BIRDS! (Cylo)

[sunny]

"...birds!"

A middle-aged couple linked arm-in-arm gave the girl an odd look as they passed. The Girl was wearing a long-sleeved black dress, ideal for mourning, and a hat that would make Mary Poppins jealous. It looked as if she hadn't brushed her hair in a long time; it was a tangled brown mess about her shoulders. She was slim, and pale, almost eerily so, like she'd never seen the sun before.

Given her reaction to birds, maybe she hadn't. She was standing atop a bench, looking for all the world fascinated, her mouth open in a perfect 'o,' pointing excitedly at a few birds as they strutted the street.

"Doesn't get out much, does she?" Remarked the man as he passed with his wife on his arm. "Perhaps she's just seeking attention." The woman reasoned tiredly.

Excitedly, the strange girl fiddled with the brim of her hat, watching the birds as if entranced by them. The way they moved, the little noises they made as they talked to one another, the faint scratching as they scuttled across the pavement...things that were overlooked by passersby. It might be ironic, but it was the girl who they called crazy that saw everything as a wonder.

She crouched on her perch, putting her hands between her legs, poised like a cat ready to pounce. And then, she did. She lept from the bench, not unlike a frog, and launched herself at the innocent, oblivious birds. Frightened, they scattered and flew; they were gone before she landed, right where they once were.

The girl frowned, and snapped at the air like a starved animal, trying to catch a taste of bird that was no longer there.[/b][/color]

[Ϛ Cylo]

"You may want to try a restaurant. You have to pay, but they'll catch the bird, pluck it, cook it, and serve it to you hot. It's crazy, I know, but I swear it's true."

Cylo sat on a bench not too far away, his arms sprawled out across the back of the seat, greedily taking up all the room on the seat. Of course, the area seemed peculiarly empty, perhaps due to the strange girl's presence, so the demand for sitting room wasn't very high anyway.

However, the very same strangeness about the girl that had driven the park's other guests away was like a magnet for him. This girl seemed like she could really appreciate life being like one big game, and she definitely didn't seem to mind what others thought of her. And really, Cylo saw no better qualities a person could have than those.

So he got up from his comfortable position, and in a blur of motion ran and caught one of the birds that called the park home, holding it gently but firmly by the feet as he walked over to the girl. The bird struggled at first, but seemed to sense that Cylo wouldn't hurt it and relaxed. However, the closer he got to the girl, the more agitated the bird seemed to get.

Don't worry little birdy, I won't let the crazy lady eat you.

"Besides, these ones are scrawny. Fear and the hard life makes them skinny and tough. See?" He held the bird closer to her as he came to a stop near her, but it was still far enough that the bird was out of her reach. "You want the fat juicy plump ones. Chicken, turkey, duck. Yum."

[sunny]

"Rest-rant?" The word felt familiar to her, but she didn't have a strong concept of restaurants. She'd never been to one or eaten at one, she didn't know where to find them...if she had ever seen one, she probably wouldn't have known. She blinked at Cylo, evidently puzzled by his suggestion, and tilted her head to one side like a bird. Almost as if viewing him at another angle would make him speak more sense.

She rarely went outside at all. A few times a month, Daddy would take her out, if he had the time. They'd go to the park, and she'd sit there quietly and watch the birds and the children playing. She wasn't allowed to go play with them. She just sat, watched, and listened. Once or twice she had been to his office, and she sat, watched, and listened there, but she wasn't allowed to go to the office anymore. Daddy said she misbehaved.

Cylo picked up one of the birds, and from that moment she decided she liked him very much. He had to be a very special person to catch birds like that, and she was honored that such a special person would come over and talk to her. Maybe he could even teach her his magical bird-catching ways? She gasped at him, mouth back in the 'o' it was so often shaped like, and her eyes widened in admiration. She stayed just like that, marveling at him for a moment or two, until she gave into a silly, delighted grin.

"Yum!" She chorused happily, and made to grab for the bird he was cradling, both hands outstretched. She acted like a child, though she looked at least as old as Cylo, and stood only a few inches shorter than him.[/b]

[Ϛ Cylo]

"Yeah, res-tau-ron-tay. Fancy food joint? No? Completely lost?"

He questioned her with less and less effort, more and more convinced she had been thrown completely overboard the USS Sanity, and without a life preserver, too. But fair is fair and fun is fun, and in the end it really didn't matter if her head was quite right. As far as he was concerned, everyone operated on the same basic premises, and he could work with that.

Of course, he couldn't let the girl have the bird. He knew better than to trust a new face; even the cute ones could turn out to be monstrous, violent crazies. And he didn't feel like betraying the poor thing's trust in him by letting it get eaten.

"Actually, no. This one is yuck. Blech. Not good to eat," he told her, managing to move backward, out of her reach, without looking like he was trying to move away from her. He put the bird up on his shoulder, and it actually stayed there for a moment before being scared off for good by the girl.

"So do you really want to eat a bird, or are you just hungry?" he queried, particular emphasis put into the word 'hungry'. "Because I can get you some food if you want. Uh, you do know 'food', right?"

He felt like an idiot for doing it, but decided he didn't care, and mimed eating food to make sure she got the message.

[tawny]

"Blech?" The dark-haired girl repeated with a pout. The bird didn't look so blech to her! He looked like food! When the creature made it's escape, she looked positively heartbroken. No bird! No food! How would she live?!

And then the magical red-haired bird-catcher disclosed that he could also aquire food, and her eyes lit up immediately. "Hungry!" She confirmed enthusiastically, nodding several more times than necessary to reinforce her point. "Yes! I know food!" She frowned at him and stuck out her tongue, as if to say 'I'm not stupid!' At the miming, she huffed and began to walk away...only to make a complete circle and head right back to him, looking as if she'd just discovered something amazing.

She whipped the old-fashioned hat she wore off her head and held it out to Cylo with both hands, as if expecting him to put money in it. That's what the people on the streets did when they were hungry, right? People just put money in their hats and then they used it to get food! Somehow. But wasn't it usually on the ground? She considered this for a moment, but decided to wait and see if Cylo put money in her hat anyway.[/size][/font]

[Ϛ Cylo]

"Hungry! All right then, that I can deal with. Ornivorism, not so much..." The comment faded in volume and became more and more something he said to himself than something he said to Tawny.

He smiled despite himself when she confirmed that she knew food, but upon noticing her frown the smile stopped in its tracks. The very last thing he had intended to do was to offend the girl. He supposed it was pretty stupid of him to assume the girl wouldn't know something as basic as food, but he had no idea how to treat this girl; he was just learning as he went. She acted like a child, yet looked like she was his age. She didn't understand restaurant or that you shouldn't eat birds, but she knew when others were speaking down to her. It was a mess he didn't know how to clean up.

"Sorry, I---" he began, making to go after her as she walked off, only to be cut short as she turned back around. He closed his mouth stupidly, ending his thought midway as she... took off her hat? He hadn't the slightest idea what she was doing, but she looked pretty expectant of him. Which was a shame, since he didn't know what she was waiting for, and so just stood there like an idiot for a moment.

"Um, okay," he finally managed, patting the girl on the bare head lightly, awkwardly. "I can bring you to a restaurant right now if you want. I know someone who works there, they can get us food for free. You don't mind fast food, do you?" He wasn't sure she would even know what he was talking about, but at this point he had decided that it was probably better to confuse her a little than to offend her.

[tawny]

The girl flinched and recoiled, all thoughts of hat-placement gone from her mind. "No." She meant it to be forceful, but it came out more like a whimper, like she was feebly begging. "No..." She patted the top of her head lightly with one hand, mimicking Cylo's miming.

She didn't like people getting too close to her. The only time she ever had people that close - touching-close, like he had been when he patted her head - was when people were angry and yelling. And when people were angry and yelling, and close to her...she didn't like that.

Her first instinct was to run. Only monsters ever got that close to people, she knew that! She had to get away quick, before he got really mad and really hungry and attacked her. But he seemed too nice for a monster, even if he didn't know how to talk. Even if he set her food free. And so she puzzled, standing far enough away that if he tried attacking, she could probably run.

There was something about that particular gesture, she remembered, as she twirled a piece of her hair nervously. Something that made it not too bad. In movies...didn't mothers sometimes do that to their children? She never had a mother...but it looked nice, on the screen. It looked good.

"Good?" She questioned warily, patting the top of her head again. She didn't know why Cylo had to act out everything he said, but if that's how he talked, maybe that's how she should talk to him.[/font][/size]

[Ϛ Cylo]

If Cylo was off-balance before, now he was about as wobbly as a drunken two year old taking its first steps↑.

Cylo also flinched and recoiled, in an almost comically symmetrical manner, and as Tawny expressed her discontent, he held his hand to his chest as if the touch had burned.

He was in a state not unlike shock, and he refused to act, even move an inch, until he knew what exactly was going on. As far as he could tell, this girl really didn't like being touched in general, and that made it at least the second time he had accidentally done her wrong. He was going to have to be even more careful now, and that was if he even got another chance.

He didn't even consciously realize that he cared so much about this, or he probably would have up and left. Cylo, as a general rule, didn't care much about anyone but himself and his family, unless he somehow made friends with someone, but this was none of those cases.

For a moment he was sure she would run; there was a look in her eyes that a hunted animal had, something wild, a sort of glint that suggested they knew they either had to run for their lives, or die. And while Cylo didn't want her to think this was anything like that case, he wasn't about to interrupt whatever was going on in her mind to try and reason with her, because he was liable to just make things worse.

But the moment passed, and it seemed as if she would stay after all. Though, he had to, nearly literally, choke back his original instinct to answer her question with something along the lines of, "Good? Apparently not," or, "I don't know, you tell me," or maybe, "Well, I used to think so, but now I'm not so sure."

"Yeah, good," he said, nodding slightly for emphasis. He forced a smile to cut through all the confusion he felt, but the absurdity of it all hit him then too, and he even laughed a little; a rare, pure laugh that extended right to his eyes and made them glitter like emeralds.

"Listen, I'm sorry about that, I won't touch you again," he said, the tension seemingly broken at last. "Do you still want to go get something to eat? I know I sure am hungry."

_{↑Disclaimer: The author does not condone getting a two year old drunk for the sake of comparison.}

[tawny]

"Good!" Tawny chirped merrily, giving Cylo a cheery double thumbs-up. She wasn't one to hold grudges, not at all! Everyone was a friend! Well, except monsters.

Maybe there were nice monsters, too? She wouldn't mind meeting monsters if they were nice!

She skipped and twirled her way back to Cylo, and nearly skidded right into him after getting too close too soon. "Ta-da!" The brunette announced with a smile, nearly standing on poor Cylo's toes. Although she didn't much like having people close to her, she didn't mind getting close to them. Unfortunately for them, Tawny had no concept of personal space.

"Eat! Yes! I would like eat! Jeremy says if I not eat I starve!" She whispered, as if she was disclosing a great secret. In fact, she actually looked side-to-side to make sure no one else heard.[/font][/size]

[Ϛ Cylo]

Cylo was glad things seemed to be comfortable between them again, if only for the sake of his own sanity. It was mind-boggling trying to figure this girl out, but he actually derived a feeling of something akin to fun out of trying to, so long as he wasn't currently offending her. It was like running through a mine-field for fun; which sounded exactly like the sort of thing Cylo would do, actually. Point being, he returned her thumbs up happily.

And then she threw him another curveball; getting far closer to him than he would possibly have thought her to be comfortable with, after the previous events. He supposed it made sense, though, that a girl with such a strange view of the world would not see the logic in not wanting to be touched extending to not wanting to touch other people. Even though she seemed to be fine with it, he unconsciously leaned backwards slightly as she drew closer to him, almost as if bracing for a wind pushing him from behind. The smile on his face at that point was something much closer to a bashful one, for whatever reason, and it was only there as opposed to a confused look due to her 'tada', which he felt deserved some measure of praise. In this case, a smile.

"Jeremy sounds like a smart guy," Cylo said, nodding approvingly. It wasn't too far to where they'd get the grub, but the city wasn't the greatest place for a girl like this to be walking around. He wondered briefly if he could convince her to let him piggyback her, but thought it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble, and didn't want to upset her trying. In the end, he went for something less intrusive.

"Hey do you want to, uh... hold onto my hand or my arm or something so you don't get lost?" he said, trying to sound as non-threatening as was demonly possible.

[tawny]

"Yes!" Tawny replied eagerly, grabbing Cylo's sleeve and tugging it, signaling that he should start following her. She was lost, and she had no idea what a restaurant looked like, but she felt like leading!

Well...restaurants they were just big buildings where people ate, right? Well, there were tons of buildings all around, and tons of people going in and out of them! One of them had to be a restaurant! She had her gaze set on a shady-looking pub not too far, mistaking it for a proper eatery.

"Let's go! Come on! Come on!" She bounced on the balls of her feet impatiently, and pointed to the shady pub in the distance. "I found a restaurant!" She announced triumphantly, grinning broadly at her discovery.

"Jeremy is really super-smart!" She told Cylo, jumping back to her previous topic so fast that it'd make any normal person's head spin. "He knows everything! We're besssttt friends! Can he come eat with us? He-Jeremy!"

Tawny stopped to glare at a spot next to Cylo where no one stood, one hand on her hip. "No make faces at Magical Bird Catcher!"[/font][/size]

[Ϛ Cylo]

Cylo near fell over with the force of the tug, so unprepared was he for it. But he got a hold of himself pretty quickly and managed to put up enough of a resistance that she was only slowly dragging him in the direction of the shady pub. Which, of course, was not exactly the place he had in mind for them to eat at. And not because it was shady; because he simply didn't have the money. In fact, he had no money on him.

"Actually, we---"

He was cut off by the rudeness of Jeremy's face-making. Or rather, Tawny's reaction to it.

"Oh, I don't mind it much," Cylo assured Tawny, not bothering to pursue the topic of "where the hell is this Jeremy kid?"

"My name is Cylo, though. I guess you can call me Magical Bird Catcher if you want."

As much fun as Cylo was having with all of this, he was really hungry. And unlike a human, he couldn't get his food from just any restaurant. He needed to get to his destination of choice, and quick.

"Jeremy can totally come eat with us, but we're going to a special restaurant," Cylo said, his voice hushed, as if it was some huge secret. "They have all sorts of food. Do you liiiiiike... pancakes? They have pancakes. They have milkshakes, and spaghetti, and cake, and all kinds of stuff. Does that sound good?"

All the while he was pulling slightly in a different direction, headed for a different restaurant.

[tawny]

"Tawny!" She supplied, shaking Cylo's hand all over the place, a poor imitation of what she remebered following introductions in movies. Shortly after she gave her name, it echoed far off in the distance; someone was calling for her, but she didn't seem to notice. "Nice meet you, Magical Bird Catcher Cylo!"

Tawny offered no complaint when she felt herself being tugged away from the restraunt she picked. Surely someone as wise and powerful as the Magical Bird Catcher would know of better restraunts than she! Happily she went along, humming something short and silly to herself. Soon, she was making a game of walking, slowly putting one foot in front of the other, as if she was walking on a tightrope.

"Oooh! Pan-cakes?" She mused aloud, using her free arm to keep her 'balance.' Her face scrunched up as she mulled over pancakes. She hadn't had pancakes since she was very, very young; mostly she had sandwiches and chicken nuggets and other finger-foods. Her father scarcely knew how to use a microwave, nevermind cook, and he never cared enough to learn what teenagers liked to eat.

"Liiikee..." She attempted making an awkward circle with her free arm, putting her hand on her head to illustrate the shape of a pancake. "That? I like pan-cakes! Like cake! Liiiikeee...sketti!"[/font]

[Ϛ Cylo]

"Nice to meet you, Tawny," Cylo said with a hint of a laugh as the girl shook his hand like a can of paint. He still couldn't get over the fact that she seemed in all aspects, except for physically, to be a child, and yet she was not. No matter how much he saw it, it was still as disconcerting as ever. It also reminded him of Kirien somehow, though he would never say the two were alike. For one thing, 'Tawny' was about as threatening as a thimble.

He watched with definite amusement as she toddled along, and as she communicated the concept of pancakes to him. "Yes, like that," he informed her with a knowing few nods of his head. "And I like pancakes too, and cake, and 'sketti'." Even he was moved by the cuteness of that word.

For whatever reason, Cylo had never heard the echo of her name. Perhaps it got carried from his ears by the hustle and bustle of the crowd, or maybe the wind spirited it away. Maybe he simply wasn't used to the name yet, and didn't yet automatically pick it out of the cacophony of sound like he would his own name. Not to mention he'd never even considered the girl having parents. Some part of him had automatically assumed her to be an orphan or a street kid. Perhaps even just old enough to be living on her own now, although he didn't quite see her as being independent. The point of all this being he'd never really even paused to consider the fact that someone might be looking for her, and readily brought her to a nearby restaurant without worry.

"Well, this is it," he said as he stepped into the place. The maître d' greeted him warmly; she was clearly familiar with Cylo. Cylo politely acknowledged her and asked for a table for two, and the maître d' answered in the affirmative and set things up. And all of this was done wordlessly; a warm smile, a polite nod, two fingers held up, a knowing look and another nod, and they were through.

And a moment later, they were at a table. Cylo handed Tawny a menu, and had to resist the odd urge to hand it to her open to the children's section.

"You can get whatever you'd like," he said with a smile, not touching his own menu.

[tawny]

"Hiiii!" Tawny greeted, cheerfully waving at the maître d'. Friendly as ever, she repeated the greeting for every person she passed, occasionally throwing in "My name is Tawny, nice meet you!"

She slid into a seat that must have been meant for her, grinning from ear-to-ear with excitement. She looked at the menu wondrously, carefully opening it and running her hands down the large pages. Most of the words she couldn't read, things like 'bruschetta' and 'scampi,' so she figured she'd just stick with something easy.

"Pancakes!" She announced, but soon enough she was frowning, and shaking her head, and changing her mind. "No...sketti! No. Pancakes." She nodded this time, deciding that she really did want pancakes. "With blueberries." She added as an after thought.

The peculiar girl swayed from side to side in her seat, nibbling at her bottom lip, staring in puzzlement at the word 'bruschetta.' Finally, she gave up on trying to figure out what it meant, and pointed at the confusing word. Surely the Magical Bird-Catcher would know! He knew all about restaurants!

"What's that?" She queried childishly, staring at the foreign word as if it was something strange and magical.[/font][/size]