Chapter Text
Duo didn’t know how he got here. His little wings could carry him great distances, but this was a place unlike he had ever seen or heard about in any. Even using his vast vocabulary, his dozens of languages, Duo could hardly describe his surroundings. In english some choice words were bizarre and Demonic.
Duo had little choice in the matter however, if someone wanted, or needed, to learn a language, the Devil himself couldn’t stop Duo from helping. After building an app to do everything for him and reach so many people, folks needed him less and less. It was sad for the bird, as he enjoyed the one-to-one interaction that teaching a student a language entailed.
Duo had been flying for eighty hours. From his home in Pittsburgh Duo had been flying southwest for almost three days straight. When his Language teaching sense started going haywire Duo knew he was needed somewhere urgently. He knew he was getting close to the place where those that needed teaching about languages languished. Duo hadn’t felt this way since he first started his career. The urge was as strong now as it had been on the day of his birth. Duo knew he could not sleep if he tried. Not that he needed sleep, it was just nice to have sometimes.
Duo was only nine years old but he had already taught 300 million people something. A normal owl would rest after such a successful career. Duo was no normal owl. Most owls grow and change throughout their life, not Duo. Duo had shed a couple of baby feathers and changed outfits a couple of times since he’d popped into existence but Duo hadn’t grown at all, no new feathers no new body shape no new nothing. Duo was content that way.
It had been eighty hours and for the first time in Duo’s life his wings began to hurt. Glad he was fast approaching his destination he was pleased to see that after miles and miles of desert the source of the minds in need of language instruction seemed to be an air conditioned facility.
Duo ignored a sign threatening the use of “deadly force and other bad things”, and headed straight over the fence in the southern Nevada Desert. From what Duo could tell it was an American military base. Child’s play. Duo rested briefly on the roof of the facility. Duo cleared his mind and allowed his innate senses to guide his next moves. It was night-time so it wasn’t likely the base was open for tourists, but Duo could waste no time.
Duo located the building crying for linguistic help and allowed the fingerprint reader to scan his claw. Duo had gained the highest level of security clearance some years ago and he was pleased to see that it still worked. Duo flew on down the hallway before encountering a thick steel wall. Literally. That too was of no concern to Duo as he simply destroyed the door using a trick he picked up when learning Klingon from the Klingons.
Duo flew down the hallways looking for what was making his multilingual owl senses stir. Duo saw what he was looking for at long last. Two scientists in long flowing lab coats were looking at a doorway of metal which was emanating a soft green glow. Duo saw the doorway was of normal human size and decided that this is where the call was originating from. The two scientists turned to face each other and began talking. Duo could not make out what was being said behind the soundproof glass.
Duo noticed a button on the outside of the lab and, thinking it might be to open the door, pressed the button. The button did not open a door. The button instead changed the soft green light into a soft blue light.
Duo still needed to get inside the room.
So Duo shattered the sound proof glass and entered the room where the scientists were. Before asking the scared and surprised scientists any questions Duo was lulled even stronger still to the blue light. The Scientists attempted to stop the small owl from flying through the door frame but Duo paid the humans no mind, their screams meant nothing.
After the small owl had disappeared the scientists pressed the button turning off the time disruption field that Duo had turned on. The glow of the portal turned back to Green.
As Duo flew into the doorway he was greeted with novel scenery. He looked back and the door he had come through was shrinking. Duo decided to press on and find the poor souls who wanted to learn a second language.
This was the strange place Duo had found himself. A world with no familiar landmarks. From his bird’s eye view he could see it appeared to be a set of islands in the shape of a large humanoid. The temperature was currently quite warm.
Though Duo had flown for the past three days, non stop he flew excitedly towards the nearest buildings he could see. As Duo saw the town from afar his excitement swelled. He could see children and adults, many human-like creatures, all potential new students for his many languages.
Duo perched upon a sign near an elderly man in long robes and attempted to communicate with him.
“Hello! My name is Duo!” Duo said, trying english first.
The man looked up at the owl but didn’t show any signs of recognizing the language. That was no problem, Duo knew many languages, and if these strange-eared humans knew none of them Duo could simply learn whatever language they did speak and teach them new ones.
“Hallo! Ich heiße Duo!” Duo said in german.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“salut! Je m'appelle Duo!” Duo said in French.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“¡Hola! ¡Mi nombre es Duo!” Duo said in Spanish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Ciao! Il mio nome è Duo!” Duo said in Italian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Saluton! Mia nomo estas Duo!” Duo said in esperanto.
Much to Duo’s disappointment, as Esperanto was Duo’s favorite language to converse in, there was no response from the man.
“Hallå! Jag heter Duo!” Duo said in swedish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Olá! Meu nome é Duo!” said Duo in Portugeuese.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Zdravstvuyte! Menya zovut Duo!” Said Duo in russian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Nǐ hǎo! Wǒ jiào Duo!” said Duo in Chinese
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“yeoboseyo! je ileum-eun Duoibnida!” Said Duo in korean.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Kon'nichiwa! Watashinonamaeha de~yuodesu!” Said Duo in Japanese.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Halò! Is e m ’ainm Duo!” Said Duo in Scottish Gaelic.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
"Halo! Nama saya Duo” Said Duo in indonesian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Halo! Jina langu ni Duo!” said Duo in Swahili.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Buna! Numele meu este Duo!” Said Duo in Romanian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Witaj! Mam na imię Duo!” Said Duo in Polish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“'oH pongDaj'e'” Duo said in klingon.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Hola! Em dic Duo!” Said Duo in Catalan.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“marhaba! aismi Duo!” Said Duo in Arabic.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Hei! Nimeni on Duo!” Said Duo in Finnish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Szia! A nevem Duo!” Said Duo in Hungarian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Xin chào! Tên tôi là Duo!” Said Duo in Vietnamese
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Hallo! Mijn naam is Duo!” Said Duo in Dutch.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
Duo repeated himself in Guarani, a language for which there is no online translator.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Hallo! Jeg heter Duo!” Said Duo in Norwegian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Aloha! ʻO Duo koʻu inoa!” Said Duo in Hawaiian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Salve! Duo nomen!” Said Duo in Latin
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“hailo! mera naam duo hai!” Said in Hindi
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Pryvit! Mene zvutʹ Duo!” Said Duo in Ukranian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Merhaba! Benim adım Duo!” Said Duo in Turkish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Kanga yinishyé Duo” Said Duo in Navajo.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Hej! Mit navn er Duo!” Duo said in Danish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Dia dhuit! Duo is ainm dom!” Duo Said in Irish.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Helo! Fy enw i yw Duo!” Said Duo in Welsh.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Ahoj! Jmenuji se Duo!” Said Duo in Czech.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Geiá sou! To ónomá mou eínai Duo!” Said in Greek.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“Rytsas, issa brōzi iksos duo.” Duo Said in High Valaryian.
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
“שלום! שמי Duo!" Duo said in Hebrew
Still no response that indicated understanding from the man.
Duo was out of languages to try. The people here must have their own language that Duo had to learn. Duo was excited to learn the language of this strange place. The man opened his mouth and began barking.
“BARK BARK WOOF WOOF GRRRRR” the man said ferally.
Duo wasn’t typically one to judge other cultures or languages but the dog onomatopoeia spooked him enough to squawk and leap from his perch. Realizing that was incredibly insensitive of him Duo landed on his perch again, intent to listen to the language of the island.