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Poultrygeist (15) : As Destiny City is a bustling metropolis, it’s not unexpected that there should be some strange animals running the streets. Sometimes it’s a tiger, sometimes a monkey, sometimes a chicken. Sometimes it’s something worse. Strange egg clusters have appeared in Destiny City’s parks and officials aren’t really sure what they are; these eggs have nothing inside of them. Though it’s an anomaly, they are chalking it up to teenaged pranks. However, they have advised to just leave the eggs as they are. Nobody wants to say why, but if you’re out late at night, you’ll find out. In the darkness, whispered between the sounds of the city: a guttural, rasping cluck. The creature stands on stilt-like legs, rooted to the ground with razor-sharp talons. It wears a cloak of long, oily feathers that drag on the ground with a sinister scraping. If you stare into the darkness, piercing red eyes stare back at you. That’s all it takes for a confrontation: a mangled bird, maybe a chicken in another life, comes barreling out at you. It stands easily as tall as a person, but the proportions are all wrong. The smell of sulfur follows it as it lunges, pecking and screaming and scratching as it attempts to chase you away. Maybe, from the nests full of empty eggs. The battles are fierce, but fleeting; it will viciously try to chase you away but the effects are always the same: at some point, the eggs are crushed. As always, there’s nothing inside of them, but with one final wail, the bird will vanish into a plume of foul smoke.
Industria was well aware that she was lucky, given that she got to do things like "wander around Destiny City on a beautiful summer evening with Cryptomelane at her side." She hadn't realized how lucky she'd been a year ago, when she ran into him for the first time; it had been such a silly little moment, but it had grown, into something...remarkable.
She was young, she knew, and not exactly experienced in relationships, but Cryptomelane was...unique. Others perhaps saw him as unpleasant or awkward, but Industria herself was not the most socially adept, and in ay case,t hey seemed to understand each other well enough.
And beyond that, Cryptomelane--Preston--hand introduced her to a whole new world, quite literally. A magical one, opening her eyes to the truths that she had only scratched the surface of before.
She had seen the end of the world, nearly. And had come back from it amazed and enlightened.
And now she got to see even more.
They had a quiet night so far, together; she had insisted on going with him a little more often to help him and watch his back after his squabble with a Transcended Eternal over starseeds; Industria had not held back about expressing that she found that kind of behavior worrisome, and given that her magic gave him a boost in clarity of thought, it seemed that she was well equipped to keep an extra eye on him. Nothing so spectacular tonight--until she noticed something odd tucked into a corner next to the stairs up tot he front door of the building they were walking by.
"Is that...a nest?" She asked, aloud, to get Cryptomelane's attention before she moved over to look at them. Curiously, it did seem to be a bird's nest, with eggs and all, but completely out of place here. There weren't any others, and these looked more....chicken-y than pigeon-y or songbird-y.
How fascinating. She remembered, briefly, that she'd seen stories online of people encountering strange eggs and that they were best left alone given that they had a very angry guardian, but...well, she couldn't help herself. And besides, between her and Cryptomelane, they surely had the ability to handle whatever came at them.
"Darling," she said, leaning down to get a closer look at the strange eggs, "come and see. I wonder how these got here."
Amor Remanet
