Anti-BS Birds

Flightless. Rarely tall enough to go above the knee. Not particularly fast. And they live in the area of the known world where the wildlife is the scariest. Why haven't they been hunted to extinction?

I'll tell you how, it's that look. And it possibly being the case that they're omniscient or otherwise have either extremely impressive sensory or intellectual capabilities . But what's confirmed to be the case is that look.

There's something about that look. Some who've attempted to hurt these birds have gotten that look and then immediately killed themselves. Others just changed their minds after being given the look, and wouldn't budge on the decision even when offered rewards for doing it (namely rule over a large county and 5000 slaves) and punishments for not (being flayed alive: followed through to set an example to others used in tests). Animals are likewise prevented from harming them. Sometimes someone or something that gets the look will serve the bird.

Even if they should have no way of noticing something that plans to harm them, they'll somehow know exactly where to look and position themselves. Round a corner in a building with your knife at the ready? Its face is already pointed right where you were going to be, and all of a sudden you're under its effects. So far only the blind can harm them, with blindfolds being ineffective as the birds are usually able to set up events to happen in a way that renders the blindfold meaningless, which is a pretty big win for them since being blind makes you vulnerable to predators and so nothing in their native environment has gone through the effort to evolve blindness just to be able to hunt them. Even then they're extremely adept at avoiding danger despite how small and slow they are, seemingly just knowing exactly where to put themselves to avoid being harmed by upcoming events.

Despite usually being harmless, if they are somehow pushed into a situation that requires it they are capable of fighting quite ruthlessly. Their beaks are extremely strong and, despite being fairly flat where mandible and maxilla (top and bottom parts of beak), can still lead to you losing an arm if they chomp down on it as wherever they bite will be turned to mush.

Their actual intellect is unknown but presumably pretty impressive. They have a habit of swallowing seemingly random objects and then coughing those objects up right when they need them. They've been seen making art with paintbrushes held by their beaks and feet, using door knobs and handles, picking locks, and have even played board games with people - at which they've consistently excelled (to what extent this is due to them being intelligent as opposed to something related to them knowing if something wants to kill them is unknown).

If someone tries to lie they'll always get the look from any of these birds who are present. If the person makes eye contact they'll be compelled to correct the lies they just told. This is intention-based and so someone who legitimately misremembers things or forgets to include certain pieces of information gets to be unaffected.

Unsurprisingly, this makes them a valued import within Lamara and the Hami - native to the same Black Forest as these birds - use them as well. The birds seem weirdly aware that letting themselves be captured means free food. If they come to like a human, which they often do with children, they'll often use their stare to protect that human the same way they would themselves.

Their home environment, the Black Forest, is home to the most fucked up species to have ever been borne forth from my imagination (no, really. I know anyone versed in Trickster's Afterlife lore knows the wildlife everywhere that isn't Lamara lives on "oh, an entire minute has passed without me killing anything: this must be amended" logic but the Black Forest takes the "scariest shit lives here" cake). They're almost always left alone despite being such obvious free meals, as the mostly-predatory wildlife has gotten used to the fact that these birds are basically untouchable.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Attempts to study them are pretty much always stopped by their stares as it seems they don't want to be studied. More annoying is how hard it is to get one's hand on a corpse of one of these, as one is much more likely to wander off and never be seen again than die in the homes of their owners, leaving few corpses to study. These corpses are also often hard to study as they kind of... fold in on themselves at the same time as drying up and chemically breaking down.

Some people have made claims about things they were able to gleam from befriended members of this species, but never been able to show others. Some such people claim it's almost like the birds let them find out these things just for a "no one will ever believe you" moment. None of these can be confirmed however if dozens of unrelated people who have no way of knowing that others have made the same claim make a claim then there's at least a decent chance of it being true:

- Wings with five joints and which are each longer than human legs. These birds have never been confirmed to actually spread their wings under any circumstance. Some claims surrounding this suggest they're completely capable of flying and just choose not to.

- Twig-thin legs that rather than going straight downwards as one would expect, instead curve up below the chest, go back down again and then go straight down. If that confused you: permanent squatting but the bones in your legs curve towards your chest, and people can only see your ankles and feet because that's what isn't covered by feathers.

- The ability to rotate their heads all the way around multiple times, with some claiming to have counted it higher than twenty full turns.

- Being able to extend their necks to ridiculous lengths, doubling their height or more at will. They seemingly never do this with more than a single person present.

- Rolling their eyes into the backs of their heads. And continuing to roll them. All the way around till you can see their pupils again. Much like their necks, they're seemingly able to do this continuously.

- Coughing their eggs up from their mouth instead of laying them like normal.

- Laying their eggs like normal instead of coughing them up from their mouths.

- Making their feathers stand on end, making them seem larger and fluffier.

- Eating several times their volume in drugs without changing in size or otherwise seeming to be affected.

- Coughing up more items than should be able to fit inside them.

Genetics and Reproduction

Possibly capable of asexual reproduction.

It's assumed that they lay eggs, however some claim to have seen them give life birth. The number of eggs or chicks varies wildly, with some having reported seeing over a hundred eggs, although normally the amount is less than ten. Chicks are always pure white, with their feathers becoming browner and rougher during their teenage weeks. Chicks seemingly never stay with whoever's taking care of them, disappearing as if they weren't there at all near adulthood.

Growth Rate & Stages

Usually take between 20 and 24 weeks to become adults. Their 12th week and upwards until adulthood can generally be thought of as their teenage phase as this is when their feathers slowly turn brown and their appearance becomes rougher.

Ecology and Habitats

The Black Forest has an abundance of food and an even greater abundance of predators who just leave these birds alone.

Whether or not they're an invasive species in Lamara is unclear. "Wild" ones are often later identified as formerly domestic ones who were only missing for a few weeks before being found and taken in by someone, suggesting they live in the wild temporarily while deliberately setting up events to get themselves a new and seemingly in their eyes more suitable for them owner. There are no clear instances of them threatening the food sources of other animals.

One of the problems with trying to find out things about this species is that whatever exactly its extra-sensory abilities are lets them know when people are coming to observe them, and these creatures usually don't like being observed.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Have been observed eating insects, nuts, seeds, plants, oats, potatoes, arachnids, drugs, meat from corpses and in rare situations even animals they killed themselves.

Despite sometimes eating more than their own volume they're seemingly able to go years at a time without eating without issue, such as when a captive one refused to eat for five years straight, always acting like it was about to eat one of the possible foods presented to it (it was being held captive for experiments, which included finding out what it ate) and seemingly changing its mind. It later disappeared from the cell, with nobody sure how it got out nor how nobody noticed it.

Additional Information

Domestication

They don't get domesticated by humans. They domesticate themselves.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Interrogations, mainly. Also a good bit of extra protection if you manage to get one to like you.

Feathers are worthless outside of value to people who like to look at things through looking glasses and microscopes.

Average Intelligence

Definitely very intelligent. Or pretty average and just getting the benefit of us not knowing exactly what their extra-sensory abilities are.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Somehow able to detect everyone's intentions and position themselves perfectly to survive whenever bad things are gonna happen. Since studying one's body to find out is seemingly off the table there's only speculation. Suggestions have included mind-reading, advanced sonar abilities, a hive mind, heat vision and others.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Some are present on Land-Leviathan Peacemaker*, where their eyes are seemingly effective on other leviathans that would harm Peacemaker. That's definitely symbiotic.

Show spoiler

Land-Leviathan Peacemaker is a leviathan known for having never been sighted fighting another leviathan, despite its existence being known and monitored for over 500 years. Normally, any leviathan that lives through a century has killed at least one other leviathan in that century, and before being large and dangerous enough to be considered a leviathan most will have killed at least fifty others who had the potential to become leviathans. That said, for every instance of two leviathans ripping one another to pieces there are a dozen of them walking right past one another without issue, and nobody's quite certain why this is.

Lifespan

Currently no known limit. The oldest known one is 300 years old.

Conservation Status

Not in danger of extinction and do not need laws protecting them.

Average Height

Generally just short of being knee-height.

Average Length

If stories about their necks are to be believed, plain freakish.

Average Physique

Strength unknown. Based on their ability to crush anything with their break, they're probably quite strong elsewhere too.

Geographic Distribution

• Black Forest