esmeiolanthe

The prompt for this story was “Teaching a parrot to talk” submitted by docnerd. This story fits into the special feature “(Not) Heiress Rose” of Ruth’s (un)Officially Wacky Boolprop Challenge.

Rating: PG-13, for language… I think

Dramatis Personae
Phoebe Shankel, the older sister, who speaks in Elizabethan.
Rose Shankel, the younger sister, who is a huge fan of Miss Manners.
Bab, the sorority’s new parrot.

Setting
The front room of the Annya Var sorority.

PHOEBE: Rose! Sister! I have taught our Bab to speak!
ROSE: Really? What did you teach him to say? “Polly want a cracker”?
PHOEBE: Nay – much better! (to Bab, encouragingly) Do thou speak as I taught thee.
BAB: awk
PHOEBE: Go on – trippingly upon the tongue.
BAB: awk erk twitterpated dunderhead! onion-eyed dogfish! rattlebrained shake-weasel! awk erk roynish pinch-spotted mammering plume-plucked paunchy gut-griping malkin! (pause) erk
(Bab nibbles on a claw. Rose stares at him, gobsmacked, as Phoebe waits eagerly for a response.)
ROSE: Well, it’s – it’s certainly unique. What is a “snap-weasel”?
PHOEBE: By my faith, I know not. But does it not have a wondrous sound to it?