entranceway | ＶＩＤＥＯ;

( the video opens with a pair of bright blue eyes, far more fur than any one creature could need, and a practically thunderous purr. it's not surprising, seeing as Hook has tried about 5 times to set the thing up to record and the damn cat keeps knocking it over. his company is painfully exposed as he scoops up the purring beast and puts it on the floor.

no he's not going to mention or talk about the cat. that's not important, all right? thanks to that bloke with cat fantasies practically all of Wonderland has a cat. that's not what he's trying to talk about.

the pirate looks tired, but anyone that knows him knows that's a 24-7 thing for him. he's been tired since he arrived, months ago. that doesn't seem to be stalling anytime soon. not sleeping doesn't help, but his busywork does, at least a little. busywork for a pirate means making maps, which means... )

Is there a proper map of this place? I haven't spotted one yet. If there's not, I've been considering starting on a draft. It won't do us any good once the place is tits up on these events, but it's not a horrible thing to have on hand.

( he rubs at his forehead, as Dave jumps back up onto his desk and paws at the many pens scattered there. )

I'd ask for a star chart while I was at it, but speaking of things going tits up, the stars here are absolutely mad. I don't remember them being like this when I arrived, does anyone know what happened to them?

( the stars running wild bothers him more than he cares to admit. stars shouldn't move nightly... it's utterly ridiculous. Dave seems to have decided that the first eight times he was put on the floor for messing with the camera were just a cute joke, and tries to nuzzle it with more of those dementedly loud purrs. the pirate sighs and plucks it back off the table to the floor. )

If anyone has experience with cartography, I suppose I'd take the help. Making a map from scratch is difficult.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The files are transferring to you now, and there are actually hard copies you can find in the library, if you'd... did you just say spyglass?

[ oh dear. ]

The files are... what? ( transferring? is that a weird word for magic? ) I'll look out in the library then, I must have missed them.

And yes. Spyglass. Like a telescope, but transportable.

( oh honey. that's not the problem. )

Right, I know. I just-- that's pretty specific terminology. [ stars + mapping? ] Are you some kind of mariner, back home?

Yes, you could say that. I'm the Captain of a ship, love, and her navigator too. I know quite a bit about stars and tracking by them.

( which explains why he's so put out about them not staying in place. )

Oh. Wow. [ a lack of familiarity with digital terms? excuse her sudden sharp interest. someone around here has possibly romanticized the idea of living life at sea by way of the stars... ] Merchant? Explorer, or maybe you're military? Or ... something else?

Ah, something else, as it were. ( if he wanted to be honest, military was where he'd gotten most of his training. he doesn't want to be honest. Hook rarely does. ) Pirate through and through.

( not really. but let him pretend, Jane. he's not much off a pirate these days and frankly hasn't been much of one for quite some time. )

[ even though she'd vaguely suspected, having those suspicions confirmed lifts jane's eyebrows in surprise. ]

I-- wow. [ wow again, yep. what a varied vocabulary. ] Wonderland must feel more like a prison to you than the rest of us, then.

Let's just say this isn't the first horrible magical land I've been trapped in, but you're right that it's not any easier the second go around.

( it does make him more determined to get out again, though, and hopefully a map will help with that. )

You've been to other dimensions prior to this one?

[ hmm maybe she should try looking into multidimensional hyperspace maps... ]

Depends on your definition of dimension, really.

I've been to all sorts of worlds. A different version of this one, even, it's a bit of a trip.

( Wonderland is not quite like the one he'd visited previously, though. )

Really? [ jane you're too close to the screen, calm down. ] How?

( her interest is charming, at the very least??? )

I've been to Wonderland before, and it's reminiscent of this place, but it's not the same either. I'm used to there being different worlds out there, that's nothing new, but a different version of the same world? That's bloody odd, isn't it?

How do you travel between dimensions? [ as if the answer is a lifeboat and jane's drowning in anticipation... ]

All sorts of ways. Magic beans, magical hats, magic dust the once...

I'm afraid the likelihood of it working here is limited, even if we had it available. )

Magic-- [ jane's eyes close and she shakes her head, as if somehow that would make the information drop into place and suddenly make sense. she grins finally, accepting that she might always be lost in this conversation. ] It sounds like your world is vast. What was the Wonderland you went to before like?

Aye, and a great deal of it. I've been to unmagical worlds but not enough of them, I fear.

It was a bit like this, but different all the same. Similar creatures, places, titles, a very overt madness. This place is more... quiet, in its oddities. Squint and it could almost be anywhere, the madness slips in the shadows most of the time.

This version of Wonderland always struck me as one past its time. [ jane's nodding slowly now, and realizes that she's maybe been asking way too many questions. she smiles, and tucks hair behind her ear. ] I'm sorry-- I feel like I've already taken up too much of your time. Sometimes the questions get away from me.

I'm Jane, by the way.

All I have is time here.

( his tone is a little bitter at that. still, if he didn't want to talk, she'd know it; he can be very evasive on occasion. )

A pleasure, Jane. I don't mind questions. Might be the way we find out how to get out of here.

If not, it's still nice to kill some of that time learning about the various natures of other worlds, especially ones with such prevalent magic use.

On that front, I've got plenty of stories to tell.

( pirates love telling stories of their travels, actually, though... )

Perhaps next time. And over drinks. These sort of tales go better over drinks.

[ eyebrow quirk, go ]

And why's that?

Mostly because everything goes better over drinks.

( Jane really what were you expecting his excuse to be. )

And a tale seems taller by its very nature if you've had a glass of rum, or two.

[ this doesn't seem like a great life choice, so-- ]

OK. Deal. You get your rum and I get information.

ＶＩＤＥＯ;

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject