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[justsayyes]

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Maybe I'll decide to care.

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[justsayyes]

"The frequent torment helps." Her tone is dry enough to put deserts to shame.

[biocomposer]

"No insects," Elijah observes, lifting his eyebrows slightly. "I didn't know you could be so positive about the floods, Jasper."

[justsayyes]

"I said that it's not boring, not that that's a good thing!" God, Elijah,

[biocomposer]

"All right." He lifts his hands. "Fair enough. Then are there any good things that might prevent your boredom?"

[justsayyes]

Jasper crosses her arms again, closed off and grumpy. "Nothing here is good." Just because she's ready - barely - to admit she's struggling doesn't mean she's going to be very cooperative with doing something about it.

[biocomposer]

"Maybe not at the moment," he says levelly. "So what could be good?"

[justsayyes]

"I don't know! Everything looks stupid!"

I'm sorry you got an emotionally scarred toddler for an inmate, Elijah. But here she is.

[biocomposer]

He really did volunteer for specifically this.

"All right. We've been at this impasse several times before, Jasper. Do you want to talk about why it's difficult for you to see a future for yourself?"

[justsayyes]

"No." Which isn't a lie, because she doesn't. "I don't know why, anyway. Not really." It's something she's been actively avoiding trying to analyze, because it makes her uncomfortable.

[biocomposer]

"That's why I'm suggesting we talk about it," Elijah says, patiently. "You're treating this issue as an immovable obstacle, but I don't think it is one."

[justsayyes]

"How do you know I'll even be any good at doing something else?"

[biocomposer]

"I don't," Elijah says solemnly. "Neither of us do. This is going to be - alien, to you. Gems are created already in possession of the skills they're judged to need. Humans are used to having to choose, practice and develop the skills that we want to ultimately benefit from. You're going to have to do that too."

[justsayyes]

"That sounds hard and dumb."

Luckily for her, calling something dumb or stupid because it distresses her doesn't seem to trigger the flood.

[biocomposer]

"It sounds like a challenge. But a challenge which, in my opinion, you are more than equal to."

[justsayyes]

"I wasn't equal to the challenge I was made for." No bugs again, but that's a near thing. It's just Very Complicated.

[biocomposer]

"That's arguable, and irrelevant regardless," Elijah says. "So I don't see why that's something for you to even contemplate at this point."

[justsayyes]

"It's all I ever contemplate." The insects that pop up this time are actually hoverflies - bumblebee mimics - because it's more of an exaggeration than an outright lie.

[biocomposer]

He regards them with interest, and hums.

"I hope time continues to broaden your interests, Jasper."

[justsayyes]

"And I hope you're willing to wait millennia." She grumbles, shifting a moment before starting to get up. "I'm done."

[biocomposer]

"Alright," he says, mildly, and gets up to see her to the door.

"...Thank you for coming to speak to me. You didn't have to, and I appreciate it."

[justsayyes]

Jasper, eloquent as always, shrugs with a grunt. "Stupid communicator's tiny." Well, compared to her, anyway. But she ducks out the door without any further explanation.