daybreakacademy | (no subject)

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kohaku yuhara: original

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Who: Kohaku Yuhara and you. Yes, YOU
What: Nightmares, cooking, and roses
When: Late at night, shortly after the student council election is announced.
Where: Aube floor 4
Warnings: References to violent injuries, death, and claustrophobia

-Kohaku Dreams...-

This was an old nightmare. It was almost comfortable, like a chore you hated but had done so many times you could do it without thinking. Which didn't mean she LIKED it.

She was 11, again. It was her first week of middle school, and she couldn't move. A cement support pillar had collapsed on top of her, and while there was enough debris to keep it from crushing her to death, it definitely stopped her from being able to get out. There was JUST enough room to take quick shallow breaths, but any second it was going to crush her. She knew it would just as much as she knew it would not. Even if she survived this she'd just be trapped here forever, slowly dying because no one could hear her cries.

She could hear gunfire and screaming all around her, and the sound of humans being turned into meat by horrible scything blades. But no thoughts of heroism or defiance filled her head. All that filled her head was the idea that if she kept VERY still and VERY quiet, maybe it wouldn't notice her.

It didn't work. It never did. In the narrow crack of light she could see, a jet black, chitinous foot came down, sprouting ivory white talons long enough to be swords. She could hear the all too close sound of what must have been talons clicking against stone as the daemon started to lean down to see who was under the pile of debris.

The dream always ended before it bent down enough for her to see it. She didn't know what it looked like. She'd never seen it in real life. This time, however...

This time the daemon leaned down all the way, and for a moment she could see its face. It wasn't the right face, though.

The face of Xelvak stared at her with burning eyes full of callous cruelty. Then he shot out a single bony spear that stabbed her through the gut, and-

Kohaku sat up in her bed and shouted, sweating. THAT was a new twist...

-Baking as stress relief-

It's 2 in the morning on a Friday night and Kohaku is in the floor's common room kitchen in her pajamas, baking a cake. She didn't want to go back to sleep, and having something to do with her hands helped her not think about what she'd just been through. She didn't even really WANT cake right now. She figured she'd just leave it in the common room with an "eat me" note next to it.

She was pretty good at cooking and baking. Not through any terribly large amount of natural talent, but just from sheer practice. When your sense of taste was as acute as hers was, you had to be able to make food that tasted good if you wanted to be able to stomach it.

The only weird thing was that she kept on finding white rose petals in weird places. It was almost like someone had left a bouquet of roses next to a powerful fan, but she couldn't hear anything like that in the building.

She glared at the one that had just landed in the mixing bowl.

"Where the fuck are you coming from?"

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It was late. ...Or was it so late that it qualified as early? Either way, he'd gotten involved with one too many personal projects and ended up working way too late, but he hadn't powered down enough to want to sleep just yet. He'd left his dorm room a couple of floors below to go on a walk and clear his head. Mostly, he just decided to walk the halls of Aube, quietly, at that, to try to clear his head.

Kohaku would be able to hear someone coming up the stairs, at least. The footsteps did halt near the door for a brief moment, but then came onto the floor and walked toward the kitchen. Truth of it was, he was following a trail of white rose petals and he was confused greatly by why they were here... and then he hears Kohaku just before coming into view.

"The stairwell?" He answered, with a bit of a half-joking dryness. "...But really, is it more to do with these flower petals? They're everywhere up here."

"Not you."

She had heard GV moving through the building and had been sort of idly tracking his progress. So she wasn't surprised at his voice. She didn't even turn around to look at him. She was too busy being annoyed at this damn flower petal. "Have you been seeing rose petals all over the place lately?"

Edited 2019-08-12 03:44 (UTC)

Adelaide is already awake when Kohaku shouts - though that doesn't mean it doesn't surprise her. She jumps from where she's seated on her bed, nearly sending the book in her lap to the floor. She stares across the dark room at her roommate, hesitating for a moment before closing the book and swinging her legs over.

"Bad dream?" Which is obvious. But Adelaide's not just going to press her to spill everything. Not yet, anyways.

She sat there in her bed, panting, heart pounding, for several seconds, then pulled her shirt up enough to confirm that there wasn't a fresh stab wound there. There wasn't. Just the old one, which was mostly healed by now.

Kohaku rubbed her hands down her face. "...Yeah. Bad dream."

Well, confirmation is confirmation. Adelaide frowns, before bobbing her head in a nod.

"Do you...need to talk about it, or do you want a distraction?"

"Fuck...I don't know. I've had that dream a million times before, but the ending was different this time."

Gunvolt shrugged, even if she wasn't looking at him to see it. He walked into the kitchen and looked the place over, noticing the flower petal in her hand this time.

"There were a few in the building here... but I really didn't see them much until I got closer to this level. There's some on the floor in the hallway too. Don't think this is that ghost mess still, do you?"

"They've been appearing all over the place all night and it's getting real old."

Kohaku carefully picked the petal out of the bowl and resumed stirring.

"So what're you doing up so late?"

"I can see why," he sympathetically stated, moving to lean against the counter nearby, but far enough away so he didn't get in her way while she was mixing things.

"Got too busy working on some more gear and equipment and lost track of time. Wasn't sleepy yet so I got up to clear my head before bed. ...What about you?"

It was a very strange time to be baking, after all.

"Can't sleep. Cooking helps me calm down. Everyone likes cake."

She wiped a smidge of batter off the rim of the bowl and tasted it thoughtfully, before carefully added a bit more powdered sugar.

"That's weird...Any reason you think it's changing up on you like that?"

Kohaku didn't answer for a moment, but she knew damn well why it had changed.

"It...had Xelvak in it, this time."

"Oh." Well, that'd do it. Xelvak was enough to give anyone nightmares. "Well, I'm pretty damn sure he's dead, so it's not like he's a threat to us anymore."

"Yeah no shit he's dead. We made damn sure of that. I just- I wish my subconscious cared about what is and isn't dead."

Kohaku wrapped her arms around her knees and stared at the wall blankly. "I've had nightmares for years, about this one daemon. The fucked up part is I never got a good look at it. I don't know what it looked like. Just that it killed a bunch of people, and now it's dead."

"The subconscious can be kind of an asshole," which is something Adelaide is pretty sure she doesn't need to say.

She doesn't ask why Kohaku has nightmares about a daemon - it seems pretty obviously a topic she shouldn't touch - so instead she lets out a breath she doesn't need to take. "I get nightmares too, sometimes, about...being turned."

"Hah." Kohaku didn't feel a need to respond to that beyond the single half hearted laugh. The tone said it all. Subconsciouses suck.

She appreciated not being asked about the daemon, at least, and was happy for a chance to change the subject, even if it was to Adelaide's trauma instead of her own. "How did that happen? If you don't mind me asking."

They're the worst.

And Adelaide was expecting Kohaku to press, even though she doesn't exactly want to open up about it. She hesitates for a moment, before shrugging. "I knew this guy, Richard, but I didn't really know him. He was the head of this...vampire clan that was pretty strict when it came to how humans are supposed to be treated. They exiled this other guy for not following the rules, and he was pretty pissed about that. Decided he wanted to teach Richard a lesson."

She pauses, gathering her thoughts. "He tried to kill me because I was friends with him, and then...Richard turned me to save my life, basically. Because he felt guilty."

There. Not every grisly detail, but enough to get the story across.

Kohaku flopped back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. "And now you're a vampire. Sounds like it was a real soap opera of a week."

She was still a bit embarrassed she hadn't noticed until Adelaide had basically rubbed her face in it. Noticing things was supposed to be what she was GOOD at.

"It was one way to spend Christmas, that's for sure."

And it's okay. Nobody really knew she was a vampire until they couldn't not know. It's fine!

"Yeah..."

Kohaku stared at the ceiling for a while and tried to fall back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. Every time she thought she was drifting off she remembered that face that wasn't a face and sleep fled her.

Eventually she sat back up. "Can't sleep. I'm going to cook something."

Adelaide let Kohaku try to rest, turning back to her book and letting the time pass. When she sits back up, she looks over at the girl again. "Okay. You want any help?"

"If you want. I was gonna make a cake."

She hopped out of bed and cracked her neck, then pulled on PJ pants (she tended to sleep in boxers/tshirt) and wandered out into the common area kitchen for their floor.

"What kind of cake?"

She's already getting out of bed, though, following after Kohaku. The type of cake doesn't super matter.

"I dunno. Maybe some kinda torte? I don't know if I've ever made a torte."

She already had her phone out to look up a recipe as she pulled up to the kitchen sink.

"Chocolate?" Because what other kind of torte is even worth bothering with?

Adelaide leans against the counter, watching her. She's going to let Kohaku lead the charge, so to speak.

"Obviously chocolate." They're on the same page there.

She perked up as the recipe for a sachertorte popped up. "This one looks pretty good."

"Yeah?"

She's tempted to lean over and see what it is, but she knows not everyone would be fine with that. So she just remains at her perch.

"We should have all the stuff to make just about anything."

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