we're all mad here.

Alice rolled her eyes, gripping the edges of the hole and using the water around her to propel herself through.

“I don’t know if a gentleman would be the proper word to describe you. Also this may be the first thing you’ve ever done for me that didn’t affect you.” She began to search through the various items on the ship, not exactly sure what she was looking for. It was something the Hatter wanted but he never knew himself.

   “ You wound me, Alice... ”  He dramatically pouted, metal pierced hand pressed to his chest as he follows them through the opening with a few long strides.   “ I know we’ve been... discordant intention-wise in the past, but I want to prove there’s no ill-will towards you. Start over? ”   He grins towards her, hands shrugging as he follows her.   

The teen snatches the card at her feet and rushes over, insisting upon examining the wound. “ I dunno, that gash looks a little more than a paper cut, ” she worries, searching for meta-essence. “ I’m sure we can find a shrinking violet somewhere… ”

I suppose, though I could’ve been more precise with my aim. ” Sure, she’s been training for a few years now, but Maddie can’t compete with Alice’s experience. “ And what exactly could you have done to me? ” she teases, an infamous Liddell smirk pulling at her painted, red lips.

       A hand brushes over and grips around where the damage was done, trying to reduce the deep stinging sinking in the longer she acknowledged it, examining it for only a glance before she covers it again.    “ ... Maybe a... small flesh wound? I’ll be alright... ”  Her mother smiles wryly to her with a shrug, rocking on her heels. 

“ Oh, no, all things considered, you hit your target. Perhaps I simply must move faster from now on. ”    Alice joined her in leaving their training behind for the moment as they look for some way to rejuvenate, and chuckles at their question.

     “ Well-- Don’t let it be said I’ve never done anything for you, eh? Step aside, if you please, and... ”

With that, the tall and slender builder hooked the back of his hammer into the old hardwood boards of the ship’s side and ripped the hole wider for the girl.  And himself. 

Shaking her head at her mother’s laughing, Madeline leaps to a nearby Queen and tries her hardest to keep her gaze straight ahead. She didn’t care if Wonderland wouldn’t allow her to fall, the sight of the drop alone sent cold chills down the daughter’s spine. “ You know how nervous I get on this bloody Cardbridge! ” Maddie whines, quickly tensing at the sound of the infamous Pepper Grinder.

Wielding her card deck, Maddie flicks a few Aces towards Alice and quickly advances. One of the cards grazes her arm, causing the younger Liddell to freeze suddenly. “ Mum-! Did I hurt you? ” she calls out worriedly, allowing her guard to fall. Madeline is sure she aimed it to barely miss her mother, not to actually touch her skin!

        “ That’s precisely why we’re here! ”   Her mother assures from her side of the cards. Their torrent of projectiles lead them running adjacent to each other, both just barely dodging their stream, until Alice had taken just one step slower than the rest.     “ ----! ”    She had to admit, that was good form.

Chris had been working hard on that day, practicing with his weapons and abilities…when he heard the odd voice, body visibly jolting before he whipped around to see…n-no that couldn’t be right…she was dead, far too much time had passed for him to see her at all let alone like this…and yet…

“…Grandma Alice…?” The words just slipped out without much thought.

       “ Yes, that’s right-- I believe so. Or at least-- you believe so? Oh... ”  She clicks her tongue as her teacup drops to her apron topped lap, eyes nearly rolling as she chuckles to herself.  

        “ Care for tea? ”

      Perhaps they knew her from pictures.   Faded, vintage, usually frowning as many old pictures do, and maybe more so-- Older, as her young photos long since burned to ashes, and all who remembered it;  just as lost.   Yet. Here she was. A young woman, and smiling in a deep blue dress, and setting up a picnic atop the remains of something thick and black with shards of porcelain...