( 001: text/smartphone)

[handcuff]

Animals have far more sensitivity to their surroundings than humans do, they can sense changes in the environment that we can't. Canaries in coal mines. domesticated pets warning their owners of natural disasters to come. Survival of the fittest. "Natural selection conceived of as a struggle for life in which only those organisms best adapted to existing conditions are able to survive and reproduce." ... the point being that when things start going wrong, we're usually the last ones to notice.

... by the way, I heard that there were a lot of freak animal attacks last month. [ that, and he volunteers at an animal shelter. ] I can pretty much guess that's not unrelated to whatever all of this is about. [ although, to be sure, the details are still rather hazy for him. he can only make inferences and guesses at this point, though his are more or less in the right direction, at the very least.

and now for something completely different: ]

there's an animal following me around when I'm not in public places. a bird. I don't really know why ...

[ he won't directly come out and ask for it, but this is his way of soliciting advice on what to do about it. ]

Comments

text - handwritten

[entertainaplanb]

...Well. Is the bird causing you any trouble?

[handcuff]

Not as far as I can tell. but it behaves a bit strangely

[entertainaplanb]

Strangely how?

( text )

[argents]

[ The last time animals started following people, things Escalated Quickly. ]

Can I ask... what kind of bird?

( text )

[handcuff]

[ there is an attachment of a blurry jpg image, taken from his phone. ]

It looks like a warbler.
... but I think it can imitate human speech.

[argents]

[ ...Looks normal. ]

Just speech? There aren't any other weird features?

[Text, computer]

[professorwolf]

[All the talk of natural selection makes him think of class and one of his students. It makes him smile a little, though not actually connect the two. Because he has way too many students on this network, already.

Still. Corrections necessary.]

I'm afraid they weren't exactly animals, and yes, it's connected to all this. The bird may be, as well. Has it done anything to hurt you or bother you? Does it have any strange physical traits?

( text )

[handcuff]

If they weren't animals, then what were they ...?

the bird is fine. except that it sometimes speaks Japanese.

[ ... he still can't believe there would ever come a day that he would claim he heard a bird speaking to him in foreign languages. ]

[Text]

[professorwolf]

You may not believe me when I tell you. I was there, and I don't necessarily believe me. But they were some strange mutant dog-people. Bipedal, intelligent, wearing bullet-proof vests. There were animals earlier who had been mutated to have human-like physical traits, but no one has seen any of them in several weeks, at least.

[As for the bird... well. The speaking bit was new.]

Do you know what it's been saying in Japanese?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Does it have teeth?

[Text]

[handcuff]

No, but it does speak. kind of.

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Does it have a number? Like the horse and the cat that showed up talking on this thing.

[steelettos]

Maybe it likes you.

[handcuff]

I haven't done anything that would make it like me in particular ...

[steelettos]

I don't think there's a need for you to do anything to be liked by anything or anyone.

It's more akin to a baby duckling following the mother duck, isn't it?

( not. that she's implying you're a mom duck, kyoya. )

text

[angelskills]

There's been a lot going on with animals, from what I've heard. Someone told me once that they were even getting possessed (or something like that!) a while ago... it's awful.

text

[handcuff]

Animals don't usually attack until provoked ... so I guess that's not very surprising to hear.

... but, as far as I know, they haven't been very large animals so far.
it seems kind of pointless somehow.

[ but that also bothers him, on some level, because the squirrels and mice have it hard enough as it is just trying to survive without having to get caught up in all of this mess. ]

text

[angelskills]

No... just the smaller ones, like birds. I wish there were something we could do to help them. I really don't like that they have to suffer. They're innocent.

Um! There was also something about wolves in the Dead District. I say wolves because a friend of mine told me they looked more like big dogs rather than people. I didn't see them for myself.

text •

[abidan]

But there's nothing out of the ordinary when you're in a public place?

text •

[handcuff]

I don't think so.

Or it could be that it's harder to notice when there are more people around, I suppose.

[Texted]

[espigeonage]

I think others have said the rest of what I was thinking of, so! Maybe you should feed the bird. If it'll follow you anyway, perhaps you should try and befriend it!

[Texted]

[handcuff]

It's not bad company. I wouldn't mind that, I guess ...

what do birds eat besides seeds, though?

[ people like Kyouya is the reason lmgtfy.com exists. ]

[espigeonage]

Anything and everything! Depends on the bird, really! You should see if it's interested in anything *you* eat, I suppose. If it doesn't eat bread, or something, it'll just refuse it.

[deathcough]

catch the bird and eat it.

Protein

[You should totally not listen to his advice]

[handcuff]

It hasn't done anything to deserve dying

yet, at least

[ he can pretend like he could hurt a cute little animal, but he totally couldn't... (people, on the other hand.) ]