( accidental video | un: duckling )

[danserai]

[ it's a dark and — well it's just a dark month and ahiru never really functions well in the dark. she gets spooked easily which is sort of what happens here. a sequence of events, by a duck.

1. she enters the kitchen. the lights are off and she bumps into various furniture. ]

Ow ow ow ow —

[ 2. her hand brushes against a coat hanging on top of a chair. in her mind, she imagines a snake.

3. She panics and lets out a loud: ]

Quack!

[ 4. ahiru ends up turning into a duck on screen. gasp! not that she has realized she's being recorded.

5. she quickly waddles off and there's the sound of water and she comes back into the kitchen with a relief. ]

— Phew that was clo . . . ooooose, O-Odette! Were you displaying this the whole time?! A-Ah!!

[ ahiru immediately runs in front of the feed, waving her hands frantically. ]

You didn't see that! There's nothing to see! It was . . . uh, uh, a MYSTERY DUCK that broke into the house but it's gone now!

[ alas, ahiru has been well and truly outed as . . . a duck. ]

Comments

1/?

[anagnorises]

[A post from Ahiru? It looks pretty dark...]

2/?

[anagnorises]

[What.

What did you just do on camera? How do you even manage to do these things?]

3/?

[anagnorises]

[Wait, she mentioned "Odette," isn't that her Omen?]

4/?

[anagnorises]

[Why would her omen record this?]

5/done; private, video

[anagnorises]

What exactly is going on?

[danserai]

Fakiiiir . . . I don't know why but my Omen watched me change . . .

[anagnorises]

Can I talk to her?

[Is he intending to threaten the magical creature bonded to Ahiru's soul?

Maybe.]

[danserai]

What? Why?

[anagnorises]

To talk.

[He said, ominously.]

[danserai]

[ ahiru may be dense, but she knows fakir well enough. ]

I-It's not a big deal, Fakir! I don't think it's necessary.

[anagnorises]

It's not a big deal?

[he knows Ahiru well enough to be skeptical]

[danserai]

[ she takes that hit with a wince. ]

Okay . . . it is a big deal. B-But it was an accident. I can't blame Odette.

[anagnorises]

You can't?

[still skeptical]

[danserai]

Because . . . it's just an accident.

And . . . someone would have figured it out.

[anagnorises]

But not everyone.

[danserai]

It's fine, Fakir. It's not like I could pretend to be a girl forever, haha . . .

It had to end sometime.

[anagnorises]

[He's silent, for a while. Pretend. It's true. Each of them has pretended, insisting on certain roles or shoving them away. But neither of them can escape who and what they are. It has to end sometime. That she's a duck doesn't change anything Ahiru has accomplished as a girl. And having done them as a girl doesn't mean she's any less herself as a duck.

But does someone have to only be one thing? And here, especially, where it's not a matter of Drosselmeyer changing a duck to fill a role in the story, but her choosing to live as a girl...

He feels a little like he's been spun around, making too many turns without spotting.]

Can't you be both?

[He's asking himself as much as her.]

[danserai]

[ be . . . both? wouldn't that be a lie? but it's not as though she's really lying now. she is a duck. she is a girl. both have come together in this place in an unprecedented way. ]

. . . Maybe?

[anagnorises]

Then try that.

[He sounds more definite than he feels. But if this isn't the place and time to see if that's possible, nothing is. And if it is, then...

Well, she'll be happier, right?]

[danserai]

. . . Is that really okay?

[ it's not a lie, but she wonders about fakir's opinion. no, more than that. she needs it. ]