[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Gideon Tench]
[Level: 2]
Tench… hurt.
He had hit something. And hard.
He wasn’t being very verbose, he knew, but in his defense, he felt like he had been run over by an eighteen-wheeler in a world where eighteen wheelers could not feasibly exist. But he knew he was alive. The pain that rippled through him with every intake of breath was proof enough of that. He was alive and covered in sand and something prickly was sticking into his back, and judging by all the sticky stuff drying on his skin, he was bleeding quite badly.
Beside him, his arm was splayed out at an odd angle, allowing him to feel soft skin and rough fabric that he was certain wasn’t his. Ben was sitting beside him, her hands radiating healing light. Warmth curled in his gut.
Maybe it showed on his face because Ben let out a choked-up laugh, “Oh, you’re lucid. I think. Squeeze my hand if you can understand what I am saying.”
Never before had he appreciated the sheer energy required for such a simple motion, but he did as she requested. Ben held him close, and he could feel the Healing magic begin working even faster as it began working closer to his core. They should work on figuring out how that worked. Once he had healed up.
Randomly, his long-range hearing finally kicked into place, tipping him off about the earsplitting caws that were sounding from… some place to the left. Which might be a few islands away. He wasn’t sure. It was like he was listening to everything underwater.
“…What’s… tha’?” He mumbled; mouth stuffed with cotton. And maybe sand.
“Shh… save your strength.” Ben ran a consoling hand down his arm. But no, the situation was clearing up for Tench in leaps and bounds. The crows had thrown them into that… tiger trap. The crows they had thought to trust. Whatever they tried must have failed – he remembered seeing Michael floating above them? – and now they were short more than a few members.
“Ben.” He rasped, pulling himself up even as his bruised ribs strongly protested, “The others. Where are they?”
Dawning horror filled her eyes as she looked around. No one else was there. Tench could feel all his insides finally slide into place, leaving behind the blistering aftershocks of pain, but nothing physically wrong with him. He forced himself up, taking deep breaths.
“You get them out of here.” He instructed her, “I’ll find someplace for us to evacuate to.”
“Sure you’re up for it?” Ben asked, eyes flicking over his body as if she could simply triage him with her eyes. There was no argument for it. They both knew that he would be the safest away, even if it meant battling the seas that stretched between each islet.
Tench grimaced, taking it all in, “Well, everyone else is pushing themselves, right? I should, too.”
“You’re… not taking the right lessons from this situation.” Ben shook her head, “But there’s no time for that. We need to get things moving.”
They both dove into the salty waters, each trudging in different directions. Tench away from the ruckus, and Ben towards it.
The harsh waves had been strong before, but in his weakened state, he was nearly knocked off his feet and sent headfirst into the deadly rocks below. But he ploughed forward anyways, dragging himself from one islet to another, searching for another cave like the one they had hidden in.
He didn’t find any quite like it. But then his foot caught onto a hole that nearly made his stomach plunge in fright. Then he noticed the bulbous way the island in front of him bulged. That and a hole leading right into it? He took the risk and ducked his head under the waters.
In the dark, he was left groping his way desperately through the small, constricting tunnel, until he found his head breaking through the surface, gasping for air. It was a pocket of air, just like his instincts had told him. There was a little bit of land in the corner, too, from where he assumed debris from the roof had fallen and gathered up.
This would do nicely. If the squids didn’t get them first. But the ground was firm, if covered underneath three inches of water, and it was a reasonable temperature, about as humid as he would expect of this place. He decided to put his pack down, crossing his legs to catch his breath for a few minutes.
Once his heart settled, he ducked back into the tunnel, pulling himself up using the now more familiar path to once again meet the sky, where the sun had began reaching over the horizon, licking daisy yellow tongues across the dark mustard.
Back in the direction of the fight, the faint whispers of screeching was carried on the wind. And there seemed to be another silhouette in the sky, that seemed almost like a rickety chair, with a person sitting inside it. Maybe Lucky had somehow entered the fray? He hoped so, even if it felt impossible.
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Still, they needed to know where they could retreat to, and it was Tench’s job to tell them of that. He dug through his bag, pulling out the Console with some trepidation, given that the bottom of the bag was soaked through. The Console opened without any problems though, its chime as cheery as always. He clicked over menus and pulled out the Direct Message function.
[Direct Messaging – 10 Points Per Message]
[Choose Recipient: Benedict Carrey]
[Message: Hey. Found a place. Check if Mike can summon a compass for us and reply to this. Also how is the battle going.]
He clicked send before he could overthink too much about the very punctuation he had used in the message. Text messaging was just the worst, and the Game didn’t need to implement that in his opinion.
Below him, he felt like he could see something swirl in the waters. Or maybe he was just imagining it, he tried to convince himself, drawing his knees close to his chest. How much had the crows embellished the dangers of the squid? Because with the stunt they had just pulled, he wanted to confront that idea, too.
But now wasn’t the time to be making big moves like that. They had dragged themselves into enough shit already. For now, all he could hope was that they got away from this alive, and have a few moments to rest.
Back on the island where the fight was taking place, the sounds of crashing and screams had died down. The chair and its pilot lowered onto the ground. A sliver of black flew away, slipping into the remnants of the night. He made sure to take note of that, even as the dialogue box appeared in front of his face, blocking him off from seeing where the bird went.
[Yh mic got u. were heading ur way rn. beat the evil birds!!! Also special friend joining us.] Ben dutifully reported. He sighed, and sat back, trying to spot any birds that might have lingered. There were a pair of lovebirds fluttering around, but there didn’t seem to be any intelligence behind those eyes. Just harmless fluff bundles. He hoped.
Just like he had expected, when the rest of the party finally edged their way over the endless archipelago, there was a familiar stranger along with them, switching between cautiously picking over the water with spiny legs of her chair and hovering over it with bursts of her engines.
“Hey.” He laughed, reaching down to pull her into a hug.
“Got yourself into a right twist, have you?” She replied, giving him a soft squeeze on the arm before pulling away, “Almost impressed by your ability to make enemies out of birds, of all things.”
“Speaking of bird enemies…” Tench remembered to tell them.
“The crow got away.” Jared completed, looking disgruntled as he shook a few clumps of sand off his left crutch, “Yeah. We noticed.”
“On the bright side, look what we did get!” Verity grinned, all bloodlust in her eyes as she held up a cage made of immaculately wound metal bars that Tench had never seen before, even in the Inventory. Inside it, a disgruntled raven sat on a perch that dangled almost patronizingly.
“My finest handiwork, if I do say so myself.” Lucky boasted with a twinkle in her eye, confirming his suspicion that she was the one behind the cage. Her Mechanical Affinity seemed to have gotten a lot more use in the months since they last met.
He wanted to tell her that, and reminisce some, but what came out instead was: “How’re you here?”
“How are you here? I came through the Spawn Points like all the rest of you!” She snapped, a little affronted, but not confrontational.
“Where’s the hideout you mentioned?” A raspy voice asked, and Tench almost started at the thought of a stranger in their midst, but then connected the voice to Terry, who was looking around the island inquisitively.
“Ah, right. It’s… down here.” He motioned towards the edge of the islet where the tunnel was, before remembering Lucky and sending her a rueful look, “Will your chair survive going underwater? I didn’t know I had to look out for that, I’m so sorry-”
“It- it is fine.” She replied, avoiding his gaze intently, “Inner workings will not rust if I maintain them well, and I will just have to… make allowances. And adjustments.”
And nothing more was said on the matter as they all filed inside, one by one, until all eight were crammed inside the cave that wasn’t as claustrophobic as some places during the Boss Battle had been, but was still trying at his patience.
“It looks good.” Asadullah admitted, the only person who could see without any light source, “But my issue is the oxygen supply?”
“I’ll lower my consumption some to leave more for the rest.” Verity offered.
“Or we do anything except that.” Ben gave her counterargument.
“Such as allowing me to build a ventilation system.” Lucky jumped in, already mopping at her chair with a rag, “It will not take long, depending on what the surroundings of this cove are made of. I will simply use a drill like Ben has inspired me to use.” She said this last bit with a special little smile at Ben, who’s eyes turned absolutely gooey in response.
Oh. Oh boy. Tench knew that look. This was either going to end really well, or it would derail the entire ‘save the worlds’ thing they had going on. Because when Ben fell in love, it was always hard and fast and intense, in a way that most people… didn’t understand or appreciate.
Lucky didn’t seem like the type to appreciate it. Private smiles or no.
“Tell us how we can help, alright?” Jared nodded at her, the same genial smile he had reserved for all strangers. Because despite the person to spark off the friendship they had all built with Lucky, Jared… had never spent much time with her. It was easy to forget that, with all they had gotten to know about her and trust her implicitly.
And when Lucky turned towards him, it was obvious that she had no love lost for him either. Her face contorted a little as her chair rattled towards him, until she was close enough to hold out her hand sternly.
“I am working with your party because I find many of you… tolerable.” She explained, eyes flicking around to each one of them before fixing back onto Jared, “But you? I do not see even a redeemable bone in you. I do not trust you, and I do not trust what you can do.”
“What do you want me to do about that?” Jared asked, equal parts sincerity and sarcasm.
“Hand over your Compulsion Card.” Lucky said bluntly.
[Player Log End!]