video; un: weishappened

[weisshappened]

Type: Video
Sender ID: weishappened (Davrin)
To: All
Subject: Horse Training
Warnings: N/A


[The video is of a rocky shoreline, under a grey autumn sky. A small handful of the demon horses can be seen grazing on washed up seaweed.]

[Davrin slowly lowers the camera back down, turning it to face himself. Both he and Assan the griffon, are perched on a couple rocks higher up. Out of immediate view of the horses.]

I know we're supposed to be gathering clippings from these things but... call me crazy.

[Assan lifts his head from where he'd had it balanced on his foreclaws, looking skeptical.]

- Not you. [Then back to the camera.] Anybody tried maybe... taming one of them?

[They're no halla, but maybe it'd be a good idea to have a horse around for land-based travel.]

Comments

[weisshappened]

That's Assan. He's here with me from home.

Know anything else about them? What they eat, things to watch out for? That kind of thing.

[crystalrepose]

They're not nearly as skittish as a normal horse; I'm not sure if anything frightens them at all. If something tries to startle them they'll trample it first and ask questions later, and kick you if you avoid the first charge.

They also bite. I assume you'd like to keep your fingers.

[weisshappened]

That's actually good to know. If they're less skittish, that makes the approach simpler. I don't want to startle them.

Yeah... fingers tend to be helpful.

[crystalrepose]

As to what they eat, I'm not certain. The things a normal horse would eat? Or whatever would fit in their mouth, I suppose. When I encountered them before they were already charging at me, or waiting in the traces for instruction from their master.

[weisshappened]

Fair enough. Hard to tell anything basic about an animal charging you.

... You said "their master". They were trained?

[crystalrepose]

Yes, at least one; he'd hitched a gamigin to a carriage, this one with a horn on its head made of crystal. I never learned his name, but he offered me safe passage in return for moving an obstacle out of his way.

I...believe he was a vampire, but I wasn't about to pry. He went about his business without harming anyone or attacking me because I was late returning a book.

[weisshappened]

So that means it can be done. That's good news. Now I just have to figure out how he managed it.

... I feel like "vampire" should surprise me more than it does, by now.

[crystalrepose]

Does your world not have them?

So far there seems to be a roughly even mix of people who find the concept familiar, if under different names, and those who just look at me strangely.

[weisshappened]

Not outside of stories. Unless they just haven't popped up yet.

Why would people be looking at you strangely?

[Does this mean what he thinks it means?]

[crystalrepose]

I see. I've encountered several in my world, though most people there also think them mythical bogeymen for frightening children. So I'm quite used to people looking at me as if I told them a fairytale story.


[A pause.]

Oh, I'm not one, if you were wondering.

Well, maybe on paper. I do have one's passport.

[weisshappened]

Oh, that kind of looking at you funny.

Not happening here. I hunt monsters. Here, and back where I came from. Things people don't think are real tend to be my quarry more often than not.

[And now we have to hold up again-]

Passport?

[crystalrepose]

Yes. I needed to board an exclusive train, but didn't have the papers for it.

One of the vampires I met let me borrow his passport, provided I obtained a photograph.

[Jumping the turnstile? Unacceptable, Miriam's a Good Person. Identity theft? Just fine!]

[weisshappened]

Passport is... something like identification papers?

[ ??? what is that word.]

frantically googling pre-Victorian passports

[crystalrepose]

Yes, it was a letter that could be folded into a card, with the vampire's name, year of...well, death on it, and that he had both permission to travel and protection to do so. There was a seal stamped in the corner as well, from a place I didn't recognize. I'm not entirely sure how truthful the information already there was, beyond OD's name, but it got me onto the train. I was still attacked on board, though the assailants may have been targeting my companion instead of me.

[Miriam has once again provided slightly distorted education!]

im sorry....

[weisshappened]

The seal and permission sound familiar enough. But other than that, sounds a lot different than anything in Thedas.

You were attacked?

you're fine! Acquiring useless trivia is like my hyperfixation superpower lmao

[crystalrepose]

Nothing I couldn't handle. My companion would have been fine, too, save that he couldn't open some of the doors.

Oh--and I'm from England. That train was supernatural in nature, and probably wasn't.

[weisshappened]

Yeah, I don't... actually know what England is. And I probably should have asked about "trains" too, come to think of it.

well this is embarassing

[crystalrepose]

It's the country I came from, before the Rifts. Thedas was yours, I assume?

And a train looks something like a carriage with metal cars; there's usually several attached in a line like links in a chain. It's drawn by a coal-burning engine instead of a horse because of how heavy it is, and it travels on metal tracks instead of an ordinary road.