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

[birdysnatcher]

[Shade's journey - this time - is not beyond the reaches of the island, but to the hidden recesses of herself. She'd never been good at this, mind; it was hard to sit with her thoughts. Hard to get them to be still.

In she goes, inside herself, inside the madness she controls now. There are only two heroes in her life she can turn to for advice. She reaches for one, but finds nothing.

Shade wakes, colour bleeds onto the floor. Mahiru's camera screen, once grey, displays a kaleidoscopic wonderland. A stray finger or eye find themselves in the room with them.]

Ugh. I can't meta meditate in this mess. [Despite having passed out, she picks herself up promptly.] I need to find another way out.

[photoning]

[Mahiru is stunned by the burst in her vision. She runs the palm of her hand over the camera - it's dry and smooth, so at least water or dust isn't permanently altering the display. Cradling the device in her hands and making sure it's not jostled in some direction. That can anchor her and keep her from flying all the way off the handle.]

Hang on, is your—?

[With her own finger (attached, thank god) she points back and forth from the extra finger, craning her neck down to get a clear view of Shade's hands. She sighs in relief that nothing seems damaged there. Because, yeah, Mahiru does think there is a legitimate risk that this girl could have clipped through the furniture.]

Yeah, don't bang your head against the wall too much. Or the floor. Or the... meta wall.

[She did search her soul for an instant when pondering how deep this meta mystery could go. But that was never a familiar genre for her.]

[birdysnatcher]

[Getting to her feet, Shade dusts off her jacket. Specks of colour seem to drift off with the action.

She looks to Mahiru with some expectation.]

Where did the others look?

[photoning]

There's a forest that spit someone back out. Allegedly.

[She lets her head flop towards one side, the window of the restaurant, trying to get a glimpse of that forest from this angle. It's not very clear.]

I guess it makes sense. If the island really were just the hotel, it'd be pretty small. Land doesn't usually form that way.

[birdysnatcher]

Land forms differently on Meta. Our maps are three-dimensional.

[Just as a tidbit for you, Mahiru.]

You think there’s more we’re not seeing?

[photoning]

... ... ???

[Mahiru's strong spatial reasoning skills and weak science fiction skills are at war in her brain right now, so she makes a couple tiny noises. But she thinks... she gets it? If there were a fourth primarily-spatial dimension that "the girl from meta" could access, that would explain her actions.]

Yeah, I think the beach has to be less than half...

[She gives a self-deprecating smile, hands curving again under her camera.]

Wow, then a photo from this really must just look like a little toy to you.

[birdysnatcher]

[It’s a weird turn for conversation, and she doesn’t even notice she’s made the girl feel awkward.]

No way, I love Earth art! Music, poetry, photography…all of it. There’s so much feeling in it, you know?

[photoning]

You really think so?

[Mahiru thinks of herself as Japanese way more than an Earthling but who cares, she has found a kindred spirit.]

To be honest, I know what's more important, but I don't actually like to use photos for investigating. I think that capturing one moment in time where someone was happy... with a smile on their face... is incredible. With a photo, you can't pick and choose the way you do with a video.

[birdysnatcher]

Capturing a fleeting feeling…

[The inescapable emotion of Earth may have caused her some trouble, but in the end she can’t deny that all its feelings are why she fell in love with the place.]

It’s a lot like poetry, isn’t it?

[photoning]

Yeah!

[She makes that rectangular hand gesture that signifies "photo focus".]

The way there are borders, a beginning and end around the middle. I think that's something cool about any kind of art.

[birdysnatcher]

[She nods in agreement, then gestures to the camera.]

Can I see?

[photoning]

Sure!

[Mahiru stands up from her chair and in a fluid motion snaps a shot of Shade.]

I had to get in that shot first. You looked so excited right then...

[Now she's turning over the camera, easily forming an "X" with the strap so that the viewfinder faces Shade, outwards and right-side up.]

[birdysnatcher]

[She's not startled at having her picture taken all of a sudden, but when she's handed the camera she turns it upside down in confusion.]

Why isn't it coming out?

[photoning]

[Mahiru grins widely. She almost wants to hide her mouth with her hand. The idea of an alien (in whatever sense) only recognizing this model as a film camera, like a cliché from a cartoon, is just too cute.]

I wish I could let myself use film. This just uses a digital memory card. But look, you can browse them straight away with the little wheel.

[It's chunky! Touchscreens haven't totally annihilated haptic buttons yet!]

[birdysnatcher]

Oh.

[She sounds disappointed. But still, she'll browse past her candid and see...what has Mahiru got in here?]

[photoning]

[Mahiru insisted on just showing Minato with the wheel under her own thumb. Her guard is always lower around girls. She realizes something a little too late.]

Oh, I'd actually been having a pretty big party with my friends before this happened. I haven't been able to format my memory card yet today. [She's referring to the process of a setting simple enough to implement on a camera: Pressing "format" sends the latest batch of photos to an automatically generated folder. So a memory card would usually contain folders from multiple previous days, and then a new set of photos that are the only ones available to browse within the camera.] Hope I don't run out of space in this situation, haha.

[Please read the room... There are about 25 photos taken here in the hotel. One of Baldr is rather fetching TBH! Maybe a few others will show up over time but so far it was mostly cataloguing the rooms and grounds (not too much of the forest that she heard about secondhand). The camera's internal date is apparently February 2015. Then there are about 100 previous unformatted photos. At first, they show several other young adults on a cruise ship, eating kebabs. So there's no need to go back to the beginning and verify that this is all they show. Right?]

[birdysnatcher]

[Shade scrolls by a little too quickly to appreciate the artistry, perhaps - but she just wants to get past all the room cataloguing. The date flags her of no significance; she hasn’t even kept up with what Earth Year it is. She keeps going until she reaches the group photo.]

Who are they?

[photoning]

We're classmates.

[Great opportunity to take the camera back and start pointing them out.]

Hiyoko-chan is a traditional dancer... Ibuki-chan is a musician... Mikan-chan is a nurse...

[She hesitates a significant moment trying to decide how to describe it.]

A lot of stuff happened right after we graduated. Not everyone had a place they wanted to stay. So we've been hanging out together for a while.

[birdysnatcher]

Classmates?

[Like…high school? Shade makes a noise of confusion.]

But you all seem to get along.

[photoning]

[It is... so funny how inherently implausible this story is. Mahiru should find a way not to linger on it much longer.]

We've definitely had our fair share of fights in our time. But it was a special program at a private school. We did almost everything together.

...maybe I should go look for them...

[birdysnatcher]

[Listen, she has a special alien coat and even she thinks getting along with your school friends is absurd.

Hearing that they get along despite it all…it makes Shade a little sad. To see something so out of reach. She nods to Mahiru.]

They’re probably looking for you.