Fate of the World Session 6

"Evicted?!" You exclaim as Renee continues to cry "How the hell did this happen?!"

A bit of a redundant question, you know how this occurred, but Renee never really struck you as the type to miss rent if she could help it.

"I...I...I tried Hiro! I TRIED!" she cried

Looking at the make of this place, you can tell that the rent can't be that high.

"Alright calm down. Deep breathes." You say sitting next to her, Renee leans into you and huffs and wheezes for a few more minutes before finally settling down.

"Ready to talk?" You ask

"Okay..." She replies "I...I'm actually s-six months behind rent..." She murmurs

"What the fuck Renee?!"

"I-I didn't mean it! I...at first, everything was fine. I was working and making my payments! But...but..."

"But what...?"

"The payments starting getting higher. I didn't know why, so I asked my landlord and...well he..."

It's clear that whatever it is, it's really bothering her. Still you've got have her press on, so you encourage her to do it.

"He...wanted favors." She trailed off, the look of absolute shame on her face is something you'd never expect to see from Renee, especially with how happy she seems a lot of the time. "I...I decided to agree. So I...let him feel me up for a bit till I could get the money. But it just kept getting higher...and then today he...he tried to..."

>Dante,Duran,Ace, feel like talking to a landlord
>Hugs now. She needs hugs
>Why didn't you go somewhere else?
>Other/Write-in

>Hugs now, she need hugs
>Dante, Duran, Ace go talk to the landlord

This is...a hard pill to swallow. Renee for as long as you've known her since you started working together has been a pretty upbeat person. But now you understand why she was always splitting lunch with you and downing your food (though she's not the only one at fault there). It's because she more than likely couldn't afford to in a lot of cases. You pull her into a hug, with which she silently leans into you. That said, a particular part of you is feeling vindictive.

"Yo, Dante, Duran, Ace...you guys get all that?"

"Loud and clear, and I think we all get the picture. You guys up for a negotiation with a landlord?"

"I think I can get behind that." Dante says "What about you Duran?"

"As if you have to ask."

You let the three men out of your COMP and after asking for what floor and where the office is, Renee directs them while still burying her face into your chest. She's calmed down now, but you still feel her shuddering every now and then. You can't bring yourself to get up just yet. It's clear she just wants to be for a bit.

>Anything you want to say to her?

>Hug the Pink snugly
>You're more than welcome to crash at mine while we "appropriate" any extra costs from your old landlord
>Lets go get you some Ice Cream while the guys deal with this

You continue hugging her snugly, "Look, you're more than welcome to crash at my place while we appropriate any extra costs from your old landlord." You say

"B-but Hiro I..."

"It's fine, look. How about we go get you some ice cream while the guys deal with this?"

"With sprinkles?"

"As many as you want."

You help her get to her feet, taking the box of her things and throwing it into the back seat of your car. With that done, you take her hand and guide her to a small ice cream shop a few blocks away. She still seems out of it somewhat. Just listlessly following you, and once there gets herself a triple scoop with a ton of sprinkles. No doubt this is her alternative to downing a full tub of ice cream.

You got a regular scoop yourself and between licks you gauge Renee. She's licking away, but still seems pretty down all things considered.

>Feeling better?
>At least you still have a job
>So...who gets to use the shower first?
>Other/Write-in

>Feeling better?

"You feeling better?"

"No." She replies bluntly

Well duh. A situation like this isn't easily fixed with ice cream.

"Oh uh...sorry..." You say

"It's just...so many people Hiro. So many people in my life have held me down. They said I couldn't do it. I'd never be anything! My family, my friends from high school...it was always 'you can't do it Renee, you don't have the skill, it'll never pan out'!"

You watch as Renee becomes more animated...more angry. "I worked my ass off in college. I wanted to be a fashion model I still do. But not once...not once did anyone ever back me in any fucking thing. Why?! What did I do to deserve this?! I just wanted a good life for myself. Is that so bad of me?!"

She's practically flaring now. "All that work I put in, those tireless nights and all I've done is get a job at a shitty customer service office with a boss whose asshole I want to rip out through his skull!"

The other patrons are looking at her now as she's flaring up even more.

"H-hey Renee calm down...!"

"No. NO. I refuse! Fuck this. FUCK ALL OF THIS I DON'T WANT THIS SHITHOLE JOB ANYMORE I WANT WHAT I WORKED FOR!!!!"

She's gonna keep going like this and now everyone is staring

>What do

>I guess in this one case I can relinquish my dibs on ripping our boss's asshole out through his skull to you
>Let her vent

You...really don't know what to do here. You really don't.

"I guess in this one case I can relinquish my dibs on ripping our boss's asshole out through his skull to you." you say

"GOOD!" She roars back eating her ice cream some more. Her shouting continues and you feel like you've really got to step in now.

"I get wanting to perform unlicensed colonoscopy's on our manager, I really do, but you've got to understand I really like not getting thrown out of shops as well, so please calm down and we can use that energy to rip and tear later."

It takes a moment for your words to register, but Renee finally realizes the spectacle she's made and sits down blushing.

"S-sorry Hiro."

"It's fine, let's get outta here before we're banned. Dante and the others should be done by now."

You both leave the ice cream shop and hurry back to Renee's apartment complex where Dante, Duran, and Ace are waiting.

"Well look whose back! Hey hey, guess what we found!" Ace says holding up a money box

"How much did he take from you Renee?" You ask

She tells you the amount of rent she paid and you dig it out, telling Duran to return the rest. Knowing someone like this guy, he'll just take it out on the tenants.

Once that's done you hope in the car and return to your apartment. You'll have to do some talking to your landlord but for now it should be okay if she just destresses for the day.

"Hiro I need a beer. Please."

>Take as many as you need
>Goddammit I just bought those!
>Other/Write-in

>Take as many as you need

"Take as many as you need."

"Thanks Hiro."

You nod and set her box down on the living room floor and after about 5 minutes you come a realization: You really shouldn't have said take all you need. You see Renee just knocked the beers back, one at a time. She's barely slowing down at that.

"H-hey Renee..." you start

She ignores you and downs another can

"You really shouldn't..."

She continues...

Gulp

GulpGulp

GulpGulpGulpGulp

"Aaaaaah! That hit the spot!" she exclaims happily

12 beers. That was 12 fucking beers she just downed.

>That's it, you're cut off
>You're paying for that
>Feeling better now?
>Other/Write-in

>Just as a heads up, I'm not paying to get your stomach pumped
>Feeling better now?

You sigh "Just as a heads up, I'm not paying to get your stomach pumped and I'm not holding your head back when you spew either."

"Jerk." Renee hiccups

"So are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling greeeeeeeeeeeeat!" Renee slurs

And there it is...

However, she walks from around the counter and wraps you up in a tight hug "I really mean it...you're great Hiro. You didn't have to do this for me and you did. So...thanks."

"It was no big deal, I couldn't just leave you out to dry like that. There's no way you'd find a place to stay on such short notice. Well, not unless it was some crappy motel and no one wants one of those."

"Yeah...you really are great Hiro."

Before you can say anything else she plants a kiss right on your cheek. You're left gobsmacked at the gesture and before you can do anything Renee lets you go and skips away...and falls over asleep due to all the drinking.

You've helped Renee through a rough time in her life. Your bond has deepened further. Hiro gained the trait 'Savior of the downtrodden!' Renee's Affection can now increase further.

Well you now have a drunk girl on your floor...

>Get her to the bed
>Splash her with water
>Just leave her there
>Other/Write-in

>Get her to the bed

Well, nothing for it but to get her to bed. It's still day time, hell it's only past noon, but she's definitely gonna need to sleep this off. You scoop her up into your arms and notice that she's actually pretty light, where the hell does all the food go then?!

You take her to the bed and just lay her down there before returning back downstairs. Oh crap, she'll definitely need water when she gets up...

So you do just that, and leave it on the nightstand, you gave her a big jug  of it so hopefully she gets the idea on what to do,you just hope she doesn't throw up first thing when she wakes up. That'd really suck. Heading back downstairs you're by your lonesome. With tons of time to kill. You take note of Renee's box of things and a part of you can't help but be a little curious...

No...No you can't do that. It wouldn't be right!

...However.

>Look through her box
>Watch TV
>Other/Write-in

>Resist the boxes temptations
>Resist
>Resist
>Fail to resist
>Inspect the Box

You try your best to resist the box of posessions laying there. It's not right to go through someone else's stuff. You're better than that!

.......

.................

.........................

....................................

................................................

You're not. You're not better at all. You can't stop yourself from opening the box to see what it is you'll find and what you do find is...interesting. There's some really risque stuff in here, like lingerie that you are sure she'd wear under her work clothing, some head shots clearly meant for modeling that she more than likely never got to send and her college degree. Of course she'd like to hold on to that. And...is that a diary?

>You couldn't
>You totally could!
>Other/Write-in

>Nope nope nope

You feel...icky. Like some cosmic force is making you feel bad about all this. You quickly put everything back in the box, nicely folded as best you can and close it back up.

There, you feel much better about yourself. Mostly. You still opened it, so that's some guilt, but still it's not as bad as it could have been!

You decide to just settle down and watch TV. The news is on, so that should clear your mind somewhat and you've been meaning to see what the fallout from the college debacle would end up being. It doesn't take long for it to get brought up again as it looks like nearly half of the college's student body was wiped out and the college is closed until further notice.

No doubt they've played this several times, and so that's why Holly's uncle was worried. You continue watching t to see if there was any mention of your group, but so far nothing. The whole thing is being written off as a domestic terrorist attack.

Honestly, you don't know if that's better or worse. As the news goes on though, you see a bright spot in all of this: The carnival is coming to town this weekend. Normally you wouldn't care, but maybe after everything Holly and Renee have been through it'd be nice to treat them to some fun?

Well, not like you have much of a choice. Holly is a student and Renee is probably gonna be busy with getting her part of the rent ready...

>You can totally take them
>Nah, you can think of something better
>Other/Write-in

>You can totally take them

"It shouldn't really hurt your pocket that bad. A little time to relax and goof off with some carnival games should be a good breathe of fresh air. Especially for Renee. So yeah, you think you'll do that.Maybe even some of your summons can join in. Hell, you can just sneak them in really.

You take out your phone and looking for the number Holly dialed (It's easy to find due to how late it was when she called) you call up the number and you're 'greeted' by Holly's uncle.

"What do you want?" he asks gruffly

"Is Holly there, I wanted to ask her something."

Holly's uncle is silent for a second before moving away and calling her. There's some shuffling before you're finally able to speak to her

"O-oh! Mr.Hiro, hello!"

"Hey Holly, I was wondering something."

"Wh-what is it? Did I do something wrong? Did I leave something there? I brought the bat home with me I promise!"

"No you didn't leave it! You're not in trouble!" You say calming her down "I just wanted to know if you wanted to join me at the carnival this weekend."

"T-the carnival?"

"Yeah, it's coming to town and I figure with everything that's going on you could use a reprieve. I mean if you don't want to that's fine but-"

"Yo-you're really inviting me?"

"Uh...yeah?"

"You don't think I"m too gloomy or a party pooper?"

"Er...no?"

"R-really...?"

"Yeah, you've never been to something like a carnival before?"

"N-no...not really."

"Oh, well first time for everything. I'll swing by and pick you up the day of okay?"

"O-o-okay! Let's have fun!"

As she hangs up, you can't help but note the excitement in her voice. Which makes you happy that you invited her. Now that leaves only Renee, but she's still too black out drunk to talk to. Oh well, you'll sure she'll be on board.

>End