(Untitled)

[phoinikothrix]

…ipsum erant deprehensa, respondisset dixissetque se semper bonorum ferramentorum studiosum fuisse, recitatis litteris debilitatus atque abiectus conscienta, repente conticuit.

Francis put his pen down and, with a sigh, looked at the clock. Two a.m. For the third night in a row, he couldn’t sleep. After searching the liquor cabinet in the kitchen-

Comments

[a_sport]

Calvin wasn't allowed to swim until his stitches were out, but no one said anything about wading in the surf. He was in up to his shins when there was, abruptly, a young guy behind him shouting.

He had never been particularly good at the welcome wagon job, and this one looked like a doozy. But he came over to him anyway with his hands raised in a calming gesture. His voice was pitched to soothe. "Hey, hey. Hey, you're alright."

[phoinikothrix]

For a brief, hysterical moment, Francis thought the redhead sloshing through the waves towards him was himself--a taller, lankier, frecklier him, but still--before the young man got close enough for Francis to make out his features. His heart still beating frantically in his chest, Francis looked up at the other man, his blue eyes wide.

"I think I'm having a heart attack," he said through gasping breaths. "So you'll forgive me if I disagree with you."

[a_sport]

Calvin pushed a hand through his hair as he took a breath and nodded. Not the easiest transition into island life, this one. He could tell already. "Well, if that's the case, then you should probably sit down in the shade for a bit."

He gestured up the beach a ways toward the start of the jungle where large trees provided shelter over smooth white sand. "We can make sure you aren't dying and then I can tell you about what's going on, okay?"

[phoinikothrix]

Francis debated staying where he was, hoping that if he just stayed put, whatever had happened would fix itself and he'd be back in his apartment with Richard on the line again, telling him exactly what to do. He wanted to rail at the other man for being so ungodly calm--I'm having a heart attack, I need a hospital and doctors, not a tree and someone who looks barely out of high school.

Before he could voice any amount of protest, a wave of nausea doubled him over, causing him to drop the telephone receiver beside him in the sand. Whether due to the harsh sun or his own churning stomach and racing thoughts, Francis wasn't sure, but it was enough to convince him of the merits of relocation. After getting unsteadily to his feet, he closed his eyes and swallowed hard before looking again at the man on the beach with him. "I'm not sure I'm in much of a position to complain," he said, making a sad attempt at a smile before turning and beginning to make his way slowly towards the shade.

[alittleofboth]

There was a young man on the beach wearing a tailored suit.

It had been some time since Anthony had seen anything bespoke, but he still knew it when he saw it, and he smiled, just briefly and faintly. Nevermind that the ginger looked laughably out of place, nevermind that he had the horrified expression of a recent newcomer, it was the suit that had caught his attention. And that was the reason, against his better judgment, that Anthony approached. Despite his usual distaste for the welcome speech, that was what had him curious.

"The view isn't going to change," he informed the young man dryly. "I promise it won't. No matter how much you look at it."

[phoinikothrix]

Francis had just put his cigarette case and matches--he knew he should ration the ones he'd brought, but after everything he'd learned, he'd never needed a cigarette more--back in his jacket pocket when he heard the voice from behind. "Poor excuse for a magical island or whatever this is supposed to be, then." he drawled, attempting to match the older man's tone.

[alittleofboth]

"What, you expect shooting stars, mirages, something like that? This place hasn't got that sort of imagination." He took a cigarette of his own out of a slim silver case - one of those that Guy was always rolling. "Have a light?"

[phoinikothrix]

"Something better than blazing sun and miles of water with nothing on it, at least. This just reminds me of a horrific vacation I took once." Francis stuck his cigarette between his lips before taking the matchbook back out and striking another match for the man.

[c_thomas_flood]

Tommy had recently found himself straying further from the Compound on the occasional walks he took around the island, in a quest to find something worthy to document using his spanking new typewriter, and this day had led him out onto the beach. It wasn't a place he often went. It brought the whole stranded-on-an-island-with-no-real-prospect-of-ever-leaving thing to the front of his mind and took him back to that struggle of day one.

He would have turned back at that first scattering of sand between the soil and grasses if it hadn't have been for the distressed looking guy in the shade of trees straight ahead. Tommy felt as though he had made enough noise to make his presence aware, so it was only polite to engage in conversation, check everything was okay. "Hey," he called out. "You alright over there?"

[phoinikothrix]

Francis had indeed heard the rustling in the wilderness behind him, and in a flash of panic--wild animals, of course this place has wild animals--had brandished the telephone receiver (the nearest thing he had to a weapon) at the noise.

Upon seeing the pale and slightly awkward-looking young man that emerged from the foliage, he quickly dropped his arm. "You're not--I mean, I thought you were...I'm fine," he finished lamely, an embarrassed flush beginning to heat his face. "Other than having gone in one minute from my apartment in the middle of the night to an island in the middle of the day, that is."

[c_thomas_flood]

Tommy raised his hands at the telephone-wielding stranger to show he meant no harm. "Oh. A newbie," he sighed, lowering them again and reeling to think he had been here long enough to consider other people as newbies.

"Did you just get here? I mean, am I the first person to meet you?" Tommy asked, glancing around for sight of a more experienced islander just in case explanations where in order.

[phoinikothrix]

"Yes, a newbie. I hardly think someone used to the way this place works would be threatening the flora with a broken telephone, do you?" Francis snapped, still embarrassed.

He sighed, exasperated, before continuing in a slightly kinder tone. "Sorry. And, no, you're not the first person I've met--a Calvin O'Keefe, I think his name was?--explained this place to me. Magic island, no way home, where weird things happen...do I have it right so far?"