On the wing

[idkmybffbloodwing]

CHARACTERS: Mordecai, his face-eating baby bird, and you!
LOCATION: Anywhere and everywhere
WARNINGS: n/a
SUMMARY: The bloodwing - now fully capable of flight - goes exploring, and Mordecai tries to chase him down.
NOTES: Feel free to run into either Mordecai looking for his bird, or the bird himself, up to you.


He'd guessed the age of his bird at three or four days, when he'd pulled it from the nest. He would have preferred an older one, but bloodwings were hard enough to find, so he took what he could get. That made the little guy's age at about a month, now, plus or minus a couple days. Goddamn, he'd been here too long. The bird had been pumping his wings almost constantly for days, now, exercising the muscles he'd need for flight, but this morning he'd actually managed to lift off the nightstand and, having targeted the comm device, landed awkwardly on top of where it was and knock it to the floor. Thankfully the thing was durable, but it had woken Mordecai up - at which point the little bird proceeded to make another awkward flight back over to him, almost as if he was eager to share his newfound ability, and landed right on his face. Really, the thing was like a winged kitten in some ways, but with claws that didn't retract.

Some serious training was in order, now, but that was going to take time. Which would have been what the day was for - but when Mordecai stepped out into the hall with the bird on his shoulder as usual, the opening door of the lift was enough to startle it into hopping off his shoulder and onto the floor. And evidently this newfound freedom was exciting, because when he went to go pick him back up, he gave him a wild look and took off down the hallway, trying to see just how fast he could fly.

"Carajo," Mordecai spat, and ran after it.

Comments

[suddenlycaptain]

Carolyn is getting really sick of the damn cat's antics.

In a lot of ways, Jones is a good cat. He eats, he sleeps, he does cat-things. She's sure he'd take care of mice, if they had any around. He comes into the shuttle bay with her sometimes and stays out of the way, curling up on the seat and watching her work, poking around but staying close. He's a physical reminder of Ripley, more than the continued space training classes or the other woman's words, still rattling around in her head sometimes. He's warm and soft and he sleeps curled up next to her and it's good, it's comforting and she needs that because sometimes even overworking doesn't stop the nightmares.

Of course, he also runs off in medical every jump. He hates the blue goo but hates the showers to get it off more. He's clawed her more than once, irritated by her efforts. He's jumped out of her arms and run off because there was something to do or because he didn't want her help, dammit, and no amount of swearing or namecalling coaxed him back. And today, of course, is one of those days. Jones, the orange tabby with an attitude, jumping out of her arms on the way back to the shuttle bay after lunch and streaking off down the hall, Carolyn running after him and cursing his existence.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

The bloodwing has never seen a cat before. He is pretty sure it's predatory, but it's also small and therefore possibly edible. The person is probably a harmless perch like most other people he has met, so he makes his best attempt at landing on Carolyn's head so he can watch the cat.

[suddenlycaptain]

There is a bird on her head.

There is a bird on her head.

Carolyn freezes, not sure what the hell she's supposed to do. From what she saw before she landed on her, it has a beak and talons that could do some serious damage. She has enough scars from predatory flying creatures and she doesn't particularly want to add any more.

Of course, then there's Jones. Jones, who is a tomcat and thinks he rules the roost and is staring at the bird on top of her head as though he's also trying to figure out if it's something edible, hunched down to the ground and tail twitching.

She sighs.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

This person's head is hard to sit on - hair isn't good to grip, after all. His feet keep sliding off the sides and he ends up dancing on his toes before hopping down to her shoulder instead. Suddenly her face is more interesting than the cat, because this is a face he does not know. He gapes at her for a moment, then gives a short squawk and spreads his wings, ready to take off if his new perch is not as harmless as he thought it was.

[suddenlycaptain]

There's still a faint mark from where the deceptively bright looking birds from Haymitch's otherworld claws across her temple and still scars on both sides of her torso from the bioraptor. This bird practically slides down her head and she winces, resigning herself to some cuts on her scalp and on her shoulder. It squawks next and she winces again, because that's sort of loud when it's right next to your ear.

"Calm down, you," she mutters, looking away from the bird to focus on Jones, who has crept forward. If he tries using her as a perch too, she swears...

[idkmybffbloodwing]

The shoulder is steady, and the face is no longer looking at him. These are both good things. He fixes his attention on the cat as well, bobbing his head slightly as he watches it. He isn't that hungry, or he might try to see if he could grab it. Instead, he's just curious. And that twitching tail has his attention as much as anything else - that could possibly be something to play with. He folds his wings and leans forward a little, trying to decide what to do.

[suddenlycaptain]

Jones stares back for a long moment before deciding that no, this probably isn't food and he's not hungry anyway. He stretches and then stands, walking over to Carolyn and rubbing against her legs as if he hadn't just ran away from her earlier, his tail straight up in the air. He's now completely ignoring the bird; it might as well be a lamp for all the attention he's giving it at the moment.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

Yes, this is much better, the cat looks less predatory now and more like something he can play with. This is good. He drops down and makes a grab at the cat's tail, then spreads his wings at the last second to try and pull up. He's new to all of this, though, and his timing is a little off, so he misses the tail by inches and skids along the hallway floor instead.

[suddenlycaptain]

Despite herself, Carolyn's lips quirk up into a smile. Jones looks back at the bird, completely unaware of what the creature had been aiming for, before walking over to try and sniff it, Carolyn following after. "Leave him alone Jones, he's new to flying."

[shoyu]

He's walking around with a sandwich in hand, which probably isn't that smart of an idea in the first place.

Although to be fair, Soysauce has just gotten off a shift of SEC patrol, which entailed a fairly long period of time spent walking through the hallways making sure nothing was going wrong, no people were dying, no fistfights had broken out. A man got rather peckish after walking around for long enough! So Soysauce had dropped by the kitchen briefly to make himself a sandwich before heading back to his room, quietly humming some cheerful tune to himself as he made his way down the hallway, snack in hand.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

Soysauce's peaceful snack is interrupted as a bird comes careening down the hallway. It narrowly misses his head, then doubles back to investigate what he's holding, because it might be a comm and therefore worth pecking at. Clearly the best way to investigate is to attempt a crash-landing on the man's arm, using his chest as a backstop.

[shoyu]

He almost thinks he's being shot at, at first, when that shape comes barreling through the air and almost slams into his head. Reflexively ducking down with a small yelp, Soysauce staggers back a step -- ending up toppling back a further few steps when the whatever-it-is turns sharply mid-flight and whams into him.

It's only because he's got his back pressed against the wall that Soysauce doesn't fall over, really. And he just stares wide-eyed at the strange creature sitting on his arm for a moment, boggling at those unusual wings, his chest aching a bit from the impact. "Well. Guess that's one way to say hello there, eh?" A slightly breathless little laugh before he ducks his head down to get a closer look at the bird. (It's a bird, right?)

[idkmybffbloodwing]

Big yellow eyes stare right back at him as the bird freezes under the scrutiny. But he soon decides this person doesn't look like he wants to eat him, so he ruffles his feathers a little and folds his wings, straightening himself out after that terrible landing, then glances at Soysauce's face once more before inching his way sideways along his arm, moving closer to the sandwich.

[shoyu]

Well, it seems friendly, at least. Soysauce just tilts his head, watching that preening puff of feathers before giving a soft laugh when he sees the bird edge toward his sandwich. "Is that why you bumped into me?" Keeping the arm that Bloodwing is perched on as still as possible, Soysauce reaches with his free hand to tear off a chunk of the sandwich -- bread, something similar to lettuce, ham and condiments -- and carefully hold it before that sharp beak. "Here you go!"

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He sits steadily, watching with interest as the chunk of sandwich moves closer to his face. It isn't something he recognizes as food, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth trying. He eyes Soysauce again, then leans down to tear off a chunk of bread, then tosses it aside on the floor and goes in for another try, and in this way disassembles the piece of sandwich entirely until he arrives at the meat, which is swallowed in a single gulp.

[shoyu]

He's always liked animals, always been fond of watching them, and Soysauce is honestly quite charmed by the way the bird picks apart the sandwich chunk and only takes the meat. He'll pick up the litter later, but for now, he just coos quietly, "Guess it makes sense, you'd only want the ham. You do look a bit like a hawk." He's grinning as he pulls the slice of ham out of what remains of his sandwich and holds it out for taking. "Want the rest?"

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He sees the hand reach in and pull out more food, and at this point, is quite excited, because that last bite was good. He's a little worried about putting his face so near some unknown hand, though - a bird never knows when he might get grabbed and eaten by unknown things. It's an easy problem to solve, and he lashes out with a foot in an attempt to sink his talons into the hand with the meat, so that he can hold it in place and get at the ham easily.

[supfirehawk]

She had been walking down the halls of the ship when she heard the flapping of wings and laughed at the sight of his bird finally flying. Thankfully, the bird was more used to her and seemed to calm down somewhat at the sight of her. He hovered briefly in front of her and then landed on her head.

"Hey, knock it off," she scolded and waved her hand over her head to shoo the bird off. If the bird wanted to travel with her, then he could find a better spot to rest than her head. She was not risking getting bloodwing crap in her hair.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He tried to shuffle out of the way of her hand, but there was nowhere else to go, really, so he ended up slipping off and recovering himself on her shoulder. It was good to see a friendly face after some of his earlier encounters. He looked at her for a moment, then sat back on his ankles and relaxed, feathers fluffing out slightly.

[supfirehawk]

"Better," she said and smiled at the bird. Now she just had to find out where Mordecai was. Closer to his room was her best bet for finding him and she headed off in that direction.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He'd been following the damn bird for way too long, now, and was starting to wear out. Not even he could run forever, even if he was in pretty good shape. He was starting to worry, too - he hadn't seen the little guy in a while, and there were probably idiots on board who'd rather shoot at the bird than try to help out.

He turned a corner in the hallway, and spotted Lilith walking his way, with his bird on his shoulder. He paused in the hallway and walked toward them a little faster than he had been. "You found him! Is he okay?" He still wasn't sure what the aftermath of the cat incident had been, whether he'd been hurt or not, and he stepped the little guy up onto his arm to check him over before Lilith could even reply.

[supfirehawk]

Figured. He loved his damn bird more than anything else. She watched him with amusement and leaned back with her arms folded on her chest. "Seems like it. He was flying fine when I found him."

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He ran his fingers through the bird's feathers, checking for any sort of injury, then smiled and scratched his belly. "You went on a hell of an adventure, eh, mijo?" He lowered his arm down and the bloodwing sidestepped his way up to his shoulder, seemingly content there for now. "I hope you wore yourself out so you don't go takin' off right away again like that."

[supfirehawk]

He really did get into the habit of ignoring people too easily for his bird and she wasn't much for patience. "I'm standing right here or did you forget?"

[idkmybffbloodwing]

"Huh? No, 'course not, just makin' sure he's okay. He ran into a cat earlier." Of course, while he explained this, he was still smiling over at the bloodwing, who was preening himself again.