Making the best of it, playing the hand you get...

[andwhosearmy]

Casey is off-duty for the first time in a week, and kind of hoping she can get through the day without something exploding. Just today, that's all she's asking for - things aren't allowed to explode on her day off. She's jogging in the park, hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, sweating a little despite the chill. It's good to be out in her city

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[sittinontrains]

Jamal likes the destruction site of the city hall, not that he realizes what it was or what it once was. It's more like what he's used to than the rest of this city anyway. He has to practice taking pictures anyway so he can be good enough to charge tourists for it.

He managed to find clothes from all sorts of different places. Mostly stolen, but he was cold, and that's how they did it in India! He has a coat on that's a couple sizes too big, but a coat is a coat and this one is new.

Jamal doesn't trust adults for the most part, but he turns and snaps a photo of CJ anyway. He takes the polaroid photo from the camera's mouth and waves it about so it will show up faster.

"First one? For you? Free," he says, and then holds the picture out to her and smiles.

[shiksafemnista]

CJ looks down, blinking in surprise, and automatically looks up to search for a parent. No one in sight, and that accent is definitely... huh.

She takes the picture, smiling faintly at him, glances at it and then at his face. "...thank you. What's your name?" CJ's not around children a lot, but she can manage. (It's when you give her turkeys to deal with that she starts flailing.)

[sittinontrains]

Jamal lets go of the camera. It hangs awkwardly around his tiny neck and swings a little as he fidgets. It's not that he's nervous, just full of boundless energy as kids tend to be.

"Jamal," he says, and then holds his hand out toward her to shake. Devon taught him that one. "What is yours?"

[shiksafemnista]

Her smile grows just a little, and she reaches out to shake his hand. "I'm CJ. It's nice to meet you, Jamal." After a second, she crouches down so she can speak to him more or less on his level. "Do you have a parent around here somewhere? An older brother or sister?" Small child, apparently on his own, in ill-fitting clothes... CJ worries.

[sittinontrains]

"It is a please to meet you, too," Jamal says, pulling his hand back, again.

Some day he will learn that please should be pleasure, and that they do not mean the same thing. He wrinkles his nose a little. It seems that people in this Shee-ka-go are all concerned over moms and dads. No one in India ever ever cared.

It's strange.

"Shopping," he answers. It's something he heard a little girl sitting on a bench tell a police officer. She, also, pointed to a nearby store, but Jamal didn't get that part of it... just that the police officer left her alone after that.

Jamal turns to the wreckage and snaps another photo of it. "What is that? Not look like Shee-ka-go."

[shiksafemnista]

CJ's still smiling, but the answer gives her pause. She's got a pretty good sense for when people are lying to her - she's spent a good deal of her life dealing with politicians, of course she's used to lies. She's willing to lay bets on the fact that her parents are not, in fact, shopping.

She glances over to the wreckage, and grimaces a little before turning back to Jamal. "That used to be City Hall. Somebody blew it up, not that long ago."

[sittinontrains]

"Look like India," Jamal says, staring at the newly taken picture in his hand, and then he looks back up at the wreckage and tilts his head to the right. "Mmmmh."

He holds his hand out and waggles it back and forth. Kind of, sort of.

It's not the same. It just looks more like India than the rest of Shee-ka-go, which is why he like it.

"Why blew up?"