Galloway’s Park Man it's nutty!

Looks/Attire as well as Brie!( size wise; 24 inches long from snout to tail tip)

---

Rhona found a nice park to go to! It wasn't hard but she'd managed to overlook the one that was actually closer to her; go her! She was just happy to get Brie out of the room mostly, the colorful critter sporting a specially made harness and leash for flying squirrels so that it didn't rub or hurt the skin along her sides.

She had sent a text with a picture of where at the park she was at; it was a picnic table with a bag of various treats for Brie who was already trying to break into it.

"Oi you 'ave to wait," she scolded, her tone light as she found her hand being held by the squirrel who was essentially staring her down for treats. By this point, Rhona was immune to the little looks, an unwavering pet mother who tried to not crack all the time so that she'd not be spoiled.

hoodie

---

He’d skated down. The drop from Graupel into Reignhart was one he’d taken many times, especially before he’d ever had his license. Less nowadays. It was still as clean a cruise as he remembered, wide roads and minimal traffic, and as soon as it turned to cobble, well, Joseph knew he’d made it to the middle of Reignhart. Land of the private schools and tinted windows on cars. Just different to anything he’d experienced.

Skateboard underarm, Joseph was walking by the time Rhona came into sight. She looked like fall. It was hard ignore the fact that she was pretty.

Coming up from the opposite side of the picnic table with a faint wave, his elusive opener was, ”I should probably apologise.” Smiling, relaxed, he’d clearly recovered from the failure of their last time practicing together.

Brie was chattering away, playing with Rhona's hand and trying to find any hidden treat within it's confines; surprise to the cute creature there wasn't any at the present moment. Her fingers scriffed her chin and then up to the top of her head when she saw a familiar shape that had her head looking up and a smile crossing her face.

"Och why fur? Come sit, its great to see yah again! " her accent was still very much there but the few weeks she'd been here has been a help as she's learned some of the regular American lingo.

He would sit, he would sit. Promise. Joseph offloaded the skateboard onto the grass, and then began to slide his legs into the gap between seat and table. At the same time his hand slanted in gesture, four fingers curled in lazily, the fifth pointing to the squirrel.

”I didn’t take you seriously about that,” he admitted.

Rhona laughed at that, her hand moving to nudge the treat bag to him, "Its alright mate, she's a real sweet thing- wanna give her a nut? " she asked, Brie's little eyes following the bag as her long tail lifted and twitched excitedly.

She loved treats and snacks- all the goodies! So was eagerly hoping for more from her little fingers twitching and small tongue licking her lips.

Rhona took it well, probably better than he would’ve if someone had told him the same. She seemed to take most things well. He was starting to believe exactly what he saw when it came to her.

”How do I do that?” Joseph asked. He took one or two treats from within the bag, placing them on his flattened palm, central to the table. ”Like this?”

Jokes on them both. Joseph would gently close his hand into a fist, hiding the nuts as soon as the squirrel was close enough, a bit of mischief lingering on his smile.

"Aye just taken 'em out like that, " she told him and then just watched as he teased Brie by holding her treats hostage!

The squirrel was quick to his hand, her own little paws resting on his fingers as her nose twitched a mile an hour while her whiskers tickled his hand a bit while hunting for the best way to get into the hand cavern that held the treats hostage.

Chattering a bit loudly, her long tail lifted and did the squirrel curl before trying to purely shove her face into his hand and lick his fingers to get at the nuts.

Meanwhile, Rhona was finding all of this wonderfully funny and had a hand over her mouth.

Today Joseph was supposed to be learning weather control, but right now he was indefinitely learning about squirrels. Squirrels that had giant tails, the length of a ribbon that’d unravelled and rolled far away.

The squirrel, now known to him as a she, poked its nose into the side dent of Joseph’s hand. Where his fingers curled in and his thumb wrapped around knuckles. It tickled just a little, before suddenly he was distracted with the sight of Rhona’s hidden laughter.

”What?” Joseph laughed back in a single huff. ”Never met a squirrel whisperer?”

Opening his palm, he caved, rewarding the rodent with lunch.

"Och not one that made friends with Brie so easily, " she said with a smile, her hand moving so that she'd rest her chin on her fingers as she watched the squirrel continue to nudge at his hand until her prize was received!

The moment he freed the nuts, she climbed onto his hand and gathered it up and started to chittle away at the shell, littering pieces all over his hand.

"You kin pet her. I raised her since she was a little thing an' she loves attention, " she told him, honestly just loving watching Brie interact with someone else besides herself.

To say it was natural would’ve been a lie. Joseph was a soon-to-be nurse, not a vet to friendly squirrels. He kept his hand very still, the nerves in his opened palm causing a twitch to run through. And it did, slightly, outer finger straying further with reflex, while he used the other hand entirely to drift a finger pad against its fur.

”Do you have a special name for her in er, your language?” Asked unsurely, because if she told him English was her language he’d keel over from embarrassment.

Rhona reached out and gently rubbed the side of Brie's head, "Feòrag mhòr, " she told him, her accent flowing so much easier when she spoke scots. It was something she did with her parents and just a few friends of hers since they did mainly keep to English but they wanted to keep this language alive and flowing.

"It means giant squirrel, " she told him with a little smile. "I do stick to cahllin' her just Brie though, " she told him with a cheeky grin at that.

Huh! He’d learned something new. Probably wouldn’t remember the sounds of it exactly, but for a second there, he did get to see Rhona speak her first language. And that was pretty special, for all the ways it came so naturally to her.

”What’s up, Brie,” Joseph greeted officially, giving another brush of his finger before returning the free arm to his side of the table.

He put his attention on Rhona. ”What’s the plan for today?”

The squirrel was happy for both food and double the attention, happy chitters and tail twitches leaving her as she ate away while just sitting on his hand without a single care in the whole world right now.

"Och, didn' have much planned honestly- what about ye? " she asked him curiously, her fingers lazily petting Brie while she used her other hand with the least for a moment to fold and then rest her chin on to give him her full attention.

Joseph missed the possible misunderstanding, blasting through it nonchalantly.

”Mostly thinking that only one of us should start the storm today, or we could take turns.” And then, realising he’d mentioned bad weather, he better noticed Rhona’s appearance. ”Wait, where’s your jacket?” he diverted, expression darkening with worry.

Even he’d remembered to wear a jumper, its hood cushioned against the top of his shoulders.

Thinking for a moment at his question, she had brought a raincoat; always kept one on her for Brie and an umbrella.

"Oh I got me jumper in my bag, didn' need it at tha moment, " she told him as she pulled out a tiny raincoat and then her own coat, "We can take turns...try n take over each others storms? " she asked, a little grin on her face. Be a fun challenge for them both to see if they could muster it!

Oh? Okay, ace. Joseph definitely hadn’t noticed the bag, probably because he hadn’t been looking.

”Something like that, I guess so?” he said. ”I’m not used to sharing my power with others. So when we were working at the same time last time, it felt like it threw me off.”

Oh that was not something she expected! She'd pull out of her rain jumper and tug it on over her arms and flick her hair out a bit from the collar, "Oh...would yah ratha we do separate storms this time? I'm alright either way " she told him, not wanting him to feel too strange or weird about how he felt.

Joseph pondered the idea as he watched her hair poke out from the collar of her jumper. It seemed complicated. Wasn’t the sky all one thing? Unless Rhona had a much further reach than him with her ability, which she probably did.

”Taking turns should work,” he decided, backtracking. ”Maybe you start?”

Rhona gave a small nod to that as she pulled her bag around front, "Come on luv, in ye go, " she told her as she'd let the squirrel hop right into the bag so that only her tail stuck out for a moment as she moved around until her little face peaked out.

"She isn' fond of gettin' wet, " she told him while pulling her hood up over her head now and looking up and around. Rhone took a few calming breaths, steadying herself and relaxing until she felt that atmospheric tug that always lay under the surface for her. She smiled at it now, feeling it tug at her senses and the clouds started to roll in over the park. Large storm rolling clouds came in, dark with lightning flashing within their depths and causing the few people in the park to start leaving rather quickly as she got it to start sprinkling over the area.

He smiled to that. ”Who is?”

Joseph passed the time without further word. At some point he remembered his skateboard. May as well put it under the picnic table, give it some shelter. He leaned over to do just that, leaving Rhona to her preparation.

Then he was sitting up again, chin resting on his knuckles. He turned his brown eyes skyward, observing the atmospheric changes as they happened. Lightning was first. Joseph didn’t catch where it came from; it was like a studio light, one of those that were used for professional photos. Luminous and blinding, but brief. Thunder clashed afterward. An avalanche that rolled through clouds towards the park, causing voices around them to scatter as those who’d come for the promise of nice weather packed their belongings.

But Joseph only watched above. Attuned to the weather, its feelings and its mood, and how when it started sprinkling rain he had to lift the hood over his head.

Grinning, she lifted a hand, "I love it...weird, aye but I do love bein' rain'd on, " she admitted to him as her head looked up while her other hand was in her bag to pet Brie who was curled up happily munching away on her snack.

As the sky changed and it started to rain, people left rather quickly and it was hard to not chuckle at what they were doing to make them leave. Opse on them! But she was having a rumblin' good time by being able to manipulate the weather like this and as the sprinkling turned into more of a rain, the clouds would flash alive with lightning as it flashed and snaked across the clouds to light up the space and cause people to leave faster.

Rhona had a point. Joseph realised as it started pouring down on them that he didn’t hate it. He remembered, before he’d known about his ability, complaining when the weather got in the way of things or ruined his plans. But he’d changed since then, and more than that, he knew when to prepare for rain now.

Eventually he noticed the people rushing by, some carrying shirts over their head to keep them from the downpour. He gave them passing glances, then said lowly to Rhona, ”I’ll take over.” A gentle request for her to pull back and make space for him.

The rain was soothing to listen to, her hand dropping into her bag to scratch Brie under her chin as the sky crackled and boomed and caused people to continue to scatter away to their car's leaving them on the cusp of being alone here at the park.

"Aye, have fun, " she told him as she'd pull back on her own storm. The only thing she left was the dark clouds so that she didn't lose the umph she had going but Joseph would find his able to take over with ease from her now as she looked around and watched others. Why did she feel a bit like a mischievous scamp doing this?

As with so many other times before, Joseph closed his eyes. The rain seemed to pull back along with Rhona, leaving the air with a little more electricity than there’d been before they’d started. Not exactly a blank canvas. It should’ve been easy, right?

Joseph ran through his ability in the same way he always did. Tapping into it, adjusting to feel his surroundings, then pushing out the sort of changes he wanted to see in the weather. But each push felt empty, then. Like he was trying to catch something floating on the surface of the water, and each time it drifted effortlessly away from him, only making him more frustrated.

”It’s not working,” he blinked his eyes open, giving up. ”Sorry. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t think I can do this.”

What the hell was going on with him?

Rhona watched and felt him trying; or at least saw it with the look on his face and with how his body language was different from before when he was able to easily but now he was really struggling.

When he stopped, she reached out and if he let her, gave his hand a squeeze as she'd stop wholly with her own last bit of weather holding.

"Aye mate its alright...some days it just don't wanna work and there is nothin' wrong with that, " she told him, trying to give something positive as she didn't want him to feel too negative or down about it. Sometimes it just didn't happen.

A very small but persistent part of Joseph’s brain told him to leave. Go with a fumbled goodbye, and get out of the park before she could see how embarrassed he was.

He stayed, only for the sake of not being rude to her.

”Thanks,” he said quietly, eyes averted. ”Have you gone through this? I feel like I’m going backwards instead of forwards.”

Nodding, "Sometime when I wanna make it do somethin' it just doesn't. I can try an' sometimes it goes backwards and gives me a brush of rough wind an' dies...I just chalk it up to a bad day an will try again another day, " she told him easily.

"I don't think you're goin' backwards in my opinion, Joseph...it just happens; an we all have off days...does somethin' happen before maybe? "

Joseph didn’t have bad days.

Except this he didn’t know how to explain without coming across as arrogant. It was the sort of thing he kept to himself. Maybe told his parents occasionally in a moment of frustration and venting, because they knew him and they knew what he was like.

But Joseph didn’t have bad days. He either went backwards or he went forwards. He had come this far without ever really having problems with his power before. And now, for some reason, the kindle felt too small to spark.

”Nah,” he answered, pressing a finger into a dry patch on the picnic table. ”Nothing special. It should be right there.” Joseph patted his temple with the pads of his fingers.

Rhona was quiet for a moment, thinking as to what might be causing his block. The only changed factor was she was there with him. Was she making things hard for him to be able to use his powers?

"Do you believe it's cuz your' with someone right now? I know we 'ad no issues before but...perhaps? " Rhona offered out a bit as a suggestion. It wasn't one she liked but perhaps it was akin to stage fright?

It struck more of a chord than what she’d said a moment earlier. ”Yeah. I feel like… maybe.” He chuckled weakly, shoulders bouncing once. ”I definitely feel like I need to get to this level of being able to do it all by myself before dragging you into it.” Rhona could obviously do so much more by herself. And until he figured himself out; he was bogging her down.

Rhona smiled a little at him, understanding- even if it made her a little sad. "Och its alright and you an't draggin' me into nuthin'. When you feel ready fer it, you know I'll happily practice wit yah...till then we can always just hang out n what not, " she offered to him.

She wanted to be friends; even if practicing together might not happen again for a while, she still wished to be his friend.

Joseph had nothing left to lose, and Rhona was still new to town. ”Thanks. Happy to,” he agreed, meaning it.

”You should work your magic some more, hey? Don’t let me stop you.”