Paradise Lost (JSAB)

Cheat Codes

Mount Clearwater, 1250 hours

Admittedly, Coming back from the dead doesn't take a light toll on your body. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

Symptoms of resurrection include Light-headedness, nausea, saying "Holy balls dude just kill me now" (Symptom exclusive to Pi), difficulty breathing, lethargy, dizziness, being unable to react to any outside stimuli (Symptom also exclusive to Pi), etc.

That's one of the reasons why they all took one look at the series of rivers, waterfalls, platforms and fountains they had to cross and immediately decided "Fuck this we're taking a nap." even though they literally woke up from one like, five hours ago. Their sleep schedule was fucked, man. They didn't even know if it was AM or PM at this point nor did they care.

But just between you and me, reader, it's currently PM. None of them know this tho.

In the large towering walls of the cavern, they were somewhat surprised to see that there were holes in the rock that were manmade, of cubbyholes carved into the stone of varying sizes, the smallest ones on top and the largest ones on bottom, of which some were big enough to fit one of the Quartet each. The bottom of the shelves were cold and hard but more importantly smooth and flat, compared to the sharp ridges that they all had to sleep on the past few days stuck in the labyrinth, waking up with sore limbs that fizzed with pins and needles and occasionally squeaky joints. So relatively speaking, it was like cotton clouds of bliss. They all lied down in one, letting out sighs of bliss.

Ah that's right, people used to work here. There were some work clothes here and there, as well as some belongings. Nobody found any use for them, though, other than possibly tearing spare cloth to use as bandages should the need ever arise. But then, when searching the pockets, suddenly Quin found something of interest. He looked around twice to make sure nobody was looking when he snuck it onto his person, hoping nobody saw what it was.

Pi decided to sleep out on the floor because he was slightly claustrophobic and the little cubbyholes felt like coffins to him, but none of the others seemed to mind. Screw everything it was naptime. It was so goddamn hot in there but the rock was cool. Still, Quin had to take off his collared shirt and sleep in his black tank top to cope with the heat. Tetra also took off their overalls. Each little hole in the wall was big enough to give them a bit of breathing room, with the ceiling some inches above their nose. Most of the time they all hated their tiny statures, but sometimes in moments like these they were thankful for it.

Pi eventually decided to climb into a little hole in the wall, feeling that the ground was too uncomfortable. A large one, though, with a bit more room to spare.

All four of them couldn't wait to get back to sleep. They were exhausted, and the last nap they had only lasted for like, 40 minutes before none of them realised they could sleep any more. Hell, throughout the past 24 hours they only got, what, five hours of sleep in total? This was a well-deserved nap, in their book, and one that should last for a long while given the universal sense of "kill me now" in the air.

Though, if Tetra had known what dreams had awaited them, they would've never fallen asleep in the first place.

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Mount Clearwater, 1405 hours

Only a little bit over an hour passed before one of the sleeping figures appeared from a little hole in the wall, pale-faced with hitched breathing, eyes darting around the open interior like a frightened rabbit emerging from its burrow. Everything around Tetra was either pink like the disgusting unnatural hue of malice, or the grey of a cloudy full moon night. They decided to focus more on the grey than the pink. The sweat on their body was from both the heat and the nervous trembling in their limbs, pushing droplets of fear out of their pores.