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The Beach; Monday Morning

Jasper woke up face down in the sand. It wasn't a very appetizing breakfast. He eventually rolled onto his back and had to hold up a hand to block out the sun. Squinting, Jasper sat up and tried to figure out how he'd gotten there.

He remembered this weekend and that he'd been older and...vague. He remembered the sea of older faces but he couldn't find anything about who he'd been twenty years from now. For him, it was far easier to dismiss some sort of weird time travel than to grapple with not knowing what he'd be in the future. Last night, he'd remembered walking in the shadows, watching...someone? Something? He'd been trailing someone, that was a definite, but he didn't know why. He remembered thoughts of exhilaration and relief but why? Had he -- ?

No. No, he wasn't going there.

Instead, he spit some more sand out and pulled his knees up. Maybe he'd just soak up the scenery and try and forgot that he'd possibly turned himself into Dear Old Dad. Billy would be so proud.

Damn straight.

And what the crap was this Jazz stuff? Ugh.

[Open place and post. Jasper didn't become any sort of killer this weekend but I kept it vague to freak him out and to not know how his canon turns out.]

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"Want some water?" Didi asked, pausing near the boy in her stroll down the beach and holding up her water bottle. She didn't have a good reason to be there, but she seldom had a good reason to be anywhere; this was simply the place that felt right to her just now. "Drinkable water, I mean. The ocean's full of it but that wouldn't help much."

"I'm good." He was suspicious by nature plus...he just didn't want to chance swallowing anymore sand that might still be lurking. He blinked and looked up. "You doing that cliche early morning stroll on the beach thing right now?"

"I wanted to see if I could spot any dolphins," Didi said, unbothered by the suspicion. "And are you doing the cliche wake up from passing out drunk on the beach thing? You're gonna get sunburned that way."

"Wasn't drunk." He didn't think. His brow furrowed. "This is where I ended up after being twenty years older this weekend. Not sure why but I guess it's better than waking up in a gutter."

"Debatable," Didi said, brushing down some sand so she could sit by him. "Gutters smell worse, but there's no such thing as the tide coming in to drown somebody sleeping in a gutter. And -- huh. I thought the island was in a weird mood. That was it?"

She didn't sound especially bothered by the concept.

"Higher possibility of someone spitting on me in a gutter," he pointed out, brushing some sand off his shirt. "Here, I just ate some sand. Good for my diet, I guess."

Didi made a face. "Only if you're short on minerals, and they sell multivitamins for that."

"It was a joke anyway," he said, slanting a glance towards her. "I'm not gonna pick up sand eating as a hobby."

He had better, far more disturbing things to do with his time.

"And yeah, I guess this island was in a weird mood. First time for me."

"My first was being a boy," Didi said, thinking back. "No offense, but I really wasn't that into it. I was mainly glad when it was over."

She picked up a stick, started idly doodling spirals in the sand. She knew why she hadn't been 20 years older, but she wasn't quite ready to bring it up yet.

"I'm Didi, by the way."

"Jasper," he said, nodding. "And I'd rather not be a girl so no offense taken."

He'd be a terrible girl.

"You a teacher too? A doctor who is also a gourmet chef and can amputate an arm?" He'd met Dr. Lecter already.

"And also queen of Sardinia and an Olympic gold medalist?" Didi asked, arcing an eyebrow. "Nah, I work at Caritas. I have another job, but tending bar is the one that matters on the island. You're a student?"

"That's what they tell me, yeah," he said, nodding. "Junior."

You're just making new friends all over the place, ain't ya, boy? I'm proud, real proud. That'll just make it easier.

Dear Old Dad rattled around his head and Jasper shook his head subtly. "No other jobs for me."

"Focusing on your studies?," Didi asked, tone lightly teasing. "Makes sense. You have plenty of time to be a chef--slash-doctor-slash-teacher later."

"Oh yeah, focusing on my studies," he said sarcastically. "Because that's really something that's needed here."

Not that he minded not studying. It was just a change. Not what he used to. Not the norm.

"You never know," Didi said. "Maybe you found the one hard class. Maybe every class is hard for you."

She exhaled, drew a few more loops in the sand that turned one of the spirals she'd been drawing into a flower. "But no, the classes aren't really the point here, are they?"

"There's another point I'm missing?" he wondered, glancing over again. "Is it the free food for all people?"

Didi snorted. "People here," she declared, "think food is much more interesting than it is."

Of course, she technically didn't need to eat, so she was biased.

"I agree," he told her, nodding. "Besides the whole 'hey, this island is weird, are you gonna be okay with that?' talk I got, the free food was the big thing people focused on."

He liked food just fine. It'd just been weird to hear so much about it.

"Made me think it was laced with magical pixie dust or something."

"I know, but I think the food's mainly a symbol," Didi said. "It's their way of saying they welcome you. That we're all honored guests at the Fandom table. Maybe giving that to everybody is the island's pixie dust."

And then she laughed, as if to undercut the turn to philosophy.

Jasper made a face at how that sounded. "Am I about to have some existential crisis or something?"

That was just way too philosophical after waking up on a beach.

"I'm not sure," Didi said. "Were you planning on having one?"

She knew what he meant, yes.

"Maybe tomorrow," he said dryly. "I've already woken up in the sand and while this might be an ideal place for some life altering epiphany, I don't think it's gonna happen no matter how welcomed I am."

"Probably a good idea," Didi said gravely. "Today is a bad day for life-altering epiphanies. Too muggy."

Idly, she added, "Do you know why your older self went to sleep out here, anyhow?"

Edited 2015-05-18 22:25 (UTC)

"Nope." He shrugged. "No idea."

Which was disconcerting.

"Guess there were no gutters to lie down in."

"Maybe the gutters were all full of other people having existential crises," Didi suggested. "And you took the beach as a consolation prize."

"Maybe."

You knew what you were doing, Jasper.

No. Nope. "You sound like you didn't get to partake in this weekend's festivities."

Edited 2015-05-18 22:43 (UTC)

Didi shook her head. "But I'm not surprised. Twenty years isn't going to mean much of anything to me."

It was a breath. An eyeblink. She'd spent longer in the shower.

"Oh yeah? And why's that?" he asked curiously. "You immortal or something?"

His tone was joking even if he knew that, on this weird island, that might actually be true. He had to try and retain some of his skepticism though.

"Uh-huh," she said, as if it were a completely routine question. "I'm Death. My multiverse's embodiment of it, anyhow."

"Death?" Jasper repeated, sounding seriously skeptical now. "Like Grim Reaper Death? Waving A Scythe Around Like No One's Business Death?"

"More like Take Your Hand at the End And Help You Along Death," Didi said, sounding annoyed enough that it was unlikely she was lying. "Why does everybody always go for the grim reaper image? Is it comforting somehow?"

"It's common not comforting," Jasper said, shrugging and taking the whole Death thing in stride, seemingly. Or maybe he was just still skeptical. Or his brain was refusing to accept this fully so he was humoring her. "That's what what we see in almost all forms of media. Big giant cloak, no face, scythe."

"Modern myths are weird," Didi decided. She didn't really expect to be believed when she told people like this; it was more a test, and Jasper had passed because he kept talking "Destiny's the one with the big cloak and the face people almost never see. I'm just me."

"What's Destiny do, then?" Jasper wondered, picking up some sand and letting it slide through his fingers. "Give people prophecies?"

"No more than I kill people," Didi told him. "There are books and books and books that tell the story of everything that ever was or ever will be. He watches over them. He is them. And if things get off-track, sometimes he nudges them back."

She leaned back on her hands, watching the waves.

"Uh huh." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So, he's the reason people have existential crises. I'll avoid that one, if I can. I've got enough on my mind."

Didi snorted. "Don't worry. You'd have to cause some kind of major crisis for him to get involved in your life. Like, potentially-ending-more than-one-world type of crisis."

Thankfully, that's one thing he didn't think he'd be doing. Now, ending other things...he wasn't sure. The thought of that made him wince briefly but he turned away as he did it.

If Dear Old Dad got his way...

"But not you?" he eventually said. "You come for anyone, whether low level beggar to the president of the United States?"

"It's part of the job," Didi said lightly, inclining her chin in a nod. "I don't get to play favorites."

She caught the wince, wasn't sure what it meant.

Jasper wasn't going to share either. The fact that it'd slipped out at all bothered him. That wasn't supposed to happen. He had better control.

"Why are you here on this island, then?" he wondered. "Aren't there people dying right now?"

"How does somebody die in Jakarta at the same time as somebody in Paris and somebody else in North Dakota?" Didi asked in return. "I'm everywhere. This me is just a little more ...concentrated."

"Why here?" he asked again since thinking of her as some...spiritual, omnipotent entity would make his brain hurt. "You chose this island because of it's so welcoming?"

Really?

"I went to school here," Didi shrugged. "Or a human aspect did, anyhow. I know people. It's interesting. It feels right."

Really.

"Why did you choose it? You already told me it wasn't the food."

He hadn't chosen it. It'd been chosen for him. Melissa Hoover hadn't done her research though. And he'd just silently rub that in her face.

"It was as good a place to go as any," he answered vaguely. "But I'm also not some condensed version of an all powerful entity."

"No, but I bet there's an interesting story somewhere in there," Didi told him. "Never met anybody here without one."

She wasn't going to explain her choice further. Being here made sense to her,and that was what mattered.

"Nothing interesting," he answered, shaking his head. "It was just a place to go. I grew out of my old school and came to this one as a substitute. Small town boy with little to no choices."

"There're always choices," Didi said. "Sometimes they aren't very good ones, is all. So you left your small town for ... a really small town?"

"Why go to New York when you can come...here?" he asked, gesturing to the ocean and everything around it with an arm. "At least this is something I'm familiar with."

"Some people would say, why stick to what you know when you can have New York?" Didi shrugged. "I like New York. A lot, actually. Here just ... works for me right now."

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The Beach; Monday Morning

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