#asking reynie when they first meet if he's joking when he compliments his bird

[sophieswundergarten]

You know how Constance says she can recognise a peregrine falcon because she was attacked by one as a small child? Well, in the interest of furthering Constance and S. Q. cousin dynamics, what if it wasn't actually?

I can imagine a tiny Constance meeting a pigeon that is half as big as she is, and, being a precocious and independent child, she squares up with it. Having read only a very few things about birds, she concludes that anything that vicious must be a falcon, because what else could it be?

Imagine her surprise when she finds a book about bird species in the library (so as to properly write gloating poetry about how she bested the thing), only to find that it was a common rock pigeon. Thus, she is set off on her quest to learn all the bird species, so she will never again find herself at a loss for words to insult the next one she fights.

But she never goes back on her initial assessment, partly because that bird in particular deserved to be maligned in that way, and partly because she had already made up her mind about it probably being raised by falcons to attack people.

S. Q., on the other hand, probably saw a bird when he was little and went "Oh! Friend :)" and he may not know their scientific classifications, but he knows their Names. He would regularly hold conversations with them when he was wandering around the forest, and so became intimately familiar with all of the different calls. ("Oh, hello, Frederica, I didn't realize that was you. That's a very pretty sound you can make, I'll have to add it to the list. You're so talented, you know", etc.)

Fast forward to him meeting all of the other kids and moving in, and one day Constance sees him drawing a starling (they just look so awesome and I think he'd like their iridescence and feather patterns), and she says "That is a remarkably good likeness of a European Starling. They are small, but their beaks are good for piercing." and S. Q. completely lights up. Because no one has ever cared about his birds before!! And he responds with "I think this one's a Micheal, but what did you call it? And when did you learn that about their beaks? It took me days before one would get close to me, and I haven't seen many since I left the island." They bond over their shared interest, and Constance makes a little ritual of always asking S. Q. if he has drawn any new birds when they eat breakfast, and letting him tell her what their Names are before she tells him her opinions.