second draft || [written]

[poorneedyand]

All right, I've got to know: Are there any publishing outfits here? In a town this size, the chances seem slim, but for all I know, there's a paper no one's mentioned to me. I've got a story or two started, and if I could see them in print, I wouldn't mind dropping my asking price to zero cents a word. It won't hurt them to sit in handwritten

Comments

[Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

[A sad and distant tone. He might just be talking to himself.]

... Manhattan?

[Voice]

[poorneedyand]

Do you call it home, too?

[Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

[He jumps a little when someone answers. He really was lost, for a minute there.]

I... used to.

[Voice]

[poorneedyand]

Yeah? Whereabouts?

[Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

... Below 11th.

[He means this rather literally.]

[Voice]

[poorneedyand]

[While Kay takes it figuratively, as she is wont. She sounds amused, more than anything.] Oh, you're from the Village? Some kind of bohemian?

[Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

More like Hell's Kitchen. [A pause.] A mutant. [A longer pause.] But not a hillbilly.

[Voice]

[poorneedyand]

More of a fighter than a lover, eh? [She laughs.] At this point, I think I'd rather meet a mutant than a hillbilly. Kay Eaton.

[Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

[Both, actually.]

[He flips on the Video function.] Donatello Hamato.

[Voice]

[poorneedyand]

[Oh hey there, Donatello, you're actually the first noticeably non-human person Kay's met. If her eyes widen a moment, if her eyebrows raise, it's because she's never met a talking...turtle? before.]

[In a low voice--] You weren't kidding. [And then, with a genuine smile, if perhaps a slightly belated one--] Nice to meet you, Donatello. I don't think I've come across anyone else from the city yet.

[Voice/Video] of course i changed this for the last tag, what are you talking about

[i_speak_softly]

[It's - almost a surprising reaction. So many people here don't even seem to notice he isn't human.]

[He shrugs it off.]

There's at least seven of us now. Eight if you count Long Island.

[Voice/Video] clearly you did i saw it myself

[poorneedyand]

[Kay is, for better or worse, used to stories of alligators living in sewers. Not so much overgrown turtles. She's also a little relieved that she hasn't apparently caused offense; however caught off-guard she was, she's fairly sure she learned thirty-odd years ago not to stare.]

Whether we're counting Long Island depends on who's from it. [She grins.] Seven or eight's not too bad a number.

[Voice/Video]

[i_speak_softly]

[Yes, there are alligators too. Just not here.]

Another mutant.

[What do you think of that?]

[Voice/Video]

[poorneedyand]

[You can catch her off-guard once, Donatello; now that she's met one mutant, mentions of another aren't enough to faze her. Kay hmms, considering--not particularly seriously.]

If he's a good guy, I'm sure we can forgive his place of address.

[Voice/Video]

[i_speak_softly]

[Fast learner.]

He's not really from there, anyway. What about you? I'm guessing uptown.

[Voice/Video]

[poorneedyand]

Well, Long Islanders of necessity are a different breed than the ones born and bred. We'll have to have a gathering sometime, everyone from around town. And that's not a bad guess. I work up around 49th and Broadway, live a few subway stops away.