[open]

[unlogic]

Who: Desidera and anyone
What: her roommate/best friend/??? almost died and their adopted vocaloid got kidnapped, so uh. yeah.
When: starting December 9th and probably going until Gunvolt's recovery
Where: mostly at the infirmary, but classrooms/Aube 2nd floor/library/cafeteria is doable too
Warnings: stuff that can reasonably be expected given what happened. will edit for specifics if necessary later.

Desidera's normal routine went more or less out the window upon her return to the academy after the mission. She still went to her classes and occasionally checked in with Valvatorez like normal, but most of the other activities she usually did were being almost completely disregarded; she stopped making her usual visits to the Mithril Cage (both not feeling up to it, and afraid of what might happen while she felt so horrible), went to the library less often (only to look into things related to her classes and nothing more), and didn't remain in the cafeteria for long (leaving the minute she was done eating instead of lingering around or getting more).

This was all so she could prioritize spending whatever free time she could find in the infirmary, refusing to spend any more time away from Gunvolt than she absolutely had to. She wasn't leaving unless they made her leave, or unless it was late enough that she needed to return to her room to try (and probably fail) to sleep.

Noticeably, she also made a point of wearing her uniform all the time now as opposed to changing into any of her normal outfits—what she normally wore tended toward darker colors, but blue and white were his colors—and the bracelet she had been given before any of this happened hasn't been removed since she first put it on.

Comments

[notbornguilty]

[One day, when Desi is about to leave the library early for the umpteenth time, a glyph pulls her behind a bookshelf.]

Desidera, what is going on? You've been morose, un-talkative, and plainly exhausted for days now. I won't claim that we're the very best of friends, but I think that we're close enough that you should be able to talk to me about your problems.

[unlogic]

[Being tugged back like that is a bit of a strange experience, but it's probably not too much different than if she'd used a shadow to grab someone by the wrist and pull them along somewhere herself. It's also quite unexpected, so the girl stumbles just a little bit before she finds her footing, and also finds herself face-to-face with Weiss.]

Ah— Weiss? It's— Ah—

[How the hell should she say this?]

[notbornguilty]

[Weiss sighs, and looks Desi not quite in the eyes. Close enough to get the point across, but not so close as to set off her predatory stare.]

You know, you were the first person I opened up to regarding my more... predatory side. I don't even really talk to Ruby about it. So if you need some time to sort your thoughts that's fine, but please. Promise me that you'll come to me if you need someone to unload to.

[unlogic]

No, I— You're right next door so you should know, I think, but...

I don't think I want to say anything with other people around. [She doesn't want to alarm anyone that might not have already heard what had happened.] One of our rooms?

[notbornguilty]

Alright. I think I do know what this is about, but it might help to talk about it. Let's head to my room.

[arcadianvampire]

[One of the days Desidera was in the infirmary, waiting for Gunvolt to finally rouse from his coma, she'd get a knock at the door to his room. It was mostly to alert her that someone was there, seeing as how the door was left open in the first place. Valvatorez poked his head in, seeing the unconscious boy still in bed, then looked over to Desidera, wherever she sat.]

Desidera? I hope I'm not disturbing you. I just wanted to see how you were holding up.

[unlogic]

[Usually, it was the other way around, her going to see him when she was concerned or worried about things, but Valvatorez probably had some rather specific concerns about how Desidera might ultimately respond to what had happened. With her own understanding that she was probably considered more of a risk than normal right now, the girl made no objections to his coming to see her.]

I'm trying. It's... [It was pretty awful, not knowing when he'd be back. She was sure that he would be, at some point, but she wasn't sure how long she could handle waiting.] One of us should have gone with him, we might have been able to stop it from happening. [Might have. There were no guarantees there, she knew that.]

[arcadianvampire]

[Valvatorez walked into the room more directly, and slowly shut the door behind him, preferring that anything they talk about remain in confidence. ...Not that he didn't trust the medical staff here. Heike, Ekkehardt, and many of the others were all trustworthy sorts, and would probably understand everything that might be said anyway, but sometimes it was just easier to speak in privacy.]

Unfortunately, there is no way to know that for sure. If someone managed to do... this, to someone with a history of being an excellent mission operative? It's a good bet that they would've been ready for more than one foe.

[Valvatorez didn't have him as a student often personally, but... he knew very well this boy's seen battle against two different Heralds/Heraldic forces and lived to tell. You don't do that by being stupid.

Still, he glanced over to her, and his normally harsh red eyes actually showed flickers of sympathy.]

I know that... it's hard. ...I hope you have not been blaming yourself for this.

[unlogic]

I'm not, Professor. I just— Maybe...we shouldn't have let our guard down, even if it looked like everything was said and done.

[She knew though that outside of the teams not expecting anything else to happen, any 'blame' to be had here fell on whoever it was that managed to put Gunvolt down and take Monarch away.] If we can find out who did it, though...

[arcadianvampire]

[Valvatorez is quiet for a moment, his gaze turning distant for a brief second.]

...The best thing to do about that feeling, not letting your guard down, is to keep moving forward. Dwelling on the what-ifs after you've taken the lesson to heart only serves to cause misery for yourself.

[It's a hard lesson to learn, but it's one he knows well. And one born of experience.]

I suspect you intend to make them pay dearly for it, am I correct?

[The question's not judgemental, like it might be from some professors. As a daemon, he does know this instinct very, very, very well. He just lived out something similar on the Galrans mere days ago.

There were probably rumors about it by now.]

[buddinghopes]

[It doesn't take long for Lia to stop by the infirmary. Part of it's to see how Gunvolt's doing, but it's partly to check on Desidera.]

... How's he doing, Desidera?

[She wasn't stopped bringing it in, so she's got some food she actually made herself and she's bringing it over.]

[unlogic]

[Desi turns away from the bed to face toward the door, watching Lia as she comes in. Under normal circumstances, the food would command a good portion of her attention, but she's not felt too hungry since, well, any of this.]

Better than when we found him, for sure, but...he's still not waking up.

[buddinghopes]

[She sets the food down nearby and comes over, clasping her hands in front of her.]

It may take some time, still... But I'm sure he will. [He has to.] What about you? Are you doing okay?

[unlogic]

Mi sento come merda. [Even if the words aren't known, the tone makes it clear enough that no, right now she's kind of not.]

He's not just my roommate or my teammate, Lia. He's one of my first friends. [They met on literally her first day here, before learning that they were, in fact, roommates.] It hurts— It hurts a lot, seeing him like this. I don't know what I'll do if he gets worse.

[buddinghopes]

[Well, 'merda' got across.]

... Fair enough. I get it, though. Well, sort of get it? Maybe. But... the point is... if it does happen, you're not going through it alone, okay? I know we don't really know each other that well, but... I'm here for you, if you need it.

December 14

[shockingblue]

[The world went dark... the last thing he remembered feeling was the pavement of the helipad coming up to meet him. ...It didn't even feel like pavement; or much of anything, just a mass he numbly struck.

He floated around in darkness for what felt like no time at all, and yet, at the same time, an agonizing, hellish eternity. It was like a deep, dreamless sleep that he veered in and out of consciousness of; though it was hard to tell when he did and didn't, given it was mostly dark, save for the dull sensation of color filling what passed for his vision every now and then. It was perfectly silent too; even his own mind couldn't call out into the abyss, trapped inside a prison with no walls and yet, no light.

...And then he felt something. Something small, imperceptible to most, floating on the air. A small charge. An electron... one, followed by another, and another, and then another. He reached out his mind to it, and a deluge answered.

He could feel it. The lightning. Like that feeling he had on the beach with Professor Kiske during a thunderstorm. An ionic charge, waiting to be grasped. So he did, taking hold of it, gripping it in his fingers. His mind filled with azure, a brilliant, blinding blue, that elemental purity making him feel alive again.

Alive. He was alive. He shouldn't be. But he knew now. He Was.

...The EKG in Gunvolt's room began to beep more intensely as his heartrate accelerated from its slow, sluggish state in the coma. The screen began to flicker and distort. And while for the moment he remained mostly still, Gunvolt's hands clenched into fists, lightning flickering brightly from them... and his feet, but only for a moment.

A gasp as Gunvolt took in a huge volume of air into his lungs all at once, bolting forward in his bed. His eyes flashed open, hard, looking for a fight, his fists crackling, one of them raised and ready to throw up the Flashfield out of reflex.

...It was then he realized... he wasn't where he thought he was. Remotely. He immediately became disoriented, dropping the lightning and looking woozy from malaise and his sudden awakening.]

Where... what?...

[unlogic]

[Once the beeping started, Desidera bolted up and out of her chair and rushed over to the side of the bed, where she saw the EKG screen doing things that, she was pretty sure, EKG screens should not be doing. She didn't miss the brief flickers of lightning, either. Thinking that she needed to go and get Ekkehardt, or Hieke, or even Rebecca or literally anyone, she started toward the door and was about to do just that when she heard the gasp. Whirling back to face toward the bed once more—

She saw the movement.

Then heard his voice.

Gunvolt was awake.

Gunvolt. Was awake.

She took a few small steps at first, almost as if uncertain. But then after those steps were made, she practically threw herself at the bed, grabbed for one of his hands with both of hers, then pressed her head down onto them and started crying, almost uncontrollably.]

[shockingblue]

[For a brief moment he feels like he's going to be ill as he gets his wits back about him, disoriented, exhausted, and stiff from being in bed. ...He was in a bed... and he could feel the EKG hooked to him, along with an IV drip in his arm. But what he couldn't feel was pain in his chest. Amazingly, he could breathe, and he could feel his heart thrumming in his chest.

He was in the infirmary. Back in the school. There was no mistaking it.

...And then he could feel his hand taken, then taken by another. Two warm hands grasping his, followed by the weight of something greater. Reflexively, Gunvolt's hand grasped at hers, and he somewhat blearily turned his head, seeing Desidera right there. Her sobbing and crying hit his ears a moment later as his senses came back into proper focus.]

Desi...?

[...She was here. He didn't really get a terribly good look at her yet, still processing where he was and truly coming to, that moment of adrenaline and anger fleeting for now.

For now.]

[unlogic]

[She picked her head up when she heard him call her name, and even if he was still in the process of really waking up, taking any good look at her face would have made it all too clear how hurt she'd felt in the past several days, as well as how relieved she was feeling now.

Her voice is shaky when she responds:] G— GV.

[shockingblue]

[This moment was still surreal, but the grip he had on her hand tightened a little bit, a squeeze that was meant to be reassuring; but one he didn't really even stop to think about. He just sort of did it; it just came naturally at that point.]

Desidera...

[He looked her over; she looked a mess. An absolute mess. Worse than he'd ever seen her; exhausted, and somewhat unkempt. Like she was doing just enough to get by, and that was it.

...How long had she been here? How long was he out?

His own voice came back quiet, tired, and... perhaps even sounding vulnerable, for what might be the first time she'd ever heard.]

I'm sorry.

Before GV Awakens

[bejustorbedead]

Ky had classes and coursework to attend to, so he didn't have as much time as he'd like to check in on the young man.

His breath catches as he enters the infirmary, sitting down quietly next to her, his expression taut, his long hair pulled back in a loose, messy ponytail that seems to threaten to spill out.

"How has he been doing?" The man asks quietly.

[unlogic]

When she first hears—and then looks and sees—Ky walk in, Desidera straightens herself up a bit in the seat she's taken.

"He hasn't gotten any worse," she answers, "but it's hard to say if he's really getting any better, either."

[bejustorbedead]

"This is the worst part of returning from combat," He murmurs perhaps a little louder than he intended. He should have kept a headcount, made sure everyone was there - then he might've -

No. It was useless to dwell on the what ifs.

"Unfortunately, for most people, this kind of injury will take days to recover,"

[unlogic]

"This school isn't 'most people,' Professor." It wasn't a denial that it could take time, because she wasn't stupid, but it was more like raising the possibility that maybe it wouldn't be too long. "But... I'll wait however long I need to, if he's okay in the end."

Gunvolt had been one of her first friends—her actual first, even. They were also roommates, and were effectively partners ever since they had teamed up during the attack on the school near the end of August. She'd wait as long as it took for him to come back if it meant not losing any of that.

[bejustorbedead]

His lips quirked into a sad, but knowing smile at that, his attention turning to the young man... something about how he's laying that reminded him of a bad winter where his younger brother was stricken with fever. He couldn't do much but pray in either case.

Ky's fingers curled against the back of his hand. "He has a good friend in you, I think having someone close by does help."