entranceway | op-ed } from Ace of Spades, the Wonderland Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #5

Are you happy here? Don't answer immediately. Take a minute to think about it. It's a complicated question. The concept of happiness is vague and hard to define, especially if we try and generalize it for all people. Certainly, there are moments of joy to be had here. As far as cages go, the gilding on this one can't be denied. Anything you want for free? The ability to come back to life without a hunger for human flesh? Eternal youth? No one is starving to death here. Everyone has a bed and a roof. Compared to a lot of the places people come from, this place is downright utopian even including the events. I know I'm dead at home. That's almost enough to counterbalance the lack of internet. Almost. There are a lot of reasons to be happy here. All we're giving up is freedom, and how many of us even really have that at home? It's the permanent all-expenses-paid resort vacation no one asked for, and time isn't moving so it's not like we're even missing anything. You know who was especially happy here? The people who lived in the Wonderland we all dreamed about in December. The ones who didn't remember ever living anywhere else. Talk about a happy ending. No one fighting, no one in pain, everyone living every day in pure, ignorant bliss. I've called Wonderland a lie before, and I maintain it, but it's the worst sort of lie because it's so very tempting to believe it. Would it really be so bad to give in and just be happy? Why fight it when it isn't our call, when we are powerless to do anything but try and survive whatever Wonderland throws at us? I say bliss is overrated. What's the point of being happy when you aren't yourself anymore? Is it really a vacation if you have no choice but to take it? There's so much here that we know isn't right. If we give in to being happy, we risk complacency, and if we get complacent, we risk losing the opportunity to rise up when we can. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the good times Wonderland gives us. God knows they're few and far between. Be happy. Just never forget everything Wonderland gives us is the equivalent of giving a favorite pet a nice toy. Wonderland is pampering us because it is using us. The minute we forget that is the minute Wonderland owns us. None of us are free. Never forget that. So am I happy here? It doesn't fucking matter.

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[Naoki's got the camera on the table in front of him, reading what Georgia wrote with his head propped on one hand.]

You think we're going to get a chance to rise up?

[She nods, serious as always behind her sunglasses.]

I'm sure of it.

How?

[Because that is something he would be interested in.]

How do you fight against something like that?

[Shaun reads everything George writes, so of course he reads this. A couple of times. And manages not to flinch at the words "rise up when you can" that so closely echo the words in her final blog post.

He glances over at her when he's finished, raising an eyebrow.]

So who are you trying to convince?

[She looks back over at him, raising her eyebrows back.]

It's an op-ed. It doesn't have to be aimed at anyone in particular.

I don't know yet. But I do know that no regime can last forever. Someone will fuck up sooner or later. And as soon as we figure out how to fight, I know I'll be ready.

Uh huh. [He doesn't sound convinced.] Not even you?

[Oh, he didn't. She scowls at him, adjusting her sunglasses. She knows exactly what he's saying, but she doesn't need to acknowledge it.] I'm writing it. I don't need to convince me.

So, on a scale of one to ten, how much would you say that you enjoy sucking the joy out of everything?

[For now, Rip keeps whatever commentary he has on the true purpose behind this piece to himself. He's more focused on one particular aspect within.]

For those of us who weren't here in December, could you explain a bit more about those people you mentioned? The ones in the dreams?

If you say so. [He turns in his chair to face her.] Sounds a little like you're trying to convince yourself is all.

[She would never, ever ask Shaun to lie to her or not tell her something just because it makes her uncomfortable. But even she doesn't always like hearing the truth.]

Well, it's true.

[Her expression stays entirely deadpan under her sunglasses as she responds.]

Eleven.

That's what I thought. How much could it hurt to turn it down to, oh, I don't know, maybe a healthy six?

[A fair question, and one she would have covered in more depth but it seemed like more words than were necessary when most people would have experienced it and anyone who hadn't could ask.]

It was an event, though one that lasted a lot longer than most. Every time we fell asleep we were transported to a different Wonderland, possibly alternate or some sort of potential future or just a weird hallucination. I'm not sure which. The White Queen rather than the Red Queen was in charge, and while there were no more events, it came at the cost of everyone having lost every memory from before Wonderland. People were under the impression that they had never lived anywhere else.

Those people, in case it wasn't clear, were us. Or versions of us.

Sucking the joy out of everything is my job. There are plenty of other people who can make you feel better.

[Rip, for one, can say he finds absolutely none of that comforting.]

I'd been led to believe that events were based on the memories of someone held prisoner within Wonderland. [Yet Georgia has already pointed out one anomaly: the length of the event itself. Perhaps another isn't so farfetched, but still.]

You said you were transported--this would differ from the most recent event, then, which revolved around dreams? [She makes it sound as if they had actually been there, rather than experiencing a vivid landscape created within their minds.

And then of course comes the most concerning part: the total loss of memories, the fact that those in this place, dream or otherwise, were in fact the prisoners of Wonderland.] I had assumed as much. I can imagine how unsettling it must have been to experience.

I'm starting to change my mind about that whole advice column thing.

[the thing he mentioned and never did anything about????]

[He folds his arms across his chest.] Maybe. But can you honestly tell me that you're not happier than you've ever been in our lives right now?

[Damon has absolutely been happy in Wonderland. Currently, he's pretty miserable given the uncertain state of things between Elena and him (how she's here and awake, and he still doesn't get to see her and be with her right now), but he's still much better than he was back in Mystic Falls. This miserable feeling cannot compare to the feeling of what it is like for Elena Gilbert to be in a coffin, magically sleeping her life away. So now he's drinking, trolling the network like he does. He may be a bit drunk.]

Given you're shaming people for being too happy and complacent in the good old Land of Wonder, I think it matters at least a little bit.

[She holds her scowl for another moment before she exhales and lets it drop. She can't lie on a good day. She certainly wouldn't lie to Shaun about this.]

Maybe not. [She likes to think there have been moments she was happier. But overall, she doesn't think there's been another six month stretch of happiness like this. Maybe if she'd live. But she didn't live.] But that's the problem.

[Gosh, she's heartbroken.]

Because my op-ed was too depressing?

There were certainly similarities. None of the people I talked to there remembered when I got back. But the biggest difference between that event and this recent one was that sleeping didn't have any effect in either world. By the end, it was as if we hadn't slept in over a week.

[It was pretty terrible.]

Something like that. I feel like the majority of us are perfectly aware we're living in a lie without needing to have our noses rubbed into it.

I'm not shaming anyone. Just making sure that happy or not, you don't forget where we are.

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op-ed } from Ace of Spades, the Wonderland Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #5

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