khuioduan | 01 ~ video

[The video shows Naesala casually lounging against the side of a stone building, in his usual dark outfit. It's a wide enough shot to show his wings resting against the wall behind him; he seems to be holding his yimo out at arm's length while he's recording.]

Well then. It's a festival dedicated to tying knots. Makes you wonder what form of the festivities happens in private, doesn't it?

Don't bother scolding me for saying it. I know that's been the question on everyone's mind.

At any rate, I met a most interesting group of people at one of the bars here. They invited me to a Erol'an poetry reading at a place near the docks. I don't know what to expect from it, but it ought to make for an interesting night.

[Naesala seems pretty satisfied with the turn of events, too. Look at him, making friends with hipsters.]

If only all my interactions with the locals were like that. Do yourselves a favor and don't walk close to the colleges if you have any extra appendages. You might not escape with all your feathers intact.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She gets the eyerolling out of the way before she opens a response.]

Private means private. Just because people know what goes on in private, doesn't mean we wave it around in front of everyone.

[A beat. Then, a little more seriously:]

Did something happen to you at the college?

[He speaks with a huff,] Please, that wasn't waving things around. I could even be entirely wrong about it.

I had some students pestering me about being able to fly. All it took was two to start with, and then more and more of them kept showing up.

You were expecting to be scolded for it. I'm just helping make sure your expectations are met.

[Really. ...Well, also, she's a responsible adult with some opinions about consent.]

[There's an interested look at the latter part, though.]

So you can fly. Huh. I wasn't sure if those were for show or not.

Hah! I can't be too annoyed about it, in that case.

But how could you assume these are for show? [He flexes his wings, spreading them out to their full length, his wingtips well out of frame.] Us ravens are the fastest of the bird laguz. I don't just fly, I fly with skill.

[An ironic tip of her head.]

I live to serve.

[And then immediately distracted by wings. Eve whistles, more than a little impressed.]

I mean, they're big and all, but... don't take this the wrong way, you just look a bit heavy for wings.

[Because. Humans don't have hollow bones. This is what she means.]

--What's a... laguz?

Looks can be deceiving, you know.

That's the term we use to separate ourselves from humans. Laguz are shapeshifters, for lack of a better word.

I'm a straightforward kind of person.

[See problem, punch problem. In an ideal world, anyway.]

Shapeshifters, okay. And since you mentioned ravens...

[Wait, no, he specifically mentioned bird laguz. Eve considers, reframes her question.]

How many different kinds of laguz are there?

There's the beast tribe, then us birds, and the dragons. There's at least three different types of laguz within each tribe - so, for instance, the beast tribe is mostly cats, lions, and tigers, but the rarer wolves are considered under their banner as well.

Us bird laguz are the only ones that have formed our own separate countries instead of living all lumped together. As I understand it from our history, living under the rule of the hawks was exhausting. I can't say I blame them.

[Said flatly:]

You have dragon shapeshifters.

[Okay, right, lots of weird things. Eve is just going to have to accept these things.]

Is there, uh. Something specifically exhausting about hawks?

[She guesses she can see how hawks and ravens wouldn't get on? Maybe?]

The dragons are quite reclusive, too. You don't want them on your bad side.

How can I even count the ways hawks are exhausting? They don't approve of what we ravens value or how we live our lives. Imagine a bunch of musclebound idiots cawing about how you're not being 'honorable enough' and that's the basic experience of dealing with hawks.

[Naesala's disdain is clear on his face, but there's a part of him that's quite happy that he can complain about hawks here without Tibarn swooping in to pluck out his tailfeathers.]

Yeah, I got that memo.

[The less interacting with her world's dragons, the better.]

[Eve nods along to what he's saying about hawks, the corners of her mouth curling with a faintly suppressed smile.]

Gotcha. Hawks, jocks.

So, new question. How big are you when you shapeshift?

[Is she having a people-sized raven here.]

[That question makes him slowly start to smirk.]

Do you want that in inches?

... To answer your question, I'm large enough to carry a person on my back. If they asked very nicely.

[Do not give her that smirk. ...Even if she possibly accidentally asked for it.]

Try not to measure in public.

[She shakes her head. She's being pulled down to his level.]

That's... a little bigger than the ravens I'm used to.

[He just laughs instead of opting to push the joke any further. Naesala is smart enough to know when to let a topic like that drop.]

What else did you expect? We couldn't hunt or fight if we were big enough to be held in someone's hands. There might be some other reason for it, but I'm no scholar. That's just how it works.

[Probably for the best he's not a scholar.]

I mean, normal-size ravens seem to manage just fine. For things of their size, anyway. I suppose they don't do a lot of fighting humans.

[Or. Human-sized creatures.]

I see fighting as a waste of time, but even I have to admit it's necessary sometimes. Much easier to do that with a big, sharp beak and being able to knock a man off his horse in a pinch.

[Well, okay, that one's actually sort of fun.]

...That one I'll grant you. Hard to do if you're a normal-sized bird.

[This is not a tactical issue she's ever run into, but she'll learn quickly.]

Do that often?

Not very often, but it's a trick that comes in handy sometimes.

Good to know. I'll try to stay on your side of things.

[Said wryly. Aaand she'll just add anti-giant-bird tactics to her list of things to develop, too. Just in case.]

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