(Untitled)

[mysolarsailpwns]

Spacer Boy is brooding on the roof.

What? Everyone else does it.

In his hands is a feather, large and patterned with white and reddish-brown. He turns it over and over, his feet dangling over the side of the roof, and wonders what kind of creature it came from.

Comments

[foolmethrice]

"It's a hawk feather," comes a voice from next to him.

X has appeared. She does that sometimes.

She dangles her feet over the side, too.

[mysolarsailpwns]

Jim looks up suddenly at the sound of her voice, but settles down at the sight of a familiar face.

"Oh, hey," he says, softly. He twists the feather between a finger and thumb and holds it closer to her. "A kind of bird, right?"

[foolmethrice]

"Yes."

She takes it gently from his hands and looks at the stem. "Red tailed hawk. I've seen one. It probably dropped this recently--the color's still new."

[mysolarsailpwns]

"Oh."

Jim peers at the feather. It's a very nice feather. All . . . feathery and stuff.

"How have you been?"

[kurosakiboy]

It really does seem to be the favorite pass-time of the apartment dwellers. Ichigo, however, does not come up onto the roof to brood today. He's looking for somebody actually, but when he notices someone is already up here, he decides he may as well ask.

"Hey, you seen anybody else up here? Guy who looks just like me, orange hair, teenager? Probably hyper, maybe jumping around a lot?"

Ichigo's not crazy. Really!

[mysolarsailpwns]

"Nope."

Jim doesn't care if you're crazy, Ichigo! Jim doesn't care about anything! Watch him not care.

[kurosakiboy]

Damn brooders and their lack of caring.

"What's up with you?"

Pause.

"Hey, where'd you get that feather?"

[mysolarsailpwns]

"It was lying in the courtyard," Jim says, ignoring the first question. "Have there been birds here?"

[dead_comrade]

Krauser has been working. He's carried the empty baskets back upstairs and stacked them for the next time they'll be used.

And now he's got downtime, to wander over to the edge of the roof and look over the city and--hey, person.

With a sign of life. Not many of those here.

"Did you see the bird?"

[mysolarsailpwns]

"Yeah, it flew by a few minutes ago," says Jim, still looking in the direction the hawk flew. "How long do you think it's been here?"

[dead_comrade]

"A month?" Krauser thinks. "A little more, maybe. I saw it once." No, he's not quite keeping track of how long it's been; he's trying to put the time he spent away behind him. "There must be some life we don't know about. There's the dogs; it might take a puppy or too, but that wouldn't last it long. I think the owl tried rats once. I heard something--it was pretty soon after I arrived."