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I don't think it really works that way

No?

Well if it worked we really would be robots. As it is, half of the country is usually busy yelling at the other half cause they don't like the government

I don't know. I've heard a LOT of people going on about the greatness of America. Never mind their feelings about their government, but their loyalty to the country itself is rather mindless.

[Jaime actually doesn't answer for about a minute, minute and a half, which is different from his usual texts. Is he working up a big, rousing speech about why Kitty's wrong? About why she's right?

Not so much. Instead, he just winds up typing:]

I've never thought about it like that.

Yeah...I don't know. A country is just an idea, right? Even more than a government is just an idea. But people love it so fiercely...'I love my country, but I don't like my government' people say, and that first part is ALWAYS there if the second part is. Sometimes I wonder why. It's true for me too, for what it's worth.

I guess it makes sense. I mean when people talk about the country they're talking about the people right? Not just the government. And the land. And what the land stands for. I know with America there's always people talking about getting second chances

[His Dad talks about that a lot. He's gotten the speeches about America, land of opportunity since he was a little kid.]

I guess...though, I don't know. How often do you actually see second chances? I mean, you've got the ability to declare bankruptcy here instead of going to debtors prison, so that's something. But...Otherwise, how much of it is just rhetoric?

I don't know about here but at least some of it is true back home. I mean not all of it obviously but it was true for my family? There was no work or food in the village my grandparents grew up in so they had to cross the border. It worked out pretty good for them and if they'd stayed in Mexico

Well from the sounds of it I wouldn't be here

They were allowed to do that? Cross over to find work?

You can if you get a work visa. Or if you cross illegally.

[He's not saying which his family did.]

I live on the border so I see a lot of that. Even know a bunch of guys whose whole thing is helping smuggle people across, just between me and you

[...and then his best friend's Mom lets them stay in her house, if they're kids. That's how it always seemed to go.]

Really? How brave! Assuming they don't take horrible advantage. Which...Since you're not cursing them, I assume they don't.

They do it for money so it's not like they do it out of the goodness of their hearts or anything. But it's not like a crazy amount of money? Or the type where if they don't get the money they'll go around shooting people? It's just sort of the way things are back home

Don't you have things kinda like that where you're from?

Yeah, of course. My best friend's parents - they were bookbinders, primarily, the best in London (though they were treated WRETCHEDLY, because they were Czech), but they also had a side business forging documents. Which was REALLY good news for me. They were able to smuggle Jakob (my friend) out of the country and build two new identities for me after I had to go underground. I've got a lot of respect for the sorts of people who do things like that. Even if there is money involved. It takes courage.

Well that's good news for your friend. I have a feeling that there are people like that in every country only you have to worry about the ones who go around breaking kneecaps if you don't manage to pay up

Yeah. Or the ones who'll take your money and then deliver you into wicked circumstances.

Geez yeah

Trust me if I knew the guys doing THAT I wouldn't just be standing around

Though of course DEFINITELY you wouldn't be stopping them in a superheroey sense.

[wHY IS SHE ON THIS SUBJECT AGAIN]

What that again?

C'mon Kitty I think calling the police would be a lot more effective than just punching their faces. Not that it wouldn't be tempting but they'd probably wind up shooting me

Which would be awful, because you DEFINITELY haven't got powers to help you withstand bullets...

Okay I thought you were just teasing but now I want to know where the heck you got the idea that I can take on bullets

Isn't that what all the superhero-types do? I thought superpowers and magic were essentially the same thing at first, but they're really different. All those superheroes - they either outrun bullets or have them bounce harmlessly off. Or melt them with their brains. It's all QUITE gaudy.

Okay A: don't ever test that theory out on me because aside from not being a superhero I'm not bulletproof and if I get shot I'll bleed a lot and possibly die

[Not a total lie; if someone shoots him in the head while he's out of uniform, he's shit out of luck.]

But where I'm from a bunch of superheroes don't actually have superpowers. They're just regular people who decided to train a lot and put on masks and you know

Do their thing

Well, it's an AWFULLY good thing you've warned me about that, because as you well know I've an awful habit of just shooting my friends at random. Anyway, I'm obviously not counting the ones who are like that, am I, since we haven't got any of them here.

You don't know that! We might have a bunch of import superheroes that aren't immune to bullets. They might have gotten the power of I dunno

Shooting perfume out of their hands

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