Waking Dream - Devil Survivor CYOA

Lets see HAF

"Who are you?" you ask the fish-lady's back.

She stops.  "...Waite," she says in a quiet, husky voice.  You realize this is the first time you've heard her voice.  You wait patiently for her to continue.  After a few moments of silence, she glances over her shoulder and clarifies.  "You can call me Waite."

"Why did you help us?"

She looks forward again and shrugs.  "Because you're still too weak."  She waves her hand, and a portal opens.  You can see Arkham's familiar streets shimmering through the tear.

"How do you do that?" Rita asks.  "...Can you teach me?"  Waite ignores her.

"Thanks!" you call out as she steps through.  She glances over her shoulder.  You think you catch a glimmer of a disturbingly unnatural smile as the portal snaps shut.

"Rude," Kumiko mutters.  "She did save us...  But what a jerk...!"

"She's strong, though.  Whoever she is.  Waite, huh...?" Gregory asks.  He adds quietly.  "Why do I think I know that name...?"

"Well, don't look a gift horse in th' mouth," George says cheerfully.  "I'm jus' glad them witches and th' rat are gone."

"I don't like her," Vorvadoss says bluntly.

Bast growls quietly, staring at where she disappeared from.  "Fish...  She smelled like fish..."

"So, what're we gonna do while we wait fer them to re-charge?" George asks.

"I'd like to train," Gregory says.  "If it weren't for this stupid snake body."

"That's a good idea," Kumiko says.  She looks down at her relatively humanoid body.  "Hm.  I guess I should..."  She walks a bit along the alien landscape.  "Hey, Greg...ory.  Think you could give me some pointers?"

"Nothing better to do," he says flatly, slithering after her.

"I'm going to go look around a bit, see if I can learn anything about this place.  ...We're on an alien planet..."  The gravity of the situation just now seems to be hitting Rita.  "Alien... planet...  Never before visited by humans...!"

"People come here all the time," Bast says.

"Magic users in training, people with our blessing, wanderers lost in time and space..." Vorvadoss rattles off.

Rita gawks at them.  "And I never even knew..."  She flies off into the distance, sulking.

"Hang on, don't wander off alone!" George calls off, clopping after her.

Well, with nothing better to do, you decide to start looking into fusions.  You check your connection to the Demon Auction - no signal.  Not really surprising, you realize.  You check your funds and estimate you can afford four demons.  You take that into account as you start planning your fusions...

---

List of fusion options

Kijimunaa! Kijimunaa, munaa, munaa! I don't know how many times I've corrected myself, but I keep doing it!

I'm glad he's gone!

Oh, good, you guys got a revive spell now.  The game just changed completely.

"We're back..." Rita mutters, a hint of sadness in her voice.  "That was so cool..."

"So, what now?" Kumiko asks.

You point out that your house is just down the street.  George groans and says something about how Daniel's going to kill him, and about how the van's not here.  Gregory similarly mutters something about Elise beating the crap out of him, and they both break out their phone, sending out messages.  You check your phone and realizes that it's well past midnight.  With the 

"Good, you made it!" Bast greets you cheerfully.

"Of course they made it.  We were the ones running the spell," Vorvadoss says proudly.  "You should get some rest.  Tomorrow's another day."

You tell Kumiko and Rita it's time to head home, and they fall in behind you.  You politely tell George and Gregory they can stay in your living room if they want, seeing as they'd have to walk several blocks through the demon-infested city at night with only a half-moon for light.  They don't protest.

You bring some blankets and whatnot to Gregory and George downstairs and find them arguing over the couch - both refusing to be the one to take it.  You leave the children downstairs and head back up to the actual children to figure out sleeping arrangements.  You're exhausted, and not in the mood to deal with anything.

"I...  Um..."  Rita mutters, fidgeting uncomfortably.  "I'm...  Um...  I... don't...  I'm kind of...  I mean, after this afternoon, I..."

"Don't tell me you're scared of the dark?" Kumiko asks.

You tell the two of them to take the master bedroom, and you head into the guest room without another word.  You have one more thing you need to do before bed.  You pull open the demon auction to see what's available...

---

Choose 4.

(A) Vile Orcus
(B) Snake Pendragon
(C) Dragon Basilisk
(D) Divine Lailah
(E) Avian Suparna
(F) Fallen Flauros
(G) Avatar Shiisa
(H) Beast Orthrus
(I) Wilder Garm
(J) Genma Tlaloc
(K) Fairy Pyro Jack
(L) Touki Mezuki
(M) Jaki Wendigo
(N) Femme Leanan Sidhe

Wynaut.

Sure this sounds adequstely sound by my logic process for selecting demons.

You wake up to a buzzing coming from your phone.  You roll over and grab for it sleepily, before remembering what kind of world you're living in.  You snatch your phone and roll out of bed, ready for a fight.

"Good morning, Kira!" Bast says.  You grumpily ask what's wrong, why she woke you up.

"We wanted to talk to you about that rat and his witches yesterday," Vorvadoss says.  "About why they were targeting you."

"...We have no idea," Bast admits.  "Can you think of anything?"

You point out they've been with you ever since the demons started appearing, and you spent most of your time sitting at home.  You also can't think of any time you may have made an enemy of a witch coven before then.

Vorvadoss shakes his head.  "Strange.  And you aren't the only one that's been targeted - that's what we were discussing with Hypnos last night.  There were several abductions around the globe last night.  Most weren't so lucky as you.  So far, none of us have any idea why, what the groups may have had in common..."

Bast shrugs.  "Oh, well.  You'll just have to be super-careful.  By the way, I created a super-useful summary of everything important that's been going on, in case you need to review.  I figure it might help us figure this out."

After you throw on a clean outfit, you flip through your phone and search for her summary as you wander out of the guest room.  A strange flickering in the hallway catches your eye, and you notice a flaming, orange glare seeping through the crack in the master bedroom, where Kumiko and Rita should be.  You charge down the hall, worried it may be in flame, cautiously pushing the door open.  Your newly-recruited Pyro Jack stares emptily at you from the other side, his eyes and lantern crackling with the same eerie flame, a wicked grin plastered across his face.  You peek past the glorified nightlight and see the pair still sleeping soundly.  You shrug and quietly pull the door back together.

Downstairs, you find Gregory and George both asleep on the floor on far sides of the room.  The couch remains vacant.  Stubborn idiots, the both of them.

You start throwing together a meal with the remnants of yesterday's food.  Gregory is the first awake, followed shortly by George.  Both refuse to join you for breakfast.

"I need to get back to Elise before she decides to replace me," Gregory explains.  "Or kill me.  Or both."

"Daniel'll have my hide if I don't hurry back," George apologizes.  "I shoulda been feedin' the chickens an hour 'go.  An' I gotta get that van back 'fore anythin' can happen to it."

You try to convince them to stay and eat, but they are, as you realized previously, stubborn idiots.  You can only say goodbye to the both of them as they head out.

---

George and Gregory left the party!

---

It's almost 8AM when Kumiko shambles down the stairs groggily.  "It's been so long since I've slept in a proper bed.  It's... the greatest thing ever," she mutters.  "But that light was... ugh..."

Rita's a few minutes behind her.  "Good morning, Kira!" she says perkily.  You ask why she's in such high spirits.  "I got to explore an alien planet last night!" she gushes.  "And not just an alien planet, an alien planet!  Like, habitable, with its own life forms - plants, at least.  Ah, it's like a dream...  It... um, wasn't a dream, was it?"

Kumiko reaches out and pinches her.  Rita yelps and jumps back.  "Guess not," Kumiko says with a cruel grin.

You point out that's not quite how it works.  While you eat breakfast, the three of you recount everything that happened last night.  It seems it really did happen...  Or you all shared a really strange hallucination.  You then ask if they remember having any strange dreams.

"Oh, right... that... shadowy guy appeared again.  The one from right before the demons started appearing.  He said something about... three days?" Kumiko says.

"Right," Rita adds hesitantly.  "I also remember something about... a lion... and a tarantula?  But a giant tarantula...  It's kind of foggy..."

You still remember the dreams clearly enough.  A lion on a roof with what had to have been Sara, a cow and a turtle, then a racoon-tanuki thing on a stone slab with the spider...  You're about to warn Kumiko when your phone starts buzzing.  You look down and see you have a message from George.

Kira you really need to come and see that place from last night that we went in The one that was really freaky.. Right before the witches tried to nab us

You decide to check in on Rita and Kumiko.  According to your phone, they're still at the mall together.  You stroll over, recharging your phone with the crank as you go.  There seem to be a few more demons out than normal, but none are brazen enough to pick a fight.

You find the mall in as much disrepair as you expected.  The ruins of barricades and corpses - both human and demon - line the halls.  You don't dawdle, heading straight to the store your phone says the pair are in.  You find an empty furniture store, its contents converted into broken barricades, before realizing you probably have the wrong floor.  After a few moments, you manage to find the two in what was once one of those hoity-toity stores for teens.

Kumiko is poking between the shelves, quickly flipping through outfits.  "No, no, no...  Too big, too small, too expensi- oh, right..."

Rita stands off to the side, apparently a bit uncomfortable.  "Um...  Kumiko?  How much are you planning to get?"

"Just three or four outfits," Kumiko answers.  "I don't plan to replace everything I lost.  Oh, and let's not forget to stop at the shoe store."

"Um...  Right..." Rita mutters.

"Aren't you going to get anything?" Kumiko asks.  "You only have that one outfit, right?"

Rita nervously straightens a ribbon on her skirt.  "W-well, yes...  I... um... l-lost the others when...  um...  I-I don't want to go back for them, either..."

"Well, what're you going to do when it gets dirty?" Kumiko asks.  "Or if it gets torn up or something?"

"I-If it gets messed up, I'll just... have to fix it..." Rita says.

"You know how to sew?  Hm.  Useful.  We should stop by a craft store, too, get you some needles and whatnot.  Still, you need at least one extra outfit for cleaning or while you're patching..." Kumiko muses.  "C'mon, we'll pick out something for you."

"Um...  This isn't really... my style..." Rita says.

"This isn't exactly the time to be picky," Kumiko scolds.  "The cutesy look is... um...  cute...  but not really apocalypse-friendly."

"I just have to work a bit harder," Rita says.  "I... guess I can find some stuff here, get some ribbon and things... um... spend some time fixing it up later..."

"That seems like a waste," Kumiko mutters.

"I know it'll take a lot of time, and it won't be as good as... um...  Ack!  O-oh, Kira...  It's you.  You startled me..."

Kumiko, now carrying a large stack of shirts, wanders over.  "Good timing, Kira.  Tell Rita there's no point worrying so much about clothes anymore.  Just so long as it's functional...  Anything else is a pointless waste."

"H-hey!  I... um...  I like looking cute," Rita says.  "If...  it makes me happy, then it's not pointless!"  She concludes with surprising force, before immediately retreating again.  "R-right, Kira?"

(A) Side with Kumiko
(B) Side with Rita
(C) Remain neutral
(D) Change the subject