01 | Video

[talesuntold]

[Maggie can fake calm and composed quite well when she has an audience. She manages to keep the faint edge of hysteria out of her voice long enough to broadcast this.]

Hello, darlings. This is quite the genre shift!

I admit that my last cup of tea wasn't strictly tea. I don't, however, recall spiking it with something this strong. Even in my party girl phase I was never on any drug that triggered hallucinations so vivid.

While I'm sure it will make wonderful inspiration one day, now is a very inconvenient time for me to be crazy. That role is already occupied on my team. The story just wouldn't work with two of us trying to fill it.

If anything I say is getting through my delusions to the ears of someone real, would you please run and fetch Auntie Maggie an antipsychotic?

Comments

video

[choosetruth]

[Maggie's presence had been nagging at Georgia since the end of the event, though she hasn't had that much time to think about it. She's never seen someone she knew in an event that wasn't also in Wonderland, not in a way she could interact with them. Except, of course, when she and Shaun had gone to fucking Hogwarts when they first arrived.

So she supposes it makes sense that this other exception is for the same reason: Maggie arrived during the event. She is, in fact, actually here.

She turns on the camera before she can fully think through exactly what the crazy role being occupied on the team means for her current status at Maggie's time period.]

You're not hallucinating. This is, as difficult as it is to believe, all real.

Re: video

[talesuntold]

[Georgia's presence made sense, when Maggie thought she was dreaming. It wasn't an unexpected dream, after all. Just an alternate version of the way things really happened. The only thing unexpected about it was that it didn't get worse. Maggie would have anticipated a nightmare.

Georgia's presence now, however, only serves to convince her much more firmly that none of this is real. She doesn't look happy to see her late boss.]

...Shaun's hallucinations are contagious. I really have lost it.

[choosetruth]

[....ah yes. Georgia wouldn't be the most comforting person to talk to, would she? Being a corpse and everything. And she suspects Shaun won't be either and Maggie doesn't know anyone else. Buffy might have been able to get through to her, but on the other hand, Buffy's dead too.]

Shaun's hallucinations have never pretended to be anything but hallucinations. I should hope your theoretical delusions of me would be just as honest, or they're not very accurate hallucinations.

[video]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[...Well, this is a surprise. It would probably be more of a surprise if Maggie hadn't been part of the After the End Times team during the event, but seeing her had prepared him a little to see her post on the network.

...He hadn't realized how much he's missed her.]

I resemble that remark. But even my delusions aren't this involved. Welcome to Wonderland, Maggie.

Re: [video]

[talesuntold]

I've always been imaginative, I don't see why my delusions shouldn't follow that trend. And I'm sorry, but last I heard we live in a Romero movie, not a Carroll book.

[Then there's the not insignificant fact that she's already talking to a dead woman, which is somehow every bit as stressful, or more so, than the larger delusion of Wonderland. ...At least it isn't Buffy. Maggie doesn't know if she could take that.]

[video]

[adaptiveimmunities]

That's because you're not considering the sci-fi/fantasy crossover angle to a multiversal nexus where everything fictional can be real, including Wonderland, comic books, and characters from classical literature.

video

[kid_flash_found]

Think you can get drunk for me? I really didn't need new nightmares about how the dead rise. Being drafted for the shambling hordes was bad enough.

Sorry, ma'am, I'm all out of drugs today. But I do know this place is as real as anything else I've experienced. Maybe more real, considering how much time I spent in VR.

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[talesuntold]

The dead have been rising for decades. You shouldn't have ever known anything else, except in virtual reality. There's always more room for nightmares, granted, but that's everyday life.

[And no one sits up and has a conversation after they turn. Not unless they're one of the tiny percentage of people with reservoir conditions who can amplify and return from it. ...Like Georgia might have, if Shaun hadn't shot her.]

I'll admit that getting drunk doesn't sound like the worst plan for my day.

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[kid_flash_found]

In your world. In mine, they were a serious aberration. Well, some people have come back from the dead here and there, but that was more like actually coming back. Superman did it, so all the cool kids followed his lead.

[Bart looks at the camera seriously.]

Look, the multiverse is real, and not everyone comes from the same world as you do. This place apparently likes to grab people from everywhere and mess with them. On the plus side, you've got closets that give you pretty much anything you want, and endless kitchens and dining halls. Oh, and the library, too.

So if you want to get wasted, there's plenty of options. Sadly, my metabolism doesn't allow that outlet.

[Video] Time to create the awkward.

[theothermrgray]

[Did somebody call for a handsome fellow in Victorian era attire awnsering your call? Well here he is, and he seems tired.]

Oh dear, did you get pulled into Wonderland during that sort of event?

Rest assured, Miss Maggie, you are not going mad. It's this blasted place we're trapped in taking a small chunk out of someone's memory and subjecting us all to it. Feel free to claim an empty room and fetch yourself a pamphlet from the library.

Re: [Video] Time to create the awkward.

[talesuntold]

No, Wonderland is the part that has to be a delusion. What came before it was the sort of dream I might have any night of the week. It was an alternate version of my everyday life.

Ordinarily I'd head straight for the library, but it will take a little more to convince me it's real.

[Video]

[theothermrgray]

Hm... That's interesting. One of your friends must be here.

If you desperately need proof, go ahead and find yourself a room. Once you decide to stay, it will immediately accommodate you.

Trust me.

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[livemoore]

I'm pretty sure people have told you by now that you're not hallucinating. Welcome to the real life trip that is Wonderland. At least you didn't show up naked.

[ Which definitely implies the person Maggie's talking to did. ]

My name's Liv. I've only been here for a few weeks but it's still weird.

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[talesuntold]

My dead boss did tell me that I wasn't hallucinating her.

[She's willing to extend very tentative trust in reality long enough to say:]

No, I showed up in an alternate version of my past. I might have preferred the nudity. [But then, Maggie's never had an overabundance of modesty.] It's nice to meet you, Liv. I hope you didn't have too much of an audience?

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[livemoore]

I showed up right in the entry of the mansion. Kind of horrifying, like that nightmare you have as a kid where you get in front of your class and you're naked? At least people were nice about it.

[ But yikes, showing up in Wonderland in some weird version of home would be...weird. Honestly. ]

Totally understand why you'd think you were hallucinating at first. I thought I was dead.

[ Well, more dead than usual. Perma dead. ]

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[beatupgrass]

Drugs would probably be a better explanation than the one you're gonna get, lady.

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[talesuntold]

Drugs would be a more reassuring explanation, at least. Presumably I would eventually come down off of those.

[You know what, the talking raccoon isn't much stranger than the rest of her day. If she thinks she's in Wonderland, why not talking animals?]

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[beatupgrass]

[good job, Maggie. you have appeased the raccoonoid for now.]

Best get accustomed to bullshit. Wonderland's terrible, and don't let anyone tell you different. I think most of the people who would say different got broke by all the recent zombie events though.

[Video]

[lifeisntfun]

Welcome to Wonderland. I've only been here a couple weeks, and it's already pretty terrible.

[Video]

[talesuntold]

What sort of terrible? There are so many options.

Re: [Video]

[lifeisntfun]

Well, we're trapped in a creepy mansion away from friends and family and there's no means of escape. So there's that.

Video;

[screwedontight]

Damn but you are in for one helluva reality check one of these days.

Just a word of warning but you only get to come back a few times before it takes for good, so try and be careful even if you think I'm just a dab of mustard or some shit.

Video;

[talesuntold]

[Maggie is very rarely wholly insincere, but she's good at putting up a public front. Whimsical poet is among her favorite ways to be seen. Even while half-panicked, she knew what she was doing. She sounds completely unbothered by Seth's reaction.]

I've had several.

Careful is a way of life where I come from, and if I come back, it will be as shambling undead. I'd prefer to avoid that.

video }

[deathlessness]

[Well, this is certainly an entertaining arrival. But Freya will just switch on the feed and raise her glass in return.]

Antipsychotic, no. But I may be able to manage a very strong drink?

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[talesuntold]

[Maggie raises no glass in return, because Maggie has no glass yet. Perhaps that should be remedied.]

A drink will do. Where can I find you?