Eden smiled happy to see new people. When Daniel mentioned being mute Eden smiled understanding. "So was I..." She looked around and realized Nathan wasn't around moving back over to the exit she pushed through and back into the hall when she landed on her face. "ow." She sat up and rubbed her nose and watched as Daniel came out into the hall as well and talked to Nathan. "That's an easy answer Daniel... Here brings people who are broken..." She rubbed her nose and blinked slightly surprised she felt no pain. "I was mute... You were mute... Nathan has been hurt by many things war is one of them I'm at least 98% sure..." She smiled. "Here brings people that have been hurt in someway... I'm not sure why... But it does and it helps fix us a little... Not all the way but it starts by fixing us physically... I think the pain mentally and in our emotionally is up to us..." Her voice was very serious while she spoke but a gentle smile broke onto her face. "That's my theory at least I have no idea if its right." She giggled and grabbed her wet hair and began squeezing out the water. To her surprise though she already seemed half way dry.

"Heh, I don't think I want to leave this place, it seems so perfect. Hey exactly what species are you? And what planet do you come from? " Daniel said this smiling and trying to paint Eden and write down the things he knew about her. Daniel kept on trying to draw her, but couldn't get it right. He went through eight pages of paper before giving up. Daniel didn't mind that his hair was wet, he actually wanted to go water to get a bit clean.
"Actually now that I think about it, who cares where here brings people from. I just want an excuse to explore things I've never seen before. Imagine this we get a chance to see many things the people on our home worlds would only dream of seeing. " Daniel thought about something deeply. " Perhaps we should set up a painting to meet at in case we get split up? Or to meet up with each other to discuss things we found out, heck I could even make a place to write down our discoveries in case we find something we want to share with each other. It's too bad some of the things I wrote down were ruined and turned into a blob of ink. This is no time to be sad though, we should see what here has to offer to us. " Daniel ruffled his hair trying to get the bit of water that was in his hair out of it. He had some scissors so he cut off some of his hair that was bothering him. Daniel got out his Ipod, he was lucky he didn't bring it out in the water or else it would have been short circuited. He then put on his headphones and started listening to music with a smile on his face. He then remembered there were people next to him and offered to put his Ipod on speaker. " Do you guys want to listen to music too? "

Nathan saw someone jump out out of the sea painting and was somewhat surprised to see not Eden but one of the strangers who had decided to jump up after her, a human looking boy with a notebook that took no notice of him for a second or two before their eyes met. He introduced himself as Daniel and asked for Nathan's name in return. Before he could say anything, the other boy asked about his appearance as he was interested if he was in a war. Nathan gave him an empty stare out of the corner of his eyes as he shifted slightly against the wall. After a few moments of silence the boy changed his mind and took back wanting to know about where he was from. A few more second ticked by before Nathan spoke though he could only imagine it wasn't the answer the boy had been looking for. "The next time you decide to ask someone a someone a question that's obviously sensitive, at least have the courtesy to see it all the way through," he said in a cold, straight voice as he stared at him unblinkingly.

And as if to break the subtle tension in the air, Eden came rocketing out of the picture and faceplanted the floor, a tiny ouch coming out of her. She got up quickly and began explaining her thoughts on Here and what the purpose of it was, going as far as to mention that she still wasn't sure was exactly wrong with Nathan. A perhaps not so subtle attention grabber. As she began drying out here hair, the other boy began to speak again. He asked Eden about her home world and, yet again, changed his mind about knowing. Not saying a word, Nathan listened as Eden and her new friend make plans for if they wanted to meet up again or they got separated. When Daniel offered them music, Nathan closed his eyes before he spoke. "Of all the dead age technology you could bring Here, you brought a pretty useless one," he muttered, not really giving an answer.

Eden blinked at the music device. "We... We don't have music on my planet... It attracts to many bugs..." She gave a nervous sad smile. Eden turned to Nathan. "Would you stop being such a sour puss already." Anger flared in Eden. The sunflower rarely got angry but when she did it was... Wild. Her gold eyes flickered to an angry amber as she glared right into Nathan's eyes. "I get it you over dramatic meat person THING! You had a tough life bad memory's your broken on the inside and out... But you don't have to drag it everywhere you go... Imagine if everyone saw the world the way you do... Nothing... nothing would ever get done... because no one would hope for anything good anymore... Like when a fire burns down a forest... if no seedlings try to grow again try to give life and beauty to what is desolate... it will stay desolate... But if one seedling try's and pushes from ash others will try also... And if they all try a forest can grow back again..." She sighed.

"My home planet is a terrible place... everyone judges each other by what flower they are... I'm just a sunflower... Nothing special they always said... And I could not even talk so they labeled me an idiot... I never learned to read or write or... or anything... All I ever got to do was watch other people fight the bugs and die... or I got to look as they judged me... I'm not sure what your past was like Nathan... But if you wanted I bet you could have a really good happy future." She softened and sighed heavily. "So do me a favor? Try and smile and lighten up because even when a forest burns down the trees and the world around is covered in ash... Someone has to be the stronger person and push through." She frowned again. "So stop being so hostile to other people who just want to find a tiny piece of hope to grow also.." She rung out her hair and started walking down the hallway. "Il... See you guys later maybe..."

Eden walked down the hall barefoot. Her fiery anger raged for awhile before slowly dimming down. She frowned upset with herself. Was she too harsh? Had she just snapped and ranted out of her own anger and sadness bottled up for years... Maybe it was that and actual anger? Probably... But maybe it would make Nathan stop looking at her like she was some airhead idiot. Eden wasn't stupid even if people called her that... She was just... Lonely, angry she could never do more. And a little frightened. She turned down the hall and kept walking. Her heart and mind felt like a fire that had been drowned then half sparked to life. She hated getting angry but... Sometimes she needed it? She stopped took a deep breath and exhaled. A smile gently formed on her lips. If she stayed positive and apologized later... Maybe things would be alright... But not now... For now she just needed... To walk. And so she did.

Nathan was taken aback at Eden's sudden change in attitude as she turned to him and began belittling the way he'd been acting. Though he could hardly agree with what she had to say, he couldn't help but be impressed and even a bit guilty as she chewed him out. He did his best to not let any of his thoughts show on the surface, waiting for her to turn and leave before even moving. His eyes snapped open as he pushed himself away from the wall and crossed his arms in front of him. "Guess she has a lot more to her than she let on," he mumbled to himself as he turned and walked after her, telling Daniel as he passed, "Finish that map, try not to get lost and don't touch any paintings that look strange or unusual. Our bodies might be safe here but some things aren't meant to be understood by all." Without even stopping he went off the way the girl had went, following to where he'd seen her go until she'd disappeared. There was almost no trace of which way she'd gone and blindly wandering through Here could lead to you being lost for hours. Luckily the sunflower girl wasn't human and she'd left a very obvious trail in the air. Not something the five senses could follow. Good thing Nathan wasn't limited to just the five.

Nathan followed the trail that stuck to the air as he followed the route step for step, checking and double checking he was going the right way constantly. After a while he finally found her, wandering around blindly and apparently deep in thought. He waited a moment before speaking, thinking his words through carefully before he brought attention to himself. "I've never seen a forest. Not a real one anyway. In my home, trees are nothing but petrified hunks of dead matter poking out of the ground." He paused as he closed his eyes again and sighed before continuing, a hint of sorrow edging into his voice. "There was a war long before I was born. Before my father was born. Men and women tearing the world apart as they tried to take everything the world had to offer. In the end, they were all left dead and the world they wanted was broken." He began to pace around in a circle as he continued. "The land the war destroyed isn't able to handle even the simplest forms of life. Every acre of land that was even close to the damage struggles to handle grass. What crops we do plant, grow and harvest are only just barely worth the effort to get them... the seasons that they live through." His eyes opened again, an intense glint in them as his voice went cold again. "Long before I was even born, those seedlings were you mentioned were dead and gone. We never got a chance to regrow that forest. We just built homes atop the ash and pray that the wind doesn't blow them away." He suddenly stopped his tracks as his eyes fell to the floor as he spoke quietly. "Maybe you're right about one thing. I am negative. Maybe that's just because I've never seen any good in the world with my own eyes. But don't get me wrong." He pulled his head back up as he gave Eden an almost amused look as he shook his head. "You're still dead wrong about me. I'm not broken. Just a little damage."

Eden was off in her thoughts when she heard Nathan. She knew it was him by the stiffness in his footsteps. She waited until he appeared and she gave him time to say his bit. When he was done she smiled gently. "Fine... Your a little damaged." She moved over and before Nathan could pull away forced him into what had to be the most awkward hug of eternity. It was... Actually Eden's first hug. On her own planet people avoided her like plague afraid they could catch whatever she had. She waited what she thought was a reasonable amount of time and let him go. She then stepped back and grinned. "You know... even if things seem bad now... I bet things can get better... And who knows if you keep trying... You might be able to revive the land..." She began walking down the hall making sure Nathan followed. "On my own home planet half the world is nearly destroyed by the bugs... And we thought it was gone for sure... parts were diseased destroyed burned... It was a waste land... Even before my birth they were trying to fix what they could... And allot of the people thought it was hopeless..." She smiled mysteriously. "I went there everyday where the ground was gray and hurt and I planted a seed... Before I came here... a tiny sprout had grown..." She looked at Nathan. "Things are always more tough before they get better... But with good people like you Nathan... I think your home will be fixed you just need to remember to smile more and not act like any minute the world is gonna fall apart... Even if it does its ok... It's ok if you smiled and lived and made friends..." She looked at the roof. "I never had a friend honestly... But if I die or my world falls apart... I think it would still be ok... No one would miss me so no one would have to cry or be sad... But I also know it would be ok because I kept trying and I lived... and I laughed... and I managed to make one sproutling grow... in a world so dead and hopeless." She looked at Nathan. "Were not all that different you know... I just smile more and glow... And your just a big rock on the outside but I bet your nice on the inside... And past that scary looking thing on your face... Seriously what is that even... It freaks me out." She arched an eye brow and eyed the contraption contemplating its purpose and odd design that made her feel... Well not at ease.

Nathan wasn't sure was what more surprising at this point: Eden's sudden flare of anger towards him, her surprisingly sad and touching words after he'd found her again or the sudden hug she forced onto him out of the blue. This definitively stirred some obvious emotion from him though it was hard to tell if it was good or bad. He lifted his arms up and away from her as his back went completely stiff, practically no movement occurring other than the odd and somewhat violent twitch in his right eye. While his mostly hidden face made it hard to tell exactly must have been going through his head, what was visible made it pretty obvious that he was shocked by the ordeal. Of course Nathan could hardly help himself. Pleasant physical contact aside from a greeting handshake was a rare and intimate thing back home. The last person who'd done something like this was his mother back when he was still just a kid and she was still alive. A few seconds ticked on by for what felt like an eternity before Eden let go of him. Nathan lowered his arms and let out a deep breathe that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, the mask making it sound dull and odd. He was honestly not sure if he should apologize or ask for one at that point.

It seems like the short time the two had spent apart was more than enough for Eden to get her spark back as she began to go on about bettering the world and one's self, ever the optimist. Though he kept his eyes steady, Nathan was frowning under the mask. Not because he was bothered by her continuing attempts to make him feel better but how wrong she was about so much of it. Even if Nathan had the will to change the world for the better, he knew that he didn't have the time to make any of it a reality. Eden still assumed he'd simply been injured or crippled in some way like her and the others. She didn't know that his burden in his own world was that he was dying. Somehow her not knowing made the words cut all the deeper. Luckily she managed to break out of her surprisingly dark speech with an utterly silly note as she pointed out his mask. Nathan lightly held onto one of the nozzles and tugged it lightly. "It's a gas mask. During the war people used a lot of bizarre weapons. Poisons transferred through the air was just one way. I scaveneged it when it was younger and I..." There was the briefest of pauses before Nathan finished his sentence. "I'd been needing it for the last few days before I arrived Here." The illness that had been - and was technically still in some way or another - eating away at him had been quick to do a number on his immune system. The mask had been there just so that he couldn't breathe something very common that would end up killing him. Of course he didn't need it Here. Or at least not for the same reasons....

"Heh, I don't see what could be worse then the thing that scared me enough to lose my voice. " Daniel thought that to himself, he's always been a schizophrenic mess. He saw things that weren't there, he always played with them when he was little, but as he grew older he learned that other people couldn't see the things he saw. So he hid that he could see them and always played with the things when he was alone, he put on a facade when around other people. It wasn't a bad existance, but he never thought he would do anything important. The teachers at his school saw that he always got good grades and never saw through his charade, they just thought that he was silent because he was mute. Daniel remembered to try an experiment of some sorts.
Daniel quickly went back to the room he originally started in running past the two conversing quickly. "Sorry, I just thought of something intelligent and fun. " Daniel saw that he forgot to take his backpack that he was wearing on him when he came here. He quickly went into it looking to see if the stuff he left there would still be there. "Let's see, a flashlight, lighter, wire, tools, pencils, time capsule, seeds, and a pick. " Daniel went into his notebook to write down an idea he had. " Ok so I might be able to see what sense of time here has. " Daniel thought about asking the boy or girl for help, but he thought better of it. He then looked for paintings that looked to be the same but from a different time frame. He then stuck a piece of paper into the ground and went to the second one to see if it had any effect. "No effect, perhaps this painting is the later one?" He then tried the same experiment reversed. "Nothing new, perhaps here repairs any changed done to the inside of paintings? If it does then that gives me an infinite amount of material to work with, I'll have to ask someone with experience about it." Daniel returned to the painting of the jellyfish just sitting against the wall having another one of his shizophranic hallucinations. " Crap, can't let on that I'm seeing things again. " Daniel tried to keep his cool and closed his eyes. Ignoring his recent hallucination he thought of something. " If this kid is from the future of my planet then perhaps I can setup a laboratory that runs off of solar panel or biological waste and gases. Then I might be able to make his world run off of a clean and efficient energy. Or I might be able to put myself in a cryogenic state and meet him in the future and perhaps help him rebuild his society, I shouldn't get his hopes up though. I still don't understand how this world works. " Daniel decided to just daydream for the rest of the time unless someone wanted to speak with him. He then felt himself able to move in his homeworld.


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"What?" He thought to himself. "Was that a dream all along?" Daniel looked at his watch impossible this can't be part of the world he was just in. He then pinched himself. It hurt, so he wasn't in the strange world anymore. How could he have come up with the dream? He barely knows anything about the species he encountered. Maybe if he did enough research he could figure out what was happening. Daniel quickly lost consciousness in his homeworld.
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Daniel then opened his eyes in "Here" and noticed what he just experienced was nothing more then a daydream or so he thought. " So this must be reality then, crap I hope I can get back to my normal world soon."

Eden could tell her words hit a point with Nathan. She frowned. "Sorry for all the awkwardness... And cheerfulness... And the rants." She frowned. "Oh and the hug it was my first hug people on my planet thought I was sick and deformed. But I kinda like hugs there warm..." She sighed. "I just don't like seeing people give up... And you look like you already have..." She frowned. "I really don't wanna see you give up... Cause one day I hope to be your friend." She hopped in front of Nathan and kept walking backwards. "So will you be my friend? If you say no first its ok il keep bugging you." She grinned and spun before continuing on her way. "I also wont stop bugging you until you don't give up anymore... Giving up is easy and I bet you have a reason to why... And a good one... But maybe while your Here... you can be happy." She looked up at the ceiling. "Hey... do you think maybe were here cause were dead? What if this place is like Limbo... Hm... Dead... That's kinda sad... but I'm here with nice people so... It not too bad... I probably go murdered... Or maybe me being mute meant something else was wrong with me... Well lots was... Hmmmm." Her eyes widened. "OH NO I'M SORRY! I'm ranting and now I've probably made you sad." She sighed. "I'm sorry I think to much im such a mess."

Nathan followed behind Eden at a leisurely pace, still trying to figure out if she was suppose to be annoying or endearing at this point though he had to admit that he was leaning towards the latter. If anything he had to appreciate her sheer stubborn will as she seemed to never drop something she's got her eye on. She seemed the type that even if Nathan hadn't gone after her, she would have come back just to apologize and try to get him to smile though catching site of it would be futile even if it did happen. Then again she seemed far more concerned in seeing some sign of his happiness, yet another bizarre quality she possessed. As they made their way down the hall, Nathan began messing with his hair idly with one hand as he spoke to her. "First things first, stop apologizing all the time. Something tells me you don't really regret trying to cheer me up or hugging me and it'll take a lot more than an empty theory to upset me. On that note, I'm pretty sure you're wrong anyways. If we had died, chances are we'd remember something about it. Besides, the afterlife is a bad joke anyways." Nathan paused for a moment to let out another one of his infamous deep sighs before continuing, a slight strain in his voice. "Listen, kid. Eden. Whatever. No offense but I'm not the kind of person you really want as a friend nor do I really want one. And stop assuming I'm some kind of depressed reject who's lost all will to live or something! Just because somebody doesn't have a reason to smile all the time doesn't mean they're tearing themselves apart on the inside." Nathan stopped messing with his hair as he dug his hands into his pockets again and looked off to the side at the passing paintings. "And get use to having these kind of conversations if you're gonna keep following me and saying that kinda stuff."