thebastion | Day 227 | Closed | i'm going where the cold wind blows

Entry tags:

Day 227 | Closed | i'm going where the cold wind blows

Who: Tobias and Raile
Open: Closed
When: Day 227
Where: Near the edge of the Bastion.
What: Tobias hasn't forgotten about the small drunk Cael he ran into. It's about time to check up on him.
Format: Action brackets for action tags.
Warnings: Possibly some language. Possibly some depressing stuff because Animorphs is always a warning.

[Something was itching at him, even with all of the preparations for people to go out and find another Core. He's planning on going, but he can't figure out why he's feeling like he needs to find someone. He thinks back, trying to figure it out, and then it hits him.]

[So he takes off from his tree, flapping to get some altitude so he can take a look for a mop of white hair. It's harder to pick out the right one in this place than it should be, but soon enough he spots Raile and glides down towards him.]

<Hey!>

[He lands nearby, looking up at the Cael.]

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[Raile was doing what he normally did on his off times, sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the Bastion as he stared idly off into the distance. Today though he seemed to be a little more worn out, holding a hand to his head as he gazed off into the deep blue yonder; thankfully the voice in his head didn't serve to make his headache any worse, if anything it got as friendly a look as the cael could normally manage as one of his eyes drifted over to the bird sitting next to him.]

What brings y'out this way?

<I wanted to check on you. You said you wanted to talk, before. And I wanted to make sure you were feeling all right.>

[While getting drunk wasn't something he had experience with himself, it was something that he knew more than he wanted to know about.]

If y'don't count this damn headache, I'm doin' fine.

[He said as he spat over the edge of the Bastion, feeling the dull ache in his skull start to retreat for now; it'd be back though, it'd been like this for the past two days.]

You holdin' up alright? Bastion gave everyone a right scare two night's back.

<Yeah. I morphed into Paarthurnax and did what I could to clear people out. I wasn't really worried about getting out myself.>

[One of the many useful perks of being able to fly.]

I saw that.

[He was pretty sure the whole Bastion saw it to be honest.]

Mus' be nice bein' able t'fly whenever y'want to.

<Yeah, it is. I'm glad that I can.>

[He hops a little closer.]

I like t'ride the wind currents out on t'skyway. It's a nice feelin' bein' that free.

[Which might have explained why he hit his face so often, but he wasn't sure Tobias had been around to see that yet.]

Good thing everythin' worked out, otherwise we'd all be needin' t'learn how t'fly real quick like.

<Riding the wind currents? You can do that?>

[He doesn't look quite light enough for that.]

Yeah...takes some practice, but t'wind out there is strong. If y'know what you're doin', you can ride it anywhere. Its landin' that's t'tricky part.

[Let him tell you Tobias, he ain't joking.]

Most don't, it's funny t'things you learn when your life's countin' on it.

Like what?

[It was a question of curiosity. Raile had never been a hawk before, and a part of him was curious as to what it was like and what Tobias had been through. After all, the poor bird had suffered through half his life story already.]

<... Like how to hunt. I'd never seen meat that wasn't packaged with all the blood sucked out of it before, at least not in person. I couldn't stomach killing anything for a while. My friend used to leave me meat in a container in his attic for a while, but it... didn't feel right. I slept in a drawer there too, but that wasn't right either. One day I broke down and ate roadkill and I just... couldn't go back to eating cold meat after that.>

Well...that's one way t'do it.

[He could relate to that. Sometimes out in the wilds, you didn't have food. Sometimes you had to get what you could, and sometimes it was fresh. Sometimes you didn't even care. Hunger had a funny way of fixing preconceptions.]

Y'don't regret it, do ya?

<No. I'm a hawk. Hawks kill and eat things. That's just what they do.>

I 'unno. Ain't never met a bird what could talk in people's heads a'fore. Don't matter though, y'do whatcha gotta do t'get by, right? Hawk or otherwise.

<True, but I have hawk instincts along with human instincts.>

So I guess yer just Tobias then, eh?

[He let out a short laugh, giving the bird a nudge in the wing with his elbow. It was hard enough for him to pal around with normal people, let alone a hawk, but he was trying his best.]

<Pretty much.>

[Instinct kicks up but - no. It's okay. He nudges back a little.]

<I'm not a bird. I'm not a human. I'm not an Andalite, definitely. I don't know what I am, but it doesn't really matter. Especially not here.>

Course it matters, you matter.

[It was enough to get the small cael to gaze down fully at his feathered friend.]

Yer you, no matter how many feathers y'got on ya or how many animals y'hunt an' eat. Nothin' out there can make y'any less Tobias than y'are.

<Well, yeah. I mean it doesn't matter what species I am, because it's only going to give me a headache.>

[To that, Raile gave him a small shrug of his shoulders.]

That'd make two of us with 'em then.

Edited 2014-09-18 06:35 (UTC)

[That gets Raile a nudge with his beak.]

<Drinking water helps.>

Been drinkin' plenty. I've been tryin' to put t'booze down since that night, so water's all I got.

[Zulf and Tobias had helped him to realize the problem he was having and he was ready to quash it. There was a difference between drinking for fun and using it to escape...and he wasn't going to be helping anyone if he was on his face all the time.]

<Good. It should get better after a while. I dunno. My uncle never really tried to stop drinking.>

Sorry t'hear.

[He'd seen alcoholics in the bars during his off time from the wall. You could smell them a mile away and the look in their eyes...they'd all but given up. He never wanted to be like that, not in a thousand years.

He wasn't going to pry into Tobias' life, but the tone of his voice was enough to let his friend know that if he wanted to vent, he'd be willing to listen.]

<... He wasn't a good person. He never cared about anyone other than himself.>

I know that type. They usually have their reasons, but it don't excuse what they do.

[Raile wasn't sure how to respond, so for a time he didn't. He simply kept the space between himself and Tobias short, an old Caelondian custom; you didn't speak unless you had something to say, and if you didn't, you listened.

He did speak though, eventually.]

I didn't have any uncles or aunts that I know of. If they were 'round, they didn't want nothin' t'do with me once my ma' passed. As fer m'dad, never knew 'em. All I had then was m'work on t'Wall.

[He turned to his friend and gave a small smile; one that was supposed to be a smile of encouragement, but ended up looking like he was trying to shove glass through his lips.]

Now though...I'd like t'think I got more than big enough a family.

[He nudged Raile again, gently.]

<I'm sorry. My mom died in a car accident. My dad - whoever that was after time got messed with - was never in the picture. My aunt and uncle lived on opposite sides of the country. I'd say it was dumb luck that landed me where I was when we got this power, but now I know that's not true.>

[As for family here...]

<People here are nice, but it's hard to think of them as 'family'. I'm just glad I don't have to hide what I am, or what I fought, since people here are from worlds that are so different.>

[It's true that Tobias probably wouldn't know the Caelondian mindset, seeing as he wasn't from Caelondia, but that didn't mean he couldn't understand it.]

That's jus' how things are where I'm from. T'person y'stand shoulder t'shoulder with is yer brother or sister. Everyone I've seen here has stood up t'that; we all fight fer each other as much as ourselves. Far as I'm concerned, yer all as close as family and I couldn't ask fer a better one.

<... I guess. But then that would mean that one of my friends is family and I ->

[If hawks could blush, he'd be bright red right now.]

<She's more than that to me.>

[Grins? Grins he could do, and he did so as he gave Tobias's wing a light tap with hand.]

I was bein' met...metter...it weren't literal. I got someone like tha' too y'know. Don't think she feels t'same though.

Edited 2014-09-23 08:00 (UTC)

<Oh.>

[Shh. He looks up at Raile again.]

<Is she here?>

Yeah, why d'ya ask?

[Raile you poor oblivious child.]

<... Have you asked her how she feels?>

[Raile please.]

I did. She uh...

[Looked at him like a startled mouse and then ran off and hasn't properly talked to him since?]

Didn't really react well.

<... Oh. Uh.>

[Well.]

<Do you want me to try to talk to her or something? I mean... you still care about her, even if she doesn't think about you in the same way, right?>

I've been meanin' too, she's been busy though an' with all this nonsense lately, there hasn't been much a chance.

[He sighed and let his shoulders drop a bit. Even if she didn't, he wanted his friend back at the very least.]

Hopefully she don't hate m'guts.

Cept when I hit t'bottle too hard.

[He said, giving Tobias an earnestly apologetic look.]

Sorry 'bout all that.

<... I'm not going to say it's okay, because it's not, but maybe it's sort of a cultural difference, too. I just... worry about that kind of stuff.>

Nah, 's fine. I let things get t'better o'me and I didn't handle it proper at all. Good thing I had people around who cared enough t'pull me back.

<That's what...>

[Oh this is dumb but he's going to say it anyway.]

<That's what friends are for, right?>

Tha's t'truth of it.

[Because after everything he's been through and seen, friends are what he needs the most right now. Even if that friend is a psychic bird that can become other animals which are also psychic.]

[... He hops up to sit on Raile's leg. Friend level up.]

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Day 227 | Closed | i'm going where the cold wind blows

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