NPC CONTACT
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andernach & fearolc ▪ While the Bonded pair are particularly busy - between their everyday work for the Coven and Parliament, and looking for answers to new arrivals' questions - they've placed a mailbox outside the Coven gates for anyone to leave a letter for them. These can be non-urgent queries, updates for Nessie or Mhairi, requests for in-person appointments, etc.
You can also reach them both by watch now! They've gotten their own, and will answer at their earliest availability. However, if your message or request for them is time sensitive, it's always recommended that you seek them out at the Coven itself, especially to reach Miss Nessie. Relaying messages through Parliament can be difficult, but this is also an option, if Mhairi is currently attending a session.
If you wish to interact with Nessie and Mhairi outside of the intro logs, please comment here. You have the option of handwaving the IC interaction to OOCly ask what questions your character might have for them, for us to summarize an answer for, or you can request an IC thread. Simply specify in your comment's subject IC or OOC, comment to the specific NPC you'd like to contact, and we'll respond accordingly. If you're looking to speak to both, please respond to the toplevel below.
Face-to-face IC interactions are granted in special OOC circumstances, such as follow-ups to quests, investigations, or a previous thread. OOC "handwaving" of a face-to-face interaction is still good to go!
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eren listens with round eyes, alert to what she speaks. the help is more appreciated than he can begin to let on, bowing his head into a nod to show his acknowledgment. was he supposed to . . . accept this, then? toss away what he is, which is not the same as who, in exchange for returning to the world he should be in seems a small price to pay. eren was far more focused, as he was forward in thought for some his age. he no longer had his abilities, but what if what he’s heard is true?
it’s the way this world has, to translate who they were without being gone completely. eren didn’t understand it thoroughly enough, but he knows to believe it. the worry would only tardy his results, results that he could give to this land so they can give back.
she was being genuine, and so was he. stupid would be selfishly thinking of himself when there’s way too many matters to attend to. ]
How was it for you?
[ it’s innocent curiosity, only. and maybe a means to prepare himself, somehow. ]
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His eyes also speak volumes, but he's - resilient. He's a boy, truly, but must have seen things that make him grown far more than many would give him credit for.
Now, he faces this. She's proud of what she is, who she is, but she wouldn't inflict this on someone else when they've known all but it. And if it's true, if he's facing a transformation... Perhaps Nessie will be able to find something, anything, some kind of way to reverse it. Stop it. Until they can send them home. ]
Difficult, but not impossible. I wasn't born with a human form - you could say this is my human form, truly, since it isn't my shifted - so I had different challenges initially. I was... angrier, then. Prideful. I thought I knew best, though could not control myself so easily, before I met my first Bonded, Ailbe.
Perhaps because I was born like this, the mental changes were harder for me. My instincts needed a Bond to steady me, but I did learn how to center myself better, and I can teach you that. I did encounter some growing pains - [ She removes her hand from his shoulder, gesturing down at her digitigrade legs and feet, visible where her breeches cut off just above her 'ankle.' ] - and I can say that we thankfully have potions, spells, salves for those. I can hope against hope that you aren't facing these changes, but if you are, we can help.
And if you find yourself wishing to see a shift before you find yourself startled by the impulse... well, I would be willing to give a demonstration.
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people who were not free, or were content with its lack. that drove him crazy. people who had the gall to betray him, lord, run. his grudges we enough to last a lifetime, hate the fuel that kept him going and living for years as he grew from child to adolescent. now . . . now, the world is bigger, stories are deeper, and eren sees that he is not, and never will be, the only victim.
but much has changed in the constant events of growth. he knows he needs to rely on people the same way people do so with him. you need people to get things done, it doesn’t matter if they’re friends, or colleagues— nothing is ever truly done alone.
(and sometimes, you have to take that chance and decision, and do things alone).
but, that doesn’t apply here, eren has decided. if he could find someone, he’d do it. anger has done so much of getting the best of him . . . and giving the worst of an end to others. ]
I’d— [ a swallow; he hadn’t realized his throat went a little dry. ] I’d want to learn.
[ she was a figure he’s already built certain respect for, consequently, treatment toward her is different compared to when he’d talk to hiccup or mikleo. the way he straightens his back is akin to a cadet speaking to his captain, or a child wanting to show respect to his elders. ]
Can you do it all the time?
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She wouldn't go back to change that, if she had the chance. A young Mhairi Ainsley was fundamental in her growth, despite all the loathing that burned in her, her monstrous instincts barely kept in check. But you can only live in anger for so long before it truly burns you, and those around you. So many people she'd hurt, that she'd let down, that suffered because of the tunnel vision she'd let herself have...
There are regrets, of course. You don't live to your 40s without them. But Ailbe wouldn't dare let her linger in the dark when she was alive, and wouldn't suffer her wallowing now - likely would cross the veil itself to kick her in the tail, she thinks. So she knows; you need people to survive, to prosper, to learn and grow. At times you have to go it alone, but there will always be people behind you, and ahead of you, if only you look.
So she will help. She'll always be one of the people waiting ahead with a hand ready to reach out.
Mhairi adjusts her stance, folding her arms behind herself and standing straighter in response to his own shift. While never military, the Wilders are run like a military unit, and it's second instinct - he gives her his attention and respect, and she will certainly return it in kind. ]
I must change on the full moons, as all Monsters do, but yes. I can do it all the time. Here - come with me.
[ With a flick of her tail, she moves to leave the library space that is her own, leading the way to the outdoors. ]
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I remember it hurting sometimes in those dreams. Like I had to— rip some of me off to fit the rest.
[ he wonders if it’s the same or different— but not because he’s afraid of the pain, but perhaps cautious of it. mind you, eren’s pain threshold is titanic, pun intentional. ]
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Some Monsters do have to effectively shed their "human" skin to take on their shifted forms, but the pain dulls over time as the body becomes accustomed to it. [ She begins to unbutton her shirt. ] At times my bones and muscles ache from my own changes if they're particularly rushed or the weather is poor, but I experienced the most pains when I was younger, my body unused to the changes.
[ So, his titanic pain tolerance will likely allow him to get more used to it.
In the meantime, the clothes, as it turns out, are for human modesty: Mhairi is covered head-to-foot in fur, and despite a slight feminine shape to her body there isn't anything to see. Save, it seems, for a knot of old, greyish scars in her side down into her flank where her fur has grown in thinner and whiter, like something her size or bigger tried to take a chunk out of her. ]
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his eyes fall straight to what’s different, though. scars and patches of fur that don’t match up. ]
You’d fight a lot?
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Angling her head a little - the scar is on the opposite side of her good eye - Mhairi regards it for a moment as she folds her shirt neatly. ]
Quite often. This, however, is from my time in the Wilders. It's why I had to retire. [ One hand lowers to touch it, sighing as her demeanor shifts, just slightly, into solemn. ] Ailbe and I joined together, and we effectively left together, as well. We'd encountered a Cwyldtid with our team.
[ They've lost teams of Wilders who weren't prepared for a lone Cwyldtid. She'd been speaking from experience, when they'd first met at his arrival. ]
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he nods at her for her to continue. she’s out here because of him after all! he didn’t want to keep interrupting. but he’ll keep the encounter in mind, and gestures for her to continue, whenever she’s ready, hands returning to his sides and straightening his back as he did. ]
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There's a crack of bone, then something akin to a grinding. A ripple across her body, like every muscle spasms in a wave. The pain is background noise for her, these days, but she lays her ears back and closes her eyes as she feels the change overtake her. Usually, the transformation is over quickly, sped up by experience and the ease with which she takes to what she is; through effort, she forces it to come more slowly. ]
You can't fight it. [ Her voice is more gruff, as she lets herself fall forward onto all fours as her body shifts just so, making it clear it's less viable to always remain bipedal. It's easier to keep her balance that way. ] If you fight it, you cause yourself greater pains, and run the risk of the magic that comes with being a Monster lashing back out at you. It would eat away at your clarity until everything that makes you you, makes you a person, is nothing more than an afterthought to instincts that bid you to hunt, to hurt.
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she could, and it was awing. that it would eventually happen to him isn’t so much a bothering thought. he’s accepted greater blows when he was younger, burdens, even more so.
perhaps, he would’ve fought against his changes, when they were to come, if he hadn’t received this word of warning, moreso out of human instinct to guard what he was. ]
If that’s what I need to survive here, [ he needs to stay alive, he needs to take care of himself and the friends around him. he had to if he wanted to return safely, and he was not above bending. he’s already given up so much— this was but another, and he’d be a grain of nothing if he defied it. ] I’ll accept it.
[ he’ll always be him. once it feels okay to, he’ll begin to approach. she hasn’t changed either. ]
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But she watches him approach with that still human-adjacent intelligence in her good eye. Despite whatever pains she's faced as a Monster, despite the world that's fought her every step of the way in her youth, still does in her forties, Mhairi Ainsley holds onto herself.
She does not want the new arrivals to lose who they are, even if they find themselves facing these transformations. Every shred of advice she can give, every warning... she'll give it. ]
Good. You've seen much, Eren. [ Like recognizing like, but also an observation that's not hard to make with what facts she's been presented, his behavior, his resolution. ] I am truly sorry that you face more here, but I believe that someone like you has the strength to surmount these challenges. It's in your eyes.