(no subject)
Would you look at that, I finally wrote something new. It's not anything that I should be writing- it's the Alice: Madness Returns-based AU I've been thinking about recently- but at least it's something.
This is USUK, but Nyotalia and 2P Nyotalia. There will be some regular and 2P male USUK later on, if I actually get there.
Alice.
Her head throbbed, aching in such a powerful, piercing way that she was surprised it had not simply burst yet. She twitched her fingers slightly. She was laying down, she knew, but there was no bed cradling her back, no pillow holding up her neck and skull. This surface was too flat and cold for such comfort. Her shoulders groaned with pain as she tried to move, almost as if they weren’t used to being shifted. Where was she?
Alice, darling, you have to wake up.
That voice. It was familiar, but who was it? She couldn’t match it to any faces. In fact, there were almost no faces within her mind, no memories at all. Who was she? Alice, she thought, she was Alice Kirkland, but who was Alice Kirkland? Flickers of something passed across the darkness behind her closed eyelids, but she couldn’t focus on them long enough to make out their shapes. She could feel her lips turning down into a scowl. She hated feeling so weak and helpless.
Alice, wake up. Please, darling, you have to wake up!
The dark of her eyelids was beginning to grow stifling. Her nose twitched as she fought to pry her eyes open. They were so heavy, impossibly heavy. Her hands moved again, stuttering, then stopped abruptly when they met with strong resistance. Where was she? That thought resounded through her mind, echoing over and over until she was desperate to see, desperate to look out at the world around her. Very, very slowly, one eyelid lifted. It immediately clenched shut again- the world was nothing but blinding light.
Alice!
“Look, she’s moving.”
“Moving? Are you sure it wasn’t a trick of the light?” Something cold and clammy touched the side of Alice’s face, and she winced away from it. Someone gasped. “You’re right. She’s responding to the treatment.”
“This is a monumental breakthrough. Call headquarters at once, we need to let them know what’s happened here. I think that…”
There was more speech, but Alice was no longer listening. All of her focus was needed to lift her eyelids once more. She had to see where she was, to whom those voices belonged. One eye opened slightly, and she flinched as the burning light hit it once again, but she couldn’t let it stop her. She forced that eye to keep opening, to adjust, and then the other, and slowly, a wavering image appeared before her.
It looked a lot like a ceiling, she thought. A very bland, sterilized, white ceiling. She frowned, willing her eyes to adjust more quickly, and tried to lift one hand to rub at them. She couldn’t move it. Her unfocused gaze snapped down to her arm, leaving her momentarily dizzy. When she could see more clearly again, she found herself staring down at some kind of thick metal band anchoring her wrist down to what appeared to be the same kind of metal table. It took a moment for that to register in her mind. She tugged at her arm again. The band didn’t break. A dull sort of panic began to pulse at the back of her thoughts.
“Where am I?” she asked, or tried to ask. When she opened her mouth, no voice came out, only a dry croak. She pulled at both arms now. Neither would move. Her wrists were starting to ache. Her fingers scrabbled against the smooth metal table as the panic grew louder and louder within her head. Everything was pulsing. She tried to arch herself off the table, to pull her feet up, but they were bound down as well. Someone was screaming, and even over top of that shriek and the overwhelming pulse in her head, she could faintly make out the sound of frantic beeping. A figure loomed over her, grabbing at her shoulders, but she couldn’t make out any of their features, couldn’t understand the way their lips moved. Alice’s chest heaved as she struggled and strained. Everything hurt. The light was blinding her once again.
For one brief instant, she closed her eyes, and everything went silent. She opened them and saw a forest, trees as tall as the sky, and she blinked again and was back in the cold white room with the unknown figures and noise. She blinked and blinked- forest, room, forest, room- The corners of her vision were darkening. The whirlwind of sounds swirled through her head. She could feel her heart thudding hard against her chest. It was too much, she was going to faint, she was going to die-
She clenched her eyes shut. “Stop!” Her voice, shrill and pleading but strong, drowned out every other sense, and for a moment, that was all that existed. And then, silence.
Alice drew in a deep breath. It tasted earthy, cold but fresh, and her nose picked up what she could have sworn was the scent of flowers. There were no flowers in that white room. Slowly, she pulled her hands away from her face, and then, realizing exactly what she had done, stared down at them. They were unrestrained, no marks or metal to show that she had ever been held down. She turned them around, staring at her pale skin, amazed.
Alice.
The familiar voice was barely a breath of wind rushing past her ear. She looked up. There stood the trees, and wild grasses, and bunches of flowers that she knew could not exist but that she recognized, and a river bubbling past that looked almost pale violet. She turned her gaze skyward, regarding the wisps of clouds and bright blue sky with no lack of awe. This was… She knew this place. “This is impossible,” she told herself aloud. Her voice was soft, but there was no longer any croak. She barely noticed. “This is impossible,” she said again.
A faint chuckle resounded out of the lower branches of one of the trees, and Alice whipped around to face it. “Is it?” a voice asked.
Narrowing her eyes slightly, Alice made her way cautiously over towards the tree. This was all far too familiar. “It can’t be,” she said, both to herself and the voice. “This place is nothing but a childish dream. I stopped believing in these sort of fairy tales a long time ago.”
“Oh?” said the voice. It wasn’t a friendly tone, more mocking than anything, but Alice felt oddly relieved to be hearing it. She peered up into the shadows of the lower branches. Something swished quietly through the leaves. “Then why are you back here again?”
Alice frowned, resting her hands on her hips. “How should I know? That’s what I should be asking you, Cat.”
This time, the voice actually laughed. “Oh, Alice, you’re the same as always.” Vibrant red eyes shone down from the darkness, accompanied by the gleam of sharp teeth. “It’s good to have you back.”