caughtinanetwork | 22nd Combo

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22nd Combo - [Video]

[The video feed comes on, showing a bleary, teenage face caught in the middle of a yawn. Face already half-buried in a pillow, the most immediately distinguishing feature to be seen is a serious case of bedhead, brown hair sticking wildly every which way. It's almost a whole minute before Lloyd seems to become aware enough to realize the SFC is on. Even then he just stares at it sleepily.

Until something on the screen registers. Eyes widening, he jerks a hand up to reach for the SFC.]

Wait, when did it become Monday?

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I needed a four wheel device to get around, for a long time. But now I have these swell robot legs, that make me so I can walk and run and jump, and have confidence.

-=alive is usually better than dead yes=-

Maybe if you were inside, and went up some stairs? Sometimes roofs have stairs, I think.

Robot... legs...?

[Sorry, give Lloyd a moment here. He's from a particularly backwater part of a technologically stunted world. That's not to say he hasn't had his fair share of encounters with technology, but he doesn't have the best handle on what words like "robot" mean.]

So they're... legs that pick you up and carry you around? There's actually things like that? [A pause as he tries to envision that. Would it be like having two raybits under his legs?] That sounds pretty neat!

[At least, it looks pretty cool in his head.]

Good point. I guess maybe it really was a good thing my friends moved me.

[Assuming that that's what happened.]

Edited 2012-11-26 16:12 (UTC)

Yes! That is exactly how they work!

-=since that's exactly how legs work! He swings his sfc around and points it at his legs, showing off his metal feet, new and improved with toes and little fairy wings on the ankles. he even wiggles his toes a bit, the metal making little clicking sounds=-

See? They are the best legs, anyone ever made.

-=and lets just pretend that his friends moved him around, it's better than the alternative. tavros is the best at believing in things to make them seem more true=-

[That is not at all what he was imagining, as the startled, half-alarmed look on Lloyd's face probably shows.]

Wait, you mean your legs actually machines? What happened to your real ones?!

[BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU WERE IN A WHEEL CHAIR, NOT THAT YOU LOST YOUR ACTUAL PARTS OF YOUR BODY.]

Edited 2012-11-28 23:24 (UTC)

My friend cut them off with a chainsaw, while I was sleeping.

-=because that is totally a normal thing to happen=-

[Alkasjdalfsj.

WHY DO YOU LOOK SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT

WHY WAS THAT A THING THAT COULD EVEN BE SAID

Lloyd has no idea what a chainsaw is, besides the fact that it's a saw, but

CUTTING LEGS OFF. WHY. THIS IS NOT OKAY.]

Your friend did what?! What kind of friend would do that?!

[He's both horrified and outraged.]

-=he is not comprehending your outrage sir. trolls sure are weird=-

She cut off my useless legs as a surprise, so then I could get robot ones to make me able to walk, and have lots of strong confidences!

But that could have killed you! Even if your legs didn't work anymore, they were still part of you, part of your muscles and bones and everything. You could have gone into shock and bled to death!

But Equius was right there, to put a new lower half on right away!

-=he doesn't see why this is a problem! walking is a totally swell thing to have!=-

Equius?

[Wait, he knows an Equius. An Equius who's a troll. This guy's obviously a troll, too. It's probably the same Equius he knows.]

Equius did this to you?!

-=he really doesn't understand the problem=-

He, uh... He is the one who built my legs, and put me back together, so now walking is a thing I can do again! Having usefulness is the key to being happy.

Did he cut off your legs, too?

[Please say no. Please. He wants to believe the best of his friend.]

What makes you think you wouldn't be useful if you couldn't walk?

No. That was Kanaya, who has a chainsaw.

-=equius is magic with doctoring and engineering! tav has the upmost respect for him now=-

... Because, I did not have much usefullness to offer my friends, when I could not walk.

[Another troll he knows. Another troll he can't see doing something like that.]

But Kanaya's nice! At least she seemed really nice when we talked!

[He shakes his head.]

If you're friends couldn't see how you could be useful without using your legs, then maybe they need glasses. You can still talk and think. You can still use your hands. You can do lots of things!

Kanaya is, very much a nice person. She gave me advice, to help with the levels of my self esteem, when they were much lower than they are now. In which case I mean, that those levels are now very high!

-=she helped him get robot legs, that was nice!=-

It does not matter now! I have legs, that walk and jump and run, and carry me so I may do many great deeds.

Nice people don't saw off their friends' legs.

[He draws in a breath and lets it out in one confused, frustrated puff. He doesn't get why Tavros is so happy about this.]

Look, I'm glad you can walk again, but wasn't there any other way without hurting you even more? Didn't your friends even look?

But she was doing it, to help me. And, I uh... I never would have gotten, anything like robot legs back home, because I am a lowblood. So having them at all, is an amazing thing to happen!

-=well technically she didn't have to saw off everything from the waist down, but he doesn't want to look a gift hoofbeast in the mouth=-

Not really, I don't think. And there was no time, for anything else to be looked at.

...a lowblood? What does that mean?

[He has a suspicious feeling, and his indignation is already stirring, but maybe he's wrong. He can hope for that, right?]

What was happening that there wasn't even time to look?

Uh... my blood is brown and I was a cripple. So that meant, that my importance was very small, and negligible. But that's okay! I am here now, where it does not matter anymore. I even have a matesprite, who is in fact an olive blood!

-=if you believe in something hard enough it makes it just a little bit less false?=-

And uhh... there was a demon, winged, woofbeast guy, who was trying to make it so we were all dead.

[His blood is brown?

The fact is odd, something he's never encountered before, and normally it would be something that Lloyd's attention would immediately fix itself on. With the rest of what Tavros just said, though, it's swept away, buried under a flush disbelief and outrage.]

What does your blood have to do with how important you are?! Blood doesn't change who you are! Neither do your legs! It's what's on the inside that counts!

[And he's still not happy at all about someone cutting off this guy's legs.]

There still should have been another way. They could have waited until there was time.

That is just how, things were done back home. Blood meant, uh... lots of things, including importance. So were things like, not being a cripple.

-=he shakes his head=-

I would have probably, been killed in a more horrible way.

[Lloyd's temper only boils even more, his hands clenching into angry fists.]

Just because that's how it was done in your world doesn't mean that it's not wrong! I don't care what color your blood is, or whether or not you can walk. You're just as important as anyone else!

[He snaps, temper spilling over into their other conversation.]

"Probably" isn't "definitely!" If there was a chance, they still should have tried!

I didn't say that, it was a thing I liked to be happening! It just was, but it's gone now. Mostly.

-=he's very clearly getting upset and grumpy=-

You... weren't there!

[The news that it's mostly gone mollifies Lloyd somewhat, his temper settling back down to just ruffled.]

Good. I'm glad it's gone.

[Though that "mostly" still bothers him.]

If it ever comes up again, just don't believe anyone who tries to tell you you're not worth as much as them, no matter what kind of reason they give.

Does it matter if I wasn't there? It doesn't change what they did.

You are glad, that my planet is gone?

-=granted it was a really shitty and horrible place when you're a lowblood, and he doesn't miss it all that much personally, but there were nice people there too=-

You keep acting, like saving my life and, uh... making me so I can walk was bad, when in fact it is actually, the kindest and best thing to have ever happened.

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