This Means War!

Jerb:

A perfectly picturesque day, the kind photographers took shots of for postcards. Green trees rustled gently in the soft breeze, clouds lazily plodding along in the deep blue sky. Small waves rippled along the grassy hills, adding another instrument to the day’s song. It all melded beautifully with the yelling of children as they attempted to argue rules with plush toys.

”You can’t just throw each other in order to tag someone!”

”Why not?! You never said we couldn’t before! You can’t just make up new rules partway through the game!”

As a brunette boy tried to argue with the vanilla rabbit his raven haired friend attempted to back him up, the tall and lanky girl pushing her glasses further up her nose, ”Because you’re supposed to catch the person under your effort, not with someone else’s! Besides being “IT” transfers and you all keep playing as if it’s an infection, but we’re playing TAG and not Zombies!”

”But you never said we had to release the status!” a chocolate version of the other rabbit spoke up, ears bobbing a little as she jolted forward, ”Besides why would touching someone magically cure us anyways?! What, are we cursed by some novice or something?! Can’t even manage a simple spreading plague of some sort?! And why can’t the “IT” person seek out aid? Desa and I are twins: we team up every chance we get! If anything whenever he’s “IT” then I should be “IT” too!”

The quartet continued back and forth, the rabbits outraged by “unspoken rules” as they claimed and the two children yelling about loopholes. Behind the children stood a handful of their friends, the group sighing and one or two pondering how things turned out this way. They’d made a small request for a mage to play tag with them primarily in the hopes of seeing some fun magic in the works and failed to expect some girl to show up with a gaggle of living dolls. Not that she opted to play, a pair of them looking to the spot beneath a tree where Shade sat, completely tuning out the scene. As long as her denizens inhabited plush bodies she could summon countless ones, including those outside her main repertoire so she’d pulled out a veritable army and kept two companions for herself. In the pale girl’s lap sat a black moose, the bell around his neck occasionally giving off a small “ting” when he jolted in his snoring. Letting CM play tag would’ve been too risky, the moose easily moved to panic. Shade figured the moment he became It he might curl up into a ball of tears and then game would stall, so she’d easily opted to keep him close at hand and enjoy the events until he decided to nap.

Next to her sat a much larger entity, Gaspard just a little shorter than Shade, the blue striped canine sighing as he watched the bunny duet persist in their argument about “unfair” rules. ”Are you sure you shouldn’t step in, Mistress?” he gently tried to coax, only to receive a huff.

Their squabbles were merely another part of nature to Shade, the girl perhaps a little too used to such silliness back in Paradise. She supposed, however, for the sake of letting the game continue she might impose some ruling. Flipping up her sunglasses since the light nap needed a small pause apparently, she called out loud enough to garner their attention, ”And what’s wrong with alliances? At least be smart prey if you’re going to enjoy being chased: outwit your hunter. Use your strengths, allies: anything. The game might as well be about survival so either get good or play something else. Being upset that stuffed animals aren’t as easy to beat as you thought is a bit silly.”

It was always funny to watch a mixture ego and anger fuse: it created a tantalizing fire in one’s eyes. The duet of human children clenched their fists and Shade noted the last remark likely hit a nail on the head. Yet they only flapped their gums a few times like dying fish before snapping them shut and the white haired mage could see a few cogs start to turn in their little noggins.

”Fine. FINE! But NO complaining when we outsmart you, you stupid toys!”

”Wouldn’t dream of it!”

By the end of the day Shade’s only regret was that Gaspard refused any bets on who’d win, pointing out the lack of any scoring system. The kids proved a lot more resourceful than she’d anticipated, silently forcing her minions to up their ante in return.

’Shame stuffed animals don’t exactly tire out…but at least their parents won’t have to worry about rowdy kids now.’