Text messages sent between two locations (one a train) The Upper Tier of the Inner Cosmos, February 14 2015 CE. [Transcribed]

---

Transcription begins.

---

• Priya: Hi! Did you get to the train?
  • Carto: Dear Priya, How are you? I am fine. To answer your query, yes. We all safely boarded the train. We have a set four seats with a table between us. As you suggested, these are the better arrangement of seats for our purpose. Yours, Cartographer Homunculus.
• Priya: It is OK to write less formally
• Pryia: It is more like having a chat than writing a letter
  • Carto: I see. It was very hard to type all of those words. The small letters do not suit my fingers very well.
• Priya: I just wanted to check that you and your friend are safe
  • Carto: My friend is safer than he was. The man you met and his comrade are still with us. This is not unlike when we were on a carriage being guarded by the police of the horselords.
• Priya: Horse lords?
  • Carto: The dynastic rulers of the horses on my tier. They are very noble but also very suspicious of anybody who is not a horse.
• Priya: Are they actual horses or are they like people?
  • Carto: Everybody is people Priya
• Priya: I mean do they look like regular horses or do they look more human like
  • Carto: Apart from their hands they look like the horses on your tier
• Priya: So their front feet are hands? I can’t imagine that
  • Carto: They have hoof-like knuckles and when they stand on all fours their finges sort of fold into the hoof part. It’s a bit rude to draw attention to it though.
• Priya: Oh! I’m sorry!
  • Carto: It’s only rude if there was a horse in the conversation.
• Priya: 🙂
  • Carto: How do you type a face?
  • Carto: 🙂
  • Carto: I found out how!
  • Carto: 😋🐎
• Priya: Welcome to the 21st century!
  • Carto: 🦓🚲🏰⛵️🐉👿🚞🔮⚔️
• Priya: LOL
• Priya: That means ‘laugh out loud’
  • Carto: Do I have to laugh out loud?
• Priya: No I am laughing out loud
  • Carto: LOL
• Priya: Before you go away again send me a message so I know you got away safely
  • Carto: I will if I can. Esquin doesn’t understand what I am doing with this phone.
• Priya: Can he read what you are typing?
  • Carto: No Sir Pangolin is sitting next to me. He is sleeping.
• Priya: And Sir Pangolin is an actual Pangolin?
  • Carto: A bit bigger than your kind of pangolins. He is about the height of an eight-year old child.
• Priya: I hope that big coat worked to hide his appearance
  • Carto: Not entirely
  • Carto: At the station a woman stopped us and was frightened by his appearance.
• Priya: Oh no!
  • Carto: Then she decided it was a child in a disguise. This did not worry her. She asked “Is this a star wars thing?”
• Priya: What did you say?
  • Carto: I said that yes it was and that my son was in a disguise. She laughed and then patted his head.
• Priya: 😅
  • Carto: Sir Pangolin was not happy about being patted on his head. I have since told two other strangers that it is a ‘star wars thing’. I don’t know what that means but it seems to work.
• Priya: 😂
  • Carto: I must thank you again for all your help.
• Priya: No need to thank me just be safe
  • Carto: I think we are nearly there. This phone has a map that shows me where I am.
• Priya: I knew you would like that
  • Carto: The train is slowing. I think the station is near.
• Priya: Good luck Carto! Get home safely!

---