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Phil, Phil! Evil's a bit harsh, don't you think? Besides, who needs a brochure when the greatness and glory of HYDRA speaks for itself?

[ So do you ever fall out of touch with one of your friends and you keep meaning to catch up with them proper, but it just never quite works out, so you spend your time with one finger hovering over their number, and the rest of you feeling somewhat guilty that you haven't pushed the buttons yet, until one day you walk down the street on your way to buy groceries, and who's that standing on the corner there, if not Your Good Old Pal; wearing a giant blue fur suit shaped like an O with googly eyes and waving a stack of fifteen-percent-off-your-next-mobile-phone-with-two-year-contract pamphlets at you going HEY! HEY, BUDDY! GUESS WHO JUST GOT INTO ADVERTISING!

That's... that's basically this message. ]

Greatness and glory? Is that why you signed up?

[The Once-ler likes to think he's a bit classier than the lowest-tier guy handing out flyers, but yeah - that's about the gist of it.]

Well, it sure didn't hurt! Who wouldn't want all that? And not just for themselves, but for everyone! I'm a changed man, after all.

[Granted, this does not seem like a change for the better, but who's paying attention to that? Certainly not the Once-ler. He swiftly changes the subject away from himself though, because honestly he can't remember a lot of those pesky little personal details and it's uncomfortable, but hey - it's not like Phil asked him for his life story here.]

Point is, this is a great and definitely inevitable thing. Why fight it, buddy?

[ He already knows the Once-ler's life story, at least the part about where the guy's ambitions towards greatness and glory landed him and his world the last time. Philip turns the communication device in his hands, checking some of his recent messages.

A friend who broke through the programming, that's the uplifting sliver of hope at the end of a harrowing story, but... theirs really isn't that kind of friendship, is it? All the same Philip is left contemplating what he would try to say if it was. Left buying time with a flippant answer while he does... ]

You know me, always a sucker for postponing the inevitable as long as possible.

[ Resolutions, confessions, death. Especially death. ]

[Yes, but these ambitions are different - or, more accurately, he can't remember the original ones that got him in so much trouble in the first place. It's left him an older version of himself, though he's perfectly content to act all buddy-buddy with Philip like nothing's changed.]

Ha! Too bad you'll only be able to procrastinate so long.

[That is 100% definitely not ominous at all, especially coming from such a good f r i e n d.]

I can't even imagine why you'd want to anyway. Everyone knows Wonderland's pretty bad the way it is now. Come on, literally anything we do is going to be an improvement, don't you think? It's just progress! And progress is progress, and progress must grow!

[ Hah. There's a comforting thought. But it's... odd, that curiosity still. That half-baked thought of escaping trouble by signing up. What's a few days gone mad after everything else he's been through here? If that- if that was his choice, then the Once-ler probably ought to be the one to get credit for the signing bonus, though there's a standing question whether that would tilt the scales towards Even or Worse... ]

Sounds a bit too much like the start of everything you told me about your world.

[ And this? Philip isn't quite sure yet, but he thinks he's glad he doesn't have to watch it go down with a face and voice attached. ]

[That...makes him stop and stare at his network device for a moment. Everything he told Philip about his world? What? There's a blank space where that conversation should be in his memories, and it's quickly filling up with uneasiness. It's actually enough to make him halt his HYDRA recruiting.]

Uh. I've got no idea what you're talking about, buddy. This is the start of something great!

[Except there was a long pause before he could send even that much. Even through text he sounds...uncertain, all of a sudden.]

[ Philip doesn't read it that way, at first. Doesn't think anything he's got to offer could take the Once-ler's recruitment drive off the tracks, and the response only reads dismissive in his mind. ]

What I'm talking about - and I say that as your friend, and worse, somebody who might have been there once or twice - is that I get the impression that you haven't been thinking this one through to the end. Or even the middle, for that matter.

[Philip's right, of course, but heck is going to freeze before the Once-ler admits it right now. The more he tries to reason with him, the more uncomfortable the Once-ler feels - which, of course, is not how this recruitment thing was supposed to go.]

There's nothing to think about! Things will be better with HYDRA in charge. There's no end or middle, just a new beginning! As long as everyone cooperates with us, that is.

Right, that's fair enough. Convince everybody here that HYDRA's the right horse to bet on, and once that's done it's all new beginnings and smooth sailing forever. Good thing this isn't the sort of place where new people just show up every other day, or we'd all be stuck in recruitment mode forever.

[ Or so he'd imagine, if he carries the thought exercise beyond its matter-of-fact 'this will all blow over in a few days, why even bother to argue'. ]

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