So the Frost Melts

by Count Talon of Ransom

A New Liverpoolian Greeting.

Author's Note:

Just as last time, italics will be used for city names.

However, due to the many languages of the gryphon people, italics will also be used for them, ONLY, when a non-English language is being used while in the presence of actual English users. Actual English will not be in italics.

For example: Char 1, English speaker; "I like apples". Char 2, a non-English speaker who is in the presence of Char 1, "I Like apples too!". Char 2, not in the presence of an English speaker, "I don't actually like apples".

Also, if you know any Victorian era, preferably pre-1887, slang words, please post them in the comments. I'll use them just to make sure the people seem to be from their time and not ours.

New Liverpool. Dockside. Twenty minutes to First contact. 11:09 AM.

It's one of the workers constructing one ship, which would make up the rest of the small fishing fleet that'd soon explore the sea for fish, who spots the small ship, barely a few miles away from them. Within seconds, an entire work shift's worth of people had stopped working and was busy debating each other while pointing newly gained talons at the strange ship over the horizon. It wasn't long until one of the six foremen for the entire makeshift shipyard, with six work teams of ten, realized that his designated team wasn't working.

"Oi!" the young, but clearly wrinkled, even underneath his somewhat dirty feathers, foreman shouted as he quickly, and almost tripping on his clumsy paws, climbed down hastily made stairs to his part of the shipyard's work yard, "Get back to work! No po-" his voice dies in his throat as his eyes follow the points and sees the small ship getting ever closer. A single moment passes before the foreman turned and started to run up the stairs, only to trip and climb up it on all fours, much to the laughter of the few men who even noticed the foreman come down in the first place. Of course, the young man didn't much care, more focused on immediately telling... well, everyone, that there was a ship inbound.

---

The screaming was audible for acres around, "SHIP! SHIP INBOUND!". Of course, a few acres was more then enough for the entire city to hear, albeit very slightly over the noises of mines, factories, and general noise created by a city of barely a thousand strong. And as the work day was still going on, very few people actually did hear the screaming.

The foreman was finally stopped, just as he entered a main plaza right next to the Generator, when he was met by an incredibly annoyed guard grabbing ahold of his arm.

"Right, what the hell are you doing, you daft shag-bag! Get back to work! Your time off ain't in for another two hours!" The guard yelled at the foreman as he started to drag the man off, either to prison or back to the shipyard wasn't clear but he stopped the second the young lad screamed.

"There's a ship! A steel one! The Earl needs to know bout it! It could be English!"

The guard looked down at the wrinkled face of the griff in his claws, before starting to drag him again. The wrinkled young griff lets out a single swear before the guard says, "I'm taking you to the Earl, not prison, now stop draggin your feet," the guard scoffs the moment the foreman practically jumps back to his, previously dirt/snow dragging, paws and starts dragging the guard to the Earl's 'palace', "Bloody unlicked cub".

---

Aboard the fishing trawler. Fifteen minutes to First contact.

Tovi sighs again behind the wheel... for what feels like the tenth time in two minutes to Captain Straus.

"Shut it, Tovi," Straus sighs as he looks up from his binoculars, "If you didn't want to be behind the wheel then why in Boreas' name did you take it?"

"Because, Cap," Tovi glances around the room, looking to see if anyone's here, before speaking again, "We both know Sanne, for all her boasting, doesn't know the difference between a 'Full Ahead' command and a 'Full Astern' command. And the other two lads are greenhorns, only thing I trust em with is nets, fish, and nothin else".

Straus says nothing as he looks down his binoculars again, he's had this argument with Tovi before and that ended with... well no claw fight thankfully, just a very upset Tovi. And despite his feeling that Tovi is a layabout, even if he is a good worker, he really does become one when he's upset.

The fishing village in front of him, because there's no way it could be anything else, was the strangest thing he's seen in years. A tiny fishing village with an actual steel dock... wait no that's a shipyard... that's actually even more surprising! Where the devil were they? Skynavia? Gods, he really doesn't want to be anywhere near those Red flagged fools. But even then, Straus doubted that any tiny village of this size would have an actual steel shipyard able to build... while anything apart from what tiny fishing villages normally have. Maybe this place used to be important and now isn't? Like uh... Cyanolisia?

Straus blinked, lowered his binoculars, and rubbed his eyes, he was thinking too much about this and not on more important things. Like why haven't they already been boarded by the village's militia as greeting like back in... well all of Nova Griffonia. Or that big fuck off metal tube in the middle of the village spewing who knows how much smoke into the sky. Hell, despite being a clear fishing village, he can, even inside the bridge, taste the stench of heavy industry and mines. What fishing village has heavy industry? And what fishing village doesn't have a fishing fleet out at... any time!

"Cap?" Tovi's voice rang out, the confusion in his voice quiet but obvious, "I know you have good eyes... and binos, but I don't really see any griffs flying around, we sure these aren't penguins or something?"

Straus scoffed before saying, "I can see the griffs just fine with these binoculars, if you're so certain they aren't gryphons then take it and let me take the com". He presses the binos into Tovi's chest as Tovi grumbles, takes the binos, and gives the wheel to Straus. Straus holds the old wooden wheel in both claws as Tovi looks down the binoculars towards the small village. "They're gryphons, Tovi, obvious as day".

"Doesn't change the fact they aren't flying... at all," Tovi narrows his eyes, "I don't like this sir... Where do we keep the spare defense weapons, Cap?"

Straus almost laughs, "We aren't shooting them just because they can't fly, Tovi".

"It's for self-defense, they might be some uh... rabid... NRPists right? It's just for self-defense".

Straus doesn't say anything for a full minute, his face not betraying anything. "Last I checked, our Kaiser appointed Governor Teafeather, Gods bless him, does not have an official stance on the Northern Republican Party, or their actions. I doubt we have to worry about them. Unless you got some royal blood in you and you never told me, Tovi?" Straus smirks at Tovi, before frowning as Tovi's face doesn't shift, "We have one revolver, nothing more, Tovi. I'm taking it because as it is law that the captain of any ship must have a gun".

"That's still not a law, cap," Tovi sighed before raising the binoculars to his eyes to once more spy on the village.

---

New Liverpool. First Earl of New Liverpool's 'manor'. Ten minutes to First contact.

The excitement about the new ship had died just enough for the foreman that the guard was no longer being dragged by the wrinkled young griff but was instead now just barely able to keep up with him without tripping over his paws. This pace of speed quickly brought them to a manor, the manor of the First Earl of New Liverpool. Of course, due to size limits, the manor was more just a larger house with a tall, strong wooden fence surrounding it and a single guard post, one guard in the post and one outside it, at the gateless entrance. Despite this, the manor gave exactly the kind of message its Earl wanted. That of both humility and power. If the population of the city had even 500 more people then it was assured that only the first would be seen, but the mere fact that a few guards had their only duty to protect a single house showed the wider people that the Earl was protected and strong.

Obviously, the guards stop the two at the entrance. However as the two explain the situation, the guards let them pass into the 'manor', one of them leaving the post to direct them to the Earl.

There is a creak as the strong, heavy manor door is opened, letting in sunlight into the candlelit main entrance. It's tiny for a manor's main entrance but it works well enough for the small meetings with the public that the Earl so love to do.

"Right Honorable, Earl Hilton!," the directing guard called out as he lead the two into the small manor, only to hear a small crashing sound immediately followed by a door slamming open and a well-dressed, though his clothing was more ragged than any Earl would normally accept, gryphon stumbling through it.

"Yes? What is the problem, Sergeant" Hilton asked as he, as carefully as he could on his unsteady paws, rapidly walked over to the three griffs. Hilton immediately, upon noticing his Sergeant glance behind the Earl, says, "Don't worry about that, I can clean it up just as soon as we..." it's at this point Hilton takes a good look at the other griffs, "Who are these people and why are they here, Sergeant?" Thankfully, Hilton's voice was just confusion instead of anger. The Earl was... more accepting of working with commoners then most nobles during the start of the Frost.

"Earl," the Sergeant started, "these men," he gestured to them, "have seen something and need to tell you".

"It's just this lad, Sir, not me. I didn't see anything, I just brought him here," the guard said before being quickly cut off by the Earl.

"Nonsense lad! You're the gentleman who brought mister..." the Earl looks to the both of them, "Names... now. If I'm going to lose minutes of my life listening to you two, then I want to at least know your names".

The two men look at each other. "French, Sir," the guard says, "...Sue, Earl," the foreman says after a moment.

"Good, Mister French, and Mister Sue. Now, what's the problem? Seeing as though I haven't heard a mob on my door or the Generator falling apart I really want to know what the issue is and why it's a problem". The Earl's words, despite being clearly condescending, were spoken with surprising gentleness, more like a father talking to a babbling toddler... which somehow felt worse to the young men.

"There's a ship, Earl. It might-" Sue is cut off.

"I've heard enough already," Earl Hilton says before pausing. An awkward pause between the four of them happens for what feels like minutes before Hilton sighs, "No, I doubt it's British... that is what you were going to say, right Sue?" Hilton looks towards Sue, who had looked a little surprised, before lowering his head again in thought. "Clearly, something happened. New bodies, new sea, now a ship. My suspicion has already been confirmed by the snow melting," Hilton is quiet, practically muttering under his breath, "We likely have been transported to another world".

Despite the clear weight of those words, Hilton then immediately says, "Right!" and claps his claws, "That's a bit heavy. We need a welcoming feast for the newcomers... and a friendly Liverpoolian greeting!"

Silence rolls over the four of them for a few moments. "Sir... are we really going to just go over the fact that we might be... not on Earth anym-?" French says before Hilton cuts him off.

"We can think about that, AFTER greeting the locals... God, I really hope they aren't cannibals..." Hilton turns to his Sergeant, "Sergeant-at-Arms, get to your post, call up the guard, and get them ready in case these fools are some kind of Vikingr. Get the clubs, and whatever pistols we have. Also, call up those church boys, you know, those Catholic lads, and tell them to prepare a feast, visitors love a good greeting feast! And if they're still hostile then we'll call it a victory feast!"

The Sergeant salutes the Earl and quickly runs out the door, leaving the three griffs.

"Am..." French starts to say, "Am I allowed to join up with the rest of the guard or... what, Sir?" For once, Hilton doesn't cut someone off and actually stands there and visibly thinks about it.

"Hmmm. No. You... Yes, you, and Sue here, is going to go out, and greet them. We don't have any actual... diplomats... or... anyone who knows any language other then English... except that one Latin teacher, so somehow I doubt a Foreman and a single Guard can do too badly... plus, I have to dig some old stuff out... it's... actually quite important to this... probably".

The two men look at each other. This probably was going to go poorly.

---

Shore of New Liverpool. Just a few feet off the docks. One minute to First contact.

Straus really thought this was going to go poorly the moment he saw the gryphons on the rickedy docks run off, after being told... something by some black-coated griffs, as his boat got closer. He was out of the bridge, Tovi took the com, with Sanne while the other two griffs of his crew were currently furlling the sails to slow them as much as possible. Just a few feet and he'd could be able to set paw and claw onto the docks.

And so, instead of waiting, he told Sanne to wait, flapped his wings, and quickly hopped/flew onto the dock. Straus took a deep breath before finally looking around. There were half-constructed ships everywhere, only the largest of them had any sails, and it looked of poor quality. More made out of... bedsheets then anything. Most had what looked to be hand-made oars... odd.

He looked up towards the pier, normally someone... anyone would be greeting him by now.

Straus sighed, "Hello! I am Captain Straus, of the fair ship, 'Tabard'. Is... is anyone here?"

Finally, a gryphon, or rather, two of them, one with a black-coat with a giant lamp on it, and another with a more grayish coat with a thick, wollen, dull red sash, appears at the top of the stairs leading down to this pier and the shipyard connecting it. The both of them glance at each other before walking down the stairs... on their hind legs? Before Straus could say anything to the two gryphons, they speak.

"Hello, uh... person from beyond the sea! I am... the guardsman French, and this is... Sue," the black-coated one says, stress and weariness clear in his voice. Of course, he was also speaking the most butched kind of Equestrian he had ever heard in his life. Then again, he barely knew Equesrtian so it could just be a accent... but why in the God's name were a gryphon speaking Equestrian to another gryphon?

And so, faced with oddness of such an action, Straus elgently said a word that would change history forever, "What?"

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Didn't this used to have more chapters?

[Ciphers]

Skynavia, Cyanolisia, Nova Griffonia

Look like they transport into EAW world, nice!
i wonder what the exact location of New Liverpoolian is in the map?
equestriaatwar.wiki.gg/images/7/76/World_Map.png
https://equestriaatwar.wiki.gg/wiki/List_of_Countries

[Count Talon of Ransom]

11524836
No. I think you might be confusing me with another artist who also did something similar to me

[Count Talon of Ransom]

11524847
Well, Straus and his crew aren't as far off from their homes as they think they are.

[MadhatterZack]

Finally, someone Finally decided to take up the undertaking of a city/nation displaced story and Frostpunk crossover as well. The story is great so far and and I look forward to the non-frostlanders reaction to the Liverpool and the other Frostpunk settlements, especially New London.Good luck and Looking forward to future chapters

[PonyDragon]

Or that big fuck off metal tube in the middle of the village spewing who knows how much smoke into the sky. Hell, despite being a clear fishing village, he can, even inside the bridge, taste the stench of heavy industry and mines. What fishing village has heavy industry? And what fishing village doesn't have a fishing fleet out at... any time!

It appears this is not your average fishing village... Like, not at all.

"Clearly, something happened. New bodies, new sea, now a ship. My suspicion has already been confirmed by the snow melting," Hilton is quiet, practically muttering under his breath, "We likely have been transported to another world".

Wow, this guy is fast in the head.

And so, faced with oddness of such an action, Straus elgently said a word that would change history forever, "What?"

All things considered that is a perfectly appropriate response!

---

Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.

Small note:
It's "griffon", not "gryphon". At least for the equestrian variant.

[MadhatterZack]

I wonder what they're gonna call they're nation and what kind of government they are gonna have.

Personally I suggest to call their new nation either Frostland or New Hope, with there official name being The United Cities of _________. I also suggest their government to be a sort of federated Socialist Demoracy with a few authoritarian bits at best and a Socialist Authoritarian State at worse.

[MadhatterZack]

Here are a few Victorian Slang words and terms I found:

bags'O mystery -(noun) sausages
Bricky - (Pronnoun) Brave or Fearless
Bang up the elephant - done properly/ the right way
Butter upon Bacon - Excessive Extrevagance
Chickaboo - a nick name given to a close friend
Meater - Street word for Coward
Nanty Narking - having a hoot/ great fun
Skilamalink - secret/ shady/ doubtful
Sauce box - It's on your face
Take the egg - to win

Refer to these videos for more Slang:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7xVnjsUxK9Y&t=202s

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHaaM5krNo8

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/jiLzS2QRtMA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cIMzlYdDJJ0

[Count Talon of Ransom]

11527773

Small note:
It's "griffon", not "gryphon". At least for the equestrian variant.

Oh I know that, I just prefer writing gryphon and not griffon, just seems more proper that way!