Third floor common room [Saturday morning]

[makemyownway]

Cade was being followed around by a karking animal today. A talking karking animal called a hy-eeda or something.

"STOP EATING THE COCOA PUFFS."

...that apparently shared Cade's taste in breakfast cereal.

"Kark me," Cade groused, flopping onto a sofa.

Comments

[ultron_junior]

Victor, meanwhile, was followed by a large black bird when he wandered downstairs.

The bird's name was Remedios. He knew that because she had not stopped chattering into his ear in Spanish since he woke up, and one of the very first things she'd said was to call her Remedios. And Remedios was quite firmly of the opinion he needed a balanced breakfast.

//With eggs and meat//, she told him from her perch on his shoulder. //Not just cereal. Honestly, it's a wonder you haven't died of anemia yet.//

Victor yawned, looked sheepishly around the room. "Oh, good," he said. "I'm not the only one with an animal -- issue."

Remedios fluffed her feathers, taking offense at that.

[makemyownway]

"Nope," Cade said laconically. "She's called Camelai and is a hyema?"

That was wrong, Cade.

[ultron_junior]

"Hyena," Victor said automatically. "This would be Remedios on my shoulder. She's a raven."

Remedios nodded a greeting, then took off and circled the room low to get a better look at Camelai.

[makemyownway]

"This is really weird, right?" Cade checked. "Talking animals are weird."

[ultron_junior]

"Um, yeah," Victor said strongly. "I mean, some birds can learn to talk, but ... not the way she's been doing it."

//I told you I'm not just a bird//, Remedios put in from a few feet away. //Were you listening?//

He sighed. "Did anybody warn you about talking animals? 'Cause they left it off the list for me."

[makemyownway]

Cade shook his head. "Just the girl thing. I'm gonna lodge a complaint."

"Of course you are," Camelai said with a snort.

[ultron_junior]

"Me too, if I can figure out who to file one with," Victor said. "At least ravens eat whatever's around, right? She won't be too hard to feed."

//I like apples and large beetles,// Remedios informed him. //You can manage that.//

[makemyownway]

"Mine tried to eat my boots," Cade bitched.

"They smelled like dead animals!" Camelai replied.

[ultron_junior]

//Tell him to clean his boots so they don't smell like food//, Remedios said, nudging him with her beak. //Do it!//

Victor sighed. "She thinks that means, I'm sorry, you should clean your boots. Why she's making me repeat this when she understands English perfectly well, I have no idea."

[makemyownway]

"I think they like karking with us," Cade decided.

Camelai looked up from the destruction that had been a box of Cocoa Puffs. "What makes you think that?"

[ultron_junior]

"They do seem to like being pains in the ass," Victor said -- half agreeing with Cade, half answering Camelai. "Like ... parents, or something."

For her part, Remedios hopped over and eyed the Cocoa Puffs hungrily. "Can we share?" she asked the hyena, proving she would speak English when she wanted something badly enough.

[makemyownway]

Camelai thought about it for a beat too long to be strictly polite, then nodded once. "If you must."

"Like that little voice in your head, only it follows you around?"

[ultron_junior]

"How come I have to eat eggs and you get chocolate cereal?" Victor asked Remedios, before he answered Cade.

//Because I am a bird,// she said, nimbly hopping to scoop up a few bits of puffed rice, //and you are a growing android.//

He shrugged and turned back to Cade. "Like that," he agreed. "Like guardian angels, or your conscience, or -- whatever. Only shaped like animals."

[makemyownway]

"I don't like it," Cade said.

"Yes, you've said that to just about everyone," Camelai replied, looking over her shoulder at him. "Breathe, Cade. Change is not always cataclysmic."

[ultron_junior]

"It's ... kind of cool?" Victor offered tentatively. "Once you get over how weird it is to have animals commenting on our life choices. Spirit animals are a thing, right?"

//You might catch on yet//, Remedios put in, cocking her head up at Victor.

[makemyownway]

"Maybe?" Cade said, looking a bit dubious. "I mean, they aren't where I come from. We just have ghosts."