Warning: This story contains an emotional meltdown and ableism.
Ruffled Feathers
Written by Rachel Ravens, Zack Wanzer and James Riddle
Set during Dowager Hatt's Busy Day/Candle in the Wind
Duck's Point of View
Something inside told me that today was not going to be an ordinary day on Sodor. It started off ordinarily enough with Oliver, the twins and I discussing Tillie's new ducklings, but, instead of Sir Topham Hatt coming out to give us our jobs for the day… It was his grandmother, Dowager Hatt.
"Dowager Hatt, ma'am!" I exclaimed. "This is a surprise. Do you know what's happened to your grandson?"
"He's sick," Dowager Hatt quickly explained. "So I'm in charge for the day."
"Er, okay," said Oliver. "So, business as usual. Let's go, everyone."
Eager to get out before anything strange happened, my crew were about to open my regulator.
"Not so fast," said Dowager Hatt. "There's been some adjustments to the timetable."
"Adjustments?" asked Donald. The rest of us raised eyebrows curiously; what did she mean by adjustments to the timetable, we all wondered?
"Yes," said Dowager Hatt. "You see… my great-great-grandson, Richard, is having his birthday party today."
"Ah, congrats to the wee lad," smiled Douglas.
Where had the time gone? I thought, smiling with agreement. Richard and Charles were already in school, and Little Emily wasn't far behind. Richard's tenth birthday must be an important occasion.
"And… I was wondering if you and Douglas would take the party decorations out to Richard," Dowager Hatt added.
The four of us nearly had our eyes pop out. Had we been hearing her correctly? She was actually talking to Douglas, not Donald! Furthermore, the twins already had a goods train to Vicarstown. Naturally, they tried to explain it.
"I'll arrange for another engine to do that," said Dowager Hatt. "Besides, you don't want to disappoint sweet little Richard, do you?"
"Er, n-no, ma'am," admitted Donald.
"Jalouse we're aff tae git some crates o' pairtie supplies," muttered Douglas. He and Donald huffed off, and Oliver and I stared in bewilderment.
"Cous," whispered Oliver, "do you really think two engines are needed to take crates of streamers and balloons?"
"One of them, I'd understand," I agreed. "But both of them?" This is rather peculiar, I thought.
"Now, you two," said Dowager Hatt, addressing the both of us, "you need to do whatever it is you need to do on the branch."
"It's going to be harder without the twins…" muttered Oliver. "Let's hope their little 'errand' doesn't take them all day."
"You and me both," I agreed.
Richard Hatt's party was taking place at Harwick. Now, Oliver, the twins and I rarely go that way, but we occasionally pitch in to help Ryan and Daisy.
And by Brunel's name, do we need all the help we can get, I thought.
"Ah, Duck!" cried Ryan. "Am I glad to see you and the slippies."
"Hello, Ryan… what the?!" I braked to a halt in surprise. "Are those… bags of lollies and chips?"
"Well, yes," said Ryan, almost immediately. "I was asked to bring them here."
This is ridiculous, I thought. "They're meant to be in box vans, not open trucks!"
"Tell us about it!" fumed Oliver. He and Toad rattled in.
"What's gotten your pistons in a twist, Oliver?" asked Ryan.
"We've been asked to bring ice cream for the party," said Oliver. "In regular box vans!"
"The ice cream must have melted by now!" I remarked. And unfortunately, I was right. Poor Richard and his friends and family members opened up the containers to find a massive pool of melted ice cream.
"Aww, rats!" snapped a little boy. "This engine bought us dud ice cream."
"Don't you dare blame Oliver or Toad!" retorted Charles II. "Someone else blundered this."
"And I think we all know who…" Toad said quietly.
First Donald and Douglas are sent on an 'errand', then this party being ruined… this day can't get any worse…
Oh, how wrong I was. Oliver and I could barely break even on the branch line. Dear Annabelle tried to help by looking for Amanda - our austerity engine, not her aunt. But when I went to get my next passenger run, I was in for quite the shock.
"Alistair, Mirabel, Benjamin?!" I cried. "Where are you? Oh, I hope Oliver's got them…"
Realizing that Douglas' train would be out soon, I arranged the trucks and headed out. Eventually, I caught up to Oliver at Haultraugh. Much to my dismay, he had ordinary coaches.
"Cous, do you know where Alistiar, Mirabel and Benjamin went?" I asked frantically.
"I'm afraid not, Duck," sighed Oliver. "I thought you had the slippies."
"Well, if you haven't got them, and I haven't either… who does?!" I cried. "Oh, they could be anywhere by now!"
"Calm down, cous," said Oliver. "We'll find them. Maybe Ryan or Amanda have got them."
"I hope you're right…" I sighed.
I didn't find either Ryan or Amanda with the slippies when I reached Knapford station. But I did find Emily with… the root of everything going wrong today.
"SHARON HILARY HATT!"
"D-Duck…" she jumped at her full name. Good, I had her attention.
"You've got some explaining to do," I snarled. "Donald and Douglas have been forced away from the Little Western taking a pointless train of party decorations. Oliver and I are overworked due to all this chaos going on. And to cap this all off, I can't find my slip coaches anywhere! Who did you give them to?!"
"That will do, Montague," Emily said sternly; very rarely had I ever been referred to by my real name. "Dowager Hatt's about to do what she can to get things back on track again with my help."
"I'm not leaving without an answer, Emily," I said, "Dowager Hatt, who did you give my coaches to?"
"Er… hmm… it was one of the 08s…." she trailed. "He passed by here just a moment ago…"
One of the 08s? I wondered if this meant Diesel or Paxton was taking the slippies instead of me or Oliver. I wasn't so sure about Sidney, given his forgetful nature and the fact he was on the Norramby branch. Any of them would've been better than…
"One of the yellow and greenish-brown ones…"
That's it! "You gave my coaches… to ARRY OR BERT?!"
"Oh, so that was their names…"
"HOW DARE YOU!" I screamed. "THOSE TWO MONSTERS TRIED TO KILL ME!"
Dowager Hatt nearly tripped over the platform. "Wait, what…"
"Oh, yes," said Emily, remembering. "It was during the search for Tasha when Green Water got poured into your system."
And thank goodness Addison blundered that, I thought. She's lucky to have not shown her face around here for years.
"Oh, Duck, I…"
"Forget it!" I growled, as if she didn't forget enough already. "I'm never trusting you ever again!" I fumed away, with only one objective in mind; rescue my slip coaches. I did, however, manage to catch a glimpse of several engines trying to get around each other outside of Knapford, including Donald and Douglas.
"Duck?" asked Paxton. "What's going on?"
"He looks fierce about something," Den said quietly. However, the others all understood.
"Donald, Douglas!" called Diesel. "You two get to the Little Western as quickly as you can. Everyone else, get to Knapford."
Thankfully, no one asked any questions. Diesel trailed after me, and Oliver wasn't too far behind either.
I eventually managed to track – er, pardon the pun – Arry and Bert down at Killdane station. Alistair, Mirabel and Benjamin were all screeching their brakes behind the former.
"Ugh!" groaned Arry. "Do you three 'ave ta be so difficult?!"
"You nearly killed our engine!" snapped Alistair.
"Do you feel any remorse over such a heinous act?!" Mirabel growled.
"And there was Oliver, Toad, Donald, Gladys, Emily…" Benjamin rambled on a list of names. If I wasn't at the end of my coupling before, I was now.
"YOU!" I snarled, rushing up to Arry. "Give my slip coaches back, now!"
"Ah, go ahead an' take 'em!" snapped Arry, his driver uncoupling him and moving off. "The further away Oi am from these coaches, the better! 'Ow can you steamies 'andle listenin' ta 'em 'arp on all day an' keep sane?"
"Alistair, Mirabel and Benjamin are my family!" I snarled. "Something you would never understand, given all the families you have destroyed!" Hearing this made Bert flinch.
"All you steamies an' rollin' stock were just waitin' ta be scrapped," Arry smirked. "Woi delay the inevitable? That Addison just 'ad ta bugger things up twenty years ago."
"I wish you never came to Sodor or Barrow!" I screamed. "You don't belong here! I WISH COLLET WAS HERE INSTEAD OF YOU!" I launched at Arry, bumping him straight off the rails.
"Oh my," gulped Oliver.
"Duck!" gasped Diesel quietly. The two of them drew alongside me.
"Don't ever come back to this island!" I went on; my voice was becoming sore. "I won't let you harm my family again!"
"Cous." Oliver's voice cut through my mental state; he sounded very calm. "Close your eyes. Deep breaths."
Wearily, I focused on Oliver's voice. I breathed in and out. I was still hyperventilating a bit, but it was a start.
"Let's go to Bluff's Cove," Oliver went on. He coupled up to the slippies, and we were off. Diesel gave a smile of acknowledgement, before turning his attention to Arry…
Before long, we arrived at Bluff's Cove. The sight of the sea in the distance helped me to feel more relaxed. I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking about far off places beyond the horizons. Maybe some like those engines from the Great Railway Show live.
"Thanks, cous…" I smiled weakly after a few moments. "And Diesel too."
You might think it's strange that Diesel and I are so civil with each other. And for a long time, I did too. But it's amazing what twenty-four years of him being on Sodor did to our dynamic. He was the one who saved me from…
"Arry and Bert…" I gulped, thinking back to them. "Oh… I… I bumped Arry right off the line, didn't I…?"
"I'm afraid so," sighed Oliver in confirmation. "Thank goodness you didn't go any farther than that."
"And… I was screaming at him too," I sighed. "He just… I… I felt so… so… trapped."
"You were concerned about the slippies," Oliver understood. "If anything were to happen to Douglas or Toad, I would probably lose it too."
"We're okay, Duck," said Alistair. "We didn't get a single dent or scratch."
"If anything," said Mirabel, "Arry probably got more damage than we did."
"Sis!" Benjamin cried.
"Oh… sorry," she said quietly. "Poor word choice."
"I probably could use a counselling session from Mrs. Kyndley," I admitted. "Too many haunting memories…"
"You stay here," Oliver advised. "I'll fetch her. And don't worry about the rest of your jobs; the twins and I will cover for you."
"Thank you," I sighed.
Diesel's Point of View
I was glad Duck was in safe buffers, and that Oliver and the slippies didn't have to witness this. Bert didn't need to either, so I tasked him with taking the dinosaur statues back to the Earl's dinosaur park at Ulfstead Castle. Arry and I needed to be alone…
"Harrison, what did you think you were doing?!" I roared.
"Wot did ya fink Oi was doin'?" he retorted. "Oi was doin' as Dowager 'Att 'ad said – 'take Duck's coaches down th' main line'."
"And you had the nerve to go off at Duck like that!" I growled. "He already doesn't trust you, no thanks to your stunt at Barrow two decades ago."
"You talkin' 'bout wot we did with his bruvver?" asked Arry.
"That was two decades and four years ago!" I snapped. "Though I guarantee that Collet's death sure doesn't help."
"Well, if ya were lookin' closely, th' quacker came at me first!" Arry snapped.
"Look, Duck doesn't like it when engines take his coaches without consent," I tried to reason. Don't even get me started on him telling off Thomas and Connor a few Christmases ago, I thought.
"If ya wanna blame anyone, blame that senile ol' crow, Dowager 'Att," snorted Arry. "The whole thing's 'er fault, after all. If she 'adn't made me take 'em coaches, none o' this would be 'appenin'."
"But, if it were virtually anyone else," I went on, "Duck wouldn't be nearly as upset."
"Upset?!" cried Arry. "'E wos screamin' loike no tomorrow. Oi don't fink Oi'll get that tantrum out o' me radiator."
Oh, that's it! "Tantrum? Tantrum?! Arry, you idiot!" I screamed; Arry bit his tongue. "That was not a tantrum! Duck was having an emotional meltdown! The difference is simple; tantrums have goals involved, meltdowns happen when someone is overloaded with emotions."
Arry gulped. "Oi… Oi didn't know that…"
"And, meltdowns are also more dangerous," I added. "The individual isn't thinking of their surroundings or those around them. So if I were you, I think it's wise not to let something like this happen again."
Arry's eyes just widened in terror. It wasn't the way I was hoping for him to back off from Duck, but it was the only thing that would work. Bert is the intelligent one, I thought.
Duck's Point of View
Later, I was back in the sheds at Arlesburgh with Oliver and the twins. I was relieved to hear that Annabelle and Emily helped get things back under control, but I still didn't trust a thing of what Dowager Hatt would say. And that evening, a welcome face arrived.
"Sir Topham Hatt!" We all grinned.
"Hello, my engines," he smiled. "Now… Annabelle told me everything. I am so sorry this happened… Grandmother just swooped in and took control without my consent."
"Just like she allowed Arry of all engines to take the slippies," I practically spat. "How could she?! She saw the news report of me nearly dying at his and Bert's buffers, and…"
"I can assure you, Duck, this will never happen again," Sir Topham Hatt said gently. "Alistair, Mirabel and Benjamin didn't get any damage."
"Y-yes, sir," I said. "That's one blessing at least."
"If it helps, I might send Tasha over to help out here for a few days."
"Thank you, sir." I gave a weak smile, but knowing that Tasha would come to help out would help lift my mood.
"And the rest of us will be right here for you," added Oliver.
"Charles! Could I have a word with you?" said an older male voice, one we hadn't heard in quite some time. Out walked a gentleman who wore some comfortable clothes that seemed as if he went to the beach recently.
"Father!" exclaimed Sir Topham Hatt. "It's been rare for you to show up on the railway since your retirement."
Indeed, Sir Bertram Topham Hatt had retired around the time that the last of the original Peel Godred engines… departed our railway, let's say.
"Welcome, sur," smiled Douglas.
"Duck, Donald, Douglas and Oliver, I see you four haven't changed a bit," smiled Bertram Hatt. We smiled too, of course. Though our last few months with Bertram Hatt pre-retirement had been… turbulent, it was water under the bridge. I was about to ask how his retirement was going, but father and son had gone to talk one-on-one. I believe it was about Dowager Hatt.
I hope they aren't saying I should forgive her for giving the slippies to my would be killer, I thought. Even Bert wouldn't have reacted quite like that.
The following day, when I was at Arlesburgh with Rex and the slippies, Tasha arrived. Twenty years ago, Oliver and I found her being sheltered by Lily's grandfather, Burnett Stone. Sadly, he passed away a few years prior, but his granddaughter, grandson and great-granddaughter still live on.
"Hello, Monty," she said, her voice ever sweet and gentle.
"Hello, Lady," I replied. "I'm sorry you've had to come at a bad time."
"Honey, I know yesterday was chaotic," Tasha replied. "But today is a new day. And we can focus on making it a good one."
I couldn't help but smile. Somehow, Tasha always knew exactly what I needed to hear. "Today's also my turn to take Gladys along with the slippies," I added. "Do you want to couple in front?"
"I sure do," Tasha replied.
"Have a good time, lovebirds," Rex chuckled. Tasha and I had to laugh too. We couldn't help it if many engines said we were one of the most "lovey-dovey" couples on Sodor; I take that as a compliment.
The six of us – Gladys, the slippies, Tasha and myself – soon arrived at Knapford station. Anxiously, I looked around, not wanting to meet with Dowager Hatt after the events of yesterday. I did see an old lady waiting to catch James' local train, but it wasn't her.
"That's lucky," I sighed.
"I can't believe anyone would make such a mess of the North Western Railway," Tasha remarked. "It's like she didn't even take a course as to what to do."
"Tell us about it," grunted Edward; the old engine and Philip had come in with trains of their own.
"What went wrong with the two of you?" asked Tasha.
"I was tasked with taking empty trucks into the Ulfstead mine shaft to collect stone to bring to… er…" The diesel boxcab metaphorically shrugged. "She didn't tell me. Anyway, I got stuck down there when my light went out. If Edward hadn't found me… Ooh, that's something I don't want to think about."
"Oh, you poor dear!" gasped Tasha. "I just hope those two were our only disasters."
"Well…" said a small voice from the platform. "My… birthday party didn't go too well." We looked over to see Richard Hatt, having overheard us.
"Ah, yes, I remember a lot of you were disappointed with how the ice cream had melted," I said sympathetically.
"Why would great-great-grandmother Sharon do that?" he asked. "She knew we were looking forward to the party!"
"That happened too, huh?" said a female voice. Rosie came puffing into the station with a goods train. "Wow, Dowager Hatt made this whole railway a complete trainwreck."
There was a giggle behind her; glancing back, we all saw Bruno the brake van at the back of the train. He had been on the island some time during Diesel's stint up at the ironworks at Killdane, and often worked between him and Rosie. Though he was of an American design, much like Philip, he'd actually been newly built at the Steamworks.
"Good thing that Emily and Annabelle got the railway back… on track," he joked. Despite what had happened yesterday, Bruno did manage to make us chuckle.
"Hello, Rosie and Bruno," said Tasha. "How are you two handling things today?"
"Tasha, it's great to have you visiting us again," Bruno smiled. "Well… things are better today, but yesterday… ugh… I hated it…"
"I'm… almost afraid to ask," I said; although, somehow, I already knew the answer to the question. "What exactly went down?"
"Well, Diesel and I were going to take some engine parts to the Dieselworks," Bruno began, "just as we do every week. But then… Dowager Hatt said he was to take some dinosaurs to Richard's birthday party. I decided not to go as she didn't say where it was. I was left with Rosie for the day, but… then she had to take… er…"
"I had to take a lion statue to the animal park," Rosie went on. "Not the worst arrangement Dowager Hatt could have made, but… poor Bruno completely shut down…"
"Oh dear…" I gasped. "I didn't think it would be this bad…"
"An emotional meltdown, an emotional shutdown, and physical endangerment?" Edward gasped. "Note to self; never let Dowager Hatt take charge ever again."
"Y-yeah," Richard Hatt agreed. "My birthday party seemed like child's play compared to this… er… pardon the pun there. I'm so sorry you all had to go through that."
"Never mind, little one," soothed Tasha. "I have an idea… maybe it's possible to throw you another birthday party, this one being managed by those who know what they are doing."
"Do you think that can happen?" asked Richard.
"I don't see why not," said Philip. "It sounds like fun. And the engines who are available can bring in what you need for the party, right?"
"Of course we can," I smiled.
"I know I'll have a lot of spare time, dear," said Tasha. "I can help you."
"Thanks, Tasha!" he smiled.
I'm pleased to say that thanks to Tasha's quick thinking, Richard's second party was a resounding success.
"Get the ball, Charlie!" Richard called to his brother, tossing the beach ball.
"Too slow!" giggled Little Emily, catching it.
"Aw, rats," Charles muttered.
"That's so sweet," I smiled; Tasha and I were watching from the sidings.
"Kids are very sweet," Tasha replied. "I tell you, I could watch them forever and ever."
"So could I, Lady," I replied. "Especially if I'm with you to do it."
As the sun set, Tasha and I headed back to the sheds, and she spent a few more blissful days on Sodor. At times like this, I wondered what would have happened if she remained as part of the North Western fleet twenty years ago… But somehow, our long distance relationship worked for us.
What I didn't realize, however, was that after James crashed into the back of Tidmouth sheds and Edward moved to Wellsworth to be with BoCo - who had recently come home - and Philip, was an incident that would shake me up big time…
The End?
Author's notes: This is yet another POV story entry into the SeventyVerse. This time it's mostly Duck's POV with a hint of Diesel as well. This was written for two reasons. One, and the more important one, is showcasing what an autistic meltdown looks like, how others are effected by it, what to do in the case of a meltdown, and the aftermath of one. The second one, is a multiple POV exercise. There are a couple of POVs coming up where we've got two characters listed as the main protagonists. I also wanted to tackle what Duck's inner grudge toward Arry and Dowager Hatt would be like, and we tie up a couple of loose ends too.