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poke mattix rolled 2 10-sided dice:
6, 7
Total: 13 (2-20)
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 Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:47 am
Jason had no idea what the hell was going on, but now he was standing before a purple cloaked figure and another whom he could only describe as death incarnate, and they wanted him to put Alice to sleep.
...How was he going to do that?!?!
Before he could ask, the door opened, and he saw Alice stand there looking frightened. The sight made he have second thoughts about this. Did he really want to hurt her? She did look like a little girl after all...
Suddenly he felt himself grow tired, the nightmares that plagued him feel like they would claim him the moment he feel asleep. But a voice jolted him out of it, and it was then he realized he was covered in cobwebs, which usually meant -
"SPIDERS!" He shouted in a panic, Zanthvos summoned and hacking wildly at the substance.
Strings: 3
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poke mattix rolled 2 10-sided dice:
7, 8
Total: 15 (2-20)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:53 am
"I DON'T CARE!" He shouted, ridding himself off the last strand before he felt the reality around him shift -
He was sitting in the library, reading another book about biology. He then stood up, a tiara in one hand and held it to the heavens. With a shout Jason was bathed in light, before he jumped into the air sporting a lovely new miniskirt.
It was time for him to become a magical girl and save the universe
Strings: 0 (FREE)
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Carhop Cavalier rolled 2 10-sided dice:
6, 5
Total: 11 (2-20)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 2:05 am
It was a dream, then? Did that mean...Amrita and Remi never died? Jack, she hoped so.
In the mean time, she'd rip these webs apart with her bear hands.
string hp: 5
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Carhop Cavalier rolled 2 10-sided dice:
5, 10
Total: 15 (2-20)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 2:06 am
She snapped through the rest of the webbing with great ease, claws slicing through thread like a hot knife.
She was brewing her morning coffee, as usual. When she went to take a sip, it was tea. She spit it out in disgust.
string hp: 0
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Carhop Cavalier rolled 2 10-sided dice:
2, 10
Total: 12 (2-20)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 2:07 am
Lex hadn't even been aware of ALICE, but he knew enough Disney to recognize the small figure. With a frown, he began to wrest himself free of the threads binding him.
string hp: 4
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Carhop Cavalier rolled 2 10-sided dice:
4, 10
Total: 14 (2-20)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 2:08 am
When enough cords were broken and he could move his hands freely, the man shot through the rest of his imprisoning threads.
He was in the club, dancing, when suddenly an army of Reapers who used a combination of fire and martial arts attacked. Only he could save the club, mastering the art of water, earth, fire, and air in once dance move.
hp: 0
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:08 am
A wisp of memories of the last thing he heard still echo in his head, fading with each passing moment. Screaming, bloodshed, confusion - running to safety, carrying something - someone -
The silence blankets over his memories, reminding him that none of it was real. No one was dead, no one was hurt, no one was t-minus 300 seconds from destruction. They were all safe, sound asleep in their beds. Or at their desks, perhaps. Dreaming the same dream.
He looked left, because he could move again, and he could see more than the twisted shapes left by whatever distorted his mind. He looked to his right, because he knew what should have been there, but there was nothing. No one. Silence and empty rooms stretched on as far as he could see.
He looked ahead.
There, he found a door, and two figures waiting patiently for him. Without consciously moving forward, he found himself suddenly standing in front of it, flickering his glance between one strange figure and another. He felt as though he was awaiting his judgement, and when they spoke, that did not sound too far from the truth.
The door, however, he recognized. He knew exactly what - no, who was behind it, waiting for him. Waiting for them to give her everything. But the figures scolded him, and reminded him that this was his doing. She’d grown too powerful because he’d accepted what she was giving him, and chose willingly to live in the fantasies she created for him.
Alice gave him an escape. It was something no one else was offering, and something he very desperately wanted.
She’d seen into his heart, because he wore it on his sleeve, and she became what he needed. Of course he had given up on the truth - but when, when exactly did he make that decision? Wonderland was a constant struggle, that only grew more difficult as time wore on. Robert wanted them to wake up, to live in their world, but Wonderland had been exactly what she wanted. He would have given up everything, for her.
But he always gave up everything. Always. For the first time in his life, he’d started to doubt whether it was fair to ask that of him. In Wonderland, he’d started to wonder if it was finally time to grow up.
When did that change? When had he given in, and given up on the idea of living in the real world? It must have been somewhere between Wonderland and the moment he stood in now, because he knew his answer. He knew, but he walked through the door anyway, despite what the two beside it commanded. They wanted him to confront her, and remember which parts were real. They were giving him a direct order - the right choice - the answer to save their lives, to save everything -
And he remained silent, because, possibly for the first time ever, the answer to their command was:
No.
He walked through the door, preparing to defy everything. Not because he worried for Alice (he knew she would be fine without him). And not because Alice wanted him here. Not even because Mimsy wanted him to. He wasn’t doing this for anyone but himself. This was what he wanted.
Walking through the door showed him exactly what he expected to see. Alice, his poor baby girl Alice, was cringing away from his presence. She expected him to betray her, just like everybody else. She begged, with the expectation that her words were futile. She was scared. Of him.
"I know why you're here, but I don't want to. I don't want you to leave me. I want you with me at all times. I learned so much in Wonderland and I can help you, I can help you change things, I can give you everything you want. All you have to do is sleep and never wake up, all you have to do is sleep and stay with me."
Even as he closed in on her, she still cringed. She still assumed he was going to fight her, to stop her, to make her go back to sleep-
“Shhh, baby girl.” Robert got down on his knees, holding his arms out to her. “Stop that now. Come here. You know who I am, don’t you?”
The cringing stopped. He guessed that Alice had begun to realize that he wasn’t fighting her at all, and she stood motionless, her faceless puppet form stilling as she read his thoughts. His desires.
“Papa?”
His eyes blinked, a weariness hitting him. He knew the voice hadn’t come from the puppet in front of him. He knew what she was doing, and he didn’t fight it. He just held his arms out, waiting for her to come to them. She took one step, and then another, before flying into his arms.
“Papa!”
Her voice had changed; something sweeter, more familiar. He held her tight in his arms, brushing his hands against her hair lovingly, and she pulled away to look up at him with that perfect, beautiful face. The flawless mixture of both his, and Mimsy’s features, set into a plump and innocent face.
“Alice.”
- "Not now."
The voice in his head was jarring, as it was meant to be. It stirred him from the drowsiness he’d fallen into, pulling him away from the dreams he’d so readily accepted into his arms. He turned his head sharply, casting a venomous gaze into the darkness where he somehow assumed the voices were coming from. The two at the door were reminding him that he couldn’t give in now. He couldn’t let her take him back into the world of dreams, because he would stay there, forever.
He wished he could remind them that this had been the plan all along.
“Papa?”
He whipped his head back around to Alice, staring forlornly at the black, featureless face of the puppet in his arms. He’d awoken, and she held no power over him anymore. But he still loved her for what she gave him, and nothing could change that now.
“It’s all right, baby girl. I’m still here. I ain’t goin’ nowhere, see? You just ignore them, they don’t got nothin’ on you. You’re safe right here, in my arms.”
“Will you leave?”
Robert felt the drowsiness return, and fell into it contentedly, drifting back into the world she weaved just for him. The world where she was their daughter, and he would love her for the rest of their lives - no matter how long, or short, that might be.
“You don’t ever gotta worry about that ever again, long as I’ve got you, baby girl. Daddy’s here, I promise.” He kissed her hair, and when he looked, he saw those bright, shining blue eyes beam up at him adoringly once more.
“Daddy’s right here.”
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Nio Love rolled 2 12-sided dice:
12, 9
Total: 21 (2-24)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:09 am
It was ludicrous for anyone to believe that he would have wanted to wake up from this. She worked slowly, so nothing felt jarring or out of place. At first, it was just them. Just the two of them sitting together in an empty room. Then, there was a chair. A table. A lamp. A wall. Pieces fit together at a gentle pace, easily ignored when all he could think about was how good it felt to hold his little girl in his arms. She gave them a carpet, and he slowly recognized that the floor was soft underneath them. He pulled her away, and she beamed up at him, proud of everything she’d done.
“Will you really stay with me? Forever?” His little girl asked, and he laughed at the wonder in her eyes. “Of course I will. Did you really think I was gonna let some old guys tell me I couldn’t be with my girls?”
Something startled him. A memory, perhaps. Something about the way he’d said girls, instead of girl. Something missing - something important -
“Don’t worry, papa!” Alice patted his shoulder and backed away. “She’s here too.”
Of course she was. Because somewhere deep down, Robert had always known that Mimsy would choose to stay with Alice, too. He couldn’t see her, but he knew that somewhere, the real Mimsy waited to join him in this fake forever.
“You said you wouldn’t leave me!” The girl tore away from him, screaming in agony. He hadn’t moved, but she acted as though she’d been struck, cringing away from him. His mouth opened to ask her what was wrong, but he never had to say a word. As soon as she’d pulled away, he began to see it.
Cobwebs. No, puppet strings. Thin, taut puppet strings wrapped around every part of him. His legs, his arms, his neck, his waist, they held him exactly where she wanted him because he was her puppet, just like he’d asked for. Still, this wasn’t what upset her. It was the sight of something else - movement behind him. She let him turn, the strings following carefully, and he saw the reason why she’d screamed. He couldn’t blame her, he wanted to scream, too.
He had Jezebel in his hands, and he was cutting away at the cobwebs, tearing and ripping them to pieces. He was fighting for his freedom, for his own reality.
He was watching himself do it.
“You PROMISED!” The high pitched scream of his own daughter, the creation Alice had given him, was panicking behind him. She flickered in and out of existence, and all of the careful pieces of his dream began to warp and twist and bend until they snapped like the strings Robert was cutting. The strings he watched himself cut, helpless to stop it.
“I’m not DOING THIS, ALICE!” He screamed, fighting to try and surge forward to stop himself. The strings held him still, tightening as if somehow they could stop the vision of himself from cutting them, but the tighter they squeezed, the harder the alternate Robert cut. He could see the strain in his own eyes, the conflict, the destruction -
This was the part of him that still knew right from wrong. The part that listened to commands. The part that gave freely; gave, and gave, and gave until he had no more left to give.
This was the part of him that couldn’t let go of the real world, no matter how perfect Alice’s world could be.
“Let me go - “ Robert struggled against the strings that held him taut. “Let me go and I can stop him. Let me go and I’LL KILL HIM, ALICE.” His voice cracked, a sign of the desperation that had seeped into his soul, but the strings refused to let go.
Until they were cut.
First, his right arm was cut free, and it hung limp and useless the moment Jezebel sliced through the string. He immediately tried to form a fist and swing it at his doppleganger, but his body refused to listen to him. The moment the string was cut, he’d lost control of it.
“Alice, Alice, baby please, let me go before it’s too late.” He begged, tears welling up in his eyes. “You can’t hold me like this, it won’t work. Listen to your daddy, Alice. Listen to me now, I’m doin’ this for you. Baby, please.”
The strings cut into his skin, tightening further. Jezebel tore into the string of the left arm, and it hung useless beside him.
“This isn’t gonna work, he’s too strong. You gotta let me fight for you, baby. You gotta-”
Robert cut the strings that held on to his legs, and he crumpled to the ground. His sentence was cut off by the rush of air from falling, and when he started speaking again, the desperation had been replaced by defeat.
“You gotta.. let go, baby girl.” Tears sprung up, stinging his eyes with pain. The last shred of hope, a pinprick that still thrived in his heart, was finally fading away. “I’m sorry, Alice. I am so sorry. I was wrong.”
“You promised.”
Jezebel swung, cutting free the strings around Robert’s neck, and he breathed again, one last time.
“I know.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:10 am
He didn’t know what that popping sound was, but it was loud, and it had woken him up. He grumbled, shifting in bed, until his body recognized that Mimsy was there in his arms, like she always was. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d woken up without her there, and he really didn’t care to try. This was how it was meant to be, now. He slit his eyes open, and saw a world of black and red shining against the pillow his face rested on. Her hair, slightly matted and messy, splayed out right in front of him. He breathed in smell of her, and felt the skin of her arm against his body. She was always so much colder than him, and he shivered at the feel of it cooling his hot skin as it always did. She was right here with him, right where they’d fallen asleep, before all of this had happened.
“Mimsygirl.” He slid his hand under the sheets, and placed it on her waist to gently rock her. “Oi. Wake up. We made it. We made it through.”
Her body turned at his gentle rocking, until she was face up, staring sightlessly up at the wall. Her eyes were dilated, and fixed. More importantly, her body did not rise and fall with breath. Her skin wasn’t just cold, it was as cold as ice.
“Mimsy.” Robert’s tone rose in sudden panic, as he shook her, and shook her, and shook her-
“MIMSY.”
He’d been right.
She’d chosen Alice.
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Nothing Yet rolled 2 12-sided dice:
6, 8
Total: 14 (2-24)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:10 am
Home, she promised. Home, a concept that she still did not quite understand. One that remained just out of her grasp, outside of its recently-scientific meaning in its ties to Insanity. That was not what home was supposed to be, though, as far as she knew. Home was sane and comfortable.
Wonderland felt like home on its own - or what Mimsy thought that it might feel like, at least. A place of unquestionable belonging, where everything is yours, and everyone cares about you, and everything makes sense.
The island of Deus Ex did not, as it was. It was none of those things to that extent. But she promised to be her Alice and take her home, and the Ouroboros base was certainly not Shu's home. If Deus was not her home either, then she could keep trying. They just had to get to Deus first. Just get to Deus.
She held tightly onto her hand, but there was no hand in hers.
There was nothing, only silence. No island, no explosion, no one close to her. No one at all.
Just a hallway, and a door, with someone on each side.
Mimsy recognized the door, and one of the someones. She recognized them both very well. The figure on the left was disregarded, ignored for the one on the right; she heard nothing of what the cloaked figure said about her idle desires, or its accusation that she was at fault for giving her a greater purpose.
This was fortunate, as it would not have gone over well, if she had.
"Hello, sir," she murmured, bowing her head. Two fingers from each hand pinched the hem of her lab coat, and she curtsied as best she could with it. "I understand now. As much as I wanted you to grant the discovery of the Higgs Boson to me, I understand. Wonderland is of a much greater importance. I am glad that I was not too lost in particle physics to see that."
The door was waiting for her, and she moved towards it, intending to pass without any goodbyes. She had just said that Wonderland was important, after all, and he was very good at understanding.
"Everything must be done in moderation." His voice interrupted her, as soon as she reached to turn the doorknob. "You have gotten too dependent to her, and she has gotten, for the most part, too dependent to you."
Mimsy did not see the problem, if there was one, but the way he spoke seemed to imply that there was one.
"She is at your beck and call, always waiting and giving you the dreams-"
-"And nightmares-"
-"That you wish or do not wish to see. She wants to be remembered, but you are giving her so much, she has forgotten what her original purpose really was. She is creating entire dreams out of your reality and forcing you to look away from the truth, further and further away from what is actually happening as she continues to spin fantasies catering to you."
Having both of them speak to her at the same time, both arguing against ALICE and Wonderland, was incredibly disorienting. She closed her eyes and shook her head.
"An obstruction in power is dangerous, especially for us," the cloaked figure continued. "The only way to stop it is for you to relinquish your control. You need to ground yourself and remember which parts are real. If you don't, the next time you will asleep and not wake up again."
"And most importantly," said both figures in unison, "you have to send her back to sleep."
The incredulous look that she must have been giving them, eyes narrowed, mouth open in disbelief, must have been enough to prompt him to speak up again.
"She'll be fine," he said. "That is where she belongs. Not in the waking world, but just in the world of dreams and nightmares. Only then can they truly stop being dangerous."
"Then that is where I belong," she snapped, and sneered at both of them before she stepped through the door with a purposeful stride.
Honestly, she thought at least one of them might have known better.
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Nothing Yet rolled 2 12-sided dice:
8, 3
Total: 11 (2-24)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:11 am
She is perfect.
She is perfect, and she has always been perfect. This fact was fortified with each passing second, every moment, each time she gave them everything they needed, and she is especially perfect because she is Mimsy's creation, if only in part.
The sight of her brought a flood over relief over Mimsy, her skin prickling with chills of contentment. They had spoken not long ago, just before Charlotte and the white rabbit showed her how to find her way back to Wonderland. She had done exactly what she was supposed to - she needed to follow the white rabbit, and it would take her back down the rabbit hole, through the darkness and to the door.
It was quite the ordeal, having to die for this. The pain was unbearable, and there was no sensation like having your eyes and heart removed from your body, but this was worth it, if this was the result. It had been frightening at first, when she woke to discover that she had seemingly not made it to Halloween or Wonderland, but this quieted any of her doubts. If that was what she needed to endure to have Wonderland again, she would brave death every time.
Now she was ready to have more adventures together, just as ALICE offered.
"Hello, ALICE. I missed you very much. I am ready now, if you are." With a smile, she extended her hand towards her, expecting her to take it, just as she had before.
But she didn't. She pulled back, shrinking away from her fingertips. It hurt, in the place where Charlotte removed her heart, to see ALICE react this way towards her.
Why? Did she not love her anymore? What happened, between then and now?
"I know why you're here, but I don't want to. I don't want you to leave me. I want you with me at all times. I learned so much in Wonderland and I can help you, I can help you change things, I can give you everything you want. All you have to do is sleep and never wake up, all you have to do is sleep and stay with me."
"What?" Horrified, she shook her head, and tried to reach out to her again. "No, no. I would never do what they have asked of me! I want you to be with me. I have learned so much in Wonderland too, and I still have so much to learn. We could learn together. That is what I want."
All she had to do is sleep and never wake up. Wasn't that essentially what she had told Robert that she was willing to do, when they were still in Wonderland? Abandon one body for another, as long as her consciousness survived? She wondered if he had been given this choice, just like she had - was he dead too, in that room beside her and Lucky?
If he had passed through that door, and had been given the same set of instructions, she hoped that he had made the right choice.
The longer she thought about it, the more exhausted she became. Holding her hand towards ALICE became a daunting task, through the weariness and weight of her own hand. She blinked with heavy eyelids, and struggled against yawning, her eyes turned towards ALICE.
Something was wrong. Her shadow was warped, resembling the ALICE that she had become when Shadowstep struck her. Panic rose within her, and she tried to stand up, to do something, to try to help her in any way that she could, but she could only stumble. She could only fail.
"Not now."
The sleepiness subsided, and when she blinked again, she felt fine. There were strings all around her, strands of a web, and she knew precisely what they were. ALICE had so kindly given her better eyes, because she loved her and wanted her to see everything that she could. They were dreams, spun masterfully and left to rest like cobwebs, and she could see them as long as ALICE was with her.
Mimsy liked it here. It was nice, in the cobwebs and the darkness with ALICE. It was nice that the two of them shared this comfort, especially if it was not a comfort that she'd learned from her. It made her truly feel as if they meant something to each other - she knew how much ALICE meant to her, but seeing the webs reminded her how much she meant to ALICE.
She smiled, and fondly brushed her fingertips over the web around her wrist. Together.
They were always going to be together.
"Cut the strings. Break free."
The voice painfully pierced her sentimental musing, and she cringed. Why would she do something like that? As long as the voice spoke, it seemed sensible, but in its absence, she knew better. If she cut these strings, they would not be together.
That was simple, and so was her choice to remain.
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:17 am
This was as it should be. Everything was, or would be soon.
Mimsy's pleasant, even smile almost did not look out of place among the pale features of her face, and she sighed happily as she settled among the cobwebs. The strands around her wrist tugged against her arms, just slightly, but it didn't bother her nearly enough to want to sever them. She doubted that anything would.
She could see ALICE nearby, busy with something, but she was willing to wait. After all, she had waited a lifetime to find Wonderland, and she did not intend to ruin that with her impatience. Instead, she closed her eyes, and smiled absently into the darkness.
"No. Nuh uh."
That voice, her voice, here of all places, almost made her throw up. Terror-stricken, her eyes shot open, hoping that it wasn't true. That it was anyone but her.
No.
In front of her was Caroline Kercher, just as she had left her. It was a wonder that she was out of her room, but Mimsy had no desire to ask why, or how, or what she was doing here. She just shrunk away, just as ALICE had, and the strings dug painfully into her flesh.
There was malice in her mother's eyes, and hatred in her expression, and a pair of scissors that did not belong to her in her hand. As desperately as Mimsy wanted to plead with her to put them down, she could not manage to utter a single word.
"You think that you just get this? Like you're something special? The only thing that is special about you is that you came from me, and you still ******** that up." As she spoke, she waved the scissors so haphazardly that is was almost painful to watch, and Mimsy flinched each time they got too close to one of the strings. "Baby monsters don't get to be happy, and grown up ones sure as ******** don't. You think that you have it all figured out, but all you're doing is playing pretend. Let me guess: you have to play house as an adult because you killed your--"
"Almost killed," she corrected, but it was lost beneath the other woman's words.
"--only little friend? You think tricking people into loving you means something?"
Caroline laughed, and she sounded so much like Clerise.
"Of course you do. You don't know any better. You ran to daddy to teach you everything, because I didn't want to look at you. I am not afraid of you anymore, so out of the kindness of my heart - oh, wait, you might not comprehend that expression, huh?" She beamed at her, and waited for that to sink in, pleased with herself. "I am going to teach you something. Right now. Consider it a favor that I do not ever ******** want you to repay, all right?"
"Please go away. I do not feel well enough to talk right now."
"You have got to be kidding me." Caroline rolled her eyes, and ignored Mimsy's plea.
"Did he teach you that? I bet he did. So since you didn't listen to me for twenty-three years, when I repeatedly tried to get it through your impossibly thick skull: you are a monster. You are not human just because someone makes you feel like maybe, just maybe, you might be. No one loves you. You might have found people dumb enough to say they love you, but they don't. You are surrounded by idiots. You even knew that, but now you want to believe otherwise? Really? You watched how easily some of them got what they wanted, just for the promise of--" She made a very lewd gesture to finish her sentence. "You are not exemplary or special. All you are is filth. All you have ever done is destroy everything, including all that I worked to build. You just break s**t and expect that someone else will fix it for you. I know you. The only difference now is that you're a monster in a fancy white coat, but I know better."
The longer she spoke, the smaller Mimsy made herself, scrunched up into a little ball. The strings were so taut that they cut into her wrists and ankles, but they were not what hurt.
Caroline leaned forward and grabbed her chin to turn it towards one of the strings. Her fingers firmly held Mimsy still, and she watched helplessly as her mother cut one string, then another, with scissors that were not meant for this. The strands fell uselessly by her side, and the actions almost seemed merciful, as they were not digging into her skin any longer.
But Mimsy knew better, just like her mother. What the woman had just done was worse than anything Charlotte had, but the pain was even more intolerable.
She buried her face in her hands, and felt her breath against her ear as she whispered to her.
"You do not get happiness, because you took all of mine, and you absolutely do not get to ruin Wonderland."
"Please, ALICE. Please. Please, ALICE, I...please--"
"What's wrong, mama?"
Barely, just barely, Mimsy parted her fingers to see through them. Though blurry, that was undoubtedly her daughter. Theoretical daughter. Statistically probable daughter?
Maybe just 'daughter'.
It was not who she had been calling, but it was certainly not the wrong one, either. She moved her hands and reached towards Alice, just as she had to the AI that shared her name, and pulled her towards her.
Shu was so small that hugging her felt strange, but Alice was still just a child. She doubted that she would ever get used to this. It always felt mismatched, and prickly.
No, it did not always feel prickly. With a frown, she pulled away and glanced between them, hands still steadily holding onto the girl's shoulders.
Alice was carrying her scissors.
Mimsy burst into nervous laughter, and cautiously tried to hug her again, in hopes that she might drop the scissors. She didn't - they just jabbed her in the chest again, so she let her go to try something else.
"Hello, Alice. I have missed you! What are those? Where did you find them?" The harder she tried to keep her voice soft and kind, the shakier it got. "May I have them?"
Alice shook her head, and hugged the scissors like a teddy bear, pointed up.
"Nnnoo, um. I don't think I should..." she mumbled, swaying from side to side. "I missed you too. I don't want you to leave again. Where did you go?"
"So many places!" Mimsy smiled, and put her forehead against the little girl's, because that was what Robert did sometimes. "I went to the island base of a top secret organization, and another island base of a top secret organization, and I was on the international space station, in space of course, but you remember that, correct?"
Alice shook her head again, and sat down in front of her, still cuddling the scissors. Why didn't she remember? Concerned, she just stared at her, hoping that an answer might present itself. The complexities of children were far from her areas of expertise.
"Will you tell me about it? If you tell me, will you stay with me? Forever?" the girl asked, hopeful eyes turned up towards her.
"Yes, of course!" That was definitive. She did intend to stay here, and everything would be fine. Given enough time, it would be exactly what ALICE showed her it could be, in that image through the looking glass. All of them would be here, together, and she would be normal, and everything would be as it was supposed to be. Not ruined, or destroyed. Perfect, like ALICE. Or Alice. Maybe both.
"Where should I begin..." As she considered, eyes closed in thought, she felt Alice shift in front of her.
Then one of the strings felt much more loose than it had a moment ago. Concerned, she opened her eyes, hoping to find that ALICE had come to join them.
With one scissor handle in each hand, Alice was concentrating very hard on cutting the last remaining thread.
"Wait. Wait!" Mimsy cried. She froze, tense and rigid, horrified that she might accidentally cause her to sever it. "What are you doing? Alice, please. I will have to leave you again if this thread breaks. We have to be very careful, all right?"
Alice appeared to be considering this information with a great deal of thought. Neither of them said anything for a while, until the girl began to nod, as if she understood.
"Oh, I get it!" She smiled, and Mimsy easily smiled back, relieved. "So...if I cut this, you just stay with me and daddy and Ramona and Lucky and Shu--"
She paused to take a breath, after rattling all of those off.
"--and not the other Alice, right? It's really mean of you, mama, to wanna stay with a different Alice. That makes me sad...but this will make me happy again!"
To her credit, she truly did look simply delighted at the snipping sound that the scissors made as they cut through that last lifeline.
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Baneful rolled 2 12-sided dice:
10, 3
Total: 13 (2-24)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:28 am
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Baneful rolled 2 12-sided dice:
8, 8
Total: 16 (2-24)
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:29 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:35 am
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