Tastes Like Friendship [Vyn] [FIN!]

[Bee]

Zeki enjoyed hanging around Loreta's shop and pretending he had friends--Corvie children could be very self-centered and tended not to associate with each other very long if they did not share interests.

A kid fascinated by insect societies, for example, would not be friends with a kid enthralled by mixing a perfectly chip-resistent paint. The children would exchange pleasantries if they noticed each other. A few seconds would elapse. One would wander off to stare at ants. One would go inhale fumes and work on lead poisoning. It all ended in tears.

Friendless, friendless tears.

He had plenty of interests outside of conquering the sky (though that one was, admittedly, the driving force in his life, and the one he enjoyed talking about most), and Loreta was something of a captive audience when she was in the shop. Thus, when Dad no longer proved entertaining, he could simply migrate, as he was doing now.

He pushed the door open and entered the shop. Fun times ahead!

[Vyn]

When Zeki entered, he would find himself alone in the main room with only a colorful muttbird present. The little mix was currently flopped half on the counter and looking as if he might be dying from boredom.

Mother was off solving some problem with one of the guests, or cooking, or something. Whatever the case, he was there to guard the cash register and generally be attentive until mother came back.. whenever that was.

As the bell above the door rang, Kaden jolted upright with a bit of a chirp-squawk only to find himself staring at... Small Rocky? No, not small Rocky? ...But they sure looked alive, except for the mane instead of the big colorful wings. Weeeiiiirdd.

"Hello! You look an awful lot like Mr. Rocky," Kaden offered by way of introduction, "did you know that? You've even got the paws-and-hands thing going on, which is really cool. I bet it's useful for all sorts of things." Taurism was fascinating, Kaden had to admit, but a little odd. He doubted Momma would like it much if he had four feet and hands. "Oh, oh yeah. Loreta is out at the moment, so I can take her messages."

[Bee]

"I got the stuff from Dad," Zeki said, a little bewildered at being so suddenly the focus of someone's attention but very happy to see a new face. The bird looked about his age, and had yet to lose interest in him in favor of something shiny, which was a good sign. Though their interaction so far had totalled about 45 seconds, so perhaps he had best not get ahead of himself. "Rocky is my dad. I look a lot like him. Suspicious lot. Do you think Corvies can clone?"

He still clung to his original theory. And if he were a clone, there could be more clones. A small army of Zekis could put a plane together much faster than a lone Zeki.

His attention shifted to his dexterous little hands. "I work tools much better," he said, thoughtfully. "I don't wanna think about trying to build things with just paws." He eyed the other boy's wings and felt very, very sad for him. Though not too sad, because wings meant this boy could fly.

[Vyn]

Oh! Well that made a lot of sense. "O! Well that makes sense. Clone? No, I don't think so... Unless you call making babies, making clones... but I think someone is trying. If there were clones, there'd be a lot more help in the labs... and then no one would ever come out of their labs at all, I don't think."

After a few seconds of rambling Kaden shut his beak to hear the mini-Rocky's explanation on hands. Kaden envied hands, but he liked his wings too.

"I don't mind not having hands, I can use my feet pretty well. But don't ask me to carry tea or anything, I tried once... hop-stumble-splash." Kaden flapped his wings and made a bit of a show explaining his problem minus the hot tea. "Anyway! I'm Kaden, Loreta's my Momma so I'm covering for her while she's out. Are you staying?" Oh suits, he really hoped this kid wouldn't abandon him with the counter the boredom might kill him.

Which was exactly why Mom had stuck him here. Being grounded sucked.

[Bee]

Zeki tracked with the rapid-fire conversation, and even giggled a bit at Kaden's flappy demonstration. He had such lovely wings. Maybe he would paint those colors on his plane.

"I'm Zeki," he said. He looked around. It looked terribly dull around here today. "I can stay till dark, otherwise Dad will probably come hunting." He didn't want dad to worry. He frowned. "You can't be having very much fun sitting there. Can you leave? Would Loreta mind?"

But that was a silly question. From what he knew of Loreta--laughing face or sour face--of course she would mind. He didn't want to get anyone into trouble. If he got him into trouble, he might not want anything to do with Zeki anymore, and he would wave goodbye at another chance for a friend.

"Or I can just stay here and keep you company," he offered.

[Vyn]

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Zeki! I'm glad you showed up, I would've been dying of boredom if it weren't for you!" The muttbird let out a bit of a ruckus laugh before sinking into a wide grin again.

He'd gotten his father's wicked smile and his mother's dangerous habits, not that he ever purposely disobeyed Mama. "Oh no, I couldn't leave my post. Momma would pluck me an' roast me for her guests." The bird swallowed slightly before leaning in conspiratorially. "I'm supposed to be grounded," leaning back he spoke louder and continued to grin, "but I bet I can have some company here inside. Momma can't stop you from being in the Lobby and talkin' to me."

The boy snickered and hopped down from where he'd been sitting, edging in closer to Zeki.

"So what brings ya over here anyway? I don't think I've ever seen you here before, are you new?"

[Bee]

Zeki nodded. He was quite content to stay and chatter. "Just a couple of weeks. Used to live at the Court. Then Mama went poof and left me here. Now I live with Dad. He's nice. One day I'll fly even better than him, because I got the bad genes but I make up for it with determination." He nodded firmly. "You should come over sometime and I'll show you my model planes; they're super fantastic and wingy and stuff."

He tilted his head curiously at Kaden as the boy got closer. "Your mom made me banana nut bread, so she's got a lot of points by my reckoning. What'd you do to get into trouble?" The bird didn't seem chastened by the experience, so it must have been a good deal of fun. Kaden had the wicked look of a rebel-in-training, which meant that he probably had great stories.

[Vyn]

Ah! That explained why Kaden had never seen him, surely both Momma and Dad had left him on the funny raccoon's doorstep over the short years of his life. In the latest years he'd even learned to just go over there when they disappeared, eventually they came by to pick him up.

That was just how life was. But now he had someone his age to play with him, which was even better than before. "I'd love to come over and see your model planes, don't think I've ever seen one." The bird beamed. Bad genes, huh? Kaden had something like that. "I got the bad genes too, I think, but I bet I've got enough determination to make up for it." Or was that enthusiasm everyone was telling him he had too much of?

Oh well.

"Momma makes the best food in the whole world. I accidentally unleashed the class's pet Mome into the classroom and just because it lit the teacher on fire I somehow get in trouble for it! Can you believe that, Zeki!?"

[Bee]

Well, simple cause and effect dictated that it was Kaden's fault and Zeki could, in fact, believe it, but rationality took a backseat to a child's indignity at adult tyranny, and he shook his head empathetically.

He was also quite interested in...school. Zeki had never been to one. At the Court, he had a small selection of highly-educated tutors, and very little interaction with other kids. He tried to imagine an environment where children ran amok and could unleash pets on unfortunate educators. It was terrible and beautiful. He wanted his dad to enroll him.

"That's no good!" Zeki said, in a gesture of solidarity. He would show Kaden his planes later. He was so proud of his latest one; he actually got it to fly for short periods on its crude little engine. The design might actually transfer to real-people-size. "What else do they let you do at school?"

[Vyn]

Zeki was a cool kid. Kaden couldn't help but feel the immediate camaraderie of two children disagreeing with the awfulness, boring teachers and instantly like him.

Zeki's question prompted an exasperated scoff from the muttbird. "Guh, nothing! Most of the time it's bland and boring and then my mind starts wandering and I'm forced to find something fun to do." He tilted his head back in thought, that grin of his lingering on his beak. "There's all sorts of easy ways to make fun though - pranks are good; I like to switch out the teacher's coffee with some of the foul stuff the other corvie kids make in class." He chuckled at the thought of it. "One of the teachers sprouted hair out of his ears 'cause of that. He was so mad." And he'd gotten expelled for that too. "But uhm, other than that... I like to free the lab animals. Don't think its fair to do somethin' cruel to an animal if you wouldn't do it to a Card as well." And sometimes they did that crap to Aces but that was a whole other story.

"Oh, yeah, so what do you do? Do you go to school or do you have a special tutor? Mum and Dad wanted me to have one, but none of 'em stayed longer than a couple weeks."