On Maneuvers

[Nini D'Anjou]

Well, she'd certainly made an entrance - not many people went out into the countryside, two on a motorcycle, holding an owl wearing a cap inside a travel cage - but Nini was hardly a normal person. Anyone carrying an owl anywhere could never be described as 'normal'. The sun was naked in the sky, clear and blue, and it took barely a second for Marchal to take flight and complete two great circles in the wild blue yonder, by which time Nicole and Catherine both had the thick canvas gloves ready. As he came in, something grabbed Marchal's attention, and he turned sharply; a bush or something nearby a dense copse of trees standing isolated within a yellow-green field of tall summer grass.

A distant voice came before Marchal flapped his way back out of the trees, landing unceremoniously a few feet in front of Catherine, who raised an eyebrow before Marchal took up to the air and planted his weight on Catherine's arm, looking distinctly unimpressed. Another movement caught Nicole's eye, and Catherine called out, "Hello? Is someone there?" No response. Magnifique, I've just called out to a tree. Good thing Marchal's the only other one here. He already thinks I'm mad, the arrogant great- "N'ow!" Marchal had shifted his weight a little and a muscle in her hand twitched. Another movement - no, she wasn't going mad. Scratching the bridge of her nose below her blindfold, Catherine deferred to Nicole, who cupped her hands around her mouth and called out again. "Hello? Are you alright?"

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryphon could do stuff... holy fucking shit, he could do stuff! Yes, it'd been a while since his cast had come off, but one did not fully appreciate the gift of being able to use two hands, and he was slowly coming to realize all that he could do. And he did not want to waste one moment. (Okay, yes, he had broken bones and such before, but come on, he was at his most creative and he had been suppressed - frustration was obviously gonna happen.) He also wanted time to himself. Yes, he usually liked being around other people, but with his realization that Nick was still nearby, and his other realization that holy bell, he was leaving Hammel soon... among with other things, it was enough to make most people confused and stressed and more confused and he just wanted a time out.

He wandered about in the blooming trees and fruitful plants of the countryside, happily settling his thoughts into the outside world and such. He kind of regretted not bringing his camera, but he didn't need another thing to fuss over and worry about. Since he was so far away from others who may get annoyed by the presence of, or judge the ownership of his wings, he had them out behind him, which was a brilliant decision on his part, the eagle-like, gradiented feathers delving in the wind that ran gently through them. He was just busy walking through the middle of nowhere, looking up at the sky - was that an owl? - when, "Gah-!" He stumbled over a rock and almost, almost fell over, but thanks to the added balance of having his wings out and swinging his arms like it was 1972, he stayed upright. He sighed with relief and kept going. And spotted the owl again, "Hey, hey wait-!" Any idea of actually communicating correctly flew out of the window, especially as he had no time to do so - the owl disappeared again. Gryph sighed and kicked a stone.

He heard a voice, but he ignored it, especially seeing as he couldn't understand it. He wasn't the only one on this planet, it was probably someone calling out to their friend. He kept walking... until he tumbled with all the grace of an elephant, this time actually falling over and practically falling into a bush - he pushed his wings against his back as he fell, and groaned as he went to get up. Nothing serious, nothing broken... he probably had a bruise or two, but that couldn't be helped. And then he heard the voice again, his ears peeking slightly and his wings unfolding behind him. He guessed that they were talking to him. He replied, "Yeah, I'm fine." He quickly pushed his way forward until he spotted... two women and an owl. What a sight. His wings flapped gentle behind him, "Hi," he turned to the bird, "[Hello.]" He kind of hooted out, politely. He hadn't spoken to any owls in a while.

((OOC: Hope this is along the right lines - tell me if I've got anything wrong <3))

[Nini D'Anjou]

If she hadn't been familiar with just what a sort of place Pilot Ridge was, seeing something like this might very well have sent Nini running away screaming like a little girl. A chap with wings and a very poor sense of balance had just run out of a stand of trees, flapped the aforementioned wings and introduced himself - with no explanation at all! - before hooting at Marchal. Even this was rather too much for Nini, who simply stared at herselves and Marchal alternately for what must have been a full minute, before Catherine scratched the back of her head and asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to, "Did you just hoot at my owl?"

The owl in question was not quite as interested in establishing who and what said what, when, and to whom - Marchal, ever the pirate, sensed an opportunity and seized upon it; he made three hops forward towards the newcomer, hooting furiously. ["Food please."] To seal the deal, he rubbed his beak against his shin - that always worked for the other two. Surely, his path to food was as certain as the deliciousness of mice. Oooh, mice. Now that was a thought. ["Have you seen any mice?"]

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Okay, he was being a bit of a moron, that much was true - he had come upon some twins with a bird and his first plan of action was to stumble about and then make unintelligible noises to their animal? Yeah, that was normal. And he wasn't usually so unbalanced; for Christ's sakes, he was a dancer, had been taught ballet for over ten years! He was just having a lazy day and not watching his step, was all. Hopefully. But he just stood in a kind of silence, watching the world go by as they seemed to try and work out what he had been doing. It was only when one of them asked the question, did he reel back slightly in his realization of his own naive kind of stupidity, "Crap, sorry, I'm a..." He pointed at his wings (oh, gee, that wasn't obvious) "...meta. I can speak t'birds, honest, I'm not insane or somethin'." He sent them both a semi-awkward smile, "Sorry, I can be a bit've an idiot sometimes. I'm Gryphon." Ah, Gryphon. The most ironic name ever.

He watched the owl hop forward and- oh, okay, he was one of those types of birds. The ones whereby, as soon as they find out that they can communicate with a human, when want to use them as a personal slave. Of course. He didn't judge other people, didn't jump to conclusions, but for some reason, when it came to birds, he judged them very quickly. He raised an eyebrow - then again, some of them did it for the sake of trust, and ended up being very agreeable afterwards... ugh. It wasn't like he had any food to hand. "[...I am sorry, I have no food on my person.]" That was one thing he'd learnt the hard way about being around birds - don't upset them. Beaks hurt. "[Um, I have not exactly been looking for any, sorry.]"

Gryphon looked up at the owl's owner... or owners, he wasn't sure. "Sorry, he's askin' for food." He didn't know what to do. Maybe the bird would accept that the fact that Gryph had nothing on him... or maybe he would attack him until he gave something up. The former seemed the better option. And the less painful one.

[Nini D'Anjou]

Rude, thought-hooted Marchal, sticking his beak up in the air and toddling off to peck at the ground where the scent of a rodent was catching his brain's attention, while Nicole made a sort of vague apologetic noise and smiled, "I had my suspicions. Se wings are a little bit of a giveaway - other than sat I'm sure you could pass for mad if you wanted to." While Marchal picked apart a few bones left over from a mouse that another bird had decided to reject, Catherine cracked her fingers, stretching with a great yawn, the two silver rings on her right hand shining as the sun caught them and a reflected light startled Marchal, who hopped a foot backwards when the shine fell over a mouse rib.

"Let me guess - Hammel student? I can't imagine hiding something like that is as easy for you as moi - speaking to birds, you could get away wis, but those are...impressive. Excusez-moi, but do you ever get bothered by other airborne objects?" For a moment, Nicole rolled her eyes before Catherine continued, "where are my manners? Desole, je suis Catherine et Nicole - just call me Nini."

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryph watched the owl hop away and blinked at him. Honestly, he didn't understand some birds, they had no etiquette or manners or anything. His attention came back around to the pair in front of him and he chuckled. It was hard to miss a pair of eagle wings coming out of a guy's back, it was obvious that that was the result of a meta ability, but tweeting at a bird was something anyone could do - the possibility of them doing it right, and not being insane, was pretty small. "I'm sure I could." He was pretty mental as it was, at times. Not as crazy as some, but he definitely wasn't all there either.

He smiled and nodded, just about keeping up with all that was said, "Nice t'meet you, Nini. And thank you - I can tuck them away, but it hurts," He explained, "Prefer t'keep them out." He tilted his head a little, "What do you mean by other airborne objects?" He queried. He was slightly confused by that. "Oh, and yes, I do go t'Hammel. I'm guessin' you used t'go there too...?" With the French accent, there was a possibility that she had gone to Kocher, but then again, his cousin was at Hammel now, and he was French. He didn't know. Bleh.