un: eudaimonikos; video

[eudaimonikos]

Hello, Trench! Boy, that's a fun name for a city, isn't it? Trrrrrrench. Sounds...about like what it is, I guess.

So! [He claps his hands together.] Who's here from Deerington? Man, it must've been at least a century since I saw you guys! How's it been? Oh - oh, and look! Eleanor made it too!

[He reaches off-screen to fling his arm around the neck of what, when he pulls it over in front of the camera, proves to be an enormous dappled grey Warg. Her teeth are huge. She's still wearing her enchanted leather war-armor, which really just makes the optics here worse.]

This is my dog, Eleanor! Also, I'm Michael, for all the new folks. I was in the nightmare city before this one, and then I went home for a little bit.

So - what's everyone up to? And what's with the new phones? Are we all using weird, smoky first-generation birds as phones now?

Comments

text; un: doublehedgedsword

[laminae]

dog what the heck's a first-generation bird?
mine's a bug
a pink one
she looks like a flower, i guess? she says she's a mantis but i'm pretty sure those things are green

[eudaimonikos]

You know, the early ones. Can you...can you take a video of yourself, or...?

[This is probably directed at the Omen, though given how this works he is still just talking directly to the "camera".]

Oh, well...here. [Snap! He's looking right at it, so he ought to be able to make a picture of it, right...? He shows it to Fern - it's literally just a small feathered dinosaur.] They just don't make birds like that these days...

[laminae]

i think i can use that black rock to take a picture of her, hold on

[It's handy they've been given two phone-things. Fern will take a couple minutes to get a photo, then send it to Michael. His Omen is a pink and white orchid mantis, about the size of a small bird.]

dang yours is cool!
like a bird dragon

[eudaimonikos]

There's rocks?

[It's possible Michael hasn't really figured out the rock thing yet.]

Oh, yours is pretty! Like a flower!

[laminae]

yeah it was in the bags we were given on the beach
some black rock crystal deal
if you poke at it enough it starts working like a phone

i guess she does
not like i don't already have enough flowers in my life

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, really? I wasn't even trying to do this bird-phone thing - I was asking it if it'd carry messages for me, but I was picturing something more like a pigeon.

[He's gonna start digging through his bag.]

It's nice, though. You match.

[laminae]

ha ha! a messenger pigeon! that'd be cool

i wish we didn't
i'd rather have a cool bird like yours

[eudaimonikos]

My old bird DID match me.
My dream guide or whatever from before.

But I guess black goes with everything...and it's sort of shiny.

[laminae]

what did it look like?
my dream guide kept switching between a butterfly and a spider, so i guess a mantis is better than those

yeah! his feathers look really cool

[eudaimonikos]

It was a crow, but white. Matched my hair.

[But, you know, it also wasn't a dinosaur, so???]

Mantises are cool! They've got those little knife-arms. [Yes, he does mime the knife-arms.]

[laminae]

see that's really cool

i don't know i guess
they're tiny knife arms though
and she seems more interested in preening with them than cutting people

[Or she happens to be slightly more chill about fighting than he is.]

[eudaimonikos]

Well, she is very small.
Probably doesn't need to actually eat bugs or anything.

[laminae]

i think she can if she does
which she does, sometimes
she also told me she wants honey, which is kind of weird

[eudaimonikos]

You're just...talking to yours a bunch? I didn't...think they talked...

[He says awkwardly, since he's definitely using his as a phone still and that makes it awkward to talk about it?]

Can you talk...?

[laminae]

well she makes noises and i understand her
yours might too?? who knows

[eudaimonikos]

.....well, now it won't.

[He definitely gets the vibe that wanting it to talk just to show it can will make it not do that thing.]

[laminae]

wow really? you got a rude bird, M

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael snickers.]

Oh, well. Maybe it just doesn't want to do silly pet tricks.

[laminae]

man
i don't think being able to have a conversation with your Omen is just a silly pet trick

[eudaimonikos]

It doesn't really matter. I got along fine with regular mental communication before that, I can do it again.

[laminae]

ok yeah if you're good with that then this probably isn't a huge problem at all, huh?
it's gotta be nice being able to talk to people with your brain
having another option like that i mean

[eudaimonikos]

Honestly haven't done it much for a while, now. We all sort of quit once we started getting human mouth-parts.

[He's not really sure why? Maybe just to show off that they could? Having a human shape is still a bit of a status symbol.]

No point anyway, now, humans can't do that stuff.

[laminae]

can't do that right now you mean
who knows what we can all do with this weird blood stuff going on

[eudaimonikos]

Huh...that's true. Guess I should try thinking at some folks.