> Ami: Reach out. ( text | @aa )

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Like most, Ami arrives confused and afraid. As soothing as Idris Elba's deep British voiceover is, the video still raises at least as many questions as it answers. First off, why is it Idris Elba? And if the very first room is in disrepair - there's exactly one living plant, incongruously - how much of the rest was false advertising, too?

The simplest and safest first step, though, is to grab a communicator and start skimming through the messages. One is like three hours long, she skips that for now... something something wreckage... something something antique documents... (Where are the timestamps? How old are these messages?) Ultimately, though, an audio post keeps her attention - a woman, terrified, being pursued by something inhuman.

By the time the sound cuts out, Ami's heart is racing. Suddenly, she's very glad she didn't go straight to exploring. ]

hello?
if anyone is out there, please respond!
my name's Ami Aihara, from Recolle, USA.
I don't know how I got here or what's going on
but I don't think it's safe for me to leave by myself.
I'm in the Idris Elba room. please help!!!

Comments

[itsnotaonesie]

I won't. I'll stay right here, okay?

[He gives her a thumbs up through the window!!! You got this, kiddo!!!!

This still sucks though. Maybe he can get his roommate to make this kid a nice snack or something.]

[livingdeadgirl]

[ She smiles nervously and returns the thumbs up before proceeding into the room. Okay!! Let's!!!

As promised, the whole process only takes a few minutes, but that doesn't make it any less nerve-wracking. When she returns, her hair is damp, but at least her stuff is still intact... And this time, when she gets to the door, it opens without protest. Ta-da! She puts her hands on her hips in a rather goofy-looking power stance. ]

I am happy to report I am free of Earth pathogens! Also, that is the only thing I'm happy to report! Ha ha! Let's blow this popsicle stand and never talk about it ever.

[itsnotaonesie]

[WELL GOOD, she has a sense of humor about it! That makes this a lot less awkward. For Peter, at least. He's always awkward though, so y'know. Whatever.]

Yeah, good idea. We should maybe find you a place to stay, but I'm sure you've got like a billion questions.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Aww yiss. Awkward teens using objectively terrible humor to cope with stress, assemble! ]

That's lowballing it, yeah. [ She gives up some of the bluster and slouches. ] To be honest, I'm not even sure where to start. I watched the video, but...

[ She peers down the walkway in both directions. The most glaring difference is the emptiness, the way their voices reverberate in the otherwise silent hallway. ]

... I think it may be out of date.

[itsnotaonesie]

[That's how we DO

Also mental note to Peter, maybe wrangle some buddies to help film an updated YOU ARE HERE video? He'll put it somewhere on his to-do list.]

Well, maybe that is a good place to start. Yes, that video is super out of date. We haven't been able to establish an exact timeline yet, but somewhere between when that was filmed and when we all started showing up here, something happened. What exactly that something is, we don't know yet, but all of the previous occupants of this... this space station, I guess, all up and vanished without a trace.

There are a few new people here now, we all showed up to an empty station just like you did. Started showing up... uh, I don't exactly have a calendar but I wanna say mmmaybe about a month ago? We've mostly been rebuilding and getting stuff like food production up and running.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ The mystery of the missing people piques Ami's interest, but ... yeah, if something like the food supply isn't secure, she can see how that would put the kibosh on any real investigation.

Speaking of the food supply though THAT'S A BIT HUGELY WORRYING? She tries to play it off, but uh... no she's clearly worried. ]

Oh! Yeah? How's that been going? The, uh, food production in particular. That seems like it would be pretty important.

[itsnotaonesie]

Last I heard, things were going well. I'm not much of a... a growing plants person, but we have people here who know what they're doing. I'll put it this way, we're doing a lot better now than we were a month ago, and things are only getting better in that department.

[See, nothing to worry about. Unless the giant killer lizards get free, then we might have problems.]

[livingdeadgirl]

[ All right! Nothing to worry about. Or more accurately, "starving to death" can be provisionally removed from the list of things to worry about. Which is still long. ]

Okay, phew. I know Jeff mentioned glowing stuff and death clouds in the agriculture zone, so...

[itsnotaonesie]

Oh, the glowing stuff is some of the animals. It's super weird, but I guess that part's not so bad. Like, I found a glowing kitten up there, it's not really all that threatening.

[Which is good and super reassuring, right??]

The death clouds are uh. Kind of everywhere? They're easy to avoid if you're paying attention, though

[livingdeadgirl]

[ A glowing kitten does sound heckin' adorable. As long as it's not radioactive, anyway... ]

What should I do if I get caught in one? Or are they just instant death?

[itsnotaonesie]

[It's fiiiine, he's already done some radioactive kitten scans. Besides, he's more radioactive than the kitten anyway.

Which is. Fine.]

Nah, they're not like, instant death. What happens is they uh... The clouds change shape. They turn into stuff, and it seems to be different for everyone who comes in contact with them. So far the only consistent uh, I guess theme is that they always turn into something like, dangerous or- or something meant to scare the crap out of you. As for what you should do, just run. They won't follow you into the light.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Ami nods solemnly, taking mental notes. Actually, wait... why isn't she taking physical notes? She pulls her backpack around front and digs around for a sec. ]

Hang on, I should be writing this down.

[ Jesus get a fucking pen. She pulls out a pen and a spiral notebook (labeled "Algebra 1") and starts scribbling notes on the back pages. ]

"Death clouds... run." Okay. Anything else I should be watching out for?

[itsnotaonesie]

[Oh man, Peter remembers Algebra 1. He was like fourteen when he had that class, jesus christ that already felt like a lifetime ago. More alarming yet is that fact that he has just realized that he isn't the youngest person here anymore. Which. Isn't good. This is no place for kids, man. (Why no he doesn't consider himself a kid at all, don't be silly.)]

Uh. Well, I was gonna tell you not to order anything from the robot at the bar, but I don't think that'll be a problem. So, uh, let's see. Don't go into the Agricultural area alone, there's some crazy animals up there that will eat you. If you ever end up leaving the station for any reason, don't go out without protective gear. The planet is like super radioactive. Also there's freaky, mutated animals out there. They will also eat you.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ She dutifully notes those down as well. Funny... this morning, all she had to worry about were finals, yet here she is taking notes on how to survive in an extraterrestrial nuclear wasteland. It's kind of surreal. ]

Heh. Seems like there's a lot of that going around. [ Eating her, that is. ]

[ And there she goes again, she realizes - joking around like this is all no big deal. She pauses, her pen halfway through "radioactive." This is all pretty fucked, actually? Shouldn't she still be freaking out? There's still that tiny, critical detail that they don't know how to go home. She could die here!

... She shuts her eyes, forces herself to take a deep breath. Okay, cool, freakout centers are in fact still working. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

[Oh yeah, the freakouts always catch up to you eventually. When Peter's finally rolls in it's gonna be a doozy.]

...You need a minute?

[She can have all the time to freak out as she needs, Peter is very patient.]

[livingdeadgirl]

[ She does need a minute, but she only takes about half of one, getting her breathing under control. ]

Yeah, no, I'm... [ long exhale. ] I'm okay. I'm okay.

[ She examines her paper for a second, and finishes writing "ctive". ]

This is just... pretty wild, you know? I mean, of course you know, you're the one telling me about it. Can we walk? Maybe it'll help if we're going somewhere.

[itsnotaonesie]

Of course, yeah, let's walk.

[He has no idea where to go, but picking a direction and just heading that way is a good start. So he does that.]

But yeah, it really is pretty wild. Especially if this is the first time you've had to deal with the whole "hey, I just woke up somewhere weird with a bunch of weirdos" thing.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ She follows, assuming that he has some kind of destination in mind. Peter seems to have his shit together said no one ever. ]

That can happen more than once??

[ Like, outside the context of a mafia kidnapping for bloodsports? (That's probably a thing the mafia would do, right?) ]

[itsnotaonesie]

[SAID. NO ONE. EVER. Fake it til you make it know what I mean.

Honestly Peter's probably just going to end up heading back to his place because he knows it and also Ami can meet Poison and the freaky cats??? Everyone likes cats.]

Oh yeah. Found that out the hard way. Hell, this is the third place my roommate's been stuck. Honestly though, I think this kind of thing happening more than once is pretty rare, much less happening at all. Like, you probably never heard about this kind of thing happening to people when you were back home, right? I know I didn't.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Actually she's already meeting Poison for the first time in another later thread but yes, cats, excellent ]

No, never. [ As far as she knows. ] But how would you know? People go missing without a trace all the time, and now that interplanetary abduction is an option that's on the table, there's really no way to prove it's not that.

[itsnotaonesie]

[wibbly wobbly timey wimey shenanigans CATS EXCELLENT]

...Okay, well you've just out-logic'd my attempt at making this seem less bad, and everything you've just said is pretty on point.

[HE'S GOT NOTHIN' MAN YOU BEAT HIM]

[livingdeadgirl]

[ AMI AIHARA, TIME RUINER. ]

Oh, whoops.

[itsnotaonesie]

It's not bad, though. I mean, maybe we've just solved one of the universe's biggest mysteries.

...Which. We very well may have? It would be cool if it wasn't so freaky.

[So awkward pause time is now I guess, because THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING.]

...So uh. Freshman? [when in doubt, talk about school??????]

[livingdeadgirl]

Huh? Oh, yeah. [ What a way to switch mental gears! ] Well, just finishing freshman year. It's finals week.

[ For all her classmates. ]

... I guess I'm gonna have to make those up.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter Parker, master of distraction.]

Oh no, dude! That's the worst!

...Man, I woulda been a Junior this year. Wild.

[if he was y'know STILL ALIVE but hey.]