entranceway | Entry #88

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Entry #88

[The video feed clicks on to feature an unassuming shot of the crisp gray sky, accompanied by the restless crunching of footsteps drawing closer. Abruptly, someone picks up the thing and spins it around with a faint flare of static that's gone as quickly as it flickered up.

There is, briefly, a face visible on the screen, dark hair and dark eyes and brows knit together in an expression puzzlement and concern. Then the feed flips around again and starts panning around the area in a slow sweep, handled in the same way someone might a handheld camera. It's both too familiar and too surreal, and he fumbles at the last second, dropping the angle so the network instead gets a lovely view of scuffed sneakers crunching through a patina of fallen leaves.]

So seasonal change sure is a thing. Like, really a thing. Place doesn't mess around.

[His tone is dry, the words drawn out with a slow, weary indolence. He doesn't seem to realize he's actively broadcasting at the moment. He's just taking video in the same way - how Jay would, and even now the memory is painful and sends a pang of regret thrumming all the way to his bones. It's just such an easy, obvious reflex. Practically instinctive.

The crunching of his footsteps halts abruptly as something seems to occur to him.]

So I can post now instead of reply, is that it? Wait, why now? What makes this so -

[The feed snaps out, evidently by mistake.]

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Figured as much.

[He doesn't sound terribly bothered about it. He mostly just sounds resigned.]

She your friend or something?

Friend. Yes.

[It's not like Max would ever hide having a girlfriend, but no one ever asks! In any case, she and Chloe have been friends for far, far longer than anything else, and it's the bedrock of their relationship.]

I wish there was someone here you know, too. It helps.

Edited 2016-09-23 03:31 (UTC)

[He's silent for a moment, digesting that quietly. What does he say to that? Ha. I sure don't. Except maybe -

If he could just ask them, any of them, why they did what they did and why -

But it's a useless thought, isn't it? Never gonna happen. He doesn't pursue it.]

Yeah, well. Didn't really know a lotta people back home anyway.

[She listens to his silence carefully, and has no doubt that (like 99% of people in Wonderland) he's carrying his own problems, too. And like most people, he either doesn't want an answer, or doesn't know how to look for it. ~~What he doesn't know is that it would require the mun to self-roleplay and that's always awkward.~~]

Introvert?

Pretty much, yeah. Kinda lived in the middle of nowhere.

[More words than necessary, maybe. But not one of them's a lie. Not really.]

If you ever find yourself wondering if you should pay Alabama a visit? Uh. Don't.

[Alabama. She takes a moment to respond.]

Funny, I knew someone from Alabama. He hated it, too.

[Then again he hated a lot of things, including people in general (or so it seemed, sometimes!).]

I get the impression it's not a great place to live.

[...probably a coincidence. Right? It has to be. God. It has to be.

He does an impressive job of keeping his tone level.]

Not surprised. Place is full of two things: kudzu, and drunk people with shotguns.

[Not to mention the people that would stop them on their way to or from those abandoned, burnt-out places, talking about you lookin' for where the ghosts live?

Yeah, fun place.]

[Yup. Total coincidence.]

What the frick is kudzu?

[Honestly the first impression she gets is it's some kind of liquor. Way to stereotype, Max.]

[...frick? She says frick and hella and he hasn't even been to the west coast but goddamn if that isn't the most west coast thing he's ever heard.

He feels like he'd be fighting to keep the smile out of his voice if he, you know, smiled.]

It's a kind of plant. An ivy, I think. Gets everywhere.

[She snorts.] So, ivy and shotguns. Those two things represent Alabama culture.

Something tells me you're going to have a really crazy time in Wonderland.

[Here they have things like evil twins and hallways that go on forever and ever. And events.] I hope you settle in okay.

Yeah, well, I've already had a pretty weird first week, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I've been assured people don't tend to die this often.

[But the note of wry disbelief in his tone is enough to indicate he's thinking otherwise.]

That one was kind of an exception to the "norm". [The slight sarcasm in her tone as she says the last word is obvious.] But you didn't die, right?

Nah. Guess that makes me lucky.

[Yeah, real lucky. Except he doesn't feel too lucky. Mostly he just feels...

What? Cheated?

That'd be morbid.]

And, uh. You didn't either. Yeah?

Yeah. [She doesn't sound too pleased about it, however. Other people weren't as lucky.] The stars continue to be in my favor. It gets really dangerous, but Chloe and I have been doing okay.

Chloe - your friend with the blue hair?

[He'd inferred as much already but he's got no clue, frankly. This place could have lots of Chloes. Lots of people, apparently, live here. Enough for it to be in the hundreds.]

That's her. Chloe Price. [The pleasant tone returns to her voice as she talks about Chloe.] My partner in crime.

Make sure you get a room okay? And try to figure stuff out before the next event comes around.

[If he had it in him to be jealous, he might be sufficiently so at the fact that she's got someone from home she knows well enough to be a good friend of hers. But he doesn't. That's nothing new. It's nothing he hasn't seen before.]

I guess, yeah. I hear we always see those things coming a mile away, so that's...that's good, I guess?

Just pick a room, then? Like, literally any one?

[And she continues to feel sorry for him, for having no friends in Wonderland. Though he's honestly taking the whole thing much more in stride than most people. Well... maybe because it's been a week already.]

Literally. Just walk into one, whichever one you want. And as for events... Sure, we know when they're coming most of the time, but we never really know what they are. [The shrug is audible in her voice.] Unless you're some sort of savant genius and can figure out the weird riddles beforehand.

Yeah, I'm not much for puzzles.

[He did his best, along with Jay, to crack the cryptic clues left behind in thirty-second videos on another channel. He'd done his best, and more often than not, he'd come up with nothing. Not that it was really all that surprising. He's never had a brain for intellectual pursuits. Too slow. Too stupid.]

Nobody here with any kinda future-vision or anything? We've got this whole collective of people here, and they're kinda - I mean, they're kinda all sorts.

[Sadly, Max is starting to feel a little bit the same about herself. Mystery solving in Arcadia Bay is one thing- actually figuring people out and helping them is another. Especially when they don't want you involved.

She starts to talk, but then second-guesses herself and comes up short.]

-... I dunno. I kinda assumed no one does, or Wonderland messes with it, but. There are all sorts here. [She lets out a thoughtful hpmh.] If anyone's got that up there sleeves, they're not sharing.

All right, well that's good to know.

[His tone is utterly reasonable, even through the faint undercurrent of frustration pinned beneath. He stumps through the leaves with renewed intensity as he starts embarking for the mansion.]

Guess you just learn to get used to it, huh?

[She shrugs, but remembers he can't see it. It's obvious in her tone, anyway.]

Exactly. The free food doesn't hurt. And the good company.

"Good company" being the people that don't kill you, I'm guessing?

[Yeah, and he knows how hard those can be to spot. Sometimes hiding in the only friends you've got.]

Still. Guess it could be worse.

[She lets out a tired, amused huff.] The bad ones really are the exception, not the norm.

[And she'll reserve commenting on that last point until a later date. But yes, she does agree it could be worse.] Just be ready for your first event.

I'll do my best. Thanks for the heads-up. Pamphlets are one thing, but word of mouth is better.

[Even if he's not exactly highly willing to trust either implicitly. Call it paranoia or life experience, he doesn't care.]

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Entry #88

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Voice (as someone who doesn't live in the States that comment makes me very happy lol)

AS SOMEONE FROM THE WEST COAST I CAN SAY WITH CERTAINTY THAT IT'S TRUE

HI-FIVES ALL AROUND

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dat icon i love it

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OMG I MEANT THEIR**** noooooooo the shaaaame

HOW VERY DARE

I committed the single mortal sin of writing

you will never be forgiven