[Open] I just can't ignore that I'm a Tyrannosaur--

[adaptiveimmunities]

Who: Bitty Shaun, Bitty Georgia, and YOU?
Where: Starting in their room and then throughout the Mansion, later: approaching dinosaurs
When: throughout the event
Rating: PG-13 (The Masons have never had PG language)
Summary: Shaun and George are small, mistrustful, and about 90% sure that their parents have engineered this whole thing.
The Story:

Waking Up

Waking up in the same bed isn't really a surprise. It happens more often than not, one of them crawling in with the other over the course of the night. The surprise is that the're in a bed that's so huge, Shaun can't reach both sides of it if he stretches out his arms and legs, and it's not one half of a set of bunk beds.

Oh, and also it's not their bedroom. He elbows George. "George, wake up."

She sleepily kicks him in the leg before rolling over and pulling a pillow over her head. "You wake up," she mumbles.

He elbows her again. "George. Our bedroom's gone."

That's such a stupid thing to say that she actually pulls the pillow off her head and squints at him. "What are you--" she blinks, looking around. "What?" She sits up. "...I know Mom and Dad are good, but I didn't think they could completely redecorate without waking us up."

"They would have had to drug us and remodel. This room's bigger than ours."

"And it's not our bed." Georgia slips out of the bed, grabbing the pair of sunglasses from the bedside table. They're too big for her, which makes her frown. "Something's going on. We better get to the bottom of this."

He gives her a sidelong look. "Okay, but can I set fire to the living room if it's some stunt by Mom and Dad?"

She tilts her head, considering. "Probably a bad idea," she says, almost regretfully. "They'd probably make us do a feature on it." She isn't even entirely sure what kind of feature that could lead to, but she's sure they'd find one.

"I bet I could do a science project on how fast curtains burn." But he sighs and rolls out of the bed. "Not that I want to. Fine. I won't set anything on fire. Maybe we can talk them into keeping the bed, though. It's the best jumping bed I've ever seen in my life."

She rolls her eyes. "Bed jumping's dangerous, stupid." She takes his hand, squeezing tightly, and goes out into the hallway. They stay close together as they walk through the mansion, wandering in and out of rooms with very little regard for who they might belong to. They eye other people with suspicion, especially adults, but that doesn't mean they'll run away or anything. They have a lot of questions, and this seems like the best way to get them answered.

DINOSAURS

"This is so stupid. They don't even have feathers." Georgia, who was born in 2017, has never lived in a time when it wasn't common knowledge. Sure, she's seen the ancient pre-Rising films, but everyone knows those are from a less scientifically advanced time. Why her parents would waste money on fake dinosaurs that didn't even look realistic is beyond her. But there's a lot of things about her parents she doesn't understand.

"It looks better to old people," Shaun says, staring out the window with an intense longing that most kids his age usually reserve for a mountain of candy or toys. "George, I wanna ride one."

George puts a hand on his shoulder, pushing him down so she can see. "There's no way that's safe."

"There's no way it's that dangerous either," he points out. "If Mom and Dad set this up, then there's no way they're going to risk the bad PR of losing two kids to violent animal deaths. They're not even mammals. Please, George?"

"They're giant prehistoric death birds." She's not even sure if they're actual animals at all and not just some kind of robot. But… Shaun has a point. Their parents know Shaun's basically the most Irwin kid to ever exist. Their mom gushes about it in half her interviews. They'd know Shaun wouldn't be able to resist trying to ride the dinosaurs.

Of course, they'd also know that Georgia's responsible enough that she'd never let him. A flash of irritation runs through her. If they want her to keep Shaun from doing stupid things, maybe they should have told her what was going on in advance. "...maybe we can at least get a little closer to them."

"You are my favorite sister," he says feelingly, and starts running for the door before she can change her mind.

Comments

[chooseyouth]

Shaun's body helps cushion George from the fall. After briefly checking to make sure he's okay--and he should be, he's had worse falls plenty of times--she bounces up and rushes over to the other kid.

"Seems pretty real to me. You okay?"

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Sorry," Shaun adds, getting to his feet and brushing himself off. "I'm still getting the hang of dinosaur-riding."

[postictal]

There's two of them. Two of them, and he didn't even notice. Did one of them appear between blinks? Is one of them not real? Both of them? Things sound real all the time, but he can't really know. Shut his eyes, shake his head, try and clear it, and...and focus on them anew.

They're still there.

"...are you real?"

[chooseyouth]

Georgia looks back at Shaun, then pokes the new kid hard in the shoulder.

"Dunno, did that feel real?"

[postictal]

He doesn't yell. Doesn't make much sound. Just flinches, hands fluttering up over his face to shield him from the strangers, the strange children (but it's never children, is it, it's always tall men without faces, and it's never dinosaurs either because he's certain his imagination isn't that good no matter what the doctors say) but it feels real. She's right. She's right.

It feels real.

"They said - said I shouldn't talk to things that aren't real," he says, torn, apparently, between scared and apologetic.

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Do you want me to pinch you?" Shaun offers, holding his hand out. He's a little hesitant, though. He kid looks kind of scared, and he knows he's not always the nicest kid on the playground, but he's not a bully. He doesn't want to hurt anyone.

[chooseyouth]

"You probably shouldn't talk to things that aren't real," Georgia says, filled with the confidence of a small child who definitely knows everything. "But you also should figure out how to tell what's real and what's not."

She waves at the dinosaurs. "They don't look like they should be real. They don't even have feathers. But they're clearly here." A beat. "I still wouldn't talk to them, though. Unless you're as dumb as Shaun."

[postictal]

"I was supposed to wait. Wait and let them come get me." Why's he explaining this to them? Does it matter? Do they care? Why should they care? They're not real. They wouldn't care at all, if they're not real.

Or maybe they would. Maybe they'd want to convince him that he shouldn't have bothered. To lure him away.

"But...but they said monsters aren't real," he protests feebly. "And - and they're monsters. Right?"

[adaptiveimmunities]

"I'm not dumb!" Shaun aims a light punch at George's shoulder. "Anyway, dinosaurs aren't monsters. Not real ones anyway. They're just animals, and they're extinct, which is another reason these ones aren't real. But they're definitely here. Just fake. Like Santa."

[chooseyouth]

"Besides, there's real and then there's real." She punches Shaun back, more out of habit than anything else, then waves at the dinosaurs. "They're not real dinosaurs, but they are real... I dunno, robots, probably."

[postictal]

"R...robots?" Not hallucinations? He's never seen robots before, but he's never seen dinosaurs before either. The children, at least, are acting more in the vein of what he'd expect someone normal to act like.

(Or they're very good at pretending.)

"That doesn't...um, that sounds like - like TV," he ventures dubiously, at last.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Shaun shrugs a shoulder. "I guess. It'll get pretty good ratings, anyway. Who doesn't like kids and dinosaurs, right?"

[chooseyouth]

Georgia scoffs. "TV." She wrinkles her nose under her sunglasses. "We're a blogging family."

[postictal]

“What’s...blogging?” It sounds like a made up word. Like maybe they’re both tricking him. He bets they are, in fact. Let’s all laugh at the crazy kid, ha ha. Let’s see how many stupid lies we can get him to believe before he snaps.

He wrinkles his nose. “If - if you’re just trying to trick me, it won’t work.”

FUCK TAG ORDER

[chooseyouth]

That gets Georgia to give him an even more offended look, drawing herself up as tall as she can. Which isn't very.

"I wouldn't trick. That's lying. I don't lie."

[adaptiveimmunities]

"She really doesn't," Shaun says, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, who doesn't know what blogging is? It's the news. What, are you from Mars?"

Shaun, just because your parents raised you to be part of the media machine doesn't mean everyone else's did.

[postictal]

“No one calls it that!” Tim snaps, slightly louder now. If they’re not tricking him, they’re still not making any sense. Treating him like he’s too dumb to understand - he knows what that means. Knows that he’s stupid, so doctors speak to him slowly to get him to really listen. It still rankles.

He can be smarter than they think he is. He just has to prove it. Pipe up, desperately:

“Like, like newspapers?”

[chooseyouth]

"Yeah, except bloggers actually tell the truth."

Except their family. They might be a blogging family, but Stacy and Michael Mason definitely lie. To their children, if to no one else.

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Depends on the blog," Shaun says with a shrug. George has a lot more faith in the truthfulness of people than he does. Besides, there are all kinds of blogs. Not all of them have an impartial bias.

[postictal]

"I don't know what that is!" His voice pitches up sharply in his apparent desperation. This sounds - it's like some horrible, practical joke. Don't you know about blogs, Tim? Are you too stupid to understand what blogs are? Why don't you know about blogs?

It sounds like something bad. Like some kind of awful disease, or something.

"Y-you're acting like, like that's not just some...some made-up word, or something, 'cause that's how it sounds!"

[chooseyouth]

"All words are made up words. Technically." She frowns at him. "Do your parents not let you have internet or something? That's terrible."

Considering how limited outdoors time is by necessity, even more so for other kids than the Masons, internet is necessary for children to get most of their socialization and entertainment. Georgia can't imagine not having access.

[adaptiveimmunities]

The idea makes Shaun blink in shock. Not allowed on the internet? That's... crazy. "Blogs are news and entertainment--and sometimes both--on the internet. Our dad does news, mostly. Our mom does entertainment. We're a little bit of both."

[postictal]

Parents. Plural. As if he has either of them, really. He ducks his head, his mouth pressing into an uneven line.

"They don't really, they," he stammers, and he can't look at either of them so he stares at the tips of his shoes instead. "Um, I don't know...what that is. But, they, my parents, she...she's not around, so much."

She. Just one.

[chooseyouth]

"Wish mom and dad weren't around so much," Georgia mutters to Shaun. She doesn't, exactly. She just wished they cared when the cameras were off.

Louder, she adds, "Wow, she's not around and she won't even let you have internet? Your mom stinks."

[adaptiveimmunities]

"No kidding." Shaun mutters. He's better than George about wishing they weren't there, but he's still not... all the way there. He wishes they cared, too.