entranceway | video;

[There's some fumbling with the camera then, the usual motion blur that can be associated with a newcomer exploring unfamiliar technology.]

Right, so that's the camera there. And the microphone is... Oh, well that's a bit on the nose isn't it? I suppose that would make it easier for the lay user.

[A bit more shifting then, until he sets his device on a flat surface. The image is a small, softbodied man with a pointed intensity in his eyes. He speaks softly, in a thick Scottish brogue.]

H-hello -- to whomever might be listening. I apologize for this interruption, but I'm searching for someone in particular. I have reason to believe that Jemma Simmons has been staying among you. If you know her, it's imperative that I make contact with her. My name is Leo Fitz -- I followed her here.

[He doesn't mention SHIELD or their duties, though. The agency is such a touchy issue in the public eye, it might be a condemnation to draw unnecessary attention to it. There was no telling what kind of people lived here.]

Oh, I hope languages won't be an issue. Though I suppose it should be fine if we utilize this text function...

[His stare shifts pensively from the display to the camera and back again. His instinct is to pull apart this hardware and improve upon the flaws, but that would be entirely counterproductive to his means.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Sans may not know, but Fitz has been clinging to this as a hunk of hope just as he thought he'd been at rock bottom. He deflates slightly.]

That's all right. I'll keep trying. I'll find her wherever she's gone.

[A small pause, then:] Thank you.

We've not heard of it, no. But my friend was taken here after interacting with an artifact from another world. I've simply been retracing her steps.

well she might be here. like i said, i don't know everyone. hm...there might be a way to look through the network archives, see who's registered.

what kind of artifact? i've heard there's a book.

That's a good idea. I'll try to look into that.

It wasn't a book, though I don't doubt that a book exists which contains similar properties. The one we'd recovered was a large stone.

a stone...huh. guess if i knew the story any better i'd know if that had some kinda significance. what sort of stone?

[Now he's just bothered that he's never been able to actually read the Wonderland stories, and never will since the copies here are all fake.]

["The story...?"]

It was a relic left behind after some aliens visited our planet. It was a large monolith, several meters tall.

huh.

[Aliens and planets and monolithic stones. He's pretty sure he heard of a movie like that once.]

[Only that doesn't exactly sound like the Wonderland story. He's pretty sure the books are more about fantasy and whimsy and surrealism. At least that's the sense that, well, living here has given him.]

well, there are definitely aliens here. i've never heard of aliens just visiting this place, though. there's nothing like that in the archives.

[His entire life's been kind of like a movie lately. It's pretty surreal.]

What archives might those be, exactly? I'd like to learn more.

the network archives. it's kinda like scrolling back through webpage history, i guess. and there's a librarian here who's keeping physical archives of who comes and goes. her name's evie.

there's a pamphlet too.

[He attaches a link.]

[He takes a moment to review the pamphlet -- there's such an open prison community that someone's constructed a pamphlet about it?]

This does explain why so many people linked transport here to death. This part here about memories... How severe of an affliction is this? Have you much experience there?

i dunno if i've heard anyone say coming to wonderland was equivalent to dying. people don't even notice we're gone. time just kinda freezes back home i guess.

ah, well. that's mostly to do with the events, i guess. they come aobut once a month and tend to be based on someone's memories.

Time is a bit of an abstraction in general. It would make sense for you to perceive it as such. [He's not being condescending, simply stating fact.]

So when these "events" hit, our memories are used to transform the setting in a way that we ourselves don't notice? [It's a little hard to swallow not noticing someone fishing around in someone's brain.]

...i suppose. just telling you what the people who go home and then come back here say.

[Sometimes it's hard not to feel condescended to, even when you're trying not to be too much of A Scientist.]

nah, we definitely notice. sometimes our memories get altered and we think we're something or someone else. in those cases i guess we don't notice. but usually it's the other kind. something changes about wonderland and then we all have to deal with it.

[That's primarily because the world is populated with anti-intellectual oafs who are so afraid of their intellectual betters that they'd prefer stuffing human bodies into lockers over actually learning something.

Not that he's biased.]

What's been taken from you? If it's all right to ask something so personal.

[Holy shit. Sans almost just bursts out laughing. What's been taken from you. Haha oh man.]

[He manages not to laugh, but his eyesockets do sort of narrow in amusement.]

heh. nothing yet. well, i figure i'll get to star in my own event one of these days. not looking forward to it. i'm not a fan of the spotlight.

In that case, I'm happy to hear that you're still intact. [Which is so weird to say to a skeleton.]

With any luck, an escape route will present itself before anything serious can be taken from you.

heh. one can hope, but i'm not holding my breath.

[He laughs at the joke. Haha. Funny.]

[Oh, does he make light of his affliction? He has about a thousand questions about this person's(?) physiology, but they all seem a bit too forward yet.

He'll return the laughter with a weak smile of his own. It's an attempt to keep from looking awkward, which probably makes it moreso.]

[Annnnnyway.]

well, uh. welcome to wonderland and all. hope you find your friend.

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