Stronger With Those Daddy Issues

[missrecalled_mods]

Waking to bird song isn't exactly shocking in Auradon, but it seems... louder than usual on the first morning of the event. And there is a reason for that. Auradon has been visited by a rather large flock of Golden pheasants. An odd flock as experienced birders might notice there are only the brightly coloured males in evidence. But there isn't much time to think about that because with them comes... a complication.

Now this is Auradon, of course, so the only mess the birds are dropping are bright colourful feathers. But the feathers, like the flowers last month randomly trigger a memory. Once again the memory shows in 3D, looking the most solid to the one who touched the feather - and unwittingly contributed the memory. No one can interact with it, and no matter how solid it looks, the figures and places and things in the memory can be walked through with ease. Well, physical ease, anyway. The memory, once again, will not be from the perspective of the one it belongs to; they and their companion or companions will be observing from a third party perspective, thus allowing a person to see their own face in the memories without the aid of a mirror.

The memories this time are memories of fathers and paternal figures. Generally good memories. After all, this is Auradon.

If one interacts closely with the birds or their feathers they might also have strong vivid dreams of their paternal figure. Again, genrally happy dreams given this is Auradon. While the birds will fly away after two weeks, and the feathers will lose their power to share memories at the same time, for every day spent handling the birds or feathers during the event, the character might have up to that many day of intense dreams after.

Comments

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

"Not just yet, but if Enki is available, perhaps we can have a meeting, the three of us. Then I can run whatever we come up with by the Queen and get you an official decision as soon as possible."

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[queen_butterfly]

Another little nod, a hint more of a smile. "Ought I find him, then, or would--"

She was interrupted by a loud, sudden fweep from the bird in her arms, and looked down at it. "I beg your pardon?"

"FWEEEP!"

She resumed petting it against her, stepping up her efforts as she did, ruffling its feathers as she ran her fingers through them, and looked back to Ben. Right, time to pretend that they hadn't just been so rudely interrupted by an attention-demanding bird. "...Or would it be better to convene at another time?"

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

He chuckled, used to that. "I can zapp him a message, if you want? See if he is free?"

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[queen_butterfly]

"You--" A brief pause, trying to figure out what he'd just suggested; she clearly wasn't very familiar with the phone and its apps yet. Had she even used it before? But she didn't dwell on it, and simply smiled a little more. "Well, if you're able to and it's convenient...?" That's a yes.

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

He smiled and pulled out his cell, zapping a quick message to Enki.

"Would you be willing to join Mallia and myself for a conversation about birds, if it is convenient?"

"Now we just have to wait to see if he replies."

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[under_the_raptors_wings]

[It was not long before Enki replied.]

Where should I meet you?

[Communicating via text? Not his strong point.]

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

[He sent the location to Enki's MPS, or Magical Positioning System, app.]

Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[under_the_raptors_wings]

There was no reply on the phone, but Enki showed up before long, giving both Ben and Mallia a small wave as he approached. Seeing one of the birds made him a bit uneasy, but he continued his approach.

Ben, MAllia, Enki?Re: Bugging him~ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

"Thank you for joining us, Enki. Mallia had an idea, and I figured you are our resident expert on the subject. I was hoping you would be willing to give us some advice?" he asked politely.

Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[queen_butterfly]

She nodded. "Coops, for the rooftops," she said. "We could build nesting boxes in structures, so that the wild birds may lay eggs there, in shelter. The eggs could be collected to eat..." She glanced to Ben, "...Or not. But either way, I'm certain the local birds would appreciate it."

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[under_the_raptors_wings]

Enki hadn't even considered the idea. He'd been to enough places to know that things like eggs which were edible from some birds were not from others. "I mean, it seems like a good idea to me, any birds who don't want to use them, wouldn't." He paused to chew on his lower lip. "They're smart enough we might be able to mark a specific coop or two for egg collecting and let them know?"

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

"As far as I know, none of the princesses who could speak to animals that cannot speak human are present. Are you able to communicate well enough to explain things to the birds, so that we take no eggs for eating without permission, and they know which coops are theirs to use, even if they allow us no eggs?"

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[queen_butterfly]

She was going to stay quiet there; that wasn't her question to answer.

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[under_the_raptors_wings]

"I... I think so. I should probably collect the eggs the first couple times though. That way I can move them to another coop if it turns out they didn't understand."

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

"Very well. Is that acceptable to you, Mallia?" Ben asked, formally.

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[queen_butterfly]

"Of course. Do we... have materials for making them at the ready? Or ought I start collecting branches off the bigger trees, and drying some grasses?"

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[under_the_raptors_wings]

Enki looked to Ben for an answer on that. "Either way, I can help."

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

"Get me a list of materials, and Mal and I will get what you need. Then I can leave it to the two of you?"

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[queen_butterfly]

She nodded, glancing to Enki. They could do mockups with conjuration, and then figure out how to build the coops for real after, right?

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[under_the_raptors_wings]

Enki chewed his lips as he thought. He might have considered the exact same option as Mallia, honestly. "Ie. We can figure it out and get you a list of what we need."

Re: Ben, Mallia, Enki! Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ʚїɞ εїз ྅༏༊ 🦋

[missrecalled_npcs]

"Wonderful. I will leave that to the two of you. Thank you both."

[smilingarmor]

"Back then?", he repeated, thinking back. "Back then I don't suppose I had one. Well not one of my own at least. I'd been training to be a knight since before I could walk; I would stay in Puerto Valor, and follow in my papi's footsteps. It wasn't what I wanted, really, but I thought I might... grow into it you know?"

"But then one day, a few years later, the circus came to town! It was so, so fabulous! I can't even describe it; it was... love at first sight. I knew from the moment I walked into that tend that I'd found my calling; getting up on that stage and making people happy? That's the life for me. And though I may regret how my papi and I parted ways, I've never regretted my choice to go into show business. It's just so wonderful, bringing people joy and seeing their faces light up with smiles, you know darling?"

[smilingarmor]

"Don't sell yourself short now, darling," he said. "If you're getting up on that stage and making people happy, doing what you love, even if it's only in a teeny-tiny part, you're an actress." He really liked her energy! Though he suspected she might not have quite as much bounce in her after a few hours of sword practice.

"And while I'm afraid I can't help you with throwing shuriken, I will teach you how to use a sword. And some other, less violent skills to help you dazzle the crowds if you like. Though fair warning, I'm going to train you hard; I expect those I train to become nothing less than the very best in the business."

[smilingarmor]

"I don't see why there would be," Sylv said. "It's their feathers that seem to be causing the visions, not their meat. And yes while I'm going to freeze most of it for later, it will be lovely to have something fresh again. Malia's been wonderful of course, but something tells me it's best we not rely too much on the food she conjures up, you know?"

[smilingarmor]

"Then off to the kitchen with us!", Sylv said. "I was planning on getting a few more pheasants today, but they don't seem to be going anywhere just yet. And once they're all cleaned and dressed, we can have that cup of tea."