Judy Hopps (fluffy_cop) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-06-03 19:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, judy hopps, william laurence |
Who: William & Judy
What: Peep Attack!
When: April 1st
Where: Around Irvine
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
There had been multiple reports to the department about strange occurrences around the OC. At Irvine alone, Judy had heard a couple calls about...wait, did they say killer bunnies? Judy ears couldn’t help but perk up as she heard about a familiar animal and she kept her head low; she didn’t want to deal with that just yet. She wasn’t sure how she would feel about putting down any type of animal that she may have dreamed about, even if they were on a rampage.
But then the calls came in about the Peeps. Ultra sugary, fairly disgusting Peeps that were roaming around the streets, acting like normal birds! They didn’t seem to pose a danger, they were actually kind of cute. As soon as she heard about this second part of the day, Judy grabbed her gear and headed out, opting to stroll around Irvine to see what was up with these sugary treats.
Stepping out of the department, she glanced around but everything seemed to be normal. She listened for anything out of the ordinary, but it seemed to be a regular day, the real beginning of spring. She decided to head to the park, trying to think of places these Peeps might be. If they were behaving like normal birds, maybe they could be spotted where the pigeons went, knowing their belly’s could be filled with the crumbs people threw at them all day long.
Strangely enough, she didn’t have to get too far into the park before she had her first Peep sighting. It was just a little pink thing, flapping its wings (Peeps had wings??) and making the most adorable noise Judy had ever heard. This was what people had been calling about? Judy squatted down and hesitantly held out a hand to touch it. It flapped away, making another noise, but it had felt just like a Peep. Judy frowned, standing back up and taking a step back. Unfortunately for her she didn’t look where she was going.
Her foot came down on the tail of another Peep that appeared behind her and it let out the most horrendous scream. It was enough to startle Judy and jump. “Cheese and crackers!”
While Laurence had certainly been aware of the Orange Counties strangeness when he’d lived there nearly a year ago, he had had no idea just how strange things could get. The dreams and the subsequent dream gifts were strange enough, but nothing compared to falling irrationally in love with a young woman for a few days. Admitabley, seeing the brightly coloured marshmallow animals wandering the streets wasn’t nearly as strange as that had been, but it was still something that made him turn his head.
He whirled on his heel when he heard the unearthly cry. He hadn’t expected to see the young policewoman, and he wondered what had caused her to scream. Perhaps the peeps themselves? He rushed to her side. “Is everything quite alright?” he asked, concerned.
Judy almost didn’t hear the question as her concentration was focused completely on the screaming Peep in front of her. It was his presence that seemed to register with her and she turned to look at who came over. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it may have come off as more of a grimace.
“Everything is alright, save for this screaming Peep! I didn’t mean to step on it! And more importantly, I don’t know how to make it stop.” She worried that she might have to put it out of its misery for that, but she was still hesitant to do that. Even though they were puffy, sugary little things, they were still acting alive enough that she couldn’t just kill it. How could you kill a Peep anyway?
“Any ideas?”
It was the Peep screaming, Laurence could see now, and not the officer at all. That brought some relief, although the concept of a Peep screaming was one that was best not dwelled on for too long. He had never relished in the idea of taking another life, and even where life clearly had no business being, he was hesitant, but he could think of no other alternative. “I have one,” he said solemnly. “You may want to turn away.”
Judy gave him a questioning look before it clicked with what he meant to do. Her eyes grew wide as she looked from him to the screaming Peep at her feet. “I...guess it’s the only way…” she said, not sure why she found this to be so squeamish and not the things she’d seen in her usual line of work. She looked at him again and shook her head. “No, I can do it,” she said, not wanting to make this man do something she couldn’t do herself.
Still, she hesitated for just a moment before she closed her eyes and stomped down on the screaming Peep, silencing it completely. It was not a pleasant feeling and she made a face, making sure not to look down at her foot.
“Thanks for offering though,” she said, trying to give the gentleman a smile. “Lesson learned, we just can’t step on them I guess.”
Laurence bowed his head slightly and crossed himself. The peeps should have never been given life in the first place, although he doubted they’d had much choice in the matter, and nor did they deserve to have it snuffed out in such an ignominious manner. “No, there are few creatures one can step on without causing harm,” he said, a light jest in his voice. “I’m sorry that you had to do such a thing, though know that it would have suffered an even worse fate had it not come to life.”
It seemed such a serious topic to discuss, but it was almost hilarious if she hadn’t just heard the sort of noise it made before coming to its untimely demise. She smiled at him, giving her shoulders a small shrug. “The life of a police officer,” she said. “We have to deal with all the gritty things that happen in this city. Although this is a completely new one.” She glanced down as she spotted another one, a light purple this time. It rubbed its beak against its sugary coat, seemed shudder, before it exploded into five other Peeps.
“Whoa.” Judy pointed at the small pile and glanced back at her new companion. “What else can these little guys do?”
A small smile, quite unbidden, tugged at Laurence’s lips when Judy described the death of the peep as being gritty. It was anything but, but it was rather endearing. But his smile turned to a look of shock when one of the peeps suddenly exploded, cloning itself.
“Goodness,” he said after a stunned moment. “If we’re not careful, we may be overrun with the creatures. I should hope they’re not capable of much more than screaming and reproducing.”
“Yeah, those two traits seem to be enough for me!” Judy backed away, careful of where she stepped until she was standing next to the man. “I think we need to find somewhere else to go. Care to join me?” She shot him a grin and nodded her head for them to retreat.
“I think that would be wise,” agreed Laurence, glancing at the peeps one more time. He turned, being careful where he placed his feet lest he hear the screams of the peeps again. “Perhaps a coffee?”
Judy laughed, the thought of just taking a break from the Peeps and having a coffee highly amusing. “Yeah...yeah, I think that sounds like a great idea!”
~~
Once they had made it safely off the street and into a shop, Judy quickly closed the door behind them as a Peep came up to the door. She glanced down at it as it flitted about and shook her head. “If I hadn’t had such a up close and personal experience with these lil guys, I would have thought they were pretty cute!” She turned to her companion and grinned. “I’m Judy by the way. Thanks again for helping me! Coffee’s on me today!”
“William Laurence,” Laurence introduced himself, giving a small bow. “Though I was hardly any help at all. You needn’t buy me coffee for it.”
“It’s nice to meet ya William,” she said, a grin on her face. She walked towards the counter, pausing for just a moment to look at him again. “Wait, I think we may have spoken before! Through the network!” She grinned, her eyes gleaming. This was her first interaction with someone who didn’t work with her and had the dreams.
“You’re the one with the dragons, right? You just moved back here!”
Laurence blinked in surprise, feeling ashamed of the fact that he had no such memory of her. But then he remembered the young policewoman on the network who seemed so excited about her job. “Yes, that would be me,” Laurence said, smiling at her. “I’m honoured you remember me.”
Judy smiled, loving how proper he always was. Honored that she remembered him….that was a phrase that seemed a bit over the top, but seemed to fit him perfectly. She couldn’t help but give him a once over as she stepped up to the cashier, taking in his freshly pressed suit and how proper he looked. She kind of wanted to put a walking stick and top hot on his head, but she didn’t want to make him feel like she was teasing him. Still, his outfit definitely stood out in the sea of tank tops and flip flops.
Judy placed her order, a caramel frappuccino with extra whip, and stepped to the side to allow Laurence to order as well. She still felt like his coming to her aid welcomed a coffee on her.
Laurence’s tastes were simple, which he was sure the officer’s wallet must be thankful for, and he simply ordered a medium coffee, black. Had he known what Judy was thinking, he would have been very embarrassed. His dreams took place half a century before top hats came into style, but even had they been popular when he was dreaming, it was unlikely that he would have worn one unless going to a function where to not where one would be a faux pas.
“Have you encountered much strangeness in your time as an officer?” he asked her once he stepped aside to wait for his order.
Judy paid for both drinks, part of her wondering if Laurence had chosen something so simple because she was paying. Whatever the reason, she was happy he had let her instead of insisting he pay on his own.
As they stepped to the side to wait for their drinks, Judy shook her head. “This is my first real encounter with anything...well, like this. I’m sure it won’t be my last, but this has definitely been a weird first ordeal.” Laurence’s coffee came up first and Judy had to wait a bit longer...it was what happened when you ordered something a bit more sugary than plain black coffee.
“How about you? Your first since coming back? What sort of things did you have to endure the first time around?”
“Fortunately, nothing too unusual,” Laurence answered, adding a touch of cream to his coffee and then attaching a lid to his cup. “Just the dreams, though at the time they seemed more than enough in terms of unusual happenings.” After everything else; the peeps, his inexplicable infatuation with young Miss Hobbs for half a week, the dreams seemed nearly commonplace now.
“Yeah, pretty lucky I’ll say! Although I guess this is the weirdest thing to happen to me other than the dreams!” Judy still felt like she was a newb to everything around here, even though she’d been living in the OC for a couple months now. “But at least weird things lead to cool coincidences like this! I’ve always talked about meeting up with people from the network, but it rarely happens!” Judy felt like if she wasn’t at work, she was at home, being a slob. She really needed to go out a bit more.
Laurence smiled. “Yes, there often seems to be a silver lining to this madness.” At least so far. He would not look forward to the day when there was none to be found, but for now he would keep those unpleasant thoughts at bay. There was no point in dwelling on what-ifs, especially as innocuous as this particular event seemed to be. “It has been a pleasure so far to finally meet you in person.”
Judy blushed and smiled at his compliment, ducking her head as she took a sip of her coffee. “Thanks Laurence, that’s really sweet of you to say! I only hope we can continue our friendship!” She held up her drink in a sort of a cheers. “To friends and surviving through the crazy!”
The corners of Laurence’s mouth threatened to tip upwards at the cheers, because it was hardly proper to cheers with paper coffee cups. But despite that, he lifted his cup and echoed her cheers. “To new friends, and surviving the crazy.”