A/N: I'm sorry for not keeping up with fanfiction! :(
Glancing around, the black rabbit walked towards the cave. The violet bear was by his side, but part of him couldn't help but feel nervous.
Knowing what happened in those woods... and knowing that they were about to unleash that horror again... Bonsha didn't like it. However, he couldn't voice his concerns; he was one of them, he should have no concerns for the subjects on the planet's surface.
That didn't change the way he felt, though.
"This place has a very... eerie feel to it," Shafred commented and Bonsha simply nodded in agreement as they stepped into the cave.
Not even ten yards inside the cavern was a dull grey crystal, sitting on a stone pedestal. It dwarfed the two Animals, standing at twice their height- which was impressive, considering Shafred was nearly seven feet tall.
Pale eyes scanning the surroundings, Bonsha quickly located a hole in the wall. It was small, almost too small for even a Lapinian to crawl into, but that was fine; Bonsha knew exactly what he had to do. The tight space wouldn't bother him.
"There," he pointed it out to his companion, and without waiting for a response he walked over to it. Inside the hole it was dark- pitch black, if one were to ask Bonsha- but he wasn't afraid of shadows. With hardly any consideration, he climbed up into the hole and crawled through it. "I'll be right back."
"Right," Shafred's voice echoed through the narrow passage. Bonsha continued crawling through, resisting the urge to shudder as things dripped on him and the rough stone cut through the knees of his pants and the palms of his hands. That was fine, though, he could deal.
Then the narrow tunnel came to an end and the walls were no longer brushing against his fur. Carefully standing to his feet, he glanced around the dark, dank cavern, wrinkling his nose as the scent of rot and decay hit him.
Swiftly pulling a small object from his pocket, he threw it up into the air and it lit up, reflecting off of the crystals on the ceiling. Red, blue, green, violet and silver shone down on him, but he didn't let the colours distract him; in the center of the "room" was another crystal, this one much smaller- about waist height, he noticed- and pure white.
Taking a deep breath and instantly regretting it, he walked across the muck-covered ground and stopped directly in front of the white crystal. Its surface was smooth and unblemished- clearly not a natural phenomena.
And so history repeats itself, he thought forlornly as he pulled something else out of his pocket. Pressing a button, a beam shot out from it, stabilizing almost instantly; it was silver. Acting quickly, Bonsha placed the light against his palm, feeling its heat on his skin, and drew it along his palm- deep and painful, but that was alright. Immediately blood pooled out from the cut, and Bonsha simply turned his hand over, letting it fall onto the white crystal.
He watched as the blood ran down in small rivers, sinking into the crystal's surface, and the red began to spread over and through the crystal. Releasing the button on the hilt, the blade of light dissipated and Bonsha headed for the passage again.
When the last spot of white was gone... well... the caves were the last place anyone wanted to be.
It did, in fact, rain that evening.
The water droplets falling from the sky were almost shockingly cold, and in the distance Blu could hear thunder rolling. He stared up curiously at the sky from his place in the clearing he had located before, finding it almost mesmerizing to watch the heavens above.
The clouds lit up, followed closely by the thunder. The water fell in sheets, soaking him through to the bone. He was freezing, but... it felt...
Different.
Exciting.
"Blu," he heard Red hiss to him, grabbing his arm and yanking him to the relative safety of the trees. "You'll get sick if you just stand out there."
"It's so cool," Blu muttered, just barely loud enough for Red to hear. His eyes scanned over the soaked ground, watching the puddles reflect the darkening sky. He could feel the freezing water seep into his shoes, which were still wet from his tumble into the river just earlier. "Is it really allowed to just... fall where it wants?"
"It's rain, Blu," Red started, confusion lacing his tone. "It wants for nothing and is under no one's control." Carefully, he pulled Blu along with him towards the hastily-built shelter. Even under the thick canopy of the forest, the rain managed to drizzle down to them. Two concerned Bears and a Human were watching, waiting for them, from the temporary shelter.
"Not on my planet," Blu sighed, his gaze firmly on the rain even as Red pushed him under the awning. "I've never seen it before..."
"You've never seen rain before?" Mike questioned, raising a brow at Blu. Glancing at the Human, Blu just shook his head before looking back out to the rain.
He was dimly aware of Red pushing him towards the fire pit, saying something about drying out.
"How?" This time one of the Foxes asked. "Even inside our domes we get rain..."
"Same," the Chickens chorused. Blu didn't bother looking at them as he answered.
"That's because your cultures are agriculture based," he told them, allowing Red to pull him down by the fire. "Your governments recognize that precipitation is necessary for all segments of society and devised a means to artificially recreate-"
"English, please," Jeremy cut in, knowing very well that the unnecessarily long words would throw off the non-native speakers, translation program or not.
Rolling his eyes, Blu tore his gaze away from the rain falling outside to look at the fire. Over its crackling he could hear the droplets slamming into the wooden and leaf roof. "Basically," he started, "even though you live in domes, you're, uh... still dependent on farms." How the hell am I supposed to explain this? "Lapinia isn't like that," he finished lamely.
"Very informative," the golden Lacatran snorted from where he lounged against his brother. Blu frowned. "Look, not even Lapinians can be completely separated from nature so I call-"
"Actually," Freddy interrupted, glancing at the Lacatrans, "as someone who has actually been to Lapinia, I can verify that they don't have natural weather patterns. Nor do they have natural disasters nor natural wonders."
"The most natural thing on Lapinia are the oxygen factories," Goldie added with a laugh, "and even that's not exactly... natural."
"Oxygen factories?" Foxy parroted, raising a brow.
"And how do you not have natural weather?" Red muttered, obviously confused.
Blu mindlessly played with his wet fur, frowning. He didn't want to talk about his planet, but it'd be rude to ignore their questions. It wasn't like their questions would exactly be harmful, anyway. It wasn't like they were asking about Lapinian traditions or culture...
"About six, maybe seven centuries ago a scientist figured out how to control atmospheric properties, and it was perfected four centuries ago," he explained flatly, trying his best to keep annoyance out of his tone. He kept his eyes firmly on his fur. "The planet is completely covered in cities- even the oceans. There's no forests or swamps or anything like that left and it occurred to my ancestors that maybe they really messed up when they remembered, Oh! Trees make oxygen and we need that to breathe! But then, oh! There's no trees left on the entire damned planet so we're gonna run out of oxygen! And so the factories were created using seeds," he finished a little more harshly than he meant to. "They have their own artificial atmospheres and there are, hm, five, I believe, on the entire planet, and through means that are too complicated for me to care about-"
"We get it," Goldie cut him off, even though they clearly didn't. The young Rabbit's tone had been steadily becoming harsher and angrier, though; it was best to cut him off before he worked himself up.
Blu let out a sharp breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding. "And thus," he deadpanned, glaring towards the Lacatrans, "no Lapinian in at least four hundred years has actually experienced rain."
"If that's how you guys deal with weather I'd hate to know how else you do things," Mike snorted. Blu chose not to say anything to that, and the group fell into an awkward silence. The thunder, rain, and fire seemed to be the only things brave enough to fill the air with sound.
It was almost calming.
"You know," Chii suddenly started, her tone chipper, "as long as we're stuck here, and we're around a campfire of sorts, and none of us exactly have anywhere else to go, why don't we all get to know each other?"
"Eh?" Blinking, Blu turned his attention to Chii. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we know each others' names, but we don't even know each others' interests or beliefs," she explained. "Or their dreams. Or, you know... anything about each other. Family, friends- stuff like that..."
Another, more comfortable, silence fell around them. The Chicken was right, they knew- none of them really knew each other. It made things tense, awkward even, and on some level Blu realized that he had never needed to "get to know" anyone before.
On Lapinia, all you needed to know was a person's name, occupation, and in certain circumstances, their parentage. He had never once before needed to consider his colleagues' or companions' interests or desires.
This is new.
"I think it's a swell idea," Freddy agreed, giving the fidgeting Chicken a gentle smile. "I think it would certainly give us more grounds for trusting one another."
"Ya think?" Foxy snorted, yelping when the white and pink Fox next to him hit his arm. "What?"
"Alright then," Mike agreed, leaning back on his hands and frowning in thought. "Who goes first?"
Another brief silence fell as they all glanced around, none wanting to presume. Blu turned his gaze to the fire, finally realizing just how cold he was as a shiver ran down his spine. His fur was heavy with water, and he started thinking that maybe Red was right about not standing in the rain...
"Who's the oldest?" Chica suggested, glancing around at all of them. "I'm nineteen."
"Same," the Lacatrans chorused.
"Seventeen," Freddy and Goldie informed them.
"Well, I be turnin' twenty-one in a few moons," Foxy put in, leaning on his hand.
As the others discussed their ages, Blu and Red shared a look before snorting. "No way are we in that debate," Red commented to him, and he could only nod in agreement. "How old are you anyway, Blu?" Red asked, voice much quieter now.
"Sixteen," Blu answered in a mumble, glancing over towards the others. It seemed that it had been decided that Foxy was the eldest of them all.
"I'm almost sixteen," Red put in, seeming almost surprised. "I thought you were younger than me."
"Funny, I did too," Blu admitted with an amused little grin. "But I'm not surprised. Lapinians always look young..."
If Red was going to respond, Foxy's voice interfered, and both teens turned back to the one-of-few adults in their midst.
"Well," Foxy started, glancing towards the roof, "I be an only child from the central southern sphere o' New Vulpinia. I be in trainin' to be one o' them folks who goes out on the water an' collects, ah... no English translation," he laughed, leaning back. "Basically I'll be a Seeker."
"A Seeker?" Mike parrotted, sharing a look with Jeremy.
"Aye! Someone who leaves the domes," he explained, shifting and glancing over them. "It's real dangerous but someone has to do it. But anyway!" He seemed to be changing direction, Blu noticed. "Me mates 'nd I like t' volunteer at the dome's theatre and sometimes we act 'r sing fer the little orphan kids."
"Aww, that's so sweet~!" Chii giggled, smiling.
"So what about ye, mate?" Foxy directed, looking towards Mangle. The white fox seemed somewhat surprised to be addressed without warning, but they quickly composed themself, sitting up.
"Oh, me?" Mangle started, laughing somewhat awkwardly. "I'm a student. I live with my mother, father, and my older sister." Blu raised a brow, watching as a strange expression crossed the fox's face, but it was gone within a second.
Though he couldn't be sure, Blu thought it looked like disgust.
"I'm also from the northern west dome," the Fox added, more for Foxy's sake because Blu sure as hell didn't understand it. "And I just generally walk around town, to be honest. Nothing... else to do on the westside."
"Why am I not surprised," Foxy snorted, and Mangle chuckled as well. A glance around showed Blu that he wasn't the only one who was confused. It must be a cultural reference.
Mangle's amber eyes trailed over to the Chickens and they raised a brow at Chica.
Understanding, the Chicken shrugged and answered, "I'm from the northernmost dome on Avia and I live with my mom and dad. And my aunt, too, but her husband and son died last year in the mines," she added, and Chii visibly winced next to her. No one chose to ask. "I'm in... well, there's no English translation for the word, it seems, but I'm in school studying environment. Um... my friends are a strange lot, they spend most of their time trying to find ways out of the dome so I've kinda been avoiding them, so lately I just stay home studying."
"Your friends are that sort, huh?" Chii questioned, raising a brow, and Chica simply nodded.
"I have no plans to get sent to the mines," Chica stated matter-of-factly, "so I figured it's best to just separate myself from them. Like hell I'm ruining my life."
"Smart choice," Chii agreed with a hum. Blu, again, chose not to ask.
In his mind, he thought of the camps. He didn't need to ask.
"I live with my dad," Chii told them, "in an equatorial eastern dome. I'm still in the government-mandated school system and I plan on becoming a baker and helping those who are in need."
"Noble cause," Freddy complemented and Chii smiled.
"It's what my mother did," she explained. "She was always my role model growing up, so..." She trailed off for a moment, a strange look crossing her face, before hastily looking to the darker-haired Human. "Mike, right?"
"Yeah," Mike confirmed, leaning back. "There's not really much about me," he told them, frowning slightly in thought. "I turn twenty next year, I'm in college for an art degree, and I like going to new and different places and experiencing new cultures."
"What about your family?" Jeremy asked, raising a brow.
"My parents are in Germany and my cousin, um... disappeared a few years back," Mike explained hesitantly, lifting his hand up to the back of his neck. "Geez, I completely forgot... me just disappearing's gonna destroy them..."
They allowed the silence to fall for a few seconds, but Mike was quick to turn his gaze to Jeremy. "What about you, huh?"
"Me?" Jeremy seemed almost surprised. "Ah... um... well, I live with my adoptive mother and father," he started, ignoring the raise brows that got, "and I have no siblings, but I have two cats named Mili and Ali-Cal- stop laughing, Mike- and a dog named Snuffer- I said stop laughing!"
"Sorry," Mike wheezed. Why he had just suddenly burst into laughter, Blu had no idea. "It's just- Ali-Cal and Snuffer?!"
Jeremy threw a nut at Mike's face- when did those get there?- before continuing, "I'm studying engineering at a local tech school in my town, and I spend my weekends writing stories, poetry and music. Well, what about you guys?" He directed his gaze towards the Bear twins.
"Answer separately," Bonnie tossed in, twirling a random stick between his fingers. Where'd he get a stick? Oh, well- we're only in a forest, Blu, duh...
Goldie stuck his tongue out while Freddy just chuckled and answered, "Well, we- I'm sorry, I am a student in my last year of Systematic Training. I'm actually training to become an Ursian ambassador. I live with my parents, my brother here, and three younger brothers who are all triplets-"
"They're brats," Goldie deadpanned, earning an elbow to the side from Freddy. "What?! It's true!"
"As I was saying," Freddy sighed, "in my free time I enjoy reading and singing. My friends all moved away so that's irrelevant. Goldie?"
"Right," Goldie agreed. "Basically, it's the same exact thing up until free time. I mean, I like singing too, but I'm more partial to going out and, you know, having fun to staying inside and reading."
"There's nothing wrong with reading," Freddy defended.
"Not for you," Goldie countered, his gaze sliding over to the third Bear. "What about the little Bear Colonist?"
"If you call me that again you'll find your face nailed to a tree in the morning," Red threatened, though it just earned a laugh from the group while Goldie mock-pouted. Somehow, though, Blu had a feeling the threat wasn't actually as empty as everyone else thought. "I live with my parents in the forest region of Ardraw," Red continued, humming softly as he thought his words over. "I'm still in school, but my parents are encouraging me to become the village representative. It doesn't appeal to me, to be honest."
"Any siblings?" Mangle asked curiously, raising a brow. Apparently they had also caught the lack of "only child" in Red's words.
There was a brief silence before Red simply said, "Nights on Ardraw are harsh." Blu had a feeling he understood what that meant. "I prefer to keep to myself, read, and write when I can." That was clearly the end of, as after finishing those final words Red glanced at Blu, raising a brow at him.
It took Blu a few moments to realize Red was signalling it was his turn, and it suddenly hit him that... he had no idea what to say.
Blinking, Blu looked at the fire. "Uh... I live with my parents in Capitol Square," he muttered, unsure of what else to say. "Um... no siblings, no friends, no hobbies. I'm just a science student."
"Liar," Bonnie snorted, and immediately Blu's eyes flew up to him. "You made a Chaska," he accused. Blu furrowed his brow, confused.
"Uh... no I didn't," Blu protested, but the Lacatran's brother simply pointed to a roughly familiar shape sitting against a tree. Blu couldn't deny that it was vaguely Chaska-like. When did I do that? "... Oh."
"Besides, you've already said you like music," Bonnie added, rolling his eyes. "So how about you just stop with the clinical, clean answers and tell the damned truth."
Blu felt like he should be offended- that Rabbit knew nothing about him, after all, but from the way Red was looking at him, he seemed to agree.
But there was nothing to say. He didn't have any friends and his mother didn't allow him to have any hobbies.
"There's really nothing else," Blu told them, feeling almost defeated- because he wanted to believe that there was more. "I like music but I can't call it a hobby, right before we came here my mother confiscated my, uh, instrument." He didn't want to use the word Chaska, not when there were Lacatrans around and they clearly pronounced it differently than what he had always thought. "Said it got in the way of my schoolwork, called it a disgusting primitive device and threatened to toss it out if I didn't improve my school grades," he added in a bitter mutter, looking away from the Lacatrans. "That's literally all."
"What about your father?" Chii questioned. "Surely he has-"
"No." Quickly he looked back towards the Lacatrans, hoping he didn't look as tense as he felt. His bones were freezing, and he had a feeling that it wasn't from the rain anymore. "Well?"
Bonnie eyed him, his red eyes reflecting the firelight. Something in those eyes unnerved Blu, but he refused to back down.
It looked like Bonnie knew something.
"My parents are dead and I live with Spring and our younger brother," Bonnie answered finally, his eyes never leaving Blu's. "I'm done with school and am training to become a village guard."
He's training to become a soldier, Blu understood. He's training to fight in the next rebellion.
He's training to get himself killed, is what he's doing.
"And for the record," Bonnie added, and Blu had a feeling he was talking directly to him, "I play the Chaska in my free time." Yeah, definitely talking to me.
As though he wanted to dispel the awkward, tense air that had erupted during Blu's explanation and Bonnie's subsequent... Challenge? What is it, even?, the golden Lacatran started, "I take care of our little brother and care for the village elderly and disabled, with help from other village members of course."
That was honestly surprising to Blu; he hadn't expected the Rabbit who threatened to kill him just moments after noticing his presence would be a caretaker. Apparently it was surprising to the others, too, as Blu saw more than a few brows raise at the new information. Bonnie just snorted, finally tearing his gaze from Blu to look around at everyone's surprised expressions.
"What?" he drawled, clearly amused as he leaned back on one hand. "Didn't think my hotheaded, acts-before-he-thinks, somewhat-violently inclined brother could be a domestic housemaker?"
Spring promptly hit him upside the head, shouting, "I'm not a domestic housemaker, you chithk!" This, of course, immediately broke the tension between Lacatran and Lapinian, and the rest of the group started laughing as the two Colonists began arguing, very loudly, what defined a Lacatran "domestic housemaker."
Blu didn't really understand the term, to be honest, but apparently it was considered an insult on some level. Why, Blu wouldn't know; he personally had to commend anyone who could properly care for a home and all of its inhabitants, with or without help.
Lacatrans, he reminded himself, were very different.
However, Blu couldn't help but wonder if the argument was Spring's endgoal. The golden Rabbit did look a little too satisfied to have just suffered an insult. If it was his goal, he noted silently to himself, shifting away from the fire and closer to the falling rain, then he's sneakier than I thought. And his brother fell right into the trap.
He closed his eyes, listening to the sudden influx of conversation around him and the dwindling argument between the brothers as each were drawn into a different conversation. No one tried to pull him into conversation, something for which he was glad. The people around him weren't all that bad, and he didn't want them to know just how...
Nevermind.
He listened to the rain falling on the roof and outside, hitting the trees and leaves and the grass-covered ground. He listened to the wind in the trees, the distant thunder, and the voices filling the air around him, allowing the sound to relax him and chase his darker thoughts and memories away- allowing him to live in that moment.
Is this what it's like to be normal? Is this what it's like to be... not-Lapinian?
He smiled.