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

[michaeljangelo]

[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?

Comments

[dracobin]

[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.

[michaeljangelo]

And if you are?

[dracobin]

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.

[michaeljangelo]

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

[dracobin]

Really? Are there many different sizes of turtles?

[michaeljangelo]

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.

[dracobin]

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

[michaeljangelo]

[\o/!!]

Pretty much any, and everything. Do you cook?

[dracobin]

No, I do not think I could have managed it when I was larger, but if I am to stay here, I should very much like to learn. I do not know what sorts of animals may be found here, and I have not seen even a single cow since my arrival, but there must be some kind of meat here, surely.

[michaeljangelo]

...did you shrink?

[dracobin]

Oh, yes, I am a quarter of my usual size here. Mr. Kenway says the Emperor must have done it on purpose, though I do not know to what end. It was a very rude thing to do, in any case.

[He falls glumly silent for a moment, his ruff drooping, before he attempts to perk himself up.] But now I may learn to cook for myself, and sleep in a house, like people do, and that at least should be interesting.

[michaeljangelo]

I do have to say that living in houses with actual windows that look outside? Are pretty awesome.

[dracobin]

Oh, yes, it is very nice to be out of the wind, and the houses look very nearly like the ones in China. But where did you live before, if not in a house?

[michaeljangelo]

The sewers mostly, though in the last few months we've been living with a friend of ours who has a whole apartment building.

[dracobin]

[Frown.] In London the sewers are very dirty and do not smell nice at all. You did not live there by choice, did you?

[michaeljangelo]

Heh, they're pretty much the same in New York, too.

[Mike can't help but speak of the sewers and storm drains with more fondness than a person oughta.]

Well, yes, but only in the way where it was the only real option open to us.

[dracobin]

Oh, you are an American! I have never been to America, although it cannot be very nice, if they make you live in sewers.

[michaeljangelo]

Are you kidding? The City is great! It's just that, well, the people that live in it don't really know that me and my family are down there. We're kind of hideous freaks of nature.

[This is followed up with a rather bright smile.]

[dracobin]

You do not look like a hideous freak of nature to me; only a little curious, but that is because I have never seen a talking turtle before. Is the city truly so great, if it does not accept that you exist?

[michaeljangelo]

It's not quite that easy though, I mean...people are just jumpy by design. They don't really like what they don't understand. You can't really hold that against them.

[dracobin]

No, you are correct; it is the same reason why British dragons have no rights at present. But people may be brought to understand, given time; I am confident of that, at least.

[michaeljangelo]

You guys don't have any rights? I mean...my family doesn't either, but that's mostly because no one knows we're down there. You guys, well...I'd imagine you're a little hard to miss.

[dracobin]

[Aaaaand that's his cue. Temeraire's voice grows gradually more heated as he speaks, and his tail begins lashing back and forth in a corner of the screen.]

We are only given space, in coverts, without even shelter from rain or wind, and the government provides cows for us to eat, but that is all; and in return we are expected to fight for Britain and nothing else. And if we decide we should not like to fight, then we are sent to breeding-grounds and kept there for the rest of our lives. We cannot even go into cities, and try to make a living, because they say we will frighten the people in them. I did not mind it when I was very young, but that is because I did not know any better. Now I understand how it is.

[michaeljangelo]

[Mike might just lean a bit back from the screen.]

What kind of work would you be doing if they'd let you?

[dracobin]

[Oh no, he has startled the turtle! Temeraire looks a little abashed, settling back and letting out a deep rumble of a breath.]

I expect I would still be fighting, because we are at war, and it would be cowardly of me to leave my friends undefended. But it does not seem very fair to me that a human soldier would be paid for doing his duty, and not a dragon.

[He pauses, then blinks at the screen.] But it is worse for you, is it not, if you cannot even go out in the open? What do you do for a living?