Will You Won’t You Join The Dance? [Active]

[inthistyle]

Character(s): The Mad Hatter and Alice Liddell (AM)
Content: Meeting over the Message Board, the Mad Hatter meets up with a much different darker version of Alice than the one he knew before.
Setting: Joutenheim Gates
Time: Mid-Day
Warnings: Nothing Whatsoever, Most Likely

Comments

[vorpalrising]

Alice sat quietly, ankles crossed and hands in her lap as she watched the people go by. They all rather looked the same, she decided, all of them with the same odd, nearly blank looks on their faces. Rather like Hatter's automatons, she thought, then stopped herself with a tense little shake of her head. No. Stop it. He's not like that any more. He's changed. Or he wasn't the same, or else he only remembered the pure, uncorrupted Wonderland. How Alice wished she could forget the way Wonderland had changed!

So absorbed was the young woman in her thoughts that she failed to notice the Hatter's approach at first, green eyes fixed blankly ahead as she struggled to choke back the bile at remembering the corruption and pollution that had only recently consumed her beloved Wonderland. She only looked up at his voice - odd and yet familiar - and stared calmly into his face, her eyes searching him for any sign of malice.

"Hatter?" He looked so, so different, but... right, somehow. Rather like the way he looked before the fire. "Is that you?"

[inthistyle]

The Mad Hatter then walked toward her, there wasn’t much for words that were needed when he gazed upon her. No words coming from his mouth was very odd for him, in fact it was a strange concept to even think about. Though it was just almost as though he lost them, and couldn’t find them again when he saw her. It scared the Hatter, not in a run away sense, but more of a scare for someone who was close to him sense. Was it the Queen who did this? Was she the cause of this misery upon his dear Alice? It wouldn’t surprise him in the least but… It was feeling of… Angadness, as it were.

Holding a hand out for Alice to take, the Mad Hatter gave a small smile to her. He should at least show his friendliness, it was only the right thing to do after all. One would think it would be, “Yes it is me, I’d be worried if I wasn’t me at all,” the Mad Hatter said with a slight chuckle, “Shall we take a pleasant walk, and pleasant talk through Paixao then?”

[vorpalrising]

"You're speechless," noted Alice. "I take it my current state disagrees with you?" Maybe it was the fact that it wasn't the Hatter who'd hurt his dearest friends so terribly and tried to kill her, but Alice was already beginning to carry herself like she used to, straight-backed and confident. She took his hand and stood, her vivid eyes searching his face for any signs of cruelty. Finding none, she gave a slight nod, terribly relieved.

"That would be nice," she admitted. "I may have grown used to the slums, but that doesn't mean I appreciate being a part of them. This strange place is a nice change." What was that saying about everything that glittered? Perhaps she shouldn't let her guard down - at least in the slums, one knew the risk of having her throat cut by some scoundrel as any given moment.

[inthistyle]

“Well yes, as one should be I would hope! My dear girl you look like rose that was caught in down pour thunderstorm, and we rarely ever have those!” The Mad Hatter bit his lip, as he spoke that, really he couldn’t control what he said sometimes. Though he couldn’t help but speak what he thought, and might as well say what’s on his mind instead of letting it explode like an over air pumped balloon.

Giving as sigh, as the Mad Hatter adjusted his hat, as if to say he was sorry for that outburst, but he simply couldn’t help it. He gestured to all of her, “If you ask me, I would be glad you found me, so I can help you get back on your hands and sew through! So you can be as fresh and pretty as well brewed tea.”

Now holding out an arm for Alice to take while they entered into Paixao from the gates, the Mad Hatter at least remembered what any gentleman behaved like. And felt privileged and sure he should do it for this Alice at least. “Yes well, from my own guess, there aren’t any slums, dark places certainly, but I had not encountered

[vorpalrising]

"Is that a compliment," Alice wondered aloud, amused, "or an insult?" To be frank, it could have been worse, and he did have a point; Alice had become quite disheveled, to say the least. She'd been that way ever since she'd ended up in the asylum, in fact, but now didn't seem the time to say it. Alice was never fond of excuses, anyway. "I would be grateful for a bath, not to mention clean clothes," she admitted. She hadn't had much time to spend as she liked, and taking proper care of herself had been absolutely out of the question.

Alice took the proffered arm easily, surprised at how naturally it came to her. "So it's like any other political building," she quipped dryly. "But what are the Heartless? They sound like the Queen's creatures, but I doubt she'd be fond of something that's already broken." Something with a name like the Heartless surely couldn't be whole.