Aetius

Aetius is a harpy from the 1970s. During the day, he works as an accountant for a floral company. On his own time, he's a glam rock musician who enjoys drag and socializing, a sharp contrast to his mostly silent nature at work.

Aetius is typically quiet and tends to stay in his own lane at work. He can come across pretty boring until you get to know him. He's generally reluctant to share a lot of his life with people he doesn't fully trust, but once he does trust someone, he'll never leave their side. Despite his reserved nature in public, he does let bits of his social personally shine through, mostly in the form of lunch break chatter. He's very pop culture educated, and his peers can always trust him to give them recommendations for new entertainment. They also go to him for all the latest celebrity gossip and crazy Hollywood scandals, but where he gets this information from remains a mystery to them, much like the rest of his life.

Aetius, like many other harpies in his time, was born in a mostly avian "flock town" near the mountains. Most harpies are drawn to these spots to raise chicks due to their ample flight training space, which can be hard to find in larger cities. Being the smallest in the clutch, he was babied and doted on by his parents. Though they could be a bit overbearing, he grew up mostly normally. His small flock town upbringing made the world of offices and urban environments very intriguing to him, eventually leading him to the city. One wrong address changed his life forever as he was introduced the unique new world of preforming. Though he'd vaguely heard of glam rock before, he'd never really seen a concert until then, and the dramatic fashion, performances, and music captivated him. He continued to attend shows for a while, often saving all his excess money for monthly concerts. Soon after he got his current job, he decided to try it out for himself. In the beginning, he sang mostly alone, occasionally chiming in at smaller shows. But at one show, he was noticed by a small group of drag queens who invited him to sing at a local bar. Despite his unimpressive office attire, he soon become a favorite among frequent patrons. Eventually, he donned his sparkly suit and makeup, and from there, Penelope Cock was born.

His routines are pretty versatile, and normally he doesn't have much of a set plan for them, unless he thinks of some really good idea he wants to try out. He loves getting audiences involved in his performances in any way he can. He loves Twisted Sister, Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summers, Queen, Elton John, and David Bowie, so a lot of their influences rub off on his work (both aesthetically and musically). When he was young, his sisters used colored powder to make their feathers look bright and vibrant, inspiring his current look of gold and blue feathers. 

Aetius lives in a suburban neighborhood, close to the city where he works and preforms. His neighbors are quite interested by him, due to his odd-seeming hours and general refusal to share information. Sometimes, they see another harpy visiting, but they haven't been able to find out what his name is or why he's there. The harpy in question is named Covey and he's Aetius' most trusted companion. Covey is a journalist and hobbyist chef from the city. They met at an arts festival geared towards harpies, Songbird's Nest '57. Covey was covering the festival for the magazine he was working at at the time, and Aetius was looking for other young singers. They started talking over something mundane, and haven't stopped since. Aetius and Covey are extremely close and very affectionate, and talk or visit with each other almost daily. Aetius loves hearing and passing on the crazy celebrity stories that Covey tells him about. Most today would call them mates if they didn't know any better, and they're not really wrong.

Aetius' parents send a seemingly endless stream of letters. They send a lot of letters to their kids, and despite having a phone, they don't use it much. Aetius gets the most letters, ranging from his dad's seemingly random rambling, to his mother's stories from decades ago, and both of their advice, which often comes scarily close to what's happening in his life. His siblings tend to just call each other. He has six siblings, two brothers and three sisters, not including himself in the count. His brother was arrested, so the siblings periodically check in with their sister Berigora to see what's going on. Besides that, they keep in touch pretty well. Aetius is still kind of treated like the baby of the group, but after a few snappy responses, his family came to figure that he was, in fact, doing good.

Aetius tries to avoid conflict whenever possible, especially physical fighting. Like most harpies, he's very light for someone of his height, and he doesn't fight well. If he suspects himself to be in a dangerous situation, he's more likely to fly away and perch somewhere safe than to risk being hurt. Because of his dislike for conflict, he tends to just go with whatever someone else tells him to do, especially when they're larger or stronger than him. He's slow to trust, limiting the amount of social interaction he gets. He panics very quickly, and fear can often cloud his judgement. He also has trouble asking for help, as he gets embarrassed easily. He can be overly critical when asked to give input, despite his attempts to soften the blow with compliments. He's also quite petty, sometimes holding on to grudges for years, despite his attempts to get over them and see the best in people.