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Dear Wonderland.

[She says it like she's starting a letter. To all of you Wonderland girls and guys! She's obviously in her room, the wall of pasted-on Polaroid photos behind her, with softly lit lanterns hanging across the surface on thin wires. It's late at night- or rather, it's the wee hours of the morning. Max has no idea how much the old midnight gang of insomniacs still prowls around the network. She used to be pretty active at this time- not so much anymore.]

This is gonna sound kinda weird, but I swear I'm not off my rocker. Maybe groggy and craving for food, but not crazy.

[ Come on Max, stop embarrassing yourself on the network!]

I was just thinking that I would've graduated by now, since it's June. I'd probably be scrambling to find some sort of arts college that I can afford or that I can even get into. [Or not. Spending a year traveling and taking photos sounds great, too, but college seems pretty important.] And it sucks that I don't have school here.

But... obviously a lot of things suck about Wonderland. Nutso mirrors, certain newbies showing up, all kinds of scary mystery type stuff, nasty events. I mean, sometimes it's... just shit. [Like the past few days, for a lot of people. The network's been full of downers. Her brow furrows as she looks to the side, and her mouth curves into a slight frown.] And I'm sure some of us are bringing in a ton of messed up baggage from back home, too.

[She holds up a stack of instant photos, maybe seven or eight. She angles the stack sideways, so only the sides can be seen by the camera. The girl's still a little too shy to show the actual images.] But see this? Each one's a photo of a... a friend I've made here. People I could actually hang out with. [She waves the little stack at the screen, preparing herself for this next admission.] That's more friends than I had- have in my school.

So yeah, Wonderland totally bombs sometimes. But there's some pretty good stuff going on, too. And I know this is gonna be really hard right now, but I want to hear it- what's something you're super grateful for? Something you might never have had if you hadn't fallen down the rabbit hole? [She tries to make it sound like it's fun challenge, smiling timidly at the screen.] Cuz I'm sure you could name at least three things.

[[OOC: After the post, she leaves her room to roam around the mansion, phone light in hand. Feel free to bump into her wherever! Also, she'll be replying to all responses, even the ones after sunrise.]]

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[Hey, it's, what was his name, Steve. The really nice guy. His picture throwing popcorn at the fake raptor is somewhere on the wall behind her.]

You can pretend to congratulate me while we pretend I graduated. [Yeah, just another one of her lame jokes, but she smiles all the same.

She doesn't really know anything about him, and definitely doesn't know anything about the situation he's going through. But the way he answers the question already says a lot.]

That's definitely common, but it's still legit. And Wonderlandians tend to be pretty cool friends... mostly.

[ While Steve can see that a lot of Max's photos are on the wall, he doesn't look too closely for his own. He'd brushed it off when it happened, but that doesn't mean that he's eager to relive the embarrassment. ]

In that case, congratulations. Maybe you can get the closets to give you a diploma. [ Probably not, since it falls into the category of "too specific," but he makes his own lame joke all the same.

The caveat that Max makes on that statement causes Steve to raise an eyebrow. ] Yeah, there are definitely some bad eggs. I hope you're not speaking from experience, though.

Thanks Steve, I'll do my best to make you proud. I'd like to thank my family and my best friend Chloe.

[Yup, lame jokes everywhere, from everyone!

She sobers up at his question, though, her expression falling.] I'm trying not to judge, but... I guess there's always at least one person, anywhere you go. And there's always the mirrors.

Hey, you'll be making award-winning speeches in no time.

[ Steve should know, that's apparently one of his natural talents based on what others have told him. It's one of the reasons he'd ended up as team leader, though it's a title he's given up now as far as he's concerned.

As diplomatic as Max tries to be with her remarks, Steve doesn't hold the same courtesy. He shakes his head. ] If someone's causing trouble here, they shouldn't just get away with it. We all have to coexist here. [ Events messing with someone's head is one thing, but Steve gets the feeling that Max isn't talking about that. ]

[Urgh, she just thought he'd kind of politely agree and be done with it. She does not want to start talking about the 'bad eggs' of Wonderland, and it feels like the conversation is heading in that direction.]

Uhh, yeah, I get it. Coexisting's been okay. [Come on, think of a way to change the topic!] And at least my best friend from Oregon is here. [Every time she says it, it feels like an understatement of how awesome it is to have Chloe around.] Has anyone from your home shown up?

[ Well, it looks like they're just going to quietly tiptoe around that subject instead of facing it head-on. Steve has to wonder why Max would rather not get into it. Maybe she's paranoid, or maybe she feels like she needs to protect someone who others would consider dangerous. Steve's been in that boat before, so he doesn't push the issue. They can keep it to small talk if that's what she wants. ]

Are you kidding? There are more of us than I can keep track of sometimes. [ Steve realizes just how lucky he is in that sense, although there's also been a "bad egg" or two in the bunch. Still, Loki left his place a long time ago. ] Not sure why, but Wonderland seems to have a special interest in our world.

Oh! I didn't know. [Max is certainly not a socialite- it isn't really surprising that she hasn't bumped into one of the largest groups in Wonderland. Not to mention their interests don't really align.]

What world is that exactly?

It's Earth. Or... a version of it, anyway.

[ There seem to be countless versions of Earth, for some reason. Far more than for any other place that Steve's heard about, that's for sure. He'd like the answer to why that is, but he's pretty sure he's never going to find out. ]

One where there's a team of super-powered people called the Avengers. [ Or there was, anyway, until that all fell apart due to the Accords. ] We had an alien attack in 2012, then a robot army attack in 2015, that kind of thing.

[ You know. No big deal. ]

Edited 2016-06-23 22:08 (UTC)

Wowser. That's not my Earth. [She can't hide the impressed look on her face.]

So you're... a super-powered person? Super strength and x-ray vision, or something? And you fight aliens and robots and super villains?

[She's basically parroting back what he said, but come on, that's pretty hard to wrap her head around.]

[ As far as Steve's aware, anyone from his world here in Wonderland is at least tangentially related to the Avengers in one way or another, so he hadn't expected Max to recognize it. She picks up on all of it pretty quick, though, which means she must be familiar with the general concept.

He huffs out a laugh. ] No x-ray vision, but the rest of it, yes. [ Except that calling the likes of Loki or HYDRA super villains seems to simplify it. It might sound like fun and games, but when they're in the thick of a fight like that it's a life or death situation. ]

Awww, no! You can't be a superhero without x-ray vision. [She grins at the screen.] Tell me you can at least shoot lasers out of your eyes.

[As someone who's a into comics and video games and stuff like that ~~but strangely not Marvel comics, what a coincidence!~~ it actually is a form of entertainment for her, and it'll take a while longer for her to take it more seriously.

Though she does come up short when she realizes that he actually agreed.] Wait, you actually have super strength?

Nothing too special about my eyes, except that my vision is pretty sharp. [ Steve raises his eyebrows at Max. She has some very intense opinions about this, apparently. ] Sorry. [ He's pretty sure x-ray vision would turn out to be a complete disaster, though.

It doesn't seem like any of this has completely registered with Max, though. Steve nods at her question. ] Yeah, I do. And super speed, resilience, faster healing...

[ He's everything you'd want a good soldier to be, physically speaking. ]

Edited 2016-06-30 20:04 (UTC)

[She blinks at the screen before leaning backward to rest against the wall.]

Wowser.

[There are monsters and blue women and space soldiers here, but somehow a superhero hits closer to home. It's more familiar, maybe: books like Watchmen, movies and comics like Kick-Ass... the ones that are about regular people doing the super.

Maybe it's because Steve isn't a skeleton, or blue, or a bird. He's good looking and big, but... he looks like an American model.

And on top of all that, Max is living in a mansion with a superhero!]

Sorry, it's just... I used to read a lot of comics. I shouldn't be surprised given... I mean, we're in Wonderland. [She shakes her head, bemused at herself.] I shouldn't be surprised.

[ Wowser. Is that a thing that kids say now? Steve can't help but feel all those years of his age during times like this.

It looks like Max is taking some time to wrap her head around this concept. Steve had told Victor not so long ago that he was one of the least fantastical things in this place, but it seems that he's managed to leave someone speechless all the same.

As Max explains, Steve nods along. ] Well, it's always kind of weird when something you thought was just fiction turns out to be real, right? I've gone through a lot of that here too.

[ Vampires, werewolves, all that stuff that he'd thought was just meant for horror stories and bad Halloween costumes. Yet there are examples of the real deal here. ] There's actually a comic about me back home, so... [ This isn't the first time this has happened, not by a long shot. ]

Far out! [No, Steve, normal teenagers don't say "Wowser" or "Far out" or things like that. Max is weird like that. But if she somehow convinces him to start saying lame catchphrases to kids her age, it will be the most amusing thing ever.] You're that popular, huh?

[She shakes her head in wonder. She used to draw comics about her and her best friend Chloe, but they had to imagine that they were superheroes.] I guess what really gets me is that superheroes always seemed on the edge of being real. All the... supernatural stuff? Aliens? Whenever I meet them they're kind of... you know, out there. They really make me feel like I'm in a fairy tale. [Gosh, she's rambling, isn't she? Better get to the point before she embarrasses herself.] But with superheroes... I could be back in Oregon. A way cooler Oregon, but home sweet home anyway.

[ Steve generally knows better than to make any attempt at picking up slang, particularly from younger people. He knows he'll sound ridiculous and it would only lead to more jabs about him being old.

The rambling doesn't bother him at all, especially since he can understand where Max is coming from to some degree. The super soldier program, the war, all of that had felt within the realm of reason. Then he'd gone to the future and aliens had attacked and his whole world had turned upside down.

He's not going to touch the bit about him being popular. He is, but it's complicated now that he's given that all up, so better to just leave it alone. ] I see what you're saying. We seem a little more grounded in reality. Some of us, anyway. [ He's pretty sure most people would still look at Thor and feel like they were in a fairy tale. ] Oregon, huh? Can't say I've spent a lot of time there -- what's it like?

[Some of us? So there's several of them at least. Her curiosity gets stronger by the second.]

It's crazy. Mostly quiet, but if you listen hard enough, it's crazy. [And sometimes the crazy is screaming in your face.] And so beautiful. Sometimes I wonder if I'd have ever started taking photos if Arcadia Bay had been less... uhh, charming. [At least, charming in it's own way... and that charm has faded quite a bit, by now. But deep down she misses home.

Time to change the topic. No need to get into the nitty grity of life back home...]

Okay, wait. What's the most insane superpower you've actually seen?

[ "If you listen hard enough, it's crazy." What does that mean? Steve may be curious to know more (though he keeps in mind that their definitions of crazy likely differ), but then Max poses that question. ]

Hmm... that's a tough one.

[ Steve takes a moment to think. His first thought is the Hulk, but he doesn't want to bring that up, not when there's a slim chance that Bruce might lose control here. Tony, Natasha, and Clint all fall into the normal category, which leaves... ]

I've worked with someone who's an alien who can control weather and wields a hammer that only he can pick up. [ Steve rolls his eyes to himself because he still thinks there's some weird trick to that. How can an inanimate object determine worthiness? ] I've also worked with an AI who got put into a partly synthetic body powered by this space stone that has powers none of us really understand.

[ Just another day in the life of an Avenger, basically. ]

So Storm-from-outer-space versus Hal-9000-with-a-twist. [She honestly looks a little overwhelmed.] That's a pretty tough call for the number one spot.

[Man, what does Steve get up to? She's glad those are the heroes, at least.]

I think I'd go with the alien. Controlling the weather sounds cool.

[And great for photos.]

He actually used to be here, but he left a while back. I'm not sure how well Wonderland could contain him.

[ Then again, there's always the chance that Thor will show up again. He would hardly be the first example of someone disappearing for months or even years only to reappear when it's least expected.

Steve's mouth curves up on one side as he thinks of his Asgardian teammate. ] We worked well together. He used to slam his hammer against my shield in the middle of battle, it'd make all kinds of shockwaves.

[ Of course, he has to describe all of that in past tense now, which adds a somewhat somber hint to it. Moving on -- ]

Anyway, that's enough about me -- what about you?

[It certainly all sounds out of this world- which it is. Even the whole shockwave thing sounds pretty comic-book. It's too bad he's gone, it would've been cool to see it.

Her train of thought gets derailed at that question. It catches her off guard.]

What about me?

I don't know too much about you, except that you should be graduated by now and your passion is photography.

[ There's a pause before Steve smiles. ]

I thought about going to art school before the whole superhero thing, actually.

Anyway... I guess I was just curious to know more.

[ It all comes from genuine curiosity and an honest attempt to be friendly. It's also that Steve can usually only handle the spotlight being on him for so long before he feels the urge to pass it off to someone else. ]

Oh. [God, for a moment, she thought he'd been asking about superpowers. Ugh.]

I'm honestly not that interesting. [She tries to say it casually, but really, it's sort of true.] School, homework, uhhh, a couple of friends... That was me before Wonderland. [A few months before Wonderland, anyway. The whole normality thing doesn't apply much, for one specific part of her life.]

No superheroes here. [She says, with a lazy gesture to herself.]

Everyone has something about them that's interesting.

[ Steve doesn't actually have any clue that there might be more to Max than she's letting on in the superhero department. His train of thought is more along the lines that each and every person's life has various ups and downs.

His smile remains in place as he shakes his head. ] I get if you don't want to tell me, though.

...There's nothing to tell. [She probably shouldn't be too insistent or she'll start sounding suspicious... Man this whole secrets thing is a pain sometimes.] But on your part, thanks for sharing. I'll keep an eye out for any thunder-calling aliens.

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assembles - 2016-08-07 18:49 (UTC) - Expand

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Don't really wanna break the 4th wall so gonna pretend she wouldn't know!

Works for me!

Thank you! :D

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