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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 1, 2012 1:59:14 GMT -5
 WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Nell possessed great intelligence. In the way she crafted the maps she had rolled out onto the table, the painstakingly straight lines and accurate measurements, it was apparent. She could quote Chekhov on the dime, tell you when he was born where he went to school and anything you could ever want to know about a dead Russian guy. Life in isolation left time to absorb as much information as one could, it meant nights spent coming up with new ways to dupe her sister in sprouts. Their favorite book had been Metamorphosis, they were never normal little girls, even though they always looked like the perfect twins in matching pigtails and socks. Mathematics had been mostly neglected, except when necessity came along and informed her that if she ever wanted to be a big scientist like daddy, she'd need to use it. So it was coming up with her own problems and trying to solve them, resulting in the discovery of already existing theorems. Her father impressed upon her many things, one of them being the importance of education. Never once did she ask why she couldn't go to school if it was as important as he told her. She was too smart as a child.
However, Nell was very much ignorant. She knew right from wrong, she knew what she did in her past had mostly been the latter. She understood that enough to have the sense to regret it. What she did not understand were those gray areas, the spaces that people did not need to tell others because they are assumed to already know these rules. They didn't bother to inform the brown-haired girl that maybe she shouldn't be putting fish into that fountain, or maybe she shouldn't have a picnic on the roof of an old mayonnaise jar factory. Her grandfather would have been incredibly disappointed in her knowing this, had he not already hated her guts. She considered looking law up once, but then realized she did not have the time for something like that. When she did have time, she would pursue that interest as she did others like basket weaving and wine enterprise. Right now, her focus was on the zoo, the one she had mapped out on the huge papers. She could be a professional cartographer with how hard she worked on them.
Dressed in black, a beanie on her head, long-sleeved shirt, and dark pants, she did not look at all suspicious. No way, no how. The kitchen light made her perfectly innocent. But she had to say, being dressed like that brought back memories of breaking into an abandoned convenience store to light smoke bombs. That was not enough to shake her from her path. She had never liked zoos. The only one she could have ever had a chance to go to would have been the Bronx one, which was popular aside from Central Park. But she had never had the opportunity. Until recently, and it unnerved her because there was just so much glass and bars and the animals didn't look unhappy but it was terrifying. She was used to seeing them on screen in the wild, drinking from a watering hole teeming with fish or biting into the neck of a zebra. That's where she always thought they should belong.
But she couldn't accomplish her mission alone, she would be way in over her head. She had carefully planned this out, and even went to some of her shadier acquaintances she met for forging her old ID's and papers, the birth certificate that said, yeah, this chick is totally nineteen-year-old. She didn't need those anymore now that she was nineteen (though no longer a bartender) and a semi-legal immigrant. Nell heard the key in the lock and picked up one of the maps, jumping in front of the door to show Sandra as she walked in. "I have a mission for us!" was the first things to come out of her mouth, not a greeting, not a, "Hello, Sandra, how are you?" She then peered from behind the map she held up, teeth flashing in a grin as she tilted it from side to side. "Say map!" The map itself was the interesting thing, labelled 'Maple Hollow' zoo. It was just as suspicious as her outfit.
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 2, 2012 13:33:06 GMT -5
Sandra had rolled out of bed late as per usual on weekends and gone to the kitchen to make... breakfast. Okay, she was allowed to have breakfast at whatever time she liked, thanks. It was after breakfast (which was actually just dinner leftovers heated up because she was seriously way too lazy for this nonsense) that she peeked her head in the fridge again and discovered that they were all out of most anything to drink, except for a tiny bit of milk... and milk was okay, except that Sandra kind of thrived off of anything sugary. She considered just going to pick it up next time either she or Matt went to the grocery store, but then they'd gone just two days ago (they must have forgotten drinks or something), and she knew that Matthew had a busy day today or something. Well, she didn't know what the heck he could be doing to make him busy on a Saturday, but she didn't want to bug him to pick something up on the way home or anything. Sandra wasn't that annoying -- just a little bit annoying. Their grocery list literally had nothing else on it yet and a quick glance through the fridge told her that there was nothing else of importance missing, so she shrugged and grabbed her wallet. She could pick up some drinks! Maybe some candy... Candy was always good.
She'd overestimated how much she was willing to carry on the bus and all the way back to the apartment on her own, though, and so it was that when she returned to the building a while later she was already kind of whining (to herself and her neighbour who just happened to be in the hallway at the same time). Okay, admittedly she just had the one bag that was now full -- with a 2L bottle of iced tea and a bunch of different things of juice and what-not, as well as a bag of gummy worms that she'd grabbed -- but it was pretty annoying to carry something like that a long ways. She was glad when she returned to the sanctuary of the apartment, though, figuring that there would be nobody else home. She didn't expect Matthew back for a while, after all, and she definitely hadn't spotted his car outside. When she walked in, though, it was clear there was somebody home, because there was a light on in the living room and she distinctly remembered not even entering it earlier when she'd gotten up. Hm. Well... that was weird. There was also an unfamiliar pair of shoes there, because the only girls' shoes that were consistently there were Sandra's, and she was pretty sure that those were so not Matthew's. She slipped off her own shoes -- boots because there was a good amount of snow on the ground, still -- and entered further into the apartment. If this person was a burglar, they were sitting very still for some reason. She didn't figure that it was.
No, as she entered the living room -- holding the grocery bag full of those heavy bottles and what-not like a weapon that she could use to beat up potential burlgars -- she discovered that it was, in fact, not anyone suspicious at all, but a girl, a very, very familiar girl. She sighed in relief. "Nell? What are you doing here? Everything okay?" Although Nell was always welcome at the apartment (always had been for a very long time, because she often came in to raid their fridge) her first instinct this time was to be worried. Last time Nell had come over, it had been with a black eye and a brief explanation about her brother. This time, though, she didn't look upset or anything of the sort, and she had no injuries that Sandra could see. She mostly looked very intently focused on whatever she was reading, and Sandra followed this gaze over to the papers that were spread out all over the place. "Why are you looking at maps... of the zoo?" she asked slowly. Sandra was a very easygoing person, willing to just go along with whatever life and her friends threw at her. She couldn't follow what she didn't even understand, though, and though she smiled (as always) it was a very confused smile.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 3, 2012 2:18:14 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Realizing that she could have terrified Sandra by popping out like that unexpectedly, she was glad to see that the Water girl did not seem fazed at all, blinking at the wielded bag. So she'd been out shopping? "I come in peace," she squeaked, a twitch in her lips. She had to remember that she was not actually living here, and therefore Sandra may not be expected her. But she did spend quite a lot of time over, whatever time she could find in between school, work, and father-daughter-brother time. The latter would have been much better avoided, but it was not at all possible to do so. She lowered the map and gave a toothy grin. Nothing there revealed any sort of upset, any emotion that was not happiness. As per usual, but this was honest. Rafael had been bugging her lately, but it was his usual assholery. The topic of Angela was a favorite for him. "Yeah, I'm great, great." She pointed to her face, a part of the map rolling up. "Black eye healed up and everything." The swelling had gone down really quick and it had been easily covered with make-up. She didn't want anyone asking after it, especially not Lark, remembering how she reacted when she found out Altair and Chase had teamed up on her. And Josh...well, he knifed her brother, she didn't want him to get into anymore trouble because of her.
Sandra questioned the map, and she rolled it up the rest of the way. She liked how nonchalant the other girl was, accepting her presence in this place as just a daily dose of Nell. The Earth girl was hopefully welcome in Sandra's life, because that's all she ever wanted from anything. To be there for others. Even though, thinking about it, Sandra was the one being there for her. And she had responded so well to the whole asshole little brother deal. Not that she expected a freak out she just...didn't know what she expected. She was so used to secrets, it was how she'd been raised. One could never talk about anything like that, and so she never did. It was unconscious now. "Here, let me get the bag and I'll tell you." It was only one bag, but Nell felt the need to take it into the kitchen, using one hand to hold it and placing it on the counter. Grocery shopping was fun for Nell, and she wondered if Sandra shared the same feelings. They both loved food, she figured that grocery shopping should be wonderful for everyone! Well, everyone that consumed food. Shopping wouldn't be very fun for, say, a couch. "Ooh, soda!" she chirped. Soda was great, but she really tried not to drink a lot of it. She tried to avoid anything unhealthy thanks to how much she could consume in...well, an hour. A day was also a frightening amount of food being consumed.
She put the map back on the table, looking at the spread she had before her. It was like a movie, Nell's version of Ocean's Eleven. Only it was Nell's One, and that one would be Sandra, if she agreed. "Zoos are bad places," she said, hands on her hips. The statement was firm. "I get having natural reserves for animals, those are great! They help endangered species and everything." They were also in uninhabited places so that there could be a lot of land for the animals. There might even be one around the Hollow, considering how much space there was between it and the next town. "But zoos...what's the point? I mean, it's cool to see animals, but you could go on a safari and see giraffes and zebras and all those. You know what I mean? It's kind of cruel to keep them locked up in those cages." It wasn't just kind of cruel, it was cruel. They got fed, and cared for, but it unnerved Nell. In her mind, animals should be free. Everyone and everything should be free, that was how the world worked! She wondered if Sandra could catch onto what she wanted now, as she stated her opinion on zoos. "Animals belong in the wild, yesiree." She turned to Sandra and pointed with an outstretched arm. "And I need you to help me." Her campaign would come to fruition with a sidekick to assist her. It was all coming together so perfectly!
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 4, 2012 22:09:13 GMT -5
Once she'd realized that this was in fact Nell, she had no doubt that the girl did come in peace, but she laughed. It was probably a little weird how accustomed she was to this whole thing, Nell showing up for no reason and all that. Whether she was there for Sandra herself or Matthew, or just because she'd felt like dropping in to steal their food, Nell was someone who was always welcome! She didn't know why she hadn't figured that it was Nell in the first place, when she'd come in. "Good," she affirmed, grinning back. The eye certainly did look much better, but Sandra hadn't seen her for a few weeks, so she didn't know how it had looked before. When she'd seen it on the day of, it had looked more like it was just red and swelling, but she'd had a good enough number of small injuries like that to know that it would have been a bruise forming. She didn't question Nell further when the Earth girl rolled up the map, but hummed a little bit instead, wondering. "You don't have to --" she said, but Nell had taken it anyway, and Sandra followed along, still a little bit confused. "Yeah, pop!" She giggled at Nell and that American lingo of hers -- not that there weren't weirdos who said "soda" where she was from, but meh. "We ran out of things to drink this morning," she said to sort of kind of explain the reason she'd really only bought drinks. "We have lots of food though, we got groceries like two days ago... so I don't know why we did that... I guess we just forgot!" That was pretty likely for Sandra. Matthew was usually a bit more organized.
She blinked at the map now that it was spread out on the table. It was definitely a zoo, alright -- there were labels like "monkey cage" and "llama pen"... Yes, this was definitely either Nell's (very well-done) handdrawn map of the Maple Hollow zoo, or she was trying to break into a bank or something and had come up with some really weird code names for something. As it turned out, it seemed to be the zoo this time around, but she never could be sure with Nell. "This is true, yep!" she said, frowning a little. "I mean, natural reserves are great and all..." She didn't know if she agreed totally with this whole thing about zoos being bad places, though. Sandra had always liked the zoo. Then again, Sandra liked everything. "I guess, but we don't really have a safari near here! Most of these animals are from far away!" she pointed out. The zoo was a fairly small one, to be honest, but most of the animals they had were definitely not from the mountainous region where Maple Hollow was located. She could see this whole point, really, about zoos being cruel places, but to the best of Sandra's knowledge, animals were always taken care of fairly well. "Ya know, I'm pretty sure zoos aren't actually that bad," she pointed out, now that hse seemed to have an idea of what Nell was about to suggest. "It's like, those circuses you need to watch out for. Where they have the elephants doing tricks and stuff." Sandra had started crying once, watching a video online of the way they'd treated the elephants. "Nell... what do you have in mind?" she asked, and she smiled as always, but she wkind of feared the answer.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 13, 2012 3:29:15 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Could Nell ever truly assimilate into Canada culture, or did she not want to? She couldn't say for sure. She had finally accepted celsius as a way of life only months ago, but luckily there wasn't too much to get used to. ”I can't get used to that,” she said, shaking her head. ”It sounds like backtracking to the fiftees, and now I really want to get a milkshake at the malt shop.” The girl could be pretty sure that they did not even exist anymore, though some institions from years past, endured. Her aunt had performed at jazz clubs, she just did not have the bob haircut and the cigarette holder. Now the woman had apparently graduated from that, because the work she did had never been for the money. It was just for her entertainment. She laughed as Sandra spoke. ”Do you ever make shopping lists? That actually helps, but then again, you have to remember to check them.” Her phone had become very handy once she figured out all the things it could do. She tended to forget certain things, but food and drink was something she tended to remember. Everything else could escape her thoughts just as the drinks had escaped the siblings'.
She tilted her head as Sandra studied the map, a hopeful kind of look on her tanned face. Even in the winter, she looked as if she had returned from a nice vacation in Bermuda. It had been something friends of her once told her they were jealous of, and she had never realized why until she learned that people really liked to be tan. Nell considered what it must have been like from the Water girl's point of view, considering the fact that visiting the zoo had been part of her life before. ”That's right,” she murmured about the safari, leaning against the kitchen counter. What she learned of animals in childhood had been from mentions in books, or the birds and squirrels, cats and dogs living around her area. Now she had come to realize there was a big part of nature she did not even know about. And most of the time, it exhilerated her, though there were parts that could certainly be frightening. She liked to educate herself for fear of being completely ignorant.
Her eyes brightened when Sandra made a good point. ”Look, look, I did some research,” Nell said, pushing away from the counter and making her way toward the table, thumbing through papers until she found the ones she had printed out. ”Enclosures for animals tend to be too small, and even in some cases they tend to be underfed. Also, there are cases of mistreatment of the animals like there are at circuses.” The girl tapped her finger against the bottom of one of the papers. ”And it says edu at the end of the url, so I figure it's a reputable source. I also talked to some people about it.” She made sure to check all alleys of information before going about anything, it was how she went about her life.
Then came the big question, with a woozy of an answer. Nell put the papers down so she could position her hands on her hips. ”We are going to free the animals!” Then she amended the words. ”The ones that do not have the potential to be dangerous.” There had ben a news report some time back about all these big cats that had been released and took to the streets. She may have wanted to protect animals, but she did not want to put any humans in danger doing so. ”You don't have to help me. Unless you want.” She didn't want to drag Sandra into anything against her will, but she didn't know how many reservations she would have about pulling a stunt like this.
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 15, 2012 14:36:58 GMT -5
Sandra giggled. "Nuh uh," she argued, grinning. "'Soda' sounds way more old-timey than 'pop'... Plus, that extra syllable is super unnecessary." She said this as if it mattered, the fact that soda was two syllables instead of just one, like pop. Then again, the whole thing didn't matter anyway. Sandra didn't really care what people called it. "Oh, we have one!" She pointed to where the list was on the fridge, attached by a magnet, with things scribbled here and there in either of the siblings' handwriting. "Guess that we just forgot it, yeah..." They'd bought everything else on the list, too. She scanned the list for where it said "drinks", then grabbed a pen from its handy dandy spot on the kitchen counter and crossed it off. There. Now they wouldn't have to buy ten billion things and possibly have to throw a party or something just to get rid of it all. Huh. They should throw a party! She wasn't sure Matthew would be super keen on the idea, though -- the apartment was comfy for the two of them but it wasn't that big.
Though highly confused by the situation, Sandra still found it in herself to be impressed with all the research and work Nell must have put into this. Not only was there this map, hand-drawn and, it looked like, to scale... there were all those papers. Sandra didn't much like to read news articles and research papers and the like, and she scanned the page. A couple of words jumped out at her, but mostly she decided that she'd just take Nell's word for it, whatever she said about the way animals were treated in zoos. "That's so sad," she said softly, pouting a little, and she meant it of course, but Sandra wasn't much of a doer. She didn't rush into things with the intention of saving the world or anything -- she was content just to make the people around her happy or something. "Who did you get to talk to you about it? Like, insiders from the zoo?" Her eyes were wide. This seemed pretty legit. "Like, like like, the zoo thinks they're just good loyal employees, but secretly they're trying to bring down the establishment." She giggled a little, then became very serious so that she could focus on whatever Nell's plan was.
The thing was, Sandra really was not always a very logical person. She was smart, in a way... or at least, she thought she had to be doing something right at school since she hadn't yet failed (which her work ethic would suggest that she should have done by now) -- but logic was really not the girl's strong suit. She didn't always think things through to the end of them, either. Even so, she could see a few gaping holes in this plan of Nell's. Sandra's mouth fell open, stayed agape for a few seconds, before she said, "Woah woah woah... Hold the phone! What?" Sheesh, "hold the phone"? Now that was old-timey. "How are you going to free the animals?" She looked down at the map again. "And what are you going to do with them when you've freed them?!" She held off on answering Nell's other point just yet, waiting. On the one hand, Sandra was kind of a people-pleaser. She just wanted her friends to be happy. On the other hand, well, she was pretty sure this broke at least twenty different laws and bylaws.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 17, 2012 9:59:25 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Nell huffed like a frustrated cat when Sandra argued the time that the word 'pop' belonged in. "I win because I'm talking louder than you," she said, not quite yelling but definitely speaking louder than she usually did. The girl wasn't one to get too loud, she was fairly soft-spoken and polite unless she got really excited about something. She sighed, poking the side of her head with a finger. "See, that's why we need better memory." Nell actually had a better memory than she claimed to have. If there was anything she felt uncomfortable with talking about, she would say that she couldn't remember it. She didn't lie all the time, it was just easier when it came to things like that. "I did see this infomercial for something called the Lil Reminder, but you can just forget the little tape recorder thing, too." Her and her infomercials. They usually came on when she watched her stories. She couldn't watch them a lot, and most of the time she was glued to Dora the Explorer, so she had her friends fill her in on whatever was happening. She didn't watch them for the plot, no, she watched them for the acting. As strange as it may have been, she enjoyed it.
It seemed Sandra was moved by Nell's explanation, and she might have smiled at how adorable it was if she were any less serious in the matter. Okay, so she did smile a little, but she couldn't help it. It was like she never stopped smiling. Sandra questioned who Nell had talked to, and she bobbed her head. "Well, one of my friends works there, actually, and she was talking to me about it one day. She wants to be a field biologist after college." It was pointless information considering, but Nell thought it was an interesting career path. She did not know if it was something she would do, but then again, she could do anything at this point. She had no plans for her career, but that wasn't too bad. Marrying Josh meant marrying money, but unfortunately she was not that kind of girl. She wouldn't be able to sit back while Josh provided for her, even though considering his aspirations of being a doctor, he would always make more than whatever she could. She didn't mind, as long as she felt she was supporting herself. Always far too independent, it had taken her some time to decide to move in with the poor guy.
The surprise should have been expected, so Nell kept calm with her knowledgeable expression on her features. She had all this planned, one of the only things she ever planned. She was not the best strategist, but she had her moments where she truly shined. This may or may not have been one of them. "Well, one of the custodians made copies of the keys..." she said, nodding. But she faltered when Sandra asked what she would do with the animals after she freed them. Well. That's where her plan fell apart, didn't it? "Huh. I haven't gotten that far." Nell plopped down in the chair, looking at the maps, trying to get her brain to work it out. "I think a big truck would be needed. But I don't have a big truck." She smiled, her brain trying to come up with anyone who may have had a big truck. After all, she got by with a little help from her friends.
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 18, 2012 19:30:45 GMT -5
Sandra was usually pretty loud in the squealy, excitable sense than the shouting one (unless she was really, really excited) but she could definitely, uh, project when the situation called for it. "Who's talkin' louder now?" she asked back, raising her voice. "That's right, Sandra time!" She would have broken out like this was Sandra Time instead of Hammer Time or something, but man... Sandra was not very coordinated and it was probably a bad idea to try to dance at all. "Remembering things is overrated," she scoffed, waving a hand. Of course, Sandra would like to remember things a little more, but she wasn't all that bothered by it. She had friends to remind her -- and sometimes, when she forgot things, this just led to adventure! Oh yeah, there was nothing wrong with forgetting the occasional thing. "See, so useless!" she said, giggling a little. "I used to write things on my hands and arms a lot, but it's annoying when it doesn't wash off." That didn't stop her from still doing it sometimes, though.
It was good to hear that Nell actually did have somewhat reliable sources of information, though for all Sandra knew, she could just be making the whole thing up. That said, she almost always believed that people were being one hundred percent honest when they spoke to her, and so it wasn't like she was about to question her friend or anything. Plus, she didn't know why Nell would lie about this unless she like, really needed the help... Even in that case, though, Sandra wasn't sure if she wanted to go along with whatever this plan was. "What do field biologists do?" she asked, somewhat distracted momentarily. She hoped the answer wasn't something really obvious like "biology in the field", or "biology of fields". That would just make her feel silly. However, she'd also feel kind of amused at the subtlety of the English language sometimes. "Anyway, okay. I guess I trust your friend," she said, smiling a little.
Nell seemed very calm -- too calm -- for someone proposing that that they break into a zoo and let all the animals free. Seriously, Sandra didn't know how the girl did it ever, but then again, she always seemed to exude this air of calmness about her, serenity in the face of any and all situations. This was something that Sandra would have considered to be admirable, but she liked to live her life on the more excited side of things. "You have the keys?" she asked, giving Nell a suspicious look as if she didn't believe her, but she was joking at this point. Part of her also hoped that Nell was just kidding too, but who went to this much trouble to pull off a trick? Water elementals, for pranks. Pfft... pfft. Sandra was much too lazy for that nonsense. "Lemme see!" She was slightly more worried when Nell didn't seem to have a plan beyond freeing the animals, though. "What would you do if you had a big truck?" she asked, her mouth hanging slightly open even after the question.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 19, 2012 17:26:37 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT It looked like Nell one that battle. She was afraid she was going to wake someone around up, or disturb any animals outside with this yelling contest. "Okay, you're right," she agreed quietly, flicking her nose at Sandy. She could raise her voice louder, but she was always embarrassed when it ended up cracking. The Earth nodded her head in agreement when Sandra said remembering things wasn't as cool as people thought. "Yeah, I can't even remember what I had for dinner last week." Considering how much she ate and the wide variety she consumed, it wouldn't be surprising. And she didn't think many people took care to remember their meals. "You gon get ink poisoning!" she warned, poking Sandra's arm. "It's a good thing for anatomy notes, too." When needing to know the muscles and bones in your body, the skin was a convenient notepad. In Nell's experience, it had worked well. She was very much a visual learner.
There was pride in the fact that Nell could answer her friend's question. Sometimes it hurt how ignorant she truly was about so many things. "They study environment and do tests with...I don't know, grass I guess," Nell said. "They also study animals and their interaction with their surroundings." It sounded fun, but it was most likely exhausting. You got to be outside all the time, doing what you love, studying what you love. After all, someone wouldn't pursue that if they didn't love it. She was pretty sure her friend loved it. "I trust him too! Even if he tells me weird things about animals that I don't really want to know." Who was she kidding, she wanted to know even the weird things. At least it was knowledge. She wanted that, because in the end, wouldn't that be what made her normal? It's all she wanted, to fit in with society. "Anyway, some field biologists have worked a zoos before getting into the field." What did he experience say about her future career, then? Underage bartender, daycare teacher, and manager at a concert hall? To her, it did not matter all that much. She did not map life out.
Sandra seemed incredulous, so of course Nell needed to prove herself. She went to her bag and fished out the chain from her bag. "All planned out, baby." Well, mostly. More than it should have been, considering what she was going to do. This was something that may have entered someone's mind before they laughed it off as a joke, and going about with their life. Not Nell, she did not have what most people called "common sense". It escaped her at the worst times. Sure, she was clever, she could come up with ideas to get her out of situations as well as she could get into them. "Weelll, I would put the animals in there and take them to...the SPCA. They would take care of them." And arrest her, but she did not think about that. Her plan was falling through as she said it. That was always a disappointing thing, learning that something could not go off quite as well as you wanted it to.
When she realized this, she blew up strands of her bangs and huffed out a breath. Maybe she should have planned more before getting all passionate about animal rights and coming over to Sandra's. But then she grinned. It wasn't like she could stay upset for long, and looking at the maps she didn't regret anything she did even though she was thinking more and more about how all this could go wrong. "Hey, we can still sneak in tonight, after it's closed," she said. "The animals won't be up, but it could be fun." Doing something you weren't supposed to was always exciting. And if she couldn't help the animals (that's what volunteer work was for!) she could at least entertain herself.
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 20, 2012 15:46:03 GMT -5
Sandra grinned. "I win!" Really she couldn't even remember what she had won at this point -- oh right, the debate on soda vs. pop... Well, actually, that was extremely important. The fate of the English-speaking world counted on having one universal name for the stuff! She wondered what they called it elsewhere. People who called it soda pop were even weirder than people who called it soda. "Me either," she agreed, shrugging. "I think it might have been some kind of pasta thing..." She and Matthew got by okay, could definitely cook, but it wasn't like either of them had hundreds of recipes stored in their heads or anything. "Or maybe that was the night we had rice... I don't even know." She laughed. She could only remember last night's dinner because there were leftovers sitting in the fridge still. "Hopefully not! I stopped, I'm a good kid!" she said far too enthusiastically to be entirely innocent, but she laughed. "Ooooh, ooh, I get it. Like writing 'cranium' on your head or like, 'patella' on your knee." Then she paused. "Some things would be hard to see, though. Like your shoulder blades or something." No, that probably wasn't the best plan of action in that case.
She didn't think there was much to find interesting about grass, but hey, to each their own. She did think that everyone should pursue whatever they wanted... Oh, not that Sandra knew what she wanted. "Ooh, ooh, animals. Animals are fun," she said eagerly. However, Sandra was no fan of the sciences in general, so she didn't think it would be worth it even to go wandering around studying animals all the time. She'd just watch Planet Earth videos or something. "Well, I guess animals are pretty weird. Like people!" She smiled and quirked a brow. "But people are fun. I like people." Sandra just liked everything. She and Nell were one and the same with that. "But that makes sense. Zoos are biology-y... biology-ish." She knew it wasn't a word but didn't really care that much -- Sandra had never claimed to have a super big vocabulary. She was pretty good at breaking out better words (better than made-up ones she meant) when it came to writing essays and things like that, at least.
Nell always seemed to have an idea ready whe the situation called for it -- a plan for everything. The problem was that Sandra got into more trouble with the girl than she ever should, and maybe they just got lucky that Nell could usually come up with a way to get over it. "Really?" She was impressed, again, and kind of scared at the same time. "I don't think the SPCA is going to like that very much, actually," she said, frowning. "They'd probably return the animals too! And then just a waste of a plan..." Still, Sandra would be extremely impressed if Nell actually managed to pull this off in the first place, so she was having some extremely conflicting emotions here. She leaned back against the kitchen counter behind her as she listened, waiting a few moments before answering, her face more surprised than happy for once (not that she wasn't happy). Then she said, "Let me get this straight." Again she paused before continuing. "You want to sneak into the zoo at night when there's nobody there... and then you want to maybe release the animals and maybe find a big truck to put them in?" This was just not a good plan at all, Sandra thought. Her eyes were big and round with strange, strange wonder.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 21, 2012 12:48:48 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Nell liked pasta, it was pretty easy to make and one of the first things she knew how to create on her own. "You should let me cook for you guys sometime," she said, her voice holding a strong yearning, like it would make her year to do so. "I could make you the food of my people." She was half-Italian, but she identified with her Spanish side more because of her father. Her mother's only contribution to her learning of Italian culture was opera. "Which would either be something from Spain or a slice of pizza and a deli sandwich." In any case, she would love to cook for them and she loved cooking for people. She'd even add hot sauce to some dishes. If she were to cook Spanish, she was sure she could find some things that would be fine with the addition. She was certain there was some in her repertoire that would even include it in the recipe.
Nell nodded, laughing when Sandra suggested cranium. And here she should not be thinking 'you cray, girl', but she guessed that's why the two got along. "Or your butt," she agreed. "It would be difficult to label your coccyx." She waggled her eyebrows exaggeratedly, and to make the joke cornier she'd just have to do the guns with her fingers and say 'I'll be here till Thursday'. Hopefully it would be another reason to convince Sandra she was all right, maintaining her sense of humor and all. Things could be punny even with a douche bag brother around. And she remembered that the girl didn't even know the half of it, the blackmailing of both her and now Josh.
Sometimes Nell equated the girl to a small child, bouncing around with pigtails and a lollipop. Aww, she would look so cute with pigtails! And one of those propeller hats! Nell almost melted just thinking about it. "I wonder what's weirder, people or animals. Judging by game shows in every culture, I'd have to say people, though." Especially the Japanese ones, but when you thought about it, every country had some weird stuff. Sweden had wife-carrying races, which made Nell chuckle every time she thought about it. Like now. Nell tapped her hand against the table. "Biologyish is a word, it's law. Now you need to use it conversation and act like it's totally real." It reminded of the whole gullible joke that yes, Nell had been caught by. Thanks to not having anyone to do it to her in her childhood, she'd went to look it up in the dictionary. A very embarrassing moment in her life, that was.
She practically deflated, slumping against the table with her arms stretched out over all her handiwork. It was over dramatics, of course, but it was pretty suckish to have a plan fall apart. "You're right," she moaned into the table, before shifting her head to the side. "Why is the world soooo cruelll? So cruel..." She hummed a bit to herself before burying her head again, thinking about all the cute animals in their cages and that was okay. Of course, she had pets, but she took very good care of them all. The cats and dogs had a lot of space, as did the birds and the caterpillars and the turtle. They had a good environment, and she wouldn't compare the mansion to a zoo. More like a farm without the slaughterhouse.
Nell laughed, and it went on for far too long. She covered her mouth, and held up the universal 'one sec' finger. Then she breathed. "No. But that does sound like some awesome A-Team shenans. But uh...just forget the plan." It broke her heart just a little bit, but it would be okay to leave it alone until she could be more prepared. She just was not good at strategics, she was good at thinking on the spot. "Like...let's just go to the zoo and look around and stuff. It'll be fun! Everything is cooler at night." Except the streets in the ghetto, she could say that for a fact. She'd always been safer getting around in the day because she'd have a lady with a broom to defend her.
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 23, 2012 21:31:52 GMT -5
Sandra grinned. "You can cook food for us any time," she said, and laughed. Sandra was never one to turn down offers of food, sheesh. That would just be crazy. Who did people think she was, some kind of person who wasn't totally in love with food? Oh, food, her number one favourite in the world. "What can you make that's from Spain?" she asked out of curiosity. Sandra didn't know much about Spanish food at all, or much about Spain for that matter... Actually, she just didn't know a whole lot about Europe, and maybe she should start learning. "But anything you want to make from anywhere in the world would probably be great!" she said, grinning. She knew that Nell liked to cook, but really Sandra wasn't bratty enough to actually want to force her friends to make her food or anything, that would be silly. If Nell was offering though, there was no way she'd actually refuse.
She laughed and poked Nell's cheek. "But it works for easy things! Like toes." She wiggled her bare toes to emphasize the point. She didn't remember what any of the feet bones were, though. Sandra had never liked that kind of thing, memorization and the like -- she was okay at it, had a pretty decent memory, but she was way better at remembering things like historical events than stupid names for parts of the body or something. Toes were just toes for her. Feet were feet, ankles were ankles. "I'm pretty sure people are weirder," she said without much hesitation, but she smiled and added, "Except I don't know, some animals are really weird. Like the platypus! Awesome but so weird. Like a poisonous beaver duck thingy." People were probably still weirder, somehow. They did very weird things that Sandra didn't always understand, try as she might. Maybe it was just a perspective thing. "No acting required, it totally is a word!" she said with as much seriousness as she could muster, but this still... wasn't much at all.
It just made her feel kind of bad when Nell sprawled out on the table, and she patted her back softly, pouting a little as if to suggest that she understood how the other girl felt, even though Nell wasn't looking at her face anyway. "I'm sooorry," she said, stretching out the word as she cuddled up to her friend, slumping against the table along with her. Hey, if she couldn't beat her, might as well join her... only she kind of had defeated her by bringing this plan down, and for that she actually really did feel pretty bad. "The world's not so bad, I know it's kind of bad but things could be a lot worse for the animals," she said softly, unsure of whether or not this would actually be useful to say. Maybe it would just make things worse. Sandra knew her friend was just being dramatic on purpose, but even so, she really did feel kind of guilty in a way.
It was really very worrying when her friends had what kind of seemed like mood swings, going from calling the world cruel to suddenly laughing for a few minutes. Still, it made Sandra laugh too. She did like when her friends were happy and laughing and smiling. Once it died down after a while, she grinned, giving her friend a bit of time to catch her breath, or at least that was what it looked like. "Okay. If you're sure," she said, giving Nell a questioning look, but she was kind of very glad that she wasn't going to be dragged along to do anything illegal... at least, so she thought, until the Earth girl continued. "Oooooh." She hummed a little, tapping her nails on the table. Then she said, "If you're sure we won't get caught! I'm too young to go to jail for breaking into a zoo." Would they really send her to jail for that? Sandra didn't think so... but she couldn't know for sure.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 29, 2012 11:29:57 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Her trip to Spain had really opened her eyes to some things about the culture that she couldn't have just secondhand from her father telling her about it. She'd always known everything about it, but actually going there, and seeing all the little things. ”Welllll...I can make these spicy potatoes. And like, by spicy I mean you won't be able to taste anything for a week after. For the main dish, though, paella is the most popular dish. For good reason.” Spain was a food-loving country, and she came from a family of cooks. Male cooks, but they still loved to make their food. And she was proud to have a heritage like that, along with her Italian heritage. They had good food, too, though she heard French was the best. There were so many countries she'd love to travel to just for the food. And she did no other recipes, too, mostly from talking to other people. So when Sandra suggested that, she had a good idea. ”Ooh, do you like dumplings? Because I have a good Indian recipe.” She tapped a fist in the palm of her hand as she made all these decisions for an international feast. And Sandra and Matt will like it because food is awesome. No matter where it's from.
Nell pursed her lips before saying, ”Distal phalanx,tarsalmetotarsal joint, and phalanges, oh my!” She was more intelligent than her airy personality gave her credit for. But one thing she was not very good at was animals. Picture books were limited in her childhood, as was any real life experience with anything other than stray dogs and pigeons. She was pro at identifying them. Other wildlife was a different story. So it was good that Sandra gave her a description of this animal so Nell could remember what the heck it even was. If she hadn't known about it, the Water girl talking about mutant duck beaver creatures would have been mildly disturbing. ”It's like a superhuman animal. Because it went through kind of nuclear disaster that morphed it and now it has poison powers.” Or maybe she read too many comic books, but that was a completely legitimate scenario to her. Nell tilted her head and pondered for a moment. ”I wonder if Webster's accepts submissions...” She wasn't really thinking that they'd add it to the dictionary, it would just be funny to write to them and find out what they say. And if they did accept it, the girls would have to throw a very big party.
Nell wasn't too put out about it. Not the first time she'd had her plans foiled by common sense, and she was thankful she had people to keep her grounded when she got in over her head. So she giggled when Sandra cuddled up to her. She brought her arms in to rest her chin on them. ”I mean that I can't help, ya know. If you see something with the world, you gotta change it.” Nell absolutely loved the world, she didn't think of it as cruel as she had lamented. She lifted her head a little then, blinking a little. There was always another option, and she could think of one now. ”Well...I wonder what kind of volunteer work there is for that sort of thing. Because that's something that would be productive.” It would be a better idea than trying to steal animals, she supposed. Volunteer work would be a full-time thing for her if she did not like to support herself with a job. It would be easy to just sit around and let her future husband provide for her, but she didn't like depending on anyone else for money. It was a matter of pride and independence, and she was a stickler for those things.
As it was very hard to upset her anyway, she was quick to recover from the minor disappointment and move on to her next great scheme. But it wasn't a scheme, really, just something for two people to do. Nell tilted her head. She was willing to take the chance. There was just the matter that Sandra could get into trouble, too, and she did not like that. ”Hmm...what is there legally to do in the eve time?” Drinking would be legal for Nell, but not for Sandra. She wasn't too big on drinking anyway. She could always come up with something for the two of them to do, but she couldn't always guarentee legality. ”Ooorrr, if you have any movies, we can watch something.” Nell was always up for movies. It was one thing she'd watched a lot of, even though she didn't see much television.
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Post by SANDRA HARU CHANG on Jul 29, 2012 12:38:35 GMT -5
Spicy anything was kind of a guaranteed way to Sandra's heart -- possibly literally if it was spicy enough and she got heartburn or something. Really though, the girl was a hot sauce fiend, as Matthew and their now shared fridge would attest to. "Ooh... spicy potatoes," she said, her eyes lightning up and practically twinkling. Sandra had very strong feelings about food sometimes. The two of them had that in common. "And I'll take that as a challenge!" She liked when people gave her strange looks for the amount of hot sauce she could eat -- like a boss. Seriously, she drowned all her food the stuff. It probably wasn't healthy. She liked it, though. "Paella is very, very nice, though." Still, that was pretty much the extent of Sandra's knowledge on Spanish food, except for all the stuff she saw on the Food Network. Even then, it wasn't that much. They always seemed to have Italian stuff on there, but that was fine too -- she just loved food in general. "Dumplings are awesome!" Her voice was excited. "Oh, oh, remind me sometime to make you dumplings. They're not actually as good as my parents'..." She trailed off, randomly undergoing a bout of homesickness. "But they'll do! My mom makes some boss gyoza." Her dad could do some pretty amazing things with dumplings too, but since he was actually a cook in a Chinese restaurant -- which wasn't a secret by any means -- this was probably just too obvious for her to bother saying.
She stared, wide-eyed, when Nell started spouting random anatomical terms. "Uh... I'm never going to remember that, but okay!" Sandra giggled. Nell really did have a good memory for this kind of thing, it seemed. It wasn't like they talked about this stuff all the time or anything, only in weird little moments like these. "Wouldn't it be hard to label all those things, though? Feet aren't that big!" She couldn't imagine putting the word tarsalmeto... something something on her foot, anyway. That was if she could even remember the word in the first place, though. Sandra had already forgotten it. She wasn't very good at these things, even if she had a good memory for certain things. If she studied it, she might remember, but she'd always hated studying with a strong and burning passion. "The platypi... platypuses... platypeople are pretty crazy, yep," she said, grinning. Was she totally making Phineas and Ferb jokes? Yes. Yes she was. "We should e-mail them! Or send a letter! Or call! I don't know how to contact Webster's..." They would figure it out. She was sure they could just Google it and find the answer with relative ease. Everything was on the internet now anyway.
Nell did seem okay now, or at least better, but still Sandra snuggled in, giggling a little. "I guess that's true," she sang softly. There were many injustices that people let go by in the world every day, though. Sandra noticed, saw, recognized them... She just didn't often do anything about it, at least not with big things like this, trying to save all the animals in the zoo (except for the dangerous ones, as Nell said). Mostly she operated in smiles and hugs and sticking up for people, but even then that was rare. Sandra was pretty sure she was useless in all those respects. She definitely wasn't cut out for saving the world. "There's probably a lot. Or you could always get a job there too, I guess. Like the inside man, saving the animals from within the zoo!" She laughed at the thought of Nell sneaking around during her shift, giving extra food to the animals or petting the lions or something. That was kind of adorable... even if lions were also frightening. She hummed a little as she thought, looking around the room as if to search for ideas... some place or another. "Hm... Nothing exciting! We could go out and do something. See a movie maybe. Or or get food. Food is good." Sandra was pretty short on ideas, though -- she hadn't had plans for the day other than nap and lie around and nap some more. "We do have a bunch of movies, though. Uh... Whatever you want, actually." She grinned, leading the way back into the living room and gesturing at their mini-collection over on the shelf. Okay, mostly Sandra's stuff was all like, Disney Pixar -- but still! It was a start.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Aug 2, 2012 2:40:42 GMT -5
WHEN YOU COUNTED TO TEN YOU'RE SLIPPING THROUGH THE FINGERS OF YOUR GOOD INTENT Of course the spiciness got Sandra going! Nell enjoyed anything hot, but as long as it wasn't too overwhelming so that you didn't actually taste the food. She had had wings like that before, and it hadn't been a very fun experience. She recalled taking the lids off of everyone's drinks and downing two of them. "Your taste buds must hate you," Nell said with a light chuckle lacing her tone. But hey, it would only be a one-day hate, since taste buds didn't even last that long. She had to admire the girl for how much hot sauce she could consume. The Earth girl didn't even want to test if her stomach was that much iron. It sounded like they were planning a dumpling exchange, which they were, and Nell couldn't complain. She loved food. "I...am so hungry right now." She was always hungry, of course, but mention of food could get anyone hungry. And she just couldn't wait. "Dumplings are one of my prime food groups. Other than shepherd's pie, tacos, candy corn, and syrup." Okay, maybe some of them were taken from Elf, but they were a good part of the food pyramid.
She was laughing again when Sandra said she wouldn't remember them. Hell, Nell didn't even remember everything. She'd always had an interest in anatomy and science because of her father, and she had a good memory when it came to things written on paper, but she wasn't a supercomputer. "Abbreviations work. And small handwriting." Nell had small hand-writing, but it also sucked because she had small feet. Nell didn't like being as tiny as she was, she just felt insignificant all the time. "PlatyPower," she said, feeling the corniness as she said it. That was all right, she could be corny with Sandra without judgment. Nell poked Sandra's stomach when she said, "You should do it, the internet scares me." Usually she was interested in exploring mysteries but she had been warned away from ones on the internet.
Nell's entire existence was made up of dogmas she created for herself, some things that warped the way she perceived things in order to make her feel better. But one of them was that she didn't sweat the small things. She took off the beanie she'd been wearing and tried to flatten out her hair. It usually did what she wanted it to do and behaved itself, but hat hair was never easily managed. Her lips quirked into a smile. Sandra had the same dogma, as well. "I wish I had time for two jobs. But school doesn't allow that kind of thing." In actuality, she wished she only had one job that she liked, because she wasn't liking the job she had now. Lark and Anna could guess why (part of the reason, at least), but Sandra didn't know about Jane or the mob or her brother being a manipulative asshole. And Sandra said the keyword, food. Food. "Okay, how about this plan. There's this Mexican place that's awesome, and when we get back we can watch...Toy Story? You have that one?" She really liked Rex, he was her favorite and even though she didn't want to actually admit it, she wanted a Rex toy. She was a grown-butt woman and wasn't supposed to like toys, but she was determined to get one.
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