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Sap appear, torch in hand, Momentarily startled and in front of... what the jack was that? The white queen? Really? Truly?

Everything felt wrong, twisted. Things... memories... were in the air, ringing against her head like bells and drums as they all went towards... her.

Sap raised her torch threateningly, and then felt something pull from her. Another memory.

Sap was so used to the game mucking around with her memories - and there were so many memories flickering around her - that it was nothing to offer this one memory to the maelstrom...

~~~

Sap felt sorry for the student under her boughs. She knew that the demon wasn't supposed to be here in this wood, nor was she supposed to feel sorry for them, but they were crying and sap, as a tree, was empathetic. There was really nothing she could do about that but feel for them.

She could percieve - not really see, just FEAR out - a paper they held in their hand, spattered with acidic tears.

F was marked on it.

There were other papers too.

F

F

F.

F was for FEAR, F was for Failure too. Sap rustled, half-comfortingly, and promised herself that she would never fail like that, no matter what.

Not that she'd have any oppurtunity to fail... Being a tree...

~~~

Sap wondered if that student was still around, if they were here in this dream game with them. She felt sorry for them, so sorry, still.

But now, reminded, she raised her torch again. No Failure.

The story that Thackery had all but memorized, which he could retell in perfect detail from start to finish, was more than just a tale of his ancestors. It did teach him a great deal about what it meant to be a Cerberus, and what the Gorgons had done to them, but it also taught him the importance of protecting those he cared about, and that if he chose to give into temptation, it should be for someone who was worth it.

These two points that he'd adopted as morality sat at the forefront of everything, serving as a filter for all thoughts and decisions to pass through before they seemed acceptable. They were how he determined wrong and right, how he knew what to stand for. That never changed, though it did get more difficult.

Everything felt more difficult when he actually had to think, because thinking was not something he was very good at. He usually defaulted to his own moral code in circumstances like this, but even that seemed impossible.

So, instead of concerning himself with lists of rules and codes that were a hundred times older than he was, he tried to focus on love. And it felt right, which made it an easy choice.

He was smiling as he crawled into his bed and snuggled up next to him, happy to share his warmth and affection. He delighted in the kisses he gave, and the ones he got back. Maybe things were different now, but it was okay. There was no reason to ask questions or fight things if there could just be love instead. The choice still felt right, to be curled with contentment against him, like nothing but his love was important. This was better than anything he had to think too much about, when feelings could just answer for him.

He just wished it hadn't taken so long for him to realize.


The third memory stunned him with the pain of loneliness it left behind. KEYS took a deep breath and tried to keep moving. He could fix it. He could feel better if he found Remi and Erebus and--

Erebus.

There he was, just in front of him. And he'd just said something that made him feel worse than the loneliness had, because he couldn't imagine how awful that felt, and he never wanted his brother to feel awful. How long had he felt that way? Did always really mean always? KEYS gasped at the thought.

"Nooo, Erebus, no," he cried, hurrying towards him, as quickly as his heavy legs allowed. "No way! They couldn't have been disappointed in you at all! You're Erebus!"

He said it in a way that implied it meant something, as if he had not just told him his own name.

"And even if they were, I'm not disappointed in you." He was crying again as he pulled him into a hug, as tight as his slender arms could manage. "I'm way proud of you for all the stuff you do, and I still look up to you. Like a lot! I know this is another world or whatever, and in other worlds I haven't been the best to you, but like...if it were me picking those kings back in that other place, we would've both been king! Together! 'Cause that's how it should be, 'cause you're awesome and great and you're the one who showed me how to be even kind of like that in the first place."

Darkling stood there looking like a complete idiot. She wondered if the reason she remembered a far away memory was because of the Queen. Blinking a few times she noticed her pocket card beep slightly before going dim. Clearly she didn't have the right card to do any damage. But then again this was her queen...the one that seemed to have suddenly taken a vicious turn.

Staring at the others she wondered if coming here was even worth wild since she wasn't too good at this battle thing if recent events meant anything. But suddenly all around her the room seemed so much crowded and all she wanted was to be by herself. Hugging her arms close to her body she shivered as a recent memory of the prisons played in her mind the water shimmered the image was different.

"Lumikki you must stay and learn."
"But momma...I'm scared. Please momma let me go...momma please!" A terrified young Kumiho stood watching for the first time the treatment of male prisoners. Shutting her eyes tight she tried to cover her ears.

Darkling gasped and wrapped her arms tighter around her midsection. She wanted to run. She wanted to hide but everywhere she looked she couldn't see an escape. The small voice in her head.

"Its a memory. You are safe. Continue your journey."

Her ears twitched slightly as she still holding her arms tightly straitened her spine a little. And looked forward to ending this fight.

[ DMG: 0 ]

Once again the White Queen had appeared, but she was different this time around. Wykid felt a sense of things coming to an end. A final dread. Her body began to feel heavy and it was in that moment that she discovered her body was beginning to petrify. No....she couldn't be stuck here. She had to leave, to get out. This place was wrong.

It felt as if her memories were unraveling. For all to see around her. No, she didn't want them to see. They shouldn't see. They would know too much. Clutching her arms to her chest as if to stop them from spilling out.

A sudden flash of light as she was reliving a memory once again.

It was a solitary memory, one where it was only her in it. But she remembered the instance quite well. She had been rejected by most of the older Alchemists to study beneath them. Of course, they told her it was because they already had enough students already. But she knew that was a lie.

She aspired to be something great in a field where she faltered the most.

It wasn't like she didn't try her hardest. Perhaps she cut corners here or there because she didn't quite grasp something. But how was she suppose to learn, to get better if she didn't have that experience? Tears stung the corner of her eyes as she looked at scroll after scroll of rejection. Her jaw locked tight as she tried to fight it all back, to not take it personally. To not feel so shameful of her failures.

Perhaps she should just be a gatherer and be done with it.

"I give up. There is no point in trying anymore, I'll never be accepted." Her hands grasped at the papers, crumpling them into balls she threw them across her room before falling face first into a large pillow. She wept. Tears of heartbreak. She had tried so hard, worked so hard, for nothing. It was over.

A singular piece of paper fluttered against a breeze, spinning through the air until it finally landed on top of her head. She sniffled for a second before reaching up to remove it. Just as she was about to crumple it up and toss it aside, brown eyes caught the writing in a split second. They widened as she sat up straight, reading over the black ink scribbled across the scroll.

Again she began to cry, but they weren't tears of sadness this time. The scroll wasn't a rejection letter, it was one of acceptance! There was a new experiment that an older Alchemist needed assistants for and he wanted her. She almost squealed with joy, clutching the scroll to her chest as she fell back into the pillow and kicked her feet with glee.

She had almost given up, but this letter had saved her. She just about owed everything to him now. Her new teacher.

[ No Damage Dealt ]





Upon the fall of the Red Queen a spark had dimmed within the Corvidae Cat. Aldara's movements were painfully sluggish, an almost numb feeling starting at the tips of her fingers and toes, working its way up through her. It was possible that she had reached a Game Over.

If that was the case, she was going to take whatever part of the White Queen's Wraith with her that she could.

Claws drawn, she began to make her way towards her target...

____________________________

"Aldara, you're going to hurt yourself playing around with those..." The warm voice caught her by surprise as it reached her ears. So few of the voices she heard carried the same sort of loving, accepting tone that this one did. Her own mother's voice didn't have this sort of an effect on her. Only Nahne's had that effect... Well, Nahne's and her father's.

"Not going to get hurt, Nahne. I know what I'm doig." Her own voice was so strange; so young. How long had it been since she had sounded like that? Longer than she wanted to remember... Was she only newly hatched? Had this been from before her training had begun?

"Why don't you come away from those weapons? Soon enough they will be all you see, day in and day out. Why don't we go play with the others, hm?" She could feel a hand on her shoulder, drawing her away. She didn't want to play with the others... But maybe, if she asked nicely, Nahne would let her help with the noon meal. She always enjoyed that...

"Come on, Aldara. Let's go home..."

[ No Damage Dealt ]







She pulled out of that memory with a start as if it stung her, trying not to think too hard on the reasons why she would be thinking of things like that. Was this what it was like to have ones life flash before their eyes? Did that mean that she was.... Dying?

"No." She said firmly, more to reassure herself. She had made it this far and she wouldn't back down yet. "Attack."

_______________________________________

"Attack!" The voice was stern and certainly not lacking in authority. It made her jump, eyes going wide as her grasp adjusted along the length of the staff that she had been given. "Well, don't just stand there, girl. You're here to learn, as is your partner, and neither of you are going to learn a blasted thing if you just stand there staring at each other. When you're faced with an enemy, and I don't want to hear that she isn't your enemy, what do you do?"

Attack. She sprang forward, taking the first swing to start the spar. She did so not because she wanted to, but because she had been instructed to... And she knew better than to cross the taskmistress.

Damage: 0

With a shake of her fluffy, white head, IBB shook off the memory onslaught and moved towards the Queen again. Really, if this was all that she/it/whatever was capable of doing, well. This wouldn't be fun, but it was just memories, right?

Sure. That was convincing.

And just in time to prove her inner cynicism right came another unraveling memory...

He'd asked to talk to her today. Gwenyfarh was practically floating as she hurried home to get cleaned up and change into her cutest dress. She had to admit it, if only to herself. She was in the throes of first infatuation. He was so nice to her! They talked almost every day, studied together and he made sure that she never felt lonely or lost. She liked him so much and he clearly liked her. Maybe he wanted to ask her out? He'd sounded so serious.

Later, she was dressed and adorable and waiting with a smile on her face when he shoved up on the front porch. He looked so handsome and so weirdly distracted.

"Hey Gweny. I wanted to ask you something."

Yes! Here it came...

"Sure! You know you can talk to me about anything."

"Uh huh. Look, we've been spending a lot of time together and you're a cute kid..."

Whut. Cute kid? That didn't sound particularly loverly.

"I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your help with the homework and all. I asked Thea out before I headed over here, that's cool, right? You still up to help tutor me tomorrow?"

Ask... Thea...? Oh. OH. Tears welling up in her eyes, she forced a brittle, too bright smile onto her face before steping back to the front door and darting back inside. All without saying a single word. He could take the echoing door slam as her final answer.

[ 0 Damage ]

He was closer now, but again a memory distracted him and he had to stop and try to refocus. Try, being the key word, considering he wound up standing there for a while as a particular memory came to mind, and one that he'd seen several times in what seemed like "dreams" to him...

The air was heavy with the scent of something unfamiliar to him. She'd come in with slurred speech and had ranted to him about this and that; he was lying and listening almost absently, nodding when he had to, reacting when he felt it was necessary to keep whatever blows she might have had in her at bay. At some point she'd unlocked his cage and let him out, even hugged him.

He stood, bristled and let her. As he usually did just to keep himself safe. Relatively safe, at least. And then she ushered back into his "room" and went on ranting, and then...she left. No clanking of locks. No clinking of chains. No jingling of keys. Nothing. She just...left. His "room" wide open. The door unlocked..

For the first time in a long time he'd smiled and took a wary step out of his cage. Then he froze and waited for a sound. Anything, really, but when nothing came he took a few more. And then some more until he was at the door. Even when he creaked it open no one came, nothing sounded and he looked on into the distance.

Dark, raining.

And he ran.

Kiin shook the memory away and tried, yet again, to focus, this time with at least a minimal amount of success. He took a few more steps forward, not sure what he might see next but a little more than worried. The hatter glanced around, curious to see if there was anyone else experiencing the same...problem.