guestservices | CYOA week 5: cloud, sebastian, bradley, jason

[stop judging my naming sense

Sen at least gets around to fetching water for Cloud and preparing some food.]

... Yes and no. Fiends are those who get corrupted. Sometimes it's those who become evil spirits, usually out of despair... but it's possible for humans to be contaminated as well. At least for humans, if it's in the beginning stages, there's a possible cure, but...

[She shakes her head.]

A-Anyway! Are you, um... allergic to anything?

[ he is immediately drinking the water while she talks. oh my god. he does not drink it too fast because i'm not here for puking.

sebastian will still be dehydrated because i don't know how to make an unconscious person drink ]

... No, I'm not. Allergic. [ he answers that, first, which is very polite of him when what he really wants to talk about is; ] What's the possible cure? Is it that hard to get?

[Frantically:]

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVOURITE FOODS.

[ ow. he winces ]

... No.

[ anyway; ]

Look. I'm a mercenary, and he's... [ there's a long pause as he looks at sebastian ] been helping me. We're strong. We want to help. I'm not going to use this against you if the cure is the souls of the innocent or some bullshit like that.

[She will sadly prepare whatever in that case. ):

She's quiet for a bit, chopping away at vegetables—actually, she pauses in that to grab some ice, put it in a bag, and place it on the unconscious Sebastian's head. There, for him. She will also go and fetch bandages for Cloud, before she goes back to preparing food.

She also seems a little dubious at the notion of Sebastian being strong but she will not comment on it.]

... If a spirit has become powerful enough to fully materialize—like Ren and I have—then... if you destroy them, the residue from their body can be used as a cure, for a limited amount.

That's why I have to stop Ren myself—before this village decides she's too dangerous and kills her for that reason.

[ he was lying about sebastian being strong, he's glad he is not called out on it. he wraps the bandages around his ow ouch owie ankle and frowns because he KNEW it was going to be some garbage!! it's always some garbage!!! ]

... Wouldn't that create more fiends in the long run? Sure, it cures a human or two, but you said spirits who fall to despair can turn into fiends. I'd say murdering powerful spirits left and right would be enough for that.

[ i'm sorry that he's so blunt about it, but also, >:| ]

[She gives him a small smile. Apparently, she doesn't mind Cloud being a blunt butthead.]

You're probably not wrong. I can't really blame them for their way of thinking... Times have always been hard, and they're getting harder now. What with ████████ out there... We haven't had any news from the outside for a while until you came along, but it sounds like the world's getting much worse.

So, people are desperate. I just... Ren's my family. I have to save her, even if it costs me. That's what we do for the people we love.

[She finishes making the food (do not question how this was done in record time) and hands the bowls over to Cloud and also for Sebastian when he wakes up. It's just, like, a basic salad and soup and bread but it's fine.]

You two can stay here until you recover. [Especially, uh, Sebastian.] You said you were trying to head somewhere, right?

[ the people we love... yes, very terrible and relatable, he refuses to linger on that. ... mostly because he's starving and he's busy eating the food in record time, oh my god, this is the best bread he's ever tasted in his life. help him. he says thank you before digging in in the most polite way he has ever been. anyway once he's swallowed down, like, half of it: ]

... Right. We're trying to find a way to stop... [ he can't say the censored name and he has not yet figured out if it's buzzing in his ears because that just happens sometimes when people say names to him or if it's something weirder, so after his careful pause as he thinks of how you pronounce black bars; ] ... Everything. With the fiends. Before the world gets destroyed in this war.

[ nomnomnom soup ]

... You must have gone through a lot. I think most people, at this point, are busy trying to protect what's in front of them, rather than the whole world.

[Including her, apparently. Family issues...]

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help—oh, and I hope the food's okay!

[She pauses, fidgeting.]

Guess you could say what's in front of us is the world, in our case.

[ haha, the apocalypse. anyway he watches her fidget and hopes the food isn't drugged but also makes no move to stop eating. STARVATION SUCKS, OKAY. ]

It's fine. [ ... ughhh: ] You alright?

[She's quiet for another few moments.]

... You said you could help me, right?

... If we can, yeah. Call it repayment for this.

[ he is going to regret agreeing but like ehhhh what else they gonna do. ]

[It'll be fine, probably.]

... I just need to be able to reach my sister. If you can help me with that, then I can stop her.

[She looks at Sebastian, still unconscious.]

Oh, um. It doesn't have to be right now, or anything! She usually doesn't act again right away, anyway. So you two can get some rest, or more food if you need it.

... Right. I'll catch him up when he wakes up. I think we can manage to help.

[ he says, staring at sebastians prone body, eating some bread. hopefully he isn't dead! ]

[PLEASE LET SEBASTIAN LIVE.

But Sen will make more food for these starving fools and allow them to sleep on the two beds. She will just sleep on the floor, because they're guests.

Zzzzzzz. Have a good rest! She will make breakfast for them in the morning when they wake up because they'll probably need it.]

[ oh no, sen... please sleep on furniture

anyway sebastian's probably going to wake up in the middle of the night but think it's a dream because he doesn't know where he is and fall asleep again. it's fine.

in the morning, he is... still starving and dehydrated but very rested?? ]

Ugh... What happened?

[ gestures at whatever food and water sen has left them. eat, dumbass. cloud is casually eating bread probably it's morning. ]

You got hit on the head and passed out. We're at Sen's house. [ a beat; ] Fiends form from corrupted spirits or humans, human ones in the beginning stages can be cured but only by collecting the very small amount of magic dust from the corpse of a spirit powerful enough they're corporeal, so it's worthless. Sen and her sister are corporeal spirits. We're helping her reach out to her sister so she doesn't turn evil or get murdered by the townspeople. Eat up and we'll go.

[ drinks water.

HE COULD AT LEAST CHECK HOW SEBASTIAN IS FEELING ]

[Cloud, please. Sen at least looks a little more worried for Sebastian.]

Are you all right? You don't have to rush if you're still injured.

[ takes a very long drink of water while cloud talks, and blinks when he's done. he got like, a third of that, and will probably forget half of that in twenty minutes. ]

Oh. Um. Okay.

[ he glances over at sen as he grabs his food, assuming she's the spirit he's talking about? huh. ]

No, it's... it'll probably be fine? H-hold on.

[ it is time to EAT THIS BREAD, which is indeed the best fucking bread he has ever had, wow. anyway, give him a few minutes to stop dying here... once he finally stops feeling dizzy, he stands up, though he's still kind of rubbing his head where he got hit. ow. ]

Okay. [ whew. ] I think it should be okay? Probably? S-so, uh, whenever we're ready, I guess...

...Thanks for all of this, by the way.

[ sips water. maybe Sebastian should get another five minutes. he does not say this and just nods at sen. they're good! he has a giant sword! surely this is all you need for anything at all, right. ]

[They really should probably wait five minutes for poor Sebastian.]

You don't have to thank me! In times like these, it's the least I can do. We should be trying to help each other out...

[But once they're ready, she'll lead them out. Looking around the village... No signs of her destructive sibling. Hm.]

Is she in the forest...? Oh, no. This is going to get even more dangerous.

[She looks back at Sebastian and Cloud.]

Are you still okay with helping out? What I'll need you to do is distract her so that I can get close enough to her.

Yeah, we— we can do that, right?

[ looks to cloud for confirmation... ]

Everyone's always said distracting things is easy for me!

[ no, they say you're easily distracted by things. ]

[ just nods at Sebastian, face blank ]

Sure. You're very distracting. [ that's not what he said, but he'll also nod at sen because what are they gonna do, go back. no. he's here to watch family drama and have potential regrets. ]

[Sweet, sweet Sebastian.

As they head to the forest, she'll go over the plan (?).]

Once I reach her, I'm... going to seal her away—have us both return to vase form and fall into a slumber. Ren and I are two halves of the same antique, so my soul can be used to heal hers.

I don't know what the world will look like in hundreds of years—if it'll be a better place, or worse—but... at least we'll reawaken, eventually.

So, um. Once we revert back to our original forms, I'm going to need you two to bury us somewhere safe around here, as well. I don't want to risk the villagers accidentally coming across us and destroying us.

[

trying to process all of this... ]

...Wait, you're a vase?

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