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[soft_focus]

Umnnnnnhhh....

...What kinds of names do you give birds?

I have....a small one, that's a sparrow...and.... [There is a brief pause.] ...Now I have a really big one, that they called a 'Scarlet Eagle'.

The sparrow likes to sit in my hair, but the eagle can't sit on me, unless I'm laying down. She's too heavy.

People keep asking me what their names are though, and I've never named something before....

Comments

aaaand the warzone warnings are Going Up-

[soft_focus]

...Everywhere...in Maiami? ...Really!?

[On the one hand- think about where she seems to come from, environment wise, Yuuya.

...But on the other, maybe he shouldn't, for his own sake.] ...animals were just there..??

[hippocarnival]

[There were probably still strays and feral ones around, but probably best to not Think Too Hard about the state they were in...]

Well, yeah. [There's a pause, because part of this explanation isn't exactly happy but--] Some of them have always been wild, and some of them get lost or, uh. [Forgotten, abandoned.] So they wander around on their own until someone takes them in! Like my mom, or animal shelters.

[soft_focus]

Mnhh...but they're all...There?

[That's the thing about her strays-anything, even HUMAN let alone animal, is probably avoiding the shit out of...well. Most humans. The very sight of another animal would have been scarce enough, but adding in where her clearest memories lie, it might as well be as though no animals were there at all.]

[hippocarnival]

There? [He's not entirely sure what she means by that.] You mean out in the streets? Yeah, but you probably don't see them as often as birds or squirrels.

[In part because of animal control.]

[soft_focus]

....No just 'there'. Birds and squirrels too.

I didn't see those things except on cards, until I came here.

[hippocarnival]

[There's a pause while he tries to parse that, because it's not making any more sense the second time around.]

But they're all over Maiami! You can't miss them unless you... [Well, never go outside.

Which it's dawning on him, what he already knows about Miss Akaba now--did she just keep Reira locked in except when dueling?]

[soft_focus]

...I didn't come from Maiami though...

[She's not quite catching what Yuuya is realizing, but, well.] ...I wasn't there a long time either, so...

...I think I've been here a little longer, already. [Give or take a week or two, it's rather fuzzy just how much time actually passed once Himika got a hold of her after all.]

[hippocarnival]

When were you adopted? [He assumed at least a year or two, but she's spent longer at the carnival? That's only been three months, at best!]

[soft_focus]

...I don't know.

...It just feels like it's been longer here, somehow. ....I was wearing the same clothes, though? People keep saying here that you have to wear different clothes every day, but I didn't do that before...

...I just had the things from where I used to be.

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya is going to shake Reiji down for answers next time he sees him.]

I wasn't paying that much attention to your clothes. [Honestly they spent a month wearing the same shit while they crossed dimensions, and Yuya probably has five copies of the same shirt, so he definitely didn't think hard about it.] You came while we were in the Summerlands, so... I don't think it's even been three months yet.

[A pause.] Everything happens so quickly, so I guess it feels a lot longer.

[soft_focus]

Mnh....maybe....

I just know I wasn't there very long. I'm learning more things here too though, so...I guess that makes things different too.

[hippocarnival]

[Shake him down.

But if she herself doesn't even know how long she was with the Akabas, it's not like Yuya can find out right now. And Reira was actually asking about something before Yuya derailed it with a lecture (he's still not sure about this eagle).]

You know, mom named our pets in pairs since that's usually how she found them. Like 'En' and 'Core' for encore. You could do that too.

[soft_focus]

Pairs..?

...would that work now though? ....I got them at different times....and from really different people...

[hippocarnival]

Why not? You're naming them at the same time, aren't you? [Or close enough to it.]

[soft_focus]

I'm going to try..!

...Why did she use the word Encore, though?

[hippocarnival]

Hm? [Oh, she probably doesn't know what the word means.] An encore is an extra performance after the one you paid for is done. When people really like your show, they shout 'encore, encore' because they want more!

... There's also Kilo and Watt. Kilowatts measure electricity. [Basically there's no actual reason, she just picked random words she likes for their names.]

[soft_focus]

[But things need REASONS, Yuuya!!] So...she wanted more pets, was why?

...And then had electric pets? [To be fair, Kilo likely weighs a number of Kilos, and Watt looks like they were jammed in an electrical outlet-]

[hippocarnival]

Something like that. [His mom is a compulsive adopter and, suddenly, he doesn't want to know how many more she's picked up since he left. Nobody's there to stop her, they're gonna have a zoo.] They're not electric pets, though... they're just normal dogs.

[soft_focus]

....But you said kilowatts were for electric things...

[Hoo boy.]

[hippocarnival]

They are, but... [There's a pause.] You know weird magic animals like in the menagerie don't exist in our world, right?

[Just. Just making sure.] I didn't ask why she picked those names.

[soft_focus]

..................Duel monsters are pretty magical though...

[Those aren't the same as animals Reira!! They're more like nature ghosts-]

...I guess that's okay though. ...Mnh....I'll think of something, even if it's not in a pair...