shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

edwin dobson,
sky

(no subject)

One moment, Edwin is tearing through the steppes...

...and the next, he (and his horse) find themselves in very unfamiliar territory. Huxley pins his ears back and snorts at the sudden flash, rearing slightly, while Edwin fights to remain in the saddle as he looks around. "A storm?" he asks himself, looking up a sky that seems anything but stormy. He starts as his attention goes to the rest of the landscape-it certainly looks dry enough, but this...isn't Euloria.

His horse, meanwhile, recovers quite a bit more quickly and begins to move along at a quick trot, apparently not bothered by the fact that he's trotting on pavement rather dirt. Edwin just hangs on, still staring at his surroundings, particularly at the sign that he passes by as Huxley continues onwards-Snakewater, Montana - Pop. 21,500.

At least, that's what it says underneath the scratch marks covering the population number. Beside the former number, someone's painted 15.

Edwin is fairly certain that isn't a terribly good omen.

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"They'll have to catch me first!" he calls back, spurring Huxley again-okay, so maybe he doesn't want to be too close to the dinosaurs. But he still wants to be able to see them.

...aaand there they are, sprinting up the road. Long tails. Sharp claws. Inexplicably, no feathers.

And inexplicably, way, way too big. (For velociraptors, anyway.)

Huxley lays his ears back and snorts, squealing a little and continuing to gallop-but he's slowing down. He can only take so much running, after all.

Edwin, meanwhile, is staring at the raptors. At least he's fairly certain they're some sort of dromaesaur, albeit some that were plucked somehow.

The raptors-- if they are that-- don't seem to be tiring.

Oops?

Bugger. Edwin would really, really prefer it if nothing ate his horse, kthnx. He glances at Huxley, glances to the raptors, then finally looks at Sky. "...I think I'm going to have to distract them," he says after a moment.

This is Edwin attempting to form a Cunning Plan. No good can come of this.

"With what? Pulling rainbows out of your ass?"

"Not quite," Edwin says before speech suddenly gets a whole lot harder and he sprouts a snout. And feathers. And claws much like the ones the raptors are sporting. He's only taken half-beast form-his full one is a little too close to snacking size for comfort-but he hopes it'll at least distract the raptors.

Ahh, if only the fossils were able to tell him if raptors ate their own or not...

The feathered crest along his head suddenly rises up as he lets out a hoarse "Khoh! Khoh!" at the dinosaurs.

...?!, goes just about everyone present.

Sky makes confusedface at him.

The raptors stop for a moment, but there's that juicy delicious horse right there...

"Khoh! Khoh!" This is his horse!

Huxley, meanwhile, has slowed down. The dinosaur things are talking at each other; this is (for a horse kept by a whole group of raptorskins) normal and not much to be concerned about.

Edwin's jaws snap a few times, adding to the display-and it really is a display. He's been shown how to bluff, but in a real fight? He'd likely be dinner.

...yeah, Sky's just going to... float here and let the freakin' dinosaurs sort their shit out.

The raptors (the full-time raptors, that is) aren't exactly sure what to make of this, either. The lead male and female squabble amongst themselves briefly about what to do, hissing and nipping, while the younger male attempts to just get over the fact that some normally easy prey now looks, sounds, and smells mostly like a raptor, what the hell.

Edwin just keeps his crest up and watches the trio with jerky, bird-like movements of his head, jaws still slightly gaped. Part of him is concerned about not getting himself (and Huxley) eaten; the other part is making mental notes about the dinosaurs' behavior.

Finally, the lead male snorts briefly, snaps his own jaws at Edwin, and then turns to trot away, followed by the other two. They'd prefer prey that's less likely to lead to their faces being chewed off.

"Well. That was impressive...ly weird."

Sky can pause ambiguously in the middle of a word! She is THAT COOL, dude.

"Khht." Edwin looks back to her, looking about as sheepish as a raptor can look. He'd been planning to keep the whole 'skin thing under wraps.

But he has other problems to deal with at the moment-namely, pants problems. (Also shirt and whatnot, but mainly? Pants.) He looks around for a moment before pushing Huxley into a walk, heading for a tree. It's not much to hide behind for changing, but it's better than nothing.

Giggle.

Hiding from an air spirit? He is naive.

It's the thought that counts?

A few minutes later, Edwin-human again, and in intact clothes-comes out from behind the tree, leading Huxley and carrying the shredded remains of his former outfit. "I've lost more pants that way," he mutters to himself, shaking his head and going to stuff the rags into one of his saddlebags. Maybe they'll come in handy later.

He remounts, glancing over to Sky and looking sheepish again. "Sorry. I'd...hoped that wouldn't come up."

"Not a problem. Strange, but not a problem. So, skinshifters, huh? No wonder you know they're not demons."

Edwin continues to look sheepish as he coaxes Huxley into a walk, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't feel demonic, at least. I didn't when I first changed and I still don't. And the herders got a laugh out of the idea, but that was the first time I'd ever seen anyone do that."

"Herders...?"

"Eulorian herders. Some of them are dinosaurskins-I, er...was bitten by one." That sheepish look remains. "I thought she was some kind of new bird species and tried to catch her with part of a tent."

Obviously, things didn't go as planned.

"That must've been exciting," Sky comments dryly.

"Mostly painful," Edwin admits. "Velociraptors are small-the ones that followed us were gigantic-but they have sharp teeth. And claws." He paused. "And they're quite good at thrashing their way out of things."

"Well, you seem to've come out of it okay."

"If with feathers," he says with a bit of smile. "I've been trying to keep records about it, particularly the biology-it's fascinating, being able to turn into a dinosaur and see everything that everyone was wrong about."

His mood is definitely picking up. Dinosaur biology is, perhaps not surprisingly, a favorite topic of Edwin's.

"Sure."

Sky clearly couldn't give a rat's ass.

Edwin apparently doesn't notice, caught up in rambling about the subject. (Forgive him. It is his life's work.)

"Like being able to move so quickly-they have to be warm-blooded, or at least the dromaesaurs are, because otherwise I couldn't move half as fast, at least not for a sustained period like that, and the feathers-the feathers are amazing! No one, no one has even put forth the idea yet! At least not in any published papers; for all I know, someone might be working on one now-but it's amazing. Birds have to come from dinosaurs, somehow-some common ancestor species or a more direct path leading towards birds, I don't know which yet. But speed, feathers, warm bloodedness-oh, and the limb positions. Of course, we've had to do quite a bit of guessing as to how one's supposed to set up the skeletons, since generally they're jumbled, but by looking at the skeletons we just found and looking at my animal form, we've gotten that all wrong, too..."