entranceway | one; video {everything changed when the birds came}.

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one; video {everything changed when the birds came}.

[Sam is, like most Millennials, extremely comfortable with social media, so she doesn’t hesitate to fire up her comm device and make a video broadcast to introduce herself, once she’s read through some of the older posts and found her bearings. She’s fresh out of a bath, hair towel-damp, bruising and scratches visible on her face but at least the blood’s all washed off. She forces a smile on her face and takes a deep breath.]

So … this is Wonderland, huh? Not really what I imagined, but I guess anything’s possible, right?

[“Anything” … like finding yourself terrorized by mythological cannibalistic monsters on a remote mountain. She laughs quietly, like it’s a private joke. If she can joke about it, then maybe she can convince herself that what happened in the last twenty-four hours can’t be so awful.]

Anyway, I’m Sam – new here, obviously. Still just - [she gestures vaguely] - taking it all in, I guess, but I figured I should say hey, introduce myself, that sort of thing, so … hey. [She waves at the camera.] Nice to meet you all. Um, and I guess if any of my friends are here - [Emily, she reminds herself, all the rest of your friends are dead] - Em, or - or anyone else, give me a holler.

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[Tim, surprise, surprise, opts instead for text. It's easier. More rehearsed. More clipped.]

[Possibly he should've thrown up a private filter before firing this one off, but in the case that things start going a particular way, he can always patch that in when they start deviating down that route.]

hard to say
they might've been here once

[Texting is also fine! Sam can roll with anything, really.]

I'm pretty sure you'd know if Em was here. She has a pretty strong personality. ;)

Who's this?

a lot of people here do

[Some people burn down libraries within seconds of arriving here.]

tim
tim w i guess since there are multiple tims here

[Thankfully, Sam is not one of those people? Witness how remarkably devoid of yells she is on arrival!]

I know how that goes - there are a lot of other Sams, too. So I guess that makes me Sam G. Nice to meet you, Tim W. You've been here a while, I'm guessing?

[A shocking but nonetheless welcome development.]

well over a year at this point
anyone given you the brochures yet

[A year. Somehow that seems like both a very long stretch of time and not very long at all. A year is how long it's been since Beth and Hannah disappeared on the mountain. A year is how long the last day felt while fighting to survive until sunrise.]

Not yet. I did a little poking around on here but you're the only person I've talked to so far.

there's a couple of them

[He sends her a file. This version's more likely to appeal to her, he suspects.]

Hi Sam, I'm the other Tim, and I'm still hoping we can get a third so we can be the Three Timors, but so far we've had no luck.

Also the other Tim tells me this is a lame name. He's probably right.

It's not really what I imagined as Wonderland either, honestly. I thought there would be more "eat me" and "drink me" happening, but... it's been pretty few and far between. That's probably for the best. I don't really want to be the size of a mouse or a house, do you?

Hi Tim. [She offers him a friendly smile.] Nice to meet you. Maybe Wonderland has a two-Tim limit?

[She laughs quietly at her own joke - not a great joke, she isn't a great jokester, but it's good enough for her. Somehow, the idea of changing shape and size is a little too close to the idea of changing into a wendigo, and Sam's not comfortable with that in the slightest. She shakes her head.]

No - I'm pretty satisfied with my size as I am. Sure, I wanted to be a little taller when I was a kid, but I think I've grown into it by now.

[He smiles at the joke. It wasn't great, but his was hardly any better.]

I'm still hoping to be a few inches taller... or a lot of inches taller... but I feel like being actually house-sized would be overkill.

I don't think it's what any of us expected, and sadly it only goes downhill from here.

[But he sounds sober, and not entirely bitter and just honest, so Sam was getting the better side of him at least.]

Welcome though, Sam. I'm Seth and kind of a resident asshole but I have some of the best Scotch the closet can provide.

Not sure I've met an Em here, but might be here. Also might check the history on the device.

Thanks, Seth. You sound nice enough to me.

[Some of her friends are known to be assholes, so that's not necessarily an obstacle for Sam.]

I did scroll back a little bit, but I didn't see anything. I'm pretty sure we'd all know if Em was here - she's got a pretty strong personality. [And she wouldn't hesitate to take her complaints about ending up here straight to the network.] I figured it was kind of a long shot, but there's no harm in asking.

Give it time, but I try and be there for people. All we can really do here.

Sorry then. No one I've known and I've been here about a year. A bunch of us here but it's hard not to just know of people, you know?

[If you kept up on things, even in the inebriated condition he is often in.]

Give it time though, they could still show. And if it helps, they're basically waiting on you to get back.

Yeah ... that's true, it's important to be there for people, especially in weird situations like this.

[She goes a little distant for a moment, thinking - he says he's been here a whole year, and Sam can't help thinking that a year is how long ago the twins went missing. Knowing what she does now about the existence of wendigos on the mountain, Sam can only imagine what must have happened to them.]

Not really sure I want to go back, actually.

[She's fairly certain almost all of her friends are dead, ripped to pieces by wendigos. Mike's face floats to the front her mind, and she quickly shakes it away, pushing a smile back over her face as she returns, fully present, to the conversation.]

Sorry, that's a stupid thing to say. Of course I want to get back. I'm sure my parents are pretty worried right now.

Problem is, no one knows how long that'll last. I don't expect it to. People in pressure cooker situations don't tend to last on the straight and narrow. Eventually they turn.

[And he knew he might be one to do so. He knew that others might be the one to do so. They had to worry about the mirrors, sure, but they also had to worry about each other as well.

At least in Seth's head.]

No. No it's not stupid. Not at all. You're no different than a very small group of us here. Most are fighting to go back, and don't much believe in those that want to stay. You might get shit for it, and you have to accept that, but you aren't alone.

[He's been wanting to stay since the day he arrived in this place, even without those he's lost.]

Don't worry abour your parents but what's good for you. All you've got here in the long run.

Hi Sam. Funny, how books don't quite match reality. We do have plenty of the major characters here: Alice, the queens, the Dormouse, and so on.

I'm Maggie. Let me know if you need a hand settling in. [Unsaid: Because you look like you've been through hell in the recent past, however well you're handling this transition.]

Thanks, Maggie. It's nice to meet you.

[Maggie is correct, Sam has been through An Ordeal. Wendigos are terrible, 0/10, would not recommend. She's determined to hold herself together, though. She won't let her smile crack.]

I never read the books, but I remember seeing a movie when I was a kid. Is the queen who runs around yelling "Off with their head!" around? I think I'd like to steer clear of her, if she is.

[Gren is absolutely not a millennial in anything but the most literal sense of that word. Though he's done his best with mundy technology, cell phones are pretty much portal bricks in '86- he doesn't have a clue how to use this damn thing, so the video is at an odd angle, more focused on the table it's sitting on than the actual person using it. ]

I'm pretty goddamn certain this ain't Wonderland. I mean, have you seen any talking flowers around or grinning cats? I sure haven't. It's more like a theme hotel that went fuckin' overboard.

[And also, well, kidnapped people. ]

I just know what I read on some of the older posts.

[Sam shrugs. She has not, in fact, ventured outside of her room just yet.]

Who am I to argue with what everyone else says? I'm no Wonderland expert.

Older posts from people who bought into the bullshit spiel.

[Mundies, mostly, he thinks. They'll believe goddamn anything. ]

I don't know. Seems there's something else behind the curtain here. Wonderland sounds like a fuckin' ploy that people go "yeah sure, makes sense", 'cause who can say it's not really the place from the storybooks.

[Except for the people from the storybooks, of course. ]

Hi, Sam! It's nice to meet you, I'm Jon.

( because what a newbie needs is a tiny eleven year old introducing themselves to her, right. )

This place's a lot different from the Wonderland books. . but it's okay sometimes. Sometimes it's not. You. . haha, you kinda get used to it.

Hey, Jon.

[Sam does not mind even a little bit that there's an eleven-year-old kid talking to her! Except for the part where he's here, and not at home, wherever that is. That's less cool.]

Nice to meet you too. What's it like when it's sometimes OK here?

Sometimes it's okay, sometimes invisible dogs try to eat you.

( which is definitely Not Okay. )

[ Those scratches are a bit obvious, huh? Ange's not the type to inquire about stuff people would probably not want to talk about though, so she doesn't bring it up. ]

You get used to this place faster than you'd think, believe me.

[Look, Sam is F I N E, no problems here, honest!! She laughs quietly.]

Yeah, I guess they say you can get used to anything, right? Why not a weird place like Wonderland. How long have you been here?

Not too long. Just a month or two by now, I guess?

[ Sure, it might be a long time to be stuck in some weird place, but compared to how long others seem to have been here, it doesn't feel like she should claim it's all that long. ]

I kind of had a headstart on getting used to weird stuff though.

[Have a little wave and a friendly smile.]

Hi Sam. I'm Cissie. There's a lot to take in, when you first get here. Has anyone given you the pamphlets yet? [She holds one up, biting back a grin.] Yeah, that was plural. We have more than one pamphlet. They're pretty handy.

[Sam mirrors the smile and the wave, because she is just genuinely that friendly.]

Hey, Cissie. Nice to meet you. One of the Tims sent me a pamphlet, but just the one.

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