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

[shoveltalks]

... Eh?

( kurumi just stares like "bro................?" )

You don't just get better from being dead- a-and a cure hasn't been developed yet.

( because she's the cure. )

[compendiem]

[ For whatever reason, Minato looks down at his hands. Then shakes off whatever thought he had and slides them into his pants pocket instead. ]

Is it really bad where you are...?

[ Like. People in his town turned into soulless husks, but not all of them were beyond saving. ]

[shoveltalks]

Of course it is! The entire city went down in a day- and then it just spread...!

( as necrotic diseases do.

humanity never stood a chance. )

[compendiem]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[ His city had it easy, then, compared to other areas of the world. ]

...Hopefully it doesn't reach us here.

[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.

[compendiem]

What "things"?

[shoveltalks]

... The- you know, the- the zombies? There's got to be a better term for it...

[compendiem]

Oh. We call them "The Lost."

[ Not. that they're physically lost. But lost in some metaphysical way, he supposes, he's not the one who came up with the term ]

[shoveltalks]

( kurumi pauses.

...

are they really talking about the same thing? she's starting to think not. )

I'm being literal. Like Resident Evil. Or- Night of the Living Dead.

[compendiem]

[ He nods because yes. They are absolutely talking about the same thing. ]

[shoveltalks]

As in walking corpses that eat the living, turning them into one of their own.

[compendiem]

[ .................. okay let him amend that, he nods no ]

Yours sounds like a more serious case than what I know. Nobody ate anybody... they wouldn't eat at all.

[ they'd drink soda, though. that was the magic cure ]

Were you doing alright?

[shoveltalks]

... We were alive, and we had a good shelter. And we found ways to enjoy ourselves in little ways despite it all. Not everyone was so lucky, you know?

( it was enough- they didn't just survive, they were living. but... did his outbreak really wind up so mild? why did her city have to fall, then? why did they have to suffer alone- it's not fair... )

[compendiem]

[ Mm. He nods, trying to think of how things could've ended up for him— it would've been all too easy for him to have succumbed to the Syndrome. He was halfway there already, anyways. ]

...Were you with your family? Friends?

[shoveltalks]

Three girls from my school. I- when we managed to go by my house, there wasn't any sign of my parents.

( this is a lie. there just weren't good signs.

she left a letter anyways. )

Yuki, Miki and Rii-san... Yurii. We all happened to be on the rooftop garden with Megu-nee- Megumi-sensei, the day the outbreak sparked. Eventually we managed to clear out space for a shelter, but...

( kurumi is quiet for a moment before looking away. )

I thought you were like me. Sorry.

[compendiem]

No, I should be sorry. [ he thinks? he's sympathetic, not sure about sorry. it's not like it was his fault, but the survivor's guilt of sorts is still there ]

Sounds like you had a rough time. But at least you had your classmates... and now you're here. Is here any better?

[ no dead people! just. lots of signs. ]

[shoveltalks]

It's... I dunno. They aren't here, but neither are my friends.

( it's anxiety inducing!!!! )

[compendiem]

They might be around, somewhere...

[ The zombies? her friends? yes. ]

[shoveltalks]

Mm... those things are drawn to sound. They'd have come out by now. And Rii-san and Miki are both practical, while Yuki would want to play.

...

I think it's just me.

[compendiem]

Hm... Well... if I come across anybody with those names, I'll ask about you.

[ best he can promise at this point ]

[shoveltalks]

'Preciate it.

...

Man, I've been such a downer! Come on, have a seat, we can raid the kitchen in a lil bit!

[compendiem]

[ how he's just been awkwardly standing there with his hands in his pockets making small talk this entire time

but okay, he'll take a seat next to her when invited, looking around the restaurant. place like this should be full and busy, not just the two of them quietly talking to one another. ]

I worked in a cafe once... [ washing dishes but. still counts ] Wonder what kind of place this was.

[shoveltalks]

Mmm... the menu looks like it's Greek stuff? That sounds nice, I've never tried that before... maybe there's recipes in the kitchen.