tea party

[suddenlybees]

WHO: Toki, Kano, Peter, Gon, Maya, Yuya, Ekkehardt, Imelda
WHERE: Lumière dorms
WHEN: early during the first week of school
WHAT: screaming and dying and tea parties
WARNINGS: screaming and dying and tea parties... broken arms, bears, Lumière deserves a warning in general
NOTES: a continuation of this thread

[Toki doesn't know what happened, but there's a weird guy in a red costume, and a talking bear. He doesn't recognize Gongenzaka's voice, because he doesn't pick on those things.]

Am I dead?

[Because that would make this make sense.]

Comments

[made_up_names]

Oh yeah. Biggest one in America I think.

[ If not, who cares? It's freakin New York. Anyway. ]

I think so? Sounds about right to me. All the boroughs have their own thing going on.

[betheman]

[New York doesn't have to be the biggest to prove itself, it's New York after all.] Hmnnn!! It is not surprising then, to hear it is also divided into such things...

Then, I must ask...what is 'Queens' thing'? [This is much better making friends talk, he's certain.]

[lastexit]

Not the first time I've needed to talk to someone about something, I know how it works. I can handle it myself.

*She doesn't know who the right person to talk to is yet, but she'll figure it out. Finding the right person to confide in is as easy as listening for Maya.*

Who do you talk to, about the things inside your head? You were responsible for one of them, did it bring you back to anywhere?

[made_up_names]

[ Since the tea looks about ready, he takes a sip. ... Makes a face? But keeps sipping. ]

Man, I'm not even sure? It's a big borough. Lots of Jewish kids like me though.

[betheman]

Auh...to be fair, if you were to ask what the 'thing' for my own home...I would be unsure, how to respond...

[When you're a dojo of lycans, you keep to yourself mostly. Ah...] Mnh-

[He caught that face.] Is it perhaps, too strong?

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

Not anywhere I'll thank you for reminding me of.

[Her expression has turned a little sour, but she's not furious like she was last time. Still, she can't help her suspicions.]

Where did you learn that song?

[betheman]

Auh....I am glad you enjoy it?

[his name isn't 'bear'....]

[lastexit]

You.

*Maya leans against the door, closer to falling into it really.*

It's who I am. I hear the nature of things, people, magic. Everything has a sound to it and I can hear it. It tells me who is deceptive, who is kind, who is hurt.

That song is looping around you every second of every day.

[made_up_names]

Yeah, it's hard to just like come up with something.

[ He'll ask Miles and they can swap or something. Anyway, uh. He looks a bit embarrassed. ]

No, man, it's great. It just. Uh. Tastes like hot leaf juice.

[betheman]

...Hot leaf...

Mpgh... [He can't help it.] PhffhaHAHAHAAA!! [Which means Peter gets a laughing bear. But that's just...such...]

AAAAH..! That is what Yuuya would say..! [He laughs, apparently not insulted at all.] Ahh...I suppose, a green tea, would not be best for you, then...something fruitier then, if you try some another time! [Then it'll just be hot fruit juice. .... ...Yeah.]

[hippocarnival]

[Green tea would have been fine, too, but he won't argue if Gon's going to share what's basically dessert for him.

But mostly, he meant Gon didn't have to be this hospitable. He takes the tea when it's handed over, gripping the handle firmly.] Thanks, Gongenzaka.

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

[Her?

That answer genuinely surprises her. It's not what she was expecting at all. After all, she had been with Peter, and she's already aware that Peter knows Héctor... It seemed like the most logical conclusion.

But Maya keeps going, and the thought of that song being everywhere around her in a way she can't escape... It makes her want to crawl out of her skin.]

That must be awfully noisy. [She covers her discomfort with a rough and somewhat disdainful comment. It's a small blessing that she can't hear all of that, but she feels sorry that Maya can. She would have turned into a hermit long before now.]

[made_up_names]

[ He sure is having a tea party with a laughing bear. It's ... been a long night. ]

Hey man, I'll try anything. Where do you live?

[lastexit]

I can control it, a little. It doesn't overwhelm me like it used to. I managed to sit through that assembly on the first day with everyone around.

*She is what she is, she can't just wish her life were different. And if she could, the Sound would not be the top of her 'to change' list.*

It doesn't tell me what happened to make you hate music. That's the part I haven't figured out. Yet.

[yokeye]

[By the time the cup's half-empty, it's just tea. The spiders have crawled off wherever, or disappeared. Now that he's paying more attention, he has one very important question for the room.]

He is a bear, right? I'm not imagining the bear, am I?

[betheman]

Mnh? You mean now? [He's assuming as much, since they were talking cities earlier, ahh...] Here!

...On this very floor, actually! My dorm, it is just down the hall...

...Auh-! [His ears perk, and he hurriedly adds-] Though, I believe, Maya wished to be alone, for now...

[So evidently the bear shares with Maya.]

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

[Yet. There's something about that word that Imelda doesn't like. She's already let Maya see more than she ever wanted anyone to see, just in that one outburst. It feels like dripping blood in the water.

Her gaze shifts away from Maya for a few seconds, staring absently at the girl's door as she thinks. Telling her to butt out would just make her more curious; but she absolutely doesn't want to lay out that private tragedy wholesale.

Begrudgingly, her focus comes back to Maya again.]

I trusted someone. I was young and foolish, and he wasn't the person I thought he was. That's all you need to know. [If she even needed to know that much.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya looks up from where he's sunk into a chair, looking between Toki and Gon. Oh--oh.

He sits up, responding in Japanese.] No, that's Gongenzaka. I mean, he does look like a bear right now...

[made_up_names]

[ THAT. Is weird? Why is Maya rooming with a bear? This place is weird, but not like. Rooms-with-bears weird. Also he's 100% sure Maya would have mentioned the literal goddamn bear at some point during their conversations.

Which is to say Peter opens his mouth. Thinks about it. Closes his mouth again. And then. ]

Oh my god you're a werebear.

cw: very minor vague gore

[yokeye]

It's Gongenzaka!?

[No wonder the bear didn't make any sense when it spoke to him.]

Why is he a... bear... oh.

[The bear is no longer just a bear. It's a werebear, with sharp claws, a bear that could rip things apart... like flesh... and limbs... and there was blood everywhere at the shrine, people screaming, she was screaming as the thing clawed into her, ripping and shredding and biting...

...and he was screaming, again. He didn't see the common room anymore. He was back at the Nezu shrine a month ago, watching her die.]

[betheman]

Hmn! I, the man Gongenzaka, hope it isn't too hot, [he adds, doing the closest he has to a smirk. Tea is healthier than cocoa anyway.]

[betheman]

....

[Hmn.] ...I shall...keep that in mind.

[HE WILL ENDEAVOR NOT TO BURN YOUR PALMS,]

[hippocarnival]

... Toki? [Yuya stares, a little apprehensive as he trails off... and then Toki starts screaming and Yuya jumps out of his seat. He drops his cup and rushes across the room to him, pressing his hands to the couch.] Toki, Toki, what's wrong?!

[betheman]

Auh....

[He should probably have forseen what was going to be said, when Peter paused like that. It's the kind of pause that comes with a number of puzzle pieces coming together, before that one tiny mood-shattering pin drops.

Gongenzaka somehow manages to shrink right in on himself as he instinctively draws back, ears twisted back the way a scolded dog's would rather than some great bear.] ...Y....yes...

That is...

...

[He doesn't like where their conversation has turned, all of a sudden.] ...Perhaps, I should go...

[betheman]

[Boy, Gongenzaka heard that. Well, he heard his name being shouted as well but...

Well mostly he's just. Ears perked- and then pinned.] Mnh-!? What is happening? [He calls, hurriedly putting down whatever mug or kettle he was holding and coming back.] T-Toki? Toki, what is wrong??

[Unsurprisingly Gongenzaka is probably not who Toki wants to see, right now.]