Inbox for sticksandbones

[sesa]

I will make this pretty later

(Spoilers I won't, I always say I will but I won't-)

===

INVENTORY:

-Grenade Launcher with 3 ammo stacks (refreshes monthly)

-Nondescript gaming console (it's an offbrand Nintendo Switch)

-Some glowing star rocks from an investigation with Elsword in the Deep Woods

-A little knitted dragon from Elsword that I forgot to link and am too lazy to find now

-1 Kotatsu that he keeps in his room at the lab. It's red with light beige birds on it

-His toolbox from Rhodes

-A workshop that connects to Gnosis' lab via a breezeway. He lives there with Passenger now

-3 erythrites, used to make Passenger a pair of earrings

Comments

[mooninthewater]

[ Sesa is one of those who, unfortunately, gets a Mizuki to crawl under the door like he's made of liquid rather than just knocking on his door like a normal person, but it's only because Mizuki considers the both of them to be close. ]

Sesa! Are you terribly busy? I was rude and didn't take the time to talk to you before about this place and what's going on… I hope you're at least adjusted enough to talk with me?

[sesa]

[As it turns out, Sesa isn't busy...at all. He's actually playing with his handheld, though it's mostly to distract himself from how cold he is. It sucks when you don't realize that your worst fear monster is manifesting as sheer cold that's trying to freeze you to death slowly but hey, we don't have to worry about that. He's busy tending to his virtual farm or whatever.

He sits up from where he'd been laying prone across a chair when Mizuki lets himself in, his expression brightening.]

Not at all! I always have time for you, my friend.

[Sesa of all people isn't even remotely adjusted, but at least he has had time to learn more about this place and get...some measure of understanding. Mizuki won't be coming at someone completely in the dark, thankfully.]

Come, sit!

[mooninthewater]

[ "Come sit," he says, and Mizuki does just that! Expect, directly on Sesa's lap, instead of anywhere more appropriate nearby. ]

I've written a few reports about the situation and such, but then I realized that it might just be better to come talk directly to you. I assume you've seen Gnosis and Irene around? They've both got pretty good notes on this place, too, but… if you had any immediate and pressing questions, I can start there, if you'd like. I've gotten to know a lot of the people here, too, so I can talk about them, as well — like Mister Heimr and Miss Ydalir.

[sesa]

[Ope, he has a Mizuki now. Sesa chuckles, reaching up to pat the top of Mizuki's head.]

Generally it is, as I've learned during my talks with Elsword.

[Text is. Um. Not great for explaining this stuff, especially if you can't spell.]

But I have, yes! I haven't had much opportunity to speak to Irene, but I'm sure the time will come. Gnosis I see every morning at the lab, so I'm sure he'll tire of my face soon enough. [If he hasn't already.] But Mister Heimr and Miss Ydalir would be a good place to begin. One of them is...a Trader, I remember being mentioned?

[mooninthewater]

I highly doubt that. You're so fun to be around, Sesa. Gnosis would really enjoy your company. [ Unlike Mizuki, who's constantly bothering him. He's trying not to be such a pest, but he's glad there's someone less… him to make sure he's eating and going to bed. ]

Oh! Have you not spoken with them? They're both very patient and kind. They'll pretty much answer any questions you have. Both of them… used to be people here a long time ago, but they're different now. Miss Ydalir is also "the Trader," and she'll trade you for things from home, if you'd like. Mister Heimr has various stuff you can buy from him, too. Including really neat RPG items!!

[sesa]

O-ho...RPG items, you say?

[He is immediately sold. He would like to talk to them immediately thank you]

I'd love to negotiate for some of them, after I've gotten to know Mister Heimr of course. And with Miss Ydalir trading things from home...mm. I can think of a few questions I might have for her.

[As in: do you know how he woke up with a piece of one of Passenger's machines. Did SHE do that?]

But putting that aside...you say they used to be people. Are they not still people now?

[mooninthewater]

Mmh... I don't think so? I'm not sure. They still got hopes and feelings, which is what I think people are, but they don't seem to think they're people anymore? So I don't really know for sure.

[ Mizuki shrugs a little. ] They used to just go by "Trader" and "Shopkeeper" but it felt weird to keep calling them that when they were so nice all the time, so I decided to give them names. The evil thing in the forest took their old ones...

[sesa]

Hm...I see. Well, it's very kind of you to name them. I'm sure they appreciate having ones of their own, even if they aren't their "actual" names.

[But that just leaves Sesa wondering what their true origins are. Interesting. This is something he might have to delve into more in the future.]

This thing in the forest seems to be causing much strife for everyone here, not just us.

[mooninthewater]

[ Mizuki knows that, too, but, uh, he's bad at giving out information like this, especially verbally. When you're close with Kal'tsit and everything is very "no one else can know about this" with her, it's hard for him to accurately give out important details. ]

Mmh... about that. So, I think... how to say this...

You know how in Raid of Restitution [ A totally (not) real game that has absolutely 0 likeness to League of Legends, why would you think that- ] how the playable characters have different skins, and the skin lines have their own lore? Like how Aya in base is a cop, but she has a skin where she's a magical girl with other magical girls??

Apparently this world is kind of like that, but... for us. "We" used to exist here. But "we" all died somehow. I don't know why we're back but I assume it's got something to do with that entity wanting to play with our new skins. Does that make sense?

[sesa]

[As Mizuki explains, Sesa nods along, looking very serious. Like yes, he understands exactly what Mizuki is trying to say (and he does, at least when it's framed in a gaming sense). Honestly it actually makes more sense to him when it's explained this way as opposed to something else.]

It does, as far as you're explaining it at least. And given the amount of power this entity seems to wield, it isn't beyond the stretch of the imagination to believe it could be capable of such.

[He brings a claw up underneath his chin, his brow furrowing.]

So we have...been revived, I assume by this creature, with no memory of the past. When I arrived here, I woke in the inn in one of the rooms. Was it the same for you?

[mooninthewater]

Not necessarily a revive. The us that was here before are still very dead. It’s why you hear about people from other worlds here who are confused, too.

…Miss Ydalir doesn’t know how to get us back home, yet, but if we’re able to take this entity down and stop it from doing the things it’s doing, we might be able to collaborate with her to figure out how.

[sesa]

Mm. I suppose it would eventually come to that.

[Having to kill this creature, he means. But from the sound of it, there's no sense of morality to be found in it, or any real motive in the way it torments them save for the fact that it can. And that isn't something Sesa can just sit around and allow to keep happening.]

Well, I am willing to assist in any way I am able. I won't sit idly by if there's something that could be done about this.

[mooninthewater]

[ Bold of him to assume Mizuki jumped immediately to murder when he said "stop it". Mizuki has never once made the decision himself to kill something in his life. Anytime he has killed someone, it was always under someone's orders. ]

Of course!! I am the same way. The best person to talk to about that would definitely be Doctor Add, though. I'm not sure if he has any concrete plans or anything like that at the moment since we don't know a lot about the Entity itself, but… he is incredibly smart and tactically inclined.

[sesa]

[Honestly probably says more about Sesa than Mizuki that he thought that, lbr here]

He's the one who lives with you and Elsword, right? I ran into him in the lab a few days prior. He does seem quite knowledgeable.

[He should be, if he's a Doctor.]

Well, concrete plans or no, I'm not going to turn my nose up at more information. I've been writing everything I can...though I had to find something other than the notebook I was handed. I didn't realize at first that everyone could read what I was writing.

...sorry about that, by the way.

[mooninthewater]

Oh!! Yes! I guess you and Elsword must’ve talked quite a bit about it, huh? And don’t worry about it — just listen to when Miss Ydalir tells you things next time, alright?

Add and Elsword are really too nice for letting me stay with them, but if you decide you don’t want to live at the inn or something, you’re welcome to my room or the therapy building’s lobby. I’m there most of the time anyway ‘cause that’s where all my games are. Also because I have to be there in case anyone wants a talk session done.

[sesa]

Thank you, Mizuki! Don't think I've arrived and have simply forgotten about our regularly scheduled battles of wit.

[Another headpat. He means playing videogames-]

Is that entire building yours? I must say I am quite impressed.

[mooninthewater]

[ Sigh. Sesa, you're so weird- ]

Um, no? I mean, it belongs to everyone. Heimr just helped me make it on my request.

[sesa]

[Sesa is about to comment on that when Mizuki happens to shift, maybe he brushes his hair behind an ear or something, and in all of his enthusiasm to be talking to Mizuki, he didn't...notice the bandages on that arm in particular. It cuts the conversation pretty much immediately, and without thinking he reaches to gingerly take Mizuki's hand in his own.]

Wh- Mizuki, what happened to you?!

[mooninthewater]

[ Ah. Mizuki doesn't try to pull away, not unless Sesa's gonna try to take the bandages off, anyway, and simply puts his other hand under Sesa's to give it a little squeeze. ]

I'm alright. Mistakes had happened, but they're healing up. But... that said, just be careful if you're ever out in the forest. I don't normally get caught off guard, and yet...

...

Just be safe yourself, Sesa.

[sesa]

[Ironic that this conversation is happening not long before he and Elsword just get fucking lost in the woods for days, don't worry about it.

He won't try to take them off, no, instead just keeping Mizuki's hand in his while he looks at it silently. Mistakes had happened, he says, and Sesa has to wonder what exactly he could mean by that.]

I shall. You have my word.

[...]

As long as I am here, I will do my utmost to look after you. I'm sorry you were hurt, regardless.

[mooninthewater]

Oh, I appreciate the thought, Sesa, but I can take care of myself just fine. I just...

[ He supposes it's not fair to be vague, right? He has to let Sesa know the things that the forest is capable of, otherwise he'll just be surprised if it ever happens to him. ]

There's a moose-centaur-thing in the woods that can control the plants, seemingly. It tried to wall us - Irene and Add were with me - wall us off from one another, and I just panicked a little to try and get back to Add. It ended up nicking me...

[ "Nicking me," he says, as if it didn't puncture an entire ass hole into his palm. He trails his hand up to point at the other set of bandages on his forearm. ]

This one was because it gave us marks that made us feel each other's pain. Mister Elsword he- um... he can't feel emotions very well. The good or the bad. So having to subject him to just the bad feelings suddenly, and they weren't even his own... I wanted to see if I could fix that, so I tried taking one of the marks off.

It didn't work.

[sesa]

[Uhhhhhhhhh

That's, um. A little alarming? Not just Mizuki and the others being aggressed by yet another moose creature, but that Mizuki had ended up hurting himself in the process, quite literally. He exhales on a stressed sound, his tail shifting to loop around Mizuki a little where he's still sat in his lap.]

I should say so. It seems like there is simply no end to the dangers this place is rife with...

[Even if he himself has only experienced them in a more tangential, personal way, he's going to take Mizuki's warning to heart. It sounds like more of a "when" than an "if" he'll be next.]

Are the marks still present now?

[mooninthewater]

No, they disappeared a little while ago. I think the thing in the forest gets bored of redundancy…? It seems to inflict something new on us every handful of weeks? I'm not sure if that pattern means anything, or if that's just how short its attention span is…

[ Sesa's getting a head plopped against his shoulder. He'll pat his tail with one of his tentacles, too. ]

We'll be okay. We'll figure out how to get home, no problem.

[sesa]

Hah, well...if you're confident in our ability, then who am I to allow doubt to seep into my heart.

[Because for all of the faults their home world has, he's proud to be part of an organization fighting to make it a better place to live. That...and he has work that still needs to be done. Secrets that need to be uncovered, and truths that must come to light.]

I am thankful that you are here with me Mizuki. Even though that means we're both forced to face the Horrors together.

[mooninthewater]

Of course! I would hate to know that you were going through this all on your own. There's a sort of sanctuary being with friends, right? Kinda... umm, why the phrase "misery loves company" exists, right?