A Moonage Daydream

[Micah tol Powl]

The situation was out of control.

The danger was real.

The boredom INTENSE.

"Take out your holo-books and turn to Chapter Eighteen."

Last period of the day and it was the pit of the sarlaac. A festering stomach infused by cafeteria food fermenting in the slow agony of History class. The young Nautolan sat slumped forward in his desk, his holo-book at arms length as the words were like an evil spell trying to leap off the page at him. A swirling vortex of grammar and punctuation with no end in sight, as the small Anzat at the front of the class lectured as though any of this was interesting.

Like, half the girls in the entire youngling clan sat up front in History, because they thought Master [member="Sor-Jan Xantha"] was cute. Seriously, who thought a teacher was cute!? And, while we're on the subject, what was with the whole sitting in the front of class? Who did that? I'll tell you who does that, these schuttas. And one even drops her pencil as he's walking by so he'll pick it up for her.

Bith, please. Get off his...

"Dymo."

Wut?

Blinking, the Nautolan looked up in surprise to find the small teacher looking directly at him. Heads to the right of him, faces to the left. Everyone staring at him, as though someone had asked him a question and he hadn't been paying attention.

...again, that is.

Yes, this happened a lot.

No, he wasn't going to start paying attention. If people wanted attention, they had to make it INTERESTING!

Seriously, was that an impossible standard?

Clearing his throat, the small Jedi at the front of the class repeated the question, "Zak, would you like to pick up where Gordi left off reading."

Oh, right. The holobook. And, no, Zak would NOT like to pick up where Gordi left off reading... because Zak had no idea where they were. "Uhhhhh...." the boy stammered, trying to think of what to say, as he fumbled for a spot in the holo-book from which to read.

Thankfully, the bell rang.

"SAFE!" the boy cheered, popping up from his desk. It was another moment before he realized that he'd said that out loud, as the heads and faces all continued to stare. Some laughed. Some shook their heads. That was all good, haters gonna hate. Any class you could walk away from, without detention, was a good one.

Now, one problem of the ending at what was essentially the Obi-Wan Kenobi Elementary School for Gifted Youngsters was that Zak needed someone to play with. In days past, this wasn't as much of an issue. Except [member="Théodred Heavenshield"] was seriously OLD now and [member="Makai Dashiell"] didn't live on Voss. This meant that his options for playmates were severely limited.

Now, on general principle, Zak wasn't one to play with girls. He, for one, failed to see what was wrong with gender discrimination. There were two genders, boys and girls, and one was right and the other was girls. But he'd been in the trenches at the Battle of Voss-Ka Cafeteria, taking heavy fire from the junior varsity Grav-Ball Team as mashed potatoes splattered all around him. And there'd only been one youngling that had his back then.

"I made a fort," the youngling remarked. Why bother with pleasantries? Skip right to the heart of the matter. "You wanna see it?"

[member="Sia Ike"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

As soon as Sia heard his voice she turned around and hugged him without thinking. "Yes I would love to." She said smiling at the boy she had kissed during that food fight. She had been longing for a kiss for a long time. She would smile at him

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

She said yes!

The young Nautolan smiled, his head tails bouncing slightly as he perked up. "Great!" the boy chirped, extending a hand out for her to take.

The fort was actually a tree house. Or, it was supposed to be a tree house. The term 'house' implied a sturdiness and permanence that was simply not the case here. It was located along the back side of the Voss Temple, along a brook that flowed from the peak of the mountain on which Voss-Ka had been built. Leading the girl from out of the Academy to the location of his secret rebel base, Zak looked out upon the world of his own imagination and declared, "Welcome to..."

What was he calling it again?

"Uhhh... Echo Base!" the boy decided finally.

[member="Sia Ike"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Sia would smile as he took her hand. She was in heaven she loved the feeling of his hand on hers. As she was lead to the tree house she would skip a little loving the sunshine. "What would you think if I dyed my hair?" She asked smiling at his cute face

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Die the hair?

How would that work? Wasn't the hair attached like his head-tails? How would the hair...

...wait, did she say die or dye? What did that even mean? Could they change the color of their hair?

Being that Zak didn't have hair, there was a lot about it that he just didn't know. On the one hand, if someone could change the color of their hair that would be kind of weird. What if tomorrow he decided to be blue instead of green? On the other hand, it was kind of cool if humans could change their colors.

Really, though, why would you change the color? Zak was green. He couldn't change the fact that he was green, but he didn't think he'd want to even if he could. "What's wrong with the color now?" the Nautolan asked, at a loss to understand this whole hair thing.

[member="Sia Ike"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Nothing I was just thinking I would try something different." She said smiling

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

So there was nothing wrong with it, but she wanted to change it.

How did that work? Why would you change something you were happy with? What if you weren't happy with the change? "Oh," the boy answered, more for the sake of saying something than to suggest he understood. Because he didn't, but at this point wasn't certain of just what the question was either.

"What color would you dye it?" the boy inquired next. That would seem to be an important part of the calculus here. Green, for example, was a lovely color. Except, he'd never seen a human with green hair before. So that might look weird.

[member="Sia Ike"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I was thinking maybe a deep purple or leave it blonde with pink highlights." She said trying to act cool before stumbling into the boy

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Purple?

The small Nautolan tilted his head to one side, trying to imagine the girl with indigo colored hair. It brought [member="Maya Carrick"] to mind, though without the deep pink colored skin. "Pink highlights," the boy offered as a thought. What were highlights? He had no idea. But it sounded better than deep purple.

Stepping forward, the boy moved to catch the other youngling without a second thought, helping to steady her.

It was only a moment later that it registered that he was pressed up and holding a girl. Blushing an emerald color, the boy turned his head away slightly in embarrassment.

[member="Sia Ike"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Hey there stud." She said smiling as he blushed his emerald color. She loved his cute face and spunky attitude. she remained pressed into his arms smiling "So what now?"

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Hey there... wait, wut?

"What's a stud?" the boy asked, not comprehending the comment from the girl. She was also still holding onto him. He tried to take a step back, but it seemed like this was happening whether he wanted a hug or not.

As for her other question, "Well, we could play or something. I've got toys stashed in the fort," the Nautolan offered. "Or we could watch a holo. The Adventures of Jono Jawa is on in a bit." There was also My Little Del-Ya: Friendship is Astral, which Zak was not at all opposed to watching. But he also wasn't going to come out and say that either.

[member="Sia Ike"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I would like anything as long as I get to do it with you"

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Not exactly clarifying.

"Oh. Okay," the boy answered, before he started fumbling around in his pockets. Was it in the right one? No, that was the cool rock he'd found earlier. So, wait... There it was!

Triumphantly, the boy produced a HoloBoy Advanced and sat down against the base of the tree as he queued up the stream for the holo-cartoon.

He was streaming My Little Del-Ya: Friendship is Astral. Not because he wanted to watch it, but he wasn't opposed to watching it, but he thought that she might want to watch it.

[member="Sia Ike"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Sia would sit down beside him smiling "I love this show."

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Nestling close to the girl, the young Nautolan held the HoloBoy Advanced so she could easily see the screen as well. "Yeah," the boy agreed.

Wait, did he just admit to liking a cartoon whose marketing pitch was aimed at girls? "It's okay," he amended. To sound cool, not like he was instead trying to avoid the appropriate gender stereotype.

[member="Sia Ike"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Hey you know it is ok to like this show right?" She asked sensing his unsurity

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Okay to like this show?

Did Sia know what she was asking? Sure, adults were all about gender equality. Women breaking the transparisteel ceiling. Women in combat. Women on submersibles.

Which, why were women on submersibles such a big deal anyway? For starters, who used submersibles for military purposes in this day and age? And, second, half the Mon Calamari, Quarren, Nautolan, and assorted other aquatic races were female. So women on submersibles seemed a moot point.

Any road, whilst adults seemed hung up on the concept of gender equality, younglings were -- by contrast -- subjected to a constant media barrage dedicated to gender exclusion, definition, and stereotyping. For examples, there were Girl Legos. Which clearly meant that regular Legos were for boys and, thus, unsuited for girls. The reverse was equally true, even though sometimes you wanted that pink brick in the girl lego set for your boy lego set because it would be perfect for the keystone in an arch.

In the same way, there were boy holo-cartoons and girl holo-cartoons. And My Little Del-Ya: Friendship is Astral was clearly a girls holo. After all, the other fact of the youngling marketing blitz was that something was one or the other. It couldn't be ambiguous or else it threatened the binary gender societal construct that seemed to be as vital as the Force in binding the universe together. So, Sia's question would have seemed to suggest that she thought that Zak Dymo, Jedi Wannabe and future Guardian, was brave enough to laugh in the face of the communicated norms about gender that were consciously or unconsciously transmitted to children.

"Uh, about that..." the young Nautolan managed, reached back a hand to absently scratch at his head-tendrils as he glanced away shyly.

How was he supposed to answer that? If he said 'yes', that was like admitting that he liked a girl's holo. And if he said 'no', then he'd be disagreeing with his friend. Who was a girl. Which kinda made her his girlfriend, except he was nine and this was yet another gender-societal-heteronormative construct that he was trying to deal with whilst not really knowing how to deal with it.

So... yes? no? maybe?

Could he phone a friend?

"Is that a trick question?" the boy managed finally, feigning a laugh.

[member="Sia Ike"]​