[PRP] Happy Little Surprises [ Distant Tidings/Shallows ]

[Jun]

[imgleft]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... gs_jun.gif[/imgleft]It was many moons hence he had first met Glimmer, still one of the most beautiful does he'd ever had the privilege of knowing. He hardly saw her after that one time, but he had seen all their children, and he saw some of them quite often still. He quite enjoyed parenthood – more than he'd expected. It was a joy: to bring these innocent young lives into being, watch them slowly grow into their own, and stuff their heads full of ridiculous nonsense when they were still too green to know truth from lie. Ah, yes, indeed - it was a delight. He would happily do it all over again, and again.

Even if they weren't quite so happy with him when they'd grown enough to figure out truth from lie.

[Maxx]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]

"Sea cucumbers," he said, trying not to snarl at his esteemed parent, full of gaiety as he stood before him, "are animals. They are not planted by fish. Do you remember that, Father?"

Shallows had been mulling over this realisation for a while now, and unsurprisingly, the anger nor shame never quite dissipated from this understanding he carried into his adulthood from the tender mind of a tender child, tended to by this terrible buck.

[Jun]

"Are they now?" he expressed, eyes wide in great surprise, "Animals?! Really?! I would never have thought. Then why are they called cucumbers, I wonder? What happens when a fish sows its wild seeds?"

[Maxx]

Shallows wasn't snarling quite yet, but definitely squinting, agitated.

"Father," it was a warning, "don't - don't keep digging this sea cucumber-related grave, I'm not a child anymore. Did you not think this day would come?"

To be fair, this day would probably not have come had he not tried to share this tidbit with a doe, and let's just say that did not go very well.

[Jun]

"Ah, well," he hummed, "I suppose they might sprout into an octopus garden, instead - all those tangling vines!"

[Maxx]

"There are consequences you know, to this kind of irresponsible thing," Shallow's upset child self was definitely sulking, "the nonsense you send along one way or another spreads when...when it's told to someone else, and even if those consequences don't fall on you, Father, you ought to be more mindful."

She had laughed a lot. Not pleasantly.

[Jun]

"Why, you've never seen an octopus garden?" he cried, "what have I been doing as your father?! It's quite a sight. You'd swear those grasping vines had a mind of their own.

"Did a pretty girl laugh at you, then? Just goes to show how much she knows about underwater gardening."

[Maxx]

There was a slight shudder in his son's shoulders, that made the buck himself quite angry. Of course his omnipotently awful father would see right through him.

"She was trying to be nice," he groused, "and then I had to trust you of course. Now she thinks I'm quite daft and I don't want to show my face anywhere near that grove. It was such a nice grove. She was such a nice doe."

[Jun]

"She wouldn't mind seeing you again," Tidings said, "even if you were daft, if she's such a nice doe. But chin up now, my boy! There are plenty of does - some, I dare say, who might know a little more about gardening. Little setbacks are part of life, you know.

"As are...hum," he hummed again, tilting his head to think a little, "...flexible narratives.

"It builds character...being set back. Are you sure she wouldn't like to see you again? Some folks find daft bucks quite charming, after all."

[Maxx]

"Your 'flexible narratives' are just lies, Father," he thought this was very much as straightforward as he could be, attempting to search his eyes for some sort of propriety - elusiveness, if any better, shame, but he had very little expectations of that.

[Jun]

"Oh, I wouldn't say LIES -" (They were lies.)

"They're more like...mm...happy little surprises. You get to learn twice over. Quite the happy little surprise!

"Life would be quite boring," he finished, gaily, "if there weren't any surprises, don't you think? I only want the best for you, my boy, and surely the best includes many opportunities to learn, and happy little surprises.

"But, really, there ARE folks who find daft bucks quite charming. I'm rather partial to daft bucks myself, no shame there. You ought to try again."

[Maxx]

"Some kind of father you are," his voice a little shrill with hysteria, "you could do with being set back yourself, you - you one trick Acha!"

He took a breath and tried to compose himself.

"I don't know what I expected from you, meeting you to 'talk,'" now some disgust, "never thought I came from the baddies' side."

[Jun]

"You take that back," he stomped a saucy hoof into the ground, "your mother was a saint."

And then he broke into irritatingly carefree peals of laughter, "I suppose she had to be, to put up with me! But - ah, look on the bright side. You got your looks from both of us, and that's good enough for second chances, most times."

[Maxx]

Shallows didn't know why he thought it would go any differently. He had basically thrown all the uncreative slurs he could think of at his frivolous father, but it was clear he hadn't gotten any of his brains.

Being bested again deflated him, and he just sighed, a long, long sigh.

"You may not learn, but I will. One day it's going to catch up with you, and you'll be sorry."

Very uncreative, but he was feeling it.

"It wasn't today, because you don't care about your son, but it will happen. Mark my words."

Incredibly uncreative, but he was still feeling it.

[Jun]

"Of course I care about you," he sighed, and continued, perhaps a little cruelly, "you daft boy. But then - if you did learn, you can't be all that daft, can you? To see through a little deception - that's a valuable skill to learn, you know!

"I am humbly sorry," he made a nimble little bow, "that sea cucumbers are not plants. That is such a pity - such a shame. They make much better plants than animals.

"I am certainly sorry for that. And much more besides. I don't suppose it'll do me ill, to have one more thing to be sorry for, someday."

And he laughed, because he knew he was being a little cruel, and he could not yet see the future.