At least her anatomy was similar, Two legs, two arms, a head and a body. The hands, though recognizable, had more digits and were thinner than his own. But that was where the familiarity ended. There was this weird diamond-hook shaped thing on the head near the front, and a circle on the back. He can only assume it was some sort of appendage. He titled his head a bit, trying to figure out the shape. “Can you… Turn to the side?” He asked, hoping that he wasn’t being rude. 

“Oh? L-Like this?” The inky silhouette slowly turned to show Red’s profile, her tone went quiet, possibly embarrassed. 

Lyam was silent for a while, tilting his head from side to side, trying to understand what he was seeing. As he observed, his feathers slowly relaxed and smoothed out. The head shape is certainly different from what he is familiar with. However, he also wanted to be a gentlebird, so he forced himself to speak up without sounding disrespectful. “You have an… interesting beak. What kind of food do you enjoy?” He asked, hoping that perhaps connecting through the topic of cuisines may work. 

“Beak? Ah, right. I don’t actually have a beak.” She replied, as the shadow placed a finger on the ‘beak’ in question and pushed, exposing its softness.

Lyam was so surprised, his jaw dropped as he let out a light gasp. However, he immediately regretted doing so, finding himself to be rude. He quickly closed his mouth, and curled up in his seat, hiding his neck into his shoulders. “Sorry, sorry, uh-” He mumbled his apology while trying to get his mind back on topic. “So what do you call that sticking out from your um… t-the thing that sticks out in front of your face?” Lyam leaned against his chair more. Usually questions like this would earn any bird a slap to the face, since it was an insult towards mutation or one’s race. It was certainly a common question for the children that were hybrids, such like his own. But Lyam meant no ill intentions, he was just genuinely curious. 

“Well, this is my nose, since I don’t have a beak.” Red tried to explain as the silhouette’s hand cradled her head as she pondered.

Lyam’s jaw once again dropped as the therapist described herself in a way he had never thought could exist and still function. He wanted to ask a bunch of questions like a young chick who was fascinated by the world and wanted to learn more. ‘Your nose is not on your beak?’ ‘Do you have a beak?’ ‘If you don’t have a beak, what do you eat? How do you eat?’  ‘Do you need to eat?’ Of course he said none of that, and closed his mouth once more, withholding any impolite regards from being spoken.. 

“F-fascinating.” He said instead, “So… I’ve never seen an avian like you before. What’s your kind called?” He tried to express himself in a more acceptable manner  and ask a more, in his mind, decent question. His neck slightly extended outward as he looked to the shadow on the wall, hoping to find out more about the doctor. 

“Well, I am not Avian. I am, what we call, Human.” The woman paused for a moment while thinking of her next words. “Which is… like a hairless ape…”

Lyam froze in place, completely caught off guard. He got off his seat to take a good look at Red’s overall shape once more, tilting his head from one side to the other. “What’s an ape?” He said weakly, feeling like he has failed his kindergarten teacher in some way. 

“Well, they have fur and walk straight up. But us humans have less fur, that we call hair, and developed further when it comes to our brains. We don’t have beaks or talons either. And…” Red continued to explain the different parts of a human, almost rambling while Lyam did his best to understand. Though as much as he tried, he found it hard to picture a creature that looked like the one on the silhouette.

The conversation went on for longer than it should have, and eventually, the detective had asked the therapist for some time and distance to think about all this. The new information was overwhelming. It took a few days for Lyam to process everything that he saw with his own eyes, to make sense of it. Despite him still doing his work, Red’s appearance has never left his mind, not even when he was curled up and resting on the floor in the corner of his office, trying to get some sleep.

He thought about how well they’ve been interacting with each other, despite him not knowing how Red looks, they still get along well. And now that he does, he wondered if that knowledge would really change anything when neither of them has changed internally. This challenged his understanding of acceptance in different races entirely. At first, he assumed he wasn’t racist, seeing how he was able to handle all sorts of avians. But perhaps Red had revealed a part of his unconscious bias that he was blind to. It pushed him out of his comfort zone, that’s for sure.

The heron also thought about it from a different perspective, from Red’s point of view, and she didn’t seem to display any type of difference or discrimination towards him either. This whole topic about race and species difference is slowly convincing Lyam to think it was okay to continue his relation with Red. But whenever he pondered about the fact that Red might not even be a living entity, every other definition he could give the doctor being just another kind of animal was out the window, and his mind was once again filled with speculation and skepticism about the woman’s intentions.  

With all this uncertainty up in the air, Lyam had to find a way to stop ruminating about all the possibilities and just simply ask himself what did he want out of all this. He questioned if he had clear boundaries with someone so anonymous, something that he should’ve already been very clear about before they became close enough to speak on his cases. Lyam had repeatedly advised himself to stop their interactions at the first sign of any potential danger displayed by Red. 

Ultimately, after considering how nothing went wrong with the cases, and how accepting Red was, he decided that it was fine to continue his talks with the doctor. If there’s any downside to this, it’s probably him going insane and talking to non-existing beings. But since this is his own little secret, he was fine with it. The heron picked up the phone. “Red, are you there?” 

“Of course, Lyam.” The woman cheerfully answered, “What do you want to talk about today?”

Joy resonated from the detective as her voice was heard over the line. After all the recent anxious thoughts, it was good to have positive memories about her back in his mind.