video;

[wrathfulkhan]

[Here, turtlefolk, have a teenage boy who is still a little bit zonked from landing on his ass in the palace. There is a Chinese dragon on his shirt, if anyone's at all interested in dragons. From what can be seen, his suite looks like it's in mild disarray; he got angry enough to break a couple things once he was alone and did not do such a good job cleaning it up from the camera's view. He looks mildly upset.]

I-- I don't understand why I'm here, I--

They gave me this place, they told me I have to work...I'm not really trapped, am I? I can't be. This doesn't make sense.

[He stops talking half-to himself and focuses his attention on the camera again.]

I guess I have to work under the assumption that this is all real, until proven otherwise. Even if I'm still not entirely sure what's going on.

Anyone care to enlighten me? The...kedan...weren't all that helpful.

Comments

[manofiron]

Most people are gullible idiots who ignore reality and believe what they want to believe. Do the math. Who wants to believe that we're prisoners here? Or that our jailers mean us harm?

[wrathfulkhan]

Lies are often more appealing than the truth. Especially when the truth's an ugly one.

So why should I believe them when they tell me I'm trapped here?

[manofiron]

[ He opens his mouth, then shuts it after a second's silent deliberation. He doesn't know this kid. But more importantly, he knows he shouldn't rob him of the security that ignorance of the truth provides.

Still, he has to say something. ]

Because they're telling the truth on that one.

[wrathfulkhan]

[This is not his first trapped-in-an-alternate-dimension rodeo. And at least here, there isn't...that thing. Not so far as he's seen, anyway.]

If there's a way in, it figures that there's a way out.

[manofiron]

You'd think, wouldn't you?

[ He's not killing Gene's hope. Not yet. ]

Tell you what. If you find it, I'll build the device that will get us home.

[wrathfulkhan]

...deal.

[C'mon. He's found eight ring-needles in a global haystack. How hard can a dimensional rift be?]

[manofiron]

So, Tiger, where'd you end up? Metal? Fire?

[wrathfulkhan]

..."Tiger"? [Not the worst nickname he's ever had. Better than the one Hogan had given him, at any rate.]

Fire. 1-C. Nice place...for a prison.

[manofiron]

Better than Shere, right? Sounds too much like Sheer Curtains.

[ Although, now that he's said that, he can't help smirking just a little. He's going to need to remember that for later. ]

Three-A. Fire. Come by sometime. I'll show you what your buddy got up to after he grew up.

[wrathfulkhan]

[He laughs a little despite himself. It's weird to laugh anymore. Weirder to laugh at a bad joke of Stark's.] Can't argue there.

["Buddy". Ah. Now he's sad. He laughs anyway.] Yeah. Okay.

[manofiron]

If you call ahead first, I'll spring for a pizza. Turtleworld pizza. If not, don't worry about it. Just don't mind the mess.

[wrathfulkhan]

...they have pizza here?

[manofiron]

If you look at it from an angle and keep an open mind? You bet.

[wrathfulkhan]

Heh.

All right. Sounds good. Unless the local idea of pizza is something I should be really worried about.

[manofiron]

I've eaten like six of them since last week. They're fine.

[wrathfulkhan]

Well, at least your diet hasn't changed.

[manofiron]

Nobody outgrows pizza. Or cheeseburgers.

[wrathfulkhan]

I'm a little worried about what the local idea of cheeseburgers might look like.

[manofiron]

[ Tony's nose wrinkles slightly. ]

Yeah, I'm working on that.

[ In between the long periods of inactivity, thanks to his ever increasing bouts of drunken stupors. ]

[wrathfulkhan]

Are there even any cows here?

[manofiron]

Depends on how flexible your definition of the term cow is.

[wrathfulkhan]

Maybe not quite flexible enough yet.

[manofiron]

Probably want to skip the burgers then. I hear tribble's an acquired taste anyway.

[wrathfulkhan]

I'm going to regret asking what that is.

[manofiron]

[ Smirking, Tony glances to the side, away from the screen. ]

Hey. Dummy. Bring U2 here a second.

[ He's still smirking when he looks back at the console. ]

Don't ask me which is the front and which is the back. I don't think anyone knows.

[ A moment later, a robotic arm enters the camera's view, nearly hitting Tony in the face with a ball of brown fur roughly the size of a large grapefruit. Shooting the robot a dirty look, Tony takes the trilling thing and holds it out to the console so Gene can get a better look. ]

This is a tribble. Want one? I've got like ten of the things.