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Prompt 4 (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 amount 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 amount 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.
Normally, Baz Lemarchand hardly minded being in front of cameras. How could he? Truly, his eyes and overall bone structure begged to be appreciated by the loving caress of a talented photographer’s lens, a painter’s skillfully wielded brush, and/or the digital tool of choice for an illustrator who, like Baz himself, preferred to work with a tablet and pen. Not to be immodest when he knew, of course, that he always had things that he could stand to improve about himself, but for as long as Baz had the beauty to justify modeling, why wouldn’t he choose to use it for such a calling?
Unfortunately for Baz, the photoshoot he’d gotten summoned to in Ramsett Park today hardly matched his usual standards. He’d come regardless, and without even mild complaining, but only because the other option was disappointing his younger siblings. Fifteen-year-old Gwen had asked for and received a fairly high-end camera for Christmas, and when she’d knocked on Baz’s bedroom door earlier, she’d practically vibrated out of her skin with excitement to get on the task of trying out new things with it. She’d already drafted the twins, Cecily and Nikita, into helping her before coming for Baz—probably, at least on some level, because she knew that he might more readily set a boundary with her, but could not refuse the twins anything, even when what they requested made him ill.
(For example, fumbling over to him with assorted cookies and sweets during the holidays, making their big sparkly eyes and asking him to please, please, please eat one because they hadn’t seen their big brother eat any of those today, and maybe that meant he wasn’t having a good Christmas. As much as he’d hated it, Baz had dutifully choked down every little treat the twins had brought him, and tacked extra time onto all of his gym sessions in an attempt at compensating for it. He hadn’t noticed any unwelcome side-effects yet, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t creep up on him somehow.)
If weaponizing the twins had been intentional on Gwendolyn’s part, then truly, she’d outdone herself with the masterful manipulation of her big brother. As much as he detested the dress-length, black-belted blue jacket she’d sweet-talked him into wearing—to say nothing of: the jacket’s white, fuzzy collar and cuffs, and the blue conical hat with its broad red stripe—Baz had to respect that she knew what sort of vision she had in mind for this shoot and was willing to play dirty to ensure that it happened. (The red thermal leggings and knee-high black boots, Baz hardly minded and would have worn regardless. The overall image to which they currently contributed was not his most favorite thing in the world, but on their own, they were lovely pieces that had served him well.)
Such as it was, Gwen’s vision involved putting Cecily in a matching gingerbread brown skirt and sweater, adding a headband with reindeer antlers, and using some eyeshadow to paint the tip of her nose bright red. Nikita, meanwhile, had gotten put up in a white shirt and pants, with a kiddie sized bowler hat and a green vest with crisp, silver pinstripes. Essentially, a group cosplay of characters from the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which Hermey the Elf inexplicably knew how to pose as if his outfit were haute couture and he were trying to become a new muse to someone like Annie Leibowitz.
The shoot had lasted long enough for the cold to get annoying, but Baz would have stuck it out for longer, had Gwen asked. Instead, some of her friends from Romano’s had found her, and while he couldn’t simply leave her here—sure, Gwen could get home on her own, but their parents wouldn’t appreciate Baz ditching her, and they would have been quite right not to—she did set him and the twins loose to their own devices so she could take some shots with her friends instead.…… Well, moreso to the twins’ devices, but who was counting.
Baz had expected to end up at the picnic tables, honestly. Instead, the twins perked up at hearing some other small child begging their parents to please, please, please let them go back and play with the pretty bunnies. Eyes glittering eagerly, Nikita and Cecily whipped around to Baz and didn’t even need to beg. They only needed to promise they’d keep hold of his hands until they found what they were looking for.
Locating the alleged rabbits proved quite simple: although their white fur blended in with the snow, a large coterie of them had assembled beneath a tree at the bottom of a hill the twins liked to use for sledding. As the three of them closed in on their quarry, Nikita and Cecily tugged on Baz as if they wished to either run away to pet the bunnies right now or rip his arms out of his sockets because they knew that one of the few boundaries he would set with them was that they weren’t allowed to do something as wildly unsafe as running off from him in the middle of the park. Despite them chomping at the bit like this, however, the twins kept it together until all three of them were well within petting range of the rabbits.
“Okay, there you go,” Baz said gently, letting go of his little siblings’ hands so they could get closer and inspect the rabbits at their leisure. “Now, we’re going to be polite with the bunnies, aren’t we? Soft and gentle when you pet them, just like when you’re playing with Hawthorn. You don’t want to startle them.”
Seiana_ZI_
