{ota} you must not know 'bout me

[eucre]

She's hiding. She's been hiding for a few days now. Of course, she's only hiding from a few people. Chances are, if you're looking for her, she'll let herself be found.

But an angry Piper isn't a happy Piper and a not-happy Piper isn't quite fit for bouncing around the Deck and popping into castles like a happy Piper is. Which is why these past couple days, she's more often up in trees or hiding in bushes or generally not in people's faces.

Which is okay. Right? Piper can take a couple days to be a confused, raw, displeased Felicia, can't she?

Comments

[eucre]

She flails as he ruffles her hair, then grins up at him. "Love you, love you, love you, Rap!"

[messire_messer]

"There's the pretty girl smile. Now come along and take your mind off silly butlers." He's probably not going to be invited to the wedding. He thinks he ought to crash anyway just to watch the trainwreck between brothers and sisters.

[eucre]

"Silly billy butlers. Never know what to do. Always dum-dum-dummies!" She giggles, wrapping her arms around him.

[messire_messer]

"Always know the wrong thing to do," he corrects her, swinging her up so her feet go flying high. "Too focused on clean clean clean without making sure things are Right."

Can she balance on his shoulders, or is that too much?

[eucre]

She can try. His shoulders might hurt. "Too looking at one person to think about the other. Can't think about the two! Nope, nope."

[messire_messer]

That's okay. If she can't, she can still sit. "Can't think? Or won't think? It's easy to think about more than one person. Like Oliver, or Cynric."

[eucre]

"He can't. Brother's a one-track silly billy. But I can. S'easy. You can too!"

[messire_messer]

"S'what makes us Scallions, then. Dunneed to focus on any one thing." All the variety in the world. Though they might still have to carry paint buckets out to the house he's picked.

[eucre]

"M'not a Scallion," she protests. "M'a Piper." And proud of it. She can help with the paint!

[messire_messer]

"You can be both," he says loftily, shoving big brushes into his pockets. "Piper or Felicia Scallion. What colours d'you want?"

[eucre]

"Or Felicia Chives," she reminds. "I like Piper now. Purple and orange and no red, please!"

[messire_messer]

There's a resigned tsking as he picks up two of the various shades of purple and nods to Piper. "Pick oranges and we'll run along, mm?"

[eucre]

She hesitates, then chooses two of his brightest shades of orange or yellow. "Where to, Rap-tap-snap?"

[messire_messer]

He'd tap the end of her nose if he weren't already holding the buckets. "Into Town, lovey. We'll find one of the big scary houses and make it not so scary."

[eucre]

"Lovely lovely! Sounds like a good idea and not a butler-y one!" she exclaims with glee.

[messire_messer]

"No butlery ideas are good ones," he asserts as they walk. "Or if it is, they took it from someone else."

This is the truth that he knows.

[eucre]

"Yup yup. They're fraidy-cats too! 'Fraid of dirt 'n' paint. Silly billies."

[messire_messer]

"Very silly. Do you know what they say Outside?" He pauses to put the buckets down, in front of his chosen wall. It's full of knotholes and boarded up windows. "We all have to eat a handful of dirt before we die. Otherwise it doesn't go right. Imagine that, all those generations..."

[eucre]

"Eating... mud?" She squeals with laughter, wrinkling her nose. "That's gross, Rap-Tap! Ew, ew, ew!

[messire_messer]

Now that his hands are empty, he can tap her nose properly. "Not like that. But overwashing harms." And now, the paintbrushes. It's too bad these are too big to stick behind either's ear.

[eucre]

She's still giggling to herself as she starts throwing paint on the wall with a vengeance. This is art, right?

[messire_messer]

If it isn't, he doesn't know what is.

And he's glad the edge has been taken off her mood, for now.