Welcome to Madness - [O//A]

[Jacy_Arienh_Sagira]

(I am now, thanks heart )

Bai looked as startled as Alice over what the package held, but she had no idea what it could possibly mean.

When the catepillar and the odd looking Professor and even Alice, herself all began demanding on who sent the package she stood a little straighter. She bent foward, all courage and spitfire in her stance, as if to say she wouldn't be bullied, and flipped the card over. On the opposite side, what appeared as a regular playing card shown with a Red Queen of Hearts staring out.

Bai tilted her head to the side, curiousity filled her, "How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws." Bai's eyes widened at the realization she had said the words she was thinking outloud and cleared her throat, "Mayhap you two are aquaintances on the outs?"  

[The Night Faery]

Alice gave a start. "How could you know that?" she cried, too frightened to bother with being quiet or polite. "Caterpillar said I didn't even say it right-- how could you recite it just like me? This doesn't make any sense...."

She leaned forward and examined the tag. Out from the card stared a Queen of Hearts typical of a playing-card, only with a cruel grimace spread across her face. "Who is this?" she wondered aloud, her voice dropping in volume. "I don't know her at all. Caterpillar, I don't understand. How could they know that poem? Did you know it? Did the Professor?" She put a hand to her head and squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment. "I just don't understand...."  

[Azure Caterpillar]

Caterpillar sighed and placed his hand on Alice's shoulder. "Calm down. When I asked you to recite; I just knew you were going to recite it incorrectly. If I knew the exact way you would... now wouldn't that be odd?" He said in a strange manner. "Not a bit to me of course, but perhaps to you. I think we should leave it at that."

He looked at the card and then to Bai. "You are a messenger for this person I presume, girl?" Caterpillar asked her, deciding she couldn't be trusted. How had she come to know the poem? This is something he'd very much like to find out indeed. "Who is your employer and how did you know that poem?"

The Professor wasn't sure what to say, she didn't know how this new girl could of known how Alice had recited the poem... and Caterpillar was just confusing her. So she just looked to one side and said; "Maybe she was just spying on us."  

[Jacy_Arienh_Sagira]

"Spying?! SPYING? I do no spy!" Bai said fiercely. "And I don't know how I knew the poem, I just-- "

Bai's words trailed off as she tried to figure out how she had known the poem, herself. It was nothing she had ever heard before, and it definitely was not in her nature to read poetry. Where did the lines come from?

She looked at the Caterpillar who was eyeing her with suspicion. "I run messages for the Queen, but I don't work for her per say. I know this all seems questionable, and I have no proper explanation for myself. But I am no spy." Bai looked away and at last she whisphered to herself, "Am I?"  

[Azure Caterpillar]

((BTW I may not be on much for one or two days so sorry if I don't get replys in quickly for a little while... but that's only a maybe.))  

[The Night Faery]

((That's all right. Thanks for the heads-up! Actually, I might not be on a whole lot, at least not for extended periods of time, for the next couple days. Like till the weekend.... But I'll try to post as much as possible!))

((Sorry, post coming shortly.))  

[Azure Caterpillar]

((Okay. ^_^ Just thought I should mention that I might possibly not be on much for a little while. Oh and a question; is the RP set completely in the city or are there going to be other areas too?))  

[The Night Faery]

((Well, there's the city, which surrounds the little fenced-in meadow, and there's the Queen's castle, so there is probably something between the two larger locations. Maybe a forest? o_O Wonderland should probably have a forest, and there are all sorts of trees and lakes in my mind. Makes thinking kinda difficult.))

"I didn't know this place had a queen," Alice said softly, staring at the card and ignoring the girl's loud, indignant protests. "I wouldn't have imagined there would be anyone here, let alone a queen to rule it all."

She looked up at Bai and said, "You say you run messages for the queen. How long have you been doing this? You see, we three" --she indicated herself, Caterpillar, and the Professor-- "feel like we've lived here forever, but none of us can remember what happened yesterday, or the day before, or anything before this very morning. If you can remember something from before, maybe you can help us."  

[Azure Caterpillar]

((Ah, okay, just wondering. ^_^))

Caterpillar sighed, he knew they probably wouldn't get much more information from the girl; it seemed to him that only this Queen would know the answers to what was going on. Continuing to fix his attention on Bai he said; "You don't know who you are?"

"You don't have to get angry! I was only suggesting you could of been a spy... I mean, this is all slightly suspicious don't you agree?" The Professor seemed to be getting slightly annoyed for some reason. "I say we find this Queen and ask her what's going on..." She added while clinking her fingers together.

"I advise we don't... not until we know more." Caterpillar commented in reply but still held his gaze on Bai.  

[Jacy_Arienh_Sagira]

Bai shrunk under the stares of the others, she didn't feel comfortable as the center of attention. Her voice was soft as she answered, "I...I've never really thought about who I am. I just am." She looked at the city around them, noticing how hazy it seemed around the edges but the longer she looked in one area the more clear that area seemed.

"I know it's suspicious to work for the Queen, but well I run messages. She needs messages to be sent. It's only logical that I take them. Isn't it?"

She felt red flood her cheeks, "But I wouldn't go and see the Queen unless you must. She seems...angry." Bai stood silent, thinking on what Alice had said, then realized that what she had said was true for her as well. How long had she been running messages?

"You asked about what I remember? I can remember that I have taken more than one message for her, but not anything else really. It feels as though if I think of where I need to go, I can remember the way. But I can't remember it until I really want to. It's like there is a haze blocking me from remembering it properly."

Bai's eyebrows scrunched together," Does this make any sense to you at all?"  

[The Night Faery]

Alice frowned. "It seems like it ought not to make any sense at all," she said, "but I do understand what you mean. Leastwise, I'm fairly certain I do. Anyway, I'm not at all certain that I want to meet the Queen." She glanced with apprehension at the cruel-faced woman on the card, opposite her own portrait. "Especially if she is angry."

She looked back up and to each of her three acquaintances in turn. "It's really very odd, isn't it.... I wouldn't have expected any of this days ago. I still wouldn't expect it now, even when it's happening right in front of me. Every time I blink, I'm surprised when I open my eyes again." This was said merely half in jest, and she hardly smiled when she spoke.  

[Azure Caterpillar]

"Then you must find your way. It will not be defined by what has happened in the past... for all we know, there is no past that we can hold on to," Caterpillar replied to Bai. "and in that light, you must find your way by finding yourself. Who you are now... as it were."

"Don't worry, Miss Alice. I'm sure we can figure this all out... maybe there's a way to find out what's going on without meeting the Queen." The Professor tried to reassure Alice but she wasn't sure if it was working. She smiled and added; "And I'm sure Caterpillar could advise us on the matter, correct, sir?" She turned to face him, but then remembered he had recently gone on a little trip of sorts and became more interested in that.

"By the by... what happened before we met Bai anyway?"

"Oh that..." Caterpillar sighed, looking over to the other two. "I was somewhere else... and I spoke to someone I have never met before." Was all he said, seeming annoyed with the question already.  

[The Night Faery]

Alice's eyes widened and she scolded herself for having forgotten all about the Caterpillar's mysterious disappearance. "Yes, please," she said, tentatively because of his annoyed expression, but eager for information nonetheless. "Was it a man that you spoke to? You couldn't see his face, could you?" She played with the corners of her pinafore anxiously. "If we spoke to the same person, where have we gone to? What did he say?"

She was asking too many questions. She knew it herself, and she knew the caterpillar would most likely point the fact out to her anyway. But she couldn't help it; now that the topic had come to the front of her mind again, she absolutely had to know.  

[Azure Caterpillar]

"Slow down Alice. Too many questions will only delay the answers. Ask one at a time." Caterpillar replied in a bored tone; such a curious girl she was! But he supposed sharing the information might help, he was quite sure Alice had found herself in the same place as he.

"It was a man... a human. That was all I could tell... in that place, my usual senses were... clouded... it was like... I was not myself... but I was." Caterpillar thought for a moment quietly, really wishing he had his hookah. "Whoever he was he was writing something... he said he was trying to help and asked me questions." He frowned in annoyance. "He called me a specimen... honestly... humans." Caterpillar didn't seem to be in a very good mood now.

"And... he's spoken to you... Alice."

The Professor just listened quietly, she wasn't sure what to make of all this. Both Alice and the Caterpillar had met this person but they hadn't left the city... how was that even possible? She sighed but didn't say anything.  

[Jacy_Arienh_Sagira]

Bai was beyond confused by the conversation, but she listened politely. It was interesting to say the least. How could someone be in two places at once, and speak to someone if no ne else could see them?

As Alice and the Catepillar spoke, however, one of Bai's many watches went off. "Oh, I'm sorry! " she exclaimed, "I always set one for one thing or another."

She stopped the alarm, "It's time for tea already? Where did the time go?"