entranceway | Action + Video - I'm off on this super fun adventure

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Action + Video - I'm off on this super fun adventure

[ARRIVAL; Action]

[It's been something of A Day for Louis. A roller coaster of some really awesome and some really horrifically terrible shit. One minute, he was standing over that absolute jackass, Abel, and the next he's stumbling out of the first floor storage room out into the corridor with some comedic arm flailing. He catches himself, then stills, glancing around the space that is definitely not Ericson's courtyard.]

Toto, we're not in Kansas any more.

[He lets out a soft laugh that's toeing a little too close to hysterical. Carefully, he slides what looks like (and turns out IS) a chair leg with nails rammed into the top from an inside pocket of his held-together-by-love-and-duct-tape trenchcoat. For the observant, there's a blood stain on the upper arm, dry, a few weeks old, but definitely there, and definitely around a recently duct-taped hole. He raises his makeshift mace as he edges to a window, peering out at the perfect, beautiful Walker-free grounds.]

Oooookay, Lou. You're having a little bit of a psychotic breakdown. That's okay, that's fine. It's been a weird day. You knew it would have probably happened eventually. It's all good. Someone'll snap you out of this any second now.

[If you're heading towards him or passing him by, congrats, you've got his attention, he'll wave at you with his free hand.]

Hi there, mental breakdown conjuration. How's it hanging? Good? Good. I'm great. Not freaking out at all.

[LATER; Video]

[Once he's been filled in on what's actually happening (but still not utterly convinced this isn't some kind of stress-induced hallucination) Louis picks himself a room. He has his first hot shower in literal years, and even trusts the (magic????) closets to give him a new set of clothes. Aside from the trenchcoat. That remains as filthy and duct-taped as always. He's not parting with that for anything.

He sets himself up in the kitchen, where he sets up his communicator with a few false starts. It's been a long-ass time since he got to play with actual electronics. He's got a veritable feast on the table around him- ranging from god-awful junk food to fancy-ass steaks. They never truly starved in the school, but when all you have to eat for nigh on eight years are variations of rabbit, fish or berries, you can't help but indulge. He'll regret it later, when his system freaks out from suddenly having too-rich nutrients again, but that is a risk he's absolutely willing to take. He grins, giving the camera a thumbs-up. He doesn't get what's happening at all, but he can't just sit still, this...this keeps him active.]

Hey there, fellow captives-slash-mental breakdown prisoners! The name's Louis and I'm brand new to this... whatever it is. AnyHOO, seen as it sounds like I'll be here for a while, I thought I'd get to know you a little better. [He raises a dirty, dog-eared pack of playing cards t the screen.] So! If any kids wanna come to the kitchen and share in my bountiful feast and have a good old game of War, you're totally welcome to. Highest card gets to ask a question to the other person, fun, right? Or, I guess, you can be boring and do it over the video instead. What'd you say?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So this place has favourites to bump off? I don't think that'd be a comforting thing. It's like being the most popular kid in school, but knowing the popular kid gets sacrificed to some volcano god or something."

He grimaces, because yup. Sounds about right.

"Yeaaah they don't really stop when you set 'em on fire. All you end up with is a Flaming Walker- which is less of a fun sounding cocktail and more burning horror death," god they had a bunch of those to clear up back home. "Don't worry, I'll show you how do it properly, so if it happens, you're less likely to die."

"Maybe it's favorites. Or maybe they're crazy and jump into things, you know?" Which she always figured was more what it is than anything else. "Or they're crazy adults. Might be that."

Yeah, she's totally buying that.

"Once they were on fire, made it easier to hit them with a crossbow. It's the one thing I know how to use well. I have a pistol, and I practice with it all the time, but only used it on targets." She makes a face then. "Frank gave it to me as a gift but he's not here anymore."

"I can totally get behind it being crazy adults. They're pretty good at doing that kinda thing."

Life would be much easier if adults stopped fucking things up for the rest of them, to be perfectly honest.

"Can't say I'm all that great with ranged weapons, I can't hit the broad side of a barn door," he keeps trying, but good lord he sucks so badly. Instead he grins, pulling out an old chair leg, complete with nails hammered into the top, from the recesses of his coat. "I prefer to use this! I call it Chairles."

She pauses, considering that. "You know, does seem to be more adults than kids, so you might be right," she points out, thinking this sounds about as good an answer as anything she's heard. And sadder to think they just keep doing it over and over again.

"Lack of practice, or lack of ability," she teases, grinning as she asks. "I can show you tho..." The words die as she sees the chair leg. "Dude, that is fantastic. Holy cow." Laughing at the name, head canting as she looks it over. "That is badass."

"It'd be the perfect plan. Too bad for them we worked it all out. Now all we need to do is ruin the whole thing."

He flashes her a grin to show he's (probably) joking.

"Little of both. I tried with a bow and arrows buuuut I suck so bad at it," like so bad, the worst. Her appreciation of Chairles IS noted though. Suck it, Aasim, someone thinks it's cool.

"I know right? It's my goddamn masterpiece. It takes out walkers with one good whack."

"Ruin it by doing stupider things so we die?" And yet, even as she asks that, she's chuckling. Not that she's rushed into it, but it is Wonderland. What's the worst that could happen? Well, that gets answered fairly often.

"And it's good for close quarters. With guns and things, if they got too close, they would do no good, would they?"

He nods. Guns haven't ever been his favourite thing, even less so after the whole Marlon debacle.

"Nope, when you've got a walker bearing down on you, you don't have time or arm room to aim. That's when you need something blunt and heavy or real sharp, like a knife."

She nods at that. "Frank was used to dealing with gang members and, well, apparently from what he told me? Taking down a full like corrupt organization and kind of causing a war zone in the middle of New York," she admits, at least looking kind of sheepish. Even if she sounds proud.

"But yeah, so that means the Chairles?" She says it slowly making sure she's saying it right. "That totally makes sense. Since it's both in a way."

"Yeeeep, that sounds some pretty war-zone-causing stuff right there. Bullets flying everywhere is just plain dangerous. Plus they make a lot of noise. You don't really want that with walkers. It just brings more of them."

And then suddenly you find yourself fighting a herd and that drastically lowers your survival chances. He nods, grinning.

"Hence Chairles. It's pretty good for getting rid of a bunch of them in a hurry. And I got my knife too, just in case."

"Yeah well in this case, from what I know? It brought about super heroes, for one." They had talked about it on and off during her practice, and she had listened intently, though she knew he didn't tell her everything.

She falls quiet for a minute before flipping over a card. A seven. She rolls her eyes. "And just when I have a serious question to."

"I don't have much... okay any experience with super heroes, but yeah. I'd guess that gunshots would bring them in their droves. To do their superheroing, I guess."

He grins, turning over his own card- a two of diamonds.

"Well, lucky you, looks like you get to ask it."

"Frank was kind of one. He just didn't believe in second chances, but he was protecting people," she says, feeling the need to defend him even if he is gone.

She is quiet a moment, considering before sighing softly. "You don't have to answer this but... have you killed a lot?"

"Sometimes, you don't get to give out second chances, when you're protecting other people."

It just...doesn't always work that way, so he understands. At her question he cants his head.

"You mean walkers? Yeah, a lot. I wasn't really keeping an active tally though. Maybe forty or so?"

He stopped counting, back when they realised it wasn't going to stop. That they were just living what life was now.

"How did it happen?" It's technically cheating, but despite the events with them, she's never brought herself to ask anyone. And then the words are coming out, asking before she can stop herself from pushing too far.

She winces though, thinking about it more after she asks. "Nevermind. You're here now. None of that matters right now."

"What, the walkers?" he shrugs. "I don't know, I don't think anyone knows. One day everything was fine, the next, suddenly the dead are stumbling around eating people and the world is falling to shit before our eyes. All we know is that you turn when you die and if you get bit you're in for a terrible time and then you die and turn anyway."

It's all pretty bleak, really, but he doesn't mind talking about it. The world is what it is. He's had years to get used to it. It's the world he's come of age in. He offers her a smile.

"Gotta admit, this whole Wonderland gig is a lot better than that. Looking forward to getting a full nights sleep for a change."

"Wait, so no matter what... what kind of bullshit is that?" She is totally offended by this, perhaps more than she should be by that. "That totally violates the rules of zombies," she says. "Which makes it kind of like other worlds I've heard about around here, but there should be rules and they should be stuck to."

She takes a breath, realizing she has another question. "So wait, how does it happen in the movies in your world then?"

"Yuuuuuuup. Unless someone does you a solid and destroys your brain for you after you die - which incidentally is considered the decent thing to do - you turn. It's a pretty huge crock of shit and exactly why I'm very nervous about ever dying here. It'd not just be my day that'd be ruined."

Which is why he has Clem and Michonne. They understand The Rules. If anything happens to him, well, he hopes they'll be around to do what needs to be done before Walker Louis eats anyone.

"We don't have them. I mean, obviously, we don't have any movies at all any more, but before then? Nothing. Everything we knew about the dead, we had to learn while we were living it," he pulls a face. "So it kinda sucks that some worlds had whole pieces of fiction to fall back on and try out first. We could've used that running start."

"But... so we would then have to kill the zombie for you to wake up the next day? Which everyone else just does if they die? That's totally cheating," she says, sounding entirely offended by that reality, and how it shouldn't work like that.

"So if it happens... I mean, just bash in your head with the Chairles?" Which she isn't liking, her nose wrinkling up as she thought about it, but thinking about it for his sake.

"That's so weird. I mean, they're all over my world. Like everywhere. Whole tv shows about them, though we have whole shows about ducks that are detectives too."

"I'm not sure. I'll have to ask Clem how it works here, I mean, I'm guessing we still turn, assuming Wonderland hasn't like...magically cured us all of our walker plague. Which I doubt."

Because Wonderland is kind of an asshole. He snorts at her question.

"Weeeeeelll, normally we go for a knife at a soft spot on the skull or a gunshot. But when you've got nothing else to hand, then yeah, smashing the skull in works, too," he considers. "I still gotta teach you how to take down a walker, so that can be a super duper fun part of it."

It's not a fun thing to learn at all, but something that's absolutely needed.

"Are...are the detective ducks in the same movies and stuff as the walkers? Like...does the duck solve some weird case with a walker? OH OH, does the duck have a walker partner and at first they don't get along but slowly they learn to respect one another and it's a heartfelt buddy movie? "

"I don't think so because that one guy is still totally a zombie," she points out. "And I think there's been others here as well. Like full on zombies being zombies... except like no zombies. Nicer than some around here. Some people in this place are whiny and cranky."

And she rolls her eyes, having obviously dealt with them.

Though she lights up then, nodding. "Cool. I can see that really helping if things keep being like they've been. It's been kind of crazy sometimes with zombies.

"No, but I would so watch that show," she says, brightening at the idea. "We should film a movie."

"You mean R? Yeah, good point. I mean he's definitely getting better, but that's more a stuff-from-home thing than a Wonderland thing," he considers. "Well, if there's one thing you learn pretty quick back home is that the living can be just as much of assholes- if not more- than the dead."

The dead don't kidnap you to force you to fight in their war, for instance.

"Great, I'll see if I can get some stuff set up for it," then, grinning. "Wow, we absolutely should. That's a thing we have to do. It'll be a masterpiece."

"Yeah, him! He's pretty cool, and there was Liv, and she was cool too," she says, though there's not as much enthusiasm as she has in some things. "I mean, for zombies? You've met R then and you're cool with him?"

That she knows for sure, and nods to agree.

"Seriously, we can get the equipment, find an actor or two, come up with a mystery and a duck." She pauses, considering that. "Crowley! He totally summoned a bunch of ducks a while back. They hang out around the lake sometime."

"I never met Liv. Was she like R?" he nods. "R's a really great guy, he's my friend. I mean, he's not like the walkers back home. There's a big difference there. R, he's still a person the walkers, they lost everything that made them people."

Though maybe R means there's a chance for a cure, one day. Maybe Tenn is right. Maybe one day, the Walker Age will end and something new will come out of it. Something to think about.

"Holy shit you're right! It could be something magical," a pause. "You- there's a guy here who can summon ducks?"

"Liv was like... normal. I mean, really pale, like goth kid on television pale, but otherwise she seemed totally normal. But after R came out about it, so did she. Which was a cool sign of solidarity. Kinda cool, y'know? And yeah, the ones in events are never like Liv and R."

She makes a face then, waggling her hand back and forth. "He got them from the closet, but like he got BOXES of them. Crowley is... kinda weird, but in a cool way, I guess." She glances around, leaning in a bit closer. "I think he's like way different, but I'm not sure how. Like not human different. Which around here? Is kinda the norm."

"Aww, that is pretty cool. I'm glad they had each other. Not-quite-dead-not-quite-alive buds."

And now R doesn't have her, which is a damn shame. He understands the world R comes from better than a lot of people in the mansion, but he understands it from the opposing perspective. No matter how they deal those cards, he'll always be on a side where the undead are a threat- even if he doesn't see R as one any more.

He leans in with her, playing the conspiracy up even with the smirk crossing his lips. He nods, as if that makes all the sense in the world to him.

"Oooooooh so he could be something else? I mean, decided to get like...boxes of ducks is already a pretty big red flag. That's not a regular human thing to get."

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