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

[yokeye]

[Toki wanders into the room, where there was supposedly tea. He dropped his phone when he fell off the roof, so he doesn't have the translator running, and doesn't know what the bear is talking about, but apparently said bear is running the show.]

Hey, uh, bear~!

[betheman]

....

[His ears twist, Gongenzaka blinking. He'll swap to Japanese at least, but uh...well.] ...Toki.

Do you have a tea preference?

[yokeye]

[The bear knows his name.]

No~! Anything's good~!

[Why is he talking to a bear?]

[betheman]

[The bear visibly deflates. He was afraid of this.] ...Auhhh... ...Of course...

[Mannnnnn...] ...If... ...that is how you take things, then...

...There will be no complaint, or argument, from myself. ...Please, just know that, [he asks somewhat quietly, setting up an infuser for a mug.] ...There shall be...no more 'pushing', so to speak.

[yokeye]

[The bear was making weird faces and talking too slow. It was probably hard for a bear to learn human speech after all. He also didn't make much sense. Why would the bear complain and argue over tea? What was he pushing? Oh!]

You can go back to English, bear~! I don't mind~!

[Japanese must be harder for him.]

[betheman]

[................]

................Japanese is my first language, Toki.... [Did you forget???

oh god is this the real reason he doesn't want to decide or argue things he just forgets-]

[yokeye]

[Why would he know that? Apparently he did speak with the bear before. He still can't decide if he's dead, or this is a dream, or he'd just forgotten talking to the bear after the roof incident.]

I forgot~! Sorry~!

[betheman]

AUH!! It is quite fine! [He insists.] ...At the least... I shall remember it, from now on! Now...

This tea, [He explains,] Is for anxiousness, to calm you down. So please, enjoy it.

[yokeye]

[He takes the cup from the bear. It's filled with tiny red spiders. They crawl all over each other, undulating like liquid in the teacup. A few climb over the rim and onto his hand.]

Thank you~!

[Toki sets the teacup on the table and brushes several spiders from his hand.]

I'll just let it cool a minute~!

[He watches the army of spiders crawl out of the cup and fan out onto the coffee table. He knows they're not real; Peter is in here after all. But he still doesn't want to drink your spider-tea, bear.]

[betheman]

Of course!

[With that then, he'll attend to someone else.

Entirely unaware that Toki is super vision-ing out right now.]

[yokeye]

[After spiders stop crawling out of the teacup, he figures it's okay and should be tea again. He picks up the cup, but as he brings it closer, yeah, there's still some spiders in there. Gross. But he can't just set the cup down again, because he's here to drink tea and it's definitely cooled enough by now. He takes a drink of the spider-tea, and can feel the little spiders crawling over his tongue and it's disgusting.]

You make good tea, bear~!

[betheman]

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

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

[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?

[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...

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.]

[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]

[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.]

[yokeye]

[It takes him a minute to register that Yuya and Gongenzaka are there, but he can't stop screaming and Gongenzaka is making it worse. He can still hear the thing growling, smell the blood, hear the bones snap. She was right there, right there, less than ten feet away and he couldn't do anything but watch. He shoves his fist in his mouth, but it's not really helping the noise. He's biting down hard enough to pierce the skin and draw blood. He has not dealt with this at all, and it's too much.]

[hippocarnival]

[Oh, god. There's a degree of panic Yuya is prepared to deal with and this completely exceeds it. He can't get enough of a response to figure out what exactly is setting him off--there's a guess he can make, but without a clearer picture making assumptions won't help at all.

He's lost until Toki starts biting his hand, and then Yuya lunges for his wrist. He could try pulling it out, but won't being aggressive just make this worse?

So instead Yuya moves to try and pull Toki into a hug, trying to ground him.] You're okay, Toki you're okay. Focus on me, okay?

[betheman]

T...toki..?

[This isn't the typical reaction that comes when you say 'were', or 'lycan'. But it's a sharp enough shift in events that the bear freezes where he stands. This didn't happen, until Toki shouted his name after all. It didn't happen until, specifically him BEING the bear came up.

And there just aren't a lot of reasons for this to happen, from there, except pretty much one thing. Gongenzaka can't approach.

If he approaches, he'll make it worse, won't he.] ...Yuuya, [He manages to croak.] I, the man Gongenzaka, should...

[...He needs to leave the room, doesn't he.]

[yokeye]

[He doesn't resist as Yuya hugs him, and he's trying to focus. He's not screaming as loudly, more choking and definitely crying. He's aware he's in the common room, and that's a start. But now he's also aware how embarrassing this is and he's never leaving his room again. He removes his hand from his mouth and its covered in drool and rivulets of blood and he's getting it on Yuya's shirt. He'll apologize later when he stops crying.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yeah, that's something they can deal with later. Toki's calming down, though, and that's good, so Yuya holds the embrace. He looks up at Gongenzaka sadly, knowing what he's suggesting. He doesn't want to tell him to go, but he can't ask him to stay, either.]

[betheman]

[He can't, and as Gongenzaka himself would say...he shouldn't. So he simply nods, and quietly tries to make hinself scarce by heading for his room.

He'll have to ask Yuuya if Toki is alright in the morning...he supposes...]

[yokeye]

[Toki disentangles himself from Yuya. He's still crying a little, but he's pretty much done with this.]

I'm okay now~!

[He gets off the couch, and he's going to go back to their room and compartmentalize this whole thing, never to be resurrected again.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya stumbles back as he's pushed back and has to back up to his feet.]

Are you sure--wait, your hand. It's bleeding!