#stranded event 12

How to pinpoint exactly why, after so many years, this was the one that got to him. Outside of the obvious reasons, another invisible burr burrowed under the skin. Always a way to rationalize at least a modicum of sanity when the island went haywire. Now, he’d been dropped into a world impossible to visually navigate. Which also fucked with his head. A profoundly absurd step on a wrong way Escher staircase had him in a tumbling, what it felt like anyway. 

Steps were heard behind him, and Kaz wheeled out of his slow pace to see who it was. A hand dropped away from covering his agitated mouth. He saw a figure moving towards him, and sent a message to close the distance between them. “I can’t do this one, Emre.” A draw of breath, like a much needed drag on a imaginary cigarette. “It’s the god damn obelisk. It’s changing. And I can’t, I just can’t.” 

"There is one thing we've been avoiding," Mik said, looking over to Nick. It was nice to have breakfast in a proper house, since their ruined-shack had decided to shift to being a little renovated cabin for them this morning. By lunch it could be a bundle of sticks again, or just plain, clean sand. Mik took what he could, including trying to time his bites so that the porridge in front of him was warm and cooked.

"The wedding dance," Mik finally said, putting Nick out of his misery. "Like, do you want to have a cheesy slowdance moment? Or should we just get the tunes going and dance like we're in our twenties?"

It was just a chicken coop at some point, but now the structure had gotten much bigger and more complex. As far as Alex could tell, it wasn’t like one of those horrible industrial chicken farms you’d see on the news from animal activists, the chickens could go in and out freely, but it was way more than the handmade wooden one he remembered. 

He didn’t try to go inside, terrified that it would transform the minute he set foot inside and he’d be crushed by whatever it turned into next. Instead, he stood outside the wire fence (also much fancier than it had been) and watched the panoply of weird wild and wonderful chickens parade around.

@hazelbeaufort​

“CHANGE before you have to.” - Jack Welch

Nesh takes a tin out of one of the apothecary’s shelves, and the shelve makes a creaking noise. With one of his eyebrows raised, he takes a step back, in preparation for it to possibly crash down. Of course, everything on this island is self-built and does have mistakes - but likely not in the apothecary, as it’s for sure been built with extra care. Then again, self-built, so some creaking is normal, and even if it hadn’t been, there’s nothing to worry.

Maybe he’s feeling like this because the whole day has felt weird to him. Fairly, they’ve gone long enough without weird things happening. Nesh lowers his hand, and the almost fully healed scars on his shoulder start to itch immediately - from movement, as they were just stretched out, nothing unusual. And still, it feels weird to him - something feels weird in general. Nesh stares at the shelve, and he swears one of the tins moves. “Oh god. I’m going insane. It’s happening.”, he whispers, and then there’s a noise behind him, so he quickly turns around;

“Hazel!” He relaxes immediately, soft smile slipping onto his lips, “Good thing you’re here. Take my blood pressure, maybe? I’m feeling a bit..odd.”

Harry had thought she had adjusted to the island and its ways. The shifting of the jungle, the strange beasts and flora, the powers, her eternal youth. She had even accepted being swapped with a copy of herself, and the voice that whispered to her about entering the jungle, of letting go and rotting among the debris. But she was not a fan of this nonsense, of time glitching among them.

The farm was a disaster, but it was the sort of mess that she could throw herself into. Harvesting what she could before the fruit tree became a seed, before the fruit rotted, before the fruit became a tree in its own right. Today, some of the potatoes had gone to seed overnight, so she was planting them instead of eating them. 

She'd felt someone approaching, but she'd assumed it was Lily, maybe even Tommy come out to annoy her. "What do you reckon? We'll get spuds, or these'll disappear?" Harry turned to look at them, a small smile on her lips. It wasn't Tommy or Lily, it was... someone she didn't know. She’d seen her working about the farm before, and kept a healthy distance, as she usually did. But... as Harry looked at her for longer, she realised that she did know her. A flash of memory hit her, being frustrated that the woman wouldn’t come with her into the jungle, the scene tinged with green. The beekeeper, someone her fake had interacted with. "What do you want?" Harry grumbled, all the warmth vanished from her voice. 

At midday, Kaz woke to water lapping around him in his grotto. Groggy, aggravated, he blinked and the place was dry once more. His night terrors never changed shape, but he assumed in the moment it was nothing more than a half-alert brain. 

Later, he realized it wasn’t his brain. He reached for a canteen and in a bend of the light, it was crumpled. Seconds later, it was whole but filled with sand. Minor mind fucks evolved into larger ones. An entire well-known bend in the shoreline where he kept fish traps had changed drastically. No matter how long he glared a silent demand to know more, it never answered. 

What the fuck? 

Cordelia-- or who he hoped was Cordelia --was nearby on the beach. He headed towards her. “Hey. Do you know what the hell is going on now? Feel like I’m going mental, like.” No question too dumb for Meridium. “Is everything changing around you?” 

The forge sat cold. No one around. Except Luis, who chose to glare at Kaz with big beefy arms crossed in a safe distance. Kaz rolled his eyes and refocused on a making a pair of bamboo tongs. A minute ticked by and Kaz found himself surrounded by high green stems. A cage of bamboo he had to push out of. And no tongs. 

Fantastical and pointless. Two states that co-existed on Meridium. 

He saw Nick cut across the farm. Not a usual sight. “Hey, if you see your man, tell him I left a wedding present here.” Currently, an overgrowth of bamboo. But maybe by the time Mik turned up, the scene would shift again. 

@nickalphonsus​

“All FACADES FALL sometime, then the mask comes off and the real heart is seen.” - Jessiqua Wittman

Everything had been spinning in the last few days. The houses and huts around him, the trees, the people, everything around him had went spiraling down. And due to that, Nesh was not surprised in any way when he woke up and he felt as if his head was spinning too.

What caught him off guard though, was the fact that the last thing he remembered was bright sundown, and not being tired at all. No, he had been focused on making himself a dose of this new thing they’d found against headaches, out of mint and- Nesh’s heart was beating way too fast, and the drumming in his ears was so loud that he almost couldn’t hear his surroundings. Confused, the man leaned back and looked down at his hands, twisted and turned them as he stared down at them, before pushing himself up onto his feet- water. He needed water, lots of it. His blood pressure had to be way too high - all this stress wasn’t doing him any good, maybe he had taken too much of the medicine..

The doctor paused. He knew that little tin box. Knew what was inside. “Fuck.” He’d been cursing way too much lately, but this time, he was actually freaking out. Last time he’d touched that box, he’d helped Tomas out with a surgery, and this... Nesh stumbled backwards, out of the doctor’s hut, all the way backwards, as if he himself was going back in time, back, back, back, until his back hit something soft. Confused, the doctor turned around, pupils wide, cheeks reddened, lips pursed - and there was Nick. “Oh. You.” He scoffed, shook his head, stumbled backwards and immediately fell onto his back, heartbeat picking up. He sat up quickly, pushed his messy curls out of his face. “What are you doing here?”