DEPLOYMENT 15: Be the Other Walking Nuke

[walking_nuke]

[(Note: All tagbacks will be from walking_nukebird!)]
[ACTION - A (847 Goldberg Street, Early Morning, HOUSEMATES)]

[The first thing Balin notices as he starts to wake up is that he's in some kind of cubicle, swaddled in big, fuzzy blankets. He grumbles, thinking that yet again Mayfield has kidnapped him in his sleep in preparation for its latest twisted game.]

[... Until he realizes that his grumble sounds rather bird-like.]

[And his field of vision is ... considerably wider than normal.]

[He raises up, and cranes his head around to discover that ... he's covered in feathers. Black, iridescent feathers—]

AWK!

[Were he still in his human body, Balin might have lept out of bed and reached for his sidearm ... but he's no longer Balin Wilbur. He's now Utsuho Reiuji—and considering this is the man-eating town-burning youkai he'd fought with not long ago, he's taking this predicament far worse than he might have if he were swapped with someone else.]

[So instead, the hell raven that has been spending most of the past few weeks sleeping peacefully in that box, courtesy of Virginia, is now having a night fright. It squawks in distress, its wings flap haphazardly as it tries to escape the box, crashing into one thing or another. The real Utsuho has had a lot of practice shifting between her raven and humanoid youkai forms, so much so that it doesn't require much thought to trigger the switch. Balin's panicky thoughts of wondering what happened to his human body are enough to trigger the transformation—which, for someone who never wanted to be a Polymorphing Spy, is a highly uncomfortable and horrifying sensation.]

[By the end of it, "Utsuho" flops onto the bedroom floor chest-first. Coming to "her" senses after a few seconds, "Utsuho" pushes "herself" up, but "her" now much larger wings are all ruffled and splayed everywhere, and there's a lot of "her" shorter feathers floating about in the air.]

What—WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

[That yell is loud enough to be heard throughout the house, easily.]

[ACTION - B (Anywhere in Mayfield, Morning/Afternoon, OPEN TO ALL)]

[Utsuho spends a lot of her time flying around in the air, but today she apparently is preferring to walk around town. She seems a bit clumsy and cautious, though—Balin is having difficulty adjusting to a woman's bone structure and center of gravity. Especially since this particular woman isn't even human. Aaand also much taller than he is.]

[Sometimes you might see "Utsuho" looking down at "her" chest and muttering or even angrily talking out loud. Like "she's" arguing with someone.]

[ACTION - C (Downtown Mayfield, Afternoon, OPEN TO ALL)]

"Go on, you mangy mutt! Get out of here! Shoo! Shoo!"

Hey! I'm not a mutt! What's the big idea—

["Utsuho" just tried to enter a store and got pushed out by a drone armed with a broom. With one last shove, "she" stumbles out the door. As the drone slams the door shut, "Utsuho" turns around to look back at the store with "her" hands on "her" hips.]

—Dammit, every store is doing this to me!

[Ah, the joys of finding out Mayfield considers you a "pet."]

[ACTION - D (John Doe Park, Afternoon/Evening, OPEN TO ALL)]

["Utsuho" is currently trying to figure out how to fly. Flight is an ubiquitous ability among Gensokyo's denizens, even if they have no biological ability to do so—but Balin doesn't know that, and so he assumes the only way he can fly as Utsuho is through wing power alone. In fairness, wingspan is one of several things in which Utsuho's body is well-endowed.]

[Flying with wings is a learned skill, though, even for birds—and having never been a bird before, Balin is clumsily trying to imitate what he's seen the real Utsuho and other, normal birds do with their wings. Instead, "Utsuho" ends up flailing "her" wings much like a Killdeer faking a broken wing. Sometimes "she's" lucky with a jump and gets airborne for a few seconds, "her" wings fluttering spastically before "she" falls back down. And "she's" not too graceful about that, either.]

[ACTION - E (Makeout Point, Evening, OPEN TO ALL)]

[Well, if he's going to be stuck inside the hell raven's body for a while, there's one thing Balin can take advantage of for the time being.]

[Up at Makeout Point, "Utsuho" is armed with "her" control rod, and judging from the light show and miniature suns over there, "she's" practicing with "her" powers. Yet unlike her murderous rampage back in March, "she" seems to be taking to aim up at the sky, away from Mayfield. "She's" even trying to avoid setting any trees on fire.]

[But it doesn't look like "she" has a good handle on it, because there are stray fireballs every once in a while.]

Comments

[walking_nukebird]

[That does it.]

["Utsuho" forces "herself" up from the table and starts stumble-running downstairs, tipping over a few times but always scrambling to get back up on "her" feet until "she's" in the basement.]

[Once "she's" there, "Utsuho" grabs the .45 Colt that Balin keeps around as a backup sidearm. Trembling from the deafening noise in "her" head, "she" tries to figure out how best to aim the thing so that the shot will only hit the Yatagarasu's eye and not the rest of "her" body. That takes a bit of doing, though, given Okuu's boobs and all.]

So fucking help me if you don't stop I'll do what Virginia did to you. Is that what you want?

[idkmybfforin]

[The static forms words--garbled ones, initially, but ones that can still be made out.]

END YOUR LIFE, HOST. THEN I WILL BE FREE TO DIE AS I SHOULD HAVE.

[walking_nukebird]

[The muzzle of that Colt .45 is rather close to the eye now. "Utsuho" waves it a little to try and get the Yatagarasu to notice.]

I don't have to kill myself just to shut you up! And even if I did this fucking town would just bring me and you back!

[idkmybfforin]

[No answer this time; just more static.]

[walking_nukebird]

["Utsuho" doesn't give the eye any more time. "She" fires the pistol. It's such an awkward firing position that would likely have sent "her" arm flying or sent the gun out of "her" hands, but the hell raven's natural strength makes the recoil surprisingly slight.]

[The bullet itself is a glancing shot, one that's going to ricochet down into the floor and toward the stairwell, away from the other stuff Virginia and Balin's had stockpiled down here. "Utsuho" had at least that much presence of mind, not to shoot toward all the ammo and makings for explosives.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The eye cracks, fractures--but doesn't break completely. Regardless, the pupil hovering in the center loses all cohesion and scatters, as does the voice growling in the back of Balin's mind. The static bursts into a buzzing white noise, just as loud--and then fades nothing, with the silence deafening by contrast.]

[walking_nukebird]

["Utsuho" slowly lowers the handgun. "She" closes "her" eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and sighing while scratching behind an ear.]

["She" sets the handgun aside, looking down at her now-cracked eye. Then she gives her boobs another good jab with a finger, still convinced that the Yatagarasu is a part of those things.]

How do you like that? Huh?!

[idkmybfforin]

[Dude you're going to give yourself bruises stop that.

There's absolutely no answer this time. No voice, no static, no anything.]

[walking_nukebird]

[Well. Out cold. "She'll" take that.]

["Utsuho" climbs back up the stairs, one of "her" wings twitching as "she" does.]

["She's" not that concerned about bruising herself! Balin's seen this bird come back from worse!]