You wait quietly. It's almost quite nice, to be so snug against another rock. It feels like home. \n\nYou think about home. It's probably not there any more. \n\nThe current is pushing you into the rock's face. It reminds you of your divot. You feel kind of bad - but it's sheltered, and safe.\n\nYou rest, and think about home. It seems so far away, and so long ago.\n\nIt looks like you might be stuck in this stone...\n\nDon't worry! I'll carry you for a while! It's nice to have a travelling friend.\n\nThank goodness! You say hello, and the two of you share your adventures. Your new home rock has been under the sea bed for a long time. The tide pulled it out again, and it tells you it's been slowly shifting along ever since. There must be a big wave nearby.\n\nYou're drifting along in this fashion when you and your friend find yourselves scooped up - [[up, and out of the water|bird]].
Geology Quest was made for Pebblejam at Develop 2015. It was written by Siobhan Gibson and made beautiful by Jo Summers. You can find us at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/siobhangx">@siobhangx</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/profaniti">@profaniti</a>.\n\n<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2932661/Games/brightonbeach.jpg">\ncr: visitbrighton\n\nThanks for playing! [[Play again?|Start]]
These stones are beautiful.\n\nYou've never felt like this about stones before. But they're so smooth, and round, and you wonder what happens when the light touches them. \n\n<span class="conversation">Oh. Hello.</span>\n\nOh good! They're friendly!\n\n<span class="conversation">We seem to be getting more of your type here.\n\nYes. We don't normally see people with your... features.</span>\n\nDo you have features? You think about your ever-chaninging form, the crevices and cracks that keep appearing. You feel embarrassed, and a little jealous. Maybe smoother is... better?\n\n<span class="conversation">You must be new down here. You're still so... big.</span>\n\nThe other stones laugh among themselves. You feel hot against the cold water. You think about the heron, living in the ledges and caves of your old home. These stones couldn't even hold a grain of sand.\n\nYou try to think of the heron, and it helps you ignore the shiny pebbles, who are talking about "frosting" and "chemical weathering". When you feel yourself being scooped [[up, up out of the water|bird]], you don't even try to say goodbye.
As you feel your way around, you get the impression the pebbles are excited about something. You try to greet them, and their response is one of total fascination.\n\n<span class="conversation">You're so pretty!\n\nHow did you get so shiny?\n\nLook at those curves! So smooth!</span>\n\nAre you smooth? You can't tell. You feel strange. Everything is so unusual here. Is smoothness good?\n\nYou try to ask, but the pebbles are too busy asking you what they can do to become like you. You tell them about your journey, and they listen, enraptured.\n\n<span class="conversation">Aren't you worried you'll disappear?</span>\n\nWhat does that mean?\n\nBefore they can tell you, they start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
The rush of water pulls the seaweed up and out of the sea bed, taking you and a few others with it. You barely have time to say goodbye.\n\nThe water carries you along for a while, whooshing and twisting around you. You still haven't got the hang of movement; the sensation of being pushed and shifted around makes you feel nervous. Small parts of you drift away; you wonder how much smaller you're going to get before you're the right size for the sea.\n\nFinally the push stops, and you drift down to the sea bed again. Some of the stones are [[talking among themselves|dcrubbishpebbles]]; one larger one is [[nestled up against you|dcinpebble]].
The wave of debris never seems to end. You can hear them, a cacophony of noise and talking and arguing. You think about the birds collecting above you, back home, sweeping from side to side in one movement, and you wonder if they argue like this. \n\nThe rock above your head creaks above you, and you sense pebbles above you wriggling free, carried away with the chaos. Then you feel yourself twisting, turning... and suddenly you're free, floating for one moment before the wave scoops you up and pushes you along.\n\nYou've never had to feel so many thoughts at once before, and the overwhelming sense of panic is unbearable. Stones and blocks and sands fly around you, cracking and chipping you.\n\nYou wonder if it will stop soon. There isn't much of you left. \n\nFinally the push slows, and you drift down to the sea bed again. Some of the stones are [[talking among themselves|ccarubbishpebble]]; one larger one is [[nestled up against you|ccainpeble]].
The smooth pebbles around you seem unfriendly, and quite dull.\n\nThe smaller one is sticking to your side, pressed firmly by the water into a small crevice. You can feel it digging further in, and you start to ponder the idea of having your very own divot-dweller.\n\n<span class="conversation">Sorry... you don't mind, do you? Once you get this small, it's quite difficult to get around!</span>\n\nIt's quite nice to have a travelling companion. You trade stories; your new friend has been crossing the ocean for some time, mosly travelling with a large cloud of seabed debris. It seems shaken by the experience.\n\n<span class="conversation">Of course, it won't be long until I disappear. But it's good to have found a buddy.</span>\n\nYou want to ask more, but the pebbles around you start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
The wave of debris never seems to end. You can hear them, a cacophony of noise and talking and arguing. You think about the birds collecting above you, back home, sweeping from side to side in one movement, and you wonder if they argue like this. \n\nThe rock above your head creaks above you, and you sense pebbles above you wriggling free, carried away with the chaos. Then you feel yourself twisting, turning... and suddenly you're free, floating for one moment before the wave scoops you up and pushes you along.\n\nYou've never had to feel so many thoughts at once before, and the overwhelming sense of panic is unbearable. Stones and blocks and sands fly around you, cracking and chipping you.\n\nYou wonder if it will stop soon. There isn't much of you left. \n\nFinally the push slows, and you drift down to the sea bed again. Some of the stones are [[talking among themselves|dcarubbishpebbles]]; one larger one is [[nestled up against you|dcainpebble]].
<<playbgm kBlzrMum4P0>><b>Geology Quest!</b>\n\n[[Start|start15]].
These stones are beautiful.\n\nYou've never felt like this about stones before. But they're so smooth, and round, and you wonder what happens when the light touches them. \n\n<span class="conversation">Oh. Hello.</span>\n\nOh good! They're friendly!\n\n<span class="conversation">We seem to be getting more of your type here.\n\nYes. We don't normally see people with your... features.</span>\n\nDo you have features? You think about your ever-chaninging form, the crevices and cracks that keep appearing. You feel embarrassed, and a little jealous. Maybe smoother is... better?\n\n<span class="conversation">You must be new down here. You're still so... big.</span>\n\nThe other stones laugh among themselves. You feel hot against the cold water. You think about the heron, living in the ledges and caves of your old home. These stones couldn't even hold a grain of sand.\n\nYou try to think of the heron, and it helps you ignore the shiny pebbles, who are talking about "frosting" and "chemical weathering". When you feel yourself being scooped [[up, up out of the water|bird]], you don't even try to say goodbye.\n
These stones are beautiful.\n\nYou've never felt like this about stones before. But they're so smooth, and round, and you wonder what happens when the light touches them. \n\n<span class="conversation">Oh. Hello.</span>\n\nOh good! They're friendly!\n\n<span class="conversation">We seem to be getting more of your type here.\n\nYes. We don't normally see people with your... features.</span>\n\nDo you have features? You think about your ever-changing form, the crevices and cracks that keep appearing. You feel embarrassed, and a little jealous. Maybe smoother is... better?\n\n<span class="conversation">You must be new down here. You're still so... big.</span>\n\nThe other stones laugh among themselves. You feel hot against the cold water. You think about the heron, living in the ledges and caves of your old home. These stones couldn't even hold a grain of sand.\n\nYou try to think of the heron, and it helps you ignore the shiny pebbles, who are talking about "frosting" and "chemical weathering". When you feel yourself being scooped [[up, up out of the water|bird]], you don't even try to say goodbye.
You swirl and spin in the water, and a sudden gust of wind - no, a rush of water - sends you crashing into a gap under a large rock. \n\nYou're stuck.\n\nAs the current races ahead above you, you feel a huge amount of pressure, crushing down on you. You can hardly bear it; the rock tilts forwards and backwards, grinding against one side of you, pressing you further and further into the sea bed. \n\nWhat if you never get out?\n\nYou resign yourself to your fate, and think about your old home. Maybe you could get used to it here. It's colder. And... more painful. The stones around you don't seem to mind though. How long have they been here?\n\nA long time passes. Other stones and rocks pass by, [[rattling and crashing|dcaught]] against your new roof. At some point, you feel a [[tik-a-tak-a-tik-a-tak-a|dcreature]] crossing the sea bed.
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The smooth pebbles around you seem unfriendly, and quite dull.\n\nThe smaller one is sticking to your side, pressed firmly by the water into a small crevice. You can feel it digging further in, and you start to ponder the idea of having your very own divot-dweller.\n\n<span class="conversation">Sorry... you don't mind, do you? Once you get this small, it's quite difficult to get around!</span>\n\nIt's quite nice to have a travelling companion. You trade stories; your new friend has been crossing the ocean for some time, mosly travelling with a large cloud of seabed debris. It seems shaken by the experience.\n\n<span class="conversation">Of course, it won't be long until I disappear. But it's good to have found a buddy.</span>\n\nYou want to ask more, but the pebbles around you start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
The tik-a-tak-a gets closer. Louder. And you start to feel the pebbles around you, being dislodged. You feel nervous, and hopeful, and scared. This doesn't sound like a sea heron.\n\nWithout warning, you suddenly feel a thick, soft tendril working its way round you, pushing other stones out of the way, digging and working its way under the rock, and then...\n\n<b>Pop!</b>\n\nYou're free, floating for a second in the water before you're snatched up again. The tik-a-tak-a wraps itself around you, and carries on moving across the sea floor.\n\nYou feel the pebbles shift under its weight. It's a strange feeling, to be carried - moving, but not moving. Sometimes the tik-a-tak-a bangs you into other rocks, and you star to think it's doing it on purpose.\n\nEventually it brings you crashing down on a rock, and as a small part of you cracks and floats away, you fly out of the tik-a-tak-a's grasp, and tumble down behind it onto the sea bed.\n\nYou land softly, among a selection of [[glossy, shiny pebbles|dcrfancypebbles]]. One smaller one [[floats into your side and rests there|dcrpebblein]].
You wait quietly. It's almost quite nice, to be so snug against another rock. It feels like home. \n\nYou think about home. It's probably not there any more. \n\nThe current is pushing you into the rock's face. It reminds you of your divot. You feel kind of bad - but it's sheltered, and safe.\n\nYou rest, and think about home. It seems so far away, and so long ago.\n\nIt looks like you might be stuck in this stone...\n\n<span class="conversation">Don't worry! I'll carry you for a while! It's nice to have a travelling friend.</span>\n\nThank goodness! You say hello, and the two of you share your adventures. Your new home rock has been under the sea bed for a long time. The tide pulled it out again, and it tells you it's been slowly shifting along ever since. There must be a big wave nearby.\n\nYou're drifting along in this fashion when you and your friend find yourselves scooped up - [[up, and out of the water|bird]].
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Without the sun to warm you, you have no idea how long you've rested here. You wonder whether you will have to stay in this divot forever. It seems like it's getting deeper. You can't feel the same things down here.\n\nYou decide you don't like water very much, after all.\n\nAfter some time - a long time - you can feel the water getting down into all your cracks and crevices. New ones, you'd only just gotten used to. You think about this for a while.\n\nSomething underneath you shifts and creaks. You try to feel the vibrations - it's been hard, adjusting to your new environment, but you've worked out how to detect other rocks. Sometimes you can feel slimy, slippery movements, too; perhaps there's some sort of strange underwater heron down here.\n\nThe water around you is pulling you a little bit; [[the current must be strong today|current]]. Beneath you, under the rock you've settled on, [[smaller rocks rattle past|dragged]].
As you feel your way around, you get the impression the pebbles are excited about something. You try to greet them, and their response is one of total fascination.\n\n<span class="conversation">You're so pretty!\n\nHow did you get so shiny?\n\nLook at those curves! So smooth!</span>\n\nAre you smooth? You can't tell. You feel strange. Everything is so unusual here. Is smoothness good?\n\nYou try to ask, but the pebbles are too busy asking you what they can do to become like you. You tell them about your journey, and they listen, enraptured.\n\n<span class="conversation">Aren't you worried you'll disappear?</span>\n\nWhat does that mean?\n\nBefore they can tell you, they start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
The Fish appears to be interested in the seaweed. As it tugs, some of your new friends find their freedom, and drift along past you on the tide.\n\nIt gets perilously close a few times, and you sway slowly in the tanglement of grasses. And then, suddenly...\n\nNothing.\n\nThis is a different kind of cold. You seem to be wedged inside, and suddenly all you can feel is panic, anxiety, twisting and twirling, gasps.\n\nAnd then more nothing. A gentle bump. The dampened sound of the sea bed. That's all you hear for a long time. Then others, nibbling and chattering, and then you're free again, in a new place, gliding on the current.\n\nYou land softly, among a selection of [[glossy, shiny pebbles|dffancypebbles]]. One smaller one [[floats into your side and rests there|dfpebblein]].
You feel yourself lift, slowly, hesitantly... and then you're away, a spinning, twirling new form, borne on the push of the water. All you feel is the current and the sands flying past you. It's cold, but it's freeing - you've never felt so completely unsupported before, and it's as awesome as it is terrifying.\n\nYou know there must be others around you; you can't feel them through the suspension of water but they bump into you every so often, and you hear just one thing from all of them.\n\n<span class="conversation">Wheeeeeee!</span>\n\nUp ahead it feels like the path is shifting. There's [[another rock|crock]]. The ground beneath you feels strange and slimy; [[tendrils reaching to slow you down|cseaweed]].
The icy water is another shock. Others smash into the surface above you, and as you feel more and more of yourself breaking away you notice that you're slowing, drifting, gliding down. Finally you hit something bigger than you, and find a small divot to rest in.\n\n[[It's cold|start3]].
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You have never felt wind like this before. It's all... around you?\n\nDid you always have an <b>all</b> for the wind to fly around?\n\nWhere did the rest of it go?\n\n[[You crash into the water below|Start2]].
Geology Quest
You wait quietly. It's almost quite nice, to be so snug against another rock. It feels like home. \n\nYou think about home. It's probably not there any more. \n\nThe current is pushing you into the rock's face. It reminds you of your divot. You feel kind of bad - but it's sheltered, and safe.\n\nYou rest, and think about home. It seems so far away, and so long ago.\n\nIt looks like you might be stuck in this stone...\n\n<span class="conversation">Don't worry! I'll carry you for a while! It's nice to have a travelling friend.</span>\n\nThank goodness! You say hello, and the two of you share your adventures. Your new home rock has been under the sea bed for a long time. The tide pulled it out again, and it tells you it's been slowly shifting along ever since. There must be a big wave nearby.\n\nYou're drifting along in this fashion when you and your friend find yourselves scooped up - [[up, and out of the water|bird]].
It's warm in here.\n\nYou've met birds before, resting against you in the high cliffs, but now you're resting inside the bird. You sense the familiar peace and grace, but there's something different - an anxiety you never knew the birds carried.\n\nYou share the anxiety, and wonder whether this is what movement does to all things. \n\nYou barely have time to wonder what you're doing in here before you suddenly find yourself set loose - and now you're out of the water, tumbling and spinning through the air. \n\nThis time, you don't hit the ocean; instead you crash into a whole shoreline of pebbles and stones. You can feel the water's waves, far away, but you also feel the sun for the first time since you first fell into the water, and you bask in its warmth.\n\nThe pebbles around you are quiet, enjoying the calm. A long time after you are dry, and the sun's warmth has risen and falled a hundred times, you hear a [[crunch along the stones|end]].
You've stopped. Cold, wet loops cling onto you, and you sense others around you with the same problem. It almost feels like grass - it has the same way of telling stories - but this isn't anything like the dry grass above.\n\nYou think about how much you miss rain, and earth.\n\nThere are older rocks here. A single word vibrates up from them.\n\n<span class="conversation">Patience.</span>\n\nHow long will you have to wait here?\n\nYou learn a lot from the older rocks. You learn about seaweed. They tell you the underwater herons are called "Fish". One rock tries to explain something called "desedimentation", but is shushed by the others.\n\nYou do feel smaller, though. When you ask why, they change the subject.\n\nYou're discussing face formation when the other rocks go silent. A few stones have started to wriggle free. There's a [[strong current coming|dcurrent]] - and the pebbles knocking against you say [[there's a Fish on the way|dfish]].
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These stones are beautiful.\n\nYou've never felt like this about stones before. But they're so smooth, and round, and you wonder what happens when the light touches them. \n\n<span class="conversation">Oh. Hello.</span>\n\nOh good! They're friendly!\n\n<span class="conversation">We seem to be getting more of your type here.\n\nYes. We don't normally see people with your... features.</span>\n\nDo you have features? You think about your ever-chaninging form, the crevices and cracks that keep appearing. You feel embarrassed, and a little jealous. Maybe smoother is... better?\n\n<span class="conversation">You must be new down here. You're still so... big.</span>\n\nThe other stones laugh among themselves. You feel hot against the cold water. You think about the heron, living in the ledges and caves of your old home. These stones couldn't even hold a grain of sand.\n\nYou try to think of the heron, and it helps you ignore the shiny pebbles, who are talking about "frosting" and "chemical weathering". When you feel yourself being scooped [[up, up out of the water|bird]], you don't even try to say goodbye.
The Fish appears to be interested in the seaweed. As it tugs, some of your new friends find their freedom, and drift along past you on the tide.\n\nIt gets perilously close a few times, and you sway slowly in the tanglement of grasses. And then, suddenly...\n\nNothing.\n\nThis is a different kind of cold. You seem to be wedged inside, and suddenly all you can feel is panic, anxiety, twisting and twirling, gasps.\n\nAnd then more nothing. A gentle bump. The dampened sound of the sea bed. That's all you hear for a long time. Then others, nibbling and chattering, and then you're free again, in a new place, gliding on the current.\n\nYou land softly, among a selection of [[glossy, shiny pebbles|cffancypebbles]]. One smaller one [[floats into your side and rests there|cfpebblein]].
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The current pushes on, wobbling and shifting you around inside your deepening home. You hope, and hope, and finally, a strong push lifts you up and out of your hole... but now you're scooped up into the chaos above, a million stones and pebbles and sands clamouring for space.\n\nYou bounce off the sea bed, and straight back up into the rushing flow. They pull you far away from the rock, until you can't even tell which direction it's in.\n\nDirections are strange. How are you supposed to manage more than one?\n\nSome pebbles rush past angrily, chipping bits off you as you go. \n\nEverybody was so nice above the water. Was there even an everybody? You seemed much more... united.\n\nFinally the push slows, and you drift down to the sea bed again. Some of the stones are [[talking among themselves|cdrubbishpebbles]]; one larger one is [[nestled up against you|cdinpebble]].
As you feel your way around, you get the impression the pebbles are excited about something. You try to greet them, and their response is one of total fascination.\n\n<span class="conversation">You're so pretty!\n\nHow did you get so shiny?\n\nLook at those curves! So smooth!</span>\n\nAre you smooth? You can't tell. You feel strange. Everything is so unusual here. Is smoothness good?\n\nYou try to ask, but the pebbles are too busy asking you what they can do to become like you. You tell them about your journey, and they listen, enraptured.\n\n<span class="conversation">Aren't you worried you'll disappear?</span>\n\nWhat does that mean?\n\nBefore they can tell you, they start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
The churning never stops. The pebbles around you are whooping and screaming, some excited, some terrified. Among them, you don't know how to feel. Is this normal? Is this what happens in the sea?\n\nAnd why do you feel so much smaller?\n\nEventually you realise you can feel the sun. It's the first time since you fell into the water, and the warmth is incredible. Maybe you'll dry out. Maybe you can rest here for a wh--\n\nNo. Another crash of water and pebbles and you're in the waves again. You dip in and out of the wave for a while, each time finding yourself in the sun just a little longer, until you're dragged under again. \n\nThis is never going to end.\n\nBut one large wave - one beautiful, perfect wave - lifts you up, up and into the air, and you land on a group of warm, peaceful stones. \n\nThe pebbles around you are quiet, enjoying the calm. A long time after you are dry, and the sun's warmth has risen and fallen a hundred times, you hear a [[crunch along the stones|end]].
A young woman walks along the beach. It's been a long day. A long year. \n\nShe sits some way from the water's edge, and closes her eyes. Too much to think about.\n\nShe picks up a handful of stones, throws them absent-mindedly towards the sea. It's not fair. None of this is fair. \n\nShe talks, out loud, to the sea, and the pebble in her hand. She talks for a long time, until it starts to get dark, and her face tastes of salt. \n\nShe looks down at the pebble.\n\n"Oh! This is pretty. Such an unusual pattern."\n\nShe puts it in her handbag, takes a deep breath, and gets up. Walks home, past the coffee shop, stopping for ice-cream on the way. \n\nLater, she finds the pebble in her bag, and puts it on a bookshelf with a small collection of strange and unusual beach finds. Fossils. Driftwood. Half a heron's egg. It's high up. Safe and dry. \n\n[[The End]].
You've stopped. Cold, wet loops cling onto you, and you sense others around you with the same problem. It almost feels like grass - it has the same way of telling stories - but this isn't anything like the dry grass above.\n\nYou think about how much you miss rain, and earth.\n\nThere are older rocks here. A single word vibrates up from them.\n\n<span class="conversation">Patience.</span>\n\nHow long will you have to wait here?\n\nYou learn a lot from the older rocks. You learn about seaweed. They tell you the underwater herons are called "Fish". One rock tries to explain something called "desedimentation", but is shushed by the others.\n\nYou do feel smaller, though. When you ask why, they change the subject.\n\nYou're discussing face formation when the other rocks go silent. A few stones have started to wriggle free. There are [[more coming|ccaught]] - and the pebbles knocking against you say [[there's a Fish on the way|cfish]].
You swirl and spin in the water, and a sudden gust of wind - no, a rush of water - sends you crashing into a gap under a large rock. \n\nYou're stuck.\n\nAs the current races ahead above you, you feel a huge amount of pressure, crushing down on you. You can hardly bear it; the rock tilts forwards and backwards, grinding against one side of you, pressing you further and further into the sea bed. \n\nWhat if you never get out?\n\nYou resign yourself to your fate, and think about your old home. Maybe you could get used to it here. It's colder. And... more painful. The stones around you don't seem to mind though. How long have they been here?\n\nA long time passes. Other stones and rocks pass by, [[rattling and crashing|cdragged]] against you, wedging you further in. At some point, you feel a [[tik-a-tak-a-tik-a-tak-a|ccreature]] crossing the sea bed.
The tik-a-tak-a gets closer. Louder. And you start to feel the pebbles around you, being dislodged. You feel nervous, and hopeful, and scared. This doesn't sound like a sea heron.\n\nWithout warning, you suddenly feel a thick, soft tendril working its way round you, pushing other stones out of the way, digging and working its way under the rock, and then...\n\n<b>Pop!</b>\n\nYou're free, floating for a second in the water before you're snatched up again. The tik-a-tak-a wraps itself around you, and carries on moving across the sea floor.\n\nYou feel the pebbles shift under its weight. It's a strange feeling, to be carried - moving, but not moving. Sometimes the tik-a-tak-a bangs you into other rocks, and you star to think it's doing it on purpose.\n\nEventually it brings you crashing down on a rock, and as a small part of you cracks and floats away, you fly out of the tik-a-tak-a's grasp, and tumble down behind it onto the sea bed.\n\nYou land softly, among a selection of [[glossy, shiny pebbles|ccrfancyrocks]]. One smaller one [[floats into your side and rests there|ccrpebblein]].
The smooth pebbles around you seem unfriendly, and quite dull.\n\nThe smaller one is sticking to your side, pressed firmly by the water into a small crevice. You can feel it digging further in, and you start to ponder the idea of having your very own divot-dweller.\n\n<span class="conversation">Sorry... you don't mind, do you? Once you get this small, it's quite difficult to get around!</span>\n\nIt's quite nice to have a travelling companion. You trade stories; your new friend has been crossing the ocean for some time, mosly travelling with a large cloud of seabed debris. It seems shaken by the experience.\n\n<span class="conversation">Of course, it won't be long until I disappear. But it's good to have found a buddy.</span>\n\nYou want to ask more, but the pebbles around you start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
You wait quietly. It's almost quite nice, to be so snug against another rock. It feels like home. \n\nYou think about home. It's probably not there any more. \n\nThe current is pushing you into the rock's face. It reminds you of your divot. You feel kind of bad - but it's sheltered, and safe.\n\nYou rest, and think about home. It seems so far away, and so long ago.\n\nIt looks like you might be stuck in this stone...\n\n<span class="conversation">Don't worry! I'll carry you for a while! It's nice to have a travelling friend.</span>\n\nThank goodness! You say hello, and the two of you share your adventures. Your new home rock has been under the sea bed for a long time. The tide pulled it out again, and it tells you it's been slowly shifting along ever since. There must be a big wave nearby.\n\nYou're drifting along in this fashion when you and your friend find yourselves scooped up - [[up, and out of the water|bird]].
It's windy.\n\nSea spray blasts against you. It's cold, and your ledges feel tense.\n\nYou quite like it, up here. The sun will warm you in the morning. Water trickles down, carrying with it sand and grit. Sometimes earth, and broken grasses; they tell you as they pass about what happens above.\n\nThe storm is passing overhead. Thunder rumbles off a nearby face and into you, shaking loose a few pebbles.\n\nWind hisses past, taking with it a heron's nest, and three eggs.\n\nYou liked that nest.\n\nAnother crack of lightning, and a roll of thunder. But this time, it doesn't stop. You feel a shuddering above you, and suddenly - among the noise of the storm - the cliff face above you comes crashing down, \n<br/><br/><br/>\n[[taking you with it|start25]].
Siobhan Gibson & Jo Summers
As you feel your way around, you get the impression the pebbles are excited about something. You try to greet them, and their response is one of total fascination.\n\n<span class="conversation">You're so pretty!\n\nHow did you get so shiny?\n\nLook at those curves! So smooth!</span>\n\nAre you smooth? You can't tell. You feel strange. Everything is so unusual here. Is smoothness good?\n\nYou try to ask, but the pebbles are too busy asking you what they can do to become like you. You tell them about your journey, and they listen, enraptured.\n\n<span class="conversation">Aren't you worried you'll disappear?</span>\n\nWhat does that mean?\n\nBefore they can tell you, they start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].
The current pushes on, wobbling and shifting you around inside your new home. You hope, and hope, and finally, a strong push lifts you up and out of your hole... but now you're falling again, further down, past your rock, past your divot, right down to the sea bed.\n\nYou bounce off the bottom, and straight back up into the rushing flow of stones and pebbles. They pull you far away from the rock, until you can't even tell which direction it's in.\n\nDirections are strange. How are you supposed to manage more than one?\n\nSome pebbles rush past angrily, chipping bits off you as you go. \n\nEverybody was so nice above the water. Was there even an everybody? You seemed much more... united.\n\nUp ahead it feels like the path is shifting. There's [[another rock|drock]]. The ground beneath you feels slimy; [[tendrils reaching to slow you down|dseaweed]].
The smooth pebbles around you seem unfriendly, and quite dull.\n\nThe smaller one is sticking to your side, pressed firmly by the water into a small crevice. You can feel it digging further in, and you start to ponder the idea of having your very own divot-dweller.\n\n<span class="conversation">Sorry... you don't mind, do you? Once you get this small, it's quite difficult to get around!</span>\n\nIt's quite nice to have a travelling companion. You trade stories; your new friend has been crossing the ocean for some time, mostly travelling with a large cloud of seabed debris. It seems shaken by the experience.\n\n<span class="conversation">Of course, it won't be long until I disappear. But it's good to have found a buddy.</span>\n\nYou want to ask more, but the pebbles around you start to jump and shuffle in one smooth movement. \n\n<span class="conversation">Waves!</span>\n\nDisappear?\n\nYou feel yourself dragged along with them, lifted, and crashed down again. It happens again, and again. All of you clatter along, lift, and slam into the ground. And again. [[And again|waves]].