I know it's not an update, but I wanted to write something else. I recently got a demo of the game, so now I know the proper geography and appearance for everything. I thought that the country had been split up into quarters, not three parts and a center. What do I know? xD But yes, welcome back to my 2:00 am ramblings, and please, R&R :D
-Static
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The workshop was a quiet place, if one could overlook the methodical tick, tock-ing of clocks that numbered at too many to count. It was a small area. It contained a desk and a little loft bed, with another work space directly under it, built into the frame. There were books splayed everywhere, even on the floor, and occasionally the odd mechanism of random clock parts built into something else. The curtains were drawn, and a standard lamp was the only source of illumination as the man worked and worked some more.
There was a certain meditative quality to be found within the work. For him it was almost like art, if art was ever meant to be so black a practice. Instead of paints and brushes or paper and pen, he used cogs and gears to create his masterpieces. Once the trinkets - so deceptive in appearance - were fully functional once more, he could turn them into people.
That could be arguably the fun part. Or the pretentious part. It really depended on his mood.
There weren't just books and half-built machinery pieces scattered about the tiny workshop, battling for space with the bookshelves and table, but also sheafs of paper, all containing sketches of people.
It wasn't like he could recreate the same person over and over again. Sure, many of the faceless looked alike - he didn't have enough time to make each one as individual as he might want to - but he couldn't just create them all the same. How annoying would that be?
He was working on one such sketch when the door creaked. He didn't look up, and simply continued his progress. He knew who it was, and unlike just about anyone else in Wonderland, she was always a welcome presence.
Not that he would ever let her know that.
The person on the paper was coming out surprisingly well this time. It was a female, not tall, but not freakishly short, perfectly petite. She wasn't particularly well-endowed - he always felt so awkward deciding such things for people. He often just let the pen skitter across the paper as it may and was done with it - but she wasn't horribly flat either. He imagined her skin to be the palest of ivories, and her hair long and straight. It would be a lighter color too. Not blond, but not brown either, a color that could never truly be determined, as it would always differ in the angle of the-
"Julius?" A voice questioned, ringing through the air, breaking the rhythmic tick, tock of the assorted clocks.
"What?" He growled, looking up, pencil pausing. His nasty demeanor was not sincere in the least of course, but the pretense was important. It needed to be perfect down to a fault, exactly as it had been when he first met her and did not know her yet. He would not let this woman - just barely exiting girlhood - know just how much he liked her. Just how beautiful he found her. Just how much he wanted her...
If she ever figured it out, it would be his complete and utter undoing. If she found out she would leave.
She didn't view him as she did the other men. She thought him safe. She didn't think of him in a threateningly masculine manner, because he was always adamant that he was not interested in other people, women especially.
The fact of the matter was, the other men wanted her in the same way he did, and that scared her, because none of them had ever been shy in their propositions. She thought far higher of him, which simultaneously pleased and frustrated him. The others had been too overwhelmingly mannish for her in a manner that made her feel afraid and uncomfortable. That's not even mentioning how pushy they were. Peter refused to hear her denials of him as her lover. Ace wouldn't stop trying to get her alone in a tent. Julius refused to even think about the bloody Hatter (and no that was not meant to be a clever pun). At the same time however, as much as he detested their methods and the way they treated her, he couldn't deny that their ideas had worked in some ways. She viewed his rivals as men. Men that could be potential prospects.
As much as he feared the consequences of such a revelation, he wanted her to notice him as a man and not just her landlord.
As he'd been lost in these musings, looking at her face with his own perfectly schooled into it's usual state of irritation, she had raised an eyebrow at him. It was unusual of him to be so snappy with her. He was usually a much more patient person. However, he had been working an awful lot lately. Ace wouldn't stop coming in with more and more clocks...
He needed rest, but knowing it would be futile to try and make him leave the desk, she simply presented him with a cup of coffee instead.
"Here," she stated softly, "I brought you some coffee. I would stay up and watch you work some more, but honestly-" she cut herself off with a yawn, "I'm simply too exhausted. There's more in the kitchen flask if you need it." And then a little quieter, "Assuming it's decent this time." Julius relaxed his death grip on the pencil, his gaze finally turning to the mug she had placed just above the edge of his newest project.
"Thank you, Alice." He murmured. The words felt strange on his tongue. He was a bitter loner with few friends, and commonly hated by the rest of the nation. Manners weren't exactly something he needed to use with other people - they never had manners with him. Alice was the only person he ever bothered being polite too, and though he said things to her he said to no one else, she remained too oblivious to notice, so it was fine.
He moved to take a sip, and thought over in his mind. Well, it was definitely an improvement from yesterday...
Or he was just getting used to drinking bad coffee.
"Eighty-five." He decided. It wasn't worth that many points, but he knew the girl tried. The coffee-making process was difficult for her, as she didn't much care for the beverage, so she didn't really know how it was supposed to taste. Alice only put in the effort because she knew he liked it, and because so few people showed him legitimate kindness, he wouldn't let that go unappreciated.
She beamed at him and turned towards the loft bed, the only one in the tower.
"If you're going to stay up, I'm going to sleep." She announced, and Julius had to force himself to stare down at the drawing and bid her a soft goodnight before shutting off his lamp so that she could sleep. It was night, and though he was particularly fond of it, it made his companion sleepy. He lit a candle and tried not to glance her direction.
Even though he had asked her on multiple occasions - alright, so maybe it was more along the lines of scolding - to stop wearing that tiny little nightgown, she still paraded herself around in it come bedtime. She didn't even have the decency to wear a dressing gown. It left so much skin unprotected. Most of her legs, her arms, her shoulders, and it absolutely did not help that the damned thing was white.
If he caught a glimpse of her in it in just the right light, he could almost see through it. Of course, she was too innocent to see the issue with her nightwear. It was comfortable, so why shouldn't she wear it? That was her reasoning, but for the Clockmaker...it was as if the real deities of Wonderland were testing him. More than once he'd wondered if it was some sort of punishment for his arrogance. It was all to often that he'd look at his fellow Role-Holders and think to himself,
I am surrounded by morons.
And now he had been left no better than the rest of them.
One peek. One peek out of the corner of his eye would mean nothing. It was perfectly fine for a man to appreciate a woman's beauty. It was a natural human thing for him to do, and since he was human, it was no issue as long as she didn't catch him looking. Right?
Wrong.
Right at the moment his gaze had flickered to her, a gust of wind had blown through the curtains. Why is the window open? But the thought had barely any time to register before he took notice of the girl. The breeze had lifted her nightdress ever so slightly as she had started up the ladder, but it was just enough for him to notice the extravagant curve that led from her legs up to her back, and just how dark her undergarments were against her skin.
Dear God, why? Was the thought looping through his mind at a million miles an hour, but it had taken him several moments to realize.
"Julius, why are you staring at me?" She questioned, tilting her head and starting to sound uneasy. His eyes immediately flicked to her face, and she saw...something, in his eyes. The emotion shining through the sapphire depths of his eyes was something she was completely unable to identify, and it worried her. It worried her even more when he pushed the chair away from his desk and then proceeded to grab her wrist and back her up against the table under the bed.
It had happened. It had finally happened. Julius had snapped. He couldn't take it anymore. For a moment he didn't care if this chased her away, so be it, he couldn't deal with the torment any longer. Then he took a deep breath, and let it out, Alice caged between him, his arms, and the desk.
"Alice," He started, trying to choose his words carefully. "Do you recall all the times I've asked you to find something else to sleep in? Or to at least invest in a dressing gown?"
"...Yes..." she answered, trying to determine the cause of Julius's strange attitude. What was happening? She always thought he'd been teasing when he made those protests. He'd never behaved like this.
"Have you ever wondered why I make those requests?" He growled, taking a moment to subtly lean in and take in the scent of her shampoo.
"Not particularly." She answered hesitantly. He looked her straight in the eye.
"Because, I am a man." He looked at her meaningfully. It was clear from the nervous and confused look in her eye that she still wasn't getting it. "If we switched places, it would be as if I slept in nothing but pants." Her eyes widened.
"Oh," she answered in understanding, and she turned a little red. "I see, it makes you feel awkward. Why didn't you just say so? I'll buy new nightclothes tomorrow." He sighed in half-relief and half-frustration.
She hadn't understood what he had really meant. However, that was okay. She wasn't going to leave, nor was she going to wear that evil dress anymore. She was going to buy new pajamas, and make this situation a little easier on him.
Yet the way she had looked at him before stepping back to the bed...that had made him feel a little better.
He hated people, but not her. He desired her in ways that he thought impossible for himself, and that only made him adore her even more. It gave him a sense of normalcy, and though he behaved as though he were content in his Role...it was something they all longed for at some point.
He knew he could never tell her though. As she ascended the ladder to sleep, he knew that he could never ask her to return his affections. He was the Mortician. His dealings were with the dead, and he carried their secrets. Though he looked harmless enough, he would pose danger to her sooner or later. It would be so very unfair of him to ask that she create an inseparable bond with that.
At the same time...she lived with him. She cleaned the tower, she cooked his meals and she brought him coffee. She allowed him to view her in a state of undress that no other man of Wonderland would ever hope to see without physical damage. She was even sleeping in his bed.
As Julius finished his sketch of the new faceless, he shook his head. Such thoughts would lead him nowhere.
As much as he felt the heat of desire whenever he looked upon her, as much as he might tantalize himself with thoughts of acceptance...he wasn't good for her. It meant nothing if she was good for him, but he was damage for her. However he was human. How could he expect himself to remain so noble?
No, no he could not pursue her, that was not his right...and yet...if she might want him back...No, no no. That was not a train of thought worth entertaining. He forced himself to focus, and so resignedly, he continued with his work into the night, the clocks ever ticking away. He couldn't be with Alice, and though he kept telling himself this...
He couldn't stop himself from looking thoughtfully up at the bed.
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I feel like Julius puts up with a lot of crap from not only the other Role-Holders, but Alice as well. She's kind of a *bleep* in the game. What little I've seen anyway. R&R pleeeeeeaaaaaase! :D
-Static