outer_divide | [video]

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[video]

[the video feed turns on, and a giant, curious yellow eye stares back, accompanied by a deep, rumbling noise that sounded a bit like a cat's purr. Off in the distance comes a young man's voice talking in Norse - although thanks to the communicator's translation, there's an easy English text version popping up]

Toothless, what are you doing with that…[there's a crash, as the voice has apparently just dropped something]...oh gods, it's a magic book.

[the giant eye twists away, as Toothless lifts his head up to look inquisitively off at something to the side - the source of the voice, presumably. The angle is strange, and all you can see is part of his head, but it's clear enough that Toothless is covered in black scales, and big.]

Okay, okay…Toothless, just come over here, okay buddy? [Toothless rumbles softly, but takes a step away from the book, and out of view.] That's it, come on…let's get away from the magic, probably cursed book…oh gods, why me…

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[She's not going to sigh at him, because while his reaction is a little spastic than hers Mulan basically had similar thoughts about the communicator when she first arrived too.]

It's not magic. It is made of machines. Technology; very elaborate and advanced to you, no doubt. But entirely made by the hands of man.

And you might want to get your...pet, away from it. So that it doesn't get damaged.

[cautiously, Hiccup inches into view. He's talked to a few people through the magic book by now, and...well, so far they don't seem to have been cursed to a horrible and painful doom by it. Not that it's too late for that...]

Are you sure about that? Technology is...you know, pulley systems, catapults, better ways of reigning down fire and destruction upon your enemies, etcera ectera.. This is a book with moving pictures. How could you make something like this without magic?

[he glances off to the side, where Toothless is presumably stashed out of view]

Toothless...Toothless isn't really a pet. He's my friend.

Your friend, then. It doesn't change the fact he might break it. And I'm not sure how one would go about getting these replaced.

And I understand your confusion; it sounds as if technology is at a similar state in your world as it was in mine. But there are a lot of things here to prove that invention has far advanced that which we know.

[Hiccups glances off to the side where Toothless, still out of view, lurks]

Oh, don't worry. I won't let him break it. He's never torn my journal before, so I don't think this would be a problem. But - advanced inventions? [he looks very interested in this] What kind of inventions?

Machines that fly. Carts that move faster than those drawn by horses, without any beasts drawing them at all. Weapons that can injure or kill with a single small blast.

I'm probably not the best person to ask about details, though. I don't pretend to understand much about how it works. It might as well be magic, it's only as a point of distinction that it's not.

[Now Hiccup's even more interested. Flying machines? Carts that are faster than horses? Weapons...well, that sounded a lot like Toothless. But still interesting]

Do you know who does understand how they work? Do you think they'd mind if I asked them about it?

There are more than a few people around the town. Actually, this device is probably the best way to get the answers that you seek.

Right, the magic book. Or not-magic book. I'll just...have to figure out exactly how to use. I'm not really sure how Toothless got it going in the first place, I'm afraid.

I had some similar problems at first, too. There should be a large flat sort of switch, somewhere along the side. That's the activation for power.

A switch? Why would a book have a switch? [Hiccup picks up the communicator, and the video becomes a mess of blurring images hurling past, as Hiccup fiddles around with no thought to how the image comes across. And then apparently Hiccup does manage to find the power - because suddenly the feed goes black.

Oops.]

[Well the good news is he found it. Mulan will wait for a little bit to see if he's going to turn it on and resume the conversation; if not she'll go about her way. She has faith that he's on his way to figuring it all out, eventually.]

[unfortunately, this time around Hiccup doesn't quite manage to turn the communicator back on. The dragon which has decided to try and give it's input maybe having something to do with that]

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