Work Text:
Gideon had been tasked with logging conversations of the crew that she felt were dangerous, mutinous or if she simply didn’t understand them or felt there could be hidden meanings. She reviewed the conversation again and was still puzzled by a few references that did not make sense.
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Start of recording
Mr. Rory: The first time I broke the law it was because of fire. I was six.
Professor Stein: You started a fire that damaged property?
Mr. Rory: My family was returning home from town and we passed a field where a circus was settin’ up. Bunch of gypsy trailers by roadside and one had a poster on it of people dancing with fire.
Professor Stein: Oh. I can see how that would’ve been attractive to you. Did your parents take you see the show?
Mr. Rory: My people were farmers and weren’t about to waste money on things like that so I snuck out of my room after I’d been put to bed.
Professor Stein: You went to the circus by yourself when you were only six?!
Mr. Rory: I slipped in with a bunch of kids and ran off before they’d figured it out. Ran around to a service entrance at the side of the big top and hid under the bleachers. Had to sit through a lot of crap with clowns before the fire dancers came out but it was worth it. They even had a man who breathed fire. I’d never seen anything so beautiful before.
Professor Stein: Mr. Rory?
Mr. Rory: Eh? Oh yeah. After the show, I saw the fire-breathing man walkin’ towards the rides and followed him. Wanted to ask him how he did that. I was stopped by another man who asked me where my parents were. He locked me in one of those gypsy wagons long enough that I went to sleep. When I woke up, there was a man standing over me. He was wearing a mask of a toad.
Professor Stein: Oh! That…oh dear!
Mr. Rory: Yeah. I never liked frogs or toads either. I ran at him and headbutted him hard. I was tall for my age so I hit him right in the nuts. Heh. He fell and I ran past him and out the door. There was shoutin’ and I kept running. When I heard a girl screamed I looked up. I’d ran right inside one of those rides with animal-shaped pods on spokes that go round and round and up and down. One hit me right in the chest and knocked me on my ass. I lay there trying to catch my breath and I saw toad man in the crowd coming closer.
Professor Stein: Oh lord!
Mr. Rory: But then the people parted and a fireman was standing over me, wearin’ suspenders. He picked me up, checked me out and took me home. I got a whippin’ for sneaking out and causing trouble.
Professor Stein: That’s, that’s an extraordinary tale.
Mr. Rory: Huh. Do you know what sort of animal was the pod that hit me?
Professor Stein: Dumbo?
Mr. Rory: What?
Professor Stein: A small flying baby elephant.
Mr. Rory: Oh. No. It was another freakin’ toad. Mouth open wide with crazy crossed eyes. When I looked up, that was all I could see before I went flying.
Professor Stein: Good lord.
Mr. Rory: Yeah, and ever since I’ve had… a fear of giant toads.
Professor Stein: Mr Rory, while I appreciate the thoroughness of your insights perhaps we could focus on the issue at hand.
Mr. Rory: I thought shrinks liked mommy-talk?
End of recording
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Mommy-talk, toad masks. Why was Stein so alarmed by the story? Why would Mr. Rory, who was fearless to the extreme, confess to a fear of a small amphibian? Gideon knew there was another layer to this conversation that she did not understand. She stored it for Captain Hunter’s review when he was eventually returned to the Waverider.