(Untitled)

[well_yeah_but]

When Tony had arrived on the island, he'd carried several items with him through the veil. Aside from the clothes on his back, there had been a lighter, a wallet filled almost entirely with things rendered utterly useless, and a black cellular phone just shy of a full charge. On this phone was housed the following: 7 images of Tony's ex-girlfriend

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[madeofstories]

"Have you figured out how to get a signal?" Grace asks when she finds Tony there looking at his mobile. She'd given up on her own weeks before, and by now it's no use to her at all; the battery's gone dead and it's nothing but a small dead weight at the bottom of her handbag. It's a shame, really, there was so much lovely music on it that she can no longer listen to.

Perhaps it's a bit silly to hope that Tony has figured out how to call people, but Grace has never found anything wrong with holding onto a bit of hope.

[well_yeah_but]

"Just to Venus," is Tony's easy reply. He glances up, offering Grace a smile as he closes the mobile with a click, and then motions for her to join him at the table. "Unfortunately, there's a bit of a language barrier there."

[madeofstories]

"Perhaps you could try picture messaging them instead," Grace replies with a smile, and joins him there, taking a seat in a chair on the other side of the table as she smooths her skirt down with her palms.

"A picture's worth one thousand of them, after all."

[well_yeah_but]

"This is true," Tony agrees, and flips open the phone again. After pushing a few buttons, he lifts it up between them and snaps a photo of Grace.

"There," he says, and turns the mobile so she can see the image, "now they'll definitely want to get in contact."

[1struleiscardio]

It's kind of stupid but...I was at the bakery hoping to get something for Sarah. Yes, I know. I know. But she's good to me and, maybe, ocne I let myself get used to having a family, it's been harder and harder to live without. Maybe.

I'm not saying that's what happened.

Anyway, it's wrapped up and ready to bring home and I pause on the porch for a minute.

"Hey," I say and, as always, I'm kind of amazed by how ridiculous I sound.
Swell, Columbus.

Well done.

[well_yeah_but]

Tony glances behind him and back to the bloke, not immediately realising that he's the one being addressed. "Hey?" he offers in reply, curious and mildly amused at how uncomfortable the other guy looks.

"Nice weather we're having," he prompts.

[1struleiscardio]

It's the kind of thing normal people talk about but, to be honest, I've never seen the point. Why talk about the weater? I mean, it's right there, isn't it?

"Uh, yes," I say, nodding. "Yeah. It's nice...today. It's nice."

[well_yeah_but]

"Care to join me?" Tony asks with a motion to the seat opposite him. He wouldn't have picked this bloke out of a crowd as the ideal companion, but that's the brilliant thing about the universe, isn't it? You never quite know how things will shake out.

[the_beta]

Cell phones, though he's seen several since his arrival, strike Remus as odd as it might strike most of the population to see him carrying about a wand. As far as he understands, they're both equally useless, but he imagines there's some comfort in the act of flipping them open just to see.

Perhaps they aren't as useless as a wand: the young man looks a bit content for someone going through the motions. Maybe that's what draws Remus in, on his way out with a scone and the taste of rising or flaking dough hanging around the place. He's at the table before he quite decided to say anything, and finds himself at a loss. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt," he says, all the while asking himself--why interrupt then, why not walk away? "Only I've never quite sated my curiosity about those little phones: I thought they didn't work here?"

Merlin, it's actually worse than inquiring after a stranger's dog--it might actually have been better to ask if the young man had a dog, and try to turn the conversation onto that.

[well_yeah_but]

There's something vaguely familiar about this fellow that Tony can't immediately place. Combined with the strangeness of the question, it piques his curiosity enough that he actually indulges what is, ultimately, an incredibly sub-par chat up line.

"They don't work to ring anyone, but some of them store music or photos," he replies, and holds the mobile up to display an image of Sid looking like a drunken twat. "Are you from a place without them, then?"

[the_beta]

The picture reminds him enough of his friends and classmates that Remus gives a derisive snort, the aloofness he used to respond to such displays with worn down over time. Much longer in this place, someone will be taking that picture of him, perhaps on one of these little phones.

Muggles really are incredibly clever: it would be nice to feel as if he were ever catching up, now that he is one. "We might have them later," he says, "well, not wizards I imagine, but it was only eighty-one when I left." By the twenty-first century, they might all be driving cars and training to be astronauts.

[well_yeah_but]

"You were a wizard?" It's surreal, sometimes, when Tony hears himself say things like that, as if it's someone else using his voice. Needless to say, that isn't the sort of question he'd anticipate ever posing back in Bristol unless it were in relation to a costume party.

[dancin_maxxie]

Not one for quiet entrances, Maxxie got himself a two step jogging start before leaping up onto the porch. He grabbed hold of the railing and leaned heavily over it, trying to confirm what Tony had in his hand.

Maxxie missed his family and the College Green Crew like mad, but he had been prepared to miss them before coming here. From London, they would all be just a phone call away. From the island, they were all unreachable, which was extremely different but required the same solution. Ignore it and move on. There was too much going on around them here to think about home all the time.

So he observed the mobile with a brief, narrow-eyed look and then took to teasing. "Going through dirty text messages from Michelle? In public, Tony?" Maxxie tsked and shook his head.

[well_yeah_but]

"Don't worry, I deleted all the ones from your mum," says Tony as he offers Maxxie a blithe smile. The mobile is closed with a sharp click and casually slipped into his back pocket.

"It may have escaped your notice, but there are stairs, right over there," he adds, motioning to the wide steps leading up to the bakery's porch.

[dancin_maxxie]

"So sweet of you," Maxxie shot back blithely in response.

He gave the mentioned stares a quick glance and a dismissive shrug before he swung his legs over the railing, much like a gymnast on pommel horse, and perched himself there. "Why bother? They're so pedestrian," he scoffed. "And this is faster."

[well_yeah_but]

"You just like to show off," says Tony as he settles back against his chair and levels Maxxie with a knowing gaze. "But it really is very flattering that you'd want me to think you just want to get to me as quickly as possible. Or is it both?" He tilts his head, arching his eyebrows.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline looked at the boy curiously, biting her lip as she turned her head to concentrate on the paper for a second. Smudging the charcoal with her fingers, Coraline tried to get his eyelashes perfect. He was quite handsome but also quite pretty at the same time and that was quite hard to get right in a traditional medium. Especially when he had eyelashes like that and when she couldn't figure out what was in his hand.

"What's that?" Coraline asked curiously, brushing her hair back with the back of her hand. "That thing?"

[well_yeah_but]

It seems like such an odd question, even when one figures in different times and cultures; surely Tony isn't the only person to have arrived with his phone in hand. Still, he offers a perfectly amiable smile as he looks up to the girl and takes in the paper and charcoal spread across her table.

"It's a mobile telephone," he answers, and holds it briefly up to his ear in demonstration.

[curiously_cora]

"My mum had one of those but it was a lot bigger, it was like a brick. Well, not a brick but quite big." Coraline said, looking at it curiously before drawing it roughly in his hands in the picture. Mobile phones were a lot easier to draw than long, pretty, boy eyelashes. Coraline had seen mobiles before but they were much bigger when she was from and a lot different. "I thought telephones didn't work here like everything else fun. What were you doing?"

[well_yeah_but]

"Doesn't hurt to check every once in awhile, does it?" Tony asks her as he snaps the mobile shut and tucks it into the right front pocket of his khakis. "What if we actually got a signal and never knew it because no one ever bothered to check?" It's a ludicrous practice, but it sounds innocent enough when he says it.

"What are you doing?" he asks, motioning to the paper.