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CHAPTER 14
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The prime minister was angry, organizing another ball with so little time had given him a lot more work, especially because the issue of the attack hadn´t been solved yet, there simply was too much to do, repair, reconstruction, replacing the faceless, compensations… How could he go and give Alice her invitation if he couldn´t finish the preparations? On top of that some soldier had dared to bring him more work that the knave hadn´t made and even more that the queen had requested with details for the ball. He off course shot the lowly guard and got near to shot the body more. Then he saw her, the other foreigner had returned to the castle and was looking around. It disgusted him the idea of another foreigner and she wasn´t of his particular liking, she was just so un-Alice. If it were for him he would shot her, but the queen had prohibited that and had even ordered him to give her an invitation to the ball and he would be done with it already had he known what name to address it, and where to find her, so it was partially her fault he had much work.
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-There you are! The queen orders that you are to be invited to the ball, so tell me what name are you going by now.
-The name I´ll be using in Wonderland is "Aria Hadron Scherzi ". But save yourself the effort, I´m not interested in balls.
-If I could I would, but the queen ordered an invitation to be made, it´s up to you if you assist or not. In fact I´ll get rid of that work, follow me so I can end the charade and give you the undeserved invitation before you disappear again.
-Tsk, fine.
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She decided to take her chances and followed the prime minister to his office, which was big and elegant, it had some big bookcases and various portraits of the girl she had taken hostage at the last ball, she quickly read the tittles of the books and then observed the office, it was better organized than Nightmare´s (who is supposedly the ruler of Clover), she guessed that Vivaldi ruled, but it was Peter who administrated the country of Hearts and Ace ran the army (more or less… maybe less and maybe once in a while) (And that leaves the king as a decorative figure).
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-Wait there and don´t touch anything. – He called a secretary and ordered that the official invitations were brought to him. – I have enough work already to be bothered to clean anything you may touch.
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He looked at her and noticed what she was wearing (Such bad taste. But where had I seen something like it?... THE WARDEN´S CLOTHES! HOW DID SHE?!)
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-Like I would touch anything, everything here is of no consequence to me. Besides, the only thing that may interest me are books and I already read a copy of most of the books you have here.
-That´s a lie, you were at the library only a few time changes, it´s impossible that someone like you read more than a child´s story in that time. Much less complicated books like these.
-Complicated? HA, these are as complicated as a videogame magazine or child´s stories. If you want less work then perhaps you should be the one to study real complex books and apply what you learn.
-And what would you apply then? What could a brute like you know about the fine details of administration of a country?
-Probably more than an oversized rodent like you can even manage!
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The prime minister really wanted to shot the girl in front of him, but he couldn´t or he would break some rules, so he tough he would content with humiliating her.
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-Really? Then prove it!
- Fine! But you´ll pay for it afterwards. Give me those papers! – She said and took them herself.
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While the prime minister finished with the rest of the invitations and other small details (and kept on murmuring how much he wanted to go see Alice and get rid of the dirty thing invading his office) she read the paper reports regarding the attack at the last ball and analyzed the information, she counted the factors, from the cost and time of repairing to the points in the castle where security should be tightened on the nest ball based on the last attack. She took out from her back a device that the prime minister had never seen (Authors note: her tablet PC) and converted that information into equations, and she put them into a matrix to be solved by linear regression and other operational investigation techniques. She found out a bunch of correlations, predicted times and their prices and even the amount of people needed to every task, which she organized into a Gantt graphic in a clearly structured plan and even added extra points for eventualities.
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-Here, check this out and cry of joy or anger. – She arrogantly tossed him the final notes of what she had done.
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Peter White was speechless and felt himself being the one humiliated, he checked every single detail in her work and found it right, the changes it required were minimal, like the taxes or extra costs she couldn´t have known about or the structure and orders for the castle contracts and plans. In so little time she had done a lot of what would have taken him hours on end and even more than two time chances to even get one or two details completely planed and finished.
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-How can you have done this? O_o
-Guess what rodentia encephalus?*, "complex" books and concepts like "math" are actually useful in real life if you know how to apply what they teach. – She looked at him with all the arrogance and disdain she could muster, which was a lot. – So… this proves it?
-It proves that you are an arrogant piece of unsightly flesh that knows little about Wonderland and it´s business. You missed many factors like the taxes and the special service for maintenance in the castle or the costs of contactors and…
-Then you won´t need this – She took the paper from the prime ministers hand and made a move to rip it in pieces.
-WAIT!- The prime minister couldn´t let her break it, that paper would save him hours of work so he could go and visit Alice.
-I though you didn´t want it, since you say it´s so useless... better to rip it right now and leave you to do your work correctly from the start – Her distorted voice was sickly childish and sweet. Her smile was very sadistic, and what she was wearing unsettled him.
-I didn´t say it was completely useless, I might be able to adapt it and use it, so give it back and take your invitation. Then leave.
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Her smile widened. Some smiles show happiness and joy, but hers only showed teeth. She tossed him another paper with numbers on it.
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-I told you that you would pay for this. That is what you´ll have to pay, cash please. Consider it a professional executive help service.
-What!? You little..
-I´m a white neck mercenary, I don´t work for free. Besides, it´s not much more than what I charged Nightmare to reduce his work.
- You work for the caterpillar?
-I helped him reduce all his paperwork and then he hired me, but I accepted only on part time and just some days.
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The prime minister tough about it, it had been a good move from the caterpillar to hire this annoying mercenary to do the work that consumed more time and only see her on part time.
While she put her device back in place he went to a portrait of Alice that was hanging on a wall and moved it, behind it there was a dial safe box from which he took the money she had requested and put it in the table along her invitation to the ball so that she would take it without touching him.
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-Take it – She took the money counted it before handing him the paper- I also want to hire you part time to assist me.
- Oh? – She raised her eyebrow – I´ll put my own conditions, don´t expect any loyalty beyond finishing the work, I work only the hours and days I want ….
-Yes, whatever, we´ll negotiate the price, I still need to personally take various invitations. Protocol requires that invitations to a roleholder event are to be delivered personally to the other roleholders and I still need to take them to the other territories – He was eager to leave.
-Ace already gave Julius his invitation, and if you want I can start assisting you right now, I need to visit Joker anyways, so I can give him his invitation… as soon as we negotiate my pay.
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The prime minister was surprised, not only because she had offered to help right away (even if it was obviously she did so for the money), but because she was willing to visit the most feared and hated villain of Wonderland. He got very suspicious of her, she was wearing his jacket and (Oh dear wonderland!) his accessories. It was a very good thing he hired her, that way he could keep an eye on her so that she didn´t got close to Alice.
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ARIA´S POV
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After my little meeting with the prime minister I left the castle (with my pockets a lot more full with money ^_^), I couldn´t see Vivaldi because she had been at some official business. I certainly had not expected that he would hire me, but it had been certainly a good thing because it would help me further my plans. I needed to go visit Joker and return him his things (and find out the rest of what the hell happened that night), I had wanted to clean his jacket even if it wasn´t dirty, so I looked out for a dry clean laundry place, I found one, which made me wonder about the technology in this world and how some of it was shared with my world, yet many wasn´t, I started to suspect that both worlds were a lot more intertwined than what anyone though. Not only that, at first I had think that perhaps their technology was older and more primitive than that of my own world, then I considered perhaps it was the other way around and theirs was the advanced one. But right now it seems that it isn´t the case, maybe some things were more advanced and others were more primitive, but how is it possible? Why? If I understood its roots….!
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-OF COURSE! – I just had to take a different approach. - When in doubt go back to the basics!
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I needed to find all the basics first to see the whole picture together rather than its separate components, I could do that later. Pinpointing all the elements of the system was essential; like designing a videogame (And this world seems a bit like an anime or a videogame) this world is defined by a strict set of rules (In my world those rules are physics, math, biology and other sciences, why would those be different here, and if they are how so?!), most of them clearly stated, like the game mechanics of a videogame, programming sets that are invisible to the player and the characters but are there running in the background!
Once I find the visible elements I can track the rest by reverse engineering formulas and correlations. (IM SUCH A GENIUS!)
If I manage to define this, like a game design document, I could probably understand a bunch of the correlated fenomena of this world! X3
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WHITE´S POV
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I had been disconnected from my counterpart for some time changes now. When he came back completely wasted I disconnected myself to let him suffer alone the horrible hangover he was sure to have when he woke up.
Once he was in his 5 senses again (sober at least) I asked him the cause of his little drunken adventure. He smiled and told me to look on, which I wasn´t going to because I knew he still had a horrible headache, he then told me that it was because he had gone drinking with the new foreigner. That caught my attention and I was about to check his memory out when he disconnected from me. He argued that if I hadn´t wanted to know before then it didn´t matter if I wanted to know then.
It was really unusual that Black was being playful. I was the playful one! It bothered me. And I wanted to know what had transpired that night. I was a bit upset with myself, I even took off my communication mask as I didn´t even want to hear myself.
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-Joker, the new foreigner is looking for you! – One of the circus children came.
-Then I should go and greet her. Thank you.
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I watched her look for me, upon her head was my counterpart´s hat and his earring was dangling cutely from her ear. In her hands she was carrying a bag and over my counterpart´s jacket and tie (Oh, so that´s where my counterpart left his things… she even took them to the laundry?). How cute.
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-Hello miss Aria, are you perhaps looking for me? - I appeared behind her but she wasn´t surprised, she didn´t jump in the slightlest like Alice would had.
-Hello White. Yep , I was looking for you, both of you, specially Black. I brought him back his stuff.
-And how is it that you have it, if I may ask?
-Actually I would like to ask him about that too. I remember we went drinking and ended up really drunk and… well, details are a bit fuzzy. I woke up in Nightmare´s office with his stuff, didn´t he tell you? – I raised my eyebrow, apparently the other me had quite the night while I had been bored to dead in that meeting.
-I´m afraid we´ve been a little disconnected right now. – I was keeping something very funny from myself, I didn´t like that.
-You can disconnect from each other?
-Yes. Mmhhh? Perhaps you want to speak with Black right now? – (Im not happy about being left out of this fun) I transported us to the prison where she would be trapped by her own guild and regrets, they would manifest into the illusions of the worst she had suffered in her past and would led her to enter a cell by her own will and become my captive.
I watched and waited, she looked around with curiosity, I waited a bit more and waited… (Why is nothing happening?!).
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Nothing was happening, my shock was mayor and Black had sensed it and was approaching. I moved fast and trapped her between the bars of a cell and myself, my arms at her sides to prevent her from escaping. Apparently it had not been necessary, she didn´t have any intention of running away.
I saw her straight in the eyes and she held my gaze, there wasn´t any trace of fear in her eyes, just curiosity (Are you dumb, ignorant or just plain mad?).
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-Yes?- She calmly asked and cracked her neck.
-What are you? Where is your guild? Where is your past? Your fears? YOUR MEMORIES?
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She smiled in a mocking way. She hold the things with one hand and put her other arm over my shoulder and her hand behind my head, she got so close that her chest was against mine, she got so near to my ear that I could feel her breath tickling me as she said - I´m just a foreigner. As for the other questions... I don't have. I can´t biochemically have, so do not bother. – She retired herself from the closeness and rested her back on the bars. She closed her eyes for a second and when she opened she smiled in a sincere and nice way, totally calm and relaxed, as if she knew something like this would happen (Or as if something like this had already happened…), the whole situation didn´t seem to matter to her at all, she didn´t even seem unconfortable.
The glint of curiousness was back in her eyes when she asked me.
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-And what about you? How can one person be two at the same time? How can you teleport from the circus to the prison and vice versa? I´m curious.
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(She´s curious about me? )- I kept my eye locked on her, is she trying to set a trap or simple to escape? She scratched her chin obviously thinking about something.
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-Why don´t we make a deal? - She asked sweetly with that unnatural voice and bit her lower lip– I "can" let you see some of my files, or what you could consider "memories" or whatever my equivalent to those is… However… what would you give in return? Although I find you very interesting I don't know if you "can" show me your memories or are willing to and I gotta say that I really don´t care about them. You can however tell me in "detail" how can you manage to see other´s memories, or perhaps how you teleport or maybe explain the existence and creation of the afterimages… I am scientifically curious. I doubt that you would let me put a few electrodes on you two and run some tests, besides I don´t have the equipment for a digital tomography.
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(Who does she think she is! So much nonsense! And why do I feel such cold sweat running through my spine? I know she is harmless, but why does her words feel like... danger? It can´t be! Electrodes? Why am I getting exited then? I need to know what happened with my counterpart!)
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-What the ****** ****** hell ?- (And my other me finally comes). She got away from her position between my arms and happily greeted Black.
-Hello Black! Sorry for taking too long to bring you back your stuff. Here it is. By the way… Do you remember what exactly happened? – She put my counterpart´s clothes on his arms and took off his earring from her ear and put it in his while my counterpart just asked himself what the ***** is up with her. (And they are ignoring me!)
-You don´t remember?
-Not everything, I more or less remember when we got out of the bar with those extra bottles that we later used to make the Molotov cocktails, don´t know where we got the combustible for that, then the flaming fountain in the middle of the park, the carriage race … who won by the way? And then the fight in the alleyway with the thugs that tried to ambush us. From the the point where we left the bar it all becomes incredibly hazy and fuzzy. Next I knew I was battling Nightmare´s paperwork problem.
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(WHAT. THE. HELL ?) – I moved to stand behind her and across my counterpart, who was grinning madly remembering all that mayhem, with a final smirk we connected again and I saw what he remembered from that night.
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FLASHBACK
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I saw how they crashed in that crumbling place and what that pull on my waist had been, I saw them going drinking and consuming insane amounts of alcohol and taking some bottles on the go after the bar became deserted (I normally have that effect), in the street they caught a passerby and robbed him of his shirt in an alley, then she turned around to rip the shirt in strips while my counterpart killed the faceless and threw the body over a wall, she didn´t noticed.
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-Thank you for your contribution to science! Oh, he already left. – Then she seemed to notice something – Dang! I can´t let anyone see me or they will be on my trail soon. – She said while looking herself up.
-Then you can play to be someone else! I know– my counterpart had the "brilliant idea" that Joker was two people – he put his hat on her head and with a bit of effort managed to put his earring on her ear without giving her another piercing hole. Then he looked at her and gave her his jacket. – Just cuss like me and I´ll act like me. (I didn´t know Black could smile so politely while drunk).
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They went on their merry way singing completely out of tune (she somehow managed to change her voice to sound more male like) and after the contents of those bottles were consumed or "accidentally" spilled (on a scared faceless or two), she got her hands on a piece of hose and got near a motored vehicle, opened up the gas deposit and put the hose in it, she got on a squatting position to put the bottles on the floor and then she sucked HARD on the other part of the hose, as if she was trying to use the hose to drink the fuel, she spit at the side when the gasoline started coming through the hose and they filled the bottles.
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-Atmospheric pressure can suck on applied science! – The really drunk girl said.
-You can suck on my d**** later bitch! – My counterpart responded. (Oh yes, she can suck on us as hard as she can).
-Well you can suck on my cli***** later ass…. IN FACT NO! I´M, NOT INTERESTED! - (A shame, because I wouldn´t mind that either. I´m sure that would crush the other roleholder´s hopes if it happened).
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She stumbled up and actually needed my counterpart´s help to stand up again, then she went to the front part of the vehicle and opened it to reach the motor. From there she got the sticky oil and added it to the bottles which she put the cloth strips. They took the bottles and went to a nearby park that had a nice big stone fountain with little water but working.
She took one bottle and lit fire to the cloth.
With the battle cry "For Science!" she threw the bottle to the fountain and it exploded making the faming contents fall to the water. Where they remained blazing and even seemed to lit more.
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-I always wanted to know if Molotov cocktails could be used on watery targets!
-Give me the **** lighter! :D - My counterpart was happy to participate
-It would be funnier with napalm! ^w^ - (I don´t know what napalm is but it sure sounds fun)
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Black did the same with more bottles and soon the fountain was filled with fire, since the fountain was pumping the water it was also pumping the liquid mix. I guessed the head and pressure in the tubes is what made it explode while the two drunken dummies where discussing about my counterparts tie. He then took it off and got a hold of her braid, she protested with a "NYA!" and he used the tie made a bow at the end of her braid.
They leaved the area and got near the edge of the park where carriages and horses were stored for the night. They got a hold of two and started a " chariot race" around the park, in some curve the carriage my counterpart was driving fell on his side and Black ended up rolling on the floor for a little distance, it probably was a painful hit but he didn´t noticed because of his inebriated state. He rose up and went to the corner of the park marked as the "victory line". Her carriage was there but she wasn´t, he heard noise (screams and insults) coming from the dark street following the corner of the park and went to check out. There he saw that someone had destroy the nearby street lamps and she was surrounded by a gang of drunken thugs, imbeciles even more drunk than my counterpart and the foreigner because they were ready to "get revenge on Joker" and didn´t notice that SHE obviously wasn´t me, much less the grave mistake they had made.
One of them tried to stab her while another kicked her into a wall, she hit it the bricks hard with her back but managed to counterattack another one (For being so drunk she was holding quite well) soon many others arrived, maybe all the nearby gangs (And clover is supposed to be neutral! , they probably took the chance to gather while the lizard was away).
Black came into the picture and shot most of them while she fend against the others with her blades, back to back they (we) were quite the picture, when all their foes were fallen Black made sure they were all dead.
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-Can´t have any witnesses of you being involved slut – Black shot the last one on the head (How considerate of myself).
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She was resting her back against a wall, and was almost out of it, she took a breath and started to move away from the place completely exhausted.
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-Where you going b***?
-Somewhere safe to sleep for a while…. – she was practically moving automatically.
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Somehow my counterpart managed to get her to clover tower, he was way too drunk and tired to drag her all the way here.
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END FLASHBACK
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-My, my, you really do look like a villain.
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I turned to see the knight coming with his all too known smile and getting his sword ready. I was surrounding the foreigner and had quite the smirk on our lips. We propbably do look like villians, but that´s what we are. I was about to retort but she did so first.
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-Hey, Don´t call me a villian if I haven´t done anything to them yet! And this morning was all in legitimate self defense.
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We all looked at her (O_o?)
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.In case you were wondering Aria and Black were speaking like a drunken Scott pirate trying to imitate a gaelic dialec from his irish cousin on st. patrick´s day. Luckly for everyone it was White`s POV and he translated it for us :)
I guess Black can troll others too XD and now you know what happened on that little drunken adventure. Is she starting to look a bit dangerous to wonderland? And why do you think she reacted to being called a villian?
If you have some ideas please share them with me.
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I´ll wait till I have some reviews and ideas until I update. So please review
*rodentia encephalus – she means "rodent brain"