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]

Leaving this place.

[She sits up, at least.]

Am I stuck here too?

[compendiem]

No... We haven't tried everything yet.

[ He's tried lying on the ground already. Didn't work. ]

[birdysnatcher]

[She might question his use of 'we', if she weren't so wrapped in her despair at this moment. Right now, he's just an overly friendly stranger who wants to help. She can't turn that down.]

What else is there?

[compendiem]

Um... Can you swim?

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

[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.

[compendiem]

[ Way to get his hopes up ]

What sort of body do you need...?

[ There's a concerning lack of bodies here, but he can always keep an eye out for a skinsuit ]

[birdysnatcher]

Avian. Preferably my own.

[But beggars can't be choosers.]

[compendiem]

[ Hm. That'll be difficult, when he hasn't seen any birds— or any other animal, for that matter. ]

Did you leave it somewhere? Or, how do you...?

[birdysnatcher]

It’s back on Meta…I think.

[Words that make sense together.]

I’ve been trying to get back to it.

[compendiem]

I don't know where that is... [ what that is? where? ]

You get there by lying on the floor?

[birdysnatcher]

It’s part of the process.

[She gets up properly now, finally. She’s had her moment.]

Not a lot of Earthlings have heard of it, I wouldn’t worry. You’re just behind the times. [No shame in that.] Do you live here?

[compendiem]

No. [ ... ] Or, not yet?

[ seems like he's going to have to, along with everybody else stranded here ]

Is that process something I can learn...? I'm pretty good at lying on the floor.

[birdysnatcher]

It’s pretty complicated. You’d need this jacket, for starters.

[She shows it off running across her arms. Colour oozes off of it.]

You should totally go one day, though. It’s very cosmopolitan. Better than here, at any rate.

[The bar is low.]

Where on Earth are you from?

[compendiem]

[ That specific jacket? or a jacket like it... where can he get one... he's going to want it doubly when that ugly neon flamingo shirt is foisted upon him later ]

Iwatodai, Japan. Lived here and there around the country, though. Are there jackets like that in Japan...?

[birdysnatcher]

[A shrug.]

Never been. This one is a Rac Shade exclusive.

[Saying that, she breaks her tone with a fangirlish excitement. She’d preen, if she had her feathers.]

What’s Japan like? I’ve heard there’s good poetry there.

[compendiem]

It's... busy. There are so many people, and they are always doing something. I haven't read much of the poetry, but I like the food. The people.

[ It's a very vague description of the place, he knows. He could talk about the culture, maybe, or the geography. But it's the people he loves the most. ]