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On the doorstep of a little house in Forks, Washington, a basket is placed.
The doorbell rings.
There are footsteps, and then there are not.
bulrushes
bulrushes
Astrid listens to Lynn, and to herself. "I don't thump," she confirms. "So I'm not an animal?"
asmyown
"There are a few animals that walk on two legs, but none that I know of that look like they're human."
asmyown
"I doubt it, because there only being one of something doesn't make sense. You had to come from something, somewhere. But I don't know where the others are."
asmyown
"Because of the basket, and also because things don't - appear randomly. Especially living things, which you obviously are. Trees come from seeds, birds come from eggs, microscopic cells come from cell divisions."
bulrushes
"Maybe I came from an egg. Tiny tiny Astrid hatching from an egg." She makes a gesture about chicken-egg sized.
asmyown
Lynn laughs. "That would be very cute. It's entirely possible, too, though if I had to guess I'd say that you'd come from an egg that's bigger than that, if you came from an egg at all."
bulrushes
"Medium-tiny Astrid," says Astrid, making a larger gesture. "I don't remember hatching. But I don't remember anything from before."
asmyown
"Right, which makes it difficult to figure out where - others that aren't animals but look like humans are. Or what they do."
bulrushes
"If you found something that wasn't shaped like a human at all and it wasn't an animal how would you tell what it was instead?"
asmyown
"If it could talk, like you, I'd ask it. If it couldn't, I'd try and figure that out by observation; seeing what's different about it, seeing what sorts of things it needs to live, that kind of thing."
She does not bring up dissection. Because she is not going to frighten her child.
She does not bring up dissection. Because she is not going to frighten her child.
asmyown
Lynn nods. "Unfortunately I don't know what things eat only plants, drink water, and change hair color based on what they eat. Besides you, of course. Which kind of makes it difficult to classify you."
asmyown
"Well, it means that I shouldn't take you to the hospital or nurse's office or anything, because I am worried that other people would want to - study you and that they would not have proper ethics while doing it. But other than that - I don't see a need to do much of anything, you seem fine."
asmyown
"Try to figure out what you are, which is fine in itself. But you are also a person along with being not an animal, and I'm worried they would forget that. In their excitement to figure out what you are."