So...did you guys like the servant's perspective on things? I thought it came out okay, but I'm still a little uncertain. Opinions?
-Static
/*\
Alice was sitting on her bed, waiting impatiently. The sooner the girl got here, the sooner her Role would be quiet again.
The Jabberwocky's one voice had turned into two, then three, then four. Her voice echoed through Alice's mind with cruel intent and malicious words. She was starting to wonder if she was going legitimately insane. The only thing that would reassure her that her mind was intact was the silence that would come when she was in the company of other people.
That had been part of the reason she had wanted Julius to remain in her room with her when she was healing at Heart Castle.
/*\
When Elliot had returned to the mansion, he immediately retreated to his bedroom. He didn't care about all the work that had to be done, right at that moment, he was exhausted. The circus had not been fun this year. The moment they had seen the Dragon's seat...well the mood had sunk pretty fast.
The man unlocked the door and stepped in, and he would have proceeded to his dresser had it not been for the light sound of crunching under his boot. One ear flattening in surprise, he stepped back, and inspected the floor.
It was an envelope addressed to him, now a slight bit crumpled, as well as a room key. He lifted the two items and closed his door. He set them on his nightstand and took a moment to remove his boots before he slumped down onto the bed and looked over the note.
It was unusual for a servant of the mansion to quit. The job paid well and they were all treated pretty much the same. There was also the fact that - a great deal of the time - those released servants were met with harsh effects back in their home towns. The Mafia wasn't popular, even in it's own territory. Many former workers were not well received when they returned to their families.
No, when people quit it meant something major had happened, something that they were not willing to endure again.
The Hare had the sinking feeling he knew what had happened to this particular servant.
/*\
After Elliot had found the note under his door, the twins had been sent to investigate it. They weren't entirely sure why this was so important - Boss had never been so interested in a servant to have them look into the issue - but either way, it wasn't guarding the gate. They dashed into the room the key belonged to, and searched it for any and all personal effects - anything that might tell them who this had been - with very little luck. Whoever had lived here had cleaned the room out fairly well so far. All that was left was what had been provided by the Mafia.
Upon inspecting the closet, however, the twins found that the one of the maid's uniforms looked a bit crumpled. It wasn't pressed, and so had the odd wrinkle here and there, and it smelled faintly of sweat and rose-oil perfume.
"Maybe we should take it to the hunting dogs?" Dee asked, looking to his brother for approval. Dum snorted,
"When have we ever needed dogs to hunt?" He growled, almost appearing insulted. It was true. Their tracking skills were unrivaled. He moved to take the uniform on the hook when Dee had called out from the bathroom.
"Hey, brother look!" He exclaimed, and then returned with a half-empty bottle of painkillers. "I found this knocked over on the counter. Most of the pills had spilled out but..." He trailed off, and the two siblings shared equally chilling smiles.
"She left a scent and she's injured." Dum stated,
"This time's gonna be easy." Dee answered, ripping the dress off the hanger.
/*\
Ace was feeling irked. First Peter vanished, and while that in itself was not exactly a remarkable occurrence, it was quite unusual for Vivaldi to condone the absence. Unwilling to get lost this time - he had a bunch of clocks at the castle that he needed to deliver to Julius - he had followed the Queen, and watched as she spoke to the white rabbit. The Prime Minister had looked shocked, and that look had soon vanished into something a little more stoic.
The rabbit had nodded, and sprung away into the crowd.
What had she told him?
Upon asking the Queen what had happened, she had merely brushed it off.
"That is none of your concern." The Knave merely raised an eyebrow,
"You see, and it was the concern of no one but myself when the creatures overran the country." He shot back without missing a beat.
It was true. Once the monsters had shown up, the Queen had commanded he return to the castle. Upon doing so, she had demanded that he take care of it.
It apparently had not occurred to her that his subordinates had transformed as well, and though he was by far the best swordsman in all of Wonderland...
He was still just one person.
That was when they had made their way to Alice's tower.
Now he was being treated as though he were of little use. This both pleased and infuriated him. Sure, it meant he was that much closer to dropping the Role, but to be so quickly disregarded?
He couldn't help but to bristle.
"My Queen," He tried again, when she had turned away huffing, "I only ask because I have things I need to do as well." Wait. Maybe bringing up his other job wasn't such a good idea right now...
"..."
Great.
"You may do as you like," She stated, "But we must first ask you to attend to your work."
Seriously?
/*\
Cats generally did not have a very long attention span. They were easily bored, and oftentimes had very little consideration for those outside themselves. This had been true of the Cheshire Cat, at least it had been up until the Foreigner had showed up.
Sure, she could be a little boring on occasion, and definitely a killjoy, but at the same time...
He couldn't help but to feel interested by her. She was different from everyone else. She had a face and yet was not a Role-Holder. She cared about life even though it could be replaced time and again. More than that, she had a heartbeat.
His fascination with her heart was unlike Ace's in that it was probably not as unhealthy. Ace wanted that sound for himself. Given the chance, Ace would probably cut it out of her chest, just to see what it looked like, maybe even try to implant it in himself.
It would, after all, give him complete and total freedom from his Role.
But Boris digressed. Her heartbeat was intriguing in that it sounded differently from the clocks. It thudded rather than ticked, and it would speed up or slow down depending on her emotions and how much he might tease her. It was a rather fun toy, that he'd had yet to tire of.
And then she turned into a dragon.
Naturally, with Alice now ranking higher up on the food chain than him, his instincts told him to avoid her at all costs. However, his instincts also told him that he shouldn't engage the guards at Heart Castle so often.
Nothing had changed between them, and for a while Boris had thought that to be a good thing. He didn't look at her with abject horror on his face in the manner of the other Role-Holders, and he had the advantage of being a cat.
It hadn't taken him long to figure out that Alice absolutely adored cats. Once he'd pieced together her fixation with the fickle creatures, he found her just a little easier to catch. Many a day at the Amusement Park would be spent with the two locked up in his apartment where no one would find them. She had always objected, but then he would convince her to scratch him behind the ears, and he would purr for her to her hearts content. She had once told him that she liked it when he purred. It reminded her of her cat back home (which he had been immensely jealous of until he found out it was a non-humanoid cat) and so recalled a sense of warmth and security and safety.
Though the Cheshire Cat had always been a free creature, he had not minded being hers, even if she might not have been his.
That settled it. He grabbed his favorite gun, a semi-automatic rifle, two pistols, and several bullet magazines. Thinking over his decisions, he also made room for a saber, just in case.
If this endeavor worked, she would be more than furious. This was far more dangerous than a game of hide-and-seek in the Queen's rose gardens, but at the same time...
She always forgave him.
/*\
Alright, so I'm gonna level with you here. I completely BSed this chapter. I wasn't entirely sure what to do, so I just sat down and threw out words. XP But it still seemed alright enough to post and it's consistent with the story. So will you guys please let me know how this chapter is in comparison with the other three? Please?
-Static