[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Gideon Tench]
[Level: 1, Sub-Level: 6]
The smoke got everywhere. Not just in their lungs, but right past it, too, into the bloodstream. Tench could feel it when he healed the people here, trying to fix what damage he could, but it was impossible to clean it all out. The toxins were too deeply ingrained.
He wondered how deep it was in his own veins. In his heart? Even in the muscle tissue? It was terrifying to think about. Disgusting more to feel it. Now, would these people start taking better care of their injuries so that he had to stop feeling that bone-deep corruption, already?
“Thanks, Mister!” An older teenager chirped, swinging their leg off the table from where it had been lying, bent out of shape, just moments ago.
“This is your third time here since I’ve arrived, Zack.” He told them patiently, “Don’t let there be a third.”
“It’s not like I’m trying to get hurt.” Zack protested, “I just… was trying to get an extra bit of scaffolding up the roof, and next thing ya know… down she went.”
“That’s… really not an excuse.” He muttered in despair, “What will you do after?”
“After what?”
“After I’m gone.” Tench stressed, not liking what he was having to explain to the kid.
Zack tilted their head, all polite confusion, except for a hint of something watery and vulnerable lying deep inside, “Where would you be going?” They asked, voice level but calculatedly so, “Not like you have any place to go, right?”
Shit. How was he supposed to explain this to them? To all of them? He couldn’t stay. There were other worlds to tackle after this. A quest to complete. An… ice cream shop to reopen back home, once Terry managed to get the Cure, and the Harbingers were defeated and the sky was blue once more.
But he couldn’t bring himself to break the news to the kid right now. Not when there was a whole facility being built off their overeager backs, not when they were all depending on him for miraculous healing. He couldn’t let them down like that. Betray them like that.
It would be so much simpler with Ben here. Why wasn’t she? The plan had been to find a Sub-Level for Tench to jump in first, and then Ben had to head for the last remaining Warp Point location and make her way into the Tracklands. Except it had been a week now, and there was no sign of Ben.
Even Lucky Paine’s high-quality tracking devices were turning up nothing.
How long could it take to find this Warp Point? It was increasingly stressful with every passing day. Another person, this one at least slightly closer to adulthood than any of the other tumblethorn kids, rushed in, an arrow through their arm. No, scratch that, it was getting more stressful by the hour.
He let his medical training take over, rushing over to the patient with the best tourniquet he could manage in this sparse environment, “Okay, hold still, try to take deep breaths.” He warned, holding up a pair of clippers.
The patient flinched away from him, “Are you going to cut it out of me with that?” He asked, fear drenching his voice, “No. Absolutely not.”
“I’m cutting out the sticking out bits.” Tench explained, “So that it doesn’t bend around even more than it already is.” Wonderful explanation. Really top-notch stuff. He should become a doctor.
“Alright. Fine.” The patient relented, bringing his arm forward to allow Tench easy access. Snip, snip, the serrated tip and the fletching side was easily cut out, leaving onto the shaft still stuck inside, weeping blood. The trickle became a flood as he pulled out the shard of wood with tweezers. The patient squeezed his mouth shut, putting up a valiant effort to not scream.
“It’s okay. Let it out.” He patted them on the shoulder, “I know it’s painful so just…” He didn’t have a bite block here, dammit, “Grab the armrest of the chair?” The patient complied, leaving harsh indents into the foam of the armrests. He rubbed antiseptic over the wound, carefully cleaning it the best he could before preparing his Healing once more.
[Applying Healing!]
Bright light appeared, wrapping around the wound. It was soft, calming, to watch the skin stitch itself back together, even with the gritty feeling of pollution permeating the experience. The hole poking straight through the arm closed up, layer by layer, until it closed itself up, leaving only a starburst scar.
Tench straightened up, and then was hit by a wave of vertigo. Shit, that had never happened before.
The patient was still there, instead of rushing away to get back to their work. They looked him over, as if concerned for his safety, “Are you okay?”
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“Fine… going to be fine…” He muttered.
[Status Effect: Exhaustion!]
[Abilities Have Been Stunted by -30%]
[Stats Temporarily Decreased by 0.25]
He squinted at the panels, feeling it blur in front of him. Maybe he was not going to okay.
“I need to take a nap.” He announced.
“…Okay.” The patient agreed, “And what about me?”
“What about you?” He asked, not quite understanding what was happening, “Just go back to doing whatever you were doing.”
“Right, but I’m not with your group.” The person explained, “I just came here because I’ve heard that the pack in the sub had this crazy healer guy, and I was desperate. So where am I supposed to pay? What am I supposed to pay?”
Oh. Oh, boy. This was the first person from outside willing to give them a shot. He should have been more careful about this. But he was too drowsy to think clearly.
“You don’t need to pay.” He managed to say, “Just… put a good word out there for us? We want to make a place everyone feels safe coming to.”
The person nodded, “Lure in the richer folk to rob, huh? Suppose it makes sense. No skin off my back.”
“No!” He protested, “No one’s getting robbed.”
“Sure.” They winked theatrically, “Of course not.”
This was how it was going to be with everyone, wasn’t it? Tench sighed, fighting back a self-righteous rant about what they were trying to accomplish. He was turning into Jared these days, wasn’t that awful? This Objective was taken directly from Jared’s dreams. Why couldn’t he have handled this?
Jared was suited for a lot of these Objectives. Actually, that wasn’t true. Most of these were just dealing with people, which Jared specialized in. But they would have to start pulling their own weight in that department, because they would be dealing with more people down the line.
But that additional stress would have to wait, as now he just needed to sit down on the cot that had been moved into the slapdash clinic and fall asleep. One thing that he appreciated about the System was that he had no trouble falling asleep once he’d become a Player. He had no way to explain it other than the second his head hit the pillow and his eyes slipped close, it was like he was dead to the world. And he had been an insomniac before this, so it was another level of surprise.
----------------------------------------
He woke up mechanically, feeling refreshed and awake once more.
[Status Effect: Exhaustion Has Been Cured!]
The box informed him cheerfully, and he felt a lightness in his chest that made him smile. It sure felt like his exhaustion was gone.
He turned his head, taking in the sparse room that would become his abode in this world. Nothing seemed disturbed, so it seemed like no one had needed him in the time he had spent conked out. He heaved himself up, feeling his bones weigh down on him as he made the shambling walk out of the room, through the larger sub, and into the space of the True Safe Zone.
It wasn’t much. Just a large cylindrical metal case covering the raw desert land, reinforced to stop any attacks from jealous outsiders. But that itself was a feat of engineering for the manpower and resources they had. Electricity was still in painfully short supply, and this world hadn’t discovered the joy of power tools outside of clockwork ones.
Still, it had only been a week since the project had taken off, and yet it was enough time for the group Lucky had found to assemble a roughshod frame for the building. He gaped up at it, looking at the spokes reaching up through the smog, so high up that you couldn’t even see the ends.
Then he immediately remembered why that was a bad idea when a cough scratched out of his chest. He’d gotten a full draught of the smoke, the metallic taste heavy on his tongue.
“Put on a rebreather, sir!” Someone called out to him, hammering away at a support beam.
“Yeah, okay.” He wheezed, pulling back inside the sub and slamming the door shut. He had a rebreather, tucked away in his equipment closet, inside the main room. Which was also Lucky’s mechanic room. She was welding two pipes together, adjusting the bend that connected them.
“Good morning.” She greeted, “Have you had enough sleep? I found you sleeping in that cot, and thought it apt to tell the others not to disturb you.”
“Thank you for that.” He smiled in relief, “How far along will we be from completion?”
“Oh, months. We cannot rush this.”
“I figured.” He sagged, “Did you see our first outside patient?”
“Yes.” Lucky nodded, a smile on her face as she continued to work, “They were so thankful, no? I loved their attitude about the whole thing. No doubt you will be our biggest draw here, because we have little else to offer them.”
His fidgeted with his hands, feeling beads of sweat travel down his back, “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. I won’t be here, once this place has been fully realized. What will you do after that?”
Lucky smiled, “I think we’ll manage.” She gestured behind her, “Think that’s got any potential?”
He turned around to look behind her, where there was an old trough of carefully hoed soil, filled with bright green fronds of leaves, topped with blue dots crafted from delicate petals. All of it was illuminated by a golden lamp that gave it an angelic aura.
“Plants.” He whispered, feeling as though he had never seen a plant before. That tiny spot of green offset the gloominess of the sub. Of the entire world. He lent his head forward, and he could swear that the air became fresher just by closing that small distance. He looked up at Lucky, who was steadfastly avoiding his gaze, “How did you get these?”
“The forget-me-nots were procured by Terry.” Lucky explained, “I have done with it what I can, and tried to make them thrive. Do you think I succeeded? Gardening has never been my forte.”
“No, no, it can work!” Jared assured her, “This is a good start. Just what we need. Now we just need more. Shrubs, flowers, anything that grows out of the soil. Trees, if we can manage it.”
“Trees are not on the table.” Lucky told him. As he had already expected. But there was plenty of time to get more plants other than trees. Whatever it took to get them back on their feet. Once Ben got here, they would strike out to raid for more plants. He was just about to explain this part of the plan to her, but then someone rushed inside, a girl with a panicked look on her face.
“What’s going on, Melinda?” Lucky asked, rearranging her legs to start running.
“The guy’s here.” She gasped out, tearing off her rebreather to speak clearer, “The one you mentioned. Burks. And he does not look friendly.”
Tench grimaced. So, it began now.
[Player Log End!]