Video | un: rrrRUFF

[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

Audio - UN: Runeseeker

[alternia_strength]

[Perhaps blessedly, Equius opted for Video on this one. He wasn't sure how well his usual typing quirks would translate. Setting down the tongs as he let his latest piece of workmanship cool, he looked at the screen and nodded.]

You have decorating skills similar to someone I once was acquainted with. It does look like a proper hive, yes.

[Said in the tone of 'not my style, but it works.']

[mactirebeag]

[That's probably for the best, since Mebh can't read or write. Though her Omni does have a text-to-speech function to get around that.]

It's not a hive. Hives are for bees. We live in a den. [And by "we", she means her wolves and herself.]

And if we can't have a real den, I want to make it look like ours from back home.

Video; un: lothrat

[ezra_of_lothal]

Oh, hey. That looks like stuff I've seen in the den of the Loth wolves, back home.

[imaglyphwitch]

THAT LOOKS SO COOL! I LOVE IT!

[Luz has always had an eye for art, and this was so unique and unexpected, she couldn't help but stare in amazement].

How long did that take you?

[alternia_strength]

[It was even better not to put a text to speech function through the torment of "L33t Speak" or whatever the trolls called it.

Equius barked out a laugh, showing a set of snaggled fangs in his grinning maw as he slapped the table. It wasn't often the man laughed, but there was familiarity in that statement.]

Of course, of course. You live with a bark beast. It would be a den. My people are closer to what you call insects than we are to other beasts. So, our homes are hives.

But yes. There is something to making this place more like it is yours, is there not? I should hang up some more hoof beast shoes.

[mactirebeag]

They're wolves.

[Mebh is growing increasingly confused by how Equius isn't just calling animals by their names. Though not quite so much as she is by his appearance, now that she's looking more closely.]

You don't look like a bug. Bugs don't have...goat horns, or whatever you've got on your head.

[Fangs don't bother Mebh, since she has a natural pair herself, but the horns and grey skin are certainly a new sight for her since she got here.]

[alternia_strength]

Yes. You call them wolves. We call them bark beasts. I forget human terms easily.

[He nodded and folded his arms, considering how to explain this.]

When we are young, we are grubs. We appear much more insect like when we are that age. As we mature, we and humans look similar on the surface, but there are many differences.

[mactirebeag]

It took me ages. First I had to lug all that paint here, and then me and the wolves had to do all of the paintin' on the walls. Back home, Mammy did most of the paintin' for our den, but I helped.

[Talking about her mother still stings a bit, and likely always will as long as she's not here. But at least Mebh now has a little bit of her mother with her now through these paintings, even if she can't quite capture exactly how they looked back home.]

At least this looks more like home now. [Even if there's paint everywhere.]

[mactirebeag]

What's a Loth wolf? Are they Wolfwalkers too?

[Even with people from so many different worlds here, Mebh knows very little about her own world beyond Ireland and the few places she's lived in her short life.]

[ezra_of_lothal]

Well, I'm not sure what a Wolfwalker is.

Loth wolves are really big wolves on Lothal. My homeworld. [He puts down his Omni and backs up and then gestures, about a foot over his head, so indicate how tall most of them were.]

I was told growing up they'd all died out. But then I met a pack of them. We helped each other.

[mactirebeag]

But wolves don't just bark. They howl, too!

[So of course Mebh feels the need to demonstrate this by howling herself, which prompts the two wolves with her to immediately join in. It's too bad there don't seem to be many other wolves here that aren't other people's Omens, since she's howled more than once to try and contact more of them and hasn't gotten much of a response. The Dog Keeper's dogs will sometimes make a racket, though.]

Different how? Got any extra fur anywhere?

[imaglyphwitch]

I would have asked why you didn't just ask for help, but I guess this way you can say it was something only you and your den mates made for yourself, right?

[Luz was pretty sure Mebh still had feelings about her mother not being here, and even Luz couldn't help but look at the artistry and think of Margot. How she might have loved to look at everything on the walls, see another facet of wolfhood even in a place like Trench].

You need help cleaning up all that paint?

[mactirebeag]

I'm a Wolfwalker. I'm a wolf when I sleep, and I'm human when I'm awake. [There's no small amount of pride in Mebh's voice as she says this.]

Me Mammy's about that big when she's a wolf. I bet one day I'll be that big, too.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Ezra looks startled for a moment. Then just goes still and thoughtful, before he steps back closer to the camera.]

My mom and dad told me stories kinda like that when I was really little. I thought they were just stories.

But like I said, the dens had art that needed hands. And a couple of wolves talked like...humans, although they didn't change shape.

[mactirebeag]

[It's definitely a Wolfwalker thing, which is why Mebh felt it was something only she and the wolves could do. As childish as some of these paintings look, she's still proud of them since they're hers.]

...maybe a little. [Of course, she's been so absorbed in painting that she hasn't considered she will need help with cleaning up this mess.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz always valued the work on the artist, and the fact that they worked on it together showed her something that could only be done by them and so of course she couldn't help but like it. She imagined it was something that explorers might find years and years later and marvel at].

It gets pretty bad and you don't want that setting into your living space! I work with paint all the time, and it can be pretty hard to get out.

How are you making out there, so far?

Video | UN: fogetmenot

[nilheality]

[Oh neat! Nil had heard of tribes of hill men and other different races have homes like these, but this was the first time she ever had a chance to see one. For a while she is contented to watch, smiling at the way wolf and the child working very hard.]

[The 'big reveal' of the patterns on the wall, while rough, was still enough to convey its intention.]

[She considers her words carefully.] That is very impressive, dear one.

I would like to know more of what they mean.

audio; un: doublehedgedsword

[laminae]

Dang, that's looking pretty cool.

[Looks like Luz isn't the only artist around here!]

You need any cool skulls or stuff to decorate lemmie know, we got extra at the house.

video - un: 30hotdoglimit

[stilljustyou]

( It's a mess, but Frisk doesn't comment on that when they respond to the feed. Instead, they offer a thumbs up, nodding their head. )

Good job.

( They're impressed by her artistic ability! It's really impressive, to say the least... )

[mactirebeag]

Thanks! We had these all over our den back home.

[She's working mostly from memory and she's not the most professional artist, but she's still trying to make this place feel more familiar in a way she knows how.]

[stilljustyou]

( They can't blame her at all for wanting a piece of home here. It's at least enough to help someone feel a little more comfortable in a strange new world... )

Does it feel more like home now?

[mactirebeag]

Huh...I've never decorated with skulls before.

[She's always seen bones as things for the wolves to chew on (and she's chewed on plenty herself) rather than things to decorate.]

video | un: ilikemeat

[velvet_teen]

You can draw on the walls? It looks cool, I have to try it!

[ Alice has a caretaker who knows when to pick his battles and will not give a single fuck, and also might be blind. ]

I've just been hanging stuff up, but with paint, you can get everything.

[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.

[mactirebeag]

Why would you want to just hang things up? With paint, you can put whatever you want on the walls.

[And Mebh really doesn't care that she's likely breaking some rules by doing it.]

Me and Mammy put loads of stuff like this on the walls of our den.