themainframe | 1st Lullaby [Text >> Audio >> Video]

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[Hello, Terminal Tokyo. It seems someone has opted for the 'start pushing buttons and see what happens' method of getting to know their D-Terminal, with the initial result being a nonsensical text message. A moment later, though, the audio cuts in, with a little girl's voice coming over the airwaves.]

-nk I got it to do something! Did that message just get sent? [slight pause] Oh wait, it's sending now! I think...? Wasn't there supposed to be pictures too?

[There's the faint sound of a few more buttons being pressed before a second voice pipes up, also sounding young and female, its tone fondly amused.]

Here, let me.

[A moment later, the video turns on, showing Terminal Tokyo a close up of the smiling face of a Salamon, who seems to be the owner of the second voice.]

There we go.

[The Salamon moves out of the way and the owner of the first voice can finally be seen, a little girl with big orange eyes and a face that's two-tone tan, as well as oddly soft-looking. The girl's face is framed by what looks like equally two-toned hair, mostly red with a broad purple stripe, that's pulled back into a short pony tail atop her head. Those looking closely might notice a few oddities, like the fact that her eyes have slit pupils, rather than round, and that a set of tiny fangs can be glimpsed in her mouth when she speaks.]

Thanks! So... um... hi, everyone. [waves to the camera with a bit of an uncertain smile] First of all, I'm Wily-Kit, and this's my partner, Emerick.

[She briefly turns the camera back on the Salamon, who waves a fore-paw, before turning it back on herself.]

Second... um... does anybody know where I can get a winter cloak, or something? I'm not really dressed for the weather around here...

[Skilled observers of backgrounds will notice that she's still in the main terminal building, apparently having opted to stay there for the moment rather than trying to find her way to her apartment in the cold, so anyone who wants to find her can do so there.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Uh-huh. My whole family has tails. Not all cats do, though. None of my friends back home do.

[Better ask first before you try that, Duo. No cat likes having their tail pulled, after all.]

I thought all cats had tails, though.

[Okay, so he'll ask first, but still...TAIL!]

Not where I'm from. Some of us do and some don't. I asked Mamma about it once, and she said that because we had tails, there were certain places we weren't allowed to live and places we weren't supposed to go. [Kit shrugs and starts walking again.] It sounded dumb to me, but she said I'd understand it when I was older.

[Because discussion of socio-political caste systems tends to go right over the heads of then kindergarten-age children.]

Well, that's just a whole lotta stupid. Shouldn't matter if ya got a tail or not.

[Unfortunately, Duo understood politics more than he probably should. It all came from the oppression of colonies from the United Earth Sphere Alliance. He thought it was stupid then, and he thinks it's stupid now.]

It kinda doesn't now. After Mumm-Ra and the lizards destroyed Thundara, there wasn't much point to keeping those kinds of rules around.

Least, Lion-O and the others don't seem to care. And Lion-O's our king, so I guess if he doesn't care, then it really doesn't matter any more.

[None of those names mean anything, but the destroyed part...Duo understands that all too well...]

...Your home was destroyed, too?

[Kit nods solemnly.]

Yeah. Wasn't too much left of it after that. Kat and I were almost worried we were the only cats left, til Lion-O, Tygra, and Cheetara came along.

Later we found out that a bunch of them had been captured and sold as slaves. And there's probly some others that just kinda got scattered too, but we haven't run into any of them yet.

[Implied but not said is the fact that a lot of people still died that night. But that's a really depressing thing to think about, and she'd rather not focus on it.]

[Duo stares at the screen a moment before his face ducks out of view. All that can be seen is the top of his head.]

We don't have slaves...

[Which only leaves one thing that could have happened...]

Hey...

[Kit briefly reaches a hand toward the screen, as if trying to reach through it and comfort Duo.]

It's OK. Just cause you haven't found them yet, doesn't mean they're not out there. They could've escaped and just gotten lost, or hidden.

[Kit has no idea who 'they' are but it was obvious the boy had lost someone close to him when his home was attacked.]

[Duo shakes his head slowly, still not looking at the screen. He doesn't say anything. there are no words. And he doesn't want to tell her. There were no survivors, and he's not going to get his hopes up... ]

They could've.

[The words were softer than before, in deference to Duo's distress.]

Lion-O's dog friend Jorma escaped when Thundara was destroyed, and we ran into him later. And if he escaped, there might be others too. Same thing might've happened with your friends.

...Just cause you haven't found them yet, doesn't mean you won't ever.

Alliance wiped 'em out. It's hard to outrun a gun and mobile suits.

[His voice is low, shaking ever so slightly.]

'Sides... the only two people who matter died.

[Kit frowns thoughtfully. The lizards had had plenty of guns, among many other weapons, but she can tell that pointing that out to Duo isn't going to make him feel any better.]

...'m sorry. Didn't mean to bring up bad memories and stuff.

[Instead, she tries for a distraction.]

...What's a 'mobile suit', though? I really don't think it's what it sounds like to me, cause if it was, it wouldn't be that dangerous.

[In fact, Kit's mental image of a 'mobile suit' is downright silly, but now's not really the time to be laughing about it.]

[...It’s not much of a distraction, considering that the Alliance used them, but Kit is trying to keep his mind off things, so he’s going to go with it. He offers a shrug before he starts talking.]

They’re these giant robots, as big as that statue we got here. And people get inside and pilot them and make them move and do things. The Alliance uses them to keep people in line. A lot of them get used to fight with.

Oh, like the lizards' war mechs, then. Yeah, that's definitely way more dangerous than clothes that can move around by themselves.

[Because clothes that could move on their own would be 'mobile suits', geddit?]

...

[Blink...

Blink...

Okay and this is Duo laughing. Clothes that move on their own?! HILARIOUS! He actually does fall out of view because he's laughing so hard.]

[And that get Kit laughing too, because it is hilarious, even if she'd honestly had no idea what else 'mobile suits' could be. Plus she's glad that Duo's not sad any more; laughing is way better than being sad.]

[Duo continues to laugh off screen, but apparently he's moved...because the D-Terminal ends up getting knocked off the bed and onto the floor. The feed cuts off at the crash.]

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