chapter two
As I got off the boat, I looked around for maybe an inn, somewhere to get a dry change of clothes, a laundromat, maybe just the old me hanging around with a big light-up sign, you never know. I paced up and down the town's streets, until I found a clothes shop of some sort, the front was unnamed but I could definitely see shirts hanging in the window. I stepped in. "H... hello," I said.
The end of the store was pitch black, and a voice from somewhere spoke to me. "Ｗｈｏ ｉｓ ｔｈｅｒｅ?" the voice said in a voice unlike any of the other Afterward dwellers.
"Uh, it's... it's, uh, it's me! Where are you? W—who are you?"
"Ｄｏ ｎｏｔ ｂｅ ａｆｒａｉｄ, ｃｈｉｌｄ," the voice said.
Out of the shadows stepped a tall woman with purple scaly skin and black hair, with bright yellow eyes. She wore a green jacket with a blue shirt below, and ripped black jeans. She flashed a toothy grin at me that shone in the darkness. "Ｗｅｌｃｏｍｅ, ｙｏｕｎｇ ｏｎｅ," she said.
"Who are you? Are you going to hurt me?"
"Ｈｕｒｔ ｙｏｕ? Ｗｈｏ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｗａｎｔ ｔｏ ｈｕｒｔ ｙｏｕ?"
"It's just, it's just your voice, it kinda scares me—"
"Ｗｈａｔ ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｍｅａｎ? Ａｒｅ ｙｏｕ ｔａｌｋｉｎｇ ａｂｏｕｔ ｈｏｗ ｍｙ ｌｅｔｔｅｒｓ ａｒｅ ｓｐａｃｅｄ? Ｍｙ ｓｐｏｋｅｎ ｆｏｎｔ ｃｈｏｉｃｅ? Ｈｏｗ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｙｏｕ ｗａｎｔ ｍｅ ｔｏ ｔａｌｋ?"
"Um, if it's no problem, can you speak like other Afterward people?"
"Ｃａ--" she started, before clearing her throat, "Capitalized or uncapitalized?"
"Um, whatever's fine with you."
"Well, welcome child. I take it you're here to purchase a dry change of clothes?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"You're wrapped in a towel and dripping everywhere, little one. What, did you just wake up on the beach?"
"Yeah, actually."
"Oh. Oh, I-- I didn't mean to... gosh,"
She reached forward and wrapped me in a hug, and I got to take a closer look at her unnecessarily scaly skin. "I don't remember who I am, I woke up like this here in the Afterward."
She hugged me tighter, and it kinda hurt. "Oh, you poor girl, that's so sad. Well, tell you what, I'll throw some Dosh in the register to cover getting you a new outfit or two, you deserve it, it's been a rough day for you, little girl," she stepped back and looked me over, "but what are you in the market for? More comfy casual stuff, or something a bit more cute?"
"I dunno, I guess more casual stuff, I don't want to get you in trouble with y--"
"Oh, nonsense, my boss has come around on my generosity, and I'm sure that old geezer would appreciate me lending you a hand!"
Now that she was talking in a regular typeface, I could start picking apart her voice. Her human voice had a bit of an Australian ring to it, which is especially odd because I just now remembered Australia was a place by hearing her talk. How much did I actually forget? She stepped back behind a curtain in the darkness, and suddenly all the lights came on. The store seemed average enough, it looked like any other store I imagined I had remembered. She came back out into the store, clutching a little white pouch. "It's a heat pack, in case you're wondering, gotta stay warm, y'know? Now, what can we get you... eh, name?"
"Oh, uh--"
"Right, forgot, you can't remember, I'm so--"
"No, I, uh, I have an ID here, somewhere, uh..."
She was back pressed up into my side, grinning down at me. I took a step back. "Just gotta stay warm, y'know, and you're an awfully warm human."
I found the wallet again and showed her the ID card. "Tammy, eh? Well, Tams, let's get you somethin' great!"
"Oh, alright," I said.
"The name's Shim," she said as she picked up an entire rack (an unnecessary move, in my opinion) and brought it right to me.
"Go ahead, pick one of 'em out!"
I flipped through the rack of short-sleeved shirts until I found a blue one with some sort of creature on it. "The cat one, huh? Nice, I dig it!"
Cat, there's another word. Let's just hope I wasn't an Australian cat rancher, though if I was, I guess I can do that job again at last. Or at least explain my job.
She shoved that rack to the side and pushed a new one towards me, full of hooded sweatshirts. I liked the purple one with the white inside, so I handed it to Shim. She then physically grabbed me and set me down in front of a new rack, this time of pants. I picked a pair of black jeans, and then she roared in excitement. "Oh, you're going to look so cute!"
She produced a measuring tape, took some measurements, and then sorted through each rack, I guess to find the size I'd need (which I hadn't been looking out for, oops, but in my defense, this is literally my first day with a new body), then handed me a folded up outfit and pointed me towards a door.
I stepped in, set the outfit down, got dressed in the new, dry clothing (in which she had stuck a heat pack into each of the front pants pockets and the sweatshirt's pocket), got my wallet and all my other stuff into my new pockets, and when I stepped out, she stuck all my old, wet stuff in a plastic bag and squeezed me once again. "There you are, little one, all nice and comfy again! Come back if you need anything else, stay safe out there! And, eh..."
She scrambled into the back of the store again and shut off the lights. "...Ｔｈｉｓ ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｈａｐｐｅｎｅｄ."
"Why do you say that? Are you afraid people will find out how happy and excitable you are?"
"Ｉ, ｅｈ, Ｉ ｈａｖｅ ａ ｒｅｐｕｔａｔｉｏｎ ｔｏ... ｔｏ ｕｐｈｏｌｄ," she said.
"Well, I thought you were really sweet and cute! Thanks, Shim! Stay warm!"
"Aww, thank y-- eh... ｔｈａｎｋ ｙｏｕ, ｃｕｓｔｏｍｅｒ..."
I stepped back out into the town, basking in the warmth and comfort of Shim's heat packs. She was really nice, I hope she sheds her cold, scaly exterior (zing!), she's such a lovable, borderline adorable six-foot-four lizard person. Her usual voice was a bit rough, but I'm sure somebody loves her despite her flaws. Everyone deserves someone that can do that.
I figured my next order of business was to grab a meal, and that's when I remembered Kroff handed me a packet dubiously labeled "pink: a food". I fished it out of my clutch and examined it closely. No real nutrition information, no serving size, no comment on even what state of matter "pink: a food" would be. I split open the top of the packet and squeezed some of it out to eat. The texture was like some sort of fluffy paste, it felt like something I definitely should not be eating, maybe like something to repair a wall, I dunno. But the flavor... the flavor was really sweet and inviting, made me even happier. I finished the entire packet and set it in a waste bin specifically for food pouches, and then sat at a bench, adoring how I had been feeling.
I had been reclining at the bench, eyes shut and a big grin on my face for a while, as when I opened my eyes again, there was someone sitting next to me. Everything looked warm and hazy, but I think I recognized the person, it was the guy who gave the river boat tour. "Hey..." I said, giving him a weak acknowledgment hand gesture.
"Oh, hey, you were on the tour! Let me guess, wasted on pink?"
"Yeah... I guess..."
"Oh yeah, that stuff's super strong. A lot of the food pouches are like that, they always overdo it in one way or another. If you want my recommendation, green is by far the best, a whole day's worth of energy in one of those little pouches, instead of needing 2 or 3 or, eh, 5 in pink's case, to get a whole day's worth out of it."
"Yeah... Shim also gave me nice, warm clothes and a lot of hugs, I just feel so..."
"Wait, Shim? The Lizi, Shim?"
"Mhm," I said, guessing she was a Lizi.
"No way we're talking about the same Shim. In the clothes shop?"
"Mhm..."
"No way, she's always been so cold and unapproachable. Maybe I just caught her at a bad time. So anyway, where are you headed?"
"Kroff said I should find a place to stay for the night... L... Like a hotel or somethin'"
Everything had begun feeling very warm and dreamy, I couldn't string words together right good out loud, but I tried trying my best is all. "Well, I know of a place you could stay. I live in the Green Tower just out that way, they're looking for tenants on the 8th floor, plenty of open rooms, you could explain your situation and see if they--"
"What's situation," said me.
"You just told me you lost your memory, you don't even think you're in the right body, and you're lost out here," said he.
What a smart boy, figuring my life out this way. Sweet boy helpin me, thank you, let's move on now.
"Whoa, you're absolutely trashed right now. I'd suggest just staying here, you'll start waking up, or whatever you wanna call it, I dunno, it usually takes me 20 minutes since eating a pouch, though for most people it's about 10 to 15."
"How long it's been?" I said with a giggle.
The words aren't right anymore, she tries so hard, good girl, happy.
"Well, we've been talking for, I dunno, five. Just, I dunno, sleep it off, that's always what I do. Well, I'll catch you later, got another tour coming up soon."
"Thanks, Conrad."
"Oh, it's Connor," Connor said.
I was close. I was also really happy and warm and dreamy, sleepy, so incredibly tingly... good night, happy brain, sleep good.
I woke up, still on the bench, with the view of the sunset dipping below the indigo ocean. Not only was the sight overwhelmingly beautiful, but it hurt to look at. Sun in the eyes thing, there it is. I got up, noticed the heat packs had gone out while I was asleep, and headed back into the clothes shop. "Hey, Shim, the heat packs wore out."
"Ｉ ｃａｎ ｒｅｃｙｃｌｅ ｔｈｅｍ ｆｏｒ ｙｏｕ, Ｔａｍｓ," cried a voice from the darkness, "ｊｕｓｔ ｌｅａｖｅ ｔｈｅｍ ｂｙ ｔｈｅ ｄｏｏｒ, ｔｈａｎｋ ｙｏｕ."
I walked out, bag of slightly drier clothes in hand, and headed towards the Green Tower like Connor had said. I was curious as to how other humans ended up here. My guess is that we were all just little amnesiac children who just I guess wash up ashore here, but honestly, who knows. Not me.
ns 15.158.61.42da2
