milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Without quite knowing how, or why, Olive has managed to find the bar again. She sits in a booth by the door--

(No, for your information she hasn't been watching the door whenever she comes here, ever since Chuck said "Ned's around, some days."

Or maybe she has. Whatever.)

-- Anyway, see the lonely heroine, yonder: sitting. sighing. Drinking a glass of lemonade, and looking generally desolate.

Say hi.

[open for all until it scrolls off the page]

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. . . this is closer! Duck quacks again, trying to convey a sense of encouragement-but-not-quite-it.

She squints up at Olive. Maybe Olive is wearing a necklace and she can . . . point to it? Or something!

Tragically, Olive is bare-necked most days. (This is one of those days.)

"I know! Let's do letters!"

Olive finds a blank piece of paper, and scribbles the letters of the alphabet on it.

She puts the paper on the floor, near Duck's eyes. "Okay. Try to point to the letter it starts with."

Olive smiles encouragingly, quite proud of herself.

"Quack!" Oh - that's smart!

Sadly, spelling . . . is not Duck's strong suit. But she will do her best!

She eyes the paper doubtfully, hovers between 'P' and 'N' for a while, and finally stamps with great determination down on P. N comes next, followed by D, E, N, T. She wavers on adding the 'o' for pendanto (which is how it's said in Japanese) and then decides against it.

Olive phoneticizes:

"Pee-nah-dent."

She thinks about this.

"Peanut. No. Wait. That's not my final answer."

Finally, she hits on it: "Pendant?"

You got it! "Quack!" Duck bounces up and down on the table, flailing her wings happily. TRIUMPH.

. . . of course, the pendant isn't any less lost, BUT STILL. You take the little things where you can!

"Okay," she says, excitement dying down as she realizes the same thing. (Figuring things out doesn't mean finding them.)

"So, why's it so important?"

Uh . . . .

Duck looks abruptly shifty, eyes sliding away and wing going to her mouth.

"Quack, qua-qua quack . . ." That's, um, kind of a secret . . .

"Come on," says Olive, with an charming smile. "You can tell me."

The duck visibly gulps . . . and then, reluctantly, gestures with her wings above her head.

Alas, this could be interpreted several ways.

Olive sighs.

"Okay, just quack if I'm close. Halo? Sky? Air?"

"- quack!" Duck says, startled, then remembers belatedly she's only supposed to quack if it's right, not if it's wrong, and shakes her head hastily.

Olive looks gravely at the little duck.

"You do realize you're making this very difficult for me. Much as I'd like to... I don't speak Duck."

Duck droops, appropriately chastened.

"Quack," she agrees, sadly.

She's sorry! She knows it is difficult. That's why she wants her pendant back!

"Well..."

Olive looks helpless.

"I take it this pendant thingy is pretty important, but... I'm still not gettin' it."

"Quack . . ."

All of Duck's feathers seem to flop on the ground; she guesses she can't really make herself understood, after all.

Still, it's important to be polite! "Quack quack," she says - thank you for your help, anyway! - and bobs her oversized avian head in a respectful bow.

Man. Olive really feels sorry for the dejected duck.

She says aloud: "Sorry I'm not more multilingual."

Duck is starting to feel bad for making Olive feel bad! It's a vicious cycle.

"Quack," she says, with a small, apologetic wave, and then backs away, looking sheepish.

She'll come back later - when she's got a pendant - and explain, so Olive won't have to feel so bad.

"'bye," she says, waving in return.

Only in Milliways.

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