#/* turing gets very affectionately called little menace */

[not-that-dillinger]

...Ed should not have been surprised that Turning Turing opened the cage. She was far too smart for her own good, but. Ed wouldn't have been surprised if she felt his distress. Clever bird, the little menace. The sensation of warm and soft under his fingers was grounding and something to focus on besides the turbulent thoughts that threatened a dangerous downward spiral.

Beautiful was not how many outside of those he knew from the pigeon shows he rarely attended would describe as beautiful. Funky, if they were being kind. Poorly drawn cartoons brought to life, if humerus. Worse from others who were too shortsighted to see past LA's feral pigeon population problem.

"Oh. Thanks." Ed gave Alan a small, nervous smile. "They- they're chaotic little gremlins and wonderful companions." He set down his empty mug of tea so he could scritch Aegis with one hand and Turring with the other, in an effort to keep the two birds from fighting.

Growing up, there had been a short list of subjects his father had thought appropriate interests for a boy, of which, exactly of Ed's equally short list of actual interests had lined up with, and another that had been... grudgingly tolerated. Between that and the school bullies who had been bent on snuffing out any spark of joy from the few things that Ed enjoyed, he learned quickly to guard those small joys carefully. Those interests only diverged more and more from what his father thought appropriate in high school and college, and by the time he started at Encom, trusting anyone with those things had been nearly impossible. Even if he could, his work had quickly encroached on so much of his home life that refusing to talk about any of his interests during the work day was one of the few ways he could keep them separate.

His birds were one of those small joys, and he'd named them with the confidence that the only people that would ever know them would be him and any god that had the embarrassment of witnessing. And, of course, Eve and Yori. He trusted them with his life (he was slowly, cautiously working his way toward giving that same level of trust to his brother, but their bond was still new, and getting there was going to take time if Ed didn't want to panic and disappear).

But. He wasn't at work, and Alan had thus far proven that he could be trusted with the small bits of his life that Ed had been willing to share, and he told Alan about Heli and Sebai. He could trust him with his birds' names.

Ed gstured to the white bird with splashe of red feathers and an exaggerated ruff of feathers around it's neck that was attempting to grab Ed's hand with it's beak. "This little menace is Turing. She's too smart for her own good and will get out of the cage to cause mischief if it's not locked. Her sister in crime over here--" he gestured to the smaller white bird with brown wings and short beak begging for attention at his other hand. "--is Aegis. Sometimes I swear she's Eve's sister in pigeon form. The one currently trying to endear Sam into giving her food is Dwar Ev. She's a clown and will show off for you almost always."

Dwar Ev was almost entirely solid, seemingly metallic gold in color, except for her wings which were an iridescent black that shimmered with emerald green undertones. She also looked like she was trying to make herself taller, with long legs and a nearly vertical body. She also had an exaggerated blown up crop. Dwar Ev was a cross between a Brunner Pouter and an Archangel, and Ed was convinced the breeder had crossed the two either as a joke or for a bet. How the breeder Ed had gotten her from had managed to get birds that were perfectly Brunner Pouter shaped, and archangel colored was a feat of genetics that was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

"And the last but certainly not least, the one that decided Eve is friend shaped" --the most normal looking of Ed's birds, and the epitome of pigeons, the largest by far and silver in color with red bars on her wings and iridescent green around her neck-- "is Clacks. She's probably the most cuddly out of all of them." Ed shouldn't have been surprised that Clacks had essentially decided Eve was part of the flock. She'd been particularly fond of Nitro when he first visited, and probably sensed that Eve was part of his 'flock'.

Ed paused, then stood up, muttering apologies to the birds, and retrieved a bag of dried fruit from a cabinet by the cage. He took a handful, and offered the bag to Sam and Alan. "They can have some of this, if you want to befriend them," he offered.

@not-that-dillinger Continuing from here, because why not :

Eve, meanwhile, is having a grand time flying around and giving everyone flashes of the bright pink feathers on the underside of her wings. She disappears for about an hour and comes back with a shoulder guard so she can ride around on Ed's shoulder (where did she get it? No one knows and she's not telling), and makes a swoop at Ed's father when the man shows up offering (hired) help to shoo the pesky bird away (direct quote).

She makes off with most of his tie, and pointedly puts it down and turns around to poo on it, before delicately picking the soiled tie up and dropping it on Dillinger Sr's head.