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[ Yeah, Kido's not going to think about the number of times she'd fallen asleep next to Terry already, because he's right, it's hospital time and it saves her from any flustered thoughts she might otherwise have had. ]

That's right. Have you had breakfast yet? We'll go as soon as you're ready.

Yeah, I ate.

[ Not much, but it's still something in his stomach. Terry gets most of the cat fur off with the grooming glove and gets off the bed. ]

I'm ready. Let's go. Do you want to hold onto the black kittens as we go? Since it looks like they like you a lot...

[ They'll be following Kido regardless. ]

All five at once?

[ She can fit maybe one in her hood, one in her jacket pocket, one or two in her arms... but still that's a lot and if one of them runs away, she won't be able to chase after them. ]

I probably won't be able to handle that many, so I'll take one and leave the rest to you.

[ The one that nudged its head against her hand; if it's friendly enough to do that, she thinks it wouldn't mind being carried. Not all cats like that, she knows. ]

[ Yup, the one that nudged its head doesn't mind being carried. In fact, it seems to be purring a lot in her hold. The rest of the black kittens hop off the bed and look eager to follow. ]

... Right.

[ He will just follow instead so that the kittens don't get left behind for whatever reason. He'll stay quiet in case Kido is in cat heaven or something. ]

[ She's already named this kitten Hana-chan in her head, regardless of whatever Terry officially names his new cats. But however happy she is about all of this, she still manages to keep a neutral expression on when she gets up to leave the room. There's a note on the kitchen counter she'd left for Rei so she would know where they are, and that there's pudding in the fridge if she wants any when she wakes up, and she looks back to see just how many cats are coming along before she accidentally shuts the door on one of them. ]

Did they all come overnight too? Through your window, or something?

I woke up and the bed was there with five black kittens on it. I wonder if something happened overnight... I was too busy sleeping to notice.

[ The way the little kittens waddle are so cute... Terry looks ahead at Kido. ]

You wanna name them? They'd probably like it, coming from you.

Is that okay? They're your cats, after all.

[ Though, considering Terry's naming scheme for his other cats... maybe she should put some actual thoughts into these cats and save them from that fate ]

Well, I mean... they're strays? But I guess they're technically mine. I dunno.

[ Looks like Kido is saddled with the task of naming more things. ]

They might be strays, but as long as they're living under our roof, we have to be responsible for them. I'll think of good names for them... Maybe when I'm waiting during your session.

[ They're going to be really cutesy names like Hana-chan and Aiko though, if you leave it to her /: ]

[ You say that as if Terry doesn't like cute names... :) ]

Sure. It does leave you with a feeling of responsibility, doesn't it?

[ Despite how Terry ditched his cats multiple times. Ami just shrugs it off at this point. ]

[ Yeah, Kido has to glance back at all the other cats ]

Does it? I had a feeling the cats were taking care of you more than you take care of them.

[ That's what she felt with Sasuke too, but Sasuke is a worrisome child and she trusted Kurou to take care of him more than the other way around ]

I mean... they do make good therapy cats while I couldn't do anything in the hospital. I should work on brushing them all when I get back.

[ Sounds like a busy day today... ]

[ Their house must be covered with so much cat fur oh my god. Thank god Terry officially owns all ten cats and has to handle all the brushing and feeding and emptying out the litter box; Kido gets to sit there and pet them and that's it, the ideal. ]

Sounds pretty lonely to be cooped up in the hospital all the time... You've been doing a good job keeping out of it. It's been what, two weeks, now?

[ When's the last time Terry was in the hospital? It used to feel like every other thread, the setting was the hospital or it ended up there, the good old days. ]

[ Terry really needs a good vacuum cleaner like the Dyson brand for all the cat fur. There's really no way of skimping out on good vacuum cleaners this time around, or the people in the house are gonna start breathing in cat fur. ]

Has it...? I dunno. I think the last time I was admitted and had to stay for a while was until the beginning of August.

[ According to my thread tracker, the other times was when he got into a fight with Mondo, got his ear sliced by Kido, dumping Mondo at the hospital for eating too much butter... yeah. He's actually been skipping out on going to the hospital whenever he drinks blood and gets poisoned from that because... debt hurts. idk whether that's a good or a bad thing or Terry. ]

I wish you visited me more often.

[ Hospital visits are at least a step up from hospital admissions, though neither are very good. Normally, people have years in between their hospital visits. Aside from staying with her mom, Kido can only recall being at the hospital twice in her childhood, once to see a speech-language pathologist and the second for a check-up after dying that first time. ]

Sorry... I'm not the most comfortable with hospitals, and didn't want to impose. Besides... if you weren't in the hospital all the time before, maybe we could've hung out more outside of it.

But now we have all the time in the world, right?

[ Haha... :')

Terry picks up his pace to walk alongside Kido instead of behind her, but the four kittens get in the way, pretty much making a wall between the two people. Catblocked. Wow. ]

[ What happened to beating all the dungeons and finding a way home so Kido can ditch everybody at the first opportunity?

All Kido says is, ]

Yeah.

[ All the time in the world, but if the world's ending, that's not very long at all. It feels like that, sometimes, the sense of impending doom that she tries to ignore because what good is dwelling on that? No good at all, when she can look over and catch Terry's eye before looking down at the kittens between them, smiling at them because she's reminded again of how this world's given her so many things she's never had before. It gets hard to choose one life over another in times like these. ]

We'll take it a day at a time. Today will be your day: be good and work with the doctors to figure things out, and after that, we'll do whatever you want.

[ Yeah, what good is living forever if everyone around you is dead?

Regardless, Terry looks pretty happy about Kido's suggestion. ]

Yeah, I'll do my best. I never planned on being a hard patient with them, so...

[ Because he does think, and hope, that a therapy session will help him in some way. It may not be a cure-all, but as long as he feels like there's something that gets better, that's all he wants. He'd be satisfied. ]

[ lmfao imagine if Cetana were a perma-death game and everybody keeps dying except Terry because he can't die, and he can't escape from the world, and this place just becomes his own personal hell (':

Anyways, so many people in the game could do with therapy, so I hope Terry has a good experience in there and can encourage everybody else to go too. Maybe he can come back on Saturday for grief counseling. ]

Talking about this sort of thing is hard in general, so it's worth saying anyways. I don't want you to have to live while constantly dreading something like that. All it's going to do is eat away at you.

[ He'd rather just starve himself from blood and just die like that. Goodbye, everyone... he loved you all... But maybe. Just maybe... consider the possibility he doesn't go and just becomes guilt ridden forever.

Terry just keeps smiling. What's to say it hasn't already eaten away at him... ]

Yeah. It'll be hard, but I'll try to make it worthwhile. I've never been to therapy, but if it's anything like what Jace did for me before, then I think it'll be okay.

[ Minato will cut open a zombie's arm and force feed Terry blood to keep him alive, Minato's got his back ]

Oh, Jace was also a therapist? Or was he a psychiatrist?

[ Minato... he'd kill you once he wakes up... ]

Kinda...? He's kinda like multiple specialist doctors rolled into one along with being a surgeon. He was good with repression methods.

[ That's why he's so fucking rich. He never needed loans for all the education he racked up either. In this rare case of going to med school god knows how many times, there is actually a net positive in money. Wow. Who would have thought. ]

[ Minato's just trying to look out for his Guest... ]

That's... pretty impressive. But, "repression methods"?

[ This sounds like the opposite of what a therapist does. ]

Ah, yeah, um...

[ He rubs the back of his neck a little. ]

I wasn't... at my best state when I first met Jace and he had to handle on making me "better" as fast as possible, so he had to push back the more painful stuff first and then worked on treating me when it wasn't as bad. It took several years.

[ ...That doesn't explain anything. She can't imagine what Terry used to be like, that it took several years to work on everything that needed to be fixed, but Jace is the doctor, not her. Jace would know Terry best, especially since they were best friends.

So, the more important thing, would be: ]

Were you guys able to work through everything, in the end? Are you doing okay?

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