ohmythor | 01 ✴ voice

[ It takes Jane a long while to settle down to this first ... whatever. Video? Journal entry? Something. She has clothes - not her own, but clothes nonetheless - and even a small bag of food, to take with her when she goes to find ... well. Someplace to stay. Stay, not live. This won't be home. It can't be.

She sighs heavily, puffing her cheeks out on a hard breath as she flips through the pages. An hour or two of reading have acquainted her with how the system works, as bizarre as it is. She sounds tired, when she speaks, a sort of bone weary ache. ]

Alright. So the journal is some sort of half-book half-iPad technomagical means of communicating, aaaaand this place gives you wings. [ A beat. ] There's a cheesy Red Bull ad in there somewhere, but I'm not going there.

[ A pause. Stay on track for three seconds, why don't you? ]

Sorry, I-- my name is Jane Foster. I'm a astrophysicist with SHIELD, if that means anything to anyone. Well, more like a researcher, but -- anyway. I just really hope that means something to someone. It'd be nice to at least -- I don't know. Have a familiar face from my own world. Or universe. I'm guessing universe.

[ Another pause, shorter. ] So how many versions of Earth are there, here? I'm going to guess at least a dozen. Maybe several dozen, who knows. And probably plenty of other worlds besides. From who knows how many different universes. And yet here we all are. [ She laughs, incredulous and kind of unhappy. ] This place is somehow the special one. I'd just -- love to know how they do it, really. Someone's going to tell me it's magic, and I just--

[ She finally stops, sighing again. ]

Sorry, sorry. Um -- hi. Nice to ... meet all of you, I guess.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yep. Sure do. Mine's here with me in Luceti, actually.

You -- you have a dragon, here. ... can I see?

Yeah, sure. Just a--second here--

[A few moments later, the video feed switches on and Hiccup is up on his roof where Toothless is napping lazily. The black dragon is curled into himself, wings shuddering slightly as he snores.]

This? This is Toothless.

Oh -- oh my god. [ There is such clear wonder in her voice. She's grinning from ear to ear, though she doesn't realize it, staring at this... ]

A dragon. A real, live, breathing dragon. This is incredible! How does... you know what, I'm not going to ask. I'm sorry, this is just -- really, really cool.

[Hey, anyone who can appreciate the awesomeness of a dragon? It totally cool in his book.]

I know, right? He's the only friend I have from home here, but...him being around makes all the difference.

I bet it helps. [ With a softer smile. ] So -- dare I ask, but why "Toothless"?

Weeellllll...it's a bit of a misnomer. One of the first times I saw him, I was giving him fish and he didn't have any teeth when he opened his mouth. [Until...] And then, as he was about to eat the fish? Teeth popped right out.

... a dragon with retractable teeth. Okay. It says a lot that that's not the weirdest thing I've heard today.

Yeaaaaaah...Luceti tends to do that. You get used to being surprised after awhile.

I like to think after a while I'll just stop being surprised. I probably shouldn't hold my breath, though.

I still see things that surprise me all the time. Then again, besides the dragons? My world isn't exactly fantastic. Sooo I still encounter a lot of things here I never even knew existed before.

Iiiif it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure my world's the same way. Everything's normal except the superheroes.

[Except the...]

Superheroes?

[ A laugh. ]

Yeah, believe it or not. I'm guessing you don't have those back home.

Nope. Just, uh, regular heroes. I guess. War heroes. That sort of thing.

[Dragon slayers. Though that was a less heroic virtue these days.]

We have war heroes too. But in the US, we also have one that was known for putting on spandex and appearing in propaganda films in the 40's. And then somehow showed up at seventy years later. It's weird.

[Hiccup knows what spandex is thanks to his time as the Boy Who Never Grew Up. Why would anyone put that on voluntarily?]

Uh...huh. Sounds kind of...a strange appearance for a hero.

I'm pretty sure the outfit was picked for him. Eventually, the story goes, he quit the propaganda business and started being a soldier for real, but the outfit stuck. It was symbolic, by then.

[ She smiles, a little crookedly. ] I guess everyone felt like they needed a hero they could look to.

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