I have a dream that I want to fulfill with you...

[tsugomori]

[ Well, that was an extraordinary trial to have... it was certainly filled with many things that wouldn't be lost to the memory of most, even for weeks to come. Although, the return to "normalcy" could be something that wouldn't seem like it was wanted, it was better than the alternative to returning to anything at all.

With ease, Mikazuki find himself setting up the usual party in the usual place-- that would be the library of course. Notes have been slipped underneath the doors of others, or hung up on the walls to alert them of this post-trial "celebration" -- which was more like a get-together of some sorts now than a real party. ]


Please join us in the library again. Of course, food and drink will be provided.

- Mikazuki, Orihime, Hanyuu, & Estelle

[ The food and drink has been set out, what with there being tea, vichyssoise, cream puffs, and fish for everyone to enjoy. ]

Comments

[officerhops]

[It's been...A Day. And Elda is actually the last person Judy ends up seeing before she decides to head to her own room. She can't help but linger when she passes by where she knows the vampire probably is, and there's a part of her that says don't bother her. She'd probably just be agitated that anyone did, as angry as she probably is right now.

And yet, there'd the muffled sound of a paw knocking on her door anyway.]

Elda?

[matchbreaker]

[ Surprisingly enough, the door opens quickly. Elda's there in the doorway, a brush in one hand, and her hair not quite styled how it usually is. It seems she was getting it all in order for bed? Or maybe just passing the time doing that. She's still favoring her un-bandaged right foot, made obvious by the fact that, as always, she doesn't have shoes on.

She's also only wearing her school uniform bottoms, through her hair covers her topelessness for the most part ]

Hopps.

[officerhops]

[Oh my god-

Judy almost covers her eyes, but she's not rude enough to make a show of it. Instead she just quickly averts her gaze elsewhere, a little surprised (yet completely unsurprised at the same time).]

I just-! I wanted to make sure you were okay, you know...with your foot, and everything.

[matchbreaker]

People looked at it. It's just a matter of time before it heals.

[ Though he might be hobbling a little all next week, now she thinks of it.

She looks down at her foot, wiggling the toes before wincing a little ]

[officerhops]

Mm...I'm glad it will be okay, then.

[...]

Do you need anything?

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Does she need anything.

What a laugh. ]

Hopps. Are there bats, where you're from?

[officerhops]

[Oh, that's a question suddenly.]

Mhm! I've never met one personally, though, but we do.

[matchbreaker]

That's what I need, then. A few hundred bats.

[officerhops]

Bats...

What do you need bats for?

[matchbreaker]

Vampires and bats have gone together for years and years now. We've lived symbiotically the whole time and I never realized how blind I feel without any bats around!

[ And she slams her fist into the wall.

... That hurt.

That was a bad idea ]

[officerhops]

[DON'T...don't do that, Elda...]

Mm...I wish I could help you, but Zootopia's not exactly across the pond from here. I...don't know where it is relative to here.

[She misses it so fucking much.]

[matchbreaker]

Does anyone know where we are or have anything we need?! [ she hits the wall again - it doesn't give, but it sounds like one of her fingers might've gotten a bit jammed ] All the blood tastes mediocre, there's no bats, none of you smell right, I can't even erase memories and the manor sure as hell isn't here! [ Another punch.

... Is that a little blood on the wall? ]

And here I am talking to some damned bunny?! I'm angry I couldn't kill some lame human killer over a dead doll?!

[ Punch!

... That's definitely blood. ]

[officerhops]

[Oh- oh geeze]

Elda- Elda!

[Judy leaps forward, then, her feet pattering against the floor. She's...honestly not thinking (and when does she ever, she's impulsive that way), and before she can stop herself she's reaching and grabbing the first thing she can reach: a loose edge of her uniform pants.

Not like she can stop her by yanking on the fabric, but she can't reach her arm to grab it instead.]

I know you're upset! And I know...I know you're angry. Chiyuki didn't deserve what happened to her. You cared about her, right? Even just a little...

[She exhales shakily, her grip shifting.]

If you need to be angry...be angry. But...please don't hurt yourself over it.

[matchbreaker]

Who cares about what she deserved or not! When did that ever stop anyone?! Sure as shit didn't stop the church! But-- I--

[ Revenge. She wanted revenge, she needs revenge. Revenge at Yoshikage Kira, and for that matter at the whole human race. James had tempered that hatred in her somewhat, but what did that matter? James was-- James was--

Her eyes are screaming with hatred even while they're watery, and she looks down at Judy with those eyes which are positively predatory, cat-like and overwhelmed with Elda's mix of feelings. But she's also clearly at the edge of crying regardless. ]

I'm not hurting myself! That should have broken the wall!

[ Yet another thing taken from her ]

[officerhops]

[Judy has no idea what she's going through. She can't imagine what it must be like to have your abilities stripped away, but also to just...be thrown into a group so different from you, a group that couldn't possibly understand being different.

...but maybe she does understand. Just a little.

She understands enough that she knows not to try and say anything more than what she says next, her expression sympathetic, but also not pitying either.]

I'm sorry.

[matchbreaker]

[ It is at this precise moment that, her hand bleeding and her foot hurting more that she's put pressure on it, Elda's knees sort of give way and she collapses onto them, getting at what's probably damn near eye level with Judy given Elda's only 5' to begin with. And she's...

... Actively crying, now.

oops??? ]

[officerhops]

[I MEAN

At this point, Judy was...almost expecting it. She wasn't sure if it would happen while she was standing here, sure, but...that's fine.

This is fine.

She doesn't let go, forcing herself to stand her ground even when she's afraid for a moment that Elda might fall onto her. When she doesn't, Judy stays put.

For what it's worth, even though every instinct tells her she should do something, she doesn't try to touch her or hug her or something someone else might have done, knowing that it would probably make her more upset since Elda never really liked Judy all that much. ...maybe she'll pat her leg with a paw, but that's all.

So instead she just stays, letting her cry. At least she's not alone, but maybe she wishes she was.]

1/2

[matchbreaker]

[ Her parents-

Her people-

James-

Chiyuki-

Her family-

Her manor-

Karin- ]

[matchbreaker]

Why was-- [ Inhale, sob, exhale, ] -- she? She a goddamned human?

[ That's so the wrong message to take, so the wrong - wrong everything, but that's what comes out. As she kneels here, crying on front of a rabbit ]

[officerhops]

[Judy opens her mouth, and...in lieu of saying anything, she just...doesn't. She's not entirely sure what Elda is referring to, and she doesn't want to get it wrong on a guess.

So she stays quiet for now, her nose twitching.]

[matchbreaker]

She didn't have to be! She was a ghost, a ghost mannequin!

[ She... ]

That stupid bean sprout, way back at the beginning, you heard him, going on about his spirits like he always does! She could-- be that.

[ . . . But human.

She was human. And Elda, Elda had corrected him in saying that.

She... She curls up in on herself, crying into her knees. This isn't even the issue, she's just shouting about this one ]

[officerhops]

I...even if she wasn't, though. I just...I'm not sure that would have changed things.

[After all, Chiyuki was one of the least human among them, at least in her current state. And still, Kira killed her. "Killed" in the sense of destroying the temporary body she had, anyway.

But Judy says that very softly, like a whisper. Not asking to be answered, just another voice so Elda isn't screaming into the void.]

[matchbreaker]

But then she- wouldn't be one of - them!

[ She snarls this out.

... It surely doesn't make sense to Judy, of course it wouldn't... but. ]

She wanted to be- thought- she was.

[ She... ]

[officerhops]

[No, it...doesn't, really. But she's trying to be here, at least, as best she knows how.

It's difficult, but damn she's doing her best, alright.]

I know. ...I know.

[matchbreaker]

[ No she doesn't - of course she doesn't... But all the same, she just inhales, continuing to cry for a long moment until she rights herself. She leans in towards judy, not aware she's even doing it. But okay... okay... ]

Dammit.

[ It should have been Judy. Or the Fox. Or ... or some other person she didn't care about. That's where he mind goes now, and she knows it's unfair. She bites her lip, and - ]

So why- were you here?