[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Michael Kapok]
[Level: 2]
Verity lay sprawled out on the floor inelegantly. Her hair, normally so tightly bound was cut free, sticking to her face with the sweat that was coating her.
With what her condition was and the fight she had apparently just partaken in, Tench had been reluctant to shove her head back under water. It was Terry who had suggested that Luck make a nigh spherical metal helmet to put over her head, with a pipe attached to it leading back to the surface for her to breathe through. It was a risky ploy, but they had gone for it after an avian shadow had crossed over their hideaway. They couldn’t afford to get caught. Not when they were down their most vicious fighter.
“Come on, you guys, make yourself useful.” Ben muttered, banging her torch on the side of the cove. The light continued to flicker and die, despite the abuse. Michael took that as his cue to wring out his hands.
[Applying Sorcery…]
A loading screen appeared in front of him, which was new and disconcerting. Until a red error message displayed itself, explaining the delay.
[Out of Mana Points for Sorcery!]
[Time Left to Replenish Fully: 23hrs]
Right. He’d really worked a number on himself during that fight. After the Boss Stage in Hygeia, he’d put a lot of points into building up his most powerful Abilities, to the point where he had been hoping that at least Level Two would be a breeze to cross through. No such luck, sadly.
“…Uh, Michael?” Tench asked, voice strained in that way he did when he was trying not to push someone too hard, but was also getting impatient, “We’re all waiting on you, buddy.”
“I…” He choked, the words strangling him on the way up. Why couldn’t he do this? He had lucked into these Abilities, and he couldn’t even use them when it came down to it. How much more useless could he get?
Everyone was still staring. He gulped, his tongue feeling heavy in his mouth as he confessed, “I can’t.”
For several heartwrenching moments, there was silence, and he let the shame settle into his gut, staring at his feet. Someone tapped his shoulder. Terry. With a soft smile and a wave of his hands that wasn’t real sign language, but he understood the placating message it was supposed to give anyways. With a flick of his fingers, the teal-haired man had summoned his own glow of white and green, and a green announcement box to go along with it.
[Terence Glasgow has used Nature Affinity!]
Michael wasn’t entirely sure at first what the Nature Affinity was supposed to do in this situation. It was cool-looking and all, but no amount of flowers and plants would allow them to see better in this light. Except, it wasn’t flowers he created this time. Where the white flashes landed, out sprouted button-sized mushrooms, all glowing an equally brilliant light as they swelled into full maturity within seconds.
“Bioluminescence.” Terry explained in a whisper, before defaulting to signing again, “I don’t know what the sign for that one is but… I bet its something really pretty. To, y’know, match the phenomenon.”
And Terry was right. The mushrooms were really pretty. But these days, there were more pressing matters than simple aesthetics to worry about. Lucky beat him to the punch, frowning at the closest clump of natural lanterns, “What are they feeding upon? Oxygen is already in short supply and we cannot give any to feed their fires, so to speak.”
“Oh, it’s not fire.” Terry was quick to correct, “It’s actually a naturally occurring compound being made in their bodies called-” He seemed to gather his senses as he looked around, “Ah, right, figure of speech, sorry. But they don’t take in oxygen. It’s only waste gases they go for, some nitrogen sometimes, but there’s plenty where that came from.”
“Comforting.” Tench grumbled, hoisting Verity up once again, “Okay, someone, lay out a sheet underneath her, we need to at least try to keep her clean from now on.”
“Bloody good job we’ve been doing at that since now.” Jared scoffed but moved forward to lay out their softest blankets for her anyway. Along with a pillow that he tucked under her head gently, smoothing her hair out with a tenderness that Jared rarely showed anyone.
Verity’s mouth twitched into a smile, tugging a slight cut on her cheek until it was close to bleeding. Ben took a moment away from her thorough cleaning and checking of every one of Verity’s injuries to smile at her sleeping expression, “Wonder what she’s dreaming about.”
“Oh, she’s not.” Both Michael and Jared said at the same time, much too familiar with that particular quirk of Verity’s.
Ben didn’t quite understand, squinting at them suspiciously, “What do you mean she’s not?”
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“Dreaming.” Jared explained, looking much less amused than he usually did when telling this tidbit. On the few occasions they had shared this before, it had always been as a way to poke fun at Verity, in a way that she didn’t mind. Now though… it added a certain weight to her predicament.
“Verity says that she found dreaming tiresome.” Jared continued to explain, “Back when we were very young. Around the time she- she had her first amnesia attack. So she began to train herself out from dreaming, once it took too much of a toll on her. I was there. I taught her to lucid dream.” That last part Michael hadn’t been privy to before this, but he took it in stride because it made sense to have happened that way.
“I’m sorry, what?” Tench looked between the two of them, much less at ease with what was being divulged to him, “She has amnesia attacks?”
“Memory loss events.” Jared clarified.
“That’s not a thing.” Tench told him with the confidence of a person who had finished a residency to be a neurosurgeon. He immediately retracted this statement by saying, “Sure, injuries or something might result in a loss of memory, and general degradation of memory over time is expected, especially when someone has weak memory, but the ‘attacks’ you’re describing… those are simply impossible.”
Impossible. Funny how such a line could be drawn in a world where all humans had been wiped out, and birds and octopi were now fighting to the death.
“There has to be some underlying issue that’s going unresolved.” Tench insisted, “She’s never shown signs of having memory problems before, has she?”
“No. Because it doesn’t happen except in waves. You’ve seen glimpses of it, though. Remember the Boss Stage?” Michael asked. Everyone fell quiet, remembering the demon-like state she had been reduced to. It was an image that didn’t leave your psyche for a very long time.
“She doesn’t remember anything she did while she was like that.” Michael explained.
Jared hesitated, looking torn, “Should we be telling them that?” He asked, “She’s our friend, and she deserves to have privacy.”
“I thought we were her friends too?” Asadullah remarked, his ears tilted back in a way that wasn’t quite a threat, but not pleasant, either.
“And that doesn't mean you get to pry into her business, man.” Jared replied, further aggravating the boy. Terry patted him on the arm, making the protests die in his throat. It didn’t sooth the hurt ringing through the air, but it prolonged the peace that they had built.
Ben cleared her throat, desperate to move on to less touchy subjects, “I think this was necessary. Verity was clearly suffering and didn’t want to bring attention to it, and now that we know what’s going on, I’m sure a couple Healing sessions will fix her right up.”
Strangely, it was Lucky who responded to that, her eyes glassy and posture stiff, “And what if you cannot fix her?” She asked, somberly, “What will you do then? Will she have lost the high regard you give her?”
Tench frowned, immediately defensive, “Of course not.” His eyes caught onto her chair, and the words died in his throat for a precious few moments, before he was moving on, “We’ll help her manage it. Build support systems. Not doing… whatever she’s been doing up until now.”
“Right.” Lucky nodded stiffly, “Because that is the normal, reasonable, and efficient way to do things for every person. I am sure if it had been anyone except our squid-killing maniac, you would have not thought twice about shunting them to the side.”
“That’s not how we operate.” Ben snapped, looking more aggravated by the second, “Why’re you kicking up a fuss over something that isn’t even happening?”
Michael was inclined to agree with her. Lucky hadn’t been one for conversation since she’d appeared in the middle of the fight, but now she was a blaze of accusations and uncharitable opinions. What had happened in that timeframe?
Tench, however, seemed to see the core of her worries, “We’re not replacing anyone if they seem like they’re more trouble than they’re worth.” He explained, his expression hard, as if he was embarrassed at even having to say it, “Our party is ours and we’re going to finish this Game, not because of what’s most efficient and powerful, but because it’s us. Got it?”
Lucky stared at him, and the entire cave waited in tense silence for her response. It came in the form of a small nod of the head, which made her hair fall forward and hide her face, but Michael swore he saw her smile.
A muffled, cawing laughter came from underneath the hood thrown over the raven’s cage, followed by the snide, throaty words from the bird, “You humans really care a lot about ‘unity’ and ‘love’ and all that sappy stuff, don’t you?”
“That really wasn’t the point of the speech.” Tench called towards it warily.
“I have seen the artefacts! I know a ‘friendship is magic’ scene when I see one!”
Michael was itching to get his hands on the human relics these birds had amassed. So many cultural and societal things had passed on, clearly, but not enough to give him a clear picture of what the humans of this place had been like. It was never a subject he had been fond of, but now… he was feeling eager to look into it. Even if he wouldn’t quite know what to do with the data.
“Okay, I say we use the raven as a scapegoat, throw it into the ocean and say that it killed their squid.” Jared volunteered, his voice also raised a bit louder than necessary. Everyone conscious enough to do so was quick to give their approval. Michael wasn’t so sure, though.
“Wouldn’t something be able to tell them what really went down?” He asked, “I doubt that ravens are going to get confused with rabid teenaged human girls anytime soon.”
“They are pretty large, though…” Asadullah mused.
“If you humans do that, you will only be working against your agenda of so-called peace!” The raven shot back, “And stop calling me just the raven! I have been given a name!”
If he had been, this was the first Michael was hearing of it in the last two days. In fact, none of the birds had volunteered names, and they had been content to simply think of them as nameless. Terry snorted at the notion, and quickly signed to them, “I bet it’s something incomprehensible. Like squawks and chirps in bird language. And it’ll cause a ruckus trying to get us to make fools of ourselves to pronounce it.”
“I saw that!” The raven screeched, a part of the hood slipping away after endless nudging on the raven’s part, “And I resent it! My name, if it were to be transcribed into human tongue, would be called Feathertooth!” It fluffed its feathers up like this was an esteemed name to have.
Terry used Nature Affinity on it, to reveal the body language brackets that said (Honest) all around it, “It’s the truth.”
[Player Log End!]