story Chapter 2

[Caystodd]

As Livingston took scalpel in hand and began her examination of the bird, the crushing weight of all that they had discovered over the last few days came crashing down on her. Alien eyes. Hodgepodge feathers. Misshapen wings with deformed joints. Two beaks on one face. What was this terrible creature, and why was it here? Why were they here?  And why were these creatures watching them? They were watching. Probably right now, watching. Broder knew. Knew about these monsters. Knew they were killing that little girl. And someone else knew. Someone who took those books. A cult? Something worse.

 

The scalpel sank into the creature and the black goo began to ooze out. Livingston didn't remember what happened next. She didn't remember babbling incoherently or repeatedly stabbing the bird cadaver with the scalpel over and over and over.

[Sir Lazeabout]

Malcolm feels his knees buckling, and he collapses to the floor. He has to be perfectly still, or the birds will get him... has to be still, or the birds will get him... the birds will get him... the birds... the birds...

[matt_s]

Coupard's blurred vision cleared to the sight of madness. Maria was holding and wrestling with Livingston, who had done an exceptional job of perforating their blasted specimen with her scalpel. Malcolm meanwhile had gone some sort of catatonic on the floor.

What trials have been set forth for us... mutters Coupard as he carefully collects Malcolm and works with Maria to get the scene of the necropsy in some vague semblance of good order and the specimen properly secured behind lock and key in the biology building. A quick rummaging through Malcolm's personal effects revealed a home address, where he was dutifully deposited on a suitably lumpy piece of furniture. Coupard helped himself to some coffee in Malcolm's kitchen and paced back and forth. This day was shot, most likely, but he awaited word from Maria and Livingston on how things were faring on their end.

[Butchern]

As Coupard gathered up the remains of the specimen, he could see the goo-covered innards of the bird. The ribs that formed the rib cage were thicker than he expected and segmented the way ribs were not supposed to be. He was no expert on anatomy—the anatomy of humans or birds—but they didn't look like ribs to him at all. The rib cage looked like fingers, complete with knuckles and joints, a hand wrapped around the internal organs to protect them. The bird was large, and the rib cage looked about the size of a small human hand. But there were too many fingers for a human hand.

 

Nothing inside the bird looked alien, only out of place . . . like this creature was assembled from parts of other creatures. The creature appeared stuck together, like grapes held together with
mold. Indeed, the connecting substance appeared fungal and oozy. It reminded Coupard of cancerous growths he'd seen in medical books.

 

~~~

 

Maria took Livingston home and put her to bed. Coupard drank his coffee and watched over Malcolm while he recovered his senses. By the time the sun was setting, Maria had sent word to Coupard that they all should meet up in the morning to take stock of themselves and see how they might go forward . . . if they should go forward.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Butchern (see edit history)

[Butchern]

The group of investigators, haggard by their experiences of previous days, gathered at Malcolm's house the following morning. Maria had coffee and scones delivered at 8, about the time she arrived with Livingston in the car. After a brief recap and a bit of breakfast, the group discussed how they might proceed.

[Sir Lazeabout]

Malcolm is still feeling notably shaken. There was just something about the stench of that fungal ooze pouring out from between the cadaver's feathers, the smell of it, its sheer incongruity like it was taunting him with its misplacedness. Whatever this substance was, it had no place in a sane world. On the other hand, he is discovering with some discomfort that a deep, dark part of him is hungry for insanity.

 

"Well, let us sum up, then," he says. "Mr. Brother left us three clues - the key that led to the dead bird, the name of a troubled woman seemingly haunted by birds, and a piece of odd material that caused strange phenomena... which appeared to attract another bird. Clearly, then, these distressing avians are at the heart of the mater. They may have been in existance for over a century, their... unique traits possibly deriving from the fall of heavenly bodies to Earth, and may have been the source of some pagan worship in certain rural areas. What else do we know?"

[matt_s]

Coupard pondered this.

We know little more beyond additional details about years all that. If there were cults back then, I conclude that there are likely cults now with the return of the birds. Maybe there was also an asteroid or similar event recently that we happened to miss. Perhaps a conversation with the local press is in order. Those people like to trade in rumors, even rumors not even close to being fit to print. I wager our birds - although that term is a lie given what we saw - fall in that category.

 

A cult might show up as strange reports of lights or commotion in the woods not attributed to teenagers or what have you, unexplained disappearances, and other odds and ends.

 

Perhaps, given the clear importance of 1798 and the following years, we could redouble our efforts at any books or archives pertaining to that period.

[Caystodd]

On 11/14/2022 at 6:38 AM, Sir Lazeabout said:

"Well, let us sum up, then," he says. "Mr. Brother left us three clues - the key that led to the dead bird, the name of a troubled woman seemingly haunted by birds, and a piece of odd material that caused strange phenomena... which appeared to attract another bird. Clearly, then, these distressing avians are at the heart of the mater. They may have been in existance for over a century, their... unique traits possibly deriving from the fall of heavenly bodies to Earth, and may have been the source of some pagan worship in certain rural areas. What else do we know?"

"There is another reading of these events, though it may sound even more...."

 

Livingston cleared her throat to avoid saying the word "crazy."

 

"If the ramblings of the girl and the poetic reference we found can be read together, then it is possible that the material we found isn't odd at all, but was made to behave oddly by the presence of the birds....creatures, creatures which are not from this world, though the bodies they have made for themselves are made up of terrestrial parts. They either have a power or a presence that disturbs the regular working of the physics of earth. That means that they may not have not been here for more than a century, but, as Coupard suggests, they return to us from the blackness of space at regular intervals. Though for what purpose I cannot say."

[matt_s]

Indeed, the birds are an agglomerate of largely conventional materials held together by the alien ooze. That ooze is what I believe to be the motive and thinking force behind those... things. I think we may have cut short our trip to the library stacks. A redoubled focus on the local history and happenings post-1798, with an eye for the peculiar and esoteric, could serve us well. The University Library is I suspect the best starting point for this work. It seems I will get to give my compliments to the Chief Librarian once again.

 

And indeed, Coupard will travel with the others to the library, greet the librarian politely, and bury his noise in the archives and obscure tomes on that period of interest.

[Sir Lazeabout]

Malcolm settles down to do research, though he has trouble concentrating, frequently finding himself rereading the same passage over and over again without taking it in.

[Butchern]

The return to the library proved fruitful in only one regard.

 

They found nothing else about the creatures beyond the most ephemeral of connections to mythological chimeras . . . nothing that even remotely matched the description of the cadaver they held in their possession. They also found nothing particularly helpful on the meteor shower of 1798—it was in the spring and it was observed by several astronomers in the College of Charleston. It was fairly typical.

 

They did however find out a bit more information about the alleged cult incident their previous research had turned up. Coupard found a report of some loggers who went missing in July of 1798 on the eastward road into Charleston. This story was followed by a story from a few weeks later about a whole family that disappeared from a small tobacco farm on the southern edge of the Caw Caw swamp. The homestead was described as "about a mile west of Wallace Creek." All the investigators knew where that was and how to get there. There was currently a little town called Ravenel at that exact location. The claim they turned up on their first trip to the library, about a cult in the swamp that fed their children to the birds, was from the same general area, and it also fit the "1790s" timeline. All these events could have happened at the same time and in the same place.

[matt_s]

I could certainly do with a change in scenery, murmurs Coupard as he finishes summarizing his findings such as they are. Perhaps if we take some time to look around this Ravenel, all this mess will become clear. Or perhaps not, this is a mystery after all, and by name they are not easily resolved. If there is more business you would like to attend to in town, perhaps we can address that now. I think it would be worthwhile to dig through recent newspapers for any odd happenings in Ravenel so we are not blindsided by some recent events.

[Sir Lazeabout]

"It seems our most promising lead," Malcolm agrees.

[Butchern]

If the little town of Ravenel had a local newspaper, the university library did not carry it. Regardless, the Courier covered the news in Ravenel, such as it was, and there were no reports of anything unusual in that area in recent weeks.

 

"Ravenel is thirty five miles from here," Maria said, after looking up directions in a road atlas. "We could be there in less than two hours. Should we take one car or two?"

[matt_s]

The lack of information of unusual happenings in Ravenel was no great surprise. Bird sightings were hardly the thing to make frontline news.

 

Thank you for pulling up the directions. I think piling into one car will do just fine. Shall we be off, then?