Fetzen

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr

---

The hunt for the killer was over, but that only applied as far as the literal, physical realm was concerned. It had left quite the aftermath for Valthyr's mind to work on, but as the remainder of the night had progressed, said mind had had to fence off the threat of being consumed by all the food for thought itself. Just what should he make about this kind of first impression he had gotten ? Was Dawnhaven better or worse and even more challening than what the sketchy rumors reaching his homeland had promised ?

This Ayel guy was a condensed, compacted lump of degenerate arrogance. That was as much for sure as it was hardly a solid foundation to build a general opinion. An absolute outlier of a corner case he would most likely have to deal again later, but just wanted to forget for now.

The next one: the gold-plated, sun-bathed prince of Aurelia. He had run away as if he'd just remembered that the sun was missing because he had stuffed it in his oven to bake his bread more thoroughly and it would be really unfortunate if his majesty would have the ultimate piece of charcoal on his plate the next morning. Valthyr had no idea about Aurelian customs, but wasn't it an idea generally accepted that a leader should... lead ? On the plus side, this turn of events had effectively bailed himself out of any further scrutiny. Maybe the prince and his advisors had already completely forgotten that he even existed ?

A slight shiver ran down Valthyr's spine as he remembered the lump referring to the prince as 'his friend'.

Had it not been for Lord Coswain, Valthyr's already pretty mediocre opinion about nobility would probably have vanished in the deepest, darkest abyss that night. Was he really a noble though or was that a premature assumption based on the man's looks and choice of words ? That utter cluelessness again... Anyway, the druid felt confident to tag him as reliable.

The same he was halfway tempted to do with Orion, but that person was a tad too great of an unknown still. Red eyes and some other features had clearly betrayed his blightborn nature, but the fact in itself did not say much if one considered that he already was a very far cry from the average blightborn just by having more than basic killer instincts left.

And then there was another humble protagonist: his own feet! They had been reminding him for hours that the stage they were forced to act on was way too cold for doing it completely naked, but the availability of a merchant who could provide an almost seven feet tall individual with a pair of boots in the middle of the night and for no coins in return while a general alarm due to a life-threatening event was going on had been rather disappointing to say the least. Valthyr had not been able to just stroll around in wolf-form through Dawnhaven happily either and spending the night in the forest... Nope, he had some concern about his own life left still inside him, too!

Sleeping as an anonymous cat huddled away between some crates had worked for the night, but he really needed to fix that issue and tend to his injured arm now. At least it didn't seem to have become infected yet.

----

In a somewhat secluded corner of Dawnhaven, far enough away from the awakening marketplace, the bustling inn or what he could only suspect to be the nobles' city quarter, Valthyr dug his bare feet into the snow and even deeper into the ground for what he hoped would be one last time.

He could sense life in there. Or at least life that tried to be, hampered by the lack of sunlight, warmth, air and guidance by the steady ebb and flow of summers and winters that had ceased so utterly. He could also sense decay, partly hampered by the same insufficiencies and also by the abscence of its counterpart. They both needed each other to form a circle, but that circle was barely functioning anymore.

He could be the one to set things into motion again. A small set of runes and cryptic symbols cast into the bare dirt using nothing more than a wooden stick and accompanied by an inner chant nobody else could hear, he could effectively replace the sun for the tiny patch of land around him. Who- or whatever had taken the real object away from the sky had apparently completely forgotten that doing so, if anything, had only bolstered Lunarian magic and that contrary to especially Aurelian belief, not all of that was mostly cold, dark or outright eerie.

Although one could argue whether the sight of the earth moving as if thousands of rainworms had spontaneously gathered in an unbreakable frenzy did have a somewhat creepy aspect of its own. Yet Valthyr remained undeterred, letting things happen around the two lower ends of his body. No fauna here, just hypercelerated flora sprouting like it should be. He could sense the roots tingling his skin, soon had to bend down in order to nudge the first tiny, still bright green branches and leaves into the right direction so they would form a self-entangled web.

A gnarled, wooden shoe was still much better than none at all. The somewhat irregular shape could maybe even provide additional grip and he could let it repair itself from not too great damage by just rooting it again. A moderately thick layer of ivy had effectively grown around his feet, sealing them off against the cold and keeping the mud away.

Did that have potential to attract prying eyes and maybe even irritate people ? Probably yes, Valthyr figured. Yet there were more important things to take care off: If he had any intention to prolong his stay here, he also needed some kind of roof above his head. He had seen a lot of construction going on so hiring some artisans and acquiring material would not be an issue if only he had any coin. Or was this all sponsored and if so, by whom ? The gold-plated prince ? Or even worse the lump that wore a crust of cream and geysers of perfume on top of his skin ?

It dawned upon him that there was a shortcut to bypass most of these questions. He had just taken it on the small scale already, so why not do it on the large one ? All he needed was much more patience, a much larger spot to do it and some makeshift accomodation until things were ready for further development.

A spot nobody else would need anymore.

A spot where something large casting a long shadow wouldn't disturb the neighborhood too greatly.

A spot where he had a permit to erect a tree with a tree house on top.

No, not that one! Nobody except Lord Coswain had asked him anything friendly yesterday really. Dawnhaven had mostly just dragged him into things and then spat him out again. He could do a bit of that himself, too. If the gold-plated prince could jump from one task to another so quickly, then the man could also come to him and just ask what he was doing as it happened.

Part of Valthyr felt almost sorry for all the hard-working people putting stone upon stone and cutting one beam of timber after the other. If things worked out as he thought, he could automate most of that at the acceptable cost of a long-term compromise in terms of building shape and general appeal.

Maybe it was best to pick an empty spot somewhere in the vicinity of this Ayel guy's house. He was the one and only person in Dawnhaven Valthyr already was absolutely certain that he would neither need nor desire his 'good will' at any point in the future anymore. Nothing left to ruin anymore was a good start for making sure that no further damage would be dealt. Also finding that residence should be a stupendously easy achievement, right ?

The Elder Scrolls: In the Shadows of Oblivion

I'd be interested if allowed.

Closed/Dead

Apologies for having been quiet -- I had a quite tedious week so far. I will try to get my application up over the course of the weekend.

Closed/Dead

I would be tempted to make an application for this if there is still room for one more :)

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr

_{Interactions with: Lord Coswain @PrinceAlexus
Mentions: Flynn & Kira @The Muse, Ayel @Dezuel
Location: Forest}

---

Top quality ? Hell yes, your level of assholity is hard to parallel indeed!

Just what kind of major malfunction was this ? Lead poisoning ? If Valthyr remembered correctly, lead could be used to make really nice looking white pigments. If this joke of a man had been using the wrong kind of 'top quality' makeup for long enough, some of it must have ended up in his mouth inevitably and caused this madness over time of exposure.

I don't even have a house yet, you imbecile moron! And if I should actually decide to settle here, I'll make sure to either stay away from yours or make your life in it as miserable as possible!

The past couple of minutes at that point had clearly shown Valthyr that there could be only one thing between Ayel and him on the long run: war. The druid was already looking forward to the high probability of having more allies, but maybe most of the townspeople just lacked the means to really do something about this lunatic ?

If you are of such a great year like a bottle of wine, then maybe I should savor you ? That would be the only way to actually sense and enjoy your greatness, wouldn't it ?

Valthyr kept all his thoughts to himself while listening to the retard. He could have retorted once more before turning into the wolf, but afterwards it was no longer possible. He could still feel Ayel's greedy eyes staring at him as they proceeded further into the woods though.

Two more people appeared, again neither of them being familiar to the druid. The man obviously was a guard of sorts which probably was not a bad thing in this sutuation, but the woman ? She had hair of a color not so unsimilar to his own, but that didn't say anything really yet. Valthyr took in both their individual smells and tried to memorize them the best he could. Otherwise there was not really much for him to do while apparently some decisions were being made by others -- he was a wolf without a voice or many facial expressions available to him.

Ohh what's that! The annoyance on two legs is suddenly going critical ?!

Wolf-thyr had the ultimate pokerface. Nobody could see him amused as he watched Ayel's skin turn into rocky mountains due to bulging blood vessels. Had Flynn given a lecture about more bearable behavior or what exactly had happened ?

Oh no! The makeup containment is failing, I can see some red shining through! Everybody run! But you can do it Ayel! You are my personal hero who can make some tiny blood vessels in your eyes pop and turn them red, too! Could use something else than pale white in your face, rea...

Just at that moment, Ayel's bestest friend had refocused his eyes once more and things started to cool down again.

Damn you, Flynn! Couldn't you have waited just a tiny little longer ? I already know that this hollow douchebag can't slip on his own trail of slime. I would have liked to see something different continue!

At least now Ayel waddled away through the snow like a lame duck. The prince apparently had some verbal disposal method that worked even in this very particular case. Unfortunately though, Valthyr strongly suspected that this success had to do much more with rank and noble standing than with anything he himself could adopt. Valthyr turned his head back and found only the man looking like a guard, Lord Coswain, left accompanying him.

That investigative effort has been quite enduring so far, hasn't it ? So now the ruler of this place has officially left half the task of tracking down a brutal killer to a complete stranger who also is the most unsuited and incapable person not only for this kind of affair according to said ruler's bestest friend ? How charming.

Good thing he did not know that Ayel also suspected their new prime investigator to be the killer himself and had told his bestest friend about this, because what would he have been supposed to do with that knowledge ? Run in circles on the hunt for his own tail for a while and then just claim that he had made his very best effort to stop the scoundrel's daring escape, but failed unfortunately ? It would be the degree of stupidity this overblown noble definitely deserved for an answer, but only if all of it happened right in front of Ayel's eyes so there was visual proof for the claim.

Maybe everybody above a certain standing was just suffering from mental degradation ?
Maybe they all suffered from subtle lead poisoning ? Or was this mercury level already ?

Had Wolf-thyr still been able to look completely dumbfounded, that would have been exactly the kind of expression he would have presented to Lord Coswain at this moment. The way things were however, he could only let his nostrils hover close above the ground again to pick up new smells. There was something odd here, something like... blood! Human blood, but the trail didn't lead back to the village but further away from it. Faint. Might the murderer have carried a trace amount of his victim's blood with him, rendering him trackable without knowing ?

Wolf-thyr looked at Lord Coswain, then towards the direction the olfactory trail was going, then back at the man... and then just started following the trail slowly. Hopefully his fully human companion would make enough sense of the gestures to follow.

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr Naffron

_{Interacting with: Flynn @The Muse, Ayel @Dezuel}

---

Valthyr shared quite little interest in the ongoing debate about how to bury the poor man that had been murdered. While he was a Lunarian himself, this was more a label than anything filled with real substance at least if one looked at it from the average Lunarian's point of view. The druids back at his home had a different set of customs that not only this blithering idiot babbling about 'superior blood' all the time might have considered barbaric for lack of better knowledge, but they also had the custom to not even try and complain about foreign cultures that much. Last but not least a fair bit of tolerance was what had allowed his own culture to survive for that long.

The soldier was dead and that was in itself sad enough. Bickering about how to bury him felt somewhat undeserving.

Speaking about inappropriate actions, the prince's decision to let the idiot accompany them on a task as delicate as tracking down an unidentified attacker in the woods fell in pretty much the same category. Or did it ? Spending a second thought on the topic, Valthyr figured that -- maybe -- this was a much more clever move than it looked. An act of containment and damage control to stop Ayel from unleashing more harassments if left behind with a dead body he considered belonging to somebody inferior ? That or the two really were just close friends as the idiot kept pretending, even though so far the prince had kept surprisingly quiet and not really approving of anything Ayel had said so far.

None of these possibilities made the task of spending time with this outrageous individual easier however. As he walked, Valthyr had that unspecific feeling that this unbearable entity was up to something again. He was unable to eavesdrop on what exactly Ayel might or might not have said to his 'closest friend', but on the other hand he would not have paid much attention had Ayel made an entire opera out of his stupid accusations either. He was internally boiling too much already due to some previous statements to be a good audience.

The druid halfway turned on as much of a heel as a man still without shoes could have. He wanted to shout and to make Ayel's ears shatter in a furious storm of verbal retaliation, but he also felt tired as the arrogant noble probably shielded his petty little universe far too well for any sense to break in from the outside. The result was a low voice transmitting the following message rather dryly: "At least I can sweat. You have put yourself into the predicament of either clogging up your skin with all that silly makeup so much that it can't cool down anymore at all or to see said makeup turning you into a laughing stock once it starts being washed down."

Had Ayel said something else ? A brief, but maybe a little awkward moment of silence passed as Valthyr cobbled together what other kind of noble nonsense had piled up in his memory.

"Also... rolling with pigs ? Well at least then the pigs have a good time. Every peasant knows that having a good life is vital to a pig meat's taste in the end. That even applies if it is going to be treated with a lot of expensive spices and fancy cooking because it has to be sacrificed to nourish useless people like you."

Valthyr's right eyelid twitched and his hand was on the verge of doing the same. He wanted to slap this maggot in the face, to rub him all his fancy powder into his greedy eyes and to squish his reproductive organs until he either heard an excuse or said organs had entered the realm of eternal dysfunction. That wayward spawn thought of him as an imbecile, an uneducated man whose world was primitivity and whose language was cruelty alone ? Maybe it was time to adapt and just confirm all of this beliefs, to set the record straight in the most painful way possible.

Had they been in a very different situation and without Flynn as a witness around, Ayel might have been in danger. The way things were however, he was safe still. There were higher priorities and, laid said, Valthyr felt tired of this.

"Now excuse me. I will do another transition, but into a wolf this time. I won't be able to speak to you anymore, but I will be able to listen to both of you perfectly still. A wolf just can smell better than either me or a cat."

Having said this, Valthyr retreated behind the next tree of major thickness so to preserve some basic dignity while undoing his clothes. As an added bonus, he could also rest assured that the idiot wouldn't stab him in the back when he was the most defenseless, a heap of... unindentified magical something undergoing some weird process. It took significantly longer than the cat, but the outcome could also be considered much more imposing to say the least.

Paws larger than Valthyr's human feet dug into the snow and dirt below as he enjoyed the buildup of warmth inside them, his whole body now protected against the cold by a visually impenetrable layer of gray fur that waved gently in the wind. He lowered his snout and sniffed, trying to pick up anything out of the ordinary. So close to the village however it was an olfactory mess that didn't allow to pinpoint anything suspicious in particular yet.

Large, round eyes looked at Flynn first, then at Ayel and for a brief moment, Valthyr allowed his newfound teeth to be seen by the latter. The druid was blissfully unaware of the fact that this would probably only pour oil into the noble's fire while also blasting it with pure oxygen. If this aggregate of 'superior blood' contained in a sack of skin apparently too ugly to be exposed without decorative makeup already considered a cat capable of ripping somebody's face and head off, what would he think about him now ? Probably still stick with the cat while also reiterating that he needed a mount and had just found one...

Unable to speak, Valthyr just shook his mighty head trying to mimick the human gesture of saying 'No.'. He had not picked up any interesting scent yet.

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr Naffron

_{Location: At the crime scene
Interacting with: Flynn @The Muse, Ayel @Dezuel, Daphne @PrinceAlexus, Nathaniel @echotech71, Katherine @SpicyMeatball (hope I haven't forgotten any. If so, I'm sorry!)}

---

"Say my man, do you just blurt out these expressions of believed personal superiority at random or do you actually believe in them ?"

Having said this, the topic named 'Ayel' was done for Valthyr at the moment. Wait...

"And don't you dare to interrupt the overgrown, lumbering thing for the next couple of seconds, would you please ? I am quite optimistic about being louder than you, if necessary."

Hopefully this would cause enough of a meltdown inside this liability of an individual's mind that Ayel would be busy reassembling his egocentric world view boiled over just long enough for Valthyr himself to be actually productive for the sake of the others. This situation was far too serious for some extreme noble shenanigans!

"Now..." Valthyr continued, turning his attention towards the others and putting on a more friendly facial expression again. "Like said, I witnessed the crime almost in its entirity. If you have already been wondering why I didn't intervene because I'm standing here in clean clothes and without injury, then you have all right to do so. I shall explain."

The druid sighed. The entire journey towards Dawnhaven had been less taxing and more relaxed than the first couple of minutes in town! Hopefully that wasn't a bad omen. If only he could have asked the sages back home about this... Though in such situations anybody could pretend to be a seer by just telling the obviously most probably thing like, for example: 'This town you're talking about will be no more even sooner than you can ask for!'.

"I am not a blightborn, but an ordinary Lunarian. If you would like to ask for a proof about that, I will comply as long as the method used for testing doesn't cause permanent injury." Valthyr said this more towards Flynn than anybody else, assuming that the man was in command indeed while still not really knowing the prince's name."Still there is something about me that might answer the question I mentioned quicker than a hundred words. Don't worry, it is completely harmless!"

Valthyr stepped back a little, closed his eyes and froze in place. He was used to doing that, but doing it so many times in such a short time was a bit of a different matter. He would have a very good sleep this night, no matter what kind of bed he'd end up in probably. Slowly at first, then more and more rapidly, he appeared to... shrink. Ears became much more pointed, pupils elongated until they were mere vertical slits, and naked feet turned into little paws. Once all was done, a medium-sized cat crawled out of the heap of now far too large clothes.

Meow! Meow!

As if more of a demonstration was needed that this was not just some kind of optical illusion, he then started purring loudly and gently pressed his fluffy tail against Flynn's ankles. The downside ? He couldn't speak anymore, but had still more to say really.

Thus after a couple more moments of wandering around eagerly between the people present, Valthyr-cat started digging in and under his own clothes again as he didn't want to reappear completely naked in front of so many people. Shifting back took a couple of moments, too, and some audible tearing told a story about damage done to the shirt he tried to fit into again in a rather uncontrolled, improvised manner. As long as it and more importantly his pants held together somehow however...

"You are searching for the two women ? I believe I can help you. I just need something owned by one of them. A piece of clothing, a comb, something touched often. Anything that would have her smell attached to it. Otherwise... finding the culprit might also be a goal."

Now it was even colder for him! Either cat, or wolf, or some shoes and a nice new cloak, or certain death at some point!

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr Naffron

_{Location: Streets of Dawnhaven, on the way to the crime scene.
Interacting with Daphne @PrinceAlexus, Flynn @The Muse, Ayel @Dezuel, Nathaniel @Echotech71}

---

That had been easy, almost surprisingly so. He had managed to get Daphne to follow him and could now serve as a first-hand witness which would hopefully get him out of the collective of suspects. The quick arrival of more and more people baffled him a bit though and the druid started a slight feel of unease rise inside him: Providing an explanation to just one person until said person was convinced about him saying the truth would probably have been a lot easier than convincing half a dozen of people who all could disrupt and ask all the more questions.

As some talk was going on, the druid took the time to inspect the newcomers (from his perspective) a little closer.

The first one, a man almost as tall as him and dressed in rather expensive looking clothes did not get his name mentioned by anyone else, but Valthyr picked up the words 'your highness'. So the prince ? Maybe he should have done a bit more thorough research about Dawnhaven, then he would have been able to actually know the man's name without somebody saying it. On the plus side, now he knew that it would be better to follow the orders which, luckily, were quite congruent with what he had planned on doing anyway.

The second one made himself noticeable via Valthyr's nostrils almost as quick as visually. Just what was that smell ? Having quickly ruled out poop, pee and sweat all the same, the druid reached the conclusion that it has to be something Ayel must have put on his body very much on purpose. Valthyr had to sneeze and that was not because he was still trodding through snow on bare feet, but because of whatever kind of vile concoction slowly but surely separated from the noble's face. Valthyr felt allergic to that! And just about the time he had put the stamp of probably being all the bad prejudices about nobles of his druid community combined onto Ayel, the latter rendered this judgement obsolete:

"Your highness, this would go much faster if you allow me to use this one as a mount."

Just what had this madman blurted out of his fancy mouth ? Valthyr's inner logic responsible for escalation prevention disengaged more quickly than he could even realize: "This one, as you call it, is a woman whose name is Daphne and who is friendly enough to help me. Please pay some respect. Otherwise... wouldn't it be more appropriate if you 'ride' on me ? Just as a suggestion, of course."

Valthyr hoped that this noble would just say yes -- if not for realizing how unreasonable the words spoken had been then at least because saying yes could serve as another provocation in the man's wicked set of coordinates. Trying not to endulge himself in his imaginations of Ayel trying to climb onto the shoulders of his entire 6'8 too much, Valthyr quickly addressed all of them with a gentle nod, including Nathaniel who joined in a tiny bit later.

So many unknown people who in turn seemed to know each other already... Not exactly the easiest situation!

"So I have observed most of the event, but unfortunately couldn't do much to prevent it." He left the cat out this time or the others might have declared him crazy. "Two women were in company of another person who later on turned out to be what I can only guess was a blightborn. Some more people, guards or the like I imagine, accompanied them. I was unable to pick up all the words exchanged, but suddenly the blightborn individual, he... attacked one of the guards and consumed his face, or parts of his entire head. The women escaped and the blightborn made a run for it in a different direction, very fast."

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr

_{Interacting with: Daphne @PrinceAlexus
Location: The Eye Of The Beholder}

---

"We got a problem! A rather bloody one..." Valthyr did not take the risk of anybody else being able to listen in spite of the music going on, so these words were spoken very lowly.

The druid had noticed that whom he was talking to was anything but unarmed. Good, actually. That meant she had to be a guard perhaps ? That was exactly what he had hoped for. Aside from that anybody being able to defend him- or herself would be better than another easy victim for this blightborn. The latter had run away, but could he be trusted in terms of not returning ?

"There has been an attack on two women and one of the people apparently being her escort got killed. I can only assume a blightborn of sorts as I have watched it..." Now how to word this ? "... as a feline. I know that sounds crazy, but I'll explain on the way if that's okay for you ?"

Not waiting for an answer, Valthyr pulled open the door again and gestured Daphne to follow him. The quicker they'd be there, the less people would already have discovered the mess and the easier things could be contained. That, of course, was assuming that the woman he was talking to actually believed anything he had said so far.

"I am Valthyr by the way. Valthyr Naffron.

Realms of Sun & Shadow

Valthyr

_{Interacting with: Daphne @PrinceAlexus
Location: The Eye Of The Beholder}

---

That whole situation had backfired in a manner of... somewhat subpar amusement potential. All Valthyr had wwanted to do was follow the two girls towards the temple and now he had to make a choice between following them at great speed or abort and... he didn't even know yet.

Maybe do something about the mess left behind ? While he had no clear picture of Dawnhaven yet, basic human judgement dictated that chances were its inhabitants wouldn't exactly be relaxed about what looked, or rather even was, a serious crime scene.

Without knowing whether either Amaya or Elara would even finally notice him for real and allow him to follow him into whatever kind of refuge they might probably have been seeking, Valthyr ultimately decided to do just that started to backtrack his own, very feline footsteps towards the Eye Of The Beholder. There was enough of an unobserved route available for him to return to his alter human ego.

Whether anybody would notice the gradual transition from a small cat to a very large male now imprinted in the snow behind him ? The thought crossed his mind, but the track would go lost once inside the tavern at the latest and his anonymity regained.

Good thing his feet had had a chance to warm up again while there had been fur around them. The last bit until he finally reached the main entrance felt freezing enough already. The air rushing towards him felt almost hot and, while his mind perfectly knew it was nonsense, it also felt stiffer. The poor music having to fight its way through all that viscous atmosphere! How much better than it already was might it have sounded in clean, crisp air ?

He was not here to partake in the kind of festivities obviously going on, even though the discovery of an improvised dance floor gave raise to temptations. He was here to notify somebody about what he had just witnessed so not to burden his conscience with it for longer than necessary and then to maybe go back and help clean up the mess before things escalated in some way.

It was not an entirely altruistic move however. Valthyr knew his deception -- though technically it was not really an illusion --, was not impervious to anybody and anything trying to take a nosy gander behind the curtain. If somebody got a hunch about him being a shapeshifter, became aware of the bloody patch lingering far outside there, and then connected the dots in the wrong way possibly fueled by some silly superstition or false beliefs, then he could be in trouble while actually innocent!

As the big man's eyes scanned the room for anybody who didn't appear all too preoccupied, he locked his gaze onto a Daphne. Valthyr had no idea she actually was a guard and thus probably one of the most suited individual to talk to right now, but his instincts told him she might be hailing from the same kingdom as he did. Not to burden any of the Aurelians here with distrust by default, but still this could make things a bit easier.

He approached her still on bare feet and tried to speak in as much of a relaxed voice as he could muster at this point: "Excuse me ? Something's happened and I might need your help!"

Very direct and straightforward ? Yes, most likely. How could he have done it differently though ? Time was something he could not really afford and not having any detailed knowledge about anybody in here, just addressing the first one he could get a hold of felt like the best strategy to him. Also bluntness could serve as a distraction to delay discovery of the blatant oddities about himself.