wild card.

⟨ ben levin. cisgender man. he/him. 36. ⟩ We just saw alexei liddell entering the rabbit hole. I heard through the grapevine that their loyalties lie with [ the jabberwocks/ the liddell family ] and that they also go by the crimson prince* . Be careful, they work for them as a patron saint of a gentleman’s club and can sometimes be hedonistic, unmotivated, or even fickle but I’ve also heard some people say that they were adaptive, persuasive, and quite charming.

“I promise you, I’m not nearly deep enough to have a dark secret.”

“My siblings? If you most know: I don’t usually have big thoughts about any of them. Is there some law saying that I have to like them? Viktor is way too uptight, as a rule. He either needs stronger drugs or a different person in his bed. Zoya is cool, way cooler than I could ever be, but don’t tell her that, and Eliza’s a goddamn terror, but I’m pretty sure little sisters are supposed to be.”

It wasn't that he was avoiding his family, per se, or the fall out of at the hippodrome. He'd get around to speaking to his siblings at some point, but for now, they could all wait. Under any other circumstance, Alexei would have been doing the same thing -- drinking overpriced wine and flirting with strangers. "Feel free to join me," he offered motioning to the empty seat in the booth beside him as he caught the eye of a passerby. "I promise I won't bite. Unless you'd like that, of course."

There would be less fanfare if the apocalypse had happened, Alexei was convinced. Perhaps fanfare wasn't exactly the right word to describe the palpable tension that buzzed in the air, but Alexei wasn't sure that his vocabulary currently contained an alternative. He'd tried to avoid his older brother for as long as possible, even going so far as turning off his phone though Alexei knew full well that it would likely get under Viktor's skin (he had a talent for annoying in a way that only a sibling could,) but a day had passed and he'd figured that it was time, in fact, to put them both out of their misery.

"Okay, let's have it," he announced, sauntering into his brother's office without so much as a greeting. "I know you're steaming about all the things that went wrong and all the things that could have gone wrong and all of the things that will one day go wrong. So, lay it on me. How'd I fail the great one this time?"

"You survived," Alexei teased as he entered the space he shared with his younger sister. Shared was a generous term considering the fact that he was more babysitting than anything else. Still, he couldn't help but feel relief wash over him as he laid eyes on her. Not that he'd ever say that out loud. It didn't fit the image he projected -- unattached, uninhibited, devil may care. "Can't say I'm surprised a Liddell event was a shit show," he teased. "Better turn your phone off." The direction was accompanied by a wry twist of the lips. Alexei didn't envy Viktor of his position one bit. He was sure that their brother would have questions that needed answers, and he'd do whatever he needed to get them. It was what was required of the Monarch. Alexei much preferred to simply not care. "I'm sure our big brother will want to check in soon."

"It exists so that's something."

"Work? I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else."