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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ oh man i hope you're ready to get your nerd on: ]

It's a parallel universe to ours filled with necrotic magic and is only be able to be visited by casting Shadowalk. So like, everything is the same as here except it's dark and dying and decaying. Sometimes, things can come out of it, though. Bad things. More than just zombies or vampires or anything like that.

Scary, huh?

Maybe. It sounds like a metaphor for the unknown, which is the cause of most fear.

I guess, sure. Our DM hasn't used it yet, but there's something similar around, and it really is terrifying.

Are you scared? Of Wonderland, I mean.

I'm a journalist. If I scared that easily, I'd have quit long ago and found a safer career. Like skydiving. Into shark-infested waters.

If you're a journalist, can I ask you something?

How do you expose an evil corporation?

It's not easy, especially if you don't have a reputation built up. I've been in the game long enough that a lot of people read my stuff, and a lot of people know that I only report facts. If you don't have that yet, you'll have to work harder to get people to even look at what you have.

But even then, it's only half the battle. You need to find hard proof, and you need to organize it in a way that people can digest. And you need to be ready for people to question your work, and to defend it if you know you're right. And you need to be ready for potential backlash. The bigger the conspiracy, the more likely it is they'll try and strike back.

[ He likes Georgia, he decides. Georgia doesn't sugar coat things and talks to him like she's talking to an adult. ]

What if you're a kid and no one believes you? [ There's Hopper, of course, but no one believes the chief, either. If Hopper even tried to tell anyone, that is. ]

That's why you need irrefutable evidence. [She gives a sliver of a smile.] It won't be easy, especially if you're a kid, but it's still worth doing. And if the evidence is there, well, there's only so much fighting it they can do.

Hey--what if you helped me out? So when I go back, I can be prepared.

If you write something and want me to read it, I'm happy to. But you need to gather the evidence. I don't know about your evil corporation, and it may not even exist where I'm from.

Oh, yeah. Separate worlds--alternate universes and stuff.

You know, this feels an awful lot like homework. [ He's going to do it, of course--it's probably going to read like a book report for middle school more than a journalistic masterpiece--but that doesn't mean he can't complain. ]

[She raises an eyebrow.] If you want my help, you're going to work your ass off, and you're not complaining about it. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my time.

[ Oh, shit. This girl's worse than Mrs. Kowalski in English. But Dustin smells a challenge, and he's never one to back off. ]

Okay, fine. Deal. How about I give it to you at the end of the month?

[ He'll just complain to other people. ]

If you want. I'm not your teacher. and this isn't homework. You won't survive in journalism unless you're self-motivated.

So you're just a hardass normally? [ He's joking, at least. Or he hopes the smile gets that across... ]

[She doesn't smile back or give any indication that she realizes it's a joke. She usually doesn't. Because she's too much of a hardass for facial expressions.]

Yes.

Yes--ohhhhkay. [ Did the joke go over her head? does she think he's makign fun of her? Dustin just doesn't know and it's messing with him, man. ]

I'll contact you later then.

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

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;