DE: Hello, are we connecting?

[bjornwilde]

 A small child has just picked up a toy phone and is now staring at your character expectantly, do they "pick up"? For the sake of argument, let's say this is within Milliways.

Bonus question, if they do "pick up", what do they talk about?

Comments

[annalalaith]

Well Tegid and Tass would have no freaking idea what a telephone is, so they would probably look back at the kid quizzically. Tass would probably pull out a top from his many many pockets and pouches, and then proceed to try and play with the kid a little. He might even try to tech the kid how to pick a lock or even pockets. AND OMG THERE NEEDS TO BE DOOR RIDING! Tegid might try to get the kid to laugh a little.

Daniel might answer the phone and then run with whatever the kid wanted to talk about.

Death would probably smile at the kid, give it a cookie and then disappear.

Vala, might get a little confused, and then realize how to play and well play.

Naruto might think it is lame.

[just_cant_lose]

Gene, Javert, Pearly, Jim - no.

Valjean (assuming it's a quiet day, and that he knows what a phone is) - yes, and they make pretty small talk about the child's toys, or whatever it is they're playing with.

Bruce Wayne (assuming he's not being moody) - yes, and they talk about gadgets. Bruce has some that a child would enjoy seeing, but wouldn't be allowed to play with.

Bruce Banner (assuming he's not absorbed in science, and no one's watching, so he's not too self-conscious) - yes, and he explains whatever experiment he's into at the time. Lasers and stuff! Awesome! Either that, or he's looking abashed at the kid doing an impression of the Hulk, complete with 'ROAR ROAR SMASH' sound effects.

Courfeyrac (assuming nothing: the answer is always yes) - yes, and he would expound happily upon whichever subject the child most wishes to discuss, with a healthy dollop of reminding the kid about FREEDOM in every other sentence. He would likely also give it wine.


ETA: On reflection, Jim might too in certain moods. He might remind the child that life is short, and their parents are certainly going to die sometime soon. Or he might tell them a story about a man who's coming to save their life, if he's clever enough to follow the breadcrumbs. Or he might be perfectly charming, but speak just loud enough for an adult to hear and get spooked. Or he might speak quietly so no one can hear, and the child might not open their mouth for a month as a result.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Let's just revoke Moriarty's toy phone privileges right now, mmmkay?

[never_shall_yield]

LET'S. *shudders*

[annalalaith]

Moriarty being all creeptastic, lol.

Speaking of him, you think he and Death might thread sometime?

[just_cant_lose]

Absolutely! He'll probably be in by the end of the week, just as long as I hit tomorrow's uni deadline.

[annalalaith]

I will do my best to be online, my own classes start tomorrow, and I don't know how much homework I am gonna be doing. I mean you should see how many books just one of my classes has. like 5! I am used to safe Anthropology where we get like 2 books, and ton of articles to read. bleh! I need to finish drinking my coffee before I go on a rant about not sleeping.

[just_cant_lose]

Hey, I'm used to homework woes. No worries! Just tag whenever you see him, or I'll hit up one of Death's EPs.

[annalalaith]

cool. Oh, did you know that Death is playing a game with Hannibal?

[just_cant_lose]

I saw the thread in the library, but that's it. What's occurring?

[annalalaith]

There was a later Death EP with Hannibal telling Death to leave his friends alone, and making vague threats. Death found it kind of funny and took up the challenge. At least his mun seems cool with it, so I am gonna go full steam ahead on it. I mean how could I not?
Want a link?

[just_cant_lose]

Sure, link me!

[annalalaith]

http://milliways-bar.dreamwidth.org/25797090.html

[onceaviking]

Eric: no. Through he might engage in conversation if he thinks he might be able to benefit from it.

Elrond: wouldn't understand the phone concept, but would happily engage in play with a child.

[merryeccentricities]

Bahorel: Are you kidding, of course you pick up the phone. And talk about whatever the kid wants to talk about! Kids have great ideas about Things Secretly Being Dragons and they hear everything and they will repeat it, too. Plus they have no sense of what's appropriate. Kids, for Bahorel's standards, are excellent conversationalists.


Joly: Yes, of course, it would be awful to ignore a child! And they can talk about cats, which is probably fine, or else the kid can find out about many exciting Science Projects They Can Do At Home, which...they can talk about cats!

[never_shall_yield]

Oh man, your boys are adorable. *squishes them*

[merryeccentricities]

...Trying to square Bahorel with "adorable" is hurting my brain. Though perhaps that "Where's the ***** Who Said I Ain't Kawaii" shirt would be appropriate, there.

(also HEE over that comment with that avatar.)

[never_shall_yield]

Inappropriately adorable? I STAND BY MY ASSERTATION, SIR.

(Javert loves Bahorel really*.)


*lie

[merryeccentricities]

Oh gad. Now I want the obligatory tropefic where they have to pretend to be friends for the sake of The Greater Good (whatever that might be that they could both agree on).

[tu_vas_triompher]

...yes.

[just_cant_lose]

OH MY GOD. I literally, just an hour ago, signed up for tropebingo, and I'm sure there's a similar prompt on there. OH NOES. *cackle*

[bjornwilde]

Jess would totally pick up. Despite what some writers might think, she likes kids. They're her weakness, shh. As to what they would talk about, well, unless the kid had something else they wanted to talk about, Jess would likely tell them stories about Princess Sparklefists and her awesome best friend, Sir Spider-Gal. She might throw in Mr. Muscles (Hulk), the sorceress Nat (Black Widow), and Prince Hawkguy (Hawkeye, of course).

Quinlan would pick up as well, even if he didn't quite catch on that the child was holding a communicating device. He is a father after all. He would let the child lead the conversation, adding whatever non sequiturs are required to keep them talking.

Tybalt might answer after too long of a pause. The child better do some talking unless they wish to hear of all the political machinations of the Court of Cats.

Sam answers right away and likely gets the kid talking about their favorite things with little effort.

Andrea gets much the same response when she picks up.

Ethan would take a moment to figure out what the child was about since telephones and such are still very new and rare in his world. He would likely only clue in by mimicking the child. I expect the child would have to carry the conversation.

Bonus head voices:
The Luidaig would definitely pick up, there are just some rituals you do not ignore. If she were required to carry the conversation, they would talk of the wonders of the sea, both the mortal and the fae.

Ahsoka would pick up and feel awkward the whole time.

Asajj would stare at the child, not sure if the youngling was attempting to challenge her or what. She is not familiar with younglings and even less with play.

[schrodingerskatz]

Epimetheus and Beverly would both pick up that phone like a shot. I've Millicanoned that Beverly has at least one little nibling that she loves the bejeezus out of (partly because she doesn't have any plans to have kids of her own), and you can bet that they've had long fake phone conversations. About wizards and witches and cars and schoolwork, and maybe sometimes the scientific underpinnings of Beverly's work. Without any case details, obvs.

Similarly, Epimetheus is like you don't ignore that phone what are you a MONSTER and spends the whole time either talking about animal facts or telling stories about his cousins. He . . . is not always very good at remembering which parts of Greek mythology are appropriate for small children and which are not.

Kim does not know what a phone is; once it's explained to her, she would be very awkward about playing along. Although she might loosen up if the kid could get her started on something she feels confident about, like lock-picking or house-breaking or swearing. &goodinfluence;

Nita would play along, but would tend to get bored of the game before the kid and offer to read a book aloud instead. If she could be convinced to stay on the phone, though, she'd make a lot of jokes based in treating the kid like an adult ("So, how's your 401K looking these days?").

[genarti]

Enjolras has no idea what a phone handset is or why this small child is staring at him. He will... wait until they make it clearer what they want??

Uh, if he knew what a phone handset is I'm still not sure he would see the point of doing the gesture; he would feel very awkward with that kind of silliness. But he would talk back. He's pretty much only good at talking to kids as if they're miniature adults, and he's not good at the kind of surreal-to-adults play lots of young kids like, so how well that worked would depend. Odds are good it would be frustrating for both parties, and the small child would give up on him fast.

(Mind you, this would be hilarious to ME.)

Thor... might have to have the phone thing explained to him. He gets the basic concept, but he doesn't know what a handset looks like in current Earth tech. But once he has that, he's totally on board! He will very seriously listen to whatever the child wants to chat about, and will ask them to explain Earth phone etiquette to him. (Not using those words. Also, yes, he will verify the info with an adult before using it with anyone but small children on toy phones.) And probably end up playing in a sandbox with them.

Cosette is another who has no clue what phones are -- rather less clue than Enjolras, who's heard more nerdy babble from friends about communications technology -- but, unlike him, she has nurturing instincts. Not to mention experience with younger children, at the convent school. So she would ask them to tell them about their life, and tell them about Paris if they wanted, but mostly lead the conversation in order to have adorable child babble occur.

More later, maybe, since I started writing this several hours and two meetings ago...

[misslucyjane]

Bilbo, once he understood what a phone is, would indeed pick up and then tell stories of his adventures. Merlin and Groot would also need to have a phone explained to them first. Both, I think, would pick up and try to have a conversation, though Merlin's may be easier to follow. Jack isn't comfortable with children, so he wouldn't know what to say even if he did pick up. Cecil would have whatever conversation the child wanted to have, about toys or games or dinosaurs or whatever. Sadie does not like children particularly, so she would pick up but would also keep the conversation as brief as possible. And Steve would pick up, entertain the kid, and probably end up drawing a picture or two about the conversation they had.

(The last time a small child handed me a phone [it was actually a computer mouse but it looked like Mommy and Daddy's phones] he said, "Tell secrets, Jenna! Tell secrets!" so I did.

I had just to share the adorable.)

[a1enzo]

Of course. And he would probably say they were being summoned on a mission and use that to transition into a more elaborate game with a lot of running around and hitting things with sticks.

ETA: Ah, not having looked at the other answers, I was thinking of it more as an "it's for you" scenario, not a phone conversation with the child. Although my above answer could probably work either way.

[wings_of_a_swan]

Combeferre would earnestly explain to the child (1) that the toy phone is not a real phone, and (2) how actual phones work.

The child would get bored and either run away or tackle Combeferre and pull his hair or something.

[genarti]

...and this is why a) Enjolras and Combeferre are BFFs, and b) all their other friends headdesk at them frequently.