Who: Jack Shephard and Kate Austen
What: Returning to Reality
Where: His Tent on the Beach
When: A Few Weeks After the Crash
Status: In Progress

The first thing Jack noticed was that it was warm. A clammy, uncomfortable sort of warmth. The tent – crudely constructed, yes, but definitely a tent – made him think of a stifling summer bedroom, with a restless sleeper tossing and turning beneath the sheets and the windows locked tight.

The second thing he noticed was that he had a headache. And that was it. A headache, a stuffy tent and the fact that his mouth was a bit too dry. He couldn’t remember what had happened or … no, he remembered where he was.

( He was on the Island. )

Going with the theme of Time and Time Again, and remember this plot address several points: does history continually repeat itself. Additionally if you haven't figured out we'll be exploring the themes of destiny versus determinism and nature versus nurture.

Remember at this point your character is still stuck with memories sans the plane crash which includes both crashes. This challenge is based on the past before 2004.

Describe your favorite day. A day you'd like over and over again. [Think Groundhog Day.] Yes, I understand even a best day would get old.

The Challenge: Describe the one day you would repeat, why that day is special to you - you should know the drill.


The original Challenge journal description is here Original CJ Entry

Who: Locke and Open
What: Reaction to the crash
Where: Beach
When: Right after the crash
Status: In progress

John awoke. It took him a moment to realize where he was. He was lying on a beach. He didn't remember going to the beach. He remembered... He remembered being on a plane. Then there was turbulence. Then he blacked out. Why was he on a beach?

He looked around him, and then saw it. The plane. Or at least what was left of it. It had crashed. Black smoke was rising from the turbine, which was still working. People were running around panicking.

John tried to get up. Even though he had been paralyzed for four years, he still sometimes forgot that he couldn't walk. But something was different. His toes... they were moving. How could that be possible?

John slowly drew his legs in. Sure enough, they were working. What was going on? Whatever it was, John wasn't complaining. He put his shoes on. He's had these shoes for two years, but they looked like they were brand new, having never been walked in. He slowly stood up. His legs felt cramped. But at least they had feeling in them. He took a few tentative steps, half expecting to fall down. But he didn't. It was a miracle.

John looked around at the chaos that surrounded him. People were running around in a panic. Some wounded, some crying, some unsuccessfully trying their cell phones. A brunette woman seemed to have taken charge and started shouting orders. This place seemed familiar somehow. Like it was important to him. But of course it was important to him. It healed him. Did it? Was it this place that let him walk again? Or was it something else?

Who: Kate and Open
What: Memory
Where: Beach, Jungle, etc. (she’s moving)
When: Morning of the next day

Things seemed to be going as well as possible; Kate and Juliet had gotten into a bit of a routine, walking through and around the carnage. Kate went around to everyone, in an attempt to calm the growing fear on the survivors’ faces.

It felt odd that she was in a leadership role; it was familiar, yet off. She wasn’t the leader, wasn’t meant to be.

Deciding to explore, she began walking into the jungle. A huge wave of déjà vu hit her as she walked over the familiar territory. All the hairs on her arm stood on end, tiny chill bumps covered her slender body. She’d been here before. Gulping, she turned almost running back to the beach.

“There are caves,” she began to the group assembling before her, I think we should check them out.

WHO: Miles Straume, [open]
WHAT: Here we go again...
WHERE: The Beach
WHEN: Minutes Post-crash

--------------------------------

WHO: Daniel Faraday and Charlotte Lewis
WHAT: Daniel's clumsiness leads to a (not so?) chance encounter.
WHERE: Sydney Airport
WHEN: Prior to boarding Flight 815
STATUS: In progress

He'd been told that this day held importance; a step towards regaining his independence. Daniel didn't want to discredit the group of doctors who had been responsible for his care at the clinic, but he still had his share of doubts. The flight's destination only making matters worse. Once in Los Angeles, he would be subject to his mother's scrutiny. If she wasn't pleased with his progress, well then he could only look forward to more tests at another private clinic of her choosing.

While he felt considerably more in control of his emotions, Daniel was still slightly on edge: nervous, jittery and unprepared to make this journey. The medication he'd taken earlier in the day lessening his symptoms only to a certain degree. He'd been advised to take one pill from the filled prescription (now safely tucked into his backpack) if anxiety increased during the flight.

Did he feel better? Confident that he'd be able to handle everyday situations and would no longer require the assistance of a caretaker, yes. However, his memory was still unpredictable. The problems were mainly with short term memory, although certain events from his past tended to blend together or escape his mind entirely. The doctors were unable (or unwilling) to supply a concrete prognosis in that regard. For now, he would try to remain hopeful to an extent - nagging prediction of the inevitable letdown lingering.

As he approached the gate, Daniel hesitated and stopped in his tracks. A sudden wave of unease leading him to fumble through his bag. There was something he needed to write down, desperately so. Before he'd had a chance to locate his journal, backpack dropped to the floor and contents scattered. Jolted by the force of a shoulder colliding with his own, startled gaze lifted. Unintelligible words were muttered by the other man before he continued on his way. In turn, Daniel smiled sheepishly and leaned down to retrieve his possessions. He'd been in the way, no doubt, lost in his thoughts. This sort of embarrassing situation not entirely foreign, unfortunately.

Who: Kate and anyone
Where: The Island
When: Just before and after the crash

One minute Kate Austen was on the plane, hands in cuffs, brain racing attempting to figure her way out of this situation. Always resourceful, this seemed hopeless; no thing she knew things were never hopeless unless you were dead.

In an instant, they were in a war zone, bags fell from the overhead bins; passengers thrown forward, some into the isles, unfastened seat belts dangling like an octopus swimming through the water. Jolted to the side, the baggage fell from above her hitting the officer, Edward Mars, knocking him out.

Grabbing the oxygen masks she put on one and then one on her arresting officer. Scrambling, she managed to get the keys out of his pocket, unlocking her cuffs, right before the plane crashed.

Body parts, baggage and plane parts scattered across the island for miles; then everything went black.

The sickening smell of gasoline filled her nostrils; causing her to gag and subsequently cough. She was unhurt, yet a bit bruised.

Aching, she stood trying to remember what happened. She didn’t remember getting on a plane; in fact there was a major gap in her memory. The last thing she remembered was talking to her mother in the kitchen, arguing was more like it, begging her mother to leave the son-of-a bitch.

Shaking her head, as if to clear it, dark curls dancing around her face, she started pulling people away from the plane; she felt odd.

A few steps away, lay a handsome man, obviously a business man from the way he was dressed. The only sign of life was his chest moving back and forth. There weren’t any outward signs that he was hurt so she started tugging on his arms slowly dragging him up the beach. He seemed so familiar to her; maybe they were traveling together.

Pulling him (Jack), she looked around at the faces. Some were faces she swore she knew, with others weren’t as familiar. Kate decided she was suffering from short-term amnesia.

“Is there a doctor,” she yelled, assessing the situation, it wasn’t good.

Her mind was clicking with all the things they should do. Help would be on the way, there was a black box aboard every plane. The thought made her feel better, not just because of a rescue, but because her memory wasn’t totally gone.

Within two weeks of your first post, in the community please reply in with your challenge journal under this comment about how your character feels.

While on the island, describe your happiest moment.

Sans our first arc, we are ready to start. There are questions I've asked in the OOC and others to follow your answers will determine our first arc.

Stephanie is out of the country until November 10th. So we'll starting threading closer to that date. I know her, she'll be dying to jump in and won't have the time in Europe.

All information that was here has been moved to the OOC. This post will be deleted when we start threading.

Regardless of the physical day, we will use our imaginations to pretend it's either Oct. 30 or 31. Have fun playing with it and have some spooky posts. Then we'll jump to the real time as in date of the month.

Until we begin the community we’ll use journal challenges to get started. Journal challenges are optional. These challenges are used for character development and just plain fun. The post icons will have journal icon on it. Everyone should comment to the post if you want to participate. (If you feel the need to make comments to someone’s journal challenge do it in the ooc.)All forms of sharing this information: diary, first person, third person, rp the scenerio and narrative are just some examples of how you might post to a challenge.

I have the character journal challenge icons posted in the OOC icons. Most of the characters have journals there. For those who don’t I’ve added blank icons that you can take and personalize the way you prefer, or make ones for those I haven’t.


I'll email everyone when the community is starting. I'm chosing to post things here and on the OOC so you can read at your convience, instead of sending you a million emails.

T