entranceway | voice

[When the feed clicks on, there is only a faint static sound with what sounds like the microphone being covered a couple times. From the turn of the sound, one can surmise the device is being moved in the hand of the person who turned on the feed.]

This crude device is quite deceptive. At first it looked like an antiquated smart phone of sort, but inspection shows a different story. I'm a bit more impressed to learn it connects to a network that everyone is on. A means of communication is interesting... I'm curious as to why it even exists actually. Maybe that question is intentionally open-ended?

[He huffs a quiet breath of laughter out, the number of possible answers already sprouting to mind.]

If I'm being honest, I never really liked Alice in Wonderland. I can acknowledge it's historical value, and it's why I read it, but Alice herself was... fake. Designed as the perfect image of childhood innocence. She went around this new world so new to her without fear, wondered by all around her. Any flaw with her was never designed, but created by those who read the story. The world, much like this one, was of far more interest.

...What do you think of Alice though? Was she foolish for being too trusting of Wonderland, or can she be absolved for her curious nature? I think the answer you would pick, even if you don't say it aloud, reveals what kind of person you are.

If you don't want to share your answer that's fine. However I am curious about what kind of people are here. A melting pot of universes isn't exactly commonplace. I do hope this place won't be as tedious as reading Alice's adventures.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Usually, yes. But here, sometimes if someone does that, you still have to forgive them.

[Thanks Wonderland.]

So you've learned to empathize with murderers? That's a slippery path to go down on. ...Have you ever killed anyone here?

No way! I'd never do something like that! Ever!

[Okay, maybe there's one person, but that's buried in her notebook somewhere and she's not on those pages, so no one. She can't even begin to think of a situation where she could do something like that.]

It's just that sometimes Wonderland makes people do things they don't want to, so you can't really blame them for it.

Hm. It's true, you can't blame someone for doing an action outside their autonomy. But that doesn't change the action that was committed. Then it would just be easy to excuse away any action under duress.

No, it doesn't change that it happened, that's right. But it's not the same as saying you were forced to in the real world either.

[There's some more pages turning.]

Wonderland can make you forget who you are. Or make you remember liking to do thing you wouldn't normally do. So when it does that, I think you have to make an exception.

So it tampers with our processes. You make a valid point, but when I say "excuse away"... I mean to say someone can easily lie. Say they were manipulated outside their own willpower to commit a heinous act. Understand?

I get that, but I'd prefer to think no one here would do something like that. I know it's a little naive, but...it's better to think the best of people.

[People who would do something like that should have nothing to do with her. In theory, anyway.]

Besides, I already have a hard enough time remembering who's who and what they're like as it is, I don't know what I'd do if I had to keep track of things like that too.

...Why do you have a hard time with that? None of what you said sounds difficult at all, not to the average person.

Oh, that's right! I forgot to mentions it. I um...have a rare type of amnesia. I can't remember people or conversations or things like that.

Hah... "forgot to mention." [Yes, he's amused by silly play on words like that.] I see. That's very unfortunate. Anterograde amnesia is what your case is often called. Have you been afflicted for a long time?

[She didn't mean for it to be a joke, so she's a little put off by that reaction. But she'll still take a moment to write the phrase anterograde amnesia in her notebook. No one's mentioned that to her before. At all, actually.

...which is kind of strange since her boyfriend's a neurologist, but she's not the type to dwell on things like that for too long.]

I think so. I don't actually remember, but my notebook mentions other notebooks that I used to have, so if that's the case, I've been like this for a while.

A pitiable situation. [Except he's more interested than pitying her circumstance.] It sounds dire if you've been experiencing it for a long period of time. Have you found no means to jog your memory here yet? I'm not a doctor, but I am a scientist. I would be interested in assisting you.

I was being treated back home, but my doctor isn't here.

[Which is upsetting. Not really because of the lack of treatment, but because she doesn't get to see him anymore. Not outside of her terrible notebook drawings and those hardly count.]

No one here's offered, but I'm not sure I should. What if it interferes with the treatments I've already been given?

[She has absolutely no idea if it would or not, but in her head, she's hearing Mr. Neurologist say things like "You're my patient, ugly. Don't let anyone mess with that." ...which probably isn't something that was actually said ever, but in Ryoko's imagination it definitely...no, it doesn't happen outside of her imagination.]

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