Dain Bramage

[Narrator]

When the team checked on the medical status of their 'captive' they found the medical team came back with a diagnosis of vegetative state due to brain injury. The idea that there was concussive force behind the trinket was correct. One that could scramble the frontal and temporal lobe into a Denver omelette. So Sam probably made the proper call that recharging the item and testing it on Will was a bad move.

They would let the team visit with the patient once they had her stabilized.

[Samantha McManus]

"Now," Sam says as they enter, "I know you're all perfectly happy to stare at me while my eyelids flutter every so often, but do you guys want me to take you into Wonderland?"

[Will Stanton]

"If they're vegetative, there's not going to be anything to explore, right?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I honestly don't know. I've never tried on a coma patient before."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Really it all depends on what if any parts of the brain are physically damaged. But I'm all for finding out," Tosh said with scientific interest.

[Narrator]

For her part the patient laid quietly, unaware she was about to have visitors. Her eyes stared off at nothing in particular, seemingly unaware they were there.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Can you handle this many of us?" Jez asked. She was happy to sit this one out and keep an eye on things in the meatspace if the trip was going to be taxing for Sam.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, let's find out, aye? Worst case, we back out and lighten the load. Ready?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Ready. But, heads up, the brothers three may not be entirely helpful. They've been a bit restless lately."

[Samantha McManus]

"Is it too much to ask that you be one person for awhile?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I don't know how I divide in mindspace, let alone how not to."

[Samantha McManus]

"Guess we're going to have to play it by ear, then."

[Narrator]

As Sam reached out to make the mental connection, those who elected to follow along with her would be pulled into absolute bedlam.

This mindscape was trying (and failing) to put itself back together again. It had a 'ground', but the look of it kept switching over. Poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating, hardwood, a grassy meadow, poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating, asphalt, a frozen lake, cobblestone, poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating. That last one kept coming back into rotation.

Likewise, the environment around them changed, but not in a sequenced way with the ground. Endless blue sky over poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating, city-scape over a grassy meadow, an airport interior over a frozen lake, a picturesque village over poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating, a small, cramped, padded room with extremely low lighting, and one mirrored wall over a frozen lake, a beautiful, tree dabbled English meadow over poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating.

Objects too kept popping in and out. A bed, rows of public seating, trash cans and cars, a bed, birds and insects, a bed, bicycles in a row.

It was all a bit disorienting. Good thing then that nausea was really more of a physical response.

[Toshiro Narumi]

It took Tosh a moment to realize he wasn't, in fact, getting nauseous.

"Okay, this is some glitchy video game shit."

"Gnarly," Bruce said, standing beside him. He was wearing cargo shorts, sandals, sunglasses, and a puka shell necklace.

Ennio stood there in a cowboy outfit with a pair of water pistols at his hips, looking annoyed. "You dragged me out of target practice for this?"

Kabuto... well he was just posing like a superhero, cape flowing in a nonexistent wind.

[Samantha McManus]

"Welcome to my world. This is bad, but also kind of par for the course."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez tried not to point out the strange irony, that she was one person in many bodies, and that Tosh was multiple people in one. It just seemed so odd to see these selves as they saw... themselves. It helped distract her from the scene around them. She wondered to herself if she should offer to shake their hands.

[Narrator]

At the sound of other voices, A feminine, scruffy sounding voice chimed up with -

"Hullo?"

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez probably should have conferred with the others, but she instinctively thought to call out - lest they be thought of as tresspassers.

"Helloooo. Do you need some help?"

[Narrator]

The feelings of the entity which spoke would be painfully obvious to everyone present, thanks to the personality not having the resources to hide their responses currently.

It shifted from fearful, to curious, to suspicion several times, before settling into curious.

"Free?" She asked.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez looked to the others for advice here. She wasn't an expert in telepathic negotiations.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Like, totally free," Bruce said with unearned confidence.

"Except for the coma."

[Narrator]

The confusion and suspicion that seeped back into the environment around them suggested that the personality was not entirely convinced With Bruce's assessment. This caused the locations to flicker at a quicker pace as it scrambled to find something solid... whole... memorable...

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Can you tell us where you wanted to be free from? Maybe then we can better explain where you are now. Were you at a hospital?" Jez tried to ease into the line of thought, not wanting to tell her where she was without gauging her reaction.

[Narrator]

"Prison." The voice responded to Jez's inquiry.

[Samantha McManus]

"You got out. So they found another way to lock you up."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Which we're going to help you break out of!" Jez added.

[Narrator]

".....Who? Why?"

[Samantha McManus]

"We're... friends of the cat," she says, as if that answers both questions.

[Narrator]

A long pause while the answer was dissected by the personality. The answer Sam gave solidified the environment around them into the padded room with extremely low lighting, over poured concrete flooring with a white epoxy coating and the single sized bed. The place she associated to 'The Cat'.


"Alice friend, not mine. Too chatty." The personality assessed, sounding as if she wasn't entirely sure they realized that she wasn't Alice.

[Samantha McManus]

"The Cat had friends before Alice. I'm sure you did too."

[Narrator]

She struggled to recall the names and faces of people she may have known, but the only thing she could manage to summon were the likenesses and names of her team mates.

Rough approximations of them came into being, dressed in their medical clothes and wearing their ear tags. She named them as they materialized.

"Knave.... Caterpillar... Rabbit.... Hatter...

Knave friend. Not others."

Jez would recognize Caterpillar as Peter the bartender. She thought further on the matter and asked.

"All free?"

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez pointed to "Peter" as she spoke softly. "That man was working the bar tonight. And I remember hearing one of the dancers being announced as Knave. They must've all been there tonight, the ones with the spacers."

She spoke more loudly to answer the disembodied voice. "Not yet, but with your help we can free them too. Can you tell us anything about... this place? Anything that could help us?"

[Narrator]

"Do not trust Bunny. Do not trust Peter. Do not trust Queenie. She replied forcefully, as if it were a warning.

She then began to assess the question deeper.

"Many halls. Too many halls. Too many rooms.... empty? Maybe. Maybe not."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Well, Bunny and Peter we know... what can you tell us about Queenie? What does she look like?"

Jez let out a little sigh.

"Sounds like a pretty big place. But what about the rooms that aren't empty? Why don't you start with the ones you know, and work out from there?"

[Narrator]

"Unknown." She replied to the question of 'what Queenie looked like.

When asked to show them the other places, the personality hesitated. It would need a body to do that, it thought.

The scenery flickered as the personality struggled to find their own identity, their visage... The best the could summon to represent themselves was a European Edible Dormouse. Once it was into being, it turned towards the pack to see if they recognized her, confused. Is this the right thing to be? It kind of felt right but it kind of didn't either.

[Toshiro Narumi]

The trio of personalities that Tosh had brought with him all tried their best to appear non-threatening, as if it were an actual mouse. The least successful was, surprisingly, not the shark, who was too chill to really seem dangerous. Besides, real ferrets actually eat mice.

"Not an actual mouse, guys. Relax. And stop smiling, you're making me nervous with that."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Ohmygosh that is so cute."

[Narrator]

The Dormouse wasn't entirely comfortable with how Ennio was sizing it up, and scurried off, the door sliding open into the next room.

At first it was a void, but then interiors started rotating again as it tried to remember what was here. It circled a bit hesitantly, but it definitely wasn't going to anything else that looked like an animal for help.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Guys, maybe you three should hang back so not to scare the construct any further," he told his gathered personae.

"Yeah, we're used to being in the background," Ennio grumbled.

"Can we not do this now? We'll sort things out later, I promise."

Ennio sighed and nodded.

"It's okay,"Tosh said gently as he cautiously followed the construct, "My creature friends are going to stay over there, alright?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Stop referring to her as a construct and you might get further."