Return to Wonderland [Active]

[vorpalrising]

Character(s): Cid and Alice
Content: After tiring of doing nothing, Cid and Alice head to Wonderland. But what awaits them in there?
Setting: Wonderland
Time: Week 43, morning/afternoon
Warnings: Violence, possible mentions of abuse

The city Alice had grown fond of was gone, and in its place nothing but rubble and bitterness. The citizens hadn't so much as allowed Alice to buy supplies, nor would they allow her or anyone else not originally of the city shelter. They'd been reduced to sleeping outside, something Alice, even in London, had not been used to, and of searching for food. Luckily for them, Cid had supplies, but they couldn't last forever. Something needed to be done, and Alice believed that Wonderland, as ever, held some of the answers.

So it was that one morning, Cid and Alice had begun the long trek to the church. The trip had been made mostly in silence - how was Alice to tell her companion that Wonderland had only ever existed in her mind before? How was she to know whether this place was a dream, or a delusion? But they could not simply sit and do nothing. So it was, when they reached the church, they had stopped in Destiny Islands to rest, bathe and gather food. Cid had gone fishing, and Alice had gathered some fruit and mushrooms and a coconut or two - no easy feat for her, as she was unused to climbing trees any longer. Perhaps they would find some game in Wonderland, but one could never tell, and Alice hadn't the slightest idea as to how to hunt. Finally, they reached Wonderland, and Alice nearly held her breath as she looked at their surroundings.

"Here we are," she said at last. "I expect we may find more questions than answers here, but it can't be worse than sleeping in the rubble." Could it?

Comments

[limitbreakpilot]

Cid, by contrast, was used to sleeping outside. He couldn't say that he much enjoyed it but it was surprising what sort of things you got used to, when you got drafted into saving the world. All the same, he had to admit that hanging out in the same general vicinity of the ruins was damned creepy, and the rest of everything that had been going on didn't exactly make matters any better.

Really, by comparison, the traveling was worlds better than sitting around doing nothing, even he was pretty sure his spear hadn't every really been intended for fishing with. Oh, it had worked, but he couldn't help shake the feeling that something was distinctly odd about it all the same. Hell, the whole damn situation was weird, but it was better than staying where they weren't welcome, that much was for sure.

"There ain't a lot that's worse than sleepin' in the rubble," he answered with a shrug.

[vorpalrising]

"I can think of a few things," Alice muttered darkly as she glanced around, looking for something she recognized. Then again, it was Wonderland, and the place was constantly changing. She stepped forward, knife at the ready for anything that might be lurking about in the shadows - and these worlds did appear to have a lot of those.

"I think I recognize a path," said Alice, who was already walking in that direction. "IT's this way, I believe. Don't mind the dominoes, they're supposed to move. You only have to time your jumps properly."

She nearly smiled to herself, for a moment, and she could almost hear her sister, Lizzie, complimenting her on her jumping. You're part frog, Alice, I swear! You jump so well!

[limitbreakpilot]

Any world was gonna have shadows, if you asked Cid. Hell, you were lucky if shadows were the only things in the corner, and if nothing had decided to move in. Sure, the town was safe enough, or had been before it had decided that falling to pieces sounded like an excellent idea. Sure, he hadn't any idea of what to expect but he had his spear and that would have to be enough.

Hell, even the jumping wasn't going to be much of a problem. He wasn't so old as all that and if that was only problem it was already better than some of the places back home.

"Shouldn't be too much 'f a problem."

[vorpalrising]

Alice nodded as she led on. Cid had already proven himself to be more than capable; a silly moving domino shouldn't give him much trouble. Alice hopped across easily, watching a butterfly with wings that seemed part bubble float past her. "If my memory serves me, we're in the Vale of Tears. It's awhile away from the Hatter's domain, but if we can make it through there, the rest shouldn't be terribly hard. I taught the Mad Hatter some manners. He oughtn't be in a hurry to trouble us this time."

The Hatter and Alice had been friends once, and though Alice didn't show it, it had troubled her to fight him. It was his voice, after all, that had woken her from her lofty daydreams and saved her from the fire. But Wonderland had changed, and so had she. Just what would they find in here, she wondered?

[limitbreakpilot]

"Hell of a name for a place," Cid commented, as he followed Alice across without any real trouble. Even the worst places at home didn't have names that were so straightforward, but damned if he was gonna complain. Sure, if the place loudly proclaimed itself to be a haven of malboros then it might be a problem but tears sure as hell weren't anything to be concerned about.

The rest of her explanation didn't make a whole lot of sense, save for the part about someone or another not being in a hurry to trouble them, and that was a damned good thing, in his opinion. Just because he could handle himself in fight didn't actually mean he was actually going to go looking if he could avoid it.

[vorpalrising]

"I suppose," said Alice distantly, who knew why it was called that. She didn't want to think of Cid's reaction when he saw the reason, but she continued to press on nonetheless. They needed to do something, and sitting around moping wasn't going to accomplish anything. As loathe as she was to share her world with anyone, someone else had made that decision for her.

Whoever it was, they would come to regret it, if Alice had anything to say about it. She didn't like people messing with her head; she'd had more than enough of that in the asylum.

[limitbreakpilot]

That much, Cid could agree on, or would have, if he'd been able to tell the general gist of Alice's thoughts. Moping hadn't done anyone good as far as he knew. Spiky had been the proof of that, even if Vincent had him outclassed as far as sheer broodiness went.

He hadn't failed to notice the general tone of her answer either. He wasn't really going to comment on it - she wasn't Spiky, no matter how similar the reactions might have been - but he'd noticed all the same.

"You ever wonder how they think to bring worlds to this place?"

[vorpalrising]

And there it was - the statue of Alice herself, weeping incessantly into the river. She'd been expecting it to come up soon, given where they were, but it gave her an unpleasant sort of jolt in her stomach. It was difficult to get lost in Wonderland when she knew it better than anyone else ever could have - it was her world, after all. But it was supposed to have been dead, broken beyond repair, and she had never spent this long hallucinating before. Even in the asylum, she had remained outside of Wonderland, until later on.

She was whisked away from her thoughts by Cid's question, and turned to look at him. "I haven't," she replied in a bit of a murmur, "because I've been sure this place has been a dream." Now, however, she wasn't so certain.

[limitbreakpilot]

Well, that explained the name. A weeping statue was still weird, mind, but it was more of an explanation than not having one. Even if wasn't at all sure why someone would even bother making a statue meant to cry up a river. Cry into a river? Whichever one it was supposed to be.

"An' we've had a damned city inside a castle. Who says it ain't still a dream?"

[vorpalrising]

"That's true," murmured Alice, walking through the area and very determinedly paying the statue no mind, "but if that's the case, I shudder to think of what's happened to me in my absence." According to Doctor Bumby, however, the past had to be paid for. Still, hadn't she paid enough for it already? Wouldn't it be alright to move on at last and try to live an at least somewhat happy life?

Besides that, there was the little matter of none of Alice's own delusions having lasted weeks or even moths at a time. Days, yes, but never this long. Perhaps she was dead, or nearly so. Why else would she have been dreaming for so long?

[limitbreakpilot]

That was always the question, wasn't it? There really wasn't any way to tell what was going on back home, short of having someone actually turn up and even then it was generally hit or miss as far as Cid was aware. Sure, it was distinctly unusual as far as dreams went but hell, the place had all but thrown out all any sort of logic as soon as they'd been told that it was nothing but a floor in a castle.

"No sense worryin' about it just now," he answered with a shrug. "It ain't like we can know."

[vorpalrising]

But it was not so easy for Alice to simply stop worrying. The life she had managed to scrape together was gone, now, and in its place was a horribly familiar feeling of emptiness. And now, here was Wonderland, in a place where strangers could wander in and out of it as they pleased, and it did not sit well with her.

She walked down the path, glancing about herself almost nervously. Slowly but surely, the feeling that this wasn't so much of a dream after all was beginning to creep up.

[limitbreakpilot]

Without anything of great interest to speak to, Cid fell silent. He was, of course, still keeping an eye out for anything that might try to attack them but that was all but par for the course. You didn't save the world without killing more than a few monsters on the way, and he was pretty certain that was true in just about all the worlds out there.

Sure, he'd noticed that Alice seemed to be nervous about something, but hell, he was pretty sure he wasn't qualified to deal with that sort of thing past alternately swearing at it and doing his best to insist that things were going to be fine. Thus better to not even try, as far as he was concerned at the moment. Either whatever she was concerned about would happen or it wouldn't and him saying otherwise wouldn't help.

[vorpalrising]

Alice was grateful for Cid's silence. She didn't like it when people tried to pry or otherwise nose their way into her business, and ever since she'd started working at the shop, he'd seemed to understand that. But her thoughts were interrupted by a strange, soft sound, and instinctively, she drew her knife. Wonderland was a dangerous place, and it would hardly do to be careless.

Her caution soon proved itself correct, as strange shadows - shadows such as she had never remembered seeing before - slithered their way out of the ground. "What are they?" Alice wondered aloud. "They don't look as if they belong here."

[limitbreakpilot]

"Heartless," Cid answered, as he readied his spear. "Can't say I'm surprised either. Damned castle is full of the things."

Nasty little shadows of something that were little more than nuisances, sure, but that didn't make them any less problematic - or make dealing with them any different from what he already was used to. They were monsters by all accounts and that meant there was exactly one thing to be done: get rid of them before they got rid of you. Hell, maybe one day the place would stop being so damned infested with the things, but for now, the ones in front of them were of more concern.

[vorpalrising]

Trouble. Of course. Things never could be simple, could they? Then again, it was Wonderland, and Alice had rather been expecting trouble in some form or another. She drew her knife, determined to get some use out of it, and made her way cautiously towards one of the creatures, slashing at it with her weapon. Despite the possibility of this being real, and not one of her usual hallucinations, Alice wasn't so afraid as perhaps she might have been.

Monsters were easy, after all. It was people she'd always had to worry about.

[limitbreakpilot]

Thus far, Cid had yet to see anything in the castle that could easily be defined as "simple." Hell, there hadn't been much back at home that could have been defined as simple, much to his chagrin. Dealing with the Heartless, however, at least didn't take a whole lot of thought which he supposed had to count for something. Of course, that wasn't to say he didn't hold off on attacking just enough to see if Alice knew what she was doing. He did at least try to be relatively discreet about it (in a much as he could be), but he figured it was generally better to be safe than sorry.

Satisfied that she did at least seem to know how to handle herself in a fight, Cid wasted no further time in stepping into the fray himself. The sooner the fight was over, the sooner they could move on.

[vorpalrising]

Alice flinched as one of the creatures managed to claw her arm a bit, renewing her fury at the damnable beast in return. She'd come this far; she wasn't about to give up now. Besides, this was Wonderland. This was her world, and those... things had no place here. Luckily for her, at least, there weren't many of those creatures, and they would likely be swept away quickly enough thanks to her knife and Cid's spear.

[limitbreakpilot]

Damned straight they wouldn't give up. Sure, Cid might have missed the days when they'd been able to take out a whole handful of enemies with only one spell, but things were different now. Besides, he didn't have any materia anyway so the point was pretty much moot. Fortunately, his spear worked just as well spells might have, and between the both of them the Heartless did, in fact, end up not lasting terribly long.

It was just as well too, as far as Cid was concerned. They couldn't really look for whatever it was they were meant to be looking for if they had to keep dealing with the local Heartless.

[vorpalrising]

It could have been worse; outside of a few scratches and maybe a bruise, Alice hadn't had any harm come to her. Besides, the shadows (that most certainly did not belong in here) were gone, and that was the main thing - and Alice could see the remains of the house where she had once fought the Duchess. She wished she had a pepper grinder; that had done her a world of good in that awful place.

She moved quickly in its direction, cautiously beckoning to Cid. "I'm not sure what we'll find here," she told him, keeping her knife at the ready, "but we had best be careful."