entranceway | OPINION } from Images May Disturb You, the Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #2

If there's one thing I've learned about Wonderland in the weeks that I've been forced to start calling it home: it's that it lies to you. But so do lots of people, right? Everyone has a reason to lie. Some people lie to hurt other people, but some people lie out of kindness. Some people try to protect you with comforting falsehoods. How do we know that Wonderland isn't lying for our own good? I can't tell you that. I don't know Wonderland's motivations, if there even is any sort of guiding intelligence behind it and not just pure chance. What I can tell you is this: it doesn't matter. Lying out of kindness is just as bad as lying out of cruelty. Possibly even worse. Comforting falsehoods might be nicer in the moment than cruel truths, but I'll take the truth every time. Is it better to spare a family by telling them their dying child might get better? Or to allow them to cherish the time they have left? Is it better to tell someone their writing is good? Or send them an honest critique that could let them actually improve until you could say so without it being a lie? Is it better to lose the memories that have hurt you and spend a weekend in blissful ignorance? Or hold onto every iota of the pain that has built you and remember exactly why you fight? Lies won't take the time to heal you. Only the truth can do that. Wonderland is the biggest lie I've ever seen. I cannot promise a way out of this gilded, wonderful cage. That would be a lie, even if it's one I'd like to believe. I can only promise that I'll do everything I can to find the truth all of those lies are working at concealing. I won't quit until I uncover all the secrets Wonderland is hiding. Or until Wonderland gets tired of all the prodding and sends me home. Here's hoping, right?

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[That is the question, isn't it? Why does Georgia feel so motivated to find the truth always, no matter the cost, no matter how much it hurts? It's her job. It's her calling. It's what she's always done. Because she doesn't know how to not worry about it.]

If we don't stress about it, we grow complacent, and then we might miss an opportunity to learn more.

You'll only miss the opportunity if you don't want to see it. In the meantime, you won't get an ulcer.

I'll take my chances.

Wait, I've got more questions.
What if you don't end up believing the truth? Or what if the truth for you is different than it is for me?

[Okay, he might be having a little fun here, even if it's also kind of irritating.]

[Cause she's never gotten that one before. Does this guy think she's an amateur?]

I'm aware of my limits, and my biases are all registered. I can only ever report the truth as I see it. I've always told my readers that they shouldn't just take my word for anything. Do your research. Read people who disagree with me. Decide for yourself what you believe.

How many bloggers are there here?

[He will be surprised if there are competing views he can read up on.]

[....he has a point.]

So far? Just me, Shaun, and Iris. But we're always recruiting if you're interested in providing an alternate view.

Well, that's two more people than I was expecting.
I don't think anyone would be interested in a blog by me. I'm not really the kind of person who can put down my thoughts and make them interesting to read.
Yours was. Interesting I mean. Even if I think you're making things way too black and white.

[Not the first time she's been accused of that.]

Maybe. But it's the truth how I see it. It's the only way I can report.

I am glad you found it interesting, at least.

[Naoki really wishes he could argue further, and if he's come here earlier in his life, he would have. Now, though, he's had enough experience searching for the truth himself that he can see her point perfectly.]

You write pretty well.

[Or really well. One of those.]

How do you have time for that with zombies running around?

It's not like they're constantly chasing us. We just wait til we're out of the field to write up our reports.

Well, Shaun doesn't always, but being chased by zombies is his job description, and live feeds get good ratings.

If ratings are a thing, it seems a lot more laid back than what I would have thought.

The Rising happened in 2014, and it's 2040 now. Nothing will ever be the same, but it wasn't the end of the world. We've adapted.

I guess that's the part the movies never get to. They just show the running around screaming and hiding parts.

They got a lot more right than you'd think. I guess one of the big parts they got wrong was assuming no one would have seen the zombie movies. Apparently some people even had zombie apocalypse plans pre-Rising, even while thinking zombies weren't real. Some of them were even good.

That's weird but helpful.
What does "rising" mean? It's not one of those ones where you get bitten and turn into a zombie?

[Naoki, why are you treating this like it's another movie?

That's exactly what it is, yes. It's when the dead rose up and started walking around.

They keep showing up? Do people who die turn into them?

Yep. We call them the Infected, but technically we're all infected. When we die or contract a live version of the virus, we amplify.

So what do you do? Burn people when they die?

[That makes sense to him, especially coming from a culture that routinely cremates the dead.]

Edited 2016-11-24 19:25 (UTC)

Yes, but more immediately we usually put a bullet in their brain. Amplification happens too quickly to wait for cremation, and when you destroy the brain, the body stops functioning.

That's good for us to know.

[He hasn't been here long, but he knows that events come from peoples' memories, and if there's a zombie event, now he'll know what to do.

...Granted, he'd have known what to do anyway, because there are only two options when something is attacking you, but at least this is a confirmation.]

OPINION } from Images May Disturb You, the Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #2

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