[Video]

[espigeonage]

Guys, the teleporter decided to surprise me.

[Julien's holding his phone out so that he can be seen, white-winged and clearly disoriented. In the background there's a picturesque waterfall, cliff and rocks, a path and some interested tourists.]

This is not the States. The stars are the same but there's a time difference, the air's different, and I can hear... okay, um, the mountains-and-coast noise is totally different, and more tellingly, lots of people are speaking German. Unrelated, I uh... I have a picnic lunch. [He hefts a small wicker basket in the claws of his other wing. It's got tiny loaves and dainty apples showing under a cloth.] Or a breakfast. Pretty sure that's a pulse. -oh, suil.

[he gets distracted by someone talking to him offscreen, their voice raised anxiously, and folds the wing he's holding the phone in, then crouches to talk to her. You get a good view of his shirt, white feathers, and neatly-hemmed massive sleeve hole, and can indistinctly hear him speak reassuringly - sprechen sie English? Francois? no it's okay. I'm here by accident, it was a surprise. I don't know. Yes, probably. We don't want to hurt anything. - and etc. It apparently ends well. Julien brings his phone out again, looking more focused.]

Sorry about that. So... Bavaria, huh? I guess there's a castle uphill. You know, I think I'll go see. Cross your fingers I don't get jumped! -Uh, if you come here, you show up in a little cave and it's a climb to get here, but not bad.

Comments

[siesinddasessen]

I would ask if you'll be less careless next time, but I doubt that that will be the case even if you say so.

[espigeonage]

I'm touched!

[He rethinks and sends something else.]

If there is a next time! Kind of exciting being the first person doing something. This place doesn't seem dangerous yet. Seem!

[siesinddasessen]

Sounds like a good place to be these days.

I wonder when it blows up.

[espigeonage]

Well there is a mystery building a mayor wants us to look at. Who knows what dangerous nonsense could be inside?

[siesinddasessen]

If there's a possibility of dangerous nonsense being inside, the sane person will stay out.

[espigeonage]

Probably! But if people who are dangerous go in first, is it really not sane? Virtues of caution and all.

[siesinddasessen]

There are always people who are also dangerous but less sane.

[And she IS curious. But the reasonable person..]

[espigeonage]

Also, it's more sane to go into dangerous places if you are dangerous. Maybe not perfectly, but I do think it needs investigating. Even if there's a giant sleeping monster inside - well we'd have to find out eventually.

[siesinddasessen]

And do you think you're dangerous?

[espigeonage]

Would a dangerous man go to the effort I do to not look dangerous?

[siesinddasessen]

Maybe. And you're not particularly good at it, the people in Locke still think that you're dangerous for being obviously numbered.

[espigeonage]

Some of them! But there was this lovely interlude where I was just a little scary and also kinda cool, and I think the people here are in it. It's nice!

And now I've jinxed myself and someone's gonna come after me. They've got better gun control laws in Germany, right? Think I could take a guy with a baseball bat?

[siesinddasessen]

Well, it's easier to run from someone with a baseball bat. How fast are you?

[The message gets send, but shortly after, a second arrives.] Do you plan on staying in Europe for longer?

[espigeonage]

Good question. I've got a stride length like no one else and can run up walls if there's enough space. Which is fun.

I'm not sure! I know this place won't stay nice or safe, if it's safe now. But it's nice. idk if I'm staying, I'd need a place to do that, but I'll definitely visit some more if I don't.

[siesinddasessen]

Sounds like you're at a clear advantage here then. Unless people carry weapons illegaly. [She wouldn't be that dense - there are always enough ways to be well equipped without having something on you that can get you into trouble. But others think differently.]

Even though you don't understand a word of what people talk there?

[espigeonage]

Always possible! I'm sure there's someone willing to sully the place's good name.

Actually they're all pretty willing to switch to English so far. I'm good with French too! German not so much, no, it's been a long time since high school.

[siesinddasessen]

That's a relief at least.

[After all she dropped out of school long before any languages came around, and while she has learned some Spanish and pieces of other languages on the streets, German most certainly has not been among them.]

[espigeonage]

I know people who've gone here and they're like, it's better to know the language but a lot of signs are in multiple languages, and people are nicer about it than Americans. You know how nasty our countrymen can get about that.

[He's excited. Never got to go overseas before!]

[siesinddasessen]

Well, if google is reliable at all, you were dropped right into a tourist hotspot there. They're supposed to have other languages, like Disneyland.

[Not that she's ever been there, but she's been told stories and such.]

[espigeonage]

There are a lot of tourists! I've been in so many pictures. Maybe I should start asking compensation.

[siesinddasessen]

A buck for a picture, and you're a millionaire at the end of the year?

[espigeonage]

Sure. I made a decent sum as a model, when I started. People are interested in the unusual.

[siesinddasessen]

You could start modelling in Germany or Austria, they seem to not hate your numbered guts there. At least not as much as in Locke as of lately.

[espigeonage]

There's a thought! I don't know how I'd start, though. Guess I could ask my favorite streetlamp, he used to model in Europe.

[siesinddasessen]

Streetlamp?

Julien, I would worry about the company that you're in, but then you seek out mine so I guess it can't get worse.