=005= [Voice, then Written Text / Action for HazMat Crew]

[willwork4sugar]

[Voice]

Just a few weeks. Yeah. I can do this. No problem...



[Half an hour later...]
[Written]



[Shipmates, feel free to find the poor guy sprawled out by the table in the galley. Unfortunately, don't expect much response from him over the journal. Someone's going through sugar withdrawal.]

Comments

[willwork4sugar]

[It's not an immediate response, but eventually it becomes apparent that some effort is being made to lift a hand, even if that is the only part of him trying to move. Said hand feels about weakly in the general direction that the bowl had been heard.]

[anelegantmyth]

Ok, not talking it is.

[She sighs and takes his hand to guide it to the bowl. Now this was just depressing to watch.]

[willwork4sugar]

[It doesn't take much to help with that, and a few berries slip out of his grasp and dance across the table, and if Cynthia doesn't grab the bowl itself, Gaius might accidentally topple it over once he manages to get a few in hand to pull the long way across the table back to where his head is.]

[anelegantmyth]

[And here she thought she was a drama queen. She does catch the fallen berries and steadies the bowl for him.]

You're not dying, Gaius. Sit up.

[willwork4sugar]

...feels like it...

[He manages to mumble this as he turns his head to the side, nudging a couple of berries into his mouth.]

[anelegantmyth]

It's only been a day. Give it a few more and you'll be over this silly withdrawal phase, I'm sure of it. Now sit up. Sulking won't change anything.

[willwork4sugar]

.....

[Oooor it could take all several weeks. Whatever the number is, Gaius isn't looking forward to it. He rolls a few more berries into his mouth, reaching over for more, but he's still not feeling like he can or wants to sit up.]

[anelegantmyth]

[Another sigh, followed by her getting up and walking over to take a seat right next to him.]

Well if you're going to be a baby about it, at least let me take care of you. This was my idea after all.

[She picks up a berry and holds it to his lips. Yes, much like any baby, they need someone to feed them. So if he didn't want to be treated like one, he'd better stop acting like one.

Though look on the bright side. A pretty girl is feeding you berries.]

[willwork4sugar]

[He'll eat the berry offered before slooooowly lifting his head so his chin's on the table instead of his entire face. Well, it's a start, right?]

[anelegantmyth]

Well hello there handsome.

[Definitely a start, she'll just take one berry for herself then offer him another one.]

I met another one of your friends by the way. He told me he was a time traveller or something.

[willwork4sugar]

[It takes him a moment as he eats the next berry to figure out just who she's talking about.]

...time traveler? .....

-ah, that guy, Maribelle's kid. ...right?

[anelegantmyth]

Well he said his name was Brady but...he's Maribelle's kid? He kept talking about his 'ma' but I wasn't really sure who he was referring to. Though that does explain the prissy handwriting.

[She offers him another berry.]

He told me about Grima and the risen.

[willwork4sugar]

Yeah. Was kind of hard wrapping my head around too, but Maribelle would've said something about his claims if it weren't true. I haven't met him yet, back home.

[Nom.]

...heard the short version of that, but the Risen have been something that've cropped up around the time I started working with Chrom and the Shepherds.

[anelegantmyth]

Well he didn't go into detail about it. He just told me that his future was doomed and he went to your time to make sure yours wouldn't be.

But what are risen exactly?

[She pulls the bowl of berries closer to the two and eats one. If you can talk long sentences, then you can definitely eat on your own.]

[willwork4sugar]

[Having something sweet is like a magical thing.]

Something like that. I think.

[Mechanically, he moves a hand to start popping berries into his mouth.]

...they're creepy guys. I'm not even sure if they're really alive. They're like monsters pretending to be people. Glowing eyes, really pale...

[He pauses, picking another berry up.]

They talk like it's not something they're used to doing, but they can fight.

[anelegantmyth]

So zombies, and here I thought those things only belonged in science fiction and horror novels.

[She smiles. Just look at you, acting not so dead anymore. Looks like distracting him from sugar was easier than she thought.]

And you being in an army? What's that about?

[willwork4sugar]

Raphael said something like that when I mentioned it to him, yeah.

[He pauses, brow arching at her. What's with that look.]

What, I thought the army thing was a given. ...although I haven't really thought about it as an army, but I guess that's what it is now. Working under the exalt, trying to keep the land in order. It's been pretty busy.

[anelegantmyth]

Exalt? Is that your form of royalty or something? I mean, I recall Brady mention a Prince Chrom. Is there a difference in hierarchy?

[She takes another berry and pops it in her mouth.]

[willwork4sugar]

Yeah. Chrom's sister was the former Exalt.

[His hand pauses from lifting the berry to his mouth, if only briefly. He chews on it thoughtfully. That day had been a tough one to get through, and even though he hadn't known the Exalt long (or rather hadn't thought someone like him would ever have met her in person), Emmeryn was the kind of person that no one could hate.]

Chrom and his little sister Lissa never really had themselves addressed as prince and princess, not that you forget those things, though.

[anelegantmyth]

Former? What happened to her?

[As if the answer wasn't obvious enough. But for the sake of getting a deeper understanding of what his world was like, she might as well ask.]

[willwork4sugar]

[He folds his arms in front of him, resting his chin over them.]

Basically, the relations between our country, Ylisse, and the neighboring one of Plegia have always been a pretty stressed, no thanks to her father. They've been pushing for war and she'd been trying to avoid it, always hoping for peace.

[Gaius shakes his head.]

She ended up getting caught, so we went to rescue her before she was executed. I don't think there was any clear-cut way out of that situation...

In the end, the Exalt took her own life to spare Chrom from endangering his, and to keep Ylisse from falling under Plegia.

[anelegantmyth]

So is that why you always eat sweets? Stress with the army? And how did Chrom take all this? It must have been hard losing his sister.

[willwork4sugar]

Nah, I've always had a thing for sweets. Believe it or not, my down payment to swap sides and join the Shepherds was a bag of candy.

[The smile that appears is brief at that sobering thought. He nods.]

It was pretty rough. He probably would have tried taking on Plegia's armies and king all on his own.

[anelegantmyth]

So you joined the army...for a bag of candy? Was that your only reason for joining?

[She may have sounded slightly disappointed. But given the fact that everything she knew about him, she learned from someone else, she couldn't bring herself to actually judge him either.]

[willwork4sugar]

Hardly. I joined a team under the premise of breaking into some vault. When I found out that the real objective was to assassinate the Exalt, I didn't want any part of that.

[He reaches over for another berry.]

Then I ran into Chrom and told him my side of things, and so he decided I could prove good intentions by helping them out.