ArchivedLogs:Carrion

Carrion
Dramatis Personae Kelly, Lia, Ducky	13 November 2013 Talking birds, food, and zombie apocalypse. (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <XS> Back Porch
The back patio is a restful place to sit and relax, in most weather. Ample seating comes in the form of umbrella'd deck chairs and a cushioned porch swing, and the neighboring gardens attract butterflies and hummingbirds to make the viewing pleasant. The hot tub is usually open for use, though in snowy weather the transition in and out is a shivery one! It would be a far cry to call the current atmosphere cheery. But the treatment was a small drop of hope in a rather large glass nowhere near half full. Food had been the order of the day, but for the most part plates had been re-gathered, dishes piled up, tummies filled, or in some cases not quite filled, and now people are scattering. Even if socialization is limited, whispers and brief statements, carefully stated to avoid the list of the grand naughty words, or in many cases scribbled on paper, texted in cell phones, or attempted in rush-class sign language (with an emphasis on clumsy finger lettering.) Kelly has opted for fresh air. And his rumbling tummy hints that his side of the food was on the 'not quite filled' side. Realizing that the supply of provisions must be running low soon, having a genetic need to over-eat didn't seem quite as bad as the guilt of appearing to be the proverbial fat kid with a cupcake. He wasn't /that/ fat! Ok. . . maybe he was. But that didn't make the rumblings go away as he sat on the porch, swinging his feet off the edge. The boy had changed a bit recently. Clean XS clothes instead of his dirty rags, openly showing his greens and bark through ripped open shirt necks, bare sleeves, and completely giving up wearing shoes of any sort. Even more recently than that, he was completely healed from the attack of just a few days prior. A small bandage on his side out of view the only hint it had even happened, and even that was mostly to keep the new bark free from infection. He had one of the sign books out and open to his side, a picture of a duck on the side of it, and the motions drawn out for the word in cartoonish red and yellow, but he wasn't giving it any attention. Instead he was watching the horizon as the night began to first dim. Lia is dressed as she has been since arriving at Xavier's, in one of the few sets of school-logo clothing provided to her. Navy hoodie, white T-shirt, and navy pants with a white stripe running down the outside of each leg all bear the matching logos. Her long ash-brown waves have been pulled back into a fishtail braid that must have kept one of the other girls in the dorms entertained for a little while to put in place. Her fingers keep toying at it, running down the unfamiliar little ridges of compact hair. She sits at a table, muffin in hand, slowly picking bits of walnut out to eat until a section is free of nuts, then eating the nut-free chunk of muffin. Her expression at the process is pleased, her attention split precisely between the muffin and the clouds in the cold sky above. Ducky didn't eat much, sitting alone, off to the side of the Great Hall in near silence, before quietly stacking her dishes up and making her way outside in similar silence. She's dressed in black jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt with the XS logo on the chest, feet in faded black converse high tops. Some of the other kids that emerge onto the porch at the same time as her make their way away from the girl, even as Ducky heads towards the edge of the porch, shoulders slumped. The dappled gray and white pigeon that is her constant companion is indeed nestled against the cold in the confines of her hood, occasionally peeking up to look around, before vanishing back into the fabric. She glances sideways at Kelly, and then at the even newer girl with the muffin, offering a slightly nervous smile and wave, before turning her attention towards the treeline, scanning for movement or signs of life; chewing nervously on her lower lip, she continues to scan the area, as though waiting for something. "Hey, Du-" Kelly starts, perhaps a little nervously. He was a new student, so the rumor mill wasn't QUITE as efficient as reaching him, even now, but still. . . He instead resorted to signing out the greeting as he pushed himself up, and grabbed the reference book that had become oh so very popular at Xavier's lately. It's clumsy, and he has to start twice, but he manages 'Hello- Duck.' And then after a frantic flips of the pages, he manages: 'Hungry. Not?' And THEN since he wasn't sure he got it right, he points to Lia's muffin, and mimes eating it. Lia is just looking back down toward her muffin from identifying a cloud shaped like a bunny and another one shaped like a platypus in a party hat riding in a bumper car. Some clouds are more complicated than others. This is in time to note Kelly gesturing at the muffin and miming eating it. Her head cants to one side like an inquisitive little bird's. Her hand lofts the pastry, then sits it on the table instead of returning to picking at the walnuts. 'You want to split?' she signs, eyebrows lifting. 'I already ate half.' There's a little bit of a jump when she's addressed, but Ducky grins slightly when Kelly attempts to sign her name. Ducky corrects with a grin, repeating her name, associated with her personal sign - a combination of the signs for 'me' and 'duck', with a slight shrug. "It's ok. I'm not sick, but I should be practicing signing, too. I was actually in the class before the whole thing got started," she says, in explanation, signing along as she does, perhaps just a little bit haltingly at times, but it looks like she has had a decent amount of practice. The question about eating, however, is interrupted, as a rather sizeable raven takes this opportunity, when Ducky had her arm raised, to swoop from above and perch onto the raised arm, ruffling its feathers and preening as it lands. There's a startled yelp from Ducky at this, not having expected the bird, but she maintains her position. "No thank you," she signs and says, one handedly, in response to Lia's offer, shaking her head, "I'm... not hungry. But thank you." For those close enough to her - it is possible to guess why she didn't eat much. And why other kids are avoiding her. The raven on her arm is a carrion eater. Who may have just recently had dinner. Ducky grimaces apologetically to Kelly, in case the smell of her avian friend wafts his way. Kelly looks from Lia, to Ducky, then back to Lia. . . and then huffs out some frustration after paging through the book in his arms. "I'm just not getting it." He admitted with a bit of a grump and then shook his head. "I'm not hungry, either." He lied, and his belly let out another grumble audible enough to make the lie obvious. "But you two seem to be good at the signing, thing." He noted to the pair as he started to settle down at the same table as Lia. "Gah!" he yelped out, as Kelly saw the Raven come in. "Gosh, S- I mean, didn't mean to yell, but Ducky. . . why are so many of the birds creepy lately? What happened to the cute ones?" Lia's eyes widen at the entrance of the raven, particularly when it perches on Ducky. She points at the other girl, finger-spelling 'Pallas?', her brows rising up higher with this question. When Kelly claims not to be hungry, Lia takes this at face value, shrugging and returning to picking at her muffin. Her eyes don't leave the surprisingly /large/ bird, however. She returns to speaking aloud since the others are, and it frees up her hands for walnut hunting. “I learned hand-talking from Jeremy. He makes everything cold and broken when he opens his mouth. We were locked in a room for weeks. Duskwings also liked to hand-talk. I still use it because it is fun! And people are sometimes scared to talk. Talking makes sick sometimes. Like Jeremy but with sick instead of cold. Badmouths.” She nods emphatically. The signing stops as Ducky reaches a hand up to stroke the head and feathers of the raven on her arm, cooing quietly at the at the bird with a relaxed smile on her features. The fact that the bird's beak and talons appear to be caked with a vaguely glistening black-red substance doesn't even seem to register with her. "Winter is coming? The cute birds are all migrated, or hiding out for the cold weather," she responds distantly, still stroking the back of the raven idly, "And they're creepier 'cause ravens and vultures are carrion birds." Her hazel eyes glance up towards the dark shapes circling overhead, "There's a lotta carrion 'round here." Tilting her head curiously, she watches Lia sign and nods, "I started learning it 'cause my new-ish room mate uses sign language, so it makes it kinda easier to live together and all that." Ducky shrugs and grins slightly, vaguely distracted by the bird on her arm, apparently, though she tilts her head at Kelly's rumbling stomach, confusion on her features. She glances back at Lia, "Pallas? And this raven says a lot more than 'Nevermore'. She's chatty." "Oh, well, I guess I shouldn't judge a, uhm . . . bird by its feathers." Kelly apologizes to the Raven. His freckles on his face blending together as some red color fill his cheeks. "I wanted to learn even before this, I mean, since there seems to be a few people here who need it. . . but I'm not doing so good at it. And I'm half afraid I'm gonna slash somebody's nose with my vines with some of the loopy motions." He demonstrates, moving his arms, and his vines seem to have minds of their own as the squirm and wave around with his hands. But then he understands the 2 + 2 of the birds and 'carrion.' "Should they be doing that? I mean, they're people still, just. . . sick people." He squirms with the concept uncomfortably, and half in denial. “She's cute,” Lia argues, still watching the bird. “Look how /shiny/ her eyes are. She isn't chatty right now.” Her head shakes slowly. “Not sick. Dead. It seems like a better way to be dead. To be in a bird. Fly around. Not in a cold drawer.” All the talk of death and carrion doesn't seem to be putting the girl off her feed, continuing to nibble at walnuts as she finds them. “I would share my muffin with you, birdie, but you probably don't want it.” Ducky shakes her head, "Most people don't like carrion birds, but they're actually sorta a big part of the ecosystem. They make sure that dead bodies don't sit around and rot for too long, and pollute the wat..." she pauses, frowning, "Lakes and rivers and stuff. It's important." She glances sideways at Kelly's motions, grinning, "Issok. I can't really sign half the time, because I've got a bird on my arm. Or I do it backwards, 'cause I have the wrong hand available. S'kinda hard to make loopy motions with a bird on your arm." The bird-brained girl makes an attempt to demonstrate, raising the arm with the raven sweepingly, in an attempt at signing day... the raven does not appreciate this, and ruffles her feathers visibly, letting out a displeased squawk. "And, um, she's right. The carrion birds don't go after the living. They clean up the dead that have fallen. And they can't get infected. They can't talk. Well, they talk to me, but s'not the same." her statements are matter of fact, as though she were explaining something quite simple. She strokes the bird again, absentmindedly as she smiles at Lia, "She says no thank you. She's full actually, but it was nice of you to offer." "I guess people have disapproved of the things I eat plenty of times before." Kelly admits, offering the bird a wave, and another apologetic shrug. "Hope she forgives me for thinking she's creepy, then. Oh, and PB&J's taste /GREAT/ with doughnuts instead of bread, even the lemon filled ones." Simultaneous defending his own eating choices to the girls as he offers the peace to the birds. "You don't like the nuts?" Kelly asked curiously, looking at the growing pile of them, as he asks Lia, and licks his lips despite himself. “That's good. Not to leave bodies in your lakes. Would be a yucky lake.” Lia giggles as the raven squawks. “Oh, she doesn't like that. You are being a bad statue.” This statement seems to tickle her even more. “Sometimes I am a bad statue, too. It is startling to birds. And people! If they notice. People don't seem to notice much, though.” Her head tilts curiously once more. “They can't talk but they talk to you?” Her free hand suddenly taps against her temple. “Oh. You have a birdtalk power. That could be fun.” Kelly's treatise on foods earns a look that lands somewhere between confused and /charmed/. “They put things /in/ doughnuts? They have...holes. In the middle. That make them doughnuts. They fill them? With...a lemon? Hm.” Clearly Lia is planning to try this in the future. Though her thoughts /might/ be on sticking lemon wedges into doughnut holes. “I like the nuts. They...crunch up around your teeth. But not hard crunch, like cereal. Soft crunch. Crumbly. They don't crunch as much when they're covered in muffin.” She places another piece of walnut between her teeth, pausing in her speech to crunch it up into a fine walnut-powder. “Sometimes when foods are all together I pull them apart again. A girl told me that was weird. Is that weird?” Ducky tilts her head slightly, "People used to yell at me if I was trying to get stuff that restaurants had thrown out. The birds would watch, and let me know when they put new stuff out, so I could get it when it was safe." She nods emphatically, grinning, "Didn't really get approval on that. But the pigeons helped. Seagulls are jerks - they attacked me for rummaging and stuff." She babbles, for a moment, intent on socializing, still stroking the raven slowly without much thought, smoothing feathers back into place. "I haven't had a donut in a long time. Not a fresh one anyway. I always liked the jelly filled ones. They were tasty. Messy, but tasty," Ducky nods, holding her arm out away from herself so that the raven can take flight again, heading back for the woods. She tilts her head slightly, listening, and looking up at the circling vultures. "We... we may wanna go inside soon. There's... bodies. Coming sorta thisway, maybe. Birds are circling for it," her eyes track towards the woods, a frown on her face, as she then looks at Lia, "Should say strange. Or odd. Or unusual. Or, um, sign it instead of saying it. But, no, not odd to pick apart foods. I do that with salads. Eat some parts first, then others, then others. More fun that way." Ducky ruffles her hair, stepping back away from the edge of the patio a step, glancing at the others. Kelly listens very closely to Duck's tales of restaurant raiding, nodding emphatically as he remembers doing similar himself. "I'm glad they helped, I usually just ran in and out quick, taking a few hits on the shoulder if they got mean about it." He explained, wincing from a blow that is more remembered than felt. Looking to the bird fly away, Kelly let his hand go up and yells out: "Bye! Hope to see you again!" to the parting feathered friend. "Jelly is great, and cream filled, I LOVED the ones with the chocolate on top and filled with cream." He remembered hungrily, Kelly's hands going to his grumbling tummy again as it continued this insane conversation, despite Kelly's dense head. "Last time I had one was almost a year ago. When I first ran off, this guy at a Pirate's Doughnuts gave me a couple when he saw me out back. But, when he saw my leaves, he wouldn't give me any more." And of course there is the inevitable wince when he hears the 'W' word. "I mean, I guess its neat to eat them separate, kinda like when you eat the middle out of an Oreo, and then eat the cookies after. With milk. . . Oh that would taste good, too." And he fell in line to head inside with the pair. Lia looks confused by the word instructions for a moment. “Oh. Sickwords. This is why I sign mostly. But not many people understand, then I stop. And then I forget about the sickwords. It is bad not to follow rules.” She presses her lips together thinly for a moment, then parts them to eat a pinch of muffin that has been cleared of walnuts. “I never got restaurant food. In the Rooms, they always just...put a tray down. And you would eat that. But when we got out there was other food, and you could pick whatever you wanted. And you could eat at times when you were hungry and not have to wait for trays. So long as the meat-things didn't go on the wrong dishes.” Her eyes go wide at the zombie warning, her fingers working to wrap the remnant of her muffin in its wrapper for bringing back inside. “Not good. Not good. Back to the dorms.” And so she goes, at a quickened pace.