draftware
by e3khatena
the arrival
I had this song stuck in my head, it was all "beep boop boop beep... beep boop boop beep... beep boop boop boop boop... beep boop boop beep"... man, that's not helpful, beep and boop don't even feel like words anymore. Right, um, where was I? Right, um... I don't know. I don't know much of anything, honestly, I just knew I had this song stuck in my head, you already know how it goes.
So here I was seemingly buried somewhere with all this sand, a song stuck in my head, and it was just so infectious that I couldn't forget it, felt a little entranced by it. Beep boop boop beep... beep boop boop boop boop boop....
--em, right, so I needed to get out of this place, I assumed. Why was I in the dirt? I did my best to roll onto my back and reach out, and the sand gave way like fragile water, sifting down below the sand, leaving me exposed to the light, ten thousand hazy lumens screaming at me in a cacophony of sensory overload. I stood up and looked around. The first order of business was to figure out who I was. You see, all I knew was this song that was stuck in my head, beep boop boop be—you know the story. I felt tall, taller than usual, and my skin didn't match the sky or the sand, but the earthy stones buried in the sand, a warm darker color. I looked down at what I was wearing, a slightly-oversized minty green sweater and a tidy black skirt, black socks with red shoes. The ensemble felt alright, I don't really know what I expected, all I knew was this song, beep boo
I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Right. I reached into my pockets to see if I could find anything, anything at all. The first item of importance I spotted was an image of a large gray cat. A lovely, handsome-looking character who probably kept me company. I think? Was this my body before? I don't know, all I knew was this one little ditty, I'm not sure if you've heard of it, it went bee
The second thing I found was a small gray wallet with a picture of a skeleton pulling an Indy 900 while on fire on the front. I flipped through the wallet but all I found was a piece of paper that "Bank of England" and "Ten Pounds" (it certainly didn't weight that much, though), and a plastic card with a happy, beaming face on the front. The girl on the card had a skin tone that looked like mine, and to the right was two words on two separate lines: "Emmerson Suzy".
Was that my name? Emmerson Suzy? Was it Emmerson Suzy or was it Suzy Emmerson? Where did I get this card? Was it here, was it somewhere else? Maybe someone nearby would know. There were a couple houses around where I had just woken up, maybe they'd have the answers I was looking for. I knocked on a door, and a man with pale skin and dark hair wearing a short button-up shirt and shorts stepped into the open frame. "Name's Romero, and don't you forget it," he responded, "what can I help you with?"
"Um, hi. I'm, um... I don't actually know, but I have this card here. Maybe you could help me out?"
The man took the plastic card, and read through it. "Emmerson Suzy, six-twelve-sixty-six, Norwich... I mean, I don't know what else you're looking for, hon."
"Does any of this mean anything to you? Can I step inside, maybe?"
The man looked me over, and then invited me in. As soon as I spotted a mirror, I approached its gaze and stared deeply inside. The mirror seemed a little short, I could barely see myself in it. I was indeed the girl from the card, with thick locks of curly hair and these cute red glasses on. Romero walked up to the mirror, his face landing perfectly in the middle of its frame. "You're quite tall," he reckoned, "gotta be, what, six-foot-five? You play any basketball before you ended up here?"
"Pardon?"
"Basketball? Like the sport, where the thing, they throw the thing into the place? Basketball?"
"Never heard of it."
"What have you heard of, then?"
"Well, I know this song, it goes beep boop boop beep... beep boop boop beep... beep boop boop boop--"
"--that's great, truly it is, but if you're looking for answers... I dunno, maybe you should start with Bit. She might have some answers for you. If you're looking to get there, though, you're going to need some money."
"Um, I think I had--"
The man placed a note in my hand. In the middle was the image of what looked like a pale witch with a steely gaze, and D5 written across the left and right. "Um, thanks mister."
"Any time. Look, I'm kind of busy, so you should go stop by and talk to Bit, she can help you figure out where you're heading, you're going to want to head downtown for that, she recently moved into some empty storefront over there and calls it home, and she knows all you could want to know about memories and stuff like that. You remind me of someone I met a long while ago, but I can't put my finger on it... but either way, I do hope you find what you're looking for."
"Thanks, mister! So I'm headed downtown?"
"You got it, the train station's just out towards the left, you can't miss it."
"Thank you!" I replied before walking out the door and heading for the brick building.
Inside I met another man at the desk who took my 5 D (whatever that is) note and handed me a silver coin that read "downtown". I headed to the station platform, and as the first silver train pulled in, I stepped inside. I was curious what the coin was for until I spotted a coin-height slot in a second set of doors just inside. I dropped the coin inside and had a seat along the bench that sat along the left side of the car.
I was not the only person in the train car. Rather, I was, but there was a purple-colored lizard person a fair bit shorter than I was on the other side of the car, clad in a black jacket with sunglasses, a red shirt and jeans. "Um, hi," I said to the lizard.
She lowered her glasses at me. "Hello," she replied.
"Um, I don't know how to put this, but I lost my memory, and I was wondering if you know anything about where I am, who I might have been."
"Where are you gettin' off? downtown?"
"How did you...? Nevermind, yeah, downtown."
"Alright, so you're gonna come out of the train station near the Green Tower, those are some apartments, and if I recall their price was slashed entirely, they should be free as long as there's vacancy, new ruling a couple years back. You can get yourself a room there, and then you're probably looking for something to eat, too. If you have money then you could head to experiences, they're pretty great, but if not then the local reserve has plenty of the old food packets left. Get a green one if you're getting anything, those things last. And lastly, if you're looking for help getting your memory back, Bit's been in charge of that position for as long as I can remember, she can help you out."
"But where am I heading?"
"To the afterward, of course!"703Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw71DpP2Wmi
"Okay, no, you definitely did it that time."
"Did what?"
"You're pronouncing words a bit weird, I don't know how to describe it?"
"Well, just look up and you'll see."
I stared at the ceiling of the train, but it didn't make much sense to me. "No, I... it's okay, you'll figure it out."
"Um... okay. I didn't catch a name."
"Pardon?"703Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrIf3gVQv5a
"A name? I'm Emmerson Suzy, that's what my card says."
"Emmi, was it? Well, the name's Sheff, nice to meet you."
"Um, it was Su... whhatever. Sheff, nice to meet you, too. Um, are you actually a lizard?"
"Yeah, kind of, we've been called Lizi for a while, they've come to accept us well enough."
"So there's more people like you?"
"Plenty."
"Nice."
I rode the rest of the train ride in silence, and once the train came to a stop, I got up and looked out the window. "downtown afterward", they really didn't capitalize the name. Strange. I thanked Sheff for her help, and stepped out onto the platform.
ns 15.158.61.7da2
