tampered | Log: Complete

Log: Complete

When; Penguin Day!
Rating; G
Characters; Frederick Abberline, Faye Valentine, and anyone else who feels like dropping in.
Summary; Frederick goes to visit Faye and brings a new friend with him.
Log;

He hadn't meant to actually bother the penguins - he'd learned at a young age, like anyone else, that you didn't mess with wild animals, even if they were docile ones. You left them alone and sometimes got to watch from afar. But they were just so ... cute. He winced internally every time he reacted that way to small animals, but he just liked them. Penguins and other exotic creatures that they didn't have at the zoo had always fascinated him, even if only in passing. And he missed his dog. And they seemed very friendly.

And one followed him for half a block.

So it was entirely by accident, really, that when he knocked on Faye's door, he was carrying a small penguin with him.

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Faye had just finished ruining some of the tea that she had found when she heard Abberline knock on her door. There was a bit of steam coming out of the kitchen, but she figured if she ignored it then he might not notice. She'd never been too terribly good at these sorts of things. She floated by the window, glancing down at the streets and watching the penguins scatter around like black beads. How weird.

Opening the door, however, was what surprised her the most.

It was really the last thing she had expected. Ever. Even though Abberline had mentioned something about an animal before coming over. Faye had always figured that she had a knack for attracting strange things and people and situations, but this one really took the cake. It took the cake and the frosting and all the candles. The worst part of it was that it was really... kind of adorable, and that made Faye want to hit something even more.

"A penguin?" Faye asked, stepping back and holding the door open so Abberline could enter. "Well, I guess you are dressed sort of alike," she said, tugging on Abberline's collar playfully.

Frederick made a face at Faye's remark, but came in anyway. "My jacket is blue," he pointed out as he put the penguin down on the floor. It looked up at them both, and waddled closer to Faye while Abberline walked into the kitchen to save the tea without comment. "He followed me," the Inspector insisted.

She closed the door behind him, smirking at the look he gave her. Faye looked down at the penguin, staring at it as it, in turn, stared back up at her. It made some sort of noise and moved its... arms (?) around, and Faye jumped and hurried into the kitchen after Abberline, not really wanting to be alone with it. It followed her anyway, and she cooed at Frederick, "Aww, it likes you!" Faye looked down at her feet again, seeing it next to her once more. "Make it like you again."

"I think he just likes people," he said, looking down at the little thing. Seeing that it was getting attention, it wobbled over and leaned on his leg. Abberline tried very hard not to make some girly facial expression, and immediately looked back to the tea. "Miss Valentine, I'm impressed. Not many people can bollocks up tea."

Faye watched it waddle. She couldn't help but smile at it a little. As long as it didn't stick to her like glue, she didn't mind. It was even kind of cute again, all snugged against Abberline's leg like it owned it. "Maybe all the big penguins picked on it," Faye suggested, giving him a sarcastic smile, which left her face when he started picking on her about the tea.

"It's a talent," she said, leaning past him to look at her mess. "If you want I could probably burn water." Faye gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder, though, not bothering to mention that she'd simply forgotten how to do it. 54 years was a long time to forget. "But now you're here to save the day, so that won't be necessary, I hope," she finished.

He gave her a small smile; he wasn't trying to pick on her, but it was a bit funny. He poured out the water, wiped up the area, filled the teakettle again and set it on the stove. "It is a bit fiddly," he said. "I'm just used to it, though..." he trailed off. "I really only drank it as an old man."

Faye arched an eyebrow. Old man? But then she remembered that he had died, which made her sort of sad. It seemed like death surrounded her. She scooted the penguin around a bit with her toe and said, "You don't look like an old man..." There was really nothing else she could say.

She felt a bit awkward, so she bent down and actually picked up the little thing, trying not to touch Abberline as if she might curse him. The penguin made a series of irritated noises and flapped around. "So what do you want with this thing anyway? Just to play house with it?"

"I died when I was nearly ninety," he said, as if it was nothing. He took the kettle off the burner and prepared two cups. "It seems I'm physically here during a particularly vexing part of my life. Funny old city, eh?" Abberline finished with the tea, and took the aggravated penguin from Faye. It calmed with him, and stared back at Faye, unblinking.

"I should name him."

Faye thought a moment, biting the inside of her lip. "I died when I was twenty," she said, and her stomach clenched because she'd never said so herself. "They put me in a cryogenic freeze for fifty-four years and then brought me back." She didn't know why she was telling him this. "Hilarious city," she said, not thinking it was all that funny. Faye took the cups from the counter when Frederick took the penguin from her. It gave her something to do with her hands.

She smirked at him. Patting the penguin a bit on the head. It snapped playfully at her and she glared at Abberline as if it were his fault. "Name it Lucifer."

"You're just jealous he doesn't like you."

Frederick fell silent for a moment. "I must admit I've no idea what... crow-genic? Freezing is, but it doesn't sound like something I'd like to try."

Faye made a face at him. "He likes me fine," she said, extending her wrist where the thing's beak had grazed her skin. "See? A love bite." She gave Abberline another look, though she felt this one was more sincere. "Well what do you want to name it? You're obviously its mother. You should have the honor."

With the air of someone who is trying very hard not to look bothered, Faye drifted into the living room, putting their cups on the coffee table. "It's not something you want to try, unless you want to forget everything you were," she said, taking a drink of his tea. It was good. "Cryogenic. They did it to save me. It was stupid."

"Mmm."

Abberline didn't press the issue, though he had to fight the impulse to inquire further. It was in his nature to want to know everything about everyone, to 'get to the bottom' of things. But he had no reason to hassle Faye about something she obviously did not want to talk about. How did they get on this awful topic, anyway?

"His mother, eh? How about Peter?"

Faye was glad he let the matter die. It was getting uncomfortable and her hands were doing that weird thing where they tended to shake.

Faye hadn't heard such a simple name in so long she nearly said it was a stupid idea. But then she looked at the little guy--was it a guy? Better get to the bottom of that before anything. She motioned for Abberline to set him or her on the table and said, "Of course you're its mother. Look how you fawn over it. I like that name, by the way, but are you sure Peter isn't a, well... Peterette?"

"My grotesque anti-feminist upbringings have brainwashed me to default any unknown to a male," he said, not without an air of humor. "If you know how to sex a penguin, by all means."

Faye snickered. "It's not my style," she said, glancing at Abberline and then the penguin. She laughed again, trying to get mental pictures out of her mind. "It's a boy. His name is Peter. That's all I need to know." She threw him a look and added with her own sarcasm, "Chauvinistic pig."

"So what do you want to do with him?" she asked. "Study him? Learn his language? Take him for long walks?"

Peter the penguin waddled about on the table, inspecting the objects there curiously. Abberline sipped his tea, obsversing the animal. "Well, I assume he'll go back where he came from when the snow stops. I've just never seen a penguin before."

The creature started to poke his nose into Faye's tea before she had a chance to stop him. Faye made a face and Peter looked up at her, almost innocently. She couldn't feel irritated. "I don't think I've seen one either," she remarked. "Not many penguins in space." She reached out a finger to scratch its head. "He is, you know... kind of cute," she said, giving Frederick a wicked look. "He has your eyes. Told you he recognized you."

"My eyes?" Frederick quirked an eyebrow at her. "But yes, I suppose he is rather ... cute."

He poked the penguin in its tummy, and it made a little noise and flailed, as if it was trying to shake him off. He smiled a bit at it.

"I should put him back outside soon. I don't think he's supposed to be all dry."

"Probably," said Faye, jumping a bit more when Peter screeched loudly. She clapped her hands over her ears for a moment and winced. "I don't think he's an inside animal. Plus, all the other penguins might leave him behind, and then what?" Peter cocked his head a bit at Frederick. "That's right. A penguin would occupy your apartment."

Faye dug her fingernails into Peter's head as he stuck his face back in her tea.

"I'm not sure he should have tea," said Frederick, frowning. "And trying to squeeze it's head off probably doesn't help." He scooped up Peter, who squawked a bit but settled down easily enough. "Want to walk downstairs with me?"

"I was only trying to give him a scratch," Faye said, not frowning but only broadening her grin. "Don't be such an overprotective mother hen, Frederick." The little thing looked peaceful enough in Abberline's lap, and she shot it a glare, as if had personally offended her. "Yeah, of course I'll walk with you," she said easily, getting to her feet and looking around for a coat to pull on.

"If the bigger penguins picked on him," he said haughtily, "Then Peter could do with some overprotection." A pause. "Don't tell me you don't have a coat."

"Oh, you're going to be one of those mothers," Faye said with a sigh. "You're gonna have to be the best of the best, you know," she told Peter, over her shoulder. "Of course I have a coat. Somewhere." She was looking for her bomber jacket, but she came up with her sweatshirt. Decidedly not a coat. "It's not like I went out with a coat before it started snowing. I didn't exactly need to."

A moment later, she found the jacket underneath the couch and came up feeling embarrassed.

Abberline rolled his eyes a bit at her jacket. It was tiny, and she wasn't wearing any trousers - but he let it go, and lead them down to the entrance. There were penguins of all sorts playing outside, every breed and size and shape imaginable. He stepped out into the snow and set little Peter down. The penguin seemed very pleased to be back in its element, but not so much about Abberline's apparent intent to go back inside.

"Don't look at me like that," he muttered.

Scarab had first noticed the penguins from her window, and for a solid minute she had just stared.

It took only long enough for her to bundle herself in a blanket from her bed, and gather some bread along with her tea before she was downstairs and feeding the penguins.

Now the had a little wobbly, weebly herd of milling birds all noisily demanding attention while she laughed at them and tossed clumps of bread down the steps.

Probably a silly sight: a young woman with only her head poking out of a puffed blanket, and a milling group of penguins all raising a racket to out-shout the other.

The noise covered Abberline & Faye's approach until they were almost 6 feet from her.

'Sloppy', she chastised herself mentally, and then smiled at them.

" Out bird-watching, too? I figure it's the same temperature here as in my apartement, so I might as well come out."

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