Sonic Gulls

Name: Sonic gull
Type: Unique
Rarity: Extreme (fall, winter, early to mid spring), Rare (late spring – mid to late summer)
Status: Wild, domesticatible in future

Appearance

Sonic gulls are visually identical to their non-mutated laughing gull cousins, save for a “crown” of golden yellow plumage around the back of the head (with a few red feathers beneath the crown in male breeding adults), their white lower beaks, their white- or gold-tipped upper beaks, and their white-tipped toes. The white toe-tipping and white lower beak coloration is present throughout all stages of life, while the upper beak tipping develops during the juvenile stage and the crown develops during adolescence. Given the coloration of the gull and the nature of its abilities, sailors often joke that sonic gulls are the first mates of the seagull population.

Abilities

Sensory Rigen pathway disruption (auditory), Rigen siphoning and storage, sensing Rigen and its pathways in organisms, metabolising Rigen, potential to cause permanent inner ear damage, vocal tone and vowel sound mimicry of sentient races, being chaking dohis and nuisances to sailing society.

Siphonics

Adult Spellpool: 60
Adolescent Spellpool: 50
Juvenile Spellpool: 40
Chick Spellpool: 30

Adult Rigen Sac Capacity: 30
Adolescent Rigen Sac Capacity: 25
Juvenile Rigen Sac Capacity: 20
Chick Rigen Sac Capacity: 10

• Sonic gulls can siphon a small insect’s entire spellpool instantly and small organisms’ entire spellpools in mere seconds. Sentient beings such as Humans and Hellbends, due to being more densely-packed with Rigen than non-sentient species, are more difficult for gulls to siphon from. Sentient races are a bit of a bottleneck to the gulls’ siphonics ability, and only negligible portions of those races’ spellpools may be siphoned at a time due to the gulls’ spellpool and rigen sac capacity. The only way for a sonic gull to kill a member of a sentient race via depletion is if the person’s spellpool is already critically low — when siphoning from sentient races, the gull’s goal is never to kill the host, but only siphon enough to replenish the gull’s own spellpool and store for the gull’s young to feed on.
• The disrupting and siphoning cry of a sonic gull, being instinctively Rigenic, expends 1% of the gull’s spellpool every consecutive second of calling, rounded up to the nearest whole number. The gull’s siphonics, in return, yields 2% of a sentient being’s spellpool in return every consecutive second of calling, again rounded up to the nearest whole number.
• The magical properties of the cry are applied as an area of effect technique, affecting everyone within 100 feet of the gull. Inanimate objects such as the wooden boards of a ship’s decks reduce the range of the area of effect by 25 feet per layer.
• The cry repels unbonded rigen via reconfiguring the gull’s personal rigen and sending it travelling through sound waves.
• The sound waves rebound off organisms’ eardrums, and the reconfigured gull rigen attaches to the rigen in the eardrums and ear canal, disrupting the pathways as a result of the gull’s rigen mimicking the absence of rigen. This is when the temporary deafness begins.
• The gull siphons the attached rigen, either using it to fuel further siphonics use or storing it in its rigen sac.
• The rigen sac is similar to a stomach in that its opening is opened up and closed off by a sphincter. The sac connects directly to the back of the gull’s throat via a tube similar to an esophagus. The lining of the sac and esophagus contains a high concentration of bonded rigen from the gull’s own spellpool that traps stolen rigen within the confines of the sac so that it cannot escape back into the atmopool or into the gull’s own spellpool. The rigen in the sac unbonds from the gull and its previous attachment over time, but once the rigen is needed it is rebonded with the gull for use in siphonics, feeding young, and digestion of the rigen in the sac. While stored Rigen is most often used immediately or over the course of the next day or two after siphoning, it may be stored in the sac for up to five days, at which point the Rigen’s instability causes symptoms in the gull similar to an upset stomach and the gull either forcibly regurgitates the unused Rigen back into the atmopool or the Rigen sac begins digesting the Rigen, resulting in violent diarrhea. The sac is connected to the digestive system via another sphincter, and upon digestion most of the Rigen is metabolized while the rest is expelled back into the atmopool with the gull’s regular waste.
• Sonic gulls are unaffected by the sonic gull call. The reason for this is that, as a result of their mutation during The Change Days, the Rigen pathways in their ears formed to repel Rigen vibrating at the frequency of the sonic gull call. The gulls can still hear the calls of their species, but are Rigenically unaffected.

Life Cycle

Sonic gulls begin as eggs. Clutch size is 3-5 eggs. Eggs’ incubation period is 20-26 days. Chicks do not fully develop a stomach until five days after hatching and become juveniles two and a half weeks after hatching. Juveniles become adolescents around four to five weeks after hatching. Adolescents mature around six to seven weeks. A sonic gull may live ten to fifteen years.

Diet

Chicks are fed exclusively on rigen during their first week, and are then weaned off rigen in the second week of life after the stomach fully develops. Sonic gulls are carnivorous, eating small fish, crustaceans, insects, and other animals’ eggs chiefly. They may occasionally steal food from Humans or Hellbends like they steal Rigen.

Habitat

The Gordon Strait. Other species of sonic gull or even other seabirds mutated from local fauna during The Change Days may be present in coastal areas with a similar climate to the Gordon Strait in other regions of Siliren. They are not found in the Triiping Sea. Sonic gulls are known to attempt to nest in the crow’s nests and atop the masts and yards of ships due to the multitude of sources of Rigen available for their young, but otherwise nest on bluffs, beaches, and shoals in secluded areas such as the Hooded Bluffs.

Uses

Feathers, meat, Rigen storage and repletion in future via taming and training, naval combat in future via taming and training. Avakaron’s zoologists dissuade hunting of these birds due to their scarce population and the need for research of this species.

Taming

Expert (requires focus in seagulls), Master (requires focus in birds). A deaf (no thanks to the gulls) ornithologist somewhere on the northern coast of Winhem is presently working towards capturing some of these birds alive for research, and will happily accept live specimens should they be presented before the researcher finally captures one themself. Soon after, the birds will be tamed and bred in captivity for further study, and eventually training sonic seagulls for use in naval combat, especially when battlemages are present, will be possible (will require Falconry and Animal Husbandry).

Population

 Less than 200.

Other Information

When the portal from Anore to Siliren opened and Rigen seeped into the previously-magic-devoid world, a handful of the laughing gull population of the Gordon Strait was affected. Chiefly, these gulls’ vocal folds were mutated, resulting in a new subspecies of laughing gull emerging: the sonic gull.

While the sonic gull’s cry remains nearly auditorily the same as their non-mutated cousins’ apart from a moderate increase in volume, the cry is most distinguishable by the effects it has on a person’s body. About 10 seconds after initial exposure to a sonic gull’s call, a sensation of pressure starts to build up in the heads of those exposed (it feels similar to the sensation of pressure change in the ears when going up or down in elevation; since mountains do not exist in Winhem, this phenomenon would not be known to those who have never left the continent). After around 15 seconds of continuous exposure, a pressure headache starts to form. Prolonged exposure (two minutes or more) can result in temporary deafness. Seafarers of a magical inclination have reported that, Rigenically, this deafness is a result of the Rigen pathways to their ears being disrupted and severed, similar to the sense-numbing effects of Perceptics. Those deafened by sonic gulls are advised to plug their ears with their fingers to prevent permanent damage to their eardrums or to enter closed quarters to avoid the gulls altogether until their hearing returns, as after the deafness occurs, sonic gulls are known to get close to those whose hearing they’ve cut off and continue their loud calling while seeming to fixate on the person intensely. Casters who have experienced sonic gull deafness and have been approached by the assailing bird have reported experiencing the sensation of spellpool depletion while the gull was calling at them. Within the past few years, an Auror travelling via a ship that encountered a laughing gull was able to discover, via viewing the gull’s aura, that sonic gulls use Siphonics.

Outside of the breeding and nesting season, sonic gulls are rarely if ever encountered by Humans and Hellbends, as the gulls have no need for such large amounts of Rigen during this time and can replenish their spellpools from their prey while hunting. Sonic gulls also use their calls as hunting and defense mechanisms, stunning prey and threats with their magical sound waves and rendering them unable to hear, thereby granting the gull an advantage in catching the prey or escaping the threat.

Since sonic gulls are born without fully-developed stomachs and must feed exclusively on Rigen for the first week of life, can only lay clutches of up to 5 eggs per brood, and are considered pests by Organized Sailors and other parties who frequent the Gordon Strait, the population of this species in the wild remains critically low.

Sonic gull cries can be heard up to 150 feet away.

Given that first mates are often the loudest people on ships, sonic gulls’ vowel sound mimicry is frequently those of orders such as “B’lay/balay” (“AY!/AH-AY!”). So if a first mate bellows an order, and a few moments later the vowel sounds of that order are heard at a higher pitch than the first mate’s diaphragm voice, get ready!

Organized Sailing Procedure regarding Sonic Gulls

The first person to discover the presence of a sonic gull is to yell “SONIC GULL! PLUG Y’R/YER EARS!” Those around parrot the phrase throughout the ship in both Common and Rigarian to spread the word quickly, plug their ears, and remain calm, staying where they are and ceasing work if they aren’t performing a vital task. People whose spellpools are known to be low are ushered deep below decks into the bowels of the ship immediately for their own safety. Someone who wasn’t directly exposed to the gull’s call goes to notify the first mate immediately or another officer who will then notify the first mate, and the first mate sends either a sailor or a steward above board to give out earplugs to those performing vital tasks such as helm duty or crow’s nest duty (it is dangerous for a helmsman to take their hands off the wheel and a lookout needs to use their hands to peer through spyglasses, as distant threats don’t stop for sonic gulls — it is vital for first mates to retain their ability to communicate effectively with the crew, passengers, and other officers, which is why they avoid direct exposure to the cry of the gull). On passenger ships, passengers are ordered to remain below decks, in their cabins preferably, and the first mate does a patrol to ensure all passengers are following procedure. The mate as well as stewards address any concerns passengers might voice and inform them of the situation. The captain is notified, and the captain ensures the other officers are notified of the situation as well. The captain then meets with the first mate and informs them of their progress towards notifying other officers and inquires of the mate’s progress towards notifying crew (and passengers). After touching base, the captain inquires with sailors who have been above board monitoring the location of the gull about the current status of the bird using gestures, as those who’ve been above board are likely to have already lost their hearing temporarily. To ask, “Is the gull still out there?” the officer first bends their arms at the elbows at their sides and flaps their hands at the wrists like they’re flapping wings; next, the officer points upward (towards the sky); finally, they bend their elbows with forearms in front of them, beginning the motion with palms facing downward and ending the motion with palms facing upward and concluding the gesture with a single shrug of the shoulders. The sailor being questioned then either nods their head yes or shakes their head no. If the answer of “no” is given, the captain begins the cooldown portion of the procedure; if the answer of “yes” is given, the captain remains in communication with those monitoring the gull’s location (the captain remains below decks for the same reason as the first mate). Once people’s hearing starts to return, the captain sends out a few sailors who can hear to search the decks above board for the bird and inquire with the lookout as to the current whereabouts of the bird and which way it is going. The sailors report back to the captain with their findings. If the bird is returning or is still present, everyone stays hunkered down until it is certainly leaving or gone; if the bird has gone, the captain goes above board themself to monitor the gull’s departure through a spyglass. Once the captain is sure the gull will not be returning, they give the order for everyone to Carry On as soon as their hearing returns. They then ensure the rest of the crew and officers (and passengers) are notified and given the updated order to Carry On upon return of hearing and work (and leisure) gradually resumes. Crew or passengers who are concerned that their ears may have suffered permanent damage are advised to go to sick bay for a check up with the ship’s doctor.

Example Encounters

Just then, the wind picks up and blows Currituck’s hat off. He thinks it is lost, as he doesn’t want to interrupt his respectful ceremony for the selfish reason of saving a hat; however, a light gray, almost white seagull catches his hat in its beak before it even leaves the perimeter of the crow’s nest and lands on the edge of the nest, holding the cap. Currituck stares at the bird. He notices that the tip of the gull’s beak is white. The gull stares back at him, head jerking in that telltale bird way. Continuing to stand at attention, Currituck reaches out carefully to receive his hat. The gull cocks its head and bends forward, almost as if it is giving the hat back to him. He secures the visor between his fingers, places his hat back on his head, and straightens it out. He eyes the seagull, and gives it a smart salute of thanks.

“Thank you, ma’r.”

The seagull flutters its wings, hops two hops to its right, spreads its wings, and springs off in flight. As the gull turned its head, however, Currituck saw some golden plumage on the back of the gull’s neck.

The golden crown of a sonic gull.

As the gull flies away, Currituck hears the vowel sounds of the last line he sung of the song coming from the bird. The gull is mimicking his singing. Truly, that’s a sonic gull. Maybe it had nested atop another mast? Currituck does not fear his hearing going out, as the gull is flying away, and instead gazes ahead toward the eastern horizon.

–Currituck Ivati, Reflections in the Crows Nest

Article Credit goes to DemonAnastasi, this article was the winner of the Summer 321 Writing Challenge!