Audio - UN: LaFleurDeParis

[repaintress]

[The voice that comes through on the network is elegant and precise - every word is weighed and considered before being spoken. ]

I am told this is a forum where one may solicit public opinion.

If there is one experience you could have again, what would it be?

What from your home do you find yourself missing the most?

Comments

[repaintress]

And how were you shifted?

[ Tall enough to crowd out the sky, then. Clea closes her eyes, conjuring the scene in her mind. It could go multiple ways depending on presentation: the trees could be comforting and protecting like a blanket on a winter's night, or they could be oppressive, hemming in the audience like a cage. His sound more comforting. ]

You must have known the forest well to run through it in such a manner. I confess I have been tempted to yell loudly in nature, though never at the moon in particular.

[ Much more often recently, and the urge isn't confined to when she's in nature. ]

[will_chase_balls]

I'm a wolf shifter. So I was shifted into my wolfman form.

[Which probably gives context to the rest of what he said. His status as a shifter wasn't a secret back home, so he sees no reason to hide it here. The Karrnath military saw it as an asset, and the extremist groups that took issues with shifters never took root where he lived.]

[repaintress]

So some poor man entered an arena with a man and ended up fighting a wolf?

[ Notably, she doesn't sound disapproving. Instead, Clea is slightly amused. ]

Do your senses shift as well? Do you find the forest's beauty similar in both forms?

[will_chase_balls]

More like a bipedal wolfman, but yes. Don't worry, it was the kind of shady arena that he probably figured something like that would happen going in.

It's more beautiful as a wolf. It feels homier, and you notice all the prey around you.

[repaintress]

I agree, it was his responsibility to prepare. If he did not, then he is at fault.

When you scent prey, do you come alive with the urge to hunt and chase underneath the moon? To feel the exhilaration of pushing forward and knowing you must rely on yourself to fell your prey?

[ She may have spent a bit too much time thinking about this. ]

[will_chase_balls]

Yeah. I can still control myself, so I can stop myself if I want to, but I don't usually want to. Anything that doesn't get eaten that first night is preserved for later.

[repaintress]

Why limit yourself?

Is fighting more satisfying as a man or a wolf?

[will_chase_balls]

I don't. I just could if I wanted to. Well, I will if I'm chasing or fighting a person, because I'm not a cannibal, but if it's a wild animal I take the free meal.

A wolf. I'm stronger and more powerful as a wolf.

[repaintress]

So you consider it cannibalism even if you're not in human form?

[ Clea cannot say she ever expected to be pondering this question, but that doesn't leave it completely without interest. ]

Has anything ever beaten you? Do you feel fear as a wolf, or are you as assured as I have always imagined such creatures to be?

[will_chase_balls]

Yeah. I'm still aware and I know what I'm doing and I can control my actions, so of course I do.

Nothing's beaten me, but I've been scared before when facing things like the Mournland Horrors. They probably would have beaten me if I faced them alone, but I was with my squad.

[repaintress]

And what manner of monster is a Mournland Horror to cause fear in the heart of a wolf?

[will_chase_balls]

They're twisted creatures that can look like anything. Often massive. Often extra limbs. Extremely dangerous.

[repaintress]

Literally or metaphorically twisted? How many limbs have you seen on one at a time?

Do you enjoy fighting them?

[will_chase_balls]

Usually just metaphorically, but sometimes literally, too. And I saw a deer spider with like...thirteen limbs? There were more on one side than the other.

Yeah. I was terrified, of course, but at least I wasn't alone, and it was exciting.

[repaintress]

[ Thirteen limbs. What a delightful amount. Not particularly helpful for locomotion, but just enough to be spectacularly unnerving to those who encounter them. Less, and the limbs could be mistaken for practical appendages, and too many more threaten to topple into an aesthetic mess. ]

It is always exciting to test your limits.

Do you know who made the creatures?

[will_chase_balls]

No idea. I just know weird and horrifying things come from the Mournlands. I don't know if anything created them, or if they just are.

[repaintress]

I've never seen a natural creature with thirteen limbs. That's a number that's picked deliberately to evoke unease.

Have you ever been to the Mournlands?

[will_chase_balls]

Yeah, they're definitely not natural. I just don't know if they're created or mutated.

No. The mission was just to deal with some of the Mournland Horrors that had made their way north into Karrnath, so we had no reason to actually go into the Mournlands.

[repaintress]

Describe mutated.

That's a shame. They would be interesting to hear about.

[will_chase_balls]

I mean deformed. Not how it was supposed to turn out.

[repaintress]

Do you have any artistic ability? If you can render them with any faithfulness, I can tell you if they were created or not.

[will_chase_balls]

I don't, no. I might be able to manage a stick figure, though!

[repaintress]

That's unfortunate.