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Guy likes flying, like you would imagine most people would. The freedom of the air, new sights, interesting perspectives, the way people usually ignore you.
He weaves through trees, swooping up to alight on a branch near a bench in the park he’s flitting about. He shivers and puffs out feathers, preening a little. He looks perfectly normal to human eyes, except perhaps being up past the bedtime crows usually keep.
Fox also likes flying, but has been much more, you know, thoughtful the last few days. So she's out for a walk in the woods at night, like you do. But... as a person. She's got her bubble of heat around herself, her coat on, a pair of boots... but she's stomping around in the woods, thinking. The sound of wings catches her ears, and she frowns, pausing to look up. Owls are nice, so maybe she's just looking for the bird she expects to see at this hour.
Guy caws and glides to a lower branch, turning his head to get a good eye on Fox, before waving with a wing in a rather uncommon move for wild birds. He moves further down, to a tree trunk at head height for Fox, and simply grips onto it sideways to look at her.
She isn't lost in her thoughts so much as to be able to miss that for certain. Fox tips her head up toward the crow, and her right hand makes a small gesture before her mouth lets out not human words but a sharp call, a crow's cry. "Do I know you?"
She does know a lot of people who can turn into animals.
Guy pauses a moment. He doesn’t speak crow, after all. He decides his best course of action is to hop down to the ground and find a patch of snow to write “GUY” into, and then look up at Fox expectantly.
The Thyrsus laughs when there isn't a response in crow but a bit of drawing on the snow. "Of course it is," she answers in English, shaking her head in amusement. "Don't you speak crow? You should be able to speak crow."
Crow!Guy shakes his head and writes in the snow “2 powers, have 1”.(edited)
"Too bad you're dead, or I could make you speak crow," Fox offers wryly. "Really, I should learn a little so I can affect you lot." She takes a lazy step over toward a tree, leaving a melted patch in the snow where she'd been standing, and leans her back against a tree. "Y'alright?" Not her usual ebullient self, exactly, but not bad. Just not 900% Fox On Overdrive.
He seems to think a moment, then hops a little further away and stretches, suddenly spreading and unfolding out of himself rapidly, until Guy stands before her as his usual human self. What’s the conservation of mass and energy? What’s cell manipulation? He expands like a balloon, but all solid. It looks like grade A CGI, except Fox is just close enough to feel the air displaced by him filling more space.
“Hey. I’m doing alright, enjoying the evening air. Can your magic not affect the dead, normally?” He asks after giving her a nod in greeting.
"Good deal," agrees Fox, apparently not bothered a bit by the magic of it all and the lack of physics. What's physics to a Mage who's been at it as long as Fox has, comparatively speaking? Not so much, really. "Mine can't, but I specialize in the living." One corner of her mouth curls up. "You're too alive to be inert matter and too dead to be living. But there are plenty of us who specialize in the things that you are."
“Like Kay,” he offers, nodding as if putting pieces together. “She assures me that I and my kind have souls, which I’ll keep in my pocket if I’m ever in a scholarly debate on the subject.”
A soft laugh, then. "Like Kay." Fox adjusts her lean, watching Guy thoughtfully. "Yeah, you do, so I'm told. But, like, not my specialization. You want to know about living things? Or spirits? That's my jam. She works in a very different specialization, which, you know, is rad." A shrug. "So other than flying around as a crow at night, what's new with you?"
He watches her watch him, and makes a little dismissive gesture. “It’s an interesting topic for us, given some facts about our existence. As you say, we’re not inert but not alive, our brains don’t think but we have minds, et cetera. But anyway. For me, I’ve been...working on a project. Self improvement kind of thing. I’ve been...expanding my horizons, and to keep doing so I need to avoid complications. Boring vampire stuff. Other than that, I’ve been meeting people, getting out of the house, which has been nice. Like I mentioned the other night, keeping human company has become...impractical.” He shrugs.
"What kind of horizon-broadening?" That sounds like new experiences, which is what Fox likes best, so of course she's focusing in on that. "Yeah, well. Human company does get impractical." There's something very dry about the way she says that, hands tucked into the pockets of her coat. "But I like them anyway."
“Ah....I was being euphemistic about strengthening my...vampireness. But it has drawbacks. I’m seeking a process so I’m not stuck feeding only on supernatural creatures, which would be inconvenient. I...well, without getting into secrets that it’s my job to keep, my Order bends the rules on how being a vampire works. Like I said, it’s a lot of self-improvement and mind over body stuff.” He sighs softly. “I like them too,” he replies in a murmur. “And it’s important I interact with them, it keeps me feeling human. It’s just frustrating how difficult it can be.”(edited)
"Oh. Really? You can only -- hunh." Fox scratches her cheek thoughtfully. "That sounds inconvenient, yeah. Though I guess less inconvenient if you have friends who can heal themselves or others." That doesn't seem to be an offer, just Fox thinking aloud. "Yeah. It can be difficult," they agree. "But they are pretty good, overall, humans." She shakes her head slightly. "I think I'm repeating myself. I should go get some sleep."
“I’m not at the moment, but I will be if I don’t—yeah.” He waves his hand in that little gesture again. “They’re generally good, yeah, even if they tend to forget what the best parts of life are...anyway. Don’t let me keep you up, if you need to turn in. I’ll be up all night anyway,” he says with a little grin.
"Good luck with that, then," agrees Fox, yawning broadly. She tips her chin up, offering, "Good to see you, Guy. I gotta get home and pass out, yeah," and then pushes herself up into the air. The sort of reverse-sneeze effect of her transformation ends with an owl flapping off into the night.
Guy chuckles and nods. “Have a good night, Fox,” he says to the departing Mage.
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