[video]

[dogsanddaughters]

[Miriam waves. She's currently hanging out in Delight's bar, surrounded by brightly colored bottles and a mess of playing cards spread across the table. The arrival of Hadriel's newest scaly residents has gotten Miriam thinking that this right here? Is a prime opportunity to play the card shark.]

Hey people! Hope nobody's dead yet.

Also there's a bunch of dragons and they're probably gonna eat you if you get too close. So watch out for that, 'cause getting eaten would suck.

[She bats her eyelashes at the camera. Barnaby the dog just grunts, laying his head on her lap.]

Also you all should totally come and play cards with me if you're not fighting dragons. It's poker time, baby.

Oooooor if you're fighting dragons and don't die nasty, can somebody get me a bit of dragon steak?

[She fluffs Barnaby's ears.]

Baby boy's never had dragon.

And somebody should totally kill those things. I believe in you!

[Go forth and slay! Just don't do it by the bar.]

Comments

[purpleknee]

Amazing...

[He wants to go, too...]

It isn't anything like being in space, but I can fly. I could take you if you let me play with Barnaby.

[dogsanddaughters]

What, really? Hell yeah I'll let you play with Barnaby! You can really fly?

[purpleknee]

[YESSSSS DOGS]

I can! Well, I can float, but my coat is enchanted. Makes flying really simple.

[dogsanddaughters]

Whoooooa. That's so cool!

[She wants an enchanted coat.]

How'd you know about Earth, anyway?

[purpleknee]

[Yes, he's very impressive. Hee.]

The Dorothies have been visiting Oz since before I was born, and there was the first wizard before them. I was able to read about it in the books. I've even been there.

[dogsanddaughters]

[None of those words mean anything to Miriam, but she's just gonna roll with it.] What's it like on Earth?

[purpleknee]

It's fine. It's a lot more rain than I'd like, but I'm with people that aren't making it total hell. I like getting to learn more about it -- and my magic, too! If only this world wasn't as stingy with its useful books...

[dogsanddaughters]

Man, I wish my world had magic. We've just got weird shit. No magic, though.

[purpleknee]

You never know. A lot of people on Earth think there isn't any magic, but magic's just good at hiding there. Some of that weird shit could be magical and you just haven't realized it.

[dogsanddaughters]

Huh. Miriam thinks about that.] Well, we do have the Tar. It kills people and makes their corpses walk around. But I think that's just nanites, or something. But maybe it's magic.

[purpleknee]

[That...makes him pause.]

Oz has something similar. In a way. I've never heard of nanites, though.

[dogsanddaughters]

What's yours do?

Nanaties are really tiny machines. Like, so small you can't see them without a microscope.

[purpleknee]

Gets inside people and starts killing them. It made it so I couldn't use my arm. I don't know what happens if you die with its infection in you -- I kind of skipped that part.

[He's more interested in this Tar stuff, judging by his tone.]

I didn't think machines could get that small! How would you even make those?

[dogsanddaughters]

Weird. So it attracted the nerves in your arm or something?

[Miriam shrugs.]

I dunno, exactly. They just do? But they're pretty cool when they're not killing people.

[purpleknee]

Far as I can tell.

[He was kind of too focused on the weird marks that would show up and that dying thing to spare it a lot of thought.]

Really... What else do they do?

[dogsanddaughters]

Lotsa different stuff. Mostly for medicine. Or weapons. Which is kinda weird, they're either saving people or killin' them nasty. Go figure.

[purpleknee]

Magic works the same way, really. I'd be interested in hearing about that medicine, though, if you can tell me more about it.

[dogsanddaughters]

[Miriam has to think about it for a moment.]

Okay, well you know how your immune system basically knows how to attack stuff that's making you sick? Well, you can write a program into the nanites that makes them do the same thing. Attack what's making you sick and get rid of it.

[purpleknee]

...I want them. I mean, I don't need them because I'm a mender, but I still want them.

[dogsanddaughters]

Oh, you're some kinda healer?

[That's worth knowing.]

Be awesome if we could build some here. I mean, I don't really know how, but they'd come in handy. Maybe Newt or his boyfriend know how.