(Untitled)

[reallyaduck]

Duck's been snoring slightly on a table in the middle of the room, head pillowed on a piece of paper, when -

do you have the resolve, little duck?- she wakes up with a start, shaking her head to get the last wisps of weird half-memory out of her head

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[sunbaked_baker]

The small plate that is set by Duck's elbow is easily overshadowed by the huge, still-warm-and-gooey cinnamon roll on it.

Consider it brain-food, from one person who hates essays and never did too well at them (unless they were for June Yanovsky's class) to another.

[reallyaduck]

"- Sunshine!" says Duck, who does have her priorities in order, and looks up with an enormous smile - though her eyes do keep drifting back to the cinnamon bun. (It looks really tasty, okay.)

". . . wow, that looks really good!"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Hey, Duck," Sunshine grins. "Trust me that it tastes even better than it looks."

And it's all for Duck.

...Since... you know, Sunshine might have snacked on one or two earlier...

"How've you been?"

[reallyaduck]

"I've been good! Uh, I was really good before we had to write this paper . . ."

Duck grins. "But now I've got all this tasty stuff to eat so I'm definitely way better again! Uh, how are you?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"I'm all right," she says, smiling. "I went to visit a friend of mine's world for a week, a while ago; we kind of both needed the vacation."

One needs a time-out from all the doom and gloom; one is sure Duck would understand.

"It was a lot of fun. I got to see New York City - which isn't something I really could go see in my world - Central Park," there were ducks, "and the zoo. I got to ride the subway for the first time, and see the Museum of Natural History."

And then Thirteen had introduced the bubble-bath/bath-gel addict named Sunshine to LUSH. Mwah.

[reallyaduck]

"Oh wow," Duck says, wide-eyed, "that sounds - kind of amazing!"

Duck's never been anywhere except Gold Crown Town.

No one in Gold Crown Town has ever been anywhere except Gold Crown Town.

"I dunno where those places are, but - it must be really exciting to see new stuff like that! I've never even been to a museum or anything . . ."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine hasn't really been anywhere except New Arcadia, apart from the beach once or twice when she was younger. Never to another city.

"The only museum of note," and she says this with a tone bordering on sarcastic, "in my city is the Other museum. Which... isn't worth it, in my opinion. The common public can't get access to any of their serious holdings."

"The Natural History Museum was impressive, though." Hells. New York itself was impressive. Sunshine's never been to a city so large or in such good condition. "There were dinosaur fossils and huuuge gemstones, an exhibit of hundreds of different kinds of butterflies, and this sort-of... golden tapestry on display that was actually woven of spider-silk."

It's insane.

[reallyaduck]

It is fairly easy to translate the expression on Duck's face, which is saying: wooooooooooooow!

"It sounds really pretty! Miss Edel sells gems and they're really pretty too . . . I wonder if she's ever sold them to a museum! But I don't think we even have a museum in our town, so probably not . . ."

(This is the gem called: settings that are unnecessary to the plot.)

"Is New York really far away from here?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Well," she says, thinking. "It's in my friend's world, and then we had to travel from her town to the city, so I guess it could be said to be far? As far as one can measure from the end of the universe, I don't know."

[reallyaduck]

"I guess everything's close to here, huh! Someday maybe . . ."

Duck looks a little wistfully at the door. "Someday maybe I'll go see another place, but . . . I guess I really can't until I know everything with Mytho's taken care of . . ."

[sunbaked_baker]

"And Mytho is...?" her look is curious. "A boyfriend?"

Duck's at the age where they still call them boyfriends, right?

[reallyaduck]

"-wh-wh-what? No!" exclaims Duck, her arms pinwheeling in frantic negation.

"I mean, he isn't, he wouldn't, Mytho's dating Rue, so -"

I want to know what you think of me, Mytho had said. But he was talking to Tutu, so it's not like that has anything to do with Duck, not really, so -

"- so, he's definitely not my boyfriend or anything! He's just, he's someone I really want to help . . ."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine can't help but laugh slightly at the flailing. "Don't worry, I was just asking."

"What are you trying to help him with?" she asks, nudging the cinnamon roll at Duck. Why yes, she's willing to ply people with food.

[reallyaduck]

Duck doesn't need a second nudge . . . which means that all subsequent questions will be answered through a spray of cinnamon roll crumbs.

"Ummmm, well, he's - he's sort of lost something, a bunch of somethings actually, and I'm helping him find them," she extemporizes. Which is true! In a way.

[sunbaked_baker]

"It's nice that you're helping him find his things, then," she smiles. Sunshine's used to the crumbs of talking while eating.

"Is his girlfriend helping too?" It sounds important, if it's keeping her from feeling at liberty to visit other worlds.

[reallyaduck]

"Oh, no," Duck says, shaking her head hastily (with accompanying crumb-spray), "it's too dangerous for Rue-chan to be involved!"