And the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all...

[makebelieveavenger]

Characters: Alice Liddell and You!
Date: Throughout August (partially backdated bc I got eaten by bday shenanigans)
Location: Throughout Aifaran
Situation: Childhood event + open starters for later in the month
Warnings/Rating: Warnings for mental illness, hallucinations, and allusions to tragic backstory involving dead family.



I. A Tiny Trouble - (Backdated, August 8th-14th)

a; The Death of a Dream

"Oh, Lizzy just has to see you!" A very small Alice proclaimed. She appeared to be about seven or eight, and her face was split into a bright smile - the kind that never crossed her older counterpart's face. She had followed a stray bibiru down an alley and scooped the creature into her arms. Even then, the poor creature was a bit too big for her and it dangled limply, clearly used to tolerating the attentions of small children.

"Lizzy- Lizzy come see! It's a rabbit with wings!" She called over her shoulder, looking around for her older sister. But she was alone.

Her excitement faded as she looked around nervously now.

"...Lizzy?"


b; A Long Lost Friend

"My dear rabbit," the young Alice exclaimed when she found the stuffed toy among a pile of rubbish, "you're looking terribly shabby. Not at all fit to see the queen. She'll have your head if she sees you in this state."

Alice put on a very severe expression as she scrutinized the battered toy, giving it a fond kiss that it might know just how cross she was with it.

"Your pocket watch has gone too," she tutted, turning it over for further inspection, only for her expression of exaggerated, make-believe severity to fall into something resembling sincere revulsion.

"Rabbit... why have you got blood stains on your waistcoat? What on earth happened to you?"

II. Of Cabbages and Kings - (Mid-August onwards)

a; Perception is a Matter of Perspective

She was halfway home from her job at the restaurant when her vision began to blur. Alice was already aware of what was happening - she'd known it would only be a matter of time before she had an 'incident', and she was surprised she'd gone this long without. She clutched her head as the dull throbbing pain began to blossom, staggering down a deserted street and into an alleyway. The world around her was spinning, taking on the familiar vibrancy of the Vale of Tears, and for a moment, Alice's own appearance seemed to briefly flicker and change - she was better groomed, her dress a brilliant bottle blue, her hair long and sleek, her sickly palour and gaunt complexion becoming rosy and healthy. But it was brief, and one might just swear it to be a trick of the light, because Alice was back to her dull, dark attire and she was teetering on the edge of one of her hallucinations.

In her mind, she fell. She fell forever into her Wonderland, to see what it had become.

She came to a little after collapsing, having uttered nothing sensible the whole ten minutes she was out. It had felt like a much longer stretch of time from her perspective, and as the fog in her head cleared, she bolted upright.

"Nothing was moving," she exclaimed, every word laced with dread. "What on earth has happened? Why was nothing moving?!"


b; You Will Not Destroy Me

Bumby had been right about one thing - he'd succeeded in shattering her memories, leaving her a wreck. She was still in the process of picking up the pieces from the chaos he'd unleashed on her already delicate mental state and it had left Alice constantly doubting her own perceptions, of what was real and what wasn't. Caterpillar's words resounded through her mind every time she felt the doubt creep in - No! You allow others to tell you what isn't real!.

But if she couldn't trust others to tell her what wasn't real when her own mind deceived her, just what could she trust?

It was late in the evening when she realized she had been wandering Aifaran aimlessly and was now quite lost. Alice didn't panic - this was far from the first time she'd blacked out, lost time and found herself somewhere unfamiliar, and she suspected it wouldn't be the last.

She took a seat on a park bench to rest her aching feet. She'd find her way back to the Dreaming Bridge as soon as she'd had a breather, and took out her Yimo to contact… someone who could perhaps tell her where she was and how to get home.

As she fished the device out of her pocket, her hand and forearm suddenly exploded into a cloud of blue butterflies, before quickly reforming.

The Yimo clattered to the pavement as Alice stared, aghast at what she'd just seen.

That wasn't supposed to happen. Not in the real world.

Comments

II b

[acicular]

In the limited time that they have spent here in Aifaran, Antarcticite has come to the conclusion that living things are very strange, and has thus attributed most peculiarities that they've witnessed to that end. Like as all, the only reason they do a double-take at Alice's arm literally dissolving into butterflies is because she seems so startled by it.

Bewildered, they approach her, heels clicking across the pavement, and crouch down to collect her yimo. "You dropped this," they say, offering it back to her other arm. Just in case the first one turns into blue insects again.

IIA

[rutility]

When Alice comes to, she'll be met by the same statue she spoke to on the night she first arrived, kneeling carefully beside her on the pavement. Rutile startles backward as Alice shoots up, falling on their rear with the heavy, course clatter of stone on stone.

"Why was nothing moving?!"

"I imagine because your eyes were closed," Rutile points out with only a hint of sarcasm, pressing fingers against their torso to check for cracks. Finding none, they cross their legs and lean toward Alice. "You picked a strange place to fall asleep. Are you alright?"