( 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

[possessum]

I'm sure you had reasons why you needed to, right? It's okay. I think... most of us around here would understand what that's like.

I'm sorry your secret got exposed without you meaning for it to, though.

[danserai]

[ she nods. ]

Mmm. I didn't mean it in a . . . bad way.

[possessum]

( Peter gives a little smile. She's really so sweet... He would die for this child. )

Is it okay if I ask why were you hiding it? Do you feel in danger for people to know you're really a duck?

( Because that's definitely a concern. What if someone tries to hurt her? )

[danserai]

[ she chuckles sheepishly. ]

Oh, it's because a transforming duck would be weird in my world. I needed people to think I was just a girl. Not that there's anything wrong with ducks, but ducks turning girls and attending school wouldn't exactly be normal . . .

[possessum]

( Peter falls silent again, absorbing all this thoughtfully. And trying to swallow down the rising worry in his gut about if she really could be in danger, now.
What if the wrong person sees this accidental post....?

But he doesn't want to scare the poor kid, so he won't mention that. He will, however, be trying to keep an extremely close eye on her from here on! )

Are your family ducks, too?

[danserai]

Oh, uhmm . . . I don't have any family. I think they all flew off long ago.

[ she hadn't given it much thought at the time. it was a natural part of life after all and it's not as though she had real memories of them. it doesn't bother her. family is important to humans, as it should be. but it's not really a facet of nature for . . . ducks. ]