Accidental Video + Partial Audio Transmission

[promiselist]

Accidental Video

[ The video opens up to a view of shaking scenery and rushing lights and color, as it the device recording it has just been dropped from a significant height. The movement ceases when the device lands on the floor, still recording with its camera pointed upwards.

The foyer it shows is clearly familiar to everyone in Wonderland as the front of the mansion. What's not quite so familiar is the giant glowing UFO now hovering and weaving up near the ceiling. Green lights shoot out, scanning the surroundings, sweeping over every surface with an eerie glow.

Even the fallen phone gets scanned, although once it is, the UFO goes suspiciously still overhead before swooping down towards it with a startling speed. There's a voice, one that sounds suspiciously like a young girl, that gives a quiet exclamation. ]

Oops! Almost lost you. Hello there, my precious.

[ ...And then a metallic-looking tentacle snakes out from the bottom of the UFO to press the button that cuts the feed off entirely.

Just another day in Wonderland, right? There's totally nothing to see here, and certainly not a floating spaceship hovering in your entranceway. Carry on. ]

Audio

[ Although a short while later, a number of phones across the mansion might receive an audio transmission as someone tries to figure out and manipulate the strange network in this place and how to filter it to where she needs it to go. Hopefully she finds the targets she's looking for, but other inhabitants might pick it up accidentally as well. ]

Joker, Queen? Can you hear me? Mona, Panther, anyone, come in??

Comments

[promiselist]

Yeah.

...I guess that was pretty obvious, huh?

[eatsyourscience]

Like I said, I've never seen a spaceship here.

[He smiles slightly.]

If you've got questions, I can probably answer them. I've been here a long time.

[promiselist]

[ Oooh. Well. Isn't that useful? ]

How long?

[eatsyourscience]

Six years next month.

[promiselist]

[ Have a garbled noise of exclamation that sounds like it chokes off into a wheeze halfway through. ]

Six years?!

[ That's like half her lifetime right there. ]

[eatsyourscience]

Yeah. And I'm still seventeen.

[Which is so weird. And part of the reason it's easy to lose track of time.]

[promiselist]

[ ........... ]

You officially have the worst luck I've ever heard of.

[eatsyourscience]

Not for long, probably. There are a lot of people here worse off than me.

[promiselist]

Worse? You've been stuck in a.... whatever-this-is for six years and you didn't even hit a drinking age yet.

[eatsyourscience]

No, but there aren't zombies in my world, so when I go home, I won't get eaten.

[promiselist]

[ ... ]

[ ......... ]

For real???

[eatsyourscience]

For real. A bunch of people here come from zombie apocalypse worlds.

[promiselist]

So that's actually a thing, not just video games? Okay, you're right, that's worse luck. If I was them I think I'd be happy to be kidnapped...

[eatsyourscience]

I think most of them are.

[Not to mention people who are actually dead at home.]

So are you part of the space ship or are you a separate person?

[Seems like a logical change in topic.]

[promiselist]

[ She's fine with abrupt changes of topic. Her own thoughts often jump around on tangents everyone else has a hard time following anyway. ]

... I'm separate. The spaceship... well. I guess you could still say it's part of me. but it's only there when I call for it.

[ How to explain personas without sounding completely crazy... Why has no one written a book like this yet? ]

[eatsyourscience]

[That...sounds exactly like a Persona. Although he's never seen a Persona in the shape of a space ship, there's Mara, who is the most horrific shape ever.

He doesn't want to come out and explicitly ask if it's a Persona though, just because...well, if he's wrong that might be weird.]

I know exactly how that is.

[promiselist]

[ Huh. That's... interesting.

Her focus narrows on him intently for a moment. ]

Do you?

[eatsyourscience]

It's called a Persona.

[He waits intently for her response, though he thinks he knows what it's going to be.]

[promiselist]

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

[ That probably wasn't the response he was expecting, but she's had a confusing arrival already. How many more people know about this? ]

I guess you do know how that is, then. But wait, if you've been here for six years...

[ How long has the metaverse even been around? ]

[eatsyourscience]

[Well it was close enough.]

I guess it makes seven years that I've had them, then.

[...]

I can show you mine, if you want.

[Thaaaaaat sounds weird to say to a girl.]

[promiselist]

[ It does, but she's more interested in your Persona at the moment, so she'll let it pass.

She squints at him suspiciously a moment all the same. ]

....Alright.

[eatsyourscience]

Can I show you in person?

[It's just easier than trying to fit Izanagi into the video feed...]

[promiselist]

[ A moment of silence before she hums in thought. ]

Yeah, that'd be easier. They're kinda big. I'm in the foyer. Still.

[eatsyourscience]

Give me a minute to get down there.

[He ends the feed and heads downstairs to meet her. He's got to remember to ask her about her name once this is over.]

[promiselist]

[ She's right where she said she'd be when he gets there, having filled in the moments between to touch base with her team and sort through more of the overload of information she's getting from this place. There's so much. It's going to take her days to make any sort of sense of this place, she's pretty sure.

And there's still no sign of Joker. She's trying not to freak out about that...

She spots him immediately when he reaches the foyer and the UFO bobs down to greet him, hovering in front of him. ]

Yo.