I gotta have faith.

[up_off_thefloor]

It had been a really weird day.

Eric had been to a lot of weddings (mostly his mother's) and he was pretty sure they weren't supposed to be so, well…funereal. Oh, the wedding had been beautiful of course. Lily van der Woodsen-er, Lily Bass, now-wouldn't have anything less than a beautiful wedding. She had lots of practice, if nothing else. But

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[turnthebadinme]

Serena was hardly any better off, wandering through island life in a daze of unhappiness. Though she'd begun to affect her usual cheer again, the stress had made its mark on her. Georgina just wanted to play, and Serena was already sick of the game.

She wasn't far enough gone, though, for hallucinations, and as she walked down the path toward the Compound, the sight of her brother was an overwhelmingly welcome one. Picking up speed, her face brightening, she dashed toward him and threw her arms around his neck. "Eric, oh my god," she sighed, relief heavy in her tone. "Oh, thank god, you're here."

[up_off_thefloor]

Eric hugged Serena back automatically, though the shellshocked look never left his face. "Uh...Serena? Where is here?" he asked in a small voice, clinging to her. He was starting to get hot in his tux, but even that wasn't enough to make him let go of his sister.

[turnthebadinme]

That was just as well, because Serena wasn't yet ready to let go either, her hands still resting on his shoulders. "It's an island," she said. "And everything I'm about to tell you is going to sound totally insane, I know, but I promise, it's all true, okay? It's called Tabula Rasa and people just... appear here and no one knows how or why, but you're here and I missed you so much." She'd only had to explain twice before, and it was sort of bewildering to be telling Eric all this. His presence was far too distracting. With everything that had happened lately, she'd wanted to see him almost as much as she'd been sure she never might again.

[up_off_thefloor]

None of it made sense, but it's not like Serena would lie to him. Not ever. "You realize how effed up that is, right? I mean it's not like things like this happen..." his voice trailed off with a shaky sigh as he fought a fresh wave of panic. "So now what?"

[sommer_tobi]

There hadn't been anyone there a second ago, Tobi was sure of that. But, in the second it'd taken for him to blink, there had been.

"Hello?" he said tentatively as he slowed his jog to a walk and approached the boy cautiously. As long as Tobi had been there -- nearly a year now -- he'd never seen anyone just materialize in front of him. It was disorienting, to say the least.

[up_off_thefloor]

Eric jumped at the sound of an unfamiliar voice, turning to look at him. "What--what's going on? Who are you?" he asked in a voice that wasn't quite steady. "How did I get here?"

[sommer_tobi]

Tobi made sure to stay right where he was when the boy jumped and held up a hand to show that he wasn't about to attack him or anything like that.

"My name is Tobi," he said clearly, easily, already wondering just how he was going to explain everything. "You are-- I do not know how you got here. No one does. You are on an island now."

[up_off_thefloor]

"Um." There wasn't really much else Eric could think of to say to that. He blinked in confusion and shook his head. "No, see--I was at a wedding. In New York. This...is not New York."

[heir_of_l4]

Ahimsa was quite proud of her ability to find things, but after the incident with Trowa's circus mask, Quatre had developed a certain caution about it. However, when he took her for a walk and she came racing back toward him, he followed her all the same, all the way up to where it appeared a party had materialized in the middle of the playground and then been abandoned by all the guests mid-stream.

All but one, anyway. "I'm sorry--" Quatre began, the standard introduction for any conversation with him. "Are you all right?"

[up_off_thefloor]

"I...don't think so," Eric admits weakly, looking distressed as he turned to face the newcomer, clutching the back of his chair. "In fact I'm pretty sure I'm a long way from all right." Because this just didn't happen. People didn't go from the UES to some strange tropical locale in the literal blink of an eye.

[heir_of_l4]

"Oh, dear." Quatre hurried toward him. "You've just arrived, haven't you? It's a terrible shock."

[up_off_thefloor]

"Uh. Yeah. I'm not really sure where, or why, but I'm not where I was a minute ago," Eric answered with a sigh.

[wizard_errant]

Dairine's sitting on one of the swings when the air shivers, and the remains of a party--wedding reception, maybe?--appears a few feet from the merry-go-round. With a blond guy in a tux looking sort of depressed.

"Hey," she says. "Way to make an entrance."

[up_off_thefloor]

Eric whirled around, gripping the back of his chair. "I--didn't mean to? I'm not actually sure what just happened, honestly."

[wizard_errant]

She hops off the swing to head toward him. "Yeah, didn't figure it was on purpose. Unless you really, really wanted to get out of that party."

[up_off_thefloor]

"Well, the wedding was already done, so..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Wait, that's not important. I mean it is, but it's kind of overshadowed by, uh...where am I?"

[patriotqueen]

Guy didn't often visit the playground. He passed it, yes, and let it be what it was.

How different it was today.

The playground had suddenly been given a large disgustingly expensive looking table with food and drinks and completely unnecesary decoration. At it was one chair, with one confused looking young boy. "Did you just drop in?" Guy asked, his eyes looking over the table for an appropriate bottle.

[up_off_thefloor]

"Uh...I guess?" Confused was definitely accurate. "I mean, there wasn't a lot of dropping that I noticed, but--" He turned in a circle, surveying his surroundings before finishing quietly, "This is definitely not the Palace."

[patriotqueen]

An American accent, and a talk of a Palace; it sounded more typical than healthy. Guy arched an eyebrow as he walked along the table and took a glass. "How awful that you were brought to this place right in the middle of an evening dining with Royalty."

[up_off_thefloor]

"What?" Eric looked even more confused for a moment. "No." He laughed a little as he realized what the man meant. "The Palace hotel. My mom just got married, and..." And what? He didn't know what had happened, why he was here, where he even was.