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

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

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.

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"You already know about the clocks and the door." That's most of everything he's run across that seems worthwhile. He shrugs. "This place seems to amplify violent desires. That's about it."

All of which begs the question of why Sebastian seems to have so little interest in attacking him, but then, he supposes that goes both ways. If he was that interested in killing Sebastian, he would have shot him before he found him in the tree.

...So it really does amplify them. Maybe sword guy wouldn't have killed him under normal circumstances. Though, it's hard to be sure. He tilts his head slightly.

"You seem very calm despite that."

He raises an eyebrow in reply. "So do you."

Yeah, well. He sighs.

"I've never really wanted to hurt anyone." Not before he was sliced open by sword guy, anyway. And even that only lasted until he was able to sink a bullet into him, though it might be a different story if they met again. There might be a spike in the desire for revenge, there.

"It's kind of like... this place can only amplify what's actually there."

"Exactly." Ankh can agree about it only taking what's there and making it stronger. His situation is different, but the result is the same. Ankh has definitely wanted to hurt people before. There are probably people he would still want to hurt quite a bit if he saw them right now. But none of those people are here. What he's dealing with is effectively a bunch of strangers, and random violence against strangers in and of itself isn't something that holds much interest.

"Most people hold back things like that usually. I'm not surprised they go crazy in a place like this." He hasn't found everybody yet, either, but there are at least a couple he's actively avoided getting anywhere near so far. Maybe one of them is the one who stabbed Sebastian. "You're pretty weird for not having anything like that to start with."

"Do they?..." Violent impulses weren't something he thought of most people having. But then, why was there a war going on? Even someone from his town was involved in the war... though he couldn't remember why he knew that.

"Is it weird that I don't want to hurt people who haven't hurt me?" He didn't think it was. He also wasn't sure how he knew that about himself, given that he only remembered sword guy hurting him in any way, though he somehow knew it was true.

"Who knows?" He shrugs. Put that way, there are probably a lot of people like that, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't end up with their own reasons for doing something violent in a place like this.

"People have all kinds of reasons. Just because someone hasn't hurt you doesn't mean they won't, for example." It's the kind of logic that would usually make him far more violent than he is right now. It's only held back by the fact that right now, he doesn't care much about whether he gets hurt or not.

"It doesn't mean you won't get hurt. But even then, it's usually not physical." ............... "Is that something you believe?"

Maybe this person... Ankh... really thought that everyone was dangerous. Sebastian could kind of understand that. Even in this situation, he was uncomfortable for reasons having nothing to do with being tasked with ripping people's hearts out. There were worse things than dying - moreso now than usually.

But even if they wanted to hurt him physically, that was because of the effects of this heart. He knew that. Someone being dangerous here didn't mean they'd be dangerous in everyday life, even if it was the sort of thing they might think about and never do.

Sometimes it's not physical. Sometimes it is, and the emotional wounds cut deeper than the blades through your back. "I have reason to." And that's all he's going to say about that, though there's an edge to the words that's been lacking in the rest of everything he's said. He may not be attacking any of the other "Alice"s, but if the king was here...

That wave of something far more dangerous seems to pass quickly, though. He can't hurt or kill someone who's long dead and gone, anyway.

Edited 2016-07-15 08:40 (UTC)

It's followed by a thoughtful pause. "I wonder, though..." Oddly enough, it's only once he's calmed down that he reaches for his gun and points it at Sebastian's head. He doesn't shoot. He doesn't especially seem like he wants to, even. He's just curious what will happen, because of what Sebastian said a moment before. He hasn't hurt him... yet.

Something about what he said caused Ankh to be upset. He's not sure what it was, but it sounded like... he'd been hurt before. Enough so that this brief conversation brought it up.

"What?" He gets his answer to what Ankh is wondering fairly quickly, though he's not quite sure what to make of it.

He sees Ankh reaching for his gun and draws his own, aiming at Ankh as best he can. He doesn't really want to do this. Don't make him do this. It doesn't matter if he dies. It matters even less than nothing, now that he knows he'll come back. But he doesn't want to experience that pain again. At that thought his breath catches and his fingers tighten on the gun, one finger curled around the trigger. He won't pull it just yet, though. He certainly looks conflicted

"Why?"

Why did Ankh take so long to draw his own gun, why doesn't he just shoot him, why is he being placed into this situation, why does it feel like a betrayal even though he knew they were in that sort of world... there are a lot of ways that could be read.

Ankh has been hurt, more than once. He can't remember all the pieces, but he can guess well enough who it was that broke his medal. OOO will always turn against him, it seems. And he can't get close to anyone without being betrayed. So he won't. He won't say anything more about his past, and he won't care whether Sebastian is terrified of pain. That much stays true even if he can't begin to make himself care about his own life.

As for the question being asked of him, he can't help the slight smirk. "You were right. You don't want to shoot, even now." Curiosity, that's the answer to why it took so long, why he doesn't shoot. The others are things he wouldn't be able to answer even if he knew Sebastian was thinking them. None of it makes his aim waver in the slightest.

"I wanted to see what you would do with someone who was about to hurt you. So I have a question for you: do you think I will?"

...So Ankh was about to hurt him. His finger tightens a little more on the trigger. Was there any way out of this without killing him? He knew Ankh would have to die too, for their clocks to be removed. But did it have to be like this?

He doesn't have a lot of practice with guns, but after practicing in the grove earlier... he thinks he can do at least this much. Probably. He shifts his gun, aims for the gun in Ankh's hand, and fires, trying to knock it away.

It'll come back, but maybe that'll give him time to escape.

Well, that's an answer. Unfortunately for Sebastian, his aim isn't completely true. He misses the gun, and hits Ankh's arm instead. There's a spatter of blood and a yelp of pain, and for a moment, it's so intense that he can't keep his focus on Sebastian. He certainly can't keep the gun aimed at him. But at the same time, much as he didn't initially have any desire to hurt Sebastian, that wound is more than enough reason and he was about to shoot him anyway.

He brings the gun back up through sheer force of will, using his other arm to brace his grip, aims, and fires.

No, he's able to think for a second, frozen in horror as he hits Ankh instead of the gun. Even when Ankh raises his own gun to fire at him, he's rooted to the spot.

Maybe if he'd run away quickly, vanished into one of the doors of the forest, he'd have gotten away. Instead, the bullet hits him in the thigh and he drops to the ground, clutching his leg and letting out a small scream.

His thigh. That wasn't the intent, but he's not surprised his aim is much less accurate with his arm messed up like this. "Tch." It's not enough. He might not die from that, and Ankh needs that clock. He fires two more shots, hoping they at least hit somewhere considering how hard this is right now, and then he can't even quite keep hold of the gun anymore, and it falls to the ground under the tree.

Ankh goes down after it, not to get the gun back so much as to get closer. Get the clock. If he doesn't get the clock, then this was all pointless. ...mostly. He knows more about Sebastian than he did before, either way.

With his arm having become mostly useless by now, he falls more than climbs down the tree, and screams as his injured arm slams into the forest floor.

The two next bullets hit higher, both in his chest. Sebastian falls down fully, tries to catch a breath and can't. The ground he can see is stained with blood, again. He sees Ankh fall out of the tree and tries to fire another shot at him, but his fingers are too weak to pull the trigger. He struggles with the gun, and if Ankh can focus enough he might notice the desire for violence rapidly spikes. But it dwindles just as quickly, as Sebastian stops moving entirely.

The same shadowy figures that surrounded him when he died previously will appear again. Their bodies seem to ooze up and out of the darkness and shadows around Ankh and Sebastian. Some of them are tall, some short. None have faces.

Many of the figures surround Sebastian's body, disappearing with it, leaving only an ornate clock behind that has ceased its ticking. However, one of the figures will pick the clock up. It will stare at Ankh once it does, as if expecting him to do something, but even if he attempts to interact with the figure, he will find it incorporeal and incapable of being touched.

The clock cannot be taken. The shadowy figure will disappear with it in its hands, and the others will go with it, leaving behind little evidence of the scuffle. His weapon will even disappear.

Inside Clover Tower, a third scrap of paper will appear next to the other two. Penned in the same unfamiliar writing, it reads:

"The cat told me,
no, the XXXXXX is the worst of them all."

Sebastian will also awaken there next, yet another feature changed, his body undamaged and his weapon by his side once more.

He does feel that surge of violent desire, and maybe there's something satisfying about it, along with the way it fades off completely, then.

Ankh watches from where he's fallen to the ground, surprised at the sudden appearance of so many shadowy creatures. He sees the clock and makes an attempt at scrambling to his feet, but it doesn't work. He's lost more blood than he initially realised, and it's hard to move. All he manages is to pull himself a little closer before he collapses onto the ground again.

So he's going to die, after all. He doesn't even have the energy to tell the shadowy figure to come back and leave the clock before it disappears with it, not that it would have done any good, anyway. His death is slower than Sebastian's, but in the end, just as inevitable.

The figures will return to take Ankh as well, in much the same process as Sebastian. They will take his body, and then his clock, disappearing into the murky gloom.

All that is left behind of the fight is the blood that was spilled on the ground.

Inside Clover Tower, after a short moment, yet another scrap of paper appears next to the ones before it, equally unmovable and untouchable:

"So I XXXXed them."

Ankh will awake moments after Sebastian, a few feet from him in Clover Tower.

Edited 2016-07-16 02:25 (UTC)

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

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