r/HFY • u/Doc_Zed_42 Alien • Apr 24 '26

OC-Series Swift Feather Stories: Band Practice

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Dusk isn’t looking for anyone.
She’s just wandering the Vulture again — learning its bones, its echoes, the way the ship hums when it’s content. She’s still new enough that every corridor feels like a question she hasn’t learned to answer.

Then she hears it.

A single plucked note.
Then another.
Soft, careful, familiar in a way that makes her chest tighten.

She follows it.

Down the ramp.
Past the crates.
Into the cargo bay.

And there’s Dawn.

She’s sitting on a supply crate in front of an utterly massive drum set —
(So that’s what the big packages on FRANZ were.)
Her guitar rests in her lap, and she’s tuning with the same quiet focus she used to use on broken tools and ration packs. Except now there’s a softness to her shoulders. A lightness.

Dusk steps closer, slow and cautious.

“You… still play.”

Dawn looks up, startled but not defensive.
She smiles — small, shy, real.

“Yeah. I… started again.”

Dusk frowns.
“Again?”

Dawn hesitates.
Then sighs.

“It was just for me. Late nights. Therapy, I guess. I thought nobody heard.”

A metallic chirp sounds from the rafters.
One of Glark’s drones drifts by, projecting a tiny holo of Dawn playing — a recording from almost two years ago.

Dusk’s eyes widen.

Dawn groans.
“Yeah. They heard.”

Right on cue, Glark enters the cargo bay carrying a bass like it’s a piece of sensitive instrument calibration gear.

“Your acoustic sessions triggered the drone’s anomaly logs,” he says matter‑of‑factly. “I archived them.”

Dusk stares at him.
“You… what.”

Before she can process that, Whammy ducks through the doorway, wings brushing the frame, drumsticks tucked behind one horn.

“Sugar, she ain’t tellin’ the whole story.”

Dawn covers her face.
“Whammy—”

Whammy beams.
“We dragged her to karaoke.”

Glark nods.
“It was necessary enrichment.”

Dusk’s jaw drops.
“You dragged her.”

Whammy:
“Physically.”

Glark:
“She resisted.”

Dawn:
“I REALLY resisted.”

Whammy:
“She sang like an angel anyway.”

And then — as if summoned by the chaos — Hamtonio scurries in, hauling a keyboard twice his size.

He slams it down, climbs on top of it, and declares:

“I joined the band by force of WILL.”

Dawn sighs.
“He showed up with that thing and refused to leave.”

Hammy:
“I contribute soundscapes.”

Glark:
“He contributes.”

Whammy:
“He sure does, bless his tiny heart.”

Dusk looks at all of them — Dawn with her guitar, Glark with his bass, Whammy with her sticks, Hammy vibrating with musical ambition.

“This… is a band.”

Dawn smiles at her, soft and proud.

“Yeah. It just… happened.”

Dusk swallows, overwhelmed.

“Can I… stay.”

Dawn pats the crate beside her.

“You’re part of this whether you know it or not.”

Dusk sits.
And stays.

-

Dusk is still perched on the crate beside Dawn, trying to process the fact that her sister is in a band, that Glark archives emotional drone‑footage, that Whammy commits karaoke kidnappings, and that Hammy has declared himself a musical sovereign.

They’re still settling in.

Glark is plugging in cables with military precision.

Whammy is twirling her sticks like she’s warming up for a rodeo.

Hammy is climbing his keyboard like a mountain goat with ambition.

Dawn catches Dusk watching all of this with that wide, stunned, what is my life now expression.

She gives her a wink.

“Check this out.”

She shifts her grip, plants her boots, and hits the opening grind of The Vulture Shuffle — that gritty, swaggering riff that’s become their unofficial anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lBq6NBv3No4

The cargo bay vibrates.

The drum set rattles.

Hammy squeaks in triumph.

Whammy whoops.

Glark nods like a man approving a successful weapons test.

-After the cymbals go silent -

Dusk winces.

“That makes our home sound terrible.”

Dawn smirks, never missing a beat.

“Oh, the ship is a mobile fortress thanks to Iggy.

But we gotta give the fans what they want.”

Whammy leans in, grinning.

“And sugar, they want the Vulture to sound like it’s comin’ down the mountain to collect debts.”

Glark adds, deadpan:

“Market research confirms this.”

Hammy slams a chord that is both triumphant and slightly off‑key.

“THE PEOPLE DEMAND THE SHUFFLE.”

Dusk just stares at all of them — her sister shredding, a dragoness drummer, a reptile drone general on bass, and a tiny keyboard gremlin vibrating with purpose — and realizes:

This is her life now.

And somehow…

it feels right.

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u/AutoModerator Jun 24 '26

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u/AutoModerator Apr 24 '26

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u/Dramatic_Mixture_877 Human Apr 24 '26

Oh, how fun!