|4| [Video]

[wing_attack]

[The video clicks on, and there is... well. There's a Rufflet and an Ursaring in colorful party hats.]

[In an inn room. He finally sprung for one tonight, yeah. Tobias turns the camera around and grins, though it's a little bit of a crooked grin. His last birthday... didn't go so well. Or was that the birthday before? The last birthday he paid attention to the date on, at least. Anyway.]

What kind of stuff do you guys do for your birthday where you're from? I never really did much for mine, so I decided to get a room for the night. It's kind of nice here, though it's sort of expensive...

[... He's probably going to go back to sleeping outside tomorrow night. Oh well.]

... Maybe we'll go out to eat or somethi -

[Aaand the Ursaring tackles him, and Tobias is left flailing under a pile of brown fur.]

Rachel! You're too big now! Get off!

[The Ursaring just laughs and Tobias crawls out from under her, turning the video off as her party hat falls and bonks him on the head.]

Comments

[wing_attack]

You can talk to animals?

[That's... pretty cool.]

[cawsforalarm]

Uh-huh! Ever since I was born.

I was pretty much raised by a wolf for a few years.

[wing_attack]

That's... that's pretty cool. I can... kind of understand some animals, but it's... different. It's not really verbal language as much as body language.

[cawsforalarm]

Do you spend a lot of time out in the woods? Or wherever animals are? Because that's pretty cool too! I'm super bad at body language.

[wing_attack]

Yeah, there's a field and it starts going out into the woods. I've lived out there for a while now.

[cawsforalarm]

That's cool, that's cool! I'm part of an army, so we spend most of our time sleeping out in the middle of nature too.

[wing_attack]

... Oh. Yeah, I'm... not.

[Guerrilla group, but yeah.]

[cawsforalarm]

So why'd you go out there? Just sick of towns?

[He doesn't seem affected at all by that awkward response.]

[wing_attack]

No, I just... it's better than other options.

[cawsforalarm]

Heh, yeah. I can relate.

[Well... partially. He probably would have gone and played around in the forest anyway if it wasn't better than his other options, but he definitely preferred Wolfmom over the town.]

So you like birds, huh? Did you have any back at home?

[wing_attack]

It's kind of hard to own a bird. I used to have a cat, but there were a bunch in the forest. A lot of hawks, actually.

[cawsforalarm]

Ah, is it? Admittedly I've never owned any... like I said, the birds just kinda came to me. I know some people do say they own their animals, though, so. [He shrugs.]

Ooh, hawks! They're actually really clever! I knew one back home, she was the funniest thing ever. She taught me puns!

[wing_attack]

I like hawks a lot. When I went to school I used to stare out the window and watch them dive for squirrels that were running across the parking lot.

[cawsforalarm]

Ah, that's so cool! Especially when they squeeze the squirrels too tight and you can see the blood dripping out... yeah, that's the best... mmm.

[wing_attack]

[... Um. His human instincts are horrified, but the remnants of his hawk instincts are intrigued.]

I... guess. Most people wouldn't really think that's a great sight to see, though.

[cawsforalarm]

Well I'm not most people, and I think it's awesome! [ n_n ]

What about you? Would you want to see that?

[wing_attack]

Not... usually, no.

[cawsforalarm]

Not usually?

[wing_attack]

It's kind of complicated...

[cawsforalarm]

I have time!

[Henry, that wasn't an invitation.]

[wing_attack]

I'm not really sure I want to go into it right now.

[cawsforalarm]

[...Aw.]

Well, whenever you do, I'd love to hear! Other people who like watching stuff like that are super rare, you know.

[wing_attack]

Yeah, I can imagine they would be.