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

[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.]

[walking_nuke]

[Oh yeah, that side of her neck is totally getting scritched. In his struggle to not be completely subdued by the fluffy bird-in-a-box, Balin thinks he's just going to have to ask Virginia what the deal is with Utsuho being here—if she isn't already watching him pet the nukebird from behind or something.]

[bantorain]

-Yep.-

And here I thought you were incapable of making nice with one another.

[idkmybfforin]

[It's only because she's...tired! Yeah. That's it. Not really

Utsuho carefully hooks her beak over the edge of the box to see who was there--carefully because she did not want to dislodge those fingers.

She caws at Virginia, once. She recognized that voice a bit more than Balin's, and had some favorable memories associated with it.]

Unyu.

[...then her head drops back down again.]

[walking_nuke]

[Figures, really!]

Eh, I didn't know it was her at first.

[And yet he's still scritching the raven's head.]

[bantorain]

She's gonna stay with us awhile until she's better. She's still recovering from that weird eye going out.

[idkmybfforin]

[Indeed Balin is and now that he's every so slightly distracted she can turn her head almost all the way over so he's scratching the raven's chin, more or less.

The normally distinctive red eye that would normally be at least partially visible and glowing was...not there. Even with her neck stretched out.]

[walking_nuke]

[That doesn't escape Balin's notice, especially since Virginia just mentioned the eye going out.]

What happened to'at thing?

[who's a good bird yes you are]

[bantorain]

When I was out practicing the other day, she dive bombed me. I had no choice but to shoot the thing out, which was what she had wanted of me in the first place.

[idkmybfforin]

[She totally would have said please!

...if she'd had the presence of mind to which she didn't. Though she did kind of say that obliquely but that probably doesn't count.

She does grumble a bit when the incident is mentioned, though.]

[walking_nuke]

Huh.

[Balin looks very puzzled now, looking at Virginia, then back down at Utsuho after she makes another grumbling croak.]

She wanted you to do'at?

[bantorain]

She did... She was happier once it was gone.

[idkmybfforin]

[Why yes, yes she was. Utsuho ruffles all her feathers again and seems to almost chirp.

...though since she's not a songbird it still ends up sounding a bit squawky.]

[walking_nuke]

... So she regained something she didn't want.

I wonder if it's part of'a reason she flipped out like she did earlier'is month.