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After quite some minutes of his story, and a few more minutes of answering questions, it was with relief that Rokk heard Carrios declare that it was time to let the High Alchemist return for the second announcement of this meeting.
"Oh Anima!" yelped Rokk once back behind the rostrum. "See, I completely lost the habit of speeches and facing masses!"
"I thought you did well," commented Carrios while Coelho gave him a tap on the shoulder before climbing back on the rostrum to begin the second announcement.
"Yeah, but back then, it would have been child's play! Right now, I kept worrying, second guessing myself, and... AND THAT FUCKING SUIT DOESN'T HELP!!"
"Wait, what are you- NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!" yelled the head tailor as Rokk began downright tearing the suit apart, too much in a hurry to get rid of it to bother just removing it.
"Aaaaaaaah, much better," sighed the gnoll in relief as he threw the shreds away.
"ANIMA DAMMIT, DO YOU HAVE THE SLIGHTEST IDEA OF HOW LONG IT TOOK US TO MAKE IT?!"
"And do you have any idea of how much I was suffocating in there?! I told you, non-fur clothes on top of fur just doesn't fit right!"
"Well, next time, maybe we'll shave you beforehand!" spat the tailor.
"Try it, and I'll bite your throat out," snarled Rokk in an ice-cold voice.
The tailor backed off.
Carrios, Cletus and Vathek were majorly amused by the number, but also surprised by how animalistic the threat was.
Knowing that Rokk, like all the gnolls, was originally a human made it easy to assume that he'd still behave as a human, to forget that the transformation and all the years since then led him to adopt a new behavior.
Such moments that reminded them that this new behavior was now their normal were still awkward, even though they were getting rarer.
A brutal outburst, so loud it almost sounded like a riot, grabbed their attention.
"Looks like boss just made the second announcement," commented Cletus.
The announcement of what Cletus and Vathek saw when they had their planet-outgrowing tests.
Another continent.
A continent where they clearly saw a whole other civilization.

Art by  buckdasystem
Rokk © me