Picnic in the park

Bones smiled softly at Leo. He was proud of the sabre tooth as it slunk down to the ground and protected Aurora like any good friend should. He reached down slightly, his bone fingers brushing through the thick fur between it's ears, his eyes locked firmly on Croc as he did it. Maybe it was an intimidation move, or maybe it was an actual expression of affection, but his empty eyes were locked firmly on the damn mutated crocodile. But his hand was snatched up by Aurora, who squeezed and tugged him down lightly. He kept his eyes on the Croc as he descended. But he didn't sit, instead he crouched low. His pelvis almost rest on the back of his ankles as he placed his elbows on his knobbly knees. Like this, he was ready to push forward and back at the drop of hat, simply using the momentum of his body to achieve what he wanted.

Down came Croc, who seemed to decide it was a good idea to mimic his own actions and prepare his body just in case a pin dropped and they were suddenly in the middle of a fight. He shook his head as Reginald began to talk, his jaw coming up to gently grind against the upper one. ”Did I ever tell you the joke about the pair of Crocodile boots? You look familiar with it.” The joke was one of his lamer ones, and he'd probably use it more than once with Reggie, but he liked to remind him that no matter how hard he tried to pretend to be the sweet charming business man, he was still a monster. Just like Bones.

When he made the comment about the African, Bones hands clench firmly, the gloves making a little squeaking sound as he did. That meant he was going to have to search through the missing persons of the entire city now, for any African people that had gone missing. If they had, he'd have to talk to some of his friends at the Precinct whom he had told about most of their exploits. And then the grinning crocodile brought up a scene from many of Bones dreams. ”I found what you left me to find, Reggie.” He looked up slowly, eyes on the face of Reginald. ”I've got a tank all set for you.” The threat was vague sounding to Aurora, but to Croc it was a reminder of a promise Bones made as he made a retreat. One day, Frankie Brokedell would seal Gentleman Croc in a reinforced glass case. It would be Croc's permanent cell.

The crocodile man let out a low rumble of a laugh that felt as though it could have shaken the sturdy buildings of Los Angles off their foundation. He looked innocently, though the anger would be clear to the weak pile of bones, at Franklin as he said in return, “I have already had my tank made Franklin. You should come by sometime and witness it for yourself, I’ve had the bottom cleaned of all ivory.” Reginald’s words were a threat and a fairly clear one for anyone that knew him, given the typical piles of human bones that normally littered the bottom as a clear sign to anyone that saw it.

Looking to the girl that accompanied Franklin, Reginald said in another falsely upbeat tone, “One year? You have known Franklin for quite some time then.” Now Reginald was truly impressed, Franklin had never appeared to be the type of person to lay down roots, and given that the crocodile had never exactly been the best of friends with the bag of bones. “Franklin has never exactly been the type to stick around for that long,” the crocodile man spoke what he believed to be true words and since he had gone to some extremes to attempt to know as much about Franklin as possible he felt he was a good person to answer the question. “And pay no mind to what Franklin says about a tank, we simply like to give one another a hard time,” Reginald then flashed another toothy grin at the two.

Reginald then looked to the surrounding park and the people that played in it, casting them a sad look. “I will tell you what my next venture will be, Franklin and delightful friend,” Standing so that he could emphasize his point with his hands, “All of this park will be turned into a school of the learning disabled.” As he spoke he moved his hands in elaborate ways as though he actually cared about what he said but that was really to draw attention away from his real intention, which was to simply get rid of the park. The park had for a long time been an eyesore to the crocodile man. Always reminding Reginald that he would never be accepted into mainstream society, he simply wanted to get rid of it so that he could build a private school for the wealthy.

By taking multiple short cuts in building the school and hiring cheap and under qualified staff Reginald could save a lot of money and earn more than a pretty penny at the end of the day. After a few years of the disgusting nature of the school it would most likely burn to the ground, although only after it had paid for itself, and something else would be made. Most likely an office complex, people would protest a park being torn down to make way for something like a parking garage but it would be harder to protest in favor of a school for the disabled. In the long run Gentleman Crocodile always got exactly what he wanted.

Bones shoulders slumped slightly as Aurora chastised him. He turned his head towards the Innocent Dryad and smiled softly, gently grinding a corner of his jaw in a small, embarrassed sheepish fashion. She was breaking the tension that he was trying to build in a effort to push the Crocodile away from them. After all, Bones had always been the one to expose the cowardly blue blooded part of Reginald. But he couldn't apply that pressure on the Gentleman's scales with Aurora there. Instead, he simply turned his head back towards Gentleman Crocodile and squared up his shoulders again, practically glaring at the Reptile as it talked about it's own tank. It's going to be impossible to find out where he's hid those bones. He's probably dumped a ton of concrete on top of them. He mused gloomily. However he added it to the list of things he'd have to investigate later on. Possible construction around the area.

But the skeleton winced as he watched Reggie look around the park. The way he did that always put Bones on edge, because his eyes held the same disinterested but predatory look that Croc's in the wild had, on Television. Frankie some times mused that one day he was going to slide down to his his stomach and crawl along, hissing in the back of his throat. That one day, Reginald's fake grasp of humanity was going to melt away and all that would be left would be a predator.

When he brought up the disabled school though, Bones snorted immediately. It was a small sound but he blinked after he made it and moved his free hand to his hat, adjusting it slightly and looking crookedly at Reginald. ”A school for the Disabled huh?” He said softly, looking around the park. ”See, that's pretty funny. I've always figured this park was protected from being developed on because of a rather rare bat living in the abandoned sewer pipes, in that little woodland over there.” The skeleton jerked a thumb over his shoulder, before he faulted and looked at Aurora. Because he said that she'd want to go to see them now, probably.