RP: The Silent Horizon Find My Way

It was dark. It was cold. It was loud. Metal on metal, the sound of a sword pulled from it's sheath. The fear it was so intense, it made him breathless. It was something that someone so young should never have to face. Something had gone wrong with it all, the supply of information corrupted or perhaps they truly were barbaric and only capable of being violent. "Captain, are you sure we should do this?" The sounds of the place seemed unreal as the sound of that blade as it moved through the air, whispers of corruption and deceit grew more and more faint. Warmth like that of a heartfelt hug, "Hide the body their delegation will be back soon...We control when his father learns of this."

It was dark again, the sound of the wind screamed from what seemed as if it was all around him. He felt his body in midair just for a second before there was a hard drop. He opened his eyes and then almost immediately he wanted to close them again, the smoke stung his eyes. He looked around, the shuttle cockpit was in shambles, wiring harnesses hung from the ceiling and conduits smoldered thick black smoke that was mostly being sucked out the starboard side of the shuttle. A secondary explosion rattled through the shuttle and he looked at the smashed controls unable to do anything, the mindhive was silent. The other two passengers were unconscious and maybe that was for the better. The wind continued to roar, debris shook free from the shuttle's frame. He looked out the viewport and watched the pillowy clouds become more dense. It was not long before there was a flash of lightening, the clouds grew darker and finally the rain and hail pelted the broken outer hull.

He caught a glimpse of himself in the glass and seen a man that the boy never knew. How did this happen? Was he about to die? Why? The past seemed so distant. Below he could see the tops of huge evergreens growing closer and closer. The branches scraped against the side of the hull as the shuttle barreled downwards. The angry wash of waves could seen below. The darkness came once more, the splash of water enveloped the ship and there was a moment when he could not draw breath. A loud gurgle and then the motion of the waves took him and lulled him to sleep.

The First Morning​

The sound of the waves returned but they lacked the fury they had before. He felt warmth as the sunshine spread its rays around him. He grabbed around him and felt the warm sand move through his fingers. The cry of birds echoed through the air and his slender pointed ears twitched as a fly tickled the back of his neck which he instinctively swatted at. He pulled himself upwards, his mouth felt as dry as a desert, and the bruises on his side and forehead ached. His vision blurred as he struggled to open his eyes, it hurt at first the sudden illumination almost blinded him a first before his eyes slowly adjusted. Debris of the shuttle was scattered down the beach, the main body of it didn't appear to be in sight unless it had completely come apart. He looked behind him and past the dunes was a thick forest of evergreens.

The cries of the lake birds made his head hurt even more than it already did. He looked down the beach and could see the two others that had been in the shuttle, they were in the sand just as he was. He tried to get to his feet, but he just ached. He didn't remember his legs being this big or his feet for that matter. Other than those minutes of the shuttle coming down, the only he remembered was the time his father had gifted him a place on a diplomatic delegation for his twelfth birthday. He couldn't seem to remember his own name even. He blinked a few times and looked to see what else he could see, down the beach to the west he could see five or six small fishing shanties lined up on stilts, a few overturned boats and further on the silver whisp of smoke from chimneys. To the west, just more forest, same with the south. The wind blew from the north and across the lake, which made magnificent white caps atop of the waves.

"Huw? Aru wie irauw?" ("Hey? Are you okay?) he yelled down the beach as he finally managed to get to his feet and stumble a few steps before he got his balance back. He noticed a decorative chain around his neck, a strange knotted symbol that seemed to be important hung from it. His flight suit tattered and ripped, he certainly would not be winning a fashion award anytime soon. He slowly began to walk down the beach toward the others.

---

"There are many things in the universes that we will never understand..."
"Just because we don't understand them doesn't mean they aren't real..."
"Sometimes that escape comes at just the right time..."

Before

There was nothing, until there wasn't. What suddenly was, found no recognition within him. An ephemeral experience of sensory stimulus that, much like smoke, slipped further betwixt his fingers the more he tried to grip upon it. There was heat, there was light, there was sound, there was pressure against him. Or was there? Maybe not. If he could just focus enough to make sense of what he did or did not know, if he could just learn enough to say 'here is a starting point' then maybe he could force himself to awareness. Yet, like a drowning sailor caught within the tumultuous waters of the maelstrom, he knew not what was up, nor down nor what was inside or without. Then again, he knew only nothing.

The First Morning

He couldn't have said what it was that he felt first. Only that once again he could feel and think and no longer was he that drowning sailor adrift in a screaming sea of silence. The heat of the sun beat down upon his back, the heat oozing and pooling through his body like a wave of languid honey. He could feel grains of sun-warmed sand shifting under him with each and every slight movement he made. He could hear birds crying on the wing and his ears picked out the susurration of gentle waves as they broke upon the sandy shore ad retreated back to whence they came. He could smell water and, realising he held a great thirst, turned his head towards it.

He groaned, that movement of his head revealing a headache that hung heavily and seemingly grew with each breath he took. Snarling to himself, he forced his eyes open, blinking away the sudden brightness. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes, blinking them in an attempt to speed up the adaptation to the environment. Trying to stand, he made it as far as kneeling in the sand before the accumulated aches and pains became too much for further motion. His eyes looked upon on a face, somehow familiar yet not. It slowly swam into focus and he realised that it was his own reflection he had seen in a reflective piece of debris.

Looking around he spotted more debris dotted along the sand and signs of vegetation, trees and dwellings further away. Any further investigation was halted upon spotting a figure heading along the beach wearing a flight suit that had most definitely seen better days. Looking down revealed that his own sartorial situation left equally as much to be desired for also consisting of a tattered flight suit. He waved in the man's general direction in response to his cry.

"Alozu! I shonr?" ("Alive. I think?") he called out, trying not to wince at the increased thundering of his headache. He tried once more to stand upright, stumbling as his sense of balance took it's time to reassert itself.

Before
Something had happened, then all she knew was darkness. There was no memory of before, no knowledge of the present and for a time she floated in between. A prisoner in her own mind as she struggled to cling to that light in the distance. Clawing towards it seemed like a fruitless effort as she gave chase to the inevitable, there had to be an end to this chasm.

The First Morning
Out of what seemed like an endless eternity she was thrust back into the light. A sharp gasp wretched from her lungs as she broached consciousness. For a moment there was naught but the mere knowledge that she was no longer lost in darkness. As her alertness baby stepped to becoming fully alert she became aware of little things around her. She felt the breeze blowing across her exposed form before sight returned to her eyes. When she regained sight she was in shock, blinking rapidly as she looked at the sky in an attempt to orient herself. Where was she? Her eyes looked side to side from where she lay, forest and waves. Had she been somewhere like this before? It certainly was no place she remembered. Then again she could not even remember her own name. "What the hell happened?" she thought as her hands flexed with reacquired muscle control. "Hells?" she thought as her fingers caressed a warm gritty substance.

The woman flexed her hands into the sand to push herself to a seated position when other voices echoed nearby. Her slender pointed ears twitched as she narrowed in on what was being said. Oh! Someone had asked her something, why would they be talking to her? Were they someone she knew? After a moment of looking at both men she had gathered that they both likely knew of each other at least. They both wore tattered flight suits, though maybe they were just as lost as she. Wait a minute, she was wearing a tattered flight suit as well! What was going on?

Cautiously she pushed herself to a standing position, brushing sand off her body. "I kin's rniw. Whaus's jionj in?" ("I don't know. What's going on?") The woman stumbled as she tried to approach the man with a strange necklace, nearly falling on her rump. A soft grumble escaped her lips while her right palm raised to caress her forehead. What the hell happened? She walked towards the other man that had nearly stumbled and offered her arm in support.

Togi Beach, Shoishuggo​

He reached the male first, the tattered flight suit hung from his limbs like rags not that he was in any better shape. He reached down and helped him to his feet. "Alive is something at least, it could be worse. Our shuttle came down last night, we must of been thrown from the wreck when it hit the water. " he explained the best guess he could give, he knew that when they fell from the sky he had been the only one conscious. His attention was then pulled to the female that approached, "Not really sure what is going on but we were in some kind of accident," he said as he looked toward the fishing shanties that lined the shore. "I have no idea where we are, nothing here seems familiar. Maybe we should check out those shanties? We might be able to find someone that knows more of what is going on." he suggested, the wind still was fairly strong, the last of the night's storm slowly pushing away to the west.

"Um, out of curiosity do either of you know who I am?" he asked hoping they would have the answer to his dilemma. He hoped that they would find someone that knew where they were. The birds continue to call as they performed their acrobatics in the air, they would dive down grabbing the small crab-like creatures that ascended the shore. Then they would drop them on the rocks sending their insides splattering before they would land and gobble them down.

He looked over toward the southwest in the distance, if the shanties didn't pay off there was obvious signs of life from the village as smoke billowed up and out the chimneys of the buildings. He could not shake the feeling that they were being watched, but there was no one in sight other than them.

Togi Beach, Shoishuggo​

The first male that had spoke made it to the other male before she had. Her head swam as she observed both men, looking for clues that would give any information. They were on a shuttle? A single blue eyebrow raised, whatever the case may be, this one knew more than she did about what had happened. Her gaze focused on the pair as one man helped the other up, "We should investigate the shanties. Though we should be careful about our surroundings. There is no telling what's going on here." she responded. The wind whipped her blue hair into her face, causing her nose to wrinkle.

"Uh, I have no idea who you are. I have no idea who any of you are or how we got here. Do you know who I am?" she inquired. It seemed that while the strange necklace bearer knew more about how they got there, he was just as lost as they. She pointed towards the necklace on his neck, "You sure you want that out in the open?" she asked tilting her head to the left slightly. "I have no idea what it means, but drawing attention to yourself might not be in your best interest," her words trailed off towards a crab like creature as it smashed against a rock.

The crab's guts splattered as if some macabre reward for the birds' efforts, or an omen for what might befall them. Her gaze followed that of the necklace bearing man towards the southwest. While it seemed like the obvious idea, something made her hesitant about walking into a village blind. They knew nothing about where they were. They knew nothing about anyone that resided here. Something made her extremely uncomfortable, as if she needed to be cautious about every move. There was something about such peace that made her innately suspicious of what lay unseen. "I think we're being watched," she attempted in a vesper to the two men in front of her.

Togi Beach, Shoishuggo​

Considering that the presence of the other two was reassuring in its own way he affirmed that maybe, just maybe, there was some truth to the oft-muttered maxim that 'misery loves company'. The other man's explanation of events tracked so far and there was indeed enough debris scattered around to lend it plausibility. Not that he could remember a shuttle ride. Or anything else, really, so he'd go along with it for now and worry about the man's trustworthiness should he later be proven untrustworthy. He couldn't think of any reason not to start their search for information with the shanties but, not wanting to worsen his headache, refrained from nodding his agreement.

"No, I know not who either of you are." He tutted to himself. "I didn't even recognise myself when I saw my reflection in that." He pointed to the debris that had so recently shown a dull reflection of his face. "I look too old - like one of those image editors that artificially age your appearance to show how you'll look at different ages. Or how someone who has been in a coma for decades awakens to a new older, face than that which they remembered." He ran a hand down the side of his face, feeling the stark incongruity between sense and memory.

"Aye, the shanties sound like a good place to start." He agreed. "Although, given the evidence of a local populace, I'm concerned that nobody has come to investigate the crash." He added thoughtfully, wondering at the lack of scavengers, investigators and do-gooders that often rushed to the site of such crashes in the search for loot, scapegoats and survivors respectively.

"Well..." he said, still struggling with the fact he could not seem to remember who he was. "Maybe someone here knows who we are? Either way, I don't think we're going to be too comfortable in these torn up flight suits," he suggested as he playfully flipped the large tear in the chest area of his shirt up and then let it drop down again. He then took off the necklace, and looked at it. "I don't know what this means? Maybe I am the leader or something?" He was going to tuck it in his pocket until he realized those were ripped out too so he put it back on.

"Lets see what is in these little shacks," he said as he led the way down the beach. The waves washed up the sandy shore, leaving a white bubbly surface close to the water's edge. There was various forms of seaweeds and abandoned shell fish home dotted up the reach of the wave's wash. "I can look in this one, why don't you guys try the next two?" he suggested, then walked up the creaking old wooden steps of the stairs and into the shack. It didn't have a door, none of them did -- just a old length of fabric pinned to a line of rope across the top of the door.

The next two shacks awaited the arrival of the other two. Should they decide to check them out they will find a basic layout, a single room with a twin sized bed messily made, a night table beside the bed made in a somewhat familiar intricate style. Various ropes, lines, hooks, and nets were hung on the walls. A closet sat in the left back corner, opposite of the bed on the right side. There was a thick layer of dust on everything and cob webs stretched between the small beams above. It would seem abandoned. The birds continued their fishing for the crab-like creatures that washed up the shore, every once in a while they would here the splatter of one of the crabs being tossed down on the rocks.

There was also a small table to the left of the doorway inside, it had various writing implements, stacks of paper as well as a small gas burner, with a kettle set atop of it. A few tins with snap on lids sat on the far side of the table, the writing on them would seem unfamiliar and unknown to them. The first shack over from the one he took, had a blue and orange color scheme, while the one after that was dark red and black. As the waves came, out further in the harbor a buoy rocked back and forth which caused it's bell to ring in a steady rhythm with the waves. Three more shacks of a slightly different design were beyond those two.