entranceway | 003

[Still not having learned his lesson about showing his face, the feed starts and immediately gives its audience a view of a helmeted face. Despite all the questions he gets about it, he still doesn't even think about it before starting the video.]

So I'm sure this has been asked before. Probably a lot, actually. A lot of you might be sick of answering it, even, but I'm curious.

[That's a good way to start one of these things, right? Let everyone know they'll probably be bored by what's coming? That'll really draw people in.]

How long have you been here? And what's the longest someone's been here, if anyone knows? [His head tilts just slightly, giving him an inquisitive look. However, his voice flattens a little as he continues.] I'm just kind of looking for an idea of how long I'm going to be here. Though with this place, I'm betting the amount of time varies too much for any sort of pattern.

[He'll just huff over that for a minute because man, he'd love for there to be a pattern or some clear schedule to this sort of thing. He hates the disorder of it all so much.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. Oh-- Sorry, I thought you meant--

Well. Yeah. But I get it. [To the extent he can without his own memory loss experience, anyway.] I doubt losing any memories is something anyone would want to repeat.

No, it's okay! I mean, I don't think a whole lot of people have memory issues that Wonderland didn't cause. But yeah, it's...disturbing. At least I sort of know the cause of mine, though, and they're coming back slowly.

[He grimaces.] Well, other than the words Wonderland took.

Right... I mean, I guess that's...better than losing them forever.

[...Isn't it? He's not sure how to proceed here, and takes to stepping lightly, to avoid upsetting or offending.]

I think it's strange that all Wonderland does is take words, and then our entire memory of the place once we leave. If they can take words, why not take all memories associated with that word, too?

[...Er.]

Not that I think it should-- Obviously I'm glad it doesn't, I just-- ...It makes you wonder why it's doing so little when it seems like it could be doing a lot more.

Well, maybe it's that the memories of being here belong here, so it can hold them easier? And it takes longer to get hold of our memories from home, so it's just words and stuff at first.

Yeah... Yeah, that kind of makes sense, I think.

[He pauses then, hesitant.]

You think eventually it'll start to take more than just words, though? If we're here long enough?

...probably. And how would we know when it does start happening?

...I guess we won't. Wow, that's actually a really scary thought.

[And his worries about being stuck here for too long have officially just increased. A lot.]

[Al swallows a bit, biting his lip.] Yeah. But most people seem to go home again well before that would start happening, at least? I mean, from what I've noticed.

[Not that he's kept an accurate list or anything, but you do notice things going over the network when someone disappears.]

Seems that way, anyway, yeah. It's what I've noticed too, at least since I started asking around. Hopefully that doesn't change anytime soon.

...Or ever, for that matter.

[This conversation got a lot more worrisome than he meant for it to...]

Yeah, hopefully.

[Maybe by just a tad, which is why Al decides a change of topic is in order.] How is Apricot doing?

[And the change of topic is welcome, thankfully, since it's pretty obvious.]

Oh, she's good! She's doing just fine, though I don't think she likes being left alone in my room so often... But I don't know how I feel about letting her wander around the mansion on her own, you know?

Yeah, I feel the same about Nessa all the time! I know she probably wouldn't be hurt wandering around, but I don't really want to risk it. I do take her out on a leash and harness sometimes to let her do some exploring.

A leash! That's a great idea, actually. I should try to get one out of the closet for Apricot...

[He glances a little warily off to the side, in the direction of his closet.]

At least then it'd feel less like I'm keeping her cooped up.

[Al nods with a grin.] She might not like the leash at first--you should get a harness for her, by the way rather than use her collar. Nessa nearly slipped out of it the first time I tried that. But once she's used to it I bet she'd really like going around with you like that!

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