Information

[espigeonage]

Preincarnation name: Sakazaki Yuuya (family name, then personal name)
Reincarnation name: Julien Sakazaki
Age: 26!

Appearance: He used to look like this. Then, more like this or this. Standing with straight legs, he was around seven feet tall. In detail, his old appearance is here.

Now, he looks like this. Julien is a pigeon the size of a pony. Small human aspects remain - a couple fingers on each wing, blue eyes, some of the jaw structure etc. The picture has him stretched up as tall as he can go, it's more comfortable and natural to hold his body less upright. He's very big around.

Occupation: Until mid July 2013 he was tech support at an office. Before that he worked several different jobs, managing to quit, get fired, or be laid off each time. He volunteered and then worked at Aaron Strider's LSR clinic for at least a year and a half and had to quit after becoming a harpy. For a time he was a model contracted at Askell Studios. Now he works for Liam.

Would your character know him? Julien lived in Locke City when he was 14-16, less than a decade ago, and then he moved. He graduated from a college out of state in 2011. From April 2012 to late November 2013 he lived with his sister in Locke. In 2014 he moved to Vegas, then to Germany.

He is very friendly and gregarious, so he knows many people on the casual friend level and has an amazingly huge Facebook flist, though it's been neglected of late. Julien has a good memory for names and faces and always seems genuinely happy to meet, speak with, hang out with, and reunite with people. Virtually anything - movies, arcade games, party games, drinking, watching sports - looks like fun to him, and he's good company during parties. He can be a little much, but he doesn't pester people who don't like him. He also likes to flirt, but this often doesn't go anywhere, and he's happy with that.

Echoes:
First - Mental|The motivation to get and then stay in shape.
Second - Mental|This memory, "Apostle of the Violet Rose". Gained by touching a snake statue.
Third - Physical|A single white feather, gained in flight.
Fourth - Physical|Pigeon lungs, gained in a conversation with Lyall. They are, ah, smaller than human lungs and don't work as well without air sacs.
Fifth - Physical|Pigeon air sacs attached to lungs, supplying them with fresh unmingled air on both the inhale and the exhale. Gained after getting help about breathing issues.
Sixth - Physical?|The ability to hear, see, and otherwise interact with ghosts, provided they aren't weakened or concealing themselves. Gained at the art gallery.
Seventh - Mental|This memory, "Heaven-Soaring Wings". Gained via haunting.
Eighth - Mental|This memory, "This pain is part of me." Gained via canon recurrence.
Ninth - Physical|An avian voice. Gained via involvement in the Sage plot.
Tenth - Physical|Hato harto, something like twice the mass of a human heart. Gained via Sage plot stuff.
Eleventh - Physical|Hybrid pigeon eyes. Gained after seeing a Vermini swarm.
Twelfth - Mental|A degree of vaguely spiritual regard directed at the starry sky. Gained... after quite a while gazing at the daystars he can now see, trying to figure them out.
Thirteenth - Mental/Physical|Moves like Yuuya. He tends to default to moving gracefully and with little sound, regardless of footwear and flooring. Gained after drinking tainted water.
Fourteenth - Mental|The mindset needed to temporarily take over the patient-care aspect of a small-scale medical facility. Gained as a recurrence after having to cover for Aaron at the clinic.
Fifteenth - Item|Yuuya's iPon/future bird smartphone. Currently unuseable without the password. Gained as a recurrence while on a "mission" which attempted to be stealthy.
Sixteenth - Item|A potted miniature rosebush with small, deep violet, strongly scented blossoms. Not of an existing variety and possibly genetically adjusted, but also not possessed of any special properties. The pot is decorated in ways pleasing to bird eyes and is quite lightweight, as is the hydroponic medium the rosebush is rooted in. Gained upon being given purple roses by Amrita.
Seventeenth - Mental|This memory, "I didn't do it so he'd love me." Gained upon realizing that Aaron forgot about the network and that they were close.
Eighteenth - Mental|This memory, "a brief overview of Sumatera Influenza and its effects on the world." Gained when Bakura theorized about why humans are diminished and there are non-humans who want to protect them in the "Apostle's" world.
Nineteenth - Mental|This memory, "Feel like writing me off as a heartless bastard yet?" Gained from another conversation with Bakura, this time about Aaron.
Twentieth - Mental|This memory, "No one can ever be replaced." Gained from this set of interactions with Aaron.
Twenty-first - Physical|Technical bird status. Gained from watching the lights.
Twenty-second - Physical|Carneades Virus, gained from visiting the tower.
Twenty-third - Mental, tier two|This memory, "Graffiti about the End Times", and certain flight-related thought patterns. Gained from being in a terribly run down house in the Dead District.
Twenty-fourth - Physical|Birdlike bones and a bursa of fabricius. Gained from encountering an animated snake statue with Lyall.
Twenty-fifth - Ability|More stealth! A kind of "I'm-not-interesting". He can kind of fade into the background and be difficult to notice as he watches someone, even if he starts following. Can still be sniffed out, though. Gained as a recurrence from investigating the tower security.
Twenty-sixth - Item|Yuuya's agent harness thing. It looks a little different from that. Two backpack-ish straps, one horizontal strap high and visible, one lower. On the back the backpack-ish ones come together and form a Y that connects to the horizontal straps. It more or less fits Julien. Loops and attachment sites for more straps can hold weapons and other things. There's a kind of pouch for his iPon. Gained surveying some blown up Dead District things.
Twenty-seventh - Mental| Three words, "It's called Carneades". Gained when Danny gets close to the truth.
Twenty-eighth - Physical/power, Tier 2| Pigeon hearing and perceived time dilation. Gained with participation in the Exploration Plot.
Twenty-ninth - Mental| Some knowledge of Leone J.B., Yuuya's handler. Gained sneaking around in Aaron's company.
Thirtieth - Mental| The sense that somehow it's personally important to him, to press on despite previous mistakes, to keep trying to improve. Gained advising Ravi.
Thirty-first - Physical, Tier Two| Avian skin and muscle tissue. Gained encountering Blood Keys.
Thirty-second - Memory| This memory, First Mission. Gained being shot by one of the Blood Keys.
Thirty-third - Mental| A certain familiarity with firearms. Gained grasping a gun in a combat situation.
Thirty-fifth - Item|Yuuya's school locker, loaded with Legumentines presents and nothing else. Gained as the seasonal echo.
Thirty-sixth - Mental| A greater degree of, mm, emotional independence. Gained when Aaron, his last... quasiparental figure, went and forgot everything again.
Thirty-seventh - Mental| A tendency to say greetings and farewells in some different language, gained teasingly greeting Akito in Elvish.
Thirty-eighth - Mental| Nigh-unshakeable calm in dangerous situations. Gained on a rescue mission.
Thirty-ninth - Physical | Heavily altered avian-style anatomy of mouth and throat. Gained because snakes in a meeting.
Fortieth - Tier Two, Physical/Ability | A harpy-like body and the rudiments of flight. Gained when he fell/leaped off a building.
Forty-first - Item/Ability | A recoiless rifle and the basics of using it. Gained from being around for Wise Snake.
Forty-second - Mental| This memory, Ungainly Dance. Gained facing snakes.
Forty-third - Mental| Recalling that his brother kept his tail up and Yuuya did not. Gained raising his tailfeathers for the first time.
Forty-fourth - Ability| Feather dexterity. Gained using his prehensile feathers.
Forty-fifth - Ability| Familiarity with HB!verse night vision glasses. Gained from seeing footage of the Vegas lights.
Forty-sixth - Ability| Advanced typing/texting skills. Gained... typing with his feathers.
Forty-seventh - Item| An issue of Absolute Zero, an artbook Anghel drew with a focus on the fantasy au version of Yuuya. Gained in a monster attack.
Forty-eighth - Mental| Some familiarity with the artbook's author/artist.
Forty-ninth - Ability| Pigeon sleeping patterns. Gained after the alien broadcast.
Fiftieth - Mental| Willingness to bathe in unheated water. Gained... bathing in unheated water during the molt.
Fifty-first - Mental| Hazy memory of Yuuya's first home and that it was before his father was murdered, also a nostalgic response to the smell of leather. Gained talking to Geoff.
Fifty-second - Mental| The password to Yuuya's smartphone! Gained encountering a ghost
Fifty-third - Mental| Yuuya's weird attitude towards threats - they're not really alarming anymore. Gained thanks to Isabela.
Fifty-fourth - Mental| Anger and disgust about kill-first-ask-questions-later mentalities. Gained seeing someone knife a ghost.
Fifty-fifth - Mental| Some expertise on escaping pursuit. Gained being pursued by Mafia types.
Fifty-sixth - Ability| Greater pain tolerance. Gained enduring a tattoo.
Fifty-seventh - Ability| Ability to swim well with wings. Gained... swimming.
Fifty-eigth - Ability| Expertise at manipulating computerized security systems. Gained messing with the Stark house.
Fifty-ninth - Mental| Crossdressing is fun! Gained when Isabela coaxed him into trying.
Sixtieth - Ability| Lockpicking! Gained breaking into Liam's.
Seventieth - Tier 2| the dreamcracker and training. Gained because of Refined Shell.
Seventy-First - Item| A basket of food. Gained thanks to using the teleporter and reaching Germany.
Seventy-Second - Mental| Knowledge of how birds age. Gained talking to Kilian about how dwarves age.
Seventy-Third - Mental| "The mummy hunter becomes a mummy", gained considering titans.
Seventy-Fourth - Physical| The other tissues and organs become birdy, notably his digestion, gained from wolpertinger exposure.
Seventy-Fifth - Tier 2| Full bird form and improved flying ability, gained from the pink lights at Christmas.
Seventy-Sixth - Mental| Finding the blinded quail on the Holiday Star, also gained from pink lights at Christmas.
Seventy-Seventh - Mental| Knowledge of Shuu Iwamine. Gained because lolmedia about Aaron.
Seventy-Eighth - Skill| Avian martial arts. Gained meeting Arnold's doppleganger.
Seventy-Ninth - Memory| Manipulating his brother. Gained because lights.
Eightieth - Skill| Hacking! Gained trying his metaphorical hand at it.
Eighty-first - Memory| World bird history, gained because lights.
Eighty-second - Knowledge| Understanding the Japanese language. Gained thanks to immersion.
Eighty-third - Skill| Bird lifeguarding. Gained... doing that.
Eighty-fourth - Skill| Technological improvisation skills. Gained from the last lights
Eighty-fifth - Item| Walkie-talkies. Gained going on a mission
Eighty-sixth - Memory| Golden Weekly mission, gained because explosions
Eighty-seventh - Memory| The Christmas Thieves mission, gained getting his tail burnt
Eighty-eighth - Item| Bird sniper rifle, gained dive-bombing Aaron's attacker
Eighty-ninth - Memory| The Holiday Star experience, gained meeting the Boy

Full application: Here!

Comments

|Mental Echoes|

[espigeonage]

Mostly, but not exclusively, memories.

[espigeonage]

First Personality Change: 4/08/13
Content: The desire and motivation to get and stay in shape.
Cause: Something his niece said.

[espigeonage]

First Memory: 4/12/13
Content: The first couple panels of this page, with a little context from the latter half of this one. Note: this bit is drawn with gijinka, but the characters are still birds. However, being around Anghel makes everyone perceive and think of themselves as whatever he sees them as - usually gijinka, but when he's upset enough they're their fantasy AUs. Yuuya's fantasy AU self, the Apostle of the Violet Rose, Cain Reprobus, looks like this.

He was in the infirmary. He knew that's what it was, and that he had some time safe that he'd wanted to do something in, but he'd been interrupted. His head bore a fading ache like he'd hit it, and there was... kind of a smell, or a feeling in the throat... and a little vertigo... and someone very exotic sliding the door open.

First he was a teenaged boy even shorter than Julien, with the most extraordinary teal hair and outfit, and... bandaging, and blood. It seemed some blood wasn't unusual, but this was a little much.

And he kind of... flickered between a teenager and someone similar and taller, armored, with great folded wings, one feathered red, one almost batlike... It was all vague, but he wasn't surprised or even paying much attention to that, he was checking the blood and determining, hmm, three or four skin cuts, messy but probably not that bad, better stop the bleeding, clean it, find where the doctor left the skin adhesives...

The boy, or whatever, spoke desperately. His voice was low and urgent either way, but when he was a teenager it broke rawly. "Apostle of the Violet Rose, the Dark Sorceror has gone. Hurry now - while we have the chance, gift to me the divine healing..."

His visible eye closed and he fainted, as he fell flickering from winged being to teenager to... indistinct. The teal was really more gray, and he couldn't really remember anything else about that.
Cause: Touching a snake statue.

[espigeonage]

Second Memory: 5/10/13
Content: A summation of the following; the memory has condensed and faded into more knowledge than like a recording.

I joined the Party to spite that man, but I soon came to believe in the cause as well. How could I not? And they had use for me. When I was eight Heaven-Soaring Wings, the most mysterious branch of the Party, began to court me. It wasn't personal. I was young enough to be flexible, to learn quickly, and to be underestimated; I was old enough to be useful, and nothing they knew about or could get from interviews suggested I would do poorly. Of course, I jumped at the chance.

There would be training, and initially I was to be paired with other field agents, provided with experienced handlers, protected when possible, and not assigned anything they knew would be particularly risky. All the same, they wanted me to be sure.

"Join us and you could get shot, knifed, dismembered, drowned, buried alive... You will have no glory or fame. Even if you quit, the Party can only do so much to protect you. You'll only be able to have a normal life if you change your identity. Are you sure you want to risk yourself so for humans and human-lovers?"

Of course I did. How kind and condescending of them to make sure! There is so much I could have said and so much I wanted to say, but on the record there is only this.

"It was their world before it was ours. I want to protect the ones who're left."
Cause: Being haunted.

[espigeonage]

Third Memory: 5/31/13
Content: It's a dark place, unearthly, with stars in every direction. I'm standing on a glowing path with the look of stained glass to it. There were three ghostly citizens here, but they've changed. Now they are three figures, taller than me, richly robed and crowned and multiheaded in surreal melting colors, all vaguely unreal and upsetting-looking. They speak as one, voices childish and yet threatening at once.

"What a mean thing to do. You break eggs, and you think nothing of it. So many. So many. So many eggs... I wonder what the children inside were like? Those lives, that couldn’t live. Poor, poor eggs. Don't you feel sorry for them? The King knows. The King knows that long ago, you broke an egg out of your own selfishness."

Coldness has locked around my heart. No one should know what I did. Still, I'm calm.

So, this is how the king fights back? I don't know how he figured out my secret, but in any case it's a very precise attack. The king himself is elsewhere, on his throne. The citizens should just be small parts of the whole, but maybe they share his consciousness and abilities?

I don't really know what he is or what he can do. He rules the spirits he's trapped here in this zone of surreality, which certainly suggests he's something above my paygrade. I can't fight him physically. All I have is my words and conviction.

"This is my job. I'm here to rescue everyone from the school. You've trapped someone inside this wall. So I'm breaking this wall. Any questions?"

A few heads shake sadly. "...that poor chick, that could never hatch."

"...please, try not to get distracted. My past has nothing to do with the fact that you're in my way."

I'm being threatened in the most sugary-sympathetic tone I've ever heard. "You poor, poor bird. The King thought, you should not have to suffer any more."

The three King-figures are suddenly each holding an egg, and dropping them at my feet one by one, creating a mess. A mess of liquid and gore and sharp shards spreading across the path - I'm standing on it, standing in it, it's spattered my body.

"The King said, The King can lift the burden from your shoulders. The King can take away your pain. So come. Become one with The King."

The cold feeling spreads and hardens. How much does he know? He's aware of the guilt I've carried with me ever since I broke my brother's egg, anyway... But he seems to have misunderstood. I have no hesitation.

"Thanks, but no thanks. ...you're asking me to hand my guilt over to some complete stranger? Please, tell me you're joking."

Multihued heads, vaguely birdlike, rear away from me. "...? The King said, do you like pain? The King does not understand."

"Yeah, I didn't think you would. I don't think you ever will. Like you said, I dirtied my hands with a crime, and I can never take it back. A life lost will never return. The past does not change. The least I can do is remember. I will always carry this with me. This pain is mine. And you can't have it."

This is right. This is me, and this isn't something this creature can comprehend.

The triple-King is shrinking back away as if each word diminished him, fading into the dark with a final bit of bluster. "You know well what it means to suffer. But if you break the King's egg, you will only suffer more..."

I have to smile. "Suffering... indeed. I don't think you'll understand. This pain is part of me. ...Your egg is already rotten." I raise my voice to call after the vanishing triple shadow. "Isn't it a little much for you to ask me to accept your sympathy?"

I'm alone on the path. Just one person left I have to save. I know what I have to do.
Cause: Returning from out of town, contemplating forgetting.

[espigeonage]

Second Personality Change: 7/18/13
Content: A vaguely spiritual regard for the stars, day or night. Taking the time to study them has a calming effect.
Cause: Staring at the daystars, trying to make sense of them.

[espigeonage]

Third Personality Change(I guess it counts as that): 8/02/13
Content: The mentality needed to temporarily take over the patient-care aspect of a small-scale medical facility. It's really only in play when no one more qualified is capable.
Cause: Gigglewater incapacitating Aaron.

[espigeonage]

Fourth Memory: 8/25/13
Content: This is a complex and painful thought. The only background knowledge is that the one who's had these thoughts and come to this conclusion is young, even if he's thinking clearly.

I knew this would happen. I knew they would start to get to my brother eventually. I hoped - well. It feels like a surprise, but it shouldn't be. He doesn't understand, of course, he's a child. Barely younger than me but I haven't been a child since I did that thing. Still, he will come to understand, and he will hate me as they do.

Nothing's really changed. I didn't do it so he'd love me. I don't do anything just to be loved. Maybe I'm as low as they think, but I know better than to think I'm owed or deserve that, especially now.

I wanted to tell him. But I can't now. I can't say... anything at all. My wings and mine alone are stained. If one day he changes somehow, then maybe... But that's just speculation anyway. It will get worse before it can get better. I can't let him or anyone see that I care about this.

Whatever. I can feel however I like, and time will not reverse. What's done is done. I need to remember that he is alive! And that has to be enough. He can hate me forever and it will be fine, if he's alive.

It hurts so much. Maybe I deserve it. Doesn't matter, this is just one more thing, smaller than the rest. And not like the rest of it - after all, my brother is alive. There is hope. Hope is painful too, of course, but that's never stopped me before.

It was still so good to see him again.
Cause: BFF forgetting.

[espigeonage]

Fifth Memory: 8/26/13
Content:Just voice, just part of a mid-grade-school lesson. The speaker sounds female.

Today we'll start with a brief overview of Sumatera Influenza and its effects on the world.

This form of the H5N1 virus, dubbed Sumatera Flu, is rarely fatal to us. You might have been sick with it already and became well again, or you may be a carrier with no ill effects. However it was extremely harmful to humanity.

There was a pandemic, a global spread of the disease, starting with the first cases in 2068. Two years later, seventy percent of the human population had died of it and many of the rest were not immune. Human governments decided to target us to prevent further spread.

We'll start on Project Carneades and the war in the next module, but for now, only ten percent of humans died in battle. When the humans surrendered and signed the truce agreements they were only four point six percent of the number alive in 2068.

Today's humans are mostly descended from those who were resistant to the disease, but it can still claim their children or weakened individuals. As most of you know we have charitable programs to vaccinate and care for them, which meet with some resistance on both sides. If you have human friends or work on the reservation, please do be careful for their sake.
Cause: Speculations over a dearth of humans.

[espigeonage]

Sixth Memory:
Content: Dropped in the middle of a conversation with one of my kouhai, who is weeping and paralyzed with indecision. Somehow sight isn't very important - there are glowing trees? and my kouhai is dark colored to my light, but sight and appearances aren't so important or passed on so clearly.

I'm here to save everyone from the school. Here, that means persuading him to come back to the real world without breaking his heart.

He's saying, "I'm scared that I just won't be with her as much any-"

"Of course not. You can’t stay children forever." This shocks him. I smile, just slightly, (not with lips) and stand.

"Feel like writing me off as a heartless bastard yet? But ignoring me won’t change anything." I'm not unkind. I'm not! But he isn't thinking, and he should be. There's more riding on this than youthful heartbreak. Now I pace back and forth, turning my head all the while to keep him in view.

"Time will pass, and places will change. The first flowers in Spring, a shooting star, the rainbow right after a storm—all beautiful, and none can be captured and held forever. No matter how fair the flower, it will rot and fall to pieces if you never let it go. But memories will never hurt you. The flower withers, the star falls, and the rainbow fades away, but you will always remember their beauty."

He gapes at me for a moment, pupils wide and hurt. How young he is! "Are you telling me to... go on alone, with nothing but my memories...?"

I stop pacing. "That's a little pessimistic! What I'm saying is... don’t let your fears for tomorrow cloud the memories you’re making today." Seems like a good statement.

But he tightens his pupils, closes his inner eyelids. "...that's too abstract for me. I don't think I understand."

How long is he going to keep floundering around? I have to be clearer or I'll lose him. "Maybe you’ll be an unrequited lover, or maybe you’ll live and have a family with Hiyoko, or maybe you’ll go your own separate ways. But whatever happens, all the time you’ve spent with her, all the joy you’ve had, will still be yours."

"That just makes it even worse...!" Rising to his feet, staring at me out of one wide-pupiled molten orange eye, he cries out. "How could I live without the sun, now that I'm so used to its warmth and light? I'm scared,[]! I don't want to see everything I know collapse around me!" He said a name that is not passed on.

And... skip. Something happened here, something was thought or felt, but it is not passed on. Only that after a moment, I continue.

"Everything changes, Ryouta. Time is like that—inconvenient and rude to everyone." I sigh and settle or sit. This is getting into personal territory. So be it. "Even if you stand still, everything else will leave you behind. No matter how hard you try to prevent change, it will still come. The world, and your friends, will still change."

I level a look at him. "If what you really want is undisturbed peace for the rest of your days you’ll have to cut all your ties, leave everyone behind, and become a hermit in the mountains."

He recoils, eyes pinning. It's kind of gratifying. "No... I don't want that!"

Skip. Longer now. More important. He's not in the same spot now, his eyes half veiled, and plaintive. "...right. Aren't you afraid, []? Everything around us is changing, and so are we. We don't know what's ahead. Doesn't that scare you?"

Normally I wouldn't answer this. I would deflect. I hate to tell people things about myself, my motives. But this is more important, and after a moment, I have an answer.

"There are things that scare even me, yes. Even a hero of justice has his weaknesses." Of course I couch it a little, make it seem like it's not a big deal to share this, although my voice is softer. "What’s waiting for me at the other end of this night? The best day of my life? Or the very worst? No one knows. And that’s why—"

Some of the usual strength and surety comes back into my voice as I stand. "That’s why all we, who cannot see tomorrow, can do is put on our bravest smiles and march boldly into the new day."

He sits or settles back. (It's not much like how humans sit.) "Isn't that called bluffing?"

"Hahaha, I suppose it is. All this time I've just been trying to look cool so no one will realize what's going on inside." I know what people say about me. It's nothing I don't want them to believe. "But what's wrong with putting on a little show?"

Well. By now I've said everything I can to convince him, and I sober. "...I have a question for you. There are only two choices. We're running a little low on time, you see. Kawara Ryouta. What do you want to do?"

Slowly unfolding my right wing, I hold it out. A minor gesture, not sweeping and dramatic. "You could accept the king's invitation and stay here. Nageki would be removed. You would spend eternity celebrating the endless holiday with Hiyoko, and tomorrow would never come. Nothing would change, and nothing would hurt you ever again."

Now my left. "Or, you could refuse the king's invitation and return to the real world. Your relationship with Hiyoko will change, sooner or later, for better or worse. And a new day will come." I close my wings again and settle them across my back.

"Now, choose. I won't try to force you either way. You alone can decide what your salvation will be."
Cause: Conversation about friends, loss, the possibility of pain.

[espigeonage]

Seventh Memory: 9/16/13
Content: The glowing forest again, and my kouhai Ryouta, again. This goes just before the previous memory.

He's sitting or settled and speaking softly, agonized. "Hiyoko has been with me ever since we were children. We've been together so long, I just... Somewhere along the line, I started thinking it would stay like that forever. But it won't. It never would. It was all... just my imagination. All of it."

His eyes, dilated to their fullest, glisten with tears. Ah, how brightly his innocence shines to one as worldly and jaded as myself. He probably hasn't even realized that what he's feeling is love. I listen.

"I took it all for granted. I thought it would last forever. But that's not possible. I know Hiyoko better than anyone. I know what she loves, and what she hates. What she's good at, and what she isn't. I know everything about her. But... I don't anymore. Nageki... Nageki knows a Hiyoko that I don't. And not just in this dream. She spends more time in the library every day. If someday I stop being special to her..." His voice splits with emotion. "For that matter, maybe I just thought I was special to her... all this time, to her, I've been nothing but...!"

Something happened here and was not passed on, beyond the thought I have to pick my words carefully.

"What exactly do you mean by 'special'?"

In the pause as I considered, he's had enough time to master his voice again. "Something... irreplaceable? I don't really understand myself. But, at the very least... to me, Hiyoko is Hiyoko. And no one can ever take her place."

"So that's it?" It's a careful balance I have to strike. Can't be too warm, can't be dismissive either. "What were you ever afraid of, then? No one can ever be replaced, Ryouta. You will never stop being 'special' to Hiyoko, in that respect. It's as simple as that." He wavers and I add, "You don't think I'm trying to fool you or anything, are you?"

"That's... true, I guess, but that's not it," he mumbles. "I'm scared that I just won't be with her as much any-"

"Of course not. You can’t stay children forever." This shocks him. I smile, just slightly (not with lips).
Cause: The irreplaceablity of a friend.

[espigeonage]

Eighth Memory: 9/28/13
Content: I can't dawdle, but I can enjoy the search. It's a lovely fall day, crisp and cool with a kind sun and a mostly steady crosswind, baffled a little by the old skyscrapers. Stars peek through the clouds, through the pulsing changing colors of the sky. The magnetic pull and rippling is thus, the smell of the place is so, I can hear the ocean against the shores and the wind against the mountains etching the shape of this island and the chain it's part of, the softer hum of that crosswind against the crumbling buildings.

And I'm in flight, wings wide and white, alternating powerful strokes and moments of gliding, delicately tacking against the wind at points. The cracked concrete and burnt out cars and renewing greenery below me seems to flow by faster as I descend. I take in what I can see through mostly-shattered windows as I pass.

It has been a very long time since the city was abandoned, long enough that bodies are gone or unrecognizable, wild animals are about and fearless, and plants have seized on everything. Still there are old furnishings, decayed heaps of cloth, abandoned technology, swaths of graffiti about the End Times.

The skies aren't mine alone, of course, and there are not only innocent feral birds out flying. But I'm confident that I won't be spotted. I am very, very good at not being seen. The point is to find these people quickly, before anyone less kindly inclined does, and they should be-

Ah, there! I adjust my tail and wings and swing around, back towards a point I've just passed. Here the skyscraper's walls themselves are eroding and leaving their floors and rusting steel frames visible. Here, deeper inside, partially obscured by the darkness, there is a band of four furtive humans, wearing as humans do stitched mammal skins and donated clothing, head bedraggled, stained and matted with their own sweat and oils.

When they finally see me headed towards them, flaring my wings and slowing, they tense and ready their weapons. I see curved swords, a mace, and the last one is raising a bow. It doesn't upset me, I know humans can have trouble telling us apart. At any rate, they'll know my phrase.

I open my mouth and call it out to them as I come in for the landing, loud enough that they hear, not so loudly that it will bring anyone else. "Sexy and Suave!"
Cause: Occupying an apocalyptically run-down house.

[espigeonage]

Fourth Personality Change: 9/28/13
Content: Minor intrusive thoughts about being crippled or malformed if unable to fly, a preoccupation with heights, nagging thoughts about leaping from heights.
Cause: The sensation of flight in the most recent memory.

[espigeonage]

Ninth Memory/Bit of Information: 11/16/13
Content: "It's called Carneades." Just that.
Cause: Danny describing a conspiracy theory that's rather close to the truth.

[espigeonage]

Tenth Memory/Bit of Information: 11/21/13
Content: An impression of Leone - the color and shape of his wings, the look of his eyes, the sound of his voice, impressions of his... sort of coat thing, the gold dog tags around his neck, his cigars. And with that, Leone's name and usual alias, Mr. One, and an idea of what they are to each other - independent but Leone ranks him, supplies him, gives him orders, they've been in the field together but Leone's older. The sense that he trusts him, to a point.
Cause: Investigating the bombing sites with Aaron.

[espigeonage]

Fifth Personality Change 12/3/13
Content A sense that it's important to press on despite previous mistakes, to keep going, keep doing better.
Cause Giving Ravi advice along those lines.

[espigeonage]

Tenth Memory: 12/11/13
Content: First Mission
Cause: Being shot in the same place Yuuya took an arrow.

[espigeonage]

Sixth Personality Change: 12/11/13
Content: Some familiarity or ease with firearms.
Cause: Handling a gun in a very tense situation.

[espigeonage]

Seventh Personality Change: 1/08/14
Content: This idea: No one will swoop in and make bad situations better for him, no one will always stand by him, he can't count on anyone to seek him out to make sure he's okay. In the end he's got to face a lot of things alone. He has to do it. He can do it.
Cause: Aftermath of Aaron dropping.

[espigeonage]

Eighth and Ninth Personality Changes: 1/15/13
Content:
8)A tendency to greet people with a word from a different, flashier language, and to similarly say goodbye. Not a compulsion.
9)Nigh-unshakeable calm in dangerous situations.
Cause:
8) Playfully greeting Akito in Elvish.
9)being on a search-and-rescue mission.

[espigeonage]

Eleventh Memory: 3/9/14
Content:
In through the doors with Hitori in tow - aaah, there in the reddened throne room was the King, all niceties gone and looking entirely monstrous, rampaging after the students. Hiyoko, our lone human, is bruised up but unbroken.

The King is going after Okosan. I raise my rifle, sight, and make a clean headshot, calling out, "That ungainly dance of yours is hardly something to show in front of a lady, your highness."

Running forwards to face him I have to leave Hitori behind, and he pleas, "Ummm... tell me, what's happening? Things have gotten a bit strange, haven't they?"

Hiyoko's face is lit up in that charming human way. "I knew you'd show up looking like a hero, []!"
Cause: Finally facing a snake monster.

[espigeonage]

Twelfth Memory/Bit of Information: 4/13/14
Content: The knowledge that his brother (Sakuya) keeps his tail raised and fanned, and he himself does not.
Cause: Raising his new tail

|Transformative Echoes|

[espigeonage]

How many physical changes have to happen to make Julien look like Yuuya?

[espigeonage]

First: 4/13/13
Change: One white feather from his back. Not rooted, so it instantly came loose and looks more like an item echo.
Cause: Going flying.

|Item Echoes|

[espigeonage]

Tangible returns which are not bodily alterations.

[espigeonage]

First: 8/11/13
Item: Yuuya's iPon, a future smartphone made by and for birds. Unusable without a password.
Cause: Going on a would be stealthy "mission".

|Ability Echoes|

[espigeonage]

Abilities-slash-powers that don't seem quite like they fit under Mental Echoes.

[espigeonage]

First: 5/07/13
What is it?: The ability to hear, see, and otherwise interact with ghosts, provided they aren't weakened or concealing themselves.
Cause: Being around the statues in the art gallery.