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She hurried away, tried to find a quiet corner to herself. She was shaken after that vision of the future. She didn't want to see her parents again. Not after tasting this glorious independence in Amityville. She would rather stay here in Wonderland than return home. A skittering sound had her turning and came face to face with another mirror.

---------------

Lying came easily to Ruth. Well, not lying exactly. Half-truths and omissions and being as vague and unclear as possible came easily to her. There were, however, specific individuals whom she has determined and decided she should be truthful with. There weren't many of them, one hand just about covered them and had a thumb to spare.

Even now when she had graduated from Amityville and gone to work for one of the many branches of their family. Especially now that she'd worked up the ranks and proven those initial labels and classifications of her skill and ability were grossly inaccurate.

There was to be an award ceremony, a fancy dinner party with a podium and stage and a commemorative plaque and everything! No names would be engraved, naturally, but an Agent would know whose it belonged to all the same. She was allowed to bring a guest, rather she was expected to bring a guest, protocol and reputation and all that candlejacking politics.

The first person she thought of was Brenley. And how the boil would know how to act around her family, he'd indulged her ridiculous behavior back in their Academy days and she couldn't bring herself to lose touch with him. Ruth would never say who put in more effort to maintain their connection because what mattered was it was there.

And when she showed told him, in so many words, about the ceremonies he'd asked if she already had a date. She wanted to bring Brenley. Needed to bring Brenley. But she knew she couldn't, she knew her family would try to use him against her or worse, try to turn him against her. And it would be so easy, given what she was and what they were.

So, despite how he deserved her honesty, Ruth fell back to old habits and nodded at his question.

---------------

That was when Ruth threw her arms around the mirror in an attempt to hug the boil in a tight, breath-constricting embrace. An apology for something she hadn't done but knew she was likely to do. It took her some time to realize the body she was half-crushing wasn't Brenley at all.

[ ROUND 2 - 40 HP / 40 HP ]

For a moment, he only saw himself. But the difference was in the expression, the face shape, the way he held himself. This Chris was different than the Chris he was now. This was an older, confident him. He held himself like the independent punk he used to be. He has a smug grin, like he knew he was the s**t despite the wrinkles beginning to form around his eyes, and he seemed to tilt his face in a way that accentuated his scars rather than hid them.

This was who he would have grown to be had he stayed with Chel. This is the confidence and self assurance he could have had. He didn't need anyone but himself for guidance..

Chris's grip tightened on his chakrams as he watched the reflection of himself. Then, it rippled, and the queens face appeared. He struck out angrily, and the mirror shattered. Behind it was someone else.

"Oh s**t," he cried out, but it was too late to change anything. He'd already struck the person behind the mirror.

[ ROUND 2 REPLY TO Taym/The Waxwing Slain // OrNot/Ripley's HP: 10 / 40 HP ]

Another mirror. Another glimpse into what he could only assume was the future of a stranger. No - this man wasn't a stranger; he remembered this one. This was the man he wore a tracker for. He watched the memory as it played out, almost thankful for the distraction, as terrible as a story as it was. A killer who made apologies but never apologized, driven by loyalty to do a rather dirty deed - but at what point did loyalty to the cause become just a desperate man willing to do what it took to save his own skin? Was there even a line between the two, when it came to Deus? He wasn't sure if the act disgusted him, or if he understood the need to survive.

The thought was interrupted as the mirror shattered; through the shards Ripley saw the dagger, but was much too late to do anything to avoid it. The White Rabbit flinched as the dagger sank into his chest, making him sputter on reflex, a noise that was repeated as the weapon pulled free.

Ripley stared at the Catepillar that had stabbed him, his face a mask as he quickly weighed his options. He had put himself under house arrest to spare this man's life; if this was an honestly plausible future...

"I'm sorry." He said what the other could not, shifting his own weapon in his hands. The sickle fell at his side, bouncing once as the chain holding it pulled tight. It swung once, backwards just enough to get a small amount of momentum. When it swung again it was in a wide arc, coming down on the other man from above with as much force as he could put into it.

Perhaps it was better to put the dog down, before it could be trained to kill it's own.

[ Round 2- Reply to Olivia & Donovan - 20/40 HP ]

There wasn't much time to pull herself back to properly standing before Leslie darted off, but Abbi didn't much mind. He had been crass, but not unkind and she wouldn't soon forget the latter. She tried to smile, but found the motion difficult when the darkness swarmed back in and she was once again alone.
The girl took a breath and headed forward, not sure exactly what she was doing only knowing that those mirrors looked really bad and maybe someone ought to do something about them.
She stopped, however, when one appeared before her. It was just floating there, colorless and image free for a while, enough to stop Abbi's forward motion until the whole thing cracked and a girl pushed through it.
Abbi really did try to move away in time, but two hands found her form and pushed until she had fallen over with a noise onto the ground.
"Hey! Watc--" The girl who had done the pushing looked thoroughly guilty over her actions, of which Abbi could not retaliate against.
"Uh I uh... I-it's ok? Just... Be careful!" Was the only thing she could say to the girl, along with an attempt at a carefree wave of her hand.

Just as Abbi tried to get up, she found another mirror in her path and did not bother waiting around to find out what this one would do. Naturally the person on the other side was quicker and sprang through the shattered shards faster than the girl could retreat. She cried out this time, stumbling backwards.
"That hurt!" She helpfully informed the player before she turned and rushed away, unable to raise her weapon against either person who had attacked her. They seemed genuinely apologetic, how could she?

Being alone like this was terrible, compounded by the fact others were attacking from all sides, everyone just as confused as she. The girl made a pitiful squeaking noise and almost sat back down when she heard someone call her name.
"Over here!" Abbi shouted back automatically, a hand thrown into the air to wave wildly. "I'm over here!" Who had called her? It had been one shout too quick to catch even if she had an inkling and she hadn't at all paid attention before her own name had been called. But she still headed in that direction, desperate to find someone.

[ Round 2 - 10/40 HP ]

"You don't look so great yourself. You're what... One hit behind me? I'm one hit ahead? Maybe it will be like last time and I'll just... Respawn at the Tavern. We'll sit and have drinks. It'll be great." He laughed again, rocking back off of his knees to land on his bottom, eyes drifting around to the mirrors that hovered, wondering which one the next attack would come through.

"I think it's time to turn off the game, man. It was fun at first, but I'm so done with this place."

[ ROUND 2 REPLY TO ITTYBITTYBATTY: ATTEMPTEDMURDER 30 / 40 HP ]


He had no idea what was happening.

One moment he'd been looking at the future - a future he had no doubt would come to past - the next he was trying desperately to get away from someone swinging a weapon at him. Glass shattered everywhere, cascading over his back as Xavier cowered, arms over his head, and he could hear distantly the sound of someone screaming at him.

To be more precise, Helmut was screaming at him.

He swung his weapon blindly at his attacker, stumbling sideways. He didn't know why Helmut was talking about fluffy bunnies, but he lowered his arms slowly, giving her a beseeching, pained look, biting his lower lip. The feathered staff was clutched between his dark hands. He opened his mouth to say something (what, he wasn't sure) -

- and then Helmut was shoving him out of the way, and flames had burst in front of him, bright and hot and orange. Xavier let out a cry of terror, one arm outstretched towards her almost instinctively, though he hadn't realized that he was trying to get to her until he was mid-motion and Drgn was standing there, looking ashamed.

It didn't make any sense.

"Hel - " his voice cracked a little. " - mut - "

[ ROUND 2 REPLY TO HotTea42: 30 HP / 40 HP ]

The sound that came from behind the mirror wasn't the roar of outrage that one might have expected from the Queen in all her fury: no. Instead it was a startled yelp as a self-described dreamboat but, in actuality, kind of small teenager leapt back too late to avoid getting attacked from whoever-it-was on the other side of the mirror. If he himself hadn't just made the same mistake himself, not too long before, he might have attacked in return, might have taken his revenge on whoever dared to slam him and ignore the rest of the battle, but --

"Stop! Hey, stop!" He raised his gun, but it was mostly in warning, blinking widely at the Mad Hatter who appeared as the mirror was smashed to pieces. "She's tricking us and, I don't know, just don't do it! I didn't do anything, come on!"

So long as no more blows came, SpringTooth wasn't going to hurt their side more. After all, the goal here was obviously to take down the Queen, and smashing her mirrors probably wasn't doing that much.

"We need to find the Queen, not lay in to each other." But he hesitated a bit, because if he got drawn into another of those mirrors, he wasn't sure he'd be able to resist attacking again himself...

[ ROUND 2 REPLY TO ASH: 30 HP / 40 HP ]

Pinkie checked out another mirror as her memory faded and left her with a desire to find Mira when she woke up. She watched as a woman was approached by both young and old. She must be powerful, the young goo girl thought. Someone in charge at least, to have all these people coming to her for advice and help. How funny to see this moment right after remembering someone she used to go to for advice all the time...

She yelped as the claws came through the mirror and attacked her. "Sorry!"