DIFFICULT TO SEE // o, feral utahraptor

[axiom]

[div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt; width: 500px; text-align: justify; margin-left: 200px;"]
She wondered, in a vague sense, whether this new chapter of her chaotic life intended on sticking around as her new standard way of life. With the humans, she now realized, life barely satisfied her. Living in a cage -- a cage with plants and dirt, but a cage nonetheless -- with only four other creatures to interact with did not suit her. She'd never understood how much she hated pre-killed prey until she'd instinctively chased down her own meal and slaughtered it herself. Less humane for the prey animal, but more a more natural end for it. And a much more mentally satisfying experience for Delta.

With a full belly, having hunted only a few hours ago, the large beast lazily walked towards the Ascendant's territory. She remembered, in her highly developed (by dinosaur standards, anyway) brain, that she'd briefly run into Blue here a few months ago. But that'd been the only encounter she'd had with her previous pack. Since then, she'd gone back to living a solitary existence and enjoying her newfound freedom. Yet she'd never encountered another one of her own species, which bothered her intensively. As a pack-hunting dinosaur, the lack of a social group bothered her. Being alone was harder for her, especially in this strange land that confounded even her prehistoric instincts.

Letting out a loud broadcast call, she stopped walking and tilted her head, listening in case she heard any of her sisters call back. She knew, by smell, they weren't anywhere around -- but she felt compelled to call out to them. She wanted her pack back.

[BASTILLEPAW]

AND I'M JUST A DEAD MAN WALKING TONIGHT

Bastille remembered Blue, if as a vague side-thought, a flickering blimp in the early days of the Ascendants. She'd been... interesting, so to speak. He didn't particularly mind large or feral beasts, so long as they didn't come for his Clanmates, and his general disregard and apathy towards most things meant that he hadn't been phased by her presence. So, he wasn't horribly shocked upon stumbling upon a similar creature on their border, having followed that vaguely familiar cawing.

His gaze passed over her briefly, idly, as he slowed to a stop a few paces away. Blue hadn't really liked him much, and he tried to think of what Vinny had done to win her over. Which was... unhelpful, frankly. "Hi," he said, blunt, simple. A beat. He cocked his head to the side, recalled that Blue hadn't really understood anything he said, and cleared his throat. Made a vague impression of a caw-caw, echoing her call if softer, less throaty, and more casually. A little "ca-aw" in spoken form, as opposed to shouted at the sky. Luckily Bast didn't seem particularly embarrassed to attempt vague translations, because after that he continued on, in case she could understand: "What'cha lookin' for? Others? Them? Blue?"

He kept his body relaxed, nonthreatening -- not that a feline was very threatening to a raptor. Blue had always been more calm when he tried to look nonchalant, in his opinion. Granted, he was pretty sure Blue had also wanted to eat him, so.

[align=center]BASTILLEPRISONER — ASTRAL SERAPH — TAGS

[Character Graveyard.]

LOST IN SKIES OF POWDERED GOLD ✧ Lunafreya Nox Fleuret

Luna had been walking around with Leviathan for the last few hours. The baby Utahraptor had been running around in circles around her for a short while, before he had grown tired. Now he was on her flank, calmly watching their surroundings.

Upon hearing the raptor's loud screech, Luna had paused and started to head in the direction of the call. Instead of waiting patiently, Leviathan had jumped off Luna's back and raced over to Delta, chirping at the large female and running around her legs as he went.

The Corporal had stood still as she eyed Delta, holding her chin up high, though Delta could probably smell a small amount of fear rolling off Luna's scent.

© madi

[axiom]

[div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"]
As expected from lands that stank of mammals, her call attracted plenty of them. Their uniform pack-like smell made it obvious that, even while each individual would be easy to take down, she didn't want to risk confrontation. Plenty of odd beasts, hairy and warm-blooded creatures caked in foul odors, existed in these wild lands - most of which she'd never experienced before and her instincts didn't know how to handle. Still, she was confident in her own ability, given her track record of individual survival.

Straightening her posture, the green-tinted raptor eyed Bast curiously, not sure what to make of his odd vocalizations. He seemed to oscillate between mammal and bird-like communications, as though trying to match the chirps of her sisters. This was puzzling to her, as small mammals usually didn't stare steadily up at her while making odd assortments of noises. Tilting her head to the left, then to the right, she let out a chuffing vocalization in the back of her throat - not a threatening noise, but a low-pitched huffy greeting.

On her inhale, the scent of mammal fear came to her attention, and the green-scaled raptor's gaze instantly shot to Wren. In an instant, her nonchalant and confident body language started to shift, as she leaned towards him and let out a loud and hungry screech. Wren smelled like prey, with the intoxicating scent of fear about him, and Delta only considered prey good for filling her belly. Right now, she was full - good for Wren.

Also good for Wren, her attention shifted to the young raptor as he came brazenly up to her with excited vocalizations and friendly chirps. Usually, in a larger pack environment, Delta wouldn't care about younger, non-related Utahraptors and would likely consider them future rivals that needed to be killed. However, her species instinctively formed and hunted in social packs - without a pack right now or even seeing a fellow raptor for weeks - and the strange youngster could grow up to help her hunt. He could be part of a new pack. Her new pack.

Excitedly, Delta shifted on her feet to keep up with the smaller raptor's circling, her tail whipping back and forth to help her balance. Careful to mind her sickle claws, she chuffed and chirped back at him, attempting to move him with her feet to stay behind her. Leviathan seemed just a small baby compared to her bulk, and she wanted her new pack behind her as she puzzled over whether these mammals posed a threat.

[Margaery]

[color=#b14767] ❁  ❁  ❁

A dinosaur?

How... lovely.

She had spent centuries on this planet exposed to all varieties of the odd and unfamiliar, practically desensitized to the presence of anything she could label as 'abnormal'. Dinosaurs, however, were beings in which she had very little experience with. Volatile, feral, and naturally temperamental, they survived because instinct told them to. Intelligent things they were yes, but their lack of communication and perhaps higher thinking made them true wildcards. If instinct told them to kill something, typically, they would listen without restraint. That made them dangerous and Margaery wary as she approached the group, her expression, for the most part, unreadable.

She glanced first at Bastilleprisoner, noticing his relatively nonchalant posture and realizing that that was perhaps the wisest way to interact with the utahraptor. To appear hostile or scared ran the risk of angering the creature and the last thing any of them wanted was a raptor set on murdering them. She relaxed her shoulders and her face, attempting to look as harmless and gentle as possible. She wondered, idly, if Delta could sense her pregnancy and, concerned suddenly for the leeches, angled herself in a way that would hide the round of her belly. With that out of her way, she angled her ears forward and watched with mild intrigue as Luna's own utahraptor made friends (friends was, of course, a loose word to describe it) with Delta.

[color=#b14767]"Luna," Margaery began evenly, not permitting her stare to stray from Delta, [color=#b14767]"How much do you know about these dinosaurs?" She blinked slowly, evenly, hoping that the corporal had even the faintest idea of how to handle this situation. Best case scenario: Delta got bored with a bunch of small mammals and went on her way, forgetting about them. Worst case scenario: she made them all her lunch. Margaery could only hope and pray for the latter.

[Character Graveyard.]

LOST IN SKIES OF POWDERED GOLD ✧ Lunafreya Nox Fleuret

As Delta attempted to move Leviathan behind her, the young raptor had chuffed at her before he ran under her, back to Luna, where he would jump on the winged-serval's flank and lie down.

Luna would steadily eye Delta if the older Utahraptor tried to get Leviathan back and behind her once more. Then she had heard Margaery's question and she answered. "I've read about them. Normally, Velociraptors and Utahraptors travel in large packs- hence the reason why this raptor in front of us tried to get Leviathan behind her. The Alpha of the pack will always travel in the very front, in case they might be threatened by someone or something they come across. The best option right now, is to stay still and hold your chin up while staring at the raptor. Another thing you could do is, you can attempt to mimic the sounds she's making and lean your head to the side if she does."

© madi

[BASTILLEPAW]

AND I'M JUST A DEAD MAN WALKING TONIGHT

As she cocked her head to the side, Bast cocked his head right back at her, as if questioning why she was judging his shitty attempt at communication. ”What? Is my dialect bad?” he questioned, amused, and paused as she let out another vibration. Look, he’d known Blue for a bit while she was around, but that didn’t mean he’d actually ever learned to communicate or really tell their vocalizations about. This noise was different than the first call, but that was all he could deduce, here. Still, he made an attempt to echo the huffy noise back at her, and found this one slightly easier to mimic given that it was a more mellow sound.

As her attention whipped to Wren, he shifted his weight slightly, blocking the Observer slightly. He knew damned well that Blue targeted anything that gave off weakness or fear scent, but luckily it seemed that she was distracted before Wren could become a snack. (Blue tried to eat him once, but in fairness, he’d pissed her off. That one was deserved. This one eating Wren would likely not be deserved.)

He eyed Luna’s little tyke idly, and added, ”Vinny had a raptor friend here for a bit. Her name was Blue. She didn’t really understand anything other than a few words — like, uh, “food.” I think she only liked Vinny because he fed her.” A pause as he studied Delta, and then he conjured a bit of prey from the Observatory — dead rabbit. He knew Blue had always preferred live bait, but hey, a dead snack had never been passed up either. ”Food?” he questioned, vaguely intrigued to see if she possibly came from the same pack.

[align=center]BASTILLEPRISONER — ASTRAL SERAPH — TAGS

[Roy Mustang]

When Roy's eyes fell upon the Utahraptor as he limped over, Roy almost wished he stayed in the Clerics den for a little bit longer. Roy was trying his hardest to get used to his three limbs while getting treated, and he really didn't expect to walk over to this while limping around. That thing was huge, has a lot of sharp teeth, and Roy is in no condition to fight if it suddenly decides to strike. Sure, he can probably try to snap his paws at it to set it aflame, but who knows how fast it is. It can probably bite his paw off before he'd make a snap. And then, he really would be like Fullmetal! Roy didn't say a word as his ears pricked up as Luna spoke, listening closely to what she had to say. Luna certainly sounds like she knows what she's talking about, Roy was definitely going to take her word for it. He didn't want to end up as this utahraptor's meal, after all!

Roy stayed still, his blue gaze firmly landing on the dinosaur, chin held high. The male stood cautiously, watching the Utahraptor for any sudden, unexpected moves.

[Pele N. F. I.]

[align=center]

Pele trotted up beside her mother, before doing the oddest thing. Something she'd done as a smaller child before her sentience came in. She pulled in front of the group, dropped to the ground and exposed her belly. She didn't know if the raptors had similar ways of showing submission, but usually an animal doing this meant no harm. She let out a few mimicked chirps of her own alongside it, her voice high like Leviathan's. She'd spent a while mimicking his chirps since her mom had discovered the little chap.
[align=center]"SPEECH"『♡』"THOUGHTS"

[axiom]

The mammal pack seemed larger in numbers than she anticipated - their territory likely was larger than shed anticipated. Or, perhaps, they were efficient hunters; a feat that seemed unlikely due to their smaller size and less impressive weapons. Either way, she found it almost unsettling to feel so many mammal eyes on her at one time. Such a standoff seemed to invite confrontation; with the intermingling scent of fear, they seemed similar to a pack of deer, frozen in fear and staring at their hunter. Her attention shifted between the offered rabbit and Leviathan.

Huffing the air in quick bursts to smell the air, she hardly seemed to notice Pele's odd behavior or Margaery's pregnancy; even with a full belly, her size required a surplus of food and her species were known for their opportunistic nature. Still, her instincts lingered more on the young Utahraptor and his strange behavior. As though he thought his pack-mother was that furry animal; ironically, this made sense to her, given her own upbringing inside of a human-created lab with a human pack-mother.

Making up her mind, the feral dinosaur snapped her jaws and lunged towards the dead rabbit, latching her teeth into its skin. Effortlessly lifting her head with the snack, its flesh tearing around her teeth where gravity pulled on it the most, she decided the small thing actually tasted quite good for something of such a paltry size. She usually didn't hunt anything less than 100 kg, so this was the first time she had fresh-caught rabbit from the wilderness. Unfortunately, the satisfaction didn't last long, as she swallowed most of the meal in one gulp, and the remainder soon after.

Perhaps unintentionally, the mammals just made the choice for her to stay in their territory an easy 'yes' for Delta. After all, now she had a potential addition to her pack from Leviathan, and at least one mammal a known food giver. Stepping into their territory, she would move past the ogling animals to get deeper in their territory, not bothering to step around them but not trying to step on them, either.