Hazel stared at the itinerary, hoping that by sheer force of will, she could induce it to give more details. All she got back was the unchanging black ink on white paper that spelled out Bingo in large bold caps font across the whole leaflet.
“Mochi, what is this? It just says bingo.”
No response. Typical.
“It doesn’t even say where. Or when!” Hazel let out a sigh. “When Saoirse said you’d drop it off before bingo, you don’t think she meant literally right before it, do you?”
Hazel had spent some time to herself in the room, mostly lounging in the conjured armchair. She’d been more than tempted to find Saoirse and see if there was anything to do but found herself unwilling to bother the captain.
Instead, she had busied herself reading the books included on the bookshelf. It was strange that she could read the script that Mochi handed her. She’d taken for granted that Saoirse made sure only English books were in her room, with magic. But if this was an itinerary meant for everyone…
Focusing on the leaflet, Hazel saw the letters morph and shake as if straining to shift outside the bounds that her mind recognized as Bingo.
Confused, she tilted the paper and tried to do the viewing angle trick to thwart whatever visual illusion was present. However, the word vanished as Hazel tilted the paper. She hastily reset the paper to the original viewing angle, but Bingo never reappeared.
Quirking an eyebrow, Hazel set it on the desk for later study, next to the book. “Lead on, cat.”
The cat led her up the left staircase - towards the front of the ship. Bow, Hazel corrected herself. Emerging back on the open deck, Hazel spotted a couple of loitering spirits.
Resolving to be better than when she was alive, she greeted them. “Good” - holy shit it’s not morning. There’s no sun. Oh no. How long has she paused? “Morning”.
The spirits seemed amused. One seemed human, or at least, a lot like a regular earth person. He was around Hazel’s height, with tan skin and bright yellow eyes. He had a heavy build and looked like he enjoyed a good belly laugh. He wore his hair in a short buzz.
The other was tall and slim. Pale skin and a shock of purple hair. Her eyes were dark and her smile was broad. The pair had a unique synergy that matched well with each other. “Good morning to you too, miss”, the man smiled widely, showing all his teeth. They were straight and white. Very systematically privileged teeth. “Good job with the sneaky bastard, I caught the tail end of that. Very impressive”
Hazel blushed. “I’m sorry, I must’ve been too busy to notice you were helping out too! God, I can’t even imagine how much worse it would’ve been without someone holding onto its tail.”
Silence permeated. The taller one smacked the shorter one over the head. “Tom, you’ve confused the poor girl. Get your thoughts in order before you project them.”
Then glancing back at Hazel, she continued. “I’m Alexandria, sorry about Tom. He’s fairly new here as well and hasn’t gotten used to speaking here.”
“Oh, that’s okay. Could you explain that though? The speaking thing? Are we not just talking?” Hazel was pretty sure this was safe to ask since this Tom fellow seemed to also have to learn it.
“Huh. You speak well for someone who didn't realize how they were really communicating. Hmm, I guess it’s simplest to say that speaking in the In-Between isn’t how it works back in the Living Galaxy.”
Hazel could hear the capitalization but held back from interrupting.
“I guess it might be different again for a captain-in-training like you. For us spirits, we don’t speak as much as we think about what we want to be understood before transmitting it. For me, you and Tom are speaking my native tongue, as I’m sure my speech will sound like Tom’s to him.”
Then… “How did I misunderstand Tom then?”
“Like I said, the idiot didn’t form his thoughts properly and it resulted in double meanings slipping into the translation.”
Tom butted in, his playful grin undercutting his choice of words - concepts, “I didn’t even think of fighting the snake, you’re out of your mind! I ain’t some super-being like the miss.”
Hazel watched as Alexandria sighed dramatically. “Of course you didn’t, you glory hound. I know your type. No, what I meant was unless you are firm and clear in your transmission, the In-Between’s translation magic will take some creative liberty.”
At that, the woman massaged her temples. “Which means complicated thoughts take a little more focus.”
Seeing his partner finish, Tom piped up once more. “We were just on our way to bingo - would you like to join us? Miss..”
“Hazel. And yeah, of course! Sorry, I’m a little scatterbrained right now.”
“Of course, I was probably worse off than you were when I was only a day into my stay here.”
“How long have you been here then? How long is a day?”
“A day?” He looked at her weirdly. “It’s 24 hours of course! Saoirse said you were from a far out corner of the galaxy, but I didn’t realize it was THIS far out.”
“Coming from the man that had to ask what magic was?” Alexandria interrupted with a laugh.
“You didn’t even know what a cog was!”
“It went by a different name in my culture,” she huffed.
“Conceptually as well?”
Hazel watched as the pair bickered while they walked towards the bingo place. A pang of grief squeezed her heart, alongside the tiniest sliver of jealousy. She searched for Mochi, but he was nowhere to be found.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, as they neared the events area, more and more spirits congregated. The introductions and greetings flowed and compliments for her jump at the snake trickled in.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Various people she didn’t remember mentioned how back in life they had caught beasts too.
She also found out the giant she had saved was named Tyson. Which was sort of like finding out the sporty and athletic quarterback was named Trent. In hindsight, they had that vibe.
Tyson was a giant. Hazel had to crane her neck to look up at him when they spoke. He was maybe 8 or 9 feet tall. His skin was a dark ashy grey, and his hair was blonde. Whenever he moved it almost looked like it was in slow-motion.
“Thank you for saving me,” he smiled.
People smiled a lot here, Hazel found. Not a creepy amount, but a comfortable amount of smiling, like everyone felt good about being dead. It was kind of creepy.
“No worries, you’d have done the same for me.”
“No,” the giant shook his giant head. “I would not have. The snake was very scary.”
“You stopped to help me up though.”
“If you had wasted a bit more time back then I would have left you, to be honest.” His giant mouth grimaced, ”Even that little bit must have been the captain rubbing off on me.”
What a strange confession to make, Hazel thought, especially while looking so content with himself. She kind of liked this guy.
She glanced at Tom and Alexandria, Alex to her friends, which included her, inexplicably. Then back at Tyson. “Would you like to join us for bingo?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
Even his shrug felt slow. Like it had more distance to travel, or more weight to shrug. Hazel couldn’t stop thinking about it. She wondered if he also had the same idea of what a cog was as she did.
“Do you have any thoughts on cogs?”
“No, why?”
“Never mind.”
The quartet settled into their seats right as bingo started. They’d found an unoccupied table, which was all good for Hazel since three people were about where she maxed out in terms of social energy. Three people, and a cat, she thought, as Mochi hopped onto the chair next to hers.
Saoirse was up in front with a helper made of misty white energy. She was saying something about an announcement. Hazel hoped it wasn’t about her. It probably wasn’t, since Saoirse would’ve warned her. But it still was worth being anxious over.
Saoirse bantered easily with the crowd of 20 or so beings. Tom especially really got into it. Hazel was a little jealous. Did Saoirse treat them all so nicely too? It kind of cheapened what Saoirse did, except it really didn’t, and Hazel was being an idiot.
The atmosphere was good, and the company was nice. Conversations flowed smoothly. They also didn’t know much of the In-Between they’d all found themselves in, but everyone was plenty eager to share bout their own cultures.
“Hey Alex,” Hazel asked, “Those numbers. Are they also conceptually translated?”
“Kind of. They shift what they look like based on what you think a one or a two looks like. That sort of thing. Operationally they're all the same though. You add stuff, subtract stuff..." Alex rambled on.
Hazel kind of tuned her out until
"Unless…” like a fire was lit under her, Alex whirled onto Hazel. “Did your origin have a unique number system? Does that translate to a 62 to you as well? Not, say, a 43?”
Hazel looked at her quizzically. “Yeah? Looks like a 62 to me.”
"Drats. No bingo."
Theoretical math discussions made the engineering grad in Hazel sick to her stomach. But the topic was interesting enough. "Are there unique numbering systems?"
"Nope. Besides using different bases, everyone does math the same way. Even then, most regions use base 10. It's pretty interesting - you should ask Saoirse about it, she'd know the history better."
A short pause. Hazel was thinking about the implications of this. She heard a scoff. Alex, with a barely suppressed grin, added, "Did you know Tom's civilization used base 12? Awful considering they have 10 fingers like the rest of us. Like they think they're better than the rest of us."
“Wha- that's rich coming from a Guildie," Tom turned away from his bingo card. “Besides, it’s literally the best base! How else are you supposed to work with fractions?"
As the two devolved into another inane argument, Hazel blithely noted that Tom had missed his bingo. Strangely annoyed, Hazel excused herself back to her room.
Traversing the empty and silent ship, Hazel couldn’t help but let her thoughts run wild. Why couldn’t she just enjoy the night with new people without having shitty brain thoughts?
Closing the door behind her, Hazel surveyed the dark and silent room. Mochi had made himself at home in the armchair. Bummer.
“At least you’re here, Mochi.” She lamented. “Unless this is just one of your bodies and you’re secretly hanging out with everyone and I'm really not that special.”
The cat kept staring at her, because Mochi was a cat, and cats do that.
“It’s not my fault. I’m just so tired and I’d have messed things up if I kept hanging out. It’s good that I left when I did or I'd have been bitter and gross.”
Still nothing. Whatever. She couldn’t sleep. The book was interesting enough, but she wasn’t in the mood, especially with her preferred chair surrendered to the cat tax. She walked over and squatted next to the chair, running her fingers through Mochi’s soft fur.
“You don’t think Saoirse hates me right? Cos I left halfway? I mean I don’t even know why I care what she thinks. Ugh. You’re right. You’re right, I’m gonna go figure out what I want out of this afterlife. I don’t care about other people. They’re all gone. They’d probably want me to do what I want anyway.”
After taking a few minutes to stabilize herself, Hazel stalked out of her room. This time to the stern of the boat, as far away from the other people as possible. She heard a distant uproar and some clapping, a new bingo night champion crowned.
The aft deck was an open area with a central Jacuzzi surrounded by both inward and outward-facing sunbeds. Pacing around the railings, Hazel idly noted the pair of paddle wheels on either side of the deck. She watched as they toiled to push the boat through the water.
She sighed. The bingo people would start filtering through to the aft deck soon enough. It was a whole new world. A new life. She could be better here. She had to be. She promised herself that she would be someone she’d be proud to be friends with.
Firming her resolve, Hazel turned towards the incoming spirits, right into Saoirse.
“Oh my god, Saoirse. You have to make more sound when you walk I was about to send you off the boat.”
Saoirse gave an easy grin. “You can try.”
“Maybe later,” Hazel sheepishly laughed.
Saoirse seemed to think for a moment. “Later… might be good?”
“Wha- no, no I was joking.” Hazel was confident in her strength, but she’d been in a total of zero fights in her life. She said as much, but Saoirse seemed to be thinking of something else entirely.
“You missed out on the announcement, we’re nearing the destination for this little trip. I’ve been looking for a very specific root vegetable and we should be close to the island by morning. As my captain-in-training,” She gave a conspiratorial smirk here, “you’re invited to the landing party.”
“No thanks.” Hazel hesitated. This was her new life. She wanted to be an adventurous cool person. “Erm, who else will be there?”
“Oh? Well let’s see, it’s a pretty safe island, especially since I’m there, so I’m letting some of the stronger spirits tag along here. That means your new friend Alexandria, and a few others you haven’t met yet: Evans, Gustav, and Kei.” Saoirse counted off.
“Speaking of - your new friends were looking for you after bingo, it took me a bit to convince them you haven’t taken another plunge in the sea haha”
Alex would be there. And Saoirse would be supervising. It was annoying that that’s what it took for her to feel safe enough to explore. “Pretty safe?”
“Truthfully, I can’t ever really say for sure. This section of the infinite sea is relatively well-charted, and most shades and beasts are tracked… but you do get outliers.”
“Like the snake.”
“Like the snake. But look, no one’s died on my watch in half a millennium.” Saoirse’s eyes took on a softer look, “And trust me, I’ve gotten way, way stronger since then.”
Sensing the topic was sensitive, Hazel wisely moved on. “Okay, say I do join you on your trip, what’s the plan?”
Saoirse seemed thankful for the change in topic. “We’d split up to cover more ground. Before it was going to be me and Kei, and one of my mist guards with the rest. Kei’s with me since she’s not quite up to snuff on this stuff. You’d be with me if you join.”
It sounded sound enough.
New life, new me, Hazel thought. She gave a resolute nod. “I’m in.”