Welcome to Gaia! ::

For the first time in a while, Robert's expression smoothed with fulfillment. He wanted to help Renee from afar, but he had no idea how to do that. He should have known that the answer was ask Mimsy, because that was the answer to everything. He should have known. He always should have known.

He brushed the backs of his fingers up and down her neck, eyes transfixed on her pale skin and the movement against it. "I'd really like that." He admitted, turning his beaming smile back to her; where it belonged.

But her eyes were distant, watching a different mirror. He hesitated to look, but never wanted to leave her alone to suffer. Luckily, this vision held no suffering as far as he could tell.

It was absolutely breathtaking. And it was exactly the kind of beauty that made him think of her. That made it perfect.

When the mirror smashed, he felt disoriented at the change of scenery, rendering him oblivious to the shards tearing into his skin. Everything felt wrong, here. He wanted to return her to that vision, or at least, return her to the safety Wonderland gave her. The smiles and the joy and the life she'd exhibited in this world.

"We are dying."

She didn't read his mind, but she might as well have. She'd been slowly dying from the moment she'd been reborn, she just couldn't have known - because the end was always coming. No matter how they ignored it, how they distracted away from it, how they reveled in their ignorance of it - the end had been waiting for them from their very first step.

But she accepted it, now. Bitter, and betrayed, she accepted it.

Robert rested his head on her shoulder and pressed her body flush against him. His wings wrapped around her in a cocoon. All the sound, the breaking glass, the screams - they were muffled by his embrace. And he could whisper, quiet and intimate. She would hear him, now.

"I'm still not leaving you." He reminded her. "Okay? We were going to die, no matter what. I wanna do everything with you. Everything. If I gotta die, I'm glad I die with you."

He breathed her in, slowing time down with nothing more than his own stubborn will. "Dear Mimsygirl." His voice hitched, but a quality returned to it, familiar only from their time in Wonderland. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

[ Round 2 - HP 20/40 ]

While he had been fussing over Natt and Am he had taken his eyes off Arland. He knew it had been a bad idea, ‘Land never listed to anyone when they told him something that was for his own good, but he’d thought maybe just this one he’d do it. ‘Land was in pretty bad shape so there was that sliver of hope that he wouldn’t be able to pull himself to his feet and get into trouble.

He had of course thought wrong.

The sound of shattering glass broke through his distraction and he turned his head just in time to see Arland’s form falling back. “ARLAND!” He scrambled up from where he had been crouched down checking on Natt to try to reach his friend. Maybe it wasn’t too late, maybe he could get out his pocket card in time and that ability card would still be there. He could save him and they could get out of this together like they should. “Nonononono…”

He knew he wouldn’t make it in time as Arland’s form hit the ground, the sound of the shield clanging against the floor the only sound that penetrated the screaming in his head. “NO!” He skidded onto his knees as he reached Arlands side, grabbing onto the edge of a coat that was already starting to flicker.

“You can’t leave me here alone!” He couldn’t do it alone. He couldn’t do it with the fear that he might wake up and Arland wouldn’t. The fear that he’d have to go back home and walk past the other’s empty dorm room to get to his own, that someone else would eventually take it over. “You can’t leave me here, you … you cant…” His voice cracked as the puppet form returned to its original base state. Whatever was left of Arland leaving the doll and leaving him with empty hands.

His hands started to shake, first out of grief and then out of anger. How could people keep attacking the mirrors when all they ever did was hurt someone else. He’d hurt Natt and now someone had killed Arland and there was no guarantee they were just going to come back.

His vision started to blur around the edges as he felt every bit of anger he’d been holding back about this place start to boil over. There was a tiny voice in the back of his head that told him to keep it under control but it was drowned out by the rage at the game, at ALICE, at whoever had hurt Arland.

… whoever had hurt him.

“You!” He snarled as he turned toward the mirror and whoever would be standing on the other side. “You did this. You saw all the lies the Queen was showing and thought that attacking would be a good idea. Like that wouldn’t’ be another lie too. YOU KILLED HIM.” He shouted as he pushed himself to his feet and launched himself at the other player.

“I haven’t…” He replies to Davey’s first question, and he looks rather embarrassed about it. “I had to… I hate to be at home… you don’t exactly do field trips and human studies where I live.”

He lets Davie answer the next question about why he has an issue with him like he’s interested as well, but ends up scoffing before Dreadpirate’s next vision hits.
“Oh come on… I’d never fit under a bed.


His voice trails off for a moment as the vision plays out in the mirror, his large mouse ears twisting in curious response to the happenings. “You have to get her out of here safe…” He starts to say as another mirror materializes behind him, moments before it comes crashing down around him and he’s suddenly sprawling in the dirt with a look of pain. He looks more like a discarded doll in that moment than a proper marionette.

[ ROUND 2 REPLY TO CHARACTER NAME HERE: 1 / 40 HP ]

Write their reaction to the mirror prompt they saw from the other player. Struck down over a dream he wasn’t even paying mind to? Struck down by someone who looks like someone he probably goes to school with. It’s somehow just one more downgrade to this terrible nightmare. He shakes his head and waves her off though it’s clear he’s struggling to get up again.

((He has one more card to roll or He’d be flat out down <3))







[quote="kalindara"

A mirror shatters. Shards fly past his face, slicing along his cheek. Something else strikes his head, hard. He catches it as it falls. A strange looking dagger, though luckily it hadn't hit him blade-first.

He shoots a deathly glare at the Cheshire Cat who threw the knife. "Watch it," he snaps. He throws the dagger back - but despite his annoyance, he's not aiming to hit the guy, just return the weapon.

He turns back to the guy he hit earlier. The player lies on the floor is still on the floor, when Davey's punch knocked him. "Do you need a hand?" he asks. But the other player isn't moving.

"Hey," Davey says. He takes a step forward. "Are you...? God, don't tell me I--" But he did. He just killed someone. Dropping to one knee, he reaches out to the fallen player.

"You don't have to protect everyone all the time..." the Hatter whispers before his eyes flutter closed.

Davey reels back at the words from the mirror scene. This player - HotTea42 - saw that scene, too? He wonders what the tattooed Hatter was thinking, to repeat those words back. Did that mean he understood Davey hadn't meant to hit him? That the post-battle Deus scene struck a familiar chord in him? (A fellow Hunter?)

"I didn't mean to," Davey whispers, clambering back onto unsteady feet. His stomach is a ball of ice. He hadn't meant to hit Pachua, let alone some random guy who might have been a Hunter or a civilian as far as he knows.

"You!" an unfamiliar voice yells. It's followed by another white Hatter, who launches himself at Davey. "YOU KILLED HIM."

Davey flinches even as his body reacts on instinct, grabbing the guy and holding him at arm's length. "I'm sorry!" he near-yells. "I didn't mean to hurt him. Just... calm down! This won't help anything. We all need to work together if we hope to beat her." His face is twisted and his voice is uneven. Even though he's speaking calm, rational words, he doesn't feel calm. There's a shake in his arms that this guy can surely feel as Davey tries to hold him at bay. "No one's been able to resist hitting the mirrors - it must be something she's doing to us. We can't keep fighting each other over it, or she wins."

He'd been doing so well earlier, too, fighting off all but her first attempt to distract him by pulling out memories. Azrael still has his mind locked down, but the mirrors are completely different - physical instead of mental, and somehow evoking a different effect.

"I'm gonna let you go, okay?" he tells the second Hatter, Drgnzord. "I really am sorry about your friend. And I'm sure he'll be fine once this twisted dream-game is over. But we need to win in order for that to happen. We beat the game, everybody wakes up and it's situation normal again. Okay?"

He hopes Drgnzord can listen through his anger. Davey releases him anyway. There are bigger problems to deal with right now.

Pachua is shamefully admitting he doesn't get out much. Davey has no idea what to do with a monster who has zero clue that he's standing in front of his natural enemy. Pachua isn't behaving much like a monster at all. It's confusing. (Is it a trick?)

“You have to get her out of here safe…” Pachua is saying.

Davey grits his teeth. The monster has the same idea as Davey. He doesn't like that. "That's the plan," he bites out. Not that he knows how, especially with Joy's side effect looking like it will do more damage than any hits she might take.

He starts at the sound of another mirror breaking, but it isn't aimed at him this time. Almost in slow motion, he watches Pachua fall. He's startled to see that the attacker is a blue-skinned Caterpillar - he has doubts that she's human. It seems wrong to see Pachua under attack from one of his own kind, but then again he can't be sure if the person he killed or the guy who hit him were human or not.

Pachua tries to rise, arms gathering under himself to push, but collapsing. Davey watches his struggle like he watching a movie of something that happened to someone else. One step forward, a second, and it's almost like someone else is controlling his body.

~What are you doing?~ Azrael demands flatly.

"Right now you're just a mouse," he tells Pachua, answering Azrael at the same time. "You couldn't feed on anyone here if you tried. And nothing that happens here is going to effect what happens in the real world, so... fighting here is pointless. We have a bigger threat right now."

He extends a hand down to Pachua. "Get up."

[ ROUND 2 REPLY TO SpringTooth: HP 20/ 40 HP ]

The other had become a weapon, somehow, and Noah's first reaction was to recoil, horrified at the imprisonment implicit in the vision. And then Laz stirred curiously in his mind. NOT SO BAD, his own weapon said.

The mirror shattered while Noah stood frozen, processing the implications of the juxtaposition. He took the blow without protest, backed away shaking his head slowly. Panic fluttered in his eyes.

Joy tried to understand what Davey and Tea were saying, tried to piece things together with what she knew and remembered. Her eye widened at the things that went bump in the night. How, how could he know about those? She opens her mouth to speak when the vision flashes before her.

It felt like watching one of those romantic movies. The rare few good ones where you actually want the characters together, rather than those shitty rom-coms that make you want to punch the writer in the throat. And, oh, oh God, it's... it's them, isn't it? Her and Davey? And Joy's first thought was That explains the kids, which was quickly followed by But we've only known each other a few days!

She prayed she wasn't blushing, she can't tell if her cheeks were hot. But then, she didn't need to as the mirror was broken and. And. Oh, oh s**t, instinct has her moving forward, or trying to move forward. She remained rooted to the spot, cursing her immobility and complete lack of ability to do anything as she slowly turned to stone.

Pachua was attacked, as was Davey, and all she could do was stand there like the statue she would eventually become at this rate. She doesn't feel anything but the anger and frustration and the heavy numbness that's practically enveloped her entire body. She wants to help, to protect, to cheer, to do ******** something.

"Anyone else in the mood to hit someone, hit me. I won't feel it," she rasped at the Hatter that attacked Davey, then slowly turned her head to the others, the sound of grating stone too loud in her ears. Her forehead beaded in sweat from the effort to force her stone hands into fists, desperation audible in her voice as she declared, "I refuse to be dead weight!"

[ Round 3 -- 30 / 40 HP -- Roll 3 / 3 ]




"Joy--" he starts forward when someone strikes her.

She's immediately forgiving, so he backs down. Then he sees the tear in her clothes and the grey flesh beyond that. No, he corrects himself, not flesh. Her torso has turned to stone. His throat tightens. It's spreading so fast...

With everything else that's going wrong, of course he locks eyes with another mirror. They must be constantly shifting, moving to intercept players who now know better than to look directly at them.


There's very little to do these days. Wake up, pick a shady spot, keep an eye on the area, sleep once it gets dark. The portal is a steady, faint hum in his mind and ears - or os he thinks, maybe he's just imagining it.

The air is warm but not too humid. The canopy overhead filters out the worst of the sunlight while leaving him warm patches for catnaps. Grass on the ground, large trees to lean against, a babbling stream not too far away. It's nicer than the last place he guarded a portal, that's for sure.

Once again, it's a solo, remote posting. He has no one to talk to or spend his days with. That's okay, though. He doesn't feel lonely. He still has Azrael. And if it's getting harder to tell their thoughts apart, feeling less like there's a separate presence in his head, well, it's not like he has anyone to report it to.

Maybe it should go in his communications back to HQ, he thinks. Almost immediately he decides against it. The sun is warm and he's comfortable where he is. There's no sense in getting dragged back to HQ for what's probably nothing.


Davey hisses as he breaks the mirror - he shouldn't, but who knows who saw that or where it was heading next. (It looked faintly treasonous and he refuses to be punished for something that hasn't even happened.)

He hits the mirror with the side of his fist, trying to be more careful this time. As his gauntlet passes through the glass, he feels it connect with something beyond that.

"Oh hell, I'm so sorry," he apologises to the red-haired Rabbit girl. "Are you okay?"

No sooner had she made the offer, Joy was treated to another show. It was like one of those psychological thrillers that she tended to get too antsy to watch for too long. Another mirror shatters, and this time she heard rather than felt herself shoved back.

She gave the guy an understanding smile, as if to say no harm, no foul. It took her a moment to realize that where the other player's card-axe struck, the fabric of her coat and shirt had ripped open to reveal the gash the weapon had carved into her greyed torso. Well, ********, what do you say to that?

"I'm alright, I swear, I'm alright. It doesn't hurt," she chuckled weakly while wishing with all her heart she could feel the pain.