I'd like to phone a friend [Open]

[bringinghopewithme]

WHO| Bunnymund and whoever you are.
WHAT| Bunny tries to get help from below, by contacting a local Earth spirit. His attempts are failing to yield results.
WHEN| As soon as he got out of the Training Center into the city.
WHERE| The park at the center of The Districts shopping center.
WARNINGS| Child-friendly swearing, attempted magic.



A giant rabbit lighting fires in a park draws attention. Which is all the more frustrating for Bunny, since he SHOULDN'T be drawing attention, no matter what he does out in the open like this. Every adult who stares at him with open confusion hammers home just how wrong something has gone, that whoever's in power in this city has the ability to suppress him into as close a state to mortality as he's been in many hundreds of years.

He could grumble about his situation, but that would get in the way of trying to get help. So he ignores the stares and keeps at work. His work, so far, is a hole in the ground, a pawful of pulled grass, moss, and flower petals stolen from various topiary on his way in search of the most natural place he could find in the midst of the city. He strikes a shard of flint he uncovered in the digging of the hole against the metal of his communicator, lighting a fire in the dry moss on a patch of earth he's cleared of grass, and dropping the flower petals onto the heat.

The way he kneels over the smoldering plants has all the look of a ritual, and the words he intones over them in a language that hasn't been used in the Capitol in much longer than 75 years do also.

All his kneeling and chanting isn't yielding much, though, to his frustration. With a growl, he jumps to his feet over the smoking flowers, still looking at the ground. "I know you're there, and I know you can hear me! You might not recognize me, but I'm close enough to being one 'a yours and I need your help. Wake up."

Still nothing. He stamps the ground, impatient, and growls again as no hole opens, no flowers grow, nothing happens except that he garners a few more bewildered looks from the humans who shouldn't be able to see him.

"Strewth."

Comments

[polyturtle]

"...So, uh..."

And then, there was a turtle standing across from him, staring at the smoldering pile of former flowers and dirt. For a second, Don had thought it was Usagi, but as he'd gotten closer, he had realized that the rabbit was far too tall to be Leo's friend. No point in hiding, and...besides...

"What are you doing?"

[bringinghopewithme]

He'd have answered to the name, but he'd also have responded in (heavily accented) Japanese.

Bunny glanced up, and immediately taking Donatello for a spirit, relaxed inn slight relief. "Calling Terra. Or whatever she's called 'round here."

He looked steadily at Donatello as he spoke, frown deepening as he was unable to place a name with the humanoid turtle. "I don't know you. You local, mate? What do they call Grandmother Earth here?"

[polyturtle]

Luckily for Bunny, Don was American, through and through. Though hearing the Austraili-Japanese accent could have been hilarious.

"I'm afraid not." Don shook his head. "I'm a Tribute, just like you. And...I don't know. But you won't be able to contact them, or use magic, if that's what you're trying to do."

[bringinghopewithme]

"I shouldn't need magic to get Terra's attention. The ritual should be enough, even from a mortal. Quick means, either she's ignoring me, or she's not there at all."

Nobody seems to be getting the gravity of this, the horror presented by the lack of an earth mother, or one who doesn't care enough to listen to even a spring spirit. It's frustrating, but not add frustrating as being a kidnapped mortal.

"What did these people do to this planet?" Bunny pauses, to give his exasperation weight. "And how are you not a spirit?"

Frustration expressed, he's temporarily distracted by the anomaly the humanoid turtle represents.

[polyturtle]

"I'm...not a spirit. I'm a mutant," Don replied, shaking his head. "Look, basically...your ability to summon the spirits...any spirits...they won't work, unless the Capitol wants you to have them. Even then, they won't work the way you'd want them to. No one knows how, but they have the technology to suppress any potential special ability - regardless of origin - that one can possess in just about everyone that's brought here."

He paused.

"You're right in that things have happened to this world, though. This is a future Earth, at least for me. Its not in the best shape."

[bringinghopewithme]

"Oh believe me," Bunny says, the sarcasm in his tone thicker and thicker - "I've noticed. "

They'd suppressed so much of his power that he barely felt like himself anymore. There could be no hiding eggs all over the world in a day at the top speed he'd hit in the city, and he'd felt so tired afterwards. Mortality was more of a drag than he remembered.

It didn't do to dwell on it, though. Dwelling didn't restore his spirituality. "Mutant, ah? Mutations tend to run a little more subtle, round my part of the universe. Can't say I've seen your like before, and it's not often I get to say that."

It was a subtle compliment, but definitely one. Donatello was new, and quite possibly an unnatural marvel. Etiquette prevented Bunny from asking more - admittedly, it was rare he used any kind of manners, but in his opinion, a person's history and origins were theirs to give, not for others to pry out of them just because their existence was intriguing.

"So where are we, anyway? What did this place used to be called? I can tell we're on Turtle Island, but was this place Canada, or the U.S.?"

The important thing now is to gather as much info as possible, roll with the fact that he's mortal in another dimension, and a horrific one. None of that in any way negates the fact that he is a Guardian, and this is a world that probably endangers its children.

[polyturtle]

"Not exactly - I'm the only one like me that they've brought here." Thankfully, he could have silently added. "This was the United States - what's left of it, at least. Its called Panem, now."

Well. If Bunny didn't like the possibility of children being endangered before...

[bringinghopewithme]

The only one, ay? "Then you must be Donatello. A gray kid mentioned you."

He didn't yet understand the full extent to which Panem was prone to harming their kids. When he did, though, it would only deepen his resolve to find a way to somehow, even while mortal, tear them down.

[polyturtle]

"Guess my reputation precedes me, then?" At this, a ghost of a sheepish smile crossed his face. "You must have talked to one of the trolls, then."

[bringinghopewithme]

"Didn't look like e=any troll I ever saw," said Bunny, but he shrugged. Different strokes for . . . folks from different worlds? "I'm the Easter Bunny," he added, by way of introduction. "Bunny'll do."

[polyturtle]

"The--" Don blinked. Really? Rea--well, no, he really shouldn't be surprised who they managed to wrangle in by this point. "All right, then. Bunny it is."

[bringinghopewithme]

Oh, recognition. From a talking turtle that wasn't a spirit. Would wonders never cease?

"There's a me 'round where you're from, too?"

Hey, that was interesting.

"How about the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, Jack Frost? They ring a bell too?"

North gets no recognition. He'd bicker with the old blowhard about it when he got home. (And wouldn't being home to argue with North again be a relief.)

[polyturtle]

"All three of them," Don nodded. "I...guess I shouldn't be surprised that they'd be able to bring someone like you here. That you exist, all things considered at this point."

Says the talking turtle. Well then.

[bringinghopewithme]

"Surprised me well enough. They've stripped me of most of my power. I didn't know anyone could do that."

Now he knew, he'd . . find SOME way to be ion his guard.

"Did we make it to you, when you were a kid?" he asked, curious. A mortal kid was a mortal kid, regardless of shape, but had they known the turtles were there . . . ?

[polyturtle]

"Well...I don't know," Don admitted. "We didn't celebrate the holidays very intently, since we lived in the sewers our whole lives. A lot of our time was taken up by trying to...just survive. We celebrated Christmas and Easter, but...we didn't hold...well, illusions about ourselves."

No offense to the bunny, of course. As a kid Don just knew not to expect Santa and such, or if they did get anything it was mostly stuff that was either practical, thrown away from another source, and such. They didn't celebrate quite like humans because...they weren't human. No matter how they wanted to meet humans or have those things like humans.

It was only in recent years that they'd gone topside regularly to help people out, after all. Mikey at least still fully believed in Santa. Him, the jury was still out, but it was always possible.

[bringinghopewithme]

"What d'you mean, 'illusions?'"

He could guess pretty well, since Don had also mentioned living in the sewers.

"Listen, kids deserve all the things we Guardians do, no matter what shape they're in. If we exist in your world and missed you -"

Well, then apologies weren't enough. They'd failed in their duty, and that was sad.

"I'm just gonna have to give my regrets for all of us." He paused. "That includes North, too. He'd hate to think of a kid having anything less than a Christmas fulla wonder."

[polyturtle]

"Its all right. Really," Don insisted. "I don't blame you or any other Guardian for that. I mean...I didn't know you were a Guardian of any kind..."

[bringinghopewithme]

There was a lot he could say about that. How it wasn't a matter of blame, it was a matter of failing in their duty - but obviously there was nothing that could be done about it now.

"Obviously it's a little late now." He shrugged. "Any of your family here?"

He seriously hoped not, for Donatello's sake.

[polyturtle]

"No. No one's here." Donatello replied. "Its just me, thankfully."

'Thankfully'. But in all honesty, what the shell did he have to be thankful for?