To All

[a_better_man]

I have a query for the masses, if you'll take a moment or two and indulge me.

Tell me about animals from your world. Or your favorite of the animals from your world. Or the most interesting. I'm curious. Friends in the Horizon have shown me critters I've never even heard of before, and even been kind enough to create one or two for my domain. And I want more. I want a vast menagerie of amazing creatures.

I've got plenty of animals I know well - foxes, badgers, rabbits, sheep - and some I don't think exist outside of this world that I've seen in Thorne. But so many of all you fine and lovely people come from amazing and vastly different worlds and I would be honored by a contribution to my little project.

Of which there is to be more than just a showcase of odd animals, and I will share with all when it's finished. But for right now...

It's all about the animals.

Comments

[princessvegas]

You just want weirdo animals? I mean, there's lots, but maybe y'all have some of them.

Narwhals
Platypus
Pangolins
Kangaroos aren't rare but they're kinda weird if you think about them

Plus mogwais. Definitely need a mogwai. [ Sorry, Mat. ]

[a_better_man]

Well, interesting or beloved, I suppose. They'll all be odd and rare to me, if I've never heard of them before.

And I've never heard of any of those! What are they? Which one's your favorite?

And you must describe a mogwai, if I need add it to my Domain.

[princessvegas]

Narwhales are like whales but with a unicorn horn. They stick the horn up through holes in ice, and I think they fight with them too.

Platypus are like a bunch of other animals all smushed together. Body of like, maybe a beaver or an otter? They're water animals, they have little flippers and a beaver tail. But then they have duck bills instead of a nose. And they lay eggs, but they're mammals.

Pangolins are... I barely know how to describe them. They're these little guys, they walk on all fours but they stand on their back legs when they're still. They're covered in scales, but they're still mammals. At least I'm pretty sure they are. But when they stand up, they put their little hands together like they're too shy to ask a girl to dance. Super cute.

Kangaroos are like, six feet tall. They stand on their back legs and tails, and they jump to move around. They have real cute faces but they got arms like the most muscular man you ever saw. And they have a big pocket on their belly, the babies live in the pocket until they get too big. They only live in one place in my world. I think they used to catch them and train them to box people, a long long time ago.

You know what? I'll send you a mogwai. There isn't anything you need to know about it that you can't understand from seeing it.

[ Much, much later tonight, a teacup-sized unicorn will trot up to Mat's domain, pulling a little wagon. In the wagon is a very cute little guy, and a handwritten note that only says "His name is Gizmo."

As soon as he can, that tiny unicorn gallops away. It's not foreshadowing at all. ]

[a_better_man]

Is a whale a sort of fish?

I like the sound of a platypus, though! I think I'll try and create one. And kangaroos sound fantastic! What a marvelous sort of critter.

Well thank you, that's kind of you. Appreciated.

[princessvegas]

Kinda? They're not fish, they're mammals, but they do live in the ocean. They're huge, like the smallest ones are still like ten feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds. The biggest kind of whale is the largest animal that ever existed in my world, called blue whales.

Narwhals aren't that big, but they're still really big.

[funbreaker]

Why such an interest in fauna? Do you simply have a fondness for them?

[a_better_man]

I just like animals. I want to add more to my little bit of the Horizon and I thought to myself 'why be limited to only what you've seen and known?'.

[funbreaker]

Fair enough. There are all sorts of creatures where I'm from, I would hardly know where to start.
Do you have any idea what a nutkin is?

[provenforce]

I was always fond of happabores. They were a large animal with very thick skin and a sort of puggy nose and four eyes. They were used on Jakku for hauling scrap, for anyone who could afford to keep one. They were very gentle creatures, I befriended one that belonged to the junk boss.

[a_better_man]

Never heard of them. We use bulls and horses to haul things. Which are often gentle creatures, if raised domestic, but don't piss them off.

Are they big like a bull?

[a_better_man]

None whatsoever. Does it look like a nut or eat them? Because those are my guesses.

[a_better_man]

Fuck me! Biggest animal I've ever seen's a damned bull. They're really that big?

I don't think I've got space for one of those fellows!

[princessvegas]

Blue whales are like 100 feet long, they weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds. And like, yeah, narwhals and other whales are way smaller, but you probably shouldn't make one? Cause you'd need a whole ocean for 'em to be comfortable, and you shouldn't take up an ocean's worth of the Horizon.

Go nuts on kangaroos and shit, though.

[a_better_man]

No that would be cruel to even a magically constructed creature, and an ocean would be rude to neighbors to say the least. I do have a pond, maybe a little sort of thing for the pond. About the size of an oilfish, they're only a few feet long.

Oh I intend to! It's a whole little patch of creation that I can fashion as I want, and I want to fill it with wonders.

[princessvegas]

You should make it a koi pond. They're really pretty.

[shadowthief]

[When she sees the message, it's an instant, visceral reaction to the word menagerie that has her pausing in a too-still way– the sort of way that gets Jesper's attention, and a quiet murmur of reassurance that makes everything in her relax-- 'Breathe,' he'd said. 'He means actual animals, Inej.'

Would it ever stop? And what would she do without Jesper in this place to keep her sane?

She takes a bit to answer him, but does eventually come in to do so, though her answers aren't all that fantastical, in her opinion.]

I don't know if my world has particularly strange or unusual animals.

There are dragons, though I can't say I've ever seen one. Big, winged reptiles who fly and breathe fire. Sort of like a lizard, but giant! They tend to be hostile, though you could skip that bit in your horizon, very fond of shiny things and they live in caves.

I also like snakes. There were charmers in our circus growing up, it was always fascinating to watch them.

[a_better_man]

I think every world's got a chance of having animals that are interesting to outworlders.

Oh? That is not what a dragon is in my world. Though the symbol of the Dragon is lizard-like. No wings, though, and it's just a symbol. It's not a real animal. Dragon is the title for a person in my world.

Snakes are alright. We had some in the woods.

[a_better_man]

And here I must admit my ignorance again.

Your world is full of things that are a mystery to me, it seems.

But I love a good mystery.

[shadowthief]

Probably. Ours are all pretty basic, I think? Horses and deer and rabbits, and forest creatures like that.

You don't think maybe they existed at some point, in the far reaches of your world's history? Is it a political title of some kind?

Oh, you should talk to Himeka about dragons, by the way. She has some small ones in her domain that look like nicer versions of the ones from stories in my world. Hers talk, at least a little which was fascinating all on its own.

[princessvegas]

You said you already have the pond, right? I can come by tomorrow and make it for you. I don't think a description can really get across what a koi pond should be, at least not without knowing what koi are.

[righteously]

Fiercest animal you're ever gonna get, hands-down?

Honey badger.

Honey badger don't care.
Honey badger don't give a shit.

[provenforce]

A bull what? That's usually a term for a male in several different species I know of, happabores included, in fact. They're quite large, um. Bigger than any of the horses I've seen here in Thorne.

[a_better_man]

What sort of badger is a honey badger? We've got badger-badgers in the woods where I grew up, I used to make friends with them.

[righteously]

The honey sort.
They're like miniature little crazy-eyed wolves.
I heard one could take down a full-grown gazelle. Straight for the jugular.

( Okay, yes, that last part he totally made up. )

[a_better_man]

Yeah we have those.

I doubt it, the animal symbol was named after the man. It means something very powerful. And sure, let's go with political. It's complicated.

If I ever have an interest, I'll remember the name.