Through the Looking Glass.

[John Hino]

Damnit... how do I help him see we're really here?

After a moment he did what Bear would do, and hugged Will.

"Wake up buddy, please... I'm afraid I've lost my wife too and I know it's selfish but I need you. I need to know what happened here," he pleaded, voice quavering by the end, "...please..."

[Will Stanton]

John's massive strength (and Will's naturally squishy shape) ended up with sort of the feeling of squeezing a sack of wet clay, and John's clothes would be stained.

On the more positive side, after a moment of cowering away, Will sagged into the hug a bit, resting his head on John's chest and whimpering.

[John Hino]

"You're my best friend Will. I'm here for you."

[Will Stanton]

Will didn't say anything at all, instead trying to push himself back away from John.

[John Hino]

John let him go.

"Please... at least talk to us."

[Will Stanton]

Will cocked his head, confused.

[Gemma Sloan]

Gemma stood up and walked back out in the hall. "Maybe we should look out towards the Point? There were other sounds down that way, so maybe there's something down there that would help him?"

[Trev Anderson]

"Well....we're certainly not getting anything out of him. If nothing else there could be supplies..." Trev said, not really sure how help Will.

[Will Stanton]

The moment the others stopped paying attention to him, Will drifted back to his chair and sat back down again, as if he had already forgotten they were there.

[Vertie Easley]

"I'll keep pair of scouts here. We'll watch over him."

[John Hino]

John nodded.

"Right, we need more information if we're going to help him."

[Jennifer Newgate]

"Information about what? He mentally checked out when this happened. He's built himself a happier place than what is out there, locked the door to the outside and threw away the key. He's catatonic because he couldn't bear the possibility of losing his wife and daughter. You're not going to shake him out of it and even if you did you would be yanking him into the same mental anguish that made him flee into this in the first place. Fuck, I'm still tempted to stay here. Maybe he had the right idea to try and find himself some comfort among all this."

[Gemma Sloan]

"Then do that," Gemma said with a shrug. "No one here's going to stop you if you're content to live a lie. But we came here to find out what happened. We also came to retrieve some of the crystals and those were close to the Point, so we have to go there either way. In any event, I've had enough of your whining bullshite about how nice this place is. All the nice stuff? It's a damned lie and I've worked too hard to be comforted by illusions and constructs." She turned and made her way back towards the outside.

[Jennifer Newgate]

"What makes you think you're any better than the assholes that torched Teri's refuge, huh? We barged in here and wrecked somebody's safe haven. So what if it only had one real occupant. Can you come up with a better way to honor the memory of those who died or who Will thought had died than to remember the good times? Fuck your sanctimonious bullshit, Gemma. It's real to him, just like all the death and destruction was real to everyone out there. You wanna know why I like this place? It's because for once the thing at the forefront of everyone's mind isn't how fucking shit everything is! Because I can hear that in my head every fucking day and you know what else? It got better when people started dieing. How fucked up is that, huh? Walking around the ruins, thinking it would be easier for me if people just stopped being so miserable all the time. Or if they just stopped altogether. This is the first time in ages that the background noise of my life hasn't been constant misery. Creepy nursery rhymes are an upgrade to that!" she yells and storms out down the hallway in the opposite direction.

[John Hino]

"Pain doesn't disappear just because you play pretend!" John yelled after her.

[Will Stanton]

Suddenly, Will gasped for air--the first sound anyone there had heard him make--and clutched at his chest.

The nursery rhyme shut off, leaving silence in Jen's head.

[John Hino]

"Will!"

John moved back to his friend to see what was wrong.

[Will Stanton]

Will stood up, and shuffled towards the window, leaning out of it and looking far across the campus, breathing VERY fast indeed for someone who doesn't, you know, have lungs.

[John Hino]

John followed his gaze.

[Will Stanton]

He was looking towards the lighthouse.

Shuffle forward. Shuffle forward. Shuffle forward...


...shuffle, uh, OVER the sill, feet never leaving contact with the surface of the building, and, uh, shuffle down the outside wall. That's perfectly normal, right?

[John Hino]

"The hell?"

John ran for the stairs to try and get ahead of Will. "He's moving outside!" he shouted to Jenn, wherever she went.

[Narrator]

As Will went down the wall, it was like the paint and construction was tugged along WITH him, revealing the crumbled and broken actual facade of the building behind.

[Vertie Easley]

"When I suggested he "pull it together", I was thinking he would do it literally, but this is creepy and far more spread thin then I expected." She leaned out the window watching his slow march.

[John Hino]

John exited the building and followed at a distance.

[Will Stanton]

As Will shuffled his way across the quad, it was if he was dragging a carpet of fresh and new things behind him. It was as if he was absorbing the fresh, manicured and healthy grass, leaving dirt and weeds and scarred earth behind him. It was if, with every step he took, the illusion of the happy, healthy campus was being sucked back into him, leaving the bare, ruined truth behind.

It was a bit unsettling, to say the least.

[Jennifer Newgate]

Jennifer follows him at a distance. Once again she has to watch something nice being dismantled, even if it was 'fake', that doesn't really make it any easier. Still, she doesn't want to be left behind and she certainly doesn't want to sit around the ruins of her former home.

[John Hino]

John, however, didn't see any parallel between waking up Will and an assault that actually killed people. In his mind, there was no telling how many hapless intruders Will's madness had blindly killed and it had to stop.

[Will Stanton]

Will howled again, and quickened his pace. He was growing larger, too...

[John Hino]

"That... can't be good."

[Trev Anderson]

"Agreed. Think he's heading towards Gemma....how heavy are you John? Might be able to fly is there quicker than navigating through the ruins..."

[John Hino]

"Around three hundred if I leave the magic club here."

[Trev Anderson]

"....and if you bring it with?" Trev said sizing John up. "...fuck it, I think I could do it. Hold on to me...apologies in advance for the headache."

[John Hino]

"Frankly I don't know what it weighs when I carry it. Could add nothing when I'm carried for all I know."

He looked at Trev a little skeptically, "But if you think you can... I apologize in advance for any accidental lacerations."

[Trev Anderson]

"I'll let you and my wife hash out any long term damages to my baby soft skin," he smirked, letting John wrap around him, and then took a deep breath and let out an ear-piercing wail. While uncomfortable it seemed to not damage John, and if anything his body would feel a bit strange--almost like it was vibrating before they both lifted into the air and blasted out through the remains of a window.

[John Hino]

He held on tightly, though not so tight as to crush anything. It probably wasn't pleasant though.

"This actually feels kinda nice! Like a flying massage chair!"