entranceway | [Video]

[The video opens with a pitched cackle. The man on screen wipes a tear away from his eye and shakes his head, sighing contentedly as he comes down from the fit.]

Ohhhhh-okay, okay. Okay. People of--is this, is this really what we're going with right now? Wonderland? What pretentious dickwad came up with that one? [There's another short bark of laughter then he clears his throat.] Wh-oookay. Ahhh, this is just--just beautiful! God, and here I thought things just couldn't get better.

[There's a pause in which he composes himself, runs a hand back through his hair, and fixes the video with a slightly less hysterical visage.]

So, right, I did the reading and the whole shtick. Oh no, where am I, I'm so confused and lost. Wah, wah, I don't like change. What am I gonna do with myself? Here, let me confide in the local ECHOnet, seeking solace from my equals. Yeah, that crap just ain't me, kiddos. So uh, I'm Jack. If any of you assholes knows me, pipe up, because I'm gonna need a basic rundown of the whole dealio as far as who's here. And I swear on my mother's grave--the devil condemn her soul in eternal torment--if I see or hear one CL4P-TP unit, I will set it on fire. I'm not even kidding right now. You have been warned. I don't need that crap here, too.

So yeah. Really, just uh, sayin' hi. Oh, and in case you didn't really catch it, I was making fun of the ostentatious name of the place. Yep. That about wraps up this video. Later, losers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Astonishingly, Evelyn is equally enthralled by the idea of harsh and unforgiving places. The desert is a sprawling mess of nothing but bleached bones and the relics of ancient civilisations, pockmarked with the occasional oasis or well. The Bedouin aren't exactly murderous, but neither are they friendly to strangers (and understandably so).]

...something like that.

[She cannot in good faith claim their experiences are the same, but as much as places like Wadi Rum are clean and beautiful, they are absolutely pitiless.]

I work with the dead - not in the undertaking sense, I'm an archaeologist.

[Evelyn still dreams about dead guys, though.]

So wait. You're telling me you run around the desert--a dangerous wasteland of death--just to look at some dead douchebag's bones and loot his shit?

[He pauses in his moment of disgust to actually think over the words he just said and the implication they have.]

I never thought about it that way. I mean, different motivations, but essentially the bare bones of it are similar. Wh-uh, where I'm from, there are people--bandits, really--who hunt for the Vault. It's this ancient thing left behind by uh... aliens or something. Anyway, they call themselves Vault Hunters. I-i-it's not really clear what's in these Vaults. Treasure, knowledge, weapons--some even think it's a prison. But I've seen one. I've seen what comes out of them. Anyway, not the point. Vault Hunting is a similar concept, except you're pretty hot for a bandit, so I'm kinda leaning away from that assessment for now.

Thank...you?

[One has to assume that being a bandit in his world is contingent upon being unattractive, by his logic, or perhaps all bandits are by default hideous in appearance. A conversation for another time.

Evelyn does bristle at the suggestion that she commits atrocities against cultural heritage but from a layperson's perspective it stands to reason that the work of "Vault Hunters" and archaeologists appears rather similar.]

But I'm not a bandit. Archaeology is a science, it's...the study of people through the objects they leave behind.

[Future archaeologists might have a field day looking over whatever impression Jack wants to make in his world.]

But as I'm sure you've noticed it's a vastly different change of scenery here, so I can't exactly go out into the field and expect to find some ancient Egyptian king's tomb. [Almost conspiratorially, and equally excited,] Although you should see the way they used to bury their dead, it's wonderfully gruesome.

Right, right. I get that. It's just--similarities. I dunno. You study dead people through their stuff, I study their stuff through dead people. And make it work for those of us that aren't dead.

Whoa, what? Yeeee-see, on Pandora, they seem to just... well, I guess some bury their dead or something. I mean, there are graves and whatnot. But more frequently? They just kinda get left where they were shot. Savages. AKA: Bandits. Aaaanyway, so, if there are no tombs here--doesn't that kinda mean there was no civilisation here before we started showing up? Th-th-there should be like, I dunno, something to show someone used to call this weird-ass place home, right?

[Jack, you're overthinking this. Quit.]

It's likely,

[Evelyn admits, also considering the futility of developing civilisation on a planet that clearly has little regard for organised burial practises. How the living treat the dead says a great deal about the general attitudes toward humanity (or a lack thereof), and if there are no overarching trends in Pandora these Vaults could be remnants of an ancient people.

Anthropologically it makes the most sense that Wonderland is its own dimension, a constant floating in a state of variables.]

I've held several digs over the course of my time here and found artefacts from completely different periods sitting right next to each other, which is...impossible, in every sense of the word. Due to the lack of local populace it could be argued that there is no real civilisation here, and that it's simply a replica of the Wonderland featured in a fictional book I know-

[She pauses, reminded of something. He's not overthinking it, it's a good point.]

...have you heard of it, in your world? "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?"

Can't say I have, nope. But, there's one of those library things here, right? I'm gonna guess it's not of the electronic persuasion, but an actual, physical book kind. A bit old fashioned, but I can deal with it. If this place is based off that book, then I should probably start there, huh?

[He can't say he's too terribly interested in the fiction of another culture, but if it will give him even a hint as to what's going on here, he'll take it.]

Ehhh, on the digs, though. If the people here have been scavengers or collectors, it makes sense that the artefacts you found together could've already been found before. Let's say, for argument's sake, you've got a museum. Shit happens, the museum gets buried for--oh, a century or five--and someone comes along and digs it up, they're gonna find all these weird-ass things from the wrong times and the wrong places all in one spot. Could be what's happening here. Just a thought. If this whole kidnapping thing has been going on for--wh... eh, like, centuries, or something? The only thing you'd find is shit already collected from wrong times and wrong places in the same spot. This place doesn't sit on the same timeline as everyone here, I'm gathering, right? I could, say, be here and meet my daughter's grandkids and exist with them even though we wouldn't really be from the same time.

[Let it be known that Jack isn't actually an idiot. He's just surrounded by idiots on Helios.]

[Old-fashioned. Yes, it is increasingly apparent that possessing anything in a physical, hard form is old-fashioned, because those from the future are very much preoccupied with ethereal copies of things that float about in the aether like some sort of information-laden faerie.

Miraculously enough Jack brings up a cogent and relevant point that Evelyn has discussed in theory with others in the recent past, having become accustomed enough to events not to be bothered and instead focusing on research potential.]

No, you're exactly right!

[Evelyn brightens; even if his vocabulary is less than academic, the point still stands.]

I've postulated something similar but any collection of artefacts from a centuries-old museum wouldn't be so egregiously scattered, you see- the area is too large and the distribution would have had to be deliberate. Another theory was that this particular universe is just where lost things end up - excluding residents like us, of course, I simply mean material culture - but given the subject matter of the book that this world is based upon-

[God forbid, perhaps Lewis Carroll was trapped here and based this book upon the world.]

-the consensus is that it simply doesn't have to make sense, which...irks me, on a fundamental level. [A beat.] ...you should probably come to the library, regardless, if you're unfamiliar with the work of fiction.

[Video]

video;

Re: video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;