[Coda hesitates before answering, reaching into the fridge without looking to pull out a can of Monster that definitely hadn't been there when Yakko had looked a moment ago. They sip at it before speaking.]
Turns out they can't create anything brand new, just ape aesthetics from human art. For every world based on Avalon or Camelot or the Forest of Arden, there's a Fae doing gothic romance or Dali paintings; shit, Destino feels like a trippy Durance in itself.
My Keeper styled himself as a mad scientist in clean white laboratories connected by hallways that felt like the little tubes that connect parts of a hamster habitat. I was literally plugged into his mainframe, to design new labs, and prisons and mazes for the rats to run through. I was practically an AI, all that time. More protocol than person.
[Which is, in its way, an explanation of why they're so bad at eating and sleeping and...well, being a person. They're used to not having a body at all, and were like that for who-knows-how-long subjectively.]
i'll never have good h/c icons on this acct so you'll just have to suffer
[The nod to Destino makes his heart melt. Ah, Dali. Now there was a guy who knew a good rhinoceros when he saw one.
The rest, though. To say it's unexpected is an understatement. Yakko had begun slathering the sandwich together. Bit of this, bit of that, oh, they won't be expecting that, and what's this about a mainframe?]
Waitwaitwaitwait. [Yakko wags his hands in the air. Halt. Arrêt.] You were human going in, right? They made you into an AI to do all this instead of, I don't know, making their own computers?!!
[It's all rather convoluted if you ask him. Also, spiteful. Also, indescribably evil??? Yakko makes a mortified face and gags, audibly.]
So what?! Teenagers are just babies with zits and twice the words to whine with. It'd be gross even if you were eighty-two! Disgusting.
[All right, he saves it for special occasions only, but that does it. Coda is getting extra rainbow sprinkles on their Rueben. They've clearly earned it. Yakko pulls a shaker from his pocket and gives a liberal dose to the concoction, but in a mad way. A shake of fury. None of this sweetsy salt bae stuff.]
Like I said, the True Fae can't create for themselves. Only shape what already exists. So they take and they shape humans.
[Coda pauses thoughtfully, and gives Yakko a sidelong look.]
I wonder if there's any fae realms based on cartoons, with animated violence and chase scenes, anvils and pianos dropping from great heights. Wouldn't that be horrifying?
[Yakko looks up from the bedazzled sandwich with his mouth popped into a perfect "o", round as a dime. The implication had been made earlier, but he'd totally missed it. Oof.
He doesn't quite know what to do with the information. He's got limitless knowledge but narrow experience, and no one outside his family would ever look to him for a sturdy shoulder. Why would they? He's a certified maniac. And he can't go give the culprits their just desserts either. They're out there, he's in here, sitting stupid with nothing better to do than beg people to pay attention to him.
He looks back at the sandwich, suddenly ill at ease. But not showing it! No sir! He starts slicing tomatoes before remembering that he's supposed to be making a Rueben. Then also remembers that he'd slapped on pastrami and there was no corned beef in sight. Okay. Going for an original flavor.]
You weren't still there before all this, were you? [Tell him you kicked their keisters and gave them the bird on the way out. Please.
In the meantime, Coda's throwing him a pretty generous bone.]
What are you talking about? Sounds like dream vacation to me. The worst would be if they made stuff from this nightmare town. [Ignoring the tomato juice surely staining his gloves, he pries the lids of one eye wide and stares soullessly at his host.] Trying to read the paper is scorching my eyeballs.
Oh, excuse me. [He pinches out the smoking spot with a thumb and a forefinger and not so much as a flinch.]
Good! I hope you blew it all up before you left. [Some pickles now, maybe. Swiss cheese, and monterey jack. Daikon? Yes, more daikon. Is there any sauerkraut? He dips back into the fridge, tail flicking back and forth. It seems the news of Coda's escape has put the wind back in his sails.]
I was betting on some kind of Jumanji deal. Wanna put money on it?
[There's a jar of raspberry jam temptingly sitting in the door of the fridge.]
I couldn't blow it all up, but...I managed to stick my Keeper in one of the labs where he wouldn't be able to get out, long enough to escape and help others escape. Does that count for anything?
As for the bet, if we both end up escaping and ending up on our own worlds, how will the loser be able to pay up, if we bet?
Yakko snags that jam and starts scooping a generous dollop on the open half of the rye. He'll have to remember this recipe for when he gets home.]
'Course it does! You helped the other guys get out, that's the important thing! Revenge is nice and all but if you can't get it done, at least save a couple butts. And you did! Including yours! [He takes a break from sandwich artistry to give a playful punch to Coda's arm. Not hard or anything. Just gamely.] Maybe someone else is gonna come give them what's coming to them. It doesn't have to be you!
[Also he doesn't fancy's Coda's odds in a throw down. No offense.
The other follow up gives him pause. Yakko thinks for a moment, looking to the ceiling for help. He finds none.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Turns out they can't create anything brand new, just ape aesthetics from human art. For every world based on Avalon or Camelot or the Forest of Arden, there's a Fae doing gothic romance or Dali paintings; shit, Destino feels like a trippy Durance in itself.
My Keeper styled himself as a mad scientist in clean white laboratories connected by hallways that felt like the little tubes that connect parts of a hamster habitat. I was literally plugged into his mainframe, to design new labs, and prisons and mazes for the rats to run through. I was practically an AI, all that time. More protocol than person.
[Which is, in its way, an explanation of why they're so bad at eating and sleeping and...well, being a person. They're used to not having a body at all, and were like that for who-knows-how-long subjectively.]
i'll never have good h/c icons on this acct so you'll just have to suffer
The rest, though. To say it's unexpected is an understatement. Yakko had begun slathering the sandwich together. Bit of this, bit of that, oh, they won't be expecting that, and what's this about a mainframe?]
Waitwaitwaitwait. [Yakko wags his hands in the air. Halt. Arrêt.] You were human going in, right? They made you into an AI to do all this instead of, I don't know, making their own computers?!!
[It's all rather convoluted if you ask him. Also, spiteful. Also, indescribably evil??? Yakko makes a mortified face and gags, audibly.]
Who kidnaps a baby to make them into a robot?!
I will always suffer your company, my heart.
[Does that make it any better? Even under the metallic, tinny, broken quality of their voice, the words are sort of hollow.
Perhaps this says something about how protective they are of the teenagers stuck in Svelte. The ones taken around the same age they were.]
I'm so blessed Ty...wipes tears from eyes
[All right, he saves it for special occasions only, but that does it. Coda is getting extra rainbow sprinkles on their Rueben. They've clearly earned it. Yakko pulls a shaker from his pocket and gives a liberal dose to the concoction, but in a mad way. A shake of fury. None of this sweetsy salt bae stuff.]
That still doesn't explain why.
no subject
[Coda pauses thoughtfully, and gives Yakko a sidelong look.]
I wonder if there's any fae realms based on cartoons, with animated violence and chase scenes, anvils and pianos dropping from great heights. Wouldn't that be horrifying?
no subject
He doesn't quite know what to do with the information. He's got limitless knowledge but narrow experience, and no one outside his family would ever look to him for a sturdy shoulder. Why would they? He's a certified maniac. And he can't go give the culprits their just desserts either. They're out there, he's in here, sitting stupid with nothing better to do than beg people to pay attention to him.
He looks back at the sandwich, suddenly ill at ease. But not showing it! No sir! He starts slicing tomatoes before remembering that he's supposed to be making a Rueben. Then also remembers that he'd slapped on pastrami and there was no corned beef in sight. Okay. Going for an original flavor.]
You weren't still there before all this, were you? [Tell him you kicked their keisters and gave them the bird on the way out. Please.
In the meantime, Coda's throwing him a pretty generous bone.]
What are you talking about? Sounds like dream vacation to me. The worst would be if they made stuff from this nightmare town. [Ignoring the tomato juice surely staining his gloves, he pries the lids of one eye wide and stares soullessly at his host.] Trying to read the paper is scorching my eyeballs.
[Ssss...
A wee tendril of smoke wafts off his cornea.]
no subject
[It's either that or splash it out with water, and they don't feel like moving that much.]
Anyway, yeah, no, I escaped four years objectively before arriving here. October, 2016.
Also, I'm only about 90% sure this isn't some sort of fae realm, honestly.
no subject
Good! I hope you blew it all up before you left. [Some pickles now, maybe. Swiss cheese, and monterey jack. Daikon? Yes, more daikon. Is there any sauerkraut? He dips back into the fridge, tail flicking back and forth. It seems the news of Coda's escape has put the wind back in his sails.]
I was betting on some kind of Jumanji deal. Wanna put money on it?
no subject
I couldn't blow it all up, but...I managed to stick my Keeper in one of the labs where he wouldn't be able to get out, long enough to escape and help others escape. Does that count for anything?
As for the bet, if we both end up escaping and ending up on our own worlds, how will the loser be able to pay up, if we bet?
no subject
Yakko snags that jam and starts scooping a generous dollop on the open half of the rye. He'll have to remember this recipe for when he gets home.]
'Course it does! You helped the other guys get out, that's the important thing! Revenge is nice and all but if you can't get it done, at least save a couple butts. And you did! Including yours! [He takes a break from sandwich artistry to give a playful punch to Coda's arm. Not hard or anything. Just gamely.] Maybe someone else is gonna come give them what's coming to them. It doesn't have to be you!
[Also he doesn't fancy's Coda's odds in a throw down. No offense.
The other follow up gives him pause. Yakko thinks for a moment, looking to the ceiling for help. He finds none.]
E-transfer?