DinoHigh,NO humans allowed!

chapter 1 part 3, self control and control others

Canon, the triceratops or the nedoceratops (diceratus), sat and watched videos and chatted with her friend, another one of the dubious taxons next to her under this tree. to sit and laugh and not be insulted by everyone else for not being a true dinosaur. in their words. It was hard being a species whose status was disputed as real or not, even though it was clear the Triceratops had other members; they were not some monophyletic group for a million years. but the experts. she scoweled. had decided everyone who was even remotely similar to one was one. even though they never treated us like one of their own and tried their hardest to exclude us from everything they did. We didn't even get to live in the same neighborhoods as them. But everything bad they did was associated with us too; we were guilty of association with people who didn't even associate with us. It was just so annoying.

but here alone with a friend in person and a friend on the phone. watching funny videos online, I could find some peace. It was nice watching humans get beat up. It reminded me that I wasn't the only person in the world who was hated. that there were people I could bully, and maybe I would feel better. Maybe the others would accept me if I played my cards right and said what they wanted me to say. She had hoped more animals with lower standing than her own species would go to this school so the bullies would have other fodder nerds to eat up before they tried their luck with her. A wicked grin painted her face. She was so happy she had voted for a public party that pushed for more public education and wider student populations this year. Things had become so much easier by pretending to care about the plight of others, so no one would suspect the Ceratopsians true intentions. you see? It's easier to move up in the world when more people are below you. So you simply fill that bottom row up to elevate your own standing.

There was a school poster on my way here to address the rampant bullying at school. Bullying is a visceral cycle, it said. So be on top! and there was a picture of a food pyramid of the various dinosaurs. and above it all. was the winner. the winning species. the people I was supposed to admire. I couldn't help but want to be one of them. and you were only going to get up there by working as a team. with your own group of similar animals. Together, we can crush all the nerds below us. and claw our way to the pedestals the world owes us!

perspective change—to human

one step. two step. I was getting closer. The knife was in my hand. i didnt know what i was going to do. but I'd seen worse, honestly. It's not like killing people was against the rules at an animal school. People died at these places all the time. It was preparing them for the real world. where people die a lot more. That's the kind of society Dinos wanted to make. Also, it was very different when humans were at least partially in the Senate. We advocated to stop senseless violence. And for that, we were called cowards. and the attacks on us increased 10 fold. Then we finally stood up for ourselves and fought back. and with that, we were labeled savage, violent animals. and thats the label that stuck with us for all my life and for the past 100 years. but I wasn't really against it. I kind of always hated talking my way out of things. I always wanted to confront my problems head-on. Was now one of those times? I could feel the rage in me. but I knew better. I had to calm myself down. and think things through.

There were two of them, and one had this rich-looking outfit. Her friend next to her looked like she was some thug with her outfit; it had stickers of a rioter group I had seen before attacking humans and other dino businesses. Oh, I forgot, a rioter is considered a demeaning slur. advocacy group. was more fitting, yes, advocating for burning down my harmful shop of dino nuggies. I can't believe they still despised us, even though we made food shaped just like them. It was most popular among carnivores. but i guess the herbivores were angry. We normalized and comodified 1000s of years of suffering for them. Well, all I have to say? Look who's talking. I smirked internally. It was a quiet comeback to say in an argument. Too bad carefully thought-out words mean nothing to idiots. but scare tactics did. I feel my pocket for a smarter plan than just stabbing someone on my first day. and I found it.