Unicorn Traits
Sensory Characteristics
Hearing
Ordinary horses can hear a much wider range of sound frequencies (55 to 33,500 Hz) than humans (64 to 23,000 Hz) though not as wide a range as, say, cats (45 to 64,000 Hz) and dogs (67 – 45,000 Hz). Unicorns, apparently, can hear sounds at far higher frequencies than any of these lightweights. Jennifer possesses a whistle with which to summon her unicorn and this, she tells us, emits a sound measured at 72 kHz (actual 72.8 kHz, exactly 100 kHz in Calmarendian time units). How much higher unicorns can actually hear (and how much sensitivity is lost at low frequencies) we do not know.
Natasha has a theory that, in fact, a unicorn's hearing range is little better than that of E. ferus and that they can no more hear Jennifer’s "Unicorn Whistle" than you could. Rather, because Jennifer believes Šřejýla can hear it, using the whistle sets up thought patterns which the unicorn is able to detect telepathically.
Spoiler: Why 72.8 kHz?Natasha made the unicorn whistle; 100 kHz is just a number she pulled out of her butt.
Preternatural Abilities
Telepathy
General
Amongst humans, telepathy is a rare, often flawed, gift and only one robot has the ability but, for unicorns, it is a universal trait and their primary means of communication.
It is not a telepathy that works in the same way as human or robot telepathy and, on the human telepathy scale, unicorns are barely beyond the nascent stage of being able to read the minds of others – though they do not suffer the downsides common in human nascent telepaths. It is, however, as a communication medium that unicorn telepathy comes into its own.
Intraspecies Communication
Unicorn thoughts are not transmitted in any way that might be conventionally described as linguistic but rather as a combination of rich imagery and complex abstractions with which they convey observations, ideas, perspicacious inquiry and subtle suggestion.
An individual unicorn may broadcast their thoughts to all in their vicinity, narrowcast them in a specific direction or communicate them privately with one or more individual unicorns. The horn plays an important part in this process and, in the case of their private conversations, the unique striations of each unicorn’s horn play the part, if you will, of encryption keys. So subtle, however, are the ways in which these private conversations take place, that another unicorn will not only be unable to understand what is being conveyed, they will not even be aware, necessarily, that any conversation is taking place at all.
Communication with Humans
Now you might suppose that a species which has only limited contact with humans, one that, indeed, goes out of its way to avoid contact with humans and one that does not, as such, use language would struggle to understand human speech. This, however, is not the case. They learn from the humans they have lured away into captivity and what is learned is quickly assimilated into the collective unicorn lore and disseminated throughout the communes so that each and every unicorn, even those who have had no direct contact with humans, has enough knowledge with which to get by should the need arise.
Communicating unicorn thoughts to humans, even human telepaths, is, by contrast, no easy task. Some humans get it, most don’t; it’s a sure sign that those who do are Elmetian Fae. As for those who don’t, the usual array of horsey snickers, whinnies and neighs will often suffice. Failing that, a good kick in the balls always gets the message across.
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