[Voice/Action]

[flickerflash]

[This is a very comfy forest, really.  The sunlight's warm, and Katie curls up near a fallen branch and near faceplants into a patch of new spring flowers and waits for Snow White to maybe come dancing through her dreams, or Bambi, or maybe a couple rebel fighters on an awesome speeder bike chase that she can help with.  Ewoks, even.  Look, it's her dream, okay.   She'll will one of these things into existence if she can manage it.

It takes her a long while to realise she's not actually sleeping, and that's ... a little concerning.  Because to her knowledge she doesn't make a habit of going to sleep anywhere other than her very cozy bed, and she doesn't remember why she'd be out here. 

Sleepwalking.  All the way out here?  Kidnapped.  Her parents aren't rich.  By aliens.  That's a little better, but still kind of worrying.  There's a distinct level of nervous settling over her now because she's entirely alone in the middle of a place she doesn't recognise, and she's just not adventurous enough to want to be out here without any obvious way of getting home.

It's not her fault, is it?   She can't get into trouble if it's not her fault.  (Is today a school day?)

It's when she staggers upright, still yawning, that her foot catches on the edge of something and she thumps back down to earth with a startled sound, turning to glare at whatever she'd touched (why are her feet bare?), and stares at the journal lying in the grass with her name stencilled on the front.  And Katie reaches for it, because if it has her name maybe it has an explanation, and... the sight of it touches off muzzy memories of its own.  Familiar, somehow.

So she opens it.

Oh.  She knows what this is.]

[Voice]

...hello?

Comments

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

"Out here" where? What does it look like around you?

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Lots of trees! And some flowers, which are really pretty. Not really anything helpful, though.

[Though after a pause, she does add:] I do hear the river. I think. I'm heading that way.

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Oh dear, did they leave you in the forest? Good thing you're by the river, then, if you follow that it should take you right to the village.

I do hope you have somewhere to go once you're here?

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Oh, all right, then! I'll do that. [She takes a few more steps, thinking about that second part, before she adds hesitantly:] I think so. I have -- I'm staying with someone at the beach. I think.

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Are there... houses, at the beach? I hadn't thought so.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

I think there's just one. Maybe it's like a holiday house. Oh, and there's a fort, too!

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Is there really? Perhaps I should go see this some time, then. I haven't left the village very much since I arrived.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Really? Why not? There's lots of pretty things to see.

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Oh, well... I suppose I just never had a reason? And I have things I need to attend to at home, as wel.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Like what?

[Shameless curiosity.]

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

For example, hmm. Well, if I didn't cook dinner the others would have to make their own food, and that just never turns out well.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

That makes sense. Does that mean your family is here?

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Ah— no, not my family. But people that I knew before, at home.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Oh. Well, it's nice to have friends from home.

I'm Katie.

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Yes, it truly is. It's nice not to feel alone.

I'm Ayumu. Pleased to meet you.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Ayumu's a pretty name. Where's it from?

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Is it?

I'm from Japan. Kyoto, to be more precise.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Really? [She leans forward to peer into the journal window.] Is Japan really full of monsters?

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

...monsters?

Oh, well... I've certainly never met any.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Oh. Godzilla's just a movie, then? [So disappointed. And...asking the wrong person, really. |D]

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

I'm afraid I don't know what a movie is, either, but I haven't heard of a Godzilla before.

[voice]

[flickerflash]

It's a giant dragon lizard thing! And it likes to stomp on Tokyo. [Blinks.] You've never seen a movie?

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

No, I haven't. Though perhaps the Japan you're from isn't quite the same as mine?

[voice]

[flickerflash]

Oh, I'm not from Japan. I just... [Wait.] Do you think there's more than one Japan?

[voice]

[ayu_nee]

Well, there are people here from places that have the same name and sound the same in many ways, but they aren't completely alike. I suppose it's possible that there are different versions of Japan in other worlds, if... other worlds are possible to begin with.

[She does sound a little uncertain about the whole concept, though.]