002: late night text.

[sheriffing]

I'll be honest, I don't know how all of you are living here.
Not existing, I don't need an explanation for that. I just...

[She's trapped by a future that hasn't happened yet. Hook doesn't have to tell her she's gone dark for her to know he was thrown by the fact that she wasn't. If there's going to be a fight, she's going to lose. In his future, she's the Dark One.

And to have it not happen just because she's here, when she doesn't know why, or for how long, or what this place wants out of her is maddening.]

I feel like I'm waiting for someone to flip the switch and send me back to my life. And I don't know whether to want that because it's mine or to want this because it could always be worse.

[She could be the person Hook thought she was. And eventually, she will be.]

Comments

[sheriffing]

Alright, that's pretty good.

[ If she sounds surprised, she doesn't mean to. ]

I never thought about this place being ... living. I don't like the sound of that.

[determinedest]

I'm not really sure. Everyone seems to agree that there's something pulling the strings, but there doesn't seem to be any consensus over who.

[sheriffing]

Wonderland itself would be a little out there.

[ Then again, this is Wonderland. ]

[determinedest]

I don't remember much about the original story, but I do remember that not a lot of it made sense. Maybe that's all it takes.

[sheriffing]

I remember it, I read it a few times when I was a kid.

Original might not be the right word for it. Commonly-accepted.

[determinedest]

[Huh? This is getting interesting.]

What do you mean?

[sheriffing]

Fairytales tend to have a lot of different versions, in my experience.

[determinedest]

I guess that makes sense. A lot of the stories they told us in my home were kind of one-sided. The war between humans and monsters, and humans are always the good guys. Until you learn that that's not all there was to it.

[sheriffing]

That's never all there is to it.

[determinedest]

That's true, I guess.

I hope things look up soon, anyway.

[sheriffing]

Me too.