[Player Log Start]

[Log Holder: Terry Glasgow]

[Level: 2 (Sub-Level)]

They reached town hall with little issue, still followed by that incessant music.

Inside, it was cold, more than he thought that a simple marble building would be able to do. Jared seemed to slump over once they entered the icy antechamber, taking in a desperate breath. The music changed. Something more rhythmic and structural.

“Like bebop.” Jared suggested.

“This is not bebop.” He told the boy, fighting down his outrage, “In what world would this be classified as bebop?”

“My world.” Jared said.

“No, it isn’t.”

“You’re right, it’s not. But you had no way to tell that.”

“Boys, could you quit it?” Tench sighed- and oh, yeah, Tench was here now. He and Lucky, with this strange man with kindly eyes. Tench rolled his eyes and stepped away from Jared, who was now pouting.

“Sorry, Tench. It’s been a rough time dealing with him.” He shot a dirty look at Jared, who stuck his tongue out childishly, “Anyways, who’s this?” He turned over to look at their companion, who smiled even harder than he already was and reached forward to shake his hand. His callouses were on the tips of his fingers and the middle of his fingers, too. All respective of a mechanic. But Terry had a feeling that that wasn’t the case.

“Wait, what do you do?” He found himself asking because he could do that now. What a strange experience. Usually, it was all either utmost secrecy or people explaining their interests without further prompting. He could get used to being just able to ask questions.

“Usually people ask each other’s names before moving onto careers.” The man laughed. Too forward with the questions then, he cursed himself. But at least the man wasn’t too perturbed by the question, easily replying, “The name’s Peter Paterson, if you’re curious. And I’m a mechanic. But I also help with civil paperwork when I have free time.”

“Do you have a lot of that?” Jared asked, “Cause I didn’t see many machines while we were passing by. This place isn’t what we’d call… technologically advanced.”

The man laughed, despite the fact that he’d been told by a boy that his job was unneeded, “Yes, well, technologically advanced is antithetical to slow and relaxed. And that’s what our Game is trying to instill. But someone needs to tend to the heaters and the freezers and other non-temperature-altering devices.” He pointed out, “It’s just honest work.”

Jared’s eyebrow twitched, and Terry found himself wondering despite himself whether that word had set him off. There certainly hadn’t been much honest work going around in their own Game.

“Your guardians and I were having the most riveting conversation.” Mr. Paterson continued, “And I believe that you are part of their group?”

“Not our guardians.” Jared grumbled, crossing his arms, “And Terry could easily pass for an adult. Don’t assume we need adult supervision.”

“Dude, I am an adult.” Terry whispered to him.

Jared looked at him, startled, but Lucky shut him down before he could continue down that trail, “Yeah, they’re part of our group. We’re one guy short, though. Asadullah should be hanging around somewhere…” She craned her neck towards the door, outside which footsteps could be heard.

The door swung open, and Asadullah’s distinctive outline darted in, his tail twitching restlessly. It hadn’t been very emotive recently, so he didn’t know whether that was a good sign or not. Not only that, but he was being followed by a trio of three other kids, two of which were perhaps Asadullah’s age, while the third was closer to Linda, the girl they had met back in the Main Level.

“Sorry, looks like I’m late.” He looked around, heaving a little from the run. Either it was a harsh run, or his increased strength was failing, because he had been able to do a lot more just a few months ago.

Terry should bring up the issue with him, shouldn’t they?

“You didn’t miss much.” They told him instead, “We were waiting for you, in fact.” He tilted their head to look around Asad and the three people standing behind him, “Who are these?”

“Nancy, Simon, and Katherine Mitt.” The person with dandelion-like hair and overalls introduced them.

“It’s Simon Hargreaves, actually.” The youngest, who had been pointed out as Katherine, interjected.

“Can we not do this right now?” Simon told her sharply, “We’re trying to help here.”

“They’re tagging along. I think.” Asad told them, looking around, “I think they want to join our Game?”

“On the fence about it.” Nancy explained. Okay… he looked around to catch Lucky and Tench’s eyes, whose brows were furrowed. They weren’t the kind of people to simply let children rush into death… or at least he thinks Tench wasn’t. Maybe his morals had worn down after spending so much time with children. His sense of maturity certainly had been.

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“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Tench told them.

“So it really is a never-ending race of blood and violence, goading you forward with a nonexistent reward?” Simon asked, looking much too excited by the prospect.

“Your mother has been filling your head with fanciful stories.” Mr. Paterson told them, “Don’t listen to them, Noel Mitt has had bad experiences with the Game being played in CephaloRaven. I’m sure they have an overinflated sense of what is happening there.”

Had they, though? Seemed to Terry that they were right on the money. It really did feel like they had described it. Just an endless march forward, towards a paper-thin promise.

“It’s not so bad.” Jared whispered, taking them all by surprise, “You got any unique skills? We always have room to branch out and cover more bases.”

“Whoo!” Katherine fist-pumped, and Simon and Nancy shared a high-five, “I can fish! I’m a Gold-Ribbon Fisher! And a Forager!”

On one hand, if the woman they had met on the dock was to be believed, Fisherpeople were common to this Game. On the other hand, one of their enemies were essentially fish, so… having her on should be considered. Even if she was barely twelve.

“I have a Computer Affinity.” Simon shared, “And a Save File Hidden Ability to go along with it.”

That- that was interesting. Terry could feel everyone around them perking up in excitement. Jared was the one to ask, obviously, “So, like, a Save File as in saving times in the Game that you can revisit, or… a Save File as in previously saved data regarding Players?” Terry wasn’t surprised that he was the one to pop the question. He knew the most out of all them about this sort of stuff, except maybe for Michael.

“Both?” Simon replied, sounding worryingly unsure, “The first one is only supposed to activate if I die, and I’ve never gotten to test that out, so-”

“That’s good. Don’t do that. And pray that we don’t have to find out, either.” Asadullah told him, his face shadowed and serious as he turned to look at Nancy, “And you?”

Nancy’s face colored a little as she looked away, “Nothing special.” She admitted, “Picked up some gnarly knife tricks before I came in here. And I do Lumber Chopping now. Some Herding. It doesn’t seem like the type of thing you’re looking for. My mom has a Sorcery Ability Driver in her Inventory that she says is for me, but I don’t think I’ve earned it yet.”

Now that was the type of thing they were looking for.

“I’m sure you’ve got what it takes to have that Ability.” Terry offered, giving her an encouraging smile, “It just takes a little bit of confidence. Ask her to let you try it out.”

“That’s the thing, I’m not allowed to try it out. That’s why I’m saying I haven’t earned it yet!” She explained, frustratedly. So, it wasn’t an internal problem. Guess Terry was out of his depth now. Tench watched this exchange with narrowed eyes.

“Wait a moment.” He interrupted, “Who is your mother? Is she the woman with the pale-”

“Blond hair who looked surprisingly like Michael?” Asadullah completed, “Yeah. That’s the one.”

“See! Knew that there was a resemblance!” Tench crowed, sticking a finger into Lucky’s chest. Remember what Terry said about the medical student’s waning maturity?

“I really don’t think encouraging Noel’s children to follow this hare-brained adventure is a wise decision.” Mr. Paterson interrupted, wringing his hands nervously, as if he half expected the woman to jump out from a corner and begin throttling him, specifically, “She is. Er… outrageously protective of her family.”

“Maybe that’s why we want to take such drastic measures to get out from under her thumb.” Simon told him, arms crossing even tighter than they were already, “Or, wait, maybe we just want to get out of this place where nothing happens!”

“That’s the entire point, my boy.” He tutted pathetically, as if trying to explain the themes of a classic novel to a grade schooler.

“And I wanna see more points.” Nancy added, backing up her brother, “Get some perspective. Play more Games. No harm done.”

His mind flashed to the thick glass doors of the supermarket, through which he could see the marching swarms of undead zombies. It had felt so distant from him, stuck inside on cold, sanitary linoleum and blue fluorescent lighting. It was almost like a TV screen, showing him a different world. A world that wasn’t his.

But it was. It had been his world. It had continued to be his world. And he had saved it. Or… he hoped that he had saved it. The fear that consumed him from that time never truly left him. And he hoped that these people didn’t have to go through it either, if this was the mindset they were going in with.

They remembered Asadullah looking at them when they had first joined the Party, with sorrow in his eyes. He had apologized. And Terry didn’t understand, until he did. He couldn’t let more people walk into this blindly.

“We’ll have to think on that.” He decided, surprising everyone by speaking up for the team. It was a quiet challenge. A dare to have anyone else oppose them. No one did, and the issue was laid to the side.

“For now, we have a very important problem to deal with before this lovely gentleman distracts Lucky with more shop talk.” Tench grinned tightly, if not a tad impatiently, “We’re looking for Danny Winston. And the little girl beside her who may or may not be her ward. Where are they? They promised a tour.”

Mr. Paterson made a big deal about rolling his eyes and mumbling under his breath about impatience, “Alright, alright, I suppose I let myself get carried away in my excitement to meet another mechanic. They’re waiting in the Records Room, which has one of our only Anchored Warp Points.”

“The what?” Jared asked faintly beside them. He’d been hanging a lot closer to Terry than normal.

“I see you’ve got a lot to learn. What’s the User Manual for your Console like?” He asked absently as he led the entire group up the spiraling staircase. There was a pause as Paterson remembered the wheelchair Lucky was in, pausing uncertainly.

She rolled her eyes, and her wheels too, as she edged forward and put a hand on the banister. Flickers of green light spasmed through the staircase, and the related dialogue box popped up as she activated her Mechanical Affinity to smooth out the staircase into a ramp.

“…We haven’t found a full one yet of those.” Lucky admitted, continuing to roll her wheels up the ramp as if the pause hadn’t happened.

“Must be using a cracked version then.” He reasoned.

“You can crack a Game? Like, an RWRPG?” Simon asked.

“There’s Hackers and Crackers wherever a Game goes. Don’t think too hard on it.” Danny told him, looking at them from over the edge of the banister. She looked them over, giving them all a nod of approval, “I see you all made it. So, how about that tour?”

A smile broke over Jared’s face, “I thought you’d never ask.”

[Player Log End!]