In the ruthless, dirty world of Miroh, there's only one rule, and that's "Every Jammer for themselves". And so it's definitely suspicious when a note from one of the most famous Jammers in all of Hyperspace flashes on your retina feeds while you're aimlessly surfing the 'Space one evening, addressed to your most heavily encrypted inbox, no less.

<to DINAH - i understand you have an invitation☻. so do i. assist? - ALICE>

Your eyes flicker to the package that arrived to your physical address in the inner areas of District 9 some days ago. Addressed to your Jammer handle (DINAH, for the little red cat in Alice in Wonderland), with no postmark. That worries you a little. No postmark means it was hand-delivered, which means someone (or multiple someones) out there has positively matched your real-world identity with your Hyperspace identity and worse, with your actual address.

When you opened it, there were only two things inside. The first, a tiny memchip. The second, a sleek-looking paper business card.

Paper business cards are rare these days, most people preferring to just beam whatever they needed via their personal devices, or just send them out via plain email. Of course, actual paper in the first place is scarce now, with what few plants left in the world heavily protected by governments worldwide. So, paper business cards mean money and Old Money at that. You contemplate the card, rubbing your fingers over the embossed logo on the very swanky linen texture. It's a black-coloured smiley, the same one ALICE included in their message to you. On the flip-side is just a single line. "Do you want to be ODDINARY?"

The ODDINARY group is infamous through Miroh and Hyperspace; no one really knows their true motives, but they tend to act on their own and arguably for the common good. Their influence spreads both through both the physical world and Hyperspace - the group has wiped out entire Jammer gangs, and even interfered negatively with megacorps activity, dragging once powerful corporations down into the mires of struggling debt and constant bad press. It's an intriguing organisation to you, an anonymous team of Jammers, Brokers and Bruisers that take on usehandles from the beloved vintage fairytale Alice in Wonderland. Coincidentally, like ALICE and your own.

The package seems like a recruitment message, which on one hand is really suspicious, but on the other, also persuades you to think that this might be legit. There's no way any other group would dare to take on the name of ODDINARY, not if they wanted to continue in good health in Hyperspace anyway.

And now with ALICE's message, you're fully convinced this is real. ALICE has made a name for themself in the past three years, a precocious Jammer whom you've run into many times. ALICE mostly takes white-hat jobs; ensuring that their clients have beefed-up security systems protecting their precious data. You however, enjoy a slightly more underground presence, running more corporate esponiage-style jobs that pay better but are on the grey side of the law. You pride yourself on being able to sneak your way past plenty of security systems, but your one downfall so far has been any set that ALICE has dealt with.

If both ALICE and ODDINARY have your encrypted IDs but you're still not entertaining security forces banging down your door, it probably wouldn't hurt to at least respond to their first message. And so, you decide to ping ALICE. Sighing, you jack in on one of your burner decks.

DINAH:
<what invitation? & how did you get this email?>

ALICE:
<dont be coy i know you have one>
<look maybe u dont trust me>
<if i give u a physical for u to meet me in person, wld u>

DINAH:
<u hv my physical?>
<that's not reassuring at all>

ALICE:
<ur details come at a high price, but are not completely opaque>
<so not like i hacked into ur rig or anything>
<all i have is a general location>

Ah, the information brokers. But you know that's how Hyperspace is; if you deal in it, it's more than likely your personal info is in it. On a second, heavily-protected line, you run a chat to your favourite Broker.

DINAH:
<Yeji, i need deets>

DDALLA:
<when u use my actual name, i know ure being serious>
<but info will cost ya, as usual>
<sup>

DINAH:
<yea, whatever, i'll pay>
<1, is there data on my ID floating out there?>
<2, who bought it recently?>

You drum your fingers against your desk as you wait for Yeji's reply. She's not as lightning fast as usual, which may or may not mean trouble.

DDALLA:
<1, gratis free. the answer to this question is always 'yes'>
<because you are my favourite, the bonus answer is damn, u expensive, must be some hot data>
<2 will cost ya. 40k bits>

DINAH:
<damn i thought a regular check was only 10k bits>

DDALLA:
<yea, then i saw how much ur data is worth>
<u know checks are pegged>

DINAH:
<fine, i'll wire u right now>

A pang of heartache flashes through you as you send the coin to Yeji, but frankly she's the most honest one out of the whole sorry lot of Brokers you know, and ultimately, access to the Dark Market is just not something everyone has or is willing to take on. You just thank whatever cybergods there are out there that you recently completed a tight little job and THAT Broker was so pleased with your efficiency he gave you a bonus.

DDALLA:
<this is strange>
<some bigshots hunting u?>

DINAH:
<???>

DDALLA:
<two buyers in the past month>
<buyer 1: ECILA, location: DISTRICT9, all other details redacted>
<buyer 2: redacted, redacted>

DINAH:
<u can redact details on the DM?>
<i thought all deets are logged etc for transparency>

DDALLA:
<haha funny, u calling anything on hyperspace "transparent">
<being redacted on Dark Market means big shots>
<money and authority to pay for level 1 security access>
<im good but im not level 1 good, so... that's all i have>

DINAH:
<ok>
<thnx DD>
<text me for ur next gig>

You close the line with her and turn to the other chat line.

DINAH:
<backwards writing, really?>

ALICE:
<was wondering why u werent responding>
<i see that u contacted ur broker>
<yes>
<i left my deets open for u>

DINAH:
<i didnt realise u were so close>
<i'll meet u but on my own terms>

ALICE:
<so untrusting>

DINAH:
<I'm not a rookie jammer nor am i white hat like u>
<i know where i stand with the law>

ALICE:
<there's no 'good' or 'bad' in 'Space jamming>
<timetoslamnow.mp3>

You roll your eyes at the ancient meme ALICE just sent.

ALICE:
<u and i are mercs; we take jobs>
<just gears in the bigger corporate systems of miroh>
<u think ODDINARY are bad?>

Out of sheer instinct and fear, you double and triple check the line is private and heavily encrypted. Somehow, just typing their name makes you think they might be summoned.

DINAH:
<i dont know what ODDINARY stand for>

ALICE:
<u've not seen the memchip?>
<use one of ur burners, silly cat>

DINAH:
<...>

ALICE is right, although you bristle a little at being called a "silly cat". You retrieve one of your burner decks with a visual display and stick the memchip in. There's only a single file on the chip, so you open it.

A video starts to play. A title - "Do you want to be ODDINARY?", then a news clip of when the Sound Monster started its crawl from years ago. (You hiss involuntarily; the Sound Monster is an insidious, crippling evil that plagues Miroh even today. There are memoirs of it even from olden times, and although it's been beaten back many times before, its evil influence still manages to worm its way back to society and rears its ugly head. The fight against the Sound Monster waxes and wanes, but never truly dies.) You watch footage of a group of heroes battling the Sound Monster with musical weaponry: guns with bullets of earplugs, a cymbal shield, guitar rifles. The screen flashes to a new scene. It's the same group, but somehow now in a historical era, from when people still wore flowing robes. The heroes however, are in a strange mix of modern clothes and robes, like they tried, then gave up on meshing with the locals. The screen flashes again, and this time the group is dressed in red in a gaudy van, apparently trying to ensure that a significant tradition isn't ruined by the Sound Monster.

As you watch the heroes battling the Sound Monster over and over in different times and eras, it dawns on you. These are the ODDINARY. This is what they stand for. They've been fighting the Sound Monster's influence all this while in their own way - be it Jamming megacorp data streams or wrecking Jammer gangs. The different timelines confuses you somewhat currently, but your attention is taken by a series of handles.

<W.RABBIT>
    <CHESHIRE>
       <TWEEDLE>
          <REDQUEEN>
                <HATTER>
                    <MARCHHARE>
                        <DORMAUS>


Then suddenly a padlock appears, with two handles swirling around it.
        <ALICE>?
                    <DINAH>?

You jump a little when you see your own name appear. A frisson of excitement and thrill runs down your spine. It was an invitation after all. You feel a keen motivation overtake you suddenly; you want, no, you need to be ODDINARY.

Under your names, another phrase appears.

Then a set of numbers - a 'Space address.

Unlock? Ah, you get it. It's an invitation, but there's a test. That explains ALICE's very first message, asking for the assist. Oh, which reminds you.

DINAH:
<ok>

ALICE:
<ok?>

DINAH:
<ok, assist>
<i'll meet you in WONDERLAND>

----------------

Clicking on the link above will lead you to unlockwonderland.online, a narrative puzzle game situated in Miroh's Hyperspace. Unlock WONDERLAND with ALICE, and join the ODDINARY.