(open) mission: hit the beach

[aithinkthereforeaiam]

Date & Time: July 18th-24th, Exsilium Time
Location: Sea Shore during the Late Cretaceous Period
Characters: All! Oh those pesky mandatory missions.
Summary: In lieu of the success of the space shuttle's test flight, all of the Transports have been sent back to the Cretaceous period to gather mineral supplies and volcanic rock, while doubling as a sort of 'vacation' and chance to get Transports out of the Initiative's hair. With well stocked supplies, camping gear, and more burlap sacks than anyone could possibly ever use, the Transports have been set under a protective dome and told to collect what they can... and to enjoy the sunshine.
Warnings: Shenanigans!

The overflow log can be found HERE!

It's almost surreal, the quality of color, of light, of oxygen saturation in the air once people arrive. It's so rich that the Initiative sent people back with respirators, to help ease the transition, and warned those who would listen about the effects of too much oxygen on a system.

What they don't warn for is the sheer alien familiarity of the landscape, the warmth, the roughness of the sand on the beaches. This is not the fine, sandy beaches out of vacation dreams, but a rougher, larger granule sort, with shells that might be recognizeable as ancestors to ones those from Earth would remember washing up on familiar beaches, millions of years later.

Most striking is the lack of abundant wildlife found among the fronds and leaves and foliage, or underneath the surface of the saltier, much warmer waters extending off the beach. While acting as a permeable membrane to oxygen and water, along with the sorts of phytoplankton that kept sea creatures alive, all the larger animals had been pushed out by the Initiative's installment of the safety dome. Along the transparent walls, curious creatures would come close, peer in, tap against the barrier and run off if frightened, but very few were found inside at any size larger than that of a house cat. It was for the better in the long run.

Too bad that the Initiative didn't have ultra-violet blocking technology in their shielding. For all the atmosphere is in much better shape millions of years in the past, the sun is as strong as ever, and the unwary will be burned through and through if they're not careful.

Comments

[imperfect]

[Ed shrugs.] Not that I heard about. And it wouldn't be anyone who looked like me, that's for sure. Didn't I tell you before? He was just a stranger with a face I knew, and now he's gone.

[alphonse]

[It's almost too strange to imagine, really. A kid with his face and name and yet an entirely different life and family. He's quiet for a long moment, mulling it all over.]

I'm glad it's not like that with you. In some ways, that world sounds like a worse place to be stuck than this one.

[imperfect]

[Ed is quietly glad that Al didn't ask how he knows that particular parallel version of him couldn't have been closely related to Alfons, but he still looks a shade uncomfortable as he rubs at the back of his neck.] Not at all, huh? Really?

[alphonse]

If things were more different I'd probably still be trying to convince you that I'm not completely crazy.

[There is at least one more thing he has to ask, though. Of all that he could fixate on, the genetic background of Alfons Heiderich might be what's puzzling him the most.]

Was he the only familiar person you met over there? I mean--did you ever see what his parents looked like or run into Winry or something?

[imperfect]

[Ed seems to freeze for a second before looking up; he hadn't expected the kind of answer he's used to giving to clear up absolutely everything, but he doesn't think he would have tried this tack in Al's place.] What gave you that idea?

[alphonse]

It's a lot more likely than one person being the only similarity between two whole worlds. And for him to look so much like me, it'd make sense for versions of Mom and Dad to have existed there too.

[He shrugs, intentionally casual. It's not a conclusion he'd expected to put Ed on his guard.]

Just like how you and I seem to know a lot of the same people, even if all the details might not quite match up.

[imperfect]

Well, when you put it like that... yeah, I guess.

[He frowns.]

It was like a dream... Sometimes it was just faces in a crowd. Some of them, I wasn't sure until I started seeing them almost every day. Some others, there was no mistaking it. So easy to believe someone put all of it there just for me, because I already came back alive from hell.

But about his parents specifically, I don't know. He was living on his own when I met him. And... maybe Dad was a special case, anyway. [There's hardly any trace of animosity there, although he's started to sound tired.

A moment passes before he looks up again.]

...So how about it? Still want to talk to me about crazy?

[alphonse]

I definitely can't beat that.

[It isn't just the story that makes Al sit up and stare a little more intently. He can't remember the last time he heard Ed use that name for their father, much less in such a calm tone of voice.]

If it hadn't been for all this, [He waves his hand in a fairly vague gesture.] you were really going to stay there?

[imperfect]

[It's fairly easy to notice Al sit up with the noise he makes, and Ed looks slightly sheepish. Maybe he was getting a bit too serious for a moment there.]

It wasn't that bad. Better or worse than all this, it's hard to say... But everything that matters is the same, the good and the bad. Same goes for here. It's about who you're stuck with, not where. And someone had to be. Might as well be me. I mean... it's not like we had a home to go back to on the other side, either.

[alphonse]

(Continued here)