Voice Test

[defendless]

{A}

[If you find yourself in the woods for any reason, and you happen to be preparing food, you might turn around and find yourself with a certain fluffy visitor, staring intently at your meal with his stomach rumbling loudly.]

{B}

[Alternatively you stumble across a man face down on the ground in the middle of fucking nowhere. If you come close enough to check, he does seem to be alive, just unconscious, and actually starting to wake up!]

{C}

[Or there's a Zeno in your setting. Who knows why! (BECAUSE IF ENOUGH YEARS PASS IT'S EASY TO SAY HIS FANTASY SETTING BECOMES YOUR SETTING, MAYBE HUMANITY STRAIGHT UP FUCKING RESTARTED, WHO KNOWS? THIS MAN IS OLDER THAN THE HILLS.) Anyway follow your dreams, feel free to start something more specific or ask me to start something more specific within certain lines, I'm really excited please love me.

Also feel free to just straight up game setting this shit. Court/AFD/QM/LR this shit come at me bros.]

Comments

[defendless]

[well fuck. immediately balls up his bloody clothes and drops them in the stream, he'll retrieve those later. smiling brightly!!] Zeno wrestled a bear!

[theyregooddogs]

[and will raises his gun with a slight tremor, voice wrought]

Your neck would be snapped in two while you were drug to a cave. —Go fish out those clothes. They're evidence.

[defendless]

[holds his hands up politely.] Alright, alright. Mister doesn't need to do anything drastic. [mostly because it would be more traumatic for Will to shoot him and see him regenerate, probably. Or see the bullet flatten striking his skin, if it hit scales. That'd be Awkward.]

[theyregooddogs]

The clothes, Zeno!

[defendless]

I'm doing it. Don't panic, okay? [wading downstream quickly, grabbing them where their progress had been slowed by a shallower patch. so much for that.]

[theyregooddogs]

Good. Hold onto them and start walking, that way.

[motions in a direction with the still raised gun]

[defendless]

Right, right. [aaa, what a mess. at least his scales are starting to fade back into normal skin now.]

[theyregooddogs]

That's a neat trick. Tell me, were you getting revenge on the "bear"? He ate too many salmon, so he had to go?

[following behind, gun remaining up]

[defendless]

Mister, you aren't going to believe Zeno, but there's been a misunderstanding!

[theyregooddogs]

Not whole lot to understand or misunderstand right now. Why don't you change that?

[defendless]

I suppose that's the end of "no questions". The blood is mine.

[theyregooddogs]

You're right, it's all questions now. Keep going.

[defendless]

Zeno heals quickly, but the mess doesn't go away, so Zeno was cleaning up.

[theyregooddogs]

[scoffs at that]

Then, who or what attacked you.

[defendless]

Zeno wasn't kidding about the bear.

[theyregooddogs]

Let's try again.

Why are you deliberately avoiding civilization and hiding in the woods when you're not familiar with how to ward off or track wildlife?

[defendless]

Ah, Zeno's familiar with it, or at least he was, but he forgets things sometimes.

As for civilization, Zeno's tired. It's hard keeping up all the time, so he's taking a break and trying again later.

[theyregooddogs]

Not hungry enough for the whole buffet, right? Only picking out what you can from people that are also taking breaks.

See, part of me believes you. That you are helping yourself the best way you can, even if it gets you in these kinds of situations. But the other part? That part thinks you're the bear and the victim.

You haven't said I once. You're disassociating, maybe even creating personas to respond to trauma.

[defendless]

Mister is implying a lot that Zeno can't quite follow... Zeno would show you the bear, but it wasn't her fault, so she doesn't deserve to get blamed for it. She was just defending her territory, so it was Zeno's mistake. In that way, the bear is the victim, but then neither of them are Zeno. Ah-- Zeno didn't hurt her, though. As for what Zeno calls himself... there's only Zeno in here. No one else. Zeno simply says his name to remind himself of what it is.

[theyregooddogs]

How do you know the bear was female?

[defendless]

Female brown bears have narrower shoulders than males, so it isn't hard to tell them apart.

[theyregooddogs]

[deep, deep inhale then slow exhale. holstering his gun and shifting the gear on his back before closing the gap between them and taking hold of zeno's shoulder. will tries to manipulate zeno's head in a few directions, keeping his sight locked on his eyes...]

[defendless]

[his eyes are a clear, unmuddled blue, and he doesn't seem to be on anything.] Mister?

[theyregooddogs]

What?

[and shifting to check zeno's arms, pressing into his forearm to test, then manipulating it to lift up from the side as well as back and forth]

[defendless]

What are you looking for? [he's just letting Will do whatever, but for all intents and purposes he seems to be a perfectly healthy (hah) and normal seventeen-year-old boy, if a bit on the thin side.]