==> Everyone: Play Sburb.

==> Katie: Do something useful.

July 17th, 12:23 a.m.

==> Katie: Try and think this through.

Katie grabs her laptop and sits in front of her desk while placing her laptop down, trying her quickest to think of a plan of action. First, she downloads the game. Katie opens up the site that Alex shared with them. There are two links, but she figures that she should just start with the first because if she attempts downloading them both at the same time it would just make it slower. They're labeled 'Sburb Client download' and 'Sburb Server download'. This seems fishy, but Katie trusts her friends. Alex is a close friend of hers anyways, so there isn't any reason to not trust him on this. She starts downloading the Client.

The Client download finishes after a minute or so, and it opens a terminal-like computer window. It states that it's trying to connect to a Server, but there is none found. So, she now knows that you need a server.

Katie sits back in her chair for a few moments, meticulously thinking this all out. There are four of them playing, and each of them will be a server player and at the same time will also be a client player. The client player needs to connect to a server player. Josh and Delaney get along well, so they can start out. Delaney will be the first server player, and Josh will connect to her. After that Josh will be Katie's server player, in turn making her his client player. Katie and Alex also get along well, so he can come next in the ladder of survival that seems to be very nicely putting itself together. Alex will be her client player, then becoming Delaney's server player. This fluidly turns into a nice loop, tying itself on the end with a neat bow manifested out of pristine planning and well-spent time. Katie quickly sits up in her chair, while also grabbing her phone out of her pocket to tell her friends about this newly –founded plan of hers. She's quite proud of it.

KA: Guys!

KA: I've thought of a way that this can all pan out pretty well

CA: What is it

KA: So we need a server player and a client player right

AJ: Yeah so what

KA: How this will work is like a chain

KA: Kind of

KA: So the client player connects to the server player

KA: Dae, you and Josh will start out

KA: Josh connects to you as the server player

AJ: Okay sounds reasonable to me

CA: Wait then what about everyone else

CA: Who will they connect to

KA: Oh!

KA: Yeah so then I'll connect to Josh

KA: Then Alex connects to me

KA: And then Dae connects to Alex

AA: so basically its like a nice loop then

KA: Exactly

AA: sounds cool to me

KA: Dae and Josh, you guys should start playing right now

KA: Considering the circumstances

CA: Cool!

AJ: Alright

==> Delaney: Get your laptop from your floor.

Delaney picks up her laptop and sits at her desk, which happens to be directly below her bed. It's like bunk bed and a desk combination. It's pretty much the best mix of two pieces of furniture the human race has seen.

Her computer is already on for some reason, already with the game downloaded and apparently connected. The screen says it's connected to 'artisticJunkyard'. That's Josh, so it looks like it's done its job. Delaney can see Josh sitting at his kitchen table on her screen. She doesn't know how it's doing all this, but guesses it's okay as long as everything is going according to Katie's plan. She sees some icon blinking on her task bar, and clicks on it. It's named Grist Torrent. Okay, the game loading and everything is fine, but honestly who put this on here? Has someone been in her room? She went to use the bathroom about ten minutes ago, but she doubts that something could have happened between then. She walks out of her room, looking in the hallway to see if anyone's there that she can question. To her left is nothing but the end of the hallway and the bathroom. No beings to be seen here. She looks to her right, expecting more nothing. However, she is wrong.

Standing in the hallway is a boy about her age, fiddling with something that looks like a large watch. This boy happens to be anything but human. He is has green.. skin? She doesn't know what to think of him, and just stares. The boy is wearing a suit made of leaves, and his skin is equally as floral. It's green and a little fuzzy looking, like the stem of a flower. His hair is made of pieces of birch bark, and they layer and fall like regular hair. His eyebrows are just thicker fuzz. His eyes are the most eye-catching part about him. They have the look of the middle of a sunflower as the iris, and the petals fold back into his head to make what is some sort of eyeball; the petals were purple. His eyes are covered with a shiny film, to give it a smoother look.

Delaney is unsure how he hasn't noticed her yet. After a moment with more fiddling, he drops his arms and stretches his neck, looking up at the ceiling and groaning. He says something in a surprisingly human voice; "This is why they shouldn't have trusted me with this job. I'm just a shrub." He looks back down. Delaney thinks that he just realizes he shouldn't have said something, and his flower irises dart around. His eyes rest on Delaney. He spits out "Oh Koki'o, what have I done." And with that, he restlessly tinkers with his watch again. It seems to be a growing part of him. After a few seconds of panic, he zaps out of the hallway in a flash of green light, leaving nothing behind but growing mounds of confusion in Delaney's restless mind. She returns to her room to talk to Josh about it, only to find the boy zap back in to her life. He looks around in confusion only to realize where he is a moment after. He flops down on the ground, visibly exasperated by his technological troubles. Delaney doesn't know what else to do, so walks over to him and introduces herself.

"Hey I'm Delaney." She says while walking over to him. Delaney awkwardly sits down in front of him, and he looks up. She awaits his response.

"I'm Abelia Goucher, just a shrub. This was supposed to be a simple mission. Or, at least, that's what my dopey team said. 'Oh, let's send Abelia! He'll be quick about it! He's a Maid, he's meant to help people!' is what they convinced themselves to think. I wanted to help so bad, but I didn't think it would end up like this." Abelia drops his head in his hands, and sighs. Delaney feels bad for him, and tries to comfort the previously unknown boy.

"Hey dude, it's alright. It's no big deal, everyone messes up." She says. He looks up, and narrows his eyes at her.

"I don't know if you understand, but this was supposed to be one of the most important parts of our expedition. We all wanted to help, even the more rare breeds in our group." He looks down, and makes a face of a little shame. "Sorry I kind of got angry, I'm just frustrated. I was supposed to be kind of important here."

"What were you supposed to do?" Delaney asked.

"Well, I did it. I downloaded the game onto your laptop and started grist torrent which is wired to Saffron Crocus' account, and then got ready to leave when suddenly my watch decided to freak out on me. I was supposed to leave without a trace. They said no contact whatsoever, and look where we are." Abelia doesn't speak for a few moments, and then starts talking again.

Him and Delaney talk for a while; but not too long, because she still has to help Josh with the game. Josh is probably waiting. Abelia points this out, and decides to leave after that. He sits with his watch, turning the face left and right like a combination. Delaney gets up and moves back to her desk, looking over the game as he does this. Suddenly there's a flash of bright green light, and Delaney jumps at the change in surroundings. She turns around and just looks at the place where he used to be, thinking over everything that just happened. She can't help but laugh about it.  

Well, now it's time to play Sburb.