daybreakacademy

Entry tags:

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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.

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[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.

[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?]

[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.

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?

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

Alright. [And off she goes, in a little bit of a hurry actually. Not so much of one that she would need to be told to slow down, but enough that it doesn't take quite as long as normal to return to Aube, where she takes the stairs instead of waiting on the elevator.

Once there, she waits for Weiss to open the door. She could probably just cut through her own room and the shared bathroom, but, nope, not doing that.]

[After a bit the door opens and Weiss ushers Desi in. There's a pot of coffee on a desk as well as two mugs.]

Go on, sit down on the spare bed. How do you take your coffee?

[Desi does as she's told, then looks over at the desk.]

I— Ah, I don't, usually. [She's not a coffee person, but she'll make an exception this time. On the occasions she has had it, what she found the most-tolerable...] Two and two, chilled if possible.

[And while she's waiting on that:] You said you think you know what this is about, so...you...heard about this past weekend, didn't you.

[Weiss pours the coffee into both mugs, then adds Desi's cream and sugar and taps the mug with Myrtenaster. When she hands it over the steam is completely gone. Weiss herself takes hers black.]

I don't know all the details, but I heard that Ky got badly hurt on the last mission.

It wasn't Ky.

[There's a fairly lengthy pause.]

It was GV.

Oh. Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time until the rumor mill failed me. I've been in similar situations myself, but I'm not you. I can only imagine what it must be like.

[Weiss takes a drink from her coffee, then moves over to a mini-fridge that doesn't seem to actually be plugged into anything and extracts a suspiciously red and distinctly copper smelling bowl of gelatin.]

Do you mind? It's not human, but I can understand if it might unnerve someone anyway.

[The fact that it was GV might explain why the room next door has been a bit quieter: for the time being, Desidera is the only person actually using it.]

Professor Kiske's the one who found him, and I was following behind with the rest of my team. It's— [Awful. Terrifying. One of the worst things she's seen since she first came here, and that's including her occasional nightmares.] GV was one of the first people I met here, Weiss. One of my first friends—in my whole life, even.

I don't know what I'll do if he doesn't pull through this.

[Desi takes a drink from her own mug, then pauses when Weiss gets into the fridge. She knows what that is, but she also knows what Weiss is.]

No, no, I don't mind. You need to, right?

Not really, I'm only a Dhampir. It's unreasonably delicious, but I don't actually need it.

As for Gunvolt, his chances here are probably better than almost anywhere else. Daybreak has access to some of the world's most skilled healers. I don't know the extent of his injuries, but the odds are in his favor. It's sad, I know, but all we can do is wait. I went through the same thing after Ruby and the others went on their little self-imposed mission against the necromancer, not to mention the times that Winter- my sister- has been injured in the line of duty.

I still don't mind it. [She has horns and daemonic shadow powers—and honestly may as well be considered a daemon with a human heart—so who would she be to judge someone else for their differences from 'normal' people?]

I know he'll probably be okay, but I haven't been able to stop worrying about him since we got back. [...] Monarch's gone missing, too, so whoever did this probably took her with them... [Did Weiss ever meet Monarch? Desi doesn't think she did, but the fact that the AI was staying with her and GV over the past month was still probably known to at least some people around the campus.]

[With that, Weiss takes a bite of her blood pudding and thinks for a bit.]

If you want, I could get a message to Winter, have the Runeguard search for her when they can. I doubt she'll be able to get too many people to help, but every bit counts, right?

GV might know who it was, if he saw who had attacked him.

[That would bank on his regaining consciousness sooner rather than later, though, and without knowing for sure who had done it, there's no knowing how much time they have to try to get her back, or if they even have any time at all.]

I don't know if we can wait too long for him, though, so any help we could get...please.

Right, I'll call her as soon as I can. In the meantime, why don't you get some rest? I'll even let you stay over here if you're having trouble with not being used to being the only one in the room.

[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.

[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.]

[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.

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...

[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.]

It'd be a lie if I didn't say I wanted to do something. [There it is.

His question had her thinking about the whys of it, though, and while she quickly settled on an answer to that, there was a bit of a pause before she chose to explain herself, because she actually wasn't too sure if she should. It was the professor she was talking to, though, so...]

He's important to me, Valvatorez. Maybe more than he thinks. [There it is.]

...I see.

[Sometimes Valvatorez can be an absolute dunce at picking up cues of that nature. Today? Not one of those times. As much as he refused to admit it to himself, that struck a very, very familiar refrain. They say history doesn't truly repeat itself, but often rhymes.

He's pensive for a moment, sparing another glance at Gunvolt.]

If he's important to you, then make sure whatever you intend to do to the perpetrator follows with what he might wish for. ...It can be very easy for us to get swept up in our power and emotions and lose sight of those sorts of things. Sometimes we need reminders, lest we forget that.

[If experience ever sounded like it was talking, it was right then.]

[Gunvolt didn't strike her as being the sort that really would seek vengeance—only to make sure that whoever had done it wouldn't hurt anyone else—so it was likely that he wouldn't want her to take things too far either, not unless there wasn't any avoiding it.]

Whatever he wants is what I'll do. [She's not doing anything until he's back.]

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