Strangely Normal [Vyn]

[Lucca]

Eldy didn't like that grin. It seemed like it would fit far more in the dungeons of Hearts on the face of one of the Court torturers than over the tea table. She dug her claws a bit into the cushion of her chair to keep them from shaking, and her tail puffed up a bit...but she remained silent, a flicker of defiance in her eyes. She was wary of him, yes...of his self-proclaimed madness that suddenly seemed more real than before, when the weirdest thing he did was discuss Rabbits as if they were real (which was actually pretty darn weird).

She made a mental note when she got home to ask her mom if she'd ever had any -normal- friends, though she already suspected what Peaches's answer would be. She wasn't sure what she trusted herself to say, now that they were on the subject...but at least he seemed like he wasn't going to pry anymore. Not that Eldy would let that put her completely off her guard again.

"It is. He's...not someone I can afford to cross." And not -just- because of her low Rank. No, just her luck he had to be her sister's King. And her...lover. Of course.

[Vyn]

Hm... It would appear Hatter had made his guest uncomfortable. Too personal? Alice would've reprimanded him, he thought, and instantly switched to a kinder and more cheerful smile. He would let the subject lie, regardless of how amused he was by the entire situation. It wasn't right to upset Peaches's daughter and it especially wasn't right to have everyone so serious over tea time.

Hatter finished off the bite of tea cake he had, washed it down with his last sip of tea. "Very well, then! Nothing more on the subject. Instead, I believe I owe you a story of my own. Something strange, something secret --" He set his cup down, folded his hands on the table, and leaned slightly toward Eldy. "Something about Rabbits?" He grinned wide, an eyebrow quirked invitingly and waited for the intrigue to be returned to him.

Hopefully Hatter would be able to salvage the little awkward situation he'd made.

[Lucca]

Eldy nodded...slowly. She was still slightly worried, but as it seemed they had moved on from the uncomfortable subject, her curiosity took over again, and she leaned forward just as he did. She met his mismatched eyes and...her eyebrows went up. Rabbits again? Hatter certainly did like to go on about them. Eldy still wasn't convinced that there was any such thing as Rabbits, but...

"Sure. Why not," she said with a shrug, gulping the rest of her tea before it could get cold on her. She settled in comfortably to listen, ear back in the 'alert' position now. If Hatter wanted to fill the rest of their tea time with silly nonsense about mythical beings, well...she wasn't about to complain. At least she probably wouldn't be asked to participate much in this discussion. She had precious little to say on the subject of Rabbits.

[Vyn]

Hatter's wide grin seemed to grow even bigger, if that were at all possible, and he leaned back once more. Good! Now where to start? Did he feel like being honest or did he just want to ramble fairy tales at her? It wasn't as if she'd know the difference.

Not unless Marchie scampered upstairs for tea.

"Now, where to begin?" Doorie settled into the Joker's lap, chirping inquisitively until he pet her. She whirred and clicked in response and Hatter nodded, knowing full well the sounds were just assertion of pleasure but choosing to accept them as a suggestion to his question. "Why don't we start with how I met The March Hare?"

True stories, after all, were the best stories.

"The first time I found a rabbit was right here in this City. It was early March and I was freshly out on my own, exploring Corvistowne for the first time. I wandered all those little known places that most refuse to frequent and it was there that I encountered him. He was a child, much younger than myself, and resembled a bipedal card in many ways -- were it not for his massive ears and the lack of a suit and rank. He was quite lost and disoriented, so I invited him in for tea." Hatter took this moment to refill his cup and, if Eldy requested, hers as well. "It would turn out that he was a Jack, the equivalent of a Queen in our society, and Jacks are, by nature, gentlemen. He repaid my kindness by sharing with me the Secrets of the Rabbiting World and all manner of unbelievable things."

The Joker sipped his tea, meeting Eldy's eye with a strange grin. "To this day we're good friends, The March Hare and I, and he frequently visits for tea." As he spoke he motioned toward a painting that hung on the wall. There were many paintings hung on the wall, some of places and others of people, but the one he pointed to was of a Corvie gentleman with vivid yellow markings in a rich brown coat and top hat. His pose masked his long ears at a glance, but upon closer consideration they would be impossible to mistake.

[Lucca]

The March Hare? What sort of a name was that? Oh...apparently he'd met him in March. That was very cute. She settled in to listen, tail flicking, though her eyes held a mixture of curiosity and outright skepticism. Rabbits. So she was supposed to believe that not only did they exist, but they also had their own secret society that somehow none of the Card Courts knew about? It was certainly hard to believe. If that was true, why hadn't more Cards actually seen them?

Well, maybe they have and just keep quiet about it, because they don't want to be thought of as crazy. Would YOU tell someone if you saw a Rabbit? she asked herself, but found that she had no answer. She pushed her tea cup at Hatter with a quiet thanks as he refilled it, and set to sipping at it, sans sugar this time. She also followed his glance to the painting and...huh. Well, that certainly DID look a bit like a Rabbit. Although he looked more...nice?...than the pictures she'd seen in the fantasy books. There the Rabbits were depicted as terrifying creatures, but the March Hare in the painting looked more like a...well, a gentleman, like Hatter had said.

Still, Eldy doubted he actually existed out of the Hatter's own mind. But even she knew it wouldn't be polite to say that. "I...see. And no one notices a tall Rabbit just strolling down the street of Corvistowne?" Despite her best efforts, she couldn't quite stop the skepticism from coloring her voice.

[Vyn]

Hatter's grin never faltered. He enjoyed her skeptisim more than he would outwardly admit. It was fun toying with others, seeing how much (or little) they'd believe. For most Cards it was hard to believe anything they didn't see with their own eyes, so the stories of Rabbits and Jokers went largely unbelieved. Just like Cats and all manners of mythical things. It wasn't long after meeting Marchie that Hatter had decided that fairy tales were all true -- regardless of what he could not see with his eyes. If He and Marchie were supposed to not exist, than many other things were probably living in secret as well.

After all, hadn't many people doubted that even Insects existed up until recently when a few rare specimens appeared on the streets?

"Ah-ha. Now see, that's the trick to it all. Rabbits just don't stroll down the street. They're as wary of Cards as we are of them. They take to disguises -- wearing clothes to mask their lack of suit and rank and hats to conceal their ears. Done right and no one knows what they're walking the street with." He scratched Doorie's furry back and the mechanical mome chirred sweetly. "Few Cards ever know what's really standing right in front of them."

Even Eldy was blind to the fact that she was sipping tea with a myth.

[Lucca]

Eldy nodded, raising one eyebrow. "Ah, of course. Disguises." Which was a silly argument to make. If you claimed that, why, any manner of ridiculous things could be postulated. Next thing she knew, Hatter would be claiming Jokers existed. As if it made any sense that a Card would be able to take the forms of other Cards. She knew of some amazing abilities, but that just seemed far-fetched and, frankly, paranoid. Like something everyone would go around worrying about.

And few Cards ever knew what was standing in front of them? What an odd thing to say. Eldy knew exactly what was sitting in front of her. An 'eccentric' Corvie who made mechanical Momes and Toves and liked tea and hats. Of course, the irony hit her a moment later, the fact that she didn't know Hatter's Suit or Rank or even his Animal. She frowned, then, though it quickly dissolved into a smirk. "All right, let's say that I agree with that strange statement. Just because there are unknowns doesn't mean everything some crazy old coot makes up is suddenly true."

[Vyn]

Hatter let out a loud, surprised bark of laughter, his brow arched high and a wide grin on his face. "I'm some crazy old coot now?" That was almost a challenge. Hatter was half tempted to stand up and fetch Marchie but he held himself to his seat. Not now. She surely wasn't ready to fully confront the truth. Her mother was far more suited to secrets and insanity.

What would happen if he pulled off his shirt and let her see the blank expanse of skin?

Hatter could have some real fun with this.

But no, better to be a gentleman than to freak out your best friend's daughter. He chuckled softly and took a short sip of his tea. "I suppose I deserve that, expecting you to believe my fairy tales. You're very correct: You can't believe everything you hear, that's just plain gullible -- but if you also deny everything you hear as well, then where's the fun in life? People would see so much more if they were just willing to look. " The man tapped his temple slightly, motioning to his own eyes. If Eldy looked close, she might notice the strange card sticking out beneath the "10/6" tag and the intricate J marked on it. "Of course, most people are just far more inclined to not seeing. Being blind is a lot more convenient than accepting that everything you know is wrong."

[Lucca]

Eldy's eyes widened and she made a mew of protest. "No, no, I wasn't saying YOU were a crazy old coot...unless you were the original one to go spreading tales about Rabbits, which I doubt. I mean, you don't even look that old." She frowned, tail swishing even more, no thought of tact taking up the space in her mind where her limited social knowledge resided. The extra weight of the pin on her tail, though forgotten, lent a little extra energy to the motion as she subconsciously compensated for it.

She gave the Hatter a blank look. What was he trying to say? That she was too narrow-minded? She shrugged. "Well, I am trying to expand my horizons. That's why I'm here, instead of sitting back in the Palace spying on some wayward noble. I mean, I'm already learning a lot," she said in a tone that made it a bit hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. Actually, she really wasn't, in this case. The Hatter was actually very interesting to talk to, even if she didn't believe any of that about the Rabbits. Eldy wasn't sure why he was pointing to his differently colored eyes though. That wasn't all that weird compared to a lot of the mutations she'd seen, and she certainly didn't see what it had to do with Rabbits. Unless he was just demonstrating the fact that he ~looked~ at the world around him with some sort of weird filters that let him see crazy stuff.

Eldy's eyes did briefly track to his hat and the cards there, and she snorted quietly. "What, are you going to tell me now that Jokers exist too?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Called it." The Feline was being horribly rude, but all that meant was that she was feeling comfortable in Hatter's presence, and hadn't yet learned very appropriate social filters. This was normally about the time in the conversation where her mother would scold her and possibly cuff her for her tone.

[Vyn]

Hatter was more than a little amused by her reaction. Well, at least she wasn't calling him an old coot. He definitely didn't consider himself old but he could easily believe crazy and coot. They'd been used to describe him before and, honestly, he didn't entirely mind. It was fun watching her scramble.

"Expanding one's horizons is the best thing you could do for yourself. Try to have more faith in the world." His brow remained arched at her tone, though cuffing was best left for parents. Hatter didn't feel the need to reprimand, he could easily punish her through the very insanity he was making her attempt to contemplate. "A spy like your mother, hm?" Haha, was she a voyeur too? He glanced around momentarily, his grin turning sly. "Peaches must be proud." No naked ceiling cat landed in his lap, depressing, but he went on jovially as if he hadn't been thinking about something else entirely.

Where was he... Oh... Wouldn't you know, Jokers now? He could have her disbelieving in Cats and Dragons and all sorts of things, but Jokers? That was too close to home. "You don't believe in Jokers either? Even with the records of them assisting Queens?" He waved a hand, his expression odd. Quieter than his usual flamboyant amusement on the subject. "But I can see how they're hard to believe in. You can search everywhere and never know if you've found one. After all, they look just like you and me."

Hatter never liked keeping his secret. He didn't see the point or, rather, he did see the point and he just hated it. It was something most Cards couldn't understand -- someone that literally broke the constraints of Suit -- and the moment they were forced to believe it most either attempted to destroy it or abuse it. Peaches was such a rare individual... Could he trust her daughter the same way?

So far, it didn't seem like he could.