I’ve seen this said as a joke, but do you think Bolaire would like being on an animal?
This is actually something I hadn't ever considered before seeing this ask because the mask works on Tyranny because she is humanoid but Brennan wasn't sure if it would work because she's a demon, but I am remembering the dog show on StOdy and with the Hounds and Figment Bolaire theres Aramán based precedent and realized that Brennan probably would allow it so now considering it I think it really depends.
Like, Bolaire's sentience is not affected by his physical form, so I don't think it's a flat "Bolaire would never lower himself" because he thinks of himself as a thing and animal is higher than that in most conventional senses, and mechanically speaking. And especially when we look at Wulferic and Kat's relationship with him, plus, the concept of awakened beasts and plants, like the Hounds, I think there's enough around that if he had an aversion to being on an animal because of connotation then I think that would quickly change.
The other half of this is how would the sensory information read to Bolaire? Like, if he borrows taste buds is he borrowing the cones of our eyes for colour? If so, I imagine with Bolaire's excessive cleanliness that he would be sensory fucked by it and not like it.
He might also be pissed the fuck off by not having opposable thumbs. Like I imagine that would be his biggest issue, but also mage hand can fix that.
Pros here tho, I think Bolaire would like having a climb and or fly speed. I think being able to just scale trees would unlock some sort of exploratory instinct in Bolaire and if it were up to him we'd never see him again. Also being able to literally get a new perspective and see things in the bigger picture from a bird's eye view would be addictive for him.
I also think he would generally benefit from having to live in the middle ground of object and person for a bit because the base animal instincts are there in Bolaire now and that's really interesting. Like I've joked about how he's a stupid snake that maybe doesn't realize his food is dead, but also I imagine that Hawkins' thing about how He's not a HUman, he's a dog, but he is a MAN would be a good perspective for Bolaire to embody literally for a bit. And also animals eat their food alive all the time and no one bats an eye and are inclined to protect animals still, so I think it introduces the right philosophical questions for Bolaire to be asking himself. Like "what about this do I feel guilty about?" and "what exactly about it changes it from something that's necessary to live into something one can be judged for?"
So I guess I think on principle it wouldn't be a lasting issue unless sensory issues arose, and I think it would be interesting and potentially beneficial for his self image in the long term even if he doesn't stay on an animal for very long.
