*~*Author's Note: This is more of an FYI for ya'll who aren't exactly familiar as to WHY the Hatter is the way he is. In the Victorian period, the profession of 'hatter' was a booming one. As a hatter, mercury, in its elemental form, was used to cure the felts these hatters used for their hat making. Mercury is one of several toxic heavy metals that can cause serious side effects from exposure. One is madness. Hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia can be prominent. (This is where we get the phrase 'mad as a hatter'.) On the more physical side it can cause kidney failure. It can also cause a syndrome known as acrodynia. Acrodynia causes skin discoloration in the form of pinkening of the cheeks, lips, fingers, and toes. And thusly we have our Hatter's makeup explanation. It also commonly causes desquamation (shedding of the skin), especially in the hands. If you watch closely, Johnny Depp's hands are painted in such a way that they look diseased.
More importantly to THIS story, removal from the source of the poisoning can usually completely reverse these side effects. At the very least, it will reverse the psychological effects, as well as both the skin discoloration and skin shedding. Kidney damage is sometime irreversible.
I've received many questions and comments pertaining to the Hatter's lack of…well…madness. I hope this clears it up a bit. Smooches *~*
Alice and the Hatter began their trip east immediately. It took just over a day of walking to reach the outter most edges of Drumdard Swamp. Fog rolled thickly from the submerged lands; trees, dripping with heavy moss, looked quite sinister to Alice. They stopped at the edge both contemplating to sight before them. The Hatter tittered nervously.
"Perhaps we should make camp here for the night and start out early in the morning…at first light."
"Fantastic idea," Alice agreed too quickly, and she laughed at herself.
The Hatter shrank down his top hat, Alice, and himself in succession, giving the flimsy excuse that it looked like rain. In reality, though, the view was just too creepy to lie down beside it and close your eyes.
Once safely under the hat, the Hatter lied down and opened his arms to Alice who crawled into his embrace immediately. They lay silently, the Hatter stroking her hair and Alice listening to the steady galumph of his heart, waiting for sleep to take them.
Alice hovered on the precarious border between sleep and wakefulness, where possibilities are endless, and one can never tell what is real and what is a dream. She thought she heard Hatter speak, she swore she felt the humming in his chest, as he slowly recited a haunting melodic song. His fingers stroked her spine, drawing her deeper toward sleep even as she struggled to understand the lingering words spilling from his lips.
"A boat beneath a sunny sky…" Alice faded out slowly, then forced herself back. "Long has paled that sunny sky, echoes fade and memories die, autumn frosts have slain July."
He sounded so sad; Alice struggled against sleep. She wanted to comfort him, to murmur reassurances into his ear, to kiss away his fears.
"Still she haunts me, phantomwise, Alice moving under skies, never seen by waking eyes,…"
Alice? He was singing of her. Her mind felt sluggish, drugged almost; she couldn't move or speak. Was she dreaming this?
"In a wonderland they lie, dreaming as the days go by, dreaming as the summers die: Ever drifting down the stream, lingering in the golden gleam – life is what but a dream?"
Alice felt the Hatter's lips in her hair, briefly, and then she was no more.
As the light bled under the hat brim, some small sound woke Alice; she was feeling slightly more tired than when she'd went to bed. Her mind was sluggish, almost as if she'd been drugged – and the Hatter was missing. Alice sat bolt upright. What had woken her, and where was the Hatter? She pressed her hands to her head in an effort to quell the sudden pounding that had taken root there.
"Hatter?" she called out weakly, surprised that her voice was hoarse and her throat, raw.
Panic tugged urgently at her mind. She reached, automatically, for the dagger she kept strapped to her thigh – it too was missing. Something was terribly wrong.
Alice crawled toward the edge of the hat, doing her best to ignore the way the world tilted at her movement, and peeped underneath it. There were many, many, sets of feet out there. She crawled quietly to another area of the brim and peeked out again; she was surrounded. At the fourth glance she saw the Hatter and she stifled a cry beneath her hands. He was slumped over, bound at hand and foot, held between two…knights? Alice stared harder; she recognized those knights, they were the Red Queen's army, but they were rusted. They looked a lot worse for the wear. A sweeping gray gown appeared very close to Alice's peeping face, and the wearer bent down to bring her face level to Alice's.
"Good morning, Alice, won't you join us?" the woman said in a too kind voice.
Alice rushed backwards on all fours, but the hat was slapped away. Being so tiny, Alice didn't bother running. The giant gray woman, knelt down and gave her a small amount of the growing cake. Alice took it suspiciously, but ate it and returned to her proper size.
"There, that's better, isn't it?" The woman said pleasantly.
Alice took stock of her surroundings. The rusted knights had her surrounded, but their ranks weren't very deep. The woman was extremely peculiar looking and was obviously in charge.
Her gray gown was ornate but completely colorless. Her skin was the palest white; her makeup was applied artfully in varying shades of gray. It was as if all the color had been leeched out of her.
"Who are you?" Alice demanded. "And what have you done to the Hatter?"
The gray lady smiled graciously. "I am Fantasia, the Gray Queen,"
"Oh, for the love of Wonderland," Alice cried, exasperated. "How many bloody Queens are there?"
"I am the rightful Queen of Underland!" The woman snapped. This was met with fervent agreement from her guard.
"Let the Hatter go," Alice hissed, taking what she hoped was a menacing step forward.
"He was quite uncooperative," Fantasia said idly.
The Hatter stirred in his captives arms and raised his head, his nose was bleeding. "Alice?" he murmured groggily. "Alice, run,"
"Unhand him!" Alice snarled. "Immediately! He's hurt!" she added, punctuating her statement with a vicious backhand across the Queen's face.
She was instantaneously looking down the wrong end of many swords.
The Queen touched her cheek and regarded Alice silently. Alice stood her ground, fuming.
"At ease," the Queen said finally. "Release the hatter,"
The two rusted knights holding the Hatter's arms, slit his binds and dropped him; he half stumbled, half crawled to Alice. He groped at her skirts and Alice dropped to her knees, pulling him into her embrace and stroking his hair gently.
"Are you alright, Hatter?" she murmured into his ear.
The Hatter nodded, but clung to her desperately. "You should have ran, Alice," he nearly moaned.
"I'm not going to hurt you," the Queen said matter-of-factly.
"You already have!" Alice spit out violently.
"I told you, he was quite uncooperative."
"That doesn't give you the right to hit someone, you monster" Alice snapped, tearing some fabric from her skirts and gently dabbing at the Hatter's bloody face. The Hatter narrowed his eyes at the Queen and nodded his agreement.
The Queen sighed in exasperation. "My apologies, hatter."
The Hatter remained silent.
"What do you want of us?" Alice asked brusquely.
"Your support," the Queen answered succinctly.
"Never," Alice nearly laughed.
"Long live the White Queen!" the Hatter added for good measure.
The Gray Queen shook her head with a sigh. "You've been mislead," she said gently. "Mirana is just as terrible as Iracebeth, in her own way."
"Liar!" the Hatter cried. "Filthy, no good, stupid, dirty, backwoods, self-serving, slovenly…"
His insults continued, increasing in profanity, until Alice touched his arm lightly. He visibly reeled himself back in and settled his now orange gaze malevolently on Fantasia, but remained silent.
The Gray Queen didn't bat a lash, instead she sighed as though the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. "I promise you, you have been mislead. You will accompany back to my castle and I shall prove it to you."
"We will do no such thing!" Alice cried.
Fantasia sighed again. "Unfortunately, Alice, it was not a request."
Alice bristled. "You said you would do us no harm!"
The Queen's face softened. "I will do you no unnecessary harm," she amended, motioning for some of her guard to come forward. "But you will return to my castle with me, and you will be held captive there until you understand the truth."
"I'd rather die!" the Hatter cried, and Alice tightened her grip on him.
The Queen visibly saddened. "I hope you will not force my hand in that, Hatter. I truly mean you no harm."
With that haunting promise still echoing in the air, Alice and the Hatter were firmly snatched to their feet and marched into the Drumdard swamps.
Alice stepped in quicksand twice on their march, losing a shoe both times. She was white with rage by the time she stepped in her third patch of the damn sinking sand.
"ARGGG!" she screamed in fury as the two Knights escorting her tugged her roughly out. "I've bloody had it!"
They'd been walking for sometime now and she was muddy and soaked in sweat, her hair was a tangled mess twisting down her overheated back.
The Gray Queen, leading the procession in front of Alice, paused and turned around with a look of genuine sympathy, halting the entire army . She'd been moving along agilely from solid land to solid land without so much as a misstep.
"Alice," she said quietly, glancing briefly at the forlorn Hatter. "We're honestly almost there and you will have immediate access to a bath and clean clothes. You have my word. Just a little farther."
Alice stomped her foot. "I won't walk another bloody step!"
Fantasia sighed and signaled her guard and Alice was swept off her feet and into the arms of one of the knights. She immediately set to struggling and after a moment the knight threw her roughly over his shoulder amid loud and raucous protests from the Hatter. Eventually, he was thrown over a shoulder as well and the procession started again. Alice folded her arms haughtily and turned her head to meet the Hatter's eyes as they were bounced along.
Being tossed carelessly over a shoulder, Alice saw the castle only as they passed through it. She and the Hatter were brought down a steep spiraling stairwell and Alice assumed they were heading for the dungeons.
They arrived, however, at something less macabre. Oh, there were bars on the doors alright, but these were not your average cells. The cell Alice was shoved into, somewhat roughly, by the disgruntled knight was massive. It had soaring cathedral ceilings of gray marble though it contained no windows. In one corner of the expansive room a luxurious double canopied bed stood. Near her cell door was a table and chair. The granite table contained a lantern. On the opposite wall of the bed, a bath was curtained off by gray silk screens. There was a gray clad maid in the partitioned bath, drawing a hot bath for Alice. In the middle of the wall that separated her cell from that of the Hatter was a small barred window so that they could see and talk to each other.
Alice ran to that small window now and saw with some relief that the Hatter's accommodations were identical to her own. She touched his cheek briefly and offered a smile, before turning and regarding the Gray Queen stonily.
"You have us, your majesty," she said snidely. "Now what will you do with us?"
The Queen was not put off. She sighed. "I do so hate having behind these bars." she said sadly. "Ask for anything you desire - except your freedom - and it shall be given. You are not prisoner's here. You are guests, with…limited access. Have yourselves a nice bath, and I shall have a hot supper brought down to you immediately. Get a good night's sleep, for tomorrow we discuss most unpleasant things."
With another sigh and a sad gaze, the Queen turned and left. Alice glanced at the maid who curtsied and motioned to the bath with a dip of her head. Alice sighed with real agitation. She glanced at the Hatter.
"We'll have a bath and something to eat," she said grudgingly. "And then we'll figure out how to get out of here."
The Hatter nodded seriously, stroked her cheek, and moved toward his curtained bath. Alice snapped at the maid, sending her scurrying away. After a long hot bath in the perfumed water, Alice slid into the silvery gray gown hung out for her. It was a very Guinevere-ish gown, fitted, with a scooped neck, flowing sleeves, a dropped waist, and short train. When she returned to the window the Hatter was sitting at his table waiting. He looked pale to Alice, his pink cheeks were pallored. He was dressed in a gray shirt and charcoal pants and stockings. He hurried over to her when he noticed her at the window and his dull green eyes returned to their fluorescence when he saw her in the gown.
"You look beautiful, Alice. Captivity suits you," he said and laughed manically for a moment.
They plotted for awhile before their dinners were brought down and placed in their cells. It was roast chicken and potatoes and the smell alone made Alice's stomach snarl and her mouth water. After some internal debate, they both devoured the food. Immediately, they both began to feel off balance and sleepy. The food had been drugged.
"H..h…Hatter," Alice breathed when she heard a thump from his cell as he fell to the floor. She tried to call out for help, but she too collapsed and all went black.