Day 173 | The Beginning

[notachickenhawk]

Who: Tobias and open.
Open: Open
When: Day 173
Where: Near the entrance to the Skyway.
What: A bird arrives after the end of the world.
Format: Whatever works.
Warnings: Bird with PTSD. It's a children's series!


It was early morning when Tobias wakes up. He stretched his wings, and opens his eyes, looking out at the field.

… There was no field.

Tobias stared at the space around him in confusion. Floating… in space? Was this something the Ellimist did? It would be just like him to wake him up in a weird kind of situation like this. … But if it was, there wasn't anything he could do. So he pushed off the tree and flapped, looking down at the rough path of earth nearby. He could see something, far off - it looked like some kind of small town.

He followed the path towards it, traveling quickly. The air was warm enough to give him some nice thermals, and he coasted between them until he got to the - town? It was too small to be a town. He landed on the grass near the entrance to the place, staring.

<Where am I?>

This was pretty clearly some kind of dream, so he didn't really bother keeping his thought-speak private. Anyone in the general area could hear a confused young male voice echo in their head.

Comments

[notachickenhawk]

<That's good to hear. It'd kind of suck to be stuck with a bunch of jerks.>

[coolerthansora]

"Nah. There's only a couple that I've met."

He pauses and then offers, "Do you want me to show you around?"

[notachickenhawk]

<Sure. Uh... hang on, let me just change... you probably don't want to look.>

Tobias flies over behind the onsen, and starts to morph. Fortunately, once his legs change and his wings melt into arms, it only really looks horrific before the fur sprouts. Once that's done, he wanders over to Roxas again.

<This'll be easier to follow you on the ground with. I'd turn human but I didn't pack clothes for the apocalypse.>

[coolerthansora]

"Change--?" Roxas doesn't have time to finish the question before Tobias is already flying off.

He looks at him in astonishment when he returns. "You- can change into stuff?" Well, now he's just really confused about the 'used to be human' part, because it didn't sound like Tobias meant 'five minutes ago.'

[notachickenhawk]

Tobias nods a little and scratches his head.

<Whatever I can touch that has DNA, pretty much.>

[coolerthansora]

"What's DNA?"

Does Roxas have whatever it is, too?

[notachickenhawk]

<It's basically... it's like a code that shows how to make you. Or at least your body. Before you're born your body reads the code and shapes you how it tells it to.>

[coolerthansora]

"Oh..." He thinks for a moment. Well, if it's to do with the body, then he does have that, but most Nobodies change form at least a little bit from when they were human, so he's still not completely sure.

"Well- anyway, if you can turn about my size, I've- got clothes you can borrow."

[notachickenhawk]

<Really?> He should be about the same size... it's a little hard to tell. <I think I'm about your size. I'm pretty skinny.>

[coolerthansora]

"...thanks," Roxas says dryly. Gosh, he knows he's short, but does everyone have to act like he's scrawny, too? He has some muscle!

"C'mon, my apartment's this way."

[notachickenhawk]

He didn't mean it like that, but Tobias has never been great with words. He follows along beside Roxas, keeping up easily on his chimp legs.

[coolerthansora]

Roxas leads him south through the Bastion to the eight-story Tower apartments, and on up to the seventh floor. There's nothing especially remarkable about Roxas's room, though there are some photos of himself and Axel and some rather large birds pinned to the walls, and a black coat tossed on the bed.

He digs through the meagre contents of his dresser to toss a T-shirt and pants in Tobias's direction. "Try those."

[notachickenhawk]

Oh hey. Birds. ... There's something about them that looks vaguely familiar, but he can't quite say why. He catches the clothes and heads into the next room to demorph and then remorph into his human form. The clothes are a tiny bit short, but still fit pretty well. He walks out, expression a little severe before he remembers to soften it. He's still squinting a little.

"Thanks."

[coolerthansora]

"Sure thing." Roxas hesitates and then asks, "Is this- how you used to look all the time, or is it somebody else?"

He hopes it's not too personal, but he's experienced a few body-swaps and he'd like to know whether or not he's looking at Tobias's actual face.

[notachickenhawk]

"No, this is how I used to look. A... little older, because of... things that are hard to explain. But yeah. I have someone else I can change into but I'd rather not." He doesn't need to turn into Taylor. Not with what just happened, anyway.

[coolerthansora]

Roxas nods with a surprising amount of understanding. "I wouldn't want to either."

[notachickenhawk]

"It's still weird to even be like this. I'm used to being a bird."

[coolerthansora]

"It must be neat though, being able to fly everywhere."

[notachickenhawk]

"It is. It's a lot better than being stuck on the ground."

[coolerthansora]

"Stuck, huh." Well, Roxas supposes he is sort of stuck on the ground. This isn't Neverland after all. "Anyway, c'mon. I'll show you around the rest of the Bastion."

[notachickenhawk]

He nods, and tucks his hands into his pockets. It's hard to remember what to do with hands when they're not actively doing something.