001 [Video]

[withthebrotherhood]

[The video feed shows Toad (in all his scummy green glory) focused and frowning as he messes with the console. It’s not like there wasn’t an explanation, but he’s bad at listening. And refraining from touching things.]

Ah… freakin’… stupid… Heeeey, it’s workin’!

[He immediately brightens. Then scowls again when he remembers what he turned it on for.]

So, uh, I'm new. Hi. Anyway, how cool are people with this deal? Maybe someday do something to fight the weird evil whatever it is, get a house on turtle island?

[The roof over his head aspect is actually quite a selling point for Toad. And there's something unnatural about admitting he exists on some kind of public channel and not just hiding in the shadows, but it seems to be what people do here.]

‘Cus that’s stupid, but how stupid? Is it worth playin’ along? I didn’t see a lot of dumpsters to dive in and stuff, so can you even be, like, no, fight your own monster, I’ll be over here, hiding. Do you actually get in trouble or go to turtle jail?

[He’s a follower. And a coward. Having some idea of how much of a tantrum he can get away with throwing will be helpful.]

...Toad out.

Comments

[solo_patria]

[Well, for all that he is no Gavroche, Enjolras is, regardless, somehow reminded of him anyway.]

I was, still am, not quite a fan of having been forced here, with no free choice offered but the circumstances being as they are, fighting as we can seems to be much less of an evil than might otherwise be suspected.

[And he's offering the faintest of faint smiles here.]

As far as turtle prison, well. I have been present for the capture and execution, a deserved one, as so few are, of one who had murdered here.

[withthebrotherhood]

...You know you talk like a boring chick movie, right?

[He's thinking of Jane Austen adaptations, but doesn't want to admit he could name the boring chick movie in question. Domino used to watch them around the hideout sometimes.]

So anyway, there is turtle jail, but, what, you have to do somethin' real bad to get in?

[solo_patria]

[Chick...movie? A film about chickens growth processes, what? Then again, Enjolras HAS noticed something of a language barrier between himself and some people.][Seriously, monsieur? Are you alluding to something else?]

Something along those lines, I'd SUSPECT.

[withthebrotherhood]

Hokay, duly noted. Try to be subtle. I hate jail.

[He's made quite a tour of them. He'd know.]

[solo_patria]

They are not exactly the most comfortable of places to spend a few evenings, to put it lightly, are they?

[withthebrotherhood]

The food bites an' there's no way to have fun that doesn't turn into nightstick in the face.

[solo_patria]

[Oh NOW, you are speaking a language Enjolras knows entirely too well, if that laugh, somewhat resigned and definitely commiserating has anything to say about it.]

And they act as though a few too many of those sticks to the face are bound to shut you up or teach you anything. Jails are inherently run by idiots who only understand the use of force and starvation, I think. But try explaining so to any of them.

[withthebrotherhood]

[He's not used to commiseration from some human--or at least human-looking--prettyboy, but he'll take what he can get.]

Sounds like MRDs to me.

[Just to make that reference more opaque, it comes out sounding like "mardies," but the tone is pretty clear.]

Get awful sensitive about a little slime on their uniforms, too. ...And faces.

[solo_patria]

Gendarmes for me. They sound...close enough, at that.

I don't believe slime was an issue for them, really, in the literal sense. I've learned it is somewhat rare to come from a world with only humans in it. But...some of them all seem to be the same no matter what the world is.

[withthebrotherhood]

[Ugh, he really is talking to some flatscan. That's weird, if not the weirdest part of today.]

So you gotta harass each other without us around, huh? Sounds about right.

[solo_patria]

Something along those lines, I suppose. It IS saddening and surprising how badly we have managed to do, there.

[withthebrotherhood]

I guess, uh, bullies always gotta find somebody to pick on.

[For him, this is a very generous opinion. He's pretty firmly anti-human most times.]

[solo_patria]

Quite along those lines, I fear, no matter where someone is.

[Also, he cannot personally imagine an existence for someone who is not human in a world where that seems to be the norm. It sounds...torturous really.]

[withthebrotherhood]

[That'd be a good word.]

Come to think, we didn't start poppin' up until, like, seventy years ago. They must of done somethin' with their jackbooted thugs back then.

[solo_patria]

Really? I cannot imagine how that must be to live with.

[He's impressed,really.]

It shames me to imagine how others like you would be treated by many at home. The future is...a work in progress but that one is far further from me than I could imagine. Humanity...well...

[withthebrotherhood]

[Practically having a heart-to-heart with the prettyboy flatscan. This is the weirdest day ever. Because... waking up on a magic turtle didn't cinch that.]

Most of us can pass. I just got lucky.

[solo_patria]

[Oh just wait til you meet the baby turtles and have a conversation with one!]

I would have hoped once that passing would not be necessary but...societies do seem to need to catch up to much.

[withthebrotherhood]

You're tellin' me. My buddy Domino--

[Dom would object strenuously to being so characterized.]

She's just kinda... blue. Otherwise pretty normal. Super hot, actually. Still can't go out in public.

[solo_patria]

I admit, before I came here, that is something I might have, would have,found odd as well.

It would still have been wrong of me.

[Blue? All he can think of is Molly's hair, even though Enjolras knows that such is certainly not the case.]

[withthebrotherhood]

[Hair can be cut or dyed. Domino's skin took an awful lot of makeup, and even that wasn't a very convincing effect.]

Geeze, you sound like you've been drinkin' the Professor X coolaid. Sure you're human?

[solo_patria]

Fairly certain at this point, unless the turtle has done something with my mind.

[withthebrotherhood]

[Which would not surprise him at all.]

Huh. Guess yer just a weird one, then.

[He refuses to be impressed. It's probably a trap.]

[solo_patria]

I've heard so before, I am afraid.

[Oh Enjolras doesn't expect anyone to be particularly impressed, so that's probably a good thing all around.]

I do hope that you find things here, well, workable enough.

[withthebrotherhood]

[It's still throwing off his groove.]

They gotta have the dumpsters hidden someplace, right?

[solo_patria]

Dumpsters? [Enjolras is cocking an eyebrow there.] For waste management or is this a euphemism?