The clothes she tried to loan me were ridiculous. For ten minutes we discussed why I'd rather not wear her red and orange flamenco dress. Then she tried to put me in a sparkling pink skirt and white top. That was quickly denied. Finally, she shoved me into a loose fitting red dress that fell to my knees. When she had tried to get me to take off my striped socks and converse, I had jumped away from her.
We walked down the stairs maturely after our scuffle. And by maturely I mean that we walked down the stairs, shoving each other into the sides. I blinked after a moment, then sprinted back up the stairs. I needed that vial! He said it was supposed to fill with liquid… I got into my dirty clothes, searching through my pockets. I found it after a moment, surprised to see that it had a little bit of liquid in the bottom. I shrugged; probably residue from what I drank. But how was I going to carry it? I had no bag or pockets in this dress.
"Marina, are you coming?" Rose called.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" I held onto it tightly and ran down the stairs, sliding past the girls doing their chores. I nearly fell when I ran into the living room, but managed to right myself. She snorted loudly, but her face became stone cold when she opened the door. Everyone turned and faced her, having stopped what they had been doing.
"Behave, all of you! And if I'm not back by Dusk Time Change, start practice Chamomile." The white-haired girl nodded. Practice? Like, they legit have musical practice? That's pretty killer. She glanced at my hand as we walked out. "Why are you carrying that?"
"I don't want to leave it at The House." She nodded, taking it from my hand and examining it. She shook her head after a moment, and I asked, "What?" She handed the vial back to me.
"We can get a chain put in, so it's like a necklace." She motioned to her neck when she said 'necklace' and smiled. I smiled back at her. She put up her umbrella, letting it rest against her shoulder as she walked. "So, we'll stop by the Hatter's mansion to get Elliot, then we'll go explore the rest of the world and shop around a bit." I nodded. "You'll need to pay me back, of course. How about your first twelve Time Changes worth of pay?" I shrugged my head, but nodded. That sounded decent, I guess?
She led me down the path, then turned around to walk down the other path. We travelled in a comfortable silence, simply enjoying the scenery. I looked at each of the well kept flowers and admired their beauty as we passed by. "Oh! Truth. We need to find him." I looked over at her, and she stared back at me. Then she let out a long 'oh yeah.'
"Like I said, he probably found Boris." Boris is the cat, right? She looked ahead, then stopped when laughter filled the air. "They're shrinking their positions again," she sighed. Who?
The Bloody twins popped out of the woods, covered in thick blood. "Oh, Big Sis is back!" the red one-Dum?-said happily.
Dee(?) looked at Rose with wide blue eyes-blue? I thought they both had red? I guess my eyes had deceived me-and said, "And she brought the stupid flower with her!" She rolled her eyes and crouched down slightly, so she could look them in the eyes.
She flicked each of their foreheads while she said, "Marina has got reservations with Elliot." The flinched and nodded. So, they were intimidated by her? How? She's a big sweetheart, at least from what I've seen… They opened the gates to the mansion, letting us slip through. Rose grabbed my hand, smiling at me. "I know the way through here, so follow me." She opened the front door and put down her umbrella, holding it in her hand tightly.
She led me through the mansion, coming to a long hallway down the east corridor. She knocked on the first door, to which Blood answered. He frowned and covered his face with his hand. "Rose, what are you doing here?" he groaned. She laughed, and I didn't fail to notice the slightly pink tinge to her cheeks. Oh? Did she like Blood?
"Well, Marina said she had a date with Elliot, so I figured I'd tag along. Besides, I'm her boss now." He glanced back at me, a brow raised in curiosity. He mouthed the word 'boss' at her, and she huffed. "She's working for me, duh!"
I shook my hands, "Not, not really! I mean, I'm just listening for juicy gossip and that garbage!" He smiled amusedly, turning his back and walking back into the room. Through the gap I noticed the bookshelves that lined the walls. Was it a library?
"'Juicy gossip'? So you can harass Vivaldi at the next event?" She snickered into her hand as we followed him in. Oh, there's a desk. Is this his study? "Ah, exactly what you want. You know, if she finds out it's the Foreigner telling you all this, she may just chop off her head." Chop off my head?! Like, like the real Queen of Hearts?! Oh man, that's cool! …and creepy.
Rose scoffed, "She won't find out. She never does."
I said, "Unless he tells her."
"Unless you tell her."
Blood laughed slightly, "It's amusing, so I won't tell." He clapped his hands, and a maid and butler scurried in. (I realized absentmindedly that this was my first time seeing a male Faceless.) "Go fetch Elliot."
"Yes, Master Blood!" they said in unison. They both left quickly, leaving us standing with him. He sat in his chair, flipping through a packet of papers with a bored expression on his face.
"Perhaps I should join you three today." Again, she scoffed and sat in the chair across from his desk. He scowled, "That's for business meetings."
"Well, we need to discuss things, so let's do it while I'm out? I know you wouldn't want to come to The House, what with how jealous you are of our gardens and everything."
"I'm not jealous of anything at that crumby establishment you refer to as home." I saw a vein pop in her forehead, but she smiled.
"At least The House isn't uptight."
"Uptight?" He smiled that evil smile of his. I shivered and took a step back. Scary~!
"You know, like your 'I've got a stick stuck up my asshole' personality." My eyes flew wide, and I stared at Rose. She had her eyes closed and a smile on her face, though she looked agitated. "And at least I give my girls some freedom."
"Ah yes, you're 'freedom.' Allowing them to run amuck Heart Country, stirring up trouble. You know that no other Role Holder sees them as people; they're just pawns." He leaned against his desk, and she leaned forward. I took a step back. Was that sexual tension I tasted?
"They're my girls. You know they used to have Roles. Until someone's previous Role Holder went and complained, and therefore got the rules changed." Did an old Hatter complain about the girls?
"They never had Roles. They've always been pawns."
Oh my, would they just kiss already? I jumped when Elliot said, "I'm here Blood! ...Wait, what's Rose doing here?" We all turned around to stare at the hare, who just looked at us curiously. Rose stood up and hopped over to him, leaving her umbrella by the chair.
"Hello, Mister Bunny!" she said happily. He scowled, pushing her away. She cried out, "Uh, Elliot!" Then she swung her arms. I smiled softly. They acted like friends. But, were they really friends? My smile fell; I'd have to ask later.
"Hello, Mistress Daisy," he responded. She scoffed and punched him in the gut. He didn't flinch. "But seriously, what are you doing here, Rose?" She stared up at him, then blinked twice with wide eyes. She shut her eyes and smiled cheekily. "Oh, that can't be good."
"Rose is accompanying Marina on your outing today, Elliot," Blood said calmly. He had tea all of a sudden, and I noticed a maid scurrying from the room. Huh? Wow, she had been really quiet. The hare let out a long 'oh' and nodded.
"But… why?" He turned to stare at Rose, who had gone back by the chair to grab her umbrella. "You hardly ever leave The House, Rose." She grinned again, rolling on her toes.
"I wanna help Marina pick out clothes! And besides, someone needs to hold her little kitten~" He looked at me.
"Kitten?"
"His name is Truth. He wandered off during the night Time Change…" I looked to the side, thinking. I was a terrible pet owner. Well, Truth wasn't necessarily mine, though… But, he is here with me, so I need to take care of him.
"That curious little beast you had during the night? That's your kitten?" I squinted at Blood, mouth open in disbelief.
"No, he's just a cat I found in the woods. Yes, he's my kitten!" I nearly yelled at him. He shrugged.
"I assumed you found him in the woods, since he could speak."
Rose flushed slightly and raised her hand, "That's my doing. I slipped a talking potion into his milk when they first came by The House." Both men stared at her, but sighed and went back to doing their respective things. She turned to Elliot, then looked at me. "Are we ready to go?"
I nodded, and he said, "I suppose."
She turned and waved at Blood, linking our arms together. "Well, we'll be borrowing your number two for a while!" she said. He sighed and waved his hand, looking back through his papers. She tugged me out, and Elliot followed. "So, where should we go first? The castle, the Amusement Park? Oh, oh, maybe even Clock Tower?"
I glanced over at her as we walked out of the mansion. "I've already met Julius." Both stopped, staring at me. "What?"
"You've already met Julius?" I nodded, confused. "And you didn't want to kill him for his shitty attitude?" I shook my head. Rose pouted, "I wanted to see his reaction to a Foreigner… He probably would've been a big douche." We started walking again, this time with Elliot beside me.
"He was a little standoffish, but he seemed pretty nice. A little sad, too." And I promised that I would try to become his friend, but I'd keep that to myself. She sighed and stuck her tongue out.
"Well, do you want to go to the Amusement Park? Boris lives there!" I nodded; she said that this Boris guy might have Truth, right? I needed to get him; he was probably starving! I looked up at the hare, who was frowning.
"I'm supposed to be showing her around…"
"Then show her around, dumbass." She released my arm, then stopped us both. She connected our arms, nodded, then walked ahead of us. "Show her around."
He blushed (though I was confused as to why) and said, "This pathway connects all of Heart Country. Well, except Gardens territory. That has its own path, which is connected to Clock Tower."
"I know that! Julius showed it to me!" I said excitedly. Yes, I knew something! I smiled up at him, and he returned the gesture.
Rose snickered, "You're acting like a couple." Immediately, both of us disconnected our arms and put three feet in between us. She put her hand in front of her mouth and snorted.
"S-s-shut up, Rose!" we said in unison. She snickered again, turning back around and walking. Elliot huffed, "A-anyways, this path leads from the mansion towards the Amusement Park and Heart Castle. It forks at the end, leading to each. There's also paths leading from Clock Tower to each." I nodded. So, all these buildings were connected to Clock Tower by a path, how interesting!
"Well, let's go to the Amusement Park!" she chirped, skipping ahead of up with her umbrella over her shoulder. I nodded in agreement, turning to Elliot. He was frowning, his ears lowered slightly.
"Is something wrong?" He shook his head. I stopped and tapped his face with my free hand. "You look upset."
He looked off to the side, "I don't like the Amusement Park." I tilted my head and released his face, curiously staring up at him. "W-well, it's more like I don't like the people at the Amusement Park. Boris is okay, but Gowland is just…" He shuddered.
"Oh," I said knowingly. I get where's he's coming from. It was like that with high school for me. Didn't like going there because I didn't like the people there. "I understand entirely, Elliot." He blinked down at me, then smiled naively.
Rose was far ahead of us when she yelled, "I'm gonna leave you two behind!" We looked at her, then sprinted forward. She laughed when we reached her; me out of breath and Elliot grumbling about how annoying she was. "We're almost there, I can see the ferris wheel!" She had been right. I saw the outline of the ferris wheel over large fences and other rides. A grin made its way to my face as we walked closer.
We all turned around when a childish voice said, "Marina?" I grinned at the black kitten in front of me, rushing over and picking him up.
"Truth!" I said happily, squeezing his little body to mine. He purred contently and nuzzled his face into my neck. I held him out in front of me and scowled. "I said be back at The House by the end of the night Time Change, mister!" He kitty-smiled and flicked his ears.
"I'm sorry, lady, but he was with me." I looked up and gasped. In front of me stood a pink-haired male with cat ears. My cuteness sensors were beeping. I nearly dropped Truth, but instead kept him clenched in my hands as I approached him. An excited blush covered my cheeks as I reached up and pat his head. He blinked down at me, then smiled and leaned into my hand. "So nice that you're back, Alice~"
That snapped me out of my cuteness daze. I pouted, "My name's Marina." His smile fell and he stared at me with hard eyes.
Rose popped up next to me, "Who's Alice?" The cat-Boris, now that I have gotten a good look at him-looked down at her in confusion.
"Who's Alice!?" He shook his head, "That's like asking who am I!" He squinted down at Rose, then looked at Elliot. His face then paled, and he backed up. "Is it because," he pointed at me, "she's here that you're forgetting?" He looked distraught as he turned around. "Am I going to forget, too?" He had information on Alice… Maybe he could tell me where she had gone? His lip jutted out, and he ran off.
"Oh, come on Boris! There's a Foreigner, and you're obsessing over some girl we've never heard of!" Elliot called after him. The pink-eared cat turned back and flipped the hare off, then continued into the forest. Truth pouted in my arms.
"Well, he seems nice," I said casually. The kitten buried his head into my chest.
"He's my friend… He gave me fish and milk…" I frowned; well, I'd have to meet him eventually if I wanted to beat this game and get home. My head started to hurt when I thought of home, and I had to rub my forehead. Then, just as suddenly as it had come on, it had gone away. I had forgotten what I had been thinking about.
I shrugged my shoulders and pet him. Elliot just sighed, "Was Alice a Faceless girl he had hooked up with or something?"
"I don't know, Elliot. He seems pretty infatuated with her… Wait, why did he think Marina looked like her, if she was Faceless? Am I forgetting something?"
Oh, if only you two knew...