Eliza walks slowly and smoothly, placing toe before heel to quiet her steps. She descends until she hears footsteps approaching her, then ducks into the nearest floor. This floor, about halfway down from where she started, is currently empty, thank goodness. She hears the rumbling of mechanics all around her, and when she cracks open a door to investigate is amazed. The whole floor is made up of the largest set of gears and weights she's ever seen, all moving in an even rhythm Though she's never been in one herself, Eliza is certain she is in a clocktower.
Within this area are various ladders going up and down, likely used by those maintaining the machinery. With the caution of the hyperaware, she takes one down as far as it will go, finds a service door, and walks down the hall until she reaches another small door. After pressing her ear to the wood and judging no one to be on the other side, she opens it.
'Hmm, that's odd." she thinks, looking at the sky. Her sneaking must have taken at least half an hour, likely more, but the sun doesn't look like it's moved at all. Still, Eliza is grateful night hasn't fallen yet, she can see clearly.
Right in front of her are the northern woods, which wrap around the clocktower's courtyard on either side. Checking her crumpled receipt, Eliza quickly darts into the dense forest, far enough to block her from the view of the windows and any noise she may make from the plaza. Left or right?
Eliza chooses right. She feels much more comfortable within the trees, a childhood spent mostly outdoors helping her keep to her chosen direction. A while of careful walking later, she sees the edge of the tree line ahead of her. A village should be on the other side. Eliza's feet gain speed, then stop. The quality of the light still hasn't changed, still that beautiful golden hue. Something is wrong .
'This is a dream'
Why does her head ache? Did someone just say something? The last thing she needs is to start hearing voices.
Her unease has gotten stronger now, curdling in her gut. "Always follow your gut," Eliza's Nana had always said, "or it'll be your ass." Well, right now her gut is saying to get a good look before she waltzes out of the trees.
Eliza looks around and spots a sturdy tree, branches thick with foliage. With the ease of experience she climbs up and conceals herself behind the leaves. For a moment Eliza feels ridiculous perched in the tree like a barn owl, and hopes no one sees her. Then she gets a good look at the people mingling in the village, and all thoughts of potential humiliation are replaced with more pressing concerns.
At first glance it's a village out of a storybook. The clothes are old-fashioned but brightly colored and clean. The streets are cobblestone and traversed by horse-pulled carts. The sounds of people talking, children laughing, an instrument or two playing can be heard even from the tree. It's when Eliza looks at the villagers that she feels herself slip into the twilight zone.
They don't have eyes.
Not even eyeholes. Just bare flesh where there should be eyes. Their other facial features were fuzzy, too- just the bare outline of mouths, noses, eyebrows. But their eyes were completely missing. It was the same with everyone she saw. From the merchants in the shops to the children playing with a ball all the way down to a baby held in his mother's arms. No one seemed to think anything was wrong.
'I cannot panic' Eliza thinks wildly, 'If I panic, I'm done for. I'll make noise and they'll find me and they'll take my face. I have to calm down. I have to think rationally- '
"Hey, what are you doing over there?"
Eliza's hands clap over her mouth just in time to stifle her gasp, rustling the leaves around her. That voice had come right from the tree line.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a break!"
That voice was even closer; a stone's throw away. Eliza spots the edge of a person's profile, a few trees away from hers, lowering himself to sit in the shade. The second voice continues.
"Did you see that secondhand shop, the one that was selling snacks from the Amusement Park? Somehoooow I lost my wallet inside, but I found this sack of treats instead. Gotta get rid of them now, or it'll be my head for sure. Wanna help me 'hide' some contraband?"
A chorus of voices scramble to reply, and a small group of people sit down to eat. Eliza, frozen where she is, takes the chance to watch and listen. The group, seven men and women in total, are wearing the most ridiculous uniforms Eliza has ever seen. Like valentine-themed nutcrackers, black and red and goofy hearts all over. A couple soldiers remove their giant hats to reveal sweaty hair, some others remove their jackets to reveal more heart-themed undershirts.
'You gotta respect the commitment to the bit' Eliza thinks, and feels a little less afraid.
Her fear continues to dwindle as she listens to the party speak. They chat, they joke, they reference inside jokes Eliza can't follow. The one who sat down first, uniform largely discarded, does an impression using two cinnamon rolls and a squeaky voice. Others join in, alternatively scolding and pretending to pounce on their friend. Their lack of eyes never stops being creepy, but it's clear they aren't the horror game monsters Eliza had taken them for.
Unfortunately, Eliza's mind no longer being dominated by prey-like fear makes way for other sensations. Like, for example, the sensation of extreme discomfort from being balanced on a thin branch. If she doesn't move her legs soon, she might as well just amputate them.
Eliza tries, tries to be careful when she shifts her body, but it's no use. The branch dips dramatically under her weight, leaves shaken loose to flutter to the ground below. She hears a shout of alarm.
'I'm already screwed, might as well go for broke' Eliza thinks, and lets herself drop to the ground.
Her legs scream with pins and needles, but she lands on her feet. The soldiers, startled into alertness instantly, are all pointing guns at her. Eliza's heart leaps into her throat and she puts her hands above her head, swaying on numb feet.
"Don't shoot! I'm sorry! I can explain!"
Explain what? Eliza herself isn't sure, but maybe it'll give the soldiers a moment's pause.
It certainly seems to, one good look at her and their guns had been pulled back, though not away. Being without clear faces makes them harder to read, but it's a pretty safe bet that open mouths and raised arches means 'surprise'.
A few seconds pass where Eliza and the soldiers just look at each other. One of the men finally speaks.
"Are you an outsider?"
Nonplussed, Eliza just blinks at him. The act of blinking her eyes seems to be an answer itself for the man. He nods, his expression no longer shocked but... not far from it either.
"You are! Unless you're a role holder, but we would've heard if one of them had died."
Role holder? Eliza suddenly becomes aware of the ink on her arm. Hadn't she written something about a role?
"I-I'm not sure." Eliza manages to say. "Maybe? I'm sorry, but I really don't know what's going on."
At a gesture from the one who spoke, the soldiers holster their guns. Their attitude has shifted so fast- from comradery to killing intent and now... Eliza second guesses herself, because why would anyone be looking at her in wonder?
Eliza is invited into the huddle of strangers as though she were a lost princess, even given an arm to guide her down. They bandage her hand and share the large pile of their snacks. Their hospitality is so total that it is almost suspicious, but even without eyes Eliza can read their sincerity from their body language. Her new associates' patience is eventually overtaken by their curiosity.
"Could we ask you some questions?" An eyeless woman bursts out, body leaning into the rough circle they are seated in.
"I-yes, sure, but I have questions too. A lot of them." Eliza replies.
This doesn't faze the group, and one of the men, hands still sticky from the cinnamon rolls, pipes up.
"Let's play a game! We take turns asking questions until we run out of snacks. You vs all of us."
A cute idea, clearly this one is good at ice-breakers. Eliza smiles at him.
"What about follow-up questions? Do they count as part of one question or as another one?" Eliza asks.
"Oh, good point. How about you can ask one follow-up question, but after that you have to wait until your next turn?"
Eliza agrees that's fair, and she and the man draw lots- made up of apple fries- to decide who goes first. Eliza draws the shorter fry, happily plopping it into her mouth before asking her first question.
"Where are we?"
The others laugh. Eliza squirms a little.
"Got lost? You're right next to the town of Lesser Wheel, near the Clocktower Plaza."
Ok, that wasn't useless information, but it wasn't exactly what Eliza had been asking for.
"No, sorry, I meant that in a more broad way. Maybe like what country we're in? Or what part of the world?" She clarifies, knowing that question doesn't make her sound much smarter.
Understanding blooms on the others' faces.
"Oh, you haven't been here for very long, have you?" the man from before says, pausing to finish his own apple fry. "We're in the country of Heart, in the land of Wonderland."
Wonderland?... That name seemed familiar, but when she tries to think of why her head aches. Before Eliza can shake off the pain, a soldier jumps in with her question.
"You said before you didn't know if you were an outsider, right? Well, are you from another world?"
Another world? Was she? Had she really been kidnapped into another dimension of some kind? Well, Eliza supposes all she has to do to get her answer is look at her companion's faces.
"Yes, or, at least I think so. I have to be, because I've never met anyone like you all before."
Her polite phrasing actually seems to flatter some of the soldiers, but the questioner just gets more excited.
"What's it like? Living in another world?"
Now Eliza has to laugh.
"That's a lot for a follow-up question! I don't know what to say, except, well, everyone has faces like mine in my world." She says, and hoping to brush past that slightly rude statement, adds "There are probably other differences, but I just got here so I wouldn't know."
The soldier looks a little disappointed at her answer but accepts it and a cookie Eliza gives her as consolation. Thankfully no one looks offended by her mentioning the elephant within the circle. This gives Eliza the courage for her next question.
"So, in this world, does everyone not have eyes? Are you all blind, or..." Eliza trailed off, not wanting to finish that sentence with 'do you see with echolocation?' as she had intended. Courage can only go so far.
Luckily, the soldiers aren't angered, or even surprised by the question.
"We have eyes, they're just hard to see! But there are people with clear faces in this world. If we become a role holder, we gain a face."
Eliza focuses on the soldier who had spoken, and indeed begins to make out the shape of his eyes. It's like looking through a condensed mirror, but they are there. This is crazy, how can this be real?
'This is a dream'
Eliza shakes her headache away, asking her follow-up.
"So, what's a role holder?"
"A role holder is a person with a special role in the Greater Game, thus the name."
Greater game? Eliza goes to ask for clarification, but an arch look from the friendly male soldier who started the game reminds her of the rules. A little resentful, she takes three bonbons from the pile and waits for the next question.
"Are there no role holders in your world?"
Eliza, still chewing, takes a moment to consider her answer.
"We have 'roles', but I don't think it's the same as here. People have jobs and obligations, but mostly they choose those for themselves. Some are forced into them, I guess. We certainly don't gain or lose body parts based on what we do..."
The soldiers around her seem much more focused on her answer, and a different one speaks up quickly.
"But what decides what people can do? What makes the rules?"
Eliza is a little taken aback by the intent behind the question.
"Uh, in my country we elect leaders who make laws... But most laws say what you can't do, not what you have to do. No one thing sets rules for everyone..."
Your family can try to dictate your life, of course, and since as children you have to obey them, the habit becomes ingrained even into adulthood. But that only affects those within that family, and can be shaken off once you're no longer dependent. Perhaps they were talking in a religious sense?
The soldiers let the topic lie, waiting for her question as they open up the last of the snacks.
"What is 'the Greater Game'?"
The tables have turned, the soldiers now clearly unsure as to how to reply. Finally, the friendly soldier speaks up.
"It's... what we live for. It gives us lives to live, roles to have, rules to follow... If we weren't playing it, there'd be no point to anything."
Maybe it is a religious thing. But if it's a religion, their answer was unusually vague.
"What are the rules of the Greater Game, then?"
The soldier gives a little shrug.
"Depends on who you are. The rules for us faceless are simple- we support the role holders. They tell us the rules of their games, and we follow them. Some role holders are in charge of territories, which makes them more powerful. They can enforce their rules on other role holders, but they have more rules in the Greater Game to follow themselves."
Eliza stops another of the soldiers- another of the faceless? - before he can ask his question, writing the information down on one of her receipts. She makes sure she's gotten everything square before she gestures with an oversized lollipop for the next question.
"How do people in your world live without the Game?"
'We certainly have wandered into existentialism, haven't we?' Eliza thinks wryly. If the meaning of their lives is this Greater Game, aren't they just asking her the old question of 'why are we here'?
"That's... not an easy question to answer. We grow, from babies to the elderly, if we're lucky. We find a way to support ourselves. We meet people, they leave, we meet other new people. Then we die. Somewhere in all of that, we choose what we live for."
"What did you choose?"
It's as innocent as a child, Eliza can't be mad at it. Still, she has to work to keep her face in its pleasant mask.
"I'm sorry, I don't feel comfortable answering that. Want another try?"
The soldier kindly takes her strained response in stride. The friendly soldier hands her the last cream puff and asks "When you die, what happens next?"
Wow, they really aren't pulling any philosophical punches, are they? Eliza half-expects the next question to be about the trolley problem.
"I don't know... No one really does. It's one of life's great mysteries."
This seems to utterly fascinate her companions, and acting on intuition Eliza asks "Is it not the same for you?"
Heads shake.
"When we die," one soldier, who is laying back and rubbing his stomach, starts, "our lives and roles are recycled. We are reborn to play the game again."
"Outsiders are different, clearly, but we're about as disposable as these." Another soldier waves an empty paper wrapper.
That's... one of the saddest things Eliza's ever heard. There was no sadness, or even resignation. Just a simple statement of fact. 'Our lives do not matter.' It makes her want to argue the point. These kind people who have welcomed her and spoken with her do matter, if only to her, but she is holding the last creampuff, one last bite left. Everyone else has finished with their food, and are waiting on her.
"You said I'm an 'outsider', right? What's my role in the Game?"
The soldiers exchange expectant looks, waiting for someone to give an answer. After a few beats the realization dawns on everyone in the circle, Eliza included.
"I'm sorry." The friendly soldier says. "I don't think any of us know. It's not really relevant to our roles. But I've seen the other outsider spend a lot of time with all of the role holders, so that's probably part of it."
"Yeah," Another soldier adds. "and she doesn't fight them or anything, just kinda talks to them and has fun. Doesn't seem like it's too hard of a role, at least."
Eliza has stopped chewing, laser-focused on this new, precious bit of information. There was another outsider here? Someone she could go to for help, who may be able to explain what the hell happened to her? She swallows hard.
"Who is the other outsider, and where can I find her?"
"She's a girl named Alice," the friendly soldier says slowly, "young, friendly with all the role holders, which is no easy feat. You actually look like her, if you were faceless it'd be easy to mix you up."
Eliza is only half listening, fighting the returned ache in her head. She knows she's heard the name Alice, recently. The more she tries to focus on the memory, the more it hurts. The last person she had talked to was the bunny-man, he had said something about someone named Alice…
Pain
Eliza curls into herself, hands pressing into her eyes. Something is wrong, why does trying to remember hurt? Does she have a concussion after all? She feels two hands rest on her shoulders.
"What's wrong?" The voice is deliberately soft, but it has an undercurrent of steel.
"I don't know, my head hurts, it's hard to think." Eliza hisses, and as her thoughts are pulled from her memories the pain recedes. The pain receded when she stopped trying to remember… Eliza waits a moment to let that sink in, then looks up.
A soldier, still without his helmet and jacket, is staring at her with concern written on his blurred face. He lets go of her shoulders; the fabric pulled by his still-sticky hands. Eliza, inwardly embarrassed to have caused a scene, smiles reassuringly. She recognizes this person as the friendly soldier.
"I'm sorry, don't mind me. I just had a headache for a second. Thank you, all of you," she looks at the others, half risen from where they were and looking anxious to do something "I can't tell you how thankful I am for everything you've done for me, but I have to go now. I need to talk to Alice."
None of the soldiers are happy with this declaration, and Eliza can understand why. That pain had been sudden and terrible, and they don't know the cause like she now does. Or, at least she thinks she does. Finally, the friendly soldier, wiping his hands, speaks up.
"I'll take you to her. I saw her at the Amusement Park, she'll probably still be there."
The corner of Eliza's mouth twitches, unhappy with the implication that she needs to be looked after, but accepts it as a compromise. The man's companions, on the other hand, look even more concerned now.
"Seriously? We have some time to kill, but if you aren't accounted for back at the Castle before long it'll be your head." one says, wringing her hands.
The friendly soldier pulls on his jacket and his hat.
"I'll be fine. No one will care if you come back without me, and I know plenty of ways to sneak back in. I'll be shuffled back into the fold without anyone the wiser. It'll be a game, and I'll win."
Despite the other's clear dissatisfaction with this answer, Eliza doesn't reject the offer. She may not like having a minder, but it'll be safer and faster to travel with an escort. As she is brushing the crumbs off her pants, a sudden thought hits her like lightning.
"I can't believe it- We've been talking all this time and I didn't ask any of your names!"
The tension breaks somewhat. The soldiers laugh a little, probably at the expression of pure mortification she was making. Her volunteer smiles at her side.
"It doesn't matter, we don't have any. You can call us by our numbers if you want, though." saying this, he runs his thumb along the chest of his uniform where a red 7 is sewn into the fabric. Under the number is seven red hearts- just to underline the point, Eliza guesses.
The other soldiers flash their numbers to Eliza as well, from one to six. For her part, Eliza just adds this to the pile of extremely depressing things she's learned about this world in the short time she's been here.
"Well, my name is Eliza Hargreaves. It's been truly a pleasure, and I hope we can talk again soon."
The faceless soldiers warmly send them off, promising to seek her out wherever she lands in Wonderland. To Seven, they are a bit more serious, but his confidence reassures them. Then, as the evening light brightens into noon sunshine, Eliza and Seven set forth to the Amusement Park.
Deeper into the forest, a lone figure watches the outsider and the faceless separate from their group. The figure waits until both parties are out of eyeshot before he moves, wandering aimlessly forward. It is for the best that he had decided against approaching when he spotted a face he'd never seen before in a tree. If he had, the sight of his blood-soaked cloak certainly wouldn't have made a good first impression.
The figure walks, eyes on the Clocktower, smiling brightly. How wonderful, to have exciting information to deliver to Julius along with his usual bloody cargo.
Notes: I feel this chapter is a bit slow, but it will be necessary for the future. Actually, this was one of the scenes that was clearest in my head when I first started thinking of the plot. I can promise after this things will pick up with both plot and character introductions. From my projections, this story is going to be Long, so I hope anyone reading will prepare themselves for that.
Have a lovely day!