InsaneJournal

Who: Leon and Bubbles
What: Talking to the local wildlife
When: Recently
Where: A park
Rating/Warning: Low/none. Some language
Status: Complete


Despite how annoying he found squirrels and their incessant chatter, he actually found lately that he was preferring their company to most other people. Sure, he had his friends that he enjoyed spending time with, but sometimes he just needed to get away from people.

Next to him, he saw an old overweight man, his ears brown, fuzzy and rounded, eating from a can of peanuts that Leon was holding out for him, though to anyone else he just looked like a fat squirrel sitting next to Leon. “And then there was my great grandfather, famous among all of us for collecting the most acorns in his home in remembered history.”

“I’ve told you a thousand times that I really don’t care about your family tree, Chip,” Leon said, rolling his eyes in an exasperated manner.

“And then there was my grandfather who…”

“Jesus H. Christ, shut up,” Leon exclaimed, though he didn’t make any motion to get up or even take away the peanuts.

Bubbles hadn’t exactly meant to run into people when she’d gone out today. It wasn’t that she was avoiding anyone, just that she was taking time alone to walk. Also it was easier to talk to animals when she wasn’t around a lot of people. They stared at you a lot less when you didn’t pretend to know what they were saying.

So when she heard someone talking and very clearly (at least to her) a squirrel going on about his grandfather, she paused. A moment later, she continued walking, curious to find out who it was talking to the animals. She hadn’t met a lot of people that could talk to them. She knew there was someone who had a sibling that could in the dreams.

Coming up slowly, she warned the squirrel of her arrival and told him not to be afraid before she worried about the man sitting there, which was probably somewhat backwards, but...it was what happened. “Oh, and...well, I guess you already guessed someone was here, but hi. I’m Bubbles.”

Leon frowned as the squirrel stopped chatting about his grandfather, and he could hear someone else behind him talking. He glanced over his shoulder. It seemed as though Chip had understood her, and while he didn’t notice any obvious animal tells to her, it was entirely possible that she was some kind of animal. “Peanut?” he asked, moving the jar of peanuts from Chip to the new girl.

“Hey! Those were mine!” Chip complained.

“You can fucking share,” he snapped at the squirrel.

Bubbles covered her mouth as she started to laugh. “Do you guys always argue like this?” She moved closer, crouching down. “Hey there,” she said, imitating the way that squirrels communicated. It was a lot easier now that she’d done it for a while. She picked a peanut out of the jar before holding it out to the squirrel.

“I’ve never met anyone else that could talk to animals,” she said with a bright smile. “You must be...well, probably from the network? Unless you took lessons from Kronk on speaking to squirrels.” She made a point to translate everything she said for Chip, not sure if he could technically understand otherwise. They never had in her dreams.

Leon blinked when she mentioned the Network. Did that mean she wasn’t another animal? He looked carefully at her. If D was here, he’d no doubt know, but Leon still had trouble if there weren’t any obvious clues. For him, most animals could understand people talking, but then, for the most part the only other people he heard talking to animals were their owners. What he did hear though, was Bubbles repeating everything she said in clear as day English. “I don’t know any Kronk,” Leon said. “But yeah, I’m on the Network. You too?” If she was, it probably meant that she wasn’t another squirrel.

Bubbles nodded. “Kronk is from The Emperor’s New Groove. He speaks squirrel.” She shrugged. “But yeah. I’m on the Network. My name is Bubbles.” She didn’t know why he’d stared so much like he was trying to figure something out. Maybe it was just that she spoke to animals too. Or maybe just because she’d stumbled on him talking to a squirrel. “I’m sorry if I startled you. I really didn’t mean to.”

Emperor’s New Groove. That made sense. He thought he had watched it when he was a kid he was pretty sure, but he really couldn’t remember much of the movie. Except for the fact that there was some dude who got turned into a llama and that there was a “yes” “no” argument somewhere in there.

“Leon Orcot,” he introduced himself. “So you can hear this obnoxious little fucker too?” he asked, jerking a thumb at the squirrel.

“No need to be rude,” Chip huffed.

“Then stop talking about your goddamn family history. I really don’t care,” Leon grumbled back.

“I’m Chip by the way! At least, that’s what this one calls me,” the squirrel said to Bubbles. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Bubbles!”

“It’s nice to meet you, Leon. Oh. I can hear him, but I’m sure he’s lovely.” She moved to sit down by them, smiling a little. “The only animals I’ve run into that you have to look out for are the horses, but that’s mostly because they swear a lot.” She allowed for a small laugh before she turned her attention to Chip.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you as well, Chip. Do you like that name or do you have a different name you like to go by?”

Chip took advantage of Bubbles sitting to crawl onto her, looking to Leon almost like a fully grown human perched precariously on the slight girl’s shoulder. It may have been a strange sight at one point, but at this point he was used to seeing people sitting on other people’s heads or shoulders.

“I don’t think I’ve really talked to any horses,” Leon said. He generally had no reason to go anywhere near farmlands or whatever. “Though, sounds like me and horses would get along.”

“I don’t really go by anything,” Chip said cheerily. “It’s you humans who are so hung up on names. So whatever you want to call me is good with me.”

Bubbles didn’t mind animals sitting on her shoulder. She really didn’t mind animals anywhere around her, which was why she worked with them. “You should probably try it sometime, then. I work at a wildlife rehabilitation place and we get a lot of animals in there. Surprisingly enough.” Laughing a little, she turned her attention back to Chip.

“I guess you have a point. We do tend to like to know names and give names to things.” She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. “I’m glad I got to meet you today. It’s nice to see animals who aren’t in need of rehabilitation sometimes. And if you ever want to talk to me about your family, you’re free to do so. But for Leon’s sake, maybe we’ll let it be sometime he’s not here. Since he seems to be very agitated about your family history.” She let out a soft giggle at that before looking at Leon. “Just a bit of light teasing. I promise.”

“You’d be agitated to if you had to listen to it all the fucking time,” Leon grumbled. Though, Chip seemed happy about the information. He smiled widely.

“I like this one,” Chip said to Leon. “She’s much nicer.” He turned to Bubbles. “That Leon guy is a grump. Really, he gives a bad name to humans. I was beginning to wonder if all of you weren’t so sour.”

Bubbles bit her lip to keep from smiling or laughing. “Are you always so serious? You remind me of my boyfriend.” Only he was a little less grouchy, which she decided not to comment on. It wouldn’t help to tell someone they were grouchy.

“Not everyone can be very patient all the time. My sister is probably a lot less patient than me. At least Buttercup. Sometimes Blossom isn’t patient, but she tries. The Professor is probably the most patient of us all, though. And I have a fondness for animals and so talking to them has really only made my life much better than it was before.” She smiled at Chip before reaching over for a peanut and holding it up to him.

Leon shot a glare at Chip, who smirked at him and shovelled Bubbles’ peanut into his mouth. Serious was better than most of the adjectives people used to describe Leon. He decided he’d take it. “More or less. Your boyfriend probably has the right idea.” Not that Leon couldn’t cut loose. He often did. It just usually took a case of beer and good friends. Not a squirrel and a container of nuts.

“Well, the one thing animals have got going for them is that they’re better than most people.” They were obnoxious little fuckers sometimes - well, a lot of the time. But they were heads and tails above humans in terms of not being scumbags.

“He was very serious the first time we met. I thought he was going to stay that way all the time, but he actually smiles sometimes now.” She resisted the urge to giggle about that. “But I don’t mind. It makes the smiles more special.” And now she was probably being very much of a sap and he probably didn’t want to hear about her and her boyfriend. Even if she probably talked about Stefan more than anyone else.

“I can say that I have never been attacked by squirrels. We once had a squirrel with super powers in our dream and we wanted to keep him with us to fight evil, but he decided to stay with the forest animals and protect them from evil. It was a little sad, but I understand why. The wildlife need a protector, too. And who better than another animal. Humans aren’t very good at protecting wildlife all the time.”

“Means he likes you,” Leon said, offering her a bit of a smile himself. After all, when he wasn’t scowling at the thought of her and something aggravating she’d done, thinking about Revy usually made him smile.

Leon raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like the most annoying superhero ever,” Leon said (which elicited an irritated “hey!” from Chip). “But you’re right. Humans really aren’t so good at taking care of that kind of thing. How exactly did a squirrel get superpowers?”

“Which is really lucky for me because I don’t think I’d like being the only one.” But she knew she wasn’t. She knew how Stefan felt about her. But it was nice to have someone on the outside to confirm that that was probably the case.

“No! Bullet was really wonderful. But then I am a little more Snow White than my sisters when it comes to animals. Also probably almost every Disney princess. Because Aurora had a lot, too.” She shrugged before reaching over to gently stroke the top of Chip’s head. “Oh. That was my fault. She was hurt and I wanted to help her heal faster, so I gave her some Chemical X, which is how my sisters and I got super powers. I probably should have realized that she’d develop super powers. I just wanted to help her get better.”

“What? Please tell me you manage to get them to do your chores for you. The pigeons I yell at outside my window never offer to help.” Leon frowned to himself. “But then, they’d probably crap all over my clean laundry anyway.” It was a joke, mostly. Partly because Leon never did his own chores. He couldn't really expect the local wildlife to come and pitch in a hand (or a claw or paw or whatever).

Chemical X sounded shady as all hell though. “What’s this Chemical X? That’s not some kind of drug, is it?”

“I don’t, but then I never thought to ask. Maybe it’s because you’re yelling at them.” Her reply was given with an amused expression, a hint of a smile on her lips. “Probably. Especially if you’ve been yelling at them.” She thought a moment. “And I’m not sure they’re nearly as coordinated in real life as they are in the Disney movies.”

Bubbles shook her head quickly at his question. “No. It’s a chemical. The Professor accidentally added it when he was making us in his lab. He had sugar, spice, and everything nice...and then he accidentally added Chemical X. It’s what gave us our super powers. He didn’t mean to make super heroes. Just normal girls. Instead, he got us. I like to think we’re just as good as normal girls would have been, though.”

“God no. Animals are clumsy little shits. No offense, Chip,” Leon said, and offered the peanut jar as a peace offering. Chip seemed pleased enough to just cram his mouth full with the nuts, not all that interested in the current conversation.

Leon’s eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, in your dream you can make humans? With… sugar, spice, and everything nice?” That had some worrisome connotations. He wondered how D would deal with people who could just create humans with something like that. “That’s… something. But I’m sure that he’s happy whether you have superpowers or not though.”

Bubbles covered her mouth as she laughed. “They can be pretty clumsy. Especially when we’re taking care of them. But then some of them have casts on, so I think that’s pretty normal.”

She nodded before saying, “Well, I didn’t. But the Professor did. And Mojo. He made the Rowdyruff Boys with boy ingredients. I forget what that was. I wasn’t there when it happened.” She shrugged slightly. “I think he is, too! We were made a little more like regular people outside of the dreams, but he adopted us all when we were five. So it was sort of like being triplets anyway.”

Leon’s lips quirked at the thought of any of the animals from his dream in a cast. Or a cast and the cone of shame. In particular, he took great pleasure in picturing T-chan, Leon’s strange goat-lion-dog cross thing, wearing the cone. He’d like to see the little bastard try to take a bite out of him then.

“Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails?” Leon joked. Though he frowned deeply as he realized that if Bubbles in the dreams really was made out of sugar and spice and everything nice, maybe that wasn’t so far off after all. He shook his head. No, that was probably just something the professor had told her so he didn’t have to get into the specifics with her. “I’d be really concerned if it was that easy to create people in this universe.”

“Maybe.” Bubbles wondered if that was what they were made of. The dreams were sometimes disjointed in that she only knew what she saw and not anything else. It was a little confusing at times. “It would be a little unusual. Our dreams are very much cartoon-like. We’re pretty young in them also. So it’s definitely not like this.” She smiled over at Chip for a moment. “But I like that I can still talk to animals and the super strength doesn’t hurt. I’m mostly excited for the flying now. Less so the laser beam eyes.”

Leon rose his eyebrows. He knew talking to animals wasn’t exactly usual, but he rarely considered it a power. All he’d was slowly open his mind to the idea that they had things to say, and it had happened. But the rest of it - super strength, flying, laser beam eyes - those were all Superman territory. He wondered what exactly it was about the dreams that gave some people powers but not others.

“You can fly?” he asked. “Your dreams pretty rough?” She had said cartoon-like, but he’d watched a lot of darker cartoons, and someone with that many powers. Well, they had to use it against something.

“Well, not yet, no, but soon! I hope!” She perked up for a moment at the thought of being able to fly. But his next question made her pause and she gave him a funny look before shaking her head. “No. It’s not all that bad. I mean, Mojo is a little bothersome and HIM is super evil, buuut for the most part, things aren’t too bad!” Except for having to kiss the Rowdyruff Boys. But she didn’t want to talk about that.

“But I know lots of people have bad dreams. Stefan’s are really bad. He doesn’t talk about them a lot, but I know they’re pretty upsetting.” Her brows knitted together and frowned slightly. “Do you have bad dreams?”

“Lucky you,” Leon said, a little surprised that she didn’t think they were so bad. He knew some people seemed to have some general run of the mill dreams, but they usually didn’t get much in the way of powers from them. Still, he was glad to hear that she didn’t have to go through the same troubles that so many other people did. He’d already decided he liked her, due in no small part to her ability to talk to animals. Though the name Stefan gave him pause. Stefan wasn’t a very common name, especially not among dreamers, and the only other dreaming Stefan he knew he had shot in the head by accident once. After a moment’s deliberation, he decided it was probably best if he kept that memory to himself. “I thought so when they first started,” Leon admitted. “But I haven’t dreamed in a while now, and I miss them sometimes.” Mostly, he missed D, which was heightened by the fact that his last dreams had involved him searching the world for over a decade trying to find the man again.

“I like to think so. I try not to complain about the dreams too much because there are people that have worse dreams.” She didn’t have all that much to complain about anyway. It wasn’t really something anyone would complain about if they had the dreams. Except that sometimes there were people she didn’t want to be around in the dreams...and then there were sometimes people she missed. Like their teacher. “I guess that is not that unusual. It’s probably strange to go from having them to not having them.”

“It’s,” lonely. He frowned. He wasn’t going to say that out loud. He missed dreaming of D more than he cared to admit, but he also had made a pretty good life for himself here, with far more close friends than he had in the dreams. And with Revy. “Strange.” He sighed, then caught a glance at his watch. “Shit,” he muttered. “I’ve got to go. If you wanted to keep those peanuts, they’re yours.”

She nodded. “That sounds about right.” The curse made her blink for a moment, but she didn’t say anything about it. “Oh. Okay. It was nice to meet you.” She gave him one of her brightest smiles. “Thanks for staying for a little and I hope you’re not late to wherever you’re going.”