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[mactirebeag]

[The feed turns on to show...a wolf. At first the wolf's yellow eyes take up the screen, and then its nose as it loudly sniffs at the camera until a young girl's voice with a strong Irish brogue addresses it offscreen.]

What are you doin' over there? I need help with this part!

[The wolf turns around to join whatever's going on, revealing that this is in Mebh's room at the Waystation. And it's an absolute mess; Mebh is currently in the process of painting various things on the walls with paint that she probably stole got from somewhere in town. She's painted it with numerous kinds of shapes and symbols; spirals, circles, arrows, simple depictions of wolves and people. What seem to be most common, though, are wolf pawprints overlapping with human handprints. The wolf Mebh called over dips one of its paws in a jar of paint, and Mebh guides the wolf's paw to the middle of a painting of a large circle of wolves, where the pawprints overlap with her own handprints that she added earlier.]

There! Sin é, that's it. It's startin' to look more like the den now.

[Seemingly satisfied, Mebh goes to another part of the wall where she's in the process of painting something else; it's meant to look like this, though Mebh's artistic ability doesn't quite match her vision so it looks a good deal cruder.

Will Mebh get in trouble with the Dog Keeper for painting on the walls of her room without asking? Probably. But at least she's preoccupying herself instead of dwelling on what she's lost. If she's going to stay in a room instead of the woods, she can at least make it look more like home.]

Comments

[mactirebeag]

You want to know?

[Mebh is more than happy to explain, in that case. She's very proud of what she is, more so since very few of her kind are left.]

This one here is the most important. [She gestures to the painting she's working on behind her.] It shows how we're humans in the daytime and wolves at night.

[nilheality]

[She smiles, giving her full attention and nodding.] I see. So these are the story of your people?

[mactirebeag]

Not really stories...more like what we are.

[The more abstract shapes like the circles and spirals feel more like that as well, in a way that Mebh doesn't quite have the words to explain.]

We've lived with wolves for ages, so of course we gotta paint a lot of 'em.

[nilheality]

[Huh, so less of a statement of a story but something more like letting people know of their existence? Kinda like marking territory, maybe?]

So, you live with wolves and you also aren't wolves. And this is how you and your people are. Are there times you lived with people too?

[mactirebeag]

We are wolves. Just not all the time.

[Though Mebh absolutely would be a wolf all the time if she had her way. As far as she's concerned, it's better than being human.]

We're not like other people, so we don't live with 'em. We've always been our own tribe, even before Naomh Padraig came.

[nilheality]

[That is disappointing. She thinks that is a missed opportunity. A potential bridge between species, but perhaps that is her own human bias.]

I had heard of a race like that before... shifters, I think they were called?

Naomh Padraig...? [The name meant more to Mebh than it did to Nil.]

[mactirebeag]

[Unfortunately, most people in Mebh's time period are too afraid of wolves to even consider accepting a group who are so closely associated with them. Plus most people don't believe Wolfwalkers are real, anyway.]

He was a holy man who came a long time ago. He kept tellin' people to give up the old ways, but we didn't want to. So he made it so we'd become wolves when we sleep. Some people say he cursed us, but I don't think so.

[nilheality]

[In fairness, Nil's people weren't as open-minded as Nil was too. The shifters back home were a nomadic people that were often treated with suspicion and contempt. Nil herself is struggling herself with her aberrant nature. But there seemed to be something so different of Mebh. Like, with a little bit of effort on both peoples that they could find common ground.]

Well, it does sound good that you see it that way. I can understand why others disagree. It's mean to have someone make the choice for you and force you to live with it.

[Something she knew all too well.]

[mactirebeag]

Well, it doesn't matter now. Bein' a wolf is flippin' great!

[Mebh's never really thought very hard about why Saint Patrick made her kind what they are. Becoming a wolf when she sleeps is simply a part of life for her, and she wouldn't have it any other way.]

Though...I can't sleep very much here. I dunno why.

[nilheality]

Oh. [Nil misunderstood. To hear Mebh speak of it, her people could freely switch between wolf and man, and Naomh Padraig made it so it only worked when they slept. The fact that the polymorph spell was the enchantment... yeah, Nil could understand why people might not like that. But Mebh seemed to be taking it in stride?]

[Nil chuckles a bit as she recalls what she had been told to go to sleep.] I had been told that one way to go to sleep is to be active and tire yourself out.

...somehow I don't think that you would haven't tried that already. [Mebh seemed very lively.]

[mactirebeag]

I could do that if there were more places to run around. Like a real forest.

[Not like Trenchwood, which is bad enough without having dangerous monsters in it. Mebh is still sore about that.]

[nilheality]

Have you tried the coastline?

[A bit craggy, but there was plenty of open space, from what she remembered, anyway.]

[mactirebeag]

Yeah. You can run a lot there, but there isn't anythin' to climb except rocks.

[And a lot of the time it feels too open. It feels safer when there are a lot of trees around for cover, especially with everything that lurks around in this world.]

[nilheality]

[She chuckles. Ahh the impetuousness of youth that want to have everything.]

I should have guessed that you tried that too.

Well, there are other ways but, ah... I would not think they would be to your liking.

[mactirebeag]

Well, if any of 'em mean I have to stay in the town, I'm not doin' it. Towns are too smelly.

[Living at the Waystation isn't the most ideal setup, but to Mebh it's at least better than living in Trench. She still can't stomach the idea of town life, for a number of reasons.]

[nilheality]

Hmn...? Ah... are you in Trenchwood?

[Mild concern.]

[mactirebeag]

No, I'm at the big windmill. The Dog Man's lettin' me stay with him. [She's referring to the Dog Keeper.]

That Trenchwood's no good for livin' in, either.

[Even if it didn't have monsters lurking in it, Mebh still wouldn't like Trenchwood much. Hardly anything grows there aside from bloodstained trees.]

[nilheality]

[She didn't know the man by either name.] The Dog Man? [Still, she's not in the Trenchwood, which was a huge relief. She had only explored it once or twice, but knew immediately it was no place for a little one like Mebh.]

I believe it, though. That place might only be good for the dead or drow.

[mactirebeag]

You know, the Dog Man. [Mebh says that as though repeating it will make it more obvious.] He lives way out here and he's got loads of dogs. Makes the whole place smell like dog, but that's not too different from wolf.

...what's a drow?

[nilheality]

I'm sorry... I just arrived here. I don't know too many people yet.

[Ah, but she can answer that second part.] The drow is a race of elves. Traditionally, they live inside the mountains, and so are pretty capable of living off of very limited resources.

[mactirebeag]

Mountains don't sounds so great to live in. I guess you could do loads of climbin', though.

[Mebh vastly prefers living in a forest to anywhere else.]

...dunno what elves are, either. Are they like the sidhe?

[nilheality]

They aren't, really. There's not much to eat except lichens, waters, and other cave-dwelling creatures. Its a very hard environment and not all drow are the friendliest of people.

[Though she is careful not to paint too broad of an allusion.]

Elves are... the people of the wood, originally. They sprung out from the blood of their creator, Corelion, I think? It is said that long ago, the elves were the first people of the land... Ahbehr-Tayril, if I am remembering right. But, anyways, they are a long-lived people and guardians of their ancient areas. Eventually they made their own groups, some going underground, some going to the stars, some returning to the faewyld, some going to the sea, and some traveling the lands.

They are a long lived people, and slow to trust. I have met a few of them in my travels, and they are a good people, if a bit... proud.

[mactirebeag]

Sounds more like the Tuatha Dé Danann, then.

[Some of those details sound like them, at least.]

I've never seen 'em, but Mammy's told me stories. They lived where I'm from way before people did, and they live for a long time.

[nilheality]

[It was enough to get her to laugh.]

And where might you be from?