7158/Thump In The Night

Thump In The Night
Date of Scene:	31 July 2021
Location:	Jubilee and Noriko's Room
Synopsis:	After Jubilation Lee's corpse is identified as the Jane Doe at New Hope Hospital, Noriko Ashida has fallen into despair. Finally able to get to sleep, she's stirred awake by visions of Jubilee sharing the bed with her. It was just a dream, right? Jubilee has died, right?
Cast of Characters:	Noriko Ashida, Jubilation Lee

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Noriko Ashida has posed:
In the early morning (technically middle of the night) hours of July 31th, Jubilation Lee is still dead.  Noriko looked in the proverbial box...no she touched her body.  That's all it is now.  A body.  The thought would seize Noriko if she were in any state to be seized.  Someone gave her some kind of tea maybe, Noriko doesn't know or care.  Nori never made it through the whole cup anyways.

The speedster is wrapped up in one of Jubilation's sweatshirts, curled up in a ball on her side in the late girl's bed, clutching a picture of her and the other of the Target family.  Someone has cleaned up her mascara from her eyes and got her into a shower at some point, but oddly, she's still damp.  She didn't even bother to run her hair dry.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    There's a quiet thump as a figure in the hallway shoves into the heavy wooden door. After a moment, the knob begins to creak and nudges counter-clockwise. It slowly turns all the way around until the latchbolt breaks free of the strike plate and a thin line of light from the hallway grows wider. A figure hidden by the darkness The door quietly closes behind her, though if anyone was watching they might think that her hand missed the door entirely. It closes anyway.

    The figure stumbles forward, moving through the room and its perpetual mess like a drunkard. She's naked from head to toe with just a thin sheet clinging to her silhouette. As she nears the one usable bed, she lets one arm reach out so that the sheet slides down her curves and into a bundle at her dirty feet. Carefully, the girl lowers herself into the bed, spooned against Noriko, and slides each of her mud-caked feet under the covers. One arm slides lazily across the speedster's midsection and pulls her close.

    It's Jubilation.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
At the initial quiet thump Noriko doesn't stir.  She's cried at least a literal pond's worth in a short time.  Everything about her heart, mind, and body wants her to keep her eyes shut right now.  She's been used to people coming in and out when she zombied her way from her kitchen rampage to bed, so she doesn't think anything of anything really, even as she hears the stumbling through the clutter on the ground.  It just sounds like someone who doesn't know their way around.

And truly, Noriko is not all that conscious when Jubilation returns.  "Juubes," Noriko murmurs painfully in a moment of half-awake confusion that invades her just as Jubilation does.  It's not uncommon for loved ones to have dreams of those who have passed, but Noriko didn't know that this is what people meant when they said they were at peace.  "-going to miss this," she mumbles.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    There's a slight stirring. One of Jubilation's feet curl over Noriko's and drag against her skin, smearing dirt and dried mud on her foot and ankle. The urge to sleep is obdurate. Overwhelming. The speedster's words are enough to keep Jubilation awake, at least a little. At least for now. "...Miss what?" she mutters back as she lazily tucks her cheek against Noriko's neck.

    "Miss, miss, you have to leave..." Jubilee mutters softly. "...Miss, it's time to leave. I'm sorry, but you have to go..." Her arm tenses and tugs at Noriko, both eyes closed. Her lips purse and begin to peck slowly along the other girl's jawline, wherever she happens to make contact.

    "Don't leave me here, Nori... Please...." she softly whines. "Nori, I'm scared... Nori.... Please... Where are you going..."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
This feels like one of Noriko's swift nightmares come to seize her up.  The muddy feet, the hint of pleasure, the promise of her lost love now begging her not to go.  Is this some other world?  Some Between only visited in the land of dreams?  Noriko shudders.  After all, the mud, what's a little mud?  No big deal right?  She's getting to be with Jubilation.  This is Jubes, come back to visit her.

The girl makes a soft, lifeless noise at being tugged.  Who can say no to this dream.  "Where am I going?  I don't want to go," Noriko mumbles, confused as her eyelids start to flutter and some part of her begins to feel like this is all too real...but it makes it so nice.  Aren't those the best dreams?

"Huh?"  Noriko suddenly comes to with a startle, perhaps thinking someone has come to misguidedly keep her company and she's spliced her dream on top of it.  "Get off of me."  She sniffs.  "Whoever you are you're fucking dirty and awful and mean."  Nori doesn't even stir to look.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I lost my clothes. And shoes..." Jubilation mutters against Noriko's cheek. Being told to get out of her bed apparently has no effect on her sleepy affections. "I think they were stolen..." The words are said softly, just more than a whisper, and without any hint of being upset about it. Why does she even need clothes? They seem like a distant memory and, perhaps, even a bit alien to her.

    Jubilation doesn't release Noriko, doesn't move. "You left me there, Noriko..." she mutters softly, still planting soft little kisses against the speedster's cheek. "Why did you leave me? Don't you love me?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
But now Noriko is awake and now she is still hearing Jubilee and feeling her, and wondering if she's lost her mind.  And this is definitely ALL too real.  "I didn't mean to...I didn't mean to," Noriko cries out as if she's being condemned at some pearly gated suburb in the clouds.  Ridden with a guilt that lashes out, latching onto any meaning and any ill doing to root itself in in that irrational moment.

"Wait...wait...Jubes?  You were dead.  I saw you," Noriko says, not quite having graduated to thinking she's flown over the cuckoo's nest yet.  "Is this real?"  Her voice cracks a little from hoarseness.  "Of course I love you.  You're dead....I'm...I'm really sick."  She finally concludes, defeated and not struggling against her own reality.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "You said you'd never leave me behind..." Jubilation mutters. "But you lied to me. You left me there. All alone..." She doesn't sound mad. She's still dreamily summoning the words during lucid moments. The sun would be coming up soon.

    A little giggle, a discordant one, tickles against Noriko's ear. Suggesting to anyone that they're dead is something bound to illicit a laugh, though Jubilee's is lacking some of that absurdity.

    "Dead..." Jubilee whispers. "How could I be dead? I'm right here... Flesh. And blood."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"No.  No they took me from you.  They took me from you.  I would never leave you." And it's true.  Noriko wouldn't leave Jubilation's body willingly, but is that any great surprise.  The girl was everything to her.

The sudden giggle gives Noriko a little pause that quickly passes.  She never thought she'd hear that again.  Even if there are some slightly off things...can Nori allow herself to believe what's going on?  Well if she's crazy she's already fully cracked, she decides.

Fuck it.

Noriko swallows and reaches to take Jubilation's hand, to touch that flesh and bone.  To search for a heartbeat.  Noriko tries to twist around suddenly to put her head to Jubilation's chest.  She needs it as real as that slab was.  She needs to hear that thump.  "You're here...you're here?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I...am here," Jubilation replies, her eyes struggling to remain open. "But I am sleepy... I've never been so tired..." When Noriko's head presses against her chest, Jubilation leans her head back to invite it. Jubilation's body is still from within. The usual rise and fall of her chest doesn't seem to be happening, as if she's not breathing. But, that has to be a trick, right? Just Noriko's imagination...

    After a few long moments, a thud can be felt inside the girl's chest. Just one at first. But then... a second. And a third. Usually, the heart beats to keep the body supplied with oxygen-rich blood. Jubilation's is beating because it has been told to. But by who? Or by what? She's certainly not paying attention.

    "Do you feel that...?" she whispers. "...It beats for you..."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
It's hard for Noriko to distinguish how long passes sometimes.  When she doesn't try, it seems effortless, but just like telling someone to not think about some particular thing, she has no idea how long passes when she listens for that heartbeat, holding her own breath.  Where is it.  Where is it?!

The thumps come like angelic solace descending down upon the crown of the blue haired girl.

SHE'S ALIVE.

"-YOU'RE ALIVE?!  YOU'RE ALIVE!"  Noriko hoarsely nearly implies as her voice gives out some and then pops back in in full force.  What did Jubes say?

"For me?"  Noriko asks in a near state of reality altering confusion before she squirms to pull Jubilation into a kiss, sleepy or not.  "I felt it.  I feel it,"  Noriko left her hand behind just to keep track of that heartbeat, but she's not really paying full attention as she presses close as if she never parted to say the words.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Hands reach blindly in the dark, moving swiftly and with purpose: to get Noriko's hands away from any place that a heartbeat might be felt. Or not felt. Jubilee's bare leg crosses over Noriko's waist so that she can sit upright on the speedster's lap. She's completely unclothed, illuminated by the final few beams of moonlight that peek through the window. Jubilation sits up proudly without a shed of embarrassment. She leans forward and presses Noriko's hands against the bed.

    "I will never leave you, Noriko Ashida," Jubilee says, her eyes now open and staring down at the speedster. "Do you understand?" Her tone is serious, intense even, as though it is incredibly important to her that she gets this point across.

    "Never."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is still a bit of a mess and easily manipulated away from the phantom beat, her attention easily cemented and seized in the moment by Jubilation sitting on her.  Never has a speedster ever been so still, so transfixed, so enchanted.  Or she could just be a teenager.

There's a period of shock, awe, something that follows Jubilation's words.  Noriko just locks eyes with Jubilee, lost in it all.  "I know.  I won't ever leave you either."

"I promise."  Noriko tries to breathe deeply, blinking and hoping Jubilation won't disappear the next time she closes her eyes.  "Wherever you go, that's where I want to be."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    A scowl forms on Jubilation's face in response to Noriko's promise to never leave her. It passes as quickly as it arrives. She presses her weight against Noriko's lap and lowers herself so that her lips are just a hair away from Nori's. "You..." she begins, her voice husky and quiet. "...Don't have a choice."

    It would be easy to mistake this as seduction, but Jubilation Lee is serious. Neither girl knows it, though. Not yet. She lowers herself even more and drags her lips against the speedster's cheek. Little pecks are placed here and there as she traces a path to Noriko's neck and the large vein that runs through it.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
The scowl only amuses Noriko, as does Jubilation's insistence that she doesn't have a choice.  "Oh?  Are you going to keep me?"  Euphoric on Jubilation's return FROM DEATH, Noriko indulges in the moment, completely unaware of just what is underneath the moment.

The speedster grins, cocky with lively eyes.  She's never been so happy, so the mud in the bed...it's something to let slide.  It's something she hasn't even thought about since that first instance.  It's something she /can't/ think about as she turns her head, her neck flexing from a possessive, feline like stretch, wrapping arms around the girl.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    As Noriko shifts, Jubilation pulls back and stares at the other girl's neck. Her eyes slit and her mouth gapes, transfixed on that small patch of skin. The vein just seems to be pulsing there, inviting, even flirting with Jubilee. It's almost hypnotic. "Yes..." she whispers, still staring at that line in Noriko's neck. "...I am going to keep you. You are mine." She says 'mine' with some authority, as though someone might be nearby and ready to protest her claim.

    That neck. For the first time tonight, it seems as though Jubilee's chest is rising and falling. Is she breathing? She lowers her mouth and drags the top row of her teeth against Noriko's neck. A soft moan escapes from within Jubilee's throat. After what feels like forever, she manages to rise back into a seated position... freeing herself from the pull of Noriko's neck. She shifts so her foot is pressed against the floor before twisting her other leg off of the mutant. Jubilee does this slowly, deliberately, and clearly in such a way to ensure Nori gets the best look possible. Clearly her command of her limbs has improved significantly.

    "I...I have to go."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Okay," Noriko plays along with this suddenly new kind of dominance, that edge of seriousness that Noriko just hasn't identified quite yet.  Jubilation is charismatic and currently, in Nori's eyes, very convincing.  "Well hurry up and keep me."  Nori smirks, now in full celebration mode of the return of the love of her life.

Noriko vibrates with a little shiver at the feeling of Jubilation's teeth across her neck.  But then...suddenly Jubilation is pulling back...sitting up...not still making out with her while naked.  GETTING OFF.  And yes Noriko gets a good look.  Her eyes are stuck to the other mutant's form.

"What?  Why?  No," Noriko reaches for Jubilation's hand at 'normal' speed.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee grips the speedster's hand and lifts it up to her lips. Her index finger is given a kiss. "Don't worry..." she whispers before slipping Nori's finger into her mouth, right up to the first knuckle. She slides her tongue along the speedster's skin, slowly removing the finger from her mouth.

    "I won't be far. I need a shower..."

    Jubilation gradually releases Noriko's hand, dragging each of her nails gently against the other girl's wrist as she finally breaks contact. She walks slowly towards the bathroom door and stops there. With her head turned, Jubilation watches Noriko from over her shoulder. She stares for a few moments, perhaps too many moments, before slipping into the bathroom and closing the door. It locks behind her.