Watching You, Watching Me, Chapter 7 - Slow Spinning Redemption

[rumielf]

It was time.

With Absolem’s assistance Alice would travel through her mirror today and return to Underland once more. It had taken time to persuade the looking glass to open enough to allow her to pass through and both she and the butterfly had spent weeks coddling, sweet-talking and all but threatening the mirror. During that time Alice had

Comments

[manniness]

Ah... so I finally read this lovely piece of yours and I have to say that (when I first found out this would be Stayne/Alice) I was Apprehensive. But I adore how you used Stayne's presence to advance Alice's character and didn't overcomplicate the story. This is simply and beautifully a journey for Alice and Tarrant (but mostly Alice) and we see how her newly-found Muchness is tested on a battlefield where she is not armed with the necessary memories she would need to defend herself and Tarrant.

Your Alice really comes into her own here. She makes her choices and she doesn't whine and mope about life being unfair and how she didn't really know what she was doing and so on and so forth. She deals with it and moves on. I like how she accepts that her feelings for Stayne have changed. True, she doesn't love him, but she no longer despises him as she had in the film and She's OK With That.

That's a triumph right there, in my opinion. And masterfully expressed and written.

I also love how Tarrant just wants her. Knowing that she'd been with Stayne doesn't really change much - fundamentally - for him. Incredibly (and I LOVE this) knowing that she's experienced has made her more desirable in some ways to him. Yumm... And he wouldn't be our Hatter if he didn't have a crisis of confidence at some point, but deep down he knows she will choose him. (Otherwise, he wouldn't be thinking all those His Alice-s, now would he?)

This was wonderful. I almost can't believe that I - a staunch and snobby, exclusive A/T 'shipper - enjoyed this story so much. But I did and DO! And that is a credit to your talent, madam! (^_^)

Hugs,
Manny

[rumielf]

Wow. I'm so glad you liked it. And that's an understatement.

I'm so happy to know that even though you don't enjoy Alice/Stayne that you appreciated that particular bit as adding to Alice's journey of self.

I was always a little worried to see what people would think of how I wrote Alice's "loss of innocence" how she deals with it (she's not sorry for how it happened) and how Tarrant deals with it (angry at it being Stayne but still wanting Alice perhaps even more). It's a relief to know that it worked out well.

Totally happy you enjoyed the story. *grin*

Thank you so much for the awesome comments! It makes me all warm and fuzzy!