A Birdy Bind
Harper Quinn
the Stalwart
Teacher

Age: 33 | Height: 5'10 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Nomadic
Level: 5 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 19 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
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Posts: 1,036 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#1
If I can help one fainting robin unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain
Don’t ask how he got here, because even a record-scratch freeze frame wouldn’t be of any help when Harper himself can’t figure out how this all happened. His journeys to Stormbreak has dwindled in frequency the past seasons to nearly nothing. Phoebe is never found. The reminder of the attack on The Tower never gets easier. Little else draws him. But hope dies slow for a man like Harper, and so he returns at least once per season to ask after Phoebe and put up more posters. It doesn’t help with the feeling of loss, per se, but it makes him feel more proactive.

The Skyport journey had been long and frigid, and Harper hadn’t wanted to speak to anyone, too busy brooding over thoughts of the woman he has lost yet again. Roosting had been the clear answer - until he’d somehow gotten tangled.

Squawking and struggling against the ropes he’d previously been sleeping in, Harper reaches out for any other Attuned in the area. Hello? I need some help please! Never let it be said that Harper lets his pride stand in the way of getting himself out of sticky situations.
Lena Magnus
Celestine Caretaker

Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 19 - Int:
MITTENS - Mythical - Abominable Snowball
Played by: Heather Offline
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MP: 9824
#2
Lena
hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
Lena flew.

Maybe it had been her way of changing, altering, after dragon rides through the skies – planting the form in her mind, pulsing within dreams, scaling heights without a semblance of fear –

Spreading wings and feathers made of rosy hues and grey twists, turning so brilliantly and blindingly in her haste to instinctually cling to the sentiments around her. A breath unfurled and then another, and she could have chased the horizons if the world let her, thriving of her own accord, exhilarating –

And then she heard it. That call for help, measured only in Attuned bombardments. It might’ve looked very silly, her form stilling in mid-air for a moment, before descending immediately. Where are you? she answered in return, never one to ignore someone in need.
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all
Harper Quinn
the Stalwart
Teacher

Age: 33 | Height: 5'10 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Nomadic
Level: 5 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 19 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,036 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#3
If I can help one fainting robin unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain
It’s a calculated risk, he will swear later. Stormbreak is full of only Accepted and Attuned individuals, so surely his Hail Mary would have greater chance of landing here. But really it’s a shot in the dark, and when a soft voice calls back to him his ink-black wings flatten against the ropes in relief.

The Skyboat that just docked. I’m tangled in the rigging. Sheepishness is apparent even from a distance, faint but good-humored as he casts his voice into the ether, praying for salvation. Side-note: as tempting as it is to sleep on the journey, I would recommend not doing it in the rope pile. Unrelated advice, take it as you see fit. Never one to be afraid to poke fun at himself, Harper lets his voice prattle onward and outward, needing the verbal outlet to make up for his enforced stillness. Something he could hardly stand on a good day.
Lena Magnus
Celestine Caretaker

Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 19 - Int:
MITTENS - Mythical - Abominable Snowball
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 755 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#4
Lena
hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
The Caretaker, for multiple reasons, had no notions of fearing someone with an Attuned measure tucked amidst similar, like minds. Perhaps she should’ve – given all sorts of Ascended parameters, but she also believed they’d have no right to tread anywhere near here. Not after what they’d done.

So it was on swoops and turns, on pulses of wind and updrafts, that she scaled and wandered, glancing down amongst the rigging of the Skyboat port, little eyes darting this way and that. Oh, I see you she noted in her gentle tones, fluttering downward on pink adornments and too much trust. Dark wings cast about roping seemed awfully silly, but she didn’t tease or taunt.

Instead, she landed, beak going towards the first proportions of the knotted length. That’s unfortunate. I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson now though, hm?
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all
Harper Quinn
the Stalwart
Teacher

Age: 33 | Height: 5'10 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Nomadic
Level: 5 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 19 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,036 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#5
If I can help one fainting robin unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain
Waiting is the hardest part. Even as a bird Harper has little tolerance for stillness, and the ropes are far less comfortable around his wings and delicate feathers as compared to when he’d been nesting on top of them. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, but even clarity of vision regarding your own idiocy can’t make time fly faster to get you out of the mess you made.

When she arrives - whoever she is; he must get a name - it’s in a graceful downward swoop of beautiful pink feathers that Harper shamelessly admires. She sets to work helping him immediately which he is undeniably grateful for of course, as she will surely feel, but manners can’t wait. I would say I have, but I make no promises, he admits plainly, amusement threading his tone. Harper often has the problem of thinking ‘oh that would never happen a second time!’ I’m Harper by the way. What should I call my savior? It’s playfully said, but equally free of any undercurrents of flirtation or needling. Merely curious and incapable of wording things seriously.
Lena Magnus
Celestine Caretaker

Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 19 - Int:
MITTENS - Mythical - Abominable Snowball
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 755 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#6
Lena
hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
Working with a beak was far different than a snout, or her own two hands, but patience, fortitude, and compassion drove her onwards, ever a plucky, endeavored soul. She made it a quick, short task on the first set of knots, and began pulling upon the second, eyes flickering back and forth as she derived the bizarre network of false patterns and gnarled convictions there. Did you roll around in this? was followed by light, not mocking, laughter, because she couldn’t quite fathom what had occurred – maybe in a series of duress.

Shaking her head at the response, she continued to procure gentle notions, tugging airily at certain angles. The Caretaker had been much too rapid on getting towards the individual who’d needed rescuing, that she hadn’t even thought about namesakes – an inward eyeroll for herself. Too bad we couldn’t have met under better circumstances, followed by a polite wink. I’m Lena. A pause, curious, but not too prying, continued thereafter. What brings you to Stormbreak?
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all
Harper Quinn
the Stalwart
Teacher

Age: 33 | Height: 5'10 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Nomadic
Level: 5 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 19 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
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Posts: 1,036 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#7
If I can help one fainting robin unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain
He’s patient through the entire process, because he can’t really do anything else and he certainly doesn’t want to make the task any harder for his savior. But her amusement is met with his own sheepish brand of it. I move around in my sleep a lot, maybe I do when I’m shifted too? It would make sense, as hilarious as the notion may be. That nobody had stopped him or woken him up was a further mystery, but it only added to the general nonsense of the entire debacle.

Harper can somehow sense the wink through the bond, which will never not be novel truly, and he commits her name happily to memory. Only for it to ring familiar and give him pause. The caretaker of the Celestine, right? It’s spoken somewhat tentatively, because while he’s used to having a mind like a steel trap, he’d only heard of her in the briefest of passings and wasn’t entirely confident this time. The mood dips downward slightly from there, though he struggles to conceal it lest she feel bad for accidentally tripping on the equivalent of an emotional landmine. Ah…my wife has been missing for a few seasons now, after giving birth to our son. Frey’s Demigod, Phoebe? He always uses her name and position, always hoping above hope that maybe they know where she is. She lived here for a time, so I try to come back and leave posters and search around once a season. And he doesn’t know if he’ll ever give up, no matter how old Jude grows or how his own heart reluctantly moves on.
Lena Magnus
Celestine Caretaker

Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 19 - Int:
MITTENS - Mythical - Abominable Snowball
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 755 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#8
Lena
hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
Another knot unfurled and uncoiled from her movements, and she would’ve been content to listen, if not laugh again, at the notions of rolling about in slumber until one was snarled and snagged. As if he could make his own snare out of movements alone. Incapable of shrugging her shoulders in this form, she could only suffice with a mild flapping of her wings, following through on one of the ropes with bouncy, bounding movements; bird-spring motions.

She didn’t expect her name to be recognized outside of Stormbreak, and since he wasn’t a resident, the youth was perplexed for a moment. And then the confusion slid away, just as easily as the next line of intertwined, overlapping tethers. Yes.

The rest flickered though, and she withheld the slight grimace and tightening of her spine, immediately apologetic that her prying had clearly unveiled some marks. Despite her close ties to Frey, and the knowledge of demigods amidst this world of stone and religion, the little bird could only shake her head. I’m sorry – while I’ve heard of her, I haven’t seen her. Picking at another knot, because it was a good distraction from the muddle she’d made, she made an additional note of kindness. I hope she comes back to you both soon.
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all
Harper Quinn
the Stalwart
Teacher

Age: 33 | Height: 5'10 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Nomadic
Level: 5 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 19 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,036 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#9
If I can help one fainting robin unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain
It’s a good thing he is patient, because the bind is clearly worse than he’d suspected initially. Then again, he hadn’t exactly been able to see the problem from an outside perspective. Maybe it only feels like a long time because he’s utterly useless to her, incapable of helping in any way. The least he can do is stay still and try to crane his neck to watch her from the corner of his eye, hoping it equates to some level of polite, attentive eye contact.

Her surprise isn’t unexpected; while Harper has explored most of Stormbreak on his own and has interacted with most of its residents because of it, the two of them haven’t met one-on-one before today. Though he is privately pleased to have recognized her name, it’s a blooming emotion that wilts immediately upon her halting answer. Disappointment is a familiar feeling on this topic, but it never stops souring the back of his throat even as the seasons change.

Still he manages to put on the emotional equivalent of a brave face, keenly aware of the impoliteness of forcing her to feel his grief even unintentionally through the bond. Thank you, he says softly for lack of anything better to say, but appreciating her kindness all the same. How are we looking back there? Think I’ll make it doc? Harper pulls on humorous chords as he wiggles just a little, hoping to entice a lightened mood from her while simultaneously ensuring he doesn’t go mad from the period of prolonged stillness he’s already had to sit through.
Lena Magnus
Celestine Caretaker

Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 19 - Int:
MITTENS - Mythical - Abominable Snowball
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 755 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#10
Lena
hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
She could feel the twisting and turning of emotions, and swallowed down her own measures of grief. No need to add to it. No need to flicker in and out of those weighted notions. Instead, she worked, pulling and tugging, until the last portions slipped away, and he’d be liberated from the multiple situations. There you are!

The Caretaker hopped back, nodding along in a head-bobbing, bird fashion. You are free to go! Do be careful next time though! Had she been capable of a wink in this form, she would’ve extended it, but instead it’s just the bout of cheekiness, the measures of a kind countenance when sometimes that’s all one could offer.

From there, her wings unfurled once more, taking to the skies, as she presumed he’d do the same.

{FIN}
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all


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