Round 1 Introduction Hub Log

[worldkeys]

Who: The Alices and the White Rabbit.
What: What: Everybody wakes up on the first day of the first round inside the World's Hub, greeted by the White Rabbit, who seems largely unimpressed.
Where: The World's Hub.
Warnings: Rabbit is gloomy and has a bad temper and tends to complain a lot. Otherwise, not much.

You entered a closet. You knew that much. You woke up from... somewhere, and you entered a cupboard or a closet and you followed a strange cat with golden eyes. You blink. You feel assailed by the feeling of your body falling somewhere, the sound of heavy machinery--

And then darkness, before... a wooden pathway, and another cupboard, and a boy in a hood. A cat-boy, with golden eyes, much like the one you followed. He cackles gleefully at everyone before disappearing with a meow. The cupboard behind him is locked. Past this area, you find yourself in a strange room of ruined, cracked cobblestone and oddly-shaped lamps. Dead trees line the path. There are old tombstones scattered about. A gloomy boy with black twigs for hair and strange eyes, dressed in fancy, Victorian-looking garb stands in the middle of the room. There are others like you about, you notice. Not TOO many more, but a fair few.

Something about the boy's eyes carry a dreadful feeling. They're red on black. No whites to them at all. He has two white rabbit ears on his head, but one is distinctly torn off, like something had just taken a bite out of it. He looks at those assembled, cocks his head to the side, as if... curious for a moment, before shaking it and then sighing.

"... Ah. Welcome, Alice." There's a pause, as if he's assessing what he's doing. He particularly stares deeply at Clock. "... Oh? No, not at all... well, you're still ▒▒▒▒▒ to me."

A nod to himself, as if to confirm it.

"More pressing... I have a task for all of you. If you could help me with it, that would be most appreciated."

[ OOC: Feel free to respond in either prose or bracketspam. Also, Cheshire will probably have a thread later you can reply to as well. For now, this is the opening log to badger the NPC with questions. ]

Comments

[stolenface]

[ That earns a really long, really hard laugh. ]

I'm the Cheshire Cat, and me and the Rabbit... Well... We hate each other.

[ It's truthful. He's so amused you thought they were friends, though. ]

That's why I do things like this. 'Cause it annoys him. Mweehee!

[zinit]

I... See. [So it's like that.] So you're the 'he' he spoke of, are you? My...

[name is not fucking Alice that's for sure oh, whatever, this ridiculous chacha would probably just call him Alice anyway.]

Aah, well. [Moving on:] Did you bring us here, or the Rabbit, or someone else?

[stolenface]

You're right. Alice is Alice is Alice to me. Because I don't really care what your names are.

[ Yes, Qilby, he did just blatantly read your mind. ]

As for who brought you here, well... You followed me. So if anyone brought you here, wouldn't it be you?

[zinit]

[So they can read minds! Qilby files that away for further reference. It's interesting, sure, but also incredibly disturbing for someone who bases so much on cultivating an outer appearance of... Well, of not being a total asshole.]

[Whoops.]

My point, though, is-- [an impassive motion with his hand] --if you hid these keys away, would it not have been better to leave silently, and not bother to have us follow? They could stay hidden forever, in that case.

[stolenface]

'Cause that's no fun for me! And it bugs the Rabbit to have you guys poking about and making a mess.

[ He'll snicker into his paw (hand?). Oh, Qilby is going to be fun. ]

[zinit]

[As Qilby expected, there's an angle to work. Get in good with this chacha, and who knows? Maybe he'll get something from it. Now, granted, that something might be 'dead,' but staying in the Blank Dimension was worse than death, anyway.)]

[His tone goes dark, quiet, almost conspiratorial.] I see; so the fun is in the chase. But then, are you going to continue this, just with newer and newer people?

[How enviable.]

[stolenface]

Maybe I will, mrrrreow, maybe I won't. Depends on my mood. I'm a cat, after all.

[ He's whimsical, so it really depends on how bored he gets. ]

[zinit]

[Again, how enviable. Playing games like this without a care, using others as playthings - to anyone else, he knows it'd be awful. Part of him thinks it is awful, too; he doesn't like inflicting harm with his own two hands. (One hand. Shit, he hates that.) He'd be lying, though, if he said he didn't understand the impulse.]

[Of course, Qilby's not too happy he got caught up in it, but if there's something to be gained, or a mystery to be uncovered...]

[With a dry sort of humor:] I hate to think how boring it would be in this World of yours, if there were not someone like you to throw a wrench into the works.

[stolenface]

Flattery won't win ya points. Don't like brown-nosers.

[ At least he's being honest about it. ]

[zinit]

[Rude!]

What an ugly word. [A little frown.] I was just trying to say that you and I might not be not so different. It might surprise you; you never know.