[action]

[offwithhishat]

Who: Jefferson and YOU!
Where: Genessia City, near the Bay
When: April 19th
What: The Hatter is here, and he's kind of mad about it.

--

He couldn't stop thinking about it.

Those first moments, seconds, minutes, that he had awoken in this place; they played in his head over and over, making less sense each time. It was as if his brain was stuck in a hopeless pattern like a broken record, reliving it all again and again as if somehow the 100th attempt at recollection would somehow bring meaning to the madness. But nothing did. How he had gotten here, why he had woken up in that strange contraption, what purpose the necklace served, what purpose this entire place served... he just didn't know. None of it registered as reality.

The only solid concept he could grasp was that he already hated Genessia.

Jefferson had so foolishly thought that he would finally get to live his life happily. To have his happy ending with his daughter who he had so long fought to have at his side again, but no. Of course a man like him could have no such ending. Not forever. Only long enough to trick him into thinking it would be.

He sat on the sidewalk outside the Bay for a very long time with his mind in that perpetual state of circular chaos, and he didn't care to pay much mind to what was going on around him. Occasionally he would lift his head and hope that he would see his little girl there, only to curse himself for daring to wish she was ripped from her home again just to be with him.

To anyone passing by, he likely looked a mess. He didn't have a clue as to how he would react to strangers at this point. In fact, there was only one damn thing he did know: again, he was trapped in a realm where he didn't belong, and it made him insane.

Comments

[problemgirl]

Huh. So Jolyne wasn't the only one who was lost as fuck around here. Her eyes focused on the tall dude who was wandering around, who looked like he was the proverbial child separated from their parent in the middle of a shopping complex.
She decided to keep her distance from the dude for now. She kicked a foot up against the wall of some random building, and let her eyes scan her surroundings. It's not like she looked any more sure of what was going on, of course. She just wasn't being batshit about this.
A few minutes of staring at the guy and she reallised she was starting to feel ill. She had no idea why. Maybe it was the smell of this place, but it wasn't any different than Florida -- if anything, it was better than Florida. The lack of sea salt filling the air from the ocean nearby was a pleasant change.
She grumbled. Maybe she should've gone to check on the guy. Maybe. Maybe not.
Probably not.

[offwithhishat]

Standing up and pacing for so long probably wasn't the best thing he could have done to attempt at calming his state of mind, but everything was still so cloudy that he almost didn't know what he was doing. He had eventually noticed the girl with the bright hair, but he'd compartmentalized everything about her pretty quickly. His thoughts were glued on other things.

Jefferson probably would have laughed at her comparison had she voiced it. Not the kind of laugh where you thought something was actually funny, but more like that kind of unhinged laughter that he couldn't stop when the irony of something was too much for him to handle.

Eventually, though, he ended up paying the price for being negligent to his surroundings by walking right into her.

"Sorry." He mumbled almost as if he was unfazed, his response so very different than how he would act normally.

[problemgirl]

"Dude, come on."
The harshness of her voice shocked her, but she paid it no mind. Then again, she had to be nice to the guy, he did look like he was about to lose his fuckin' crackers after all. Probably had a circus family or something with that getup, but then again, was she any better in her spider web printed, midriff-baring jumpsuit and bright ass lime green hair?
"I-I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to be such a bitch." She shrugged off her self-deprecating comment with a laugh. "You just ended up here too or what?"
With such a reaction to everything, it was bound to be more likely than not, but better to ask then assume.

[offwithhishat]

Alright. After the hell he had been through already, he couldn't help but scoff at her rough response. He almost wanted shut her down with all the mental duress he was under, but was taken back when she actually apologized. Immediately he felt guilt for even thinking about lashing out at her.

He shook his head as if to dismiss the comment she had made about herself. Surely he wasn't the only one taking this all harshly.

"I did." He swallowed heavily in an obviously nervous manner, not sure how to proceed with someone who seemed like such a wildcard. "I meant it when I said I was sorry."

[imaginationswoes]

Airy was looking for inspiration, a story, something to use as a muse or plot. To put pen to paper and have thoughts flow from her as easily as her imaginations do. It's proving to be a difficult task but she wants to confirm that she can do this. That a girl with a high school education can become a writer. If not, she has a wonderful future as a fast food cashier.

She paused at the shape of a sad soul. Her silly problems suddenly didn't feel important when she looked down at Jefferson.

"Are you okay?"

Airy leaned down, wrapping her arms around her knees as she brought herself eye level with the stranger.

[offwithhishat]

As to be expected, he was lost deep in thought when he realized someone was speaking to him. The voice startled him just a bit, but he forced a quick recovery and hoped she hadn't noticed.

Her question was somehow hard to answer. He wasn't okay at all, but he couldn't help the part of him that wanted to tell an unconvincing lie. Maybe he would go somewhere down the middle.

"I'm... getting there." If the horribly forced smile on his face wasn't indication enough that he was about as convincing as a sheep dressed like a wolf, the small break in his voice definitely was.

"I'm sorry. That was a really obvious lie." He sounded much more sober when he spoke again, putting his hand to his forehead in embarassment for how stupid he was acting.

[imaginationswoes]

It's okay, Airy is a very poor liar as well. She smiled at him as if knowing that it might be something like that. She can't say that she's too good at comforting others but that didn't mean she wouldn't try.

"It's okay. I understand. I woke up here too and it's a little... frightening when you're suddenly in a different place." With no one you recognize around to tell you that it's okay. Airy couldn't claim she'd been scared but this world wasn't a kind as she thought it might be.

"I'm Airy. Ah, well, that's what people call me."

[offwithhishat]

It wasn't so much that he was a bad liar. Actually, he wasn't half bad at it. A little better than he should be, even. But between the two of them, the truth of the situation was that he just didn't have it in him to expend the effort of being misleading. It wasn't like she seemed the type that deserved to be lied to, either.

He let out a small breathy laugh, shaking his head.

"It's not me that I'm worried about. It's --" He paused for just a moment, but couldn't stop the rest of the words from tumbling out. "It's my little girl, Grace. I left her alone. I don't know what to do."

He laughed again, in a dry, humorless way. Sometimes laughing was all he could do to cope.

"Jefferson." He had let his sob story slip easily enough, might as well tell her his name too.

[greenmagick]

With spring peaking towards it's middle Terra had a lot to prepare. Each morning she left early and would spend the day traveling to each city to collect recently bloomed flowers. She's begun to get things together to open a second flower shop in Genessia and with it spread the cheer that something like a simple flower can bring.

Beneath her right arm holds a wicker basket brimming with flowers. Each bud adding a splash of color to her collection. Her free hand lightly adjusts the flowers, pinching at their neck before positioning them so that they rested without hurting their siblings. She wore a light blue summer dress, the soft wind pulling her skirts around her knees as she walked.

The light click of her shoes pauses when she sees Jefferson slumped against the side walk. She looked down at her menagerie of flowers before plucking a deep purple hued plant from her collection. She held it in front of him, the voice following the gesture soft and kind.

"For you." Terra can't offer information or comfort but she can offer flowers.

[offwithhishat]

He could hear the sound of approaching footsteps amongst the noises among his mind, but he didn't pay them much notice. People around this place all seemed to have a purpose or place to be, and he couldn't comprehend how anyone could even begin to live a life here. He was drawn from his thoughts, however, when those footsteps stopped right in front of him.

He looked up, surprisingly, to a kind looking young girl... offering him a flower? He probably looked bewildered for a moment, because at first he didn't react at all other than staring at her. But then, hesitantly, he took the flower between his fingers.

"Thank you." His smile was weary and he felt frazzled, but his gratitude was genuine. He peered down at it again, gently twirling it in his fingers.

"You got my favorite color right." He remarked idly, just a small bit of his usual self creeping in.

[greenmagick]

Terra's lips curl into a warm smile while ringlets of green fall to frame the delicate curve of her jaw. When the man takes the flower her hand moves back to rest on the others in the basket idly playing with the leaves that are sticking out from the lovely mass.

"I don't usually guess correctly." She admits in her usual soft voice.

"I know it isn't much."

It was something small, a tiny beacon of light that might afford this stranger the smallest measure of hope. This would while strange and new and away from what he knows was still full of beautiful things.

[offwithhishat]

He'd known her for less than a minute, but it wasn't too hard to decide that he liked her. Jefferson was the type that found larger meaning in small gestures, and it was no secret that a kind gesture or two was exactly what he needed.

"It's a lot, actually." He mumbled, looking at it just a bit longer, lost in thought.

It seemed like everything reminded him of his daughter, but this sort of thing was particularly so very like her. She had always been eager to bring him things she'd found in the forest, be it flowers, mushrooms, or even small insects.

He missed her so much already.

But the green haired girl was just a kind stranger. She didn't need to know what he was thinking about. He safely tucked the flower into the chest pocket of his coat, the closeness of it somehow a small comfort.

"Is handing out flowers a hobby of yours?" He managed to speak without sounding as overwhelmed as he felt, which was as good of a start as any.

[deadcenter]

Normally Senji wouldn't bother with those that looked down on their luck, it just wasn't his style to try and pick up any strays on his daily walks. When he saw this man however he just felt as though he had to stop. Did he just arrive? It was odd seeing someone so upset upon arriving, mostly since Senji has been so used to being put into places like prison that he was hardly bothered anymore.

...Alright, he'll bite. Time to see what's up with this guy.

Senji walked up to him, his hands in his pockets and he stared down at the man, "....it ain't that bad here, y'know."

[offwithhishat]

Immediately Jefferson was on the defensive, not even attempting to hide his derision at the much too ignorant statement.

"Isn't it?" He spat, glaring up at the man who had spoken.

There was no way he could know what kind of life Jefferson had lived; the betrayals, the curses, the literal decades of of insanity he had endured for the only person who mattered. The person that, like a nightmare made a waking reality, was again so far away from his reach. Of course he couldn't have known. But Jefferson didn't care. He stood, his face mere inches from the other man's.

"You have no damn right to talk about things you don't know anything about." He spoke with a certain tinge of threat in his voice, his tone even with an eerie edge of unhinged darkness to it.

[deadcenter]

Senji didn't back down, not one bit. If the other man was going to become confrontational then he could definitely take him on. He hasn't killed anyone here in Genessia just yet, but that could easily change. Senji just stared back at him, now glaring with his one eye.

"You think I would ever say somethin' I didn't have some knowledge about? Don't think you're the only special one here, everyone's gone through shit," Senji clicked his tongue, thinking this is suddenly a waste of his time.

"This place- it may be away from everythin' but it's got all the fixings of somewhere you could call home. A job, a house, you name it and it's got it. If you have time to mope then you have time to move forward and fix your own problems."

[offwithhishat]

Jefferson, against his better judgment, didn't stand back either. He wasn't in the business of fighting people nor did he much care for making enemies, but something about the statement made him crack. He clenched his jaw while the man spoke, his hands balled into fists so tightly that it made his knuckles turn white.

He wasn't going to hit him, but he really wanted to.

"Do you think I care about any of that?! What kind of home can I have without my daughter?" He retorted loudly, his anger exploding beyond his control. "None of those things matter without her."

[livable]

Liv had been on her way to the Bay. Mostly to collect samples of the water to see if she could find anything along the lines that Pascal had a while back, even if that sort of science wasn't exactly her forte. There weren't too many people helping out with this sort of thing though so she was going to do what she could- especially if it could help explain some of the answers she had gotten with techniques she knew.

Seeing a man sitting on the sidewalk looking positively distraught wasn't entirely unexpected when it came to the Bay- it was the place where people learned they weren't where they should be, after all. This guy seemed more than displaced.

"Welcome to the opposite of Kansas. If you're worried about something back home, time passes differently here. If you were in the middle of a world-saving mission that's going to fail without you or you're worried about your family or a sick friend or whatever's making you look like your whole world crashed down on you, at least there's that."

Asking him if he was okay wasn't going to happen. Liv knew better than most that was usually a dumb question.

[offwithhishat]

At first, the woman's words sounded like nothing more than white noise. It wasn't his intention to drown her out, but it was hard to concentrate among the static in his own mind. It was something he almost didn't have the emotional energy to fight, but after a few moments a certain string of words managed to sink in.

In that moment, they were the most important words in the world.

Almost instantly he was to his feet, a desperate need for validation on his face. He shouldn't have gripped her arms the way he did, but he had to make sure what she said was real. That he hadn't imagined it. That there was... hope.

"How? How is time different?" He knew he sounded pathetic. He knew he looked out of his mind. Mad. But if there was a chance that the flow of time was anything like how Storybrooke had been for all of those years...

That's when he really focused on her face. It was a face he knew, or thought he did. She looked different than he knew, but if he was here why couldn't she be? Did that mean other people from Storybrooke where there?

"You're Tinkerbell." He said breathlessly, letting his arms drop to his side. A million new questions flooded into his skull, but he shook them away. Only one mattered. He needed to know.

[livable]

Desperation, fear, a strange spark of hope when she spoke- those were the things she detected at those moments that most would think he were mad. For someone who'd experienced far too many emotions that weren't her own, it was easier to tell the difference. Right up until he called her Tinkerbell. Or rather, seemed amazed at the fact that she was Tinkerbell and he seemed to have enough confidence in that that she couldn't help but think he was nuts.

"No, I'm Olivia Moore. I'm a medical examiner, not a bitchy palm-sized pixie."

Her skin was much paler. Her hair shorter, straighter, whiter and her eyes sunken as if she was malnourished and had tried to cover it up with a bit of eyeshadow to make it look less obvious. Tink's accent certainly wouldn't shine through- Liv sounded like she was from Seattle, not wherever Tinkerbell was from. New Zealand. There were differences, even if the underlying structure, height, everything seemed to be the same person.

"And time is different in that anyone who's left this place- non-voluntarily before you ask- says that no time had passed the first time they were gone when they come back. There are other theories we're working on, but right now that's the best guess."

The kindest guess. She had her own less-than-optimistic theories about how they were here without losing time back home, but nothing was proven yet. She could talk to him about that if he wanted, but it was a little heavy on the science for how she got there. Not typically the first thing newcomers want to hear.

[pathosis]

Blaine's a little bored.

Okay. A lot bored. Not hopelessly so that he's going to watch paint dry and give up on fun ever resurfacing. He could always disappear for a few hours into one of the other cities and get up to all kinds of (occasionally morally questionable) thing. But right in the heart of Genessia on a day when one particular zombie isn't spending the day at work and his poker buddies aren't around? Not so much. And, yes. Of course he found poker buddies. He's up most of the time. They're down most of the time. Awesome.

But, yeah. He's totally bored at this particular moment and decided to do some more exploring. The other day he found a store that exclusively sells fine Italian leather shoes. It was amazing. Today he finds... this guy. This guy has the same expression as people that usually he have a cup next to them in hopes people will spare some change. Blaine could keep walking because he honestly doesn't give a rats ass about making people feel better but he's so bored at the moment that curiosity gets the best of him.

"Geez. Who died?" Mind if he sits next to you? He gestures with his arm as if he's asking that question but doesn't wait for the answer before he does. What's up, stranger?

[offwithhishat]

Jefferson's jaw clenched, his nerves much too shot for this guy and his cavalier attitude.

"My dog Spot." He shot back incredulously, not bothering to look at the man who had helped himself to a seat beside him. Normally it wouldn't have been something worth getting bothered about, but the fact that he was slowly becoming numb to the pain didn't make him much less on edge.

Plain and simple, he didn't want to deal with him. He didn't want to talk to him, either. Mostly, he didn't feel like telling someone who he suspected didn't care one way or another why he was living up to the madness his unfortunate moniker implied. Alas, he really couldn't give the guy a proper scoff without looking at him.

That's when his body froze. No. No, that definitely wasn't who he thought it was... was it? The attitude and everything else that came with that voice was so familiar to him, yet at the same time it felt out of order. Still, he squinted in his direction, confusion blanketing his face. For a moment, he was left without words. Instead, a name that he wished that he had kept to himself tumbled out.

"...Victor?" He shouldn't have let the name slip. He really shouldn't have. But it was already too late, and unless the good doctor had undergone a serious image change, he was about to look even more mentally unstable than he already did.

[pathosis]

"Poor dog." Blaine plays along with it, nonchalant tone. The guy isn't going to give a clear answer because it's none of his business. He understands completely. He didn't care nor expect a truthful response. Some people here give incredibly truthful responses to questions. 'How are you feeling?' turns into a life story. Kids are way too trusting here. How quickly he could probably turn them into addicts would be horrifying. Like an evil Willy Wonka. Come with me and you'll be in a world of complete inebriation.

Not that he would. Probably.

This guy did give an intriguing response, however. There's recognition there. He doesn't find it crazy. Weird but his interest is peaked. The curious smile in response to being called Victor is practiced, careful. He takes a second to decide how to respond. Did he use that as an alias at any point? He doesn't think he did. The time shenanigans here could have the guy pulling out a knew one though. Victor's not a bad one. He wouldn't put it past himself. Friend? Foe? He seems more confused than repulsed so he doesn't think it's foe. He likes his style but that doesn't clear a damn thing up. Not a zombie or his hair would be on end. Hmm.

"Have we met?" Safe answer. He frowns. "Sorry. We're not exactly going linearly here."

[namemeansbeauty]

Belle had been a little too focused on carrying the rather large pile of books that she was currently carrying from all the way from the Storybrooke subarchway to the library in Genessia. She had a reason for making the travel and for the most part it was to make sure the place had copies of the books that came from it, minus the ones she didn't think were a good idea to make a copy of.

However when she reached the Bay, she always found herself a little curious and peeked over. She didn't know why she did it, perhaps she had a little bit of hope that certain people would turn up. But instead of the usual not anyone she knew, she instead spotted a familiar face. One she could recall at least.

"I guess you got brought here to."

[offwithhishat]

He knew that voice the moment she began speaking.

Belle.

Almost instantly he was to his feet, giving her an unsure glance.

Before Emma had shown up in Storybrooke, he had held so much guilt that he couldn't do something while she was wrongfully trapped in that asylum, treated like nothing more than a simple object of manipulation against Rumpelstiltskin. He spent longer than he ever wanted to recall with that guilt lingering in the back of his head.

Even though they had never really spoken again after he had finally been given the chance to get her out, he had always felt sincere empathy for her. Maybe it was because they both knew what it was like to be trapped in a place where you could lose track of your sanity.

He hated that he was happy to see her there, but he was. He knew they weren't friends or anything of the sort, but seeing someone from home, someone who was genuinely kind... he was almost afraid to believe it. Was his mind so broken that it was playing tricks on him?

"Please tell me you're really here." His voice came out quiet, filled with trepidation. He didn't want to believe something that wasn't real. He didn't want to have false hope.

[namemeansbeauty]

"I'm... really here. Have been for a few months now." She figured it was best to try and be reassuring and she had to admit it had been quite a while since she last saw him, but it was nice to see the person who saved her from that place.

"This place isn't like an illusion or anything, but I am sure you want answer right? I can try and help if we walk." She felt fine talking to him, she knew nothing bad would happen and she did want to help someone who just arrived.