Video

[hammer]

[ The image of a rather ordinary, unremarkable looking man fills the screen. He’s clean-shaven, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses, and he’s got brown hair, cut short and though it’s a little messy, there’s something about it that suggests that it had been styled at one point earlier in the day. He’s just slightly disheveled, which those familiar with the comings and goings of individuals to Keeliai might recognize as a sign of a new arrival. ]

So this is… [ There’s a moment of silence, as he trails off and glances away from the camera. ] …different.

[ It only lasts for a second, before he looks back and rolls his eyes. ]

The whole—I mean, well… Whatever.

[ He takes a deep breath, lets it out, and pulls himself together. ]

Right, okay. I was given a place to live but no job, and I’m guessing that it isn’t free rent forever. So if there’s, I don’t know, a job center? Help wanted ads? Some turtle world version of Craigslist? Something? Could someone point me in the right direction?

Comments

[hammer]

What? No, it's a—Tumblr's like a blog. An ugly looking blog that people mostly use to post pictures. I think, I don't know, I don't really use it.

[ Also because the three times he was on it, he was inundated with pictures and gifs of He Who Shall Not Be Named. ]

But a gif is a small picture file. Usually it's moving. Like a couple second clip of a video. [ The realization dawns slowly. ] They don't have the internet here, do they?

[littlecousin]

[Nita would run fyeahsubmariner.]

Just the consoles. Brandon said they were "kinda like the internet for slow kids."

[Brandon's kind of a jerk.]

[hammer]

[ This Brandon guy kind of sounds like a jerk. ]

The internet for slow kids, huh? Let me guess. He was talking about himself?

[littlecousin]

Nah, Brandon was one of those insecure guys who puts on a big front.

[WE DON'T KNOW ANYONE LIKE THAT.]

Not a bad kid underneath it, though.

[Nita is the nicest.]

[hammer]

[ He laughs once, quietly under his breath. ]

Yeah, I know the type.

[ It's definitely not him, though. Really. ]

Okay, so we've got computer consoles and no internet. You know, maybe it's for the best. People can get out there and experience life for a change, instead of being worried about updating their Facebook status.

[littlecousin]

[Nita knows what a facebook (the printed kind) is from being enrolled at ESU, so after a second of thinking about it, she figures out Justin must mean an internet facebook the same way this Craig's List thing is an internet classifieds section.]

Why would you update your facebook entry? Like, if you got a haircut?

[Dude, just stop mentioning computer things to her.]

[hammer]

People update it for everything. Haircuts too. But it's usually more mundane things. I don't know why.

[ Justin doesn't use Facebook. That would imply that he has friends. ]

I don't really use it. I don't have time.

[littlecousin]

[Nita would hit the friends cap by just indiscriminately friending everyone she's ever met.]

Haircuts are pretty mundane.

[Oh well, she doesn't really care about internet everything, since it's irrelevant here.]

Anyway, I'm Namorita Prentiss.

[hammer]

Justin Hammer. It's a pleasure.

[ The way he smiles at her, the sentiment is genuine. ]

That's a really pretty name. Very exotic. Where's it from?

[littlecousin]

[Nita likes compliments. It's genetic. She'll ignore the "exotic" thing because she really doesn't expect surface dwellers to get the finer points of manners.]

Atlantis.

[The pointy ears and weird eyebrows give some credence to the idea that she's not being a smartass.]

[hammer]

At...

[ Wait. ]

Wait, you mean like actual Atlantis? Lost city that fell into the ocean Atlantis? Not the resort in the Bahamas or the casino in Reno?

[littlecousin]

[Fun fact: Nita predates both those places.]

Uh, yeah. Continent in the North Atlantic, fiery cataclysm, Plato, all that.

[She turns her head to one side and her gills, three slits on the side of her neck that are normally almost invisible on the surface flare open.

Disbelieve that, dude.]

[hammer]

Do—You have—

[ He catches himself about to point at the screen and forces his hand to stay at his side. Obviously she knows she has gills. She just showed them to him. Acting like a yokel would just make what he knows is a bad impression worse. ]

Sorry, I've never met an At... Is it Atlantean?

[littlecousin]

[Nita isn't even slightly abashed about not knowing anything about the internet. Justin should learn from her example.]

Atlantean, yeah. Your universe probably doesn't have any of us.

[Making it manifestly inferior but what're ya gonna do?]

[hammer]

Well, we have Asgardian gods and... some other kind of alien species. We might have Atlanteans.

[ That doesn't sound any better out loud than it did in his head. ]

Is it nice there? What's it like?

[littlecousin]

Ohhhh are you from that universe where the Avengers just formed?

[Who cares about Atlantis it's filled with boring assholes. That's why she lives in New York.]

[hammer]

That's a thing? Avengers in other universes?

[ He's never had to deal with time travel or alternate dimensions. It's a little much for him, but he's trying to keep up. ]

I think—I mean, yeah, they're new.

[littlecousin]

[Freakin' everyone is an Avenger, dude.]

They're the number one super-team in a lot of realities.

...Though there are a bunch where it's something called the Justice League, but I'd never heard of them before I got here.

[The multiverse is a big place, but Nita is totally blase about it.]

[hammer]

[ Justin isn't. :( ]

So in some places they're called Avengers and in others they're called the Justice League, and in all of them, they, what? Fight crime? Protect the world from aliens?

[littlecousin]

[Try not being a villain and maybe they'll invite you. Face turns are totally a thing.]

No, the Justice League is all different people. Superman and Green Lantern and Aquaman and-- [those are the only ones she knows, oops] --some others.

The Avengers do aliens and supervillains. They usually don't handle crime unless it's seriously large-scale. Day-to-day stuff like that is more Spider-Man and Daredevil's thing.

[hammer]

[ None of these names sound familiar. Although, Green Lantern? What kind of name is that? Superman sounds special. And Aquaman he assumes has something to do with water. But a lantern? ]

I don't think there's a Spider-Man or a Daredevil in my world. I mean, is he like a man-sized spider?

[ The stuff of nightmares, that thought. ]

[littlecousin]

He got bitten by a radioactive spider and got powers.

[Because that's how radiation works.]

According to Dr. Banner there are only, like, five people with superpowers where you're from.

[Apparently this is weird.]

[hammer]

Radioactive spiders? That's a thing that's actually happening now? Were they from Chernobyl? Three Mile Island?

[ He always knew meltdowns and partial meltdowns would have horrible side-effects. And radioactive spiders - which in Justin's mind glow green and are about the size of a pickup truck - sound pretty horrible. ]

You mean the Avengers? Yeah, they're—I mean, so far. But if there's five, there's got to be more, right?