Wei Wuxian (
acrookedpath) wrote2021-07-08 12:04 pm
[pfsb] it's so FLUFFY
In Wei Wuxian's defense, it isn't as if he forgot one should never eat free food unless it came from Madam Bar or the waitrats. It's simply that after nearly a year where he has -- only on occasion, mind you! -- accepted food and drink from strangers with no ill effects, he may have let his guard slip. Just a little.
Besides, he was so absorbed in his work that for all he knew, a waitrat had deposited the little bowl of animal-shaped desserts on his table. It wouldn't have been the first time he failed to notice one of them trying to get his attention.
So when he absently picked up a cracker to nibble on it as he worked through a particularly thorny set of talisman calculations --
Well.
The little black rabbit that now sits on the table, a red ribbon looped around one ear, just wants it emphatically known that this was not his fault.
Besides, he was so absorbed in his work that for all he knew, a waitrat had deposited the little bowl of animal-shaped desserts on his table. It wouldn't have been the first time he failed to notice one of them trying to get his attention.
So when he absently picked up a cracker to nibble on it as he worked through a particularly thorny set of talisman calculations --
Well.
The little black rabbit that now sits on the table, a red ribbon looped around one ear, just wants it emphatically known that this was not his fault.

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He describes the bond between the two, Hazel's protectiveness for his younger brother, and Fiver's unique gift of sight beyond this world, of visions that foretold things no normal rabbit could see. He tells the spellbound rabbits how Fiver had seen a great horror to come upon the warren, a horror so vast that the only way to survive was to leave.
But the Chief Rabbit wouldn't listen, Saxifrage says, mournfully. And so Hazel and Fiver chose to leave instead, and to take all who would come with them.
Faithfully, he names each of the members of the brave band, and tells of the scuffle as they depart, with Bigwig among them unexpectedly at the last.
They set off across the fields and through the woods to a place unlike that any rabbit had ever known, a place seen only in Fiver's dreams; a high, far place, rising up and up into the sky, where they would build a new warren. And on that journey they had many, many adventures...
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When the band of rabbits reaches the oddly conspicuous, empty warren of Cowslip, the fur stands up all along Wei Wuxian's back.
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From there, he explains in chillingly simple words the traps and snares hidden in the grasses and runs around the warren; how the rabbits who lived there had accepted their own harvesting; and how close they came to losing those among their number, were it not for Fiver’s warnings and Blackberry’s cleverness.
After that, nothing could separate them. Nothing could shake their trust in Hazel-rah, and in Fiver. And soon after, they came to the place they were looking for, high and clear and free, but our story does not end there. For it was after they arrived and built the new home, the home where I grew up, that they learned what had happened to Sandleford.
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He turns his face into the warmth of Lan Zhan's palm, as if to hide.
Rabbits shot. Tunnels gassed. Lands plowed up to make way for a settlement of humans. His emotions have always been so big that his human body can barely hold them all, and in a rabbit body, with a human mind -- ah, it is much worse.
(And if he thinks of cultivators storming the Burial Mounds, tearing up every shred of life Wei Wuxian had tried to sow in his brief year among the rot...
Well. He cannot be blamed for that.)
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He keeps his face buried in Lan Zhan's hand a little longer. Breathes in the sandalwood scent of him; the swirl of worry and love that mingles alongside.
At last, with a gentle lick of Lan Zhan's palm, he turns his face back to Saxifrage, keeping himself curled small under his zhiji's touch.
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…all the rabbits of Watership Down were horrified at the tale Holly told, and marveled at Fiver’s foresight and Hazel-Ray’s wisdom and leadership in bringing them safely away. And there on the down they made their home, soon to be joined by others, including a white bird from the distant sea — but that is another tale.
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A fine place. I have visited myself. In disguise, of course, he adds, as Saxifrage whirls to stare at him in shock.
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Wei Wuxian's ears swivel forward, and he eases out a centimeter or two from beneath Lan Zhan's hand.
Before you came to this forest, or do you come and go as you please?
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If only I could learn your tricks from you! he says. I cannot stray very far from the inn where I live, not without another's help.
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Rabscuttle rolls his eyes. Oh not again.
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He has gone still again, save the idle twitch of his nose.
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He arrived in the lake with his great black ship, which had sunk and taken him with it. Somehow he found a way out of the lake, he and the ship both, back to his world, and from the seas of the dead back to those of the living.
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His scuffs a paw against the side of his nose.
There are ways for the dead to return, but not the same as they were when they lived.
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I see. He tucks his paws beneath himself, forming a loaf with Lan Zhan's hand still resting on his back. One ear flicks: a wry, lapine smile. No wonder you were surprised I did not know who that was! We do have lords of the dead among humans, though I've never spoken to them personally, and we do not call them the Black Rabbit of Inle.
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I should say not, Rabscuttle snorts.
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The sparkle in his eye, and the amusement to his voice, is as much an invitation for El-ahrairah to tell his own story as any other.
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He was angry, to be certain, but what was worse is that he was vindictive. Some of his soldiers took Rabscuttle prisoner - don't look like that, it was an honest mistake, he tells him. They mistreated him sorely, and once we were able to manage his escape, Darzin swore to see me and my people destroyed once and for all.
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Next to him, Saxifrage settles close and grabs a carrot of his own.
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--then someone else would have, or something would have happened, or who knows. Darzin wasn't going to give up without a fight, that much was obvious, El-ahrairah snaps at him, before telling the rest of them, And a fight is exactly what he sought out. He brought his army and penned us up in our warren so that we could barely snatch a mouthful or two of grass to keep us alive without being shot at.
Something about his gaze indicates he's seeing another place, another time, as he says, So I swore that I would go and bargain with the Black Rabbit of Inle to save my people.
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