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It's a quiet autumn day. The skies are grey, it's a little windy outside and the crunchy brown and orange leaves cover the pavement. The clock in the classroom ticks, almost determined to be louder than the professor.
Sometimes Smiley wishes that she'd skipped college and just lived off her parents money. They wouldn't mind, she isn't super demanding. She has to thank them for that, for not spoiling her too much growing up. But she doesn't hate college. She loves learning about the English language, about obscure words, and how to grab your reader's attention.
But today she just really felt being home instead. And yet here she sits, waiting for her last class to end. She'd been smart enough to take more classes in the morning, that way she could spend her afternoon however she wanted! (She usually ended up studying though.) The latest class she has in her entire week schedule ends at 15h30.
But she didn't have many hobbies outside of school. She didn't have many friends either. You'd expect her to have lots, since she is considered to be 'popular', but no one really talks to her more than they need to. Everyone thinks she already has plenty of friends.
Fortunately, a lot of her time schedule matches with her best friend. The avian also took classes mostly in the mornings, because 'mornings feel shorter than afternoons'. It surprised her at first, since Fraos definitely isn't a morning person.
Heck, they're the most awake at midnight.
Now that she thinks about it ... Fraos and her are supposed to be meeting up later! She'd totally forgotten about that! Ever since they had started letting her preen their wings, they'd meet up at the avian's apartment every Tuesday for a preening session, whilst they talk about all kinds of stuff. It was ... something, to be able to visit their apartment for a change. It reminded her of her first thought again ...
She knocks on the door of their apartment. It swings open, a disheveled Fraos on the other side. "Come in come in! Sorry for the mess of boxes and such, I just got an extra matress and was trying to expand my nest a little ... we have twice the amount of space now! It took some saving up but honestly I've been wanting a bigger nest for a while now ..." they ramble on for a bit. Smiley goes to sit in the nest, the other joining her, ploffing down next to her, laying on their stomach and stretching out their wings. "Sorry if you find any sticks or leaf bits ... I wanted to go on a walk, but the wind got quite strong and I got assaulted by a bunch of leaves."
Smiley starts preening their wings. They get quiet for the first half, usually, so Smiley would talk about all kinds of stuff. Today, she didn't know what to talk about. "Is something wrong? You're never this quiet. That's kind of my job," Fraos asks. "I don't really know what to talk about today, to be honest." "Well ... if you want, you can ask me some questions? About avian stuff ... or anything, really." "Oh ... sure that sounds fun. Let's see ..." She thinks for a moment.
"Do the chirps mean anything? And how do you do them?" "Oh! Yes they do! There's basically a whole language connected to it. But it's not really a 'word' language. It's kind of like how cats use their tails to communicate different emotions? Different intonations of chirps mean different things, and of course they can just also sound different. It is pretty universal, and it sort of steals some chirps from birds. Like the animal kind, not hybrid kind. And, I don't really know how to explain how I make them? It's like trying to explain how you'd use your vocal chords ... you just do it! For different sound I do sometimes use my tongue or close up my throat a bit more, but it is basically a second vocal chord of sorts making the sound." "Could you do the chirp to indicate happiness?" Fraos chirps. It's a short chirp, where the tone goes up. "Hmm, you'll have to teach me some meanings one day ... that way I can tell what you mean!" "I'd be happy to!" Fraos smiles.
"Okay okay, next question, do all avians have the same features? Or is there variety?" "Oh there's tons of variety. Some have headwings, some don't. Some avians don't even have backwings to fly with. There's also a lot that can shift feature like ... on and off. Like me! I can have talons if I want, but those are really impractical for shoes and socks. And I really prefer to wear socks so yeah." "What kind of features are out there?" "Hmmm, well obviously there's back wings, headwings and talons. There's also waistwings, which are a little smaller than back wings and sit lower. Some people have like ... fully colored eyes, like boba pearls. Just completely black or brown. Some have little feathers on their face, like underneath their eyes and such. Some even habe a full face with feathered markings! Some avians have wings instead of arms, but that's pretty rare. Most with arm wings are harpies, which is close to an avian, just more animal. There's probably some that I don't even know about!"
The first wing is done. "I think those are the questions I wanna ask ... for now." "Sure! You can ask anything whenever." And then Fraos falls quiet, clearly enjoying the preening. They even make that sound again. They do that a lot during preening sessions. Smiley wonders what it means. "You kind of remind me of a cat purring when you make that sound." "I am NOT a cat." "Haha, sure, sure, if you say so." Now that she thought about it, they wrre really cat-like. Despite, you know, being a bird. The preening is kind of like petting a cat, and that noise is kind of like purring. They even said earlier that avian language works similarly to cat language. And the way they are laying down kind of reminds her of a stretching out cat. How funny.
The silence stretched out for a while. Then Smiley finally said something. "I, uh, have I ever mentioned my parents to you?" "I think you said something about them being quite wealthy." "Ah. Well. Since I moved out I've been mostly living off my own money. I let them pay for a cheap apartment so they wouldn't try and fully support me financially, but. I think." She pauses for a moment. "I think I'm done. With living on my own money. I really, really don't want to just use my parents for money, but it's so terrible. I hate having to go to work. I just want to spend my time working for school and writing! Not getting yelled at by customers."
It's quiet again for a moment. "If your parents are offering then you aren't using them, I think? It's better you're not miserable instead of living your life the way you don't want it. You have access to funds, so you should use them!" "It just feels inconsiderate towards everyone that is barely getting by, you know? Especially 'cause, uh." "Yeah. Barely getting by isn't easy, but if I didn't like my jobs I would have quit and gotten another one. I could probably manage to survive with one job, honestly, but I like being busy and having something to do! Now that it's mentioned ... I just probably iron my uniform for tonight after this ..." "You have a shift on Tuesday nights?" "Yeah!" "Why didn't you tell me this?! We could reschedule this to a better time so you can sleep instead!" "Nahh it's fine. It's nice having my wings freshly preened during work, and I usually have my eyes closed so that counts as like ... 50% sleep!" "My god ... but you wouldn't be mad at me if I live off my parents money?" "Goodness gracious no! Go for it, honestly!" Smiley smiles softly. "Alright. Thanks."