Talbot Molossus
Talbot Molossus was an alien ambassador resembling an anthropomorphic Great Dane. His assistant in all things was a robot known as the Hydrant, or “Fred” to his friend; though aware of the obvious joke about a dog and a fire hydrant, both considered it highly offensive whenever people brought it up in their presence. One version of him became the leader of the M.F.S. Scottish Division in the 925th Universe.
Description
Physical appearance
A large, bipedal Great Dane (complete with a tail), Talbott habitually wore an indigo suit with crimson robes which “denoted his royal upbringing”. (PROSE: Good Crieff - The Tribulations of the Scottish Division)
Personality
Talbot was a proud, irritable individual, though one with a genuine appreciation of and loyalty to his chosen friends. He had a tendency to place the needs of dogs, even non-anthropomorphic ones, before those of other species. (PROSE: Good Crieff - The Tribulations of the Scottish Division)
Powers & abilities
Talbot's dog-like traits included colourblindness. However, he also had the ability to talk to normal, non-anthropomorphic dogs in “dog language”. (PROSE: Good Crieff - The Tribulations of the Scottish Division)
Biography
Talbot was one of the candidates invited to a job interview at the Wales M.F.S. office in one universe by the Man in Grey. Despite some friction regarding the aforementioned fire-hydrant jokes, he and Fred ended up being included on the final roster of people whom the Man in Grey vetted to staff the new M.F.S. Scottish Division, alongside 0000-8888888 and Doctor Know-It-All. (PROSE: Open Sourcing) Jenny guessed him to be “in his 20s” at that time, but was unsure if that was in human years or dog years. (PROSE: Open Sourcing (2024 reedit))
He acted as leader for the group more often than he answered questions himself, and found the frequent absence of Doctor Know to be frustrating, despite the Hydrant's best efforts to keep his temper down. On one occasion, he insisted on trying to use Doctor Know's computer and quickly got frustrated by the unresponsive machine, to the point that Tetra got him to swap jobs with her, meaning that he ended up manning the Grey Intercepting Telecommunicator for once. He ended up striking up a conversation in “dog language” with the caller's pet dog instead of addressing the caller's inquiry. (PROSE: Good Crieff - The Tribulations of the Scottish Division)
Behind the scenes
Talbot Molossus was created on November 19th, 2013 by Rob Whelehan as an open-source character. He had his own variant of the Paragraph:
| The character of The Great Dane is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving The Great Dane, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed. |
| —Rob Whelehan |
Notably, the original open-source bios for the Hydrant and Talbot depicted the Hydrant as a work of Earth technology, built for Talbot by human scientists as a robot guide to help him navigate terrestrial society — in contrast to the backstory given for the 925th Universe version of the character in the 2024 reedit of PROSE: Good Crieff - The Tribulations of the Scottish Division, where it is instead revealed that part of the 925th Universe's Talbot's fondness for the Hydrant derives from him being one of the things he has left of their shared homeworld. Additionally, the bio depicts Molossus as an alien ambassador sent to Earth as a representative; there is no suggestion that his homeworld has been destroyed or otherwise become inaccessible to him.
