Anaïs looked to the bubbly girl in the bright yellow dress... Dear god, could she make wear a louder outfit? However, she nodded, "Ouais... My heart uh... stopped." She shrugged... Twenty-six years. In all fairness, it was more than she could have asked for, right? She'd almost died weeks before going to college, too. Ironically, stress had been a huge factor in whether she had an attack or not, but the potential for one only created more tension on her psyche anyway. She sat down as everybody began to do a little exploring. The one girl, Wen, seemed to know French, but she also seemed to be interested in her own affairs as she went running off to look at... whatever that thing was. The French girl pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and rested her chin between them. She sighed and tilted her face down, resting her forehead on her kneecaps.

"Étan..." She muttered, shaking her head. What was he doing right now? Was right now the same time here as it was there? She thought so, but maybe not. Right now, he was probably just pulling into the hospital, throwing money at the driver of his cab, and sprinting into the offices where they wouldn't let him see her... Her parents would sit down with him and explain that she'd had arrhythmia since she was young. Why didn't she tell him sooner? He'd have been more careful, helped her watch for it. She smiled softly to herself, her eyes stinging hotly behind their cornea... Typical Ethan, it’s precisely why she had chosen not to. She didn’t want to spend so much time preventing or worrying about something that would inevitably happen anyway. She sighed a ragged breath, clearing her throat... get it together... She chided herself, sniffling as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

Everybody seemed to have gone off for their own thing. Zephyr was poking around with the guy who had disappeared a little while ago, observing the river and looking around. Anaïs stretched her arms up and laid back, staring upwards into the velvety sky, just like when she had woken up a few minutes ago. She wiped her eyes again to make sure they didn’t look too wet. She heard Zephyr talking and then... two new voices. Everybody was returning, at least, due to the new development.

This place had a name... The girl was relieved when the glowing orbs spoke French. Her curiosity got the better of her and she stepped toward the yellow one, reaching out to touch it. Just as the aura met her hand, she felt its warmth and quickly withdrew. “Mon dieu...” She muttered with a small smile, reaching out slowly again to run her hand over it; the little thing was adorable. She bit her lip, speaking in French, [I]“I... I have a question... Uhm... Not really important, but is time passing the same here as there? Did we all die at the same time and are we literally just minutes after we died back home? Or... Or is it more like we’re in a whole different time..?” She asked, wanting to pacify her curiosity.

There were other questions to ask... Why were they here, how are they all connected, what do they do now that they’re conscious and not just corpses? All good ones that they could ask, but she wasn’t quite so straight in her head and she wanted an answer to the first question she had, even if it wasn’t quite so important to the others.

So, that was that, then. With the introductions done, the group dispersed temporarily, some moving to explore their surroundings while others deigned to stay and see what happened. Zach, himself, simply crouched down and examined the ground beneath him, the grass and other plant-life swaying in the breeze. He squinted in concentration as he parted the grass, pinching a bit of dirt between his fingers. It felt a little bit like that silly putty he used to play with when he was younger. Strange. Digging around a bit more, he tried looking for any bugs and the like, but there didn't seem to be any around. Though, he did notice that there were a lot of different types of dirt the more he dug, and he started digging larger holes in an effort to uncover something more interesting, flinging the stuff around in the process.

He was busy playing with a particularly sticky glob of dirt when he heard Professor speak. Wondering if the cycle, continues, huh?

"A little bit, I guess, but not enough to die again and find out," he answered, plopping down onto his rear and leaning back, bored with his examinations, for now. Yeah, he supposed it could have been possible that this process of dying and waking up on another world would be the universal(?) norm, but that was quite a big risk to take... especially considering that he'd already died once. This could very well be his only second chance...

Their little exchange was interrupted, however, when Glasses came up to them with some rather strange company. Two oddly talkative balls of light; or maybe that's just how he saw them? Their looks reminded him a bit of fairies from Legend of Zelda, and once they started talking, all chippy and finishing each others' sentences, he found that they were just as annoying. Why did things that come in pairs have to do that?

"Deep breaths..." he reminded himself with a sigh, inhaling through his nose and out through his mouth. His preferred meditative technique. Okay, they were annoying, but they were also the only other signs of life(?) that any of them had seen around here, so it was probably better to just listen to them. He listened as the others voiced questions of their own. Why they were there, how did they know English, and... well, he didn't know what Frenchie said. As for him... there was only one really pressing thing on his mind, right now.

"How do we get back home? If, you know, that's possible," he asked, after the others had asked their own questions. Not like him to interrupt while others were talking, but this he had to know. Though, even if they said he couldn't, he'd probably try to find a way, anyhow...

He knew he was dead. Most likely, anyways, at least back on Earth. There probably wasn't any way for him to get back home, but he couldn't help but feel a tightening in his chest, a feeling he hadn't felt in a while. A drive. He wanted to go back. He wanted to see his friends and family again.

"There has to be some way back home."

The thought couldn't help but take hold in his mind, and with that, slowly but surely, a fire began to take hold in his heart. It was a small one, at the moment, but for Zach, once he set his mind on something, the feeling would only grow. He would find his way; back to his friends, back to his parents. Back to his brother.

Even if it would most likely kill him.