Summary: Not every role holder was mentioned in the original story of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland; some were simply not important. A thief and street magician like Skylar is a prime example. As she runs from not only her role, but angry role holders and faceless, gunshots, snowballs and even rogue pastries, the young girl encounters many people and situations, good, bad and everywhere in between. No pairing yet, but it'll probably end up being Skylar and Boris or Skylar and Joker.
Author's Note: This is my first Heart no Kuni no Alice fanfiction, so I hope it's alright. I've seen a lot of HnKnA OC fanfiction in which there's a new outsider, but not nearly as much where there's a new role holder. Or perhaps I just haven't read enough to find it. Either way, I really hope this is okay; I'm going to do my best not to make Skylar a Mary Sue, but please tell me if you think she's becoming one at any point. If you enjoy it, if you don't, if you're somewhere in between, please don't hesitate to leave me a review and tell me! I'd love to hear what you like about it, what you think I could improve on or just that someone actually likes the story. I'll give you a cookie if you do~. Enjoy!
"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
"Thank you all for watching! I'll be back tomorrow, and I hope to entertain you all again," I called, bidding my audience goodbye with a cheerful, friendly (read: fake) smile. Bowing as they clapped, I quickly retrieved all of my scattered props and belongings and placed them in my backpack. As the crowd that had gathered around the empty area of the amusement park that I like to call my stage began to leave and talk amongst themselves again, I knew that it was my perfect opportunity. I quickly disappeared from my usual spot and snuck into the crowd unnoticed, looking through the large group of faceless for a new victim. My grey eyes landed on one girl in particular, whose purse was large and left hanging open, wallet out in the open as if it was calling to me. As she seemed preoccupied with the conversation she was having, I quickly made my way over, snatching that very wallet and making my escape, unseen due to the ungodly amount of people surrounding me. I made a beeline for an unoccupied bench further away from the swarm of park visitors, plopping down on it with a satisfied smirk on my lips. My eyes searching for the victim of my thievery, I finally located her once again, and noted with amusement that my small crime had gone, once again, unnoticed.
As soon as everyone who had been watching my show was long gone and out of sight, I reopened my large backpack with the intention to look over its contents and take stock, before I was interrupted by an appearance on the bench beside me.
"Cool show, Sky," the pink-haired Cheshire cat complimented, taking a seat next to me as he grinned. "What kind of loot did ya get today?" he questioned, as curious as ever as he looked over at my now opened backpack.
I grinned back; he was among those who knew how I really made my income, and how little of it was actually from the loose change people tossed into my magician's hat. I pulled out two shining pieces of jewelry from the bag, showing them off to him; "The ring off the finger of one of my participants, and the watch from another."
He examined them closely, giving me a thumbs up. "Nice! But you know, it's not nice to steal from unknowing victims~," he teased, and I rolled my eyes.
"Then I probably shouldn't mention the wallet I "found", either. Besides, it's not nice to bring guns to Heart Castle and terrorize the soldiers, either," I retorted, and he gave a sheepish grin as he leaned back on the bench.
"It's fun, though," he whined, scratching the back of his head.
I shrugged. "So is stealing from unknowing victims."
He chuckled and nodded. "You got me there."
"So, I haven't seen you in a while. Where've you been? Is there something out there that's more exciting than watching my shows?" I asked sarcastically, though I was curious as to what had been keeping him so busy. Normally, I would at least see him chasing that mouse around if he didn't come to see me, but over the past several time changes, his presence had been scarce.
"Oh, you don't know? There's a new foreigner," he explained, looking over at me. I could practically see the excitement and interest in his eyes, and I almost laughed. He looked so childish and cute when he got excited about things. Though, I was interested; a foreigner? I'd certainly never had the (mis?)fortune of meeting one.
"If you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly 'in the loop' when it comes to… well, everything," I started, meeting his eyes, "So that's news to me. Who is it?" I asked, genuinely curious about this enigma.
"Her name's Alice," he started with a grin, and I could tell that he was enthralled with her, "And she's really cool. I'd never met a foreigner before."
"Me neither. When can I meet her?" I asked, immediately interested to see what this girl would be like. I knew very little about them, but I recalled my father having mentioned one that he'd met when he was younger.
"Well, she's staying with Blood right now, and I can't really see you walking up to the Hatter's mansion and asking to see her," he joked, and I nodded.
"Not likely. If she's choosing to stay with that asshole, she can't be too smart," I commented, crossing my arms as I leaned back on the bench and looked away. Truly, I couldn't stand the man. Even before the incident, I thought he was an arrogant dick. …Alright, perhaps I also thought he was a little badass, but things change.
"Aww, come on. I get that you don't like him, but Alice isn't bad, I swear," he replied as he stood up from the bench and turned to me. "Anyway, I'm hungry. We should find a food stand!" he suggested, offering his hand to me.
I raised an eyebrow. "Yes, because the cotton candy and hot dogs that the amusement park's food stands sell is absolutely delicious," I replied sarcastically.
"Since when are you a food critic? You take whatever you can get when you don't have money," he replied jokingly, and I grinned.
"Yes, but today I do have money," I retorted, retrieving the stolen wallet from my bag and waving it in front of him, proud grin on my lips. "So let's go to a restaurant for once. Somewhere with fish~," I offered, and I knew from his wide grin and lit up eyes that I had sold him on the idea. I took his still open hand and stood up, walking with him towards the exit of the amusement park.
– xxx –
As we walked, the silence of the forest between the amusement park and the town was broken by our mindless chatter. He complained about the rotten rat that he'd been chasing and spoke kindly about the apparently intriguing new foreigner, while I mentioned my latest pranks, some new magic tricks I'd learned and the suspicious looking badger I'd run into while looking for a place to spend the night. Eventually, we arrived at a good-looking restaurant that we decided to try out. It wasn't particularly busy, and we were seated quickly. While waiting for our food to arrive, our endless chatter picked up again.
"So, April Season is coming up," I mentioned as a red balloon, likely from the amusement park, floated past the window of the restaurant and reminded me.
"Yeah," Boris agreed, not seeming particularly thrilled about it, "Looking forward to it?" he asked, a joking tone to his voice. All considered, I'm sure he expected me not to be. Hell, normally, so would I.
"Actually, sort of. The knife throwing kids from the circus last year convinced me to do some magic shows there this year, and said they wouldn't tell Joker I was there," I replied with a mischievous grin, while I mindlessly tapped my fingers on the table.
"And you believe them?" he asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow at me.
I laughed a bit, shaking my head. "No, not really, but it'll be fun. If Joker shows up, I'll just run away. That's my specialty, you know," I replied with a wink. Most everyone knew that when it came to a fight, I almost always bolted away from the scene. I'm great at tricking, but not so great at fighting. Everyone has their specialities and weaknesses.
He chuckled. "Of course. Sounds like a dangerous plan; I like it~," he commented with a grin, and my own expression was similar as I nodded.
"You're welcome to join me if you want. We can explore the circus and possibly run for our lives together," I offered, my grin widening.
"I'm in," he replied, nodding enthusiastically. Before either of us had a chance to continue our conversation, we were interrupted by the waitress's arrival; Boris's face lit up like a kid's on Christmas when his eyes landed on the fish he had ordered, and I had to admit that I, too, was excited for the meal. All I'd had was amusement park food for the last while, as I hadn't been able to steal anything that got me much cash to pay for big meals.
As we ate, conversation died down to a minimum. It wasn't that we didn't want to talk to each other, but simply that food, as always, was much higher of a priority. After leaving the restaurant, we walked around town for a short time, before afternoon finally shifted into night, and the Cheshire Cat bid me farewell as he returned home to the amusement park. That left me to wander around the town alone, while most of the shops began to close up and the faceless shoppers began to return home.
Walking out of a now closed pawn shop, I grinned as I flipped through the money I'd earned from selling the jewelry I'd acquired earlier. I briefly considered using it to rent a hotel room for the night, but quickly decided against it; thievery is a hit and miss business, after all. Only half the time, if that, was the stolen jewelry worth much or the wallets full of much money, so on successful days like today, it was generally wisest to save it in order to buy food the next day, too. So, instead of sticking around the town, I took in its flickering lights once more before turning and walking down the path to the forest.
– xxx –
For quite a while, I walked along the dirt path through the forest, convinced that I'd arrive back at the tree outside the amusement park that I usually slept in any minute now. However, those minutes added up, and it eventually occurred to me that perhaps, I had managed to get myself lost. It wasn't that I was any bit as bad as that directionally challenged knight I run into on occasion, but I find that the dark has a tendency to make things look different. So different that I somehow managed to walk off the only visible path without noticing, apparently. Well, I never claimed that I was good at navigation, either.
It wasn't that I couldn't just sleep in any old tree in the forest, but I liked to tell myself I had standards, that only that one tree could ever live up to. Of course, that wasn't the full reason; that wasn't really even half of the reason. Mainly, what I worried about was the fact that I could be absolutely anywhere at the moment, and there are many places that someone like me really shouldn't be. When you run from your role, there are going to be people who are pretty pissed at you. Obviously, my goal is to successfully avoid them. Staying the night in a tree on those very peoples' property was rarely a good idea.
So, I marched on, determined to find some sort of landmark that would tell me where I was and therefore how I would return; or, perhaps, whether or not I could just collapse and spend the night where I was standing. That seemed like a growingly tempting option, as I felt my eyelids growing heavy and was reminded of how tired I really was. I had barely slept the night before, having been running from an angry faceless who had realized that I had stolen his bag. Sighing, I trudged on, about to simply give up and sink into slumber, when I heard voices approaching in the distance. Distracted by the intent to listen in, I nearly walked into a brick fence seconds later, only realizing that it was there a fraction of a second before I crashed into it. As I strained my neck and stood on my toes to see over it, a wave of dread washed over me; now, I realized where I was.
"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses the moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look forward." - Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
