[HORSE]

[bloodyashes]

[There is no text in this message. All there are are some drawings of rather strange creatures. After some time, a drawing of a completely different creature is scribbled into one corner.

However, anyone in or passing near Dorm 25 will be able to hear a soft argument between Asch and Murtagh (oneformisery) along the lines of "That's not a horse, it's some kind of monster." "Of course it's a horse! Do you think I'm making this up?"]

Comments

action all the way

[oneformisery]

He's reading the responses and shaking his head over the pictures. So far, Thancred's drawing is closest to the horses he is familiar with (teeth aside) and he's in disbelief that the creature Asch has drawn could be called a horse.

"This, this is a horse," he insists, jabbing his finger at the page. Murtagh has no idea what that...thing is (the car) and has already heard of chocobos from someone else, but that quadruped is clearly the true horse here.

[action as hell]

[bloodyashes]

"Those don't even exist on Auldrant," Asch responds, shifting on the bed. It creaks slightly under his weight. "The uniceros is the closest thing - " He indicates the drawing of the winged creature with a finger of his own.

[oneformisery]

Murtagh is beginning to accept that Asch's world, Auldrant, simply doesn't have quadrupeds which function as beasts of burden. But he still can't help shaking his head in disbelief.

"Why would a creature with wings have hooves for feet?" he asks incredulously. "Are they herbivores or carnivores? Those wings are wasted on a beast which is able to run, and surely a carnivore would need something other than that horn to take down its prey."

[bloodyashes]

"What do hooves and wings have to do with each other?" Asch doesn't see at all why one rules the other out. "Creatures with wings still have to come to the ground sooner or later, and hooves work about as well as any other kind of feet." He gives a pointed look at the feet of whichever dragon is nearest to make his point.

"The uniceros is a herbivore, but the horn is for self-defense. Possibly for mating displays, but no one on record has actually seen that, so that's really more of a guess."

[oneformisery]

He'd retort but he doesn't have a good argument against having hooves for feet. It's a little early for the theory of evolution. Instead he focuses on what he believes is the most glaringly obvious problem in this picture of the uniceros: the wings.

"These wings, then." Murtagh jabs a finger at the creature's head. "Why are they on its head of all places? Are you telling me its head contains all the muscle needed for it to fly?"

[bloodyashes]

He really can't explain the wings, honestly, so he avoids trying. "They fly more with wind artes than muscle," he says instead. "That's the case for a lot of larger flying monsters. There's few with wings large enough to support their weight, regardless of the placement."

[oneformisery]

"Wind arts?" he repeats, frowning. "Is that like magic?"

It's an explanation he can accept at least. Dragons supposedly flew on a combination of their own power and latent magic. But still, head wings?

[bloodyashes]

"Close enough." This is Asch, he has given up on convincing people that the ability to manipulate particles of elemental energy is not magic all too quickly. "It's the manipulation of the Third Fonon, but in effect it may as well be a manipulation of the winds themselves."

[oneformisery]

"'Fonon'," he repeats with a slight frown. Strange word. Murtagh grasps the most easy to understand concept here, which is wild beasts using magic.

"Do all creatures in your land use 'fonons'?"

[bloodyashes]

"Of course," a slightly incredulous look, as if to say what else would they use? "They're the basic form of energy, the same way atoms are of matter." Murtagh's world probably has different terms, but Asch doesn't see a reason why it would all be fundamentally different.

[oneformisery]

"...Atoms?"

Energy he understands. Magic users have to draw upon energy to utilise spells. But what on Alagaesia are 'atoms'? And why did they matter? Asch would be on the receiving end of a long, blank stare from Murtagh.

[bloodyashes]

There's a pause, where Asch is giving back an equally blank look, like what do you mean you DON'T know. "I'm guessing science hasn't advanced that far yet on your world," he says finally.

The matter side of physics isn't his area of knowledge - fonology is relevant to his life, being the original of the first perfectly isofonic replica in existence, but the details of particle physics in regards to matter are mostly over his head. He can probably explain this, though.

"Okay, so if you cut a gold coin in half, it's still gold. That's true even if you cut it so small that you can't see it anymore, but there's eventually a point where if you divide it any smaller, it won't have the properties of gold any longer. The smallest particles of gold that are still gold are atoms of gold." That's... the most basic explanation he can think of at this point, without really knowing how much science Murtagh's world actually has.

[oneformisery]

"Science?" Another baffling term which erases any hope Asch might have that Murtagh's world features any sort of 'modern' progress.

The Rider listens to the other man's explanation of what an atom is and thinks he understands the concept. But he's lost on the part where cutting the atom means it's no longer gold. What else would it be? Why doesn't the gold just stay gold?

"I think I understand what an atom is," he says slowly, "but not beyond that."

[bloodyashes]

Yes. Yes, it certainly does. Asch glances at the doodles of mechanical vehicles that have since appeared in the notebook and manages somehow not to sigh.

"Good enough for now. I doubt we're going to need any application of subatomic particles here, half of it is beyond me anyway." Why is the periodic table arranged the way it is? Asch has no idea but at least he knows it exists.

[oneformisery]

His face is the equivalent of a whole ream of question marks right now. Subatomic particles?

"Our worlds are incredibly different," he mutters. He, too, has noticed the drawings of vehicles. "And yet it seems many are from similar...places."

He wonders if those strange things will someday become reality in Alagaesia.

[bloodyashes]

"At least swordplay seems to be mostly the same," Asch observes, a statement with a faint suggestion of humour to it. "To get back on the subject - about half of Auldrant's animal life can manipulate fonons to some extent, as well as a few plants and fungi. Most of them aren't terribly dangerous, unless you're unprepared for it, but the ones that are can take down the average human fairly easily." Hence his comment earlier, about fighting more monsters than people.

[oneformisery]

"Even your plants?" he asks, astonished. Plants were living things too, he knew, but they possessed no minds of their own. How could they possibly utilise these 'fonons'? "It's a wonder anyone in your land steps outside." A beat; he straightens. "Are your people all trained to defend themselves?"

[bloodyashes]

Again, there's that expression that clearly says 'why NOT the plants?' as though it has never occurred to Asch that most people haven't experienced the ambulatory variety. "No; most people stay in the cities or farming settlements where it's relatively safe. If they have to travel, it's by ship, coach, or with bodyguards. Most of those who live outside of those areas are bandits who are just as dangerous as the local monsters."

[oneformisery]

"That makes sense." Murtagh decides not to mention that the plants he's familiar with don't suddenly up and walk about. He's glad they don't - having to deal with something like the garden they'd chopped on their first day would be a nightmare for normal folk.

"Before war broke out, the worst danger in my land were bandits and wolves. Sometimes Urgals as well."

[bloodyashes]

People do not usually cultivate the moving plants, Asch would be quick to point out. Most of them aren't especially useful as medicinal herbs.

"Urgals?" It's now Asch's turn to give out a funny, questioning look.

[oneformisery]

Oh, finally something unique to his land? Murtagh's lips threaten to twitch into a smirk but he smooths them out and starts to sketch one on to an empty page.

It's basically this but in a much more simplified form.

[bloodyashes]

Asch lets him draw, his expression going more puzzled with every line. "You have humanoids besides humans in your world?" he says finally. "That's..." Extremely unexpected is putting it simply.

[oneformisery]

He nods and goes on to sketch rough busts of a dwarf, a female elf, and a male shade. Asch wouldn't know, but the elf is based on what he remembers of the woman he and Eragon rescued. The shade is the one Eragon managed to kill, called Durza.

"Do only humans reside in your world?" he asks as he draws.

[bloodyashes]

Asch nods, looking over the sketches. "And a few sapient monsters, like cheagles, but much of Auldrant doesn't even acknowledge those." They're certainly not involved in politics or anything of the sort; Asch only knows of cheagles and ligers for certain that have any sense of self, but they're not creatures that care much for formal societies. The fact that the other beings Murtagh has drawn are wearing clothes is a good indicator that they do, at least to Asch. "Unless you count replicas, that is. They're not quite the same as regular humans, but there's no difference on the surface." No point drawing them.

[oneformisery]

"'Replicas'... They are copies?" he asks, frowning. "I presume they are copies of human beings - but why do you have such people?"

Given the political climate Murtagh comes from, he can only think of ways doppelgangers would be misused.