I'm in a horse

[theflyingone]

[ The current Liminal Space is seen from the eyes of Altaïr, who is standing in the main chamber, the thundering of hooves and storm echoing around him. Luckily for those on the Network, his view does not shake as he keeps a steady balance. He deliberately does not look at the bronze organs, which... move as living organs do. He speaks in his usual serious tones, though he breathes like he's just finished with a run. ]

If this is indeed the Wooden Horse, the next Jaunt will not be a happy one. The Trojan War is not a place any of us want to be. We must be cautious. The lengths people will go to inflict suffering on one another are only limited by the imagination.

When we are taken to the next world, try talking to me on the Network. If you cannot make a portal into Liminal Space, I will find places for us to hide until we are sure of safety in that land.

Comments

[truerevelation]

... it is, ain't it?

I... dunno if that's just talking about history. One of the Arcana last Jaunt was talkin' to me. Said that Chariot's turn might be coming 'sooner than expected.'

Yeah. I think I know someone who's up this time. Anyone got any ideas who else is in this round?

[theflyingone]

A moving horse referencing a war that was sometimes fought with chariots. If so, it's not very subtle.

Does the storm indicate Zeus's wrath? I hope not. Most stories about trying to avoid that usually end in calamity. Poseidon was not forgiving, either.

[seestheworld]

Tower? Their card does have a lightning bolt on it.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Death may have a stake in this turn of the game, if the Underworld is to feature.

...It was customary for a defeated warrior of the time to gift his horse to his enemy as a sign of surrender. Which is where the Trojans may have gotten the idea to do so on a grander scale. A fitting Chariot with which to take a city, I've no doubt.

[inventivepaladin]

[When this new voice comes over the network, it's... oddly different somehow. It's as if someone is thinking in the written word.]

PIDGE:/NETWORK/CONVERSATION>_ Trojan War? I think we talked about that at the Garrison. Some ancient war where they used a horse to get the soldiers into the walls of the town, right? Well, ok, it's really just a story to tell people to look twice at strange fantastical gifts, but I think I heard they actually found that city, though.

[fridgeninja]

Is that... Pidge-san?

[theflyingone]

[ He is painfully reminded of Davesprite's dungeon, and his attempts at using the handheld typing tiles, which battled him with "autocorrect" at any given opportunity. ]

Troya was a city in Anatole. That the war happened is taken as fact, though of course the story has been embellished over the centuries. Rather than a warning, I learned of the Wooden Horse as an example of military cunning, which these ancients prized.

[highnoonsomewhere]

Are these guys really so literal? [The Southern drawl may be familiar to Altaïr, if he remembers much from the walkabout.] I mean, last time we were hangin' around a place, it didn't seem to have nothin' to do with where we ended up. Nary a full moon in sight.

[amadine]

That's because we were in the private room, not the main club. I expect it had rather a lot to do with whatever it was the other side was up to.

[theflyingone]

[ It's hard to tell on the Network, which doesn't transmit voice or image unless someone knows their way around it, but his accent must be such a deep part of him that it comes through. This is the American who was difficult for Ashur to understand. Unlike Ashur, Altaïr isn't bothering to put his words in modern English he doesn't know, and his voice is tinged not with Persian, but Arabic. ]

A small number of us were taken to a different world, you and I included. Most of the Travelers were in a place where people entered animals into tournament games. Sometimes Liminal Spaces were vague or unusually drawn out; I had not taken them to mean anything about the next Jaunt until someone told me. But this is a blatant reference.

[ The view lowers with his eyes to the floor, made of wooden planks. ]

[photonicfighter]

The Trojan War? I'm not familiar with that. Are there any books on it in the library?

[Because he probably has more pressing things to do than explain it all to a space robot.]

[helborn]

Well, I don't know about how it went in other worlds, but I can tell you what it was like in mine.

It was a war between the Trojans and the Greeks. Paris of Troy took Helen after he was promised to him. He declared the goddess of love, Aphrodite, to be the fairest over the goddess of wisdom - Athena - or Hera, the goddess of marriage. It went on for about ten years, as the Greeks tried to take her back. Eventually, they built a giant wooden horse and hid inside of it, claiming it to be a peace offering. When the horse was brought inside the city gates, they came out and killed the Trojans.

That's the short version, at least.

using either eastern or greek spellings because that's what he learned lol

[theflyingone]

The Ilias is a famous epic recounting the war. It is also filled with the dealings of the gods. You will find it among other ancient Greek texts in the humanities section on the first floor. You may want to look at the Odysseia as well, for more ideas on how these gods influence human lives.

[helborn]

Something you know a lot about? The Trojan War, I mean.

[Casper's mental speech is calm, but he doesn't sound overly happy.]

It depends if we're going to be running into gods involved with it or not. If we are... I doubt Ares or Athena will take us getting in the way. Avoid them if you can.

[mightypen]

If they're around we may not be able to avoid them, they liked to be... personally involved back then.

Whether or not they accept us being around is up to how everyone decides to act.

[fridgeninja]

I only have one Greek goddess with me, and I don't think she'll be much help...

[theflyingone]

'With' you?

[ He's not sure what to make of that. It would be so awkward if a Greek goddess followed a Traveler like a shoulder angel or some haunting spirit. What did the Arcana think of this? ]

[mightypen]

The greeks weren't that bad, unless you annoyed a god too much anyway.

But yeah, cautions a good thing.

[theflyingone]

Everyone loses some measure of their humanity in a war. I cannot pretend that two advancing armies will spare me just because I am not involved with their conflict. My land has suffered as much at the hands of soldiers as bandits and murderers. In war, laws that are usually followed are broken.

[acapriciousthing]

Well. At least Olympian infighting is predictable.

[theflyingone]

Encountering soldiers was my first concern. Though, a world where the gods are more than just legend could be visited as well. It would not be the first time. In that case, we can predict humans being their pawns at best, and... I'm sure you already know the worst punishments the gods dealt. I am not so sure how to avoid those.

[unconventionalelf]

So this isn't a contraption built by tinker gnomes?

What was the Trojan War? It's not something from my world. [ She sounds really really young but also truly curious. ] There's magic here to move you from place to place as well?

[Video]

[neverfeltthatway]

It's not. It's shaped by the Arcana - you should have met one of them before appearing here.

[Armin's actual voice and image appears in her head when he responds, not just a mental tone.]

The Trojan War isn't from my world either, so I can't tell you much there. But yes, when the Arcana send us on jaunts we Travel to other worlds.

[rooktakesknight]

And what if you're not in the right state of mind during the Jaunt? [He's not all too pleased with how... easily he was turned into someone else entirely at the whim of the Trumps, and there's a distinct note of uneasy displeasure overlaying his 'voice', still too new to controlling how his emotions might broadcast psychically.]

It's not like these Trumps ask nicely before tossing you in a Jaunt.

[Video]

[neverfeltthatway]

If you're infiltrating, you won't remember this conversation until after the jaunt, and you won't be in control of what you do while you're there. Those of us who happen to investigate will try to look out for the infiltrators, but if we're about to be truly in the middle of a war, there may be only so much we can do.

[Never let it be said that Armin was one for sugarcoating the truth.]

[otomechapilot]

Taken from one war and thrown into another... is it always like this here?

(This new voice - that of a young girl - doesn't even sound surprised. Annoyed, but not surprised.)

Also we're telepaths now. Neat. Gonna want to figure out how to block things better, but neat.

[Video]

[neverfeltthatway]

It's not always a war. The scale of the jaunt varies wildly. Sometimes it's personal, only about a few people and their relationships. Sometimes the fate of an entire civilization is in the balance. The way the situations are chosen has more to do with the ideas in play than the stakes.

[Armin speaks in her mind with his actual voice and image, not just a mental tone. He's serious at first when he's explaining about the jaunts, but grows sympathetic when she mentions the telepathy.]

We're all connected via the psychic network, yes. You can learn to simply ignore what you hear on the network - actually blocking it out take a little more work, but it is possible, if you learn the right skills.

[pionero]

The Trojan War... [ A chuckle can be heard after that. ] Too bad I didn't pay more attention in history class.

[ He didn't really finish school period. ]

[theflyingone]

I can make you a reading list. [ he says crisply. Cal is never getting out of homework Altaïr assigns him. ] The ancient and classical accounts of the war are not all fact, but they do describe the culture. We need all the help we can get when it comes to passing unnoticed on Jaunts.

[not_the_question]

[The Doctor shouldn't be struggling with anything telepathic like he is right now. That... was troubling. This should be easy for him. But, it's not. It feels invasive and he doesn't really like it at all. It's been a long time since he's been around other telepaths.]

As wars on Earth go, it wasn't that bad.

[Of course, the Doctor had lived through the Time War. Ended the Time War. Two different times. But with alternating successes and failures each time.]

World War I, on the other hand....

[That said, his tone makes it sound like he experienced something of both of these, rather than just speaking from a perspective of having studied history.]

[Video]

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin's response in his mind is with his actual voice and image, not simply a mental tone like most of the others.]

Were you there for the Trojan War?

[Not knowing Earth history, he doesn't pick up on how odd it would be to be involved in both wars right away.]

[Video]

[neverfeltthatway]

I don't think I know much of anything about the Trojan War. Can you tell me about what it was like?

Re: [Video]

[theflyingone]

[ At this time he's almost ready to just point to the Workshop's library rather than answer the same question everyone is asking him and each other. Even reading highly fictionalized accounts of the Trojan War is enlightening for someone totally new to it. He only meant to warn everyone of the danger they might encounter. ]

You will have to be more specific. Though the records and stories are from hundreds of years after it ended, and we do not possess all of them, there is much knowledge to be had in the Workshop's library alone. As far as avoiding the soldiers, their weapons are bronze or wood or stone, spears, swords, slings, horse and chariot, bow and arrow, ship and sail. There are no flying machines or seeing devices, but a good falconer can have eyes in the sky.

[naturaltwohands]

My thanks for the warning. Many of our number have not experienced war, and we will have to be ready to assist them if we are to be plunged into one so suddenly.

[Except Drizzt has no idea he's infiltrating as a child and won't be able to help. At all.]

[theflyingone]

What can you do? Ranging yes, that will be helpful once we know it is safe to travel between cities... If there are any unusual skills, like magic, that can be done without drawing attention... You will want to speak with Malik about maps as well. He usually gathers information about a land that is not found on the maps in the Workshop's library.

[phobophage]

Ah, a psychic network. So at least there's that. Let's see, what can I do on it?

[And suddenly there's voice, then a broadcast of what Deimonea's seeing, in this case looking out of the horse's eyes at the storm outside. And suddenly the visual perception moves forward, right through the wall to gaze directly at the storm before pulling back inside.

Then a whole lot of nothing.]

Hmm, it seems like my capabilities're far too limited here too.

[theflyingone]

[ Having Infiltrated as a werewolf who astral projected, he was not as shocked as he would have been months ago. His view shifted slightly upward, towards the neck of the horse. ]

I had wanted to see what was outside in the storm, but I might not survive the physical trip. May I ask you to do that again while I use the Network to follow you?

[ For Science. ]