[FIN] Room for Improvement [Kari]

[Lucca]

Shelby nodded bravely, actually feeling a bit of relief at the prospect of some normal work. Which, if he'd had the presence of mind to think about it, would have been strangely ironic. Before, he'd always resented the chores and the work he was forced to do, the sorry lot in life as a Leveret. Now, the work held a sort of grim familiarity that he could find in so little of his life right then. His ears perked a bit and he stood to attention, standing fully straight for possibly the first time.

"Yes, sir," he said, nodding decisively. He nodded to his Mother and Father and walked out of the room, almost running down the hall toward the kitchen. He felt like he could breathe easier as soon as he was out of that room.

Seena watched her son go, watching as he stood up and--wow, he was tall. If looked at from far away, she could almost mistake him for a Jack--blue eyes blinked and she slowly turned to look at Heike. A thought was occurring, and she wondered if it had already occurred to him. "If we can't fix this," she said quietly, tilting her head just slightly. "The best option may be The Change, do you think?"

[Kari Muffin]

Heike watched his son leave, biting the inside of his mouth in thought. Seena thankfully prevented him form worrying over something ridiculous. "It might be the only solution, however, it might complicated things more. He could end up being a ten foot monster whose part card for all we know."

That rabbit shook his head in displeasure. "Really he's gotten himself into one hell of a mess." And if he had been any other Jack he probably would have just kicked the boy out and been done with it. Thankfully he was more compassionate than that, and honestly wanted to solve the problem. "I need to figure out who to give the letter to, to get it to the proper places. I pray someone can actually help, but until then I suppose we can't worry about every little thing."

He gave Seena a look of exhaustion, the disappointment of not finding an easy solution was seeping in. Nothing could be easy, could it?

[Lucca]

Seena grimaced a bit as Heike brought up an (unfortuntely quite good) point about their son she hadn't considered before. "Ugh, yes, we can't have that," she mumbled, shaking her head sadly. If he really were part Card, or could become so, would that mean he wouldn't feel the Need? And what if he did--no Doe would willingly give themselves over to such a monster. She shuddered again, and leaned up, putting her front paws on Heike's shoulders.

"Ah, luv, we'll figure that out. Don't fret about it!" she said softly, eyes roving over his face and drinking in his exhaustion, his hopelessness. If only she could take such burdens from him! But she could at least share them, and that was enough. It had to be enough. "We'll find someone. There has to be a Card somewhere we can trust. A sort of Card...wizard or mage, like you read about in the stories." She considered his face for another moment in silence, and then leaned up to kiss him softly, velvety noses touching.

[Kari Muffin]

Seena's words did help. It didn't make his worry completely dissipate, but nothing could really do that. He was paranoid and worried by nature. He returned the kiss lightly, doing his best to look a bit more chipper than he actually felt about the entire situation.

Mages and wizards weren't the things he wanted to spend time with or send letters to. It was difficult to think of a way to address a letter to a card in the first place, but he had managed. The task ahead of him was going to be a challenge, hopefully he could do it without calling attention to himself. He didn't want to think of what would happen if other rabbits found out that he was consorting with Cards or something like that.

"Yes... yes we will," he finally said as he lightly brushed his fingers down Seena's mane. "I suppose, right now I should figure out why half the leverets are missing."

[Lucca]

Seena didn't keep the kiss up long, able to tell that Heike's heart wasn't really in it. She pulled back, studying his face as intently as if it were one of her old volumes, the ones with such archaic language and odd subjects that it took a lot to decipher them. Compared to those, it was easy to read her Jack. She placed a paw on his shoulder as he brushed fingers through her mane, making her lean a bit into the gesture unconsciously.

"Mmm," she said in agreement, eyes narrowing slightly. "That's a mystery if there ever was one. It was almost as if they just vanished overnight. If they'd left normally, I think someone who stayed behind would have noticed." At least, that seemed like a sound theory to her. Shelby had said, while explaining his story to her, that he'd just suddenly woken up somewhere else, with no memory of how he'd gotten there. One minute he'd been yelling after his sister to go home with him, and the next...he'd been returning to consciousness on the cold dirt of an unfamiliar area, with a strange Warren looming in the background. If it was magic of some kind, it was on a scale and a level Seena hadn't really heard about before.

[Kari Muffin]

"I know I sent one person to do some shopping and the rest were supposed to stay behind," His ears drooped a bit at the thought of the chaos that could have resulted in his absence if his Does hadn't been so responsible. "And with the strange things happening it's perfectly possible they did just vanish. Though why something would magically whisk away my leverets is beyond me."

Everything was beyond him at this point. A rather frustrated sigh escaped him at the thought of having to find more leverets, and trading for them, and the hassle of talking to other Jacks... he needed to continuing thinking positively. "Hopefully nothing too horrible happens again any time soon," he said quietly as he looked towards the door with a frown. "I suppose I should check the leveret's quarters for any sign of something I'm missing. Would you care to tag along or...?"

[Lucca]

Seena frowned, considering this. She remembered the Leveret leaving to go shopping, after telling one of the other Does (the fact that it wasn't her had rankled, but Heike had never specified which of his Does, in his absence, was to be primary caretaker of the Warren). But that certainly didn't explain all the disappearances. She shook her head. "Bizarre, to be certain."

Her ears twitched at the sigh, but what else could she really do? It seemed like everything that she could say would only be repeating herself, and that was as dull as it was unhelpful. Seena leaned her head against his side in a vaguely comforting gesture, and as he looked toward the door she followed his gaze. What was he...? OH. She felt a swell of pride and affection that he was offering. There was really only one answer she could give. "I would, yes. Two sets of eyes are always better than one."

[Kari Muffin]

The form of comfort she gave him was greatly appreciated as he sneaked his fingers through her mane one more time before they departed to the leverets quarters. He hadn't actually "inspected" any of the rooms on a frequent basis, he didn't like to worry about that sort of thing. Most leverets were well adjusted enough to keep themselves in order, and the ones who didn't were probably punished by their peers.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in the leverets quarters. Everything was kept neat, and it wasn't like there were any secret plans to escape in the non-existent floor boards. It was just like they had left for a short period of time and intended to come back.

But they obviously hadn't, and they knew the fastest shopping routes. Even if they did faff off, which he honestly expected, they could get back to the warren in a reasonable amount of time. "This must be a nightmare," he said as he picked up a small trinket that belonged to one of the missing leverets.

[Lucca]

Unlike Heike, Seena was of the habit of checking over the quarters of the servants every so often. She trusted Leverets to a certain extent, but that didn't mean that her trust in them was anywhere near complete enough for her to never need to ease her mind about one thing or another. In the past, in other Warrens, she'd seen Leverets who were sloppy or had light fingers, or in the worst of cases were even mutinous, plotting against their Jack. She'd never seen any signs of that here, but it was a fool's path to assume.

There was nothing out of the ordinary now, either. All the rooms were in order and almost exactly as she'd last seen them when she visited here. She sniffed lightly, scenting the air, and her ears pricked forward, in case one of them was simply lurking about here, or ill, even though she doubted that she would have failed to notice either of those possibilities. She kicked over the rumpled bedclothes with a paw, and then turned as her Jack spoke.

"If it is a nightmare, I'm ready to wake up any moment now," she replied with a grim smile.

[Kari Muffin]

Her voice was assurance that this was far from a nightmare. Leverets were in fact missing, and it looked as if they hadn't made any plans to stay away. Of course leverets didn't have many belongings of their own, but he doubted Talaith would leave behind the gifts she had collected from other Jacks, and he would hope that little Layla would have at least informed someone she was going to to he market, and there was Xavirine who was all about prim and proper rules.

"So there was no signs of anyone coming into the warren," he said as he looked to Seena. "I suspect that they would actually steal more than a few leverets. No belongings are missing and you and the other Does would have heard something."

Which meant they must have left the warren on their own accord and once they stepped outside of the warren they were taken. "This means we have Nadja, and Shelby as the only reliable leverets in the warren currently." He frowned at the piece of jewelry he was holding, "I'm going to have to chat with a few Jacks."