deercountry | On feathered wings and clomping boots

Entry tags:

On feathered wings and clomping boots

Who: Delilah Dirk and YOU! [New CR very, very welcome!]
What: Monthly log - Delilah about town, her beast form, and other things!
When: Across the month
Where: She gets places
Warnings: Monster-Delilah can be a bit...pester-y.

Early Month - OPEN

It was a slow month, thus far. She sat at her little stand, set up in a corner of the market. She looked terribly bored. She was leaned back in a chair, only two legs of it on the ground, her long boots crossed on top of the little stand that served as her highly-mobile place of business.

She is very, very slowly working at sharpening and polishing one of her swords. Everything about her nature says bored, and she'll give quite a bit for someone to alleviate said state of boredom. She'll happily take trouble if she can't get fun.

The Beast Form Awakens - OPEN

It's an odd feeling to wake up with feathers. Granted, she wasn't exactly in a frame of mind to examine these facts, certainly not at first. Truth was, the creature that awoke was one that was very, very single-minded. The beast burst through the nearest window, tumbling out into the night - and flew. What was on the wing was still noticeably Delilah, if only just. The skirt was torn in places, letting the clawed feet free at the end of still human legs.

The wings sprouted from her arms, a mass of brown and white feathers, like those of a sparrow, the two main colours separated by little vee-shaped flecks of black. Her hands, too, ended in talons.

Her face was elongated a bit, the eyes wider - and the massive amount of chestnut hair now sprouted similarly-coloured feathers in a wild mass, some falling out with each tight maneuver she wound through the air.

Perhaps you'll see her flying from rooftop to rooftop, searching. She has two objectives. The first is food, anything that can be snatched from open windows. And the second, well.

Any good bird wants something shiny for her nest. Hopefully it isn't your shiny thing that those reaching talons snatch at, diving out of the night.

Later Beast - Established CR

Within a night or two, she has it under control. Mostly. The urge to steal shiny things is still very strong. But at least her face looks normal now.

Granted, her way of showing off what's happened may...not go over quite as well. Which is, to wit, mainly flying right up to you, thudding down out of the sky next to you and announcing:

"Look! Harpy!"

Denouement and Decisions - Closed to Luz and Rose

Later in the month, her usual self - though still occasionally finding feathers in her hair, where are the things coming from? - it becomes time to deal with a rather...pressing issue. Her Harpy form had hidden the damn box the thing was in during it's brief reign of feather-brained idiocy - it'd taken her days to find the tree it had been lodged in.

But after much peril, her little search party had retrieved a singular mask from the Temple of the Forgotten Mother. They didn't know, for sure, why it had been stored there. Though they had their guesses. But the bigger question was: what to do with it now?

OPEN - Choose your own adventure!

[Always open to suggested CR! Drop me a PM or plurk to chat! I know she's obscure so she's not well known/popular, but her canon is bog-simple, so you won't have to read wikis or do research.]

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[If Delilah was looking for something shiny, there was a red metallic box strapped to Ruby's back that seldom left her side. She didn't notice the creature swooping toward her until it was nearly too late to avoid. Luckily she was fast so getting out of the way was something she was capable of doing but when her hand reaches for the box which could unfold out until her massive scythe she finds it's not there.

There's a clatter as it hits the ground a few feet away from her. She looks to the creature that took the swoop at her, then to box and quickly dashed to close the distance and pick up her lost item.]

[Her eyes follow that shiny object with laser focus.]

BAWX!

[And with a powerful flap of her wings she's airborne again, gaining a bit of altitude before making a dive towards that box again, racing with Ruby towards it.]

Scorpia is certainly caught off guard by the feathered figure that suddenly pops up in her phase. Eyes widened, she leans back as she exclaims, "What's a harpy!"

She blinks as she looks at her... and starts to recognize her. "Wait, I know you!"

"Yes!" she replies, waving a wing. "You're Scorpia!"

She seems thrilled by the transformation.

"Remember what I said about Greek myths? Now I am one!"

"That's right, I am Scorpia!" she smiles as she points herself. "And you're Delight... Delilah!" There, got it!

"Whoa! So that, that's a Greek myth. Um, congratulations!" She's happy for her! At least, she thinks she should be happy in this context? Live your best life!

It's more getting to participate in the stories one has read all her life, frankly. She flapped the wings a bit.

"Problem's not thinking like a bird. Very intrusive, thinking I need to preen."

"Oh, okay. Interesting! So you... you've got a lot of bird thoughts going on right now." she remarks as she observes her. "But you still seem like you're doing a good job of being yourself! Just, a more feathery you!"

"I keep feeling I should be roosting in a tree," she said, with a nod. "But yes, mostly. More feathery me. Flapping is very strange, you know."

"I can only imagine." Having wings does sound like the coolest and most fun thing! "Well, I'm glad you're doing well. You... are doing well, right? You don't need me to help find some way to turn you back to normal right?"

She shrugs, a gesture that causes a minor cascade of feathers.

"I dunno, feel fine. Haven't eaten any squirrels or anything, so I think I'm doing fine enough."

She pauses.

"Do you need anything?"

"I'm glad to hear that! Both for you and on behalf of any squirrels that might be frolicking about!"

She answers her with a soft shrug of her shoulders.

"I don't think I need anything in particular right now? I was thinking of getting groceries, but we could just hang out for now! I wanna know all about your harpy adventures!"

"Oh, that makes sense."

She moves, hopping a bit before remembering that's not how humans walk and awkwardly stepping up next to Scorpia.

"Right, there we go." She closes her eyes. "Legs and toes, not chicken stalks and talons."

She sighs, nodding.

"Well, turns out harpies have a bit of a thing for shiny objects."

Scorpia does blink a bit at her odd little hops, and then she chuckles a little as she corrects herself.

"Who can blame them?" she responds with a smile. "Shiny objects are very pretty! There's no denying that. Shininess just adds a little extra flair, you know? Does that mean you've been collecting some kind of shiny things now?"

"Ugh, yes," she says, slumping her shoulders and scowling.

"I've cached a bunch of things...no idea where they are, now. A lot of spoons."

"Interesting! Spoons are really neat and useful." She gives a thoughtful frown. "But you're not sure where you left them? That's gotta be inconvenient. Try retracing your steps?"

"It's hard to remember," she replied. "The bird-brain was in charge for that, and all I can do after the fact is just guess."

She shrugged.

"Thankfully it doesn't seem to be much more vital than spoons."

"Wow. Guess you were really of two minds about it! I'm glad you didn't lose anything important. We could always look for different shiny things!"

"Don't tempt me," she replied with a slight laugh, shaking her head. "The sooner I'm thinking like me the better. But it'll be a shame to lose the wings."

Maul is training in his yard, having brought out some of his weapons in order to still stay proficient with them all. It won't do to simply become pigeonholed with the saberstaff, much as he is fond of it. Unfortunately, a number of those weapons are very, very shiny.

He senses the divebombing creature a moment before it zooms over him. He immediately drops to the ground, looking upwards to see what attacked him. Really, this is pretty par for the course of living in Trench, so after the initial moment of shock he's really not all that surprised.

You'd think the red-faced man would be of interest, but those shiny things are very shiny.

Her face casts around, immediately reaching out with a clawed foot to snatch one up into her talons.

Yes. This will absolutely do. Some kind of nest will have to be established. To horde.

Maul waits to see if he will be attacked but the creature is already swooping back up into the sky. He looks around and realizes she's got one of his weapons in her talons.

"Hey! That is mine!" Maul exclaims, not scared at all. Instead, he's more indignant and upset. That dagger that Delilah has grabbed was given to him by Lucille as a present. While he can always get another, the sentimental value of this one motivates him enough to fight for it. He lifts up a good-sized rock, a little bigger than a softball, and uses the Force to chuck it at Delilah, trying to strike a hit on the harpy.

In her usual form, she'd dodge that easily, but her brain is so very confined by the bird part that she doesn't even look back, and as a result the rock clunks directly against her head, staggering her in the air, and causing an immediate and chaotic downward spiral, deeper into the city.

Well, that was a mixed bag. On the one hand, he'd scored a direct hit. On the other, the big bird monster had spiraled downwards into the city instead of down into his yard like he'd been hoping. He could just let her go but that dagger is his and he's going to get it back.

So off he goes, following the path of where he can see where Delilah went down, muttering under his breath about how this place never seems to give him a break.

The actual landing place is on a low rooftop, and she's sprawled out on it, the dagger still clutched by the hilt in the talons of one foot.

It takes a while for her to stir, shaking her head and slowly trying to rise, noises of frustration and aggravation coming from a not-entirely-human throat.

Maul follows to where he saw the bird-monster fall. He looks around for a moment or two. When he spies her on top of a roof, he uses a few Force-powered leaps to get up to her position.

Walking along the rooftop as easily as he would if he was still on the ground, he approaches the harpy. "You have something of mine," he says in that whisper-soft voice. "I intend to take it back."

You threw a rock at her.

The eyes narrow, and she hops back, the free foot tapping anxiously. With...it must be said, some very angry looking talons.

That right about now she's looking to employ as a result.

She steps back and forth, backing up, wings up and ready.

"Oh, you want to fight? You shall have one!" Maul snarls, all ruffled now thanks to this most unusual interlude to his day. His lightsabers would make quick work of the bird monster but that seems a bit unfair to face off against a creature who only has talons on hand and foot to fight with. Fortunately, he grabbed one of his other weapons before he took off to find Delilah.

He flips it around and points it at her, ready and waiting to strike out at the harpy.

She's angry, disoriented - but even in this state not stupid enough to charge into a sharp object. A loud, piercing shriek comes from her throat and she flaps powerfully, kicking up dirt and debris from the rooftop as she launches back into the air.

Look, harpy! Neopolitan jumped back when she was landed in front of. There was a startled look on her face, though it would be immediately apparent that one thing wasn't happening. She wasn't brandishing the umbrella. Part of that was probably that the 'harpy' was talking to her. A second or two later, her shock went to a grin and she pointed at her friend while typing with her thumb.

Look! A Harpy!

It's hard to think about 'personal space' when parts of your brain are still a bird-woman.

She sketched a bow, with one wing in front of her, the other behind.

"Indeed! Was a bit of a bother at first, but now I've got some control of it, it's a joy to fly."

Hey, she'd take the lack of personal space, since at least someone wasn't crazed and attacking. Always a bonus when transformations didn't involve violence. Besides, she looked up at the sky and then grinned, nodding.

Hey, I'm a little jealous. If I have to get transformed?
I'd definitely want to be able to fly, especially here.

Swimming's no fun here.

She looked up and down a few times, then gave Neapolitan a thoughtful look, pursing her lips.

"Want to try for a ride? I think I've got the arm power for it. Unless you're carrying a lot of coins."

Now that got a pretty big blink. Wait. Was she offering to ... uh... huh. Another blink and there was just the smallest of hops and there was a half pint trying to hop up on her back with a grin on her lips. She didn't actually say anything. Really, she figured that this was a clear enough answer.

Thankfully? She was really light.

She didn't need to, and thankfully she was, otherwise she wouldn't have offered - though the sudden appearance of weight on her back does cause a significant bit of stumbling and faffing about as various small adjustments are made.

"Right, then," she said when Neopolitan was all settled - and then launched off the ground with a massive flap. It took a few more to get a good rhythm going than usual, but these arms were powerful. They had to be.

Oh, they were really flying weren't they? She wasn't at all worried about the heights, considering how good she was at turning a parasol into a makeshift parachute. She could handle a drop down from a good long height. She'd done it before. But still, she held on as tightly as was appropriate while the harpy got some lift.

After a moment, she pointed in the district of the Cellar Door. Look, that thing was huge. It'd be fun to fly right over it! They were on an adventure after all, and if they wanted, they could just settle on top of it for the view.

Well she'd have to be quite foolish not to interpret that gesture correctly. "Right," she says, striving for a bit more altitude...and then immediately planing into a dive in the direction of Cellar Door.

The thing about flying as a harpy is that it's not the most complicated thing - but it's still Delilah's brain doing the flying. A safe flight at a safe altitude is simply not on the cards.

Hoo boy, this was definitely something wasn't it? Well, Neo was ready for something. As they started diving, her legs clenched more tightly and she got a good, firm hold on her umbrella. In so far as she was able, she was watching their motion as much as possible in the hopes of gauging if Delilah was getting just a wee bit too close and need a bit of braking help, not that she was sure her Hush would do it. Otherwise, her hair was whipping behind her and she was grateful she didn't actually have a hat on right now because it'd be way back there somewhere right then.

She banks to start to circle around the area, giving her quite the birds' eye view - she glides back upwards a bit, at least past 'hitting the roof' altitude.

At least, for the moment.

Neo breathed a little sigh of relief as they started to circle and wind their way upwards very slowly. Her body relaxed just barely enough to show that she was getting comfortable and enjoying the view. There was quite the show to see, wasn't there?

As they started to near the giant gate of the Cellar Door, she pointed at it, eyes wide with curiosity and perhaps the teensiest nerves.

She nodded a bit, and tilted her form just a bit to alter her angle, turning them in that direction.

'Giant' was very much the right word for it, that much was certain.

She kept a good, firm hold. There were a few people below pointing fingers, but nobody was screaming in terror, so that was a positive. The top of the massive gate at least looked stable enough to land on, so if they made their way there, they could probably have the best view in the whole of Trench.

And hell, if it came down to it, she could absolutely Mary Poppins her way down. She'd done it before. Either way, she was in no hurry now that they weren't hurtling to their deaths. Why not enjoy the ride?

She'd have to be significantly bigger to elicit screams of terror, probably. Or more bitey.

That landing was tempting to her, too, but for the moment the order of the day was circling around it diving slightly to get an excellent view before riding a thermal from some chimneys back upwards to over top of it.

Bitey was good for causing terror, definitely. The only person who was going to be almost screaming was Neo. Though, by the second dive, she was getting used to it, and her thighs weren't gripping that hard. At least she knew they weren't about to die, so that was good!

In fact, by the second, she was starting to get into this and whip her hands up to enjoy the rush of the air as it flew by them.

She was enjoying it rather more directly, the wind rippling through her hair. It was absurd, across the board, but she didn't mind in the least.

In fact, she rather loved it.

She titled her head, calling over the wind.

"Doing well up there?"

A little jolt and she reached down to hold on a bit more tight for a second. When Delilah shouted back, Neo's response was to nod vigorously. She was, despite a couple nervous moments, having quite the time of her life up here. After all, they were flying, and that was just by nature fun, right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

On feathered wings and clomping boots

The Beast Form Awakens

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Later Beast

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Somehow her notifs shut off?? Sorry for pushing the wrong button, apparently!

Whoops! No worries

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The Beast Form Awakens

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Apparently I must've shut her notifs off or something? Ugh, sorry for the wait!

No worries!

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Later Beast

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Apologies, I maybe somehow shut her notifs off? In any event, they disappeared.

Hakuna matata!

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