Accidental Video + Partial Audio Transmission

[promiselist]

Accidental Video

[ The video opens up to a view of shaking scenery and rushing lights and color, as it the device recording it has just been dropped from a significant height. The movement ceases when the device lands on the floor, still recording with its camera pointed upwards.

The foyer it shows is clearly familiar to everyone in Wonderland as the front of the mansion. What's not quite so familiar is the giant glowing UFO now hovering and weaving up near the ceiling. Green lights shoot out, scanning the surroundings, sweeping over every surface with an eerie glow.

Even the fallen phone gets scanned, although once it is, the UFO goes suspiciously still overhead before swooping down towards it with a startling speed. There's a voice, one that sounds suspiciously like a young girl, that gives a quiet exclamation. ]

Oops! Almost lost you. Hello there, my precious.

[ ...And then a metallic-looking tentacle snakes out from the bottom of the UFO to press the button that cuts the feed off entirely.

Just another day in Wonderland, right? There's totally nothing to see here, and certainly not a floating spaceship hovering in your entranceway. Carry on. ]

Audio

[ Although a short while later, a number of phones across the mansion might receive an audio transmission as someone tries to figure out and manipulate the strange network in this place and how to filter it to where she needs it to go. Hopefully she finds the targets she's looking for, but other inhabitants might pick it up accidentally as well. ]

Joker, Queen? Can you hear me? Mona, Panther, anyone, come in??

Comments

video;

[eatsyourscience]

I don't think I've seen someone arrive with a spaceship before.

[And he's seen a lot of people arrive.]

[promiselist]

I guess it sucks to be them, huh. Spaceships happen to be the best.

[ Not that she's biased or anything. ]

Who're you?

[eatsyourscience]

My name is Seta Souji. [Because I'm stubborn.] What about you?

[promiselist]

[ She debates that answer for a long moment, because no way she's giving her real name here, but she's not sure it's all that safe to use her code name with someone who's not on the team - not until they figure out what's going on with this Palace anyway.

Instead, she settles on... ]

Alibaba.

[ That should be vague and elusive enough, right? ]

[eatsyourscience]

Alright.

[He's not quite buying that, but can't discount the possibility that it really is her name. Weirder things have happened.]

You just got here a little while ago, right?

[promiselist]

Yeah.

...I guess that was pretty obvious, huh?

[eatsyourscience]

Like I said, I've never seen a spaceship here.

[He smiles slightly.]

If you've got questions, I can probably answer them. I've been here a long time.

[promiselist]

[ Oooh. Well. Isn't that useful? ]

How long?

[eatsyourscience]

Six years next month.

[promiselist]

[ Have a garbled noise of exclamation that sounds like it chokes off into a wheeze halfway through. ]

Six years?!

[ That's like half her lifetime right there. ]

[eatsyourscience]

Yeah. And I'm still seventeen.

[Which is so weird. And part of the reason it's easy to lose track of time.]

[promiselist]

[ ........... ]

You officially have the worst luck I've ever heard of.

[eatsyourscience]

Not for long, probably. There are a lot of people here worse off than me.

[promiselist]

Worse? You've been stuck in a.... whatever-this-is for six years and you didn't even hit a drinking age yet.

[eatsyourscience]

No, but there aren't zombies in my world, so when I go home, I won't get eaten.

[promiselist]

[ ... ]

[ ......... ]

For real???

[eatsyourscience]

For real. A bunch of people here come from zombie apocalypse worlds.

[promiselist]

So that's actually a thing, not just video games? Okay, you're right, that's worse luck. If I was them I think I'd be happy to be kidnapped...

[eatsyourscience]

I think most of them are.

[Not to mention people who are actually dead at home.]

So are you part of the space ship or are you a separate person?

[Seems like a logical change in topic.]

[promiselist]

[ She's fine with abrupt changes of topic. Her own thoughts often jump around on tangents everyone else has a hard time following anyway. ]

... I'm separate. The spaceship... well. I guess you could still say it's part of me. but it's only there when I call for it.

[ How to explain personas without sounding completely crazy... Why has no one written a book like this yet? ]

[eatsyourscience]

[That...sounds exactly like a Persona. Although he's never seen a Persona in the shape of a space ship, there's Mara, who is the most horrific shape ever.

He doesn't want to come out and explicitly ask if it's a Persona though, just because...well, if he's wrong that might be weird.]

I know exactly how that is.

[promiselist]

[ Huh. That's... interesting.

Her focus narrows on him intently for a moment. ]

Do you?

[eatsyourscience]

It's called a Persona.

[He waits intently for her response, though he thinks he knows what it's going to be.]

[promiselist]

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

[ That probably wasn't the response he was expecting, but she's had a confusing arrival already. How many more people know about this? ]

I guess you do know how that is, then. But wait, if you've been here for six years...

[ How long has the metaverse even been around? ]

[eatsyourscience]

[Well it was close enough.]

I guess it makes seven years that I've had them, then.

[...]

I can show you mine, if you want.

[Thaaaaaat sounds weird to say to a girl.]