The Deck | Sunday Afternoon

[kirked]

There was a ferret following Jim around. At first, he'd just thought the island was giving out pets again and he'd rolled his eyes. Then, the ferret had started talking. At that point, Jim thought maybe he'd gone on a bender he didn't remember and was still drunk

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[wasthecuteone]

Petra came out onto the deck fully prepared for an afternoon of lounging, with a hat, a book, and...a peacock.

At least it wasn't a frog?

"Hey," she said to Jim. "What's up? Besides, you know, random talking animals."

"I am not random," the peacock said, sounding put out.

"You're a peacock."

The peacock fanned his tail out rather showily in response.

[kirked]

"I think random talking animals are about it," said Jim, raising an eyebrow at the peacock. "At least you've got something interesting, though. Something not a ferret."

"Like I wanted you," Aesina told him.

[wasthecuteone]

The peacock looked pleased, inasmuch as a peacock could look pleased--it was more like 'smug'--at being found interesting.

"Ferrets are cool," Petra said. "Well. Furry trouble, but cool. This is Casimir," she added, hiking a thumb toward the peacock. "Apparently."

[kirked]

"Aesina," Jim said, finally introducing his daemon by something other than 'ferret'. It was progress. "Furry trouble?"

Well, that was one point in the column of familiarity for Jim. He was pretty troublesome but he wasn't furry.

"You and your peacock not getting along?"

[wasthecuteone]

"Nah, he's okay," Petra said after a glance at Casimir. "Hard to fit through doorways, but okay. Why, are you having problems with Aesina?" She hoped she'd pronounced that right. Living with Daenerys had given her some practice on impossible names.

[kirked]

"He's just a jerk."

"The resemblance must be brutal for you," Aesina answered. He crawled down towards the end of the chair and stretched out.

"And he's a ferret," he added. "I couldn't have something cooler if I had to have some animal? Freaking ferret."

"You're breaking my heart," Aesina said and didn't sound like he meant it.

[wasthecuteone]

"Oh, yours is a guy?" Could you call a ferret a guy? Whatever. "I thought..." Petra trailed off, looking at her decidedly male peacock, and then back at Jim. "Well, never mind what I thought."

[kirked]

"It's a ferret," Jim said, shaking his head. "Gender doesn't matter right now. Ferret."

If Aesina knew it wouldn't hurt Jim, he would have just walked the heck away and gone to find something more exciting.

"It's a ferret."

In case that wasn't clear.

[wasthecuteone]

"I got that part," Petra agreed. "And mine's a peacock." Just so they were all on the same page here.

"Obviously," Casimir said.

[kirked]

"And they all have weird names," Jim noted thoughtfully. "Haven't met one person with an animal named Bob or Diane or something."

[wasthecuteone]

"I kind of like 'Casimir,'" Petra said thoughtfully. "I think it's a real name. Maybe in like Poland or something?"

[kirked]

"Never been to Poland so I wouldn't know but okay, how do you explain Aesina?" Jim wondered. "Sounds like a sneeze."

[wasthecuteone]

Petra shrugged. "At least it's not Geseundheit?"

[kirked]

"That would have made me laugh, at least," Jim pointed out, shrugging. "This name, it just makes me feel like I've got crap stuck in my throat."