((From => An Interrupted Date))
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The drawn out moment of transition scoured at Lyntael's body like fractured glass as she made the jump back to the upper network layers, but before the link could take her all the way home the girl pushed herself away, snapping free of the transit with a sensation like tearing static. She didn't want to go home yet.

Adrift for a moment, and unsure of what she was really doing, Lyntael drifted before a sense of unconscious familiarity pulled her in one direction. Light and sound coalesced into brightly lit neon streets, the rush of high-speed traffic and flashing signs adverting any number of businesses. Her vision cleared a she took an extra step away from her entry point and rubbed at her arms, wincing away the discomfort.

An alley, just off a main information thoroughfare, running through a city, bathed in neon light. A city alive with an excess of electrical impulses running through the air, and a hum and buzz of static that you could feel. She knew this place...

Slow steps carried the girl out to the edge of the information pathway and she rested delicate fingertips on the guard rail while blinding lights flashed past almost too fast to follow. There had been people here before, she recalled, but the street was empty of other navis now. Her eyes drifted across to the other side of the information lane and beyond, through the streets and buildings all around. There was park nearby; she remembered that.

The sense of sadness lingered over her shoulders as she made her way, waiting for spaces in the crossings and walking with a detached calmness where previously, she recalled, she'd fled in an unsure panic. It was just a city; there was nothing here to be afraid of.

It only took a few minutes, this part of the city never slowed down, she knew, but the deepening night sky overhead made the lights feel brighter and the noise louder, enough to drown out her other senses. Soon enough though, slow, drifting steps carried her to a place where the lights and sounds faded into the background.

It was a small park a little space of nature made to break up the overbearing cityscape. Grass at the edges, and a paved section, with a water fountain in the centre, surrounded by cute little benches. Without thinking, Lyntael crossed the park to one in particular, and pushed herself back into the seat, drawing her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms about them. Her eyes watched the play of water in the fountain while her thoughts turned over on their own.

It had been the first time she'd gone out on her own, alone, disconnected. She'd been so terrified, of everything. Perhaps she still should be, but it just didn't seem like a big deal any more. Did it really matter – no-one was going to suddenly jump out at her with a weapon or anything like that. Everyone would just assume she could jack out, like everyone else... so... that kind of thing really just didn't happen, she guessed. It had been silly to be as scared as she had been.

But... even so... A slow, soft sigh escaped her as she rested her head on her knees. Even so... She'd been sacred, and he'd been kind; the first navi she'd ever really met, or made friends with, outside of family. It had seemed special, at the time. Important. She looked around the empty park and listened to the sounds of the water. But he'd never answered any messages, or written back to her mail. She had no idea where Di was now, or what he was doing. Or if he even remembered her, and that one brief encounter that had meant so much to her. There was certainly no-one here now.

A few more minutes passed in what was as close to silence as the small electown park ever came, before Lyntael rose to her feet again and walked away.

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((To => Further Wandering))