#alice 01

The nagging suspicion he had of his surroundings were not new. He hadn’t trusted The Chronolium since he showed up on some foreign bed, no Hatter family or mansion to accompany him. The rules here were different and unpredictable in a way that unsettled even him. When he didn’t know what challenge he was up against, he couldn’t tell what battles he could actually win. The whispers around town of mass memory loss had built up anxiety in him coming to the realization that he wasn’t immune to it. There was one event he definitely couldn’t remember. He would never forget it.

He swiftly walked through town hoping to wait it out at his residence until whatever storm this was passed. It wouldn’t be the first time in Wonderland that the unpredictable happened. It always passed. But as he was lost in thought he felt someone grab the back of his shoulder. It was a familiar, soft hand, but he didn’t have time to turn to see who it was before his surroundings began to change. Almost as if the sky was melting, the whole city started to fall away. All around him was a mist--no, that wasn’t quite it.

A snowstorm blurred everything in sight.

Blood raised his hands to his face to block a gust of wind from his eyes. The hands that entered his vision were smaller, weren’t they? Blood swallowed down a lump in his throat. This was it. This was what he was missing. The mist clears and he’s on a deserted cobblestone street in front of a Victorian mansion, pretty on the outside, but deteriorating behind its facade. A girl a few years older than him wears a lovely new dress in rose violet. She smiles with an empty gaze, placid and obedient until the very end. 

With how the department was running, lunch was a welcome reprieve. It wasn’t too bad - not really, anyway, but he was stuck needing to work with a few of the other liaisons and Lucius Malfoy was one of the staff members he had been grouped with. Although able to remain pleasant, Ted couldn’t help but pick up on the blond’s way of avoiding talking to him. It was rather exhausting to deal with since he would have expected Malfoy of all people to be able to force pleasantries when it came to work. Lunch couldn’t have come sooner and he was all too relieved to spot a familiar face in the cafeteria.

“How’s my favorite auror doing?” Ted asked then took a seat across from Alice. His grin faltered for a moment, quickly accompanied by a chuckle and shake of his head. “I would say don’t tell the others but the greeting has become pretty universal as of recent. I’ve yet to say it to Alastor though.”

“Ah! It’s Alice!” Dorothy exclaimed. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

As she drove her sword deep through the chest of a minotaur-like being, Dorothy smiled warmly towards the ever stoic, blue haired girl - before twisting the blade, and wrenching it free with a sudden yank.

She paid the fallen beast no further heed, as she turned to face her companion.

“These sure are some unusual Nightmares, huh? Isn’t it great?!”

Spectral beings, who nevertheless writhed - and bled - when struck with normal, corporeal weapons. Tiny men, not unlike munchkins, but with much more angular and feral features. Oversized crabs, with pincers sharp enough to pierce steel. A bonafide unicorn; nothing more needed to be said, to explain why that was intriguing. Ah, and of course, the bull-headed man currently bleeding out on the floor...

So many wonderful specimens, all in one place... 

“This section of the Library, too! I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere like here before! In fact, it doesn’t even look like a library anymore...”

The country born girl - from an age far gone - had little concept of modern civilization. To her, the sights and sounds of the ruined city were not so different from the magical splendor that she had long since become accustomed to. 

SEVEN SINS CASINO

WEARING (FIRST ROW, THIRD COLUMN) 

OPEN TO @viperovs

 How was she supposed to do her job with Henry’s love for dissipating being ever present as they hopped arm in arm from one day to the next. That would be his gift, had the light graced him, Rosalie thought bitterly, dissipating. The anchor had not stepped into the clattering of rolling dice and home of suppressed expressions in search of him directly, though. From her experience, there was a little someone who could tug the end of her search nearer, faster.

 “Alice Reddington.” If Rosalie’s lips were not unused to beaming, then she might have shown her company a smile. The girl reminded her of the color red, for more than one reason. The shine of her hair, the gloss of her lips, the fire that broiled beneath the wit on her tongue. “A favor, my dear.”

Her attention was later grabbed by the broom she had, and Weiss couldn’t help but snort.

“I’m starting to think those scientists are giving out these ‘weapons’ as jokes, at this point.”