Spots on!!

Marinette honestly felt.. so conflicted at the moment. Wonderland seemed to have entered into a new era of peace. There were no serial killers. No weird things happening from the mirror. Yet.. Why did that peace terrify her? 

The famed cat arched an eyebrow at the girl in bewilderment, his own confusion getting the best of him. For a moment there seemed to be something knowing in her blue eyes, but then he sighed as he found himself not caring.

“You came here for art inspiration?” he asked. Cheshire snorted in response and shook his head. “That’s something that I haven’t heard before. But I gotta say: kid, you’re in the wrong place if you’re looking for some crap like that.” He tilted his head back as he gulped down his drink, eyes narrowing as he watched a single drink of his alcohol barely spill into his mouth.

“Does it look like I’m enjoying myself?” he spat. He over-exaggeratedly rolled his eyes as he turned his attention to a worker in the distance as he lazily lifted his glass; of course they knew that Cheshire wanted some more of his clear drink. Maybe then he could give in to the Caterpillar’s shitty riddle. “I‘m just coming here to kill some time.”

She hummed at Cheshire's words and nodded. quiet for a moment of thought. One, two and three beats as she thought. She needed to end this. End this, end it! Get away before too much happened.

"I guess thats true. I mean, i guess i just really came here to get out of the apartment and the rut i've been stuck in. Being here is better than just sitting on my butt at home and running out of things to craft."

A casual shrug as her back was braced on the bar. A careful breathe drug in as she scanned the room over the rim of her soft drink. So much had gone wrong since she stepped foot inside this place. She could barely wrap her head around it.

But at least one good thing had happened. One good thing.

    “Well, I think its safe to enjoy the small moments of peace you can get. After all, it’s better to enjoy those moments than to be on the edge of your seat the whole time waiting for something to come get you.” She smiled softly at the girl as she put her cup down on the table and leaned back in her seat. 

    She should honestly be taking her own advice since she’d been so on edge since she had arrived due to the timing of everything. Maybe she was brought here to give her that time to relax and enjoy peace in a mental preparation for Sozins comet. Whatever it was, she probably shouldn’t think about it right now and instead focus on whatever she was supposed to do here. 

    “Well, we wouldn’t really know unless we try it. I’m curious as to how it may work, but if I’m honest I feel like it may be similar to how when my dear friend Aang would travel to the spirit world.”

"The spirit world?" Cue eyebrow lifting as she let the other words sink in. Maybe it was time for her to relax. None of her enemy's were in Wonderland any longer, even if she lacked her allies. Yes. It was time to simply relax, lean back. Learn more of others and work to understand the culture of the people around her. It was time to let go of the past and move forward to the future now.

Careful fingers tugged a sweat band across the mockery of a Fated mark.

Marinette was thankful she wasn't the only one. At least the mirror hadn't singled her out in it's cruelty.

    “Trouble in one city….I wish it were that simple for me.” Katara chuckled as she shook her head, lowering her cup back to the table. She shouldn’t be comparing and wishing for things like that, she didn’t hate or regret the life she was given. She was making a change in her world, or at least she hoped she was.

     “I don’t think your nightmares will scare me. I’ve seen a whole lot of my share of horrible things, things I wouldn’t wish upon onto others…but this isn’t a game to one up eachother and I don’t think this place’s goal is to bring our nightmares to life, but more to bring us relaxation or something.” She looked up and gave the younger girl a soft reassuring smile. 

    “Wonderland so far hasn’t done anything to harm us since we’ve been here, so I think we don’t have anything to fear here.”

"Those sort of things wouldn't get us anywhere anyhow." Marinette nodded slightly and kept her mug in her hand, eyes going unfocused.  as she thought of all the things that might be wrong in the other girls world she couldn't help but feel.. something. Kinship? Empathy? perhaps a mix of the two. Regardless or not, Marinette focused back on the real world around her and gave a tiny smile.

"I've been here since November. Don't get too settled into the peace. Once that mirror starts talking to you, it's creepy enough. Maman once said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And that anything that seemed too good to be true has to have a bad side to it."

It was simply nice to just sit and chat with another girl.

    Katara hummed softly as she took a sip from her tea. She wasn’t sure what had convinced her to come to the lounge, or what she would even be getting from it. She was certain she knew who she was, what she was supposed to do, but yet something had convinced her to come, to check out what this was. It felt silly though, like a repeat of the Aunt Wu and that hadn’t really gone well. 

    “It’s been… something. Honestly it feels to peaceful from what I’m used to which is honestly a little sad thinking about it now. I’m so used to preparing for war that it’s hard and feels wrong to relax in this moment .” She smiled sadly thinking about everything that was supposed to be happening right now back in her world and her inability to be there because she was stuck here. 

    “What about you?”

She paused in mid sip, blinking slowly. They sounded.. fairly alike, if she was being honest with herself. Which wasn't that shocking. Wars and battles were more than likely fought in every world. So why should it shock her so much that someone else might have the same world view of Wonderland as her? Another sip of her tea to wet her suddenly parched throat.

"I honestly have to say the same thing. There's a manic in my world who takes advantage of anyone having a bad day to turn them into monsters that ravage my city. If it weren't for a group of superheros with an amazing magical gift.."

She sighed softly and shook her head.

"so, how are you finding Wonderland?"

Marinette held the cup of tea, the incense unlit on the table. The young girl.. wasn't quite sure she was ready for this yet. If this really did dip into a dream like state, well.

She'd faced too many horrors in her life to drag some poor girl into the likes of an Akuma attack.

Syrin.

Chat Blanc

Scarlet Moth.

How could she make the first move on something like that?

Marinette looked over the meditation room from the outside before cracking it open and coming in. It had been.. a while since she managed to meditate on her own terms. And sometimes what her mother taught her just didn't work.

So.

Marinette sat in her living room and stared at the miracle box. So much had changed and altered since she had come to Wonderland, it seemed to make her head dizzy with all the in's and out's. To learn who her partner was and now to be.. well, she wasn't alone.

But she was the only holder now, wasn't she? Wyazz had reassured her of the lack of Hawkmoth's energy. That had meant Tikki's retirement and Wyazz placed on her wrist. It felt odd not to have Tikki nearby, but the Balance of having the Ladybug without the Cat wouldn't have been advice-able. So, here she was. Ready to defend if need be.

It was lonely.

She hoped Adrian was being careful back in Paris. The only thing that gave her comfort regrading her team being away was the fact that Hawkmoth knew that Ladybug was no longer on Paris.

Ergo, to send out more Akuma's would be useless.

So, Paris in theory would be safe.

Hopefully.

She stood slowly, cradling the black spotted egg shaped box in her arms and looked around. To keep the box here was.. foolish. She needed a place where if the time came, Hawkmoth would not find her.

The box needed a place she could access it in case of an emergency.  MArinette needed a place unlikely to be guessed at.

Well, time to take a leaf out of Fu's book.

She tucked the box into her backpack and set off.

It really was amazing, Ivy thought to herself, how easy it was to turn ill-gotten profits into exorbitant wealth. The programs and departments set up to turn the royalties from her (alias held) patents into actual currency was as impressive as it was remarkably invasive. If Ivy had not already experienced the eccentric magic of Wonderland, Mirror included, she might have had a few words to have with that spirit. 

Oh, well. 

She hadn’t been expecting the soft murmur of her name posed as a question to be one of the first things she heard upon stepping out of the train. The Green purred against her ears as Ivy straightened her back, using her impressive height to seek out the owner of that painfully familiar voice. 

Equally painful was the hope that furled within her, a nasty human thing, but Ivy shook it off as easily as the trees shed their leaves in autumn. 

“Well, well,” she said warmly, approaching the young girl, “if it isn’t Marigold. I can’t believe you’re still in this wild place.” 

A beat. Ivy suppressed the poison lingering beneath her skin–though she did pull her fashionable turtleneck’s sleeves into place–and swept up the girl in a hug. The last time she’d seen Marinette had been…when she’d had to put her in the hospital, Ivy recalled. Akuma nonsense. 

“Good to see you, Marinette,” Ivy said, releasing her with a flip of her hair. “At least I know there’s one smart person in Wonderland.” 

She snorted at the others humor, making sure not to hit any of the others skin, holding onto Ivy. After a few long moments she leaned back and utterly beamed at the older woman and relaxed.

Yes, Ivy was here, Ivy was real. Not some trick of the mirror. Things would be better with the other here. Marinette could finally breath in and out. Could finally relax and just.. destress.

"Oh come on Ivy! We've got a whole bumper croup of newbies! You shouldn't lump them in with the rest sight unseen. Why don't you come up to my apartment? I can make us some tea and we can catch up. A.. well, a lot has gone down in wonderland. It might be best to hear it direct over gleaning bits and pieces second hand."

She feels so tired and wrung out. She doesn't want to rehash the petals falling out of her lungs. Doesn't want to nit pick her worst enemies and her partners vanishing.

Doesn't want to rehash her and Cheshire's last battle of words before his vanishment.  

"Ivy?"

It had been a long, hard day. So much had been happening now that the city could come back to life after the Killing Joke had been captured. Work and school that had ground to a halt was slowly blooming once more.

And Marinette had switched her jewelry.

Wyazz had warned her that the Black Cat and the Ladybug were a danger to have out alone, about Yin and Yang and balance. So tikki was retired unless Hawkmoth returned.

For now the weight of the turtle's bracelet clung onto her wrist. Wyazz helped a great deal in her life now.