Paper-Drinker
A Permitbird resembles gray-white paper fiber folded into a small bird, with ragged feathers and a narrow, ink-stained beak. At rest it can pass for rubbish. It gathers around permit halls, ration windows, clinic desks, schools, cargo counters, and transit gates. Warm bins and duct ledges shelter it; wet forms and hurried corrections draw it out after a storm spike.
It does not ordinarily eat paper or attack flesh. A peck removes or changes a stamp corner, number loop, signature fiber, or tiny space between marks. The result still looks legitimate until a clerk, machine, or comparison rejects it. Hunger, suspicion, and missed treatment do the harm afterward.
Keeping the same name
Travelers warm forms over pipes, repair dry sleeves, and separate their spare proof between pockets. A witness can remember what a document said before it reached the counter. Lending dry cloth or shielding another person's paperwork is practical mutual protection, not merely politeness.
The bird also supports a market in verification and repair. Some brokers manufacture the discrepancy they offer to fix. Officials call the damage poor storage, contamination, or forgery. The street name Paper-Drinker suggests it consumes names; its actual intervention is smaller, and easier for someone else to exploit.
