Snippets

A Confrontation

"Hey, Henry, Warden."

"Hey, Lori." "What do you need?"

"I have a question. For Hen, mostly, but for both of you."

"Shoot."

"Why do you surround yourself in birds?"

"...excuse me?" "Hm."

"Yeah, like, Lark, Crow, Shrike, Owl, Robin, Robin's daughter is Finch...."

"Thousands isn't a bird."

"Radilla also goes by Diver. A diver is a kind of bird. And you know most people call vim Kingfisher while we're hunting."

"I..."

"Hell, my given name is fucking LORIKEET. Literally nobody names their kid Lorikeet. How did you find the one person in the world named Lorikeet."

"Well. I. I don't know? It wasn't intentional? You all had names when I found you."

"I know, that almost makes it worse. You didn't even name your bio kid. Their other parent named them Hawk Rai. Pretentious as hells."

"My shared name is Cygnus. Swan. So I'm a bird too. It's everyone who lives in the house." "...At least I'm not a bird?"

"..................HEN."