such a thing had prompted a question of “why” from Angelica. Now it was up to her (just slightly older) counterparts to try to explain. Should they explain it from a religious perspective? Neither of them were much for religion, after all. But it played a roll in the holiday. Should they discuss the ideal sort of holiday celebration? Seunghyun had lived through only a few mostly ideal Christmases. Sooyeon as well. Neither remembered them clearly, but they remembered the way it was supposed to be. Without drunken parents, without shouting and being cast aside. With gifts and warm food and laughter bubbling. Sooyeon looked to Seunghyun, Angelica watching them both curiously. Sooyeon and Seunghyun did this often. Silent conversations when trying to think of the best way to explain something to their less informed friend. It often surprised them to discover how little Angelica had been told. “People decorate a lot for important holidays. Remember Halloween? When everyone had scary decorations up because it’s supposed to fun? Well Christmas is totally opposite of that.” Okay, so it was much harder for a teenager Sooyeon’s age to explain holidays than she’d thought it would be, “Um... it’s supposed to be, like, really happy and exciting and everyone is supposed to be nice to especially nice to each other around this time. So people decorate things to be bright and colorful and pretty.” Wow, now that she thought about it, why did people decorate for the holidays? It didn’t make sense. She pondered it for only a second before Seunghyun took over in her absence. “Christmas is a religious holiday centered around the birth of a religious figure, Jesus.” He explained, trying to summarize it as condensed a manner as possible, “It’s celebrated by spending time with family and exchanging gifts. And young children are led to believe that their gifts are left by some kind, old, man who magically leaves them under their Christmas tree on the night of December 24th for them to open in the morning on December 25th.” A bit of a jumble, probably, but that was the best he could do under such short notice. And no one had explained the Christmas tree yet...

tag dump (part 2)

@connectedtoeachother Sooyeon had never been great at reading people. But when it came to Angelica, she was learning. The younger girl, Sooyeon had realized, was confused by some of the conversations the three of them had, even when she played along and said nothing. It made sense considering she had all but grown up at the hands of filthy scientists trying to strip her of her humanity. They had spent so much time turning her into a science project rather than treating her like a human that it came as no surprise that Angelica’s vocabulary was a bit lacking. Seunghyun had noticed it too, but on a lesser scale. Perhaps he was less observant, more focused on the moment than the larger picture. Yet when Sooyeon mentioned it to him, he seemed to have a second of realization... It was this that had led Sooyeon to speak with Angelica about the situation. The younger girl was bright, that much was obvious. If they worked with her to help her learn more, she would likely absorb it with ease. She had already made sense of plenty of words using clues from the context of sentences. Sooyeon had told her that it was okay to ask questions- after all, Sooyeon asked Seunghyun questions all the time, and he was constantly trying to learn from her, too. To work as a group, they had to learn as a group. It seemed a simple enough thought. Sooyeon had purchased some notecards, sat down with Angelica and asked her to list some words that she may not have understood. Of course there weren’t many that came up off the top of her head- it’s difficult to remember a word if you don’t even know the meaning of it. But the little pile had grown over the last couple weeks (Seunghyun had added a few for his own benefit, as well- there were some words he mixed up, some he just couldn’t remember) and now Sooyeon was assuming the role of a teacher, of sorts. Once these words had been learned, they would add more to the bunch that all three of them had difficulties with. At least that was the plan. There was still plenty of day light, but the heavy rain was preventing them from venturing too far outside of their tent. It was a little crowded, but it would do for now. Seunghyun sat beside Angelica, their legs nearly touching in the close proximity, and Sooyeon sat opposite them, the sleeves of one of Seunghyun’s sweaters rolled up just enough for her hands to stick out. She lied some of the cards out between them, letting Angelica and Seunghyun both look over the words. She had used a dictionary during her trip to the library to fill out the backs with their proper definitions, “Do you want to go over these now?” She asked, not wanting to force it on them if they weren’t in the mood, “If not, we could play cards or something.” Seunghyun looked to Angelica, as if the pair were trading thoughts. Maybe Seunghyun understood her better than Sooyeon had thought. Something about that made her feel a little jealous, “We don’t have to. I just thought now was the perfect opportunity considering we can’t really leave.”