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Character(s): Red | Alice (AM)
Content: Random meeting
Setting: Elsyian Fields
Time: Afternoon
Warnings: TBA (doubt it)

Red had been surprised when she tried to wander past the guards into the Elsyian Fields only to have them stop her, redirect her and then return to their posts. She had shrugged it off at first, wandered around and visited some shops, but her curious mind kept going back to those gates and wondering why they wouldn’t allow her to pass. After having tried to no avail, to reason with them, the ex-huntress put on a smirk and pretended to leave — sneaking past a couple of guards was an easy trick to pull off, after having managed to get by Granny all those years, it was like a second nature to the girl.

So here she stood, in the fields in all their beautiful glory, wondering what there was that made the guards so wary of letting her pass. She must have stuck out like a sore thumb, cloaked in red, surrounded by grass of white — Red wasn’t thinking about that, though. Something about the area made her feel at ease (although it probably shouldn’t be.) Her arms were spread out wide, fingers tickling through the blades of grass as she wandered along at a slow, but reasonable pace.

“Snow would love it here,” she mused to herself, tilting her head back so the hood of her cloak fell to her back, she giggled to herself at the little glittery ‘lights’ that fell like snowflakes. For the first time ever since everything that happened back home, with Peter, the wolf, and Snow —

— she was happy.

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She was never happy. True, ever since leaving London, she was better; she didn't lose her mind nearly as much these days, and the fact that she was eating properly for the first time in years certainly helped. Alice had lost some of the boniness in her frame; her hair was stronger and her eyes had gotten some of the shine back. She looked almost healthy now, and she'd lost some of the haunted look to her eyes - but she wasn't happy. Something had haunted her continuously, something she couldn't quite remember (and didn't care to, but that didn't help her nightmares).

She'd slipped out the door without much of a fuss; the Londoner had gotten quite adept at sneaking about when needed. She wore blue, today, the same blue she preferred while wandering in Wonderland, and while she, too, stuck out, she didn't particularly care. Let them try and arrest her. She'd evade them, as she knew she could. What Alice wasn't expecting, however, was the sight of a young woman in red, who'd apparently had the same idea she did.

"Are you heading to one of the floors?" Alice enquired, brushing her fingers idly through her hair.

Idle fingers brushing through the grass came to a stop when the voice of another rang through her ears. Briefly, she thought it might be guards come to scold her, so she cautiously turned her head while she contemplated the enquiry. Floors? Tilting her head, Red’s brow crinkled in wonder and slight confusion at the question. There weren’t any buildings around as far as she could tell, so, what floors did the other girl mean? Turning to face her more properly, Red smiled her bright, friendly smile and drew her arms back to her sides.

“I’m sorry?” There was a chuckle in her voice as she spoke, “I’m not sure what floors you mean, there’s just grass and ground here.”

Alice didn't return the smile, but gave a polite nod to the young woman. "If you walk about a mile that way," she explained, pointing, "you can reach one of the other floors. Each floor holds a different world. " She hadn't been to any of the floors just yet, preferring to stay out of trouble for once and adjust to her new life in the city. Besides, despite all the trouble the Organization was causing, Alice didn't know what she could do to help - or, indeed, if she even cared enough about her own world to do anything.

"Supposedly," she continued, firmly putting a halt to her troubling thoughts, "there are entire worlds on those other floors, but I don't know for certain."

Following the pointed finger, Red turned to look ahead of herself off in the distance of the fields and narrowed her eyes to squint. She didn’t really see much of anything just yet, but — a whole new world on floors? It didn’t make much sense to her, however stranger things had happened, such as being here in the first place. Red thought about taking a few steps toward the area the other girl was motioning toward, but kept her excitement to a minimum, for the moment. After all maybe one of the floors would lead her to her home? Who knew?

Again she chuckled. “How can you have worlds on floors? What an interesting thought,” she spoke as she turned to look toward Alice again; since it was rude not to look at whomever one was speaking with. “Have you even been to the worlds, miss?”

Alice shrugged. She hadn't really thought about it. Were she younger, she likely would have bolted off and explored it immediately. "Not yet," she replied. She'd been thinking about it, but the truth was that as yet, she'd grown a bit too comfortable with her life in Paixao for proper exploration. She really ought to explore, to learn more about the world which pulled her in - be it a result of her own madness or something else.

It didn't help that she was afraid of what she would find and didn't see any reason to stick her neck out for people she didn't even know. Wonderland had more than enough trouble for her to deal with as it was.

She was a quiet one, wasn’t she? Well, that was alright. Red had met quiet people before, sometimes they were just that way and sometimes it just took a bunch of time for them to open up and talk more. Either way, she didn’t really let her excitement falter even with the short reply she got from the girl. Actually, instead, it just drove Red to wanting to go toward the ‘new worlds’ all the more. With a smile, the hooded girl clapped her hands together gleefully.

“Okay!” she nodded and motioned toward the area Alice had pointed out before. “Then let’s go to a new world, you and I, right now!”

Why not? Perfect timing, right? Right.

Whenever possible, Alice preferred to keep to herself. Experience had taught her long ago that Victorian society preferred young ladies, especially insane ones, to keep their mouths shut. No one cared what a lost young woman who'd spent roughly half her life in an asylum thought in the least, anyway. So she'd stayed silent except when necessary (though she deleted in speaking in short, enigmatic sentences from time to time, so as to confuse those around her) and kept her head down, so to speak.

But this was different. This was Paixao, and she was healthier now, in body and mind. She was stronger, and she'd had some time to come into herself. So she looked at Red with what was almost a smile and nodded. "Alright, then. I'm curious as to what's out there, anyway." She'd heard whispers of a new floor appearing; perhaps that would be a good place to start.

Besides, she had her knife with her if she needed to defend herself.

Well! There was almost a smile on the other female’s lips and Red could be cheerful at that at least. Giving a nod, Red turned to look toward the area Alice had briefly pointed out to her beforehand. Far from aware of what to expect in these ‘other worlds’ and thusly unprepared when it came to having a weapon beyond the moon, Red began to push her way through the interestingly colored grass, trampling the blades as she wandered toward the floors somewhat excitedly.

Giddily, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure the other girl was following and smile bright.

“What kinds of floors do you suppose there are? Can you imagine?”

Alice followed, inwardly wondering what had led her to be so impulsive with a stranger. But she seemed friendly enough, and Alice had never so much as been outside of the city before, much less to the worlds on the other floors. Besides, she'd finished her work at Cid's shop earlier today and had the next day off, so it wasn't as though she would be shirking any responsibilities in the process.

Alice merely shrugged at Red's question. "I can imagine a lot of things," she replied. "I'm sure whatever's in the worlds must be fascinating."

Unlike Alice, Red had no responsibilities to even think of neglecting at the moment. It had been a long time since she could be so truly carefree. Even as a little girl, Red often had to help Granny with tending to the farm and such, raising hens, gathering water from wells as well as a variety of typical household chores that most children were roped into performing. Just being able to wander through a field of silver grass was more freedom than she’d had in a very long time.

“Oh, so can I!” She had to agree. Imagining things up for new worlds was a sea of endless possibilities. “Like places with red seas instead of blue or green skies… or three suns!”

"Perhaps," wondered Alice, her mood lifting slightly as she thought of her own Wonderland, tucked away safely in the corners of her mind, "it will have blue grass and butterflies with marbles for wings." It wouldn't have been the oddest thing she'd ever seen, that was for sure. But it could also be dangerous, and that was why Alice had her knife. She always carried the blade with her - it was no Vorpal Blade, but it had served her reasonably well, so far. Besides, she'd been practicing with it as she'd gotten healthier. IT helped that she was no longer skin and bone, anyway.

“Marbles for wings?”

Red’s smile tugged wider, grinning like a fool she broke into a small giggle fit. Well, quiet though this girl may be, she certainly had a wonderful imagination and Red could for that. It would make things a lot easier now that she knew the girl wasn’t all seriousness. Red knew, of course, how to be serious should the situation call for it but she was rather naïve and for the most part much more innocent than a typical girl her age might be, having been mostly sheltered by her grandmother.

“Wouldn’t that be something amazing? Or flowers as tall as trees!” Throwing her hands up she chuckled to herself as they wandered along toward their goal. Unfortunately, she wasn’t even thinking about the idea that she might need something to protect herself with. She had the skill to do so, should she need it, but she hadn’t exactly prepared herself and didn’t usually go around with a bow or arrows.

"Well," replied Alice, with the air of one imparting important information, "the sorts of marbles that have streaks of color in them, anyway." The corner of her mouth twitched for a moment in amusement. She moved to catch up with her strange companion, feeling rather intrigued by her at this point. "I've seen flowers as tall as trees," she replied with a shrug, not caring that she was referring to Wonderland now - besides, Dr. Bumby had made her talk about her Wonderland without the slightest consideration of her feelings. What did it matter that she shared it with another stranger?

"They're terribly hard to climb," the young woman continued. "I was nearly blown away with a flower petal."

“As talk as trees?” Lifting her head to gaze up into the sky, picturing the height of trees and flowers to match them, she found herself wondering where on earth the other woman must have been to have seen something such as that. Turning her head, she glanced to the woman at her side, curious about her and her tale of tall flowers. “How did that happen? Weren’t you frightened about being lost in the sky?”

Unlike any normal human beings, or rather those trained in therapy, Red would easily believe most anything that she wanted to tell her.

"Sometimes, they're taller." And oh, were they lovely to climb. She always felt like she could see the whole of Wonderland from such a wonderful vantage point - and even when she couldn't, it still provided quite the lovely view. "And really, being lost in the sky isn't frightening, once you figure out where you're going." And as where she was going was usually Wonderland, dead to her though it was, she was unbothered by her tumbles into the great expanse of blue sky.

Tilting her head back as though envisioning what the girl was describing, Red smiled.

“Wooow, that sounds so beautifully amazing…”

Turning her head, the cloaked girl looked to the other and smiled. “But how do you know what direction you’re going?”

"By paying attention, of course," replied Alice with a shrug, as though it were the easiest thing in the world to figure out. "How else?"

The church loomed ahead at last, impressive and foreboding. "I suppose this ought to be where we're going," she said slowly. "I don't see anywhere else that might lead somewhere." But how could a world fit inside a church? And what could be waiting for them inside?

But paying attention to what in order to locate north and such? Red didn’t press the matter though; she simply smiled and gave her a nod. It made well enough sense, the cloaked woman simply always had more questions to ask, it seemed.

Slowly, Red came to a stop as they approached. Like Alice, she was trying to understand how it was that worlds could fit within a church that was clearly too small to house anything such as other realms. Lifting her gaze, she looked over the building, taking in the size and the architecture of it. It was beautiful but something about it caused a tingle to trail her spine, making her shiver.

“There are worlds in there?” It was a question but her tone was more amazed than confused. This world, Paixao, had been surprising to her more and more — this didn’t shock her anymore. It just impressed her. Turning her head, she glanced to Alice and smiling wide, felt a laugh pass her lips. “Let’s go in!”

With that, she childishly began to run for the church!

"Several, from what I've heard," said Alice, who was just about willing to believe it at this point. A city full of jewels that could be simply plucked and given as payment, with light and shadow walking hand in hand was not something that even Alice could dismiss as ordinary, not after the bustle and corruption of London. Things were better here, and she had felt herself getting better, too.

Suppressing another almost-smile - she did find herself beginning to like the other girl - Alice ran after her into the church, wondering at what could possibly be inside.

Red laughed childishly as she ran through the grass toward the church. Eventually reaching the doors, she pressed her hands to them and pushed them opened, stumbling in. Eyes lifting to look around, a soft gasp left her lips. It was beautiful and she couldn’t really think of words to say to explain just what she was looking at. Turning to look over her shoulder, she smiled brightly at Alice following her.

“Come on!” she chuckled, stepping in further, “it’s amazing!”

Allowing a small chuckle to escape her lips, Alice stepped in after Red did, looking about herself with wide eyes. She hadn't set foot inside a church for years, and the absence of it had not particularly troubled her, but it didn't stop this place from being beautiful. The decrepit, abandoned state of their surroundings only added to the melancholy beauty, and Alice, for her part, would not have been half surprised if the place turned out to be haunted.

"But why build a church so far outside of the city?" Alice wondered aloud. "The people who live in Paixao never seem very eager to leave."

“Well,” Red mused as she stepped further into the abandoned building, boots creating an echo as she stepped, as did her voice as she spoke despite the softness of her tone, “maybe there were people that lived outside of the city a long time ago. That lived out here, somewhere. Maybe there’s a village… or, maybe the village was lost and replaced with the city but the church remained somehow.”

It wasn’t completely unfeasible, after all. Red could count on both hands how many cities and villages had been lost to the Ogre Wars, perhaps something similar had happened here in Paixao.

"Perhaps," replied Alice as she listened for any other signs of life in the area. It did seem like quite a walk from the city to this place, and why put a church so far out of the way? The Londoner poked around a bit, looking around, her steps disturbing the dust around her. "I think there might be something more to this place," she almost whispered. "Perhaps up the stairs?"

She glanced above them as she said it, her eyes scanning the place for anything unusual.

Raising her gaze as the other girl did, Red looked to the path the stairs led — who knew where they went? Taking a few steps closer to the stairwell, she turned her head to look around as she wandered the length of the church, passing pews and walking her eyes over the décor within its walls. There wasn’t much each direction for them to go other than up, so motioning toward the stairwell; she smiled over her shoulder to Alice.

“Why don’t we go up? That’s the only way left to go! Maybe there’s a tower up there and we can see the whole field!”

"We may as well," said Alice with a shrug, moving closer to the stairs herself. "It doesn't seem as though anything else is down here." She'd never been this far before, content with her life in the city, but curiosity, as was so often the case with Alice, was bound to have its due. She nodded to the other girl and stepped forward, ready to walk into what would perhaps be a great adventure.

Or simply a dust-filled, sneezy sort of stroll. Either way, Alice's curiosity would be satisfied.

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