[Cosmosdex] The Universal Encyclopedia

[Cosmosdex]

Seizing Bird
     

Grand & Petit mal

Seizing Bird
“While others will be playing freely with little care in the world you will be toiling day in and day out. While others will be making friends, you will be making co-workers. The lazy may laugh at you now, saying you are working for naught, but those same people will grovel at your door when winter comes and you're living in paradise.” — Notail's guide to picking a starter

Art by, Artem1s

Part of the Notail collection

Emblem by Atomic
  • Strength-5
  • Intelligence-1
  • Charisma-1
  • Endurance-4
  • Agility-8
  • Luck-5

Danger Level: Low
Likes: Items of the same color, Doing displays to attract non-existent ladies, Dark places, Food, Showing off their baby (their owner)
Dislikes: People touching things it owns

Attack Method: Petits attack with their notails, pecking at the attacker with their sharp beaks. Grands flash their wings very fast to confuse the prey before overwelming them with their size.

Attributes
Environment: Forests, Around lakes
Lifespan: 40 years
Size: 4 ft tall
Diet: Meat, Fish, Insects

Bodytype: Horizontal Pose
Type: Avian
Rarity: Uncommon

Original Creator: Atomic


Physical Description

The seizing bird is pitch black, appearing to be more of a shadow of a bird than the body. The only part of this creature that isn't black is its wings. The wings are white by default but are quite special, for in an instant the seizing bird can change the color of its wings, rapidly if it wished. The color produced tends to be quite bright, with the wing producing some surprising bio luminescence. The mouth of the seizing bird flashes the same color as the wings, but its colors are not as bright.

Smaller four feet tall seizing birds are called petit mals, or princes. They are mistakenly assumed to be the chicks of seizing birds, but petit mals are adults. They are heftier looking in body shape and are flightless as their wings aren't heavy enough to carry them. While they have a long neck in comparison to their total length, they are dwarfed in size by bigger seizing birds.

Larger 12 feet tall seizing birds are known as grand mals, or kings. Unlike petit mals, they are able to fly and are quite slender. When hunting grand mals semi coil up their necks so that they can surprise prey by shooting it out and snapping them up. As their favorite meal is fish this is a big help to it getting the upper hand on slippery prey.

Behavior

Starting its life as a two-foot-tall chick, the seizing bird takes one year to reach adulthood and be a humble four feet tall. At this point in their life, they are known as petit mals. Stocky and fairly durable for a bird the petit mals are quick on their feet and chase down any prey they can. They are not keen on sharing with their owners though. Seizing birds are made for T and L-class notail kids, with the former being the main audience.

Petit mals will never become grand mals without large amounts of food. Even after a meal, the petit mals will hop over to their owner, opening their mouth and screaming for more food. The seizing bird is an investment. A large amount of hard work has to be done to get more food. Those who take up the challenge will spend their first two years trying to give the petit mals as much food as possible. As the petit mals eat, they become bigger, but there is a catch, they have a rather strange survival move.

The form between the petit and grand mal is lanky, unable to fly, but unable to run as well. If they are continued to be given food at a fair rate they will keep growing as normal, but if the food source starts to dry out they will actually shrink back over time to their original size. This is because it signals to the petit mal that now is not a good time to invest into growing, as if the food runs out they will surely strave in their awkward form. The investment into the petit mal must be continuous if the child hopes to ever obtain a grand mal form.

There is a reason for these children to overwork themselves for the first two years of their time in the woods for this strange bird. Once they are big enough to fly, they will have officially hit their grand mal stage. At this point, they cannot naturally revert and will totally hunt for themselves, and the child. The food they will bring in will be more than enough to feed the child, to the point they will not need to work for their food in the woods for the rest of their years. The grand mal is also a fearsome predator who strikes fear into anyone who would want to hurt a child who has one.

Those who obtain a grand mal are considered very good T or L-classes, ones who know that investments and planning for the future are incredibly important. For T-classes especially having a grand mal may allow them to start at a higher position than their peers from the start.

For those who leave the woods with a petit mal, they are looked down upon. They will be tossed into a lower position than their peers as most people will believe they are bad investors. Children know from the moment they pick a seizing bird that this is an investment, and failure will be noticed, so anyone who fails is rarely given pity.

Notails who obtained grand mal seizing birds tend to forward thinkers and safer gamblers. They tend to be hardworking, knowing nothing will be just given to them and complain out loud much less. On the downside, they seem more easily disappointed when no reward is given to them for their work, either monetary or even emotionally with praise. When this happens they may attempt even harder to get their expected reward and end up feeling just a bit lost when yet again, no reward comes their way.

Due to these notails complaining less they end up rewarding themselves more often or looking for things that will gain them the praise or attention they need. After all, everyone was so impressed about their bird and they want to relive how proud they felt on that day.

Subspecies

Fancy Seizing: The fancy seizing bird is only one feet tall, with those who are fed well getting up to three feet. These seizing birds will only flash a single color. This color is their favorite one and they will collect and pile items of this color in their nesting area. Both male and females of this subspecies exist, and as such there is a huge market for breeding the birds to be shaped like other birds while retaining their general looks and flashing ability. If two fancy seizing birds end up in the same area and they flash the same color they will either share a nest or steal from each other constantly.

Daylight Seizing: The daylight seizing bird is just like a normal one, but it is white. Due to its coloration it is more easily noticed by prey and to make up for this it opts to trade some of its grand form size for faster flying speed. This type wakes up in the morning, thus not dooming its owner to becoming nocturnal. Most daylight seizing birds are sold to adults, as their flashing ability is not as useful in the morning, but a few end up shipped to capture creature labs and picked up by children.

Wild Seizing: This type is the most common type found as invasive species on other planets. These seizing birds are normally two feet tall and able to fly right away. The much rarer grand type is near five feet tall. They are nocturnal like other seizing birds and attempt to stay in a flock when they leave their hiding spots at night. If a flying predator attempts to attack them the entire flock will start to flash, making the predator have an extremely hard time aiming at a single bird to attack. Visitors to places where the wild seizing birds flock note that watching this event is breathtaking. Residents of the areas on the other hand loudly complain about the invasive species, noting that it makes it hard to sleep at night.

Special

Flashing: The underside of the seizing bird's wings, and to a much lesser degree the inside of their mouths, are able to flash colors rapidly. The colors are fairly bright and alarming to those who don't expect it. Depending on the person the colors may flash so quickly that they will be extremely affected by it.

Trivia

• While most seizing birds seem to default their wings to being white when not in use, or flying, 25% of them default to black wings, and 10% of them have colored wings. It is unknown why this happens.

• Grand mal seizing birds frequently unfold their wings and flash colors rapidly. This is a signal they use to attract mates to their area. As the popular type of seizing bird is a male only species they do this in vain. Grand mals may even grab their owners and put them in their nest while they flash. They hope that by showing off their "healthy, if oddly shaped, chick" they can show what a good caretaker they are. They do seem to understand that the owner is not their chick and will be quick to toss them out when they've given up for the day.

• Wild grand mal seizing birds will feed their parents if their parents are not grand mals as well, showing that the seizing bird's "investment" is a natural occurrence instead of one bred into them.

• The most famous seizing bird owner is Q-10 who obtained a seizing bird as an adult. Stories have been told, and statues have been erected about him riding triumphantly into the battle of Fort Massacre. He and his bird perished in the great inferno they caused, but their sacrifice saved potentially billions on the planet from the horrible clockwork fate.

• Oh, right, also the notail leader O-10 had a seizing bird when he was younger and he easily raised it to be a full-sized grand mal. He currently owns fancy seizing birds.

Image Gallery