{VOICE OTA}

[rootandbranch]

[Today you feel a few strange pulses in your signets before you hear anything over Qri's network. It's fairly pleasant, exactly as the signet communications tend to be, and fortunately doesn't at all resemble the strange fluctuations that plagued everyone back on days 103-105. It's more like someone poking at the network to be sure it's stable and not going to do any more of that before they speak. They seem to conclude it's safe after all.]

Hello? Oh, hi-- hi, everybody. It's Geir. If you don't know me, I'm the dragon.

[He's very matter of fact about it. He's the dragon. You're probably aware, his tone seems to say.]

Listen, I don't actually care if you know me, you should just help me and Nines out! He knows all kinds of technology things, so I asked him what we could find out about the Hub with them. But the question is really, what does everyone want to find out? There's been a lot of weird to chew on!

Chew...on? [9S echoes this thought quizzically, for an instant quite distracted. But right, right, the matter at hand—] Er, anyway, like Geir said we’re lacking data on our surroundings. And to know what we’re dealing with, gathering more would be best, so I was thinking I can probably scrape enough parts together to build a pod for that job, once we know what kind of information it should collect. I mean, unless we want everything...

[Geir's tone is still bright and interested. he loves hearing about this, even if part of him is still skeptical.]

Nines isn't even the only person who knows how to build... robots. I know a bunch of you build stuff. Who wants to help?

[9S clears his throat, quietly tacking a little disclaimer on:]

...Not that pods should be mistaken for machines or anything.

[When your kind’s fought machines for millennia certain lines get drawn. Thin, confusing grey lines. (Geir doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just lets it stand.)]


((both 9S and Geir may reply to your toplevels, and also feel free to jump each other! this is the start of a player plot to get a little more technology on the island. ♥ more details here!))

Comments

[reckoner]

Maybe the soil, then.

[ Musing. He doesn't know too much about the mechanics of archaeology, unearthing ancient civilizations. If the mansion had been built by the same (and if so, despite the improbability of them being human, the furnishings and equipment in the mansion suggest it), then likely it is inapplicable. The previous inhabitants could not be called ancient, the dirt wouldn't have had the time to accumulate into smothering layers.

Had they lived here before or after the land was strewn into space? Maybe-- ]

If only how far it goes.

[ If they dug, what would they reach? Was the land flat? ]

Mm. It might be a cliche, but stories rarely mixed dragons and machines of that level.

[rootandbranch]

People have mentioned stories, a few times. What were the stories of dragons like in your world, exactly...?

[Geir can't help but wonder. it seems as if people have a large number of expectations about what dragons should be like, up to and including how they breathed and what they did in their spare time. was this just the work of a few famous dragons whose preferences got popular? and if so, why isn't heone?]

[reckoner]

Ancient mythology, largely. Mythology, fairy tales, or within the pages of fantasy fiction. They were never real, in my world.

[ But, as to what they were like... ]

Varying levels of intelligence and ability to communicate. I didn't read too much fantasy, but I think they tended to be very large, fly, breathe fire, accumulate and guard hordes of gold, and sometimes kidnap princesses.

[ which really makes this unavoidable, jest tinging his tone. ]

How do you feel about royalty?

[rootandbranch]

What is with the fire thing...?

[it's obviously a rhetorical question, Geir musing out loud with a comical sort of "why me?!" tone. isn't venom enough for these otherworldly skalds? who really needs to turn their dinner into charcoal before they eat it?!

he shifts his attention to Gaelio's next question with mild bemusement: Geir knows that kings are warlords among humans, probably, but he hasn't personally met one.]

Aaaaand... I don't think I have an opinion yet. Do you know any?

[reckoner]

Are you jealous?

[ Mildly, but Geir might be able to tell that, no, Gaelio doesn't think the dragon is in fact envious of abilities other similar if fictitious creatures purportedly have. ]

Not really.

[ Whatever the hierarchies in Gjallarhorn, though the Seven Star families had ruled the organization for hundreds of years and power passed through inheritance, it was not technically royalty. They were not monarchs, not kings. ]

It was an archaic, no longer used form of governance in my world. But, it's surprising if there aren't any here.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir's voice is cheerful through the signet. they're getting a bit off topic, but he doesn't mind the divergence.]

I'm not jealous! Tasting charcoal all the time sounds like a pain. And I would probably like royalty if they were nice. That's my final word on it!

[reckoner]

It might not taste like charcoal.

[ But there probably would be... some sort of aftertaste? Difficult to imagine, but chemical.

As Geir's closed the topic, he doesn't push it. As entertaining as it might have been to suggest Despite the possibility that it would be an instinctive response to royal blood. Not much of one, really. Even if he could claim to know how dragons of myth functioned, this one clearly diverged.

More than a bit off topic. ]

So, you'll be moving materials?

[rootandbranch]

Yup! ♪ I'll bring Nines and all of the people working on it anything they need. Just call me if I can help with anything, okay?

[that much, Geir knows he can do, even if he doesn't understand the intricacies of the world of robotics. he can carry things! carrying things is a thing he can do!]

[reckoner]

That likely won't be my call, but I appreciate the offer and extend the same.

[ Though what he could assist a dragon with he's less certain of -- loading? Unloading? ]