In the turning, flowing wind, I sing alone

[starinheaven]

There’s a little girl, dressed in a light, summery dress, with matching white sandals, arriving on Stardust Beach, blinking at the sunlight and feeling the coastal wind on her face and tasting the salty sea-scent of the air.
For a time, she’s absolutely stunned, daring not to move (has her imagination ever been this strong?!), then, without really meaning to, she’s forced to take a few steps (the wind is so strong!), that she steps into wet sand and realizes she couldn’t just be imagining this. It’s a little too soggy and gross. She decides, then, maybe it was the last few years that were a very bad, very long, and very strange dream (although she liked the Pokemon…), and this was reality! She giggles and takes off her sandals, putting them higher up on dry sand (hot, hot!), before rushing back to the wet sand to play.

She twirls and spins and laughs, but when she turns back around, searching the beach, she cannot find her mama or her papa.

“… didn’t we go together? We’re at the beach now…”

Wasn’t the car crash and everything else a dream? She couldn’t have gotten here on her own! It’s true it’s not the same beach she knew and even the people looked a bit different, but maybe they just went on a very, very long trip!

Question 1: Vacation?
Ai decided to ask around on the beach, gently tapping shoulders and tugging on sleeves.
“Excuse me, have you seen my papa or my mama? Um, papa’s hair is much more wavy than mine, but grey, and he has a nose this long…”

Question 2: Heaven?
She had to find her parents! They had to be here, right? Because if they weren’t… then the car crash and these past years weren’t all a dream… then, maybe she’s just gone on ahead to Heaven? So she decided, in between asking about her parents, she’ll also ask some people if this place were Heaven!
“Excuse me, is this Heaven?”
Ai thought this was a very clever way to find out more quickly, than if she had only asked everyone one question, then started all over with the next one. She should find her answer quicker this way!

Sand

Ai had never seen sand that looked like this before! It was so pretty and mysterious. Almost like konpeito! But she knew better than to try and taste it… although she really did feel tempted to. It looked so pretty… she sat down and held grains up to the sunlight and wondered if the stars fell down and turned to sand or if the entire island was one very big star broken up into many little stars… oh, but it wasn’t hot or shining, like the sun, were they stars that went out, like switched-off lights or snuffed-out candles? Ai kept wondering, while rolling the little grain between her fingertips.

Whatever they were, they were pretty, so Ai wanted to collect some sand, along with seashells and bits of seaweed and anything else.

Comments

Heaven

[radleyslittleevie]

"Hi!" Evie squeals. "This is Ultern! It's so pretty, though, maybe Heaven looks like this!"

[starinheaven]

“I’ve never heard that name before! Is it part of the Kanto region?” Ai asked, surprised.

She knew she lived in Kanto, so if Ultern were in Kanto, she shouldn’t be too far away… maybe.

“Also.. you talk like—do you know Mewtwo…?”

That was the only other talking Pokemon she ever knew.

[radleyslittleevie]

"I'm not sure where it is!" Evie says. "And I only talk since being here! It's so fun! I don't know Mewtwo. Is that a Pokemon?"

[starinheaven]

“I think so… but he talks just like a person does! Like you do… what a lovely, mysterious place!

“Did you learn to talk all at once or little by little? And where were you before coming here?”

[radleyslittleevie]

"That's so neat! I hope I get to meet him!

"I just started talking all at once! It's everything I tried to say before, but now everyone understands me because it's coming out in human talk!

"I was in Johto! It's so pretty there too!"

[starinheaven]

"He's very cute! I hope you'll meet him too, I think he'll love to see the world..."

Then, that might be true, too...

"Johto! That's a different region from where I live... then, this place is somewhere different from both?"

Ai looked troubled by that thought...

Were they both dead? Is that why Mewtwo and her papa aren't here?

[radleyslittleevie]

"Yeah! I could show him all around! I can show you too!"

Evie nods. "People are brought in from all over! And they can get sent home and come back!"

sand

[domeinion]

Oh! Are you also studying the sand?

[A girl who looks about 14 waves from where she's taking notes, accompanied by a Torchic that's pecking at the sand for food.]

It's always good to have a fellow researcher around!

[awww, Alice]

[starinheaven]

[Ai turns and smiles at the question.]
Oh, my papa is a researcher too! I guess I am, since I’m trying to unlock its mysteries…

[To borrow a phrase from her father…

She stood up and looked curious.]

What did you learn about it? There isn’t sand like this anywhere else, is there? At least, I never saw any before, not even in pictures or on TV.

[domeinion]

[She smiles and laughs a little.] I've never seen it either, but it looks almost as if it was made by microscopic organisms. Something like... you know how, for instance, a Shelgon will shed its shell right before it evolves? Or how some Pokémon might outgrow their shells and leave them to grow new ones? That, but on a much smaller scale!

[starinheaven]

Oh! [Ai squints as she tries to study the grain up close.] ... we should put it under, um, a microscope! A whole bunch of sand, so we can see if maybe some of them are still living in them.

[domeinion]

That could work! It's not quite my specialty, but I do like them. They remind me of fossils.

[starinheaven]

Do you like studying fossils best?

Oh, um, I didn't get your name! My name is Ai... Fuji Ai!

Vacation

[gold_drum]

Gold looks down when he feels his sleeve get tugged. Ah, a small lonely child, his greatest weakness.

"Uh, nah, haven't seen them," he says, crouching down to be on eye level with Ai. Did this kid drift here or is she a local? He hopes she didn't just drift here all alone. "So, uh, are you from around here or did you just kinda show up here suddenly?"

[starinheaven]

Another person who hadn't seen them... oh, but Gold says something very interesting.

"Show up suddenly...? That's funny, you make it sound like that happens a lot."

Well, she's certainly very astute, for a very small child!

[gold_drum]

"I guess that's a yes to that one," Gold says lightly with a small huff of a laugh, trying to be casual as he rests his jaw on his hand, propping his elbow against his knee. He doesn't want to worry her too much, so he's hiding his own upset at another kid drifting here all alone. "Yeah, that happens a lot around here. So much the locals even got a word for it, drifting. Even I drifted here like you, a while back."

[starinheaven]

Yes, yes, it unfortunately was, Gold!

"Drifting... it makes us sound like we survived some kind of..."

Shipwreck! But she didn't like the word, she realized, because instead of an adventure, it sounded a bit too close to car wreck. She looked troubled.

"... what happened before you drifted here?"

[gold_drum]

"Survived some kinda what?" Gold asks, before he connects the concept to the word drifting. "Oh! Like a ship crash or something? Hmm... It's not that kinda drifting, it's more like... Uh, how do I say it..." Gold crosses his arms, thinking hard for a moment. How did people explain drifting to him? "It's like... being in one place and then ending up in, uh... here. At the beach. Or somewhere else nearby I guess." That doesn't make anything more clear...

"Huh?" The question is an odd one, and the wary way she asked it makes Gold think there's something up. The way her mind jumped from 'drifting' to 'ship crashed' also doesn't paint a nice picture. So, to ease her fears, whatever they are, Gold smiles. "Nothing big. I was heading to Goldenrod City to help out a friend of mine. Why?"

[starinheaven]

"How mysterious... then, it's more like you fell down the Raboot hole?"

It's starting to sound more like a fairy tale, especially in Gold's case.

"Goldenrod City... where is that? I'm glad you were just going to see a friend..." Ai said, thoughtfully, toeing the sand. "I was just wondering if this place might be Heaven instead, you know."

Vacation

[closedbond]

Who was that tugging on his sleeves? X found himself turning to look down at Ai. At her question, he considered her appearance carefully. Was she an native here, or drifted like he has? While quietly pondering his own question, X shook his head.

"Sorry, can't say I have."

Coiffe his Quaxly will quack in response too, as if understanding Ai's question. Not that he did, but seeing X talk to her he couldn't help but join in the conversation.

[starinheaven]

"Oh." Ai looked disappointed, but was soon distracted.

"What a cute Pokemon," Ai said, when she noticed Coiffe. "I'd never seen one like that... did you two come from very far away?"

She noticed X didn't much look like the Ulternian natives or the people of Kanto, either!

[closedbond]

X's quick to scan their surroundings (mostly to see if anyone matching Ai's description was nearby) before returning his gaze to her. Coiffe looked up to let out a happy quack in response.

"His name is Coiffe." He nodded over to his Quaxly. "...yeah, we both came far away from this place."

He figured it wouldn't hurt to be honest to someone as young as Ai. "Coiffe I met here, but I was told he came from the region of Paldea."

[starinheaven]

"Oh..."

Ai never even heard of that region! It must be very far away.

"Were you here for a very long time?"

[closedbond]

A very long time? He was about to shake his head but before choosing to nod his head. Being stuck here for a few months and going now would be considered a long time...

"It's been a few months now..."

[starinheaven]

"Did you never get to go back? Do you want to?"

Ai still didn't have much knowledge of how this world worked, she and Evie got a bit side-tracked talking about fairy tales!