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[The camera starts off focused tightly on Wanda's face, the smile on her lips and the glint in her eyes. The background is green and out of focus.]

[She tilts her head to the side, choosing her words with care.]

There's something I want to share.

[Wanda turns the camera away from herself and tilts it up to show a gold and white globe dangling from a giant branch far up in the forest canopy. The picture cuts out for a second, and when it resumes, the camera is rising toward the globe.]

[Plausible deniability -- it could very easily be a camera attached to a remote control helicopter or some other device capable of flying. It isn't; Wanda's doing the filming by hand. But it could be.]

It's a traditional design from a world far away from here, but I was the apprentice paper-folder and I folded almost every fold -- it was a great deal of work -- and I have permission to show you the result.

[The ascent takes longer than might have been expected and the globe, when it's reached, seems larger than it had from the ground.]

[As the camera moves around the globe, it becomes clear that it's made entirely out of a shiny waterproof paper. Some areas are folded into organic designs, folded so much these areas are duller than the rest -- they almost look formed by some biological process. Some sections are more geometric. On of the pentagons is actually an opening that the camera passes through.]

[The inside is filled with structural components, thin cables and shiny metal fasteners and more sturdy paper folded into delicate supports. As the camera moves through what is a surprisingly large area, light and shadow mingle in complex patterns.]

[When the camera reaches the middle of the sphere, the top unfolds in an iris pattern, the whole structuring compressing to make an opening, and light pours in.]

[A stick-like alien suddenly leaps through the opening, and everything starts swinging back and forth, dizzying. Wanda can be heard laughing before the picture blips again, back outside, Wanda perched on a wide tree limb and the paper globe -- still swaying, though it may just be the breeze now -- behind her.]

I think it's beautiful.

[Wanda glances back, then shrugs at the camera.]

If you're not shaped like an insect, if you weigh more than a grapefruit, there are more practical, less fragile designs -- I'm making my own place to live, too, now that this is done, and it won't be a hanging garden...

But I think I'd like to live somewhere ... somewhere that makes me happy to live there, because it means something, even on a foreign planet. Something that reminds me of who I am, but also... [She hesitates.] A place that is beautiful.

[She shrugs, and adds, a little wry--] I suppose one must always have dreams.

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[It earns a small tilt of her head.]

How long did it take, if you don't mind me askin'?

A few weeks, since I arrived.

[Wanda shrugs.]

I'm Wanda, by the way.

[Her expression flickers. She'd introduced herself once before on this system, when she first arrived, but that hadn't seemed to make a big splash -- which was just as well. She hadn't been at her best just after arriving.]

See, to me, a few weeks does require a lot of patience.

[Then again, Rogue has just been trying to get her bearings since showing up in this place. So, she hasn't really done that much in terms of productivity, unless one counts picking up garbage.]

'm Rogue. Nice to meetcha.

I suppose it's lucky that it was me who fell into this particular ... adventure.

[Not that she'd considered it lucky when she was first trying to figure out what was wanted from her, but she'd managed, hadn't she?]

[Wanda shrugs again, and looks back to Rogue in the video, curious but not sure how to express it.]

Though with that name, perhaps you have plenty of adventures of your own?

Mm. Well I do mean it. It does look really pretty.

[Although Rogue gives her own laugh at that statement.]

They kinda have a way of finding me, whether I want them to or not.

Thank you. I'll tell my friend that it was appreciated, too. I think they'll like to know that.

[She nods, knowingly.] That's the way of things, isn't it?

It is one of those things that you need to be careful what you wish for... I remember wanting nothing more than to get out of my house and travel when I was younger. Got that, an' a whole bunch more.

Or just be careful. I never wished to leave my home...but that is almost the only constant in my life.

A whole bunch more? Not all bad, I hope?

Not always. Did go to Canada and met someone who helped change my life. That was a good thing.

New places and new people are often momentous.

[Wanda sounds conflicted about that statement, though.]

Even that has different degrees. An' some are good while others... Not so much.

Yes.

[Wanda speaks softly and then glances away; this conversation is becoming difficult for her as she thinks about everything that is new and momentous right now.]

Sometimes...

[She trails off, not really wanting to admit to the direction her thoughts are going right now.]

[She nods, letting her trail off, and doesn't push.]

Guessin' that's a bit heavier conversation than anyone was expecting to have on a strange planet.

You been here long though?

[It takes a moment, but Wanda pulls her attention back to the question at hand.]

Not long. A few weeks. You?

About the same, actually.

[A small quirk of her lips.]

Though it feels both longer and shorter at times.

[Wanda had assumed it would be longer.]

You seem like you know what you're doing here.

Wish that was the case... First sign of something really alien an' I'll have no clue what to do.

[Oh, Wanda knows this one.]

Pay attention and don't make assumptions, that is my advice for aliens.

You actually come from somewhere that has life on other planets?

Yes, there was a whole galaxy's worth of planets, and even more species of aliens. And there were ships to travel quickly wherever you wanted to go in the galaxy...

[Wanda's gaze is distant.]

It wasn't really a very nice place in a lot of ways, but ... one learned quickly, there.

Wow...

[Because- wow.

But Rogue listens as she speaks some more.]

I guess no matter where you are from, there's ups and downs.

[Wanda can't help but laugh.]

Probably.

I do hope that there are more ups and downs here though. I'll knock on wood to that.

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