Unnatural History, "Caught In-Between" ch.6, rated T
Fandom: Unnatural History
Title: Caught In-Between
Chapter Title: 6: More than a Heat Wave
Author: Paynesgrey
Rating: R/M
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Characters/Pairings: Henry/Maggie, Jasper/Maggie, & hinted Jasper/Henry
Warnings: polyamory, UST in later chapters.
Disclaimer: Cartoon Network owns Unnatural History. I only borrow and play.
Notes: In progress. OT3 fic, with mature situations to be added later. (Once completed I'll post to the UnH comm here at LJ.)
URLS: FFnet | AO3
Story Summary:As a strange heat wave hits DC, the gang becomes involved in a mystery that enhances their feelings for one another, with a new fertility artifact as a possible cause. Henry x Maggie x Jasper. In-progress.
Previous Chapter
Chapter Six: More than a Heat Wave
Maggie scowled as she came to school that morning, mostly because of the terrible heat, which only seemed to increase every day. She crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed that she had to unearth another barely tasteful tank top to keep cool from the heat. She just hoped Jasper was smart enough not to make a comment about it (especially about the pink rabbit print).
Turning her head, she noticed something odd about the school that morning, not just the heat, but how students were acting. Known couples were camped out together against their lockers, taking the term "Public Display of Affection" to much more extremes. She caught a football jock practically bury his tongue down some cheerleader's throat, and Maggie almost barfed all over her feet in the hallway. She jumped with a start as a warm hand clapped on her shoulder, but relaxed quickly when she realized that it was just Jasper.
"Hey, how do you like the disaster movie make-out scenes in the morning? Clearly better than waking up with Starbucks," Jasper joked.
"Ugh, it's horrendous. I wish I would have skipped breakfast," Maggie said with a frown, turning her head away from yet another couple who chose to get a little closer to one another publicly.
"Jasper, maybe you were right about that fertility statue," Henry said, cocking his head and studying the groups of sporadic couples as if they were wildlife. He turned his eyes back to Maggie, meeting her gaze briefly before smiling at her.
"Henry, I'm telling you, this school was never in need of any make-out mojo from an ancient fertility goddess," Jasper commented. "Is there something in the water? This is just beyond insane."
"I agree. This just can't be normal, which is why I suspect something more at work than just a coincidence," Henry said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He furrowed his brow but caught Maggie looking at him with pity.
Maggie scoffed. "Please, Henry, don't go looking for a dilemma that isn't there. And fertility statues? I don't care what the myths are, they can't do... this. They are just ancient stories and nothing more."
"So what is this then? How can this be happening so conveniently when this exhibit shows up?" Henry asked, challenging her.
Maggie bit her lip in contemplation, but she didn't have an answer for him; however, Jasper spoke instead. "Oyster buffet?" Maggie groaned and threw him a sour look.
"Be serious, it's just your usual horny teenagers. They probably need something to distract them from the heat," she said, wiping away another forming sheen of sweat from her forehead.
"Yes, because when I'm all hot and sweaty, I totally want to put my hands all over another person," Jasper said sardonically. Maggie shook her head.
"How do you know until you've actually had the chance?" she said, raising an eyebrow and baiting him with a wicked smile, which prompted Jasper to quickly shut his mouth.
--
The three of them filtered into their first period class early, and as Jasper fell behind at Henry's side, he stared at Maggie's back with awe and suspicion while she walked ahead of them. Henry noticed his cousin's distress and asked him what was wrong.
"It's Maggie, she was flirting," Jasper whispered next to Henry, who looked confused as if he didn't see anything out of the ordinary in her behavior. The more that he thought about it, the more Henry surmised that maybe Jasper was right. Jasper tilted his head and watched him with exasperation. "She never flirts. It's so... anti-Maggie."
Henry appeared bemused, but his eyes lit up and he spoke seriously. "Does that mean she might have proved our theory about the fertility statue?"
Jasper smirked lightly and then walked ahead of him. "If this love fest continues, we just might find out."
Henry noticed that his cousin was actually amused with Maggie's behavior and the theory behind the fertility exhibit. Henry wasn't sure he could say the same. The moment he saw Maggie that morning he had a hard time keeping his eyes away from her (even when he tried to keep his thoughts on the strange exhibit), which had never happened to him before - not like this, not even after the first time he'd met her and became fascinated with her. These unusual thoughts he was having about her, these growing feelings, had never crossed his mind before. Now he couldn't help himself. If there was some ancient lust curse or blessing at work here, he might just be affected by it as well.
Deciding to look more into this Inanna statue, Henry approached his Linguistics professor Ms. Crowley again and volunteered to help with the exhibit on one of his nights off from the DOUM rooms. Since they didn't really have much work for him, he was left to help security and the janitors keep things in order and pick up after messy students before its grand opening. Not having much to do, he wandered around the exhibit, and more specifically, he went back to the Inanna statue and read its history again.
Before he could really observe the artifact in its entirety, he heard shouting coming from another room. Leaving the main exhibit to follow the noise, Henry found the curator Mrs. Samera Farah arguing with the lead security officer.
"I don't care if this museum is on a schedule! My assistant collapsed today from the heat, and I need at least a day to find a temp to replace him and help me with tomorrow's grand opening. My assistant had all the notes in his head, and he was pretty much the only one that could discern my scribbles."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Farah, but it's over my head if you need to reschedule the opening of the exhibit," the guard said. "You need to talk to the board about it. I can't do anything other than give you the boards' number, which I believe you already have."
"But don't you understand! The board of this museum won't listen to my concerns," she said. "I suspect someone is trying to steal one of my priceless stones, the Inanna stone. If you could just tell the board there's a security threat and that I want to conduct an investigation..."
The guard shook his head vigorously. "Ma'am, I can't do that, not without any substantial proof. You'll have to find me something I can go on before I can declare it a threat. If you're worried about security, I guarantee we have the best."
The woman bristled, and she brushed away imaginary lint from her dark purple skirt and straitened her back, huffing with annoyance. "Very well, then I will call the board again. If no one cooperates, I promise that there will be no grand opening tomorrow, and I'll leave and never allow the National Museum Complex to show my works again."
"Ma'am, please think about this before you do anything rash," the guard said throwing up his hands in defense.
She looked at him very sternly, not backing down from her heated temper. "Oh, I most certainly will."
She marched away, her loud heels clicking against the museum floor with an angry rush.
Henry pulled back out of her sight, found a wrapper on the ground that called to his mundane duties, and pondered the woman's argument with the guard.
"Why would she want to delay the exhibit just for her assistant? Especially if she thinks someone wants to steal the Inanna stone," he thought aloud in a whisper. He wondered why Mrs. Farah would want to delay the exhibit if one of her stones were at risk of theft. The security guard didn't seem worried, so was Mrs. Farah just paranoid? Would the myths about the stone really attract attention to thieves? Who would believe the legend to want the stone bad enough?
Henry walked back to the lapis lazuli carving of Inanna and read the information card again in front of it. The story about the stone and its tie to Inanna was too uneventful to raise any suspicions. The stone itself was a healing stone, and its mystical properties were known more to give confidence to people and bring out their creative sides.
However, Inanna herself wasn't just a fertility goddess, or a war goddess for that matter; she was also a lust goddess - an ancient archetype tied to the Roman goddess Venus. Both were more known for the legend of inspiring sexual love, unbridled passion and lack of human inhibitions. It may be reaching to blame the stone for the heat wave, but it could be the cause of the rise in affections among the students, and even revelations in desire, much of that he was experiencing himself.
Henry looked around the room. There were other statues here other than the Inanna stone, but most relics originated close to the Fertile Crescent and even came from Babylonian times. If mysticism was at work here, their combined energies could amplify the Inanna statue, especially if the power in the Inanna artifact was small by itself and only affected one person, whereas other energies could help it affect many more.
That is if the legend is true, Henry thought. Though, he wasn't the type to quickly believe in the supernatural possibilities of things, but he had seen enough mystical forces in his lifetime to never rule it out. Though, he knew the moment he mentioned the possibility, Maggie would deny it because there was no science behind it.
Still, he had to try, and he would tell Maggie and Jasper about his suspicions anyway, especially if Mrs. Farah was spooked to suspect foul play herself (which made Henry even more curious about her).
Maybe Maggie and Jasper didn't think something weird was going on at Smithson High, but Henry did; he could feel it.
Chapter Seven
Title: Caught In-Between
Chapter Title: 6: More than a Heat Wave
Author: Paynesgrey
Rating: R/M
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Characters/Pairings: Henry/Maggie, Jasper/Maggie, & hinted Jasper/Henry
Warnings: polyamory, UST in later chapters.
Disclaimer: Cartoon Network owns Unnatural History. I only borrow and play.
Notes: In progress. OT3 fic, with mature situations to be added later. (Once completed I'll post to the UnH comm here at LJ.)
URLS: FFnet | AO3
Story Summary:As a strange heat wave hits DC, the gang becomes involved in a mystery that enhances their feelings for one another, with a new fertility artifact as a possible cause. Henry x Maggie x Jasper. In-progress.
Previous Chapter
Chapter Six: More than a Heat Wave
Maggie scowled as she came to school that morning, mostly because of the terrible heat, which only seemed to increase every day. She crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed that she had to unearth another barely tasteful tank top to keep cool from the heat. She just hoped Jasper was smart enough not to make a comment about it (especially about the pink rabbit print).
Turning her head, she noticed something odd about the school that morning, not just the heat, but how students were acting. Known couples were camped out together against their lockers, taking the term "Public Display of Affection" to much more extremes. She caught a football jock practically bury his tongue down some cheerleader's throat, and Maggie almost barfed all over her feet in the hallway. She jumped with a start as a warm hand clapped on her shoulder, but relaxed quickly when she realized that it was just Jasper.
"Hey, how do you like the disaster movie make-out scenes in the morning? Clearly better than waking up with Starbucks," Jasper joked.
"Ugh, it's horrendous. I wish I would have skipped breakfast," Maggie said with a frown, turning her head away from yet another couple who chose to get a little closer to one another publicly.
"Jasper, maybe you were right about that fertility statue," Henry said, cocking his head and studying the groups of sporadic couples as if they were wildlife. He turned his eyes back to Maggie, meeting her gaze briefly before smiling at her.
"Henry, I'm telling you, this school was never in need of any make-out mojo from an ancient fertility goddess," Jasper commented. "Is there something in the water? This is just beyond insane."
"I agree. This just can't be normal, which is why I suspect something more at work than just a coincidence," Henry said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He furrowed his brow but caught Maggie looking at him with pity.
Maggie scoffed. "Please, Henry, don't go looking for a dilemma that isn't there. And fertility statues? I don't care what the myths are, they can't do... this. They are just ancient stories and nothing more."
"So what is this then? How can this be happening so conveniently when this exhibit shows up?" Henry asked, challenging her.
Maggie bit her lip in contemplation, but she didn't have an answer for him; however, Jasper spoke instead. "Oyster buffet?" Maggie groaned and threw him a sour look.
"Be serious, it's just your usual horny teenagers. They probably need something to distract them from the heat," she said, wiping away another forming sheen of sweat from her forehead.
"Yes, because when I'm all hot and sweaty, I totally want to put my hands all over another person," Jasper said sardonically. Maggie shook her head.
"How do you know until you've actually had the chance?" she said, raising an eyebrow and baiting him with a wicked smile, which prompted Jasper to quickly shut his mouth.
--
The three of them filtered into their first period class early, and as Jasper fell behind at Henry's side, he stared at Maggie's back with awe and suspicion while she walked ahead of them. Henry noticed his cousin's distress and asked him what was wrong.
"It's Maggie, she was flirting," Jasper whispered next to Henry, who looked confused as if he didn't see anything out of the ordinary in her behavior. The more that he thought about it, the more Henry surmised that maybe Jasper was right. Jasper tilted his head and watched him with exasperation. "She never flirts. It's so... anti-Maggie."
Henry appeared bemused, but his eyes lit up and he spoke seriously. "Does that mean she might have proved our theory about the fertility statue?"
Jasper smirked lightly and then walked ahead of him. "If this love fest continues, we just might find out."
Henry noticed that his cousin was actually amused with Maggie's behavior and the theory behind the fertility exhibit. Henry wasn't sure he could say the same. The moment he saw Maggie that morning he had a hard time keeping his eyes away from her (even when he tried to keep his thoughts on the strange exhibit), which had never happened to him before - not like this, not even after the first time he'd met her and became fascinated with her. These unusual thoughts he was having about her, these growing feelings, had never crossed his mind before. Now he couldn't help himself. If there was some ancient lust curse or blessing at work here, he might just be affected by it as well.
Deciding to look more into this Inanna statue, Henry approached his Linguistics professor Ms. Crowley again and volunteered to help with the exhibit on one of his nights off from the DOUM rooms. Since they didn't really have much work for him, he was left to help security and the janitors keep things in order and pick up after messy students before its grand opening. Not having much to do, he wandered around the exhibit, and more specifically, he went back to the Inanna statue and read its history again.
Before he could really observe the artifact in its entirety, he heard shouting coming from another room. Leaving the main exhibit to follow the noise, Henry found the curator Mrs. Samera Farah arguing with the lead security officer.
"I don't care if this museum is on a schedule! My assistant collapsed today from the heat, and I need at least a day to find a temp to replace him and help me with tomorrow's grand opening. My assistant had all the notes in his head, and he was pretty much the only one that could discern my scribbles."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Farah, but it's over my head if you need to reschedule the opening of the exhibit," the guard said. "You need to talk to the board about it. I can't do anything other than give you the boards' number, which I believe you already have."
"But don't you understand! The board of this museum won't listen to my concerns," she said. "I suspect someone is trying to steal one of my priceless stones, the Inanna stone. If you could just tell the board there's a security threat and that I want to conduct an investigation..."
The guard shook his head vigorously. "Ma'am, I can't do that, not without any substantial proof. You'll have to find me something I can go on before I can declare it a threat. If you're worried about security, I guarantee we have the best."
The woman bristled, and she brushed away imaginary lint from her dark purple skirt and straitened her back, huffing with annoyance. "Very well, then I will call the board again. If no one cooperates, I promise that there will be no grand opening tomorrow, and I'll leave and never allow the National Museum Complex to show my works again."
"Ma'am, please think about this before you do anything rash," the guard said throwing up his hands in defense.
She looked at him very sternly, not backing down from her heated temper. "Oh, I most certainly will."
She marched away, her loud heels clicking against the museum floor with an angry rush.
Henry pulled back out of her sight, found a wrapper on the ground that called to his mundane duties, and pondered the woman's argument with the guard.
"Why would she want to delay the exhibit just for her assistant? Especially if she thinks someone wants to steal the Inanna stone," he thought aloud in a whisper. He wondered why Mrs. Farah would want to delay the exhibit if one of her stones were at risk of theft. The security guard didn't seem worried, so was Mrs. Farah just paranoid? Would the myths about the stone really attract attention to thieves? Who would believe the legend to want the stone bad enough?
Henry walked back to the lapis lazuli carving of Inanna and read the information card again in front of it. The story about the stone and its tie to Inanna was too uneventful to raise any suspicions. The stone itself was a healing stone, and its mystical properties were known more to give confidence to people and bring out their creative sides.
However, Inanna herself wasn't just a fertility goddess, or a war goddess for that matter; she was also a lust goddess - an ancient archetype tied to the Roman goddess Venus. Both were more known for the legend of inspiring sexual love, unbridled passion and lack of human inhibitions. It may be reaching to blame the stone for the heat wave, but it could be the cause of the rise in affections among the students, and even revelations in desire, much of that he was experiencing himself.
Henry looked around the room. There were other statues here other than the Inanna stone, but most relics originated close to the Fertile Crescent and even came from Babylonian times. If mysticism was at work here, their combined energies could amplify the Inanna statue, especially if the power in the Inanna artifact was small by itself and only affected one person, whereas other energies could help it affect many more.
That is if the legend is true, Henry thought. Though, he wasn't the type to quickly believe in the supernatural possibilities of things, but he had seen enough mystical forces in his lifetime to never rule it out. Though, he knew the moment he mentioned the possibility, Maggie would deny it because there was no science behind it.
Still, he had to try, and he would tell Maggie and Jasper about his suspicions anyway, especially if Mrs. Farah was spooked to suspect foul play herself (which made Henry even more curious about her).
Maybe Maggie and Jasper didn't think something weird was going on at Smithson High, but Henry did; he could feel it.
Chapter Seven