#of not wanting to worry about my (previously overgrown) hair during that

[simple-mint]

I got a bad haircut and the world is ENDING

[northernindigenousbeautyhailey]

TAMRA JEWEL KEEPNESS.

FEW CHILDREN IN CANADA JUST VANISH. Fewer still stay gone for longer than a couple of days. Some are found alive, others are hurt or killed, but rarely does a child simply disappear. The RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains database lists 147 missing children, in a country of more than 35 million people. Of the sixty children under the age of twelve, a quarter are thought to have been abducted by their parents. A large portion of the others were lost to apparent accidents or misadventure, falling through ice or swept away in the pull of wild rivers, their bodies never recovered. The database shows twenty-four children in the past sixty years who have inexplicably disappeared. Because there are so few, we know them. In Edmonton, there is Tania Murrell, six when she vanished while walking home from school for lunch in January 1983. In Toronto, Nicole Morin, eight when she disappeared from a condominium building in July 1985. Michael Dunahee was four years old when he went missing from a playground in Victoria in 1991. In Regina, there is only Tamra Keepness.

THE LAST TIME anyone saw Tamra, she was five years old, with bobbed black hair and soft, round cheeks. In one picture, she wears a T-shirt dotted with flowers, standing against the colourful collage of a classroom wall. Her smile is broad and open, her eyes lively. She was so smart that her mother called her “my little Einstein,” so feisty that when a little boy pushed her once, Tamra shoved him right back, and harder. She liked playing Mario Kart on Nintendo and climbing her favourite tree, down the block from her house.

July 6, 2004, was the first time Sergeant Ron Weir would hear Tamra’s name. He was getting ready to leave on vacation that day when he got an urgent call back to the police station. Weir was a veteran cop with the Regina Police Service and head of emergency services, which included search and rescue. In a meeting, officers from the major crimes unit laid out what they knew: sometime between the night of Monday, July 5, and the morning of Tuesday, July 6, a five-year-old girl had gone missing from her home in central Regina.

Weir had been a police officer for twenty years. He knew that kids often went missing and turned up safe a short time later. Sixty-five percent of missing children and teens are located within the first day, and almost 90 percent within the first week. But Weir also knew that Tamra was too young to get far as a runaway. Patrol officers had already checked the neighbourhood to make sure Tamra hadn’t wandered away or ended up at the house of a playmate or relative, as was often the case with missing children. They’d found nothing. Even in the early hours of the investigation, Weir suspected this case would be different.

TAMRA LIVED with her mother, stepfather, and five siblings at 1834 Ottawa Street, a shabby brown-and-white two-storey with a windowed porch at the front. The house stood between 11th and 12th avenues, just east of downtown Regina. The neighbourhood was a mix of long-time elderly residents, young families drawn by low prices for heritage houses, and ramshackle homes where residents struggled with poverty and addiction. The area was sometimes known as the “low stroll,” a place where women and girls sold their bodies for drugs or booze and men drove around looking to buy them, circling the neighbourhood in trucks and station wagons. Many of the women and girls who lived or worked in the area were First Nations, like Tamra. Long before calls for a federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women would dominate the political conversation, women were going missing from those streets. It was from that same area that nineteen-year-old Annette Kelly Peigan disappeared in 1983, followed by eighteen-year-old Patsy Favel in 1984 and Joyce Tillotson in 1993. Two years later, two young white men picked up a woman named Pamela George, sexually assaulted her, and beat her to death.

The last public development came in November 2014, when a Reddit user posted to the website a scrawled map with the words: “Location of Tamra Keepness, check the wells.”

Tamra’s house was less than a block from the Oskana Centre, a halfway house for federal parolees, and not far from the Salvation Army’s Waterston House, a residence and shelter inhabited by former inmates and men struggling with drugs, alcohol, and psychiatric issues. Residents of both facilities had been responsible for serious attacks in the past. Just four months earlier, convicted violent sex offender Randy Burgmann had lured a woman into his room at Waterston House with alcohol, before violently sexually assaulting her and leaving her beside a dumpster to die. The Oskana Centre had previously been home to both serial rapist Larry Deckert and Billy John Francis Whitedeer, who began committing violent sexual offences on children when he was ten years old. A few blocks farther was the Ehrle Hotel, one of the worst bars in town, from which patrons spilled soggy and staggering onto the sidewalk, and which appeared regularly in police reports and court testimony.

Police also had serious questions about what was happening at 1834 Ottawa Street. There was a broken window and blood spatter in the porch. Social Services had been involved with the family since not long after the oldest child was born in 1993, and there had been more than fifty reports made to crisis workers, most often about Tamra’s mother’s use of alcohol and drugs, and neglect of the children. Her mother’s boyfriend had a history of violence and domestic assault. In most cases, investigators knew, children are hurt by people closest to them.

POLICE STARTED with a thorough search of the area immediately around the home, then cast their efforts outward in an expanding grid. As the sun rose on the morning of July 7, 2004, the search effort intensified. First, there were ten officers, then twenty, then more. Some officers accompanied trained volunteer search teams; others questioned family members and potential witnesses, going door-to-door gathering leads or chasing down tips. The RCMP training academy provided cadets, and members of the public soon began arriving on their own to help.

Police set up a command-centre bus in the parking lot of a nearby church, from which Weir co-ordinated the search. Though it was an urban environment, the terrain posed serious challenges. The area was filled with overgrown yards, empty houses, piles of garbage. Tamra weighed forty pounds, and stood three foot five. There were so many places a child could hide or get trapped or be held, where a child’s body could be concealed or dumped. Searchers in orange vests worked in grids, knocking on doors, inspecting junked cars and crumbling garages, peering under discarded mattresses and piles of wood, looking down manholes. Police stopped garbage pickups, checking all the bins in the neighbourhood, the trash putrid and reeking in the summer heat. Some bins had already been emptied, so plans were made to search the dump as well.

And what if she had been taken farther? Not far away were industrial areas, large abandoned lots and buildings, Wascana Creek, and beyond that, the vast Prairie. With a thirteen-hour head start, someone in a vehicle could have had Tamra in Vancouver before she was reported missing.

When they were not speaking to police, members of Tamra’s family waited anxiously on the fringes, watching the searchers, eyeing the growing assembly of reporters and news crews holding out microphones and pointing camera lenses. “It’s not like her to go off by herself,” said Tamra’s father, Troy Keepness, sitting on the front steps of his ex-wife’s house, his voice tight with worry. “We’re trying to do our best to get her back.”

Weir worked in the command-centre bus, surrounded by maps and whiteboards. A scribe logged every aspect of the search in real time, recording ideas and progress. No one wanted to break, not for food or rest. Everyone knew the situation grew more serious with every passing hour. As the heat of the day gave way to evening, Weir stood outside and looked up. A strong wind had come in, and storm clouds were spreading, darkening the Prairie sky.

The next day, police strung crime-scene tape around Tamra’s house and the one next door, drawing it through the back alley and across six garages, long slashes of yellow dividing the street. Officers guarded the perimeter while forensic investigators went in and out of the house in boots and masks. “While we don’t have any direct evidence that Tamra has come to any harm, we also don’t know where she is,” police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich told reporters. “And if, in fact, this comes to a point where we determine that she’s come to some harm and it’s because of a criminal act, this location could potentially be the scene of some evidence.”

THERE WERE three adults in the house that evening: the children’s mother, Lorena Keepness; her boyfriend, Dean McArthur; and a family friend named Russell Sheepskin, who had been staying with the family. All three had come and gone during the night, and investigators were starting to question their movements. There were no signs of forced entry to the house, and there were gaps, inconsistencies in their timelines that didn’t make sense to investigators.

The story the three told publicly, compiled from various interviews, was that Lorena and McArthur got into an argument while watching a movie on Monday evening, and McArthur and Sheepskin left the house around 8:30 p.m. to go drinking. The men returned briefly to drop off a bottle of formula for the baby, then left again. Lorena went out around 11 p.m, kissing Tamra goodbye before she went. The oldest child in the house was ten-year-old Summer, the youngest was Lorena and McArthur’s nine-month-old baby. Lorena returned briefly to check on the children and then left again around midnight. At about 3 a.m., Sheepskin returned home drunk and saw Tamra sleeping on the couch. Not long after, McArthur got back to the house and assaulted Sheepskin on the porch, punching him through a window and then stomping on his head. (Both men later said the fight had nothing to do with Tamra.) Sheepskin walked alone to the hospital to get stitches, and McArthur went to stay at his aunt’s house a few blocks away. Though it should have been a short walk, he said he got lost and kept passing out as he walked there. He didn’t arrive for at least two hours, until 5 or 5:30 a.m. Meanwhile, Lorena got home around 3:15 or 3:30 a.m., climbed in through a window, and passed out on the couch. She said that she got up to undo the latch on the door for her mother around 8 or 9 a.m. and that the two eldest children, Summer and Rayne, left on their own in the morning to attend a summer day-camp. Lorena didn’t realize Tamra wasn’t there until about three hours later, when the five-year-old didn’t come downstairs. At 12:16 p.m., a family member called the police and told them Tamra was missing.

Rayne, who was eight, said he had gone to bed squeezed into the space between the wall and mattresses piled on the floor in an upstairs bedroom. He told his mother he felt Tamra get up at some point, the slight movement of a child’s weight. All he could remember was that it was light outside.

FRIDAY WAS hot again and wet from the previous night’s rain. An odour of decay hung in the air around Ottawa Street. Tamra had been gone three full days and become national news. Her picture seemed to be everywhere, hanging on street poles and store windows. In news stories, she became “missing five-year-old Tamra Keepness,” but more often she was just Tamra, as if we knew her. The front page of the Regina Leader-Post spoke directly to her, asking, “Tamra, Where Did You Go?”

Tips flooded in to police. On the street, there were rumours that Tamra had been seen at a dollar store with an older woman. Business owners in the neighbourhood said detectives had been looking for a middle-aged white man named Roch or Rocky, but police wouldn’t confirm whether that was related to the search. Lorena and McArthur said they gave police the names of five people they thought could be suspects, including a man who had befriended Tamra and later been discovered to be a pedophile. For a while, there was even a theory that Tamra had never existed at all, that she had been a scam to get extra money from Social Services. (Hospital records proved that was not the case.)

Searchers were coming from around the province to volunteer, streaming into the city from towns and First Nations communities, motivated by the faces of their own children or grandchildren to help in whatever way they could. “I’ve got a boy, and he’s twenty-one,” said Jerry Scott, one of the volunteers who joined the search. “And if he left, I’d go nuts, too.” Around the city, people organized vigils and barbecues, brought water and snacks for the searchers, wrapped ribbons around trees to show their support. Some left teddy bears and angels on the steps of Tamra’s house. Days of intensive searches had turned up lots of items that seemed as though they could be connected—clothing, a child’s shoe—but none of it belonged to Tamra. “I’m starting to go on different conclusions, like maybe someone took her, I don’t know,” Troy Keepness said. “I just hope nobody would hurt my daughter.”

WHEN Tamra had been gone a week, police announced they were suspending the ground searches. At a press conference, Regina police chief Cal Johnston announced a $25,000 reward for information and vowed, “We will find Tamra.” Police questioned sex offenders living in the area and obtained surveillance tapes from convenience stores, bars, gas stations, and the Greyhound bus depot nearby. Johnston confirmed that “criminal interference with Tamra is a distinct possibility” and drew attention back to Tamra’s house and family. “There were comings and goings from the house that night that remain not fully explained to our satisfaction, and we continue to ask those questions,” he told reporters. He would not elaborate.

Tamra’s family was growing increasingly angry at the police, and the strain of the situation was starting to show. Lorena told reporters she’d signed consent forms for police to search her house and had given her DNA, but still she felt as if they were focusing too much on her family and not enough on trying to find Tamra. She was angry that police hadn’t closed the highways out of the city and that there was no Amber Alert because police said it didn’t meet the criteria. “I’m fed up,” she told reporters. “They are wasting time. This is my little girl we’re talking about.”

The family was growing frustrated with the media, too. Lorena’s mother yelled obscenities at reporters one day, and on another, members of the family nearly came to blows with a TV reporter doing a live update from the front lawn. They had been watching the news inside the house when they heard the reporter imply what many in the city were already wondering: If not someone in that house, then who?

On July 19, two weeks after Tamra had been reported missing, police charged McArthur with assaulting Sheepskin the night Tamra disappeared. McArthur told reporters he had been interrogated for twenty hours, not about the assault, but about Tamra and about what had gone on inside the house that night. “It was always the same questions, and they were assuming that I knew the answers to those questions, but I didn’t know the answers, and I still don’t know the answers,” he said. “I would never hurt a hair on that little girl’s head.”

Two days later, Tamra’s brothers and sisters were removed from the home by child-protection officers. Tamra’s twin sister wore messy pigtails and clutched a colouring book and a yellow blanket as two women led the children away down the front steps of the house. Neither government officials nor police would say whether the children’s seizure was related to Tamra’s disappearance. When the children were gone, police searched the house again.

One night late that summer, Tamra’s father, Troy, showed up at the house with a baseball bat and confronted her stepfather, McArthur. Troy was charged with assault, though McArthur later said police “got things misunderstood.” “Everybody’s looking for answers,” he said. “We more or less talked.”

LORENA KEEPNESS was fourteen years old when she ran away from her home on the White Bear First Nation, 200 kilometres southeast of Regina. She had been in residential school for about three months, but that wasn’t what did it. For her, it was the same ugly stuff at home. She found her way to Regina. When her mom tried to take her home, Lorena wouldn’t go. She lived on the streets instead.

She had her daughter Summer Wind when she was twenty, her son Rayne Dance not long after. It was after the ultrasound for her third baby that she walked home in a daze and told her husband, Troy, “We’re having twins.” She kept repeating it until it sunk in, and then they just stood together in the kitchen and laughed. Her mother said “Way to go!” but Lorena told her, “They came from God. Not like I planted those in me.”

The babies were born on September 1, 1998. Fraternal twin girls, each weighing more than six pounds, carried almost right to term and curved around one another like pieces of a puzzle. Lorena and Troy split up when the twins were little, and after that, the girls stayed sometimes with their mother, sometimes with their father or with other relatives. Lorena and Troy each struggled with substance abuse, and their lives were sometimes too troubled and unstable to have the children with them. At five, Tamra was bold and courageous, and protective of her twin sister. Once, Lorena heard a soft knock in the middle of the night and opened the door to find the twins standing there. The children had left their father’s house and walked four blocks back to Lorena’s in the middle of the night, Tamra leading her sister by the hand as they found their way through the dark. REGINA POLICE received more than a thousand tips in the first six weeks after Tamra’s disappearance. At one point, a Volkswagen van that had been stolen the night Tamra disappeared was found burned outside the city. A jail guard told police she and a former inmate had stolen it, picked up Tamra, and then dumped the child’s body in a ravine on the Muscowpetung First Nation. Ron Weir led a week-long search on Muscowpetung, draining multiple beaver dams with compressor pumps, while searchers slogged through water up to their hips. The jail guard later confessed she had made up the story. She was charged with mischief and wrote a letter apologizing to the police. In court, her lawyer said she had been trying to get her abusive boyfriend locked up again.

Returning from medical leave to the police department in the fall of 2004, superintendent Troy Hagen could feel how Tamra’s disappearance was weighing on his colleagues. Hagen noticed it in everyone he spoke to, from the police chief down, whether they were involved with the case or not. Sergeant Rod Buckingham, one of the lead investigators, was among those who felt the growing frustration. “It’s a mystery,” he would say. “And I don’t like mysteries.”

Officers had spoken with more than 6,000 people by then, but there had been no arrests, and leads were drying up. Shortly after, a special task force was struck to re-examine the case, to see whether anything had been missed. The name of the project was iskwesis ayishowak e mamayahi, a Cree term meaning “little girl bring people together.”

TWELVE YEARS LATER, Lorena Keepness spends her days doing odd jobs and picking bottles, trading them in at the depot for cash. She is forty-three and lives with her eldest son in a rundown shack of a house on Victoria Avenue, a fifteen-minute walk from Ottawa Street. Lorena’s children were never permanently returned to her custody after the disappearance, and the three babies she had after that were all taken by Social Services, too. Tamra’s twin sister is seventeen now. Lorena says she is an athlete, smart and beautiful. Lorena lost her family pictures when someone threw all her stuff in the garbage a few years ago. The only photos she has of Tamra now are the ones on missing-child posters.

Tamra’s twin and her older sister, Summer, don’t want to be interviewed. Neither does Tamra’s father, Troy. McArthur couldn’t be reached. Lorena needs a six-pack of Black Ice beer to talk. She doesn’t really want to be interviewed either. She has never liked reporters or their questions, and it hurts to talk about that time. “But part of me wants to,” she says, as her face crumples. “Part of me needs to share what the fuck happened. Someone stole my child.”

Lorena has heard many theories about what happened to her daughter. Some believe Tamra wandered away and was abducted by a driver cruising the area or that she got lost, then crawled in somewhere so small she has never been found. Other theories focus on the adults in the house that night. Some officers will say off-the-record that they think Tamra is in the dump but that they just couldn’t find her in the mountains of debris. Many in the city believe that Lorena and McArthur sold or traded Tamra to pay off a cocaine debt. Lorena has heard that one the most. One night, she was at a bar and heard some women talking, loud enough so she could hear. “Yeah, she sold her kid for dope. She has a whole bunch of babies. She has kids just to sell them for drugs.” Her friend told her not to listen, but Lorena couldn’t ignore it. She swore at the women, promised she would get them for even thinking she could do that to her child. They met at the same bar again the next day, and that time they fought, a tangle of hair and fists. One of them had a knife and slashed her twice on the back of her arm. More scars to wear for life. It wasn’t the only time. One night, she was attacked in Moose Jaw. Not long ago, a woman shouted “Baby killer!” at her across the street.

Lorena and Dean McArthur are still together, on and off—“more on than off,” she says. Police tried hard to turn them against each other, but she always believed him in the end. He may be all kinds of things, she says, but he’s not a baby killer. “If I thought he did something to my daughter, I would have killed him myself,” she says. “I think the police were just so sure. They figured, ‘These guys are a bunch of nobodies. She did her own child.’ They already had their conclusions drawn before they even tried to look for anything.”

The suggestion she could have had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance still pushes Lorena to the point of violence. You can see her eyes flash, her muscles tighten at the question. But she holds back— it’s not worth going to jail. She’s had enough of the police, has grown used to the accusations. In the past twelve years, she’s repeated her story publicly many times, and it has never really changed.

REGINA POLICE have never released full details about the investigation into Tamra’s disappearance, on the grounds that it remains an open case that they still hope to solve. In an interview, Troy Hagen, now Regina’s police chief, would not speak about any working theories or confirm any specifics of the investigation, including whether one of the people questioned about Tamra’s disappearance had failed a polygraph test. Instead, Hagen echoed what police have said since the beginning: That there remain important unanswered questions about the comings and goings from the house on Ottawa Street that night. That they will continue to investigate every tip. That they won’t stop looking for Tamra until they find her. He pointed to cases in the United States where children have been gone for years, sometimes decades, and then been found alive. In Canada, twelve-year-old Abby Drover was held in an underground bunker in Port Moody, British Columbia, for six months after being abducted by her neighbour in 1976. There was an intensive search of her community—including by her abductor—but she had been only feet away from her house the entire time. She was found alive. It seems impossible, but it happens. “I refuse to lose hope,” Hagen says.

The years since Tamra’s disappearance have exposed the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Suspected serial killers are facing charges in the Prairies, but there has been no public indication that Tamra’s disappearance may be connected to any of those cases. Hagen said police have also explored a possible connection with thirteen-year-old Courtney Struble, who disappeared from Estevan, a city 200 kilometres from Regina, four days after Tamra was last seen. Investigators initially believed that Struble was a runaway, and she had been gone for seven years before RCMP announced that her case had become a homicide investigation. No one has ever been charged, and her remains have never been located. Hagen says it’s strange to have two unsolved missing-children cases linked so closely in time and geographic proximity. He says the possibility of a connection was “very much” explored by police, but there doesn’t appear to be a correlation. The police investigation into Tamra’s disappearance is one of the largest and costliest in Regina’s history, but Hagen says it has never been about the money. If there were more leads or work for investigators, the police chief says he would reconvene the task force “in a heartbeat.” But the flood of tips has slowed. The reward for information that leads to finding her, now $50,000, sits unclaimed. The last public development came in November 2014, when a Reddit user with the name MySecretIsOut posted a scrawled map with the words: “Location of Tamra Keepness, check the wells.” The person later wrote that the map belonged to their grandmother and had come from a great-aunt who had visited an inmate in Alberta. “We, like many others, haven’t forgotten about you, Tamra, and continue to search and hope you are found,” the person posted. Police searched twenty-one wells around Muscowpetung but found nothing.

Sheepskin died on January 1, 2009, “with his family by his side,” according to his obituary. Many of the police officers who worked on Tamra’s case have retired or moved from the department to other jobs. Hagen says he thinks of Tamra whenever he is walking through the forest, not looking for her but always half expecting to see her there. Sometimes he looks at people he passes on the street, examining their faces and imagining what Tamra might look like now.

THROUGH THE YEARS, Lorena has developed her own theories about what happened to her daughter. These days, she mainly wonders about a drifter who used to stay with them, a woman Lorena knew from when she was a girl. A woman who sometimes told people she was pregnant even though she wasn’t, who Lorena knew by one name but whose medical documents said something else. The woman was around so much that Lorena’s children called her Big Auntie. Big Auntie had been staying at the house before Tamra disappeared, but left after she and Lorena had a falling out. Lorena says it took a long time to realize Big Auntie wasn’t coming around any more. When she did, she put word out on the streets, but no one there had seen her either. Big Auntie didn’t even show up for her own sister’s funeral in Regina a few years back. Lorena says she told the police about Big Auntie many times, but doesn’t know whether they ever found her, or whether they even looked. “She’s just gone now,” Lorena says. “Same time as my child.” Maybe it’s something. Or maybe Big Auntie is missing, too.

When I ask Lorena whether she thinks Tamra will ever be found, she struggles for an answer. “I don’t know,” she says. “But can I tell you about a dream I had?” There are two, both so vivid it’s as if they were real. In one, Tamra is inside a big house in a city Lorena has never seen. There are silk clothes draped around, and broad windows, and Tamra is upstairs, sitting on the edge of a bathtub putting on stockings. She is grown, with dark, shiny hair like her mother’s but cut straight all around. In the other dream, Tamra is still a little girl, running into her mother’s arms. “There you are!” Lorena says. “There you are!” She picks up her child and holds her, until Tamra wriggles free and is lost again.

[jesterday00]

Unicorn Study! I wanted to write down some headcanon bullets and it seems wrong to do it on DeviantArt at 2 am lmaoo

A LOT of information after the break!

- As beauty standards changed, certain Unicorn genetics were lost to time, such as the small beards and thick fur at the base of the tail. They can still be found in certain ponies, of course, but it’s very rare to see. Celestia, Mistmane, and Starswirl are some of the few that still show the heavy horn curve and tail fur especially. (side note, I saw something where Mistmane became a different species rather than become old, because she’s not really ugly when she’s old, so I really like that headcanon)

- “Pure” unicorns aren’t actually pure blooded; the most pure-blooded unicorns are those from Mistmane’s old home, and they show some of the oldest traits lost to time. These “pure” unicorns are simply those that exhibit parts of the trait. Many of the Canterlot elite show these traits from generations of unicorn-only marriages. There’s more Earth Pony blood in many of them than they think, and often brings about scandal when earth pony foals are born to “pure” unicorn parents.

- Deeply cloven hooves are another “pure” trait, but they’ve stuck around for a long time. With paved roads becoming more commonplace, there’s less worry about getting anything stuck in the split. Many ponies will still wear shoes (different from horseshoes) on certain occasions.

- Horns are, of course, a bone core with a Keratin cover. The Keratin is sturdy and easily protects the bone core, and is filled with weak nerve endings. Breaking the keratin, above the bone, is perfectly safe and doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as breaking a bone. The nerve endings are weak, so they primarily work to alert a unicorn that their horn has broken at all.

- The Keratin is thin at certain points, where the horn divots in slightly. This is usually where the horn will break, but is also thin enough to allow magic to pour out. 

- Magic flows similarly to smoke, but becomes a solid mass after the final horn segment. Interrupting the magic flow at the source - the divots - stops the magic all together. This is why Shining Armor couldn’t use his magic during Sombra’s attack, because the divots were covered by the crystals.

- Having something on your horn and off the divots, however, its extremely commonplace for current fashion. This is how Unicorns will wear their wedding rings/bands. Usually, wedding bands/rings are closer to the skull than fashionable rings.

- Touching horns is an intimate exchange, because those nerve endings can sense touch. It’s used to exchange words, such as “I love you” and to calm sputtering magic. Should someone do it with a stranger, the stranger may think they’re creepy or a sex worker.

- Butting horns is aggressive, and risks breaking the keratin. Should a unicorn willfully join a fight and break their horn, they have lost. Butting horns is usually saved for fights where both unicorns are depleted of magic or agreed to not use it for fear of severe injury.

- Babies are born with very small horns; the bone has to grow before anything can be utilized. Foals born with pre-developed keratin risk severe injury to the mother, and some studies are being done to find ways to shorten overgrown keratin on foals and prevent injuries and deaths caused by the lacerations. Modern medicine has drastically decreased the percentage of maternal deaths from blood loss.

- Unicorn horns don’t begin growth until 3 weeks or later. Some unicorn foals have such small horns that they’re mistaken for earth ponies until the horn becomes visible as it grows.

- Foals can use magic around 6 weeks, when they’ve opened their eyes and are maturing properly, but it doesn’t really show up* until around 3 months old. It stabilizes around 6 months old*. (I’ll be changing that for the DeviantArt post)

- Mixed unicorns, with either earth ponies or pegasi, will almost always have shorter horns and/or tails; while every mixed unicorn has a short tail, not every unicorn with a short tail is mixed. Trixie for example has two unicorn parents, but her tail is extremely short compared to someone like Twilight.

- An Earth-Unicorn will usually be a bit more sturdy, and display shorter, stockier horns. They’ll often have slightly thicker fur as well, displaying a sort of knock off version of the thick tail fur from past unicorns.

- Pegasi-Unicorns will often be shorter, and have average length, slim horns. Their tails can be extremely short, almost like an earth pony, but simply because their genetics believed they would be flying and needed a more aerodynamic tail.

- Unicorns are the middle ground of the three main pony races age lengths. Some unicorns can of course live a very long time, but rarely if ever reach the age Earth ponies can reach. A pegasus could only dream of reaching such an age. The oldest recorded unicorn - aside from Star Swirl the Bearded as he was stuck in Limbo - reached 126 years old.

- There have been two Unicorn-born Alicorns so far; Twilight, of course - although she is part Bat pony at the same time - and Celestia, previously known as Celestial Dawn. Very few ponies even know Celestia was born a Unicorn, as her past is rarely spoken about and is written down in very exclusive books that will only be shared to the public upon her death. (Celestia and Luna do eventually die from old age, but it’s several decades after their retirement, where they literally give up their alicorn status/species.)

- All unicorns have angled eyes, even those who come from mixed families. Most researchers assume it comes with the trait of Unicornism itself.

- Unicorns have varied hair textures, as their homes are usually based in the mountain ranges - their cloven hooves were better for climbing than earth ponies - unicorns with curlier hair came from the base of the mountain, and it gradually got straighter and longer as you progressed up the mountains. Mistmane’s particular village is very close to the top, and Celestia’s was at nearly sea level.

- Unicorn traditions and styles often take inspiration from Asia’s culture, and thus fashion progressed similarly. The curlier hair styles varied and were often very simple (like dreads and space buns), but the straighter hair styles were very intricate for regal ponies. Sable Spirit’s hair style is a fantastic example of this.

I’m probably missing some things but my god. I’ll add more if I think of any more lol

[crazycat-88]

Male Naga Kasen x Female Reader (NSFW)

Here’s a story about a shy male naga and a female reader who’s scared of rejection. No connections to my other stories though it is set in a modern setting, in a world where humans know that monsters & cryptids exist.

Content: Brief mention of guns, blood & injury (not to reader). NSFW at the end.

Words: 4,214. Enjoy!

Everyone in the village would agree that you had the best garden around for miles. With its winding brick paths, wooden arches, stone benches, a pond full of koi fish and a wide variety of flowers and plants at every turn, it was a garden lovers paradise. It was also your pride and joy, you could and did spend many hours of your day in it, either tending to the plants or just sitting enjoying the sun and smells of the plants.

You couldn’t take all the credit for it though, it had been your grandparents before yours and they had designed and made it the garden it is today. You had inherited the house after their passing six months previously, but you were proud you had kept up with the maintenance of the garden ever since.

Now with winter coming, you had the painstaking task of moving all the smaller plants into the greenhouse and covering the rest at night to protect from frost. It was already freezing cold in the mornings and at night, and since you hated the cold, you were dreading the next few months. You wouldn’t be able to enjoy sitting out in the garden but you would make sure to keep your garden safe during the winter months.

One morning as you are kneeling by the pond, checking that the fish are doing well in the cold, you jump hearing the sound of a shotgun being fired. Head swinging wildly in the direction of next doors garden, you wonder what poor creature old man McGregor has in his sights this time. Shaking your head, you cautiously make your way to the boundary between your garden and his, cringing again when you see the poor state of it.

Mr. McGregor's sorry state of a garden was the bane of your existence. The grass was overgrown and had taken up the entirety of the garden. The stone paths and pond you remember seeing during your visits as a child long gone, Iost to the wilderness that had become McGregor's garden. When you’d first seen it you had wondered if the old man was just now incapable of tending to it and you had gone round there offering your assistance.

Unfortunately you had found Mr. McGregor to be as prickly as the cacti in your greenhouse and he had told you that the day he accepted your help would be the same day that hell freezes over, before telling you to get the hell off his property or he’d shoot you for trespassing. You hadn’t spoken to him since but you had seen him a few times out in his garden with his shotgun, shooting into the grass, yelling about foxes and rabbits not being welcome on his property.

You can hear him now, muttering something about snakes in the grass and you shake your head again with a sigh. The only snakes in these parts were completely harmless and all would be hibernating at this time of year. You’re pretty sure Mr. McGregor is insane and he was going to end up hurting somebody one day, or himself.  

‘‘Mr McGregor,’’ you call, flinching as he turns towards you with a scowl. ‘‘Is everything okay?’’

‘‘Mind your own business lassie,’’ he says, before turning back to glare at the grass.  

You watch for a moment, frowning and biting your lip to keep from saying anything else, before going back to tend to your garden. You keep one eye on McGregor while you do this and once he turns and goes back into the house, you make your way back over to the fence to peer into the long grass. Was the old man imagining things or was there really something in there. You didn’t know but you stood there waiting for any signs of life regardless.

Just as you turn away breathing a sigh of relief you swear you can hear something. Head swiveling back to look at the grass, you hold your breath listening for the sound again. Frowning when you hear a small whimper, you climb up the first rung of the fence and try to get a better look in the grass. When you hear it again, you frown in confusion. That doesn’t sound like any animal you’ve ever heard, in fact the whimpers sound human.

‘‘Hello,’’ you call tentatively. A couple of heartbeats pass before the noise comes again, this time accompanied by a rustle in the grass only five foot from your position. ‘‘Who’s there?’’ You ask warily. You can hear the tremor in your voice and you glance down at McGregor's house nervously thinking that his shotgun may come in handy right about now.

Looking back to the grass you jump in shock, falling back off the fence and landing on your ass with a thud when you see a pair of strangely human looking yellow eyes staring back at you. Scrambling to stand you see the eyes along with a pale forehead and a shock of black hair staring back at you.

‘‘W-who.. W-what... Why are you in the grass?’’ You stutter, your voice trembling far more than you would like.

‘‘Hiding.’’ A definitely male voice replies whispering.

‘‘Hiding from what?’’ You say frowning.

‘‘The old man,’’ he replies with a wary glance towards the house.

‘‘Why are you in there in the first place?’’

‘‘I was looking for food.’’

Food? Is he homeless you think startled. ‘‘Well you better get out of there before Mr. McGregor comes back,’’ you say warning him.

‘‘I…’’ he says, before ducking down out of sight. ‘‘I don’t want to ssscare you, I… I’m not exactly human.’’

Oh. Well that explains a few things. There aren’t many non-humans living in your village but there were a few, so you weren’t completely unused to being around such creatures. You wonder what type he is before telling him that it’s okay to come out and that you aren’t scared.

‘‘You’ll have to climb over the fence but be quick, we don’t want McGregor seeing you,’’ you say.

‘‘Okay. Okay I’m coming,’’ he says.

You see the long grass sway as he moves towards you and as he appears at the fence you gasp, automatically taking a step back when you see he’s a naga. Naga are never seen in the village, they tend to stick to the woods and away from humans. Though they do have a bad reputation for being aggressive towards humans when they do encounter them.

You watch him warily as he easily climbs the fence and as he settles down on his tail in your garden, tail coiling around himself, you have to admit he doesn’t seem very threatening. As he stands before you, wringing his hands together with a nervous smile on his face, you see that he looks more scared of you than you are of him.

He’s smaller than you imagined a naga would be, or perhaps he just seems that way because his tail is coiled. His eyes are indeed yellow and his black hair is long, reaching all the way down to his hips where his naked human torso meets his snake tail. The pale skin of his human half and the dark green of his snake half make a striking contrast, but his body is filthy with mud and his hair is tangled. He’s thin too, definitely underweight you think with a frown as you run your gaze over him. As you catch sight of streak of blood across the underbelly of his tail you gasp and take a step towards him, stopping when he jerks in fright.

‘‘You’re hurt,’’ you say, remembering his whimpers from before.

‘‘J-just a graze,’’ he replies, glancing down at his tail.

‘‘Still, you should come in to the house and let me clean it,’’ you say, worried it will get infected if left untreated.

‘‘Really? You would let me in your home?’’ He asks, with a look of surprise.

‘‘Is there a reason I shouldn’t,’’ you ask him warily, but still gesturing for him to follow you as you make your way down the path towards your house.

‘‘No but… Aren’t you ssscared of me,’’ he asks sounding confused as he follows quietly behind you.

‘‘Should I be?’’ You ask, glancing at him. You see his eyes widen and he shakes his head revealing pointy ears hiding behind his hair.

‘‘N-no of course not,’’ he says as you reach your back door. Then he sighs. ‘‘It’s just most humans are ssscared of my kind.’’

‘‘I admit I was... wary at first,’’ you say glancing at him as you enter the house, ‘‘but I know you should never judge a book by its cover. You just seem like you need my help more than anything.’’

‘‘Thank you,’’ he says smiling, before glancing around your kitchen in interest. ‘‘You’re very kind.’’

‘‘I try. Now, wait here while I go get the first aid kit.’’

You see him nodding absently as you leave to get it, but he seems more interested in the contents of your kitchen. Upon returning you find him investigating the contents of your fruit bowl, picking up the fruit, when he sees you he jumps guiltily before putting the orange he’s picked up back. You just smile at him and tip the contents of the first aid kit over the kitchen table, before getting a bowl of water.

‘‘Do you have a name?’’ You ask him, as you set about cleaning the wound.

‘‘Kasen,’’ he says, holding still and watching what you’re doing.

‘‘Where do you live?’’ You ask him curiously, as you rinse the cloth in the water. He hisses as you clean the wound, but you’re are relieved to see he was right about it just being a graze. You won’t even need to bandage it. You look up at him curiously when he doesn’t answer, only to see him looking out your window with a frown. ‘‘Kasen, you okay?’’

He nods, then looks at you. ‘‘I lived in the woods,’’ he sighs, before looking down. ‘‘But another Naga challenged me for the territory and I lost.’’

‘‘Oh. Is that why you were near the houses?’’

‘‘Yesss. I’ve been living on the edge of the woods looking for a new territory but food has been ssscarce now it’s winter.’’

‘‘Don’t nagas hibernate?’’ You ask him curiously, as you pack everything back in the first aid kit, leaving just an antiseptic wipe out.

‘‘We tend to stay in our nests as we don’t like the cold but no we don’t hibernate,’’ he explains shaking his head.

‘‘Oh. I didn’t know that,’’ you say sitting back thinking. ‘‘I still need to clean your wound with an antiseptic wipe but I think you should shower first.’’

‘‘Shower?’’ He asks frowning.

‘‘Yeah you know, to bathe.’’ You say explaining.

‘‘Oh,’’ he says, looking down at himself.

‘‘Come on,’’ you say smiling, leading him to your bathroom. Kasen looks confused and then startled when you turn the water on and you patiently turn it on and off for him to show him how it works. When he nods understanding, you go get him a towel for when he’s done.

‘‘Take your time. I’ll go make us some lunch,’’ you say leaving him to it.

Thinking that he must be cold in this weather with no clothes, you go search for an old jumper and with that accomplished, you head to the kitchen. As you potter around in the kitchen, you wonder what he would like to eat. He looks so starved he’d probably eat anything you think, but prepare a variety of things hoping he will at least like the food you give him. As you cook you come to the decision to ask Kasen to stay with you, at least for the winter. It may be idiotic to ask a naga you’ve only just met to live with you but you can’t throw him out into the cold with nowhere to go.

With the food ready on the table and no sign of Kasen, you are just about to check on him, when he suddenly appears at the kitchen door. As he stands there running his claws through his hair trying to detangle it and you have to stop your jaw from dropping. He’s gorgeous you think, with his long wet hair dripping down his lean chest and his now clean tail almost shining and catching the light as it twitches. When his long forked tongue flicks out to taste the air you give yourself a mental slap for thinking very inappropriate thoughts.

Getting up from where you’ve sat at the kitchen table, you grab the old jumper you found that once belonged to your grandfather and hand it to him. ‘‘Here, hopefully this will keep you warm,’’ you say smiling and hoping he doesn’t notice your blush.  He looks at the jumper for a moment before gently taking it from you with a soft thank you and puts it on. The jumper is far to big for him, your grandfather being bigger built but it will do for now.

‘‘Hold still while I wipe your wound and then you can join me and eat as much as you like,’’ you say.

His eyes flick to yours in surprise, meeting them briefly before he eyes the food. He holds still though as you run the wipe over the graze, only releasing a small hiss when it first touches the scales on his tail. When your done, he can’t get to the table fast enough, and you release a small chuckle while you bin the wipe and wash your hands.

As you eat, he asks about you and what you do. You tell him about your grandparents passing and about the garden, with all it’s different plants. Then you mention that you have a spare room and ask if he would like to stay with you for the winter. He looks at you in shock and asks if you're sure, but after some persuasion he agrees to spend the winter with you.

The winter months pass slowly but you enjoy them with Kasen there to keep you company. You spend the days getting to know each other better and you teach him card games that you play in the evenings. You still go out to the garden to care for the plants, but Kasen stays in the house really not liking the cold. You have to keep the heating on in the house otherwise Kasen gets sluggish and sleepy but it’s nice for you to return to after being out in the garden.

A couple of days before Christmas, you come to the realisation that you don’t ever want Kasen to leave. You’ve really come to like him, may even love him, in the time he’s been with you. It’s the little things he does, like making you a cup of something warm for when you return from the garden and how he lets you recline on his tail when you both sit reading by the fire.

The question is, should you do something about it. Kasen hasn’t let on if he feels anything for you, he’s still as shy as the day he came to live with you. He has however put weight on and looks much healthier. It’s all you can do not to jump him in the evenings when you cuddle into him by the fire. Unsure of his feelings however and not wanting to be rejected you put your thoughts and feelings aside and try to carry on as normal.

As winter turns into spring, Kasen starts to come out with you into the garden, to help. You’re on edge the entire time expecting him to tell you that he will be leaving any day now. For some reason you can’t bring yourself to tell him how you feel and that you want him to stay. Instead you start to withdraw, speaking to him less, preparing yourself for the day he leaves. So it doesn’t come as a surprise when he notices the change.

As you sit on the couch reading one evening, you can feel Kasens eyes on you as he lies curled up by the fire. You can practically feel the tension in the air and you can’t concentrate on your book at all. Getting up with the intention of heading to the kitchen to avoid his stare, you’re suddenly startled to find yourself pulled down to Kasens side as he uses his tail to bring you down to him.

‘‘Kasen. What are doing?’’ You ask shocked.

‘‘Trying to get your attention,’’ he says explaining.  ‘‘You have been ignoring me for daysss… Now tell me what isss wrong?’’

‘‘Nothings wrong. I’m fine,’’ you say frowning. Even to your ears you sound unconvincing and as you try to get up he coils his tail harder around your waist, refusing to let you up. ‘‘Kasen,’’ you say warningly.

‘‘You can get up once you’ve told me what’s the matter with you,’’ he says, sounding determined.

You’re actually surprised with how forceful he’s being, used to him being so shy. You didn’t think he had it in him but still you’re stubborn. ‘‘I told you it’s nothing.’’

‘‘And I don’t believe you,’’ he says hissing.

You look at him shocked before you burst into tears. You want to tell him you love him and want him to stay but you’re scared he’ll leave if you do, but if you don’t tell him he might leave anyway. It’s all too much and you cling to him as you cry. His arms go around your waist and he rocks you back and forth and you hear him muttering apologies.

‘‘I’m sorry,’’ you gasp, as you get your emotions under control.

‘‘No I’m sssorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry,’’ he says, stroking your hair back of your face. ‘‘I just wanted to know what’s wrong. You’ve been so distant the last few days,’’ he adds, looking dejected.

‘‘I… I don’t want you to leave,’’ you say lowly, looking down at your hands, not wanting to see the expression on his face.

‘‘Leave? Why would I leave?’’ He asks, frowning in confusion.

‘‘You only agreed to stay with me for the winter,’’ you say explaining.

‘‘Oh… That was months ago,’’ he says shaking his head. ‘‘I don’t want to leave you either.’’

‘‘You don’t?’’ You ask, looking at him with hope.

‘‘No,’’ he says smiling. ‘‘I love you,’’ he adds, before brushing his lips shyly across your own.

You kiss him back eagerly, before pulling back. ‘‘I love you too,’’ you say smiling widely.

Noticing the blush that’s overtaken his face, you giggle and kiss him again, running your tongue over his fangs. He pulls back with a gasp, before kissing his way down your neck and over your collarbone causing you to moan. His hands tighten on your back and he pulls back to look at you.

‘‘I want you,’’ he says, hissing lowly.

You nod, kissing his lips again. ‘‘I want you too,’’ you say as you run your hands over his scales where they meet his torso. He gasps, his tail tightening around you briefly.

‘‘Bedroom?’’ He asks.

‘‘No,’’ you say shaking your head. ‘‘Here by the fire.’’ You can’t believe he returns your feelings and desires and you’re unwilling to wait even one more minute to be with him.

Kasen smiles slowly before he guides you back to recline against his tail, where he proceeds to strip you off your clothes. You sit up to tug his jumper off over his head, then lay back again to admire his lean form. Seeing a slit at the top of his tail which looks swollen, you run your hand over it curiously and he gasps writhing before he takes your hand and places by your side.  

‘‘I want to explore you first my love,’’ he says, running his hands over your arms.

You’re content to lie back allowing him to explore for now, knowing you will soon get your turn and you moan as he leans over you to kiss over your chest and nipples. His long forked tongue flicks over one nipple before he takes it in his mouth and sucks, playing with your other breast with with one hand as his other holds you waist. You tangle your hands in his hair holding him to you and closing your eyes to enjoy his attention on your breasts.

Feeling his tail shift under you, you wonder what he’s doing until you feel his tail wrap around your waist, lifting you higher, which puts your slit level with his face. Your eyes pop open to see him staring and you shift self consciously.

‘‘Don’t stare,’’ you say, moving your hand to cover yourself but he quickly catches your wrist and prevents you from doing so.

‘‘I can't help it…’’ he says with his tongue flicking out. ‘‘You’re so beautiful.’’

Before you can respond to that he leans forward and flicks his tongue down your slit causing you to jerk and gasp. He runs his tongue over and over your clit before working it inside you, licking around and over your inner walls. You moan and writhe, struggling against his hold as he brings you close to coming with just a few strokes of his tongue.

Suddenly he twists his body to lay back on the rug on the floor and holds you above his head continuing to fuck you with his tongue. As one clawed hand digs into your thighs, he shifts the other to rub over your clit, pushing you over the edge and making you come with a squeal.

You would collapse if not for his tail, as it is you feel completely boneless as he lowers you to lie beside him, where you lay gasping for breath for what feels like forever. You come round as you feel him lay kisses over your belly, working his way up to your neck and then to your lips.

‘‘Still with me?’’ He asks.

‘‘Mmm just about,’’ you reply, opening your eyes to see him raised above you with a shy smile on his face.

Kissing him again, your trail your hands down his chest and pull away to gaze down his body. Your jaw drops open as you see he has two cocks where you expected to see just one. Looking up at him in shock, you are not surprised to see him flushing profusely, not meeting your gaze. With a sly smirk you run your fingertips over his upper cock, biting your lip to keep from chuckling as he gasps and jerks, his cocks hitting against your thigh.

You explore him eagerly, testing the weight and girth of both cocks in your hands. Both cocks are a light green colour which fades to a darker green at the base, just a shade lighter than his tail. The upper cock is thick, with ridges and a sharp tip. It curves upwards attractively, angled just right. While his lower cock is longer but thinner, with a wide flat tip.

Together they are far to thick for you to take both at once, at least not without some major prep and you wonder if he will mind, but as you listen to him moan and whimper as you grip him in your hands you figure at this point he probably won’t even notice. Pushing him to lie back on the floor you hover over him, rolling your hips so that the tips of both cocks rub against your slit.

‘‘Please... Oh please,’’ he begs with his eyes clenched shut.

‘‘Kasen..,’’ you say, lining up his upper cock against your opening and taking just the tip of it inside. ‘‘Kasen look at me.’’

You wait until he meets your eyes before lowering yourself all the way down his cock with a triumphant smile. Kasen throws his head back with a groan and clutches at your hips with his claws. He feels glorious inside, you can feel the ridges of his cock and his girth stretches your walls as you roll your hips up and down. The lower cock presses up against the cheeks of your ass as you slide over it and it occurs to you that you could take both cocks in different way.

You’ll have to remember that for next time you think as you realise that Kasen won’t last much longer. He ruts up into you hissing in pleasure as he increases the pace, using his tail to move you faster. Reaching down you rub your clit wanting to reach that peak again with him and as you clench your muscles around his cock he comes with a gasp of your name.

As you feel the heat of his come inside you and up your back from his other cocks release, it pushes you over the edge and your vision goes blurry as you cry out coming around his cock causing him to gasp and twitch inside you.

‘‘I love you,’’ he says with a rasping chuckle as you collapse on top of him.

‘‘Mmm I love you too,’’ you say, smiling lazily as he strokes the back of your neck.

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Thanks for reading! As always please reblog it. (It’s super helpful). Comments/Likes are also much appreciated.

My Masterlist

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Nothing Like Bonding During A Storm

Summary: In a modern world, Toothless has trouble adjusting to the surface world. Fortunately, he knows he can always count on Hiccup, even when nature's extremes bring down her wrath on the world.

Rating: General

Characters: Hiccup, Toothless

Words: 3 075

Author’s Notes:

That moment when you finish and post a one-shot about an AU that's been developing since February before finishing the actual main fic.

Anyway, I've been watching a lot of videos on YouTube about tornadoes and I find them very fascinating to look at. I often find myself wondering "how do people deal with possible natural disasters in a world that has ended" and this came to mind.

This is basically just dipping my toe in a concept with countless of possibilities and I will probably return to it later to explore it some more.

I have barely slept the past two days, I hope it doesn't show in this one-shot. It doesn't feel as exciting as I want it to be.

Also, hopefully I can finally get the main fic over and done with instead of daydreaming about it. I literally have another finished one-shot of this AU that I haven't posted yet.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Enjoy!

Ao3

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Hiccup muses that today is simply the culmination of his hubris. His natural and unrestrained curiosity, his want to travel, his workaholic tendencies, having a best bud for a dragon who would love to explore this new surface world with him... All of this was bound to come back to bite him in the ass someday and today is that day.

Flying way, way out West in the hopes of finding more human settlements that wished to regain contact with others, Hiccup and Toothless find themselves far away from home.

Though his father was initially against it, his plan on returning the vast network of communication that mankind once had before it was taken from them turned out to be a fruitful one and that is the only reason why Stoick ever agreed on letting Hiccup stray even farther away from home.

He still isn't quite so keen on letting his son out of his sight, even after all these years.

So far this country has been just as empty as he already figured it would be before they left Berk. It's been days since he and Toothless arrived and they have yet to find a single remaining human settlement.

Plenty of birds, critters, and other local wildlife, but no humans.

Not that they have managed to explore much. They have found an abandoned town close to a beach and spend a little while combing through it, but once it became clear that it was empty, they moved on.

But finding no human life on this mission to do just that will have to wait. There is a matter far, far more urgent that needed their attention.

High up in the sky, Toothless rumbles his concern to his Rider. Hiccup is already looking in the same direction he is, the map in his hands temporarily forgotten.

"I know, Bud. I'm keeping an eye on it, too." He tells him and it's as if the dragon understands, relaxing just a tad bit with the knowledge that Hiccup is aware of it, too.

In and around the Northern island of Berk, extreme weather isn't something Hiccup is unfamiliar with. The Winters could get so cold, especially during the weeks that he and his people nicknamed "Devastating Winter". A fitting name for the below-freezing temperatures and the blizzards that buried their houses annually.

Many people from different countries have called them stupid for continuing to live here, but then, they are descendants of the Vikings that once lived there. So maybe their problem isn't so much stupidity as it is pure stubbornness.

And with climate changing, though it has most likely slowed down since the year everything went wrong, the temperatures during Winter are even colder than they used to be when Hiccup was a child. And the Summers so much warmer.

On the North Sea, you can expect the occasional waterspout as well. But so long as it didn't come on land, it wasn't too much of a threat, not too much. For the island's inhabitants, that is.

But the clouds Hiccup and Toothless see swirling are a little too threatening for their comfort.

They are dark, appearing to be stacked on top of one another to create an uneven tower as wide as it is tall with a thick saucer-like shape at the base. The clouds that make up each level appear restless, opposite from their usually fluffy nature.

Above them and the flying duo lies a dark, ominous blanket that stretches for miles. There is a strong wind, conflicting up and downdrafts fighting for dominance, and they make the clouds and column dance and swirl. There is a downpour of rain and hail beneath as well. It makes the area underneath it seem foggy.

Their appearance makes Hiccup's heart swell in awe-inspiring trepidation and he has to swallow as his mouth feels dry. Meanwhile, Toothless looks on in fear.

He still hasn't had much experience with the surface's weather. The sight of this dark sky makes him feel like his heart is about to burst right out of his chest.

Hiccup hasn't forgotten, of course. He knows his Bud is completely inexperienced and relies on his Rider to know what is best.

Thankfully, always having been quite fascinated by things that could potentially kill him ever since he was young, Hiccup has done his fair share of research on certain weather phenomena. Much like Fishlegs and his interest in geology and mineralogy.

What Hiccup is staring at right now, it could possibly be called a mesocyclone.

There is a supercell inside that thing and the winds around them are getting harder to fight.

Lightning weaves its way through the clouds for miles. There are multiple strikes and they follow each other closely, speaking volumes of the storm's electrical strength. The thunder is a good indication of how close Dragon and Rider are, too. It is deafening.

Mindful of the metal holding Toothless' prosthetic together, Hiccup decides it is wise to land.

Folding the map in his hands up and pulling his backpack to his front to stuff it away, Hiccup then continues to look at the world below them.

There is plenty of space to land, lots of open fields for miles around them. But with how close those clouds are, Hiccup would feel better if there is a shelter or something they can hide in. Preferably a storm shelter just in case that supercell had a particular surprise in store for them today.

"Down there, Bud! Let's land and see if we can ride it out there." Hiccup tells his Night Fury when he spots two buildings on the ground with a fence all around the perimeter. An abandoned machine stands in the middle of an overgrown cornfield. It looks to be a farm.

Right at that moment, the downpour catches up and soaks them both in seconds and the winds grow even fiercer. Quickly after, hail that grows to be almost the size of the palm of his hand.

Toothless lets out a panicked yell, startled by the sudden shower.

"I know, Bud, I know! Set down near that farmhouse! Those wooden houses over there!" His Rider points them out to him and he folds his wings for a quick dive. While holding onto the saddle, Hiccup attempts to shield his dragon's eyes from the hail.

They land on the dirt road before the home that is swiftly becoming muddy beneath their feet. Toothless wastes little time to jump underneath the roofed porch, escaping the rainfall. Hiccup dismounts, pats his dragon on the neck, and goes to work on finding that storm shelter.

Sunlight teases them from the edges of the miles of clouds, but it is much too risky to try and escape this storm. Not with the speeds at which this supercell is traveling and certainly not with winds so strong possibly dislocating wings as wide as Toothless'.

Leaving the restless dragon on the porch, Hiccup runs down the steps and back out into the downpour, his prosthetic slipping in the mud. His hair and his clothes already stick to his skin.

One look told him the entrance to their salvation wasn't there under the porch. But on farmland miles away from the nearest city and closest hospital and with weather like this not being completely uncommon, there has to be shelter around here somewhere

Running around to the side of the house, it isn't long before Hiccup finds a set of slanted metal doors leading to a concrete room underneath the home where the basement should be. Approaching it and finding it without a padlock, Hiccup opens both doors and finds a stone stairway down into darkness. It's a storm shelter.

The hinges of the two doors rattle slightly with the wind and that worries him, but this place will have to do. No use taking to the skies now.

Something spooks Toothless and he calls out to his Rider. In the rain, thunder, and the hail, Hiccup can only just hear him and he turns around, shielding himself from the large chunks of frozen water, to find a sight that makes him stumble. His eyes would've widened in wonder if the rain didn't make it too difficult to see.

At the base of the mesocyclone, the rapidly whirling clouds have formed a greyish funnel-like shape that reaches for the earth. Witnessing the birth of what could possibly turn into a tornado, one of nature's most dangerous phenomena, is truly astonishing and Hiccup can hardly put his feelings into words. Such a library of languages at his disposal and not one word can describe them.

It is fast, too, much faster than he previously anticipated, and the girth is quickly gaining width as well.

But enough staring in wonder at nature's lethal beauty, Hiccup can tell that Toothless worries. That Night Fury has never seen anything like this before and is rightfully freaking out.

But what he can't tell and Hiccup can, is that the swirling of dirt and debris on the ground means that the tornado has already touched down and the funnel simply needs to follow to make its conception complete.

Hiccup also realizes, much too his growing discomfort, that it is much closer than he originally thought.

"Come on, Bud!" Toothless doesn't need to be told twice and he comes with a leap. Looking down into the shelter, he gives Hiccup a skeptical look.

"Hey, I may be an idiot, but humans know how to build things." Hiccup tells him, shouts at him over the growing noise all around them, though he worries whether his dragon will actually fit.

"This will keep us safe, Bud, trust me." He places a hand on Toothless' head, scratches him behind his earfin. The rain is pouring, the hail is falling, and his heart pumps blood through his veins with great speed, but Hiccup still smiles as if aerial wrath isn't about to descend upon them.

Where he gets that kind of bravery, Toothless honestly doesn't know.

Reassured by his Rider's calm demeanor, Toothless finds it in himself to descend into the near pitch-black shelter. The pouring rain stops for him.

Toothless fits and Hiccup feels comforted by this. It is without a doubt not spacious down there, but at least they won't have to face a storm that size.

Speaking of which, he turns to face the monstrous clouds behind him and his breath is taken away.

There is something gorgeous about the display he sees before him.

The funnel now connects the earth and the sky. The clouds are dark, but still, the tornado contrasts greatly against the grey background. The rain doesn't hide its deadly beauty and its enormous size makes him feels insignificant and small. More so than even Toothless had upon their first meeting.

If he'd been born and raised in this country, he probably would've become a storm chaser, of that Hiccup is sure. If life hadn't been turned upside down on a global scale.

Sounding almost like a human groaning in annoyance, Toothless briefly leaves the shelter to grab Hiccup by the shirt and pull him down the stairs.

"Yep! I'm coming! I'm coming!" Snapping out of the trance that will probably kill him someday, Hiccup follows.

Why must the human be so attracted to things that are lethal him? Are all humans like this or just his? He knows Astrid is a lot more careful than Hiccup.

"Toothless, can you find the light switch? I've shown you what they look like, right?" Hiccup asks as he struggles to close the metal doors. The wind has picked up and dirt is starting to fly up outside. The neglected fields are being flattened and by now the rotting fence in view is knocked down. Debris is approaching and before long the tornado itself will be there.

Two trees are uprooted just as Hiccup manages to hold them close and he fights the urge to figure out the EF ranking of this specimen.

The light flickers on and Hiccup finds the latch to keep the entrance closed. Once again he is grabbed by the back of his shirt and he lets Toothless pull him further down. He is in a hurry to get Hiccup with him.

There are many dusty shelves down here, but besides cobwebs and the occasional spider, they are already empty. Plundered empty, most likely. Or the family that lived here, took everything and left. Either way, there isn't much room for something the size of a Night Fury.

Toothless lies curled up with Hiccup in the middle and still he can only move so much.

The roaring of the storm outside grows and grows and the doors aren't quite enough to keep it out. The house above them begins to creak and groan as the unforgiving winds beat it mercilessly.

Despite his size and his lethal nature, Toothless shrinks underneath the unfamiliar noise that sounds so much louder in his sensitive ears. He's never been through a storm this size before. And while Hiccup hasn't either, he at least knows and understands what is currently raging right above them, tearing apart everything in its path.

"Shh, it's okay." Hiccup kneels beside him, pulse just slowing down.

The dragon's instincts are screaming at him to get out and flee, his fear is almost suffocating. All that grounds him now is his human's presence. In the still short time that they've known each other, Hiccup has already proven himself to be far braver than Toothless can ever call himself, though his Rider would disagree. He trusts his judgment.

The house above them gives in beneath the endless abuse and is loudly ripped from its foundation. It is proof of the twister's power.

The dragon yells in Hiccup's face as if he even needs to be told and the human pulls his head onto his lap and embraces it.

He can't imagine how scary this must be for him. Before the surface world, Toothless didn't even know what rain was. So extreme weather like this was like a nightmare come to life.

Wrapping his forelegs around his Rider, Toothless finds solace with him.

The two don't know which is louder. The thunder booming above them or the roaring of the twister that, by all likelihood, is leveling everything above them.

Hiccup attempts to cover his Bud's ears. His own eardrums feel like they are about to burst.

This couldn't have lasted for more then a couple of seconds with the wind speeds this storm travels with, maybe a minute or two at most, but it felt like an eternity. Toothless' grip on his Rider tightens.

And then it passes.

The roaring leaves them, the explosive thundering moves on. Gradually, careful silence returns.

Their ears continue to drum for a little while longer.

Toothless moves to look up to Hiccup to see what the knowledgeable human thinks, but Hiccup shakes his head and pulls him back down.

They wait for at least an hour just to be sure.

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Toothless is close to napping when his Rider moves. Letting go, he raises his head to watch Hiccup rise awkwardly on his prosthetic.

He doesn't say a word as he climbs the stairs and out of Toothless' sight. The grating noise of metal sliding against metal reaches his ears and light comes shining down into the shelter.

Hiccup returns soon after with a smile.

"Come on out, Bud. It's safe now." He tells him and Toothless once again doesn't need to be told twice.

The air outside is relieving and welcomes the dragon as he ascends the stairs and exits the shelter. It is humid and a little chilly. Toothless takes a deep sniff and still smells the rain.

The tornado is gone and the wind has calmed. The once quaint farmland, though abandoned, is in ruins all around them. The long grass of the fields and the weeds lie flat against the ground, there is corn all around them, and trees are torn in two or entirely uprooted. Half of the barn has collapsed, but the house has been mostly leveled. Nearby lie the crushed remains of a metal contraption that humans call a car.

Turning his head, in the far distance, Toothless spots the dark tower and lightning is still striking. The thunder isn't as loud now.

But Hiccup isn't looking at the carnage. Hands on his hips, he is staring up at the sky.

Coming to stand next to him, Toothless follows his example.

The clouds above them, now tinted a lovely orange, are strangely shaped now. There is an entire blanket of them separating the earth and the sky above it. There are rows and rows of fluffy pouches that reflects the light of the sun beautifully.

He can see why Hiccup would smile at the sight. And in an area as abandoned as this, no human or dragon life was lost that they know of, so they can only bask in the moment.

"Glad we got that tornado warning, huh, Bud? The movies never said that we still needed to deal with natural disasters. Ah well, the joys of a post-apocalyptic world, I guess." Toothless doesn't know what his Rider is talking about, probably something he used to know from the time before their worlds met.

Hiccup kicks a nearby wooden board away and removes his backpack to check its contents. There are some things in there that can't get wet. Fortunately, it is a good backpack and everything inside it is still dry. He briefly ponders his raincoat, but leaves it. His plaid shirt and the one beneath it are already wet, no use pulling it out now.

But they were lucky, that is for sure. They are probably bruised, to be sure, but that the hail didn't hit them in the head, or the eyes in Toothless' case, is nothing short of a miracle. And to come upon this abandoned land with a storm shelter when they needed it most... If people still lived here then he and Toothless would have been forced to brave the storm.

Though they can still see flashes of lightning in the clouds in the far distance, the storm is dying. And with the sun setting in the horizon, Hiccup figures it is probably wise to find a nice spot to spend the night. Somewhere far away, where he would be certain they will be safe.

[dragon-writes-sometimes]

Brave New World, Chapter 2: Meet The New Detectives

Chapter Summary: The detectives, Logan and Roman, have had a long night and are looking forward to visiting Roman's sibling. Remy has a semi heart-to-heart with Talyn, and a mysterious young man enters the picture.

Word Count: 6936

Trigger Warnings: Check tags. I’m lazy, sorry *shrug*

Chapter 1

Previous Chapter   -   Next Chapter

Chapter 2: Meet The New Detectives

The day had started out pretty standard. Detective Logan Abbott got up at 5.30 am, showered, got dressed, ate breakfast with some coffee on the side. Nothing out of the ordinary. He was out of the door at 7 am. At 7.15 am he was standing in front of his partner, detective Roman Moore’s, entry. He was not up yet, so Logan mentally prepared himself to drag the overgrown child out of bed. They had had a stakeout the night previously, so he would definitely whine a great deal. Logan got out his keys to lock himself in. It was a lot of fuss to get him out of the door with an adequate amount of time to get to work. Like previously stated. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Why must you hurt me so?” Roman whined. They were in Logan’s car on their way to the precinct. “I didn’t even get to eat breakfast, you monster!” he exclaimed.

“Lucky for you, I predicted that. We are headed for an easy breakfast for you. I already ordered to ensure you wouldn’t pick any junk food,” Logan quickly added when he saw the excited look that grew on Roman’s face. A look that also promptly fell to an exasperated pout.

“You’re no fun, Logan,” he moped as he flopped back into his seat.

They soon turned into the parking lot of a small diner. One they were well equated with, ever since the beginning of their partnership. They had helped out the owner when they had been robbed at the beginning of its lifetime.

“Heya, Lo!” The chipper voice emanated from a head full of bright pastel-blue hair.

“Salutations Talyn,” Logan greeted them back. “How are things fairing?” Logan grimaced slightly at how his attempt at a normal conversation sounded. Talyn, however, didn’t seem to mind.

“Things are awesome, thanks to you and Roman having our backs. Speaking of, I’m guessing you’re here for his breakfast?” At that Logan nodded and smiled gratefully at Talyn who went out the back to get it.

“Joan is not here,” Logan observed. It was rather odd, seeing as they were figuratively joined at the hip. Logan wondered where they could be since they always insisted on staying with Talyn in the morning hours due to the robbery three years prior and didn’t want to risk anything.

“No, they got a tip about…” Talyn glanced up at the security cameras, a worried expression on their face. “… you know.”

“Ah, I see. Roman and I would be more than happy to lend our assistance in that matter. A child should not be alone like that.”

Talyn sighed to themselves, they never told Logan the full truth, since their operation was somewhat illegal. They had just told Logan and Roman that the two of them helped mutant children kicked out of their house by their parents. It didn’t matter that Logan, too, was a mutant, they couldn’t risk it. “We know, but we just can’t risk it. These children have grown up fearing the police, and they already have trouble trusting us as it is.”

Logan sighed. He sincerely wished the world would just accept them already and move on instead of insisting on criminalising mutants.

Logan put a hand to his mouth in an attempt to stifle a yawn. A poor one at that as Talyn elected that moment to return and shot him a worried grin.

“Late night?” they asked, placing down Roman’s breakfast in front of him. They gave him a sympathetic smile at Logan’s slight nod. “May I ask what you two were doing? You wouldn’t have ordered food for Roman if the two of you didn’t have a late-night together,” they added at Logan’s baffled look. “Yeah that’s right, I can do detective work too.”

“Merely a stakeout, but one that took longer than I originally calculated,” he admitted sheepishly, not used to making wrong calculations, especially when it was about his work.

“It only helps to prove that you are a human being. People make mistakes,” they smiled at him. “And speaking of human beings, don’t you think you should be giving this to Roman before he starts getting over-dramatic?”

“When is he not?” Logan chuckled. “And if I am correct, he will be asleep again by now.”

“Have fun with the drama queen Lo,” Talyn said. When Logan picked up the food and started to walk away, Talyn grabbed his attention again. “Oh, wait up! My friend Thomas and his cousin are opening up a café slash bakery today. They weren’t able to get a good location due to their budget, so it’s in a rather bad neighbourhood. I mentioned to Thomas that I knew you and Roman, and might have promised you to would show up sometime during the day,” they said, awkwardly scratching the back of their neck. “I have the address here. You think you could do me this favour?”

Logan looked a bit offended. “I would hardly call it favour; we are friends after all, are we not? And is this not what friends would do for each other?” he scoffed. He then softened his expression up and took the piece of paper offered to him. “Of course we would stop by. This does not have a name on it?” he asked when he looked at it.

“Yeah, I don’t really know what they named it, but knowing the two of them, it will most likely be pun-related,” they said, grinning when they saw Logan’s slightly horrified expression. “Now go! You two don’t wanna have Captain Holt breathing down your neck, do you now?��

Logan’s eyes widened, not having realised how long he had been conversing with Talyn. He hastily picked up the food he had put down to accept the piece of paper with the address on and hurried out the door. Talyn waved him goodbye which he barely returned.

He was by the car less than ten seconds later, and sure enough, Roman was fast asleep again. Logan looked at his watch and rolled his eyes before smirking. Roman’s seatbelt suddenly unbuckled and smacked him in the face.

Roman let out an undignified screech. “WHYYY?!”

“Simply. You were sleeping, which will throw off your inner clock even more than it already is, I have your breakfast, we have to be at the precinct in thirty minutes,” Logan listed off. “And I thought it would be fun,” he added with a smirk.

Roman mock-gasped, placing his hand on his chest in the process. “How DARE you?! Mocking one of the best, most handsome detectives the police have to offer?! I thought I was your partner, but alas, I guess it is true what they say. Your kind really is a menace,” he dramatically sighed.

Logan stiffened at that. “My kind?” he inquired slowly. He had trusted Roman with his secret knowing he wouldn’t judge and shun him as his parents had, but maybe he was wrong after all. He hoped he hadn’t.

“Yes, your kind. You know, brits,” Roman dismissed with a waving hand. Logan let out the small breath he hadn’t realised he’s been holding, tension slowly leaving his body again.

Logan handed him the food and got in the car. He shouldn’t entertain any more distractions. “Eat,” was the only other word that left Logan’s mouth before he turned on the ignition. He missed the sad look Roman sent him.

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Talyn sighed. They really hated being alone in the morning since that day, but they had no choice right now. It was either their comfort or helping many mutants find their way home, or find a new one. It wasn’t as if Talyn couldn’t defend themselves, no they were quite adept in fighting, and their powers complimented that. They just weren’t comfortable opening up alone. Their skills and abilities were still nothing against a gun or multiple people. At least with Joan, they stood a chance.

They wiped down the counter, at least there weren’t many people in the morning, only people having to leave home early for work.

They shot a quick text to Joan to see how the rescue was going. They didn’t expect to get a response anytime soon, so instead, they went out the back to check on the equipment and possibly clean some of them if the closing shift forgot. It wasn’t uncommon if they did. They were usually college students, so Talyn didn’t blame them one bit. They were in their place only seven years ago, so the experience was still fresh in their memory.

The tell-tale ding of the bell above the door was heard stating there was a costumer. Talyn moved to the counter again, expecting one of the regulars but instead found a tired-looking Remy Reverie.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed right now, Rem? You look like shit,” they remarked already in the process of making coffee.

“Yeah, well, it's not easy sleeping when Emile is a giant morning person and me being a light sleeper. ‘Sides, I haven’t been getting much sleep either way. You know, with the whole… ‘Reina situation’ ya know,” he sighed, gratefully accepting the coffee.

“She’s gonna be okay, I’m sure. After all, she has your snazzy attitude,” they said, giving Remy a small, sad smile.

Remy huffed out a laugh at that. “That she has. That she has,” he said under his breath. Then his face turned sad. “I just don’t understand why she would take off like that out of nowhere. I mean, she would have called me. Right? I know we haven’t seen each other in years, but we still kept in contact. She wouldn’t just do that. Right?” he said, looking up at Talyn from where he was sitting, scanning their face.

“I don’t know, man. I’m not the shrink here. You are,” they shrugged before their face turned serious again. “Have you talked to Emile about it?”

“I mean, yeah? No, I haven’t,” he conceded when he saw Talyn’s unimpressed look that told him that they didn’t believe him one bit.

“Why not? Em’s your partner, have been since college if I remember correctly. Your welcome, by the way,” Talyn said, trying to lighten his mood. They really hated seeing him down in the dumps like this. The two of them had been friends since high school, quickly connecting due to them having a shared secret. When Remy turned 18, he left his family for more than just one reason. He moved in with Talyn and their family soon after. Their family helped him financially when he had to start at college, where he met Emile, who was studying psychology like him.

“I don’t know. Maybe because that will make this whole situation real and I’ll realise there isn’t anything I can do about it,” he sighed downing his coffee.

“You know, you don’t have to deal with your problems alone — no need to play your own psychologist when you have Emile. And don’t give me that crap about you not wanting to bother him with your issues. That’s one of the reasons both you and Emile became shrinks. Because you actually give a fuck about others and you wanna help them get through whatever hell they might be going through!” they said, fixing Remy with a stern look.

“Easy there, gurl. Your wolf is showing,” Remy quipped when their eyes started flickering between their standard colour and striking gold. Talyn took a deep breath, and their eyes returned to normal. “There we go, don’t want any sleep-deprived gremlins seeing you now, do we?” he smirked.

“Asshole,” they smiled. “And you know I’m nowhere near being canine or did your sleep-deprived ass forget that?” they said, playfully smacking his shoulder.

“No, no, you’re right, if anything you’re a mama bear. Or mama hen. Haven’t decided, they are too close to each other to tell the difference.”

They softened up and placed some scrambled eggs in front of him. “Nice to see your sassiness is returning. Now, as the mama bear-slash-hen here I’m telling you to eat up!” They placed their hands on their hips, fixing him with a mock stern stare making Remy chuckle lightly.

At the same time, Talyn’s phone went off, alerting to a new text message.

“Go on, you can check it hon, I won't mind,” Remy gently said when Talyn didn’t do so right away. After another moment or so and another visional sweep of the diner, they looked at their phone, face lighting up remarkable at who it was.

Joanglebook:   Hey Tal. I’m a bit exhausted, but things went well. There were way more people than our intel said, but everyone is one their way home safely. Many kids. Taking them to X. Light’s going back to the states, brought a kid with ‘er. I miss you. Sorry, you had to open without me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.

“Good news?” Remy quirked an eyebrow after a few minutes of Talyn being quiet and just beaming.

“Very,” they said after another moment's silence. “Just gonna reply real quick. Be right back.” They then went out back to reply. Remy had an idea of what it was they were doing, but they didn’t wanna risk their operation being compromised. They had installed a receptor for their own small satellite so they wouldn’t be able to be spied on by the government.

Tallykat: That’s amazing Joan! Must’ve taken more people after they got it. Say hi to X and the others from me. And take the time you need to get everyone safe. There’s no rush. Logan says hi by the way.

Talyn hesitated before sending another message.

Tallykat: Any sign of Reina? Remy’s here and is really out of it. Works his ass off at the bar till early morning and barely gets any sleep anymore. I’m worried.

They sighed and put away the phone before going back out. Remy was still sitting at the counter, sunglasses back in their usual spot, and playing with the scrambled eggs with his fork.  “Joan says hi,” they said, trying to get Remy’s attention off of Reina.

He looked up at Talyn, sending them a small smirk. It still wasn’t the usual quality Remy SmirkTM, but it was close enough. “Sure about that? You’re not just sugarcoating the usual ‘wut up, fuckhead’?”

Talyn mock-gasped, looking offended. “I was trying to be nice! But if you want it that way, they didn’t even mention you,” they snarked back at him with a cheeky smile resulting in them getting a gentle shove to the shoulder.

Before Remy could reply, Talyn got another text holding up their finger to shush him.

Joanglebook:   I’m guessing Roman’s asleep since it’s only Logan saying hi. And no. Reina wasn’t there. I’m worried too. She could have a variation of his powers, and any variety of his powers is very powerful, making her valuable to any buyer or army. Stay safe yourself. And say wut up, fuckhead to Remy from me. Thx.

Talyn chuckled. “Joan again. They send their ‘wut up, fuckhead’,” they grinned, looking back at their phone. At the same time, the bell jingled again, and a young person with purple hair entered, sitting down at a table in the corner.

Talyn tried to make eye contact with them to show that they had noticed them and would be coming over shortly, but the young person’s focus was solely on their phone. Huh.

Remy noticed the change in atmosphere and looked over his shoulder to get a look at the newcomer. They wore all-black clothing, ripped skinny jeans, hoodie with the hood up, and combat boots. They had purple ends on their short black hair and feminine facial features, though that didn’t tell Remy anything about their gender or preferred pronouns. He sighed. He really shouldn’t be starting psychoanalysing a complete stranger he wasn’t going to see again anyway.

Talyn put their phone away, grabbed a menu and went to give it to the newcomer.

They returned shortly after with worry etched in their eyes. There was something about him (the stranger told Talyn his preferred pronouns after Talyn hold him theirs), something Talyn couldn’t place. Hopefully, he would come more often so they could get to know him, find out what it was that made Talyn worry for the young man. ‘Troubles for another day Tal, you got too much on your own plate right now, ha, plate. Pun intended,’ they thought, breathing a silent laugh at their own joke.

Of course Remy, ever observant, noticed the worry straight(ha) away even though Talyn did an excellent job concealing it. He didn’t voice his concerns, though, carefully observing Talyn instead.

“What?” Talyn exclaimed, making the young man in the corner look up from his phone. Remy just quirked an eyebrow at them. They narrowed their eyes at him in retaliation. “You just went all shrinky on me, didn’t ya?”

Remy huffed out a laugh at their remark while shaking his head. “Nah, I never get anything from you anyway, so I’ve stopped trying altogether babes,” he smiled at the shorter person standing behind the counter. Tiny but lethal. Remy learned that the hard way. He shook his head, almost unnoticeably to get rid of those thoughts and memories.

Talyn glanced back at the young man. He had put his menu away, so he was probably ready to order. “I’ll be right back Rem,” they said, walking towards the young man. “Soo, made up your mind?”

He looked up at them, giving a small, almost not there, smile and nodded slowly. “I’ll just have some mint tea, please,” he said, voice gruff like he hadn’t used it in a while. Or been up all night, one of those. Talyn wouldn’t even be surprised if it was both. He looked like a college student with the bags under his eyes, something Talyn was used to see in the college students working at the diner.

“One mint tea, coming up. You sure I couldn’t get you anything to eat?” they asked, looking him over again. He was rather thin, unhealthily so, and was quite pale. A healthy, nutritious breakfast would do him wonders.

He shook his head slightly. “No thanks, just tea.”

“Alrighty, I’ll be right back.” Talyn smiled at him and went behind the counter again.

“So, he a coffee addict?” Remy quipped at Talyn when they returned. “He looks like one, with the bags under his eyes and the fact that he’s here this early.” Remy sounded worried when he spoke. And if there was a tad of sadness there as well? Well, Talyn didn’t plan on pointing it out.

“No, he ain’t like you, Rem. You think every early bird are like you, don’t you?” They fondly shook their head at him. “And you and I both know there are more factors involved with bags under your eyes than just insomnia.” This time a wink followed.

Remy blushed deeply and awkwardly coughed. “Yes, well, uhm, I, you know, I’m usually right about, ahem, being sleep - I mean a coffee addict!” Remy tried - and failed - to backtrack. He just early himself a laugh from Talyn.

They knew exactly what they were doing. They loved insinuating things and making Remy a flustered mess. Not many were able to out-flirt Remy, but Talyn was one of the select few who could. Talyn finished laughing and decided to show Remy some mercy. He had to go to work soon, after all.

“So,” Talyn started, finding the teabags while the water was boiling. “How’re things with Emile?” they asked, finally changing the subject, ending Remy’s suffering.

Remy thought for a moment, smiling to himself. “Things are pretty great. We talked about adoption since the last time we spoke. It’s what they’ve always wanted. That, and helping people through the use of therapy of course,” he chuckled before sighing. “Don’t think I’m ready, though. To raise a child, I mean. It’s a big responsibility, and you don’t get a second chance with that kid.”

Talyn gave him a sympathetic smile before turning around again to find some sugar and milk. “I’m sure you’ll do great. You have Emile at your side, remember? You’re not alone. Plus, Joan and I’ll be right by your side.”

“I know,” Remy smiled. He refilled his coffee before taking a significant drag from it. He sighed when he put it down. “I just don’t know. How is it possible for me to be a good parent when I was such a horrible brother? I left her with… with them, and she was only six. You don’t think she’s been taken by them, do you?” He looked up with horror in his eyes at them at his last question.

“No, I don’t think so. She’d put up too much of a fight to be worth their troubles. And you stop that train of thought right this instant, Remigius Reverie! You are an amazing brother! If you’d stayed, they would’ve taken it out on her too, and you know that. And I know for a fact that if you could’ve taken her with you, you would have. Or even better, getting custody of her. And because of that, I KNOW you’ll be an amazing parent!” they scolded him. Self-deprecation is terrible for your mental health, you know.

Their outburst took Remy by surprise and earned them a glance from the young man. Talyn looked over to him with an apologetic look before returning to the process of making his tea. The water had just finished boiling, so they poured some into the cup they had found before dropping the teabag in. They put it on a tray along with some sugar and milk and went over to him.

“Here ya go, teabag has just been dropped in, and there’s sugar and milk if you want to add that. Sorry for the, uhm, outburst. Remy, over there, is an old friend and has the bad habit of being self-deprecating when he’s reminiscing and hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep,” they said apologetically.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. Nothing I’m not used to,” the young man said, widening his eyes infinitesimally when he realised what he had just said. Talyn just looked at him quizzically, but before they could ask anything, he looked back at his phone, a clear sign he didn’t want to continue the conversation. He glanced up again when Talyn picked up the tray again and started walking away. “Thanks for the tea,” he smiled at them.

“You’re welcome, kid.” They answered his smile with their own before returning to scold Remy some more.

“Before you can continue your scolding I’m gonna ask you this: where is Joan exactly? You hate being alone in the morning,” Remy hurried to ask Talyn when they returned to the counter.

They glanced back at the young man, but he seemed to be engrossed in his phone again, occasionally sipping at his tea. “Greece. But they’re on their way back. Have to make a few stops though.”

“Greece?!” Remy asked them incredulously. “But I just saw them two days ago!”

“Yeah,” Talyn said, scratching the back of their neck. “It was on very short notice, but nothing we’re not used to around here,” they said sheepishly.

Remy nodded. “Yeah, I know that. Both Emile and I and do, actually. Sometimes trauma victims-slash-survivors need someone to talk to right away, so we obviously make sure they get to the office safely, and we’ll be there as soon as we can. It’s usually mutants that need that opportunity though.” The last part was mumbled, but Talyn knew what he was talking about.

“Hello, can I get the old sassy Remy back now, please? All this solemn seriousness doesn’t really suit your personality,” Talyn said lightly, trying to get his spirits up again.

“Sorry babes forgot where I was there for a minute,” Remy snarked back at them, though it lacked the usual teasing bite. He finished his coffee and breakfast and put some money on the counter. “Well, I should probably head to the office to start on the paperwork or whatever. Later gurl.” He waved Talyn goodbye before walking out again.

“Later.” Talyn took the money, put some in the moneybox and the rest in the tip jar; Remy always left a good tip.

Soon after the young man in the corner got up and went to the counter to pay for his tea.

“You still sure you’re not hungry? I can quickly whip up something for you to go, it’s no problem, really,” Talyn tried again. They could recognise malnourishment when they saw it, and this kid was definitely malnourished. They would give it to him for free if he didn’t have the money.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Really. No need to worry,” he said, giving a tentative smile. “And keep the change.” He gave them a two-finger-salute before walking out again.

‘Odd young man,’ they thought. ‘Probably just don’t want to trouble me more than necessary since it’s so early.’

They went back to collect the teacup, milk and sugar, wipe down the table and the counter and returned to conversing with Joan over the phone in the back.

Little did they know the mysterious young man had listened carefully to their conversation and recorded the entire thing on a hidden camera.

________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, Logan and Roman had driven in comfortable silence, only broken by Roman chewing, and was almost at the precinct.

It was almost 8 am at the time they drove into the precinct’s parking lot.

“Tell me again Specs, why we have to be here this early?” Roman complained. He was NOT in a good mood after only four hours of sleep. Roman hated stakeouts. They meant that he wouldn’t be able to get his Beauty Sleep the following week.

“Because,” Logan sighed, sounding a bit annoyed. “we have to talk to Captain Holt about your brother’s reward request. His tip paid off better than expected. I also wasn’t able to finish all the paperwork for processing the suspects.” Logan glanced at Roman, getting an unimpressed look. “We also have to prepare for when the new detectives arrive later in the day.”

“Ah, so it was your idea to meet at the precinct this early? That’s a surprise,” Roman said flatly.

Logan sighed. “Look, I know you want to just stay in and sleep, but this needs to be done. Captain Holt agreed to let us have the day off tomorrow since we’ve been working overtime for days now.”

Roman gasped. “Holt is willingly giving us a day off?! Without hours of begging and annoying him?!” Roman was ecstatic, to say the least. Logan rolled his eyes and sat down. They had reached their desks.

“That is because he knows I get the job done and never ask for anything like this unless it’s warranted. Now, we need to finish the paperwork before we can discuss your brother’s reward.” Roman got a sad look on his face at the mention of his brother. Even though they were so different from each other, Roman still loved him more than anything. The thought of his powers driving him insane hurt Roman to his core.

“Yeah. How long do you think the paperwork will take? I’d like to notify Emile myself of when we’re coming.” Roman sent a pleading look Logan’s way. And Logan caved. He had a soft spot for his partner, so if this had been anyone else, he would’ve said no and done it himself, like he originally planned. But this was Roman. Logan’s young partner who was spontaneous but determined and an excellent detective.

“We are not missing a lot. If we work at our optimal, in your case listening to lyricless music, we should be done within the hour. Then we need to discuss his reward with Captain Holt, which I estimate will take approximately twenty minutes, and transportation will be another twenty minutes... Meaning we should be there in about an hour and a half,” Logan sighed at Roman’s lost expression. “That leaves us just enough time to prepare for the new detectives as well.”

“Well, why didn’t you just say that? Come on, let’s get working! Well, you get working, I’m gonna call Emile real quick.” And out the back Roman went at the speed of light. Well, one would think that; he was just really excited and in great shape.

Logan shook his head, fondly. Roman only really had time to visit his brother when they were working cases where they got his help. Logan clocked them in for the day and began the paperwork and processing of witness statements and the criminals.

After about ten minutes, Romans plopped down in his chair opposite to Logan’s. Roman gave a content sigh. “You got to talk to him, I take it?” Logan inquired.

“Yeah, she is looking forward to our visit.” Roman was acting more subdued than usual, after talking to his sister, Logan noticed.

“She. Oh. Depressive episode?” Roman nodded. You could always tell what pronouns to use with Roman’s sister according to her mood. Though, she rarely had a depressive episode anymore. Still, Roman always enjoyed talking and spending time with her, no matter what.

“Let’s just get this done so we can get moving,” Roman evaded and dove into the paperwork. Logan frowned but refrained from commenting. Roman usually thought it too boing and complained a bit before he really got into it. They both worked in appreciative silence for the next forty minutes.

Logan sighed. “That’s the last of it from my part. How is it looking with you?”

“Almost done, Lo,” Roman said as he flipped a page in his small pile of papers and continued writing on the computer. “You go ahead into Holt’s office, I’ll be there in a minute or five.” Logan nodded and cleaned his desk (even though he didn’t need to; it was always neat and clean) before heading to Captain Holt’s office door and knocking.

“Detective Abbott, come in,” Cpt. Holt called. And he did. “Why isn’t Dec. Moore with you?” he asked, looking behind Logan.

“He wasn’t quite finished with his paperwork and told me to go ahead. He does not wish to prolong getting to see his sister again.” Holt looked at Logan sympathetically before nodding.

“I see. Well, what has she asked for in return for her help this time?” Holt inquired.

“As always, to go home. She knows as well as us that she is unable to, so she continued with saying it is because she’d love to visit the park she and Roman used to play in when they were younger, again. Is that one a possibility?” It wasn’t one of the bigger requests she’d come with, so Logan hoped it was something they could grant her.

“We need to set up a perimeter, make sure no one enters the park as well as have eyes on her all the time, but other than that, I think it’s doable. We’ve organised bigger operations than this,” Holt agreed.

Just in that second, Roman walked in, as Logan hadn’t closed the door. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Roman exclaimed, although, it was much more subdued than usual.

“Not so fast, Dec. Moore,” Holt interrupted. “We cannot do that today. The new detectives are arriving in less than two hours, and I want to give them a good first impression. I’ve only heard impressive things about them from my old friend, Cpt. Garcia.”

“I don’t think she’ll want to go outside for a while anyway, so that’s okay, Captain.” Roman turned from the door. “I’d just like to tell her in person, if that’s alright, Sir?” Oh, Roman was looking at their Captain with such a pitiful look in his eyes that even Holt’s sturdy and tough fa��ade crumbled.

Holt sighed. “Of course, Dec. Moore. Just be back thirty minutes before. Not twenty-nine. Thirty. Do greet her from me.”

“Thank you so much, Sir!” Roman exclaimed and basically ran out the door to the parking lot. Logan sighed at his partner’s antics. He looked back at Cpt. Holt, who only nodded to him.

“I’ll make sure we’re back forty-five minutes before, Sir,” he said before he, as well, disappeared out the door to his car.

Due to Roman being filled with energy at getting to see his sister again, Logan drove just a bit faster than strictly necessary which in turn made them be there in six minutes instead of the usual ten. As soon as Logan had parked the car Roman was out. Logan couldn’t really blame him. It had been months since they last saw each other. Visits of any kind weren’t allowed unless it was for a case, which Logan found revolting. Just because she was… that still didn’t make it fair! In fact, it made it less fair than if she had just been a mentally ill supercriminal, like Ami Amore (except she wasn’t mentally ill, she was just a supercriminal mastermind)! And even those were allowed to get visitors!

The dumpster near him started to shake a bit. Logan took a few calming breaths. Now’s not the time to let my emotions take control, he thought to himself. Roman needed him.

Logan walked calmly (though that was only his exterior) into the facility. He found Roman by the reception, waiting for him. “What took you so long, Logan??” Roman asked while dramatically bringing the back of his hand to his forehead.

“Dec. Abbott. Nice to see you two again. Solved the case, did ya?” the receptionist, the young Mx Thomsen, said. They gave Logan and Roman their visitor’s pass so they could move around in the facility without any problems.

“We did, yes. We’re here to inform Remus that her request has been granted. Though, we’ll not be able to acquiesce today, as two new detectives will be joining the precinct today and we have to prepare for them. And it is nice to see you too, Mx Thomsen,” Logan added after a look from Roman.

They giggled. They always did when Logan was being guided by Roman in social behaviour. “Right this way, guys. She’s in the garden right now. Dr Picani discovered that’s the most effective way to bring her out of the depression. They’ve still yet to discover a way to bring her down from her mania. But stuff like this takes time. I really wish you guys were allowed to visit her outside of work. She misses you especially, Roman.” Mx Thomsen kept talking all the way to the garden. Logan was really glad they did. Something to keep Roman busy. Those two really got along well with each other.

“Well, if it isn’t my favourite twin brother,” a tired feminine voice said. “Have you come to free me?”

“Not today, sister dear. I’m afraid we have to prepare for some new troops coming today. And you don’t really seem up to it, either. But, once you feel better, and the new detectives have settled, we’ll make sure we get to visit the park. Okay?” Roman was the one addressed, so he was the one speak. They learned the hard way not to talk to her unless you were addressed (or if you were Dr Picani) when she had a depressive episode.

“Puh-he. Well, at least I can still be in these gardens. Hey, wanna hear a secret, Ro?” Remus said, leaning a bit closer to him.

“Always!” Roman said, leaning closer as well so Remus could whisper in his ear. It made him nostalgic for when they were kids and would share secrets with each other all the time.

“They are very bad at keeping the garden, so it’s chaos. Just like I like it!” Remus stage-whispered. She giggled at her own words, though it lacked the usual enthusiasm. Roman chuckled with her.

“Yes, I can see that. They are a bit lazy here, aren't they?” Roman winked. Remus was always his centre of attention when they were visiting her. Logan went to speak with the doctors, leaving the two siblings to enjoy each others company. They had approximately twenty minutes before they had to leave again.

“Dr Picani. Pleasure as always,” he greeted the person in front of him. They lit up when they saw who was speaking to them. They’d been looking in some files and hadn’t discovered the detectives had arrived.

“Dec. Abbott! Pleasure’s all mine! So, are you here to sign the papers of letting Remus visit the park?” they asked

“Sadly, no. Not yet, anyway. Two new detectives are arriving today and, we have to get them settled in the routine. But once they are, and Remus feels better, we will take her there. And thank you,” Logan added after a moment of hesitation. Picani tilted their head.

“Thank me? Whatever for? Taking care of and helping Remus is my job and my pleasure.” To say they were confused by Logan’s gratitude was an understatement. Logan, however, shook his head.

“Though I am also grateful for that, I meant about what you and Remy do on the side. You make a huge difference for a lot of people; old as young. You helped me,” Logan said, looking Picani sincerely in the eye. He usually never was one to admit he needed help or that he had help, but he wouldn’t deny that fact to someone who helped him in the past.

“Aw shucks, Logan. I don’t know what to say,” they blushed a tiny bit, because they knew how hard of a subject it was to Logan to discuss and he had a hard time admitting when he admired people. Like he admired what the two therapists were doing. They suddenly thought of something. “Did you tell them yet? Your colleagues?”

Logan sighed. “Other than Roman, no. Not even Cpt. Holt. I would rather they didn’t know just yet. I know Florida is accepting, but they took a while to pass that law. Other states passed it many years ago, yet we’ve only taken the initiative to pass it two years ago. I still fear the public would want me burned in the media fire if they knew.”

Picani smiled at him sympathetically. “I know. But they are your coworkers; your friends. They’ll understand it if you don’t want anyone other than them to know. But the decision is yours, and I respect it. And I understand it.”

They continued to talk about Remus and her improvements over the past year when they were interrupted by Roman’s startled exclamation. “Remus, what are you doing?!” They looked over and saw that Remus had a tight hold of Roman’s wrist. The bruising kind of grip. They ran over, but Logan arrived first. And was shocked.

Remus’ eyes were black. There were no traces of her otherwise green eyes or white. They were all black. And then Remus spoke. Her voice was unrecognisable.

   The Moon shines bright, but if you do nothing, it will go dark!  

A prediction. They’d never seen it up close, but both Logan and Roman were sure it was a prediction that involved them, however absurd it was fraised.

Then she let go of Roman’s arm, and her eyes went back to normal. “Whoo, what a rush, huh?”

Roman just stared at his sister, trying to make sense of what had just happened. He hadn’t really processed the words. Luckily, Logan was fast to grab a notebook and a pencil and write it down.

“I think it’s time you get some rest, Remus, don’t you?” Dr Picani stepped in, voice kind and approached her was a non-threatening stance. She was always volatile after a prediction, and who knew what a prediction during a depressive episode would do to her.

“Yeah, I think so too, Doc. Nice seeing ya, Roman. And heed the words,” she sing-sang before she skidded off after Dc Picani.

Logan and Roman drove back to the precinct in silence, both trying to understand what that absurd prediction could mean.

Then entered the precinct and found it a complete mess. Holt was in his office, looking like he’d been trying, and failing, to get the detectives under control for a long time. Not even Logan’s death stare seemed to work right now. And that’s how they spent the next forty minutes trying to get the detectives under control.

The front doors to the precinct opened, but no one seemed to notice. Logan was sitting at his desk, looking done with everything while Roman chased Dec. Peralta around the precinct. It was chaos. Some might confuse the precinct with a kindergarten run by a single adult.

Things were starting to calm a tiny bit down as the cold air from outside began to be noticed. Logan looked up from his desk and looked at the two newcomers. They didn’t seem to be particularly impressed. Logan couldn’t really blame him. He wondered who they were and what their business at the precinct was since they didn’t immediately go for one of the free detectives, Logan.

Suddenly, Holt exited his office and called out to the entire precinct, “EVERYONE!!” and got most of the precinct’s attention. Some froze when they spotted the two standing looking at them with an unreadable expression in their eyes. Logan was starting to get a sinking feeling about who they were and wished he could just sink into the floor and out of this childish picture. “Meet the new detectives!”

[rumpledgoldenweaver]

A Bear In Need Of Rescue

Written for the January @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt “How on earth did you get up there?” It kind of got away from a bear in trouble but I hope you enjoy anyway! Read on my blog https://earlyrisingwriting.home.blog/2020/01/09/a-bear-in-need-of-rescue/ 

Rumple had never felt so relieved as when he pulled into the car park of the hotel, almost immediately finding a space. Switching off the engine he let out a small sigh. Gideon had fallen asleep at some point and Rumple was loath to wake him. Fishing his phone from the glove compartment, he sent Belle a text message saying they were finally here. He decided to wait for her reply instead of getting straight out of the car. He had a slight headache so a couple of minutes quiet wouldn’t hurt. Closing his eyes he gave a small thanks to the car park gods.

Maybe he could book a head massage.. maybe Belle would give him a…

Tyres squealed, an engine roared then a car screamed through the previously silent parking bays jolting both Rumple and Gideon awake.

“What the ever loving fu..”

“PAPA! You sweared! Mama won’t.. PAPA! Look!! it’s a police car!!!” Gideon bounced in his seat.

Sure enough an unmarked squad car hurtled after the first vehicle, disappearing towards the rear of the hotel.

“Your Mama takes us to all the best places Gideon.. come on m’boy, lets go find her before either of those lunatics come back”

“Gideon keep your voice down, the whole hotel doesn’t need to hear you” Belle admonished gently “I know it’s all very exciting but..”

“It was Mama it was! The police car went MEEEMAW MEEEMAW VRRROOOOOOM”

Rumple shook his head “There’s a children’s area in the grounds of the hotel, would you like to go play for a while son?”

“It’s nearly bath time” began Belle

“You really think he’s ready for a bath and bed? He’s bouncing off the walls, he napped on the way here. Let’s take him, it might tire him out”

“Can I take Bear please? Can I? Can I?”

“Okay okay” groaned Belle knowing she was already defeated “but don’t lose him”

Gideon’s over excitement at the police chase was swiftly replaced by over excitement at the play area

“IT’S A PIRATE SHIP!!! C’mon Bear we’re going to sail the seven seas and chase booty!”

Belle nearly choked “He’s going to what did he say?”

Rumple chuckled “Let’s find a bench and sit down, I’m far too old to chase after him. As long as we can see him he’ll be fine”

“Don’t need to see him, we’ll hear him”

Lucy was bored, she’d been at the play area for fifteen minutes with her doll Tinkerbell. There were other children there but they just wanted to play house. Lucy preferred adventure. She spotted a boy, slightly younger than her, chasing round, pretending to sword fight and clutching a teddy bear. Now he looked like fun.

“Hello. I’m Lucy. This is Tinkerbell, she can fly!”

Gideon stopped his sword fight “I’m Gideon. This is Bear.. he can fly too”

“Bears cannot fly”

“Yes they can. Watch!” Gideon threw Bear up into the air with all his might.

In the middle of the pirate ship was a tall mast. Near the top was a mock crows nest. It wasn’t big enough for a child, but it was big enough for a bear. Which was just as well because that’s where he landed with a soft thump.

Lucy looked in horror. Gideon stood with his mouth open “Oops”

“I can’t believe they got away” Weaver strode through the hotel reception. He needed fresh air.  

“They can’t have got far. They have the advantage of knowing the area, we don’t” reasoned Rogers “I’ve asked the local police to put out extra patrols and.. did you hear that? Sounds like a kid in trouble”

Weaver snorted “Kids are always in trouble, it’s what they do”

“Look - over there, in the play area. There’s nothing we can do about the case for the moment. Maybe if we help then the hotel might forgive us for tearing up the car park”

“Okay Batman let’s go save the day”

As is often the case with parents who’s children have got themselves into a scrape, Rumple and Belle were verging on the kind of full scale public row generally conducted through gritted teeth and harsh whispers

“I cannot climb up after him Belle, let me use mag..”

“NO. I’ll go up after him”

“Not in those heels you won’t”

“No shit Sherlock. I’ll take them off”

“And certainly not in that skirt”

“EXCUSE ME? What is wrong with my...”

“Hi” said a dark haired young man who had suddenly appeared by Belle’s side “I’m Detective Rogers and this is Detective Weaver” he indicated a surly looking older man who reminded Belle slightly of her husband “Can we help?”

“It’s our son – he’s stuck. He’s too scared to climb down”

Weaver followed her line of sight, Sure enough there was a young boy clinging on to the mast of the wooden ship “How on earth did you get up there?”

“Bear flew up here. I came to rescue him”

“Oh I see” Weaver nodded sagely “That was very brave, but now you need rescuing?”

“Yes please” whimpered the boy

“Well you’re in luck because Detective Rogers here is the best rescuer I know”

Rogers looked at Weaver “Me?”

“Yes you. Off you go”

“Right then mate, let’s get you back on dry land shall we?” Rogers smiled as he started to climb the small rungs that were set into the mast. He reached Gideon easily “Now then, where’s this errant bear? In here?” he reached into the wooden bucket and retrieved the teddy.

“Thank you” sniffed Gideon

“No problem. I’ll climb back down a little and you follow. You won’t fall, just keep going”

Slowly the two of them made their way toward the ground.

“What’s your name son?”

“Gideon”

“Nice to meet you, I’m..”

“Captain Hook!” exclaimed Gideon suddenly noticing his prosthetic “Mama! Papa! I’ve been rescued by Captain Hook!”

Weaver tried hard to contain his laughter however it exploded out of him in a coughing fit.

Belle and Rumple were mortified “I am so sorry” they both began at once.

Rogers waved it away “It’s fine honestly. If it makes the lad feel better I don’t mind at all”

Rumple handed over a business card “If there is ever anything I can help with, just call”

The two officers started to head off when Weaver’s phone rang.

“Yes” there was a pause then “When? Which direction? Okay” he snapped the device shut “They’re on the move Rogers, come on”

The Gold’s watched the men hurry off in pursuit of their quarry. Rumple presumed it must be the boy racers from the car park. Out of sheer nosiness he used his enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on their conversation. It seemed the reprobates in question were headed out of the city with the local police force giving chase. A germ of an idea took root in Rumple’s mind. Would it be so bad if he gave a helping hand?

“Are you listening to me” Belle’s voice brought him back to the present.

“Sorry.. I was just..”

“Thinking of using magic. I know that look Rumple. Why?”

“I want to help them” he’d learned the hard way about not telling his wife the truth “they got our son to safety”

“Okay.. but there’s no magic here so how can you do that?”

“I don’t need magic as such. Just the dagger” he tapped his jacket where the blade lay hidden “You take Gideon back to the room, he’s had enough excitement for one day. I promise to tell you everything when I’m done”

Belle wanted to argue, but she’d learned some hard lessons during their relationship as well so she simply nodded and did as he asked. It wouldn’t stop her from worrying though.

Rumple waited till she was out of sight then found a bench to sit on set far enough back into the gardens he wouldn’t be disturbed. He didn’t need long. He took the dagger from his jacket, closing his eyes, reaching into the very depths of his soul to give the darkness a prod.

“What can I do for you Dearie”

“Would you like a trip out?”

“Ooh lovely! Where are we going?”

“Not me. You”

“Put your foot down Heller! The cops are gaining on us”

“I’m going as fast as this heap will go. If you wanted faster you shouldda got a car with an actual engine in it instead of a hair dryer!”

“Just get us out of here and onto the main highway” Hades growled

“Hello Dearies!”

The two men shot round to see the weirdest looking man.. Was it a man? sitting on the back seat. He had wild hair, green skin and reptilian eyes.

“What the f… shit!” Heller swerved the car, across the road, to avoid rear ending the vehicle in front then back again to miss an oncoming truck. Horns blared and language flew from the other drivers in their wake.

“I don’t think much of your driving skills” the imp huffed. Waving a clawed hand he took control of the car bumping it up onto the pavement, driving straight into a large overgrown hedge. Heller and Hades made to get out but the Dark One was too quick, a snap of his fingers sent both of them to sleep. Finally he took a small pouch from his waistcoat pocket, emptying the contents – some of the more exotic mushrooms the Enchanted Forest had to offer – over the back seat then disappeared.

Weaver had just got back to his car when the phone rang again. He frowned as the officer related the details of the arrest to him.

“A what in the car? A green skinned imp… mushrooms? That explains a lot. We’re on our way. Thank you Officer Humbert”

“Say what now..?” laughed Rogers “Oh my..”

Weaver grinned “Come on Captain Hook, we’ll wrap this up and go raise a glass to our little green friend”

“Less of the little if you don’t mind Detective”

Weaver looked round in surprise “Did you hear that?”  

Worry started to gnaw it’s way from the pit of Belle’s stomach to the forefront of her mind. Almost an hour had passed since they’d left Rumple in the gardens to do who knew what using means she probably wouldn’t approve of. Gideon was sound asleep on the sofa bed, clutching Bear tightly.

Picking up her phone and putting it back down again did nothing to make it ring. Unable to settle she decided to take the towels left on the bed by housekeeping and stack them in the bathroom. In order of size. Anything to distract herself.

She had just finished reorganising the pile into a pyramid when she thought she heard something. There was a faint knocking sound coming from outside the room. She walked quickly to the door and put her ear to it

“Belle.. Belle it’s me. I can’t.. I can’t get in”

“Rumple! Hang on.. just hang on!”

She turned the lock, pulled open the door only to have her husband almost fall on top of her. He looked very pale.

“What on earth happened? Rumple? Rumple! Are you okay?”

She manoeuvred him to the bed, sitting him down before he fell again.

“So tired Belle, need to sleep..”

“I’ll get you a glass of water and then help you into..” A snore cut off the rest of the sentence. “Bed” she sighed.

At least he was there and in one piece she told herself. So much for this fun family weekend. She supposed she should get him undressed even if the sheer number of clothes he had on meant that would be no easy task. Certainly there were more agreeable circumstances to peel off the layers one by one.

Rumple wasn’t the largest of men but in such a deep sleep he was a dead weight. It took her almost twenty five minutes to complete the task. “Why” she muttered as she put his suit back in it’s bag “can you not wear jeans and a shirt? I bet it doesn’t take that detective’s wife half an hour to get his clothes off”

With her husband a little more comfy, Belle decided a glass of wine was in order. A glint of metal caught her eye, the dagger was lying on the bed next to it’s owner, almost winking at her. Before she could stop herself the blade was in her hands “Dark One I summon thee” she whispered.

Rumple turned on his side and snored even louder.

“Y’know Dearie” a familiar voice trilled behind her “of all the humans I’ve been attached to over the centuries, your husband is easily the most charming”

Belle couldn’t help but snigger “Will he be okay?”

A green skinned hand touched her shoulder “He’ll be fine. Promise”

“What did you two get up to?”

The Dark One giggled “Well Dearie, I got to drive a car, catch some rather pathetic miscreants and I may have left some of those mushrooms from the forest that you were told never to touch as a memento”

“Sounds like fun”

“Oh it was” he grinned “Now I must be going and you Dearie need to get some sleep” he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Belle felt the tingle of magic, she was now dressed in her nightie, all the lights except Gideon’s small bedside lamp had been turned off and the bed covers turned down. Rumple was underneath them. Belle couldn’t help but giggle when she realised his underwear was now on the floor. Snuggled up against his back Belle soon started to drift off.

“Love you”

“Love you too Mrs Gold”

[bonca03]

Thank you so much for your patience @kitkatwolfy I was your natsuyuu secret santa! I’m sorry for the wait, there was so much I wanted to do for this AU that I just couldn’t get around to...either way, I still hope you enjoy it <3 if you have an AO3, I’ll be uploading this on there as well so I’d like to gift it to you if possible

@natsume-ss I’d also like to thank you for waiting, I just love pushing deadlines

This is basically an AU where Natsume never went to live with the Fujiwara’s and he’s meeting Tanuma and Taki later on as adults. Natsume’s also managed to get himself in trouble with Matoba, who has found out about the Book of Friends.

Title: For As Long As You’ll Have Me

Rating: G

Pairings: Established Tanuma/Taki, not sure if it comes across that well but the intent was to allude to future Tanuma/Natsume/Taki

Words: 1864

When Tooru opens the shop, she expects it to be a crazy day. Crazy how she’s not sure but, it’s Christmas Eve so it will either be crazy busy or crazy slow. Or perhaps crazy with spiritual energy. Years of working with Tanuma has taught her that youkai, just like humans, love the holidays.

She prepares herself but Tooru doesn’t expect it to be crazy crazy.

(Oh, how mistaken she was.)

Tooru and her boyfriend of a few months (and friend for many years before that) decided to open a shop together. Neither one had known what they wanted to do with their lives but with Tanuma’s spiritual ability and her books left to her by her grandfather in a town as strange as theirs, they decided to open an Onmyōdō shop. Business isn’t booming but it’s steady enough and they tend to catch up a bit more during festivals. They even have a few semi-regular customers, including an exorcist Taki had hired when she was still in school after accidentally crossing a malevolent youkai. To pick up the slack on the spiritual side of pay, however, they also sell hot drinks and a few small pastries.

It’s a strange business they run, but it’s theirs and although they opened it more to buy time to decide what they want than anything, they seem to have inadvertently found exactly what they wanted.

Christmas Eve rolls around as it does every year, although this is only their second one in the shop. Taki goes through her morning routine as usual. She counts the tills, fills the display of sweets, and flips the sign to open. Then she leisurely goes around the shop cleaning and organizing the various books and talismans they sell. Tanuma helps his father at the temple in the mornings so she simply bides her time until then.

It’s around noon and Taki has decided it is going to be a crazy slow day when the bell on the door jingles.

She sets her broom aside and moves back towards the front to greet who she assumes to be her boyfriend only to find a disheveled man about her age instead. His hair is shock white and overgrown, barely covering his pale green eyes that are darting about the room fervently. He is panting heavily and just based on all the dirt on him, he’s been running through the forest.

Concern washes over Tooru like a cold shower.

“Is something wrong?”

He jumps in response and steps aside, out of view of the window.

“Do you have any information on exorcists?” he’s blunt and to the point but he is quite visibly forcing himself to sound pleasant.

Inside her head, alarm bells sound. Very rarely has she had customers straight up ask her for an exorcist. Usually, they buy some charms and if that doesn’t have the desired effect, they ask for the contact information of their semi-regular exorcist customer, Natori Shuuichi. In her two years working at the shop, neither she nor Tanuma has had someone ask so soon or so desperately.

“I can get you in contact with one if you’d like,” she offers, already behind her desk in search of Natori’s card.

The man flinches. “No, no, I just need information. Do you know anything about the Matoba Clan?”

That makes her pause, she’s only heard rumours and vague comments from Natori but…

“I don’t have any records of them, but from what I understand they are a powerful group of exorcists.” she offers. Tooru doesn’t know what trouble this man is in, but those sad and desperate eyes make her want to help him. “Their leader is supposedly quite young but determined and a hard worker. I’ve also heard some unsavoury things about their exorcism methods though.”

He nods but doesn’t look all that affected by the information.

The clang of the bells startles them both as Tanuma enters the shop.

“Sorry I took so long; there are some shady people in town right now so I took the long way around.”

Tanuma’s eyes land on the customer. “Sorry, am I interrupting?”

Again the white-haired man avoids a question and jumps right in with his own. “Where are they? The people in town I mean.”

Tanuma rubs the back of his head, he never did like being put on the spot. “Up the road a block or two? There's maybe three of them that way wearing traditional clothes,”

The customer’s head hits the wall as he leans back and releases a frustrated sigh.

“What’s wrong?” asks Tooru. “If there’s anything we can assist with, we’d be happy to help,”

The man glances around the shop briefly and then he turns back to her. “I, uh, don’t suppose you allow loiterers?” he asks hesitantly. “I won’t be long, I just need to wait for the people in town to leave,”

Tanuma’s eyes widen. “What’d you do to get on their bad side?”

The stranger looks down at the ground. “They want something very important to me,” is all he says.

Tooru and Tanuma glance at each other nervously. They’re used to dealing with the supernatural, that is easy territory to navigate; people problems, however, are not their strong suit. They have few close friends and their strange business tends to isolate them from the rest of the community. They may not be as immersed in the world of youkai as people like Natori or the Matoba Clan, but for them, it’s what is familiar.

Regardless how they feel, however, neither one of them has ever been good at turning down someone in need.

“You can stay here,” Tooru reassures, gesturing to one of the tables, “Have a seat, I’ll bring you something to drink,”

The man waves his hands. “I’m fine, thank you,”

“Don’t be stubborn, you look exhausted! I’ll be right back,” with that, she scurries off into the kitchen.

Tooru wastes no time pouring tea for the three of them, as well as piling a plate full of various snacks for good measure. She brings them back out to the tables where the two men sit together awkwardly. Tooru rolls her eyes and walks over to break the ice.

She sets the tray of food and drinks at the table. “I’m Taki Tooru by the way,” she says gently. Tanuma tenses. “And this is Tanuma Kaname, my awkward boyfriend,” she teases because, of course, he forgot to introduce himself.

The white-haired man smiles. “Nice to meet you, I’m Natsume Takashi,”

“Nice to meet you,” they chorus.

Everything is silent for a moment. “So what brings you here? Do you have family you’re celebrating with?” Tanuma asks.

“No,” he’s still smiling but Tooru gets the feeling that it’s not genuine. “I think I have relatives in this town but I’ve never met them. I...got lost,”

“Do you need directions?” Tooru asks. “For after the men leave obviously,”

“Not really, I’ll be fine,”

You got lost but you don’t need directions? she wants to ask. Wants to, but doesn’t. He looks so skittish, Tooru fears poking holes in his story or asking for more details will cause him to run out the door as if he had never been here at all. Despite the fact that he is a total stranger, she isn’t willing to risk scaring him off when he is clearly in danger.

“I see,” is all she says instead.

Silence reigns over the shop once more. The longer it persists, the more anxious she finds herself. How can she get her feelings across to him and let him know how worried she is?

“This is a nice store,” Natsume comments, glancing around at the various books behind him. “What inspired you to open a place like this?”

Beside her, Tanuma looks visibly relieved at the topic change. “My father’s a priest and Ta-Tooru comes from a line of Onmyōji,” he explains.

Natsume smiles and is silent for a moment. It almost looks like he’s physically arguing with himself when he asks, “So can either of you see youkai?” he grimaces at his own question.

One look at his face convinces Tooru not to brush it off. “I saw one back in high school,” she says. “I can’t see them normally but I used a circle that allows people to see them.”

She decides not to mention the fact that the youkai had cursed her and any whose name she spoke. Everything turned out fine--thanks to Natori’s hired talents--and it’s in the past. Considering the anxious nature of the white-haired man, Tooru decides it to be a minor detail that would be best left out.

Tanuma follows her lead and answers honestly, “I can’t see anything clearly, but I can make out shadows. Usually I get headaches from it though.”

And suddenly it feels like it’s actually Christmas Eve. Natsume’s eyes light up brighter than any fairy lights on the block and a small, dorky grin overtakes his previously hesitant smile. The entire shop seems to warm up as if the man before her is the sun itself.

Tooru’s breath is taken away. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see her boyfriend’s jaw drop. He seems just as starstruck as she is.

He seems to notice them staring so Tooru quickly interjects before he can feel too awkward. “What about you, Natsume-san?”

Which is apparently the wrong question to ask. A tense air radiates about him and he has to take a deep breath to settle himself.

“I see strange things that other people can’t,” he says cautiously. “It’s a secret though.”

Tooru nods. Over the years, things like this have lost their shock factor. It’s almost something she’s come to expect what with all the craziness of the life she and Tanuma have built together.

“Are you an exorcist then?” asks Tanuma.

“Oh, you did ask about the Matoba Clan earlier,” the blonde remembers. “Do you work for them?”

Natsume shakes his head. “I’m not an exorcist, I just have bad luck getting involved with them,” he explains, smiling tightly.

Realization dawns on Tooru. “Are the Matobas the people in town who are after you?”

The white-haired man looks down, shielding his eyes with his too-long bangs. “I don’t want to cause any trouble,” he explains. “But I can’t let them get what they’re after.”

Looking at him, Tooru can clearly see how tired he is. He does a good job of hiding it but she can see and she knows Tanuma can too; Natsume is on his last legs. She finds herself wondering how long he’s been running.

“We’ll help you,” Tanuma says earnestly. “You can stay here as long as you need,”

“As long as you want.” Tooru corrects.

He looks up at them both then, wonder shining in his eyes and that soft, infectious smile on his face once more.

Tooru can’t help but smile back, can’t help the bubbly feeling that blossoms in her chest. She feels deep inside her that this is the beginning of something beautiful.

She glances over at her boyfriend, seeing her own smile mirrored on his lips.

“As long as you want,” Tanuma agrees

[kawaiikink101-blog]

Football and Pop’s

A/N: Levi’s Lover is back, and apologizes for not posting in a while, I’ve been busy with the RivaMika scramble, so be excited for that. Anyway, this post isn’t a RivaMika prompt, but a Riverdale prompt! Yes, I have always loved the Archie comics and was more than thrilled when they brought it to life. So, I thought I would try my hand at a (Y/N) post, let me know if you like it. Sorry to those who were expecting some RivaMika, but rest assured that my upcoming RivaMika post will make up for it. Byeee! P.S. I wrote this as a female reader, but change a few things while reading if desired. 

Prompt: Waiter at a cafe

Female reader x Reggie Mantle

Basics: (Y/N)= your name   

    “Hey, (Y/N)! I didn’t know you were working today!” Reggie Mantle, Riverdale’s very own, Russell Wilson. So passionate about football, he played in his sleep. With his mind centered around the sport, he hardly ever thought about relationships or anything of the sort. In fact, it was rare to see the boy express interest in someone other than himself.

    “Hi, Reggie.” (Y/N) whispered. He parted his lips, swallowing to moisten his dry throat, before deciding to continue, “I was wondering if you wanted to go watch the game this Friday? Maybe come to Pop’s afterward? It’s my first game as captain, you see, and I’d like to see you in the stands.” (Y/N) shifted nervously.

    “I’m not sure I can.”

    His face, previously filled of hope, slowly dropped. A few seconds passed of silence, where the two only gazed at each other. Only the sound of plates being rinsed, and the occasional laughs coming from the booths filled the air.

    “You’re not going?”

    “I’m sorry, Reggie. If you had asked me in advance, I might have been able to go.”

    He lowers his chocolate colored eyes, giving a slight nod. “What did you want to order?”

    “Just two burgers and fries, to go.” His voice is so slow and soft, that (Y/N) actually considers taking his offer. “Look, I’m really sorry. It’s just, Betty’s asked me to go shopping with her and Veronica. If I were somehow able to finish early, I would totally go, but Ronnie will most likely be dragging us by the hair the entire afternoon.”

    He smiles meekly, “Don’t worry about it, it’s cool. How much is this?” Quickly changing the topic, Reggie reaches into his front pocket to pull out a simple leather wallet. “Seven ninety-nine.” 

    Handing the necessary amount to her, the tall boy pushes himself from the counter, and searches for a booth. (Y/N) sighs, places the money in the register, and hands the slip of paper to a smiling Pop’s. Immediately going to work, he manages to have the heated meal in a paper bag no more than five minutes later. 

    Taking the bag from him, (Y/N) inhales before crossing the floor to a zoned out Reggie. “Two burgers, and fries.”

    “Thanks.” Managing to avoid any eye contact, the dark-haired boy slides from his seat, and glides past a frozen (Y/N).

    The faint smell of his cologne lingers in the air, soon disappearing along with the boy.

                                                            ~~~~~

    “(Y/N)? What’s wrong?” With concern etched in her voice, Betty glances at the dazed girl. “Huh? Oh, nothing!”

    “Come on, (Y/N). You can’t expect us to believe you when you’ve been so spaced out, that you’ve managed to run into two mannequins in less than thirty minutes.”

    Abandoning a pastel yellow sundress, Veronica makes her way over to the two girls. “What’s really going on with you, (Y/N)?”

    She gulps, and decides on averting her gaze. “It’s, Reggie.”

    Veronica’s brows raise in surprise. “What about him?”

    “This Monday, he came to Pop’s, during my shift. Before ordering, he became less Reggie-like, and asked if I could watch the game-”

    Veronica gasps, “That’s today!”

    Guilt courses through the trio. “Okay, we should get going. If we leave now, we should be there for the last half.” Betty suggests.

    “Are you guys sure?”

    Veronica and Betty roll their eyes playfully. “We can do this any other day, but your admirer won’t wait forever.” Dragging both girls by the arms, Veronica takes lead and strategically maneuvers them through the crowds.

                                                     ~~~~

    “What is with you, Mantle? Focus!”

    Reggie nods, beads of sweat roll down his face. the score is thirty to thirty six. Riverdale was losing. It was noticeable that the dark-haired boy was not himself today. Or the entire week for that matter. Ever since Tuesday, his concentration has been all over the place, what with being tackled every few seconds, and missing any balls thrown his way, even he was becoming frustrated.

    “If you don’t get your act together, I’m taking you out.”

    He nods.

    “Go get a drink.”

    He sighs before making his way to the bench, the dark blue paint on the wooden board beginning to peel. As he made his way through the other players, a few of his teammates began to snicker, some even elbowing him. Deciding to ignore the overgrown gorillas, he situated himself on the bench and twisted the cap of a tall bottle before pouring the cool liquid down his throat.

    Why couldn’t he get the play right? What was he doing wrong?

    His mind was swirling with many unnecessary thoughts, some including (Y/N).

     “Time! Mantle, if you don’t improve over the next three minutes, you’re out!”

      Reggie presses his lips into a thin line, nods, and readjusts his helmet. Making his way to the formation, he hears the sudden cheers coming from the stands. His dark eyes scan the crowd, landing on one girl in particular. 

    It was hard not to notice her, she was waving her hands in the air like a maniac, a huge smile gracing her lips.

    He chuckles, giving a small wave of his own.

    Inhale, exhale, inhale, and exhale. The shouts of those on the stands faded in his ears, including his own voice. Fully concentrated for once.

    We can do this.

                                                       ~~~~

    “We might have lost, but our comeback was unbelievable. I repeat, we might have lost, but we’ve definitely redeemed ourselves, let’s just make sure something like that never happens again, got it? Have a good weekend!”

    The hoots and hollers of the team rang in the air of the illuminated field, smiles on all of their faces.

    Reggie smirked among them whilst high-fiving those around him. Shortly after, all players had left the field, retreating to their homes, leaving only, Reggie.

    As he finished packing his bag, soft footsteps neared his crouched figure. “Hey, Reggie. You up for Pop’s?”

[huonperrenials]

ULURU

Hi There!

Well we were on our way to Uluru, previously known as Ayres Rock.  What would we see?  What would we feel?  How would we react when we saw the rock?  Is this the ultimate destination in Australia?  Lots of questions, I know, but relevant I would think.  The boys were excited, the other half was excited.  Me?  Not sure.  I wonder what people over the world would think of when prompted about Australia?  When questioned would they say yes, we know of the Great Barrier Reef,  the Sydney Opera House and yes Kangaroo’s.  Malcolm Turnbull?  Bob Hawke?  Paul Hogan?  Sorry! I digress.  Would they say, Ayres Rock(Uluru)?  I somehow think that yes Uluru would be near or at the top of the list.  I think for most of us Australians its a pilgrimage of sorts.  Not sure if that’s true or not but most people have either been or want to go and I’m sure there’s some that just couldn’t be bothered.  I must admit that as we drew closer to seeing the “Rock” the excitement level was rising. You don’t see much from the road as you approach Yulara(town/resort next to Uluru), but it’s still a “WOW” moment when you catch that first glimpse.  Here’s this great monolith of a rock that just protrudes from the surrounding landscape in what is practically the centre of Australia.  Yes I know it’s not the geographical centre of Australia, that’s only about 300km away as the crow flies.  We did notice four-wheel drive vehicles up on top of the sand dunes getting clear views of the Rock, but we were pressing on to the Yulara and the Ayres Rock Resort-Ayres rock Campground.

That’s an oxymoron if ever there was one!  Resort, ha!  Not this campground.  Else where maybe if you were paying big bucks at one of the fine and dandy accommodation resorts.  You see, we hadn’t booked a campsite.  Mind you we had rung about 4 days out but it was fully booked out, great I thought!  “Don’t worry” they said, ‘just turn up and you can find a spot in the overflow section and its only $10 dollars a night”.  Click, click, mental arithmetic happening, 3 nights, 10 dollars a night, got it, $30 bucks, gee that’s cheap, end of mental arithmetic.  They also said get there early in the day to get the best spots(aka-closest spots to the amenities block in the actual campground).  We have noticed in the Northern Territory that at the big campgrounds there are queuing up lanes to get in and they are usually full towards the end of the day or even after lunch!  So we got there in the early afternoon and a bonus we didn’t have to wait too long and we were in looking for the overflow section.  I guarantee you that the overflow section was in the vicinity of 10-20 times bigger than the actual campground and the front section(aka-closest to the amenities block) was virtually full.  If you ever want to see what caravans and camper trailers are in use around Australia this would be the place to go!  We found a spot amongst some small scrubby plants including Grevillea and set up camp, got the binoculars out to look for the amenities block and discovered them about 600 metres away!  Time to set up a shuttle bus to get to the toilet!!

Not a great picture but this is the Shanty Town-Overflow section or most of it!.  Below is the section closest to the amenities on the right which you cant see and we are located in the left of this picture.  The Khaki setup on the left at the front.  The funny thing is that this overflow virtually empties and fills every day, which is not surprising when you see the amount of travellers on the road!  There was also some campers here in this section that obviously were spending a week or two here and they had worked their way to the front of the overflow section therefore being only 40-50 metres away from the amenities.  They were also from the Territory and obviously knew about the cheap overflow section.

The sun was now starting to sink and the park had a sunset viewing area of the rock.  So off we trundled with the crowds to have a look.  The area was slightly busy, so we worked our way along the dunes until we had our own mostly private viewing area.  This is what we saw!  At last, Uluru in all its glory.

Again with different colours.

A bit later.

And now no sun.  Beautiful!

How is it that Uluru changes colour so much?  Well, the answer is quite simple.  The colour changes as a result from the effects of the earths atmosphere on the suns incoming rays.  Dust, ash and water vapour in the atmosphere act as a filter which can remove the bluer light from the suns rays, allowing redder light through at different times of the day.  When the sun is directly overhead, the suns rays only have to pass through a thin atmosphere therefore minimising the filtering effect.  Whereas in the mornings or evenings when the sun is low on either horizon, the suns rays have to travel through a thicker layer of atmosphere to reach a certain point on the earths surface.  The light reaching Uluru at sunset or sunrise is mainly from the red end of the spectrum and its reflection from the rock and clouds in the sky cause the spectacular colours.  The surrounding landscape further enhances these effects.

A peculiar plant caught my eye on these dunes know as Green Bird flower,  Crotalaria cunninghamii.  This shrub growing between 1 and 3 metres is found in inland areas on red sand dunes.  Can be erect or sprawling with velvety stems. Large yellow-green flowers striped with fine black or purple pin strips are present on terminal racemes to 22cm in length during winter and spring.

Time to head back to camp and cook tea.  Check out the amazing colour of the dirt(sand really!).

Today was a holiday in the Northern Territory, Territory Day!  This is the only day of the year you can buy fireworks and let them off in the Northern Territory!!  We had been warned and sure enough well into the night and even early next morning fireworks were going off everywhere at Yulara.  What a racket!  Could only imagine what it would be like in Alice Springs or even Darwin!  The next morning greeted us with drizzly rain and puddles.  What a day to visit Uluru, yuck, it wasn’t looking good.

We made our way to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park getting glimpses of a wet rock on the way.  It still looked amazing and impressive in the landscape.

Here are some Honey Grevillea’s, Grevillea eriostachya, these were everywhere around Uluru, flashes of brilliant yellow amongst a red and green background.  Grows to about 3 metres and flowers for a long time in winter and spring.  We made our way to the Cultural centre to escape the rain and learn more of Uluru and the Anangu Land which is run by the traditional landowners who are the Yankunyjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people.  From the guide-book, “This land was created by the creation ancestors.  In their travels they left marks in the land and made laws for us to keep and live by.  We hope that during your visit you will learn about some of our ancestors and culture.  Please respect this knowledge and open your minds and hearts so you can really appreciate our enduring culture”  There were lots of things to see and do in the Cultural Centre.  I overheard a tourist asking a Park employee what was worth looking at Uluru during the rain.  The response was “do the Mala walk, it has brilliant waterfalls during wet weather”.  So off we trundled into the rain to do the Mala Walk.  Its only 2km return and flat, so very easy.  Our plan had been to cycle around Uluru but the hire company doesn’t operate in the wet.  As we had two bikes with us, we needed another 4.  That wasn’t going to work, was it!  Back to the Mala walk, Mala is Aboriginal for Rufous hare-wallaby.  Click HERE to see what it looks like.  Could be an overgrown rat crossed with a Hare!!  In this section there were sheer vertical cliffs which were impressive.

It was simply stunning to see Uluru in the rain.  It had stopped mostly but the waterfalls were still running albeit slower and smaller.  I have since seen photos after and during major deluges on Uluru which show water cascading down everywhere in huge quantities.

Everywhere you turned to look at Uluru you would see different colours in the rock and this changes as the sun rises and sets on it as well.

Cave right at the base of Uluru

Notice above how the rain has changed the colour of the rockWhat is Uluru composed of?  “Uluru is composed of arkose, a coarse-grained sandstone rich in the mineral feldspar. The sandy sediment, which hardened to form this arkose, was eroded from high mountains composed largely of granite” , this is quoted from the online Department of the Environment and Energy.  Click HERE if you want to know more of the Geology of Uluru.  An interesting piece of information is that Uluru is a visible tip of a huge rock slab that extends possibly 6 kilometres underground!  The exposed bit is supposed to be the biggest exposed rock going around, imagine if it was all exposed!!

Waterfalls everywhere!

Crystal clear water.

Beautiful scenery where ever you turned.  Below is Kantju Gorge a wonderful location with a lovely waterfall.

Not much to say really, simply enchanting.  We then drove around to the sunset/sunrise viewing area which is on the opposite side to the Mala walk and here you get a completely different aspect of Uluru.

Another view from the sunset/sunrise viewing area.

The Wattle above is Acacia ligulata, also known as Umbrella Bush, this grows to about 4 metres.

When you look closely at the surface of Uluru, it looks like its flaking and it is.  This is caused by a chemical decay of minerals.  The rusty colour of the exposed surface of these flakes is caused by the oxidation (rusting) of the iron in the Arkose.  Fresh Arkose is grey in colour.  Some more examples below.

Below is Ptilotus obovatus, a lovely little shrub to about 1 metre high and across has pink flowers frequently after rain.  Often seen on shallow stony ground.  The leaves are covered with star-shaped hairs giving the plant a silvery appearance.  I saw this one on the Kuniya Walk, which is an easy walk to the Mutijulu Waterhole home of Wanampi, an ancestral water snake.

Closeup of Ptilotus flowersHere is the Mutitjula Waterhole, another special place at Uluru.

The photo below in some way summed up Uluru for us.  The comment was made something along the lines of “look its breathing” or something of that effect.  Well! It did sort of feel alive, maybe it was just the flow of Arkose Sandstone and how it was shaped or how the rain ran off it, maybe its cultural significance, even its history over time or maybe all of the previous combined.  It just felt significant.  I can now understand why the traditional owners revere it.  This is a special place.

Here’s a few more plants I noticed on our travels around Uluru.

This is Upside down plant, Leptosema chambersii.  Obviously you can see how it got its common name.  It’s a bit topsy turvy with the flowers at the bottom.  A small shrub with leaves reduced to scales.  Lives on sand plains and dunes normally with Triodia sp.  Closeup below.

Another interesting plant was Bush Plum, Santalum lanceolatum, it grows to about 7 metres as a shrub or small tree on a wide variety of habitats and flowers throughout the year.  Fruit is usually eaten straight from the tree, older branches are also harvested for sandlewood.

This one below is one of the Triodia species, usually quite a sharp and prickly clumping grass

The large trees around Uluru were Desert Bloodwood, also known as Corymbia terminalis .

There were also a large Grevillea called Beefwood.  Grevillea striata.

Well the day was coming to an end and we hadn’t done everything we wanted to due to the weather and consideration for children.  We were damp, tired and pretty chuffed that we had finally made it to this legend of our great southern land, Uluru, a monolithic breathing living monstrous rock.

Finally, a last parting glance for this day at this magical place known as Uluru.

Cheers!

A trip to the Northern Territory. Part 11 ULURU Hi There! Well we were on our way to Uluru, previously known as Ayres Rock.  What would we see?