𝒶 𝓅𝒶𝓈 𝒹𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝓊𝓍 𝒶𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑒

     Duck stares at the quest board --- initially, the quest regaling the plight of a village maiden had caught her eye, but then ...

     It’s true love!

     Something about that statement makes Duck’s heart clench. She, who can never profess her love ... Who is she to get in the way of someone else’s? She isn’t, that’s who. If anything, she should do her best to protect that love! The wings on her back flutter -- betraying her anxiousness, however. She’s no knight, she’s not even really a fighter. 

     But ...

      If she were in this girl’s shoes, she would want someone to try to protect her love. She thinks of her solitary pas de deux, where she conveyed her feelings through dance rather than words. Someone should protect those feelings, if the girl couldn’t protect them herself. Right now, she wasn’t really Tutu. She was hardly even the girl who could turn into Tutu -- she was something else entirely, but ... She couldn’t betray that.

@swanshard

You’re on the run.

That’s a way of describing your life in general, but at this specific moment, you’re running through the streets of Xalphina, trying to escape a group of guards chasing you down for just being a demon. Even if you don’t think you deserve being let free, you’re still afraid of what they’ll do to you, so you run.

[Strength (Athletics): 2 - 1 = 1]

You try to run, until you trip over yourself and fall at the feet of someone. Well, this is it. This is the end. It was nice being alive.

     Duck almost falls over her when the other girl trips and falls in front of her. Its a miracle that she doesn’t, really. Maybe some of the weird faeken DNA was working for her after all! ❛ Quack!? ❜ That doesn’t stop her from letting out a startled yelp, though. 

Duck has transformed into a Faeken!

What does this mean for her?:

She actually doesn’t seem much like a Faeken at all! Weird!

She seems way clumsier than you’d think

Bad at magic. Very clumsy with it, but some say she “makes it her own.”

Magic crackles beneath her skin, especially around her freckles.

She has a pair of tiny wings at the small of her back, similar to those on her dress when she appears as Tutu.

Duck is terrified of losing her home, but doesn’t know what to do to help. She’s determined to get everyone to work together and frequently crosses borders.

    ★✦ “OYO!? You can transform too-lun!?” It didn’t seem like it was the same thing as a Precure transformation, but it was kind of similar? “You’re so pretty-lun! Er… maybe this isn’t the time-lun. But I’m not just an alien, I’m a Precure too-lun. We’re kind of like… magical girls, I guess-lun.” She should probably have kept it a secret, but things were pretty dire now. 

“We should, but let’s try and find some safety too-lun. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you-lun.”

     Tutu nods. She hasn’t actually revealed her secret to many people, it feels strange -- Fakir had basically figured it out on his own ... ❛ I don’t know anything about Precure ... I’m known as Princess Tutu. There’s only one other magical girl I know of aside from me where I’m from, but ... ❜ She trails off. Rue isn’t bad. Kraehe’s not. It’s the raven, right?

     ★✦ “Duck!” Hand reaching down, it was evident Lala was not in her civilian form. She hadn’t expected to reveal that she was a Precure to her friend this soon, but considering the circumstances…

“Stay with me-lun! I’ll protect you-lun!” That was what heroes did after all. Even if said hero was a thirteen year old with lightning antennae. 

     Duck gratefully takes the hand that’s been offered to her, her free hand rubbing her sore face. ❛ Thanks, Lala, I was thinking people should stick -- ❜ Once she finally got a good look at Lala, magical girl garments and all, Duck stopped. ❛ Quack?! Lala!! Your clothes! ❜ She’s glad that somehow the island prevents her from turning her into a duck right now -- transforming would be bad, with everything going on, Duck thinks.

     She ... Should she transform? Maybe she should. Tutu wasn’t really meant for combat, but ... ❛ I can help too! ❜ She says, suddenly determined. She can trust Lala. She feels it in her gut. And so she transforms, Tutu’s appearance taking over her own.

     She’s running. Where? She doesn’t know. ❛ Hello!! Hello ?! ❜ It’s dark. The phone that they’d given her when she’d arrived that she didn’t really understand had gone off a few times but she didn’t get how to work it so she ignored the noise and kept running. Maybe she’d find someone and they could keep looking around together. They could find some answers.

      ★✦ This girl was very… intense. Not in a bad way by any means, it was just that her volume and vague conversation skills reminded Lala a lot of Hikaru, one of her friends from Earth. “It’s okay-lun. I know you didn’t mean any harm by it-lun.” She glanced down at the other girl’s clenched fists. Did she feel that bad about what she’d said? Was she angry about it? 

The alien extended her hands to wrap around the duck’s fist in an attempt to reassure her. Her words were a little hard to follow, but wasn’t the bottom line that she wasn’t human? Or that she at least knew someone else that wasn’t. “If you’d like to be friends I’d like that-lun!”

“My name is Lala Hagoromo-lun! I come from the planet Samaan-lun.” She gently shook the girl’s fist with her hands still wrapped around them. “What about you-lun?”

     Lala’s hands on hers make her relax a little. Duck was able to work herself up so easily, she often lost sight of what she was actually supposed to be doing. She’s glad, at least, that Lala didn’t take any offense to her words -- especially because Duck so often spoke without really being able to think about the words that were coming out of her mouth.

     She’ll even be her friend! This place was so chaotic for Duck, she was glad to make a friend! Especially someone who could understand her plight of being nonhuman, even if Duck hadn’t really told her anything. It was nice to have someone who could understand!

You’re not comfortable with how much the other girl is making direct eye contact, so you look away. Down at your feet, specifically. 

You laugh when she does, though yours sounds obviously more nervous. Despite your time here, you’re still not great at talking. How you have friends when you’re like this is beyond your scope of understanding.

You run a hand through your hair. You’re not sure you would call him “nice,” at least not when it came to other people. But he’s nice to you, so you nod.  ❝He… he is… um, I… it’s weird, right? I, I know… but, um… he was my… my closest friend… for a long time…❞ He’s done a lot for you.

Churro flutters a bit and clicks. He puffs his chest out in pride.

     Duck is staring at the bird now, squinting a little. Well, not all ducks magically turned into girls. Not all ducks even thought about it, to be sure. So she figures that not all ravens or crows can possibly be bad. It makes sense to Duck, she guesses. Kraehe -- Rue, was technically a crow, when you got down to it. And she refuses to believe that Rue is bad, no matter what Fakir might want to say.