As the Brilliance started to wear off, Desmond's thoughts began to crystalise.

OK, so I'm here forever. I need to take stock. I haven't got a home to go back to, I haven't got any food, and I haven't got any money. I've got to get established here.

The best plan for finding his way out of the forest was a straight line, but he remembered that blindfolded people tended to walk in a circle, so he needed a way to make sure he wasn't changing direction. He pulled out his jigger and hit the positioning app.

It failed to load.

Of course! No Department of Environment here. Linking apps aren't going to work with no other jiggers to link to.

On Nexus, the moss always grew on the same side of trees. He couldn't remember what direction that was, but as long as basic physics were the same here, he should be able to use that to get out of the forest. With any luck he'd find a habitation or a road that could lead him to other people.

Then he realised that finding other people might only be the start of his problems. People who came through the table often took years to learn Nexan, depending on how far away they were from. Nexan was a based on the language of the Ancients, so there were often common threads, but Desmond might have difficulty communicating. He'd failed Ancient in school.

He needed time to ponder this. He found a comfortable spot and built a fire pit. He started to pull out his jigger to look up how to build a fire, but then remembered there were no links. Some Nexans could build a fire by hooking into Nexus and drawing on that energy, but Desmond had never been able to do that. He'd just have to rub sticks together.

Thirty minutes later, Desmond concluded that rubbing sticks together was a load of crap.

Local vegetation could be poisonous, there was no way he would risk eating it. He'd have to make due with raw meat.

There were rabbits all over the forest. He hooked into the world's blue energy. He might not be able to use most of the functionality of his jigger, but he could still use it as a musical instrument. He'd always been good at Bardsong, sometimes able to achieve up to four simultaneous effects for a short time. He started to play, and focused this world's blue worldpulse in the familiar configuration that would initialise a Bardsong effect. He Spiked lethargy...

...and the skund-rutting bunny bloody well attacked him!

"Drek!" he cursed as the bunny bit into his calf, drawing blood. "You drek-rotting piece of drek!"

Desmond really needed to work on his swearing.