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 Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:58 pm
Being in these more public areas of the court had a tendency to coax conflicting memories out of Rabbit, reminding him of a time when he had purpose. When he was a slave. When he knew what was expected of him when he woke and did what was expected until he fell into bed, too exhausted to dream of anything better. He missed it sometimes, that routine. That feeling of neutered safety. Knowing who he was and what the future held. He knew he shouldn't miss it at all, shouldn't think of it with a smile on his face, which was why he was making new memories by playing hide and seek in the halls with his kids.
He was doing the seeking part now, and although he had already spotted Neverain behind a nearby curtain, he was giving the boy the benefit of the doubt for a few more minutes. It was hard enough to hide that tail as a third party participant, let alone when it was attached to you. He'd find Sy first. Give Nev a thrill this round.
Rabbit ducked slightly as he tiptoed around the nearest corner, his bare feet silent on the marble floor. Saying he'd find Sywyly and actually doing so were two entirely different things.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:07 pm
Shiloh was absolutely besides himself.
He was staring at the tiny little... thing before him, and the thing in return was staring back up at him with tiny blinking eyes. Atop its head was a tiny budding sprout, and it was only about three inches in height from tiny feet to larger in proportion head. It made tiny squeaky sounds; sort of the sounds a group of baby birds would, or maybe newborn kittens. Either way Shiloh was about two seconds from screaming.
Because what the ******** was it and why was it following him around? Shiloh took a step back, it took a step forward. Was it weird Court s**t? It had to be weird Court s**t. He was here to look into weird Court s**t, sure, but not this.
"What are you." He asked it, but all it did was chirp, which was weird because it didn't have a mouth as far as he could tell. Suddenly the creature went from the silent adoring stare to looking around the rest of the hallway. It pointed off in an arbitrary direction. "You wanna... go somewhere?"
It started walking slowly. Which was to say it had short legs and couldn't go very fast. Shiloh followed the creature at a very slow, meandering pace. Eventually he came into a more open part of the court, and found himself face to face with...
He ducked behind a pillar, foot hooking around the plant thingy to drag it over also (it squeaked like a toy, but stayed hidden and in place). "What is he doing..." He wondered aloud, albeit quietly.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:31 pm
Sywyly was behind a pillar too, not the same pillar, but a pillar that was slightly farther down the hall than Shiloh's pillar, putting him between her and her father. The siren watched the noble and his companion with wide, unblinking eyes, then after half a minute or so she slid out of cover, hugging the wall for a bit before darting over to join him.
"Benben's playing hide and seek," Sy breathed. "He's really bad at it. They both are."
She smiled, close-lipped and curious, while Rabbit continued his horrible impression of a ninja across the room. Maybe if she turned just so, his clumsy attempts at sneaking would be less attention-grabbing.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 2:11 pm
Shiloh jumped, but he was silent at least. The small child hadn't been anything was expecting, but as he thought back to it... he recalled the moment he became a Noble, all of them sitting in the room, Rabbit with the tiny bird things. Was that what this was? It sort of looked like a bird thing, but bigger.
"Jesus <********> you scared me." The plant thing he had chirped at the bird thing, and Shiloh shushed it quickly. He wasn't going to get ******** over for ruining a game of hide and seek for some bird-child. He was still speaking quietly. "How long've you been hiding?" He sort've almost wished he had some sort of magic invisibility powers. Shiloh was a kid at heart in a lot of ways. As it was he was a plant guy who smelled like rain and that wasn't really the best for an incognito approach.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 8:10 pm
Her smile broadened when he cursed, her self-imposed job done. "Sorry." She peeked around the pillar, making sure they hadn't been outed. "Ten minutes, maybe? I'll probably pretend to give up soon." Sy looked at the plant, considered chirping back, then waved instead. They probably didn't speak the same language anyway.
"Why are you hiding?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:30 pm
"You're that good, huh?" The tiny plant thing on the ground seemed impressed, having taken a seat on Shiloh's shoe to watch the antics play out. It tilted its head at Sy's wave before shaking it's body the way a bobblehead would, the sprout atop it's frame jostling wildly. Shiloh looked kinda perturbed about this, so he shook his foot to get it to stop acting... weird.
"I dunno why, actually..." He whispered back as he watched Rabbit. "I guess I didn't feel like getting caught off guard."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:11 pm
She waved her hand in a dismissive arc that could only be described as 'pshaw'. "Nah. They really are that bad. You just gotta keep moving and they'll look and look where you used to be." Sy blinked at the plant-person, her smile smaller but still in place. It really was the cutest thing. She wanted to ask more about it, but she couldn't whisper indefinitely. She held up a finger, wing feathers brushing her side.
"Be right back."
Sy slipped away, continuing down the hall until she was a few tapestries ahead of Rabbit. She spread her tail, making sure it was visible at the edge of the fabric, then added a jutting foot for good measure. Sure enough, as soon as he reached her, Rabbit whipped her cover aside and shouted,"AHA!"
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2017 8:45 pm
Shiloh looked pretty amused at that. What a clever little s**t. "That ain't bad." He said with a little bit of a smile, and then waved her off when she went to go get caught. Rabbit seemed so goddamn pleased with himself. It would've been heartwarming if Shiloh didn't have piss poor feelings connecting to the idea of family.
Maybe it was about time he let himself get caught too. The plant baby thing chirped when he moved his foot away, his shoes making staccato sounds on the smooth floor. The plant thing was struggling to keep up with its tiny little lets.
"G'job." He congratulated Rabbit with a deadpan voice.
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Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 6:10 pm
The only indication he had that anyone was nearby was Sy's rather conspiratorial expression and the flick of her eyes to the right. It wasn't enough. As soon as Rabbit heard the click of Shiloh's shoes against the floor he jumped slightly anyway. At least his reaction wasn't as embarrassing as it might have been. He turned, smiling when he saw who it was.
"Hey!"
Then he remembered the boy's suspicion during Jeremiah's meeting and the smile faded.
"Thanks. It's just, um, hide and seek? You know." Shiloh's monotone wasn't very friendly either. "How are you doing?"
Another bird child of a similar size as the first had come out of hiding after his father's shout, and he joined his sister with a grin, predictably proud that he hadn't been caught.
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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 8:16 pm
Shiloh tilted his head, "Hide and Seek in the middle of Court?" He didn't sound judgmental with this observation though; more or less he was just speaking out loud to try and process his thoughts. The deadpan faded. He smiled. "That's kinda fun." He looked down at the squeeps, though it wouldn't be that obvious behind the black lace that veiled his eyes. "You did really good not getting caught, by the way." Shiloh usually wasn't the one to hand out things that he perceived as pity trophies, but it was kinda different with kids. Sometimes it really helped their confidence.
Even if they were like, bird-children, it was cool. He had a bean child or something so he supposed there were weirder things. The sprout thing squeaked as it did donuts around one of Shiloh's feet.
"Things've been worse." Shiloh replied with a shrug. He would treat Rabbit with more respect than the other Nobles, if only because he knew he had endured hell like he had. Maybe it hadn't been Melany, but Lady said Ezra hadn't been much better. "I wasn't really expecting to run into anyone here. Not so soon after, y'know." He shifted uncomfortably.
"The meeting."
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:57 pm
"Yeah," Rabbit replied. He almost went on to discuss his reasoning—hide and seek helped him soften the edges of what had happened here, it taught the kids not to be intimidated by this place—but then he noticed the plant person circling Shiloh's foot and making excuses seemed less important. Whatever it was reminded him of the sirens during that brief time they had been too small to take care of themselves. Rabbit almost grinned, a smile threatening before he pulled it back. Behind him, Neverain bobbed his head in thanks for Shiloh's praise.
When Rabbit spoke again, it wasn't about his out of place game. "The meeting." He hadn't been prepared, not for the questions asked or the angry replies. Certainly not for the all the new information he had added to what he already didn't know.
"That was definitely a thing. Uncomfortable and... too much responsibility. Maybe. I mean, I'm not trying to pass off my job or anything, I just don't really know what I'm doing. I don't want to hurt anyone." He swallowed and looked away from the veil, feeling Nev and Sy's curious eyes and ears noting and storing everything he said.
"I'm sorry if I did something wrong with Temperance. You seemed... betrayed, almost. And I was just trying to help."
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:56 pm
Shiloh offered the sirens another smile before Rabbit spoke up again. The meeting, right, that had gone... poorly, to say the least. "Very uncomfortable, but only towards the end really." He said with a shrug, his shoulder rolling. The tiny sprout was trying to climb his leg, but was finding little traction on the unnaturally-smooth fabric of his court attire. "I don't really know what I'm doing either, but I'm trying to figure it out. I have to." Instead of sounding proud or responsible though, Shiloh only sounded trapped by resignation.
"But um... It's... not really my place, I guess?" He started slowly, "When people wanna take tithes. I always said I was never going to do it, but a lot of people said that, and a lot of those people ended up taking one anyway. I don't really get it." He sighed, "But... that women."
He folded his arms in a way that he was almost hugging himself, but not quite. His hands grasped at his arms and he eventually found his words again, "I guess it's personal." He didn't seem happy, that much was evident by the tone of his voice, "And I guess it wasn't just here. There was a whole group of 'em." He looked up at Rabbit, "Y'know, when that fetch had stabbed Melany at the ball. They saved her."
Shiloh shuddered. "It's hard to look anyone in the eye knowing they brought someone who abused the ******** out of you back to life." A more responsible part of him would add that they might not have known, but the bitter nineteen year old in him felt scorned.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 5:06 pm
He had never really taken the time to figure out where he'd been while Adoelle was being murdered, while people were running from the ball's chaotic end, and while... apparently... Temperance was saving the Spinel Lady's life.
"I'm sorry," he said again, his voice muffled in his ears. He would not flip out in front of the kids. "I wasn't there and no one told me. That's..." Rabbit curled his fingers into loose fists, slowly inhaling and exhaling once as he thought. "I can see why you're mad. And it kind of makes it worse that that's one of the reasons why I tithed her. She wants to heal... everything. I thought thinking like that could do some good." He had practically run away when she'd first asked. Maybe he should have listened to himself.
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Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 3:08 pm
He shrugged, "I mean, it happened. It wasn't just her." He wasn't trying to justify it for her, but it slipped out regardless, "A lot of people were helping. I guess maybe they didn't realize? I wasn't around her during the ball, but... I guess I thought it'd still be obvious." Beel had told him some details of the party.
"Wanting to save people isn't bad," That was rather noble of her, "It just. Sucks. Y'know?" The sprout thing squeaked, Shiloh remembered where he was.
"Anyway uh, sorry." He glanced down to the squeeps for a second. "Can't really fault you for not knowin'. I ain't tryin' to start trouble in front of your kids." Nor was he trying to paint Rabbit as a bad guy in front of them either.
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Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:53 pm
"Yeah. I get it."
He was quiet, thinking, and when the sirens were mentioned and that weird sprout started talking again, he smirked. "It's okay. They know all about the things I've messed up. They probably knew about Temperance too." One look at them, however, told him they had not. "Or maybe we were all in the dark." Surely Oroh had known, though getting her to admit as much would be impossible. Did it really even matter? Probably not.
He turned to said kids with a bit of a flourish, gesturing at them in turn as he made introductions. "Neverain and Sywyly. This is Shiloh. He was there when you were born."
Sy made a face at that, as if Rabbit was paging through baby pictures in front of their future significant others. "Lord Shiloh." She ducked her head, better at respectful nods than curtsies. "Can I ask you where you got that plant?" She was a little more buttoned up than she had been when she hadn't known who he was, but her curiosity was stronger than her good manners.
"Is it alive?" Nev's feathers poofed slightly, but he too was on his best behavior. "Not just a magic doll or something?"
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