#Project Loosha

[101flavoursofweird]

Tagged by @northernscruffycat (Thanks!) 

Post the last three lines your wrote for your current WIP (which I definitely didn’t just make up on the spot):

“Go!” Marina shouted, the lab door banging behind her as she struggled to keep it shut.

Arianna glanced from Marina to Tony and little Loosha—

Luna. Loosha was gone. If they didn’t hurry, Luna might meet a similar fate.

Tagging: @ultra-puzzlemaster, @tea-of-destiny, @asa-liz, @alto-tenure, @magicwhiskers29

[tama1313]

I'm calling you all for an artistic collaboration project involving all PL women chaa

I'm calling you all for an artistic collaboration project involving all PL women characters

All you need to know is here!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CdHQ7L-3o8x3aDDXgOvdKzbUTGNVrqV77OtY9V0SwBk/edit?usp=sharing

[cayenne-twilight]

Professor Layton Iceberg Explanation

As I said in the tags of the original, the iceberg I made was a meme consisting of both real theories and satire/parodies/fandom memes. If anyone is interested, I can work on an unironic version that only has real theories.

Buckle in because this post is LONG and heavily saturated with lore and information.

Actual theories

Parallel universe 1960s where the world wars didn’t happen. There’s an unused file in Curious Village that shows the year as 1960 and the time machine from UF is set to 1973, ten years into the future. The series canonically takes place in an undefined time period (hence the technological inaccuracies and fantasy elements), but it’s based off the 60s. There’s more evidence but we don’t have time to go over every little thing. I linked my “no wars” theory below but TL;DR the outdated airplanes and underdeveloped medicine in the Layton series imply that the world wars may never have happened. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632205992162099200/outofcontextdiscord-timegearremix-zonosils-war

The real meaning behind the statue in Future London. In UF, the purpose of the statue is to spark Layton and Luke’s conversation about their friendship. Luke is stressing out about moving overseas and sees himself and the professor in the story behind the statue, but in the bigger picture, Clive must have been the one to commission it. Some theorize that the little boy is Clive and the man is either his father or the professor. One idea I’ve seen is that Clive wishes he could be Luke for real, while another is that he wishes he died ten years ago, and another is that he’s literally terminally ill explaining why he doesn’t care about consequence. Personally, I think “the boy succumbed to his illness” refers to his mental illness seeing as he wanted the professor to save him from his madness as he saved him all those years ago.

True location of Monte D’Or. there are no deserts on the British isles to my knowledge, so it makes the most sense for Monte D’Or to be in Southwest USA where English is the default language, they have a desert, and there exists a city famous for flashy hotels, casinos, and entertainment. What makes it odd is that nobody ever mentions overseas travel, and all the major characters are from England.

Loosha’s origins are not explicitly explained if I remember correctly, but the implication was that her prehistoric (supposedly) species was sealed away along with the garden, allowing them to survive all the way to the time of LS until Loosha was the only one left. The garden provided a good habitat and protection from predators, and it’s logical that they’d slowly die out anyways, but there’s no explanation of any specific factors that led to Loosha being the last.

Beasley is not a bee I wrote a post about this one as well, but TL;DR Beasly lacks several defining bee traits whilst having several human ones. He is not human, yet, by definition, not a bee. It’s possible that he is the result of Dimitri’s testing, but whatever his untold story is, he remains an enigma of nature. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632381715250282496/theory-beasly-isnt-a-bee

Subject 2’s identity is currently unknown. There is a subject one (parrot) and subject 3 (rabbit) so there has to be a second. For a long time, people suspected Beasly to be him seeing as he’s a bit of an amalgamation and definitely not a regular bee (see above). After the release of LMJ, though, people began to suspect Sherl, the intelligent hound who could speak to certain people but not others. That being said, it’s possible for one to be subject 4. Sherl’s memory of a bright flash matches up with subject 3’s memory of being electrocuted. They never explain why the animals were being experimented on, but it was probably Dimitri making sure the conditions of his machine were safe for humans before reliving the incident from ten years ago.

Lady Violet died from the plague from DB. There’s no evidence for this or anything, it’s just an idea. People say she died from the flu but I don’t remember them saying that in the game, at least the US version. Extending off my “no war” theory: it’s theorized that the Spanish Flu was spread by the travlelling soldiers, so if that’s true, it’s possible for the epidemic to have been averted for some decades. Maybe the Spanish Flu reached England later than in real life. The hole in this is that DB’s plague must’ve been close in time to 1918 while Violet’s death was much later, so it would’ve had to stick around.

Bill Hawks is working with Targent and Arthur Cantabella. There was a force in the shadows buying the time machine technology from Bill. Someone with a ton of money who helped him cover up a freak accident and get away with it completely, a feat that involved shady means like violence by hired thugs. Some theorize that it was Targent, seeking power over time in exchange for a little mafia magic. The Labarynthia project was sponsored by the UK government, so as the PM, Bill must’ve known about it. He probably supported dubiously ethical, high stakes (witch pun) psychological experiments like Cantabella’s and helped him stay in the shadows.

All the NPCs in St. Mystere and Folsense are dead. I make fun of this type of theory later, but they’re admittedly captivating. I���m pretty sure the canon in CV is that the villagers are Bruno and Augustus’s OCs that they made robots of and built a town around, but it’s more interesting to think that the village was there before, and the townspeople died of a plague and were replaced like Lady Violet. In Folsense, there really was a plague and they never explain the NPCs there. They’re either real people who appear way younger than they are due to hallucinations (even the ones who already look old ?), or they don’t exist at all, which is pretty spooky. This part of the story is a gaping plot hole. In a similar vein to CV, the edgy yet plausible theory is that they used to live in Folsense but died of the plague and now live on as hallucinations.

Hershel seeing everything as a puzzle is a coping mechanism for all his trauma. This was a joke but I thought about it for more than five seconds and it makes way too much sense.

Plot holes and unexplained questions that we like to overthink because it’s fun

The downfall of the Azran was vaguely explained in canon by people being so greedy that it lead to the civilization collapsing. It’s not a stretch to imagine that happening, but it would’ve been more interesting with a little more detail.

Layton and Luke are programmed to routinely forget how to walk. I didn’t know whether to list this in the joke section or not, but it’s odd that the characters actively participate in the walking tutorial (as opposed to showing a little memo to the player) as if they didn’t know how to before, especially when they go through this several times a year.

The truth behind Pavel. He’s simply a joke character who teleports, is a polyglot (sort of, at least he wants us to think he is) and is mega confused all the time. He’s a fun character to make crack theories about because of his cryptic nature that even he doesn’t seem to understand.

Miracle Mask deleted scenes. The first trailer for MM featured animations that were not in the final game. One was the Randall falling scene, except in a slightly different style than the one we know. Others were completely foreign, like Layton and Luke pacing across a theatre stage as if Layton’s about to expose someone with a dramatic point. Cut content and “could’ve beens” are always curious to think about.

Evan Barde: secret mastermind. Arianna and Tony’s dad is a mysterious character who died under mysterious circumstances. I think the canon is that his death was a genuine accident, but concept art of him making a creepy evil face suggests that maybe he originally had a larger role in the first drafts of LS than the finished game.

The secret to how Paul and Des pull off their disguises is unclear and will remain unclear. There is no plausible explanation for their shape shifting. Unless Paul is just a little dude wearing a human suit like that one Wizard of Oz species and Des is the best quick-changer ever and hides his naturally feminine legs under his cloak.

Alfendi’s mom. When LBMR came out people scrambled to piece together who Hershel had a kid with, but there’s no way alfendi is his biological son. This happened with Kat as well and her biological parents turned out to be brand new characters, so I’m sure Al will get an adoption backstory if his arc continues, be his parents old major characters or nameless, faceless NPCs.

Granny Riddleton and Stachenscarfen are omnipotent deities. Idk which section this fits best under, but these two characters have some serious power. At first introduction, they’re implied to be robots, but they appear everywhere in later games. They follow the Professor wherever he goes and assist him on his adventures, GR collecting puzzles and housing them by some odd magic, and Stachen teaches you how to walk. They both introduce and supervise the gameplay. By extension, I guess this idea could apply to Albus as well in the prequels. GR and Stachen even had the power to appear in LMJ, something no major character could do. I consider them akin to the velvet room attendants from the Persona games.

Clive’s kill count is a vague subject in the game for the sake of keeping it PG. I don’t know if anyone’s ever mathematically estimated the damage he caused, and I sure don’t want to try, but the game appears to push the idea that he didn’t kill anyone at all, saying they stopped him in the nick of time and things like that, even though we watch him raze the city. If they ever want to bring him back post-time skip, I can see them twisting it so that the mobile fortress cutscene wasn’t a linear sequence of events, but instead a compilation of scenes over the course of hours so that London neighborhoods around him could be evacuated and have it make sense. Knowing Level-5, it’s more likely that they wouldn’t think this deep and do something more lazy, though.

Memes and references

Post-time skip Flora is real references the famous L is real theory from Super Mario 64. Like Luigi in SM64, Flora was also a highly anticipated character who didn’t appear in a new game, in this case LMJ or LMDA. In the end, Luigi did become real in the DS port so hopefully Flora is real will be realized as well.

Hershel can’t read is a veteran fandom meme referring to how in the first few games, especially Curious Village, Layton asks Luke to read every document out loud for him. Perhaps this was an exercise to improve Luke’s reading skills and independent thinking, or perhaps he was just too lazy or preoccupied to do it himself, but this grew into the joke that our genius Professor was actually illiterate this whole time.

Layton’s smash invitation is hidden in PLvsAA. It’s no secret that the fandom would kill a man to get the Professor into the smash brothers franchise. In PLvsAA one of the puzzle artworks features a goat eating a familiar white envelope with a red stamp, sparking the joke that either Layton or Wright got the invitation their respective fans desired, but it got lost along the way.

The science board is the mysteriously vague organization Don Paolo got kicked out of for the crime of being evil. It’s the epitome of liberal arts majors and art school graduates trying to bs their way around not knowing any science and failing miserably. “He was very good at all the sciences, but then the CEO of science told him to stop because he was using the power of science for evil science”. They do this again when “Dr. Stahngun” describes his time machine what with the soolha coils and whatnot.

Hoogland is death cult initiation is a parody of “Mario 64 is Freemason initiation” which is ridiculous, just like the creepy human sacrifice subplot of AL.

You can see the reflection of someone watching you in Aurora’s eye references the famous, creepy Talking Angela theory. In retrospect it would’ve been funnier if I said Angela instead of Aurora.

Every copy of Professor Layton is personalized references the famous “every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized”

Clive’s fat ass in HD is a meme that originated from the announcement of UFHD, saying that half of the excited fans wanted to cry again while the other half were simply attracted to Clive. If we want to enter real bottom-section-of-the-iceberg-chart territory then let’s say Clive’s character has some sort of psychological siren properties that draw people to him like a magnet and/or Harry Styles.

Things I pulled out of my ass for shits and giggles

Infinite hint coin hack: I’m sure a tech savvy cheater could hack the game for infinite hint coins, but there’s no easy or interesting way. I don’t know why someone would do that though, considering a lot of the hints suck and there are puzzle guides on the internet.

Cringy, unused Randall villain monologue. This joke is derived from the actual scrapped MM content as well as deleted content being a popular element of iceberg charts, but it’s sadly not real. Would’ve been hilarious, though.

Last Specter Puzzle 031: Light Height tracks and records children’s intelligence level. It doesn’t, but it’s always fun to make fun of arguably THE most ridiculously difficult puzzle in the franchise. (Seriously, do they expect 7+ year olds to know trigonometry???)

Hershel struggles with tea addiction. Hershel from the games drinks tea in moderation, but the manga begs to differ. He has a tea set in the Laytonmobile, and an attempt at teatime while driving causes him to crash.

Folsense is a metaphor for Alzheimer’s. This is inspired by those edgy kids’ show theories where everyone’s in hell or something, but nobody has ever said this.

London Life is reality and the plot of the games is all in Luke’s head. That’s one way to fill every plot hole. How funny would it be if Luke made up crazy characters and stories based off his fellow townspeople Sharkboy and Lavagirl style. “This dude who lives in a castle and asks people to give him all their money for nothing in return is a vampire from 50 years ago involved in a tragic love story”.

Secret ending encoded into Tago’s Head Gymnastics. It’d be crazy if there was, and Dimitri would hound Tago for the secret to time travel. If you didn’t know, the Layton games started as an adaption of Akira Tago’s puzzle series, except they decided to add a story to make it more interesting and marketable.

Daily puzzles datamine your DS. I’m bad with technology but is it even possible to datamine a DS??? Idk, but I think my DS lite from 2008 is safe.

[asa-liz]

Fic Questionnaire

I was tagged by @101flavoursofweird and @sixtyfourk

Thanks for tagging me!

I'll tag @bachint, just if you want to do it.

I'll leave it under the cut.

How many works do you have on AO3? 41

What’s your total AO3 word count? 85118

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Mostly for Professor Layton, but I've written a few oneshots in other fandoms (Final Fantasy 7, Lupin III, The Lion King, FFVI and FMA)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I didn't know you could see the statistics, ha ha.

1- Gain and Lost. I'm surprised the first one is a Kiara/Vitani-ish oneshot from The Lion King II, though it's a bigger an older fandom.

2- Farewell and Reunion. A short 3 chapters fic with Desmond reconnecting with Layton after Raymond passes away.

3- Misthallery, my prison. My first fic, rated E and with archive warnings, so not for everybody. It has many grammar and spelling mistakes, but I'm still proud of it.

4- Hide your eyes. A Descole fic

5- Conversations – (One Shot series). I really like these ones.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to answer, even if it’s just a 'thanks for your comment', it's really nice that someone took the time to write one.

On Wattpad I've left unanswered comments when they are references to memes, jokes or fandoms I don't know about. I just don't know what I'm supposed to answer.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Probably 'Into the blue' is angsty, because it's about Loosha's death. But I usually put the angst in the middle or the beginning.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not that I'm aware of.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I usually don't post it. I've been thinking if I'll post some lately.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Well, I post the Spanish version of my fics on Wattpad. If the question is by someone else, then no.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I'm not very sociable, hence not good with group projects.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I'm not sure, I guess I have to mention Aerith/Tifa from Final Fantasy 7, since I usually read almost exclusively stories about them when I look at the fandom tag.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Right now I don't know, It changes with time.

Maybe I should mention "We Can Solve Mysteries Together", it was a Luke/Marina fanfic that started with how they met, then I planned to add a different case in every chapter. It was a WIP I wanted to finish, but in the end, it wasn't going anywhere, and I decided to delete it and abandon it.

What are your writing strengths?

Inner monologues and thoughts, I think.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Probably pacing, I’m not sure if the changes are sometimes too sudden, then to slow in another scene…

Descriptions, I'm not sure, tastes for this changes a lot from reader to reader.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I never needed to until now, but I'll guess I'll go with the "main character hear them talking but couldn't understand”

I guess it gives the reader an interesting task to find what it says.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

I think I wrote a silly Pokemon fic with my sister when I was around 10-12, when Messengers groups were just starting.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I can't never choose a favorite of anything, but I really like Sent Letters, Unsent Letters.

[lukesjournal]

What ur favorite layton character says about u

Layton: u are a pure and gentle person. An old soul. Lives on tea. Procrastinates on all ur assignments. friendly and kind despite being v traumatized 

Luke: u project urself onto fictional characters as a coping mechanism. a lovable little bitch. Sassy and dumb but full of love

Flora: ur probably a soft lesbian. Friendly but shy and withdrawn. U appreciate the little joys and pleasures of life

Don Paolo: ur like if a sexy accordion solo were a person

Anton: ur dramatic and sassy. u live in ur own world and sometimes u struggle with accepting the reality of ur life. ur favorite holiday is haloween

Katia: ur a good friend and u love ur family. ur like the one (1) sane person of ur friend group

Claire: u are big and stronk. a dependable friend. u have been through a lot but u are still proud and confident. everyone loves u because ur fabulous

Clive: ur a thot. The rate of ur thottery? Unprecedented. U don’t like to share personal stuff and u bottle up ur emotions at an unhealthy level. Go to therapy plz

Dimitri: ur a sassy boi. U always want to look ur best. U have a flair for the over dramatic and u make questionable choices when u get lit with ur buddies

Arianna Barde: a baby. poor thing uve been through so much. u shut people out sometimes but u have more friends in the world than u’ll ever know

Loosha: ur a pure soul. what did we do to deserve u

Randall: a true rowdy boy. U talk too much but ur friends love u anyway. Everyone secretly has a crush on u. Ur probably a top or a v thirsty bottom

Angela: u are super smart. ur a great friend and a strong ally

Henry: obsessive and nervous, but loyal to the bone. u probably have a weird haircut let’s be honest here

Swift: ur @puzzling-magpie​

Desmond: u have a weird but lovable sense of humor. A total nerd and strong leader. u want to make friends but u also like to withdraw into ur own world. H y p e r f i x a t i o n s

Descole: u have a flair for the over dramatic. U like things your way or else. U cover up your personal struggles w feathers and glitter! yay

[101flavoursofweird]

One last preview for Project Loosha:

Closing the door firmly behind her, Dr. Trench scowled at them. “Professor Sycamore… I’m not sure how you arrived here so quickly—“

“Golems are super fast!” Tony chipped in.

“—But I was under the impression that you had cut all contact with my lab, and you were no longer interested in contributing to the project.” Dr. Trench crossed her arms. “Now, at the eleventh hour, you show up— during my meeting to secure investments for the project’s future… What do you have to say for yourself?”

[101flavoursofweird]

Preview #Something for Project Loosha

“You better not have kidnapped my mum!” Tony called, though he wasn’t really that concerned. For all his faults, Don Paolo wasn’t a monster…Just a pest, like those raccoons that had gotten into the Tritons’ loft last winter. (Luke might have had something to do with that…)

“What if I did—?” Don Paolo barked, with all the threat of said-raccoons. He backed down onto the sidewalk as Tony advanced with the mop. “—Alright, brat! You let me go now, and I swear to let your mother go, unharmed—“

“Do you purse your lips when you lie?” Tony laughed.

Snarling, Don Paolo spun on his heel, stepped into the road—

And hit the hood of a blue truck.

“Holy—!” Tony swore, dropped the mop, and sprinted towards the road, where Don Paolo had landed. “Don—? Don Paolo!”

At the same time, a purple-haired young woman sprang out of the truck, spluttering, “Oh my gosh— I didn’t— are you okay?” 

Both she and Tony both hovered over Don Paolo’s body— his body— in the road.

[101flavoursofweird]

Preview for ‘Project Loosha’:

“My name is Marina— I’m not important! But my mom is Dr. Tonya Trench…”

When this sparked no reaction, Marina clarified, “My mom is a marine biologist here in Finnerton. She studies Florida manatees…”

Tony exchanged a wide-eyed look with Arianna. “Manatees?” he mouthed.

“Mom’s lab received a call a couple of months back,” Marina continued, lowering her voice, “about a new project… Project Loosha.”

[101flavoursofweird]

Preview

“Please can you watch Kat while we visit the lab?”

Kat let out an excited squeal as Arianna passed her over to Luke. 

Balancing Kat against his hip, Luke huffed, “Sure—?”

“Thank you.” Arianna pecked Luke on the cheek. 

Tony made a sound of disgust and looked away. He saw Marina avert her gaze as well, though she was blushing slightly.

-An excerpt from Project Loosha, a side story in my Layton-Adopts-The-Barde-Siblings series, Ready Now

[101flavoursofweird]

For the fanfic writer ask

🎭

And

🍎

?

🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you?

Canon divergence fics, if that counts as a genre!

🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic?

Did you know there’s a river in Florida where you can swim with manatees? Despite this, did you know humans aren’t allowed to pet manatees? Did you know baby manatees squeak? Did you know—

(For Project: Loosha, where Tony, Arianna and Marina save a cloned Loosha pup.)

[101flavoursofweird]

Chapters: 10/10 Fandom: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Arianna Barde & Hershel Layton, Arianna Barde & Tony Barde, Arianna Barde & Crow, Arianna Barde/Luke Triton, Arianna Barde & OC, Arianna Barde & Aurora, Arianna Barde & the Black Ravens, Arianna Barde & Evan Barde, Badger/Crow (Professor Layton), Crow & Luke Triton, Crow & Hershel Layton, Tony Barde & Hershel Layton, Arianna Barde & Flora Reinhold, Arianna Barde & Tony Barde & Loosha, Arianna Barde & Clive Dove Characters: Arianna Barde, Tony Barde, Hershel Layton, Luke Triton, Emmy Altava, Aurora (Professor Layton), Lucille Layton, Roland Layton, Badger (Professor Layton), Nabby (Professor Layton), Crow (Professor Layton), The Black Ravens, Professor Layton OC - Arianna's mother, Brenda Triton, Clark Triton, Flora Reinhold, Professor Layton OC - Gale the Azran golem, Clive (Professor Layton) Additional Tags: Absent Parents, Found Family, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, In which Hershel Layton adopts every lost child he encounters, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Give the PL girls angst, Also known as the Flora-never-gets-kidnapped AU Series: Part 2 of Ready Now, Part 3 of PL AUs (Canon Divergence) Summary:

The professor takes in Arianna and Tony after the discovery of the Golden Garden... Crow tags along too... followed by Flora… And now, Clive wants to join the gang.

[101flavoursofweird]

Another preview for ‘Project Loosha’:

“Tony…” Arianna gasped, clutching his arm. He felt her quivering. “Tony. Look.”

Blinking tears away, Tony looked towards the pool.

“I-is this real?” he choked out. He had suddenly reverted back to being a dubious, lonely eight-year-old boy who had forced himself to grow up too fast. “Please… please tell me she’s real…”

[101flavoursofweird]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Arianna Barde & Tony Barde & Loosha, Arianna Barde & Tony Barde, Arianna Barde & Marina Triton, Tony Barde & Marina Triton, Arianna Barde/Luke Triton, Tony Barde & Don Paolo, Marina Triton & OC Characters: Tony Barde, Arianna Barde, Marina Triton, (Marina Trench in this universe), Don Paolo, Katrielle Layton, Hershel Layton, Luke Triton, Loosha (Professor Layton), (In spirit!), Professor Layton OC Additional Tags: Ready Now, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, cloning, Marine Biology, Manatees, Family, Fluff and Angst, Friendship Series: Part 3 of Ready Now Summary:

A marine biology lab in Florida successfully clones an ancient Azran sea cow… Tony, Arianna and Marina go to save said-sea cow.

[101flavoursofweird]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ernest Greeves & Katrielle Layton, Ernest Greeves & Loosha, Sherl O.C. Kholmes & Katrielle Layton, Ernest Greeves & Sherl O.C. Kholmes Characters: Ernest Greeves, Katrielle Layton, Loosha (Professor Layton), Sherl O.C. Kholmes Additional Tags: PL4Day, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst Summary:

Kat finds a toy based on a ‘loveable lake dweller’ at Richmond Court.

[101flavoursofweird]

sleepy hug with Arianna and Tony for the hug prompts?

((I’m sorry this is late… and it involves Loosha with Arianna more than Tony. Loosha just butted her way in there! …Honestly, I ended up combining the prompt with a short oneshot I’d left unfinished for ages. So thank for giving me the chance to finish it!

Spoilers: Slight spoilers for PL4.

Set: Before PL4, but after Mr Barde’s death.))

-

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

“Are you sure you’ll be warm enough?” Tony called from behind his stack of books at the table.

“Yes, Tony,” Arianna answered for the umpteenth time. She was wearing three layers; a jumper over her shirt and leggings over her tights, and a blue coat to top it all off.

Studies forgotten, Tony followed her out into the hall.

“B-but, have you seen how misty it is out there?” He was still fussing as she put on her thick white socks and her brown boots.

“Mist in Misthallery?” Arianna mock-gasped. Tony frowned at her. “I’ll be fine,” Arianna assured him. “I’m only going to see Loosha…”

“If you could just wait half an hour, I’ll go with you—“

“No,” Arianna said sternly. “You need to finish that spelling test.”

Since their tutor had stopped turning up at the manor, the two of them had been borrowing school textbooks from the library. Arianna wouldn’t let Tony’s education suffer because of her.

“Fine,” Tony grumbled. “See you later...” He mooched back to the dining room.

Arianna grabbed a basket to carry her ocarina and some apples (the fruit stall was out of pears, apparently).

Cold air rushed in as she opened the front doors.

“Don’t forget your gloves,” Tony hollered from the dining hall.

Arianna rolled her eyes, but she went to retrieve her red gloves.

Feeling like a woolly mammoth with all of her layers, she lumbered down to the lake.

Arianna squinted when she reached the boardwalk. There seemed to be an extra layer of mist lingering over the waves today.

Arianna placed the basket on the boardwalk. She fumbled as she tried to pick up her ocarina. She sighed— her breath clouding in the air— before she reluctantly removed her gloves.

Hands stinging from the cold, she started to play Loosha’s song.

Thankfully, Loosha took less than a minute to emerge from the water.

“Pweeeaaaaah!”

“H-hello!” Arianna cried as Loosha glided over to the boardwalk. (The water must have been freezing, but Loosha didn’t seem to be affected!)

“Sorry…” Arianna stepped back before Loosha could splash her. “Tony doesn’t want me to get too cold.” She returned her ocarina to the basket and put her gloves on again.

When she turned, she saw that Loosha was straining her neck, eyeing the basket hungrily.

Arianna grinned. “Do you like apples?” she asked, lifting one of the apples up and down. Loosha followed the apple, bobbing her head. Arianna chucked it to her. Loosha caught it in one bite.

“I’ll take that as a yes!”

She fed Loosha more of the apples, one by one.

Now that Loosha was calmer— and less likely to splash her— Arianna went to stroke her nose.

Loosha sniffed at Arianna’s gloves. Arianna chuckled. “They’re soft, aren’t they—?” She gasped when Loosha nibbled the fingertips of her gloves. “Nooo…!” She laughed. “These are mine!” She pulled her hands away.

Loosha let out a dejected whine.

“What’s wrong?” wondered Arianna. Her eyes widened when she noticed that Loosha was shivering. “Are you cold?”

Maybe Loosha hadn’t adjusted to the wintery weather after all…

She must get even colder at night. Where did she go to sleep?

Arianna and Tony had tried following her one evening, but Loosha had dived into the lake.

Not to be deterred, Tony had thrown on a disguise and visited the Fish Research Centre. He had spoken to one of the staff members about his ‘project’ on freshwater animals.

One of Loosha’s closest living relatives was the manatee.

Manatees couldn’t sleep for hours underwater. Rather, they would rest for twenty minutes and drift up to the surface when they needed air. (It sounded adorable— Arianna could definitely see Loosha doing that!)

But the habitats where wild manatees could found— from the Amazon, to North America, to Africa— had much warmer climates than England.

Loosha wouldn’t catch a wink in the icy water… So, did she come out to sleep on the shore, like a seal?

Arianna frowned. Whether it was in or out of the water, Loosha would still suffer from the cold. Arianna imagined Loosha shivering in the dark, all alone.

“We can’t have that,” Arianna muttered.

Arianna offered Loosha another apple, tempting her out of the water. “Come on, Loosha…”

-

“Hi, Ari— ack! LOOSHA?” Tony gaped at them from the doorway.

Arianna smiled. “It’s cold out… I thought Loosha could stay with us tonight.” She stepped aside as Loosha butted Tony with her nose. (She should just about fit through the front doors!)

“Eeeeey!”

Tony was almost bowled over by Loosha. He spluttered, “But what if she tries to break out— to fight the spectre?”

“She won’t as long she hears me playing the flute,” Arianna said with certainty. If she played right next to Loosha, it should soothe her even more than usual.

Besides, Arianna trusted Loosha.

“Alright…” Tony sighed, patting Loosha’s nose. “Where is she going sleep? In the bathtub?”

-

They ended up building Loosha a nest of pillows and blankets in the lounge. Loosha was much warmer and comfier than she would have been outside.

Still, Tony made sure Loosha had plenty of water, and Arianna lulled her to sleep with the flute.

For the first time in weeks, Loosha didn’t go to fend off the spectre.

Arianna wished it could always be like this, but she knew they couldn’t keep Loosha cooped up forever. Loosha would need to return to the lake soon, especially when the weather improved. And she would want to protect the town from the monster…

At least for that night, she was safe by their side.

In the end, all three of them fell asleep snuggled together in the lounge.