Good Cop Bad Cop: Chapter Two

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Ellie watched Shane suspiciously. Was he trying to teach her things again? Hmm.

Shane turned away to go and check out the parade. They had all the time before they reached the guild to make hats.

"Shane doesn't approve of hats." Matt whispered. "We should make hm an extra special one to get him on side." He nodded and followed Ellie.

Esk shot James a warning look. Man, he really had to find some genuine proper threat for the android. When they couldn't feel pain and you couldn't really hurt then anyway it somewhat spoiled any intimidation.
But he sat on the grass, which actually felt like grass and watched the parading idiots. Funny, the holosuite sucked at getting people right, but it could manage wind and the warmth of sunshine and the feel of grass and dirt under you.
He pulled off a glove and ran his fingers through the grass, because he could. Holographic grass didn't wilt and die, and there was something weirdly appealing about that.

Dawn came over to sit near Esk, keeping some distance between them. She didn't look at him, but watched the parade instead.

"are all Terrans this weirdly enthusiastic or is this just a colony thing you think?" Esk asked Dawn, glancing over at her.

"Probably a colony thing, or maybe just a this particular sect thing." Dawn said then shrugged "We don't really have much to go off of right now." Hm, maybe take some time to look at other human planets sometime. That could be interesting. "Then again, Ellie did say it is a festival, so it's not a normal day"

James stopped humming before long. If Esk wasn't going to threaten him further, he felt no need to him that stupid song. Although it was horribly addictive, really. "Most Terrans are much more subdued than this," James said, deciding to barge his way into the conversation. "Isolationist Humanists are a weird bunch, and they love their odd holidays."

~~
Ellie giggled and headed off with Matt. Shane didn't like hats, huh? Well boo, he just didn't understand how great hats were. "I think I want a moose hat," Ellie said, "With antlers. What look are you thinking of?"

"What the hell is a moose?" Matt asked, he shrugged. "I dunno, I was gonna just wing it." He laughed.

---

"Isolationists huh? " Esk shook his head, plucking some grass and fiddling with it. "wonder how they'd feel if they knew their wierd pride festival was part of a holodeck program." he snickered. "all us filthy aliens, watching recreations of their precious culture. "

"They would probably not like it" Dawn replied softly, glancing to Esk then to James before looking to the parade again.

"A moose is sort of like a giant deer with funny antlers," Ellie explained. She grinned, "Winging it is good, maybe you could even do it literally."

~~
James shrugged. "Terrans are odd, and Humanists are especially odd. Ellie didn't seem to mind much, but I dunno what the actual people on her homeworld would think."

"Ellie is learning to live with us 'aliens'" Starr said gently and looked around "Most of these would not be so kind as to give us a chance, or her now."

Esk shrugged. "Someone had to come and record information to make this program." He glanced to Starr. "They scared of aliens too huh? Funny, Satare and Terrans are so alike." He sounded kinda bored.

---

Matt chuckled. "We'll see. Maybe i'll get all glitter infested like Kay and Asher! Oh no!" He grinned. "You gotta help me pick out colours though okay?"

Starr shrugged then nodded "This group seems to think they are the only ones that matter and all aliens are either out to get them or not worth even looking at. Sometimes said in the same breath"

Esk snorted. "Sounds like the Imperium. Aliens are bad, aliens want to kill us all, blah blah and so on. " He shrugged. "Of course then there's those like my foster sister, who manage to become productive members of society" He managed to make that sound extremely disdainful "despite their defective alien blood." He shook his head. Oh he understood why, just like him, all Jess wanted was to be normal. She was lucky, she could pretend.

Starr nodded and looked to the parade as it was finishing passing by "They may think they are better, but they still make a good party"

Esk scoffed. "Yeah, but only if you fit their definition of normal." He stood up, brushing the grass off his pants. "How much of this place you think they bothered to map?"

Ellie snickered. "Let's not choose green or gold glitter or it'll look suspiciously like theirs. I mean you can't really tell, but the rest of the crew might find it funny." Upon reaching the crafts closet she started looking around.

~~
The map was probably about ten miles of meticulously detailed terrain they could explore, mostly city, with lots of shops with signs that said "Humans only" or "Yay humans!"

"Let's see what we can, then pick another planet." Dawn said, jumping up and wiping her pants then grinning at them and heading off in one direction

Esk followed after Dawn. "Humans only? Nice." He rolled his eyes. "They really think any aliens want to buy their crap?"

---

Matt laughed. "Yeah, that's why I need you Ellie, you can be like.. my colour guide. I have to trust you when you tell me something is green"

James tagged along with the others. He was curious to see the sights, at least he had an umbrella to hide under now.

~~
Ellie grinned. "Heck yeah! Hmm, should we use paper, or craft felt?"

"Felt's softer right?" Matt rummaged through drawers and bins of craft materials.

Dawn shrugged and chuckled. "Well, we can look at Pandora next if you like."

"Are they less racist and prone to stupid hats?" Esk asked scornfully.

"Yes." Dawn chuckled "We don't usually wear hats and we are not racist."

Esk shrugged. "Sure, maybe we can introduce Tala to some horses."

"Yeah, felt is softer. Not sure how well the glitter will stick to it, maybe we should use both," Ellie said.

~~
"Ooh, I wanna see Pandora," James said.

Tala snorted at Esk.

Dawn chuckled then shrugged "Depending on what was scanned for this program, we might meet a lot of horses."

Esk smirked back at Tala. "You can lecture them on their failure to be cows." He glanced at James. "Get us out of here, i'm not sure how much longer I can resist the urge to punch one of these holographic morons."

---

Matt nodded. "Sure, that works." He set glue and paint and scissors on the table.