The soft crunch of snow beneath his talons was nice, he supposed, landing with a flutter of wings onto the soft layer of white powder that most likely coated this place quite a lot. The chill in the air was prominent against his coat of feathers, the ache of his wings from the days of flying that he'd been doing only enhanced by the cool atmosphere in this place. There were people here, Mark thought, and he needed people, people to be around, before he went insane. He'd been a solitary old crow - though he was a raven - for oh too long, and now was the time that he rejoined society. Joined it, more like. Hadn't really ever been absorbed into one of those big groups that seemed to be everywhere nowadays, not when he was a young'un still living with his family, still positive, not after he got assaulted by some people he thought were intelligent, and not in the years and years after that, where he spent his days hunting and just doing his best to stay alive. He let out a squawk, a short little "hello?" to any of those that might be nearby, a surefire way to alert people of his presence, hopping just a tad closer.

He could smell the border from here, or what he hoped was the border. All he knew about this, after all, was that there were smart animals, some of those civilized sapient animals, in the direction he was heading near some snow. He didn't really plan on being right, though. He'd hoped the last couple of places he'd passed through, and those had just ended in him flapping away from some predator that wasn't smart, as far as he knew. Not smart enough to ask if he was one of those thinkers too, at least, those animals that had gone beyond what most animals could. Almost a disease, really, to be smart but trapped in a bird's body, since he was prone to getting assaulted for food. Supposed most other people struggled with the same thing, maybe, and while he had flight they had claws. He could still complain though, as he spoke in a greater abundance than last time, "Hello? Anybody out there?" His voice was a tad creaky, aged, the voice of an old man, though it still had that squawk to it, like he was still partly beast - er, regular animal, he should say. Can't be leaping to beasts, not just yet, he still had some hope for himself.

//best post i could pump out in like, twenty minutes, sorry if it's

tags - "speech"

ATBASH CIPHER

i should've said what i hear
i should have let myself fear

bio | female | hailcaller [leader] of snowbound

God, the dynamics of animals still baffled him sometimes. To wake up and think that not everything was experiencing the same kind of thoughts he was experiencing, the same level of intelligence, that there are animals out there that just weren't... well. There was an animal that was, at least, and it was speaking to him, so that meant he wasn't about to be snacked on again. "Ah, good, people - hello there, my name's Mark. I was just looking for a place to sleep," he said in that withered, "and this sounded like as good a place as any, from what I've heard." He finished, mouth moving in the same motion as a squawk, though slightly less violent. Only slightly. His head cocked to the side, rotated slightly so he could look this 'Atbash' fellow in the eye, he decided to speak again, to ask some questions. "What exactly does 'Hailcaller' mean?"

For all he knew, it was some term everyone was using that his time as a hermit blinded him to.

tags - "speech"

Honestly, the more prey animals that showed they were fully sentient, the more stressed Izuku got. There were .. so many theories buzzing in his head, now, as to why so few prey animals were fully sentient, and why so many predators were. One of his theories were, of course, that a lot of the prey animals got killed. The gene was probably passed down, so if you killed the prey animals with it, they became more rare. Meanwhile, the predators generally .. weren't .. preyed on, so they thrived. Which lead to an inbalance, and -- oh god, right. He shouldn't be going over this right now, considering that all he did was see a bird talking and then it just sort of .. happened. He was falling back into his old rambling habits, oh no.
"It means leader," Izuku offers his input as he limps over, squinting against the bright colors around him. His head hurts and so does everything else. Still, Izuku stops to sit besides Atbash, taking a breath and squeezing his eyes shut. It's fine. Right. Right, right. Anyways. Hailcaller was kind of weird, wasn't it? He really really liked the name, though. It was pleasing to hear. Even if it didn't give a lot of insight into what rank it was. "Y -- yeah, that's fine, though! Snowbound is a good place, really!" Izuku -- resists the urge to grin at the raven. Potentially threatening, Izuku doesn't want to chase them off by accident. Though, Izuku wasn't quite sure how to interact with the prey animals in general. How many of their instincts did they retain? Hm. Izuku really, really wanted to do tests on all of this but he doubts any of his clanmates would be really willing to answer his many, many questions. Please, he just wanted it for his journal. His never-ending thirst for knowledge and information. That's all. "I'm Izuku, by the way. Frosthealer -- um, medic," Frosthealer was kind of obvious. To native speakers, at least. It took Izuku a minute to connect the dots the first time he heard it, honestly. He hopes his addition of 'medic' wasn't insulting or something, though.

The dichotomy between intelligent and unintelligent animals was indeed interesting - there didn't seem to be any reason to it. It was just madness to someone who didn't know as much about genetics, like him. It seemed like a disease, almost, unintelligence - though he preferred to call it beasthood. Only beasts could be like they are, vicious and cruel, killing innocent people like that. That's just how they are, he supposed, but he also supposed that meant they were beyond saving. Back then he used to say that they mostly killed other 'beasts,' though he just called them animals, that they were just animals, and that he and all the rest of the intelligent ones were people. But he knew the truth now, after having been mauled, a mauling that noticeably had clipped his left wing, making his flight lopsided and difficult. At least he wasn't fully grounded, he thought. At least he could still fly. Despite that, though, it was still and eye opening experience, to be assaulted without any consideration. It gave him some thoughts about the universe.

This cat here, the one that approached him like this, he was green. That wasn't a natural shade, he thought, taking a few steps closer to examine him closely. "Say, sonny - Izuku, wasn't it? - what's with the fur color?" He'd never seen anything like it, honest, except in a few of those scaly beasts. Lizards, they were called. But in furred animals - people - well, they were usually restricted to browns, blacks, and whites. Even birds like him were black or grey, with only the exotic ones having vibrant coloring. It only occurred to him after the question was asked that his natural inquisitiveness could be considered rude, so he added on a surprisingly not hasty sounding, "Pleased to meet you. I'm Mark, if you didn't hear." It must be odd, he thought, to talk to someone with eyes on the side of their head, because he was always turning it away from them so he could look them in their eyes.

Next was a mouse. A cat and a mouse, how funny was that. Glad to see that he wasn't going to be the only 'prey' animal here. That's what the cats and dogs called people like him, wasn't it? Prey by their standards, at least. He was a predator too, but you never heard them acknowledging that. He ate mice, but so did they, and they ate ravens too, so he was grouped with the mice. Though, now that he looked at this odd-speaking rodent, it seemed more like a rat. Hard to tell sometimes, he thought, taking a few steps towards this new person, eyeing not his face but his trinkets. "Never seen a rat with so many baubles. Where'd you get all this?" He almost passed over this rat's defense pledge, but it did cause him a bit of pause. Really, he this rat was going to protect him? Better than nothing, he supposed. "Thank you kindly, I suppose, though I must say I hope I won't need it."

What an odd bunch of fellows. This seemed like it would be a nice place to live for a little bit, and at the very least he could interact with this colorful bunch - in the medic's case, it was very literal. As long as there was no tragedy or anything serious, he could even maybe live here for however long he had left. Couldn't be too long. "And another thanks to all of you for welcoming me. I'm sure Snowbound, if that's what you said, is going to be wonderful."

tags - "speech"

His fur color? Izuku blinks. Sometimes he forgets he's a blindingly green color, whoops. It seems like something difficult to forget, considering how often Izuku decides to dive into bushes instead of just ducking into the snow or something when he doesn't want to be seen. And all the weird looks he got for it. Nobody ever really mentioned it out loud, though. "I'm not sure," Izuku admits. He sounds just a touch startled, though maybe a little amused. He hadn't given much thought even when it was weird to him. His hair had always been green. Though, his fur was a much more jarring green these days, now that he was a cat and all. That's fine with him. "This is just .. how it's always been," Izuku shrugs kind of helplessly. His fur is kind of weird, though he doesn't know enough about animals to really know why it's like this. 'Cause it sure wasn't dyed -- Izuku has never dyed his hair in his life. He didn't even have time to do something like that. Seriously, a full-body dye. "It's -- It's nice to meet you, too!" Izuku chirps now. The way the other keeps turning his head is a little off-putting, but Izuku doesn't linger on it. Eye contact was important and all that, though it was probably kind of difficult for somebody like Mark to do. And by that he means somebody with eyes on the sides of their head. Uh. Right.
The rat from earlier shows up, then. Izuku blinks at it, him, him sorry. He's .. waving around a sword and pledging to protect Mark. Curious. Prey animal kinship or something. Izuku was at least glad they were bonding! Even if it was in a slightly strange way. The Maine Coon's tail swishes and wraps around his paws as he just kind of .. watches for a minute.
"I hope you enjoy your stay!" Izuku decides to chime in again. It'll be nice to see Mark around -- he already likes the old raven. Then again, Izuku takes a liking to most new joiners pretty fast, it's just a matter of fretting over whether or not they'll stick around. Oh well. Still, Izuku hops to his paws and ruffles his own wings. He doesn't move them often, but eh. "Camp is kind of obvious, but do you want me to bring you over?" Izuku tilts his head. A tour, maybe? Though, Mark could fly. .. Not a huge point to all of this, then. Hm.