oh this thread, it's red, it's red

MERCUTIO o' me of little faith Time, space, the universe and everything… it’s always been an incomprehensible pile of shit but Mercutio was reaching whole new levels of Done. He’d never tried for answers when it came to all that nonsense, and tiny pieces he’d vaguely thought he knew had been completely obliterated when he’d been pulled from one reality and thrust into an entirely new one. Again.. and again… “Fuck it all to hell, not ag-“ was all he got out when with a flash of light and a horrible suffocating feeling he was yanked from the desolate reaches of a cold mountain range. Yes, again. The universe is the biggest bitch in—well—the universe. His soul, for he must now admit there was some sort of continuous self that he was, had passed through world and void and world again, had walked horizons it seems in days and hours and millennia that folded and snapped taught and tugged him away. In each new fragment of a life he knew who he was, had memories of moments and sensations of a life lived in one long piece and a handful of shards trailing on the end. He wasn’t always sure what he was, at least at first, and being in an entirely new body that was all at once the same was.. well it was best not to think on it too hard. The how and the why of it all was not Mercutio’s to figure out. He had fooled himself, once or twice in fanciful daydreams and undisclosed desires that there was a golden thread that he was following. A fleeting shadow that came and was gone just before he could catch up. And how long would this one last, this body this life this time, a moment? A lifetime? His first thought when he was finally up to thinking again was that maybe it wasn’t worth getting up. Now, something to understand about being inadvertently being sucked through a portal to another world is that it’s really fucking disorienting. There was a moment as he appeared when it was a man that lay in the long grass, by the time he was conscious enough to take stock of things, he was a hulking grey wolf. Eventually, Mercutio decided the little rock poking him in the side was a good enough reason to move, and the wolf rose to a sitting position. He took a long, lazy look down at himself. Quadruped again..nice…oh! He smacked his mouth, tongue lolling out. Wow, teeth. Those are new.” --- "Speaking." - ooc: Anyone is welcome but if I could ask that no one point out to Mercutio that he's actually a human, you know, for plot reasons!

Ashe

   Ashe hated the Spire. She had plenty of reasons to, of course. She regarded the place with wary golden eyes, large paws padding in a slow arc around the deadened earth. The crater out there was as hallowed a place as any to her, and treading there was not on her list of things to deal with today.

   The shape of something moving on the flat land could make the cut, however.

   With a hard glare at the Spire, the black wolf set off at a steady trot towards the figure. Another Outlander? Ashe had only greeted one in the past, but she remembered well the disorientation. Her ear flicked as she lifted her nose, tasting the air, and --

   Wolf!

   Ashe nearly tripped over her own paws, her head picking up to get a clearer look at the distinctly wolfish figure that at up. Had she ever met another wolf since she made the change? This one was surely Attuned by the scent. The last one... Gods, over two years ago, the Storm Guard that helped her settle her magic. Her paws moved lighter, her head tilted as she slowed to a stop a few paces from the gray wolf.

   Are you alright? The she wolf's ears perked forward, her tongue drawing over her jaws.

which one of us will wear the bigger bruises

when the war is done?

MERCUTIO o' me of little faith Mercutio had always thought there should be rather more instinct that came about when one changed their form. It was hard to tell, still reeling as he was from the interdimensional mindfuckery, but it seemed that this time there was even less of it. No matter the body, Mercutio had never had magic of his own before and so was not able to recognize the added degree of separation that being a shapeshifter was adding into the equation. His body, he assumed, was as it would be, and what it was might take him a moment or two to figure out. He gave an experimental waggle of a paw in front of him, both watching and feeling the new configuration of limbs worked. ‘Dog’ was his first thought, but paw was big paw and teeth were big teeth and so he was getting to the point of revising his hypothesis to ‘wolf’. The words in his mind brought into sharp relief that he’d been too engrossed in himself to even begin to fathom his surroundings. He flailed, trying to whip around towards the sound (not sound?) and did upwards of two double-takes in each direction, actually spinning fully around before clumsily making his way to a standing position facing the black wolf. Ah… yes. Wolf. That makes sense, I guess. Because he felt that speech, or what he might recognize as speech should be possible, Mercutio opened his mouth. What came out was somewhere between a bark and a yawn and immediately he snapped his mouth shut again, amber eyes filled with puzzlement as he looked back at the other wolf. She’d spoken, hadn’t she? He paused a moment, trying to know how to speak some semblance of Wolf and ended up sinking down into a sitting position again and lowering his ears and head with a pitiful whine in her direction. He hoped it was a sufficiently wolfy way of saying “Yes, hello, I am very dumb please help me.”

Ashe

   Ashe's head tilted further at the other wolf's whining yawn. She let out a low ruff, her tail swaying gently behind her. What was he doing? He seemed uncertain, and more open than she might have expected from a newcomer. The she wolf gave a good natured whine and rose up to four paws again, stepping closer to the gray-toned wolf. His scent was warm and new. Her nostrils flared gently as she memorized it, pulling it deep.

   A soft bark jumped from her throat, and she paced back a step with a wagging tail.  Maybe she was being a fucking moron, but he was a wolf. She hadn’t realized how eager she’d been to meet someone like her until just then. Besides -- it wasn’t as if she would hesitate to tear him to shreds if he made a move against her.

   No greeting? she said wryly, her voice drifting down the telepathic link. Project your thoughts to me - I’ll hear them.

   She padded forward and around the male, making a slow circle around him. He was large - just barely bigger than her. One ear remained pinned him, the other turning back to the Spire as it passed behind her. You’ve just arrived, haven’t you? she continued, and she stopped in front of the wolf with gleaming golden eyes. Her head reached out to sniff unceremoniously at his shoulder, and a shiver passed through her pelt. Wolf. Did he have other forms too? It's fucking trip of an entrance, falling here. Come with me if you can walk, pooch.

   She jerked her head with a soft bark and bouned a couple paces toward town, dropping to walk so he could follow. What’s your name?

which one of us will wear the bigger bruises

when the war is done?

MERCUTIO o' me of little faith The she-wolf, bless her, didn’t seem to take his distinct lack of what he assumed to be proper wolfy behavior as a reason to rip his guts out so all in all it seemed like he still had a chance to save face. He perked up a little as she circled him, tilting his head a bit this way and that when her words filtered in. It was a terribly odd sensation to have someone speak into your mind, but maybe that’s just what they did here ‘Project your thoughts’ she said… like that wasn’t a complicated multi-step magical process? It had to be magic, right? At least he assumed it had to be. He’d never had more than the briefest dealings with anything of that nature where he’d come from and even if he had he suspected the rules of it might be different here. He concentrated, narrowing his eyes slightly, and tried too will his thoughts to her. It was difficult not to feel like he should also make some motion of his head like his thoughts were a ball they were going to play catch with. Heeeello? It was tentative, definitely a question as he felt a little foolish  (not that he had much of a problem looking a fool) and waited for some sign of recognition before forging on. Yes, new here and not my favorite way to travel. He moved to follow her glancing down at his own paws for the first few steps. When he found that being one type of quadruped was much the same as another he walked a little more surely; perhaps the gait was a little different but that at least he seemed to be able to catch and he fell into step beside her. His tail gave a tentative wag as the minor success and oh--that’s a nice feeling! My name is Mercutio. Sorry, uh, getting used to the paws. Because she had, he gave snuffly sniff in her direction Wow! And the nose, holy shit!

Ashe

   Ashe snuffed the resemblance of a laugh as he greeted her with a long, drawn out hello. Her tail wagged, eyes glimmering with amusement. Hello yourself.

   Her head tilted to get a better look at him, at his stony pelt and amber eyes, his teeth gleaming every time his jaws parted. She tracked his movement, how quickly he settled into his massive paws, and the way muscle rippled under his pelt so similarly to they way hers did. If it makes you feel any better, she said. It took me nearly a week to figure out how to run with four legs without tripping myself.

   He sniffed at her, and her gait stalled. Why did it give her pause? She had sniffed him, after all. Even now, she was memorizing his earthy, canine scent that carried something altogether unique to him. After a moment, she resumed her pace, looking oddly at the other wolf - Mercutio. The nose backfires, she warned, a hint of humor in her tone. Some things should never be scented so thoroughly.

   A chilled breeze pulled through her coat, bringing with it the promise of deepfrost on the horizon. Off in the distance, she thought she saw the toddling of a gourd, but she kept her attention on Mercutio. She didn't want to think of the last time she'd chased after those little beasts, the things she'd had last LeafChange that she didn't have anymore.

   I'm Ashe, she introduced, parting her jaws in a very canine smile. Her tail wagged and she sped up a few paces, her nose lifting to the air with the breeze. You'll have to be forgiving, pretty sure you're just the third new kid I've greeted here. No real protocol for this. But maybe there should be... a welcoming committee of some sort? Ashe had expected the Outlanders to slow down once the barrier fell -- clearly in her absence, the Voice proved just how far her influence stretched through the cosmos.

   You've landed in Caido, the she wolf explained. Like so many of the rest of us. Consider this your last stop, unless you know some fancy portal magic. Ashe's ears swiveled to lock on the horizon. I could take you to town if you'd like. If... you want to call it that.

which one of us will wear the bigger bruises

when the war is done?

MERCUTIO o' me of little faith Trying to keep pace with the black wolf, Mercutio, experimented a bit with his steps, attempting at first to fall back into the configuration he’d used since birth. This produced an odd little bouncy step (a little too equine) that indeed had him tripping slightly over his paws. He only gave a rumbly approximation of a canine laugh at himself before flashing a wink over at Ashe. Well, I’ve had four legs before and these don’t seem to be that much different. But perhaps keep it at an easy pace for today and leave the running for tomorrow, eh? Seeming to sort out his locomotion, he was content to listen for a moment and observe her movement and body language. There was an assumption, and it didn’t seem like a very great one, that she knew what proper wolf-ish protocol should be followed and as she was being wonderfully welcoming that mirroring her would serve well. It was pleasant, this body, and Mercutio relished a bit in the return of things that had been absent from his brief spell as a human. Four legs, for one thing, felt infinitely better for running than two, and he swore he’d never again take ears that move for granted. He gave a few experimental nips at the cool breeze and a playful woof before letting his tongue loll out of a goofy sort of grin. Ashe gave her name and then delivered a soft but wholly unexpected blow with the mention that Mercutio was not the only one to have dropped out of the sky. There was a tiny tug in his gut that he hated to call hope and it showed in the gentle widening of his eyes. It passed as soon as he recognized it for what it was, beating that unwelcome emotion back into it’s sad little box and reaching again for his cavalier persona. Well it is my great pleasure to meet you Ashe, and I have to say you don’t give yourself enough credit. I’ve never had such a pleasant welcome, and after being yanked through the aether by my toes I could ask for nothing more. I hope you’re right about this being the last stop, I’ve had my fill of it. he gives a shake of his fluffy grey head that sends his ears flapping about before giving her a look that somehow still conveys a raised eyebrow. It’s such a bother to change bodies every time, and I think I quite like this one! He follows her gaze to the horizon and gives an affirmative woof. I’ll bow to your expertise in our destination; I’ve no agenda but to make your charming acquaintance. Have you been in Caido long yourself?

Ashe

   Ashe gave the best impression she could of a canine grin, tongue lolling out between her teeth as she padded alongside the other wolf. Fair enough, she said. What were you before?

   He snapped at the air, and her head tilted curiously at his bark. She let out a small woof of her own, shaking her head as the breeze pushed through her pelt. His carefree nature seemed to bubble over into her, her paws lighter over the deadened earth the further they put the spire behind them. There was no way to know where Mercutio's allegiances would lie, or what sort of intentions he had in this or any other world, but she took the moment for what it was. And that was the company of a goofball of a wolf for the first time since she had become one herself.

   She didn't miss his eyes widening, the brief shock that flickered over canine features, but he moved on, and she did too. She listened with growing amusement, the corners of her mouth upturned and her tail flagging in the air behind her. It's such a bother to change bodies every time, and I think I quite like this one! She let out a quiet barking sound that might have been a laugh if she were on her two feet. Yeah it's not bad, she thought to him. You've got more variety than my pelt does.

   Ashe pranced forward a few paces, letting the sun fall on her jet black pelt, swallowing the light. Out ahead of them, the edges of town could be seen, so much of it build frustratingly close to the Spire. Charming! she echoed back at Murcutio, and she snorted with a wagging tail. You must've hit your head when you crashed here, pooch. You'll be high tailing it for a new welcome wagon the first chance you get.

   The scents of town drifted to them from afar, curling into the new scent of Mercutio that her nose was beginning to grow accustomed to. She lifted her head to the air, sniffing at the bustle and activity that came with the settlement. A few things to note, she said. Don't go in the storms-- She looked to the dark, roiling clouds in the distance, and her stomach clenched. Don't piss off the Gods-- She returned to looking ahead of them, her posture a little more tense. Stay out of the Launcelyns' way, our new ruling monarchs. The words came out a little more bitter than she intended. She looked back at him, flicking an ear. Stay out of the Fae village, be wary of the Greatwood. And the loreseekers are a powerful resource for information.

   All of this was very vague, making little sense out of context, but the information was laid at his paws anyways, letting him decide what he wanted to know. always ask questions. I can do my best to answer them if you have any.

which one of us will wear the bigger bruises

when the war is done?