fandomtownies | The Preserve; Wednesday Afternoon [03/14].

Rosa had received a strange call about an altercation in the preserve, something to do with a sign, so, figuring it had to do with those billboards, she sighed over the fact that this was her life now and went to check it out.

Turns out, it was in a completely different area of the preserve and had nothing to do with squirrels. Instead, Rosa would find two gremlins, one wearing bunny ears and holding a munched-on carrot, the other wearing a big yellow duck beak, bickering with each other over a sign nailed up to a tree between them.

"What the hell?"

The one dressed like a duck growled something, pulling off the sign that said "Duck Season," revealing one that read "Rabbit Season" instead. And the one dressed as a rabbit responded in kind, growling and yanking off the sign, switching it back to Duck Season.

Back and forth, back and forth, duck season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, duck, rabbit, duck, rabbit, duck, rabbit--

"Enough!" Rosa couldn't take it any more, screamed out and pulled out her gun. "It's BOTH season!"

Then she pulled the trigger. She was just going for a warning shot at their feet; she wasn't going to actually shoot one of them...but she couldn't have anyway, because all that came out of her gun was a little flag that unflurled to reveal the word "BANG."

"What the hell??"

[[officially having too much fun with this. Open preserve is totally totally open]]

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It probably didn't help her when Anakin came racing through with blazing speed--or so he thought--meeping and stopping to peck the ground.

Thanks, gremlins.

One more time, then, for the people in the back.

"What the helllllll??"

Because now there was a dude meeping and...trying to...peck at the ground? And after what happened with her gun just now (were the troopers trying to pull off some prank switcharoo bullshit?), she was almost afraid of what she might find if she went for any of her knives.

Well, he wasn't hostile. She knew how to deal with crazy hostile people just fine.

She was just going to kind of...back up a little. With a very professional "Uhhhh....."

Maybe he'd just...leave. And then she would leave and pretend none of this happened and send Ralph to go back so he can write up the report.

"Meep meep," Anakin told her, racing over to a pile of birdseed with a huge anvil resting above it and bending at the waist to peck at it.

There was going to be some hell to pay for the gremlins when this wore off.

Where had all that birdseed even come from? More importantly, had that anvil been there the whole time?

"Uhhh, sir?" Rosa tried, not exactly wanting to get too involved in this but also knowing they were kind of in the middle of the woods with only two arguing gremlins as witnesses. "It might be a good idea to step away from the birdseed..."

She'd pull her badge if she thought it would do any good.

"Meep meep," Anakin said agreeably, moving too fast to be seen as he finished the birdseed and then got out of the way of the falling anvil.

As you do.

Peter had been working on his magic out in an unfrequented corner of the preserve, but somehow it had all ended up...sparkling...a lot more than usual, so rather than continue, he was heading back.

And then there was this weird.

"This must be an island thing, then."

"This," Rosa said sulkily, looking at her useless gun and the glaring at the gremlins who continued, somehow, to pull endless signs off that tree, "is a waste of my time thing."

And then her gaze shifted irritably over to Peter. "What are you doing out here in the middle of the woods?"

True, sometimes she forgot just how small of an island this is, but it did seem a little suspicious. That, and dealing with a human that wasn't eating birdseed right now was preferrable to....this.

What about dealing with an immortal magical being not eating birdseed?

"I was trying to work on some things, but..." He waved at the gremlins. "Apparently this isn't the only weird today."

It just had to be one thing or another, didn't it?

"Newsflash," Rosa said, "this isn't the only weird any day."

It was just...weird...enhanced.

"I'm mostly just sticking around to see how long this can go on. What kind of things you working on?"

Was she just being nosy? Suspicious? Friendly out of desperation to grasp onto something normal? Even Rosa wasn't entirely sure.

"Weirder than usual," Peter amended.

"I'm honing my magic," he explained. "It's gotten...explosive, a time or two, when I was interrupted, so I try to take it away from where there're people."

Hopefully Rosa'd been here long enough not to think he was crazy or making fun of her.

"Your magic," said Rosa dryly. "Right."

She worked with people like Boyle and Peralta. Magic, while super dumb, was not really that...uncommon. But it was definitely a different sort of magic she was thinking of. So she was now picturing Peter trying to pull a rabbit out of a top hat...

...and then having that rabbit (not a real one, okay?) explode, which made her randomly snort and shake her head.

"Hey, so long as people aren't getting hurt."

Too hurt. A little hurt could be funny.

"My magic," Peter agreed. "With a side of the island amusing itself, I think."

He held out his hand and put up a barrier between them and the gremlins - one that made a sound like a run up a xylophone and sparkled like crazy.

"It's supposed to be silent and barely visible," Peter said, sighing. "When I saw it doing that, I gave up on anything more complex."

That was...definitely not the card tricks gone elaborately haywire like Rosa'd been thinking.

"What the hell is that?" she asked, sounding more disgusted that it existed than anything else. She did wonder what would happen if she poked at it...but not enough to actually poke at it, and that was when she missed having someone else around that she could go poke at it for her.

"Just a sort of force-field," Peter said.

A small bird showed up out of nowhere, flew into it with a twanging sound, and fell to the ground, stars circling its head.

Peter looked at it. "We probably don't want to know."

Yup. That was...definitely a thing the both witness right now.

Rosa shook her head."Yeahhhhh," she said, "I think I'm done here. I'll just...send a trooper to keep an eye on..."

She gestured vaguely to the gremlins, still going at it. "Those two."

"That's probably a good idea."

Peter turned around to walk back himself. "Hopefully this'll all be gone tomorrow."

The Preserve; Wednesday Afternoon [03/14].

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