01-06-2017, 08:07 AM
Wow.
Everything’s horribly blurry at the moment. All bright lights and reflective surfaces on buildings and glass and crystal-like materials shining in the sun…
“...She new around here, or should I be worried?” the armored man inquires, and the machine cradling me does not answer. I do, however, notice something - something familiar. A big, tacky, banana yellow car… except it’s floating, and its wheels are facing down. Weird… but cool.
“Taxi,” I remember. “Let’s… let’s go for a ride.” This request is followed by a very confused look from my current mode of transportation, but I persist. “C’mon.”
The acquired taste of chung-ka-chung meets my ears, just audible under the sounds of horns and chatter and such. Something about it is welcome - the strange, unfamiliar noise amidst the sort I almost seem to feel are normal.
Except… it’s very clear, as I look around, this place is not normal. It’s not like something I would see in a storybook, like Camelot’s rolling fields. It’s…
...The kind of thing I might hear about being the future.
Next thing I know I’m being set down on a cushy leather bench and a door’s being shut. An odd, unidentifiable scent I’ve come to just think of as leather greets my nose, and my head rests uncomfortably on the lap of a discomforted robot. “Hospital,” I request further, bleeding a little on the leather. Outside the window I notice the armored guy walking off and looking confused.
A tired-looking taxi driver looks back, his expression deadpan. “Hospital, huh?” he repeats, eyeing me with curiosity. “...Primes, aren’tcha?”
I nod, shutting my eyes and smiling a little. “Everything hurts a lot,” I add. “So… could you please go fast?”
I don’t get a reply to that. Instead I look up to who I can only very generously call my saviour. “...So, what’s your name?” I ask. “I’m Joline. But, er, I guess people call me Jojo now.”
“Colonel,” he replies. “Greetings, Joline.”
“People call me Jojo, but I guess you’re not a people,” I mumble thoughtlessly.
After a minute or so of silence, I squint. “What’s that about there? Lookin’ like ouch.exe is taking up more CPU capacity…” I add, trying to look through the windows again.
“...Suppose I can understand the logic behind that observation,” says Colonel, looking out the taxi window, and blocking out my view into his. Damn. “After all, I am a toaster in your eyes.”
He pauses for a moment and looks back to me. “Though you are a meatbag in mine.” Again, I’d normally laugh at that. But there’s something about this guy that gives me the willies… and something that makes me reeeeeally not want to joke or smile around him. Maybe it’s the whole ‘he almost killed me’ thing.
I look to the window, wondering what might be out there… what it looks like to see this place from above. It feels like we’ve gone higher than the ground - or at least that’s how it seems in my gut. A thoughtful hum from Colonel catches my attention, and a pair of large, metallic hands hoisting me into the air near the window pulls a quiet eep out of me.
And… a louder one as I peer out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city like this from above… or any city from above ever. Seeing the place like this makes me realize what a maze it looks like. I can’t even see anybody down there, and what I can see all looks so insignificant. Then there’s the colossal skyscrapers and towers.
“Gods,” I whisper. “It’s… beautiful.”
We start to descend almost comically quickly, and I immediately cling to one of Colonel’s arms fearfully. “We are landing,” he explains, sounding as though he’s speaking not to an injured person but a horribly drunk one. “We are not crashing.”
He’s about as unfazed by my reaction to this place as I thought.
I must have lost track of time, or we traveled really quickly, because before I know it, we’ve arrived. I produce a messy blob of Omnilium for the driver before we leave, and Colonel produces a more tidy and slightly more sizeable one. We emerge to face a particularly tall building with a dark but still familiar red plus above its sliding glass double doors. They part as we advance and the chung-ka-chung resumes.
...When was the last time I was in a hospital? Can’t remember...
Everything’s horribly blurry at the moment. All bright lights and reflective surfaces on buildings and glass and crystal-like materials shining in the sun…
“...She new around here, or should I be worried?” the armored man inquires, and the machine cradling me does not answer. I do, however, notice something - something familiar. A big, tacky, banana yellow car… except it’s floating, and its wheels are facing down. Weird… but cool.
“Taxi,” I remember. “Let’s… let’s go for a ride.” This request is followed by a very confused look from my current mode of transportation, but I persist. “C’mon.”
The acquired taste of chung-ka-chung meets my ears, just audible under the sounds of horns and chatter and such. Something about it is welcome - the strange, unfamiliar noise amidst the sort I almost seem to feel are normal.
Except… it’s very clear, as I look around, this place is not normal. It’s not like something I would see in a storybook, like Camelot’s rolling fields. It’s…
...The kind of thing I might hear about being the future.
Next thing I know I’m being set down on a cushy leather bench and a door’s being shut. An odd, unidentifiable scent I’ve come to just think of as leather greets my nose, and my head rests uncomfortably on the lap of a discomforted robot. “Hospital,” I request further, bleeding a little on the leather. Outside the window I notice the armored guy walking off and looking confused.
A tired-looking taxi driver looks back, his expression deadpan. “Hospital, huh?” he repeats, eyeing me with curiosity. “...Primes, aren’tcha?”
I nod, shutting my eyes and smiling a little. “Everything hurts a lot,” I add. “So… could you please go fast?”
I don’t get a reply to that. Instead I look up to who I can only very generously call my saviour. “...So, what’s your name?” I ask. “I’m Joline. But, er, I guess people call me Jojo now.”
“Colonel,” he replies. “Greetings, Joline.”
“People call me Jojo, but I guess you’re not a people,” I mumble thoughtlessly.
After a minute or so of silence, I squint. “What’s that about there? Lookin’ like ouch.exe is taking up more CPU capacity…” I add, trying to look through the windows again.
“...Suppose I can understand the logic behind that observation,” says Colonel, looking out the taxi window, and blocking out my view into his. Damn. “After all, I am a toaster in your eyes.”
He pauses for a moment and looks back to me. “Though you are a meatbag in mine.” Again, I’d normally laugh at that. But there’s something about this guy that gives me the willies… and something that makes me reeeeeally not want to joke or smile around him. Maybe it’s the whole ‘he almost killed me’ thing.
I look to the window, wondering what might be out there… what it looks like to see this place from above. It feels like we’ve gone higher than the ground - or at least that’s how it seems in my gut. A thoughtful hum from Colonel catches my attention, and a pair of large, metallic hands hoisting me into the air near the window pulls a quiet eep out of me.
And… a louder one as I peer out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city like this from above… or any city from above ever. Seeing the place like this makes me realize what a maze it looks like. I can’t even see anybody down there, and what I can see all looks so insignificant. Then there’s the colossal skyscrapers and towers.
“Gods,” I whisper. “It’s… beautiful.”
We start to descend almost comically quickly, and I immediately cling to one of Colonel’s arms fearfully. “We are landing,” he explains, sounding as though he’s speaking not to an injured person but a horribly drunk one. “We are not crashing.”
He’s about as unfazed by my reaction to this place as I thought.
I must have lost track of time, or we traveled really quickly, because before I know it, we’ve arrived. I produce a messy blob of Omnilium for the driver before we leave, and Colonel produces a more tidy and slightly more sizeable one. We emerge to face a particularly tall building with a dark but still familiar red plus above its sliding glass double doors. They part as we advance and the chung-ka-chung resumes.
...When was the last time I was in a hospital? Can’t remember...