tushanshu_logs | [Closed] Vernal Equinox

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[Closed] Vernal Equinox

Characters: Jack Frost & Bunnymund
Date: BACKDATED to a few days after the end of the snow event / Bunny's arrival to Keeliai
Location: Wood Sector
Situation: With the snow weekend behind them, Jack and Bunny get together to compare notes and to catch the pooka up on the oddities of Tu Vishan.
Warnings/Rating: Probably none? Aussie-isms?

Jack was still riding high on the good feelings of people's overwhelmingly positive reactions to the snow weekend he'd created, buoyed on the ones who had been able to moved from being only able to hear him into seeing him, refreshed on the snow and ice and cold -- and by the arrival of his friend and fellow Guardian. It was safe to say that Jack was pretty much floating on air at the moment.

The hour was early but Jack had been awake (as usual) all night and the sun had risen about half an hour ago. He sent Bunnymund a message asking to meet in a small, secluded glade in the Wood Sector, away from the tall trees that made up the Wood suite units. He landed lightly on a thick branch, the smooth bark freezing under his touch, and settled in to wait with one leg hanging off the tree, swinging lightly back and forth.

"G'morning Cottontail," he greeted with a cheeky grin when the pooka arrived.

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Though he was sure that it was only because Jack's snow had been laced with his glitter, Bunnymund couldn't deny that it made the transition to this place just the slightest bit easier. He'd been wandering around nervously, lost in a place that he couldn't get out of, and that was a feeling he wasn't used to. While it was mostly a distraction, the snow weekend took away some of that worry. He met a few people who seemed alright, if not a bit questionable, and, though he wouldn't admit it ~~anymore than it was obvious~~, he was happy to see Jack here and doing well.

Of course, Bunny was old, and he knew when something was up and he wasn't getting the whole story about, well, just about anything about this place, and he'd been meaning to follow up with Jack about all of that. It was just hard at the time when the winter spirit seemed so happy about being seen and making people happy as well. He couldn't interfere with that.

"Pretty nice place you found here, Frostbite," He nods approvingly after hopping out of one of his tunnels. "Think we lucked out on our district placement," As if it wasn't obvious enough that he favored the Wood District over the others.

"I thought you'd like it," Jack preened a little bit, because having his chosen green space approved by Bunny was pretty much the highest order of approval there was. "And yeah, we sure did! It's so big though, I don't know what to do with the other two levels."

He hooked his legs securely over the branch and then let himself fall backward so he was hanging upside down, almost eye-level with the pooka.

"Did you sleep well?"

Bunny was definitely hard to please when it came to areas like this, but compared to the other districts, the Wood one was pretty much the best of the bunch, and he felt as much at home here as he was going to get anywhere else. It wasn't anything close to his Warren, but it'd do for the time being, until he could give the whole area his own personal touch.

"Just fine, after giving my suite a few personal touches," He smiles a little bit, lightly pushing on Jack's chest so he swings some. "You have to see it, mate. I've got the whole place green and thriving almost as pretty as the Warren," Or an egg-themed rain forest inside a tree, but...

"What'd you call me out here for?"

Jack chuckles, using his arms to keep the motion going like one would use legs on a playground swing. "Then I'll have to come over and see it! You'll leave the window unlatched for me, right?"

Still upside down, the winter teen uses one hand to pull himself closer to the tree trunk and blow lightly on the top of an ivy curl, forming ice to encase it coated the whole vine one leaf at a time as it traveled downward.

"I know we didn't get much time during the snow weekend when you got here to talk much, so I thought now that you'd had a chance to see what's going on, you would have questions."

"Not on your nilly, Frost," He teases. "But I suppose you can knock and maybe I'll let you in," He trusts Jack as an ally, but he doesn't trust him not to freeze up the place, whether intentionally or not.

Just like Jack was doing to the branch he was on right now. Some of Bunny's plants weren't native to Tu Vishan, and he didn't exactly deal in firs or evergreens that could handle the chill. "You were having a bit of a field day with all the snow, so I didn't want to get you too distracted," Because that's what Guardians do when the others are working, Jack. "Besides, all the little ankle-biters really do seem to enjoy what you do."

But to get to the questions... "I guess the first one is the obvious one asking where we are, but I think I have that much. So... What are we supposed to be doing here?"

"Knocking, right. I'll try to remember that," Jack stuck his tongue out at the pooka but despite the jibe, he'd knock and use the door if Bunny really wanted him to.

Then his expression turned serious and he dropped down from the tree, landing in a crouch on the ground before taking a seated position.

"As for what... apparently the Emperor wants us to be heroes or something," he answered. There was a distinct edge to his voice when he spoke of the woman. "So she's got people from all over. Some of them aren't much more than kids themselves," he added, blue eyes momentarily becoming hard. "I asked Evandau, the commander here, if they could be sent home before the rest of us and he said it wasn't possible."

Edited 2013-03-24 20:52 (UTC)

Bunny wouldn't leave the window open, but he might actually leave it unlocked for Jack anyway. Despite all his talk, the pooka really wouldn't mind Jack stopping by from time to time to check in. It would let Bunny check up on the winter spirit more often, which he was already figuring out that he might have to do around here, if the stories he's been hearing are true.

"Heroes?" That catches his attention and his ears perk as he moves to crouch next to Jack. "Seems they left that part out of the welcome brochure," But the part that irks him already is obviously the fact that children are getting involved. "We can't let them fight, mate. That's just not right. Did the commander say that it was possible for any of us to get back?"

"They leave a lot of things out of the welcome brochure," Jack answered. "And I know, I know we can't. And the awful thing is I think a lot of them have already been fighting, somehow, in the places they've come from. They don't exactly have worries like junior prom and football practice. They're..."

Hardened, some of them.

"People do leave but it seems... random. As random as how they show up, anyway."

Bunny's expression falls slightly. Children fighting wasn't completely unheard of for him, after all these years, but he could never be okay with that, especially not if there was something he could do about it. Which would make things so much more difficult when he found the kids who chose such a thing for themselves (like Damian).

"Do we even know what we're supposed to be fighting?"

"Not really. Well, there were zombies about a month ago but apparently they've had them before because nobody was running around and freaking out like in the movies. They just got everyone to safe places and then most of the other Foreigners fought against them until they died. Or re-died... not sure how that works."

The winter teen made a face. "And then the Emperor yelled at us for causing too much damage."

"Zombies?" It's obvious on his face that he doesn't buy it, but really, it's not the strangers thing that he's seen or heard about that place... Well, yeah it was, but he was trying to not put anything past this place when it was already breaking all kinds of rules that he thought were set in stone.

"So let me get this straight, she brings us here to fight and protect this place, but when we do just that, we get in trouble," He frowns. "Sounds like this Emperor is just taking us for a ride."

Jack draws an X across his sweater. "Honest to goodness zombies, I swear. Body parts that didn't stay attached and all."

But his expression fell into seriousness when Bunny made his opinion on the Emperor known. "There's something else you should know," he said, and proceeded to recount the whole incident with the Emperor's message including what he'd spoken to her and her vicious reaction threatening innocents. Jack did make a point of also adding what Raylan had told him afterwards, that the Emperor had relayed to him that she wouldn't have gone through with it, but it's obvious by the winter teen's expression that he doesn't believe that with absolute certainty.

Bunny doesn't think that should bother him, but in a way it does, and Jack might notice a slight shiver starting from his ears and traveling all the way down to his tail. Nightmares were one thing, but zombies sounded really spooky.

"So, basically we're on our own. No counting on this Emperor to help us out, or even to not turn on us on a whim. Quite a mess we've landed ourselves in," He frowns even more. It was hard not to take all this a grim news. Eventually though, he sighs and looks over at Jack.

"One last thing I want to know, Snowflake. Just what kind of trouble have you been getting into? And be straight with me this time," He saw the healing marks before, and then later Damian mentioned kidnapping to him, so he knew that something was up.

Jack's face fell at the prompting, but he couldn't skirt around the issue with such a direct request and so slowly, he began to recount the story. He purposefully left Oliver unnamed, but explained how someone for whom Jack was concerned over their well being had been doing dangerous and potentially deadly things, that the spirit had taken him away from the city. How he'd kept him there when it was clear that this person had wanted to leave, but he was still unstable; the blizzard Jack had inadvertently conjured notwithstanding.

Jack also relayed (again, in general terms that would not give Oliver's identity away) how he'd been told that this person had been kidnapped before with dire results, but how Jack could see fear in him for trying to be someone he couldn't be. And that it had reminded him terribly of Pitch, because fear left unchecked could become a monstrous thing like the Boogeyman had proven.

And he dutifully Oliver's escape attempt, from the attack with the fire embers to the way he'd had a knife to his throat, hand automatically coming up to brush over the pale scar there as he spoke -- though he was careful to stress that the cut had not been made by his captive but through his own action.

After that he falls quiet for a moment, though it's obvious he has more to say, and finally he adds that others who'd found out (like Damian, though Jack didn't call him by name) had condemned what he'd done, that it felt like that day in the English park when he'd emerged from Pitch's lair and discovered that he'd made things worse without knowing it.

It wasn't that Bunny wanted to push the issue or ruin any good feelings that Jack had been having lately. He was happy that the icy spirit was being noticed and believed in, that he'd had a successful (to his knowledge) snow day, and he was getting to know the children and creating those bonds as a Guardian. Unfortunately, he'd been hearing too many things from people to just let it be ignored anymore. Jack was tiptoeing around it, people weren't giving him straight answers, and he was sick of it. If Jack was in trouble, or causing it, he needed to know.

He didn't expect it to be... what it was, though, and he just listens to Jack's story for a moment. He'd decided about halfway through that he wasn't going to ask too many questions or pry too deeply, because he was supposed to trust Jack now, and the kid wasn't a kid anymore... Not really.

Once Jack finishes retelling the events, though, Bunny only has one question. "And you were just trying to help, right?"

"Yeah," Jack answered, breath whooshing out of him with the single word before he smiles bitterly.

"Not that it apparently means anything to the other people here, but I thought if he could have a chance to get his head straight, before he did something he'd regret then..."

The winter teen sighed. "Most people don't know about it, but the ones that do... well, you'll know them pretty easily if I happen to come up in conversation."

There's a lot that Bunny could say about this, a lot that he could heckle the other Guardian about or yell at him for, but that wasn't really on his mind right now, especially when he sees that bitter look on Jack's face. He wasn't mad at Jack over the past anymore, he didn't only see him as a nuisance, and because of that, only one thing mattered to him right now.

Which is why Jack is getting pulled into a loose pooka hug, Bunny wanting to show him that he wasn't bothered by what Jack did. "Your heart was in the right place, frostbite. The rest will fall into place," He really did care about about the kid now. "You'll get the execution down in time... And if anyone gives you problems, then you can send them to me," He gently flicks Jack's forehead. "Unless you actually deserve it," He teases.

Jack immediately tenses up when Bunny hugs him, still unused to touch and having gotten no warning, but it dissolved after a few seconds and he relaxed, fingers twining into the fur on the pooka's arm. Bunny's words were exactly what he needed to hear -- not that he'd been blameless, not that others were overreacting but that Jack had tried with good intentions, an acknowledgement that he'd just wanted to make things right. He doesn't even flinch when he gets the poke on his head.

"Thanks Bunny," he said, blue eyes conveying a lot more gratitude than the simple words implied. "I really am glad you're here now. There's been so many times I just wanted to ask things and I couldn't because no one here can answer them and... and I think I wouldn't have done things people ended up not liking and being angry at if..."

It wasn't something that Bunny, of all the Guardians, did normally. He wasn't the hugging type, and definitely not with Jack. Times changed though, and circumstances here were quickly forcing the pooka to reevaluate how he behaved, not just with people, but with Jack as well. Jack was all he had here as a reminder from home, and Bunny felt some responsibility to take care of him.

And since North, Tooth, and Sandy weren't here, and Jack needed it, Bunnymund has to be the one giving the hugs.

"I know I'm probably the last one you wanted," Actually, he's positive of that. "But I can try to answer them now."

"Nah, not the last," Jack smirked, giving the pooka's arm one last squeeze before letting go. "I'd take you over the Groundhog any day."

He settled back down onto the grass into a patch of sun, laying back with his arms spread wide. He liked the sun so long as it didn't get too warm, and the early morning beams were too weak to produce any real heat.

"I'll make a list," he added, not especially wanting to dwell on the issues right now. There was nothing pressing that he needed anyway, unknowingly caught in a lull between two separate incidents.

Bunny just rolls his eyes a little when he releases Jack as well. "Oh well, thank goodness. I was so worried I was going to have to compete with him on your list of friends," Okay... maybe he worried a little.

Sighing softly, he flops down into the grass as well and letting the sun warm his fur. It was peaceful, and he almost thought for a moment that he could get used to this place. It wasn't without it's problems, and things he's eventually have to look into and clean up, probably for Jack's sake, but it could be worse.

"I have the time," He offers, both wanting to reassure Jack, but it's not without a hint of disappointment. No Warren, no earth and children that needed him, though the kedan ones were adorable... Did that mean there was no Easter too? He can't help wondering, but he doesn't want to think about it.

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[Closed] Vernal Equinox

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