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Prompt 8 (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.
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.
As a rule, Andesine hated rodents. Biologically speaking, that did not include rabbits—although they’d been deemed rodents until some point in the 20th Century, they had subsequently been reclassified as lagomorphs, as Sable’s idiot brother had happily lectured her once when literally no one cared—but overall, Andesine included them in her own personal definition anyway. She still recalled all too clearly how badly Pugsley had reeked when she and her siblings had been kids. She recalled too vividly how Trevor’s fat, ugly, lop-eared monstrosity had invited himself into any room with a remotely open door and nibbled on anything green, whether it belonged to him or not (including Melissa-now-Sable’s favorite jumper, her favorite doll, and her Junior Girl Scouts uniform).
Not that Pugsley was necessarily representative of all rabbits ever in the entire world, but none of them that Sable had met ever managed to turn her opinions on their obnoxious and wretched little species—until tonight.
Heading out into the evening in search of people to drain, Andesine hadn’t expected much of interest to happen. She’d go out, stick to the shadows where possible, do her best to avoid detection—including siphoning off little bits of energy from single targets then moving on before they could notice any terribly inconvenient side-effects, rather than taking a huge amount from only one person; she’d been more than meeting her quotas from General Ashanite with that technique and it was truly such a sensible approach to draining! shearing a sheep instead of slaughtering it!—and make sure her job got done……but far be it from Andesine to turn away from an opportunity that practically presented itself in the prettiest, most pristine gift-wrapping, with a meticulously tied bow and a nametag with “Lieutenant Andesine of the Negaverse” written on it.
This evening, out in Lafayette Park, it had decided to snow.
For some reason, this had summoned a horde of rabbits. While Andesine had managed to step around them, and dodge the little holes they’d bored in the ground, she couldn’t say the same for some of the civilians out in the park tonight. The first one, she only saw by accident, while checking to see if she’d missed any summons or notices on her communicator. Good thing she hadn’t, because back here, behind some strategically placed topiary, Andesine had a perfect vantage point to work from. It happened so regularly: someone came along and got their foot stuck in one of the rabbits’ holes. They yelped, fell over, and while trying to judge how injured they were or weren’t, the rabbits set upon them like vultures on carrion, rushing out to crawl all over their hapless victim. None of them seemed to chew on the victims, which made them better than Trevor’s filthy little animal, but they certainly did make it difficult to get away.
What they wanted, Andesine couldn’t say and didn’t care. What she wanted was energy for the Negaverse, and thanks to Bugs, Lola, Babs, Buster, Roger, Jessica, and all the other furry little idiots involved in their dastardly scheme to………climb on people with twisted ankles, Andesine had found such a perfect way to get some. In a little over forty minutes, she’d managed to drain a good amount of energy off of four separate rabbit-victims, plus some quick-grabs off of the people who inevitably came to help get them out of the snow.
It wasn’t enough to make her forgive the entire rabbit species for its unfortunate existence, but she had to give it to these little guys: they’d done something useful to her personally and they did deserve appreciation for it.
genovianprince
