Diaspora Museum/Page6

Chapter 6
--- She walked as though in a daze, her head down and staring at the pink and hazel shoes covering her feet, The crying had started to wear thin, her face a wrinkled mess, her eyes blurry and her mind fuzzy. Despite her mothers hugs and brief reassurances Janice could no longer comprehend her situation. The ball of fire that had replaced her bottom was blurring her every thought and hate and feer and depression had started sinking in.

Altessa's emphasis a moment ago didn't help. Eyes to the floor, the little blond girl trudged and reflected, her thoughts going around in circles. This was a torture house - Altessa - her mum had admitted it earlier, this wasn't about punishment or education or anything ever so nice. This was torture. This was abuse. In the nearly three weeks that Altessa had been Janice's mother she had gone out of her way to bistow hugs and kisses almost as much as the daily spankings and punishments. She learned her lesson quickly but now. Now. Janice wasn't even listening to the guide as she was dragged along through the 'Hall of Shame' that she herself had asked to see - the last punishment had established something for her. Something horrible. Her new mother didn't seam to care one bit about her daughters safety or wellbeing - certainly not today at least. Holding her hands together she sobbed, barely taking in her surroundings, dragged along on the line of cloth intended to keep the pennies in check.

For the last five minutes as the walked the Guide had been rambling on about the history of spanking from the point of view of the bums that had been experiencing it and talking about distantly forgotten people who had been victims of the rejuve system. Aparently there hadn't always been special punishment days, or so the guide was saying. Aparently when the system was first formed there was a massive push from the victims of given crimes that the rejuved criminals be handed over to the families of those they had hurt. It had been dark times, the Pennies handed over being punished daily beyond what was not considered acceptable.

"One example was Michael Manson," The Guide had said, although she hadn't paid close attention. Aparently the lightest impliment ever used on him had been the switch and the new parents had even used floggers and birches to punish him. It was because of that level of abuse that the current cyctem existed, and yet. And yet they did this, on days like this. Special punishment days - days where any penni got abused just for the sake of satisfying the public need for retribution. Days where Pennies were objects - not people.

"Welcome to the coffee lounge!" The words snapped through her depressive thoughts, so different to what she had been expecting to hear. Looking up, Janice blinked.

It was a coffee lounge, in the middle of the maze of rooms and passages, lined by displays of paddles and canes, whips and switches with names above the displays. And in the centre of the room, a cafe. It was surrounded by table and chairs and had large glass displays with cakes, and cookies and trays full of goodies. Through bleary eyes she stared, surprised at such luxuries and even more surprised by the guides behaviour.

"As most of you, or at least those not experiencing the exhibits would have figured out it is now lunchtime!" The guide declared, "I know some of you may have brought your own lunches but we ask that you please support the museum and buy from our shop!" The adults were milling around, aproaching the cafe and making orders themselves, Janice looked around for her mother but couldn't find the woman. That was when things got confusing.

Dragged up to the counter along with the other pennies, Janice looked at the foods. Typically most stores had two ranges, one containing sweet and unhealthy treets for everyday use and a smaller range of less interesting foods. Basic foods. For the average child this meant nothing but for the average Penni these plainer foods were what they would get if they hadn't behaved themselves and the tastier foods used as rewards and treets. Here it wasn't the case though. Lining the displays of the cafe was a general mish mash, different flavour cakes, begels, toasted sandwidges, fattata... Everything was healthy! and if you didn't want one of the premade sandwidges there was a salad bar - clearly intended that you could pick your favourites and have your lunch custom made by the white gloved ladies behind the counter.

Janice stared.

"You Pennies are allowed to shop like normal people today." every head on the cloth line turned up to stare at the guide open-mouthed, which only made the guide laugh. "This is a health bar." She explained, "The foods here while tastey, aren't that fancy and are as much as the museum can afford. Don't think your getting extra special treetment though - the chairs are hard and with each of you having recieved a good hundred or more old fashioned paddle smacks I dont think you'll be too pleased with that!" Janice wiped her eyes, wiggled her fingers in her ears, tugged against the cloth and blinked again. Idly - in the back of her head - she suspected she'd just gone into shock.

"Anything we want?" Augustus questioned. Janice looked back to the hound-like boy who was occupying the space in the line near the rear. This was the first time she'd heard the boy speek out today and it was a valid question. "Yes - anything you want!" One of the girls was attending the non-Penni customers at another side of the round booth, but the younger of the two aproached the side where the little criminals were and spoke to them directly instead of to the adult accompanying them. A strange experience for each of them. "You kids decided yet?"

Moments later, Janice was staring at her toasted Foccacia sandwich.... She hadn't begun eating it yet, just staring at the food in front of her as though it had slapped her in the face, poked its tongue out and was about to walk away. This was FOOD, it wasn't just food - it was Luxury. Most of the kids had one, as did a number of the adults and non-penny children who had been watching the displays put on by Janice and her friends, only three of the kids didn't have some variation of one of the sandwiches and they were Maylu, Nova and Decibel. In the case of these three their parents had stepped in, insisting the children get untoasted and more ordinary sandwiches with things like alfalfa and roast beef and lettuce instead of a complicated chicken, pinapple, couri grass, pickles, cheese and mayo combination like Janice had eventually ordered after much debate.

The girl had been looking around the entire time for her mother, not that she could see her anywhere. It had Janice worried, almost as though Altessa had abandoned her for some reason after that last exhibit. Led to a table the convicts are untied, the guide pulling the cloth out from the kiddy cuffs that had kept the youths in check. The table was indefinitely a Penny table - hard wood benches in the classic 'outdoor table' fashion with course grains and no padding in any form. Janice was under zeros illusions that sitting down was going to hurt but she wasn't being given an option here. With the first touch of her rump onto the wood surface she winced and tried to levitate off the bench but accross each bench was a bar designed to hold the child down. The whole contraption - the height, the wood, the bars - it was like a dinner table version of a corner chair and with her weight firmly pressed down in a way that made the child screach she wasn't too sure about how she was going to eat her food. The only blessing was that the wood was flat - and not spikey like real corner stools tended to be.

Janice leaned against the table, noticing others doing so and sobbed until the pain in her rump subsided a little and started to register - some of the older children were talking.

"Yes, Alright! I am a Y-Insertion. I know that doesn't happen, you dont have to go advertising it to every boy I meet!" Janice looked up, some of the other penitants that were at her table had starting talking animated, and the inu-boy Augustus seamed to be at the centre of the debate. Still a little teary, Janice picked up her sandwidge and took a small bite, feeling a little of the sauce and mayo try to sneek out and dribble down her chin.

"He's a Ruddy Lesbo!" the girl june was saying, looking over her glasses through red eyes. "And a human hater, thats why he's with human parents and he's getting so much extra than a penni of his level!" "I am not, I'm getting what my mum wants - we're only allowed six machines and a certain amount of spanks per machine, you know that." The inu had some kind of bun in front of him filled with chicken and salad, not toasted like Janice's was but similar in construction. "Your the Hater June, you just don't like that your being grouped with a non-human I bet!" "Now now, please. Please don't fight!" Janice looked down at the youngest at the table. Marcia - the one who had been so terrified of the machine and a three year old like she was. Getting some gaul Janice jumped in with her two cents.

"Marcia is right. I don't know where our parents are exactly right now but this is an SPD. You know if you start a fight they wont hesitate to make it especially worse!" Marcia was nodding. "I can tell you, I used to be a licenced parent. I mean there are regulations of what you can and can't do but on an SPD you'r allowed to be cruel, they're meant to be days of torture." Marcia looks around her as she says this. "Just think, most of us have two or three machines left and the last one of the day will be the smartspank! The parents can set that to whatever severity they want if its in the safe guidelines so even if your not spanked now they can punish you later!"

There were nods around the table as the children came to a consensus. "Where are our parents?" Munching quietly all of the Pennies started looking around themselves. Janice wasn't the only one. For some reason even though the museum's eating area was full of adults and voluntaris and people who had come to watch the pennies spankings, none of the pennitants could see any sign of their parents. "So it isn't just me??" Janice commented in awe. "I can't even see the guide right now, I wonder what's going on?" "I bet its some kind of a trap." June sneered. "They most likely have camera's all over the place, they're giving us a chance to mess up so they can warrent worse punishment later." "No way, Our mum wouldn't do that!" April and Maylu piped up at the same time. "Are you sure?" the two girls frowned. Truth was they couldn't be positively certain.

"May, Maybe we should look for them?" Janice wondered who said that at first until she realised that it had come from her mouth. "I mean..." She mumbled. "I well, I've only been a penni for a short time but I've always been on a leesh when I'm out and about and when I'm not there's a responsible adult closeby!" "There are lots of adults closeby!" Augustus put in. "Yes, but I mean there's nobody in charge." Looking at the bar at the table that made sure the pennies were sitting at the table instead of standing or trying to levitate off their sore bum, June looked along and relised there was nothing on either end to stop them getting out.

"Scoot sideways." the blond instructed to Janice who looked about in confusion. "We can get out of this if we slide!" June gave Janice a small push and Janice started trying to scoot her bum accross. She grit her teeth and wimpered as her sore rump scraped accross the wooden surface, hoping that it was made so they couldn't get splinters and eventually slipped off the end of the penny bench. Looking around at her group the others were trying the same until everyone was out of their seats. Looking around nervously nobody rushed to stop them or put them back at their tables. Janice was worried.

"It's like we've been abandoned in the middle of the museum!" "This is Definitely a trap!" June replied. "I don't like it one bit and -" "Well we can't just stay here?" the other pennies were gathering and soon all twelve were together in a group. "We can't exactly just stand here!" Janice was saying. "We're not even really being monitored and all of us are hard case pennies!" she suggests, "Even if we get punished for it I think the right thing to do is find one of the museum staff and ask them where we should be next?" "It sounds like your eager to get your rump spanked." June sneered.

"Actually it sounds like a good plan. We all know this is an SPD." all eyes turned to the boy named octavius. "if we show that we know that too and that we aren't going to try and get out of our punishments then they might go easier on us!" Several pennies nodded their heads to this. "It sounds possible!" "Alright, so what we're looking for a staff member?" April points to the health bar where the two ladies are serving customers. "Won't they know?" Maylu nodded. "That makes sense too. Wait here!"

Several mouths dropped open as Maylu brasenly walked right over to the health bar ladies and spoke to them, the others were too worried to go over and see what was being said but when Maylu came back there was a grin in her face. "There's aparently an information desk a couple of rooms that way!" she instructed, "Other than that they just work the store, they dont know much about the museum." "Sounds like we have a goal no 1 then. The information desk might know where our parents went as well." "Or they can put a call out on the loudspeekers!" Augustus put in. "Or this could still be a trap." Everyone glared at June for insisting upon the obvious. "One thing I know is that if we just stay here we wont get ANY answers!"

It seamed most of the rest agreed with her, Janice thought. Maylu was the leeding kind and somehow she expected they would be led into trouble, but she still felt this was the right course of action. "We should all join hands and make our own 'line' so we all stay together!" Janice put in. Some of the others werent pleased about that but Octavius and Maylu agreed, enforcing it with the rest. Lining up, almost random in order as people just grabbed a hand each the group of pennies began weaving their way out of the eating area towards the exit and the information desk.

- - -

The children were not unwatched. It was true and June had been more or less right. This was a trap, but a very ingenious trap. In a small room almost exactly in the middle of the museum was the 'Data Room'. A large room that contained the computers, the adults had gone off for a very specific reason. So far today, even though names had been noted down in paper the actual details of the pennitants being punished had not been properly recorded. In the dataroom each of the parents were giving the guide the details of their penni, name, level, severity, PID and TOC (Penny ID and Type of Crime) for records to be sent to the corrections board. It wasn't a lengthy process and in theory they should have been back very soon but they hadn't counted on the children noticing their absence. On the screen inside the Dataroom every pennitant showed up as a little blip on the main map, including several blips of pennies not in the current group in other rooms, nobody had expected to hear or see on the camera's that their little group of twelve were getting up, leaving their tables and trying to find out what happened to the adults.

"We should get back in there right away!" the guide was saying, "I can hand the information you gave me to an aid and we can fill in any missing details later!" but the parents were not having a bar of it. "Look at them, they're acting together as a group. Somewhere between the spankings it seams our little twelve are getting on very well!" Augustus' mum was saying. "I agree!" said Janices mum. "I want to see what they choose to do. If they do the right thing they should be with us again in no time what-so-ever but if not. If they touch anything, start wondering around on their own or doing anything silly we can stitch them up for it later!"