AN: This story was originally posted on the Spacebattles forum. If you want the informational posts, you can check there.
Please feel free to give some constructive criticism, as I'm interested in learning how to write well.
This is a joint work between Orek and I, and we used the Worm CYOA v5 to come up with our situation and powers, although we took many liberties for enhancing the story. Mainly setting interesting limits to our powers and interpreting situations in outside-the-box ways. I know CYOAs are mainly curb stomps. Here, we're trying to write a story instead.
Blundering Branches
Prologue 1.00
(Sebastian)
"Maybe hide here tonight?" I heard my friend Winter suggest.
I didn't need to hear his tone to see the weariness seep out of his slouched posture. The fact that his physique was now that of a super, multi-talented athlete only clashes with his current vibe.
He was well muscled, yet not too bulky. His body shape somehow conveyed speed and flexibility along with its power. The perfect combination for a stereotypical hero.
Or rather 'Fab', as my friend would have joked, maybe also strike a ridiculous pose while he's at it.
That's right, he would have joked, once.
Fucking Bakuda.
/* - */
(Winter)
I shuffled to the large metal containers and ran my hands gently across it with idle curiosity, "I mean all we need is some walls and we can settle. Worm's description was right, Brockton Bay really is quite temperate."
"I guess it'll do as a temporary hideout," Seb agreed curtly and remained alert to his surroundings.
I found my hand hovering around my midsection, gingerly feeling the stitches through my clothes.
Shaking myself from that line of thought, I glanced at my bespectacled friend. Sebastian was usually a talkative person who would even mention the most random of things that would appear in his mind. Our bantering and light jabs were part of a normal routine.
So I knew, just knew, that Seb would have had more to say about the current situation. Yet it was held back because he didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing and hurt me.
I wasn't made of glass, damn it! If he had something to say then say it. Say it like how he would normally say it without needing to think too much about it. We're friends. There were plenty of things we had said about and against each other; arguments back and forth. But we still stuck together as friends in the end. Doesn't that mean something? Wasn't there an understanding between us?
Sebastian, my friend. Someone that I'd known for at least a decade, should at least be able to converse normally with me. But nowadays it felt like all we did was plan, execute, move on, and then do it all over again. Just an automated routine of escape and survival. Too many things happened for us to properly talk.
Fucking Bakuda.
Why did she have to plant a bomb inside me?