[drp] happy birthdays (leila + various)

[cibarium]

It was 11AM at the house and Leila had already been up for eight and a half hours after an attempt at sleeping that ended up as fitful as a child's on Christmas Eve. She had been determined to see the first pip on the first egg, but she'd missed it, and her eyes had been kept glued to the incubator ever since, wordlessly accepting a refill of her orange juice from Julian on his way outside for a morning walk and a smoke.

They were wiggling. Wiggling and peeping. Leila had already cried twice and her snapchat story was coming on two minutes long.

Everyone had gotten a frantic text message at some ungodly hour of the morning, except for Lady, because she lived here. While it was old news today was the projected hatch day -- she had taken a few out of her stash of vacation days, for goodness sakes, so she'd be around for as much of it as humanly possible -- there was a difference between knowing when it was happening and knowing that it was actually happening.

There was a little note at the door letting friends know they could come in.

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friends of the fam: congrats you get to name some babies! i'm making this a drp so your character can come in and have a new egg hatch whenever it suits you instead of their needing to be a post order :3

roll 1d4 to hatch a bab (you don't have to do this right away! chicks take a few hours to dry off and become fluffy <3)

1 = buff
2 = lemon
3 = white
4 = lavender

shirogane

lady and/or aleksy

azurdreams

jer

elkboes

thorne

lizbo

america

 

[azuredreams]

There was absolutely no way that he was missing out on this. In fact, he had deigned to take a longer than usual lunch time to come and see the precious bundles of fluff not long after 11AM. Jeremiah had meant it when he said that there was a decided lack of things to look forward to when everything was so grim.

This was something that would help lift spirits.

Reading the note, Jeremiah knocked on the door once before he went inside. "Leila? Eve?" he called out, heading towards where the note had said they would be. He was absolutely ready for this because he had a weakness for cute things.

He also had a small present in his pocket for Leila but that was a given. This was Jeremiah (and he still had to make up for the presents the fetch had given).

cibarium

bab name to be decided

 

[moonjavas]

Thorne had actually been sleeping at Leila's house for the last five hours, because, as he repeatedly snapchatted Chris, chicken hatching was happening. He had missed his boyfriend, and would probably snapchat him one hundred chicken pictures before returning home to terrorize him in person, but this was an event that took precedence now. Babies were on the way.

He roused at the sound of Jeremiah in the house, peering at the other man through a foggy haze of sleep for a long moment before his mouth stretched open into a loud yawn and he stretched his hands above his head before peering at the wiggling eggs and making an appropriate noise of happiness and reaching out to touch one gently.

"Good morning," he said lazily, to Jeremiah, too tired to be anything but cat-like, his clothes falling over his body in a rumpled display. He wore a cardigan over marled grey joggers and a black tank top, tattoos on display and another yawn making him look even more sleep deprived for the hour of the morning.

azuredreams

cibarium

rubs my hands together what ridiculous name will thorne come up with

 

[cibarium]

"Hey, Jer," Leila waved from where she was at the table. "Eve's not in, she's at the store for a bit." There were obvious notes of fatigue straining her voice, but she just as obviously didn't care how tired she was, and that was in all honesty Leila in her natural element -- something she hadn't been in tune with very much at all for months. In spite of her body's protests about it, she was brimming with energy. "I hope you're not just here on your lunch break, since -- ooh, look!"

After hours of struggle the first chick was pushing its way out. The sight of it was unglamorous. It was wet, floppy, with oversized feet and stringy bits still sticking to it.

azuredreams

elkbones

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah gave Thorne a small smile, head tilting towards the young man. "Closer to afternoon," he said in a friendly tease, catching sight of Leila before he was toeing his shoes off (out of habit and because he was going to be staying a bit alright).

"At least you had company in your lack of sleep." There was another twitch of lips. "... and I'm on an extended lunch break." Which was totally code for I am out until further notice, thank you very much. Any other commentary was quickly lost because cuteness was happening.

Completely and utterly unglamorous cuteness. "Look at that," his voice was quiet, watching as the chick pushed through.

c1barium

buff babbin is named earnest <3

e1kbones

 

[shibrogane]

Lady had homework. She had, to be fair, a lot of stuff to catch up on, but that meant an equally intimidating amount of homework. Right now it was an article on freemartinism in cows. She would rather be reading about chimeric chickens or something, but that wasn't the topic at hand.

So anyway, she wandered through to watch the chicks hatch whenever she was letting the cow facts sink in. This brought her in just in time to see a chick... kinda ooze?... its way out of an egg. "Oh wow," she said. "Gross." But she joined the group, wrestling her inhuman mass of hair up on top of her head. "S'like they fell in the jelly stuff outside."

cibarium

guard chick is named Valiant :'D

elkbones

azuredreams

 

[lizbot]

America arrived with a hurried flush across her cheeks, bright eyes, a little gift bag, and a double-take for Lady that was quickly replaced by an adoring gaze toward the tiny babiesssss.

"Oh my godddd! Am I in time?" A hawk's cry could be heard outside before the door closed, Mr. Bitterberry still wasn't sure, after intense debate, that babies weren't food and also his.

Catching sight of a tiny body plopping out, she adoringly commented, "It looks like an angry wet cat." Her eyes were practically sparkling at this.

Leaning in, America cooed, "You're a floppy little Miss SnootyToots aren't you, yes you are..."

cibarium

America deems the chick a Miss SnootyToots

The bag contains cute ribbons, doll-sized accessories, and some handmade tiny party hats. She's a firm believer in dressing up animals ok.

azuredreams

shibrogane

elkbones

 

[cibarium]

Four babies hatched within the space of an hour or two -- and after an hour or so more, they were fluffed up and dry and ready to be moved to their nursery in Lady's bedroom.

But not before everyone got to hold one for a little bit.

azuredreams

elkbones

i know you've been having a rough time of it so here is your child <3 IM me a name and i will update <3

shibrogane

lizbot

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah was cradling what was possibly the cutest, most adorable ball of buff fluff that he had ever seen. Though looking at them all, the others that were there, he knew he was not alone in that feeling about all the chicks. His touch was gentle, finger brushing against the top of Earnest's head because the chick had fallen asleep.

"Oh." He looked up and over to Leila, giving her a brief smile. "That reminds me ... I meant to give this to you." Jeremiah, careful to not jostle the chick, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wrapped box with a simple twine bow. There was a present inside for her. "A hatch day gift."

cibarium

lizbot

shibrogane

elkbones

 

[cibarium]

Leila's guests had all returned home for the day before the final egg in the incubator began truly showing signs of the chick inside's struggle to break out. The other four had already acclimated to the brooder and, although they were huddled under the lamp sleeping off their day of adventure for now, it wasn't going to take long for them to start showing signs of personality. Naturally, Leila couldn't wait -- it was enough that she would, through the hours, occasionally peel herself away from the incubator and sidle into Lady's room to see if the other babies were up to something. They usually weren't. But it was just as good to watch them doing nothing as it would have been otherwise.

Sometimes Eve went in with her, and the smile that slowly lit up on her face when she got to hold one further cemented this day in Leila's mind as one of the best of her life. She'd loved Jeremiah's gift too, and would take it out and admire or fiddle with it during the lulls in activity in the different rooms. These lulls were pretty few and far between for someone like Leila. She had always been a tireless personality, and now she was tireless at counting the minutes and hours, and taking a new photo every time a new crack showed up in the last egg (the snapchat story was criminally long at this point).

Eventually, though, she slowed down. Instead of lurching over the incubator with her hands splayed on the table, she was hunkered down on the table with her head resting in her arms. It was around then the hatching conversely sped up: the chick inside got noisier and more determined as Leila tried not to nod off. But then one second she opened her eyes again to see a pile of shell scraps instead of an egg... and a half-dry chick stumbling about in circles inside the incubator. She'd managed a two-hour nap without meaning to.

And she would have hated herself for it, were it not for more important things taking place. Such as her last baby chicken finally breaking free, and already in the process of fluffing out into a lemon-colored one like Valiant. She lovingly watched as the down gradually dried off, taking yet more pictures in the process, and part of her was becoming aware something more was happening with this one than there had with the others.

Even though it was freshly hatched, Leila had already been chosen -- and she had chosen the chick in kind.

This bird was going to be her familiar.