[5] 23 Days Until Easter

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[It's been a weird start of the month for Bunny. What with Holly Peaks, then getting not one, but TWO people from his home world, one of which he assumed was long gone. All in the space of a week. To make matters worse, the castle had decided to do this on the very month where Easter was held.

He could have sworn the place had done it on purpose.

As is normal for him, instead of facing any of the worry and heartache Katherine's arrival has brought him, he's thrown himself into his work. It needs to be done, anyway, and it means he doesn't have to deal with his own feelings on the matter. It's win-win, really.

And so, anyone out in the gardens today will find red tulip-like flowers sprouting everywhere, look closely enough and there's a slight glow to them. A few flowers are also blooming, revealing small white eggs on spindly legs within them. The googies, freshly brought into the world, are all heading over to where Bunnymund is sitting, pots of paint beside him as he goes through the labourous task of painting each googie, then sending them down inside the safety of his burrow. To await their big day.

Of course, to those who don't believe in the Easter Bunny, they don't see him. As he paints, his journal is open beside him, so he can listen to the casual chatter of the residents, a splatter of paint occasionally hitting the page and soaking into the paper as he works]

That whole dodgy Holly Peaks mess put me behind schedule. It's not like I can access my realm here, y'know. Everything has to be done by paw. But if it thought it could put me off, then that plan went down the gurgler.

[Another paint splatter, then a sigh. He can't keep his mind off things as much as he'd like to] Anyhow mates. Have any of you heard about Jack Frost? Mother Goose?

Comments

[wolfchild]

That doesn't make sense.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Love is love, I suppose. I don't get involved in that sort of thing.

[wolfchild]

No one marries for love. Only fools in songs do.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[On Arya you poor kid, is your world THAT sucky]

Surely some people do?

[wolfchild]

The selfish mayhaps. Marriage is about forming alliances and seeing your family well-cared for. My lord father would have chosen who my brothers and sister would wed and they'd do it.

I never would have married. I would never have left my father and my mother. I'd have stayed in Winterfell.

[ lbr she could have probably got away with it too #daddy's little girl ]

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

I see. You come from a different time. Maybe they learned to love, eventually.

[He doesn't sound all that convinced, but love isn't his thing anyway. He'll leave that to Cupid]

No? I bet you would be happier by yourself, anyway. You're strong, too strong to be tied down to anyone.

1/2

[wolfchild]

My father and my mother loved each other. It wasn't love at first sight. [ The way she says it speaks of how much nonsense she thinks it is. ] But they loved each other more than anyone.

[ Arya Stark. Ur Ned/Cat shipper. ]

[wolfchild]

[ Her smile droops. ]

I think that's why Mother is so sad. I wish my father were here. He'd make Mother happy again.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

There you go then.

[Awww, Arya,he offers the smallest of smiles] Maybe one day he'll show up here.

[wolfchild]

I guess. Except people don't really stay here. Almost everyone I know has gone.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Well, that's a real shame. But that's the thing about the future, you can never really tell what's around the next corner.

[wolfchild]

You can always tell. There's always something worse.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Not always. I've found good things, too.

[wolfchild]

Like what?

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

I found you.

[wolfchild]

[ Her face is still water. ]

I am not good.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[He shakes his head, a soft smile crossing his face]

Nah, I don't believe that for a second. You're one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Here or back home.

[wolfchild]

I'm really not. My hands are hard and my feet too. My hair is always tangled and I can never stay clean. And I've done things. I don't like them. I don't like me.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[He shifts a little closer, offering her a smile]

So? Who hasn't done things? You're still here, you're still strong. Most important? You're still you. I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't want you any other way.

[wolfchild]

[ Not everyone has done such bad things. Jaqen called her evil once. She'd thought Jaqen was her friend. Like Yoren. Like her dancing master. They all left. They all lied.

Sometimes she wishes she could be anyone else but her. Someone who isn't ugly and hasn't done anything bad. She would be happy with someone who isn't so full of holes.

Would Gendry have stayed if she was better?

Arya picks up the half-painted egg waiting patiently by her feet. Dipping her brush in paint, she finishes putting dots on it. ]

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

[He watches her, a touch of concern crossing his features, but he knows not to push the matter]

That googie's a real beaut'.

[wolfchild]

[ She makes a face before confessing: ] I don't really know what I'm doing.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

You're doing fine from where I'm sitting. They don't have to be fancy, after all, it's about the heart that goes into the painting.

[He smiles a little faintly, putting his own painted egg down, sending it into his burrow] I've missed doing it all this way.

[wolfchild]

[ She lets her egg scurry off. ]

How many will you make?

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Oh, 'bout three hundred, maybe four hundred. Depends on if the castle does anything else tropo before Easter to disturb me.