[Video]

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen has been poking and prodding at the screen of this phone for a while, now, and is just about getting the hang of it when he curiously pokes the communicate app. Whups.

Your screen shows you the typical ceiling of an apartment. They do all look alike, after all, it could be anyone's ceiling. However, then the view is tilted and well, shit, the place is being overrun with avians, it seems, because here's YET ANOTHER TALKING BIRD.

... Admittedly, a very pretty talking bird. This fellow resembles nothing more than a white peacock with red and black added as an afterthought and sounds like his CV might include at least eight years at RADA. If... talking birds have CVs. Or attend RADA. You never know. He's wearing white and grey silk robes.

"Well, now at least I know what this one does..." he muses. There's a pause, and then he resumes talking. "Oh, yes." He picks up a sheet of paper with one wing and blinks at it. "'Don't forget to introduce yourself to the community.' Don't forget, indeed. I suppose that's their idea of humour." He drops the paper. "Well, then. My name is Shen and..." Blinkblink. "That's all, I'm afraid." His eyes move rather a lot, one might notice. "At least I know I'm not alone in this detestable condition," he finishes in a rueful mutter.

((Whups, forgot this bit...))
He shifts uncomfortably, reaches into a sleeve, and produces a shiny, feather-shaped throwing knife, which he eyes dubiously before tossing it aside where it hits something offscreen with a clattery metallic sound, as though it's simply landed in a pile of similar items. "Another one... why in the world would I have these in my feathers?"

...

Say hello to the pretty birdie?

Comments

[trustycrowbar]

Me neither. What would you be so afraid of to have that many weapons in the first place?

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen hefts one of the knives in his feather fingers. "Clearly nothing, all told," he answers wryly. Then he sighs. "I only hope the reason I have all of these doesn't come after me while I'm like this. Damned irritating is what it is, being so vulnerable!" He irritably flicks the knife aside and it... ends up embedded in the wall. He won't notice that until much later.

[trustycrowbar]

[The knife is offscreen so he doesn't notice. Part of his mind picks up the resonant sound of a knife getting embedded into something, but that same part used to watch a lot of cartoons as a kid so it's quickly written off.]

This place is pretty isolated. 'S actually part of the problem; no one's left yet of their own volition... but I can't say that others can't come in. They'd have to be pretty tenacious to do it, is all.

[nomen_est_numen]

"I can't imagine most people here would leave, if for no other reason than they'd have no idea where to go," Shen observes. "I daresay when someplace becomes familiar--especially if it's the only place that's familiar--one would rather stay there." Shiftashift. He reaches back. Pluck. "Sixty. I do believe that's the last of them." He shivers his feathers and fans out his tail, an impressive display of white and red and black. "Much better, yes."

After a beat, his tail feathers drop again. "The idea that it's difficult for one to follow someone into this city isn't comforting--imagine what sort of enemy it would take to do that sort of thing."

[trustycrowbar]

[Gordon blinks, brows furrowing.] Huh. You're a peacock. I couldn't tell before from the angle of the camera; so we've got a duck, a penguin and now a peacock. Here's hoping no one around here's allergic to feathers...

Yeah, but it also means that we're not overrun by 'em. They're the kind of enemies we can see coming... as well as the occasional monster that stumbles into town.

[nomen_est_numen]

"Well, at least avians are well-represented, here," is the dry response. He sighs at the next statement, shivering his feathers again. "I only hope you're righ--monsters? What?"

[trustycrowbar]

Yup. Freaked me out when I found out about them too. There are creatures in the woods that, I swear to god, have no designation besides "monster" around here. Trust me, I looked it up.

[nomen_est_numen]

"Eh... I, ah... oh." He looks rather pained. "I'll... at least recognise that I ought to stay away from them, then, won't I..."

Honestly, Shen, if your dialogue got any drier it'd dehydrate everything in a full-mile radius.