Octeuril Catch All

[long_live_the_queen]

Who: Kaede and you! And people doing quests.
When: All month where convenient
Where: Within the City, The Slums, Outside the City
What: Another monthly thread container!
Warnings: Goose. Will update as needed.



I. Duck, duck...duck? [River Temese Bridge]

[One of the bridge's occupants doesn't seem interested in an argument, at least for the moment. Nor the lanterns, nor the decorations. No, Kaede's leaned over the rail and staring over the side, her scarlet feathered tail lashing in agitation behind her. She isn't being too mindful of where it's going, and smacking people in the ankles with it is a very real possibility. There's a stiff core to the tail, under all the fluffy feather.

Get close enough—an easier proposition this time, as she's distracted—and one can hear her mildly distressed muttering.]

...those ducks have shells on them.

[What the fuck. How long have they been this way. How long has this been happening.

This is messing her up.]

II. Garden Troubles [Slums]

[Seeing a garden—one that wasn't a mess of weeds, or a vandalized sunflower field—was nostalgic, in a way. As was...seeing parts of it all torn up. At least the pawprints around kept it from reminding her too much of that.

Kaede had split up—the better to flush the wolves out of whatever burrow they were hiding in. She could be quiet when she wished, her senses were sharp despite the rain, and she could get into places someone more human-shaped couldn't.

Something rustled the plants in a row nearby, and Kaede stilled. She couldn't see through to the other side—there was a heavily laden trellis in the way—but she could pinpoint the sound quite easily. The Chimera gathered herself, coiling her legs and back like a cat about to pounce, and sprang up, almost ten feet up, until she could clear the trellis and come back down on the sound.

...and, hopefully, what was rustling on the other side of the trellis was one of the creatures they were after, and not a person. That would just be dreadfully inconvenient, wouldn't it.

At least the Chimera's on the smaller side.]

III. honk [Outside the City]

[Kaede didn't choose this quest. It chose her, with a yank on her tail. And a sharp pain from a few of her feathers coming away, but mostly from the sheer indignity of it. The Chimera roars—a proper one, not a grumbly mumble—and whirls about, but the culprit was already dashing away down the dirt road, a few of her scarlet feathers clutched in a clawed hand.

The goose-feathered Harpy finds this all quite hilarious, shrieking with laughter as he dashes off, the Chimera hot on his heels. He's quite fast, though, even without flying. The Harpy occasionally makes a few fluttering hops when she gets too close, but he doesn't take off.

Occasionally, Kaede's chased the Harpy up onto some building—a barn, a cottage, a stable—and is sitting crouched at the bottom, tail lashing like a frustrated cat. The Harpy looked fairly smug up there.

Sometimes Kaede doesn't make it that far, though. Her knees had been prone to aching lately, sometimes going a bit numb. And this time they crumpled entirely, sending the Chimera toppling facefirst into the road. It wasn't raining today, but the ground was still plenty damp—and mud got on her clothes and once-bright feathers immediately. Kaede tried to get back up, but only pins and needles answered where her legs should have been.

Worst of all, the Harpy was impossibly far away down the road now. His off-white feathers were mockingly bright against the fading summer colors.]

Get back here you little shit—

[Kaede's opinions were intact! She'll probably live. After she gets back up.]

Wildcard

[For prompts or closed threads not seen here! My plotting post is here for ease of use. ]

Comments

I

[integrous]

[ There's something vaguely familiar about the person on the bridge. And it's pretty attention-grabbing to begin with that there's only one person on the bridge right now, considering Asahi has only seen people go up there in pairs. So she can't help but stare when Kaede is standing there all by herself, and then.. leaning over the rail..?

Maybe Asahi is a little dramatic (she's definitely dramatic) and a little instinctively emotional (she is also definitely that), but she can't help but want to make sure this is not a case of someone about to fall or jump.

Her feathered wings flap in surprise as she quickly sprints over to the other. ]

Hey, are.. you okay?!

[ Apparently she didn't even hear the thing about the ducks. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[no, she's having a crisis!!]

What?

[That voice sounded a little familiar. The soft flutter of wings that weren't her own, less so. Kaede's ears twitched before she looked up, red eyes reflecting like embers in the lantern light.]

I'm fine. I think. Or going crazy.

[The Chimera's tail swishes again, but the rest of her agreeably stays still.]

[integrous]

[ Thankfully Asahi already noticed the tail, so she isn't standing directly in its path and risking getting hit by it..

But less thankfully that answer only makes her even more worried. So Asahi was totally right and the other is having some crisis! Good thing she stopped by before something worse could happen!

(Of course she has no idea what the other truly was worried about..) ]

.. How so? [ She frowns, unable to keep the concern off her face. ] There's a huge gap between "fine" and "going crazy", you know.

[long_live_the_queen]

[One's Kaede's favorite lie, the other is honest speculation?

The Chimera pointed down at the water, though it might not be the easiest to see without night-piercing eyes. There were a handful of ducks gathered around one of the bridge's support pillars, entirely unaware they were causing a problem.]

Down there. The ducks. They have shells on them. They didn't before.

[...or did they? The pattern on their backs looked like a turtle's interlocking plates, and it was quite shiny. But the ducks weren't doing flying or diving, just...being ducks, idly swimming about and waiting for someone to drop some bread or something else edible from the bridge.]

If I forgot that, what the fuck else did I forget?

[integrous]

[ Before she even looks at the ducks herself, Asahi's jaw drops open, and then she smacks herself in the forehead with the palm of her hand. ]

The ducks..!

[ So that's why the other was looking over the edge of the bridge like that! Now Asahi sure feels like an idiot for assuming worse, although - going by what Kaede is saying - the other doesn't seem to be feeling 100% all the same. So maybe it's for the best that she approached the other, even if it was due to a misunderstanding? ]

Uh, I mean-- [ She quickly continues, prefering to not have to explain that just now. ] I don't think I've looked at the ducks before.. Here, let me look.

[ She peers over the edge of the bridge as well, but Asahi just ends up squinting. ]

It's kind of hard to tell in the dark. Are you sure you're seeing shells?

[long_live_the_queen]

[The movement in the corner of her eye made Kaede's gaze snap around again, and a disgruntled noise started in her throat. Stop making fun of her! This was serious!

The Chimera's tail switched again, her annoyed rumble persisting.]

Can't you--?

[She could tell this girl was something feathery, but not much beyond that. Maybe she was being honest.]

They look like shells. Turtle shells.

[It'd be a lot easier if they could just catch one, but the ducks were sensibly far away.]

[integrous]

I mean.. They could be, maybe? [ To be fair, she's trying really hard to look here. But either harpies just can't see in the dark or that ability hasn't fully kicked in for Asahi yet, since she can only make out vague shapes down there in the water. ] But maybe not. I really can't see.

[ But it feels like such a trivial matter after she thought something more serious was wrong with the other, so Asahi stops trying to peer down into the darkness and instead turns to Kaede. ]

Is it just the ducks? Or have you seen more things recently that felt off?

[long_live_the_queen]

[She could be an owl harpy! ...owlpy? Kaede didn't know.]

[The Chimera kept staring down at the water, a flicker of irritation all that she would allow herself. It was just...a nothing concern, really.

But it led to others, like footsteps following the next.]

...not really. Just those things. And the dreams.

[She stared at one of the ducks placidly paddling about like it was personally at fault for reminding her.]

[integrous]

Dreams?

[ She still doesn't attempt to follow the other's gaze - maybe since Asahi knows that all she'll see is darkness with some vague shapes anyway. Instead she keeps looking at Kaede, her head tilting to the side slightly in curiosity. ]

What kind of dreams? Do you mean like the one where we all ended up in that weird other city?

[long_live_the_queen]

Yes.

[Kaede's claws curled more tightly around the railing, her mouth pulling back into more of a grimace.]

Parts of those ended up being true.

[Why couldn't dreams go back to being simple things, just poorly connected images and thoughts the brain was working over and nothing more?]

[integrous]

...

[ For a second Asahi is quiet, and she starts frowning as well. If there's anything she doesn't like to think back on, it's the dream about that city. There's a good reason she didn't go there when most of them seemed to. ]

Yeah, that dream was pretty bad. I really hated it too. I guess it's not too surprising if it somehow messed you up.

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede snorted, but the way the feathers on her shoulders ruffled was still just as unsettled.]

I've been messed up long before that.

[...still. That wretched dream wasn't something easily set aside. She could still hear the sound of a saw, almost a week after they'd all woken up again.]

[integrous]

[ That's a pretty concerning statement. Not that Asahi can't be cynical herself - she often is - but.. geez. ]

You mean because of what this place is doing to us?

[ It's not hard to see that Kaede is a monster too, after all. With that big tail and all. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

[While Kaede's paranoia could reach world wonder status, her moments of self-depreciation were a close second.]

Not exactly. I just look like what I've known I was, now.

[She glanced at her hand, slowly flexing the fingers there as she thought. Hooked claws, like a bird or cat--not round crescents of nail. Tools for killing, for tearing things apart. Not so much for putting them back together again.]

[integrous]

What.. you know you were?

[ At that Asahi mostly sounds confused. Is the other saying she was already that kind of monster back home and it's only showing now she's here? That would be a very odd and specific coincidence. ]

[long_live_the_queen]

A monster. [Lowercase letters.] A bad person.

[The Chimera's tail stopped moving, and she stared out at nothing in the dark. Her voice was blunt as much as it sounded tired, like it was some old facet of life instead of a new realization.]

[integrous]

[ For a second she's quiet. She doesn't believe in the best of people enough to immediately say that's not true, but on the other hand, Kaede is just.. standing here. It doesn't seem particularly monstrous. ]

.. that's pretty harsh. [ She ends up saying after that silence. ] I've met people in this place who seemed way worse than you do so far.

[ Though Asahi of all people knows to not judge by first impressions. But at least it's a fact so far. ]