khuioduan | [video]

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So, about that trip home... Do giant magic turtles offer refunds? I think this counts as false advertising.

Hey, everybody. Tony Stark. Again. [Tony smiles wryly and waves at the camera.] Supergenius, inventor, dude with the flying power armor. If you need to upgrade your phone so it plays nice with the local magitech or rescue a kitten out of a tree, I'm your guy. Hit me up.

[Locked to Klaus, Danny, Bucky, Brigid, Valdis, Sheena, Jackie and Bakura]

I'm really glad you guys are here. And it absolutely sucks that we're stuck here again. How long did everyone go home for? I was only back for two and a half weeks.

Though I guess some of us really did go home for good. Has anyone seen Raine or Aya around? I didn't see them on the housing list.

[He knows that probably means they went home for real. He should be happy for them, but it hurts to lose them. ]

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For more than three years. In Keeliai. A bunch of us were. Tu Vishan was the turtle carrying Keeliai, and he was supposed to send us home. It didn't stick for all of us.

You were promised a trip home and then brought to another place... How unfortunate.

Perhaps they didn't mean to deceive you. (It's an idle suggestion as she shrugs.) Perhaps something prevented them from keeping their word.

I take it that it's not easy to speak with these turtles?

No, I don't think he did. He's on our side – whatever that means for a zillion-year-old continent-sized telepathic reptile. [It's a little hard to relate.] I think it's just really difficult magic, and something went wrong.

He was able to speak to us in Keeliai by projecting an avatar, and we were able to talk to the hatchlings when they were babies, but, yeah, there's definitely a communication barrier.

Hatchlings... then should we not seek out these young ones here?

(If that's the only way to communicate other than just waiting around for an avatar of sorts, then they should stride towards that.)

There are so many animals here though. (Finding the right one might be an impossible task for the inexperienced which she mostly certainly is.)

[Tony chuckles.] You won't have to look hard. They're right here. We're standing on them.

Konryu is a waterworld. The 'land' is just giant turtles - or what's left of them. Tu Vishan was the last living adult. Him and the hatchlings are all that's left of the species. When he went between the planes to fix them, all the hatchlings came back to make Khu Ioduan.

We used to be able to talk to them, psychically, but... I don't know. It was never easy to communicate with Tu Vishan. It must get harder to talk to them as they age.

[There's a hint of something like sadness in his voice when he says that. Their departure from Keeliai had kept them safe, but sometimes Tony does still miss the hatchlings. He misses Kalliel's cheerful, childish exuberance, wrapped up in an awkward reptilian body the size of a bus. And Gene had been bonded to him – he'd taken it hard when they left.

Kalliel is here, somewhere, holding up some part of this archipelago. But if he's at all aware that one of his Foreigner "parents" has returned, he hasn't reached out. Tony doesn't know how Gene feels about that. Honestly, he's been a little afraid to ask.]

If the hatchlings are the ones we are resting upon then... well, they can no longer be considered children, right?

(This place seems pretty big, but everything is kind of large whenever you're a little girl. It's hard to believe they are being carted around by over-sized turtles, but Sera is young enough to not be restricted by the normal rules of reality. Something of that nature is easy for her to picture.)

Do you miss Tu Vishan? (Likely, but she's trying to determine the source of the shift in his tone.)

[Tony laughs again.] If you think they're big now, wait till you see an adult.

I don't know how long the giant turtles are supposed to live, but I bet it's in the five or six figure range. The hatchlings just hit five hundred. They're barely toddlers.

[Her second question doesn't quite hit the mark, and Tony looks faintly perplexed. He shakes his head.] Tu Vishan? Kind of? Like I said, we weren't really buddies with him. He'd sometimes communicate with us, but we're operating on a pretty different wavelength.

(Oh. Then she misunderstood his tone... probably. At times it was easier to speak with someone over these things as the distance made it comfortable and at other times, it was harder due to the limitations of body language and what it picks up in general. Sera tries to not overthink it, focusing instead on what she's learning about these turtles.)

Everything is big in comparison to me. (Because she's a kid, it's a funny little quip.)

Five hundred years old and barely a toddler... It's remarkable. I wonder how wise they will be by time they are all grown.

Yeah, you are pretty short, [Tony quips back, with a grin.] Being older doesn't always make you wiser, though. I know a lot of old people who are huge jerks.

[Yeah, grown-ups suck! Wait, shit, he is a grown-up now.]

There is that. (She knows a couple herself.)

It's just that we are taught to respect our elders in general so a toddler at the age of five hundred is a bit of a predicament. Do you respect their age or guide them as a toddler should be guided at that age?

(And grown ups do suck! They take a children's card game way too seriously.)

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