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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 12:49:50 GMT -6
"Uh..." the piggy busman tries to interject, but the stranger thrusts the two fares forward, I did notice they had yanked it right out of my paw while rubbing my head with the other hand. "Wait a minute..." "Is there a problem?" the whomever who is behind me leans in and is considerably SHORTER then I am, staring right at the piggy busman. Something shines just in the lowest corner of my eye. "No officer. Not at all. You and your *ahem* SERVICE ANIMAL can get on the bus. One fare to New Pethia City, the other to..." he squints at the ticket "The Burrows". The two tickets are punched through, handed back, and I'm given a little shove in the small of my back, below my knapsack, to move up the stairs. 'Play along.' the voice from behind tells me as some small hand holds onto my knapsack straps and I walk down the bus isle. +1
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 12:55:52 GMT -6
The person? behind me keeps shoving me along a little until we reach the back of the bus. Everyone, all the humans who are more colors, sizes and shapes then I could dream of seeing, STARE at us. Until I'm settled on the seat, the 'person?' behind me hops up and sits next to me, using my leg as leverage. Its not a person at all, going by smell alone. Big gray-purple eyes stare up at me, the little bunny face occasionally quivering. She's dressed like a person, but wearing a hat, so her big ears fall down her back like hair. A gold badge glints on her blue vest, marked with orange stripes. But she's brown furred, with a white star on her forehead. 'Sorry about that. You got the bad luck of the meanest busman in the city.' she whispers just enough so I can hear her. Glancing at my pack where Mira's eyes are just visible. They duck away.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:02:20 GMT -6
'Thankfully he's super stupid, so one glance at this badge and he shuts right up.' She points at the badge, which upon a closer inspection, is made of shiny fake plastic. 'I read about this rabbit who became a police officer and got inspired by her story. So I... kinda cosplay as her.' the rabbit shifts with embarrassment, twining her big toes around each other. I did note she has no shoes. Nothin' wrong with cosplay, I tell her. My cousin cosplays as his favorite comic hero still, but only at home. She giggles at this. Are you related to Chef Rabbit?, I ask. 'Chef Rabbit is my brother in law, twice removed.' she whispers to me. Right, rabbits have this big extended family. 'I was visiting the wood so we could check property on picking a new burrow.' So she must've been meeting with the ferrets. 'You've got a really cute little friend in there. Is she friendly?'
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:07:11 GMT -6
I don't know yet. I just got her a few hours ago, I tell the curious little rabbit. The bus has lurched to life beneath us, and she's gripping the edges of the seat rather hard. Is this your first time on a bus?, I ask her. '...yes.' she admits, staring at her big rabbit feet again. They are practically twisting together. Was she afraid of motor vehicles? 'Is it yours?' I've ridden a little motorcycle at one point, but never a bus, so yes., I tell her. She fishes out a map from her own tinier knapsack and spreads it out over both of our laps. She points out, as quietly as possible, for where we were, with the woodlands, and the City, where I was going. Its quite a long ways, and would take a long time to send mail, I realize. Perhaps I should be investing in a telephone when I get lodging. Mira's occasionally peering out, her eyes watching from under the flap of the knapsack.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:13:30 GMT -6
As we travel, and she's folded up her map now, once pointing out where she was going was even further away, in the plains beyond the Pine Forest, I notice she's practically shaking. Are you okay?, I ask her. She glances at me, looks away, and starts wringing her hands, muttering softly. Even softer then her whisper already. '-I'm afraid of foxes...-' she mutters finally with her paws grasping each other extremely hard. '-but I don't like bullies, so I helped.-' I already knew she was scared, her scared rabbit smell enough to put any other fox out of his mind and in 'chasey mode'. But I feel determined to show her I'm not a threat. So I shift forward in my seat until my shoes are firmly on the moving floor, arrange my tail so its not being sat on, and lean heavily back until my spinal column is in a way I should not keep it. The picture of 'pretty relaxed fox'. Holding Mira and the knapsack on my chest.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:22:18 GMT -6
'-Um... why are you leaving your woods?-' she finally asked me after we stay silent for several minutes. I want..., I had to think about my answer. I don't like being dishonest with people, as a personal rule. Honest Kris. I want to make an honest living on my own, away from my family., I finally tell her. I...want to learn about the human world outside my fox hole. I can see the little furrow between her eyes deepen, its really easy to see that in both this moving light and the short brown fur. Harder when you have near black fur all over your body, like me. '-books can do that. They can teach you about the world.-' she points out. Only from one point of view. Either by us animals, or the humans. I want to see with my eyes, a wild animal's eyes, the outside world. +1
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:30:56 GMT -6
Once she's not shaking nearly as badly, I choose to carefully shift my position back into something normal. Don't get me wrong, I work hard to stay flexible, but my spinal column complains if I'm corkscrewed up too badly, so instead I wrap my legs in a pretzel and settle into a lotus position, my knees just hanging off the seat. Leaning my back into the hard and uncomfortable humanmade seat, I close my eyes, and imagine myself in the middle of the woods, having one of my meditation sessions. The weight of the knapsack, the steady and soft breathing of the panilla in my bag, the quickened heartrate of my seat-mate rabbit, and the sensation of movement by the bus. As I focus inwards on my meditative core, the bus slows... and comes to a stop. Well, so much for getting a session of meditation in before I reach my stop...
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:36:00 GMT -6
The bus literally lowers as something up front and HEAVY gets up and bumps each time as it goes down the stairs. It practically bounces back up a bit, and the rabbit beside me squeaks a bit with the movement. I open my eyes and find a small amount of humans getting up and leaving the bus. Where are we, I ask the rabbit. She's moved so she's sitting on her knees, peering out of the window in the back. Its a small stop, and humans are leaving the bus. Taking larger bags and such from where the piggy busman is pulling them from the stomach of the big strong bus. 'One of the stops between here and the City.' she tells me. 'the busman is making the bus barf up bags and such.' I can't help imagining that scenario, of the piggy man reaching his arm into the bus' mouth and making it barf up suitcases. 'They're dry though... did the bus not eat them? does it eat them like a bird eats rocks?' I just shrug when she looks back.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 13:43:46 GMT -6
Why did the busman act like I was some sort of animal?, I ask her. I'm clearly wearing clothes and holding a ticket in my paw. She pauses in thought for a minute or so. Because she seems to understand me just fine. 'He may not understand Wild Animal Speak' she points out. 'Its an acquired language outside the woods. Because I'm also an animal, I understand you.' He understood you just fine though... I point out as she returns to sitting in her seat properly. We can hear the busman pulling the last of the bags from the belly of the bus, stomping back around and making the bus literally sink a few inches to get back on and up the stairs before getting into that big chair up front. 'I picked up enough human speak to get by acting like that rabbit police officer' she whispered to me. 'So I don't understand much...' and that made sense, as I shift the bag in my lap so Mira doesn't tumble in her sleep.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 14:28:51 GMT -6
'From what I hear, the City is home to many animals, but the languages are very wide range. From Wild Animal Speak, to Human Speak, to many many others.' She digs around in her knapsack again and passed me a brochure. It has a picture of a big white building, and I don't mean cobbler sized. I mean BIG, TALL, LIKE A TREE WITHOUT BRANCHES building. Its written in a language I don't know, but from my confused expression, she opens the brochure and starts to read to me. I'm still holding my knapsack, as the bus begins to move again. 'New Pethia. A city formed around the Magical Menagerie Labs, a company that takes science, mixes it with lost magic, and uses it to create new life. Ever wanted a fire breathing dragon? How about a goat hooved horse that can walk on air. A dog-lion who walks through walls? Anything is possible. No longer in business, the Labs building stands tall as a memorial landmark to the originals who were given out for free to the citizens of the labs. But now, succeeded!'
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 14:34:15 GMT -6
'Today, the Labs is running again, with a fledgling group most commonly called WELP. They have released three species to the public; a carnivorous deer, a gorilla-dog with dangerous spit, and a ...cat. Yeah, thats a cat.' the rabbit clears her throat and continues to read to me. 'Our fair city culture thrives around owning pets. We own them, train them, fight them, show them, breed them, and collect them. One can even apply to the labs to have their own 'customized' pet created for them. Its a dream come true for people looking into the animal trade.' She glances at me. 'Thats the kind of place you're gonna go. The humans and other kinds own and sell animals for fun and profit.' She's clearly distressed about it a bit. I doubt that means selling animals like us, I point out to her. Please keep reading? 'Okay.' she adjusts the paper, and my knapsack rustles a little. +1
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 17, 2020 15:12:32 GMT -6
'An important rule to know about integrating into our city society is that prejudice against other races is strictly prohibited. Human, halfbreed ersatz, beastman, birdman, ssashirk, insect people, whatever. All are welcome here in New Pethia. If you experience a case of prejudice, please report to the City Hall.' She looks a bit surprised as she reads the next paragraph to me. So it was a haven, as I'd heard of. 'Sounds a bit better then what I originally heard. Don't go there, my parents told me. They sell animals.' Don't worry, I tell her, I'm not a defenseless fox. They won't take me away easily. Usually when I smile, others are reassured, but seriously she starts shaking again when I do. Well, I thought it was an idea. I pat the knapsack. I am also not alone. Mira is with me. 'I... I guess...' she muttered to her knees, her fists balling on her knees. '-sorry-'
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 18, 2020 10:32:25 GMT -6
The next amount of time spent on the bus gets pretty tense for us. My seatmate rabbit is simply too uncomfortable to talk to me anymore, and I don't have much to discuss. Did you hear from your brother in law about the BBB incident at all?, I ask her. A long pause before she appears to be thinking, and nods. The BBB incident hit national news for most animals several years ago. Do you have an opinion on the story?, I ask her. '-I think... that its wrong to steal, even from bad humans.-' she finally decides. '-I understand how desperate the robbers were, but it was their own fault to start a war with humans over their food-' Her opinion on 'their fault' seemed to match up for whomever heard about the incident outside of the woods. I agree, its wrong to steal from humans., I agree with her, rearranging my legs into a pretzel to sit in a meditative stance again.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 18, 2020 10:42:49 GMT -6
I won't lie, I know more about the BBB incident then I'm willing to let on to a total stranger. Anyone in our neck of the woods knew personal detailing about it. Even years later, it was a haunting source. However, the humans in question were elderly at the point of the incident and from all we knew, had left their companies and such to their next generation; their human cubs. I think Uncle called it retirement, of leaving your line of work to live at home and do whatever you wanted. The knapsack in my lap shuffles a bit on top as the sleeping panilla rearranges herself again. '-Uh...what do you like to do for fun?-' my seatmate finally asks me, wringing her paws together again. Well, I tell her, I practice martial arts and mediation, but I'm not too bad at whackbat or acorns. She looks confused. 'What's acorns?' she asks me. I start telling her about a relatively simple country cub's game of throwing an acorn as hard as you can against the floor, it bounces against several objects and the goal is to catch it in a bowl.
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Post by Kristofor on Sept 18, 2020 10:52:43 GMT -6
'That sounds like a coordination game.' she says, to my agreed nod. 'I heard about whackbat, it sounds like humans bat-ball.' Bat-ball?, I ask her. She explains about a 9-human game where the field isn't long like a rectangle, but a big square with an edge shaved off. The human hit the bat-ball that the center tagger, the pitcher, she called it, as far as they could, and had to run around the field to all the little blocks (bases) while the other humans scattered in field as taggers ran to catch the ball and throw it to a human guarding a base. If they got around the whole four bases before they were tagged by a human who caught the ball on a base, it was called a home run. 'Its a very popular human game, depending on where you live. They watch it on those televisions and many humans go to watch it.'
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