Issue 1 Downtime

(Open thread)

The common room was filled with bubbles.

To be fair, they weren't actual bubbles, just projections. Lily's avatar was hovering in the middle of the room, blowing multi-colored bubbles that drifted through the room.

Alex looked around as he walked in, trying to pop a bubble and (obviously) not being able to. "Okay, that's new..."

"Oh, wonderful," Lily 'says', her voice being telepathic instead of vocal, "New setting. New characters."

Drifting over to Alex, she looks him over, "And who do we think you are?"

Huh? "I'm... um... Alex," he said, a little thrown off by the odd way she was talking.

"A conqueror!" Lily exclaims, clapping her hands together, "Fun, fun, fun."

"I'm Lily. I'm a flower," Lily says, "...No yonic symbolism intended."

"Well, I don't... know that I'm a conqueror..."

"A wishy-washy conqueror. Interesting," Lily says, floating around Alex in circles, "And who's your friend? A fellow Macedonian?"

What's wrong with this girl?

She's pretty, though. Even if she's not really here...

"What friend?" he asked, a little confused.

"Um, hi." Aisha said "You can see me?"

"Of course, but that's not who I'm talking about. I meant, Tweedledee right there," Lily says, pointing in a vague direction next to Alex.

"Oh, hi, Aisha," Alex said, glancing (uselessly) back toward where her voice came from. "How've you been... um... wait, what?" He looked back toward Lily, confused. "THere's... just me."

The bubbles fade away and Lily produces a pair of bifocals, a pen, and a notebook from out of nowhere.

"Very interestink," Lily says, scribbling in her notebook before floating over to Aisha.

"You're cloudier then most characters," Lily says, looking right at Aisha, "What do you stand for?"

"I'm a person." Aisha said "I'm invisible, usually. I am invisible, right?" she asked Alex.

"Yeah, you're invisible," Alex confirmed. "She thinks I'm two people, though, so... yeah."

"You are two people, even if you don't know it."

"If you're invisible does that mean you don't want to be seen or you feel like you aren't seen?" Lily asks Aisha.

"As for you, we're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."

"It means that people don't see me." Aisha said "Most of the time."

"That's a very boring interpretation," Lily points out.

"Well, how would you interpret it?" Alex challenged.

"That's what I'm trying to do," Lily says, rolling her eyes, "And I'm not being mean. I'm just curious, but if it bothers you I'll drop it."

"I... what? No one said you were mean..."

Oh god, this is too weird...

"No one that you can see or hear, anyway," Lily says, sitting cross legged, "Isn't that interesting?"

"I'll... take your word for it," Alex said. "So... where are you from?"

"Excuse me, but I DO actually exist."

"The City of Angels," Lily says, offhandedly to Alex.

"Of course you exist," Lily says, "That doesn't mean anything. A dream exists. A memory exists."

"Yeah, but I can actually touch her. Or... Er... Could if that wasn't impolite," he quickly amended.

"I exist outside of people's thoughts."

"Every dream thinks their real," Lily says, "That's what makes them interesting."

"But, if it really bothers you, I'll pretend you're real," Lily says, "It doesn't get us anywhere to argue whether or not someone's real or not. It just goes around in circles."

As Lily talks, a pinwheel appears in her hand and slowly begins rotating.

"Don't take it personally," Alex whispered to Aisha. "I don't think she's... all there."

As Alex whispered to Aisha, Lily started rotating counter to the direction of the pinwheel in mid-air.