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Neerie grabbed at the open air desperately. Later she would think back on this. What was she trying to accomplish? Her hands to grab the flashes of lightning and pull her out of her descent? The clouds beneath her to catch her, and set her down like a friendly giant? The rain and wind to work together to encase her in a bubble like the witch from The Wizard of Oz, or for them to sweep her and her plane away to a place of magic and wonder?
Instead all she felt was the rain and wind snapping at her, trying its best to rip her to shreds. The clouds offered her no support, whipping past her until they were all but gone. And the lightning struck her poor, poor plane more as it fell, fell, fell, aflame, with the rest of her crew. Her head was so far back in the sky that she didn't even notice the ocean coming closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and
Neerie passed out, right before her body slammed against the water, right as the world faded away to nothing
85 years later she was falling again.
Neerie skids to a stop at third base, shifting her weight restlessly between her feet as the adrenaline pumps hard through her blood. She looks back at the score as Gita walks up to bat, giving a very proud smile to her teammates behind her. 2-10. All from her, she was playing so damn good for once. A triple, two home runs, how much better could she be? She’s on the way to making Y… Yore-something look like an amateur.
Herc gives a small pointed nod to her to say, that’s great, now pay attention to the rest of the game . She turns her attention back towards the mound, as she sees something of horror on Gita’s face and hears a rr rrrr rrr ii ii i i pp p p p from somewhere behind her. She begins to turn back, not seeing what happened before having her feet kicked out from under her, the last thing she hears before her head hits the water being Niq yelling at them to get off the field.
Even while being washed off the field, she can’t help but shrug it off – though something in the back of Neerie’s mind knew something was wrong. She thinks, we’ve been through this flooding before, and nothing’s gone wrong. Even then, they live in Atlantis, what’s so bad about some water? She’s been through her fair share of intense currents in her life, it’s not that bad. Even then, she’s much more prepared now to deal with them.
She feels herself continuously going, going, going, and she thinks, It has to end soon right? Maybe I just need to – She tries to kick herself off the ground, holding her breath, her memories of being a normal human overtaking those of being able to breathe underwater, of being in Atlantis, no matter how long it had been. She can't find the surface though, and only feels the water push her back down. She scratches her arms and metal legs harshly on the – what was this? It wasn’t the field anymore, she was – she was… It doesn’t matter, she needs to get out, she needs to breathe. And the impact only causes her to let loose more of the small bit of air she had.
She keeps fighting upwards, trying as hard she can to break through, but the current keeps pushing her down, down, d… down? Is she going down now? She feels herself moving, twisting, turning, falling, in the water, in some direction, and she realizes that she can’t find any ground underneath her anymore, it was all just the empty, empty sea.
Her mind begins to fill with panic and she tries and tries and tries to swim towards any light, but everything looks the same around her, and she could feel the intense lack of air in her lungs more and more and more. Everything was so blurry and getting darker and darker and suddenly, suddenly , her oxygen-deprived mind brings a memory of her with Siobhan to her vision.
She remembers him guiding her around, soon after she had fallen the first time. Siobhan gently took her skittish hand and helped her with the helmet she had no need for anymore. Her fingers clamped down, terrified of drowning, of dying again, but she remembers Siobhan looking at her with kind guiding eyes, speaking in a crackling voice that wasn’t used to talking.
“It’s alright, Neerie. You’re safe here. You’re here now because the ocean wants to keep you alive, it wants to help you. You just need to trust it.”
Neerie’s memory is pushed away and replaced by the endless sea as she’s pushed further down by another current. She continues her fight for the surface, desperate for oxygen, even though she knows it isn’t necessary . It was fine, she tells herself, her mind desperate to cling onto her humanity. You’re safe here, she tries desperately, You just need to–
Before she can, her body decides to take a breath in involuntarily in an attempt to get any oxygen whatsoever, overriding any indecision she’s having.
And that’s when her sense of triumph and being untouchable truly washes away, as her lungs fill with the water and they worked just like back then, and it wasn’t fine, it wasn’t, she was going to die, it was just like when she was young when the ocean tried to take her, when she was snapped away from her family, and she couldn’t breathe and she can’t breathe and the water kept rushing in and there was nothing but the flood and she’s going to d–
Suddenly Neerie’s hand brushes up against something, a rock, something, something, and she clings on for her life, pulling it towards her or her towards it and she finally feels her head break through the water – she’s near the river’s waterside. She can’t focus on anything but getting the water out and she coughs and coughs, and coughs, tears eventually falling, until she’s certain that all the water is out and then some. She looks down and realizes that at some point she had pulled herself out of the river and onto the rocks.
After a few moments of sitting, waiting until her breath is somewhat even again, she looks around at the environment and… Yeah, she is definitely not in Atlantis anymore. She had heard whispers from other teams after their players finally came back and were able to describe what the vague Elsewhere was like. It was always gibberish, though, always too… scattered, she supposes. Too many feelings clouding their memories to tell a coherent story. But all she can remember is that everyone always mentioned a river they found themselves crawling out of.
She looks down at the river, taken aback by seeing her snotty, puffy, and bloodshot reflection in the water. Her shock quickly turns to a feeling of frustration, because of course, of course, it was just her luck to yet again be on top of the world and immediately be st… No, no, it’s no use beating myself up over this , she thinks, continuing to look more at the water itself instead. She knows how this Elsewhere stuff works by now, anyways. There’s no point in wasting time; she has to do this herself. No one was going to come and find her after this fall, not this time.
She sticks her hand in the water, and immediately notices something was very off about it. She realizes that shouldn’t be too surprising as the gods have taken to calling it “immateria,” whatever that means, and the fact that she should be able to, you know, breathe in the water. Still, it’s odd to see such clear water that doesn’t show any riverbed (if there even is one). The surface of the river reflects the fog that covers every inch of the area. She cups her hand and holds some of the water before letting it fall back into the river, and she watches the water pour from her hand in a way that was just slightly too… runny for water, somehow. Like a little bit too much of something had been added in or as if it’s permanently in a flooding rush state. And as the water makes contact with the river, it fades and dissipates, joining the fog.
Neerie follows the dissipating water with her eyes, finally fully looking up at her surroundings. She isn’t able to get much information just sitting here, the fog far too dense for her to get any clear idea of what this place is . She can see trees lining the opposite side of the river, but that was about it.
She hopes that she’s on the right side.
She stands up shakily. She has to get started, she guesses. Sooner rather than later, as well. She doesn’t want to get scattered like the others. She turns back and starts to walk, stopping for a second and looking back at the river. Oh gods, I hope I’m going the right way…
As she enters the treeline she realizes immediately that she’s in a very, very thick forest. She looks around at the trees, realizing that none are anything she recognizes (though, she’s not really any expert in plants). She guesses they were more… tropical from the pointy bark and leaves. She walks up to one, thinking, Flattery might wanna look at this, and rests her hand on part of a tree branch. She quickly jumps back in shock as the spot where her hand touches pulses through the tree in waves, the tree switching in and out of different types with each pulse, some pine, some oak, before returning to its original appearance. Okay, well, now she has to get some of this for Flattery, right?
She sets her hand down on part of a tree branch, ignoring the shifting appearances this time, and uses her other hand to snap off just the end. When she does, though, the branch immediately falls apart in her hands, dissipating and joining the fog around her as the water had. She watches it go, a bit frustrated, before walking in the same direction as it blew. Maybe wherever the breeze was going there was an exit? Or, no… Is it usually the other way around? Whatever, if something ends up being wrong, she should be able to tell. Everyone else was able to.
She picks up her pace quickly, though, feeling uneasy with how everything seems to be a part of and returning to the fog. She is part cloud, though, so maybe it isn’t so… Wait. She runs her hand through her hair cautiously, grabbing an end and bringing it to the front, where she sees that the tips of her hair had already started to dissipate into the fog.
Okay, okay, don’t panic, it’s fine, she reasons with herself as her heartbeat picks up, Even if you’re scattered or whatever it’s reversible, you have to just… just get out of here!
Neerie starts to run towards wherever the breeze was heading, not able to go too fast through the thick vegetation on the forest floor. She wonders if there was anyone else here. Who else was..? She can’t seem to remember who else had been swept away recently. Too many teams, after all. Plus, it’s her first season getting to know them, she supposes she can’t be bothered to track all of that.
As she runs, her feet hitting the ground with no noise at all, she takes another glance around. She hasn’t seen anyone, or any signs of anyone, or even any animals for that matter. Maybe everything left her all alone? Or it was just too big, yeah maybe it’s like how... Erin? A...Ankle? No… No, it was Erin, described where it lives. It’s rare to bump into something else, she said. Too much ocean, not enough… Well, she said food, but not enough of anyone else , really.
Neerie jumps over a flickering downed tree. She remembers going down there, where Erin lived, once, with Niq for… something. She can’t remember how they got there, but she remembers looking outside a research facility, out into the black ocean depths. A small bioluminescent creature swam by, sticking to the shadows, a creature with far too many tentacles and far too many teeth. It was so different from what she had been used to, on the surface or even in the parts of Atlantis she had been in by that point. She thought, though, this part of the sea… It reminded her of her time back on the surface, where she was warned that if you went too far into the forest, you may never come back out, that the creatures were far, far more ancient and dangerous the further you went in. There, as far away from land as she could be, she felt almost like she was back home on the surface. Of course, even back then she knew that she was much more at home in Atlantis than ever before.
She wonders if this forest is similar for a moment before her thinking about her surroundings causes her to become hyper aware that it was so much harder to breathe now. It was fine when I was at the river, right…? She finds she can’t remember. Maybe it was like this back there. But also maybe the fog is getting thicker, maybe she’s getting sucked in, getting more lost. She thinks about turning back, but when she looks back, she realizes she has no idea which direction she came from. Every direction looks the same as in front of her – the same trees, same plants, same everything, not even her footprints were coming from behind her despite the muddy forest floor.
She sighs frustratedly, I guess I’ll just have to go along with this . She’ll make it back soon, she will, if she has anything to say about it. It should be easy, everyone else did it.
Did… Has she already gone over this before in her head? Whatever.
Neerie decides to continue running in a random direction, as it seems like no matter what she chooses, she would be going in the same direction, anyways. While she runs, she thinks, it wasn't just her that got swept away… Yurts had been swept away too. And really, if Yurts, who's just… She sighs in frustration again. No, she doesn't want to be mean. Not to her… teammates, at least.
She thinks, Her teammates …
The more she thinks about it and the more she looks at the world around her now, the more confused and frustrated she gets with herself. Why the hell did she sign up for this? To be on this team? To take these consequences over her own self preservation?
Neerie’s feet hit hard on the ground now, still inaudible, and she smacks the branches out of her way. She knows that she’s a little bit too competitive for her own good, after all she’s had to fight quite a bit to get when she… When she… Plus, she’s heard a lot about the “great Atlantis champions.” She slides under some vines. What did she think when she signed up? That she could be as good as them? Did she think that someone who… couldn’t… She can’t remember. What couldn’t she do?
Her lapse in memory makes her stop for a second before continuing angrily as she questions herself. Well, what could she do? It’s not like she does much more than get struck out. No – no… She’s not being fair to herself, she doesn’t want to push herself down like this. She did get all of those points before she ended up here. Still, she doesn’t get what made her sign up for this splort, what made her think she could play as good as people who had been playing for millennia . Maybe it was that her teammates were all new too..? Did she even sign u–
Neerie’s thought process is interrupted as a branch hits her square in the face, knocking her back a few steps. What? She absolutely hit that out of the…
Neerie looks down at her hands and notices that parts of them had started to become a part of the fog. What..? No, that can’t b– how long was she here? It had to only have been… been… She doesn’t know. What’s happening? Is this what being scattered is? But, but… No, she has to get out of here, she has to keep on moving. She doesn’t want to be scattered, she doesn’t.
She continues her run, the fog turning more and more dense the further she goes, the humidity increasing until the water in the air turns to droplets on the plants, dripping down and causing an illusion of rain. The forestry flickers in and out, some flickering out of existence and some simply turning to different trees every other second, like the rest of the world is forgetting itself as well. She tries to think, tries to hold onto any memory that comes to mind, feeling like each fell between her fingers the longer she ran.
She remembers the last time she ran like this, outside of a game. It was when she was… somewhere in Atlantis. She was in some kinda lab, she thinks. Watching… Flattery , it was Flattery, do a small experiment or test or something when a rat– or, no it was her pet; some kinda mouse decided to jump near all of the scary equipment. And Fl… said that it was fiiiiine , that it was too smart to get hurt. And it… Did it get hurt? She can’t remember the rest, just the feeling of running and trying to grab it. She might’ve fallen over something? It was so fuzzy…
No, no, she thinks, panicking. She can’t have been gone long, this shouldn’t be happening. No, it’s fine, it’s fine, she can do this, she continuously thinks, not even realizing how much of a loop her own thoughts keep going in. What else, what else does she remember, what else …
There’s… there’s other people she plays with, she thinks, as she dodges branches, the humid air sticking to her, so much to the point she was nearly drowning in it. There was someone who was… sm… small? And green? All she can seem to remember is them running through the dugout, restless, but nothing… nothing specific. M… Maybe she just never talked to that person. Yeah, yeah, she can’t have possibly forgotten a whole person , she couldn’t have… There was… There was also… There was…
She – she has to get out of here. She needs help, she needs someone to come and get her, just like back then . Who – who helped her that one time…? What one time…? It was… She has a brief memory of someone, someone who… who…
Neerie stops.
Something was coming .
She turns around quickly, the brief thought of it being someone to help crossing her mind before realizing that it wasn’t, oh gods, what was happening?
She turns away, trying to outrun it, a small hushed voice from somewhere in her memories saying something about… about a darkness, about something, who was it…?
She feels it gaining on her, coming closer, closer, closer, and finally notices that she can’t feel any weight on her legs anymore, that she’s not dodging the branches anymore, that she’s phasing through everything in her path. That she was being sc… Something.
She takes a chance and looks back, and sees the forest behind her is solid pitch black, and she… She… She needs help, she… She knows, there was… someone… Someone who can hear her… S…
“...Sio...Siobhan…?” She calls out helplessly to the empty forest, as the forest fades away into nothing.
Neerie grabs out at the open air desperately.
What was she trying to accomplish?