cinderella's pumpkin had it so easy • video

[unladenswallow]

( vines would have to do to replace her arms whilst she was forced into this egregious form of a jack-o-lantern. she was definitely going to have to remember that, apparently, magic could get to her even if she weren't in the same room as the casters.

the pumpkin-hero was more than a little aggravated and using the vines to open the mirror compact, she huffed into it when it began to record. )

I don't suppose I can trouble someone to keep the crows away from me? Yelling only seems to work so much and I'm running out of seeds to spit at the bastards.

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[Action]

[mrsbrisby]

[ Mrs. Brisby was scurrying her way back to the apartment building when she accidentally stumbled across the flock of crows circling over a very irritated looked pumpkin. ] You had better come inside. [ She ran up to the pumpkin to place a paw briefly on the orange skin before looking up to give the crows a cross look. ] Things are bad enough with out you making it worse. Go on, shoo! [ A few of the crows flew off but those others stayed and continued their circling. ] They must be really hungry if they wont leave.

[unladenswallow]

( ciri snapped one of her vines at a crow attempting to sweep at her and bristled, leaves ruffling. ) Oh, go peck at some other vegetation! ( she looked to the small mouse coming up nearby and momentarily surprised, she wondered if she might have been a victim to a spell, too? )

I'd do just that but apparently the attempt to move from this awning to another is just giving these birds ample time to try and to me in this wretched form... ( the girl would have smiled if the cursed face would allow it. she reflected hatred after all. ) Thanks for that.

I wonder if the damn things may be concerned about the food being treated with a curse or two themselves... Or maybe they just really like pumpkin.

[mrsbrisby]

Pumpkin is very tasty.

[ Realizing she was speaking to a very angry looking talking pumpkin she paled and smiled shyly. No, she wouldn't try to eat a talking jack o'lantern herself. ]

Maybe if they had some other pumpkin to try and eat?

[ There were Halloween decorations around the square and some of those did hold pumpkins they were not carved however or, apparently, as tasty looking as this one. ]

Or would that be too grim?

[ Watching crows eat your own kind and all... ]

[unladenswallow]

( she had to snerk at the mention of taste. ciri agreed but in this form, she really didn't want to think about it. )

That might work. ( she imagined that perhaps having her body carved and thus the "guts" of the pumpkin was opened, the scent of yummy pumpkin wafting through the air better than one that hadn't been carved opened yet. ) Believe it or not, I haven't always been a pumpkin. So, distracting with another one might be sufficient...

( ciri looked over the decorations. ) I might be able to use these vines as ropes to pull one over perhaps? Unless you can roll one?

[mrsbrisby]

I can try. [ She spoke as she moved, running over to the nearest stack of decorations and bounding up to the very top of the pile of pumpkins. Mrs. Brisby pushed the top one but it barely moved at all until she pressed her full weight on it. Then it moved only a inch. ] Maybe if you pulled with your vines and I pushed?

[unladenswallow]

( the small creature trying to push the large pumpkin was adorable in a weird sense but she moved closer as well as she could. she would offer the sweet, little mouse a smile if she weren't cursed to have a hateful visage for the time being. )

Absolutely, I can do that. ( her vines stretched as far as she could manage and roped around the stem of the pumpkin being used as decor. it was a strange sound for a pumpkin to make: but ciri grunted and tugged as hard as she could in this odd form. the pumpkin gave and rolled — perhaps out of the rodent's grasp. she widened her "carved" eyes and puffed a breath and a few seeds as the other orange sphere rolled toward herself. ) ... oh, damn it. ( s m a c k ! cirilla was suddenly rolling herself. back, back, back... until she slammed into the leg of the stand she had been hiding beneath.

suddenly the young lady truly, truly hated everything spherical. )

[mrsbrisby]

[ Standing on top of the stack of decorative pumpkins Mrs. Brisby fell forward to land on her fluffy tummy when the pumpkin she had been throwing her weight behind suddenly gave way and when it moved the whole stack began to shake like the rumble of an earthquake. ]

Aah! Be care--...!

[ The pumpkins rolled en mass leaving the warning unsaid as the mouse was forced to scramble over the rolling round gourds before making a grand leap to see her land safely back onto the display table. Peering over the side the ground below her was littered with smashed pumpkins, it absolutely took her breath away as she worried what might have happened to her jack o'lantern friend.]

Are you alright?!

[ She climbed down the leg of the chair with her heart in her throat and only breathed a sigh of relief when she found the talking pumpkin unharmed. She was upside down and angry but not cracked. ]

Oh thank goodness! I thought some of these others might have landed on you.

[unladenswallow]

( fortunately the gourd hadn't joined its brethren by the name of squash. she was feeling pretty dizzy by the end of the spill though. her vines coiled around her sphere shaped body and a groan expelled from her mouth. ) N- No, fortunately not. Although with all of those opened up now perhaps the birds will flock to those instead of myself. ( which they did appear to do given that those pumpkins weren't fighting back at being bitten.

ciri urged herself up with her vines, forcing herself to roll so she'd be positioned on the bottom of the gourd once more. ) I owe you thanks, can I ask for your name?

[mrsbrisby]

"Brisby," the mouse spoke as she climbed down a length of streamer that dangled from the table. "I'm Mrs. Brisby."

Now on the ground she scurried over to help her new friend untangle her vines.

"What is your name?"

[unladenswallow]

Thankful for the help, the young adventuress flexed her vines slightly once they were untangled and freed. Tiny hands were incredibly useful for that sort of thing. Not one to smile all that often she suddenly found herself wishing that she could since at least that much was owed as a form of gratitude. "I would smile along with my offer of thanks but I've been cursed to show only hatred, as it were. So, it may look wicked at the moment but I don't mean it that way." What a weird thing to have to explain... Stupid witches. "So, thank you, Mrs. Brisby."

With a final brush of her vines to clear off some extra orange innards that weren't hers, she rolled slightly forward as though nodding her head in greeting: "Ciri."

[mrsbrisby]

"That's alright I understand."

Not really but magic was a very confusing sort of thing. The sentiment was appreciated.

"I don't think your current smile is so very hateful."

Very toothy and orange, but not hateful. The crows that had been menacing Ciri earlier had spotted the smashed pumpkins and that wonderful pumpkin perfume drew them down to take part in the feast. They seemed distracted enough to Brisby.

"I think we can slip past them to the apartment building now."

[unladenswallow]

Ciri wasn't all that familiar with this sort of magic. It was something she could see Triss or Yennefer doing though: probably to one another in the end. She had never seen two women fight and bicker quite as much as they did. She was softened at the small mouse though. The sentiment was sweet in spite of the toothy grin that was etched into her face.

"Thanks, I hope it isn't at least. I'll take your word for it, Mrs. Brisby."

At least the birds had given their attention to something else entirely. That was something to be thankful for. She had grown tired of fighting in her pitiful state and was running low on seeds to send at them.

"Do you know which way that might be? Honestly, I'm still trying to get used to both being here in the first place and now being so low to the ground. You have my praise for this level of sight at all times, madam."

[mrsbrisby]

"Yes, I know the way."

Nose twitched she hopped out two paces away from the safety of the table and glanced up quickly at the sky just to make certain they weren't in danger of being swept down upon. The crows were all deep into their feast, enjoying the pumpkin that wasn't going to fight back.

"Follow me."

She waved a 'come along' gesture before taking the lead along the sidewalk that would lead them back to the apartment building.

[unladenswallow]

"Praise whatever God is in charge here." Ciri hadn't managed to get familiar enough with the area yet to know precisely where she was, but, being in this form and unable to see above her head wasn't helping either. She wasn't going to be able to "walk" after the mouse and though she knew it would lead to pain once reverted, she was going to have to roll after her. This was going to cause some very annoying bruising again, thanks Sarah Sanderson.

Following the mouse along, embarrassed at her mode of travel, Ciri did just that: she rolled along on her side to keep up with Mrs. Brisby. Using her tendril-like vines to maintain some sort of steering so to speak and to keep from rolling along too quickly. The stairs would be a whole other issue but for now as long as she could get into the apartment building, she'd feel much better. She may just hide under a table or in a dark corner until this spell wore itself out.

[mrsbrisby]

And Sarah would just stick her tongue out.

Making it to the apartment building was fairly uneventful. The crows were busy elsewhere and no one really paid much mind to a little mouse and her rolling pumpkin taking a stroll. Only a few of the more observant residents might have done a double take. The real task was waiting outside until some one noticed they were there and held the door open for them, but the lobby was warm and friendly... lacking in the usual things that liked to eat mice and pumpkins.

"Whew, that was some walk."

Mrs. Brisby spoke as she warmed her feet up on the plush carpet of the sitting area. It had been just a touch chilly out there.

"Which room are you staying in?"

[unladenswallow]

Damn it.

Honestly, Ciri was glad that things had gone smoothly in getting to the apartments. She was going to feel the bruising in the morning; or whenever this damned curse rolled off of herself and let her be normal again but it was well worth it to be back within the confines of at least four walls.

"It was rather, wasn't it?" Although she'd call it a roll. Ba dum tsh. Fall weather made it cooler out there although Ciri seemed to be just fine in this form at least. She joined her on the carpet nonetheless and used a vine to motion to the stairs. "4B on the second floor although I think I shall refrain from attempting to make the climb lest I fall back down and join the pumpkins we left outside in a gutted opened mess."

[mrsbrisby]

"You do have a point."

Those stairs were daunting even for a fairly nimble mouse but for a pumpkin it must have seemed impossible.

"We could just sit here for a while. I'm sure some one will be along soon and they could help you get back to your room."

[unladenswallow]

"Ah well, I'd rather not put you out, Mrs Brisby. I don't mind remaining down here until someone passes by," or more likely until she reverted to her proper self. Even if it meant hiding under a couch and having it overturn when she was back to herself once more.

[mrsbrisby]

"Are... are you sure?"

She hesitated as it didn't seem very kind at all to just leave her here to live out her days hidden underneath a couch.

[unladenswallow]

She smiled as best she could in spite of the face she had been carved with whilst in this form.

"Really, don't worry about it. I've been alone before and I've never minded it." Ciri chuckled. Mrs Brisby was very motherly, wasn't she? "I release you of any kind of responsibility over my person you might fret about."

[mrsbrisby]

Being motherly is what mothers do best. She could at least make sure Ciri was comfortable on the carpet and out of the line of traffic before she conceded her work here was done.

"Well, alright... If you're sure."

She dashed over to the bottom of the stairs and glanced back before beginning the long climb to the top of them.

[unladenswallow]

It was appreciated! She found herself feeling more and more indebted to the beings of this world for all the help and kindness in spite of her initial hesitation to be among these strangers. Mrs Brisby was just another of many that she would have to find some means to repay the kindness.

"I'm certain, truly." She didn't want to eat up anymore of her time and honestly, she was growing all the more embarrassed at being in this godforsaken form. If she could just roll under a table or a couch to hide she might feel a little less sheepish altogether. "Thank you so much though!"