but as I told you... I didn't chase the white rabbit!

[heartgatherer]

Who: The Alices and Clock
What: Open the first door and see what you find. Hopefully it's a key... maybe it's something more.
Where: World One - The Country of Clover
Warnings: General violence and disregard for life.

 '▒▒▒▒▒, you fool... it was all just a dream'...

If she could have thought that to herself, then she might have believed it. Here were the high vaulted ceilings of Clover Tower that she'd grown so used to since the shift to the Country of Clover. And yet her name was still lost to her. She could not think it... could not say it... It was as though someone had stolen it entirely, as odd of a thing as that sounded. That was all she needed to know to prove she wasn't dreaming. Then that meant it was as the rabbit and cat said-- in order to retrieve the rabbit's keys, they needed to enter the doors and the door took them straight into peoples' hearts.

This one no doubt was supposed to be her own. How else could this place be replicated so accurately? None of the others should know a thing about Wonderland. After all... this was her dream. Her messed-up, embarrassing, dangerous... oh no.

Outside the window the forest, the castle and the Hatter Mansion were all as they should be. But what had happened to the others? If they had been split up, there was no telling what manner of characters they might have met. While they should be safe as Outsiders, Clover has never seen any other Outsiders. Like this, there's no way to be sure they're safe.

Whatever's happened - this is no time to be sleeping. She needs to verify what's going on in this world and the whereabouts of the people that entered with her. If this was a true and accurate reflection of the world that she knew, then she needed to warn them of a great many things.

Down the tower stairs she goes... to investigate the fate of herself and those who had gone with her.

Comments

[zinit]

Yep, there it is.

Qilby whips around like a shot at that soft noise, hand automatically going to his gun and getting into stance, jumping back a distance and firing. His aim isn't great - the shot is aimed at the chest, but whether it hits there is... questionable - but if he's going to get taken out without even a discussion, he's damned well going to cause this guy some inconvenience.

gross icon warning

[bakegarasu]

The shot doesn't hit his chest, but it does hit his shoulder, and Otoha immediately drops to the ground, sword thumping against the soft earth as it lands. "Wh..."

It's a feeling like fire, like something spreading through his shoulder and arm and he doesn't know what to do, doesn't know what to say. It's paralyzing, and it's terrifying, and for the first time in a fight he's totally disabled as he tries to figure out what this feeling is. "What is this?!" His voice is choked and panicked, and he's shaking.

He's shaking because he has a vague idea, he's seen the reactions enough, but that's totally impossible. He can't feel that. He's not capable of it. Years and years of experience have taught him this, but here... for the first time, maybe. Maybe this... this might be pain.

[zinit]

Qilby lands on his rear on the ground, looks up, expecting the worst... Ah, it hit his shoulder, but the young man looks bewildered more than anything. Was he not expecting Qilby to fight back? Come on, he knows he looks like a disabled old man, but really??

His first instinct is to laugh, but he quells it with just a snort. Instead, he just stands, brushing the back of his pants off and looking down at Otoha the way a teacher might look at a child.

"Maybe you'll think twice before trying that again," he says; his voice is low and tight. As he bends to pick up the sword, he adds: "Now, I'll be taking this until you learn how to manage yourself."

You could kill him right now, just take it, rings his own voice between his ears.

[bakegarasu]

Even through this, even through the pain - because that's what it is, that's what it has to be - he reaches out to grab the sword and snatch it away. "It's not yours. It's mine." His sword, his weapon, the only thing that matters, the only way to kill, it's his.

[zinit]

"And maybe it shouldn't be, with how you're behaving with it," he says... But ultimately, Otoha does get to the sword first. Qilby, still being standing (and Otoha still being on the ground), aims a kick to Otoha's wrist for good measure.

Kill him. It doesn't matter, nothing matters, the consequences don't matter, this world is a dead end anyway. What matters is getting off of it, and this fool is getting in the way.

Qilby quells the urge - though he gets the feeling he won't be able to for long; his finger is still poised over the trigger - and speaks again: "Now, are you going to be good and work with me, or do I have to waste another bullet?"

[bakegarasu]

He hisses, ignoring the question for a moment as he pulls his hand towards him, dragging the sword along. The feeling radiates up his arm and he cradles it, gasping for air. Air, in a body that's not working as it should. He shouldn't be feeling this. This is impossible. "Why... would I want... to work with you?"

He shouldn't be taking orders from this person. This person doesn't matter. This psrson needs to die. They all need to die - other than his Queen and the girl.

if this isn't cool, lmk!

[zinit]

Oh, please, Qilby thinks.

Nobody's going to miss this kid. (Even though the 'kid' looks in his mid-twenties, he's still a child. Everyone here is.) If he won't get out of the way of progress, if he'll just keep swinging that sword like a brute, what use is it? What could the cat or the rabbit do to him as 'punishment' that's worse than what he's already suffered?

"Ahh, so you've chosen to be irritating. If you'll excuse the pun," he says with a sniff, as though a bloody end is an inconvenience to him (and really, it is), "your time's run out." Moving his foot to Otoha's stomach and his gun in front of him, he fires again.

(Hey, at least it's easier to aim at such close range.)

[bakegarasu]

He tries to choke out a response, but it's obliterated in a burst of pain. He reaches out, tries to drag the Hatter's foot down and off of him, but the pain is too much. The pain spreads through his body, and he can't move.

He can't breathe. And the tick tock tick tock in his ears... is fading.

NOTEBOOK SCRAP 2

[worldkeys]

Shadowy figures will congregate as Otoha's life draws to a close, coming out of the murky darkness. Qilby can neither touch nor interact with them. They stand at varying heights, faceless and eyeless, with small hands that look like they should be quite unable to grasp at anything.

Several of them surround his body, and then disappear with it, leaving behind simply a clock, no longer ticking. A few remaining creatures stare at Qilby, blank-faced (how they do with no eyes is a good question) as one picks up the clock with its tiny hands.

Qilby can attempt to take it, but it will prove futile; the creatures will simply disappear, taking Otoha's clock with them.

Otoha will awaken later on the ground floor of Clover Tower, body intact, aside from a few small changes. Inside Clover Tower, a scrap of paper will appear by Otoha when he reawakens. It is penned in unfamiliar handwriting, and reads:

"The frog told me
that the cat is bad."

The paper cannot be removed or damaged. It will remain there, next to the paper Sebastian found prior, making a pair.

Loud coughing can now be heard emitting from the Locked door at the top of Clover Tower as well, periodically.

[zinit]

Qilby scrabbles to take the clock from the little shadowy figures (why? what in the hell?), but it's to no avail; they slip right through his hands, and Otoha's clock with them.

Fuck. Well, that must be the 'other half of the puzzle,' then.