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[foolishwren]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, ROADKILL ROOSTER. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 007.14.007.17 *** ROADKILL ROOSTER has joined 007.14.007.17 <ASSMUNCH45> wat up gurl!!!!!!!!!!! <BANNED USER> SCREENED MESSAGE. UNSCREEN? Y/N -- B& MOTHAFUCKA <CREATURECOMFORTS> Are YOU interested in not having to worry about basic needs? Have we got the job for YOU. Click to read more... <SHOVEL_GUY> hey heather are you getting weird ads for going to live with rich people too??

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[ka_mai]

I first tried it in the stable at home, hay's softer for a landing. But s'not ideal and my good nature can only take being an amusement to my fellows for so long!

[Bert hops up on the dumpster to give the woman some space. He seems far more natural and at ease perching like that, gripping the edge with his hand-feet and bending his legs back to squat.]

Thought I'd find somewhere private. But populated, should I make a gross miscalculation and do myself some serious damage.

I'm Cuthbert, by the way. Cuthbert Allgood, commonly called Bert.

[foolishwren]

_{[Once on solid ground, her wings swoop back into a fold. Now that she's actually giving advice, she's less inclined to be a bratty showoff.]}

Bert? Cool.

_{[A 'Where's Ernie' joke is ON THE VERY TIP OF HER TONGUE but she's learned by now that a lot of people here do not get her stupid pop culture references, so she bites it back.]}

Name's Mason.

Have you considered doing it in one of the parks?

Grass is a lot nicer to land on than pavement, and there's usually some people around.

[ka_mai]

What, ye a stony sort?

[Bert grins, unable to resist a pun opportunity.]

Good to meet ye. Thought about a park, but...bit public. Don't want too much of an audience! And there are a lot of us who are out and about after sunset.

[foolishwren]

Solid as a rock.

<sub>[She says it with a completely straight face.]

[Then turns towards the mouth of the alley.]</sub>

Sure, but the parks are big. Plenty of places to not be flopping around in front of people.

I could show you, if you want.

No luring-you-off-to-munch, I promise. Already hunted today.

[ka_mai]

Pff, I'm an undead thing, I'd make a terrible meal anyway. And look at me, there's no meat to be had! I'm a street wino's end of week take out of the gone by charity bin.

[Considering he's only wearing a pair of denim cut offs, his eerie gauntness isn't hidden in the least.]

But aye, if ye know a place...

[foolishwren]

_{[The description makes her snort. She kind of already likes this Bert dude, if only because she can appreciate other people who have a sense of humor even as their bodies undergo nightmarish transformations.]}

All right then, Mr. Hands-for-Feet, I guess if I'd been planning to eat you, that metaphor would've put me off lunch for a week anyway.

I know a place.

C'mon!

_{[And then she starts to hop off towards the street!]}

[ka_mai]

[Bert hops off the dumpster with a grin and follows after, partially crouched and walking with both hands and feet in a loping sort of gate. It's much easier than walking fully upright, even though he can.]

And in case ye were worried about me trying the same on ye, I've already fed and anyhow I always share with my brother if it's the Big Feed. He's a meat eater, works out well.

[foolishwren]

Oh, I wasn't worried.

<sub>[She says this airily (as though she hadn't instinctively calculated whether or not she was willing to risk helping him the second she saw him.]

[Feining total confidence is a very useful survival tool.]</sub>

If you tried anything, I wouldn't be the one in trouble.

[ka_mai]

That's a very bold assertion! Considering ye don't know me.

[Bert keeps up his grin. He's always relied on the element of surprise, preferring to be underestimated. Makes it much easier to get the drop on others, should he need it.]

[foolishwren]

Considering you can't fly, I think I'm safe in my boldness.

Maybe I'll reassess once you can stay off the ground for more than three seconds.

[ka_mai]

Can't fly yet, but I could still be a formidable threat. Nothing else, I'm a vampire. We're frightfully fast, sai.

[Thank gods for that. This body's hard to adjust to. He's mastered his feet and he's getting the hang of his legs, but man jesus...]

But nah, yer right, ye took off there'd be naught I could do. 'Cept mayhap fall into a tangle of limbs and creative curses...

[foolishwren]

So are harpies.

_{[She offers this reply cheekily over one shoulder, tossing her crest.]}

Good thing neither of us is hungry, right?

[ka_mai]

Are they? Hadn't heard that. I was honestly hoping that's what I'd turn into, out of the possibilities. Always liked birds. Granted I mostly was hoping to be able to fly...careful what ye wish for!

[Bert has to laugh. He got his wings, but in the worst way he possibly could.]

[foolishwren]

Yeah?

Well, not to brag, but personally, I wouldn't wanna be anything else.

<sub>[Which is... not a lie, surprisingly.]

[It's something she's slowly come to realize... and honestly? She's not sure how she should be feeling about that.]</sub>

Wings are wings, though... and flying is pretty great, no matter how you do it.

[ka_mai]

Aye. I like the look of bird folks, and I thought it'd suit me. Still do, but I'm stuck as I am and naught to do for that.

[He knows he deserves it, after all, for what he'd done. For the things that lurk in his heart.]

But flying...e'en if I have to be this damned undead thing, least I can fly. If I ever get the trick of it, anyhow! How long did it take ye? To figure it all out?

[foolishwren]

Me?

Couple'a weeks.

_{[She says it casually, but even as she speaks, she remembers the frustration, and feeling like one giant ache when she trudged home after a long day of not accomplishing anything but pulled muscles and embarrassing herself.]}

But it was even longer after that that I got used to really flying-- like going long distance and shit.

[ka_mai]

How long can ye fly for, then? Comfortably, I mean, not if ye pushed yerself.

[The body could technically do all kinds of things if pushed, after all. But he's curious. Bert has no idea how sturdy his wings are, how much strength he needs to make'em work right...how far could he get on his?]

[foolishwren]

Mm... good couple of hours, if there's plenty of thermals.

_{[Soaring had quickly become a pleasure she can barely believe she lived without for so long.]}

[ka_mai]

That's not too shabby at all! Beats walking, doesn't it? Ye ever ride a horse? How's it compare to that? I only ask as I've been a horseman all me life and it's the closest I can think might come to the feel, kennit?

[Riding at full tilt...it almost felt like a fellow could run right off the ground and into the sky.]

[foolishwren]

Horses? Heck no, only rich people do that where I'm from.

_{[Not that she hadnt WANTED to, as a kid....]}

[ka_mai]

Aye? Damn near everyone's got a horse, where I come from. It's the only way to get around. I live on a horse ranch now, actually. Gonna see about getting my horse, from back home. Miss her.

[He'll have to ask Susan how much Pylon had cost, see where he stands on that.]

I always thought riding fast felt like what flying might.

[foolishwren]

You are?

<sub>[She doesn't... actually know anybody who got an entire animal from Mana, or even Tikbalang.]

[... Unless Duchess counted. But she's honestly not sure where that tiger came from. Somehow the fact that the Nest had a completely normal, non-monster tiger hanging around had been something she just sort of accepted without questioning it.]</sub>

That... seems like it could be tricky.

I didn't even know you could do that.

[ka_mai]

Oh aye. My friend Susan, one I live with, she got her horse. Ridden him myself.

[Bert just shrugs. He doesn't know all the details. It's magic stuff, and he doesn't ask questions when it comes to magic. He can't grasp the answers and he knows it.]</small. That's how she got her ranch, too. Same as the one back home - we come from the same world, me and Sue.

[foolishwren]

<sub>[An entire location, transplanted from someone's home?]

[She supposes it shouldn't feel like such an alien concept... after all, Mana just made an entire city rise from the earth for the Nesters, complete with a population of citizens.]

[But that was new.]

[The idea of being able to summon actual fragments of wherever they came from, while not being able to return for real... something about it makes the feathers along Heather's spine rise.]

[But she doesn't bring that up.]</sub>

A whole ranch?

That must've cost her a fortune.

[ka_mai]

Yup, the Delgado Ranch. Dunno how much it cost, I think she and the gel she used to live with went in on it together. That was all a'fore I got here. She took me and my brother in. We all knew each other, once.

[It's a very complicated story, so he doesn't bother to exaggerate.]

But it's a nice thing to know. Wouldn't mind having my old home back, but I wot that's out of the question as I lived in a big castle...

Still.

[He missed Gilead. He missed his room, the one he'd grown up in but hasn't seen since he was sixteen. And if it was gone back home, broken and ruined and crumbled to dust...why couldn't it be like him? Like the others? Find a new life here. Even if it was only for him and Roland.]