Day 253 | OPEN | Bunnygeddon: Rise of the Leporidae

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Who: Bunnies, Rob, everyone - feel free to thread amongst yourselves and ignore Rob in favor of the much cuter mammals
Open: Open
When: Day 253
Where: EVERYWHERE
What: BUNNIES
Format: Any
Warnings: Animal death

This morning in the Bastion is like any other at first. Early risers won't notice anything unusual, and it seems like today will be just another day at the end of the worlds.

Then the Monument is activated, and the invasion begins. An invasion of bunnies.

The rabbits are each around the size of a large housecat, come in either brown (female) or a very light gray (male), and seem to have shown up everywhere, especially where they aren't wanted. Rabbits munching away in the garden, rabbits hopping into buildings through open windows and doors, rabbits making more rabbits in places one would really rather not see such things... the list goes on.

(Okay there are probably only like ten of them at any one time, but they're getting into everything and compared to the Bastion's previous rabbit population levels this is a pretty big increase.)

The first rabbit that Rob sees confuses him for a moment, and the second makes him realize what just happened; the Monument had no way to tell whether he'd bought rabbits as livestock or as ambiance and had assumed the latter. In fact, when he goes to check the animal pen, he discovers that absolutely no rabbits have ended up there. Cue facepalm.

[1]

Rob will be spending the majority of the day attempting to catch all the rabbits and put them in the animal pen. "Attempting" is the key word here, because it turns out that it's a lot harder to catch rabbits with your bare hands than it looks. If he didn't know better he'd say that they're trolling him, acting like they're unaware of his presence as he sneaks up on them, only to leap out of the way at the exact moment he's about to grab them.

[2]

It's starting to get dark by the time Rob finally manages to get his hands around one. It thrashes and bites, but Rob manages to hold it by the scruff in his left hand and draws his knife with his right. Screw putting it in the animal pen; he's spent almost the entire day chasing rabbits around and he's dirty, sweaty, and pissed at these rabbits. He's cooking himself some meat for dinner.

He readies his knife... and stops. He's always thought of rabbits as silent, but this one's squealing loudly. Its heart is pounding in its tiny chest, and he swears he can feel it trembling as it struggles. He looks into its eyes and is surprised to see terror there. He has such a hard time reading humans, but the rabbit's response is so primal that he can recognize it as a prey animal's knowledge that it's about to die but desperately trying to keep living. His knife hand begins to lower.

I've brought creatures into this world for the sole purpose of being killed. This one hasn't even been alive a day and already I'm trying to kill it. ...Were they even necessary? I told myself they'd be a good backup to the fake meat, but there are already other animals we could use in an emergency. I was just disgusted by the idea of eating meat that hadn't come from an animal.

His knife hand hits the ground.

I'm a terrible person, and I've just wasted 200 shards. Now what?

The hand holding the still-squealing rabbit begins to lower.

I can't bear to kill this rabbit. But...

His hand stops its descent.

But what if I had to? Part of why I bought these was in case of an emergency. If I can't do this now, how can I expect to be able to do it in an even more stressful situation? I could leave it for someone else to do, but... But how can I dump something like this on someone else? That'd make me even more of a terrible person.

His knife hand begins to rise from the ground.

I wanted to be a man. I wanted to be able to hunt and feed myself. If I can't kill the prey I've already caught then I might as well just give up right now.

He lifts the rabbit back to a better height and brings the knife towards it.

I have to do this.

He places the blade of the knife against the rabbit's throat. The rabbit's struggles cease, whether from exhaustion, not wanting to hasten its demise, or the realization of the futility of going on, he doesn't know. He swallows.

I have to do this.

He tenses, preparing to draw the knife across the rabbit's throat, and closes his eyes. A moment later he forces himself to open them and look into the rabbit's eyes, feeling its frantic heartbeat through his fingers. He clenches his teeth.

"I'm sorry."

For a moment, his world is reduced to nothing but the drawing of a thin red line.

He stays there for a while in silence, holding his knife in one hand and cooling meat in the other, breathing heavily as he feels a few drops of warm blood make their way down his cheek, eventually mixing with tears as their paths converge. His mind begins waking up again, annoying him by making frivolous associations and remembering inappropriate jokes relating to the current situation.

Dammit.

Then a single sentence emerges from the chaos of his thought processes, and context appears around it. Perhaps other people would consider the idea tacky and inappropriate, especially given its source, but to Rob it was slightly calming and felt right. He stood and wiped at his eyes with one of the cleaner parts of the hem of his tanktop, then began walking with purpose in his step.

[3]

As dusk begins to fall, Rob can be seen walking, dirty and sweaty, with red-rimmed eyes, splatters of drying blood on his tanktop and face, and a dead rabbit in one hand. He looks serious about whatever he's doing, which seems to amount to brief visits to the kitchen and workshop before he returns to his cottage for the night.

Comments

OTA

[dontyoujustwish]

Anya wakes with a feeling of dread and something warm at her back. It isn't Saix because Saix is much larger and doesn't nibble on her hair. Also he doesn't usually sleep over because theirs isn't that kind of relationship. Her head turns slowly, the dread intensifying, until she finds herself face-to-face... with a bunny.

She screams and tries to leap from her bed, first tangling in her blanket and falling on the floor. Once she's kicked free, she bolts for the door.

Anyone might come across her fleeing the apartment building. To their relief (or perhaps disappointment in some cases), she did sleep in a nightgown and is not running around the Bastion in the nude this time.

[amnesiadragon]

Ryu races after her, hand on his sword. "Anya! Anya, what's wrong?" He's never seen her this distressed, and it's... kind of shocking.

[dontyoujustwish]

Anya makes it only a short distance from the apartment building before the sight of another bunny brings her up short with a little shriek. Her hands go to her mouth and as Ryu catches her up she turns to him in horror.

"We're doomed. We're all doomed. How many are there?"

[amnesiadragon]

... Ryu just looks at the bunny, who hops over past Anya and over to Ryu. He scoops it up in his arms, and looks down at it before looking back at her.

"Are you... uh. ... Do you have problems with rabbits?"

There's no judgement here, just curiosity.

1

[scary_music]

"Bunnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy-chaaaaaaaaaaan~ Come baaaaaaaaaaaack~ Ibuki won't bite~!"

Ibuki is being... very unhelpful. She's just laughing happily as she chases one of the rabbits around with her arms held out as if trying to catch it.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob stops to catch his breath and sees... that. Ibuki the point of having rabbits is that you're supposed to be biting them.

"Could you try herding them into the animal pen?"

[scary_music]

She's perfectly happy with the other food she can get around here without having to kill woodland critters, thank you very much.

Besides, she's a city girl, the thought of eating wild rabbit never occurred to her.

"Huhhh?" Ibuki paused at Rob's request, before glancing over at the pen, "But there's not as much space to run around with them in there! It's so cramped! Ibuki and the rabbits need to be able to stretch their legs!"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob is a city man himself and has actually never eaten rabbit before, he's just read about doing so. Also they weren't supposed to be wild.

"It's big enough and empty enough that something that small should be okay. Can always let one out later if it seems unhappy."

[windgod]

Ippo had been actually sleeping in for once when all the chaos from outside woke him up. With his hair haphazardly tied into a ponytail and with a half-awake curiosity, Ippo came down from his room and the second he stepped foot outside the apartments...he saw Ibuki tear across the Bastion past him chasing...a rabbit.

What even?

He was just going to...catch up and run alongside his friend, tapping her on the shoulder so he could potentially get her attention. "Um...Ibuki? What's going on?"

[scary_music]

She stopped to turn around, beaming happily and letting out a laugh before responding, "Look, Ippo-chan, look! It's bunnies! Rabbits everywhere! It's a bunpocalypse!"

3

[freedom_engineer]

When Rob stops by the Workshop, Colin is there as is the usual. He's sitting with his back to a work bench, reading a Datapad with a contemplative look on his face.

It should be worth noting that there's a small pen nearby, with two bunnies and some sliced, half-eaten Navits inside. Looks like someone's had visitors today...

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob sounds flatter than normal when he speaks up.

"Hey, uh..." He notices the pen and, even with his current mental state, manages to get distracted. "I see you caught some."

[freedom_engineer]

Colin glances up from the pad, and blinks as he sees Rob. His state's kinda hard to miss...

"The little guys tried to sneak in," he says, looking Rob over. "After I shoo'd them out the first time, they came in again, so I set a trap. Now that they've got a Navit, they seem quite content there. You look like you've been busy. You okay?"

3

[daughterofursa]

Zuko is on her way out of the distillery as Rob is on his way in. The sight of him is enough to give her pause.

"Tough fight?"

Never having seen a rabbit before today (although there are some species native to the Earth Kingdom), Zuko couldn't even say whether she's being sarcastic or not. Maybe they have fangs?

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

It takes Rob a moment to register that someone's speaking to him, another to mentally rewind to remember what was said, and yet another to be confused about whether Zuko's being sarcastic or not.

"After a fashion."

He's definitely quieter and flatter-sounding than usual.

[daughterofursa]

...so do they have fangs or not?

Rob definitely seems a little out of it, but Zuko isn't sure what to do about it.

"What are those anyway? They look sort of like rabaroos but smaller."

3 / OTA

[twinked_witch]

As evening fell on the Bastion, one might notice someone in green who was flat on her face in the ground. With a rabbits resting under her foot.

It would seem Megaera had managed to trip on one of the rabbits on her way back from a Skyway run, and hadn't moved for several seconds. On the bright side, she wasn't actually unconscious - just very confused. She knew what rabbits were, but she hadn't seen any around the Bastion before.

Several others were approaching her, as well - probably angling for the rations in her cloak.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob isn't exactly the most attentive at the moment, but even he can't miss someone lying on the ground. ...Okay it took him two glances to notice, but still. He looks down at her and pokes her with the toe of his shoe.

"You okay?"

...He wouldn't normally have this flat of a reaction to this situation, but he has a lot of stuff on his mind and is running lows on fucks to give.

[twinked_witch]

"Where'd the speedsters come from?", Megaera asked in reponse. One bunny that had gotten rater closed slipped away as Rob poked at the wizardess.

"... Seriously, what happened while I was out?"

OTA

[superdrowningskills]

For Alucard, the sudden infestation of bunnies is like Christmas. ...Or at least that's what he'd be thinking if he knew what Christmas was. Still, the point stands that it's a pretty nice surprise by his standards.

There's a fair chance that people may run across him chasing rabbits throughout the day, or if they're unlucky, eating one raw. In either case, he seems pretty pleased about the whole thing in spite of the usual lack of a smile.

[scary_music]

Alucard will run across Ibuki at some point, pretty much doing the same thing he is... except without any intent to eat them, and with a huge smile on her face as well!

"Alucard-chan, Alucard-chan! Look, look, we have rabbits!" she said happily, while chasing after one of the rabbits, "Ibuki wonders where they came from! Maybe Ibuki can take one for a pet!"

Quietly… leaves this here...

[individuates]

Kaoru was fully aware of the possibility that other Bastionites might attempt to curb the suddenly skyrocketing bunny population, and was already trying to save as many as he could. Too bad the size of the bunnies makes it hard to carry more than two at a time, even if one could hold one and simultaneously chase another down... but he appears to have successfully wrangled himself a buck - which seems to be settled contently in his arms. Yes. He will be quite happy with this one.

He comes up on Ibuki and Alucard from behind, gently playing with his bunny's ears.

"Why is he chasi- oh."

Aaaaand carefully turning his back. He had no desire to witness - or force his bunny to witness - the death of an innocent member of bun-kind for the sake of food. Not that Kaoru didn't enjoy a good steak on occasion, but he rather preferred to put the Animal Sacrifice aspect of it out of his mind.

Which could sometimes be difficult to do, when one lived with Alucard.

ota / 1

[notduchess]

Well, those also look like some sort of food to Duke. After a moment of staring at them, the knight heads into the training hall, retrieves a bow and a quiver of arrows, and stops near the fence of the firing range. Not that that fence did anything against the rabbits.

"If I remember right, a smoking house doesn't need to be that big.." Yes, Duke is thinking out loud while stringing the bow. "Can start putting some emergency food supplies in rooms..." Wait braiding all that hair would be a good idea before actually shooting.

"... Probably could ask Colin if he has any ideas how to dry fruit faster... maybe non-smoked meat if people don't like the taste..."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob stops to catch his breath and sees Duke with archery equipment. He heads over, breathing heavily.

"Was kinda hoping that some of 'em could get herded into the animal pen before we started killing them, but since the Monument'll spawn new ones I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?"

[notduchess]

Duke points the bow at the ground when Rob starts talking, because Duke isn't that good at archery that shooting and talking seems like a good idea. And there had been way to many of them on the way from apartment to training hall for them to be escaped pets, in Duke's mind.

"... We'd need snares to do that a lot more easily. They're used to evading things...." Duke pauses and thinks about ways to lure prey animals closer. "... or get some food on a rope and pull it toward the pens."