Notes: This story is also posted on AO3, and I really appreciate the tagging system that website allows for. I'm going to copy and paste what I tagged this fic with here so anyone interested can get a better idea of what they're in for. If you're not interested in that, just scroll ahead.

Tags:

Drama, Light Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Deconstruction, Minor Character Death, Character Driven, Slow Build, Slow Burn, But I Promise I Will Burn Down This House Eventually, The Power Of Friendship, I Am Taking This Way Too Seriously, Mostly Canon-Compliant, Extremely Canon Compliant In Some Ways, But In Others I Let Headcanons Rein

Game Theory

Game theory studies interactive decision-making, where the outcome for each participant or "player" depends on the actions of all. If you are a player in such a game, when choosing your course of action or "strategy" you must take into account the choices of others.

Part 1; Elements of Game Theory

In Game Theory, all games must have the following; 1) Players- The individuals who make decisions. 2) Rules- Who moves when? What can they do? 3) Outcomes- What do the various combinations of actions produce? 4) Payoffs- What are the players' preferences over the outcomes? 5) Information- What do players know when they make decisions? 6) Chance-Probability distribution over chance events, if any.

Eliza is walking out of the University parking lot when she gets the text. It's just four words; she didn't even need to open her phone to read it.

"I got the job! :DDD "

Eliza feels her heart sink into her stomach.

As a friend, a text like that is more than an invitation for congratulation, it's practically an obligation. And what an opportunity! A chance to travel, to use her brains and her hard-earned college degree in the real world helping real people. Eliza knows how hard her roommate had worked because she had been right there next to Lauren the whole time. For almost 5 years, she and Lauren poured over essays, projects and job applications around the same scavenged coffee table. From the moment they had been thrown together by the dormitory system, no support system between either of them, it had become them against the world.

So yes, Eliza knows just how much Lauren deserves this opportunity. Her heart has no right to the ache it feels.

She doesn't open her phone to reply, instead turning it off and letting it rest on top of all the graded papers she's carrying. Between the Psych 101 essays and her own thesis, Eliza had barely managed to get two hours of sleep the night before. Tonight's prospects didn't look much better, she needed to pick up extra shifts at the park to cover last week's ill-timed flu.

She had known, of course, that being a teacher's assistant would mean extra work, but the large scholarship that came with the middling extra salary had seemed more than worth it. Eliza reminds herself that it was. It is. It would be worth it.

Eliza gets through her advanced psychology classes on autopilot. At times she catches herself dozing off, staving off sweet sleep with the pointy end of her pen. The undergraduates she teaches later, at least, still have enough baby face to be cute to her. Eliza may be running off of determination and 5-hour energy alone, but she'd have to be dead to not give cute things her full attention. After, though, she walks like the living dead to her car. Two hours. Two hours to get home, get food, get started on tomorrow's workload. Then she'll put on her uniform and spend the evening managing the queues with a perfect smile. It's not a hard job for her. She's kept a smile up while going through worse.

As if on cue, her phone slips off its new pedestal of yet-ungraded papers. The screen shatters against the campus pavement.

Eliza feels lightheaded. She was wrong, she won't be able to stop the tears that are building behind her eyes. Shit, how many people will get to see her breakdown? As she crouches down, she scans her surroundings. The campus park seems to be deserted, thank goodness. At least no one is around to witness her break in composure.

Her eyes catch on one spot of color amongst the tan and green. How odd! Someone seems to have left their stuffed rabbit under the bush nearest to her.

It's a very cute stuffed rabbit, dressed in a red plaid waistcoat and a clock-patterned necktie. Eliza's focus is stolen from the corpse of her phone and all it represents, her crying fit receiving a raincheck for now. Looking at the toy, it's remarkably lifelike. The eyes especially- not glazed over like plastic or glass. They are sharp and intent and staring right back at her.

The rabbit's nose twitches.

Eliza's eyes widen a moment before it makes its move, darting forward and snatching her phone in its mouth. It darts away, heading straight for the sparse copse of trees behind the social sciences building. Eliza gives chase, dropping everything in her hands behind her.

"Wait! -"

She calls after the rabbit and immediately feels like an idiot. Eliza isn't slow, but the rabbit gains distance easily. What the hell is she even doing?

'Thank fuck no one's around to see this!' Eliza thinks hysterically, 'I'd never be able to show my face again! '

Her exhaustion, accumulated over the past few months, does her no favors, and she trips over her sluggish feet as she runs into the thicket. That is the only thing that saves her from falling directly into the gaping hole laying just beyond her line of sight. Eliza staggers back, clutching onto a branch for balance.

"Wha-What? How? How did this get here?"

The hole is impossibly deep, any bottom consumed by the darkness above it. Eliza's mind reels at the sight of it and digs her nails into her skin hard enough to break the skin. Her eyes don't snap open at her desk, the scene in front of her doesn't change at all. Whatever is happening now, it's real.

"Really? Again? Do I have to do everything around here?"

The voice, high but masculine, comes from behind her. Eliza swings around, still clutching the branch with one hand. Her vision is filled with the plaid waistcoat from before, but she's standing now, how can it be right in front of her? She jerks her head up to see a handsome face pulled into a curled lip, the look of disdain made somewhat ridiculous by the bunny ears on top of his white hair.

"To think I'd have to sully my gloves with your germs... The things I do for Alice."

Cold, utterly cold, the tone of voice sending fear through Eliza before she even processes what it was saying. She isn't fast enough, could never have been fast enough, to escape the crushing grip the man takes on her arm. Eliza is painfully wrenched from the branch and thrown, as easily as one may throw a sack of flour, into the waiting abyss.

'This is a dream.'

The last thing Eliza remembers is darkness consuming her vision, but... what came before that? Everything feels fuzzy.

'You don't need to remember.'

Don't need to remember?

'You don't need to remember when you're in a dream.'

In a dream? That certainly checked out. Lights filled her vision, never getting smaller for all that she feels as if she is falling. Green, yellow, purple, a nebula is dancing in front of her. As she watches, a new light forms, a small pinprick growing brighter and brighter.

'Your happy just watching things unfold.'

Just watching? She is certainly enjoying watching that pinprick become its own sun... but where is she?

"You're in Wonderland!"

The voice- because it had been a voice speaking to her- seems louder now. More real. Somehow, in this limitless space between the dark she was ever falling into and the light above her, it echoes.

"You are in a dream, and any world within a dream is a wonderful wonder world."

Again the voice states the obvious, of course it's a dream.

"Of course it's a dream, so it doesn't matter what happens. No matter the danger, no matter the fear, it all disappears when you wake up."

Danger? Fear? How ominous. This dream is certainly starting to turn.

The voice laughs.

"Isn't that the way of dreams? They turn and turn and turn again. If you don't like your dream, just wait and you'll be in a new one before you know it. You just have to focus on your role."

My role? What role does a person have in a dream?

"The same role as everything else in a dream, to keep the dreamer from waking up!"

The pinprick grows from a sun to a supernova, the light catching up to Eliza's descent and swallowing her whole.

Eliza feels her world spinning, and it takes her a few minutes of staring blankly at the ceiling for it to resettle beneath her. The last thing she remembers was light consuming her vision, but... what came before that? Everything feels fuzzy. Her body fits around her too loose, too big, her consciousness might fall right back out.

A list. When in doubt, make a list. What is the last thing you knew for certain?

'Lauren was going to leave.'

Ok, yes that's what her text had meant, though the words were a little different. What came after that?

'I went to school. I taught my class'

Yes. Yes, Eliza had buckled down and gotten her obligations done no matter how bad she had felt. And then?

'I dropped my phone'

It had shattered. It had shattered and then she had crouched down and then... and then...

'A bunny rabbit in a waistcoat?'

That's where it fell apart. That cute little not-stuffed animal, so clear in her memory. Its eyes, not even the best taxidermy could have made eyes look so alive. That couldn't be real. It couldn't. And then?

'It took my phone… I followed it to a hole… There was a man… '

There was a man that was the rabbit that had thrown her in. The events blurred, had she hit her head? The man had said something, what had it been? Something about being for Alice?

And then... It was even less clear.

'This is a dream.'

This is a dream... is what Eliza had heard. A voice, smooth and sweet and coming from nowhere. She had been surrounded by lights... But it was all slipping away with every passing second.

Eliza, seized by a sudden intuition that she mustn't let herself forget, grabbed a pen from her cardigan and wrote on her arm.

Your role is to keep the dreamer from waking up.

Eliza stared at the nonsense she had written on her arm, the memory of it being spoken dissipating. Why had this seemed so important? And for that matter, where the hell was she?

Pulled from the depths of her mind, Eliza took in her surroundings in less than a second. She is high up, on some kind of tower surrounded by distant mountains. It is sunset or sunrise, the whole sky golden and warm. She is alone, in between the railing and a descending staircase. She is still lying in a heap, most of her pocket's contents scattered around her.

Stiffly, Eliza pulls herself upright, wincing in pain as one hand presses down onto the rough concrete. The pain gives her pause. Yes... she had dug into her hand with her nails, hadn't she? She had been checking if she was dreaming. Then the bunny-man had grabbed her so tightly it had felt like a manacle. Looking at her hand now, Eliza can see the already-formed bruise, a ring of blue around her wrist. The scabs on her palm have opened, and drops of blood pool in the crevasses. How long had she been here? And what dream is so realistic about the aftereffects of injury?

'This is a dream'

This is a dream? But the pain feels so real. Can you feel pain like this in a dream?

Eliza gets to her feet and clumsily picks up her belongings. There isn't much, most of it had been her book bag or her hands before she had taken off running. Pens, chapstick, too many old receipts, her car keys. Eliza checks her back pocket for her fake wallet-still there- and pats her chest to check her real one-yup, there too. Once she has picked up everything around her, nothing missing or out of the ordinary, she walks to the railing.

"A wonderful wonder world."

The words slip out of her mouth without thought.

Looking down, she sees the mountain basin her position had hidden from her. Near the tower was a charming European-style village, distant enough that the villager's features were indistinct. Eliza walks along the railing in a wide circle, staring farther into the distance. There are more villages scattered here and there, with wide patches of grassland and forest separating them. At the edge of her sight, she sees what looks like a mansion due south of her. To the west, Eliza recognizes the looping tracks and bright colors of an amusement park of some kind. To the east, there is a hedge maze the size of a town itself, the path leading up to a castle on a plateau. Finally, to the north is a thick forest that spreads until it hits the steep mountain slope.

It is like no place Eliza has ever been. Wherever she is, it's far from home. This, this is... this is not the time to panic.

Eliza takes one of her old receipts and scribbles a basic map of the land she has found herself in. Her movements are quick, but her hand lingers on the last crude shape, ink bleeding into the paper. Eliza has to make a decision now. She was taken to a strange place and left alone. The first rule of a kidnapping, never let them get you to a secondary location, has already been broken. There is only one obvious exit from the tower. Anyone could be waiting for her on the stairs, the bunny-man or even someone worse. What should she do?

'Climb down the tower' her hindbrain says, and Eliza kills that thought with prejudice. Yes, she has been rock climbing before. She'd had ropes and harnesses then. One gust of wind, one sweaty palm, one missed foot would send her on a straight ticket to her ancestors, lined up to lecture her for her stupidity. So, the stairs were the only option. Great, this was shaping up to be like an escape-the-asylum video game, and here Eliza is without her gun.

Eliza takes her sturdiest pen in hand, tip out and ready to strike, and approaches the stairwell.

*blows ten years worth of dust off this old account*

Hi! The last time I wrote anything for this fandom, or at all, I was an actual teenager. I've left my fic from that time up even though the thought of it haunts me to this day. Please... don't read it. Just pretend this is the only thing on my account.

This is a story that has lived inside my head as scattered scenes for a decade. I dearly hope I can finish it, but looking at my outline, this is going to be long long.

I recently picked up the Anniversary fan translation and was blown away. Both by the great job the translators had done, but also just how much fucked up shit was happening in the background. After playing through a route I went looking for other fanfics that addressed this aspect of the setting. I found two that fit on AO3; Kurosenjo's Stocks and Bonds and AxZi's clock gears and cogs. I highly recommend both. But still, no one had put their finger on what was bothering me, and so this story was born.

One last shoutout I wanna give is the works of peekodemeeko12 and Exagie. Their fics were my favorites when I first got into this fandom, and even now I sometimes think of scenes from some of their fics randomly.

I am primarily writing this story for me, and the teenager who fell in love with this game, but I truly hope that whoever may read this enjoys it half as much as I've enjoyed writing it