let's play explain trash to the bacterium...

Boop

Boop

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Nov 30, 2016
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"All right, sweetie, sweetheart, no you can't put rocks in here." Betsy barely held back a giggle as she spoke to Jo like she was speaking to a child. This caught Jo's attention more than any gesture would've. Laughter in particular was a sound they had trouble deciphering. It never seemed to mean anything in particular.

Jo looked between the rock in their hand, the bag, and the ground. "No rocks?" They put the rock back down carefully, then looked up at their regalis "Why? Are rocks not .. trash?" They started looking for other things while waiting for a response, actually picking up some pieces of paper.

"No, see, rocks are just there. They belong outside already. No one threw them out. - Sticks. No sticks either." She called out just as Jo was about to throw in another small handful of twigs. "Sticks are just parts of trees... Don't you have trees where you're from? "

"I am come from big big rock and space... I am small ... with no trees."

Betsy almost didn't notice Jude, as focused as she was on trying to figure out Jo. But when she did see him, she could tell what he attempted to say. After a moment's thought, she shook her head. As nice as it was of Jude to offer, it was sort of obvious to her that Jo just wanted to learn, and probably wouldn't care either way about winning.
 
Romi

Romi

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Betsy seemed... awfully hard done by. A bit like a babysitter. They were definitely in the realm of having to actively take care for Jo, mostly to make sure she didn't... what, injure herself? Even though they were literally only collecting trash, somehow that seemed like a very real possibility. That they'd just... what, grab big shards of glass?

You know what? That sounded exactly like the sort of thing they'd do.

When Betsy shook her head, Jude got to work. Even if the whole contest part of things was a bust, he could at least do some half-decent community service. It wasn't the first time he'd collected trash, just the first time in that park, and he was methodical about it, collecting what he could find and carefully dropping it in the bag.

By the time the time was up, Jude had more or less filled his bag. It seemed harder than it probably should have been which was good in a weird way: It meant fewer people were littering than they might have been in Halcyon city.

He headed back to the meeting point, resisting the urge to toss the bag over his shoulder.
 
Boop

Boop

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It might've been more of a contest, with two pairs of eyes looking, at least after Jo was told that sticks and rocks didn't count. But both Jo and Betsy ended up in a somewhat indepth philosophical conversation about what garbage was and why it needed to be picked up. Or it might've been deep if it weren't for the very large language barrier.

By the time they'd made it through that, there wasn't much time to pick up anything at all. Still, between the two of them (mostly Betsy because she didn't have vision problems) they managed to at least half fill the bag. And Betsy still smiled as they headed back to the meeting point.

Jo had pretty much the same expression they always had. Hard to read, but calm. They did greet Jude, again, when they were close. And asked, "Did you do win for chal-lenge?"
 
Romi

Romi

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A part of Jude--a pretty big part--had been worried that he'd come back to find them with an empty bag. His concerns had been for nothing though, because they had at least part of the bag filled. He needn't have worried, really.

"Seems like I did, yeah," Angelo confirmed. "But I think we both won. The park is cleaner because of the work we did, which is good."

Gyan spoke up, offering his hand to Betsy.

"If you give us that, we'll take it to the dump and get rid of it. It's good that this challenge helped the community," Gyan said, smiling between Jo and Jude.
 
Boop

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"Both... won?" Jo paused, they could've been confused or just thinking. After a moment they looked at Betsy for confirmation, asking, "One plus one can have win?" She just smiled back, "Yes, yes of course. You both did great work and helped the community."

"Clean... is good." They sounded hesitant, but they didn't say anything more on that topic. "We put many trash gar-bage in bag."

Betsy handed the bag to Gyan. It wasn't too heavy, but considering how long her and Jo had spent talking instead of picking up, it was a decent amount. "That's kind of you." She turned to Jude and added, "Thank you for being so understanding."

Jo spoke to Jude as well with something of a smile in their voice, if not their face. "Good chal-lenge. I ... have fun."
 
Romi

Romi

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Jo was definitely struggling with the whole concept, and Jude felt pretty bad for Betsy. He gave a small sympathetic wince as Gyan took the offered bag, and Gyan's friend stepped over, offering a hand to Jude.

"And I'll take yours," he confirmed. "The two of us can go drop it off, since you did the work of actually collecting it."

Jude opened his mouth to protest, and then changed his mind, offering a nod instead before turning back to Jo. He felt like a handshake would be left with his hand hanging in the air, so he settled for an informal bow, assuming Betsy would get it even if Jo didn't.

"I'll see you around sometime. It was a fun challenge," he said, before turning and saying his goodbyes--and thank yous--to Gyan and his friend before heading off.
 
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