☠ 01

[mansons.livejournal.com]

[Sam walks onto the Plane for the first time and, after a few steps, completely freezes.]

Whoa. ... Okay, who turned off the sun and strung up the stars? [She takes a sloooow look around.] I mean... it's pretty and all, but isn't it kind of impractical for a shop? Makes it hard to see the merchandise. Though, I guess there's enough light anyway...

[Aaaand, then she looks down. Cue mild freakout.] Aaaah! Wh-whoa, where's the ground?! How the heck am I walking?! ... Alright, I must be dreaming. [She pinches herself] Ow.

[With that, she clenches her fists and throws her head back to yell:] Aaah, this is so confusing!

Comments

[ghostlighter]

[... are you SERIOUS? What in the—]

Sam?

[mansons.livejournal.com]

[She turns toward the voice... and looks rather surprised.]

Christopher? Hey, what are you doing here?

[ghostlighter]

I was going to ask you the same thing. But... it's actually kind of obvious. That store you saw? Leads here.

At least... [small shrug] the first time.

[Headshake.] It's called the Astral Plane. Kind of like the Ghost Zone, but for realities instead of those doors.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but then, what were you doing in the store? I'd think you'd be doing... other things or something, not shopping...

[She tries to take the rest of that in but... well, come on, it does sound a little crazy.] A Ghost Zone for realities? How does that work?

[ghostlighter]

Uh, it's a weird store that mysteriously appeared with no real explanation or even acknowledgment. I wasn't going in to check out its sales.

[Girl, your future boyfriend best friend is a HALF-GHOST. Who fights OTHER GHOSTS. Who range from the Box Ghost to a rock star to... well. Vlad.] It just does. Think about going home to get there, and do the same thing to come back, by the way.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

[Really? She was.] I guess that makes sense. I thought it was just a new shop in town...

Just... think about it? ... [she considers for a moment.... and then vanishes from sight.]

[.... And then reappears, looking shocked all over again.] I'm really not dreaming.

[ghostlighter]

Uh... huh. Did anyone else mention seeing it around before?

[He nods.] Yeah.

[shatteredqueen.livejournal.com]

You really needn't yell. It's terribly impolite, my dear.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

Huh?! Oh. Sorry!

... Wait, uhm. What's going on here?

[shatteredqueen.livejournal.com]

It isn't obvious?

Well, no, I suppose it wouldn't be. You're on the Astral Plane. It's a hub of some sort between universes, or so I'm led to believe.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

Because that's an obvious answer. Really, the first thing I'd think of when I'm suddenly standing in space.

[shatteredqueen.livejournal.com]

The obvious answer is, of course, you're not being in a shoppe anymore. And I can see that believing you're still browsing the merchandise strikes you as the far more logical response to standing in space than something a bit more probable.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

... This sounds like a bunch of theoretical, relativistic science. Or science-fiction. Or something.

[harmonixerdemon.livejournal.com]

It's the Astral Plane, you'll get used to it.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

This is a pretty weird something to get used to.

[harmonixerdemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess it is. But it's useful and it's really not that bad most of the time.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

"Most of the time"? And, how is it useful? It's just... stars.

[harmonixerdemon.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the Twins decide to run weird experiments on people, or they mess with your world.

It's useful because no time passes back home while you're here. You can get back home by thinking about it. Coming back here works the same way.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

You mean those twoI saw in the shop? This is their fault?

... Huh. Wow, that is useful.

[usagipino]

[A little girl in a pink bunny suit takes a flying leap and lands directly in front of Sam.] Hiiiiiiii!

[mansons.livejournal.com]

What- [startled!] Aah!!

[usagipino]

Hi! Pino is Pino! Are you new? Pino hasn't seen you before.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

Pino is-- huh? ... Oh! I'm Sam. And, yeah, I guess I'm new. In that I've never, ever seen this place or anything like it before. Ever.

[usagipino]

It's the Astral Plane! It's nice. Pino has lots of friends here.

[mansons.livejournal.com]

The Astral Plane... [She takes another look around... and then shakes her head.]

So, how long has, uh, Pino been here?