friend_i_hope | OOM: Meeting Alice

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OOM: Meeting Alice

He's never liked Ratty. And it's not just the smell. You live in Wonderland long enough you get a sense of who can and can't be trusted. And Ratty's got that stink about him too. That stink that says you should guard your teas and loved ones around him because it'd take about a drop of Happiness for him to turn you over to the Suits.

Fortunately, Hatter's got more than a drop, and Ratty's story about an Oyster named Alice...

Well, he may not have mastered basic hygiene, but he's smart enough not to offer something he can't deliver.

(Hatter's perfectly aware that it can't be the Alice of Legend, but the coincidence is too much to ignore all the same.)

He tells Ratty to bring her in and quietly sips his tea while he waits.

His chair is faced away from the door when they enter, but he can still smell Ratty.

"Would you like a cup of tea?"

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Hatter keeps his hands at her waist at least until she's steady enough to offer a "Thank you."

In response, he nods, tugs his jacket straight and heads on his way, trusting her to follow.

Which she...doesn't, so he comes back to the ladder.

"What's the matter?"

Because, y'know, there's this whole 'on the run' thing, which usually works better if you, y'know keep moving.

Her arms are properly coiled around the ladder, ready to go right back up and into the office with the grass for carpeting.

She keeps her eyes closed even when he speaks, trying to get her breathing back under control.

"Got...a thing about heights," she explains, nervously. "Why couldn't you guys build the city on the ground?"

He peers over the edge of the sidewalk to the ground a couple dozen stories below. He's never thought about it really, and he has to wonder how they build cities in Alice's world...

Still, she seems honestly frightened. Terrified, almost.

So he takes a breath and says, gently, "Look at me." And when she doesn't respond right away he says, softer, "Alice," as he holds out a hand for her to take.

The buildings that she's in frequently are nearer to the...one to two stories tall. Not...what seems to be cloud-height to her. Call her one freaked out girl, and you've nailed that on the head.

When he says her name, she turns her face, and opens her eyes to look at him. It takes her a few moments, but her hand comes off the railing and into his hand. She takes a few deep, almost gasping breaths as she holds on to him, like his hand is the only thing keeping her from tumbling off the side.

Yeah, he's picking up the one freaked out girl vibes.

"Try not to look down," he says, still keeping his tone gentle. "Okay?"

And then he starts to walk, slowly, backwards, guiding her along the sidewalk, keeping his eyes on hers.

She doesn't look away from him, lips parted, and tense. She doesn't like this, Sam I Am. She continues to walk with him, mouth moving but no words coming out. This is scary, very, very scary.

Alice walks with him like that for a little while, before she can stand to take her eyes off his. Though, he's not getting that hand back for a while.

"Why is the city built like this?" she asks as they walk, when she can finally...talk.

He finds he doesn't so much mind not getting his hand back, actually. Or having to look at Alice while he walks. Who'd mind that, really?

"Built like what?" he asks. How else would a city be built?

She will even, once she's talking, loosen her grip a little, and not squeeze his hand to death. She doesn't mind looking at him either. He's got something about him that she trusts in spite of herself.

"So...," she swallows thickly. "High up."

He glances over the edge then, curious why she's so afraid.

He still doesn't get it.

"Well, the lower levels aren't so high up."

She doesn't like watching him look over the edge. It makes her angle closer to the building and tug him with her. She frowns at him for a long moment. Why would he want to look over? Why?

"I don't..ever get up this high. And...we don't have...sidewalks attached to our buildings. Because people are supposed to walk on the ground!" she says, like this is something obvious.

He arches an eyebrow as he's tugged back from the edge, amused.

"All your buildings are directly on the ground? How do you have room for everyone?"

Well, let him be amused. From a safe distance.

"Some of them are pretty tall, but nothing like this. Not...at least anything I willingly go into. I live on the second floor of my apartment building."

"Huh. Weird."

He's just going to keep leading her along the sidewalk toward their destination.

And she'll keep walking with him slowly.

"So...what do you do, exactly, running the tea shop?"

There's a pause before he answers. "Oh, you know. Tea shop...things."

"That doesn't help me much," she says with a frown. "What was that you gave Ratty?"

It's really difficult to do this whole...evasive thing without looking away from her, and if he does, he's fairly certain she'll freeze up again.

"Tea."

"No," she says. "Tea isn't anything that could burst a person's heart. And where do Oysters come into it? What exactly are they doing to them at the casino?"

"This tea is."

Oh, look! They're at the door. Hatter holds up a hand to stop her talking and knocks. The slot on the door slides open, and Hatter says, "I'm returning a library book. It's a work of Edwin and Moorcock."

From the other side of the door comes a low, husky voice. "How does the little crocodile improve his shining tail?"

Hatter sounds a bit exasperated as he answers, like he thinks the whole procedure unnecessary. "He pours water of the Nile on every golden scale." He looks at Alice then, rolling his eyes as the slot is closed again and the door opens on what appears to be an old school bus with a very old man as its driver.

"Come in, be quick," the man says.

That rhyme...makes Alice frown slightly. She remembers it from somewhere. There's...more to it, she's sure. She follows him into the...really weird old school bus, confused. She's...confused most of the time since she's been here.

She isn't in Jersey anymore, Toto.

When it starts moving down, she braces herself, and pants, nervous, before plopping down on a seat, looking up at Hatter.

Hatter greets the driver with a quick, "Hello, Duck."

He doesn't seem to mind the rickety movement, though he does apologize to Alice when she looks up at him. The bus stops nearly at the bottom, and Hatter holds up a warning hand to Alice. "Wait," he says, the bus giving one last jerk downward.

He nods then, and gestures for her to step out first.

She'd almost stood up too soon. As it was, she ends up in a slight mid-sitting position when the bus finally stops, that last jerk doing absolutely nothing to make her feel more secure about what's going on.

She finally stands, and steps out of the bus, to be greeted with a woman holding a sawed off shotgun. Her eyes flick to Hatter. Out of the frying pan...

Aaaaand Duck's got a pistol to Hatter's back as well.

Why can't anything ever just go to plan?

"Why don't we just...put these things away?" he asks as they're marched out of the bus like hostages. "C'mon, you know me well enough."

Which, he supposes, could be the problem really.

This is just...well, it's fantastic, isn't it? Just what she needed. Her boyfriend's been kidnapped, she's lost, and with a lunatic with a very nice hat, and now has a gun in her face. Could this...day...get any worse?

She winces at thinking that. It always jinks it.

"I thought you said they'd help", she says tightly, fists clenched at her sides.

This really isn't the time to attempt addressing her concerns, not when Duck's marching him off the bus with a gruff, "We have our orders."

And Owl isn't helping matters as she gestures for them to move toward the railing and says, "Keep that right hand where we can see it."

Hatter turns slowly to face them, curling his fingers in what he hopes is an un-menacing manner. "It's just flesh and blood," he assures them.

"Right," Owl argues. "We've all seen what you can do with that sledgehammer.

And this really isn't the time to get into that with Alice either...

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