A Girl With Many Stories

Crystal's admitting that she wasn't averse to stumble-upon conversations made Alex laugh in response and recognition, though, and he said, "A chatterbox after my own heart. You get to meet the most interesting people that way, and I mean, what's the worst that can happen if you don't hit it off? A conversation that you can either forget about or tell other people about afterwards."

Her opinion of the soullessness of the room matched Alex's, but where he'd looked at it as a place waiting to have a personality stamped onto it, Crystal saw it more as inherently uninteresting. Alex tried not to give in to pop psychology too much (he never could kick his addiction to magazine and online personality quizzes), but that did speak to him about how she saw the world and people, maybe. Inherent qualities that weren't subject to outside influences; better entirely to find a whole new place that was inherently more appealing. The beach, in this example.

"Those wooden doors are basically like in a cartoon where there's individual animation over the cel because somebody's gonna break through the wall there," Alex agreed. "Or like the doors in a video game where you know that getting through them is gonna advance the main storyline. Which of course means we gotta open 'em."

"There's so many different and interesting looking people around here, I just can't help it." She explained in response to Alex's musings about their "chatterbox" tendencies. "And if we're gonna be here forever it just makes sense to get to know everyone, right? Otherwise what's the point of being here if we can't find ways to enjoy ourselves? Everyone freaking out are total bummers!" Thankfully Alex didn't seem to have a care in the world, which is exactly what she wanted to surround herself with. Good vibes only and all that.

And those good vibes would surely continue as the two of them figured out what was through these double doors. Alex even cheered them on to bringing a rush of excitement through her mind on what exactly they might find. It was too tempting to not be anything good. "You got instagram access out here and nobody told me? What else am I missing out on?" She asked despite feeling confident there was no social media here. Surely it would defeat the purpose of their isolation. "It's crazy to think it's just...unlocked, right? It seems too special to just be flung open with ease."

“No…what the fuck this is not okay. I’m not doing this! I don’t even know how to do this! Crystal this isn’t funny!” Pitch steadily inclined to the point of being neigh unintelligible. Turning invisible, this absolutely was not his power! “Fuuuuuck! Stop it Crystal! Make it stop!” Could’ve been his heart lurched up in his throat, it could’ve been real, but Steve would’ve sworn the invisibility crept higher. Threatening to engulf them both in some godawful wizard trick.

"This is the coolest power kind of glad it wasn't you I would have been so jealous." The invisibility seemed to be creeping up her forearms and now she considered the different ways she could use this to her advantage. "If all of me could turn invisible, then I could have some real fun." She remarked as Steve voiced his own feelings. If she was able to pass on her ability to others that was incredible, but if she was getting scammed with a fine print of only your arms become invisible? then that was less than incredible.

"Oh! Let's try!" No longer overly concerned by any robotic twitching, Crystal moved in closer to these broken hornets. From Steve's point of view it probably didn't even look like she was doing anything. Even to her it was a funny feeling to reach out and touch something without having sight on where her fingertips were. The feeling of her muscles moving in her arm was there but it wasn't until she felt the cold tough sensation of the metal did she know where her hand was. She stood there for a few moments, the seconds dragging on as nothing about the metal changed.

"So does it ever trip you up?"

Alex turned, walking backwards as they entered the landing room on the third floor together, taking in the dormer-like layout as he moved carefully ahead of Crystal. "I realize I'm the one physically likely to trip right now," he grinned, twirling his hands down at his sneakered feet as he kept moving backwards, "but I mean when people are talking, shooting the shit, about their bracelets and the--" Alex held up his wrist, shaking it to display his own, "--crystals in them."

She was a beautiful woman, so walking this way was certainly no hardship, and Alex had a robust enough ego to weather the possibility of bumping into something (it would give her a laugh, anyhow) -- but in all honesty, the second floor seemed to follow a logical pattern. Hallways, rooms, bigger spaces for gathering. Whatever customizations people might have had there in the past weren't up anymore, though, and it was a little dreary.

Her words were followed by a playful smirk and a raise of her brows. She had no problem considering the different people she might just stumble into a conversation with purely because she 'thought' she heard them say her name. As weird as this place was, every part of it just made the experience that much more entertaining.

This place, however, really tried to bring the mood down. It was all white and grey, plastic and steel, it was so depressing, if someone threw up in here at least it would add a little colour. Her fingers trailed along the walls as she listened to Alex describe it, and suggest an idea of what it could be. "It feels way too soul crushing in here. If FLOWR people lived in here, I can see why it's empty now." Her brows knit together and her lips curled downward in disgust. "Imagine working in a place like this? Especially when the beach is right outside? Nah, I'd off myself for sure. This feels more like prison."

He hadn’t expected the name to be correct. He thought the name would be incorrect, that it wasn't his, because it felt like it might not be. However, he trusted her more than his own instinct. Clearly. He’d been able to smell the bullshit on Chance, but if Chance had pretended to know him, he would’ve gladly overruled that feeling for the sake of being known. He was so desperate to have his past. 

“At least you’ve been able to answer the question about my name,” he said, offering a smile.

"Well you've got me now. I'll see what I can do to reboot that memory, I haven't thought about university in so long. It's hard to remember things on the spot." She hoped that would be enough to move on for now but leave him wanting more. She would have to remind herself to think of new things that he might have gotten up to in a college setting.

There was no telling if or when his memory might return, so Crystal felt she might have a very short window of opportunity to play around. He was willing to accept her words as fact, even if he sounded a bit confused he didn't fully try to dispute it, not that he could if he wanted to. "Oh, yeah. I mean. Again, I don't know if it was genuine interest in the art or if you did it to…you know, shoot your shot. There's a lot of hotties in art clubs, so I wouldn't blame you. But I wasn't that deep into your mind, darling." She was about to say that he was the only one who would know for sure but…not even he would know.

"Hmmm…I'll have to think about it. I've been busy. But you know what I really want to know. What the hell is up with this place? What's going on? What are we supposed to be doing exactly?"

Or really, running away. To a familiar old city where the dream versions of Zaid and Tej lived.

"I was supposed to be meeting with an art dealer, to wrap up some business." (Something else he'd never tell Zaid, that Tej finally listened to a piece of advice.) "I found something that belonged to my niece, I thought it was lost. A toy." A bittersweet smile signaled this was as far as he'd go on that point.

"And then I opened the front door and was blinded by light. Next thing I knew, I was waking up on that boat out there." Lost time, but fairly frictionless. Nothing major, and he only retold it in case a new aspect might appear.

Amused, he nodded. "It's a good observation. A little suss, coming from you," he joked. "But yeah, very weird." Crystal seemed keen on the bonfire. Tej stood up in time to follow a pointed finger to the volcano. "Mhm, there's firewood. We're separateed from the volcano by water but we can get as close as we can to build the fire. Yeah, guess it'll make a nice backdrop. Better than a half-sunken cruise ship, hm?" He scratched at the back of his head. "A few bottles, a guitar, some marshmallows. What else do we need?"

Tej feigned offense with a click of his tongue as he played along. "And you claim to be from New York, don't know her most famous up and coming artist." The fun was brief. "My grandfather raised us, me and my siblings, after our parents passed on." For the last decade or so, dealings with Dada had been wrought with tension. Disappointment, anger. He shook it off. "What about chosen family, got any of that back home?"

"Honestly. Aliens is starting to sound more and more likely." she claimed in a sing song voice hoping that might lighten the mood as she respected his privacy with the more deeper details he implied but didn't say outright.

She was sure that they could go on and on about theories but the prospect of alone time on the beach with a guy like Tej was more enticing. It reminded her of sneaking out during summer nights with whatever beautiful person caught her interest that week, finding a secluded spot just for them and returning back with all kinds of marks they tenderly scattered across their bodies. Even reminiscing made Crystal feel delighted at the thought that her first night on a beautiful island that looked straight out of a promotional cruise ad, could end with her hooking up on the beach with an absolute hottie.

"A guitar too? You gonna tell me now that along with your art career, you also played in a band on the side? Did someone slip you a list of all the qualities I find irresistible before I showed up here?"

Crystal liked to exaggerate the truth when she could. To her, it made things more interesting, even if she stretched the truth so thin that it was impossible to tell which part of her tall tales was based in reality. So when he asked about chosen family as a supplement to her lack of real family she sighed. "Everyone is always focused on themselves nowadays. It's hard to connect with people and choose your family when everyone has moved on from that ride or die mentality. Now everyone is too busy protecting their peace. So it's just been me, myself and I."

Slowly, Steve disentangled himself from Crystal’s arm enough to go survey the hornet pile. “Ugh…the turn of the millennium called it wants their junk back.” Stacked atop of each other he was at eye level with a blacked out screen. Grimace and then a hesitant hand reached out, but at the first tsk of static Steve yelped. “Noooooo, hell no.” On second try, the lifeless television did fuck all. Much better.

“Imagine? I thought you were the go-to woman for all happenings?” Steve eyed her up over the top of a malformed hornet. It was missing it’s trademark television screen, politely decapitated. Crystal was otherwise unaffected. She could’ve struck a pose against one of the killer hornets and they could’ve turned this whole ordeal into a high fashion moment. Steve snapped a picture of one of the hornets instead, on his phone, a poor substitute for capturing the melodrama of it all. 

Steve came around the side of one. “Lift up that flap…wing…thing, for me? If we’re doing this we’re going to do it properly.” Though now Steve was starting to fear his totally ridiculous plan of documenting this true-crime-style were a little too real. “Are they always like this…I mean are they transformers? Or is this their one and only form cause they aren’t even that big.” Steve spoke quickly, trying to talk himself down out of the rising panic. Pictures snapped between quick sharp ragged breaths. One of the wings twitched, or it was tampered with, but Steve jumped to ghastly conclusions.

Though Steve's proclamations of fear and disgust certainly weren't helping her own feelings. As brave and nonchalant as she wanted to be, occasionally his aura would come her way and she would think that maybe they should turn back. But those split second thoughts made her double down even harder. Especially when her eyes drifted to the the large, sharp, drill-like pincers these things had. "Nothing's gonna happen, you gotta chill out your vibes right now or else every little thing is gonna freak you out."

Moving in closer to this pile to prove they weren't a threat would be a big help. So Crystal followed his instructions and went over to lift up the wing flaps of one of the closer busted up robots. She posed with it, her face expressing dramatic shock, fear, surprise at every snapshot Steve took, followed by a grin full of amusement. "See? We're fine, we can do whatever we want—" she started before getting cut off by the sound of the metal groaning, followed by the twitchy movement of one of the wings.

He shook his head. “A name, maybe,” he offered, and perhaps she would be able to - once and for all - establish whether his odd feeling with the name was correct or not. “I woke up thinking the name Adarsh,” he said. “Does that ring a bell? Or does it sound wrong?” He gritted his teeth against the boiling frustration. “And a language, which I figured out is Malayalam. Meaning I am probably from Kerala.”

He offered up a name, though it sounded like he didn't know for sure. Crystal was positive given her many years in Missouri, the only names she could feasibly generate were more common among Southern white guys. So instead of agreeing with his uncertainty, Crystal nodded as if he'd hit the mark. "Adarsh! Yeah! That does ring a bell! The language though...I don't know how much I can help you there. Geography isn't exactly my strong suit." She didn't even really have a firm grasp on her own birthplace and culture, figuring out his wouldn't be much easier.

She also didn't dwell on the fact that maybe they weren't so different. But at least he had amnesia as an excuse.

[ though people can just be dicks - like I was, Una contemplates, but she's not going to dwell. there's also that 'niggle' in her brain. the 'i used to know someone'. perhaps this is her 'note person'. perhaps not. either way she's not going to judge. ]

(Has anyone has ever seen any of the new people actually arrive? It was something Darcy would have to look into, ask around. It couldn't have been just the people appearing out of thin air, but however it all happened, the fact that nobody saw any new person being placed by other people was curious.)

"So you were on a ship - do you remember what you were doing last? Or did you just fall asleep and then woke up here?" There were plenty of different last memories (blood, hospital, her eyes, but no, Darcy was not thinking about any of that), and yet Crystal was the chillest person, whatever she remembered from her last moments, Darcy loved it.

She looked around, almost expecting somebody to jump out and take over the conversation, but nobody actually was there, and after a moment's hesitation Darcy stepped closer to the woman and sat down into the shallow water, letting the waves lap at her side. "Okay, if you really want to know, I think we all signed up for this. I think-- no, actually, I know we all agreed to do this, we just don't remember cause it's part of the experiment. We gotta learn to adapt, learn how to use special powers we get - which is also a thing here, believe it or not, you'll find out eventually what yours is, too -, and we gotta pass through some tests. I am certain of it."

"We were throwing a party. just me and my girlfriends on one of my families yachts. I do remember going to lay down and rest for a bit... hm, yeah that's about it." She tried to look as though she was thinking trying hard to remember more but couldn't, followed by a wide eyed look as though a horrifying realization dawned on her "Oh no... my friends must be so worried! Probably thinking I drunkenly fell overboard of something."

Of course, there wasn't really anyone back home to miss her. Maybe her parents but anyone else might just assume she was ghosting. But really what did she care what employers and horny strangers on the internet thought of her sudden radio silence?

"And the small bungalows." His chin lifted as he looked out at the water. "Set us up in an environment that is very Earth-like. You like the afterlife theory too, why?"

When Crystal put it like that, the arrivals disconnected from the first big group... "Should I give you the side-eye then?" Or. Replacements for those who kicked it? He had to admit, she was an improvement over Qwan. But Tej kept it all to himself.

A good time. "Yeah, I remember what those are like." A nod, a quick smile. "Know what I miss? A bon fire. So, maybe we can search out a spot for that, together." Sure, why not.

The smile returned, but softer. Longer lasted. "Big on paint. Yeah. You can say that. I'm an artist. Mixed media. Got my start with graffiti." Tej never had an issue bragging. "My work has been exhibited at the Met. And the Saatchi in London." A few other smaller galleries, not near as impressive as the ones he mentioned.

"Yours though. Reminds me of pool water. Since you were in a pool when it happened, yeah? I do wonder if these have a connection to us, to the powers. All that."

Crystal kept the conversation flowing. Nothing earth-shattering, however he'd take it over the recent fuckery. Tej paused, unnecessarily so. "No, I guess I'm not so homesick." Couldn't help but see Inika flash before his eyes. Zaid. "I do miss my grandfather. That's about it."

A simple girl, easy to please. Dark brows rose, a smile unavoidable. "Ah, are you? I'll keep it in mind." Crystal noted the list of phone numbers. Right, from the meeting. Tej avoided adding his, or any information about himself. While the concept was understood, he didn't personally care to add himself to the list. "Texting randos? You're very friendly, aren't you?" Not the worst idea. Crystal definitely was not shy.

He was going to ask if any messages received weird responses, but Crystal had one ready. The name attached caught him off guard, like he'd stepped barefoot on a wasp.

Zaid. Flirting, inviting someone to dinner. Fucker certainly did not waste any time. (Tej chose not to think about how long they'd been broken up, and Zaid had every right to do as he pleased.)

"Ego's right, yeah," he remarked as his gaze drifted along with the words, almost right off the horizon. The temptation to lie so great. Trash him. Yeah, Zaid WAS a fucking weirdo, she got that correct. But he tried to reel in the pettiness. (That Zaid had the nerve to cook for everyone but him??)

"I don't know, no reason in particular I guess. I mean I was in that pool, whose to say I didn't drown and just don't remember that part? Pretty morbid to consider. What do you remember last, what were you doing that made you think you probably died like you said?" Maybe in the end, it didn't matter, but Tej appeared to be the curious type, so Crystal was willing to stoke that curiosity as long as he wanted to indulge the conversation.

Holding her hands up defensively, Crystal looked over at him innocently. "Hey, don't side eye me, I'm just making an observation, that's all I can't be the first to be thinking that's weird."

Crystal raised a brow as he suggested finding a spot for a bonfire. A random idea but she wasn't dumb enough to defuse. "I love that idea! Does this place have any firewood? Or any tools to make our own?" She asked as she stood up, placing her hand over her face like a visor and eyeing the tall trees off in the distance. "You know where I think would be a good spot?" she began, pointing in the direction of the volcano looming in the distance. "Somewhere close to that, feels like it would be so picturesque, especially when the sun starts to set. Don't you think?"

Especially as an artist, she thought he could appreciate the picture she was envisioning "Seriously? Geez, here I am in the presence of a famous artist and I didn't even know it? Please, forgive me for my rudeness." She apologized dramatically, even bowing her head low to add to the playful performance.

"Hm.. you and your grandfather were close then, I take? I didn't really know any of my family if I'm honest. I mainly jumped between foster care homes until I got phased out of the system so, even having one family member you were close to sounds nice."