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 Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:07 am
"I don't mind," Birch squeaked and started fumbling with the bag again. He was suddenly nervous and it seemed to take forever to get it secured just right. When he turned back towards her she wasn't looking at him. Instead she seemed focused on his chest, and Birch shifted anxiously, self conscious despite what he had said earlier. Fluffing up he decided to stop fussing and start taking it like a... a... bard?
He stepped closer and clumsily tried to figure out how to share his body warmth with Tousled without stepping on her toes or taking her eye out with his wings. He wasn't really used to get all close to other Sentinels.
"Um... Sorry," he mumbled and quickly moved his foot from what could have been a stray mus, but what most likely was Tousled's poor foot. A Mus would have squealed more. Mmmm... He wouldn't say no to a Mus as a snack right now.
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Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:57 am
Tousled's plumage rippled indecisively as Birch laboriously freed himself of his bag and edged closer. He seemed even clumsier than usual, and even managed to step on her foot as he tried to find a good way to settle down, but Tousled managed not to give off any indication - except for perhaps a slight hiccup of surprise - that she had noticed anything.
She felt really warm now, and they hadn't even settled down yet - and still she trembled. Okay. The ruffled little Deep Woods had had just about enough for one day, and with a deep breath and a courage that she didn't know she possessed, she pulled herself together and resolutely nudged herself closer to the bard, easily avoiding any more stray feet.
"Fold your wing," she quietly suggested, sidling in against his fluffy side until she knew that she was close enough for the warmth to start seeping in through their thick feathers. "...There you go." She cleared her throat and tried to force herself to meet his eyes, though still speaking only barely above a whisper. "Are you comfortable? Is the bag okay?"
She felt more embarrassed than ever, but with a small hint of pride somewhere in there: She had actually managed not to act like a complete ninny, and hadn't accidentally clawed him or anything... And then, of course, the inevitable doubt came pouring forth like a spring flood and drowned out the little flicker of pride and courage that she had felt: Some males really hated being told what to do, what if Birch felt offended now? Or embarrassed? He might have forgiven her her thoughtless comment on his clumsiness earlier, but there was really no telling how he might interpret this behaviour on her part now.
She fought back a fierce urge to start preening, and kept her face turned towards his while trying to look as unaffected and natural as possible. What was that... Don't spook yourself, don't get self-conscious, and nobody will notice? But what if I already AM self-conscious?
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:28 pm
Birch did as he was told, grateful for Tousled's polite hints and nudges, and finally managed to settle down in a way that hopefully was comfortable to both of them. It was actually quite nice to sit like this, and huddle close together to fight the storm. Birch felt warmer already, he didn't think he would notice the change so quickly.
"Yes, thank you," he said quietly at her question and turned his head around to check his bag. It was, unsurprisingly, still where he had left it. "My bag should be all right too." He chuckled as a silly thought crossed his mind. What if the bag should suddenly grow wings and take off into the night? Oh, he must be tired if he started to think about flying bags. Then he started to worry that Tousled might think he was laughing at something she had done or said.
"I mean," he said, still chuckling but trying to explain his behaviour, "It's not like it can escape. I just thought about how silly a bag with wings would look. Flapping away in the storm..." He trailed off, giggling like a fledgling.
"Much warmer now," he said and met her eyes again after his giggling fit, "How about you, is it better like this?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:06 am
The little Deep Woods felt a lot better when the bard stared chuckling to himself - He couldn't be upset if he made such a cheerful sound, after all - and hid her relieved little smile by giving her own chest a gentle preen. She couldn't keep preening, though, when he described the flying noisemaker-bag image that had set him off, with a voice so full of giggles that she couldn't help herself.
She giggled along with him for a while, and felt a lot better for it. The tension and self-consciousness drained off her like rainwater, and when the giggle fit eventually quietened she realised that she was actually quite tired. Not so surprising, perhaps, considering what a long and eventful day it had been after all.
She gave Birch a warm smile when he looked over at her and nodded. "Uh-huh. This is nice.... warm and snug." She suddenly felt a bit embarrassed again, but apparently not to a degree that affected her feathers. She did, however, have to look away from his eyes for a moment, and happened to glance down at his chest again.
Encouraged by the pleasant mood in the shelter, and Birch's general niceness, she found the courage to quietly ask the question that she kept trying to tell herself that she didn't care about:
"Birch... Why do you have three rows of spots? Does it... mean something?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:25 pm
"My spots?" Birch said, ear tufts perking up, "Do you think they're funny?" Tonight had been his first real performance with the full dye job on after all, and Tousled was the first one who had commented on it spontaneously. Well, he supposed Char's new nickname for him was a comment of sorts...
The wing bars had been finished long enough for him to feel familiar with them, but it would take some time getting used to seeing the bright spots every time he preened his chest feathers. He fluffed up his chest, to better show the colourful extra rows, and beamed at Tousled.
"See, not female, and not male," he explained, as if she should be able to get the joke at once. Birch hadn't really pondered the potential complications and assumptions that could follow a chest spot dye job, and Tousled's subtle question didn't seem to spark any such thoughts. Birch was naive in some ways, and he had never really been forced to think about gender or gender preferences.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:31 am
"Funny" was perhaps not the word that Tousled would have used. Maybe "perplexing"... but when she had first seen the dye job, and at the distance only distinguished the green extra row of spots, she had assumed, well, probably what most sentinels would assume at seeing a male with two chest rows - and she hadn't really thought twice about it until... until... say, when had it begun to seem to matter, anyway? No, it didn't matter, it was just that she was a bit curious. Yes. Too curious for her own good.
She looked from the bard's fluffed-up chest to his beaming face, and realisation slowly dawned on her.
"Oh," she said. Then, after another quick double-take: "Ooohhh! It's a joke!" Of course that was what it was! How could she have forgotten just what sort of sentinel Birch was? This was exactly the sort of thing that he might do, just to lure another laugh out of someone.
She bobbed her head, smiling excitedly. "I get it! 'Not female and not male'! Yes! I get it!" She felt strangely relieved, and couldn't help breaking out in another giggle. "Oh dear, I'm so slow... I'm sorry, Birch, I should have seen that sooner!"
She decided that it would probably be best not to dwell on why this revelation somehow seemed to make her feel happy inside. She barely even knew him, for Noctus' sake.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:30 pm
Tousled's giggle made Birch feel warm and happy inside and he couldn't stop grinning.
"I came up with the idea myself," he explained proudly, "and the artisan was willing to do it, luckily. At first I was only going to dye my ear tufts and wings..." A huge yawn interupted what could have been a very long monologue on the wonders of feather dye and made Birch realise how late it was.
"I'm not keeping you awake, am I?" he asked, "I think I'm starting to get a bit tired too." Another yawn confirmed this fact. The shelter felt nice and cosy since they sat closer together now, and the warmth was making Birch sleepy.
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:18 pm
"It's very ni---" Birch's yawn was contagious: His beak hadn't even closed before Tousled's own was involuntarily wrenched open in her best impression of a hungry hatchling, cutting her words off effectively. Once it was over, she shook her head and blinked sleepily.
"Oh no, not at all. If anything, I'm keeping you awake, I think, with my silly questions..." She was still surprised as to how comfortable this was, being so close to another sentinel, and her mind kept flashing back to her days with the minders, and how safe she always felt when the time came to go to sleep and she could curl up under a minder's wing... Her eyes drifted shut without any conscious effort on her part, and she leaned a little closer against Birch. "I'm getting really sleepy, though, so I'll be quiet now."
A smile settled on her features. What an incredible day! She had not only talked to a bard - and quite casually too, at that - but she was about to fall asleep next to him, and she didn't feel at all self-conscious and awkward about it.
In fact, she felt quite happy. Dimly, she realised that she had made a friend today. The thought made her spontaneously puff out her chest feathers in silent joy, and she didn't even care about preening them back in line again.
A friend. A handsome, fun, easy-to-talk-to bard... for a friend...
Could life really get much better than that?
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