Particles gathered in the dark above a dune line, pink light bleeding into existence one fleck at a time until it resolved into a girl who looked, for all the world, like she'd wandered out of a shopping mall rather than out of nothing at all.
Pink hair. Pink dress trimmed in something that caught the low light like sugar catching sun. Pink boots that had never once touched dirt and clearly had no intention of starting now. And underneath all of it, a smile that arrived the same instant her face did, easy and total, as though smiling were simply the default state of existing and everything else required effort.
Beside her, a second shape gathered more slowly, resolving into a man in a crisp officer's coat, buttons catching the same dim light.
