[M] Paper Flowers

[The Gypsy Queen]

It was the silence that woke her before anything else. The absence of sound was so pervasive, so eerie, it was jarring to her. She woke, staring up at a sky that was surreally blue, which was immediately odd. Her ceiling in her apartment was beige, not blue. A blue ceiling was terribly tacky, she thought. And then she realized that it couldn’t be a ceiling, it was too far away. It was a sky she was staring at.

She sat up in a field of flowers. Color spread out before her, and as she blinked blearily and struggled to adjust, it seemed to go on forever. As her eyes finally adjusted, she could make out a bright green tree line and blue mountains in the distance. She immediately felt like she’d been dumped on the set of Sound of Music, although she’d be damned if she sang a single note.

The colors were so intense it momentarily shocked her out of wondering where she was and how she had gotten there, but that moment passed all too quickly, and when it had, she felt her heart and breath rate quicken. She scrambled to her feet, relieved to see she was still dressed in her jeans and Foo Fighters tee-shirt, and even still had her red Converses on. She racked her brain for an explanation.

She remembered heading out to her favorite bar with one of her employees. She remembered the tab she opened and her favorite waitress who knew to keep the drinks coming. She remembered drunkenly singing classic rock songs on top of a table.

Had someone drugged her drink? When had she left the bar? And who was she with when she had? She searched her pockets for her cell phone, her wallet, anything familiar, but came up empty handed. She finally squatted down amongst the flowers, head in her hands, struggling to think. It didn’t matter really how she’d gotten where she was, the important thing was about getting out.

As she crouched a flower caught her eye. Something about it seemed strange, so she reached out to touch it. And then suddenly she realized why it was so brightly colored and stiff.

It was made of paper.

Beyond the flower, she saw a human shape on the ground, lying prone. Her heart leapt into her throat again as she scrambled toward the figure, hope and fear rising simultaneously in her chest.

“ Hey,” she said, her voice low and urgent as she got close. “ Hey, wake up!”

[Kiall]

Stephen groaned feeling someone shaking him. “urggh naaaaaghgaa!” he cried out shaking the hand away. Why was it so bright blearily he opened his eyes. He looked and saw a dark haired girl with a bunch of tattoos on her arms, she was pretty hot he thought standing up and smiling awkwardly.

“Uhh, oh hi!” he stammered, he then realized there was probably a bit of silver pain on his upper lip and quickly rubbed it away with the sleeve of his jacket. Everything was so bright! It was giving him a headache. The grass didn’t feel right, almost like…paper?

What was going on? This wasn’t a dream, he knew that. He could feel the aching in his joints and he was usually naked in his dreams… He remembered getting back from work, listening to his cassette player playing his only cassette one he found one day titled ‘Best of the Eighties.’ He then went to his crappy apartment, huffed a bunch of silver paint and passed out early so the cats outside wouldn’t keep him awake when they started mewling. He turned back to the woman who had woke him up “Hey uh…pretty woman person… where are we?”

[Lerouge]

I started out as just another average day when Eddy had woken up that morning. He was laying in the soft bed of a female who’s name he could not for the life of him recall and after quietly slipping out of bed and into his clothes he gained his second prize. His bright blue eyes located almost instantly her previously discarded purse and had removed her I.D. and a few select credit cards before escaping into the sunlight of the day never to be seen again. Grinning like a fiend, he splurged on an actual lunch with his ill-gotten gains and proceeded doing whatever the hell he felt like.

This was the basic start of every single one of his mornings and his life was simply a slew of legs, breasts, and money as far as his eyes could see. No one expected the sweet talking Edward to be anything more than a pretty face who always knew what to say. He could almost see the wedding bells reflected in the eyes of the females he meets, then he would make his move. All it took was a simple flick of the wrist and his hand would be in the woman’s purse and he would quickly extract the cash she had on her at the time. They would drink a bit more, just enough for numb the senses to the real world before suggesting that he had to go home and sleep due a meeting in whichever fake company he had created for the event. That is when things would get interesting.

She would reach for her purse to pay for her drink with a broken spirit thinking that their casual flirting was simply that and the nice guy before her would totally not be willing to go home with her. With the intent to gain a number she would open her purse to find all of her cash gone and instantly begin looking around the room in a panic. Eddy almost laughed out loud at how easy it was each and every time as he would show her comfort at offer both to pay for her drink and escort her home, of course with her own money. It was easy as one-two-three… always has been and always will be. Now he would be free to enjoy thee rest of the day before beginning the pattern all over again, or so he thought.

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Eddy awoke slowly and almost instantly had to close his eyes once again from the brightness that he had felt. A gentle groan escaped his lips as he first assumed that he had fallen asleep on some bench and was about to be awoke to the afternoon sun frying his skin, yet he could not feel any heat hitting him. Lifting a hand to cup his eyes and offer them some shade he opened his eyes once again and allowed them to adjust to the light. It took a few moments before his mind finally began to comprehend everything around him and his first thought was that this was a really strange dream.

“What the hell…” He muttered softly as he took in his surroundings only adding to his theory of this being a dream. “Dream in technicolor I guess…” Eddy took a gentle sigh and walked out from under the tree that he was leaning against and out into the center of the field. He was surrounded on all sides by the most beautiful flowers he had ever seen and it seemed as if every kind of flower that one could imagine was gathered here. The beauty of it all was breath-taking and he thanked whatever part of his mind created this place.

“Hey… Hey! Wake up! He heard from nearby and turned to look for the source of the sound. At first he didn’t see anything, but then after looking a bit more carefully saw a brunette who was hidden from view by the tree he was leaning again. A smirk crossed his face as his curiosity got the better of him and he moved forward to lean against the trunk of the tree to watch her. Her figure was very appealing and the tattoos that he could see on her arm made her stand out even more against the brightness of the background that she was surrounded by. He watched quietly as she made her way over to another person laying a few feet away and attempted to wake him.

Hey uh… pretty woman person… where are we?

“In a dream obviously.” He replied to them as he walked forward from the shade he had found and placed both of his hands into his pockets. “A rather amusing one if I do say so myself, although I don’t think I have dreamed of people I haven’t met before.” Another smile crossed his face as his eyes glanced up and down the females figure. “Nor have I dreamed of someone so attractive. I do hope we get to know each other a bit better before I wake up.” He added with a wink before chuckling softly. “Anyway, who the hell are you two supposed to be anyway?”

[FullMetalBecca]

Clarity's eyes felt gummy and stuck together with day old mascara and false lashes-- making it even more difficult to open them to the bright light that awaited. Her body felt stiff and ached with the bumps that come from what felt like a barroom brawl...maybe.

The ground crumpled beneath her with sharp edges and when her sight adjusted she saw flowers and blades of grass that brought to mind origami playthings. To some beautiful, to her frivolous and rough against her skin. It all felt unbelievable really.

Only hours before, or perhaps more, she sat on a stoop outside Ace's smoking a cigarette and making small talk with a chick she just met named Gina. First night waiting for her mark, Cody Bryant and his crew. A job she privately named, "Diary of a Fly Girl." Had she run into him and screwed the pooch? Could they see right through her facade of tight ripped denim and tacky lip liner?

"No, I'm too good for that," she thought, "Worked too hard to make a mistake on my first undercover gig...right?"

As she sat up the colors came more to life and an overwhelming sense of surreal pressure weighed down upon her rational mind.

"What kind of gangbanger keeps a playground of discarded art projects?" As the unspoken thoughts tried to make sense of what she saw, her left hand checked for her .40 calibur.

Missing.

She stuck her hand in the pocket of the leather jacket covering the lace and structure of the black bone corset her partner coined as one hot disguise. What she found was her badge was gone too as well as phone and compact mirror. It was a toss up between what she missed the most.

At least it wasn't pitch black and she heard talking.

From the tail end of their brief introductory conversation, Clarity decided they were just as confused. Her head nodded in a suspicious fashion in agreement with the last comment made before walking up to the group.

"Hey! What's goin' on here?" she drawled in her Texan accent.

[mere]

Fake

Mick could think of only that word awoke face-down on the ground. The grass tickled his lips as he slightly shook his head side to side, noticing the odd texture of the grass. It felt oddly smooth and, well, like paper. After a moment, he realized it was paper. All of it was. The blades of grass he lay on weren't actually blades of grass, but bits of paper shaped like grass. The thought took a moment to sink in, but it was certainly true.

A Voice

Mick turned his head to the direction of the sound, sitting up. It was a women's voice, though he needed a moment to collect himself before he stood up to find out what had happened.

Think, Mick, what were you doing before you awoke here

It was a bit hazy, actually. He remembered driving home from his shift, listening to some metal, Trivium, maybe, he wasn't really sure. The time was maybe 10:45 PM when he pulled into his cramped garage, hardly able to get the door open without it hitting the wall. He entered the quit household, not bothering to turn on the television and going to bed. Nothing special or exciting there. Maybe he needed to think further back.

Maybe there is no explanation

Mick toyed with this possibility for a moment, decided to not jump to the idea so soon. He tried to remember if anything odd had happened during the day. Nothing immediately popped up, but their had to be some sort of reason he was here. Even the smallest of oddities would help at this point.

Maybe it was, no, too insignificant. Possibly, no, that's not it.

His memory was too hazy to remember his day clearly. He must have been drugged or possibly kidnapped, though those ideas were a long shot. He had only a coffee this morning and a drink of water during the day, right out of the newly opened bottle. He then realized he had only a bagel that entire day, and felt a bit hungry. Mick quickly distinguished the thought of food and tried to think of anyone who had a significant dislike for him. Sure, some people didn't appreciate his sometimes disturbing commentary, it was nothing serious to send him off to this place. He pondered through other possibilities, but in the end, he decided to see if the others had any idea, and he also began to feel a bit lonely. He brought himself to his feet and casually walked over to where he had heard the voice.

A male's voice.

So at least two people, now. Mick examined the scene before him and noticed not only the male and the female, but also multiple others on the ground, and one person rising to meet the others. He moved closer until he was next to the other people that had awoke. The male and female who he had heard earlier both liked like the type he would keep his eye on during guard duty. He decided against having opinions on them without an idea of who they are, however.

"Now, would anyone have an idea of where we are? And if not, how about some names?"

[goldgall]

Vera groaned loudly as she awoke, her first reaction to the pain in her back. Without opening her eyes, she felt around for her glasses which she kept hung on her neck. She put them on and opened her eyes, wincing slightly at the sudden brightness.

"Now why was I sleeping on the ground?" she muttered to herself, rubbing her aching back. She was lucky that her back wasn't as bad as most people her age, but it still hurt when she slept on the floor.

Vera stood up and looked around. She blinked and cleaned her glasses to make sure she wasn't seeing things. There were fields and fields of rolling green hills dotted with flowers, and in the distance she could make out a green line against the horizon that she assumed were trees. The sky was a clear shining blue and a gentle breeze blew across her face.

She huffed. "I'm dead, aren't I?" she said loudly. "Well if this is heaven it's a poor excuse for one. Just because I'm sixty-five years old doesn't mean I like nature" she grumbled.

She took another look around and spotted some other people. She walked over to them in an exaggerated hobble. "So who are you, then? Dead people or the ones that run this place?" she asked, looking over the five of them critically. Two women, three men.

"Well you sure don't look like angels, so I'm guessing you're dead as well" she said grumpily. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can complain, would you? I've never heard of an afterlife where you can feel pain--apart from Hell that is, but I don't see any fire and brimstone" she said, looking around as if she expected an angel to pop up and take her complaints.

She wasn't usually this grumpy, but she had woken up dead (or so she thought) without so much as a warning! And to top it off, she was dumped in this shoddy excuse for an afterlife with an aching back.

[SilentOne]

"This isn't right."

The young man in grey basketball shorts and a black hoodie sat, collapsed on his knees. All around him, he found grassy plains that waved and crinkled like leaves. Above him, a blue sky- like a dome draped with a blue sheet. And beneath him, he sat on what appeared to be a cardboard box, littered with thousands of minute holes. He winced and acknowledged his hands, as they glistened pink from a few ferocious papercuts, but not much else gave way to signs of progressive consciousness. He just simply sat and stared at the "ground" beneath him, where he ripped all of the grass from in a waking daze.

Blades upon blades of grass blew away in what felt like an artificial wind, brought on by the click of a switch and the blades of a fan. The paper green fluttered in the distance, crinkling scraping against the other grassblades in the ground.

"This isn't right," he repeated, still in a daze from awaking not even moments earlier. "This isn't right."

He sat upright and looked around, eyes dim and mouth slightly agape. Sound. Voices. People.
He sighed and and stood warily; after all, what if it was just his head again- playing tricks on a mind too weary to understand.

[The Gypsy Queen]

The youngish guy on the ground in front of her had called her pretty, which momentarily stunned her long enough to miss the fact that people seemed to be springing from the far-too-hard ground. Everyone was talking at once, it seemed and she was briefly overwhelmed. One statement stuck out at her, though.

“ Dead?” she nearly yelped, her attention on an older lady. “ I can’t be dead, no no no nonono. I’ve got things to do, I haven’t even been to Paris yet!” She checked her pulse, and then reached to grab the wrist of a nearby guy, the second one who had spoken, and sighed in relief.

“ No, I’ve got a pulse, so does he. We can’t be dead. Right? Dead people don’t have a pulse… and they don’t feel pain. Right?” she nodded, convincing herself more than anyone else. “ So… not dead…” she pinched herself. “ Not dreaming. None of you look like kidnappers… so what the hell?”

She got to her feet for a better look around… the presence of other people, especially other women, was greatly comforting. But none of them seemed to know anything either and that was disconcerting.

She looked more closely at their surroundings now. It looked too big to be indoors but too fake to be outdoors. As she took a few steps to get a better look at what she thought was mountains in the distance, she tripped over something. She’d never been the most graceful person, so she felt her cheeks color as she went head over heels into the plastic/paper-like grass.

“ Ow,” she muttered, looking for what had tripped her. She found it near her feet, a white plastic square with red letters. “ Oh hey, guys, look at this.” She called for the others, pointing at what could only be an exit sign. It had an arrow pointing off towards the trees. She felt inordinately pleased with herself. As she sat on the hard ground, though, she spotted something moving in the trees behind the group. When she looked again she couldn’t see it, but she felt the hair on the back of her neck raise, an eerie sense of being watched gnawing at her belly…

[Kiall]

Stephen watched dumbfounded as the group of people continued to grow. Right now there were three dudes, two chicks, and some gross old lady..no one knew each other or how they got here and everyone had different ideas on why. One had said this was a dream while the other had said it was because they were dead. He scratched his head, his fingers digging through his dirty hair to his skull, he certainly didn’t feel dead or dreaming. Finally he pulled himself up, and brushed off the weird paper grass. Moving to the side he searched his pockets. He had a lighter, some lint, ooh! And his walkman! With his one cassette tape, something he had found one day that said ‘Best of The Eighties’ on it. He was halfway tempted to place the earphones in and just drone out the rest of the group, but thought better of it.

He watched the woman trip over the strange sign, he had no idea what it said, he couldn’t read so he just focused on helping her up. “Hey if it wasn’t you it probably would’ve been me,” he said as a conciliation offering her a hand to help her up, he looked at the sign which was pointing to the trees and wondered what it could be…what were important about trees? Oh wait! “Hey uhh..sorry still don’t know your name,” he said to the woman he had helped up, “You think maybe there might be something delicious on those trees? Like…fruit or something? I’m gonna go see!” he said before eagerly moving off to explore.

[goldgall]

Vera frowned. The woman seemed slightly hysterical to her, but she was making some sense. "I suppose..." she trailed off reluctantly.

The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Dead people didn't feel pain, and she was certain that if she were in the afterlife then the ground wouldn't be so hard. Speaking of the ground....

She frowned, recalling the scratchy texture of the grass and flowers. She picked a flower that had stuck to her coat and examined it closely. It was made of paper. She stared at it for several moments, trying to think of an explanation. Finally, she sighed and tossed the flower aside, looking up just in time to see the woman trip over an exit sign.

"I don't think--" she started, then stopped, shaking her head exasperatedly when one of the young men went for the trees.

"I don't think it's a good idea to follow it" she repeated, looking skeptically at the sign. "It's rather obvious that whoever put us here did it for a reason, and I don't think they want us to escape" she finished.

She had made up her mind that this was a trap of some kind. Something orchestrated by one of the higher powers--God or the Devil or whoever ran things up there. But she had also decided that whatever had put them here had done it purely for entertainment value.

She walked over to the sign and critically tapped it with one manicured nail. "I'm going in the opposite direction" she announced, then paused.

"But wait, where are my manners!" she exclaimed, grinning slightly. "I'm Veronica, but you lot can call me Vera. Now, I think it's best we work together to get out of here" she said strongly.