intro

[pinkprismstaff]

You don't remember getting knocked out.

That's the best descriptor for the feeling you experience before you wake up. There's a glittering absence of color to your field of vision, and a sensation that you aren't yourself, you aren't anything in particular. Abruptly, unpleasantly, you wake up in a strange, sunny location. Where that is might vary--laying in a sun chair on the pool deck, draped over the skee-ball machine in the arcade, face down in a cart in the laundry room....or just stretched out in the long, long expanse of sand surrounding the island.

There doesn't seem to be anyone else here, aside from the others who have woken up and have as little clue where they might be as you do. It's a silent, empty island filled with a lot of questions and few clear answers. What you can conclude are a few things: that you don't get hungry or tired, that any wounds you have don't seem to either heal or worsen, and leaving the island doesn't seem to be possible.

Maybe it would be good to meet with the others who have woken up?

Comments

running

[birdysnatcher]

[A blue, talking hedgehog might be the first thing Shade's seen that makes her feel at home here. She catches him when he's still, after popping right back out.]

Where did you go?

[kurohato]

Sort of?

[he was waiting to get on alone but....he won't be alone. he's not alone. he's with a weird kid.

that sounds about right for his life, though.]

...I'm exploring the island. Not like we have much else to do. It's a free area with limitations.

[shoveltalks]

Not here, but... the chaos really suits the situation. It's...

( kurumi pauses, looking at the sand before she looks back to baldr. )

Do you really not know about the outbreak?

[compendiem]

When I find some...

[ Here he thought he could just air dry and be good for now.

He looks intently at the photos though, both the content and the composition. ]

Are you documenting the entire building?

[prime_spacetime]

[He just flops over on the ground with a groan, eyes almost literally spinning]

This is it for me, defeated by dryer. I don't even wear clothes, this isn't fair!

[prime_spacetime]

Dunno. I don't think I went anywhere? I just somehow... turned around? Super weird.

[compendiem]

Um... Can you swim?

[ From what he can tell, they've several routes out of here: out the water, the forest, the sky... ]

[reresurrected]

I don't think they do anything, actually-- they seem to just be plush toys.

[Which absolutely does not explain why he's got about eight of them, but.]

I thought they might help lift people's moods a bit. They are rather ridiculous-looking, don't you think?

[photoning]

Oh. Oh... Haha... I guess it's a lot faster than me walking down to the beach through the building... Sure...

[She realizes that his reasoning derived from her concern. They're in the same situation. Sure. She listens thoughtfully to his words, though they raise a lot of questions.]

An ability?? Like what, a superpower?? ["Inou" versus "chounou" is not a large leap of logic considering the physical jumps that she's now seen.] I... I have to admit that being trapped makes sense to me too. [She hates the unrealistic idea of being stuck in a special environment, but it does strike her as plausible. She pipes up with additional evidence in favor of this:] They put me right here on the balcony. [That'd be a pretty weird choice for a normal kidnapping. Furthermore, someone as considerate as Mahiru probably wouldn't have decided to yell off the ledge, without that catalyst.]

[birdysnatcher]

[Well, about that...]

I can't leave. I just tried.

[But again with the 'us', the 'we'. Shade doesn't understand.]

Don't you live here? What happened?

[shoveltalks]

It started in Japan, but... evidence points to it having spread all over. So the fact that a lot of people don't know what I'm talking about is really-

( did the rest of humanity abandon them? is she from the bad end timeline? is it something else?

... )

... It's a lot. Anyways! Russians and monsters...? It sounds scary. But I get it, kinda.

[reresurrected]

[Ah, the overly dramatic sort. Baldr is quite familiar with this...

He can't quite hide the smile on his face as he responds.]

I'll be sure to say a prayer for you. Do you have any preference as to your last rites?

[shoveltalks]

Oh thank God, I was not prepared for that.

( nevermind that she's lived amongst death for months now, she doesn't want to add... whatever this guy is to the list. especially when the others aren't here to support her. )

Man. And here I thought my time on the track team was good. Wh-o even are you?

( no she did not almost say what )

[birdysnatcher]

Yes.

[She remembers the pool. The blurred reflection looking back at her. Even at those shallow, confined depths it was daunting. She feels herself sweat at the thought.]

Just...not in a human body.

[reresurrected]

Outbreak? Of a disease, you mean?

[Hmm. That's concerning.]

No, I don't. Most likely because I doubt the two of us hail from the same world... unless the names "Sellund" and "Asgard" have any meaning to you.

[birdysnatcher]

Did you take a wrong turn? Maybe if you went slower it might work this time.

[shoveltalks]

... With all the blood and everything? It probably already has. I just... don't get why I haven't seen any of those things around. They'd be everywhere, normally.

[photoning]

No. No, no, no. ["Live here" is actually a pretty strange assumption that makes her worry about the severity of the other's disorientation.] I don't think anyone lives here. It looks a lot more like a place to visit.

[Mahiru finds one undisturbed chair to sit in. She thinks that'll make her seem less threatening. Maybe this room literally was the restaurant since it's so large and quiet.]

I was brought here suddenly today. [As suddenly as the white-haired one tried to leave.] A lot of others have been, too. We're all trying to leave.

[prime_spacetime]

[He bounces to his feet and trots over, offering his hand]

Sonic the Hedgehog.

[That, somehow, answers both]

[shoveltalks]

Adults don't like to admit when they're wrong, I've found. So it doesn't surprise me.

...

( after a moment she steps a bit closer, pulling a suitcase over. )

So, anything good?

[ghostinmichelle]

I was kinda hoping you were a local, actually. I woke up in a pile of gift shop flamingos here about an hour ago, so I'm gonna go ahead and say I don't know much more about this place than you do. I mean, it looks like Earth, but... it's not like I've ever been anywhere else.

[ A squint at the magic(? alien?) coat. ]

Have you?

[prime_spacetime]

Just... tell them I died... doing something cool...

[photoning]

[Mahiru shrugs.]

It's not that big when you know what you're doing. [It makes her feel more confident to consider the arcade, bar, and restaurant to comprise a relatively small number of areas, three.] Though I have to admit I haven't looked into every nook and cranny.

[She... hopes... that passageways don't turn out to be important the way that they are in a certain genre of crime... but better to know and not need it than need it and not know.]

[prime_spacetime]

I don't... THINK so?

[He does turn and try walking this time.

And as soon as he's out of sight here he is, coming back out]

[shoveltalks]

( oh, she's seen this. done it. water- or coffee, though she's not sure the caffeine would be great for nerves, but at the same time comfort food is comfort food- first. but as kurumi leads the way... )

While we go, I want you to try breathing slowly every five seconds, okay? Focus on me, not anything around us. I'll lead the way, I found the restaurant earlier.