Scenario 1 [Action/Video]

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

[Alfimi is wandering around the area of the gardens where new people tend to show up, just having changed back into her normal clothes. She still has the scroll that the cat gave her. She reads it over again and again.] This... isn't right.

[Other cats have left her other scrolls, including the one on how to operate the vine. She decides to give that a try and seems to get the hang of it quickly. She opens the video feed.]

Hello. Can you... can anyone... hear me? I think there's something wrong. [There's a preteen girl on the vine, with long blue hair, and two red dots under each eye. She looks confused, slightly disbelieving, and a little sad.]

I'm... supposed to be dead...

Comments

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that happens here sometimes. Apparently, Her Highness can muck around with dead people somehow. "Magic" or something.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

I've been... "mucked around with?" ...I don't understand it. I was falling apart...

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. I have no idea how it's supposed to work, but we've had people who'd been dead for a while show up here supposedly alive.

Nobody's really sure what's up with this place, other than we're kidnapped- possibly through some weird magic cloning- and we're supposed to hook up or something. No way back, that we've found, other than just waking up back home.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

...But, after what I've done... I was finally... I accepted... [She frowns.] Why do I get another chance?

Magic cloning? Am I... still Alfimi?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Because the Queen felt like it? There's not a whole lot of sensible answer to "why" questions here. There's either "because the Queen wants girls to hook up" or "because the Queen is insane." I'm, uh, sorry if that's messing things up for you or something...

Uh... well, assuming you were Alfimi before? I mean, I don't really do philosophy, but... your memories are all there (presumably), your personality's still there, and there's... if not our actual bodies, reasonable facsimiles thereof. What else would there be?

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Oh. This queen... she sounds like a difficult person. Where am I? This is not the Land of Beginnings.

My name is Alfimi. But... I don't know what else there would be. I don't know what else I am. Or who.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

"Difficult" is putting it lightly.

It's, um, "the Gardens." We don't really have any other context, other than "probably some kind of pocket dimension."

Mine's Jessica Boyette.

What else do you think you need?

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Jessica... meeting you... is good. Have you seen Kyosuke or Excellen? Are they here?

I do not know what I need. I have a lot to think about. I do not know how I feel about... what has happened.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Likewise.

Haven't met anyone with those names yet, no. Sorry. Well, assuming you wanted them to be here.

Well, you've got all the time in the world here. Though... crazy stuff's usually going on, so you might want to watch out for yourself at the same time.

Oh yeah, there's brochures about the place at the library, if you need more info than the scrolls give.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I want them here... even thought I do not know what I'd say to them. I don't know if I could face them after everything.

So, I should "watch out?" [A katana appears in her hand.] Is it dangerous? I can be... gentle, too.

Understood. I can find information in the library. I will go there. In time.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you've had a lot of trouble.

[Whoa, cutty things out of nowhere! Jessica blinks] It's... sometimes dangerous? Usually it's just, um, weird and occasionally creepy. This place messes with your head.

Well, some information. As much as we've got, anyhow. Everything else there is just love poems and other useless crap.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

I have done bad things. I do not know if it's alright for me to be alive. After I figure out who I am, maybe I can make a decision.

I will look out for weird things and be mindful of my head.

Okay. The "brochure" has information, at least. Poems... I remember them, but I've never seen one.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

um... a lot of people do bad things. I mean, what are we talking about here?

Either way, I dunno if that means you shouldn't be alive.

Uh, just to make sure we're on the same page... by "head" I mean your mind and thoughts and all. [Because this sounds suspiciously like someone taking her literally.]

Well, if you're curious, there's a lot of 'em. Not that I get what the point is, but there you go.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

I... [She looks away.] I hurt people, because I thought that I was supposed to make them do certain things. I only understood when they kept fighting, even when it looked impossible. They even let me... fight alongside them.

I see. I will look out for my mind, then.

I will look at poems. I seem to remember... something attached to them... but not clearly.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't really figure out much from the evidence provided, but if they let you help them out, it sounds like they forgave you and all, so... you're probably OK there.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

They... wanted me to come with them... She said... "Our universe is full of easy-going people like them." That I was welcome there...

I don't know. I don't understand why. [It made her happy to hear that, but, in the end, she couldn't join them.]

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Because they liked you? It sounds like they understood that you didn't mean to hurt them.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

I guess you're right. It's hard for me to understand, though. But if you say so, too, then it must be.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Well, I mean, that's just speculation on my part, and you'd have to ask them if you wanted the real story, but... [shrug]

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'll ever be able to ask them.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

[sigh] One can always hope...

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Thank you for helping me so much. I still don't understand everything but things look a little better.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

No problem. Feel free to bug me on the Vine or something if you need anything.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Okay. I think I will try to find this library.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

You can ask the cats; they're pretty good at showing people around.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Okay. Cats. I'll ask.

video

[eatstacos.livejournal.com]

"Dead"? [She looks troubled. The idea of people being revived in the gardens has been mentioned to her, but she didn't know those already dead before arriving could have the same done to them.]

Yeah, I'd say something's not right. Definitely.

Re: video

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Yes. I had accepted it. Death. Persoenlichkeit was breaking apart...dying, dissolving, being stripped away. And I felt it. Pain. And then darkness.

But I'm alive now.

[eatstacos.livejournal.com]

Well, now you might as well accept the fact that you've alive. There's some kind of magic here that revives people, or so that's what I've heard.

[alchemistsquery.livejournal.com]

Why was I chosen to come here, though? Did someone... think I was deserving of this? Or... was it just an accident?

[eatstacos.livejournal.com]

Who knows. I don't have the faintest idea about that myself. -Wish I did, though.