questions & answers

Tetsu never though he'd be saying this sort of thing, not in a million years did he think he would be asking someone "So, what do you want to do with your life?" There were uncountably infinite numbers of things you could do with your life, but quite a big section of those are locked off simply because of how old you are or appear to be. "Your body is too old to go back to school, and I don't think you'd enjoy just learning everything by being told it by random strangers, so I'd say you can do one of a few things, go to college, join a trade school, or just try and find a job as is." Nero pondered the question for a while, then said but one thing. "Which one are you doing?"

Maybe it was the monotone, matter-of-fact way she said it, maybe it was just the words themselves, or maybe it was a little bit of both, but Tetsu lit up like a birthday cake. There are around 8 billion people on the Earth, and each of them have a different way of showing love. Some make things, some have certain words, some even show their love in damaging ways, but no one does it quite the same. And no one quite like Nero. "er, uh, yeah, I-I'm in college, thank-, thankfully we're in a break right now" Tetsu quickly stammered out. "I do have a part-time job to help with the costs, but there is quite a bit that is coming out of my future." 

Nero looked puzzled by that, as if to say "how could you take money from your future?" but before she could say anything Tetsu continued with "you can take out a loan, an amount of money here an now that you're expected to pay back later, well, contractually obligated to pay back later." Nero nodded and instead asked "is it easy to find a part-time job? and join the college here?" Tetsu had to look up if any local retail stores were hiring and the acceptance rate of the community college, but when both looked good, He came back and said "yeah, I'd say so. But getting a job, and or multiple loans to help with tuition require uh, hmmm... how do I say this... being, in the system? Like, having a government issued ID and having your name on record and stuff."

As easy as it is to live just on cash, there are just some things you can't do without the help of the government. Thankfully, a somewhat valid form of ID works to get you into the system, but if something were to go wrong and Nero were to be outed, that would be one of the worst things that could ever happen. Which is why they held off on doing it until now, but joining a college is a task that requires a lot of people knowing who you are and your history and credit and all that grown-up stuff, so it was better to put Nero on the map now and, hopefully, get a local ID.

As usual, they walked to the department of registration, but as they were leaving the house and Tetsu was pulling up exact directions on his phone, Nero grabbed his hand and just started running. They ran from one end of town to the other, they ran like fugitives from perusing authorities, from the field they first met in to the stores they had visited yesterday, they ran like tremors racing along the earth, they ran to the grocery stores, like the streaming winds that blew over trash cans, they ran to random streets, they ran like people late to the most important interview of their life, they ran to the college. When they finally stopped, out of breath and nowhere near where they needed to go, only then did Nero look up, and for the first time since they had met, she laughed.

She laughed the laugh of someone who had just had a large weight taken off of them, the laugh of someone who wanted nothing more than to live life the way they were now, the laugh of someone who just spent the last hour goofing off with someone they enjoyed spending time with. She laughed the laugh of someone truly living.

After a while of panting and sitting on the warm concrete and getting something to drink, they stood up and continued on their way to the department of registration. It took three times as long as it would've had they not gone through that excursion, but you have to live a little, right? They walked in and went to a teller to ask about IDs only to realize there was a "30 MINUTE WAIT!??!?" Yeah, that was a thing. These places were quite busy with people quite like them, who hadn't the foreknowledge to going online and book an appointment ahead of time, so you had to wait for people who got there before you and people who booked appointments to get through whatever they were there to do before you could.

During the interim, they decided to take a walk around the area, they hadn't gotten a really good look at the surrounding area on the walk there. They did see a small park, so they decided to walk over and spend a little time before going back to the department. When they got there, it was almost entirely empty. It was the middle of the day after all, when kids were supposed to be at school. They decided to play on the play equipment, or rather, talk while standing on top of the play equipment that they definitely were too big to play on.

"I don't think I've ever asked this properly before, but what was it like being an alien? How different were you really to me as a human and you as basically a human?" Tetsu asked while hanging his arm over the opening of a slide. "Hmmm..." Nero pondered for a moment, leaning against the side of the structure. "It was like, can you imagine what being a monkey feels like? With all that hair, worse motor control, worse... intelligence? for lack of a better term. That's what I'd say being a human feels like." Tetsu's eyes widened. "Y-you used to be... More intelligent? I didn't, I didn't know that... I'm sorry..." Nero only smiled a sad smile before continuing. "It's like stripping off a layer of clothes, but once you're done you can't put them back on, so you're left incomplete, exposed."

Just then, the alarm Tetsu had set up to remind them to start walking back went off. They walked back to the department in silence and then began the procedure of getting an ID and registering into the system. "Do you have any form of identification?" The digitized voice asked. They slid the fake ID into the open slot under the scanner and waited a moment. "Is this. Information accurate?" The monitor where the face should have been was now displaying a collection of information matching the ones on the fake ID. They pushed the red button on the keypad, signifying "NO". They were then prompted to fill out the information that was incorrect, of which the height, weight, and address all needed updating. Nero then wrote her signature on one of those horrible tablet things that always have like a second delay and are so low resolution you can see the artifacts of compressing your finger stroke into a digital format.

After they filled out the info, the machine went into the standard add-on questions of
"Would you like to register to donate organs after you die?"
"No."
"Would you like your information to be given to military recruiters or join the selective military service list?"
"No."
"Would you like to register to vote?"
"..."
"No."

"Please insert a credit or other digitized payment card to pay the fee to print out your new ID." Yup, that was one of the "Gotcha!"s of the modern age. You needed a digital payment card to pay the fee to get your ID, but you needed an ID to get a digital payment card, and so you always needed someone else to pay for you that already was in the system. Just one of the things you only really noticed if it happened to you. "Your ID will be mailed to you in 1-2 weeks. Thank you for your service." They couldn't just print the cards then and there because there were a bunch of security measures implanted in the cards, unlike normal cards, but it was still a little funny to have to wait half an hour for a robot to tell them to wait a week to get an ID. But oh well, at least it was over with.