Mugshot Vendetta

The mood was noticeably lower than it had been among the small family as they slowly explored the busy, crowded halls of the museum. Petrichor was irritated and frustrated at Tobias and Ghostlight for sticking their muzzles where they did not belong and giving Callahan false hope, Callahan was painfully lost in thought as she blankly searched the crowds for a familiar face, and Tar was left… wondering. His heart hurt.

“You’re very quiet,” Petrichor said, the first to break the silence between them. Tar was pretty sure she was talking to Callahan rather than him, and that was fine. He did not have a clear idea yet of what he wanted to say, of why he was quiet. And Callahan did seem very upset.

Callahan inhaled, then sighed deeply as she tried to draw herself from her thoughts. “I’m fine. It just freaked me out a little to see Tobias again.”

“And what his partner said had nothing to do with it, I’m sure,” Petrichor added.

Tar’s heart gave a pang. That was why his heart hurt. Ghostlight had said that Callahan was closer than she knew - to her brother. It made sense why she and Petrichor had come here not long ago. They were looking for him.

“Of course not,” Callahan snorted, but Petrichor knew better and Callahan was not lying very well. The truth was written in her voice. She was clearly upset by what the cryo pair had said and it had completely derailed her from having a nice night with her family, instead putting all her attention back on the hopeless venture of looking for a ghost.

Petrichor sighed and shook the faint chill off her hide. “If you’re going to lie, you should do it better, and not in front of your son.”

That seemed to get Callahan’s attention. She snapped her muzzle towards Petrichor, her deep slate blue eyes alive once again, like roiling waves of the ocean stirred by the fiercest storm. That was more like the Callahan that Petrichor recognised. Determined, fierce - not desperate and lost.

“You never take this seriously, you never believe he’s really out here!” Callahan snapped. “This - this is not the time or place -” She paused and inhaled, turning her muzzle upwards as some tropeos raced through the air overhead so she didn’t let her ire show too much. It was too late, though. Tar had seen her bare her teeth, just a flash, and flinched. He had never seen Callahan so upset.

Petrichor regarded Callahan with a cool, level gaze, unusually serious; or maybe it was just that her eyes were missing the teasing light she almost always carried in her expression. That… was not exactly the response that Petrichor had been expecting, but Callahan always surprised her. That was what had drawn her to the company of the smaller, feisty female to begin with. Ghostlight must have really gotten under Callahan’s feathers, though, if her feelings were this tumultuous. This… was going to be part of a larger conversation, Petrichor knew, but it likely was not one that Callahan was ready to have right now. Or at least, not in front of their son.

Tar watched the exchange in silence, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He still was not sure exactly what was going on, who they were arguing about, or even why they were arguing. Callahan’s eyes were sad when she turned back to them.

“Realistically,” Petrichor started, slowly, “the pair of them were just trying to say what they could to gather attention. You saw the crowd that was collecting around them, you see where we are.”

Though they had stepped to the side of the hallway in between exhibits, the museum itself was still plenty busy and the hum of conversation was everywhere. There was any number of dinosaurs from across the island that had set up amongst the rocks, fossils, stuffed and mounted animals, and painted displays that were showing off any number of… “skills.”

“She was just repeating what she had heard from Tobias, or from hearing that you’ve been looking for your brother and decided to cruelly catch your attention. If she knew where he was then she would have shared where he was rather than wrap it up in mysticism and mystery. That cryo wasn’t doing anything more than feeding off of your grief,” Petrichor snorted disdainfully.

“If he were here, we likely would have run into him already. This building is large, but we’ve traveled across almost this whole wing and not run into another raptor that looks even remotely like you.” Not to mention the fact that this was only a relatively small gathering of dinosaurs from across the islands. If they hadn’t yet seen every face gathered here, they would soon.

“There’s another part of the building,” Tar offered quietly, his beady black eyes large and innocent as he looked towards Callahan. “We haven’t been down there yet. Maybe he’s there?”

Callahan’s heart crumpled to see the look on Tar’s face, to hear him offer to help look for someone he had never met. Might never meet. “You want to help?” Callahan asked.

“... If you have a brother, that means I have an uncle,” Tar continued quietly. “I wanna meet him one day.”

Petrichor withheld a sigh. Callahan was filling the child’s head with nothing but dreams. At least he would grow large enough one day that it wouldn’t matter. And, for now at least, Callahan remembered that she was here with them, not to conduct a wild goose chase on the word of a strange cryo.

Callahan nuzzled her muzzle into Tar’s feathers. “You will, one day,” she promised him quietly. She hoped he would, anyway.

The mood did not necessarily brighten as they approached the aerospace wing, but nor did it worsen. Petrichor listened in idle silence when Tar cautiously expressed curiosity about Callahan’s brother, and Callahan replied how she could - but the memory of him was getting further and further away, and all of Dullahan that she really had left anymore was a shadow that probably didn’t even represent him anymore. She had grown since then. He would have, too.

Another question came to the tip of Tar’s tongue, which he hesitated to ask because it hurt a lot to even think about. Callahan encouraged him gently.

Tar thought hard about how to ask it, but ultimately, there wasn’t a good way to ask it, so he simply said: “When you find Dullahan… are you still going to love me? Are you gonna go away with him?”

Callahan stopped in her tracks, Petrichor bumping her lightly before she had a chance to realise they weren’t moving anymore. It was a good question - Petrichor knew just as well as Callahan did that she had latched onto Tar to fill the void in her heart left behind by her brother’s disappearance.

But the response came just as soon as Callahan stopped. “Of course I’m not going to leave you!” she chided. There was a deep ache in her chest just thinking that Tar thought so little of their relationship to believe she would just abandon him. He… had been abandoned when she found him, though, so perhaps it wasn’t so hard for him to believe that he might think the same treatment would one day come from her.

“I have room in my heart for you and Petrichor, right? What makes you think there wouldn’t be room for one more!” She pounced at Tar and nipped at his feathers, making him shout a laugh and jump back - bumping into a shuno walking by, who barely seemed to notice them until Tar apologised.

The ache in Callahan’s heart remained, even despite Tar’s laughter. Maybe… maybe she had been overly focused in her search recently. Maybe it was starting to affect her son, her relationship with Petrichor.

They were here to make fun memories with Tar… so that was what they would do. “I think there are some games set up along here,” Callahan nodded towards the small crowds gathered throughout the hallways. “Why don’t you pick us out one to try?”

Tar had noticeably brightened up with Callahan’s bit of play and the thought of actually getting to try some of the games. He started to wander further down the hall, investigating the setups for something they could all do together. Petrichor brushed herself against Callahan’s feathers, glad to be focusing more on the here and now again. They could find something to lift Callahan’s mood and distract her from her grief for a little while, to build memories with Tar. Even… if it did mean lowering herself to whatever silly little “games” the islanders and Atlanteans had put together for them to test.

The challenge then was to find somewhere that wasn’t so crowded that Callahan or Petrichor risked being crushed, and somewhere that the game was a large enough scale that Tar could actually participate. Callahan tried to distract herself and make it up to Tar by diligently peering over the backs of smaller dinosaurs, standing as tall as she could and occasionally hopping up on benches and small planes or just jumping to see over the taller members of the crowd.

Tar seemed enthusiastic about trying something about “testing your aim,” a game which seemed to have room enough for all of them. A tapejara manned the stand, carefully setting up some upwalker junk -  bottles, toy airplanes and spaceships, mugs, and more - in an upright position from the last participant knocking a few over.

The tapejara invited them over with a clack of her beak and a welcome chirp, and with some encouragement from his mothers, Tar was the first to step up. “You can toss any of these things by picking them up in your mouth - “ the tapejara gestured towards an assortment of varying sizes and colours of rocks and unhusked, unshelled nuts which had obviously been picked up and thrown by others, judging by the tooth and beakmarks - “or hitting them with your tail! Try to knock down as many objects as you can to get a prize, you get five tosses each!”

The tapejara fluttered a safe distance back and out of the way behind a plane wheel, having only needed to learn once that she should be out of the firing line.

Tar looked determined as he selected a large stone and picked it up in his jaws. He tossed it with a shake of his head, but it was immediately apparent that he had not picked the right thing to throw. The stone was heavy and felt uncomfortable on his teeth, and it fell drastically short of where he was aiming. Callahan encouraged Tar to try again, maybe with a smaller stone or one of the nuts.

It was only his first throw, and the second and third were better, but still off. The fourth toss of his head saw a walnut bounce off of a bottle and all three held their breath when it rocked and spun - but ultimately settled back down. This was considerably harder than Tar thought it was going to be. With his last attempt he smacked a stone with the tip of his tail, which again was closer but… the mug only scooted back, and not enough to fall off the plane wing which it was set upon.

Callahan snorted. This game was ridiculous. Tar was a little sad that he hadn’t won, but stepped back for one of his moms to try while the tapejara flew up and rearranged the objects that he had managed to bump. Callahan offered her attempts to Tar, who huffed good-naturedly. It was her turn - and he wanted Callahan to have some fun as well. Although she looked and sounded more herself, the tone of her voice when she snapped at Petrichor was still fresh in his mind.

Fine, if he insisted. Callahan brushed against his leg in a comforting gesture, and promised quietly that she would win him something. When she looked up at him, her eyes were just as warm and loving as they always were - but rapidly her expression shifted to one of amusement as she barked a quiet laugh. Tar tilted his head back, confused.

“The walnuts,” Callahan teased, “we’ll have to find something shiny so you can see.” They had stained his teeth and the scales on his muzzle a black colour, and she could see a few spots on his tail that looked suspiciously walnut-shaped as well.

Tar looked down at himself but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary as Callahan stepped up to pick from the available tossable objects. Tar would not be alone with his blackened teeth - she picked up a walnut specifically, knowing that piercing the green flesh would stain her teeth and muzzle, just so he would get to see it and not be alone in looking a little silly.

She fared a little better than Tar did in her attempts, managing to knock down a spaceship and unbalance the same mug that Tar had, but it was still stubbornly standing on the plane wing. Since Callahan had managed to knock something down, she offered her last attempt to Tar, her walnut-stained teeth visible as she spoke to him and it hit Tar - that was what she had been laughing at!

He bumped her with his head, laughing now as well while Callahan amusedly shooed him to try one more time to knock something down and win. Petrichor watched in quiet approval, glad to see Callahan livening up again. Tar opted to try to hit one of the stones with his tail again, aiming purposefully this time for the mug. Again it shifted towards the back of the wing, a piece chipping off and flying towards another exhibit, but it stubbornly remained standing.

Callahan and Tar protested in unison. Petrichor shook her head faintly and gave a quiet snort. “You can have my tries, too.”

“No way,” Callahan teased. “You have to play and help us knock that thing down!”

“Please?” Tar asked, crouched with his head lowered beside Callahan’s so he could look up to Petrichor with big, pleading eyes.

Petrichor gave an exasperated, exaggerated sigh as she looked between the two of them. “Fine,” she conceded as they cheered.

She stepped up to the line of throwable items, almost seeming to make a bit of a show of studying them and looking between them and the objects to knock down, calculating the distance and force she would need to exert to properly topple them. It was seemingly all for nothing, because the first smack of her tail against a stone sent it clattering uselessly along the plane wing. The second and third attempts saw similar results - but she was getting closer to the mug each time. With the fourth hit, the mug scooted backwards along the plane wing and Tar and Callahan held their breath.

It settled down again without moving another inch. Tar and Callahan exhaled in disappointment.

But Petrichor had one more attempt. She started to line up to swat another stone, but Callahan huffed quietly under her breath, catching her mate’s attention. Petirchor glanced up to see Callahan tilting her head, just enough to show her walnut-stained teeth.

Petrichor sighed and conceded again, privately. She picked up a walnut, making sure to sink her teeth into green-but-oxidising flesh, and tossed it with a neat flick of her head. It arced through the air, landing with a heavy thunk inside the mug. The momentum carried it the rest of the way off the plane wing, when it then hit the ground and shattered into many small and satisfying pieces.

Petrichor sniffed quietly and dipped her head, pleased. She huffed lightly when Callahan bumped into her and rubbed her head along Petrichor’s neck. “Thank you for playing along,” she whispered, hoping Petrichor would hear but Tar would not.

Petrichor’s eyes warmed, black stain slowly appearing on her muzzle where she had touched the walnut husk. Her teeth would, undoubtedly, be similarly coloured. She hummed quietly and bumped the tip of her snout to the top of Callahan’s.

“Now, about our prizes,” she mused as she turned her attention to the tapejara. Tar could pick something out in her stead.

The young acro, as sweet as he was, decided he would bring a piece of upwalker clothing back with them, a dark blue shirt with a rocket flying across the front, stars speckled behind it. It was something that they could all share - as nesting material.