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

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

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! ♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cautious isn't what I'd call it.

[He hadn't seen Alex in years, save for a few horrible seconds, and they barely even got to talk. Alex Kralie, the one guy who might be able to explain what the hell happened back home, and he just jumped straight to attempted murder.]

I think he was planning to give me all five in a row.

[He reaches up to pick at the stitches on his jaw, before hesitantly pulling his hand back. Probably not good to poke at the gel while it's working, even if it does itch.]

You...know why he keeps going after me, right?

[Safer if she knows, right? If Alex Kralie is here, if it didn't send him home ~~after what Jay did to him,~~ then she's better off knowing what Jay and Tim found out.]

[Good, don't poke at it. If his hand had gotten there she'd have smacked it down. She can see it working, forming into holes and smoothing over like a second skin. At least she can do something to help.]

I can imagine. But no, I don't. He nor Tim would tell me a straight answer. You're the only person who's come close to saying real words.

[A slight pause.]

Which I do appreciate, by the way. Saying it straight. I can handle whatever you guys can dish out.

[Jay has to take a moment to process that. She appreciates his lousy attempts at an explanation.]

You'd...be the first.

[He's aiming for sarcastic, but he lands a little closer to quiet awe.]

I just hope I'm not...y'know, making things any worse by trying to spell it out to somebody in person.

[None of the viewers complained about symptoms, right? So it's only in-person that's risky, right? Or maybe it's not risky at all. It's fine. Honestly, really, it should be fine. It's definitely better than not explaining.]

[He takes a breath.]

If you hadn't figured that out, we don't really have a handle on what we're dealing with.

[How much of what he does know can he say?]

Of the three of us, Tim might be the one who's got the most experience dealing with...stuff. But I can't even really say I'm sure about that.

[His eyes flash for a moment, a half-hearted eyeroll.]

But he told me Alex thinks It's contagious--like, it spreads. Somehow. And if you want a disease to stop spreading, it...I guess it makes some kind of sense to...y'know, quarantine It any way you can.

[That's a hell of a word for it, for where he's been trapped ever since a bullet punched through his side. Quarantine.]

But the thing is, unless there's something somebody's not telling me--which, yeah, wouldn't exactly be a surprise--we've got no real reason to think he's right. [His voice climbs a little higher, a little more defensive.] Like, sure, it fits the evidence, but that doesn't prove anything.

[A lousy attempt at an explanation is better than no explanation! Everyone else has fought her every damn step of the way, at least he's trying.

And seeing as she does value the words, she nods along as she speaks, trying to think about what she's already seen and compare it to what she knows. Her experience with... whoever the hell that was ended up really similar to the Reapers. People got infected, tech got infected, and it was all downhill from there. But the logical conclusion to that wasn't murdering everyone. That wasn't the cause. Eliminate the source, and the problem goes away.

Then again, she's a trained soldier and Alex is 20-something film student. Maybe they don't come to the same conclusions.]

So lemme get this straight. His idea of quarantine wasn't to take out what was causing the issue, but to kill anyone showing symptoms.

[There goes another one of those Tired Parent Sighs.]

Look, I get it, you saw what the Reapers did. I get this sort of... concept. It's just not sustainable. But lemme guess, you guys are pretty desperate. Yeah?

[Jay folds his free arm across his chest, shoulders curled inwards, neck ducked low.]

[There's something in the tone of her voice, the way she zeroes in on the facts of the matter immediately--You guys are pretty desperate, yeah?--that strikes Jay as familiar.]

[Tim. It reminds him of Tim. The rare, infinitely valuable realization that you're talking to someone who gets it.]

You can't just...

[He's not sure what became of the Reaper that landed on the Mansion's front lawn, but it seemed solid, at least. Maybe, with a big enough gun, you could just sink it, like any other ship.]

[Meanwhile, It just flickers and fades away. It shows up on camera, but Jay's memories of ever seeing It in person are unreliable at best. It doesn't look quite the same to the naked eye, though he couldn't tell you why. Maybe it's just the curvature of the lens. Maybe what he's seen is only a small part of something much bigger.]

Like, I dunno where you'd even start with getting rid of...you know. It's not...it's like it's not...real.

I dunno, maybe without--without anybody to...feed on or follow around or whatever it does, maybe it stops.

[There he goes, defending Alex Kralie. He's seen footage of himself, from the summer he doesn't remember. Alex steps out of line--curses out one of the actors, maybe, or Seth again. Cuts a little too deep. People storm out, and Jay's there, trying to explain--"Look, he's not normally like this. He must just be having a bad day."]

Or--or maybe it doesn't.

Edited 2019-02-02 05:49 (UTC)

[She might laugh if she knew she was being compared to Tim. It's apropos, funny only to her because her perception of him is more stubborn than she imagines for herself. But they match it, more than they know; a troubled past, a weary resignation, a persistent and determined crawl towards the end under any means necessary. If only they'd had a little more time.

Shepard nods as he speaks, trying to think if she can disseminate any information from all this. There's just too many unknowns, and dragging in more people makes you responsible. No wonder her crack team of specialists had all been people ready to die. What other way is there?]

Look, I get it, it's... just because the Reapers were dead didn't mean their influence disappeared. That was-- the problem, actually.

[Didn't help she couldn't follow up with all that 'dead for two years' bit. Fuckers knew what they were doing.]

We killed the first one. It started with just one, and it took everything we had to shoot it down. And then even its corpse was a threat. Corrupted normal people, officials in power, the fucking ground it touched. And two years later came the force, with the seeds already planted. The body was just as dangerous as the live one.

[She sighs, remembering the day of the invasion of Earth, the panic and the wish she had she could be satisfied. She had fucking told them, but the objective was never to be right.]

I just... yeah. It seemed helpless. The only reason we were able to do anything at all is because we were dealing with resources in the billions. Armies of entire planets. Regular people who stepped up to make a difference. Hell, one of 'em went down because it got eaten by a gigantic space worm. Sometimes you just had to get lucky.

[She doesn't want to hurt him, but she puts a hand on his shoulder, looks truly sympathetic.]

Three guys in the woods? Fighting something that big? Kid, you did everything you could. I think all of you did. There's no good way to survive.

[She's touching his shoulder.]

[He winces, a small twitch of the features, a barely perceptible recoil, but he doesn't pull away.]

[Is this okay? It's Shepard, so he shouldn't be in any physical danger. It doesn't feel too bad, just a noticeable weight and warmth where there wasn't one before. It's holding him in place. It's stabilizing. That's probably the intent.]

[He's not saying anything. He should say something.]

[What did she say?]

[You did everything you could. There's no good way to survive.]

[There was no way out--none but a bullet or a head caved in or a throat split open--and even then it wasn't a guarantee. Even then, after Jay was throttled and left to rot in the woods, after Tim's skull was split by a stick of rebar or his heart was stopped by a bottle of pills, after a deafening squeal of static cut to silence, it wasn't over. Even its corpse was a threat. They kept coming back. They keep coming back.]

[Either there's no way out, or there's nothing but. Either they were all doomed to die from the second the video in Alex Kralie's camera split down the middle, or death is just how it starts.]

[There are too many variables.]

[But Shepard's lived through worse, backed by interplanetary armies. She killed a Reaper, even if its body kept spreading the infection. She made a difference, where Jay couldn't do a single goddamn thing.]

[Maybe it's okay, then. Maybe there's nothing he could do.]

[Maybe he did something after all. Maybe his information stopped some kind of epidemic, some kind of global crisis.]

[Or maybe Alex is right. Maybe he's done nothing but make everything worse.]

[Or maybe Alex is wrong. Maybe killing him didn't accomplish anything. Even its corpse was a threat, she said.]

[Are they the monsters? Are they really just shambling, undead things, acting on instinct and subconscious direction, spreading the virus through words and thoughts and sketches and film converted to streaming video? What do you call things like them?]

You don't know. I mean, I--I don't know. [His voice cracks, and the more he tries to suppress it, the easier it is to hear. It helps, he thinks, to have a hand on his shoulder.] Not sure Alex did either.

[He can't sink his head into his hands, not with the stitches and not with the camera. He screws his good eye shut instead.]

I don't know. I don't know. I don't-- [It's like a mantra, mumbled under his breath as his voice climbs higher, more frantic.]

[Breathe.]

[One, two, three, four, five.]

Every time-- [Another crack in his voice, another shooting pain down his throat. One, two, three, four, five.] Every time I think I...I've figured out how things work, it's just...

[He gestures aimlessly. It's just gone. Useless. Debunked, disproven.]

I mean, I'm...here. I'm here, right now, not dead.

[That breath is a victory. It's scary to see him on the edge like this, slipping through her fingertips in a way she isn't sure she's able to catch. The last time she saw Alex, he was like this too. Rough in her fingers, jagged edges like broken glass, every heave of his chest splintering more and more into oblivion as he became sand seeping into the ground. She couldn't catch him. How do you hold a structure well enough to stop it's collapse? How do you realize you've squeezed something too tightly, broken it yourself through your own fear?

At least she feels that breath. Shepard takes her other hand, gently moving some hair from his face, wiping some sweat from his brow.]

Yeah. You are. And that means something, no matter what. You gotta remember that means something.

[In a way, she's the same. If she had died out there... people would still have fought in her name. She thinks out of the blue of the people of Mindoir, the people who had never met her but simply carried the name of her home, fighting to put her face on their flag. Of a refugee child hugging her middle in the Citadel and saying she knew she'd be safe with her out in the galaxy. Of the reporter on her ship whispering, in confidence, that she'd make sure every good Shepard ever did carried her name.

Even her corpse is a threat, too. If the Reapers killed her, she'd be a martyr.

Sometimes there's simply no end to what they've started.]

The universe is too big for us to really know. But that's... horrifying. We just gotta keep going. If we can't do anything else, we just gotta find a way to keep going.

[That's what does it, after everything. It's Shepard's hand on his forehead, nudging greasy strands of hair out of his face, wiping a line of sweat away before it can drip into his eyes. It's something he never realized he needed to hear somebody else say: We just gotta keep going.]

[Maybe he's not selfish for wanting to stay alive. Maybe he's not stupid for pushing forward, for continuing the investigation, for keeping the camera rolling and a bag of tapes slung across his back instead of changing his name and moving out of state and sinking into the mattress of another crappy one-bedroom apartment until he forgets what giving a shit feels like. Maybe it's okay.]

[His breath hitches, and he can feel moisture gathering at the corner of his good eye, can feel salt stinging against the open scratches across his face. It's been one hell of a long day, and it's all catching up to him at once.]

[He doesn't look at her. She's a soldier, and then there's him, losing his composure in public.]

[With a shallow breath, Jay manages to croak out:]

Yeah.

[He nods, brief and crooked, wincing as a twinge of pain shoots up his neck.]

Okay.

Edited 2019-02-22 06:59 (UTC)

[She knows she has to be gentle when he's in this state, in pain and injured and fucked up beyond where he should have gone. It's the moments like this that keep her fighting. Moments like this that made her a soldier in the first place. If she can lift some pain, if she can take the fall instead of someone else, if she can protect the lives of kids who stumble onto something way bigger than them-- it'll all be worth it.

She pushes his shoulder towards her so she can wrap her arms around him, let his head rest on her shoulder, place one hand on the back of his head and hold him like a child.]

Yeah. We're still here.

[Shepard keeps her chest as still as she can, not to crash into his jaw or break him further, but this is the only thing she knows how to do.]

We're gonna keep going.

[Disgusting. His eye's watering, he's got gel smeared across his chin, unclipped stitches hanging out of otherwise healed skin, a gaping eye socket, and now his nose is running.]

[He isn't going to drip mucus on Shepard. That'd be awful. He sniffs it back, and the noise is somehow worse.]

[Like some kind of kid.]

[She's holding his shoulder, comforting him, like he's some kind of stupid kid who can't hold it together.]

[And then she pulls him in, lets him rest his disgusting face on her shoulder. The sensation's unfamiliar, restrictive, and his heart rate shoots up.]

[Pull it together.]

[Her arms are wrapped around him, while his hang loose at his sides. He tries not to think about an ache between his shoulder blades, carpet burns across his chin and the sting of plastic zipties wearing open the skin of his wrists, of his ankles. Let me go. Let me go. Let me out, get OFF--!]

[He bites the inside of his cheek and doesn't make a sound. He waits for the taste of iron.]

[It's Shepard. It's fine. It's Shepard. He's not tied up. She's just holding onto him.]

[He's safe. She's safe.]

[They're gonna keep going.]

[He breathes, nose half-crushed by the way his face presses against her shoulder.]

What about everybody else?

[His tone's flattened out. There's too much going on to make it do anything else, to mimic the rise and fall of 'natural conversation.']

Alex, I-- [His good eye screws shut.] I mean, I was just trying to get away, but I still...

[The sickening crack it made when the camera collided with the side of his head, the strangled, animal noise that tore out of Alex as the glass dug into the flesh of his face, the way his eyes dripped red from behind closed lids.]

[You did this, Jay Merrick. You did this to him.]

[He could get out if he wanted to- she'd let him out if he desired, but the fear is a lot and she doesn't know. All she can think to do right now is just to hold him, try and fix this any way she can.]

He took out your goddamn eye. Isn't there a saying about that?

[Not that she's seen Alex since he did this fuckery, but that's just gonna come later.]

Don't worry about it right now, alright? I'll take care of Alex and his... everything. Just breathe, okay? Five in, five out. Cry if you need to.

[Shepard swallows, trying to just think of the right words.]

You're not alone.

[Five in, five out.]

[Five in, five out.]

[Five in--]

[Experimentally, Jay lifts his arms, tries wrapping them across Shepard's back. It helps, oddly enough. Feels less restrictive if he's holding on, too.]

[~~He doesn't want to forget her again. He doesn't want her to go.~~]

[You're not alone, she says, and Jay snorts. His face is still pressed against her shoulder, though he's eased off slightly. The bruises were starting to sting again.]

If you said that to me a couple years back, I'd... [Another snort, a jerk of the head. It's at his own expense.] I'd probably take it as a threat.

[His voice is still flat.]

[One, two, three, four, five.]

When you say you're gonna 'take care' of Alex, you don't mean...?

[She doesn't. He doesn't think she does. Four years in hell, three on the road, two hunting down Alex, and he still never figured out what he was supposed to do if he found him. He thought maybe finding him would be enough. Stopping him, maybe, but he didn't want to think any further than that, didn't like the feeling that coiled in his gut when he did.]

[Even after Alex Kralie put a bullet in his side, he didn't want to think any further than that. Didn't want to think about how it'd feel to yank the gun out of his hands, press the barrel to Alex Kralie's forehead and assert some control for once in his goddamn--]

[Isn't there a saying about that?]

[Jay mumbles into her shirt:] I already got his eye.

Edited 2019-03-03 20:01 (UTC)

[Despite the macabre nature of it all, she can't help the little bubble of laughter in her chest, the way everything feels better when he holds back. See, this could... could have been worse. Could have never gotten to see him one more time in a way that makes her understand it will be the last, the context of finality. At least they get this.]

No, I'm not gonna kill him. Pretty precisely not, actually, because I'm sure that's what he wants.

[Like he begged her to when they met earlier, that she decidedly wanted nothing to do with.]

I'm gonna yell at him until he gets some sense, or he spends the rest of his time in Wonderland under Shepardwatch, courtesy of me and whatever jail I can cobble together in like an hour. I've handled worse.

[Shame the Mako is probably gone, though she's confident Alex would find a way to off himself in there.]

Just don't worry about it for once, huh? Trust me. I'll get it.

[She's handled worse, and she can handle Alex Kralie.]

[God.]

[Jay wheezes into Shepard's shoulder.]

[If Shepard had been around back home, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Alex Kralie would have been handled before things got bad. Maybe they all could have knocked back an anticonvulsant with half a bottle of beer and laughed about it later.]

[Maybe they could've finished that student film.]

[Jay holds on a little tighter. He's not sure what to say.]

Cool.

[Nailed it.]

[He's not ready to just say thank you for smearing future gel on his face, to wish her good luck with Shepardwatch, retreat back to his barren old room, and slip a new SD card into the camera. Not when it could be the last time he ever sees her.]

So, uh. [His voice is muffled.] If you've got a...minute to spare, with, like...all this...

[Sure, because keeping an eye on a murderer's something you can just take a break from.]

You wanna watch a movie?

[Who knows, right? It's certainly a future she'd prefer to think would happen, under the circumstances. There's always a chance it still could have gone bad, but...

No time for that now, huh? Not when there's a better day to be had.

Shepard grins, a little shake of her chest in a chuckle.]

Tell you what. Lemme get Alex on lock, maybe literally, we'll see what happens. If he's a good boy he can even come with us. If not, we'll figure something else out. Kay?

[Just y'know, a fun joke about imprisoning a man. It's fine. This is fine.]

[Jay's still getting the hang of this whole 'physical contact' thing, and the way her laugh vibrates through his bones takes some getting used to.]

[Gradually, he pulls back. He doesn't let go, but he pulls back, tries to give Shepard a chance to breathe, tries to give himself a chance to process the whole Alex Kralie thing.]

I'll, uh. [He's looking at a spot just past her shoulder. There's nothing there; it's just easier than meeting her eyes.] I'll try and pick something he'll tolerate. If that even exists.

[Just, y'know, a fun joke about the man who killed him, about how he's an insufferable film snob when he's not clawing out your eyes or trying to lodge a bullet in your gut. It's fine. This is fine.]

[And it's not completely a joke. Jay thinks he's watched enough hours of Alex Kralie to find something that would fit his narrow criteria for true film. As long as he hasn't changed too much, they'll be fine. Ha.]

[Her mouth is still pulled into a little grin, obviously amused.]

I mean, seeing as he'll be in a cage, he won't have much of a choice. But that's nice of you.

[Shepard lets him detach from her, putting a hand on his shoulder so she can step back.]

Looks like we got our phones back, so-- I'll call you when it's sorted?

S-sure. I've got your number.

[His mouth twists into a grimace, like he's realized he's supposed to be smiling to match hers but can't quite manage the feeling behind it. Alex is gonna be a cage? Like some kind of, what, wild animal? A rabid dog?]

[Then again, Jay's got an empty eye socket. He's got bruises around his neck, across his face. It doesn't exactly paint a pretty picture of what will happen if Alex is left to his own devices.]

[But Wonderland'll fix it. It should. It had better.]

[~~He needs to see.~~]

Look, I--

[You what, Jay? Speak up.]

Just...be safe, alright? [Right. Worrying about the marine from the future, the one who just healed half your face. That's productive.] Like, if there's anything I can...

[What's he doing? He nearly died, and now he's asking if she wants him to just stroll right back into the crossfire.]

I dunno.

[He slumps, arms limp, camera dangling from one hand.]

Just...let me know...you're okay or whatever. When it's done.

[He's been alone too goddamn long, and he knows it can happen again in an instant.]

[He's not sure he used to think like that, before.]

[It feels familiar, though. Maybe he just forgot.]

[C'mon Jay keeping a man in a cage this is a joke, right, we're having fun? With jokes? This is what jokes are. But his caring does get through, and she grins a bit more genuine.]

Don't worry. Not gonna kill him, and he's not gonna kill me. If you could survive all that I think he's gonna be pretty surprised when he hits the LEDs behind my eyes.

[She reaches up to knock her knuckles on her head playfully, even though it's not like she sounds metal or anything. Cerberus grew her new skin over cybernetics, a convincing replica of the original woman, and it'd take a lot of digging and even more blood before you found the tech in her.]

You focus on picking a movie. And I'll see you soon. Promise.

[And she turns, activating her omni-tool to start the great search for Alex Kralie to punch him in the head a few times.]

[Despite himself, despite the fear gnawing at his stomach, he cracks an almost-smile when Shepard knocks at her skull--metal, he's guessing, Terminator-style. Actually, given the whole was once human thing, maybe Robocop's the better comparison. There's no sound when her knuckles strike her head, sure, but he gets the idea.]

[Jay wonders if she's bulletproof, like this.]

Y-yeah, sure. Promise.

[She'll be fine. Even if this feels like the first act of a horror movie, even if the wrongness of it all constricts his lungs, burns holes in his throat, he knows she'll be fine. Even if she's not fine, she'll be fine. Wonderland can fix just about anything, if it's not your fifth time.]

[And if she's not fine, he's here. She can call, and he can help, or something. He knows Alex. He'll figure something out.]

[He can promise that much--even if nothing works out, he can promise to try.]

...That I'll, uh. Find something to watch. Like, something decent.

[Stay safe, Shepard. He can't afford to lose you, too.]

[Jay ducks his head, raises his free hand in a quick wave. The camera's still rolling.]

See you soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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cw: violence, reference to attempted suicide

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cw: violence, eye horror, restraint

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cw: suicide mention

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