blue canary in the outlet by the light switch

[burntvideocassette]

Who: (Blue) Jay Merrick + You
Where: Media club + the woods behind the gym
When: August 3rd to 6th
Rating: PG (May change)
Summary: This half-plucked blue jay may not be the greatest student, but he's got interests beyond the classroom.
The Story:

Media Club:

Wherever he ends up getting into college, Jay's going to major in film. That's basically a given, though it's not because because he's a brilliant filmmaker. He likes movies, sure, and he likes learning the minutiae that go into making them. It's not exactly a passion, but it's something, and it's adjacent to his other interests.

There isn't a major in paranormal research, though--he checked--so his best chance at college prep is within the school's media club.

They're showing off their personal projects this week. Jay's got a sharpie-marked DVD under his wing. Anybody like amateur documentaries?

The Woods:

The game's already over, and the lights on the athletic field have been turned off. Nobody in their right mind would still be here this late on a school night, no matter how many questions they had for their AP physics teacher.

Jay's heard rumors, though, stories about people in the classrooms adjacent the woods seeing a too-tall silhouette between the trees. Some people say it's just a malformed tree trunk. Others say it's a human. Still others say it looks more like a water-bird, like some kind of crane, though it's taller than any crane they've ever met. Paler, too, with bleach-white feathers standing out against the leaves.

Whatever it is, Jay intends to get it on film.

Comments

[ssmisery]

What? No. I go to class like everyone else, ask anyone.

[Admittedly, she's new enough, and asocial enough, that the general school populace probably doesn't know her well. But St. Pigeonation's probably gets weird transfer students on like a weekly basis, they're used to it. She exists in class and is still slightly easier to get a 'hello' out of than that one French kid.

Besides, it's not like she goes out burying evidence routinely. Who even has that much evidence in the first place?!]

[burntvideocassette]

[And he definitely will, once this is all over.]

Then what's...?

[He tilts his head, gesturing toward the disturbed dirt, and then the shovel.]

[Maybe this isn't the mystery he went looking for, but it's a mystery nonetheless. Hopefully it isn't the kind of mystery they'll be talking about on the forums once they notice his account's gone dark for a couple weeks. Not exactly the ideal way to become famous on the internet.]

I'm missing all these anybirdies and everybirdies, being a bird is hard

[ssmisery]

[There is a long, awkward pause before she answers.]

...A project.

[She doesn't even try to make the lie sound convincing. It's flat, dry, almost sarcastic; practically a dare to call her out, instead.]

[burntvideocassette]

[It takes a second for Jay to catch what she did there.]

Sure, right.

[He knocks his head into the tip of his wing, in the world's most halfassed facepalm.]

Earth Science?

[ssmisery]

[Dismissively:] Sure, what other kind would it be?

[It is also not clear whether Lapis understood that joke either. She seems to be accepting his face-value acceptance at face value, anyway, and just like that the tension drops a bit, or maybe she just can't be bothered to keep maintaining it. With impressive ease for someone with wings, and maybe for someone without, Lapis hefts the shovel onto her shoulder, and points her beak askew past Jay out into the dark.]

Let's just get out of here already. This place kinda sucks.

[burntvideocassette]

[Is she serious>?]

Wait--wait, can--? Sure, yeah, this place sucks, but can I at least see what's...?

[He gestures to the hole.]

[If it's seriously just a project, then she shouldn't have any problem showing it to him, right?]

there, I got one

[ssmisery]

What would be the point of burying it if I just let anybirdie dig it right back up?

[Like, at least pretend to respect her obvious secrecy, c'mon.]

[burntvideocassette]

Not, like, anybirdie, just, like...one birdie.

[He cranes (har-har) his neck to try and catch a glimpse of whatever it is.]

[ssmisery]

Too bad. You don't even have a shovel.

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay has no concept of boundaries when it comes to a tantalizing mystery.]

I--I mean, I could come back. With a shovel. Or, like, a trowel, at least.

[ssmisery]

You could try.

[She doesn't even sound perturbed about the prospect. Lapis spreads the wing that isn't holding her shovel, fanning it towards Jay's face, not so much in an attempt to block his view as in a sort of herding gesture to start funneling him away. Whether he comes back later or not, she still wants to get them both out of here for right now, apparently.]

[burntvideocassette]

I could, I--

[And then there's a wing in his face, just gently...herding him away from the location of interest.]

[And despite himself, Jay deflates, allowing himself to be herded.]

I could.

[It's muttered, embarrassed. He's facing entirely the wrong direction to start digging up the hole, even if he did have his own shovel.]

[ssmisery]

Yeah, have fun trying to find this exact spot again. Can you even see anything right now? I thought most of you guys didn't do darkness.

[She says as if she finds the darkness personally insulting, or perhaps feels personally betrayed by Jay being out here anyway. Actually, does she know where they're going either?

Spoilers: no she does not. But, like, heading back the way he came has to go somewhere, right?]

[burntvideocassette]

We don't.

[He tilts his head, suddenly as smug as a loser like him can manage to be.]

[With one foot, he taps at the chest cam.]

What we do is infrared night vision.

[ssmisery]

[Okay, buddy, whatever makes you feel good about yourself for a moment. Lapis hesitates again, knocked surprisingly off-balance by that, but shakes her head and remains determined to keep ushering them away.]

Of course. Why wouldn't you.

[burntvideocassette]

I--I mean, why wouldn't you?

[Jay looks over his shoulder, watching the mound of dirt get farther and farther away.]

Did you even bring a flashlight?

[ssmisery]

Not being able to see is like the whole point of slogging out here at night!

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay squints.]

[It doesn't help much.]

Since when is that the point?

[ssmisery]

[Jeez, now she's getting exasperated.]

It's called being sneaky! Try it out sometime!

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay "leaf crunching sounds" Merrick is the best at sneaky.]

If you're trying to make me not want to come back and investigate, you're not--not exactly doing a great job.