(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

Comments

[fairytaleknight]

"A really great ballet," says the danseur looking over Duck's shoulder. "What creative commentary. I'm sure Neko-sensei will be impressed."

[reallyaduck]

Fakir is always super helpful.

Duck looks up, already scowling. "Yeah, well - well - I already know I'm bad at this stuff so you don't have to tell me!"

. . . as comebacks go, there have been better.

[fairytaleknight]

"That's a relief. You've saved me a step."

Fakir takes a seat across the table from Duck and pulls his own essay draft, along with a quill pen and an ink bottle, out of his knapsack.

His paper is quite a bit longer than hers.

[reallyaduck]

"Oh . . . you're working on the paper too?"

Duck is trying not to squint and see what he's writing, but man, it's really tempting.

"I bet you're almost done, huh," she mumbles, and flops her head down on the table, with another sigh. Stupid Fakir!

[fairytaleknight]

"Nearly." Fakir still has a paragraph to write about how Siegfried is stupid to be tempted by Odile, no matter how revealing her tutu is.

It's possible that the ballet would make more sense to Fakir if he were interested in girls.

[reallyaduck]

"Hey, Fakir?"

Duck's head is still on the table.

"Do you get the story? I mean . . . I guess I get most of it, but I don't get . . . if Siegfried really loves Odette, then how come he says he'll marry Odile? And if he wants to marry Odile how come he goes back to Odette? It's confusing . . ."

[fairytaleknight]

"Because he's an idiot."

That covers everything, doesn't it?

Fakir refills his quill and scratches out another sentence, after which he takes pity on Duck and attempts a better explanation.

"It's because he's -- he thinks Odile's --"

How on earth can Fakir explain this to a twelve-year-old girl who's still as flat as a toothpick? He takes a deep breath and starts for a third time. "You know the difference between the ways Odile and Odette dance?"

[reallyaduck]

Fakir thinks everyone's an idiot, so Duck doesn't give this opinion too much weight.

"Odette does the really hard stuff," she volunteers. "The thirty-two fouettes."

[fairytaleknight]

"That's Odile, and that's not what I mean."

Why am I even bothering to try to explain this to her? But Fakir tries again.

"I mean, the style. What kind of style does Odile dance? What's her personality?"

How many questions does Fakir have to ask to avoid using the word sexy?

[reallyaduck]

"That's what I meant!" says Duck, with unjust indignation - he should have known, anyways - and then blinks. "Well, she's kind of . . ."

She chews her lip. It's hard when she's never really seen a full-length production of Swan Lake.

"I guess she's . . . she's a really good dancer, but also - but also, Odile really wants the prince to like her . . . she really wants to dance with him . . ."

Odette's dance involves a lot of running away.

[fairytaleknight]

"Yes," Fakir says, with some (not actually visible) relief. "She's doing everything possible to get his attention, and he's moronic enough to give it to her."

[reallyaduck]

Duck eyes Fakir. She suspects an insult in there somewhere . . .

"Well, if someone wants you to like them," she says, "I don't see why it's a bad thing to be nice to them!"

[fairytaleknight]

'Being nice' is one way to put it. Fakir decides not to offer more accurate phrasing like 'being a slut'. (Fakir hopes she dies.)

"She's not being nice because she wants what's best for him. She's being nice because she wants to control what he does."

[reallyaduck]

"Control . . .?"

Sometimes, Duck is capable of making leaps of parallelism! Sometimes. (But she generously does not point out that Fakir talking about control is a little pot and kettle.)

"You mean like Kraehe . . . but Kraehe isn't nice to Mytho, either. I wonder if . . ."

Kraehe wants to control Mytho, but - there's something so sad about her . . .

[fairytaleknight]

"Yes." Fakir dips his quill into the inkpot, writes another sentence. "Exactly like Kraehe."

Exactly like Kraehe, who wears a black tutu that accentuates her figure, who sheds black feathers wherever she goes.

Fakir, at least, recognizes that story.

[reallyaduck]

Duck looks down at her essay, but doesn't write anything down.

"I wonder if Odile's sad like Kraehe . . ."