Dragon Alice will return soon. I promise. I just need a little bit of inspiration. Any suggestions? In the meantime, how about we throw in some plotline. R&R!
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/*\
Today was a very good day for Alice. Two of her favorite people in Wonderland were the Mad Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat, and the former had surprised her with a small tea party and invited the latter.
She knew that the two were not friends, but the Hatter - despite his oddly cruel behavior towards everyone else - had always been very kind and considerate of her. He'd held a certain fondness for the little girl from the moment he met her, and she had not been averse to him either. He reminded her slightly of her father, or the way her father had been before the tragic passing of her mother...
No. No, that was not worth thinking about. Right now, she would enjoy her time in her "home" with the rare guest. Evelyn had arrived at Alice's room, where she'd been cooped up for several days. The Hatter - Marcus - ensured that she would not be able to leave the ever-smaller feeling room before she had fully recovered from her ordeal in the Red Kingdom. He had been outraged when he heard what the Queen had done, and had promised her he'd do something about it. She wasn't quite sure what, but she knew the Hatter did not cheat his promises.
She had been fine with the solitude for the first several hours after her day-long nap, but after that...
The poor girl had been suffering serious cabin fever, and now the March Hare was offering escape.
"Come on Alice," Evelyn had coaxed, her rabbit ears tall, the fur shimmering in the light, "Marc asked that you come to the tea party tonight, and to tell you that-" Then the hare blinked. The girl had already darted out of the room and dashed down the stairs. She couldn't help giggling. There was no restraining an energetic seven-year-old, especially one who was tired of being cooped up indoors, so she followed slowly behind.
/*\
Evening had arrived, and soft red light doused the outdoor party table as Alice skidded to a halt. She couldn't help the wide grin that worked it's way across her face as she saw just who had been invited to her home.
"Warren!" She shouted joyfully, tackling the Cheshire Cat.
"Oof!" He exclaimed, "Hey, be careful." He teasingly chastised as he knelt down to her level. "You're still small but you could definitely knock me over." Her eyes narrowed, and she huffed,
"Of course I could. I'm just as strong as the rest of you." The tiny girl, not even half the man's size, entirely unable to utilize weaponry, declared in complete seriousness.
How could the Role-Holders not smile?
"She's adorable." The Hare stated softly from her spot at the table, turning to the Hatter, who nodded ever-so-slightly in agreement as he watched the cat entertain his young ward. The woman casually cut herself a slice of chocolate cake, and took bites between lines of conversation. "We should adopt her." She stated decisively, gazing at the little girl with an almost motherly sort of pensiveness.
The Mad Hatter sighed. Here they go again.
"You know we can't do that Evelyn." He responded, as gently as possible, doing his best not to rile her. Her eyes flickered back to his, something dark flaring in the amber depths.
"Why not Marc? Even as young as she is, she can choose to stay." The Hare maintained her calm exterior, speaking quietly, her tongue tapping the fork to catch extra bits of frosting. From a distance, everything looked fine, and even then Alice was quite distracted, but this was a conversation that Evelyn had with the Hatter many times.
More than once it had broken out into a fight, even if those instances were only when the child was absent.
Evelyn March had grown painfully close to Alice. Even after she had promised herself to the Mafia, after she had lost every bit of innocence she had, after she had been mentally scarred to the point of near insanity...
She had still ended up wanting children. She wanted that shred of normalcy more than anything, and had asked the Hatter many times if she could have one, and for years he told her "No". In their line of work, a baby would be impractical, irresponsible, and unfair to the child itself. Almost a decade of her persistence, however, eventually wore him down, and he finally rewarded her desire, giving in, unreasonable though it was.
It hadn't taken them long to figure out that she was infertile.
So when the Foreigner showed up - more than a rarity in her abnormal youth - not one week after the heartbreaking revelation, well, it wasn't a surprise that the Hare had imprinted on the girl.
"What of her family in the other world?" Marc questioned, his icy eyes steely against the woman's golden glare. His companion set her fork down, and leaned back in the chair, her bronze waves bouncing, her voice quieting further,
"Do you know why she wished to visit Wonderland?" She borderline growled. He was going to shoot back something not entirely kind when the subject of their conversation approached excitedly, leaving the cat just a few steps behind.
"Marc!" She exulted, "Warren told me that they have a cool new ride at the Amusement Park. Can I go see it?" And she looked up at him hopefully,
"Hmm..." The Hatter pretended to think it over, and then smiled when she gave him her most heartbreaking set of puppy-dog eyes, "Sure, but eat your breakfast and finish your tea first." She grinned back,
"Okay!"
The Hatter spent the next half hour conversing sparsely with the cat while Evelyn meditated in her own shell of well-concealed anger.
/*\
When Warren decided it was time to leave, he picked the girl up and placed her on his shoulder, the button on his sleeve briefly catching on her shoe.
"Keep her safe." The Hatter warned,
"Don't worry, I'll bring her back in one piece." He absentmindedly responded, as the seven-year-old grasped at his long black hair, trying to keep herself stable. Once she was secure, the cat dashed away into the forest. Once the duo was out of sight, the Hatter's glare turned to the woman next to him, who had opened her mouth to speak.
"If you want to continue this conversation," he stood up, "Then we shall do so in the office."
Unfortunately for him, she was more than willing to continue fighting the issue.
/*\
"Wait, so..." Alice trailed off in her perplexity, trying to think over the roar of the crowd, "You're telling me that this ride has animals on it? Not people-animals, but normal, snarly animals?" The little girl looked up at the Duchess disbelievingly. How would that even work? The graying woman nodded enthusiastically,
"Yes! And it's perfectly safe. They're all strapped into seats themselves, and their cars are entirely caged in. You can still experience the thrill of the roller-coaster while mixing in the adrenaline of a jungle chase, and no harm will come to you or them!"
"...So it's just a roller-coaster with a zoo on it." The girl decided, staring up at the yellow-clad lady as though she were not nearly as brilliant as she thought herself to be.
"Well when you put it that way..." she trailed off sheepishly, holding her mandolin at her hip. "Come on, you'll see how cool it really is once you've tried it yourself!" She started to herd the girl towards the line just a few meters away when the cat intervened, placing himself between the girl and his employer.
"Um...Mara?" He asked hesitantly, a faint accent poking through as one of his ears flattened uncertainly, "Are you sure that's a good idea? She's really small...I don't think she's big enough to sit in the car. She'll fall right out." The Duchess looked at him as though she were questioning his intelligence, and spoke slowly, as if he were stupid.
"That's why you're going to go with her."
Because that totally makes it okay. He thought to himself irritably.
/*\
It didn't take long for the boy to notice the girl. But then, it didn't take anyone long to notice the girl, or her companion. They both smelled awful. Clearly, they had made a very poor decision somewhere in their day, and somehow ended up drenched in tiger puke.
It also didn't help that the girl's friend was yelling.
"WHAT MADE YOU THINK A RIDE LIKE THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!" He shouted into the Park Owner's face. Although people stopped to watch the spectacle, the boy still had trouble hearing the whole argument. Yelling, definitely some screaming and...swears?
The man - the Amusement Park Cat? - had let go of the girl's hand to wave both of his own in the Duchess' face.
"YOU IDIOT ******!" A feminine gasp was heard,
"THERE ARE CHILDREN HERE!" She roared back,
In the meantime, the girl was the only one being practical. She walked away from the squabbling Role-Holders and approached the crowd of people, as there were no workers in sight.
"Does anyone know where I might be able to go clean up?" She asked, perfectly reasonable and polite, despite the fact that she must have felt humiliated and disgusting. No one answered, and by the looks of it, a few had taken a step back from her. The boy scoffed to himself. Sure, the customers might not have liked the smell, ever stronger under the heat of the noonday sun, but the poor girl was completely covered in the reeking and no doubt gross substance. Though his own nose was far more sensitive than the queasy human faceless, he was fairly certain she was the person with the lesser luck.
His parents nowhere in sight, the boy pushed through the crowd.
"Come on," he waved to her, "I'll help you find a bathroom." She looked to him and nodded gratefully, and careful not to touch her, he led her away.
/*\
Naturally, the little girl had to change her clothes, as her blue dress was nowhere near salvageable. This left the boy in something of a bind.
It wasn't like he had a spare dress lying around. Nor could he leave her in her current state.
The boy liked to consider himself a gentleman, so he wasn't going to just abandon her in the restroom, especially since she wasn't a faceless. With a flick of his tail, and the swiveling of his ears, he instructed the girl to wait for him, promising his own return, and darted to the nearest fabric store.
/*\
The boy was not a stranger to shoplifting, but that was generally small candies and toys. Never had he attempted to steal a dress before.
Well, he thought to himself, This'll definitely be interesting. New at least. With that, he casually walked into the small boutique on the main street, as if it most certainly was not strange at all that an adolescent boy wanted to look at girls' clothes.
/*\
The cat-boy did not realize just how hard it would be to successfully snag a dress, even just a random one off the shelf. Down every aisle from the corners of the room, from thread and buttons to fully made pieces, the people would not stop looking at him. That wasn't normal, but then, neither were solitary boys in boutiques. He was at the complete center of attention, and that wasn't even the largest obstacle in his way.
He had no idea what he was looking for.
Frills, bows, colors...cuts? What was a cut? He didn't know, but he couldn't ask. He was in a store, with all eyes on him, needing a dress, with no money, and on a time limit.
This is one hell of a situation I've gotten myself into. He thought despairingly, as he glared at a bright blue presentation, his ears flattened and his tail lashing. The dress was way too ornate and gaudy for what the girl needed, but this was the only mannequin that looked about the same size as her, but ultimately he had no way of actually knowing. He had come to terms with the fact that this particular mission would not be covert, but he had hoped for one thing.
That he might be able to figure out what he needed before something happened, namely, when the cashier approached him and asked what he was doing.
"Young man?" she asked sweetly, "Are you lost?"
"...No." He answered slowly. "I'm just...kind of in an awkward situation."
Though the notion of trouble was tempting, this would be a helluva thing to explain to his parents. Maybe he could get out of this more easily?
"Tell me about it." The cashier stated, and so the boy explained. The screaming match between the Role-Holders, the girl covered in animal vomit, her dire need for new clothes, and the girl's current station in a bathroom. The cashier winced sympathetically, her uniform crinkling as she stood back up.
"I'm very sorry young man," she stated, "But there's nothing I can do for you if you haven't any money."
"I was worried about that," the boy stated, "But luckily I have a backup plan." He announced proudly. The cashier laughed,
"And what's that?" The boy grinned in spite of himself,
"This." And he shot a thread spool up at a light bulb. While everyone was distracted by the broken glass and the sparking of the exposed electrical wire, he took the opportunity to grab the mannequin directly in front of him and start running.
/*\
"Alice!" The Duchess called, pushing through the myriads of customers clogging the streets.
"Alice!" The Cheshire Cat repeated, equally worried, shoving past a man on a bike, glancing around wildly, his striped tail lashing.
So far, most people had liked the Foreigner, but because she was under the protection of the Role-Holders - well most of them - Wonderland was still a very dangerous place for her. They had enemies, more than just each other.
If the wrong people found her, it could end in a manner quite disastrous.
/*\
Alice sat in the public bathroom entirely bored and starting to worry. She had managed to wash most of the nastiness out of her hair with the hand soap, and she had disposed of her now-useless blue smock. The boy told her he would put an out-of-order sign on the door to keep out other people, and told her he'd be right back with something she could use.
It seemed that he had been gone an awfully long time.
If he didn't return soon, she would have to kill him for lying.
/*\
The boy was panicking. Normally, it was easy to hide in crowds. It would be a simple maneuver to hide his prize in a pocket or in his shirt. Not so in this instance. People ducked and screamed and stared, and several tried to stop him by leaping in his way.
Had it not been for his feline agility, he would have been caught in mere seconds, and even then it was difficult just to hang on to the ridiculously heavy object.
The bathroom felt a long ways away.
/*\
When the Duchess heard that a boy had stolen a dress from one of the more expensive boutiques in the park, she reamed the worker for wasting her time. The priority was Alice, not some little thieving punk.
When Warren - still unfortunately messy from the roller-coaster - got wind of the situation, however, he felt pretty sure he knew why a boy might steal a dress.
/*\
Finally, he had made it. As of yet, nothing had happened. He'd cleared all of the obstacles, and he had managed to evade the grasp of every single person who'd attempted to capture him.
He'd even succeeded in keeping the dress in one piece, and the out-of-order sign was entirely in sight. Just a few more yards over the bricks, under the tree, and BAM. He'd be there.
Yes, this distinct endeavor was a little absurd. No doubt his strangest project, but this was by far his most challenging escapade yet.
/*\
Something slammed into the bathroom door, and Alice jumped.
"Hey!" A voice called, "Open the door!" Naturally, being only barely clothed, Alice was disinclined to do so. So she went and hid in a stall.
"It's open!" She called, and the door slammed wide, and looking through the gap in the stall divider, she saw the cat-boy lock the door behind him while worker upon park worker threw themselves into it. The boy set down...a mannequin?
A mannequin with clothes on it.
"Get dressed!" The boy yelled.
"Turn away!"
"Right! Right." And he moved to stare at the wall as the tiny girl fought to disrobe the inanimate object.
/*\
"I never asked your name!" The girl stated, doing her best to zip up the back of the blue garment, people still yelling through the locked bathroom door.
"Boris." the boy stated, never turning.
"Alice." She responded. The boy waved with the back of his hand,
"Nice to meet you Alice." Just then a loud, booming voice startled the two children into facing the door.
"BORIS ALEXANDER AIRAY!" It was definitely a woman speaking, but Alice's new friend was clearly afraid.
"She used your middle name." Alice said in a mixture of awe and amusement before glancing up to his face. "You're dead." His ears flattened.
"If I die, it's your fault."
/*\
"What, exactly, did you think you were going to do with a dress?" The older cat asked, upset though bemused. The ten-year-old angrily gestured to the girl with a face, who was now conversing with Warren Spade, the Cheshire Cat's tail twitching as he fought a smile.
"She needed clothes!" He spat, irritated. The one time he uses his skills for good...
"Why did she need clothes? Doesn't she have parents too?" His mother questioned,
"She's a Foreigner," Boris interjected, "She's got no one and the Duchess made her go on a ride where she got covered in puke and no one else was helping her." His parents shared a look before his father spoke,
"Boris, your mother and I love you, you're not one to help other people unless you can get something from it." The cat's ears flattened,
"So you mean to say I'm incapable of kindness?" He hissed, feeling more than a little offended. Yes, he was a rather rebellious kid, and he liked to cause trouble, but that didn't mean he was inherently evil. "Sure, it looked challenging, but I couldn't just leave her in the bathroom with ruined stuff. Do you have any idea how hard it was to run with that mannequin?!" His father was going to respond when the girl approached the trio.
"Um, hello." she stated, Warren watching carefully from several steps behind, "I wanted to apologize to Boris."
All three stared at her as though she had just told them she was an alien being, hailing from the stars, and was going to bring about the apocalypse.
She got the feeling that this family was not use to being relieved of the blame. Was that a feeling she could relate to.
"What for?" Boris questioned, "You didn't do anything." The girl placed a finger to her chin thoughtfully,
"Technically," she conceded, "I suppose not, but still. You got into a lot of trouble for me. So I wanted to say I was sorry." Then she looked up to the boy's parents, "And please don't be too harsh on him for this. He was just trying to help." His mother laughed,
"I think all three of us - Boris especially - appreciates your high opinion. However you don't know him. He likes to cause chaos for the sake of chaos." And though these words might have been spoken with a clear undertone of irritation, she still rested her hand on her son's shoulder in a clearly affectionate manner. Alice merely shrugged.
"Maybe that's true, but it doesn't change the fact that he helped." She laid her bright aqua eyes on the shortest cat once more. "Even if the help wasn't the priority, thank you anyway." And she turned back to the Role-Holder, when the boy himself spoke.
"Hey Alice," he stated, "Would you want to play again sometime? Something not involving theft." To this the girl smiled,
"Absolutely."
/*\
Not many people seemed to like this one, but I really like to write the Role-Holders as kids. And I kind of wanted to go somewhere with these past Role-Holders that I've invented, as I've given them more and more personality in not only my spinoffs, but also in the Old Role Series, so I wanted to start exploring these characters a little more before continuing my main storyline while still incorporating the cannon characters. What better way to do that than have them be the people that Alice met as a child?
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