what's another night on mars? {Judy}

[Judy Hopps]

Judy's mouth fell open. "Nick!?" she cried, before letting out a squeal. Her limbs flailed in a completely random direction, without much care for what or who she hit. Somehow she wound up on her feet, and was wrapping her arms around what was pretty much Nick's waist (if anything, their height difference might be worse now, considering that Judy had pulled the tiny hoo-man side of the height spectrum). "It is so good to see you! I was so worried and---"

Judy pulled back, eyes narrowing as she raised a finger to point at him. "Wait, why didn't you say who you--oh, I didn't say--" she pointed to herself, then let out a laugh, reaching up to rub at her too-small ears. "Right, that's just,' she let out another laugh, before turning to look up at him.

"You're really here! That's just..." she took a breath, letting it out in a rush. "Isn't this place amazing? Wait," she frowned, "does the department know you're here? I don't know how we're going to get to contact them, given that the portals are apparently down now..."

[Nick Wilde]

There it was. Nick let out a quiet oof as she flung herself at him, and laughed, giving the top of her head a pat and hugging her back with his other arm. "Don't get all emotional on me now," he said, grinning. "I'm too tired for all that. If you start crying I might start crying too, and I'd never live that down. All of these people would mock me," he added, gesturing towards the completely vacant street around them.

He had so many questions for her, but sorting them out and putting them into coherent sentences sounded like so much effort right now. They could probably get to all of that later, especially since she also had questions, and it was easier for him to deal with questions he already knew the answers to.

"They know I came through after you," he nodded. "When the second tunnel thing popped up, I hightailed it over there and told them I was gonna go find you. We hadn't heard from you in like a week, and I was worried, and it wasn't like you to not check back in, so I just...I didn't really wait to get permission," he admitted, looking a little sheepish. "So I guess I might be in some trouble. But I found you, so that's gotta count for something, right?"

[Judy Hopps]

Judy rolled her eyes. "oh yeah, I'm gonna get all weepy over you," she said, grinning as she lightly punched his arm again. She actually let out a laugh that was probably more than his comment deserved as she looked around at the emptiness around them. It did feel almost surreal, given where they'd come from. Then again, Judy and Nick had explored the less populated sections of Zootopia, and this wasn't that different from that.

Answers related to Zootopia came. "They probably won't mind. You probably should've reported in or at least did what I did and let people know," She pursed her lips. "They probably think I'm MIA at the least, if not KIA," she rubbed at her ears again. "Soon as the portals are up, we should send notice back. Put in a request for a transfer, maybe," she looked up at Nick. "That is assuming you're on board. I think this place could use us. We did great back home, and we could do great here." She gestured, then gave him a scandalized look. "They don't even have police, Nick."

[Nick Wilde]

"I mean, I told them I was going through," Nick assured her. "That was the last thing I said, before I went through, was that I was going in to check it out. They know that's where I am, even if they don't know exactly where here is." Heck, he didn't even know where here was. But maybe Judy did. "What exactly is this place?" She clearly had a better idea than he did, if she was talking about requesting transfers, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd worked so hard, he had overcome so much, and they were going to just walk away from that to come here and fight Jello monsters? How were they supposed to transfer if there were no police here? He felt lightheaded.

"Cheese and crackers," he said, borrowing a Judy-ism for the moment. "What kind of place doesn't have police?" He hadn't always had a great relationship with the police himself, but even he had always known that they were necessary, they kept things from descending into chaos, kept people from running around lawlessly doing whatever they wanted. Nick had been a borderline criminal, but he wasn't a violent criminal, and that was the kind of thing the police were there to put a stop to. No wonder there were rogue jello creatures here acting like they owned the place.

"I don't know how to contact the city," he admitted. "Do you...do they have any of those things that brought us here, but in the other direction, the people you've met?"

[Judy Hopps]

Judy raised her hands, gesturing around her. "It's a school, apparently. But, like, it's some sort of hub for lots of different worlds. Those portals? Like the ones that dumped us here? They connect to dozens of different worlds, if not more, and sometimes different dimensions or something. It all sounds like sci-fi stuff to me, but," Judy shrugged, "it's apparently all true. I've already had conversations with wizards, queens, magical bats, and people from places where everyone's hoo-man," she gestured at herself, then made a wave toward Nick.

"And I definitely said the same thing about not having police. That's why I think we should stay, if we can. Zootopia's got the rest of the force, right? So this school deserves someone," she pushed herself back upright, standing straight and tall. "So why not give it our best," she nodded. "Oh, and there are portals that can go back? But they're offline until we get the school back together."

Judy grinned, tilting her head over her shoulder. "That's part of why I've been working so hard to fix this place. That and, I dunno," she ran a hand along her too-short ear, "place reminds me of what I always thought Zootopia should be, you know?"

[Nick Wilde]

A school, ah, that made some sense, based on what he'd seen so far. The portal room he'd come in through was baffling, and the whole experience with his spirit guide had been even more confusing, but now that she said the word school, a bunch of stuff clicked into place. "Ohhh," he said, nodding. "That makes a lot of sense, now that you say it. It definitely makes more sense than my working theory, which was that that portal had just killed me and I was in some kind of weird purgatory or afterlife." Saying that out loud to Judy made him feel pretty dumb, and he made a face.

She also had a really good point. If people here had no law enforcement, and they were in a time of crisis, that was pretty much part of their sworn duty as public servants, to do whatever they could to help out. But that didn't mean it was sitting any easier on his feelings and emotions (neither of which he was not going to admit to having at this exact moment), because he'd thrown himself into that portal thinking that he would come over here, grab Judy, and they would go back to being cops and everything would be normal. And now it sounded like she was suggesting they set up shop here at least semi-permanently, and his brain was agreeing with her, and his heart was a little bummed about it. He had worked incredibly hard for the life he had back in Zootopia, but he wouldn't even have that life without Judy, and he certainly wasn't going back without her.

"So we...what, we wait until we can get the portals back online, and then we send word back to the city and ask for them to assign us here?" That didn't sound awful, except... "But we gotta stay in these bodies?"

[Judy Hopps]

Judy nodded. "Kinda explains why we were just in a cafeteria?" she said, pointing at the door behind them. "Though I totally don't blame you for the purgatory thing. Just wait until your next encounter with magic," Judy pursed her lips and raised her brows for a moment, nodding. She'd barely experienced that, and already she was starting to feel like she'd seen stuff she couldn't come back from at this point. She stretched again as Nick outlined their plan.

"Pretty sure the hoo-man body thing is required," admitted Judy, looking down. "I'm definitely not a fan myself. I miss my ears something fierce, and the winter is gonna be rough with just manes," she held out her own, before tossing it back and eying Nick's. "At least I got more than you," she said, nodding. "But I'm not thinking we just wait."

She tapped the door. "We can help these people, Nick. we should, and you know it," she pointed to him. "I'm not gonna stop until everything here is where it needs to be, and I might keep going until I'm sure the place could do without my help..." or longer ,if she got attached for whatever reason.

[Nick Wilde]

"Yeah," Nick agreed, "it's all startin' to come together, it had a kind of school-y vibe to it but everything was so empty and there was just nobody here, I was starting to think that it was a metaphorical spirit school or something, and I was supposed to be...I dunno, learning whatever lessons I didn't learn in life. But hey, not being dead, that's way better. I would definitely much rather not be dead."

He wasn't against the idea of staying here. If people needed him...well, that was a feeling Nick still wasn't accustomed to, and one he was still thoroughly enjoying. Feeling like people wanted him around, like he was doing some good, like things would be worse off without him, that was all fine. The idea that he was going to be stuck in this body, though, that was a little harder to swallow, and he suddenly remembered how completely exhausted he was.

"You're right," he said, because she was, and he was too tired to argue, but he suddenly felt a little like he might be about to tear his way out of his skin. "We should...yeah, you're absolutely right, if...they need us here, it's important to..." He leaned against the wall. "I'm...I think I need some air, I just...that was a lot, you know?" He didn't want to sound like he was abandoning her if he stayed here, but his new body was doing weird things, it felt like it couldn't breathe, like the lungs weren't working right. Maybe the whole situation with the jello had been too much for this body, maybe they weren't meant for all the fight or flight things that a fox body was. Judy seemed to be more or less fine, though, so maybe it was just his that was defective. "I need coffee real bad," he joked, leaning his weight on one hand pressed flat against the wall.

[Judy Hopps]

Judy nodded as Nick worked his way through it. She remembered what that was like: figuring out where she was, how she got here, what she could do here. It was just that Judy had hit the ground running, like she normally did. She could see something gong on within Nick though...

"You don't have to," she said quickly, almost stumbling over his words. She ran her hand over her head, as if stroking back those ears she no longer properly had. "I mean... if you want to try something else... or just to get some air or something, that's fine." They were close and all, but Judy knew she'd just gotten quite excited and essentially dropped a heavy weight on Nick .It wouldn't be fair to expect him to just play along.

"Cheese and crackers, don't get me started on the coffee," she mumbled, running a hand over her eyes. "Or a phone charger... I'm missing just about everything," she took another breath, letting it out in a ragged, overlong sigh. She looked to Nick, grinning. "Glad to have you here though, if only because you get it too."