Don't Break Your Think Pan [Ayama]

[Cam]

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[bg=white] Nighttime. Owl time. Busy time. If you weren’t a bleached-out snowy by the name of Cameron. The half-blind owl had walked out to the end of the limb his hollow was on, and had balanced himself at the end of it, wings outspread. He looked a bit awkward - a fully grown owl in a position usually reserved for fledging owlets - but he didn’t mind. In his head, he was a warrior, a master of the combat skills he never really learned. That isn’t to say he couldn’t defend himself - but fight in a battle? He’d be dead before he could unlock his battle claws. So he was stuck here, on his branch, fantasizing, beak in the wind. He didn’t dig his claws into the branch like it was an enemy, and he definitely didn’t make battle-claw-clangy noises under his breath. And when he pitched forward out of the tree, spiralling dramatically towards the ocean, he didn’t make any wooshy-air noises. Cam waited until the last minute, when the sea spray was misting his feathers, to snap his wings out, and he shot up into the night. He executed an almost vertical U-turn, flared his feathers at the last minute to level himself out, and shot across the top of the tree. When he reached the other side he turned sharply and soared back across. His feathers where whisper-quiet despite the fact that his head was turned slightly to one side in a rather useless attempt to compensate for his blind eye. With a thud, Cam landed back on his branch, where he shook out his feathers and settled down to watch the stars, humming the tune to a rather upbeat battle song under his breath. [/blockquorte]

[Ayama]

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[bg=80c4bd] Lovely white wings, spread out in the most elegant way as she flew. With one more glide, Artemis landed on one of the branches of the Great Tree, one of many. Her claws extended to grab the branch but they slipped and at the moment where she was about to fall over the edge, she caught her balance and sunk her talons into the bark-covered thing, letting out a break of relief. For once she hadn't crashed and made a fool of herself. It was quite odd really. She was a clumsy flier yet she was one of the best slipgizzles. It just didn't make any sense. Her golden liquid eyes scanned the area around her, the honey orbs gleaming with exhaustion and the need for sleep. And in their depths they also held loneliness. She had been gone far too long for her own liking. But she also found joy in what she did. After all, she was helping the very birds that had saved her when she was but a fledgling, held prisoner and worked like a slave. They had let her taste freedom for the first time after she had run away from her home, the Northern Kingdoms. The beauty had felt no regret when leaving that horrid place. The females who had surrounded her had had hearts of ice, frozen like the very terra they lived on. It was awful, she couldn't have stayed there and grown up being taught to be like them. Life there just wasn't of her preference. The community she had lived in hated males and only allowed them to come near if it was for... reproducing. Otherwise, males were completely and utterly out of the question. They couldn't come within 500 wingspans of the isolated cliff where the she-owls had lived. It was foolish to judge males today by how they were generations ago, but the elders hung on to their ways and taught their children to be just like them. So every female there grew to have the same opinions. Females were just, and male were unjust. If they were hatched from an egg, they were to be killed by their very own mother. What kind of society was that? A cruel, frozen-hearted, unwise one, that's what kind. But enough thought about this. You're just tiring yourself more. Artemis thought to herself, slowly making her way to a wider part of the branch that she sat upon. She had just come back to the Great Tree after five moons of being gone on duty. It had been lonely and scary. Living in the fear of being caught while spying everyday. But she had come back with information, and with her life and that was all that mattered. The Pure Ones were the group that scared her more than anything else, and yet their headquarters were the place she had to go most of the time. St. Aggie's was a place she rarely went to these days. They had enough information on that so-called "academy" already. You're home now though Artemis, that's all that matters. She let out another sigh of relief and then spread her wings out once more, preparing to fly. Her pure, clean white wings beat slowly at first, then with increasing urgency and soon, the snowy was in the air. A breeze ruffled her feathers as she flew around the tree, trying to find the hollow that was kept reserved for her return. At last, she found the familiar place and just as she was about to land, a sudden wind made her turn the wrong way and fly straight into a branch face-first. "Ow..." she murmured, desperately flapping her wings to keep from falling further down. The first branch she saw, she landed on it gently and folded her wings, closing her eyes and breathing to calm her racing heart. Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. Her liquid golden eyes fluttered open with surprise though as another snowy owl seemed to be perched upon the same branch as her. It was... a male. She blinked. It had been a long time since she had seen a male snowy owl. Almost 20 moons...

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[Cam]

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[bg=white] OOC // I'm sorry, I didn't come anywhere near your word count D: What a beautiful night. The stars flickering above him reminded him of his short time in the navigation chaw. With a little difficulty, he managed to pick out a handful of the constellations he’d learned, and studied them for a moment. None of them really looked like what they were supposed to be. Meaningless groups of stars that owls wanted so badly to put in order. His song grew quietly louder and louder, shifting from hoots and clucks and thumping talons into hushed words. He was trying to locate his third constellation, feathers puffed against the night chill, when something whumped into a branch above him with such force that his own bough shook slightly and a rain of leaves dropped onto him from above. Cam shook off the debris and looked around in confusion, half expecting a wounded owl to fall through the nearby sky on a plummet to the bottom of the tree - but instead there was a scrabble of talons on bark behind him. Cam turned to see if whoever it was that had landed behind him needed help, if he should be flying off to get someone with more medical knowledge to assist him. But, no, whoever it was looked fine, if a little bit ruffled. Concern for the owl was quickly replaced with curiosity. A female snowy? This was new. He didn’t recognize the female, but that didn’t mean much. The tree was so populous that it was impossible for one owl to know everyone living in it. But of all the owls he didn’t know, Cameron was surprised that he didn’t know this snowy. Especially since she was, well, female. She wasn’t exactly bad-looking, either. Actually, she was the opposite of that, besides the fact that she was possibly the clumsiest owl he’d ever set eyes on. She was healthy - if a bit rumpled, well-built, and veritably arctic in her appearance. Cam rearranged his wings and approached her curiously. ”Hey,” he hooted after a moment, a combination of mirth and concern flitting through his eyes. ”You might want to watch those branches. They have a tendency to just jump out in front of you, y’know.” [/blockquorte]

[Ayama]

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[bg=7cadbb][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=width,120]	[atrb=repeat,no-repeat][bg=7cadbb] OOC // Lol, that's okay. Mine was a sucky post even if it was long. And this is really short. V__V She blinked her honey eyes and nodded slowly. A soft churr rumbled from the lovely owl's throat as she thought over her clumsiness. Would she ever learn? "Ahaha, I see. I'm sorry, I'm not accustomed to how large the Great Tree is. I haven't been here for moons." she hooted, giving a glorious smile. The pure, clean white female moved closer to the singer, her golden liquid orbs studying him closely. "You're... Cameron? Or am I mistaken?" She extended a wing, looking at the male snowy with a friendly smile and curiosity swimming through her gold eyes. It was odd to see a male, of any species of owl really but seeing a male snowy was the oddest to her. It was, in a way, interesting though. "I'm Artemis. Believe it or not, I'm a slipgizzle for the guardians. I'm forever in their debt." She averted her gaze to the branch and moved her talons around shyly. This was... A new experience for her after all.
[cs=2]

[Cam]

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[bg=white] Cameron chucked and grinned at the other owl’s anxiety over his remark, and he waved a wing dismissively. ”It’s fine, even the best flyers make mistakes sometimes. And it’s easy to forget how enormous this place is.” He watched her curiously - her plumage was wonderfully beautiful, her eyes clear and sharp, and he might have let out a low rumble of his own - or maybe that was all in his mind. ”Yes, I’m Cameron.” It was so weird hearing his whole name spoken aloud, his given name. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard someone in the tree actually use it. To everyone from the chicks to the king himself, he was, simply, ‘Cam’, and at times he himself wasn’t even sure what his actual name was supposed to be. ”You can just call me Cam. Everyone does.” He met her wing with grace, a smile, and a soft hoot. Glaux, was she ever nervous. Cam almost thought that she’d never seen a male owl before. ”A slipgizzle? I bet you go on some adventures,” he offered in a vague attempt to dispel some of her anxiety. [/blockquorte]

[Ayama]

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[bg=7cadbb][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=width,120]	[atrb=repeat,no-repeat][bg=7cadbb] She smiled sweetly at him, not on purpose though. She wasn't the kind to flirt. In fact, flirting and romance were almost foreign to her because of the ideals of her homeland. Of course, even though she didn't believe in their customs, romance and such was not spoken of there and she grew up in an unloving environment, causing the idea of love to not even sit at the back of her mind, let alone at the front of it. "I'm sorry, I call everyone by their full names. I believe that it respects the true uniqueness and radiance of the said person." she hooted, feeling slightly awkward. Maybe she was too much of a goody-goody, but it honestly was what she believed in her heart and mind. Another churr was produced from her throat as she tried to ease the situation. "Perhaps I'm wrong." The pretty owl averted her honey gaze to the branch she was perched upon and slowly, she worked her eyes back up to where Cam stood. Adventures? she thought, reviewing some of her missions in the files of her memory. Danger, the fear of being caught and killed at any moment, horror filling her mind as she watched cruel things happen right before her eyes, and yet she could do nothing to stop them. She didn't really think about her missions being adventures when she was in the middle of them, overwhelming emotions swirling and swimming through her mind, making it hard for her to not act on impulse. Everyday she was on duty, the things she saw and the things she felt brought tears to her eyes and slowly, those tears were shed. Being a slipgizzle was harder work than some seemed to realize. Or maybe it was just difficult for her because she got very emotional at the sights she saw. As someone who was once a victim of torment, kidnap, and many other serious crimes, she could feel the pain of another owl who was having the same thing done to them that had happened to her a long time ago. It was almost as if she was them, and guilt gnawed at her heart every time she realized there was nothing she could do to help at that moment. She could only go back to the guardians and tell them what happened, and trust them to handle things. Loneliness, another thing that prodded at her mind when she was doing her duty, her job. The lovely Snowy felt isolated and alone, no-one there to help her, to protect her, to comfort her. Perhaps she was just fragile, perhaps she had seen too much and her sympathy was going into overdrive. Artemis had realized after her first mission as a slipgizzle that she would gladly give her life if it was to let someone else live so it wasn't the fear of her own death that got her, it was the fear of someone else's. Suddenly brought back to the real world, the pulchritudinous owl found that water had piled up on the bottom lids of her eyes and she quickly wiped them away with her wing, afraid of looking stupid in front of Cam. "I... I suppose..." she responded to his comment about her work.
[cs=2]

[Cam]

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[bg=white] “Ah,” he answered, his tone one of legitimate interest. [He gave a nod, and paused a moment to think. The suddenness and philosophy of that remark had thrown him offbalance slightly. ”That’s an interesting concept, actually, Artemis.” He shuffled his claws on the branch, seeking better purchase. as if a physical anchor to the tree would help his mind steady itself. ”That the name is the key to identity, I mean. I’ve never really put much thought to it.” Smart and beautiful - and a snowy, to boot. This Artemis was proving to be quite the curious character. But then she had grown quiet and Cameron’s face fell. He cursed himself internally for saying something that had obviously upset the female, and, hesitantly, he took a step closer. ”Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything that would upset you, I mean--” He broke off mid sentence. She was crying. Oh, Glaux, I’ve really messed up, his thoughts raced for a moment. What was he supposed to do? He’d just met her, and now here she was, crying over some thoughtless remark he had made. Cam carefully recomposed his face into a soft smile - the same one he wore when other owls came to him in tears, wanting advice or just someone to rant to. Cautiously, he leaned to the side until he was almost bent double, watching her face, one wing half-spread to balance himself in the awkward position. ”I didn’t mean to be insensitive or anything, he stated, his voice soft. ”Look, we don’t have to talk about it. How about-- Ah--” The snowy straightened up suddenly, an idea flashing through his mind. ”Hey, are you hungry? I bet I can convince the cook to scrounge you something up, if you’d like.” He churred slightly at the thought. ”Do you like tarts?” [/blockquorte]

[Ayama]

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[bg=7cadbb][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=width,120]	[atrb=repeat,no-repeat][bg=7cadbb] She gave him a small smile, trying to convince the singer that she was fine. She was fine! Great! Peachy, in fact! She had just gotten too caught up in her thoughts. Perhaps she really was as ditsy as the others said. Get it together Artemis. she thought. The female forced her liquid golden orbs to appear bright and shiny once more, and inwardly dragged herself away from her bad thoughts, promising herself that she'd come back to them later. Yes, she'd indulge in them when nobody was around so that she wouldn't disturb anyone. She didn't deserve the pity people gave her. They always felt bad for pathetic little Artemis who was so very emotional and stupid. It was about time she started taking care of herself and acting stronger, even if that wasn't who she really was. In truth, she was still a little chick inside, one who had never really had the opportunity to be nurtured. Growing up with other females whose hearts were as frozen as the barren land they lived in, she had never really been given the love and caring that normal, teeny tiny owlets received. She had to fend for herself after running away, and it had put her into a constant state of childishness. And yet, even behaving that way (or at least she thought she behaved that way), she still acted almost motherly and caring to every creature that happened to pass by; Be it friend or foe, stranger or best friend, it was all the same. It was so complicated, yet at the same time, so simple and easy to understand. Maybe that made no sense, but it was the only way to describe who she really was. On beautiful days, with dazzling, warm sunlight, all she'd feel inside was cold, dark, emptiness. It was as if she was struggling, fighting something that didn't even exist. Everyone would be having pleasant dreams in their nests, filled with all the mice and voles and lemmings in the whole world, while she tossed and turned, letting out soft hoots of distress as nightmares engulfed her, turning her make-believe into reality. Then she would jolt awake, unaware of her surroundings until her blurred vision cleared and her temperature went from fever-ish to cool. Bring a slipgizzle was both a dream come true and a constant nightmare for the lovely white bird. Often times, when she was on duty, she couldn't tell whether what she was seeing was real or just another awful dream, one of many. What she saw, what she heard, what she felt, it was almost beyond her comprehension. A fragile heart like her's was easy to drop and shatter, or crack open with a sharp talon. That's why she kept away from everybody, allowing a powerful shield of ice consume her heart so that nobody could ever take it and play around with it until it dropped from their incapable hands. She was something to be handled delicately, when it came to emotions and when it came to her physical being. Life was not of her preference, or so it seemed. However, even though dealing with this storm of emotions inside of her was very difficult, the thought had never crossed the innocent female's mind, to go and end her own life. It was something that had never even flickered through her sub-conscious. Suddenly brought back to the present by Cam's voice, Artemis once again shoved her thoughts to the back of her mind, desperately trying to focus on what the singer was saying. It seemed that she had been thinking for hours on end when in reality, only a couple of heartbeats had passed. She gave a bright smile, trying to convince the other snowy that her crying had not been his fault in the slightest. "No, don't be sorry. This wasn't your fault. I just got too involved in my thoughts. I'm sorry." she hooted sincerely, hoping that he accepted her apology. When he suddenly straightened up, she focused her attention on him, realizing he had an idea that had excited him. She produced a small churr as he said he could convince the cook to make her something. It seemed like he might get into an awful lot of trouble, but she was a bit hungry... But, she couldn't just take advantage of him like that. At the mention of tarts, the beautiful snow-white female's head tilted to the side a little, confusion swimming through her honey-golden eyes. "If you don't mind my asking, what's a tart?" she inquired, her lovely voice soft and gentle, filled with innocence and curiosity. She didn't have too much experience with food. She only knew of roasted bats, cooked mice, and frozen lemmings. Tarts were a new thing, and sounded completely different from anything she'd ever heard before.
[cs=2]

[Cam]

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[bg=white] Cam beamed, excited at the prospects of introducing this owl to something she hadn’t experienced before. He was glad that she seemed to have cheered up, even if it was just slightly. ”You’re allowed to cry. Everyone is. There’s no shame in it,” he smiled, then seemed to wiggle into his feathers. ”A milkberry tart is the finest ambrosia you could experience in this lifetime! It’s this heavenly milkberry filling in this tender crust and you’ll never find one better than a Ga’hoole tart!” He turned his head slightly, using his good eye to make sure he didn’t smack her in the face with his wing, and then extended one to her. ”I can take you to the kitchens, if you’d like. They’re not too far away. I’m sure they must have something.” //Short short short ew! Sorry! [/blockquorte]