NPC CONTACT

[moustre]

NERISSA BELL & MHAIRI AINSLEY
▪ 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!

Comments

[usurpers]

[ he almost wants to ask why do you wear clothes, and he might’ve four years ago? now, at least, he keeps his mouth shut and words to himself— he doesn’t need to be rude when she’s already doing something for him.

his eyes fall straight to what’s different, though. scars and patches of fur that don’t match up. ]

You’d fight a lot?

[fearolc]

[ She likes looking fashionable. Also, prejudice against Monsters is a bitch.

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. ]

[usurpers]

[ he’d like to ask more, but— for now, he hold the breath in when lips part.

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. ]

[fearolc]

[ A soft chuff escapes her, quiet, a laugh almost. But Mhairi undoes the button on her breeches - behind her, because of her tail - and steps out of them. She can feel the prickle of her skin as she pulls on the magic inherent in what she is, shaking herself out. Her fur around her hackles and down her spine bristles, and then -

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.

[usurpers]

[ it isn’t as if eren’s ears are unused to the crack of bones or the uneasy churn of bodies into something unnatural. and thinking well, he shouldn’t be. at the back of his mind, he could’ve sworn she couldn’t seem more beast— but she could.

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. ]

[fearolc]

[ As the transformation settles, she stands on all fours easily. Her digitigrade legs are moreso, now, haunches as opposed to anything that lets her easily stand on them alone. Her fingers are longer, claws more pronounced. Already tall, already broad, she's more canine, now, albeit much larger. If she were to stand on her hind legs, she would reach nearly ten feet.

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.