Young Writers Society

Rose seemed to freeze a little, unsure of what to do or really how to even handle the situation, from the womens eyes to that strangely calm demeanor, something made her feel greatly uneasy, not to mention this talk of 'cracks'

"Some answers would be nice, we did go through the trouble of dragging you out of the water after all." She said, her eyes narrowing at the women.

The woman sat up abruptly, almost effortlessly.

"And I thank you for that! This is the first place I have ever been in the flesh. Here, where we are, is one of many havens in the ocean of time. You are on an island! An island of remembrance, meant to be remembered in somber silence."

She blinked, staring out a little past Rose. "Maybe we should go to a different island... we've kind of ruined its purpose."

Then she stood up.

"Oh well. Nothing to be done. Nothing to be done." She turned to Jay.

"Jay. You drank the water first. Thirsty?"

Jay stared.

"Curious."

The woman's eyes lit up and she smiled, clapping her hands together.

"Oh! I love a group that is curious."

"Do you live here?" asked Claire. She thought that maybe the woman could help them find their way home.

“Live here? Oh that’s such an odd question. Hmm. Lived here.” The woman pouted her lips in thought for a moment. “This is the first place I’ve lived, only just now, with all of you! Lived in the sentient, I’m-in-a-body sense. Does that make sense?”

Meanwhile, Jay stared at her, slow-blinking.

”Barely,” he drawled. “Who even are you? Do you even have a name?”

The womans eyes lit up and she clasped her hands together with a joyful smile. “A name! A name! Oh I’ve never chosen a name before! Okay. One moment. Let me think.” She closed her eyes for barely half a second.

“Wilson,” she said. “Call me Wilson!”

If Jun was a little more petty, she might have given the others a pointed look and uttered a quiet "I told you so" under her breath when the woman gave her response. She had to be a spirit - why else would she be acting so odd?

"That's a nice name," Jun said, giving Wilson a smile. Her smile faltered for a moment as she tried to wrap her head around what Wilson had just said. "And I, er, don't really understand what you're talking about. You make it sound like you're not normally like..."

She gestured at all of Wilson.

"...this," she said. She wished Iroh was here; he would know what to do.

Wilson smiled. "I'm not! This is my first time being in a body. It's so interesting, being only in one place." She looked down at her hands, flipping them up and down, inspecting them.

"Hmm... Jun. I like your name. Claire is pretty too. You're all very pretty. Pretty people! I am glad you exist."

"I don't think we belong in this world, Wilson," Claire replied. "It is beautiful here, though."

Jun wasn't really sure Claire's question was going to get through to Wilson; Wilson didn't seem like she thought the same way they did.

She bit her lip. She didn't want to act on the guess she had all along, but what if she was right? It was probably good to confirm that Wilson was a spirit. It didn't explain how they were going to get out of this, but it gave them a slightly better idea of what they were dealing with.

"...Are you a spirit?" she hesitantly asked.

Jay stood to the side, watching as "Wilson" answered their questions in a cryptic, strange way. He was convinced that she wasn't human, but he didn't know what she was. She seemed completely out of touch with the way people communicated, and what they were actually trying to get at.

Wilson looked from Claire to Jun, here eyes wide and innocent, like she genuinely didn't understand.

"Oh?" Wilson said quietly. "I'm not a spirit." She giggled, shaking her head and waving a hand dismissively. "Your world's spirits are a lot different from me. I'd be bigger if I was."

Then Wilson looked to Claire. "Do you like it here?" she asked. "I can make it more comfortable if you'd like. Maybe the crickets would like to sing you a song!"

Jay bristled.

"We don't care about being comfortable here," he cut in before Claire could. "We want to go home."

Wilson's lips pursed into a little pout, and she looked over to Jay.

"Home?"

Was she thick? Jay raised his brows and nodded. "Yeah," he said in a mocking tone. "Home."

Claire was about to say something to Wilson when Jay cut in.

"Excuse me," she replied curtly. "It's beautiful here. But my daughter is at my home. And I want to be with her."

"Yeah, we all sort of have places to be. Like with family, or home, maybe even getting revenge murders. Basic stuff, you know?" Rose said with a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her eyes, trying to ignore all the questions swirling around in her head.

"Unless you have some sort of spectacular reason for bringing us all here?"

Wilson's cheery expression withered for a moment. There was something about her that seemed very naive and innocent, but Jay had a gut feeling that she knew far more than she was letting on. Then again, he was skeptical of everyone - but especially suspicious people who appeared in the water.

Wilson sighed.

"I don't have a reason for bringing you here," she admitted, hanging her head low. "It was... well, I mean, I guess there is. It was something of an accident? When I made myself a body I wasn't sure what it'd be like when I gained... sentience. I don't know how to put it in your words. But anyway, you guys kinda got sucked in here because you guys were the last few people I uh, thought about. Does that sound creepy? Maybe it does. I'm sorry. I promise it's not! I can take you home though! I haven't tried doing things in a body like I usually do but I'm sure I can figure it out. It shouldn't be that hard."

"It does sound a little creepy," Jun admitted. She glanced at the others present, then quickly looked back over at Wilson. Wilson didn't seem bad. She seemed pretty nice. And even though Jun really did need to get back to Iroh and Zuko soon so they didn't worry, she couldn't help but be intrigued by what Wilson was talking about. "...But, uh, why were you thinking of us?"