Battlefield Birthdays

[walking_nuke]

Who:	Residents of 847 Goldberg (Balin, Virginia, and Caesar), as well as any guests (Utsuho, others depending on what happens!)
What:	Balin has the unfortunate predicament of having been born right before April Fool's. He's 28 today!
When:	Friday, March 30, 195X+4
Where:	847 Goldberg Street
Warnings:	Nukebirds in boxes? Nah, probably nothing serious.

[For soldiers deployed overseas, celebrating birthdays is hard enough. In the AFS, though, practically everywhere is the front line. With Earth gone, there's no relatives or friends from home to send you birthday wishes or throw a party for you when you come back—you're lucky if any are still alive and deployed on Foreas or Arieki. Still, soldiers find ways to party.]

[In Balin's case, though, he's now been stuck in Mayfield long enough to grow a year older. It dawned on him in a conversation with Virginia earlier in the week, and now ... he's really not sure what to do for his birthday—somehow, being stuck in Mayfield feels even more limiting than living among the militarized remains of the human species. But maybe Virginia or Caesar have an idea in mind ...]

[(Note: This'll be a multi-thread log, for various interactions and tags throughout the day depending on what happens.)]

Comments

[IN THE HOUSE]

[idkmybfforin]

[And in a box.

Granted, it's a comfy box. It's got some soft towels and a blanket swaddled in there like a nest, and was quite warm besides.

After all, there was a hellraven in it. Not as burningly hot to the touch as the yatagarasu made her at times, but at least somewhat warm.

She was in her bird form, and sleeping; as she had been on and off for a week, between being ferried home to escape droning which would not have helped the sleep situation at all.

Now she was somewhere between awake and unconscious--leaning more towards unconscious. It would be easier to interact with the lump of feathers, anyway. Somewhat.

The yatagarasu's eye remained cold and dark; the crack in its center almost knit back together, but not quite. It was also hard to see, with the raven cuddled up to all those soft things.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin actually hasn't been aware that Utsuho has been living with the household for the past week or so since her "surgery by Drifter" incident at Makeout Point—Virginia spent a lot of time outside as it is, and his "job" as a construction worker meant missing out on a lot of goings-on at the home.]

[Though today he finally noticed the bird-in-a-box. And while Balin may not be particularly an animal person, there is something kind of adorable about seeing a bird wrapped up in blankets and half-asleep in a box.]

[So right now he's kneeling down a foot or two away in front of Utsuho's box, taking a closer look at the bird. But without a clearly visible third leg or eyeboob, Okuu's raven form is indistinguishable from that of other ravens and crows. At least to Balin.]

Aw. Virginia taking care of you, lil' buddy?

[WHO CAN RESIST THAT ADORKABLE BIRD]

[idkmybfforin]

Krrgrk.

[The raven responded to the voice! Sluggishly and without really opening her eyes or beak, but she did.

You should totally pet her for irony points Balin]

[walking_nuke]

[YEAH BOY, HE'S GOING FOR THE IRONY. Balin reaches out and gently pets the raven on the top and back of her head. And while he does notice how warm she is to the touch, he figures it's just because she's sleeping in a bunch of blankets.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Now Okuu is a melty birdpuddle that happens to be warm. She makes a muffled cooing noise and her neck feathers puff up. She loves headscratches!]

[walking_nuke]

[Damn that is adorable. Reminds him of the parrots he'd seen at pet stores or owned by friends back home. Living in urban America as he did, Balin never thought a crow or raven to be as docile, or as open to human touch.]

Heheh. Good bird.

[Balin has just called the man-eating town-burning youkai that he was all too happy to literally disarm a "good bird." By now Cirno has invaded the Palace of Earth Spirits and froze it solid.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho tilts her head a bit to the left, making that burbling cooing noise again. She was very appreciative of that touch!

It was like she was someone's pet or something.

Though what might seal the deal is the way her eyes flicker open, briefly. The raven returns to her state of half-asleep somnolence almost immediately after, but those eyes were rather distinctly red.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin keeps gently petting the raven's head until he sees her open those eyes. Those red eyes ...]

—Utsuho?

[He doesn't really stop petting her—call it inertia from seeing an animal behave adorably—though his expression falls almost completely flat.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The raven makes that grumbled squawk again at her name, cracking her eyes open a bit again.

...whatever effect she was going for abruptly dissipated when she yawnsed, though. Okuu closed her eyes again and drifted a little closer back to sleep.

She didn't seem to recognize Balin much yet. At the moment he was just some pleasantly headscratching fingers and maybe a blobby human-shape beyond the box.]

[walking_nuke]

Guess Virginia brought you over, huh?

[... Well. Virginia made it clear she wanted to try and reason with the hell raven. Maybe she just skipped the whole waiting part and brought the bird over.]

[But why? And why was she acting so quiet and well-behaved now? ... At least she didn't come to the house in her youkai form, tearing the place up looking for her control rod.]

[idkmybfforin]

[...oh are we still talking. Why are we still talking? Okuu not want talk.

Her next grumble-squawk sounds like "what?", though her eyes are still closed.]

[walking_nuke]

Eh. Guess'ere'll be time to talk later.

[... Someone help him Utsuho's head is too fuzzy to the touch and he's still giving her headscritches.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Well, while you're here--

The other side of her neck is slightly itchy. So she's going to be turning her fluffy feathered head thataway.]

[also in the house]

[commentboxtroll]

[Caesar's likely been asked to stick around and wish Balin a happy birthday, so he's still chilling in the living room with a book by the time anyone else is up and about. Awake, even! And, even more surprising, there's a wrapped package sitting on the table. Though it looks like someone put an effort into wrapping that thing, so whether it's even from Caesar or not...

That's debatable.]

[walking_nuke]

[And here comes Balin, fully dressed after having encountered Okuu-in-a-Box upstairs.]

Mornin'—

[Wait. Is that a present on the table?]

[... Yeah, Balin's just gonna stand there a bit slack-jawed. If only because he didn't expect any gifts today—much less from Caesar of all people!]

[commentboxtroll]

Good morning.

[He yawns and turns to a new page in his book.]

[walking_nuke]

[Maybe he shouldn't be too hasty in assuming that present is for him ... He's not entirely sure the kid likes him enough for that. Especially after ... well, everything since November.]

[Buuut he'll just kind of make his way over to the coffee pot.]

[That'll justify getting a better look at the present!]

[commentboxtroll]

[Nope. Not saying anything about it.]

[walking_nuke]

[He's going to at least see if there's a tag or label attached to the thing saying it's for him, at least!]

[Of course ... He's not a Spy. Acting subtle is not Balin's strong suit.]

[commentboxtroll]

[Caesar peeks up from his book and watches Balin as he hovers around. If there is a tag, it's on the other side. This looks like the bottom of the gift, with the edges of the wrapping paper visible.]

[walking_nuke]

[... Clever boy.]

[Well, there's no sense trying to tiptoe around his curiosity now. So while he's making himself a cup of coffee from the pot, he'll call out to Caesar.]

Uh—hey, what's'a present for?

[commentboxtroll]

[Aaand he looks back down at his book.]

What present?

[walking_nuke]

[Oh ... so maybe it isn't something Caesar did.]

That one on'a table'ere.

[commentboxtroll]

[No, it is. In a fashion. But Balin isn't getting answers so easily! As aloof as he is sometimes, Caesar does have a sense of humor somewhere.]

Oh, that. That's probably just for my girlfriend.

[walking_nuke]

[If Caesar didn't seem so disinterested and defensive to all the girls that collect around him—barring what the flowers did of course—he might have believed him ... except for one other thing, and it's that thing which makes Balin smirk.]

"Probably?"