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He misses the nasally sound of Beacon’s voice.
The realisation leaves a bitter, disgusting taste in Duck’s mouth, but it’s, well, it’s true.
Duck always hated the comments and the quips it made, not to mention the murderous and sadistic personality the sword always had, but, after months of total radio silence, Duck realises he hates the silence more.
After first getting it, it didn’t take long for Duck to realise a few things about Beacon.
Firstly, it has - had? - an awful personality.
Secondly, it loved to talk. Duck never quite figured out how conscious it was of the things around it, but he’s sure of one thing : it loved the sound of its own voice more than anything.
And the third and final thing Duck realised about Beacon happened later, when he gave it over to Ned, it doesn’t talk around normal, regular people.
No, instead, it shuts its mouth and refuses to utter even one word. Which is usually a good thing, it helped Duck so much during his teenage years. Made explanations for the sword much less complicated.
But now…
Duck hates the silence.
It feels cruel to make him hope that awful thing will talk to him again.
It feels cruel to make him carry what feels just a little bit like a corpse. Sure, the thing still wriggles around when Duck wants it too, but it’s stiffer, less immediate. It’s like Beacon is made of actual metal for once instead of the fluid, stretchy material from before.
Duck feels almost resentful when he unwinds Beacon from around his waist and places it on a chair with the rest of his work clothes. Not bothering to put it someplace it won’t be able to annoy him. He knows by now it won’t make much of a difference. It won’t make any difference.
And he doesn’t resent Minerva because Duck couldn’t live with himself if he blamed the asteroid on her. Duck doesn’t resent Beacon for going quiet either, it’s probably not within its control.
Duck’s bitter at himself. Bitter because he denied something for so long that he now realises he’s struggling to live without. Bitter because he’s sure he could have done something to help Minerva, but he didn’t. Bitter because every single thing taken away alongside Minerva feels like a major blow even when, objectively it isn’t.
Mostly though, Duck’s bitter that he misses that goddamn sword.