She's waiting for her train, which is late (as usual).
Uh, that's weird, the wagon looked darker on the pictures online. Oh well, they must have repainted it recently.
She hops on the train, and goes to find her place before any adult can see her and ask questions she doesn't really want to answer.
There should be a way to lock the compartment from the inside for the night. The train ticket inspector can unlock it if he needs to anyway. Or she! Uh, working for railways must be interesting, you get to see al kind of places...
Ah! There it is. She doesn't understand the instruction, but then again she only knows two or three German words and the mechanism is quite obvious.
Time to sleep!
Bonnie wakes up at a station shaded by incredibly tall buildings, between two plazas positively teeming with people, with footpaths full of people above the train station connecting the tall buildings together. There's a gentle breeze, and the wonderful smell of fresh bread in the air. And there are charming, brightly-colored robots flying across the ground, deftly running around people.
That's... weird. When she hopped off the train she couldn't see the "Wein HBF" sign she expected to find, but everyone was getting off, the time was as expected (great job, ÖBB!) and it did look like a terminal station.
But now... the more she looks around the more confused she feels. She can't read the signs and... well, she doesn't speak German, but she expected to be able to recognize at least some of the words. Or to find some English, in the hopdamned capital. Germans Austrians.
The robots are incredibly cute, and she'll get distracted by a good ten minutes trying to find patterns in their movement.
She tries to find someone who looks like a local to ask for directions.
"Excuse me. Where to go for Schönbrunn Castle?"
The local is a woman wearing a short skirt above a pair of leggings, both bright blue, together with a long black athletic shirt slightly overlapping the skirt; it makes her look very sporty. But she's confused at hearing Bonnie's words. She looks her up and down, trying to get an idea about where she might have come from as she tries to come up with some idea of what language she's speaking and how to communicate with her.
...crud. The woman tries speaking to Bonnie, saying "hi" in as many languages as she can. She hopes one of them works...
Nooope. None of those. She shakes her head.
She tries to mime. "Where" looking all around, confused "can I go" point at self, then walking "for information and questions?" talking and a question mark.
Aah. What's the symbol at the end she just used? The looking around and walking things made sense. Well... she points directly to the nearest police station, behind one of the buildings, waving her body right and left. Helping people is their job, and they'd probably be best-equipped to handle someone not speaking the language?
"Thank you! Grazie! Danke!" she puts her hands on her heart and bows slightly, then waves goodbye and starts running walking briskly because she shouldn't run in public places.
Right of that building, then left, then. Uh. Is there anything looking like an infopoint?
Not quite; there's a black and white striped line visible on the walls of one of the skyscrapers, and looking behind the windows taking up most of the wall between the stripes, she can see that there's a lobby with a few people dressed in proper outfits looking very attentive and vigilant and bored.
Hmmmm. That's not what she was expecting, but... they can probably help her go further! The trick with taking directions is going in approximately the correct direction, then improve from there anyway.
Does it look like there's an obvious door?
Yes, there's a wide door to one side, right next to the stripes on the right side.
The people waiting inside look at her in confusion. Then, one of them calls someone on the phone. Someone who knows a lot of languages. And holds it out in front of Bonnie.
Something's not adding up but. Sure, she'll speak into the probably-a-phone.
"Hello! I'm so confused right now, is this not Wien?"
"Well, you're not confused about that, this place is called Coincrown!"
Well. At least someone speaks English. So there's that.
On the other hand she has never heard of Coincrown, and this place looks big, but she got there during the night so it must still be in Europe, at least.
"Uh. Which... country?"
"Not sure what you mean? It's on Heaven's Steps Island, Continent of the Lyre?"
"I don't recognize any of those names and that doesn't make sense. I'm bad at geography, but not recognizing the continent makes no sense."
"Am I on some kind of prank tv show? If so, please cut it out, I'm getting worried."
Ok, time for the Emergency Plan. Step 1: turn on her phone and text mum.
She grabs her phone from the top pocket of her backpack and turns it on. The name of the phone operator it will connect to is probably going to be helpful.
...the phone doesn't connect to any operator.
"Well, people get amnesia, and forget what happened and how they got places? It's rare, of course. But it happens."
"Yes, but I shouldn't forget continents? I'm from Udine, Friuli, Italy, Europe, and I got there with a single night train, so I shouldn't be on a different continent."
Not even emergency service? That's... concerning. Any open wifi networks?
There isn't emergency service or any form of wifi!
"People have forgotten... very big parts of their lives. Your situation is, as I said, unusual but not unheard of."
No wifi networks. In the middle of a city. What is happening.
"I am lost and now I'm scared and I need help and I want to get back home and I have a ticket but it's a ticket from Vienna so it probably won't be valid and I have some money but probably not enough for a ticket and."
She'll stop talking and just sit down on the closest thing which she can sit on. Or the floor. The floor works too.
She's not going to cry. But it will be a close fight.
There are several chairs in the room. They are almost bizarrely nice!
"Just... you have a ticket, right? Let us take a look at it, help you find out more. See if it brings up any memories so you don't get disoriented like this."
The man looks at it, absolutely stunned. He carefully feels it between his hands and speaks a quick phrase into his phone.
"We don't make tickets like that. We don't know how it was made, we don't think it was made using anything we have access to. This could only have come from... somewhere else."
How about she looks into the void for a while.
On the plus side, these chairs are really comfortable.
Water. Food. Shelter.
She grabs her water bottle, takes a couple sips.
"Do you mind if I eat a snack?"
"Well, I'm not sure what kind of snack that'd be?" says the person on the phone. Before repeating the words to the man who held Bonnie's ticket.
"A... Uh..." She grabs one croissant from her bag and shows it to them, still in its transparent plastic package.
The man instinctively gives a thumbs up, before explaining to whoever is on the other side of the phone that the mysterious person from a foreign civilization wants a... high area-to-volume pastry.
Ok, so. Water. Food. Shelter.
All good for now.
"I don't know how I got here. I don't know how to get home. I want to talk to my mum, if possible, but my phone doesn't work. She will be so angry, but it's better to call her now so she knows I'm safe. Am in the correct place to get help? Should I go to a police place? Will they speak English?"
"We don't know any of those two things, either, and we can't think of a way to let you talk to your... mother? This is a police station... and I don't know what English is. But I'll find someone to help you who knows this strange conlang we're talking in, just... wait in here a bit."
How can he not know what English is. They are speaking English! Unless it's some kind of language magic but this is real life, not a story. Magic doesn't exist in real life.
Good thing she's already at a police station. It should be the safest place to be.
"Thank you. I'm sorry. Can I look at a map?"
It doesn't take long before a map of the entire planet shows up on the phone. The continents are much smaller, and none of them look like any continent on Earth!
That is... not a map of Earth.
Is she sure she's not sleeping? She tries to pinch herself.
Ouch.
Yeah, no, she's no sleeping. Probably.
"That map looks unfamiliar. It should not look unfamiliar. I..."
She's still not crying. Barely.
"I will just wait for the person you were talking about."
She turns off the phone. It's not connecting to any network, might as well save battery.
"Yes, yes, someone, I'll get someone who can manage to talk to you" the person on the other side of the phone mumbles awkwardly.
"Thank you."
She fidgets for a minute, then grabs her books and gets back to reading. If your brain is in a different universe, it stops worrying about the one your body is in.
Eventually, a woman shows up, waving at Bonnie and seeming friendly. "Everything here must be totally new to you!" She is wearing... a very unobtrusive mask made of a transparent material, from outside the building. And speaking in an unfamiliar accent, too.
It takes a while for Bonnie to notice the waving, but as soon as she turns the page her eyes inform her that Someone Is Trying To Get Her Attention.
She dog-ears the page and looks up.
"Hello! It really is! I expected an Adventure but... this is a bit much. I wanted to visit a different country, not a different world!"
"Welcome anyway! If it's adventure you want, there are few places better built to give it to you! But first, you want a place to come back to when you've adventured enough for the day, or so I would think?"
"Yes. Yes I would like that."
Water. Food. Shelter.
And then she can look into how to and what to and why.
"But I don't have any local money. You don't accept Euros, do you?"
"I don't, but the value of paper bills coming from another world would have to be astounding!"
She decides to enter the police station.
"You have a lot of money in your pockets, young woman."
"Ooooh. I can see that! Then you're probably also interested in my book! Although I wouldn't want to be parted with it, but I guess you could photocopy it but I don't know how copyright would work across worlds but also piracy is not theft and I don't know your laws so. I guess I could lend it to you, if you promise to treat it well. It was my dad's..."
"I do! I don't have a payment card yet and anyway I heard people in Germany sometimes don't take cards and this is not Germany, it's not even Austria but that was the logic. But also, it's not really a lot of money? It's enough to buy a train ticket in case of emergency, which is a lot of money but not a lot a lot?"
"If you trust me with it I could take incredibly good care of your book, but I'd feel best if I was given a virtual copy of it instead. I'd have to call the library and tell them I have an incredibly valuable book for them to scan, and have them set everything up instead."
"Well, it's not a lot of money because it can't weigh much more than a few pieces of paper, but then even a thick, dense stack of bills wouldn't be that much either."
"Makes sense. I guess when we get back in contact with my word we can arrange some payment or something? That would be fair, I think."
"Makes sense, yeah. I have... some coins and a couple banknotes." Plus her for-real-emergencies-only ones in the hidden pocket, but she's not going to talk about them.
"I have a question though... how do you speak this language?"
"I practiced it? It's a common pastime, on our end, to make and learn new languages, and I thought this one let a lot of things be said in a nice way, so I learned it."
What are the chances that they would create a new language and land on English of all things.
Oh well. It's not as if the day can be explained purely rationally, can it?
"What kind of accommodation would you get me? How much does it cost?"
"My plan was actually to ask you to live in our family apartment floor, register yourself, and join the basic income program. The cost is around 70% of your basic, and that includes my pay for being your parent and the schools and courses you're entitled to join."
"Wait, I would pay you for being my parent? What? And you pay for school here? Weeeird. On the other hand, you give income to kids, so. Different system I guess. So I would use the 30% left for... food, transport, a phone plan, and fun stuff. Is that... enough?"
"Oh, and I guess taxes? I know it's a thing that adults do but I have no clue how they work."
"We try to have a thing about paying for everything here, that way everyone can pay attention to the numbers and better know what's happening everywhere. The last 30% is plenty for the things you ask about, I'd say, and, well, you have 30% left because you're sort-of paying taxes for school and so parents don't have to pay me to babysit their kids."
"I... see."
"Wait, do you also pay for library cards? That would be terrible. Libraries should be free!"
"Library cards for the newest and nicest libraries aren't free, but all the other ones are, and even the ones you have to pay for are pretty cheap most of the time."
Mmmmmhh. They do have free libraries, so it's fine.
"If I move in... with you? next to you? how does that work?"
"Well, you get your room in the boarding section, with all the other kids, and it's right next to the classroom, athletics room, play room, baths and everything else? Everything's really standard... our standard, I of course mean."
That's... good.
"How do I say 'thank you' to the... uh, policemen? In the local language?"
She says "thank you" to them for Bonnie. "Then, are you ready to come with me?"
"I think so."
She double checks she has all her things with her. It's not hard, she has everything in her backpack except for the book.
"Let's go."
She takes Bonnie a few blocks before finding a subway entrance and leading her into it. It takes barely a minute before a train shows up, with a few dozen people walking in and out; the trains is significantly wider than would be normal on Earth, and Bonnie can also see that the floors of the carriages have different areas split into different colors.
Subways! She will look at everything!
Can she recognize anything that looks like a map? Do they have a realistic map or a schematic one like the London tube? Does their language use ideograms? Letters? Something else? Do they color the different lines?
"What do the colors on the floor mean?"
There is a map, it's schematic and they use different types of line in addition to unusual colors different from what she's used to seeing; there's enough space on the wall to also have a timetable, but it's fairly hard to read because there are so many departures that it just turns into a wall of numbers. There are screens showing times, but only for the lines that arrive less frequently at this station; there's one coming in 3 turns and another in 7 turns.
The language uses letters, but they're vaguely reminiscent of morse code: lines, dots, dashes, and crosses. The lines use both colors and geometric symbols; there's a Triangle Line, Square Line and Pentagon Line, among others, until you starting heading into new kinds of shapes like stars and circles and rings.
"A lot of families take trains, so colors are supposed to make it easier for them to not be mixed up with a different family because everyone gets to sit together instead of being spread out across the train. There are special trains with mini-cars that almost let families have their own compartments, but that's only in special cities."
Ooooh, shapes for lines! Weird letters! She wants to learn all the things!
"Sounds handy!"
"You said the school is on the same floor as your family apartment? How does that work? Is it a very small school? Are you just very close to it? On my planet schools are usually big buildings that are just... schools, with no people living there." - pause - "I think. I have looked at the floor plans and it didn't seem to have bedrooms, but I could be wrong."
"Well, it's more right to say it's a classroom! And you also have the gym and baths and library and all the other things in a school in the rest of the building. But mostly you'll have the classroom, and that's always on the same floor as the dorms. Wheelchairs, you know. Wheelchairs end up saying how everything has to work, and then the robots can also get where they need to go."
"The robots? What kind of robots do you have? Do they follow the three laws? Wait, no, you wouldn't know about them. They were written by this american author, or maybe he was russian, I don't remember, Asimov. I really love his books. So basically he invented the three laws to describe how he thought the robots would be made to behave to be safe for humans. Do you have anything like that?"
"...they have Emergency Auto Braking systems that work really, really, really well and have a bunch of soft plastic with no sharp edges? The robots are just boxes rolling on the ground with robot arms attached really, so they can look a bit boring. The can have drawings in front so they look a little like a butler, maybe? But they make life 100 times easier, believe me."
"Ooooh, so they're not thinking ones. Well. It's fine. That's less worrying." But also boring. No robot conspiracy, no paradoxes to stop rogue AIs. Well, life is not a story, is it?
"Also, I got distracted by robots, but I'm happy you're considering wheelchairs first. It's good when people are not left behind. How many books can I loan from the library at the same time? Wait, no, nevermind, if it's connected to the room then I can just get there and swap when I'm done, so I just need to borrow one. Or two, if I finish it during the night."
"Should I get a mobile phone that connects to your network? Actually, do you have a global network? On my planet we have this global network of computers that mobile phones also connect to and you can find all sort of things on it, we even have an encyclopedia that is created by everyone, and it's the coolest thing ever."
"I don't think there's a limit on how many books you can loan at once? I'm not sure on the policy, books are ultra-cheap so we can just buy tons of them so there's basically always one ready. And we do have a global network, yes! And when it come to encyclopedias, the tough part is knowing which one to start with. And a phone should probably be the first thing you buy, so you can get clothes that fit."
"Wait, what does a phone have to do with clothes? I guess some people use it for payments? I don't have a credit card yet, so I just use cash."
"You need to have a pocket that the phone sits well in and that depends on what phone you have. It's awkward to have a wrong-size pocket."
"Oh. Yeah. Makes sense. I was overthinking it."
"Uh... how will money work in general though? You were talking about registering for income?"
"Yes, that's right... Oh, of course. You have to do that at a police station! But it's a very simple and quick process and I'll just take care of things until then, it's no big deal at all."
"Oh. We could have done it at the police station we were at."
"Oh well. I guess knowing I have a place to stay is going to be... helpful."
Then the train shows up, and the woman steps on while motioning for Bonnie to follow her. "I'm Lina, by the way!"
Did she... not give the police people her name at all? Guess she didn't. To be fair, they didn't have a shared language, so there's that.
"I'm Bonnie! It's short for 'Benedetta', but nobody calls me that."
Does the train have information screens? Maps with lights?
They have information maps, but not screens. There's a dot showing which station they're on on maps placed above the seats, but it's hard to see how it works; it's clearly not an LED.
Nice! She looks around, then remembers that the nice person is still next to her - was her name Lily? Hopdammit, she got distracted and forgot already.
"How many other people are going to be at the dorm?"
"25 with you, and that's the standard basically; handling classes and everything else gets a real handful, but I like always having something to do!"
25 is a bit more than what she's used to but she's heard Germans tend to respect rules more...
Well. Except she's not in Austria, is she?
She... she can just take it slowly. There are no emergencies, so she can think about the fact that she probably won't see her mum ever again later.
"I... think I'd like to read a bit, if that's fine. How long do we have until we get off?"
"Just 2 more stops, now, so pay attention! And you can read all the bits you want!"
Oh, not worth grabbing the book then.
She'll wait. Patiently. She can be patient if she really tries. Mostly.
Bonnie doesn't need to be particularly patient because the 2 stops come quick! Lina takes big, deliberate steps towards the doors on the opposite side of where they came in, ready as the doors out open.
She gets behind Li... Li... Lina! Ok, remember, Lina - like "linea", but without the "e".
Ready to hop off!
Making their way past a few blocks of skyscrapers, they come to a nondescript building reaching into the sky. Lina walks in, revealing a small library and charming cafe on the first floor, before quickly finding a larger than normal elevator that makes its way down lightning quick.
Oooooh, library and café? Nice!
Large elevators: a thing she didn't know she wanted more of. Why are they so cramped on Earth?
"We're up!" she says, stepping in and waiting for Bonnie to follow her into the elevator. There are 3 rows of buttons, reaching up almost 40 floors. It turns out Lina plans to take the elevator close to the top.
"I don't think I've ever been in such a tall building! Can't wait to see the view from up there!"
"Well, I mean, I've been to the top of the cupola in San Pietro but that's different, it's a church, people don't live in there."
"Do you have religion on this planet? Churches?"
This... is going to prove interesting no matter what the answer is.
"Not these days? I've never wrapped my head around how... people think about spirits and omnipotent world-makers being real things you have to keep in mind." The elevator is quick, too. Bonnie can't say much more until the elevator finally reaches its destinaion. It's a hallway, and looking both left and right Bonnie can see lots of doors, in bright and inviting colors like she saw on the subway map.
So no space Jesus? She's a bit disappointed but not surprised.
"Fair enough, it's controversial on my planet too. Oh, by the way, do you have a name for your planet?"
She hops out of the elevator.
"Oooooh, really like the colors! Will make it easy to get oriented, not that I need that but - you know - I like the idea."
"This planet's called homeworld! Something feels really honest about calling it that."
"And the colors are considered more to have decoration benefit than for navigation."
Near the end of the hallway, with doors on both sides, Lina opens a door to reveal a room. It's fairly narrow, but it manages to fit a wider than average bed and 2 desk, placed against opposite walls. The wall on the other side of the door looks like it's made of glass, but the view only shows another skyscraper that looks like it's covered in a black film material.
"So yes, this is the dorm."
"Ooooh, its spacey! Is there some kind of motorized blind? I think I'd like to take a nap, if there aren't urgent things to do..."
"It's a fixed polarization thing? Basically you can see through the window, but not another window. So you can see out, but not in to the apartment opposite yours. Make sense?"
"I... the filter works so light goes through 1 filter but is blocked by 2. I'm not good at science, but this place is built to let you learn so there are many books that talk about everything!"
