Hazy Purple Mirror [Bambietta, Ryouko]

It was true she said. This was not a dream and she had really changed like this because of an accident, she remembered the feeling of pain and like her whole body was on fire. It had to be a lie though and Ryouko trembled on top of Bambietta like she was wrapping herself in as many layers of security as she could to deny it.

"Y- you're lying. It's just another joke at my expense because I'm hopeless."

She said with a scowl at Bambietta. This woman was just lying to her, she had to be lying to her, she reasoned to herself through clenched fists that left every one of her fingernails digging into her palms.

"I'd never joke about something like this, and not at a time like this. That'd be cruel."

Bambietta wanted to give the woman a hug, though she acknowledged that probably wasn't the sort of thing she should just do in a situation like this. It could easily set her off, make the whole thing a bigger mess than it was already shaping up to turn into if she made any missteps.

"It isn't a lie, Miss Amou. But you aren't hopeless, alright?"

It was only now striking Bambietta just how bad at this kind of emotional support she actually was, and it felt like a stone in her gut to know that she might not actually be able to help in this situation as much as she wanted to.

She shook her head at Bambietta's words, hands coming up to cover her face to cry into them. It wasn't real, it wasn't true. It's all an illusion of some description she pleaded to herself. Maybe if she was a bolder individual she'd have thrashed and fought it but a fighter wasn't what she was. She was a hopeless coward that ran from danger but she couldn't get away from this situation. She needed someone else to correct everything that was wrong to make up for her shortcomings.

"Yes I am. See, you're lying right now."

Ryouko shot back at her. Her chest hurt and her nose was running, coughs interrupted the sobbing while she hopelessly rubbed at her face to try and wash all the grief flowing out of her away.

"I'm not. You're not hopeless, or I'd tell you that you were. But I'll do what I can to help, okay?"

That sounded like the right thing to say, but Bambietta had never been through the sort of training that would probably prepare her for this. She'd only ever dealt with other kids her age in the orphanage, maybe a little younger, and then her old teammates in the penal legion. It wasn't great, but it had to be better than nothing, right? She reached up to help wipe the woman's tears away, not really minding if it got her sleeve a little gross.

"Promise, I'm here for you."

She looked at little dejected at that, words of encouragement were something she didn't grow up believing. Trusting other people didn't come easy either, so what credit did this stranger have to her? Even the nice woman that baked the bread she lived expecting for it to be taken away at any moment. Except that was when everything was nice and normal for her and everything was wrong at the moment.

So for just the moment she allowed herself to succumb to the fantasy given to her. A nice little narrative where she would be okay for no reason than Bambietta telling her that it would be okay.

"I'm Ryouko."

She said to Bambietta like she was introducing herself to the other woman for the first time properly, even if it was just her attempting to reassure herself as best she could that she was still the same person as a week ago.

"I'm Bambietta. Bambietta Basterbine."

A normal introduction felt like a good change of pace to this interaction. Better to calm things down, get rid of the tension, right? It did cross Bambietta's mind that maybe she should have had someone else here to actually help with this kind of situation, but she felt like she'd handled it pretty well.

"Is there anything I can get for you?"

It wasn't like they'd really needed to get much while she'd been out cold, but Bambietta didn't know how long Ryouko would actually be here in the hospital. Might be worthwhile to ask.

"I'm hungry..."

She whined out through ragged breaths at Bambietta, she felt self-conscious about just asking for food given her previous looks but the overwhelming feeling of being starved for nutrition was catching up while her adrenaline was dropping. She needed to eat and something needed energy, it was like she was just being drained by sitting here.

It was almost enough to make her feel faint in the head, she was a bit shaky but there were a lot of things to explain lightheadedness right now.

"Really... hungry..."

She muttered once more with some fresh misery glistening around her eyes that wanted to escape her body.