Disclaimer: Blah blah, no Matrix characters or anything Matrix related belongs to me. Not like you think I do, anyway.
Summary: I've always found Mouse rather intruiging, from the first time I saw the Matrix. After a while, I endevoured to write a fic about him. This was forgotten for some time (Mr. Anderson) until I recently discovered it and realized it wasn't as bad as I had thought, with a little refinement. Anyway, this fic is my thoughts about who Mouse is, where he's come from, and just about his life, from his childhood until his death. (Oh damn this could get long... Going through the whole of The Matrix... Ah well) Enjoy!
Chapter 1: It doesn't have everything the body needs.
Theo got home from school about half an hour late. He hadn't called home, but no one had noticed. No one would care if he never showed up from school one day. In fact, his mother would probably be happy to not have to 'look after' him. Not that she did, anyway. He slunk in inconspicuously. Or tried to. His mother hung up the phone she had been slurring into, and slowly looked up. As he picked his way through the junk to his room, she seemed sober enough to have seen him.
"You! That was your principal! Again. He says... That if you don't get at least one mark over 50%, you're going to be expelled." This speech seemed to have exhausted her. She took another drag at the bottle of cheap beer beside her. "You had better smarten up! Or else!"
He was intelligent, really. Very intelligent. He knew it. He was just...Differently intelligent. And, after having come to grade two knowing all the material, and experiencing the harsh reality of the school yard, he had learned to hide this aptitude of his under a façade of dull, blank expressions. 'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I'd better get that mark. Otherwise I'll have to be home with her all day.'...
The next day, at school, he began paying attention in class. He tried hard, he really did. It was all just so boring and pointless. He knew all the things they were 'teaching' him. He could say this in complete honesty, without it being a brag. Not that anyone knew this. He wished, sometimes, that he had someone, anyone, to talk to. About anything. He sometimes cried about that, but not often. He couldn't afford to, he was too small and disliked to appear weak. As he was lost in these thoughts, he dimly heard his teacher's voice. It appeared to be talking to him. It sounded smug. He was sure he didn't want to know why...
"Theo! Answer question 12, now!" Ah. That was why he sounded smug. He thought Theo hadn't been paying attention. Stupid jerk, thinking it was funny to pick on people who were actually thinking. Unlike him.
Theo paused a second, but only a second. What class was this again? They all ran together in his head. It was math... "(-3x - 14y) + (22x + 13y) is 19x plus -1y.
The teacher paused a moment, to flick through his answer sheet. "Correct." He looked disappointed, and moved on to his next victim.
The day dragged by. Some of the more alert teachers commented happily on his increased attention, but they seemed to think it had something to do with their marvelous teaching. Theo spent most of the day thinking about his future. What he saw was such a horrible, dark nothingness of elementary, followed by high school, followed by no university, followed by some crappy, awful job that he would hate and be bored by, followed by a retirement in some junk heap of a home, and then death. Out of that, death looked the most promising. He began to seriously contemplate suicide, just to escape it all. Out. He wanted out. Something was wrong with the world. Just the very world itself felt wrong to him. Like all the happiness was just being drained out some giant sieve, leaving only the dregs of misery.
At lunch, some bright speck appeared on his dark horizon. This speck appeared in the form of a boy Theo dimly knew. This boy lived on his street, he thought. What was his name? John? Jake? Something like that. The boy approached, cautiously. All the kids in his grade six class thought he was 'weird'. Not that he cared. When the intruder got close enough, Theo suddenly spoke.
"What do you want? Come to torment me about my Mom, too?"
The boy, Theo was pretty sure it was John, looked surprised. Like he hadn't thought Theo could speak. "N-no. I've noticed how unhappy you always look, so I thought you might want in on my Plan." The way he said plan made Theo picture it with a capital 'P'.
"And what plan might that be?"
"A way out."
Theo sat up so sharply he almost fell off the jungle gym he was perched on. Could it be true, that This Boy was the escape he had dreamed of for so long? The one who would come and take him away to some distant land where he would have adventures and be brave and big and loved and...
"Yeah, I knew you'd be interested! You see, I know a way to the City that isn't watched..."
Theo leaned back again, cursing himself silently for getting his hopes up like that. Puerile. He wasn't all that interested. Even if this boy could get him into the City, which he doubted, it was so heavily guarded by the Men who Wore Suits, what would be there for him? Only more of the same. One thing Theo had discovered was that whenever he was Here he wanted to be There. Whenever he ate This he wanted to be eating That. Whatever he did or wherever he went, it wasn't what he wanted. Still, the City might be a little better than here. If he could get an ID showing that he belonged in the City instead of the Burbs, he might just be able to do something with his life...
He realized that the John boy was watching him, expecting some kind of answer. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Great. What is it?"
"Well, I know this one bus driver, and he..."
As Theo listened to the boy's Plan, he realized that it just might work. He was tempted, he had to admit. When the boy was done, and asked, "So, are you in?" and offered his hand, Theo clasped it in his own. He was getting out. They decided to leave that very night...
Summary: I've always found Mouse rather intruiging, from the first time I saw the Matrix. After a while, I endevoured to write a fic about him. This was forgotten for some time (Mr. Anderson) until I recently discovered it and realized it wasn't as bad as I had thought, with a little refinement. Anyway, this fic is my thoughts about who Mouse is, where he's come from, and just about his life, from his childhood until his death. (Oh damn this could get long... Going through the whole of The Matrix... Ah well) Enjoy!
Chapter 1: It doesn't have everything the body needs.
Theo got home from school about half an hour late. He hadn't called home, but no one had noticed. No one would care if he never showed up from school one day. In fact, his mother would probably be happy to not have to 'look after' him. Not that she did, anyway. He slunk in inconspicuously. Or tried to. His mother hung up the phone she had been slurring into, and slowly looked up. As he picked his way through the junk to his room, she seemed sober enough to have seen him.
"You! That was your principal! Again. He says... That if you don't get at least one mark over 50%, you're going to be expelled." This speech seemed to have exhausted her. She took another drag at the bottle of cheap beer beside her. "You had better smarten up! Or else!"
He was intelligent, really. Very intelligent. He knew it. He was just...Differently intelligent. And, after having come to grade two knowing all the material, and experiencing the harsh reality of the school yard, he had learned to hide this aptitude of his under a façade of dull, blank expressions. 'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I'd better get that mark. Otherwise I'll have to be home with her all day.'...
The next day, at school, he began paying attention in class. He tried hard, he really did. It was all just so boring and pointless. He knew all the things they were 'teaching' him. He could say this in complete honesty, without it being a brag. Not that anyone knew this. He wished, sometimes, that he had someone, anyone, to talk to. About anything. He sometimes cried about that, but not often. He couldn't afford to, he was too small and disliked to appear weak. As he was lost in these thoughts, he dimly heard his teacher's voice. It appeared to be talking to him. It sounded smug. He was sure he didn't want to know why...
"Theo! Answer question 12, now!" Ah. That was why he sounded smug. He thought Theo hadn't been paying attention. Stupid jerk, thinking it was funny to pick on people who were actually thinking. Unlike him.
Theo paused a second, but only a second. What class was this again? They all ran together in his head. It was math... "(-3x - 14y) + (22x + 13y) is 19x plus -1y.
The teacher paused a moment, to flick through his answer sheet. "Correct." He looked disappointed, and moved on to his next victim.
The day dragged by. Some of the more alert teachers commented happily on his increased attention, but they seemed to think it had something to do with their marvelous teaching. Theo spent most of the day thinking about his future. What he saw was such a horrible, dark nothingness of elementary, followed by high school, followed by no university, followed by some crappy, awful job that he would hate and be bored by, followed by a retirement in some junk heap of a home, and then death. Out of that, death looked the most promising. He began to seriously contemplate suicide, just to escape it all. Out. He wanted out. Something was wrong with the world. Just the very world itself felt wrong to him. Like all the happiness was just being drained out some giant sieve, leaving only the dregs of misery.
At lunch, some bright speck appeared on his dark horizon. This speck appeared in the form of a boy Theo dimly knew. This boy lived on his street, he thought. What was his name? John? Jake? Something like that. The boy approached, cautiously. All the kids in his grade six class thought he was 'weird'. Not that he cared. When the intruder got close enough, Theo suddenly spoke.
"What do you want? Come to torment me about my Mom, too?"
The boy, Theo was pretty sure it was John, looked surprised. Like he hadn't thought Theo could speak. "N-no. I've noticed how unhappy you always look, so I thought you might want in on my Plan." The way he said plan made Theo picture it with a capital 'P'.
"And what plan might that be?"
"A way out."
Theo sat up so sharply he almost fell off the jungle gym he was perched on. Could it be true, that This Boy was the escape he had dreamed of for so long? The one who would come and take him away to some distant land where he would have adventures and be brave and big and loved and...
"Yeah, I knew you'd be interested! You see, I know a way to the City that isn't watched..."
Theo leaned back again, cursing himself silently for getting his hopes up like that. Puerile. He wasn't all that interested. Even if this boy could get him into the City, which he doubted, it was so heavily guarded by the Men who Wore Suits, what would be there for him? Only more of the same. One thing Theo had discovered was that whenever he was Here he wanted to be There. Whenever he ate This he wanted to be eating That. Whatever he did or wherever he went, it wasn't what he wanted. Still, the City might be a little better than here. If he could get an ID showing that he belonged in the City instead of the Burbs, he might just be able to do something with his life...
He realized that the John boy was watching him, expecting some kind of answer. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Great. What is it?"
"Well, I know this one bus driver, and he..."
As Theo listened to the boy's Plan, he realized that it just might work. He was tempted, he had to admit. When the boy was done, and asked, "So, are you in?" and offered his hand, Theo clasped it in his own. He was getting out. They decided to leave that very night...