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[completelycrazy]

I've made some relevant updates to the bestiary now that we're on a planet with local fauna.

[So here's an attachment with the updated version!]

At the moment, I've only heard tell of the mammoth things roaming around out there. All current notes are either based on secondhand accounts or pictures that have been sent to me. I'd like some real specimens to take a look at, if anyone's game.

Apparently there's other critters too, though they seem to be rare as I haven't encountered any myself. If anyone runs into anything alive on this planet, let me know and I'll add it.

Thanks.

Comments

[standformyself]

Indeed I'm not, but how silly of me. The Disreputable Dog at your service, although Dog is sufficient.

[completelycrazy]

Whoa. Uh, that's highly awesome. Do you, uh, how are you talking? Is it magic?

[Please don't be magic. Please be some cool biological thing instead...]

[standformyself]

[Well... She is and she isn't.]

I talk the same as any other. I open my mouth.

[And welcome to the world of the Dog, where answers are never clear and usually just lead to more questions.]

[completelycrazy]

...Okay, but dog mouths and throats aren't designed for human speech. It's gotta be like magic or something if you're just a dog who can talk.

[standformyself]

Who says we are speaking human? Perhaps in this place you are barking dog and you just don't realize it.

[completelycrazy]

Uh. Well, I guess you've got me there.

[Hadriel is so fucking weird.]

Is that what it sounds like to you? I've heard of some universal translator thing happening around town to make it easier for all of us to communicate, but I don't know that it's a thing we're, like, aware of. Everyone just sounds like they're speaking English to me.

[standformyself]

I'm not familiar with this English.

[Although that isn't too surprising. Mogget is the only one that she has come across that knows about where she arrived from.]

It sounds like the language that is spoken in the Old Kingdom to me.

[completelycrazy]

Ah, vastly different worlds. Got it.

[And immediately Newt throws everything he knows about biology and life and things right out the window since it probably doesn't apply here.]

Is everyone a dog where you're from?

[standformyself]

No, there are some dogs, but they just bark and such. There are humans, of course, those on either side of the Wall. Of course there are cats too, and a cat, and rabbits. They're fun to chase.

[completelycrazy]

...So how come you can talk?

[This is one of the more bizarre conversations he's had since arriving in Hadriel, somehow.]

[standformyself]

You would need to ask my mistress that question.

[Not that Lirael would actually be able to answer the question either, but it is the Dog's go to answer.]

[completelycrazy]

Uh, okay... Is she here with you? Wait, are you like, her pet?

[This is so much.]

[standformyself]

No. She's back where I came from. She has her own life to live now, without me.

[Some answers... Not all.]

[completelycrazy]

Oh. Right, uh, well if it's any consolation, I've heard that time kinda freezes back home while you're here. Like, not really, but when you're eventually sent home, you end up in the same point you left, so it's effectively the same thing.

[Interdimensional travel is nifty for that reason. Newt would die if his world was progressing without him right now.]

[standformyself]

So back to the First Precinct. I've no qualms with that.

[She'll make an appearance again, sometime.]

[completelycrazy]

...The First Precinct? Are you like a K-9 unit or something?

[standformyself]

... a unit of dogs? I mean, I suppose I am a dog, and I am one unit.

[completelycrazy]

That's—you know what, nevermind. What's the First Precinct?

[standformyself]

It's where you enter in to death and exit back to life.

[completelycrazy]

Oh. So like, reincarnation is a thing where you're from, I take it?

[standformyself]

Not usually. I mean, some do escape or are summoned from death, but they come back not as themselves.

[completelycrazy]

Uh, so what do you mean "exit back into life" then? Is that escaping from death? That sounds wild.

[Newt's gonna do that when he dies. If anyone can jailbreak hell, it's him.]

[standformyself]

Necromancers, and Abhorsen, mainly. They can enter back and forth.

[The Dog as well, but for other reasons completely as she is neither of the two mentioned.]

[completelycrazy]

Okay... Necromancers are like, uh, wizards and crap that do stuff with dead things? Never heard of Abhorsen though. We don't really have magical crap where I'm from, and certainly no coming and going from any sort of afterlife situation. Or whatever.

[standformyself]

I suppose that is one way of putting it, yes.

[Her ears give a little perk.]

Nothing, at all, anywhere?