quarante-quatre ° dictated

[signedlefthanded]

I should like to announce my sister Sunny has arrived. [For those that know her, it's a big deal.] She's two and usually has a ribbon in her hair. She's very independent, but she's still learning to speak.

While I'm very good at taking care of her, I'm going to need some things. [Things she can actually afford. She hopes her parents are proud of her.] Dresses and the like. Sunny can keep herself occupied. She's a very good cook actually, and very intelligent.

She does have sharp teeth though. So I would beware.

Comments

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

A real pleasure. I'm Bunnymund.

[theabjectauthor]

[he tilts his head, not wanting to jump to conclusions. Violet's not told him, after all, and there could be more than one Dewey in the world ... and the blood on her hands ...

no.

no, he does not want to assume. not only is the assumption itself terrible, the act of it would be even worse, if he were wrong]

[signedlefthanded]

I'm sorry, Lemony. I don't think I ever told you the details of Dewey's death. He-- he was shot with a whale harpoon. [She says it with the deepest regrets. For as much as she's learned about right and wrong, there's still a bit of guilt she carries for the act.]

[theabjectauthor]

.... [and another piece of the puzzle clicks into place. carefully:] Is that why your friend James Watson asked me about them?

[signedlefthanded]

James Watson? [What? Violet has to pause.]

[theabjectauthor]

Yes. He wrote to me under a private filter, around the holidays, and said he had a question for me about harpoon guns.

[signedlefthanded]

What did he ask? Did he think you were Dewey?

[signedlefthanded]

It's nice to meet you, too. Bunnymund.

[theabjectauthor]

No, he simply wanted to ask me about ... [he coughs, lightly]

... whale harpoons.

[signedlefthanded]

[She's quiet for a moment.] I see.

[theabjectauthor]

You don't have to tell me. I just... It seemed odd that he would want to speak to me about that incident, whatever it may be, over anything else.

[quadro_dent]

[She smiles around the block and nods. There is one person in particular she's quite happy is not around.]

Olaf. ["It's nice to be away from Olaf and his troupe. I feel safer already."]

[signedlefthanded]

Do you truly want to know? It's the reason why I no longer live in the castle, Lemony.

[signedlefthanded]

I hope to never see that unibrow again. [And she means it.]

[theabjectauthor]

....something happened here, with a harpoon gun? [always the wrong questions. always.]

[signedlefthanded]

Something happened to Dewey with a harpoon gun. The castle decided I needed to be reminded of it.

[theabjectauthor]

[blood on her hands.

the harpoon gun.

a reminder.

occasionally, the truth is like a clown in a terribly ugly suit: it is very very hard to keep from seeing it, even harder to look away, and very unpleasant to look at, but people try to avoid looking at it all the same.

Lemony claps a hand over his mouth and stares at the page for a moment, trying to come to grips with what all of this surely adds up to.]

.... An accident?

[quadro_dent]

[Sometimes she wonders if she's going to see that unibrow in her sleep. It's a very disquieting thought.]

Ditto ["Or any of his ridiculous disguises"]

[signedlefthanded]

[A slow sigh.]

It was meant to go in me. Our hands were all on the trigger, and then Dewey just appeared.

[signedlefthanded]

We're safe for now. [He's never appeared in the castle, and she's hoping it stays that way.]

[quadro_dent]

[Sunny nods her agreement. It's been some time since she's actually FELT safe. And now that she does she's more than happy to just sit with her sister, bite her block of wood and relax.]

[signedlefthanded]

[And Violet is just as content to sit and tinker.]

[theabjectauthor]

[like mother, like daughter, he thinks, then pushes the thought aside] Nothing is ever quite as it appears.... I'm sorry, Violet. I am sorry that the forces of destiny are so terribly out of tune.

[signedlefthanded]

It's already happened. Weeks ago for me, before I came here. Nearly two years. More than? Being here and returning home makes my head spin.

[theabjectauthor]

I was never fond of reading about time travel ... being a part of it is even more dizzying than even reading about it ever was.