Argyle sat at the bar, calmly sipping on a bottle of Turquoise Taurus. He looked up at me as I approached with a slight grin on his face. “Wow, that didn't quite go according to plan noob, but could be worse. I did lose some gold, though, so we may have a couple of days added to our timeline. I don't think I want to try that again until I have a subscription. You know, don't want to put us back too far.”

My stomach was already starting to tie itself into knots. “Oh, so you lost money on that?”

“Yeah, I did, and it's a shame we lost a couple of days worth of work. It would be a weeks worth of work before I met you though. I gotta thank you for everything you've done. I mean, working with you is still going to shave off so much time. And we can try again. You know, maybe we'll come up with a better strategy for next time. We've got a few weeks to think on it. Hey, I've still got two more hours of stamina re-gen. We could get some crafting in again today.”

The knots in my stomach developed knots. I felt like I might lose my lunch right then and there. He was just so optimistic. As long as we were working towards his goal, he was happy. I didn't even think that the amount of time mattered. I could see the hope in his eyes. And I knew I would have to destroy it. “About that...”

“Yeah, what? Don't tell me you lost a point in crafting? Well, you know what you'll earn it back. Don't worry. You're still low level; you learn those things pretty quick.”

“Yeah,” I rubbed the back of my neck, and looked away. I couldn't look in his eyes. “I lost more than a point.”

“You lost two points? Well. level one is still enough to be helpful. And you'll build it back before too long.”

My eyes and my heart had met on the floor, not able to fight the tremendous gravity of what I was about to say. “I lost all of my points.”

The words fell like a lead weight on the conversation. There was a long pause as we stared at each other.

The pause was broken by the barmaid. “What can I get you?“

“Nothing. Not right now. Thank you.”

“Okay, so you lost all of your points? In Jeweler?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

“That's a bit of a setback. Does that mean that you're gonna have to watch me to learn it again? I It didn't take too long last time. I have a few hours worth of stamina re-gen. We could probably have you back to where you were in a few hours, a day? Maybe two. This adds time to the clock, but still. Better than what I'd be looking at without you.”

Argyle seemed utterly determined to see the silver lining in the situation. He just seemed so cheerful. Like he didn't understand how much I had just screwed us both over.

“I get penalties for relearning the same Skill a second time.”

“Penalties? What kind of penalties?”

“Big ones,” I said with a grimace.

“How big?”

“I'm not really sure. I haven't been able to relearn a Skill yet, so I couldn't tell you, but for all the times I've swung this thing,” I said, holding up my improvised stick, “I’ve never relearned the Skill. So I think it's bad.”

“Bad. Like bad, like it'll take a couple of days, right? Bad, bad like maybe a week? Look, we can keep trying. If you need time. If you need days, we can keep trying.” A desperate tone was creeping into his voice. “Even if it takes all week, we'll still be ahead of my previous schedule. We can just keep trying until you get the Skill. We can just keep going.”

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I didn't have the heart to tell him the last part of the prompt the last piece of information my death notification had given me: Skills learned through the class Skill ‘I can do that’ may not be relearned from the same person.

That was what I couldn't tell him. No matter how hard we tried, no matter how many times he demonstrated, no matter how many weeks, or months, that skill was gone and until we met someone else with it, it would stay gone.

There's a famous play with the tagline ‘Hell is other people'. I think the playwright got it wrong. Hell is disappointing other people.

Listening to the desperate way that Argyle clung to the idea of me relearning the Jeweler Skill, I knew. I knew I would disappoint him. I knew in the end he would invest all his energy into me.

The closer despair came, the more he would cling, the more he would insist on us trying to make it work. He would waste far more time trying to get me to relearn the Skill and getting back into his sense of hope than it would take him to just craft it all on his own. That was a disappointment.

Part of me felt that I had always been a disappointment, but without my memories I couldn't quite piece together why. I felt like there was something I should be doing at a time like this. My hands itched to hold a controller. To dive into distraction. I couldn't handle emotions. I was a disappointment. I didn't even know if this virtual world had cigarettes, but I wanted one. I wanted to drink the bar dry. I wanted to runaway from my feelings and get lost in the game.

Now I knew why Argyle spent so much time walking in and out of doors, experiencing the advertisements again and again. Even in this virtual world, you needed an escape. An escape from being a disappointment.

“Come on, buddy. Why wallow in the melancholy?” I heard Fez’s voice like he was whispering in my ear, but I didn't see him.

“Just leave me alone. I need... I need to think now.”

Argyle's face seem to sag like a sad puppy. “No, not you. Fez is talking to me, apparently. Excuse me, I feel like I'm having a phone call and conversation at the same time. I can't even hear myself think.”

“You've been doing plenty of thinking. I think that what you need right now is a hat.”

“A hat!” I yelled at him. “A hat! You think a hat is going to fix all this? You think a hat is going to make me feel any better? you think a hat is going to somehow solve anything?”

“What's this about hats?” asked Argyle.

“I don't even know, I'll be right back.”

“All right,” he lifted his drink. “I’ll be here.” With that he seemed to deflate. Slumped back in his chair, he started muttering about production rates and time tables.

I got up and walked out. I couldn't face him right now. Main Street was as bustling and vibrant as ever. I picked one of the only two directions I could possibly pick and started walking.

“You know, buddy, this melancholy here. It's not a good look for you. I think what you really need is to throw yourself in some kind of project. I mean, just remember how excited you guys were while you were crafting. Maybe you could do more of that?”

“I can't do more of that. I lost the Jeweler Skill.”

“There are other kinds of crafting Skills you know. Maybe you could craft armor or weapons... or even hats.”

I chuckled mirthlessly. “Right, are there even trainers for hat making?”

“No, hat making isn't a Skill. [Changed the way he said it so that it is more clear that he's talking about the skill name not being hat making.] There is, however, a skilled trainer for Haberdashery and you're talking to him.”

“What?”

“That’s right. I am the one and only Haberdashery skilled trainer.”

“You, my fairy companion, are a Haberdashery skilled trainer?”

“Well, okay, I'm not in this form. But back when I used to run the hat shop, there were a series of secret quests you could do in order to learn the Skill of Haberdashery.”

“And what exactly is Haberdashery?”

Fez was bobbing up and down with excitement. “It is, get ready for this, the Skill of making hats!”

"But I thought you just said there was no Skill for making hats?" I was starting to get annoyed.

“The Skill is called Haberdashery. It's a much better name for it.”

“Okay, okay, so there's a way I can learn Haberdashery. Where does that get me? I mean, it's not like making hats will help Argyle get his membership any faster. He can't even make hats.”

“Well, you see, there are some hats that are somewhere in between hat and jewelry. Think about a crown it's all jewels and complicated inlays. It requires as much skill in Jeweler as it does in Haberdashery.”

“Wait, you mean it? For real?”

“Yeah, of course for real. If you were to do the band and he would do the jewels and all the trinkets and bobs, and things. Then you made the hat. Well, then you guys can make a crown together.”

“But we don't have any jewels.”

“All right, maybe some kind of a circlet, a tiara, something like that.”

“We could work on those together?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, but how could you train me? You're not a hat maker anymore.”

“No, not now. But all those routines are still in my system. I remember the process.”

“And if you remember how to demonstrate it, then…”

“That's right. You got it. You could learn from me. I mean, I can't teach you, but with Jack of all Trades, there you go. Now, are you ready to make some hats?”

“I guess I'm ready to make some hats,” I said, with a sigh, and reluctantly, I let him lead me to the hat shop.