tushanshu | 001; Audio - The one where Mike tries to make sense of this.

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001; Audio - The one where Mike tries to make sense of this.

[Mike knows the rules, and he knows them by heart: When you're in a new place, and you aren't sure of your surroundings, you stay hidden to stay safe. Someone will come and find you. So when the kedan deliver him to his suite, Michaelangelo stays there.

It's only after he's lowered all the shades, explored the suite from top to bottom, and booby-trapped the front door with common household items, that Mike turns his attention to the communication console. Mike's access and familiarity with all things computer has been limited at best, with the bulk of his exposure coming in the form of play-testing what ever new video game Donatello had been coding. So it comes as more than a little bit of a shock to him that the console is as easy for him to work as the skim-milk blue guy with a similar number of fingers on his hands said it would be.

It doesn't matter that he's not home, or that the people who found him aren't quite human, or even that anyone who saw him on this vidscreen thing could easily just assume he was some sort of special effect added in post production.]

Um...hello? I.
I'm just looking for my brothers. There was a light from some sort of machine. They started to disappear without me. I just. I just want to find them.

Leo? Donnie? Raph? Please tell me you're out there. Please?

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[SO EXCITED more talking turtles, this is the greatest.] Oh, a turtle! I have already met one turtle, his name was Donatello; is that the Donnie you mentioned? You are a turtle as well, then?

Donnie! You met Donnie?! Like, you actually met him?

Well--we have not met, in person, but I spoke to him over the console [a sharp tapping sound as he pokes a claw at the screen] and he was very helpful.

That sure does sound like Donnie.

[There's a lot to be gleaned from this. 1) Don trusts the consoles enough to use them. 2) Don trusts this place enough to contact strangers via the consoles. 3) Don trusts this place enough to show his face, or at least out himself as non-human.

That says a lot about the credibility of the kedan, as far as Mike is concerned.]

I'm Michaelangelo.

I am called Temeraire. It is very nice to meet you, Michaelangelo. That is a curious name; where did you come by it?

Likewise, Temeraire.

[His repeat of the new-to-him name is slow, and slightly stilted, as if he's trying it out more than merely repeating it.]

Where did I come by it? Well, my father's kind of a big art fan.

I have not heard of Michaelangelo, but then dragons are not permitted in art galleries, in London, so it is not precisely my fault. Your father is a talking turtle as well?

you're a dragon.

[WHAT IS THAT TONE OF VOICE]

Yes--pray do not be frightened, I do not eat turtles; at least I will not anymore, now that I know they can talk.

[That is the Pull the other one, it's got bells tone. It's the tone of little brothers everywhere.]

You're...serious.

[Because little brothers everywhere are gullible by design.]

[confused] I do not think it is anything to joke about. It would be very silly for a person to pretend to be a dragon. Here, let me--

[A fumbling, scratchy noise, because dragon claws and consoles don't quite go together, and then the video feet switches on to reveal a mouthful of serrated teeth the length of a man's finger, because Temeraire has temporarily forgotten where the camera is. Whoops.]

....holy hippo spit.

You see, I am not having you on at all. [Pause as he draws back, a little uncertainly.]

Are you all right? Only it sounded as if you did not believe me, so--

...you're a dragon. like a talking dragon. not like an animated talking dragon, like Pete's Dragon, but like a dragondragon. great googly moogly dragons are real. dragons are real?

...

I said all that out loud, didn't I.

Yes, you did, but that is all right, because there are a great many people here who do not have dragons in their worlds, only stories about them. Which is very strange; it means that dragons must have existed in their worlds at some point, which in turn raises the question of where they have all got to.

But you are not frightened, are you? I will not eat you, I promise.

I don't know that frightened is the right word, I mean...shocked sure, but I'm not scared.

I think the distance helps with that, you know? You're on the other side of a screen from me. Distance makes the heart grow...er...bolder?

Oh. [His ruff droops a little anyway. He certainly did not mean to startle anyone.] Am I really so large?

I would be the last guy to ask about that, because as I've been reminded of time and time again: I'm kind of short myself.

[Oh video! Temeraire leans in again, nosing curiously at the screen.]

Why, you are the size of a human! I had expected you to be much smaller. There is nothing wrong with being short, if you are not a dragon.

And if you are?

Well, normally when we are eating, it is the heavyweights that go first, and then the middleweights and lightweights after; but of course a heavyweight will require more cows than a lightweight will.

[This is a little awkward because he doesn't think it's all fair, but it's what he's used to and it is mostly how European dragons are.] But of course in China it is quite different, and nobody has to fight for a place at all.

Thaaaat sounds strangely like what dinner time is like where I'm from.

Really? Are there many different sizes of turtles?

Sort of? But it's more a size of personality, rather than a size size. I find the trick is to be the one who makes all the food.

You can cook! [Congratulations, you have found a subject near and dear to Temeraire's heart.] What sorts of things do you make?

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