hugtopia_logs | (no subject)

♥ Who: Verstael, Will, unconscious Cor
♥ Where: A temple
♥ When: After Cor went on hiatus
♥ What: Verstael attempting to find out why Will hasn't been cooking for him
♥ Rating: PG? Nothing yet.

Just as it didn't take too long for Will to realize Verstael was missing, it didn't take long for Verstael to realize his usual meals had never arrived. He didn't think too much of it at first. He went through his routine and worked on setting up his new 'business', of sorts.

But after so long he became curious. Will typically stopped by to make sure he was taken care of - something that Verstael appreciated. It was possible for him to be distracted by something else, but for over a day? That was going a bit far. So he decided to take a simple look around for him. He did know that Will, for whatever reason, chose to worship the gods of the city, so he stopped by each temple.

It was there that he finally found the boy, though it didn't take long to realize something was wrong...

"Will," he announced his presence simply.

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Normally, he stays in touch. Why wouldn't he, when they see each other so often? Whether it's cooking for Verstael or just coming over to spend time with him, they talk just about every day. To say he's only a phone call away might be an understatement, even, when he's the one making the call himself so often.

But this? This isn't a normal situation in the slightest. Paying social calls is about the furthest possible thing from his mind right now, and he's mostly only going home and preparing food for the sake of Kiwi and his Pokémon. They're depending on him, after all, and he..... doesn't really have much of an appetite. Not with worry tying his stomach in knots like this.

Verstael will find Will in Diacht's temple's back rooms, if he asks after him with the priests. He's sitting in a chair dragged up to Cor's bedside, holding a limp hand in his lap and staring out the window. Reve is the one who spots Verstael first, lifting a hand to wave. Will, on the other hand, actually jumps a little at the unexpected voice, twisting to look over his shoulder.

"Verstael? What are you doing here.....?"

"Investigating your whereabouts."

He could see a situation had arisen, though. Approaching, he stood behind Will's shoulder and gazed fairly coldly down at the soldier. While they had distantly worked together a bit, he had no great love for the man, viewing him as he would any number of soldiers that might need medical care on the field. His thoughts immediately turned to pondering his condition. He had no one he had seen like this, spending much of his time being solitary.

"...How long has he been in this condition?"

Instinctively his gaze wandered, searching for solutions, though much in this world hadn't made a lot of sense.

"S-sorry, I should've called..... I didn't mean to worry you." Will's gaze drops guiltily. He hadn't even thought about it at the time. He'd just..... Panicked a little, to be honest. Even Deja had taken it upon herself to go get Kiwi.....

Will sighs at the question, looking down at Cor with a faint head shake. "Just a couple days so far. He..... It's..... That vanishing sickness I told you about, back when Akira, Goro, and Kei disappeared. You haven't seen it before, have you?"

"You needn't apologize."

After all, he wasn't upset. Just concerned.

"No, I haven't." Maintaining distance or being generally professional with people meant he wasn't called upon when someone was in trouble. So this was the Vanishing Disease? ...He would need to document it. They needed to figure out how to combat it. Sans dependency on the natives.

"He has not eaten or taken in fluids during that time?"

Taking a seat next to Will, he gazed down with interest, attempting to piece together how something like this worked.

"He hasn't woken up to eat yet, but I've been helping the priests get him to drink. I can't let him get dehydrated with a fever like this." He doesn't know much about illnesses, to be honest, but he knows that much. Making sure he keeps drinking is crucial, and so is trying to keep his temperature down.

"Oh--you probably can't see it against my skin....." Will carefully sets Cor's hand back onto the bed. There's a hazy glimpse of white sheets through the older man's fingers, a ghostly unnatural translucence where there should be a normal, solid complexion. Suddenly, the extremely unscientific name Will uses for the illness might make a lot more sense.

"Hmm..."

Both fascinating and worrying, he took some notes in his mind but knew they would have no answers just yet.

"This is unlike anything we had on my world. It will take time to study it."

On the other hand, it seemed to confirm his idea that they should not rely on the native's answers to their problems. Will had no doubt been touching Cor continuously, and yet here he lay. Who knew how strong or weak the powers they were relying on were?

For now, though, he did not have those answers. It was best to focus on Will. While there's no way in hell anyone would hire Verstael to be a therapist, he could at the very least see when someone was distressed and respond in a kind of reasonable way.

"And you? How are you holding up?"