[Player Log Start!]

[Log Holder: Jared Caliber]

[Level: 2]

For the first time in a very long time, Jared had been at peace in Delica.

The last time such a lull had been possible for him was back in Hygeia, and even that didn’t hold a candle to this situation. Delica was quiet, and fair-weathered, with plenty of nice people and a constant routine to stick to. The problems were simple and easily dealt with. It might as well have been heaven in his eyes.

Of course, that was why it had to end. The second he genuinely started to enjoy the soft routine, it was all pulled out from under him.

That was the idea, he started to realize. In its own way, Delica was its own type of torture, even as it purported to be separate from the Game. The others might be Gamers, but their lives were no less free than the Players.

Back when he had walked back from the bar, at ease for the first time since the sky of Wayside had turned red, he had finally gotten that long-sought Perfect Day achievement, and it all clicked into place for him.

It didn’t matter what they did or how they moved or what percentage of their time was spent being productive or relaxed. Their was no way to have a Perfect Day in Delica other than to simply fall in love with the place. To want to return to it more than anything.

Only then would you be thrown out, with no hope of getting back in.

He had the chance to warn them all of this, back then, when Terry and Lucky were watching him carefully, asking him how he did it. And he took it.

It would’ve been easy to just tell them that he just had that great of a day, and leave them to track down everything he did that day to replay over and over again in a futile attempt. They would at least be safe then. But he had learnt better, and they deserved to have the option to do what they wanted with this knowledge. It wasn’t his place to make decisions for people.

The seagull’s cries were loud against the splashing of the waves, and he watched dully as the waves lapped over his feet, dug deep into the loose sand. Salt lingered on the edges of his lips, as he breathed slow and steady, admiring the lemon-yellow sky.

He was alive, and his chest was rising and falling.

When he had first exited the Sub-Level, he had been surrounded on every side by something heavy and pervasive, blinding and choking him like a smothering blanket. Ah, he had thought, the grief of leaving was so bad that I’m actually going to die.

He hadn’t thought that that was ever really going to happen, even as his love for Delica grew stronger with every day. And yet here the joke was proving itself to be true.

Until something hard hooked itself onto his clothes and tugged him upwards, out of what he realized was churning seawater.

He had survived the ordeal of nearly drowning, and now he was back with Ben and Verity by some miracle. Not that he was happy for this turn of events. It was the worst-case scenario, in his mind.

Except everyone seemed to focused on Michael’s disappearance to care much about the harm that he had caused, so that granted him a few minutes of reprieve before he would have to start trying to justify staying in the group again.

One glance towards Verity, and it seemed that she might have forgotten entirely what had happened.

Or maybe she wasn’t Verity, but the other Character. Lucinda or whoever. That would explain why she was so dismissive of him being there. Jared wasn’t a good friend, maybe, but he was Verity’s first one. She was smarter than to just overlook a known threat to her autonomy like this.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” He asked Ben, who was still conversing between the penguins and Feathertooth. Maybe it wasn’t in his best interests to speed things along, but he cared about Michael too. He’d seen the guy go from a lucky survivor with an alright aim to someone who was powerful beyond compare. Not that he ever took the time to flex that skill. Michael didn’t deserve to die like this, before they even caught a glimpse of the finish line.

Ben looked up for a second, startled by his intrusion. No, not just from his intrusion. There was a stricken silence there, like she was a deer caught in headlights. It was all he needed to understand the situation.

“There is no plan, is there?”

Ben shook her head, chewing the inside of her cheek guiltily, “I- Listen, I’m sorry, Jared. But it’s not looking good for us. We can’t breathe underwater, and even the penguins can’t go to those depths unscathed by the pressure. He’s just going to have to hold out.”

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“But he won’t be able to.” He pointed out, “There’s a limit to his spells. He’s going to die down there, and it’s going to happen soon.”

“You’re not helping, Jay.” The person in his best friend’s skin said, standing up. He gritted his teeth at the nickname only Vera had had the nerve to call him. Back when he had first set up his plan for a united Wayside, he had gotten her to drop the endearment, pointing out how undignified it was. There was no way she would be calling him that now, so it was obvious that this was the other one speaking.

“I know that I’m not helping.” He said, voice low and level because lashing out was only going to make things fall apart faster, “But it certainly isn’t making this situation worse.”

“I’d say it is, actually.” Feathertooth noted, and his tone never failed to push Jared to the brink of his composure, “Really, Benedict, you must instill discipline in your squad.”

Ben rolled her eyes, “Not really ‘my squad’.” She corrected. They’d never really had a leader, it was true. Depending on the situation, they would pick a representative or a strategist, both of which would invariably end up being him most of the time, but it wasn’t like they were a crack team of trained soldiers. Discipline wasn’t one of the things they really excelled at.

“I know you guys have already had this argument.” Jared glared them down, “Focus on Michael.”

“Right, right.” Ben agreed, “I did actually have a plan in mind, to go back and reconnect with the rest of you guys, if you had come back yet. Except…”

Then he had resurfaced and told them about Delica. Which had stopped that plan before it could fully materialize.

“But that’s good.” He tried to reassure himself as much as her, “It’s something, at least. Did you have any ideas of what to do after that? Any person whose skills you wanted in particular? Maybe we can work off that. Or try and see if they’ve somehow managed to meet the pass requirements.”

“In less than a day?” Lucinda asked skeptically, “Not happening.”

“Okay, so the place has made me overly optimistic.” Jared allowed, “But we need to try and think this through clearly. Just waiting here isn’t going to help. Something proactive needs to be done. There has to be a loose end here that you guys haven’t tried pulling at yet.”

They all thought on it for a second.

Ben slammed her fist onto her open palm, “The Console!” She realized, “We left it back at the base!”

Something had been missing in this scene, and it only just now that it clicked into place.

“You left it at the base?” He asked, trying to keep his voice from breaking, “Why would you do that? It’s the only reason we’re alive and in this Game!”

“And we were trying not to let it be thrown into the ocean during our heroic rescue.” Ben replied, “Didn’t realize that this would spiral out like this.”

“We have to get that laptop back.” Feathertooth interrupted before any of them could suggest that, “You have made a grave error in letting it out of your sights.”

Ben nodded, pulling herself to her feet, “I’m starting to realize that. Come on, guys, think we can trace back to our base?” She asked, squinting at the horizon, “Or would moving from this spot leave Michael in a worse off position?”

“One of us has to stay. The rest try to navigate back using the stars.” Jared pointed towards the sky, “If anyone here knows how to do that.”

Lucinda raised a hand, “I picked up experience on that from Landon the Raven. I can lead you back there if you describe the location some. And Feathertooth can guide us some, too.”

Ben looked between the small group they had assembled here, clearly counting between them, “But then whose staying?” She asked, “Because it’s not going to be you, for sure.”

The mistrust burned on his skin. But Jared didn’t have a leg to stand on. Of course he was going to be carefully watched, even without the tool of his trade. No need to argue on it, he picked another solution, “Keep the penguins here. Leave a note with them in case he manages to resurface.”

“That might work, actually.” Ben agreed, putting her hand out. Lucinda placed a notebook and pen in her open palm, pulled from Verity’s infinite pockets. The vet scribbled out a note, and then tucked it in the beak of a nearby penguin.

“Okay, now we… build a boat or something.” She decided, already moving onto the next part of their plan, “The islets are much further apart here, so swimming it might as well be a death sentence. Anyone got a Water-Walking Ability they’d like to pull out of their ass now?”

They all shook their heads. Ben pinched the bridge of her nose, “Yeah, should’ve seen that coming. How buoyant do you think these coconut trees are?”

“Surprisingly so.” Jared agreed, waiting a second for Verity to speak, “If we work fast and well, we can make a raft that can float over a good distance.”

“And you know this how?” Ben tilted her head.

“They’re also pretty resistant against acid.” He explained, “We used them a bunch to try and get across lakes people were stranded in the middle of. Because all the lakes…”

“Were made of acid. Yeah. Forgot that your place was utterly fucked beyond repair.” Ben shuddered, “Let’s get down to building, folks.”

Lucinda reached into her coat with raised eyebrows, pulling out a hacksaw, “Why do I have this.”

Those words, coming out of that mouth. It simply wasn’t natural. Jared bit back his revulsion, “Because Verity has everything we might need that’s also sharp and deadly. That’s her part in our group. What’s yours?”

Lucinda frowned, her lip quivering slightly as she reached out her hand and slammed it on the trunk of the nearest coconut tree.

[Lucinda Hemmings(1) Has Activated Ability: Matter Shifting!]

Green light rippled out, cloaking the tree until it looked like a plastic construct, which then morphed into a sphere, before turning into a thin cuboid, which collapsed on the ground, the light dying around it to reveal a raft made out of solid, smooth coconut woods.

“Ta-dah!” She put the hacksaw away, “I can’t do sharp, stabby, and shooty, but… this works, too, right?”

They all looked at her, the flabbergasted silence.

“What?” She asked, looking at them.

“When I said if anyone had a Water-Walking Ability to pull out, this was what I meant.” Ben told her flatly, “Where the fuck were you hiding that?”

Lucinda held up her hands, “I was goo for longer than most people live. Matter shifting is something I’m painfully familiar with. Transferring it to another object is cake.”

[Log End!]