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undertale: mettaton

Text - 5/20

Could anyone explain what this is supposed to be? I'm assuming some sort of vehicle, but does it have a specific purpose? I was told it arrived for me from the Ingress but I don't know why.

[Attached is a photo taken with Starflight's MID. It shows the cargo bay, with this vehicle in the center with a bright orange backdrop from one of the smaller ships.]

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Looks like an aquatic vehicle. They generally have modular functionality for land and water environments.

Oh.

Is this something from before humans could build machines for flying? Because it doesn't seem very efficient.

Actually, I think most amphibious crafts were built after. The technology needed to keep the engine air-tight when running in the water was more recent than airplanes.

In my experience, they were developed for military action first, then modified for consumers later. Maybe this is something like that?

What do you mean by "consumers"? Is it another species?

[It wasn't a term he'd heard used before. Not in that context, anyway.]

Oh. Uh... basically, people who buy stuff. [Right? Right.] Civilian marketplace, kind of thing.

Oh, I don't think we have a specific term for that where I'm from. But it sounded kind of like how we refer to humans were I'm from, so I thought it might be something like that.

[Damn, she'd idiotically assumed it was a human without checking. Before her next reply, she scrolls through the database to match a picture to "Starflight".

Is that a dragon.]

How do you refer to humans where you're from? [And is it "consumables"]

Um..."scavengers." Most dragons don't think very, err, highly of humans.

[Dragon confirmed. A dragon. She's split between fascination and laughing out loud. Sentient talking dragons. You know what? Absolutely. With their low opinion of humans, it sounds like they'd already make a good fit on the council.]

Ah. Lot of history between your two races?

Yes and No? There aren't that many humans around these days, so nothing, um, recent.

...except for the one who killed Queen Oasis but that was more of a fluke and I wouldn't exactly call it an issue between humans and dragons.

So nothing recent in human and dragon interrelated history, except that a human killed your dragon Queen. [Her tone is light, humored by the strange mismatch.]

What happened? "Sorry I killed her, it was just a mistake"?

[Hope you're ready for an impromptu history lesson, Shepard.]

She wasn't my queen. Oasis was queen of the SandWings, not the NightWings. The scavenger was trying to steal some of the SandWing's royal treasure, and Oasis went after them to get it back and they killed her with one of their spears. Since none of her daughters challenged her for the throne they're all fighting over who should be queen. It's escalated to include almost all the tribes now because Burn, Blister, and Blaze all made alliances with the other queens. The fact it was a scavenger that killed Queen Oasis is only significant because there wasn't a clear succession.

[The flood of history catches her off-guard — but to be fair, she asked.]

So, a human got greedy, killed one of the queens, created a chaotic political upheaval in your society, and nobody's blaming them? Pretty forgiving, from my angle on it.

Well, the human was caught and killed by some other SandWings, but...

[There's a notable pause as Starflight tries to figure out to best way to explain.]

It would be like, um, if a human were attacked by...a mountain lion? Do you have those? You would kill the one lion but not all of them cause attacking things is just what they do. It's unusual just cause most of the time humans aren't a threat, it's actually considered pretty embarrassing that Oasis couldn't beat a couple of humans.

[Oh. That actually makes. A lot of sense.]

Actually, that was a great metaphor. So, from your perspective, an attacking human is no different to another wild animal — it's not representative of the group, and it's just their behavior to do so.

And it sounds like dragons are the dominant species in your world?

Yes, it's been thousands of years since scavengers were a serious threat to dragons.

...Some of the stories about ancient humans always sounded a bit outlandish, but having met some of you, they might not be as exaggerated as I thought.

Oh? What kind of stories?

Tales of a time when they ruled the land?

Sort of? We don't have a lot of information on what things were like before the, er, Scorching. Most of it is about the first dragon queens.

[Does this sound like a post-apocalyptic wasteland scenario to you because it does to me]

If you've got the time, I'd love to hear about more of your history. Scorching, first dragon queens... I'm all ears.

[That is entirely a matter of perspective.

It's like flipping a switch, because Starflight immediately brightens up, his tone jumping from uncertainty straight to cheerful. History was one of his favorite subjects.]

Really? I'd love to talk to you about Pyrrhian history. I have a few scrolls that would probably help, if you wanted to meet in person sometime. A NightWing Guide to the Dragons of Pyrrhia has some good summaries, and I have The Royal Lineage of the SeaWings from the Scorching to the Present, but that's probably more specific than you would want.

Not that we would need them much, I memorized most of the history scrolls we learned growing up.

[This said with the pride of a someone convinced their only accomplishments were academic.]

[Uh oh. It was like accidentally telling Liara you wanted to hear about the known history of the Protheans. Captive for hours.]

Think you can condense it for a newbie like me? I'm not sure I know enough about the nuances of Pyrrhian history to really appreciate the entirety of it. [Recoup and mitigate the damage.] Is there a beginner's guide to Pyrrhia?

Oh, yes, I can do that. I don't have any scrolls for that, other than the NightWing guide, though it is pretty informative. It's not really historical, exactly, but it explains the different dragon tribes and the current queens.

Give me the bare-bones outline. Something I can hang details on later.

IT LOOKS LIKE A MOTORIZED IDENTITY CRISIS! SERIOUSLY!!

[Who are you to judge, you metrosexual automaton?]

"Identity Crisis?" Is it not supposed to look like that?

Edited (well that sure was a wonky code mistake) 2016-05-28 01:14 (UTC)

IT WAS PROBABLY MEANT TO LOOK LIKE THAT, BUT I PERSONALLY FIND THE MELDING OF AN AUTOMOBILE AND A MOTORBOAT TO LOOK RATHER SILLY!!

IT CERTAINLY DOESN'T LOOK FULLY AMPHIBIOUS!! BUT I DON'T CLAIM TO BE AN EXPERT! CERTAINLY NOT!!

I agree, it does look weird.

I'm guessing you're not one of the engineers or scientists, then?

AFRAID NOT!! I'M A MEDIA DISTRIBUTION OFFICER!!

THAT SAID, DO YOU PLAN TO USE IT? I'D LOVE TO SEE HOW THAT WORKS OUT ON A SHIP LIKE THIS!

I don't know. Maybe? I don't think it would work well on the Moira, but maybe the next planet we go to?

I'd have to figure out how it works first

IT WILL WORK QUITE BADLY HERE, I AGREE. THE SHIP DOESN'T HAVE SO MUCH SPACE FOR IT!! BUT WHEREVER WE GO NEXT WILL PROBABLY SUIT THE VEHICLE!! OTHERWISE WHY WOULD YOU BE GIVEN SUCH A THING?

[It's just logic, right?]

[Starflight's not too sure about that last part.]

I'm not sure about that. I've gotten some really weird stuff delivered to me before.

HMM!! WELL MAYBE IT WAS JUST POOR LUCK, DEAR. :( I WAS QUITE HAPPY WITH MY MAIL!!

IF YOU DON'T MIND MY ASKING, HOWEVER, WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOTTEN THAT WARRANTS BEING CALLED STRANGE?

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