turangaleela: I think you can stop calling it the sewer flu
turangaleela: when 95.5% of all cases are above ground now.
turangaleela: You all just want to blame mutants for your own
turangaleela: godawful hygiene and selfishness.
Leela pressed the keyboard with such fervor, the keys were starting to stick to her fingers. Why the hell did she go back on Twitcher knowing it was full of mutophobic idiots? She'd seen horror stories already of completely healthy (relatively speaking) mutants, some of whom had lived above surface for over a decade, being shoved back underground by people who oh so coincidentally had a ton of rage to displace towards them. It was times like this she'd wished her people's revolution had been even more violent.
Despite how absolutely miserable it made her, Leela had made a habit of checking the internet regularly, because once she'd done her daily word puzzles (which were totally rigged, by the way), what else would she do all day but seethe? At least Twitcher gave her a righteous outlet for her anger. There was an endless sea of idiots to insult, but at least it was in the name of her people.
Ironically, she and her parents weren't exactly on great terms right now either. They'd tried one Gloom call that started semi-cordially, devolved into a blame game, then somehow led to judgments about each other's appearance and closed with her mom scoffing that Leela would never give her grandchildren. It was… harsh, but at this point Leela was too jaded to care. She didn't need to waste time sympathizing with those who made her sick in the first place.
Once a hazmat-suit-clad Scruffy activated the toilet in the Angry Dome (which took way too fucking long for him to do), Leela sent a few angry letters down there to release her anger. Her parents got a hold of them, and next thing she knew, she was screaming obscenities and dumping childhood trauma into a toilet. Some passersby would stop by and stare up at the dome. Leela put her middle finger up at them.
While her eye focused on her laptop screen, she heard footsteps approaching. Ugh, great. Time for more weird feelings.
"Hi, Leela!" Fry said, with an optimistic tone that sounded labored. His hands were hidden behind his back.
"What are you doing here?" Leela responded, not even looking up from her screen. "I ate your stupid lunch, and it's not even close to dinnertime."
"I know you've been having a rough time in there." No shit, sherlock. "So I thought maybe I'd find new ways to keep you entertained."
"Keep me entertained?" Leela finally made eye contact with Fry, but only to give him a piercing glare. "I'm not a child, Fry. Some of us are capable of living our lives without needing TV to babysit us."
"But you have your computer?"
"For business, dummy!"
It was a half-truth; Planet Express had switched away from remote work almost immediately, but of course they still made no effort to involve Leela back at work. But even seeing those jerks on a video screen just made her want to reach through and strangle them, so that was probably a blessing in disguise. Still, it said a lot that the company still got no delivery work during a period when people were supposed to be quarantining. (Maybe the public had learned who made the delivery and turned the Back-To-Normal-fest into a superspreader event… but that wasn't Leela's fucking fault.)
"Well, while you're on your computer… maybe I can provide you with some musical accompaniment?"
He pulled out a flashy and bulbous instrument that Leela knew all too well. The holophoner. The first time Leela realized Fry might really love her, even if his stupid mouth couldn't put the words together without some help. The music he'd played was beautiful; the effort he'd put into it even moreso.
She couldn't remember the music now. Not the little symphony he played the first time, not the magnificent opera he played for thousands, not even the small sloppy snippet he'd played just for her. Right now, all she could think about was this one fucking bluecheck on Twitcher who kept insisting to Leela that life was better when mutants were strictly kept underground.
Ronnie3469✔️: God made mutants hideous as a warning to avoid interacting with them. They carry ill will and disease. We have not heeded His word, and now we suffer the consequences.
turangaleela: Ronnie3469 God didn't do shit. It was neglect from surfacedwellers.
turangaleela: Ronnie3469 Read a fucking textbook. Or talk to mutant elders.
And then the… "music" started. Squeaky and off-key, as usual. It should have charmed her, as it had in the past, but it just grated on her ears. Every single sound, from Bender eating snacks on Gloom to the owls hooting to herald the morning, just sounded so loud and annoying to Leela while she was sick.
But before she could snap at Fry for that, she got another ping from Ronnie3469. Honestly, she was grateful. Leela felt much better taking her anger out on him.
Ronnie3469✔️: turangaleela Ever notice the uptick in pandemics ever since mutants came to the surface? We also had the first outbreak of the common cold in centuries just a year after the "Devolution Revolution." Clearly its the Rapture.
She narrowed her eye and typed rapidly.
turangaleela: Ronnie3469 Mutants had NOTHING to do with the common cold pandemic.
turangaleela: Ronnie3469 There were epidemics CENTURIES before the DR, you fucking idiot.
turangaleela: Ronnie3469 Also, *it's.
turangaleela: Ronnie3469 As in "it's clear you aren't smart enough to read."
Then a second ping from a new jerkwad with too much time on his hands.
TruthOverAcademia✔️: Ronnie3469 turangaleela Don't Bother Fighting Her Ronnie. Mutants WANTED This Pandemic! They Mixed Virus Into A WATER TREATMENT PLANT So Surface Dwellers Would Be 2 Angry To Notice Their Plans To MUTATE US ALL. This Is Just Step 1! Step 2 Is RADIOACTIVE WASTE And EXTRA LIMBS 4 ALL!
moniqueismommy: TruthOverAcademia by fall out boy
Leela tried to find a decent argument in her head that wasn't just "You're a fucking racist idiot" on a loop, but a squeaky high note derailed her train of thought before it even started chugging. She whipped around to face Fry. "Sorry!" he said sheepishly. "It's a little out of tune."
"You're a little out of tune!" Leela snapped back. "I'm trying to write some very important Twitcher posts and you're here just making noise."
"Isn't Twitcher called X³ now?"
"I am not using that fucking joke of a name."
Fry turned the holophoner around in his hands, fidgeting. "I- I can try and fiddle with the thing til it sounds good–"
"Go fiddle yourself at home then. I don't want to hear it."
Fry looked absolutely crestfallen as he slowly walked off the roof. It stung Leela, but her guilt was quickly flushed out once again by intrusive fury. He should know better than to play something so godawful while she was feeling bad. He probably didn't even care about her, he probably just wanted to show off what he thought were skills. People were selfish. Everyone was selfish.
She sent one more Twitch before turning over for a nap.
turangaleela: TruthOverAcademia Ronnie3469 Fall in a manhole and crack your fucking useless skulls.
When she woke up, her notifications were flooded by the same message over and over again.
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