Nom nom nom. The food was as good as she remembered (from the last time she had had it two days before while trying to study a whole long page of in-text referencing styles), so that was to be expected, not much changes when the store is still on the same batch of ingredients. They ate in contented silence for a little while, then Tses answered Cara’s earlier question. It was what she had expected. After a time or two trying to explain the reasons behind the deeds and being shut down, anyone was bound to stop trying to explain and focus harder on not being caught.

Deciding to lighten the mood a little, away from dwelling on the facts of life such as mistaken arrests and homeless children, Cara broached a subject which she was writing an ongoing article about on her blog. Couldn’t hurt to gather some more opinions, especially with all the tension brewing under the surface at the moment after the mutant bashing video.

“So, what are your thoughts on mutant rights?”

No segue, just bam- straight to the point, the best way to get a person’s true feelings on a matter. She took a bite of Honey Soy Pork almost innocently. Almost.

Tses blinked, a little taken aback by the change of subject, and let herself finish chewing a bite of food before she answered. The sticky taste of food clung to her taste-buds while she tried to unravel an answer. "Mutant rights? I guess I never noticed a lack of them. Or if I did, never let it stand in my way. I guess from my viewpoint, there is always discrimination. Whether you're a girl, another race, another 'species'. Whatever people classify you as they're always going to label you. If you give a shit about it and let someone stand in your way then you aren't going to get anywhere. I think the only rights you don't have are the ones you let people take from you."

She wondered if she would speak differently if she weren't so far down the totem pole. She didn't have a job, she couldn't read, no one would hire her whether she was a mutant or not. Those worries--equal pay, equal opportunity, whatever--didn't exist in her world. She wondered if these were the answers the girl was looking for. Didn't seem like it would really be useful.

She seemed to take the personal responsibility argument again. People (regardless of genes) were basically in charge of taking their own rights. It was an interesting and different argument. Most of the mutant classmates she had interviewed had claimed that the humans needed to pull their act together and stop discriminating against the mutant poplation, whereas Tess seemed to be arguing that if the rights were so important why wait for someone to give them to you, why not take them yourself.

Rights would potentially be more difficult to steal than apples though.

Also, there were some things people just couldn’t take. Respect, for instance, or not being beaten on sight. These were things the mutant people didn’t really do to themselves, nor could they really change them (except by self defence which more often than not got turned around into ‘mutant violence’.

“Just because people are different though, doesn’t mean they should be treated differently.”

But then came the arguments about shelf-packing speedster mutants, if they could stack three times as much as the average human, should they be on the same paygrade? Should they slow themselves down to only complete the ‘normal’ amount of work? What a waste of time.

She was finished her meal, and if Tses was as well she moved to clear away the dishes and set them in the sink, and poured herself another glass of orange juice while she was up.

“Want one?”

Tses considered her argument for a moment, and shrugged. "Just because it shouldn't happen doesn't mean it won't. There is always going to be some civil rights issue to deal with. People don't gain tolerance overnight. I could blow up trash cans or I could just have the wrong colored hair. I think fighting for mutant rights is like looking at a playground of people being picked on and trying to defend one of them. Sure, you prevent that injustice, but it's not going to stop it from happening altogether."

She let the words trail off and watched as Cara got up to get a drink. She shook her head no to the offer for orange juice, and pushed her hair from her face. "I guess the easiest thing is just to stand up for yourself, if someone can't do it, stand up for them. I know I kinda said that already.... Maybe I just hate taking sides on things..."

“But if you can’t save everyone isn’t it better to save one person?”

Especially if that one person had the potential to do far more damage trying to defend their own rights than the others. Sure, it sucked that gay marriage wasn’t legal in some states, but it was unlikely that it would have been legalised at all in NYC if people hadn’t fought for it. Mutant rights were on their way up, after the horror of the camps years ago people in power had been cautious about angering the mutant population further, and had offered them tidbits to try and smooth things over. The mutant school was one example she could think of, without the support (however grudging) of powerful people the school would surely have been torn down by now, no matter what kind of mutants protected it.

She took a sip of the orange juice (freshly squeezed this morning before work) and thought about Tses’ theory on self responsibility. It was a nice thought, but wasn’t she admitting that some people couldn’t take matters into their own hands? That someone needed to stand up for them?

"It's ok to not want to take sides. I chose this career because I like to look at all the sides of an argument. Sometimes that means looking at the non-sides too."

If you can't save everyone isn't it better to save one person?

Well, that was certainly a on the loaded side of things. She was a bit uncertain of the answer at first. Perhaps it was because there really wasn't a 'right' answer to some of the things this girl was asking. She could say really anything if she wanted to. But what did she want to do? That was almost as difficult to decide.

"I think if you're in the position to help that one person, help them. I guess if you have the means and opportunity, go for it. I may not actively go out to, you know, prevent injustice and all that, but if I catch it I'm not going to turn away. I just don't handle the problems in conventional ways..." Much easier to punch someone in the face than hold a picket sign in her mind.

"And doesn't calling it a non-side kinda make it it's own side?" She felt a bit confused the more she thought about it. The neutrality position was still that: a position. You took a stance not to take a stance.

Took much thinking.

Few issues really had two sides, and as Tses pointed out, this wasn’t one of them. By being on the non-side it was at least a triangle, and was probably a much more complicated shape really; with sides for the people who were humans for mutants rights, for people who were for monitored mutant rights, for people for improved but still not equal rights… the list could go on forever… which would technically make the shape a circle.

Her juice was finished, so she set the glass in the sink and returned to the couch. She felt a little bad for bombarding Tses with all these highly charged questions, one after the other. Even though she had a paper to write on the issue of excusable misdeeds, and her major theory was on the issue of rights, it did not excuse her squeezing this person for quotes. It was rude and she was sorry.

“Sorry for pressing you, I get a little carried away with my questions sometimes.”

A habit she would need to work on eliminating before she hit the real professional field of reporting. Reporters were expected to ask the hard questions, but not in a hard-to-answer way.

“So, before I dragged you away to grill you on every issue I could think of, what were you up to today?”

Nothing like post heavy conversation small-talk.

The conversation shifted to small talk and Tses blinked. In a way, she almost preferred the loaded questions. Somehow, the bigger questions felt more distant, and the 'how are you, what are you doing' seemed more personal. She shifted in her seat and shrugged slightly.

Her shoulders were going to get tired from shrugging so much.

"Well... I was picking pockets earlier. And before that I was sitting on the roof dropping explosives into peoples coffee mugs." She should have felt guilty, but a smile flickered across her face at the image of the man who the cup exploded on. Good times....