[Branch tries to digest that. It's a stretch of the imagination to understand why that might be hard on someone.]
In my village, that wouldn't matter. When someone can't do something, everyone else just helps them with it. Like if they can't walk. Or can't see or hear.
[Laurel Sunbloom, who's about fifteen years older than him, has a wheelchair and despite her lack of mobility they managed to keep the Bergens from getting her and had gotten her out of Bergentown safely during the evacuation. Since her old wheelchair couldn't handle the loose dirt of the tunnels and over the difficult terrain as they wandered, he remembers seeing the adults taking turns carrying her on their backs or linking their hair together in a little swing. When they finally stopped and started building the village, they'd made her a new wheelchair and made sure there were plenty of low-hanging travel lines and rings so she could also reach the higher travel lines and travel using her hair.]
[Ash Mistcloud can't hear so the whole village knows sign language, developed ages and ages ago for just the purpose. They all keep up on it in case an elder goes deaf, teaching it to the trollings, and it's also handy for the trolls who are born that way. Everyone always makes room near the wooferbugs during parties so she can enjoy the vibrations from the bass.]
[And, he knows, they do the same with him. They put up with his fussing about clear paths to exits for emergencies during parties and make sure they exist. They take less risks while swimming in the creek if he's being anxious about the state of the currents that day. They wear safety gear during the more aggressive games if he's fretting over them getting hurt. They could ignore it, they could say he's worrying too much, they could grouse about him damping their fun. But they know he'll be pacing back and forth in a state of anxiety, hovering around waiting to make sure they don't wind up needing help.]
[But his talk with Tim and others has made it pretty clear how unique his people may be.]
So I don't think there's anything back home like that. Our scrapbooks all have pictures that make them pretty easy to understand if you can't read anyway. Some books only have pictures. And we just read things to the people who can't see.
But I can see how it must be hard if they put things that are important for you to know in books without pictures. And then nobody tells you what's there or they straight up lie about it.
[Despite how alien it all is, he's doing a lot of mental stretching to try to understand and empathize, not realizing what it shows off about his character.]
I won't tell anyone you told me. [He comes to it automatically like Dan thought but also thinks to reassure him unprompted.] So I don't accidentally tip off someone who'd try to trick you.
[Dan said he wouldn't push Branch to trust him. Branch straight up Uno reverse cards that all the way into sincerely trying to be trustworthy with something vulnerable. Dan's already taken extreme care with Branch's vulnerability, especially during that day he'd been cowering away from him against a table, bloody and terrified, so he absolutely plans to do take care with his vulnerability in turn.]
no subject
In my village, that wouldn't matter. When someone can't do something, everyone else just helps them with it. Like if they can't walk. Or can't see or hear.
[Laurel Sunbloom, who's about fifteen years older than him, has a wheelchair and despite her lack of mobility they managed to keep the Bergens from getting her and had gotten her out of Bergentown safely during the evacuation. Since her old wheelchair couldn't handle the loose dirt of the tunnels and over the difficult terrain as they wandered, he remembers seeing the adults taking turns carrying her on their backs or linking their hair together in a little swing. When they finally stopped and started building the village, they'd made her a new wheelchair and made sure there were plenty of low-hanging travel lines and rings so she could also reach the higher travel lines and travel using her hair.]
[Ash Mistcloud can't hear so the whole village knows sign language, developed ages and ages ago for just the purpose. They all keep up on it in case an elder goes deaf, teaching it to the trollings, and it's also handy for the trolls who are born that way. Everyone always makes room near the wooferbugs during parties so she can enjoy the vibrations from the bass.]
[And, he knows, they do the same with him. They put up with his fussing about clear paths to exits for emergencies during parties and make sure they exist. They take less risks while swimming in the creek if he's being anxious about the state of the currents that day. They wear safety gear during the more aggressive games if he's fretting over them getting hurt. They could ignore it, they could say he's worrying too much, they could grouse about him damping their fun. But they know he'll be pacing back and forth in a state of anxiety, hovering around waiting to make sure they don't wind up needing help.]
[But his talk with Tim and others has made it pretty clear how unique his people may be.]
So I don't think there's anything back home like that. Our scrapbooks all have pictures that make them pretty easy to understand if you can't read anyway. Some books only have pictures. And we just read things to the people who can't see.
But I can see how it must be hard if they put things that are important for you to know in books without pictures. And then nobody tells you what's there or they straight up lie about it.
[Despite how alien it all is, he's doing a lot of mental stretching to try to understand and empathize, not realizing what it shows off about his character.]
I won't tell anyone you told me. [He comes to it automatically like Dan thought but also thinks to reassure him unprompted.] So I don't accidentally tip off someone who'd try to trick you.
[Dan said he wouldn't push Branch to trust him. Branch straight up Uno reverse cards that all the way into sincerely trying to be trustworthy with something vulnerable. Dan's already taken extreme care with Branch's vulnerability, especially during that day he'd been cowering away from him against a table, bloody and terrified, so he absolutely plans to do take care with his vulnerability in turn.]