If you don't control your temper, [open]

[theenforcer]

Who: Barbie and You!
Where: Around Wonderland
When: Arrival and throughout the month
Rating: PG for language, updated as needed
Summary: New to Wonderland and trying to figure out what fishbowl he is trapped in now
The Story:

Arrival on the Beach

Not being stuck to a magnetized dome is a good start. Except nothing looks familiar. Even the sky overhead seems different than how it had looked through the dome in Chester's Mill. It definitely isn't the same street he'd been on with an SVU barreling down on him and Linda. This isn't even the beach at the lake, which is a good thing as there is at least no scent of methane. Except all of those changes meant Barbie has no idea where he was.

Crossing his arms over his stomach, mostly to hide the shackles that kept his wrists cuffed together, setting off to try follow things up towards the structure he saw in the distance.

Around the Mansion

Rid of his cuffs and cleaned up a bit, Barbie has seen the flyers, and still none of it is making a lot of sense. So he sets off to explore the house of his new alien overlords to try and desperately find answers. Not that he isn't used to not having them, but maybe this time things will be different.

So he pops his head into a few rooms, checks out the food situation, and if he is seen turning faucets on and off a few times can anyone really blame him?

Exploring the land

It's not that Barbie thinks there's a dome somewhere around Wonderland under a miniature dome, but well, he's out searching for a damn miniature dome with a damn egg, and maybe a butterfly, in it.

Set up with a flashlight and some equipment from the closest after having learned about them, he heads out into the forests though at times it's closer to dusk than might be safe, exploring to see how similar this place is to the world he knew.

Comments

around the mansion;

[thereporter]

Julia's been managing surprisingly well. Running water certainly helps, of course, along with no shortages in food and electricity. Part of her almost misses Chester's Mill, though; not the dome itself, but the community she had grown to care about, the chatter over communal meals at the Sweetbriar Rose, the distant hum of generators. She's been in Wonderland now for three times longer than the dome had been over Chester's Mill, and almost all of it already feels like a distant memory of another world.

Almost all of it. The worst of it she's pushed herself to move beyond, to grieve, to say goodbye to the things she loved and the people she loved in her own way.

Which is why, when she swings around the door and into the kitchen, she stills in place immediately. Maybe it's a trick of the light that makes the form in front of her look so familiar. The water in the sink is running, splashing loudly into the basin, and she isn't sure she can feel her legs for a moment. It couldn't be, it wasn't possible, but then there's his hands reaching out to turn off the faucet and she knows those hands. Those hands that have saved her life, that have fought for her town. Those hands that fit so perfectly into hers.

Somehow she manages to force her strangled voice from her throat. "Barbie?"

[theenforcer]

The water source seems to be clean and good. The air outside is fresh. Food is abundant, plentiful and fresh. It's like a paradise after the last two weeks where there is room for everyone, and supplies to save them all.

And if all of the literature tells him that every few weeks this place tries to destroy them all, well that is one thing that is truly familiar to him.

Caught up in assuring himself that the plumbing and water source is real, that it's clean, and he doesn't realize that someone else is there.

Not until he hears his name. Not until he hears that voice that he knows so well. Spinning to face her, his face full of wonderment.

"I... I made it. The town... the stars..." He crosses to where she is, reaching for her hands. He isn't sure of the words to explain it all, how he is alive and not hanging at the end of a rope where he'd gone to so Julia could protect the egg.

[thereporter]

Julia can't comprehend a world where Barbie is still alive, and seeing him in front of her is enough to keep her frozen. She's tried to move on the last two months, to accept the fact that when she returned home, it would be to a world without him there. Julia never allowed herself to believe he could come to Wonderland, to hope for it, because wishing for it to happen was more painful that convincing herself it couldn't.

And yet, here he is. She's almost sure this has to be some kind of event, Wonderland tricking her in some way, like how the Dome made her see Joe and Alice. Yet his hands are warm when he grips hers and she feels the blood rush back into her limbs, and she's suddenly able to move again.

"Barbie..." She finally moves forward, throwing her arms around him and pressing herself into him, her head buried in his shoulder. She can feel him, smell him, and she knows he's real, her throat aching as she tries to fight back tears of grief and relief. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I left you. This is all my fault."

[theenforcer]

She's had weeks to accept that in leaving him to Big Jim, she was leaving him to his death. For Barbie it's been minutes since the stars fell and they found the dome changing once more. Those moments have been too much, and when he leans the truth, it will be hard to imagine how it was for her.

Clinging to Julia, his hands splaying over her back and holding him close to her as he offers what solace he can, while claiming the comfort of her in his arms once more.

"Shhhh. Nono, Julia. I wanted you to go. We needed you to." The egg needed her to, and whatever he might believe of the egg and the dome, he knew that Big Jim having it is a disaster just waiting to happen. He is sure of that. "And it's okay. The stars... that was you, right? You and the egg?"

In that moment he had assumed it was her protecting the egg, and he knew that had been part of what kept him alive.

[thereporter]

She presses her eyes shut, finally unable to hold back the tears that start to run down her face. Julia is doing her best to keep it together, but it's too tempting to fall apart now that he's there to help keep her together.

"I dropped the egg in the lake," she whispers, nodding into his shoulder. "That's when the pink stars started and then I ended up here. I thought the dome brought me here at first but..." She finally pulls away slightly, just enough to cup her hands over his cheeks and properly look at him, and it's only then that she realizes she had started to forget what he looked like. "I didn't know how to save you and protect the egg. I couldn't."

[theenforcer]

"This..." He stops himself. It's not time yet to ask about that, though he is curious about that since he has it in his head that it is the dome. Not sure how, or where, but it went along with so much else that the dome has done to them.

"No, you couldn't. I knew that, Julia. You did what you had to do," he says, believing it, his tones hard and fierce. Even as he says it, his arms tighten around her more, not thinking that it might be painful. No, he is only thinking about holding her close, keeping her close to him to prove he's not letting her go. Not now. Not ever.

"You saved the egg, Julia. We couldn't let Big Jim have that," he says, believing that as much as anything else. "He couldn't do it either. No, he could. He just wanted to make Junior the killer he is," he murmurs, trying to find the words to tell her what happened. Without mentioning that even in the moment he arrived in Wonderland the dome might well be making up for him surviving the gallows.

"It's okay, Julia. It's okay. If it kept you safe, it was all okay." And he was glad for them to focus on him and not follow her. Even if he hates the idea that in the future, when she would need him, he might not be there.

the beach :D

[scoutsniper]

One day, Frank's going to figure out how or why people show up here. With all this news of war, he's thinking a lot about who the damn Queen is bringing in and why.

Right now, though, he's just doing a perimeter sweep, clearly looking for someone.

Not this guy, though.

There's something weird about the way he walks, like his gait's off. Carrying something, Frank guesses. And that's probably not good. Not like anything around this damn place is.

"Haven't seen a woman out here, have you?" Not really a casual question, but he figures he knows the answer. But it's a chance to get a read on this guy.

[theenforcer]

Barbie glances up, looking rough around the edges and with a healing cut on his brow. It's definitely been a rough couple of weeks and he isn't sure how to handle this place. Not like this, just arrived and facing whatever this place is and what this wants from them. He had just been getting used to what the dome wants from them.

"No, I haven't seen anyone out here since I got here. Though oddly enough I was going to ask you the same thing," he admits. "I thought she was heading for the water, but not this water. Or..." He glances up, not showing the cuffs but not able to really hide them either. "Or this place, I don't think."

[scoutsniper]

"Shit." Yeah, that was the answer he was expecting, unfortunately. Not that he wanted to hear, but that he was expecting.

And another shit. "You're new." No one has ever criticized Frank Castle's grasp on the obvious. And also that he doesn't--ever--sound happy.

[theenforcer]

"Yeah, apparently. Not sure where I'm new at," he admits, offering a bit of a lopsided smile at that. "Sorry if that's a problem." Because it kind of sounds like it is with this guy.

"I can help you look for whoever you've lost. Kind of become a norm lately." Which is a sad truth. "And even had some tracking in basic training." See? Totally not a threat. Doesn't want to be one. Because, dammit, he needs to ask...

"You don't happen to have a bit of wire on you? Bobby pin? Something like that?" Damn old fashion police forces and metal cuffs and not zip ties, though with ties his hands would still be behind his back. He's pretty sure he could pick them. Hasn't tried before but he's sure he can figure it out with blocking the teeth and sliding it loose enough to get at least one hand out.

[scoutsniper]

"They call it 'Wonderland'." Frank calls it 'fucked up place that sucks' but that gets tedious to say after a bit.

He snorts. "Probably had more training than you, then." Basic training. SCOFF. Still, the more eyes, the better.

"Knife. Why?" He shrugs. "You can get anything you want from the closets here. Except, you know, home."

[theenforcer]

"And the minister in the last town I was in thought the dome was there to bring us closer to God. You can call things anything you want, but it's all smoke and mirrors without the truth."

Not that he's not entirely used to being without the truth. Which is not reassuring.

"You might have had. All I had was special forces training and a few years in Afghanistan." Which means he'd had more than just basic, but he hadn't known it was a competition.

"As for the metal? I kind of survived a lynching but still stuck with these," he says, raising his hand and showing the cuffs that join them. "The sheriff was trying to undo them when we found ourselves stuck to a dome with her truck aiming for us. Then I was here."

exploring the land!

[spycurious]

Dusk might seem like an odd time to take his horse for a ride, but with the arrival of spring, there was something enjoyably still about evenings and Ben couldn't resist it. Sunlight going from bright rays to shafts of burnished gold, fading to deep oranges, reds, all receding as the world washed itself with indigos and deep blues. The best part of it: In the stillness and the occasional wind carrying the scent of fresh grass with it? Generally, no one bothered you (not that Ben minds good company), and it was a very good time to think.

At present Ben is leading Gaius along the tree line. It's dark enough that he's holding a lantern up for light--old fashioned in initial appearance, but powered by batteries, far more reliable and safer than flame.

A figure not far from them catches Ben's attention, as does the light in the man's hand. He slows his pace with Gaius to a gentle tread, still leading him along. His soldierly caution catches up with him, and rather than surprise the man--if he hasn't already seen or heard Ben and his horse--he calls out,

"Hello! Nice evening, isn't it?"

It's Ben's intention to both look and sound nonthreatening, but he silently recalls the knife at his side concealed in his waistcoat and the (modern) pistol holstered in Gaius' saddle.

[theenforcer]

Logic is knowing that this place isn't the same as all that has happened in Chester's Mill. Paranoia is wondering if whoever was behind all they've been through has found a way to up their game. It was why he's hoping that searching through the land they have access to might help him to calm down on that front.

Not that he's found anything that remotely resembles a mini dome or the egg, but it's hard to let go of that mindset when your life has been so close to this place for weeks now.

The sound of steps, heavy ones, catch him off guard. Enough so that by the time Ben and his mount come into view, Barbie is tensing fort the worst. Not thinking there might be larger animals here, and wondering what made that heavy a step. So in seeing Gaius following his rider, Barbie can't help but to smile.

He even raises a hand in a wave, ignoring the tug of skin at his wrists where the cuffs had cut in and the skin hasn't begun to heal.

"Lot nicer than the evening I was having," he admits, not seeing a reason to pretend to be anything but new and still a bit confused by the whole place. "Did they... I mean, weird question, but did they bring through the horse with you or were they part of the land when you got here?"

exploring!

[spiritofgoodness]

Snow really doesn't utilize the shooting range much. She'd rather be in the woods (as far in as she can go without whatever's there killing her and without stumbling upon dreamshade), hitting trees with targets attached when it comes to making sure her archery skills are in check. With a war coming, whatever that may mean, her aim needs to be truer than ever before.

Letting arrows fly, each one hits its mark, dead center, from yards away. At one point, she cuts a rope that sends balloons into the air, counts to ten in her head, and then begins aiming to shoot, taking ten out before moving to find her arrows, humming to herself. At the sound of footsteps, she stops short, turning her head to one side.

"Who's there?"

[theenforcer]

The warnings about the forest and the reality are not the same, and sadly the reality is not all that far off from the things that Barbie has dealt with before. So it is when the lightheaded sensation begins to catch up with him, he changes course and heads back toward the mansion.

The thwip of a bow though is a familiar enough sound, and he veers course to follow the sound with a careful gait. Not trying to be stealthy; quite the opposite really as he crunches through the underbrush.

Hearing the call of another, he moves towards the sound, a bit worse for wear with a tear in his shirt and mud on his jeans but offering a smile as he spots the other person.

"Name's Barbie. Sorry if I scared off any game you might have been hunting."

[spiritofgoodness]

Her bow is lowered and she shakes her head, taking in his appearance before returning the smile with a small one of her own.

"I wasn't hunting, just practicing. Apparently, we have quite the event to begin preparing for and no way of knowing what weapons will be available.

[theenforcer]

Lips pursing a moment, Barbie gives a nod. "So I was informed basically from the moment I arrived. Seems I can't catch a break."

Much as he prefers this place over Chester's Mill and the dome, walking into a war that few seem to know anything about is rough.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about it more than the declaration?"

[spiritofgoodness]

"I'm sorry you came at such a bad time. Although, I'm not sure what would qualify as a good time. Are things chaotic at home, too then?"

She gathers her arrows and shakes her head. "And no, I wish I did. But I have experience with it courtesy of home. We'll see if any of it comes in handy. The hardest part is not knowing exactly what was meant by 'war.' We all have a pretty clear mental image but I have my doubts about a physical battle being what she meant."

But that's just a guess, she has no idea. It could be very serious and very real.

[theenforcer]

"From what I can gather," he says, his smile wide if not entirely comforted. "It's rarely a good time. At least from what others have said."

He nods though. "We found ourselves recently trapped inside a dome that seemed about like this place in attempting to try and kill people. I feel like it's odd to say but at least there's kind of knowledge about who we're fighting here. Back home it just felt like everyone."

Everyone but Julia and a handful of kids that shouldn't have been dealing with any of this.

"A lot of magic in this place. Are you thinking it's going to be more like that? Which sucks for me. I've fought in physical wars. Not so much magical ones."

exploring

[postictal]

It's for the best that Tim's out when he is, albeit with a cigarette burning out between his teeth. He ventures into the woodland more than he'd care to admit to anyone, himself included. There's something about the vertical bars on the tree trunks that's familiar for obvious reasons, and bizarrely reassuring in others - or maybe paranoia-inducing, which is familiar enough to be reassuring.

A beam of flashlight sluices through the half-dark, and one hand jerks upright to shade his eyes against the approaching light.

"Woah, hey." Put the light down, bud, before you blind somebody.

[theenforcer]

The scent of tobacco and paper had drawn Barbie closer, uncertain if it was someone else from the mansion that seemed to hold dozens, or someone else entirely. It's the latter that has him curious, unwilling to let go of the paranoia that the Dome created within.

Catching sight of the light of the cigarette, and the words of another, Barbie brings it down slightly, more waist height though not entirely giving up the light he use against the growing shadows.

"Sorry." And he mostly is. "Haven't run into many others out here."

[postictal]

"Yeah, 'cause most people aren't as stupid as I am," says Tim, flicking ash from the lit end of his cigarette and then immediately grinding it beneath one battered shoe. The last thing he wants to do is start some kind of forest fire. Even if Wonderland smooths over blemishes like that one in a hurry, it'll be a pain to deal with in the present.

"Y'know wandering too far out here can kill you, right?"

[theenforcer]

Barbie smirks at that with a bit of a laugh. "Wouldn't be the first time I was called stupid, or did something really stupid," he admits, not at all offended by that.

He nods though. "So I've been told. I'm not roaming too far. Just... you walk out here a lot? You ever seen something like a dome? With something inside?"

[postictal]

That's a bit of a specific inquiry, huh? Tim's brow furrows faintly, a crease darkening the space between eyebrows.

"Not that I can remember," he says at last. When your memory's routinely unreliable, it's best not to make assumptions, no matter how much he's certain that he would remember if he'd seen a thing like that. "You're the second person to mention that, y'know. Some kinda...dome thing."

Over Chester's Mill. Whatever that is.