Prompt 7 (Snowbunnies): Winter seems to bring out the cutest of all rodents; this isn’t the first time that small, white rabbits have infested Destiny City. They’re small, rarely larger than a guinea pig, and have large eyes and wiggling noses. They are always pure white and seem to show up whenever there’s snow. They aren't menacing or evil, they're just everywhere. They seem strangely domesticated; they are sweet, curious, and friendly creatures that will eat anything you give them. They always seem cold to the touch, and when they shake, little snowflakes sprinkle off of them.
While they seem to be social creatures who seem to appreciate anything warm and will cuddle up to steal body heat, they are too skittish and fast to be kept for pets. They can show up just about anywhere, either alone or--often--in pairs. They tend to wander off on their own without any trouble, but if you surprise them or try to catch or hurt them, they may bite. Their little teeth are enough to break skin, but after one bite they run away. The bite itself isn’t bad, but the effects are a bit unpleasant: for roughly two days after the bite, the injury is cold and the victim will feel random, cold, shooting pains. Their core body temperature will drop and they will often be sent into random fits of shivering. No medicine seems to help, and no amounts of blankets or hot baths can soothe the chill. You're just going to have to deal with it and hope it gets better…
Most experiences with the bunnies are perfectly pleasant, you just have to worry about them burrowing. There are holes peppering Destiny City, and with the fresh fallen snow it can be impossible to tell where they are hiding. The holes range from small holes to several feet deep, so can be a minor inconvenience to a potential hazard. On the bright side, sometimes you wind up covered in bunnies looking for warmth from their sudden guest. On the other hand, there are a rising number of trips to the hospital for twists and sprains. The bunnies always leave with the snow, so best to enjoy them--or avoid them--for as long as you can.
Eion didn't hate the cold, but he hated being cold. It was a very different experience than being on fire, which was painful and persistent, and while he didn't enjoy a basal level of pain, it was familiar to him. Being cold was quite opposite that — he shivered uncontrollably sometimes, and his extremities went numb. No pain was a peculiar feeling to which he couldn't let himself grow accustomed.
Thus, going out with Yuuri that eve, he was heavily dressed for winter. Two coats, one was a waterproofed overcoat and the other a fleece, then a downy jacket, and long sleeves underneath. Flocked leggings with thermals on the underside kept his legs mostly warm, owing to the wind's lack of penetration. Double socks, wool on the inside, left his boots feeling a little cramped, but he could ignore it. All of it fit very differently than his uniform, and the feel was distracting, leading him to introspect frequently about how he was going to move through the snow.
He also wondered how Yuuri survived the snow. Somehow, his friend had grown more bony since their visit to the Rift, and bonier still since their mission to convert so many of their enemies. His friend seemed perpetually stressed, and liable to waste away if they didn't do something. But Eion didn't know what that something was.
Taking a walk through the park didn't seem like much, but the landscape was entirely transformed with the bare trees burdened with snow. And snowfall had been constant; if they stood still, they could hear it, and they could watch it fill in old footprints from children prior. He was sure that, if they took a break under one of the trees, then within an hour, they would see evidence of their wanderings erased, too.
"Over here," he urged his friend. "Should see the sunset through those trees." Strange thought, to see it now — but he hadn't been sleeping much, either.
guine
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2021 10:56 am
There were a lot of things on Yuuri’s mind these days. The Senshi who had all turned traitor. The new Senshi that took priority because they were being trained, or something like that. The attack from that Saturn Knight, who had demanded him to bring Faustite’s pet project to him. As if Yuuri had the ability to know how to get back in touch with him even if he had thought about doing it.
He hadn’t. He knew she was more valuable to the Negaverse as one of them than a threat as a White Moon Senshi. Just because Kamacite didn’t trust her, or have any reason to like her, didn’t mean he was about to turn traitor by giving up any information he knew about her.
The invitation to go walking in the park with Eion came as a surprise, but he bundled up and went out regardless. He figured Eion needed to clear his head or something, and Yuuri was more than capable of keeping him company if it was what Eion wanted.
Or seeing the sunset, which was a little more curious, but he followed Eion, nodding to him when he suggested where they could get the best view.
Maybe more curious than his friend wanting to go walking to see the sunset was the local wildlife that seemed to be following them around. Tiny bunnies seemed to be hopping in and out of the snow and… Yuuri tried to pay them no mind. They weren’t hurting anyone and--
He let out a quiet yelp of distress when he almost twisted his ankle stepping into what he could only assume was a rabbit hole.
“I’m okay,” he insisted to his friend, not wanting him to worry, but he still reached down to rub at his ankle once his foot had been pulled free. “Be careful.”
Strickenized
Guine
Crew
Lonely Explorer
Offline
Strickenized
Garbage Cat
Offline
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:07 pm
Eion paused at the yelp, half-wondering if he should barbecue someone, but Yuuri clarified quickly. He turned, looked, saw Yuuri examining his own ankle. If Yuuri said he was fine, then Eion trusted he was fine.
He wondered about the hole that Yuuri just stepped in, but said nothing for it; they weren't here to go staring into holes. They were here, in part, to stare at burning spheres of light millions of miles away. Maybe that was too sentimental of Eion. He hadn't asked if Yuuri wanted to look at the sunset, or cared to look at it. Maybe Yuuri's bedroom window faced the sunset and he was sick to death of the colors painting his walls or creating glare on his monitor as he tried to edit Misha's videos.
"Not usually up before five," he tried to explain. "Always miss it." But he'd spent most of the day awake for the past few days, and it only just occurred to him, during their visit to the park, that he could see it.
So he looked back toward the tree and —
Blinked. Snowballs were migrating. "The ********? Yuuri —" Yuuri had to see this — "There's snowballs —"
At Yuuri's feet too. Bubbling out of the hole he stepped in, even.
Except they weren't snowballs, unless snowballs now had ears. And while he wouldn't doubt that for Destiny City, the more he stared at them, the more he realized he was looking at rabbits. And the rabbits were looking at him. And there was a surfeit gathered around Yuuri's feet.
"You've got an entourage. No, a buffet. A meat parade of rabbits," he decided, feeling hungrier by the moment.
guine
Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:46 pm
Yuuri nodded in understanding when Eion explained why he wanted to see the sunset. He didn't mind, he just didn't know.
Of course, he didn't have enough time to comment on it because Eion was instead looking at the bunches of little bunnies gathering around them. Ah, Yuuri must have stepped in one of their little burrows, but now Eion was talking about--
"Eion!" he gasped in horror, and lowered himself to the ground so he could be closer to the little white bunnies, as though that could protect them. "If you're hungry we can get food somewhere. Don't talk about a buffet! They hardly have any meat on them," he frowned, keeping his hands to himself, but letting the little bunnies gather around his legs.
"You should have said something if you were hungry. I would have brought snacks. Or. We could still find a place to eat. Not the bunnies. Eion…" Seriously, that was a horrible idea!
Strickenized
Guine
Crew
Lonely Explorer
Offline
Strickenized
Garbage Cat
Offline
Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:39 pm
"What?" He asked, his confusion written into his expression when his friend objected so vehemently. "Isn't it normal to eat rabbit?" He remembered eating rabbit once, at a friend's house in California. Though he couldn't remember the flavor profile, he remembered the fine features of the boy's face, and the way his lips pouted outward by nature.
"Thought that was something people did." Maybe they didn't do it out here, or his friend was quite exceedingly strange, or — wait, was Yuuri vegetarian? Yet another thing he didn't know about Yuuri.
Eion crossed his arms and thought about it as he marched over to his friend. He'd miss the sunset at this rate, but there would be more of those. And what did sentiment matter, anyway? He felt a little sorry for it, but it was simple to swallow those feelings. Let them cook in the rabbits' stead.
He decided, when he reached Yuuri, that he still didn't understand where he went wrong. Yuuri was standing in a pile of free eats; unless he was a vegetarian, why would he object to a few rabbits? Even if eating them raw was out of the question, a barbecue was only ever a thought away for Eion.
"Explain where I went wrong?" He asked, chewing his lower lip as he stood next to his friend. The rabbits, little balls of snow with black button eyes, were quite cute, which left him hungrier for them.
guine
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 1:45 pm
"Not these rabbits!" Yuuri gasped in horror and tried to use his body to guard as many of the white bunnies as he could. "They're too small! There are bigger rabbits!" Or something like that. "I'll take you to a restaurant if you're hungry," he offered. He just didn't want to see the rabbits being eaten!!
Yuuri frowned up at Eion, and looked down at the bunnies before trying to shoo them away. If they went to their homes maybe they would be safe. "I don't want to see them be eaten," he tried to explain, but he wasn't sure he was doing a good job of it. "But, yes, people eat rabbit. There's just no need to when there are other options."
Or something like that. Sure there was rabbit soup, but they couldn't just pick up a rabbit from the forest and expect to eat them!
"Let's see the sunset and we can get food somewhere?" he tried to offer as a compromise. He stood up then, and reached for Eion's hand, trying to pull him away from the hoards of little white bunnies all around them.
Strickenized
Guine
Crew
Lonely Explorer
Offline
Strickenized
Garbage Cat
Offline
Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 12:53 pm
Eion stared, wide-eyed, at his friend. "Okay, no rabbits…" Sure, these ones were small, but that made them a decent snack. Though, he supposed that while he didn't have to worry much about catching rabies or other diseases from these things, they were still a legitimate concern for Yuuri. If he wanted to eat farm-raised rabbit instead, Eion wouldn't fault him.
If he were entirely human, he wouldn't want to contract rabies from some rabbit he found in the snow, either.
Eion nodded along as he started back toward the tree with Yuuri's hand in his, listening as he shoved some of the snow out of the way with his foot. There must've been a difference, for Yuuri, between eating a rabbit and eating a starseed. In both cases, the thing died. One was much bloodier, however. That must've had something to do with it.
"Food after sounds fine. Sylvite took me to a taco place once, was pretty good. And Albite always knows where to find weird, delicious things that I can't pronounce." He could text Waru and get some good ideas, he supposed. If Waru wasn't busy. Then again, Waru probably had his cell phone available to him much more often than Eion did. But, Yuuri might've already thought of a place — "Assuming you don't have somewhere in mind."
Once a space was clear, he sat, and motioned for Yuuri to join him. He suddenly felt silly for wanting such a thing — a sunset was something of a mundanity, after all. Even so, watching it now, with Yuuri — it felt just a margin easier than all the weight he'd carried since the battle.
