Mable: Here's the newest chapter! I don't own 9, Enjoy!
Sanest in the Asylum
Chapter Three: Tea Parties and Test Subjects
The cream colored gate creaked open and Six poked his head through to see what lay beyond. From the angle he couldn't see any more than the edge of a table and slowly had to creep farther along to see more. The table revealed itself as much larger than expecting, stretching across the fenced in back yard and resting on the vibrant green grass. It was topped with a white tablecloth and covered in various teapots and plates. Six had seen teapots before, but knew little about actual tea, but assumed that this was the tea party.
There was only two people crammed together at one side of the table together. It was clear who the two were, the one sitting and laughing while the other was now standing and describing something with vigorous hand gestures. The one sitting down wore a tall top hat and an overcoat that matched the vibrant gold of the house, two buttons poking through that Six doubted belonged on the actual jacket and more to the Stitchpunk wearing it. There was a pinned tag on his hat that revealed his own number.
"Five…" Six murmured as he watched him pour some brown liquid from the teapot into the teacup before him. Six then looked to the other male. He wore a hat that resembled Two's, but was smaller, and the bulbs were tinted a copper cover while being pointed somewhat back. He was wearing a short, brown vest that looked made of some kind of fur, and Six could see some sort of puff on his lower back. It was obvious, though, that the laughing Stitchpunk was also familiar, "Nine… They're both here too." He added in with his thoughts, "They probably don't remember me either."
He slowly crept forward, "Umm…" At this both set of optics, one lack a full set, looked to the striped Stitchpunk who suddenly felt like he was being put on display. Thankfully, the two seemed to quickly regain compositor, "Hey!" 'Nine' greeted as he sat down onto the chair once again and 'Five' spoke now, "Welcome to the party!" He looked at the many set places before pausing, then looked up, "Sorry for the lack of room." He pointed out in a joking manner and Six smiled before coming forward, "Are you the Hatter?" The other nodded, "I am, but I'm off work today. We're celebrating."
The Artist blinked and came closer to the table, looking at all the treats spread out upon it. He didn't know what the pastries or sweets were, but he could smell them from there and they smelled great. "Is it a birthday?" He asked; the twins had been the ones to introduce celebrating Stitchpunks' birthdays and frequently in the Library they had begun to do so. The two seemed a little confused and Five paused, "Well…" Nine interrupted with a playful smile, "It's an unbirthday. A day that isn't a birthday." This confused Six, "But that would be everyday, right?"
"Then we get more time to celebrate." Nine added in with a friendly smile, "I'm Nine, but most people call me the March Hare, and this," He lifted an overly large teapot that was placed upside down to reveal a small Beast, an actual mechanical Beast that looked like a spider "is my pet. We call her 'Dormouse' because she squeaks." As to punctuate the point, the small creature added in with a soft chirping noise, and Six smiled. "Here," Five suddenly leapt up from his seat, "We'll move down and around so that we can sit together." His lifted all of his things and balanced them before moving them to Nine's previous seat.
Nine merely sat in the new seat at the end and took over the new and clean cup before him, patting the seat beside him for Six to sit. The Artist was more than glad to do so as he was a bit tired and wanted to rest his legs for a while. Thankfully, it was a comfortable wicker chair that caressed his aching curves, and he collapsed back into it. Five immediately made himself busy, "Tea?" Six answered, "Okay. Thank you." They were so attentive to him that it made him feel wanted in a way he barely felt in the past. Five poured the brown liquid into his cup and Six watched as steam rose.
"Sugar?" Five offered and Six again responded with, "Okay." A small square of white was scooped out of a bowl and dropped into the cup. "Cream?" Five asked lifting a smaller cup with a spout and lid, matching the saffron color of the plates and teacups. Six nodded again and a little white liquid was poured into his tea. Five then lifted a small pot, "Honey?" Again Six nodded and now was beginning to notice a pattern. A spoon was used to fish out some golden, thick syrup and dropped into the tea. Then Five asked again, "Lemon slice?"
"Five, Five, you're doing it again." Nine pointed out as though he was knocking Five out of a trance. The Hatter blinked his optic in realization, "I got a little carried away, sorry…. At least nobody was hurt." He added to lighten the mood and Nine chuckled at this while Six smiled. He then looked down at his tea before reaching forward and cupping the porcelain in his hands. He watched them out of the corner of his optics and tried to make sure that he wasn't doing anything strange that they would notice. He then lifted it to his lips and took a sip.
It was still warm, but pleasantly sweet from all the added ingredients, and thankfully didn't make Six shrink or anything like it. He pulled the cup away and gave a thankful smile, "I like it. I haven't had tea before." He hadn't ever been this social before either, but Wonderland had changed many things, and some of them for the better. Five and Nine both seemed surprised, "Never had tea?" Nine asked, "Huh, I didn't think that was possible. We drink a lot of tea around here." Five then lifted a plate, "Scone?" Nine gave Five a weird look and the other male retorted, "I'm not doing it again."
Six looked at the small pastries before taking one, "I haven't had these either…" He wasn't sure how to eat when his mouth ended with fabric. He still tried and bit into it before chewing it. The flavor was delicious and, strangely, the pastry seemed to dissipate in his mouth and after chewing it long enough it merely melted away. "It's Raspluerberry." Five pointed out before setting the plate between them, "But scones are common. I guess you don't live here?" Six shook his head as he chewed another bite, "I'm from-," He paused then pointed upwards, "Up there."
Nine and Five's optics both rolled upwards and Nine asked, "Up where?" Six started to explain before stopping and deciding to instead try a different tactic, "Someone told me to come here and give you a message, Five. It was Two." Five immediately perked in surprise, "Two? He did?... How do you know my name?" Six paused with his mouth agape before Nine answered, "He heard me say it a few minutes ago. It's better than just calling you 'Hatter'."
Then he looked to Six, "People around here tend to give people titles and obsessively call them that title repeatedly." The March Hare explained before lifting his cup until he realized it was empty. He reached for the teapot to pour him so more as Five chuckled almost nervously, "Oh, yeah, sorry…" He looked to his own cup and swirled the tea around, "So… So you saw Two? I was wondering where he was. He… He was supposed to come for tea today, but never came." Six felt his face contort in sadness as he remembered Two's fate.
Now he remembered the true pressing situation and spoke desperately, "Two was taken by Ei-… By a large Guard wearing red armor." Five's optic widened and Nine dropped the tea pot, it falling over and spilling everywhere. He was quick to clean it with a napkin while Five stared at Six intently. Six continued, "He gave me a paper to give you, but it got wet when I was escaping. But it said 'The King of Hearts has lost his head'." Five gasped in alarm and Nine looked up from his spill, "That can't be good." He noted and Five began to hyperventilate a bit as Six looked to them both, "Do you know what's happening?"
Nine looked a little unsure, but tried to explain, "The King of Hearts and Two know each other well. Two even works for him and they're pretty close. Those guards you're describing, were there ones that looked like cards?" Six nodded vigorously. "Those are the card guards for the King of Hearts. Two's been quiet recently and him suddenly wanting to come tell us this, and the guards getting him, this means something is wrong. Someone 'losing their head' usually means they lost their mind and with everything- Hold on."
He then suddenly brought his hand down on Five's back and began to shake him, "Five, breathe." He commanded and the Healer managed to calm himself and put his hand up, "I'm alright. I'm okay." Then he looked over at the Artist, "Where did they take him?" Six shook his head, "I don't know… He told me to find you, I don't know." Five exhaled calmly and Nine asked, "But what does this all mean?" Five's head turned to Nine, "Something's wrong with the King and Two wanted to tell us… He's probably already taken two back to his castle for some reason."
He became terrified, "What if he's locked away for some reason?" Nine put his hands up in defense, "Calm down. The King sees Two as one of his closest advisors. He wouldn't hurt him, but he has to be hiding something if he's keeping Two from getting here." Nine looked to Six, "Did Two say anything else?" The Artist was somewhat ashamed as he shook his head slowly. The other two were clearly distressed so Five spoke, "Maybe… Maybe we should try find out more. Two has a house in town that he uses when he's not bedding with the King. Maybe there will be something there."
This seemed like the best idea and Nine nodded as well before grabbing the tea pot off of Dormouse, "Dormy, head home. I'll be back later." The little creature silently agreed and rubbed against his arm, he gave her a healthy pat, and then headed off towards the fence where it climbed into the green house's yard. "It could be dangerous. I don't want to risk her getting hurt when she's in her current state." Six raised a brow and Nine added in, "She's going to have young soon. It's too risky for her to come." The Artist seemed to recognize having young as being important, knowing a little about young children.
"I don't think it'll be too dangerous." Five pointed out as he circled the table and headed to his back door, "We're just heading to Two's house. It's right up the hill, not even out of town." Though Six noticed the contradiction when Five promptly grabbed his bag. It was fully of needles as it was normally, but there were also bundles of tightly wrapped and colorful fabric poking out as well. Six clearly saw that Five grabbed his harpoon as well and hung it on his bag as well, swinging both over his shoulders. He was almost like normal Five and Nine stood as well before crossing over to his friend.
Six watched them before meekly slumping a bit. Once they left he would be alone and wouldn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't climb back up the hole alone and he wouldn't know where to go if the Guard who looked like Eight returned. His questioned were silenced when Five arrived at the gate and Nine peered back at Six, "You're coming too, right?" Immediately the Artist stood, ignoring his body's protesting, and scurried after them with a thankful smile. The normal Nine and Five probably wouldn't have invited him out of fear that Six would get hurt so he was glad to be included.
They headed out into the street again where Five led the way, Nine following behind, and Six in the back looking around. Now he suddenly felt paranoid as Two had been, especially knowing that the ruler himself was after him with his Guards. At the end of the street, Five passed into a gated garden that led back towards a large house. This one only looked two stories, but had the mark of two, with some sort of generator clinging to the side and a large spyglass peeking out of the second floor window.
It was obstructed from the rest of the town by the small garden that was filled with a slew of blue and red flowers and, closer to the house, turned into some sort of vegetable garden. Six couldn't recognize vegetables well, but clearly noticed that they, and the plants, were bright and healthy. Finally the front door was revealed and was surrounded by thick ivy that grew along the walls. Five went to knock, but stopped himself, "I guess he won't be home…" He murmured before kneeling down.
A small mat laid on the ground that said 'Welcome Home' on it and Five lifted it to reveal a key beneath. It was a golden color and he soon used it on the front door which opened into the house. The interior was lovely with blue wallpaper covered in symbols that Six had seen once before in a book of the twins' called fleur-de-lis symbols. There was a small dining room table set for four people in a circle an open entranceway that Six could see a kitchen inside of.
There was two closed doors that Six couldn't see past and across from the kitchen there was another open room with a clean, stone fireplace and a few couches and sofas placed around, also into soft blue colors. The many small windows were covered in cream colored curtains as well. It looked like something Two would put together and Five immediately headed to one of the doors, "His study is in here. If anything, it should be in here, or maybe the bedroom." Six, wanting to be helpful, spoke, "I can check the bedroom." He offered.
The bedroom seemed easier to check than a study and Five smiled a little, thankfully, "Thanks. It's upstairs." He pointed to the set of stairs in the back and Six approached it as Nine followed the Hatter into the study. The stairs were small and made of finely polished wood while the steps were lined in an indigo rug that led all the way to the second floor. Six checked the closest door at the top of the steps and was met with a large bedroom. Against the wall beside the door was a large bed with a canopy, again in blue, with a small table beside it topped in a tiny box.
There was also the telescope in the room and a small desk stacked with writings. Six looked through them, but unfortunately found that they were only relaying to astronomy and nothing else. Downstairs, though, Nine and Five were finding other things at the larger desk and cabinets in the study. There was a pattern of recently written papers that seemed to mention medical symptoms and such, "Look," Five pointed out, "he dated these. These were only a few days ago, but they're about illnesses."
This didn't concern the March Hare, "But Two works as a doctor sometimes. Shouldn't that be normal?" The Hatter shook his head slowly, "No… Not like this. He's writing down symptoms and…" His head shot upwards, "Do you think he was ill? Do you think maybe the King wants to quarantine him and Two's trying to warn us, because…" It seemed a little farfetched, but at the same time seemed a little believable, so Five didn't know what to think about this. Nine looked at another paper and noticed something odd, "Two wrote here that… Look, it says that he knows 'he's' coming for him. Think he means- Ah!"
Nine suddenly cried out as a hand clasped around his collar and yanked it back. A hand on Five's bag put him in the same fate and they both looked back in dread to see the looming figure of the King's Guard, the one that Five recognized as being captain of the Guards, who was unfortunately Eight. Through his helmet he could still give a threatening gaze. "Where is he?" He growled with the same dark tone and Five stuttered before Nine spoke, "Where's who? Two? We don't know. That's why we're looking." He hoped the story would buy the Guard over, but unfortunately it didn't work.
"The striped one. There's no point trying to hide him, I know he's here." Unfortunately for Six himself, who had heard the commotion and crept down the stairs nearby, Eight burst out of the study with Nine and Five in each hand. Upon the sight of Six he tossed the two Stitchpunks down to the floor. His focus immediately went to the Artist who soon realized that now card guards were starting to enter from the front. Before Eight could get to Six, the striped one dashed up the stairs and into Two's bedroom once again, shutting the door tight and locking the latch on the knob.
Then he fell against the door as he frantically looked around for some way to escape. "It's happening again! He's taken Two and now Nine and Five and now he wants me!" his body trembled a bit as he heard Eight's thudding footsteps on the steps. That was when Six noticed the small box on the bedside table because it was right beside him. He immediately opened the small box and gasped to see that, inside, there were a group of small pink puffs that he assumed were some sort of candies, and on them were written in white icing 'Eat me'.
Like the bottle that has said 'drink me' this made Six assume that it would have similar affects. "Will I get smaller again or bigger?" He thought to himself as he heard the Guard at the door, turning the doorknob and failing to get inside. Six knew Eight, though, and as predicted the Guard started braying on the door, "Don't make this harder on yourself! Open the door!" The only reason Eight was ever this determined in the normal world was because he was under orders; Eight didn't tend to get this worked up for no reason.
Even if things were different here Six was guessing that Eight had to be under the King's orders. However, he knew he needed to worry about the present and looked back to the pastries again before grabbing one and gnawing into it. He wasn't careful and he didn't ration, especially since it tasted delicious. It melted away like the scone and he went to grab another one. As he started to he was interrupted by the door banging open and he ripped his hands back, the box toppling over and the candies spilling across the floor.
Eight was immediately starting to come towards him and Six backed away cautiously, "Don't! I didn't do anything!" He desperately begged, unsure what was planned for him but before he could say anything else his body began to react. His body was twitching, his hands felt wrong, and then suddenly the world was shifting once again. This time he wasn't shrinking, though, he was growing, and his body was changing in disturbing ways. He covered his eyes with his hands in desperation to shake the feeling of dizziness until his head suddenly struck the ceiling.
Everything felt wrong as his body stretched out before him, now having to sit instead of stand. He managed to look at Eight through his transformation and saw that the male was backing away, "What the-…?" Eight asked quietly as he stopped in the entranceway. Six, out of fear, reared back his foot and sent it into Eight, pushing him out of the door. Though as he did so Six noticed that something was wrong with his foot. He was now wearing some sort of shoe over his foot and as he pulled it back he noticed even more.
On his legs were pants, a dark grey color, and matched the shirt he now wore that had the same color in vertical stripes along it. Then he saw his hands and he saw the full extent of his change. Instead of his normal, sharp hands that were perfect for drawing, were pale hands that resembled a human's. He hadn't gotten bigger; he had turned into a human. His eyes went to the door as he noticed Five and Nine stumble in, apparently managing to get away from the guards while Five was firing down the stairs, not exactly aiming and more doing so to scare the other off.
Then they slammed the bedroom door and headed over to the closest dresser to move it in front of the door. Once this was done, they noticed Six, and both looked surprised. "Six!" Nine choked out in disbelief, "You're a human!" The Artist was beginning to breathe quickly as his pulse raced, "I-I didn't mean to! I thought it would- the candies- I thought they'd help!" Five looked over to the box now spilled across the ground, optic widening, "Two sometimes makes… Food and drink that does weird things, like make Stitchpunks humans I guess…"
This explained the bottle in the room of doors that had made Six small; Two must have used it to get back into Wonderland and merely left it behind not thinking. This didn't explain how to fix him again, though, and he was frantic as he clutched his hair which was now no longer yarn. "I can't stay like this!" He frantically pointed out as some knocking came on the door through the dresser. Six decided to manipulate his new foot to plant itself over the dresser and door to keep the others out.
Five looked over the box before perking, "This symbol on the bottom; Two uses them to list and mark his work. There may be an antidote in his potion pantry downstairs with the same mark, or the mark with a cross through it. I'll…" He looked around desperately, "Climb out that window! It's at the back of the house so they may not notice!" He approached the window and lifted it before looking out, only to be stopped by Nine, "Here, I'll go down first.." He offered and Five agreed before pulling a length of thick thread, like a rope, from his bag before lowering it down.
Nine climbed out of the window and slowly started to scale down the outside of the building. Five soon tied the thread to the bedframe and climbed down as well while Six was left alone; human and confused. Though the banging on the door stopped and he could now hear talking so he listened closer. "There's a chimney in there. We'll just send someone down." Six tensed in horror before he heard another Guard's voice, "That's not going to work! Nobody here's small enough to fit down it!"
He was relieved for a good two seconds until, suddenly, another voice spoke, "There's someone outside!" Six's mismatched optics, or mismatched colored eyes, widened in horror as he realized that this had to mean Nine and Five were heard. He had to make a distraction, quickly, and moved his foot back from the door. As his knee jammed into the wall he tried to turn himself around to the door where he moved the dresser easily. He then opened the door and reached his hand, now human, through the door. "Hey! I'm still here!"
He announced as he tried to wiggle his arm down the stairwell. He had to roll halfway onto his back while one foot went into the small fireplace that matched the one from the downstairs. It was incredibly uncomfortable, especially since he was suddenly having things that felt like needles poking at his arm. Looking down through the door he could see a couple of card guards prodding his new flesh with spears. Eight was missing now and Six realized that he must have gone after the other two. His thoughts were interrupted when one of the spears poked too deep and actually hurt.
Six gave a short cry and swung his hand to knock the group of cards back before retreating back into Two's bedroom fully. Now he looked at his torn sleeve and pulled it up to see a tiny cut in his skin. There was a pearl of red liquid already beginning to form and Six was horrified to see it was blood. He knew that humans bled when they were injured, but didn't know how injured they needed to get before they started, and worried if he had gotten stabbed too deep. He went to wipe the blood away and it merely smeared.
Then one of the cards started trying to get into the room and Six was forced to slam the door shut in its face and wait. That was it, he just waited. It took ten minutes of sitting there, wondering if he would be trapped here forever, before suddenly the thread tightened and the March Hare's 'ears' poked through the window. "Here!" He called in a somewhat whispered tone before showing the Artist a bottle in his hand, "Take a drink of this." Then he looked back out the window as though looking to someone, perhaps Five, "Take a small drink."
He corrected and the human immediately took it. "How did you escape?" Nine raised a brow before explaining, "A couple of friends of ours lured him away." He smiled a bit, "They led him away with a game of 'whose got the button'." Six blinked; that sounded a lot like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. He decided to ask later and lifted the bottle. In his new size, a small drink would be hard to accomplish, and he let a single, small drop fall onto his tongue. The flavor resembled the bottle from the hall of doors and shortly after Six felt his body shifting again.
He was forced to close his optics again as his body tingled. The spot on his arm that was bleeding burned briefly and eventually he was able to open his optics again and reveal the world was normal again. Looking down, he was relieved to see that he had returned to being a Stitchpunk and exhaled in relief. Oddly enough, the cut on his arm was now gone, but he decided to merely let it pass and hurried to stand himself and return to the window. Nine disappeared down the thread again and Six began to climb through as well, back out into the world.
The ordeal was over, but only for now.
Mable: The ended a bit rushed, but I wanted to get the chapter posted tonight. The 6 getting big and turning into a human idea was actually part of the request. The next chapter will be up soon. I hope everyone enjoys and if you want to then please review!