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Post by ParamountKeymaster on May 28, 2017 14:31:43 GMT -5
Evan meekly looked up at Swift, gratefully accepting his water and guzzling what little of it remained in the glass. When he looked again, she was handing him the last potion. The cure that would rid him of his repulsive spider attributes. He wasn't sure how to respond at first, knowing that even when he lost the extra arms and eyes, he would still be a disgusting blob... but Swift was trying to make him feel better, and he didn't want to take that for granted.
Besides, even in light of this new problem he was facing, he still didn't want to be a spider any longer.
"Yeah..." Evan muttered as he tentatively handed his empty glass back to Swift and accepted the vial. "Might as well... Thanks..."
Slowly, lethargically, Evan removed the stopper and gulped down the cure, handing the empty bottle back to Swift once he had swallowed the virtually flavorless liquid. "I guess it'll... at least be nice... to feel... slightly more normal... even if I'll... still... be... fffff..."
He trailed off, his voice growing weary and distant while his eyelids grew heavy, until finally Evan flopped backwards and lay sprawled out on the bed, out cold, arms sprawled out in all directions.
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on May 28, 2017 14:53:07 GMT -5
"E-Evan? Evan!" Swift hastily clamored over him as soon as he fell back, shaking him and calling his name in an attempt to rouse him. This lasted for only a few seconds before everything clicked in her mind.
She looked at Evan's arms. The four lower limbs were trembling, their fingers repeatedly curling inward and jerking back out. The muscles in his forehead seemed to be twitching as well, particularly around his extra eyes. It might not have seemed like much, but somehow Swift could tell that this was exactly what needed to happen. It made sense that the elimination of the phobiosis strain and the transformation back to his normal form (more or less) would be a slow one, and it seemed only fair that he be asleep for the painful process. A humane approach, especially for a Rainflower potion, but hopefully an effective one.
So... finally, Evan's sickness would be cured. No more congestion. No more fever. No more spider traits.
That just left them with a... slightly bigger problem. Pun intended.
Swift sighed and gathered the empty glass and bottles, opting to let Evan sleep in peace. There was no telling how long this would take, after all. Before she left, however, as if simply to ease her own troubled mind, she leaned over him and whispered into his ear...
"I'm sorry."
Then, with drooping ears and a heavy heart, Swift exited in the room, softly closing the door behind her, and trudged towards the kitchen.
The moment she regrouped with the rest of her roommates, Swift was met with an overwhelming number of awkward stares.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on May 28, 2017 15:05:21 GMT -5
Carter looked up at Swift with the best WTF expression his canine features could muster. Darien just looked confused, eyes darting between Swift and the closed door down the hall. Patrick looked like he wanted to say something but was either too nervous or dumbfounded to.
Jen, logically, looked the most concerned, the sounds of Evan's panic having rattled her to the core. It had taken every bit of strength she had not to go charging into his room prematurely. When Swift stepped out, she was the first to speak. "...What happened?"
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on May 28, 2017 15:24:09 GMT -5
"Uhhhhh..."
"Yeah, that uh..." Ace mumbled as she rubbed her neck, her gaze shifting between Swift and Andromeda, the latter of whom was exchanging worried glances with Aether. "That... didn't sound pleasant... whatever was going on in there. I-Is Evan alright?"
Swift looked everyone in the eye at least once, then looked down at the empty bottles. How to approach this delicately...
"Well..." She cleared her throat. "We... did find the cure, but... OF COURSE, he had to drink all of them before getting to the right one."
"Isn't that just the way?" Ace sighed, rolling her eyes.
"So... what happened to him?" Aether asked nervously.
"Honestly, nothing too drastic, if I had to be honest. He's still human. Or at least he will be once he wakes up. Th-The cure put him to sleep so it can painlessly change him back to normal. Heck, the first two potions just made him smell colors and cough up fire. The third one, though..." Swift frowned and stared at the floor. "It, uh... He... I-It made him... He's kinda..." As she struggled to find the right words, she unconsciously gestured outward from her stomach.
Finally, Swift pressed a hand to her forehead, sighed and came clean. "It was some kinda weight gain potion. Really potent one at that."
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on May 28, 2017 15:34:18 GMT -5
Jen reeled back slightly and raised an eyebrow. "W... Weight gain??"
Darien blinked, unsure how to take this news, let alone visualize it. "Weight? Y-You meant to say that he's...?" He started to mimic Swift's outward gestures from the stomach. "Like... we're talking body fat? As in... E-Evan is ob-"
"YO, HE THICC?!"
Darien groaned and lowered his eyelids at Patrick's choice of words. "Thank you..."
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on May 28, 2017 15:50:43 GMT -5
Swift groaned in unison, scowling into space. "Yes. Evan is... well...... fat."
"Oh God..." Ace was completely flabbergasted by this announcement. "That's... I mean, it could be worse, but... that's still... pretty harsh."
"I'll say..." Swift sighed, softening slightly and facing Patrick. "Van, I don't know if you have some kind of size reduction spell that could fix that, but I'm sure Evan would appreciate it if you gave it a shot. Otherwise... I'm gonna need your help again."
Without another word, Swift sat down at the dining room table, set the bottles down and pulled out her phone.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on May 28, 2017 15:58:52 GMT -5
"Oh... well..." Having taken control of his and Patrick's shared body, Van rubbed his arm and responded, "I do know a size reduction spell, but it... generally affects the body as a whole. I don't know if I could apply it to weight alone. But... I suppose I'll give it a try regardless."
Shooting the group a shrug, Van made his way down the hall, a curious Carter by his side, and opened the door to Evan's room. "Goodness me...!"
"Jesus..." Carter had to do a double-take just to make sure he wasn't just imagining what he saw in there.
Van turned back around and shot the others an awkward look. Then he steeled his nerves and disappeared into the room.
Jen stared down the hall, shaken and concerned. She turned to Darien, who offered her a small frown in return. Just how much weight were they talking here?
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on May 28, 2017 16:19:47 GMT -5
Van's reaction prompted Ace to take a look for herself, following him down the hall and peeking into Evan's room. Her eyes widened when she saw him lying on the bed. "Whoaaaaa..."
Andromeda was just baffled, staring down at Aether as if desperate for someone to inject some logic into the situation. Aether could only sigh and shake her head, having no idea how to do so.
Swift, meanwhile, had tuned out the world around her, her phone pressed to her cheek as she rang up Alphys. After a few tones, it went right to voicemail, prompting a sigh out of Swift before she got to her message...
"Hey, Doc. It's Swift. I just wanted to say... we found a cure for Evan. I ended up going to Rainflower and getting one. ...Among other things. Point is, he's gonna be alright. We're just... kinda facing a new problem altogether now. One that I really don't wanna worry you with. Hopefully we can handle it ourselves. But, uh... if you wanna keep studying this disease, I say go right ahead. Could still get some useful information out of those samples. Rainflower says it's called 'phobiosis.' It figures out what the host is afraid of and turns them into that. That's why it didn't have any immediate ties to spider genetics, I guess."
She took a deep breath. "Anyway... thanks for all your help. I don't think I would've even considered going to Rainflower without your advice. Hope your day goes well and... that we'll be able to keep this from happening to anyone else. Bye."
Having said all she needed to, Swift hung up and returned to her phone's home screen. She had opted to forgo telling Alphys about Evan's weight problem. She already knew how to solve that one, so there was really no point in bothering the doctor about it.
But with that out of the way, there was still someone that Swift needed to get back in the loop. Someone who potentially could still help her...
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-pinkmoonWolf [PW] started pestering gatzGattling [GG]-
PW: Before I get to the issue at hand, I'd like to offer a preemptive SHUT UP.
PW: Anyway... I went to Rainflower's.
PW: They knew what was wrong with Evan. It's called "phobiosis."
PW: And they had a cure. I just gave it to Evan. He's asleep right now, getting turned back to normal.
PW: But now we have another problem.
PW: I still need Rainflower, and they've gone missing.
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Post by gantzgun74 on Jun 2, 2017 2:38:07 GMT -5
It took a number of minutes before Swift received an answer back.
GG: Hmmm... Phobiosis? Sounds pretty nasty.... Well... At least we have a name for it now.
GG: And you have a cure too! At least Evan will be okay..
GG: Still, you need Rainflower again and she's missing? Hmm.... I wonder where she went... Well, don't ya worry about a thing Swift. I could easily go down into the Geodesic Caverns to locate her. Just leave it to the Kunoichi of void~!
GG: There's no-one and nothin' I can't find!
-gatzGattling [GG] has ceased pestering pinkmoonWolf [PW]
----------------------------------
Back in the Library of the El-Grande Mall, Erin put her tablet away into the Void Modus and bounced onto her feet. "Hmm... Phobiosis eh? Sounds freaky...." And, judging from how it turned out Rainflower WAS the one that ended up curing it, it seemed all too likely she wouldn't be finding any information about that weirdness around the Library...
Still, it did seem pretty strange that Evan so randomly caught this thing... After all, what had seemingly started it was him taking a dip in some random pit of mud somewhere in the jungle...
................
Hmmmmmmm.... Actually...
What WERE the chances that Phobiosis would've been picked up in some kind of random mudhole somewhere having the disease? How come nobody had ever heard about this before?
...................
Maybe....
Maybe Erin had ANOTHER reason to locate Rainflower... Something about this entire incident stank to high heaven.
But what?
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jun 2, 2017 11:59:02 GMT -5
Just as Swift's brief conversation with Erin wrapped, Van stepped out of Evan's bedroom and walked over to her. The discouraged look on his face pretty much said it all.
"Well... I suppose we may as well look on the bright side," Van sighed. "I can assure you that the cure is working. If I had to give a prognosis, I would say he should be rid of his phobiosis and the traits he developed because of it by this evening. Hopefully he'll at least be happy about that when he wakes up."
He gave Swift a sad shrug. "So... what do you propose we do now?"
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Jun 2, 2017 18:58:21 GMT -5
"I'll tell you what we're gonna do," Swift sternly replied, standing up and looking Van square in the face. "We're going back down into the caverns, finding Rainflower, and finally ending this assault on Evan's image."
"Yeah, if you say so..." Ace muttered, clearly very visibly shaken as she left the bedroom and went straight to the kitchen for a stiff drink.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jun 2, 2017 19:22:42 GMT -5
Van frowned at Swift awkward and empathetically. "I suppose I should've seen this coming, but... you were up all night last night looking for them. I really don't want to see you run yourself ragged tracking down that little maniac. I should be more than capable of finding them myself with my divination if you want to just-"
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Jun 2, 2017 19:32:52 GMT -5
"Van, don't worry about me!" Swift insisted. "I'm fine! This isn't about me! This is about getting Evan back to normal ASA-yesterday! Besides..."
She held up her phone for him to see. "We're not doing it alone. Between my tracking skills, your divination, and Erin's thieving know-how, I have no doubt in my mind that we'll find Rainflower and get whatever slimming potion Evan needs before he even wakes up!" Her ears suddenly perked. "...Actually..."
Her mind was made. There was no changing it. And having made up her mind, Swift began to type away on her phone, setting a plan in motion.
"Good luck dodging me NOW, Rainy..."
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jun 2, 2017 19:39:02 GMT -5
"Yeah, I'm not sure why I try to dissuade you..." Van sighed with a smirk. "You are quite the tenacious one, Swift." The mage twitched slightly as he switched from Van to Patrick, brimming at Swift as soon as the latter was in control. "But hey, at least ya care! This should be a snap!" As Swift continued typing, Patrick placed a hand on her shoulder and charged up a teleportation spell, waving to the others all the while. "See ya later, guys! Take good care of the big guy 'til we get back, will ya?" Jen let out a single, flat chuckle as she waved back. "Will do. I promise not to tell him you called him that." "Great!" And with that, Patrick and Swift vanished once more, off to find Rainflower and fix Evan once and for all. If only things were that easy. |
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