A girl and her duck

[knifewithnoname]

Who: Pruna, a duck and you
What: Pruna wakes up, also she has a pet duck now. Because Effie thought that would be a good idea
Where: All around the tribute tower
When: Mid week 5
Warnings: Mentions of arena stuff, swearing, probably casual mostly unintentional animal cruelty

When Pruna woke up she was greeted by one of the cheerful minders. It was enough to make Pruna scowl but the man told her she had done well and he had been impressed by her quick successions of kills. So she decided he wasn't as stupid as he first appeared. He had given her a bag, and told her it was a present from the Capitol. Getting presents was still a strange thing and Pruna looked inside excitedly and grinned at what she found.

Later she could be found in the tribute lounge, wearing a pale blue T-shirt that read: I will be taking your motherf***ing eyes!, and a pendant that looked like an ice cream cone with a dagger stuck out of it. There had been some of the weird smelling stuff in a bottle as well, the minder had told her it was a smell that was named after her. Pruna didn't quite get it, it all smelled weird to her.

There was a figure as well, one that looked like her. She had that with her now, as well as a pair of weird eye looker out of things (the minder had called it a viewer) that showed pictures of her in the arena when you pressed a button, her kills, her deaths, some of her more heroic moments. She had liked that too.

There was also a phrase book titled Speak like Pruna and she was reading that now, reading it to the duck that was sat next to her. Effie had made good on her promise and after the gift bag the minder had introduced her to her new pet.

"This do be being a stupid book, duck." She was telling it. "It do be getting everything wrong." She poked the duck, which made a sound. At least it seemed a little bit more intelligent than tribbles. "What do ducks be eating? Worms right, we should be going and finding some."

Comments

[hanssome]

They were an acquaintance. A friend of sorts, from back home. [He's going to worry his bottom lip with his teeth briefly before shrugging his shoulders.] It's not very interesting, though. Does your duck have a name yet?

[knifewithnoname]

[She nodded, so not an ally.] No, Maximus did be saying I should be giving it a name when I do be respecting it, so I do be waiting until it do be doing something worthy of respect.

[hanssome]

Oh! That's an interesting concept. Maybe it will impress you with how much bread it can eat- Ooh! Or maybe it will grow up to be a swan. [He gives the duck a sly look. Ever since he'd been read the Ugly Duckling as a child he'd been suspicious of every duck he'd ever met.]

[knifewithnoname]

"Be growing up to be being a swan?" Pruna wrinkled her nose, "How can a duck be turning into a swan, unless it did be being magic." Except even then, magic couldn't change what something was, just what it seemed.

[hanssome]

It's momentarily jarring to hear that Pruna doesn't understand the reference, but he shouldn't be too surprised. He needs to keep reminding himself that they're all from different worlds.

"It's a story where I'm from. It's about a baby swan who grows up amongst ducks thinking he's strange, but as he gets older he realises he was a swan all along." He gives her a fond smile. "I guess the moral of the story is that everybody is different so we shouldn't pass judgement- but I'm pretty sure our friend here is a duck."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wrinkled her nose, a baby swan that grew up among ducks. "Why did he be growing up with ducks? Did his swan family be adoptioning him? What did he be doing when he did be realising he did be being a swan?"

She wasn't sure what a moral of a story was... Nor why anyone would need a story to tell them that everyone was different.

[hanssome]

He'll just chuckle good-naturedly when she crinkles her nose. "I'm assuming the egg found its way into the nest of a mother duck somehow, all the other ducks thought he was a duck too." It's only now that he's realising what a strange story it is, he'd been hearing it from such a young age. "Well, everyone else had thought he was strange because he didn't look at all like a duck, but the swans accepted him straight away because they knew he was a swan." He nods knowingly before crinkling his nose a little. "It really is weird."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wrinkled her nose again, "It do be being weird, and ducks do be being stupid if they can no even be telling that something do no be being a duck." She looked at Duck. "You do no be thinking I do be being a duck do you be being? Because we do be being humans."