Welcome to Gaia! ::

Having memories played out like an open venue for others could have gone worse. America only held sympathy for him, and thankfully it didn't seem like pity. A quick brief hug made all the difference in quelling some of his nerves. This Queen was dangerous in that it used emotions to delay battle. Underhanded for sure.

"It'd be nice if somethin' were easy for once." Or straightforward was more like it. It always felt like a complicated puzzle or dance that he'd had no insight on previously. How was he supposed to defeat something if he couldn't hit it normally? Or maybe he wasn't strong enough to fight off his own memories. If he tried again, would America be subjected to his deepest insecurities or worries again? He could only imagine what else his subconscious had in store should he try.

"Well, you got a hit in, at least." Maybe he should give it another try. He couldn't very well stand there scared of his own mind. That would be running away again. And if he'd learned at least one thing here in Wonderland, is that he did too much of that for one life time.

Fail or Win, he had to try.

"Sorry if you get more previews, gurly. M'gunna try and hit her again."

Otto had braced for it. To be taken back to more flashbacks and memories he'd rather keep private. Like most everything he held dear, he always preferred it stay between himself and him. As if reading his intentions, whatever power was at work decided to change the playing field. He was suddenly confronted with secrets. He had plenty of them. Things from before the island to after. Things he'd never want anyone to know, or things he was afraid to admit aloud to himself.

It was a compulsion. He hadn't the power to fight it, nor the ability to control what came from his mouth.

"I.. didn't join the hunters so I could fight shadows like I said I wanted to. I left home cause I was runnin' away from Dad. I was so desperate to get away from him i'd have thrown myself off a cliff if there'd been any in town." This wasn't the sort of impression he'd wanted to give his friend. He'd thought himself better than that. Stronger. Why did he have to reveal his weak points in such a way?

"I run away from everything, and sometimes I'd rather die than face what scares me."

The compulsion left, and he was once again in control of his own voice. He was embarrassed, but more than that... he was angry. He was being made a fool by some self righteous queen bent on a wild and nefarious plot of global proportions. He hated being a play thing, and hated being a puppet on her strings.

There was a memory, one more pleasant, and it brought a smile to his face. It made him remember his own weapon initiation, and how he had been so apprehensive about it at first, but now, it seemed like he wouldn't be able to go on without Chester.

But... that was Armagnac, right? That weapon...

There was another, this time, of him having been impaled. The mere thought of it made him wince, and his hand instinctively touched his side. There was no wound there, of course, but he felt the scar of another wound left by another incident. So... it was her who stayed by his side during that time even then... no doubt... these were...

He heard his name then, and turned.
"Sherry..."
He reached for her, pulling her close.
"Are you ok?"

Sweetm00n blinked in surprise as she found herself, and all the other players, standing in this unknown place before the white queen. She hadn't died? Despite her grumblings, she hadn't actually expected Penumbra to not fight her. And in her mind, if they had tried, they certainly hadn't failed. The thought that they had either stayed true to their promise of retreating from the game, or had actually attempted and then failed, was inconceivable. She wondered if she should message Nightbloom, the only one of them she had really made any connection to, and ask the girl what happened. But it wasn't really the time for that, was it?

Activating her weapon, and expecting her familiar syringe, she blinked as instead a longbow materialized in her hands. Shrugging, she stepped forward, aimed, and fired. At least she tried to, as she squinted down the bow, things didn't seem to want to lign up properly. Wasn't that just perfect. Wasn't that just like what she was doing now? What was she doing? Scrambling around madly trying to 'fight' the game, but actually just playing along? Was she even thinking of escape? Or was she honestly just doing exactly what ALICE wanted? She didn't know, things felt so blurry and out of focus, she couldn't even remember what she wanted from all of this, really. Did she even want to go home?

Jabber was in darkness again. He could sense dimly that he was surrounded by others, but it was too dark to see their faces clearly. The White Queen was there. Her dress had turned into what looked like wings and there were more limbs around her as if she had turned into some kind of bird-octopus demon, except rather than being downright creepy, there was a certain elegance in her movements. He gulped. This was the finale.

He started to move towards the Queen. His body seemed to him strangely heavy as if gravity had increased on him. He wanted to sit down and take a breather, maybe get a shut eye or two, but he dimly knew that he had to keep going, the Queen was not dead yet.

Jabber felt something unwinding around him. He saw his mother.

She had not been very tall (he had always thought that he got his comparatively short height from her), but she was always smiling. His father had fallen in love with a woman of a lower class much to the rest of the very old and pompous family's outrage, but she had been as kind as summer and smarter than most scholars. She had won over most of their hearts within a year after she came into the family.

But Jabber only knew her as his mother.

She was smiling again now just as he remembered she did when he was five. She reached out and pinched his cheek, saying, "Ryou, Ryou, what in the world are you up to now?" just the way she always did whenever she had caught him feeding exotic soap to fish or attached ropes and branches to the rafters, the way she did before sickness took her voice.

She could hear her heart bouncing uncontrollably, she always had a fear of darkness, the rabbit girl felt so unnerved and unsecured. Where is she? What happened to the Wonderland. B.B knew that she wasn't alone, and she could hear the voices of the others. However, as her memory unwound, they become smaller and lower, until there was silence.


It was so dark, she was in a very confined place. She knew air was limited and she felt like suffocated. There was some wet liquids dripping onto her face. Out of air, she couldn't remain full conscious, so she couldn't figure what the liquid was. It dripped down very slowly, drop by drop, at first she guessed it was water. She wasn't able to move, something was pressed her down firmly. Her eyes didn't adjust to the surrounding lights quick and she almost couldn't see anything.

The thing that pressed on her was a little bit warm, but it was getting colder. As the liquid continued to drop, she slowly realized that shouldn't be water as it smelt of fish, sweet but raw. Something was above her and she was exhausted to support that weight.

As time went by and she gradually regained her vision, she knew what was going on finally. The things that were on her back were her sisters, with blood dripping from the severe wounds. "It will be fine. No need to worry." One of them smiled when she noticed she was looking at her direction. The girl was well protected, shielded by the flawless cover that her sisters made. They had been hugging her and smiling even she couldn't see. They were bent down as there were objects above them. The contact of the skin told her that they didn't have much time.

"Please don't go, please stay here with me." The girl begged with cry. They wanted to pet her hair, but their movements were locked. The blood dropped down ruined her newly bought dress. Being so intimate with them, she could feel the drop of temperature dramatically but she was unable to do anything. She knew they were dying and she was so afraid of it. Tears pouring down her face as she struggled to move.

Please don't die.

There was her fear of death.


She shook her her head, realized her memories were being unwound. B.B didn't like most of her past memories because they were miserable and would only give her sad feels again and again.

The Red Queen had been easy to fight, Reine thought- in retrospect, when something was outwardly scary, when it threatened you, it was that much easier to see it as an enemy. But the White Queen- it stayed in the darkness, lurked there, biding its time- the white rabbit herald felt wave after wave of fear wash over her, her hair standing on end. Something was very, very wrong, and the White Queen was very, very dangerous...

She felt compelled to do something, anything, but the closer she tried to move, the more difficult it was to keep her focus on the distant figure. Images flashed through her mind, one after another after another, and Reine stumbled, reeling- there was that time, that one time that she had tried so very hard to forget, even rewrite, all those years ago. She had kissed him back, almost fiercely, giving in to the thoughts of what if, and so what, but then she remembered her, and all she could taste was the bitterness of betrayal. She had shoved him away out the door, out of sight, but not out of her heart, never.