The street outside of Mario's was the Crow's main hunting ground. Well, more like scavenging ground... it didn't really do much 'hunting' besides ambushing the occasional rat. There was plenty of food to be found there regardless, and even then, it wasn't always food that caught its fancy. Sometimes it was a dropped coin, or a loose earring. Sometimes, it was something as insignificant as a bottle cap. It didn't really matter. As long as it caught the light in particular way, the moment it was just out of its owner's reach, it was up for grabs and the Crow was quick to take.
As such, the bird had earned something of a reputation around the area, recognizable for its behavior and the distinctive patches of off-white feathers on its wings. The public had given it several names: that Damned Crow (or DC), That Fucking Crow, Stupid Bird, Crow from Hell, Feathered Fiend, and many more... some it liked more than others, but they were all its names, collected like its many treasure.
Speaking of treasure, the Crow had been on the sidewalk just outside the diner, very carefully attempting to remove a coin that was stuck in a sewer grate. Just as it was making progress in freeing the coin, suddenly there was a loud noise just in the diner behind it and it felt himself being flung back.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it found itself somewhere else entirely. Inside some sort of building he didn't recognize, atop some sort of perch that he felt had been specifically place here for him. Across a table stood a strange human with striking yellow eyes, and on the stools next to him, three others. One of them he didn't recognize, but two were familiar to him. He didn't know their names, of course, but their faces he distinctly remembered. One was a girl who had given him food in the past, and the other, a vibrant young man who often carried him the shiniest trinkets and had quite the habit of losing track of them.
The yellow-eyed man spoke first. As an intelligent corvid, the Crow had managed to gain some understanding of a good few human words, though like most animals, sentence structure eluded him. So it was quite some surprise that when the man with yellow eyes spoke, he perfectly understood the meaning of his words.
"Dead?" the Crow's voice rang out, revealing a masculine, posh and fairly pompous sounding voice that all humans present would be capable of comprehending. "What do you mean dead? That is very much not possible, good sir! I am still here! In fact, I dare say I feel more alive than I ever have, I-" He paused. Was he normally this verbose? Was his mind normally racing as fast as it was now? He felt very strange, though he couldn't wasn't sure why. He felt as if he were seeing things more clearly than usual.
Before he could fully dwell over these thoughts, the vibrant human spoke up, seeming quite jovial despite the news that had been presented to him. In fact, it seemed he recognized the Crow just as quickly as the Crow recognized him, and seemed quite happy that the bird had met his end. The Crow was just about to give a sharp retort when he noticed something on the table in front of the young man: a strange colorful rectangle that seemed to change color and pattern depending on what angle it was viewed from. And once he noticed the vibrant man's card, he noticed three others lined alongside it.
Including one just in front of the Crow himself that seemed to bring out a strong possessive feeling within him.
With a flutter of his wings and a large hop, the Crow cleared the gap between his perch and the counter and placed on his talon over the card - his card.
"What's this?" he said, pecking at the rectangle curiously.
Carlyle,
rush99999,
Lurking Krog,
Crimson Flame,
ctrlsaltdel,
Guardian Angel Haruki,
Tachi,
Kaithe Dame,
BlazingBark,
Rune_Alchemist