Gifts for the Gifted {Judy}

[William Fenris]

Much had happened to Will since the library event, since standing out in the dark and meeting Vlad, his benefactor. He could still hear the man's deep voice, slow and steady, telling him to be bold and brave and himself. So, he decided to take a certain matter into his own hands. He had not signed up to go back into the library, not after the terrible things that had happened there, and he felt guilty about it, so he decided to seek Judy out instead.

He volunteered for cleaning else where, but he couldn't face that place not yet, not with the monster they met inside. 

The once wolf had a rolled piece of paper in his rucksack, he'd tried to tidy his hair and had been recommended perhaps he should clean his shoes so he looked as tidy as Will knew how to look without any real guidance before he knocks on the door he had been told was Judy's room. He cleared his throat and felt his neck seem to tighten. Why was he suddenly nervous?

He couldn't put his finger on it, but the once wolf was going to try not to allow himself to stammer when he finally saw her at the door. 

[Judy Hopps]

So Judy had actually been sleeping.

Sleeping might be a bit of an understatement: she'd all but passed out on the bed after working for a few days straight. The ex-rabbit, still sorta cop had been bustling about doing whatever it took to help put this place back in working order. Even her room looked like someone had spent a few hours getting it together, despite there not being much in it at the moment. Just her leftover equipment from Zootopia and a few spare flannel shirts and jeans, not to mention the short and shirts she had on right now.

Currently she was drooling into her arm, a pillow tucked under one at an awkward angle while her butt had been shot into the air, the shirt risen up to reveal bits of her, with her leg kicking a few times. She didn't even seem to react to the initial knocks, her leg just kicking in response. It took a few for her to realize someone was there, and she jerked awake.

"Wazzat?" she called, rolling up, holding her hands out like she was holding a gun. "Comin?" she tried, bleary eyes blinking as she looked around. Her hair stuck up at odd angles, glued by drool (and who knows what; Judy hadn't showered in a while either), as she tried to figure who would actually come bother her in her actual room.

[William Fenris]

Will was still standing outside the door, shuffling outside the door. He thought he could hear movement and he was feeling guilty. Was it too early or late to come visit? he hadn't really worked out that sort of thing. A hand nervously went to his hair, burying itself into it's black mess.

"Oh -- It's just me...it's Will. Sorry. I could come back?" Will wondered if perhaps she might not even want to see him. Why did it matter if she did or didn't? He didn't know, All he knew was that this was just as nerve wracking as the library had been. "I didn't want to bother you....I just...I wanted to give you something."

He called this through the door, not sure if she could hear him, but he tried anyway. He shuffled from foot to foot, eyes on the floor, waiting.

[Judy Hopps]

The voice sort of punctured through Judy's cloudy haze. She was tempted to try and figure out what time it was: she was so used to checking her phone she almost reached for it. But she hadn't quite found a charger yet, and she didn't want to use it up just checking the time. Truthfully she didn't have a clue what time it was: she'd pretty well collapsed into her bed at some point. It had been dark when she'd fallen asleep... but she oculdn't tell what side of dark.

But yeah, Will. Judy opened the door, blearily staring up at him. He did have nearly a foot on her, even with her hair sticking out at odd angles. "Give me something?" she asked, fighting down a yawn. "It wouldn't be coffee or a phone charger, would it?" she was smiling, trying to let him know she was joking. Stepping to the side, she gestured for him to head into the room. Wasn't like there was a mess or anything to hide inside.

[William Fenris]

Will made a worried face, trying to read the situation, and probably read it a bit slower, as he saw that she was smiling at him. She looked tired, and again there was more guilt there for not being more helpful. He didn't even notice the mess in the room that much either, he had lived in the woods, personal space in that way hadn't really sunk in that humans were neater yet.

He blinked a few times at the coffee comment: "Oh, I --- I could get you a ---"

But he realised she was definitely joking with him as she pushed the door aside, and so he stepped in. Still holding the roll of paper. He brandished it towards her, with a small smile. "I --- well I did this for you."

When she would -- eventually unroll the paper, she would see the drawing he'd made of her. After what had happened on the library, her brandishing their paper weapon, she looked like a hero to him, and he had been unable to shake the image from his mind, so she had to draw it.

And he thought, considering she might not have ever had a drawing done of her before, she might like it. Or not. But it was a gesture. He'd never given anyone a drawing he'd done before.

[Judy Hopps]

When Will seemed almost confused by Judy's joking comment, she smiled at him, waving him further inside. She was still yawning, and didn't seem to quite realize that she was in her pajamas and looked like a total wreck. Honestly it was debatable if Judy would really care; part of her was so burnt out right now, particularly without any carrot juice or anything else in her, that she probably wouldn't have cared if she were naked.

"You didn't have to do anything," she was already mumbling, taking the paper. She unrolled it slowly, staring down at it. It took her a few seconds to put it together, partially because of her drowsiness, partly because she didn't quite recognize the shape in front of her. Part of Judy was still thinking of herself as a rabbit, all two or three feet of her, and seeing her hooo-man form took her a bit. She recognized the scene.

"Oh wow, will," she said, flushing, a hand going up to rub at her too-small ears. "This is, wow, you weren't kidding about being good at drawing," she was definitely blushing now too. "I mean, I don't actually look this, um, impressive, do I? I'm, like, tiny," she let out a chuckle, looking down at her very disheveled self. Yeah, definitely not the impressive hero figure in the drawing before her, that was for sure.

[William Fenris]

She may think she was a wreck, but human behavior in this form didn't mean much to him. All he knew was the image of her with the torch was burnt into his memory, and he'd had to draw it. So much so that when she went red, he also went red to compensate.

"I....don't remember saying I was good at drawing, I just...like drawing, and I liked drawing you a lot."

He put a hand through his own mess of hair, looking about at the room, and finding nothing wrong with it at all, his own room looked similar. Not understanding the importance of tidiness yet. "I thought rabbits were supposed to be tiny? Maybe that's why you're a tiny human. There's nothing wrong with tiny, I like tiny."

He smiled, still blushing, "I just mean, I hit my head on door frames sometimes...I bet you don't have that problem."

He shoved his hands into his pocket, looking back at the door. "I-I could go now if you want, if you were sleeping..."

[Judy Hopps]

"Well, maybe I just kinda assumed it?" she said. "I think I saw some drawings or something when we were in the library. Not that we remember anything before that creature, right?" Judy put on an exaggerated shudder, looking back down at the drawing encapsulating that moment. She looked downright heroic there, like some sort of character lifted out of the legend. That felt decidedly strange, given that Judy definitely didn't feel very heroic.

The mention of being a rabbit and tiny and liking that had her laughing again, reaching a hand up to stroke at those too-small ears of hers. "Yeah, I'm kinda used to it," she allowed. "But hey, at least you don't need a stool to reach the top of shelves." she gestured toward the stool she'd commandeered for just that purpose in her room. Apparently they'd built this place for a sort of "one size fits all" hoo-man, and apparently that size wasn't quite tiny-rabbit-hoo-man sized.

She waved off his comment. "i'm up now," she said. "And it would be rude to kick you out after you gave me such a nice present. That is if you don't mind someone who looks like they need a few more hours of beauty sleep," hey, Judy was at least aware that she looked a little... worn out. She had a mirror around here somewhere; bathroom, probably, which, yes, she did use.

[William Fenris]

Will gave her a shrug, looking about the room remembering the monster with a shiver. She may not feel heroic, but she was. She made him feel heroic and that was an amazing feeling too. He moves forward before finding a seat, somewhere. He was now actually her height this way, and he gave her a bit of a grin.

"It's fine, I wont outstay my welcome...and I'll let you sleep. I don't know why, I don't need too much of it. Must be a wolf thing..." He looks awkward at that, his head tilts in a canine fashion, you could almost imagine him as a cub then.

"Do you miss being a rabbit? I...I mean...not that I'm saying I don't want you to be a rabbit, but...I'm glad you're not a rabbit from where I'm from."

He wasn't even sure if that made any sense, it came out in a slur of worry, and hadn't he told himself to be more confident? Well that was going badly.

"I'm really not very good at talking to people. Sorry."

[Judy Hopps]

Judy again shook her head. "You're really not bothering me. I probably should've gotten up anyway," because there were so many things she should be doing about now. She didn't even want to think about them: the list almost felt like it grew everytime Judy turned around. Then again, Judy hadn't been getting much sleep...

Will's burst of words had her laughing, again waving him off. "Don't worry about it, Will. I mean, I'm standing in my pajamas, we're kinda fine being awkward,' she stretched again, working out some muscles, not quite realizing how kinked up her body felt until she did so. She almost swore something popped. "But, yeah, I do miss some parts of being a rabbit. Like, I super miss my fur," she ran a hand through her hair, "this mane thing definitely does not make up for a good coat of fur. And I miss my ears something awful," she ran her hand over her too small ears, before shrugging.

"But it could be a lot worse. We're still able to talk and walk around and do things. It's not like we became feral: the parts of us that are us are still here," she fought back another yawn, resisting the urge to add another stretch. She really needed to see if there was some coffee or energy drink she could get to. Maybe she could try some more carrot juice with infused extracts again, that was her favorite...

[William Fenris]

Judy's words made him swallow. "Good..." Still, he was glad she didn't mind him, glad he could be a goof and she didn't mind. He watched her stretch and yawn, and it made him yawn too, loud, almost like a howl, and he swallowed it down with a gulp.

"I...but what do you mean feral, I know we spoke about it before...but...where I'm from. We -- we don't wear clothes, or listen to iPods, or sleep in beds. We're...I think that I'm from a feral world. Perhaps a world, your world evolved from..."

It made him struggle to meet her eye. "Perhaps I was born too early, I should have been in Zooptopia with you. Maybe if I had, I could have been like an artist, or or something."

Even though he felt this, Dracula's words still seemed to soften his thoughts, to not be afraid of who he was, and who he was was a human, who didn't want to be a wolf...

[Judy Hopps]

The question had Judy wincing again. This was the second time she'd had to explain it to another being who came from a different world but still happened to be an animal. That didn't stop her from meeting Will's gaze head on, matching him.

"You might have been,' she said, shrugging "But you're you, and everything that happened led you to being the person you are right now. But feral..." she trailed off, tugging at her shirt for a moment, seeming to almost stare at a distant memory for a few seconds. "it's... different. It's definitely not you or me. It's... it's when all your worst urges, those predatory bits or the parts of you that are just primal predator or prey. They take over your thinking parts."

Judy licked her lips, but nodded. "So you're definitely not one of those. Even if you were a wolf, you weren't a feral one. Unless you were totally different back there than you are now," she gave him another smile, "but that was then. Now you're you, this hoo-man version, so you really should focus more on making that a person that you like best. That's what I'm going to do." She stretched and yawned again, looking around. "Though I'd like to be a person who still has access to coffee and a charger. I miss the good things," she winced, before looking around, trying to remember if she had any energy bars or anything else she'd commandeered/salvaged.

[William Fenris]

"Oh, I've....never had coffee...or had a phone, I'd never slept in a bed before these last few weeks...my world was just....trees and forests, and being fearful of hoo-mans..."

He chewed his lip a little, and watching her. He'd never seen her like this before, vulnerable and tired. Perhaps because he had seen her as a hero, this flash of optimism, that seeing her like this only made him like her more. His smile was brighter than ever, if typically lopsided. He wondered what she was thinking about when she stared off like that.

Before he even knew it, a hand rested upon hers.

"Be the best hoo-mans we can be....got it...so, I'll start off with getting you those things you need. I bet I could find someone who can help us."

Because Will, willing to talk to people to help the others, something that he was still struggling and learning to do, was a much bigger gift than he was even willing to admit.

[Judy Hopps]

Judy frowned. "The more i hear about where you come from, Will, the less I like it," her eyes almost had a hardness to them. "It's good you came here: you were wasted on that place," she said with the utmost authority of someone who knew what she was talking about. That hero that Will kept seeing stepped back into Judy's skin, filling her out for a few moments.

Only to startle away at a touch. Judy literally jumped at the touch: more out of instinct than anything. She let out a laugh, raising up the not-grabbed hand to rub at her ears.

"That's just me whining, Will, really," she said. "You don't have to worry about it. I'm sure that stuff will turn up soon enough. The school's magic, right? Pretty soon I'll just wake up to find a coffee pot going on the shelf and my phone connected to the wall," she rolled her eyes, before smiling up at him. "You're too nice for your own good, you know that, right?"

Like Judy was one to talk.

[William Fenris]

"I don't like it much either."

Will was surprised she was startled and so he was startled also, he also folded his hands into his lap, feeling a blush creeping onto his cheeks. Then she batted away his idea about finding those items away. "I.....I guess so? That sounds pretty fantastic..."

He licked his lips, and when she smiled at him, he swore that he forgot how to speak. Swallowing heavily as he tries once again to kickstart his vocal chords.

"Me? N-Nice. That's very kind of you, I am trying to be."

He stands, feeling now would probably be a good time to leave, after all he did disturb her sleep. He can't stop fidgeting.

"Look -- um...when you're not sleeping or working, and things have cleaned up around here....maybe....we could go get coffee together. I've never had it, and it....it sounds like a good idea to try some..."