Cass shifted from side to side in her seat on the bus, her duffel bag squarely on her lap. She was nervous. She was always nervous.
Cass had been on the bus for about half a day, leaving her hometown of Shreveport to the modern metropolis of Elko, Nevada. Easily the farthest she's been from home in years.
She closed her eyes. Yeah, just have to be on the bus for another hour, then she'd be in the biggest city she'd ever be in. Nothing bad could happen though, she had planned ahead- just get off the bus, go to the hotel, and rest! Cass futzed with her comfy training pants, happy she'd decided to wear them. Didn't make her feathers feel weird or anything, like the suit pants she bought did. To be fair, they were really cheap but it's all she could get.
That made her worry, honestly. Flock Co. was so classy looking, and her suit was a bit... plain. Dingy. Simple, comparatively. it wasn't even red! It also wasn't bulletproof but that wasn't something normal suits were supposed to do. Flock Co. felt like such a long shot...
The bus stopping shook Cass from her reverie. The gash she almost made in the back of the seat she's in front of did so especially. She took a quick glance to make sure she was in Elko- she indeed was- and she hurried to get off the bus. With her duffle bag. That she'd almost forgotten.
Cass trod into the almost cathedral like bus terminal. It was... clean. It was also very, very big and shiny, with polished granite floors and big beams of cream-colored brick. The floors reflected the masses of people that bustled in every direction, and Cass got caught up in those masses like a big flowing river.
She eventually managed to make it outside into Elko proper. Pulling out her phone, she looked down at the map. Yep, this is Humboldt, she thought, Just a bit of a walk to my hotel. Looking up from her phone, she was suddenly struck with how... tall everything was. In Shreveport, there were a few tall buildings, but not an entire street's worth. Here, Cass was surrounded by them. She could see them stretch in an orderly line to the horizon, all different shades of black and brown and grey.
At least there's still a few trees, she thought, looking at the street corner. A robust looking little tree took up a generous patch of soil, with a nice shady bench underneath currently occupied by a woman in a red suit. That's a nice tree. It had a pale flaky bark, and was currently absolutely covered in a blanket of white flowers. Oh! a fringe tree! Cass concluded, smiling. The pale lady on the bench smiled back and waved- which prompted Cass to actually look at her. She had piercing orange eyes, and the way her choker caught the light made it look an awful lot like a third eye, but her smile seemed genuine. Cass awkwardly waved back and started to cross the walkways to get to her hotel.
Snacking on the last of her mom's homemade jerky (which was more pepper than beef, just how Cass liked it) she made her way through the Humboldt district- which she shortly found out meant running into a lot of other Harpies and the streets being nearly dark even though it was noon- All those Roofways block a lotta light, she realized. The hotel she was after- the Oldtown Roost- was right at the southern edge of Humboldt and seemed to enjoy a relatively uncluttered view of the surrounding area. She ambled her way to the building, admiring the exposed oak beams that framed the dark stucco walls. It was very rustic both inside and out- the entire building smelled like cedar, and the automated front desk was the only hint that she was still in 2047.
Before she started to check in she took in a large oil painting of a... short and very stocky woman chomping down on a massive cigar. Cass guessed it was a painting of the owner, or at least someone important to them. She turned her attention to the automated front desk, and was immensely grateful for its existence when the only thing she had to do was tap her phone on a little dias. "Technology is wonderful!" She said aloud to the empty room, as the dias chirped in acknowledgement and spat out a room card.
She immediately went for the stairs. Elevator might have people in it and I still need to stretch my legs, she thought. As she passed through empty corridors, she was once again grateful she had planned ahead- checking in this early meant there weren't any people to have awkward conversations with as she passed by. She found her room- 325- at the end of a corridor next to another stairwell that led to the roof.
As Cass stepped into the room, she was welcomed with the smell of linen and cedar- almost like you dry cleaned a block of wood. Much like the rest of the hotel, the walls were a wine red with a raw cedar trim. The furniture was all cedar as well, excepting a modern looking office chair tucked into a work desk. Most striking of all, however, was the bed that dominated the room. It was circular and struck her as resembling a bird's nest, with lots of extra pillows and a frame consisting of sturdy cedar branches woven together. She sank into the edge of the bed (briefly entertaining the thought of stealing it for herself somehow), flumping her duffel on the floor and her backpack beside her, and bent to finally take her shoes off.
Cass never understood why she had to wear shoes. Didn't her feet already have- what did that one person call it, bird timbs? Tarsal scutes? Didn't she also already have talons, too? Talons made her shoes cost 50 dollars extra which sucked. Then again, at least she didn't have to buy shoes weight rated for Synths. Those were 3 times as expensive! I wonder what a robot bird's shoes would cost? She idly thought as she kicked her sneakers off into a corner where they belonged.
She crawled on the bed over to the nightstand for the remote, fighting off the urge to immediately curl into a ball and pass out on the comfiest bed she'd laid down in, and turned the TV on low. Cass instantly switched to a channel showing reruns of Screamin' Eagles, and got ready to relax. At least, she would after she got situated.
She set up her charger, texted her mom, ordered some food, and after this flurry of activity finally decided that she needed to shower. Stepping out of her comfy clothes, Cass let her straight black hair out of its bun, where it fell down past her shoulders. I might as well do the front too, I don't plan on going out anymore, She thought, smoothing out her quiff to air out the gnarly grey horn that dominated the top of her head.
Horn? Casque was the right term, her mom said. She knocked on it out of habit and the weird sinus-y feeling that came with it made her sneeze. At least I don't need to sand it yet. She looked over the rest of her body, just to make sure she didn't start stress-molting again. Huh. She thought. I guess the weightlifting's been paying off. She tried to flex, but the feathers on her arms made it hard to notice. She briefly flirted with the idea of pulling feathers, but quickly decided it was too much effort and clicked over to the shower.
It was a large walk-in shower, tiled with rough terracotta in a herringbone pattern. The showerhead was both powerful and removable and there was no one to yell at Cass for wasting the hot water, so she took her time.
As she soaked, she pondered what kind of apartments she'd be able to rent if she got the job. Hopefully one big enough to put a lathe in, she concluded. She heard a thunk in the other room, but it was probably just the backpack she slopped on the dresser falling off and she didn't want to leave the shower yet.
When Cass did leave the shower, she shook herself dry (since no one could stop her) and threw on her nightwear. She also picked up her backpack, dug through it for her charger, and put her phone on it before stepping out onto the balcony. It was small but it had a really comfortable lounge chair, so Cass flopped onto it and took in her surroundings.
Most of the buildings were smaller than the hotel (Cass guessed 2 stories to the hotel's 6) so she could see a decent amount of the city. Nearby was what looked to be a shopping center, a couple strip malls, a long row of apartments, and a... Hospital. Cass squinted to get a better look.
It wasn't a hospital, it was her future place of employment, Flock Co! You could tell by the brutalist façade... and the sign out front. It was surprisingly close, only a block or two away, but she couldn't see it from the street. She also couldn't see the various gangways and bridges between the roofs of all these buildings from the street- at least, not this clearly. It seemed like you could get to Flock from this very hotel quite fast up here as long as you weren't afraid of heights. Or if you could fly, Cass surmised as she nestled back into the lounge chair and started to drift off to sleep.
She was awoken by a knock at the door. Reflexively putting her quiff back together, Cass answered the door to reveal a little two-legged delivery robot clutching a takeout box. "DELIVERY FOR MISS O' LEARY." it intoned at her, raising the box aloft. "O-oh." Cass blinked. "Thank you?" She didn't remember ordering takeout. "DO NOT TIP ME. I DO NOT HAVE A USE FOR CURRENCY." The little robot pivoted on its heels and stomped off to the roof before Cass could reply.
Cass stood there for a while, until the scent of Chinese takeout finally reached her. She gently shut the door and rushed over to a table to unpack it. She had napped in the sun for quite a while and she was very hungry.
PAST HERE BE UNEDITED WORDS
She finished the last of her chili, and looked up from stuffing her mouth with cornbread (she ordered half a pan) when she saw an all-too familiar ad for Flock Co. The same one that really sold her on trying her luck. Well, that and Mom insisting she had a chance. Cass can't remember what exactly Mom said but it involved "favors" and "skills" Cass had. She didn't know if she was cut out for actual mercenary work, but considering all the jobs they advertised there had to be something that she could do! She laid in bed, the tv turned as quiet as possible for background noise. This hotel was too nice to have a rattle-y A/C so she needed some background noise. She rolled and tucked into the big nest of pillows, and slowly drifted to sleep.
Cass was woken up by two (or three?) orange eyes looking at her, a mere 6 inches away from her face.
xOx
Or at the very least, she dreamed these eyes. Cass thought it made sense- the eyes matched the person she saw staring at her, and her nerves combined with the half a sheet pan of cornbread probably gave her some messed up dreams.
The eyes spoke up, and Cass became aware they were attached to a face. It was a pale and slight face, that reminded Cass of a pixie. Maybe a really cute pixie. "Hullo!" the face said.
Cass struggled to speak, her mouth being dry from the snoring she likely did. "H-hey...."
"Were you looking to join Flock. Co.? You've been asking a bunch of questions online about us."
Cass was suddenly aware of how the face was attached to a (clothed) body. This lady was of a slimmer build than her, but she was somehow heavy, pressing her chest into Cass. It reminded her of a weighted blanket- she was just as soft, but Cass noticed a couple of pointy bits.
"...You're pretty."
The pixie lady giggled "Thank you, but you haven't answered my question- did you want to join Flock Co.?"
Cass swallowed. "Y-eah... you're really persistent for a dream..."
"Oh! I must have woken you up during REM sleep." the lady felt around Cass for her hands. "See?" She said, holding Cass' hands with a somehow more rigid version of her own hand. "I'm holding your hand!"
Cass wasn't convinced. "N-normally my dream-friends go for other places..."
The pixie lady seemed to glow a little more strongly. "Are you normally this forward?"
"No." Cass followed this up by reaching up for the lady's face, who made no moves to stop her. She must have been blushing by this point, but dreams don't have consequences, right?
The blushing glow let Cass get a better look at the dreamlady's face. She noticed a dark grey lipstick, and that her eyes did look like the thing that covers a camera lens. That third eye turned out to be some form of choker with another lens in it. She also saw two perfectly symmetrical moles on her face. As she put her hands on the perfectly smooth and soft skin of the dreamlady's face (muttering all the while how she was jealous) she felt... compelled to either bring this dreamlady's face down into hers or... press her moles. "...Guess I could do both..." Cass murmured as she put her thumbs on the lady's moles, and leaned in for a kiss.
At least, that's what she was expecting. Cass recoiled back as a bright flash bulb went off in her face, shocking her out of whatever sleep she might have been in. As she flicked out her arm to turn on the bedside light, she felt the... not-dreamlady push up from her face-to-face position, but she didn't stop straddling Cass. Cass... was surprisingly okay with it. "Oh, good morning! My name's Olivia." the lady straddling Cass cheerfully greeted her, passing her a... photo. "You were holding this before you woke up." Cass looked down at it, and it seemed to be a... close up of her kissing face. Cass trembled a bit. She wasn't sure why yet but she was.
"D-did that just get taken?"
"I do not believe so! I must have grabbed it from you when I was holding your hand."
Oh, that was real. Cass thought. "So all of that... happened?"
"It did indeed!"
OH, THAT WAS ALL REAL. Cass' eyes flitted all around the now cozily lit room, and back at Olivia. She seemed to be a pale skinned Surt like herself, at least at first glance. She was petite and cute, with a modest chest that Cass really wanted to squeeze for some reason. Then she noticed that the choker she thought she was wearing was still dimly glowing from the flash bulb inside it, and that her feathers all seemed to look more like antennas than any feathers she'd ever seen. I don't think i've ever seen a pigeon in person, though, Cass thought. It'd be rude to ask if they're not one.
Olivia hummed and bounced up and down on Cass' lap, waiting for a response.
"Y-you asked if I wanted to join Flock Co., right? Why?" Cass could barely speak. She almost made out with a complete stranger. Or more.
"Correct! I was told there would be a new face coming in from out east. Where are you from?" Olivia continued bouncing up and down.
"Uh, Shreveport. My mom said I should try my luck with Flock." That somehow felt like a bad awnser.
"Really? Think your mom knew anyone from my company?"
Cass was having a bit of trouble focusing with the cute lady bouncing on her pelvis. "N-not that I can think of right now. She's been running a restaurant most of my life, I don't... think she'd know anyone directly." She could hear her voice rising in pitch, and desperately hoped it wouldn't crack.
Olivia stopped bouncing and put a hand under her chin, contemplating something. Cass already kind of missed it. "I think I might have seen a portrait of someone who could be your mother in the building." She looked back down at Cass. "Oh! Did I do something?"
"N-no." Cass' face felt very, very hot, like she was resting her head on a stove. "I-I never askedwhatexactly my mom did before she had me-" her voice cracked in spectacular fashion. Olivia didn't seem to notice, though.
"Hmm... I guess I did interrupt your dream, you might still be disoriented. Would actually kissing me help?"
Cass started breathing heavily. Her thoughts became a disorganized mess of desires and anxieties. COULD she kiss a stranger? Did she want to do more? What did any of this have to do with Flock? Whydidsherecognizemom? whatifisaynowhatifisayyes-
"Or," Olivia said, beginning to unbutton her top, "You mentioned your 'dream-friends' doing other things to you. Does that mean you want to have s-" Olivia was cut off by Cass suddenly getting a nosebleed. "Oh dear."
xOx
Cass didn't get nosebleeds often. Sometimes when she was a kid she'd forget that talons are sharp and she shouldn't be putting them in her nose, but that was about it. She'd only had a nosebleed like this one other time in her life...
Mercifully this time, Olivia sprung into action. She hopped off Cass and propped her up into a seated position, ignoring how Cass flinched when she grabbed her by the waist to do so. She then strode into the bathroom- Cass could hear her bare feet click against the tiles- and just as quickly came back to her bedside with some tissues. Olivia gently tilted Cass' head forward and pinched her nose. "I'm sorry I seem to have caused you some discomfort."
Cass sat limply in Olivia's arms and worked on trying to calm her breathing down. "I-ah-it's... It's okay." She swallowed. "I-I've never done that sort of thing before..."
"The nosebleed or the stuff when you thought I was a dream?"
"Ahhh...?" Cass fluted. She was already trying to black that out in her mind.
"Oh, right. Well, you grabbed my face like this..." Olivia said, gently smushing Cass' face in her hands, "...And I think you were about to kiss me?"
"I fink scho..." Cass found it hard to talk with the other harpy's hands on her face. Less because of how intimate it was, and more because her grip seemed to be unintentionally strong.
"Did you still want to?" Olivia asked, in a tone that somehow reminded Cass of when she'd ask for seconds.
"I-Uh-ye-uh-no-uh"
"Would letting go of your face help you decide?" Cass nodded.
"yea-I mean, uh..." Cass trembled a bit, desperately trying to make up her mind. "Y-you're cute and I think I'd like you but i also just met you and you also broke into my hotel room and imreallynervousidmessomethingupand-"
Cass was interrupted by Olivia putting a finger to her lips. "Oh! That's understandable. I think you're cute too." She gently smiled. "We can get to know each other over breakfast. Oh, and while we work together."
Cass laid there for another moment and started to get up. "How'd you get into my hotel room...?"
"Oh, I have a key. Didi told me it was my job to meet new hires before their interviews!"
"D-do you normally watch them sleep?!"
"Hmm... No. I, uh, wanted to get a closer look at you?" Olivia put a hand behind her head. "Didi seemed to recognize you somehow and I wanted to figure out why she was so excited beforehand..." Cass must have looked disappointed, because Olivia blushed orange (Cass guessed pigeons just have orange blood) stammered "It helped that you are very easy on the eyes. Do you work out?"
"Oh yeah I do! I started powerlifting a while ago to get into proper shape for this." Cass was relieved to talk about something else.
"What do you bench, then?"
"Uhh... 180 pounds."
"Ooh, 80 kilograms. Over your head?"
"Yeah. Mom taught me how to."
"Mhm mhm." Olivia nodded thoughtfully. "Oh right! Breakfast. There's actually a nice canteen above us that should be open right about now." She hopped off bed and looked over Cass as she got up. Cass could feel her gaze over every inch of her, and it seemed to linger in spots. "Hmm... I think you're dressed well enough to go now."
"I-I'd like to do my hair first, at least."
"Oh, to-" Olivia caught herself. "I understand. I don't think anyone would really pay attention to messy hair this early in the morning, but please."
"It's not about my ha-" Olivia waved her off. "I know, I know. I'm just saying that your thing's less obvious than mine." She pointed to her choker as she said that. Cass realized it wasn't a choker.
"W-well if you insist," Cass acquiesced, "Then I'll go witho-" She got cut off by Olivia scooping her up like a housecat.
"We can go now? Excellent. We're going to have soft tacos!"
"Tacos this early?" Cass' embarrassment was cut off by the thought of breakfast.
"Yep! The lady who runs the canteen has a really big che- I mean, big menu. She told me she likes the challenge!" Olivia said as she trotted out the door still holding Cass.
oXo