[plot] Invasion: Day 3.2

[theearth]

Who: EVERYONE + Returnees
What: Day 3.2 of the Invasion!
Where: UP INTO THE SKY AND BEYOND
When: ICLy: The 1st of May! OOCly: May 16th to May 21st!
Warnings: Please warn in your subject line if anything that deserves a warning occurs; this includes R-rated things as well as things worthy of a content warning/trigger warning.

The Central info post



Description: People will get to space either with a spaceship flown by one of the characters who were clued in by Badri (though they can of course pass their knowledge on further) OR by their own means - magical girls who are space compatible, someone's own starship, mechas, etc.

They will get to a place where they will encounter more enemies, so combat types must come along - but they are not the ones who will define how this turns out. Those who will define how this turns out are others. A number of other abilities need to be combined, and a number of people that may have combat powers but don't have to must combine their forces here:
- Any characters dare to talk to the Enemy peacefully and alone, though children, animals (or people with animal companions) or grandparent types have a bonus. Important is that these characters are not initially aggressive or condescending towards the Enemy.
- The Cures with their purification powers, and any character with similar powers.
- People who belong to one of the following groups and will tell of their "field": Gardeners or people who otherwise have a strong connection to earth and nature/environmentalists; artists (especially musicians); religious persons with an inclusive approach; people who feel a strong, healthy and friendly love for another person, be it romantic or otherwise.

What this day is for: Invading the aliens' home base. Everything else that happens on Day 3 should take place in the Day 3.1 post.


How this works:
- Day 3.2 continues what happened in Day 3.1 and the days before and includes the counterinvasion. If you have any questions, please as them here!
- There will be toplevels on this post for encounters with The Boy and for general alien territory exploration. Please start your own threads freely in reply to those toplevels or to the post, if your thread doesn't fit any toplevel! Please format the subject line like this: "Location(s)/Network | ota/closed/etc". Please keep in mind that each character may change location twice per day (= a maximum of three different locations) and that day 3.1 and 3.2 are the same day.
- Fighters whose muns aren't interested in the fight/explore option can go straight after the boy, too, if they can ICly justify their character doing that! But there are also chances for Boy encounters in the fight/explore option.
- This post can be used for both network and action threads.
- Keep in mind that returnee characters must have checked in and must request their echoes if they get any.
- Please direct all questions to this thread on the General Invasion Guide
- For the returnee registration, please go here.

Comments

[boychild]

And he needs the wings - when he returns to his senses, he will find himself suspended high up in the air for a moment, and then falling.

There is a giant garden below him, half the size of central park - iron walls on all sides and a fake sky above. Bridges run from wall to wall, and here and there a ladder leads down to the ground. The boy stands on one of them, watching him.

[radiantchicken]

Suddenly falling like that might be an extreme cause for alarm for a human. But for someone who started out life as a bird and still had wings, it's nothing. Torin spreads his wings wide, stopping his rapid descent. He takes a moment to wheel around the "sky", taking it all in, before coming to stop before the boy. "Hello."

[boychild]

"You are big." He lets his arms hang over the railing and swings his legs forth and back a bit. "And you talk. I thought that only humans talk!"

[radiantchicken]

"Much bigger than I used to be." Torin curiously tilts his head to one side. He's not quite sure what he was expecting here, but this is not it. "And that's not entirely true. Parrots talk, though much of what they do is mimic sounds that other species might call speech. But they do have specific sounds that mean specific things, and each parrot has a pattern of sounds that is unique to him and him alone, not unlike a name."

[boychild]

"Everyone is bigger now than when they were born." He grins and reaches out to poke Torin in the chest (Torin is suddenly close enough for that to be done. Or maybe the bridge and the boy on it have moved. Who knows). "So you're covered in feathers entirely?"

[radiantchicken]

"That is true..." Torin blinks a little in surprise at the sudden closure of distance. "Actually, I've got feathers in some places, scales in others." He holds out one of his scaly hands to illustrate.

[boychild]

"Do all birds have that?" He touches the scales curiously, too, leaning forward over the handrail a bit to reach it better. "...And how do they live? Do they have children?"

[radiantchicken]

"With most birds, it's just on their feet and legs," Torin says helpfully. "But the scales are there." He moves to make that touching a little easier. "And how they live depends on the bird, but all of them have children. They hatch their children from eggs, and they care for the babies until they can fend themselves." Suddenly, Torin is very glad he'd listened to the zookeepers talking to groups of small children.

[boychild]

"...are all children born from eggs?" He pulls his hand back and goes back to swinging back and forth, but still listens intently.

Below them, all kinds of birds rise from the forest and start to fly towards the two of them.

[radiantchicken]

"All bird children are. And reptiles, and amphibians, and fish. Bugs and things, too." Torin is cheered by the birds there. If there are any parrots, he will try to coax them over into perching on his arm. He also makes a few friendly bird calls at them, which sounds a little strange given how deep his speaking voice is. "But mammals bear live young." He pauses. "Except for the platypus. They have eggs, too."

[boychild]

There indeed are a few parrots - one or two of them look a lot like Torin, to the point where they make very weird parrots - and they perch on his arm. Their chatter is absolute gibberish though, even to one who speaks bird.

Meanwhile, the boy chews on his lower lip. "...How does that work?" There being babies in eggs, he can imagine somewhat. It makes sense. Just little birds inside shells. but "mammals bear live young" just comes up with no proper imaginary in his head. How is he even supposed to think of that happening?

[radiantchicken]

Torin passed through a stage at which he had arms and his current state's plumage and looked like a very weird parrot, so while it's weird to see the ones that look like him, it is oddly reassuring at the same time.

"Well...when a male and a female decide they wish to produce offspring, they do a very special hug and exchange genetic material. Then the female uses the genetic material to make a baby inside her, and she carries the baby until it is ready to be born." Torin is pleased with himself for making this so age appropriate. Very special hug. Nailed it.

[boychild]

He nods slowly. So the mother is like an egg just not really.

"If the female makes the baby, does she love it more than the male? Because she put a lot more work into it."

[radiantchicken]

"That depends on the species." Yes, let's talk about things that people ask zookeepers. Torin's got this. "In some species, the female is the only one who stays with the young, who raises them. In other species, both parents love the young just as much, and they'll work together to keep them safe."

[boychild]

Ans at this point something occurs to him that seems to not have been there before. "There are a lot of parents that live with Earth but aren't her?"

[radiantchicken]

"Yes, that's right." Torin nods. "There are billions of parents on Earth, and they are not the planet."

[boychild]

"Do you have parents or children?"

Even though Torin probably lays eggs? Because that is what birds do.

[radiantchicken]

"I have parents." Not that he'd ever known them. "Everyone has parents of some form or another. But I do not have children." Someone had struck out repeatedly in the zoo's breeding program..."I have other parrots that I have adopted, and I suppose they are like my children."

[boychild]

"How can someone be 'like' your child? They aren't related to you then." He looks at the birds that sit on Torin. "...Could they be 'like' your children? Because they look like you."

[radiantchicken]

"It's called adoption." Which also makes sense to Torin. "That's when those who cannot have their own children take in the children of others who may not be able to care for them, and then they raise these children as their own. Since I am caring for them as though they are my own, they might as well be mine." It's not a perfect way to describe the relationship he has with those parrots, because he doesn't think he feels particularly paternal towards them, but in this case, perhaps it is the description he ought to use.

[boychild]

"...so I could be a parent?"

That is a grand concept. "If I just found someone whom I didn't invent and they didn't have anyone to take care of them?"

[radiantchicken]

Torin is just going to resist to make the "when you're older" comment that is threatening to come out, for he's long since realized that this is no ordinary boy. "You could. If they needed care and weren't yours, you could take them in. Take care of them. Make sure they're happy.

"That's what I do with my parrots. Making sure they're happy is very important."

[boychild]

The boy makes an affirmative sound showing that he heard it and nods, but just falls quiet for a long time after this.

"...But I couldn't adopt you because you wouldn't need me."

[radiantchicken]

"There are other reasons to adopt," Torin points out. He's not really sure where he's going with this, save that making friends with this boy seems like a really good idea. "Like companionship. Just because I can fend for myself out in the world does not mean I don't need family."

[boychild]

"...so I could adopt adults, too?" He seems really taken by the idea of adopting now.