SUPER-LOG 7: The 'Stokermen' Are Coming For ME !

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So... Greenwise finishes telling me about the range of awesome 'powers', which now extend to beyond simply jumping about (although I'd be ok with just doing that for a good few sessions). Now it seems there's Higher Listening, Hunter Mode and... Transformation for strings to my bow, together with more know-how about the 'fabric' and finding 'Insights'. What gets to me though is... Transformation!? I'm already looking around, instinctively spotting insects on grass stems, beetles and noticing different types of low-flying birds darting over hedgerows. He means I can become many of these fast-moving creatures or tiny, minuscule bugs? Each with survival powers of their own... "Ohhh... Mmm... Gee...!"

But then the Guardian holds my arm – more firmly this time. My suit responds to the grip. He looks intensely at me, and for a moment I think I can make out a green glow of fire, lining his already green eyes, set in his nut-brown face. The fire glints; it's a really cool effect.

"For now... keep moving. Watch the skies. Don't be taken by surprise or stay out in the open... and you'll buy time so that you can... get better."

"I'm on it..." is all I can manage. But it's true. I'm into all this. I'm well game, even.

"Summon me again when you get to the forest, but if the sun is below the horizon, I cannot come. Farewell, player... for now.... we'll play us a good game, eh?" Flashing a toothy grin and winking, he then transforms 'onto' a bird that swoops suddenly towards us; some owl of some kind. It's got these long sort of eyebrows, which make it look... wise and cool. I just watch – dumbly – as he flies off towards the Scots Pines lining the headland above the mouth of the estuary. Maybe he 'lives' round here. I'm not sure, but I thought I saw some kind of house earlier, beyond the field, when I was up in the air.

I think I could live here. It sure beats my flat. And it's nearly – or not too far – from being real. Alone again, I'm left to green dust motes drifting in the soft wind like gemstones; birdsong, the noise and the stunning sight of those far waves whispering their continual break-up onto the wide shore below this field of golden, swaying barley.

Hey... I'm free!  Mind = blown. What shall I do? Where will I go?

Well, I'm never one for following a main quest path. Not when the basic tuition has finished and everything is then.... open. I always like to test things, when I'm fresh into a game; a kid in a sweetshop, or sandbox. [That's why maybe, I end up very soon after – stuck in the mud and bog by the river. You remember the place? Where I started this crazy, engrossing dream-log. Although, maybe the other reason is something that Greenwise failed to tell me, but we'll come to that soon enough...]

The only limit to all this freedom are the marks on my arm.

Tattoo marks:

ENERGY = 50%
POWER = 70%

So it appears that Focus or super-jumping or whatever is taking up a fair bit of juice. Considering I've only done three or four jumps so far; I'm wary of the expenditure.

But of course I do more. I manage to get a few more successful solo super jumps under my belt, or cloak, as I leave the corn field far behind and move up into the island. I descend, arms outstretched, landing at a point where I can see more open land, with sparse trees. I'm loving the jumping, and am feeling properly fired-up about all the powers and stuff, but I'm still worrying over everything he'd said about the survival and the sun going down.

Just then, however, out of the blue, that's kinda what happens; and I find out why Greenwise has been so shifty since I first met him hours ago. Well, it feels like hours after all the info he's pressed into me.

Fountellion in THE SPIRAL: Greenwise & the Nature of the GameWhere stories live. Discover now