Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore | OPEN

[vitaelamorte]

Who: E V E R Y O N E (Including our 4th wall guests!)
Where: Everywhere, one both Mirror and Real Side!
When: December 12th - December 18th (WEEK ONE)
Rating: PG-13, warn if going higher
Summary: This year's Ewaymas celebration rolls out the way it usually does, with intense decorating, a sudden snowfall and...far more arrivals than usual! New faces and old fill the mansion - but why would Wonderland bring so many people at once? And why do some of them remember Wonderland?
The Story:

On the evening before December 12th, the captives of Wonderland might be awoken by a loud commotion. Some of it is typical Ewaymas noise, likely familiar to anyone who has been in Wonderland for more than a year – construction sounds and jingle bells as Wonderland decks its own halls quite literally. Garland and lights race down the walls and down the stairs, and stockings appear on the walls for each and every person in Wonderland, embroidered with their names. There are decorative candles everywhere, and all sorts of decorations for every conceivable winter holiday, even if it does not align perfectly to the dates of Ewaymas. Time isn't real, so there will be menorahs and dreidels and Star of Davids even though Hanukkah ended two days prior. And of course, in the front hall, growing straight out of the floor, is a large decorated tree full of ornaments for everyone. And as always, it will have snowed heavily overnight, bringing all of the snow Wonderland will have between now and spring.

There is a second source of commotion in the night though – the sound of a crowd.

Over the course of the night, dozens of new arrivals will appear in Wonderland. Some for the first time. Some wondering how they managed to return with their memories. Others stumbling in with no recollection of ever having been here. Some might be friends from other timelines, other possibilities, and some might even be doubles of people who are already in Wonderland. It's strange for Wonderland to drag so many people into the mansion at once, but everything seems to indicate that they are supposed to be there. They have their own network devices and even have their own stockings on the wall and their own ornaments on the tree – by all accounts, it seems Wonderland expects that they'll be staying, and is treating them like any other new arrivals. Please, make them feel at home and help them settle in nicely.

The first few days will be for catching up with old friends and enjoying the decorations and settling into Wonderland. However, within a couple of days the decorations will start to glitch, much the way corrupted computer graphics might. Lights might change abruptly from multi-color to blue or white, entire décor styles will abruptly change, candle flames will flicker on and off like broken fluorescent lights, and any singing decorations might loop on a beat or two over and over putting you into an eternal hell. Wonderland doesn't seem to be able to stick to one motif, and it can't stop changing. These glitches are occurring on both the Real Side of Wonderland and the Mirror Side.

By the 15th, these glitches will include entire rooms changing into different holiday scenes. These scenes will all be of characters at various winter holidays in the past, the present (in their world), or a possible future. At this point in the event, characters will still be able to navigate the basic mansion and be able to exit these moments easily. These scenes cannot be interacted with – Wonderland seems to consider them another form of decorating. Unlike previous events of this type, these scenes will not loop at first. They will play once, and then Wonderland will glitch and correct itself to be the room it is supposed to be. The scene might play again, but it will be in a different location if it does.

By this point, Wonderland is having an increasingly difficult time holding itself together in a way that makes geographical sense. You might exit one room, even a room that was not previously playing a scene, and find yourself in the kitchen or on the roof instead of in the hallway. You might open a door that you were sure led to your room only to see a ten foot drop to the grounds outside.

This is the mingle log for WEEK ONE! For more information on this part of the event or any questions, please head over to the plot post, or check out our Fourth Wall Master Post for your other Fourth Wall event needs! Prose or [action brackets] are welcome. Please clearly indicate whether your character is on the Real Side or Mirror Side in your top levels. And of course, have fun! ♥

Comments

Weirdness~

[thisismadfreaky]

Cisco has noticed the weird, almost program-glitch like....thing that keeps happening and. He can't say it bodes well, even if he doesn't completely understand it yet. That's just sort of the way Wonderland is. He's standing in the same room with her, hands on his hips. "It's pretty standard levels of weird for Wonderland, although...I can't say that I get the point of it." A shrug as he moves one hand up easily into the Vulcan salute. A fellow nerd extension of peace, and hoping it helps in the event his existence in the room is a surprise. "You been here long?" He asks curiously.

[anormie]

The sound of someone else's voice startles Ella just a little bit, and she can't help but whirl towards it with a confused look on her face. She knew that she was alone in the room before, and now she wasn't. But given the fact that the entire room had just shifted, and of course the fact that she was in Wonderland of all places. Like on one hand, really really great? But on the other... really really weird.

But she still gives the man a smile and returns the salute. "Live Long and Prosper, buddy!" Because honestly when you're in Wonderland and you meet a fellow nerd what else can you do? Other than maybe hug. She's inclined towards the hugging, but not quite yet. "Nah, not long at all. I guess I just showed up when everyone else did. Which is weird I know but kinda not really weirder than anything else."

[thisismadfreaky]

He can't stop the laugh that follows her greeting. "Finally!" He puts one hand on his chest, "someone who gets me." And he's known her all of five seconds. And doesn't even know her name. But hey, whatever. Soul siblings are in the making, here! He drops his hands back down to his sides, eventually finding their way to rest on his hips. "Yeah, me too. Except I've been here before. ...Except I also shouldn't remember that and it's all really weird." Which is, at the very least, in line with everything she just said. So at least they're on the same page. That's when he realizes he should probably afford her some kind of introduction. "Oh!" he holds a hand out to her. "I'm Cisco, Earth-1, Central City, Missouri." Look, designations need to be that specific when there's a whole multiverse to look at. And not all of them even have Earth as part of their solar systems.

[anormie]

Well, if there was a way to set Ella at ease, this guy definitely had found it. She just grinned at him again, the already easy expression even easier than it had been. There's laughter in her eyes at that, because yeah, honestly same with the soul siblings thing. She can't help it, they've bonded on the nerd level and they're friends now. That's just the way that things work.

"You've been here before?" The question is out almost before she can stop it, and the appraising and interested look only intensifies for a moment. "That is so interesting. I don't think I've been, but I've got friends who are. Friends like from home, and not like just soul siblings that I've found!"

And then she stepped forward, her arms open for a hug. Ella's gotta Ella after all. "I'm Ella. And I'm uh just from Earth I guess? LA via Detroit. I don't know if I've got like some special Earth-y designation though. I mean, there probably is one given the whole Multiverse theory going on here? But no one's told me it yet."

[thisismadfreaky]

That is absolutely the way it works and there would be no questions at all from this corner, thanks. She Gets It™ and what more can anyone really ask for. "Yeah, best I can gather, it was almost a year since I left. Or thereabouts," he rocks back on his heels. "It's weird, even for this place. There were patterns, and for some reason, those patterns aren't being followed right now. I don't get it, and I'm not sure if I'll even be here long enough to try." Wonderland was hardly the easy sort of thing to slip into an understanding with, afterall. He can't stop the beam of a smile as she calls him a soul-sibling. One hand goes up to his chest over his heart and he gives a soft noise of absolute adoring approval. "It's like you really speak my language." And she's a hugger? Oh, yeah, this is a friendship for life, already. He accepts the gesture easily, grinning as he meets her half-way, giving the kind of squeeze that's the perfect balance of tight and not too tight. He's an expert at this, it's okay. "Well, where I'm from, the multiverse has been proven to be real. Which makes being here a lot easier to handle when you first get here, in a lot of ways. But..." He pulls back from her and settles his hands on his hips again. "It's still pretty bananas."

[anormie]

Huh. Ella is hugging, but she's also taking it all in because she is quite good at multitasking when needed, thanks. Or like not at all needed, just tends to be kind of a form of what she does in general. Like now. So, hugging him and focusing on the patterns that he's talking about because she's not been here long enough to get a good read on the place. And also she may have been slightly a bit distracted because magical Wonderland Christmas with actual My Little Ponies and you know, not Lucifer here and all that stuff.

"It's so weird and good to have someone who totally speaks my language. I love my friends but they sometimes look at me as if I've got like three heads or something and two of them are talking in like Klingon and Elvish or something. But they try." Which, from Ella's tone of voice is the thing that she finds the most important honestly. She's been around too many people who don't try for it not to matter.

"You are a good hugger!" The words come in almost a bubble of gladness, because Cisco, bro you are now her bro for life. Wherever in the multiverse that they happen to end up. "So how did they prove multiverses are real? Were there all like different realities interacting? Was it all like a mirrorverse?!"

[thisismadfreaky]

He chuckles a little at that comment, "I know the types," he admits. "Luckily, most of the friends I have these days aren't too likely to stare at me like I'm the weirdest thing to grace their presence." Except Harry, but he barely counts because he's a brat. And he fits that try-ing category Ella's so fondly speaking of, too. "Thanks," he says awkwardly around a huff of amusement. A sentiment he's more than welcome to, truly. 'Bros in every universe' is not an unfamiliar concept to him, even. "It was kind of an accident, and has an extremely long story attached to it. How much time do you have?" Because that story requires so much explanation and she should be prepared for that ride as much as she can be before he gets into it, really.

[anormie]

"Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely not like the weirdest one in my group even. I'm like... a little loco but my friend Lucifer actually is like a method actor who acts like he's the devil so..." Despite the words, there's a fondness in her voice, because the devil never really bothered her too much. He got a bad rap, and like she did with so many people, Ella was willing to overlook those flaws and whatever to get to the core of what a good person he was deep down. Besides, all the best people were crazy.

"Well, I mean how much time does anyone really have especially when they're kinda just sort of kidnapped to Wonderland where the walls are fluxing out and stuff? But I like good long stories. I mean, it sounds like really good fanfic, and I'm always a sucker for really good fanfic." Which may have been something of an underestimation of her love of fanfic. Even from her.

[thisismadfreaky]

"Really?" He tilts his head a little, amused at the idea of this. "Do you get a lot of that in L.A.?" He maybe, kinda, sorta hasn't been outside of the midwest much, Ella, sorry. "Okay, good point." He muses with a slight shrug. "Well, it all technically started when Harrison Wells, who's like-- one of the brightest scientific minds of the age on my Earth, started a project for a particle accelerator that was supposed to pretty much revolutionize the science and medical industries..." He goes on to explain the explosion, and how the dark matter from it created metahumans; that the Flash and another speedster from the future, along with a heroic-death-suicide decision from a former friend created centuries worth of changes in the world's timeline at once and, as a result, created a singularity that essentially connected roughly 52 different parallel universes to Earth-1. "...And that's probably a whoooole lotta crazy to try and process, so..." He nods and folds his arms across his chest. It's so much, when he tries to explain literally anything from back home to people from other universes....

[anormie]

"You kinda get a lot of everything in LA. It's like definitely weirdness central." Which was an understatement and Ella doesn't even know the half of what's going on there really. Which is a thing. It's fine, but it's still a thing.

Even still, she focuses on him intently, looking up at him like she would through the scope her microscope over some particularly interesting but also slightly baffling of course she followed along, because she was Ella and had been watching Star Trek since was a kid and TNG was on Saturday afternoons. "Wow." It's all she can say for a moment, but it's clear that she's definitely taking it in while she does it. "Does the dark matter connect through all of the parallel Earths in the same way or is it just the after effects of the primary event?"

[thisismadfreaky]

He doesn't rush her or push her while she takes it in and processes it; it's a lot, especially if you aren't from a world where things that sound like they're straight out of Hollywood happen on the reg. But he's one part pleased, and another part curious at her question.

"Uh- you know, I really don't know," He frowns a little. "I know Earth-2 had basically a parallel event to our Earth's, that created metas... and metas exist on other Earth's, too... but I don't know." he folds his arms across his chest. "Huh... Too bad you're not around in Central City." He thinks Team Flash could probably use someone like her around.