ninth galaxy [video, backdated to 9/17]

[normandysbest]

[Those who've been here for a while might remember the last time Shepard addressed Wonderland in the Citadel, all smiles and lackadaisical jokes. However, today, she's addressing the Mansion at large like a commander- her shoulders are flat, back straight, expression serious.]

Alright. So if I'm correct from the network, a lot of us received items with the same cryptic note and a lot of weird stuff. Some of 'em don't seem to do anything. Some of them, apparently, are eyeballs.

[She brings her right hand into view, holding a broken half of a compact mirror; the mirror inside is shattered beyond repair.]

I got this- but it wasn't broken when I got it. It went to the Queen of Hearts. And because I don't believe in bullshitting anyone here, we should talk about the fact that what's going on right now is purposeful, and we need to be a hell of a lot more careful.

[She proceeds to upload a picture of red writing on the compact from the day before.]

First, Hearts doesn't know how this stuff got away from her. She accused me, and I faked what the note said- I don't know about the lore of this place, but I'm betting the Q in RQ is a sister we're missing.

[Next, another picture of the same scrawled writing.]

This is what she lost personally. Don't know if this is relevant other than to be on the lookout for it, and know she might put a target on your head for it being gone.

[Next, another message though admittedly slightly out of context.]

I started pressing for information about her informants. For those of you who were here last year, you might remember Alex Kralie making a post about their being a spy in our midst- a mole for the Queen. He was right. This compact was theirs, and she addressed me by their name at the start. This was her response when I asked what happened after five deaths. She visits, and you serve her. That's it. No going back. I feel like I've said this damn well enough before by now, but don't die-- and I have a better reason for it, too.

[And one more upload- the final message. Shepard looks more serious now than she has the entire message so far.]

There's been discussion about what the Core is made of- if it's memories, how we get them back when we leave Wonderland forever. It's not memories, or at least not all of it. It's souls. It's the physical parts you lose when you die, when everyone who's come before us has died, when people who have died five times and lost themselves entirely. The Core is our fallen, and the Queen confirmed it.

[She takes a second to breathe, measured, and steady.]

So. First off, someone's stealing from the Queen, and I'm willing to bet more than just those items she listed are important. Check what you got, be careful with it, don't go alone. Second, don't fucking die five times, and anyone who does and comes back needs to be detained. Immediately. And third, if anyone has more information about potential other queens in this place before I was here, or anything that you think relates to them, I need to know. We're not gonna have a lot of time before the Queen of Hearts figures this out before us.

[She gives one last curt nod to the camera, all business.]

Shepard out.

Comments

private; video

[ofletters]

[ "You might remember Alex Kralie making a post about their being a spy in our midst- a mole for the Queen. He was right."

"Second, don't fucking die five times, and anyone who does and comes back needs to be detained. Immediately."

Shit. ]

Who did the compact belong to?

[ Boy, though, can he guess. ]

private; video

[normandysbest]

[She knows Sam has been here a long time, even if they haven't talked in a while. She kept her clues vague, for those who might've been newer or not known him, but he wouldn't have asked if he wasn't suspect.

So she sends the last image in her arsenal.]

It was Phillip's.

If he was your friend... I'm sorry.

text;

[saunteredvaguelydownwards]

You've been a busy bee, haven't you.

FYI, the answer to the question is, 'they disappear too'. Since you wanted to know, and we appear to be in exposition mode at the moment.

text;

[normandysbest]

Can't really afford to rest under these circumstances.

And thank you.
I appreciate you keeping me in the loop.
Any info is good info right now.

video;

[eatsyourscience]

[The stuff about who the compact belonged to is disturbing, considering he'd known Philip fairly well. But he keeps that reaction to himself and addresses the last bit of the video.]

There was the Red Queen.

video;

[normandysbest]

[Shepard still looks intent, though not possibly as willing to rip someone's head off now that she's face to face with an actual person.]

When was the last time any of you saw her? What was she doing? Does this seem like it could be her doing?

[Accidental Audio]

[zackthekiller]

[Thank god Shepard summed all that info up. Zack would have had to ask her to read for him.]

[That's not the issue, though.]

[The issue had to do with a certian someone who would have loved to know... If she was still here.]

GOD... DAMMIT!

[Wait, was this device on? Whoops. Sorry for hurting your ears.]

...

I'll be in the destruction room. [And he won't reply to anyone else on the network for the rest of the day.]

private text

[postictal]

you did this because of alex?

[Focusing on the...most important parts here.]

private text

[normandysbest]

He's the one who talked to the Queen and found out.
No one believed him.
I kept looking after he disappeared.

Figured it was worth it to let people know he was right all along.

video }

[deathlessness]

[Sup, Shep, it's been a while, but Freya might have an answer to the question you're looking for.]

In the original Wonderland stories, there are mentions of three queens: Red, White and Hearts. Some retellings like to fold the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts into being one and the same, and it's been a very long time since I've read them, but I do believe that they were intended to be separate.

[But once that's said:]

Thank you, though, for the information about the Core.

video }

[normandysbest]

[That's interesting, and it shows through on her face as she listens.]

So what happened to the other two, then? We heard about the White Queen back at the start of the year, so where's the Red one been?

[Hearts didn't seem to know- or at least didn't want to share, but that's nothing new.]

[Video]

[didntknowbest]

I did not receive an item, personally. But then, I also have not done much to keep up with or investigate the nature of this place... It may have just been random chance, but perhaps whoever this RQ is did not think I would be helpful, in being able to do anything useful with these objects.

Perhaps I should change that. After all, this news is... somewhat alarming. It makes our presence here feel a great deal more perilous than it had before.

[Video]

[normandysbest]

I'm sorry if I scared you. I just... people needed to know.

[She pauses, and realizes she needs to say what suddenly popped into her mind as she sees Toriel now.]

This... might get dangerous. You should know that. If I'm getting singled out here, I don't want you to get hurt.

[Video]

[theothermrgray]

[Oh.... Oh dear. Dorian looks a bit pale here.]

Souls? Souls are in there?

I can agree, the Red Queen is most likely our culprit, of sorts, but... Goodness. I'm not sure where I should begin.

[Video]

[normandysbest]

Yeah. Or at least partly. Might also be memories or other stuff, but this is more info than we've ever had.

[She's buzzing to do something, anything, but she needs a better lead to go on. This is only the first piece of the puzzle.]

We're on a time limit, too. Which just makes everything better.

[Said very, very sarcastically.]

text; private

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay is genuinely not sure which part of this post to process first. It's like his brain is trying to render the whole thing at once, bits of it stuttering and freezing up when it hits something difficult.]

[R.Q. The red chess piece. The missing sister. The reversed map. The Core.]

[Souls, again.]

[Alex Kralie.]

Alex knew? How much did he know?

text; private

[normandysbest]

He's the one who spoke to the Queen.
Got the intel in the first place.
He didn't have proof then, and when he left, I found it.
He was right.
But nobody else wanted to see that.

[She's not bitter, no, absolutely not at all.]

[forwearemany]

Shepard-Commander.

How would this affect us?

(They had always thought of the question about whether they had a soul in philosophical terms. The soul as a physical object was never more than superstition and speculation. They are not a singular being. Does this function the same for them? Do they have a soul?

They do not remember their death.)

[normandysbest]

[She immediately looks like she's going to respond, and then stops, because fuck, that's right. They died last time they were here. Almost a year ago now, addressing the network angry, working with Tali to get their body out of the hall--

Damn.]

I don't know, Legion. It's hard to say. The queen didn't say it was only souls in there, so...

Text

[screwedontight]

you considered that she's using you to figure this out for her? like everyone is trying to work it out?

just something to think about. we could be doing her work for her.

Text

[normandysbest]

Yeah, I have.
But we don't have many options right now.
And she seemed pretty pissed to see this stuff gone, regardless of cause.
I don't think she has the patience for that kind of long con.

text

[blackbirdsing]

Holy shit.

[ Sarah, as someone who has family turn up dead in Wonderland multiple times, is very concerned about all of this information. ]

What do we even do with this information, it's not like Wonderland is going to stop trying to kill us. I'm guessing.

text

[normandysbest]

I mean, we start by being a lot more careful.
Deaths should be treated as much of a hazard here as they are back home, and not thrown away just because 'we have more'.
Past that...
We have to figure out why these items turned up, and fast.

private video

[krmvgivv]

So was Philip the spy?

[He has so many other questions and wow is he ever planning on never dying again, but that seems like an important thing to establish.]

Also, how sure are you that she can't see this? Cause like... she might know you lied by now. Or one of the Mirrors might tell her.

private video

[normandysbest]

Yeah. He was.

[She goes ahead and sends him the last picture she took, right at the start of the conversation.]

Don't go around with that, though. He's gone. Got confirmation of that, too. No need to kick the dead.

[He made it clear to her what he was going back to. And even past that, he's gone. There's no point in hunting him now.]

And yeah, I've thought about it. But I got what I needed, and now all of you have it too. If she wants to come after me, I'll take that hit.

[She grins at the camera, knowing and practiced.]

I'm a soldier, kid. I'm used to having people want me dead.

[Video]

[ghflskhu_ph]

[The screen that greets Shepard is merely static but even without having met her before, to his knowledge, Bill's voice is always enough to give him away.]

"SOULS, eh? So WONDERLAND truly IS ALIVE."

[Not that he hasn't been advocating that from the start, but it's nice to hear someone else finally admit it.]

"So what do ya PLAN on DOING with that PIECE of JUNK now that it's BROKEN?"

[Video]

[normandysbest]

[Well that's. Huh. That makes no sense.]

Yeah, sounds like it.

[Who the hell is she talking to right now?]

And I'unno. I was keeping it to see if it'd reform, but seems like it's permanently broken.

video

[choosetruth]

I've been gathering information on the Queens since I've gotten here. There seem to be three: Red, White, and Hearts. Which matches the books. There are also kings in the books, but so far, I haven't seen any evidence of them existing here.

[She taps at her phone, and shoots off an attachment.]

I'm sending you a video file that Wonderland provided sometime shortly before my arrival. Like everything in Wonderland, I'd take it with a grain of salt, but it's certainly worth considering. The Red Queen, I know, was last seen shutting the Jabberwock into the Core with the Vorpal shield, trapping both herself and the Jabberwock. I don't know if anyone's ever seen the White Queen in person, but if you were here last Christmas, we all got a glimpse of what Wonderland would be like under her rule. [Her voice has a dark tinge to it.]

So yes, I'd bet anything RQ stands for Red Queen. How she's managing to send us things is very much a good question, though if [ugh, she still doesn't think they're a thing, but fine] souls can be removed... maybe Queens can too.

[And maybe Jabberwocks can, which is... troubling.]

video

[normandysbest]

[God, Shepard's so glad there's someone else who takes this the hell seriously. But she watches it, and realizes she's seen it before.]

I remember this. From last year. But yeah, I agree- if the Red Queen's still around somewhere, she's probably behind this. But what she's trying to get us to do, if Hearts doesn't know... well, if she went through all the trouble of giving us this, you'd imagine she'd be a little more descriptive.

[Guess it really is still Wonderland, huh.]

I wish we had a list of what everyone got. Even being able to pick out some easy use items would be helpful right now.

[angewiesen]

And you think her word can be trusted? She wasn't trying to fuck with you or anything?

[normandysbest]

She could've been. But I've never seen her be that kind of person. Besides, we've got nothing else to go on right now. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.

Video

[romsapience]

This is...this is all...I'm not even sure where to begin, this is so much to take in!

...

Do you...know if there's anyone here that is close to dying five times? I feel that protecting those that are would have to be a given.

Video

[normandysbest]

I dunno. I haven't been keeping track of deaths personally. There's just too many people to track. But the last person who hit five was here for years. On the other hand, I've been here a year and a half and haven't died yet.

[Its complicated, basically.]

Trust me, I'd rather not persecute anyone. I just don't... its a big issue to tackle. I need more heads on this than just mine.

private video; HOO BOY

[nascensibility]

[Having been here as long as Evelyn has, and knowing Shepard's past tenacity with this particular subject, it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. Besmirching the dead - and in a way, Philip is, both in body and lack of presence - is at least beneath the commander.]

I'm going to assume you haven't shared the name of the informant because they are no longer in residence.

[It doesn't make a bitter pill any easier to swallow. She knew him when she found him dead by the Core, she knew him before he crawled out of it without his voice. She knew him when he was a physics professor who followed the wrong clues left by a man who abandoned his family.

She knew him best. ]

private video; SCREAMS INTO MY HANDS, also cw: suicide mention

[normandysbest]

[Well. She knew this was coming, considering their last conversation about him was pretty curt. Not that Shepard could even blame her. Evelyn is the one who reminded her that even he had friends once. Was whole, once.

Its indoctrination all over again. Its Liara's mother, begging to die at her daughter's feet because she can't go back, there's no way out. Its Saren, as she yells you can still be saved and he presses his gun to his own jawline.

She'd like to believe this will be less permanent. If she can do something to stop it.]

Yeah. Wouldn't have said half this much if he still was.

[Unlike Alex, she doesn't stir the masses until her information is neat and easily packaged, if she can possibly help it. But Phillip is a warning now, im everything but name. Past where anyone could reach him, even her.

Shepard thought Evelyn knew him best, too.]

I'm sorry.

[Video]

[hypoxic]

[This adds context to the trinket he's received, which suddenly doesn't seem nearly as innocent as it did yesterday.]

I think I have something. About this sister, I mean.

[And since Shepard comes from space and is therefore trustworthy seems to be putting things together at a breakneck pace, he'll adjust the device to focus on a chess piece which plays a hologram when he adjusts it.]

quietly threadjacks here doN'T MIND ME

[postictal]

[Tim leans forward, eyeing Fitz's chess piece curiously before holding up his own.]

You got one too?

[He holds up his own, which...does no such thing, plays no such memory, no matter how he tries to set it upon the table in an effort to follow Fitz's example.]

[video]

[beatupgrass]

[what the shitting shitfuck d'ast bullshit.]

...Annnd I'm officially done with Wonderland forever.

[video]

[normandysbest]

Yeah, you and me both buddy.

[She lets out a sigh that betrays just how little rest shes gotten since yesterday.]

Try not to kick it, alright?

[video]

[punful]

[Okay, so. There's a lot to process here. There's a lot that's been going on, and he's only paid a modicum of attention. People have been getting random items, okay, fine, some kind of event, maybe the Mirrors messing with people again.]

[Only this is starting to look a lot more important than just that, and he's remembering...a few other events. The event that happened only a few days after he arrived. The event with the stars and the garden.]

[Whatever this is, it's big. And it's bad.]

[But that's not the most important thing, at least not to Sans right now. Nor is it the thing about Alex Kralie and the mole, or the five deaths, or the fact that someone is ballsy enough to steal from the Queen, or the messages from her.]

[The most important thing is the part about souls.]

[A monster can't just lose a part of their soul, especially not a monster like Sans. Unless there's some extraordinarily powerful magic at work, and what is the Core--haha, what is any Core, really?--but extraordinarily powerful magic? And does that mean that any monster who dies here is already beholden to Wonderland?]

[Far too many what-ifs for his liking.]

so, uh. thanks for the info.

[Just setting that down.]

that...thing about souls. is that all she said? did you...get any more details?

[video]

[normandysbest]

Kind of. That was her pentultimate message. Last one she broke the mirror too fast to get a pic.

[She raises her omni-tool a little, finding the note where she took down the last part from memory.]

Last part was "there are many things in there, more than you could ever know. And more than you ever will know if you're lucky." I tried to copy it as fast as possible, but I could've missed a word.

[video]

[deadshapes]

[She listens, and pauses to process, and then listens to the whole thing again. She's...not sure she understands everything. Who the hell is Alex Kralie, for one thing? And what's the Core? And what the hell kind of event is this, anyway? She hasn't gotten any gifts, but this whole shebang has been going on for like a week now.]

Okay, but, like. What the shit.

[video]

[normandysbest]

Yeah, pretty much.

[That sure is her condensed version of it.]

Every time I think this place has hit its weird shit limit, it ups the ante.

[video]

[wriggedywrecked]

[Anyway, Rick has decided--definitely not for the first or last time--that he really fucking hates this place.]

Fuck, of course it runs on souls, god damn it, it's s-so obvious now.

God, fucking--shit.

[It's kind of telling when the worst thing he can think to say is plain old "shit."]

[video]

[normandysbest]

[Honestly, it worries her a little that he doesn't immediately have some response, some quip about how he knew it all before. Rick's probably the smartest person she knows, and considering she's friends with a supercomputer, that's a bit of a feat.]

See, told you I'd find something to surprise you.

[Kind of shitty now, but anything to make this conversation a little more normal.]

You got any ideas of where to go from here? Cause I could really use another head on this one.

Text

[ssmisery]

Wow.
My mystery gift REALLY sucked.

text

[normandysbest]

What'd you get?
'Cause this was pretty harrowing, not gonna lie.

[video]

[assembles]

[ It's a lot to take in all at once, but Steve watches the broadcast a few times so he can let it all sink in. To finally get some real answers about this place is invigorating, in a weird way, even if most of the news isn't exactly pleasant.

Steve knows of someone who died five times, and while Philip isn't here anymore, wrapping his head around the fact that he had been a spy for the Queen of Hearts is enough to make him dizzy. He hadn't known the guy that well, but it's still a little like getting the rug tugged out from under him.

Then there's the revelation about the Core. He has some information he can offer in return for all this, but first he'd like to clarify a few things.

He's sitting at the desk in his room, his expression serious yet determined. They've got some clues now. It's time to keep pulling on that string. ]

So you're saying... the Core is made up of souls of people who've died five times while they were here?

[ How big could that number be? ]

[video]

[normandysbest]

[Steve's been here long enough that she has no doubt he knew Phillip. Even without the name attached- the only kindness she could offer-- it's unspoken to those that knew him that he was once a good man. It's a shame how these things happen, but there's nothing she can do now. They have to move forward. They have to keep the Mansion safe.]

I'd say it's got a piece of everyone who's ever died here.

[She remembers, very vaguely, discussion of another person who'd died five times and never come back. Now she knew why.]

Can't just be souls, though. Hearts was pretty clear there was other stuff in there. But the fact that it's mostly powered by people is... staggering.