Important note/vote at the bottom.
I sank to my knees before falling to the side, only propping my torso up with an elbow, my other hand immediately reaching up to my forehead hoping to relieve the dizziness. My tongue felt dry in my mouth and my heart raced. My eyes couldn't take in the madness around me and so I closed them, attempting to reign in the intense vertigo.
"Lillian," I heard Alice softly speak out, I groaned in response, "Lillian come here." I peeked my eyes open to see Alice settle on the grass in front of me. The incredibly green grass, so bright and saturated it was almost blinding. The grass that was almost half a foot in length, the grass that was much too springy and thick under my body one could mistake it for growing ferns. The grass Alice sat on, crossing her legs with her arms reaching out towards me. I managed to push off the incredibly unnatural and far from mundane 'grass' and shifted forward. She grabbed my, I can't even recollect, she grabbed me and with surprising strength dragged me to lay my head on her lap, "Did you hit your head on the way down?"
"Down?" I questioned, "No, Alice," my eyes were closed again and the furrow of my brow was intense. As if flexing those muscles could in some way relieve the tension behind my eyes. I took another breath of the air, the air so unnaturally fresh that I felt I would choke on, on what wasn't in the air. I don't miss the polluted stink of London but I felt on top of the world with how—maybe I was on the top of the world considering I'm floating.
"Oh dear," I muttered. Alice's response was a gentle caress of my head, relaxing my brow as she went through my hair to check for any injuries, "I just feel sick, extremely confused, and equally terrified." Everything was wrong, are we in the sky? Are we minuscule? Are these objects around us massive? Where are we? How will we get home? I felt a severe upset in my stomach and started to lose a lot of feeling in my extremities. I knew my hands were on my face by the skin of my cheeks, but my arms wouldn't be able to tell.
"It's okay Lillian, we're in Wonderland now." I opened my eyes to confirm the smile I heard in her voice, she was no longer looking down at me but instead, her wide eyes took in the realm.
In full honesty, I tried to respond. What instead came out was a short gasp as my lungs felt like they were collapsing and my breath shortening. My eyes had left Alice's and completely disregarding the oddities flying around, the sheer open-air and endless blue sky below us had stolen my breath.
"Lillian?" Alice's face snapped back to mine as my struggle grew, "What is it? Breathe, Lillian!" The panic on her face made me shut my eyes again and my arms feebly reached up towards my neck. "Do you need CPR? I don't understand!" Alice propped me upright on her shoulder which only made my hands fall further down and I weakly attempted to bring them up again. I wasn't aware at all of what happened around me as I focused on bringing my right hand up to my mouth to cup, but it wasn't enough. My left hand stayed resting on my chest. After just a second Alice seemed to understand and held both of my hands to my mouth and attempted to cup as well as I began breathing into the confined space our palms made.
After half a minute of catching my breath, my eyes fluttered open to a disturbed Alice, "CPR?" I managed to whisper with the corner of my lip pulling upwards.
Alice's fear turned to righteous anger, "Don't you dare-" she stuttered in her fury, "If you scare me like that again you will have wished to-" Unable to finish her threat she instead glared me down and fumed. I only chuckled in response as I lay my head back, easing the muscles in my neck and once again let my eyes roam, this time slowly and keeping the feel of the ground beneath me in mind.
Perhaps what puzzled me the most was how something so foreign, illogical, and chaotic could become familiar to anyone. It was as good a question as any, but, I suppose, maybe in a twisted and twirly and wrap-around way. I just viewed the world differently than Alice. The hold of the woman in question seemed to soften my headache a small amount and so I began to truly comprehend what was around me. The floating islands and toy pieces no longer frightened me and neither did the towering fungus, my head was slowly beginning to wrap around the idea that this was real and I hadn't gone 'round the bend.
"You said this was Wonderland, Alice, but I," my voice faltered, unsure what exactly my problem was before I weakly offered, "I have so many questions."
"I'd imagine Wonderland does that to people who haven't grown up to know it," Alice said, her voice thankfully no longer furious, "it's nothing like London that's for sure," I said nothing in response, letting my admittedly wild eyes dart between the floating objects and the massive flora. Alice took that as an opportunity to add on, "I know this is a huge shock to you, I know things won't make sense to you, but Wonderland is more my home than anyplace else has been, and I would love to finally be able to share it with someone that means to me as much as you do, Lillian." At hearing that my eyes stilled before meeting hers again, her face adorably hopeful with a small smile to boot.
I inhaled deeply, and then slowly let it out after a few seconds, "Okay Alice, I trust you more than anyone."
"You look much better with that frown gone," Alice joked, a touch of mirth in her eyes. My only answer was to that was to look sheepish as I felt my cheeks warm a tinge. The strong feelings of affection and care that I had for the woman holding me quickly returned, nearly overwhelming the despair.
"And certainly less green," a voice sounded to my right.
"Sacré bleu! Has that thing been there the entire time?" I yelped and turned my head towards whatever the creature was.
"Now now, Cheshire," Alice scolded the sinister-looking beast, it would have been a little funny if I wasn't too busy staring at the unnervingly wide smile, "this is her first time in Wonderland."
And then all I could think was, "I'd really do for a cup of tea right now."
I never got that cup of tea but Alice and even the intimidating Cheshire 'cat' were able to talk to me about the place I was now inhabiting.
"Well you needn't worry Alice," The beast named Cheshire told her before decidedly tacking on, "and thing. There aren't any immediate threats to your existence back in Wonderland at the moment."
Alice was the one to respond first, "And a good thing about it too, Lillian needs time to adjust."
"He called me a thing," I scowled, letting my lower lip show, just a tad.
"You called him a thing," Alice countered for him, Cheshire's smile only widened.
"He is a thing!"
"Then you are too."
I grumbled in response to which Alice seemed to judge me, which was easy coming from someone who didn't just have their worldview shattered. Which, when I brought it up, they both seemed to roll their eyes as they caught me up with the laws of gravity in this world, or rather the complete lack of them.
"Who cares if that's how it works in London? All you need to know is that gravity doesn't matter here because it doesn't."
"Because it doesn't? Because it doesn't? Also, gravity doesn't just work in London. It works all over the entire Earth the last I checked!"
"This is Wonderland, not Earth!"
Alice and Cheshire, although the latter began to defer to the former on this subject, began telling me the history of Wonderland.
"I suppose it began when I was very young, I don't have too much recollection of when I first visited Wonderland or why, but I remember that I did," Alice began, her eyes beginning to fall, "It really changed after."
Alice's pause motivated me to speak up, "You don't have to finish, I read about it."
"No," she clenched her jaw, "I shouldn't be afraid to talk about it, after my family died in the fire. After I was put in the asylum, Wonderland was falling apart."
Important: So I meant to have this chapter go on for a fair chunk longer but I cut it off early here because it brings the important question. Where am I going with this story? I can either A. put this story during Madness Returns and follow along American McGee's story. Which is admittedly easier and will come out faster. B. Make this an original arc following American McGee's format. Which could make for a better story.
Let me know which you prefer in the reviews and/or PMs.
Comments on the chapter: CPR wasn't invented for a decade or two. Oh well it's funny here. Sacre Bleu is a dated term, but the late 19th century was a dated time. So it probably fits I don't know. Also I tried to capture the fear anxiety and appropriate reactions a very orderly and medically oriented person would have to Wonderland. I hope it wasn't over the top but at the same time, I feel that stories that have characters just immediately go "yeah this is normal and cool" 20 words in bother me, so I felt the need.
Unimportant: Also hello I am back for a time, last chapter I said I wouldn't disappear for three years so surprise, I'm here before one has passed, hooray. I have a job, am a director of a sports club at my university, and am thoroughly dedicated (read: addicted) to Elden Ring so I can't promise consistency. But I had other fanfiction authors as well as my girlfriend hold me accountable to activity on this account either through this story or my incoming rewrite of SoK. Sooo... whichever of the two gets more attention or holds my interest will probably get more attention. You guys get a head start so if you're interested in seeing this continue, feel free to make do.
If you would like to speak to me on a more personal basis, you can find me on discord either through some servers I'm semi-active in (CombatTombat's or fem!harry and lesbians) or the one that more of you may be in which is the Emerald Library, although I don't talk there. My username begins with Lillith and there you have it. Yeah I like the name Lillian and it ended up on my discord handle, feel free to call me otherwise though. I think this is enough of me droning on to which two or three of you have read this far. If you have then cool, I will let you know a lesser-known fact about me, I am colour blind.