Those glist'ning houses that seem to be built of snow

[uncaging]

Who: Elizabeth, Nora, and OPEN
Where: Inside and outside the resort
When: Throughout the event
Rating: PG
Summary: Elizabeth enjoys the weather, and Nora ventures out a little too far in the snow
The Story:

[Starters in the comments. If you'd like something different for your character, hit me up at viridianwings!]

Comments

inside

[postictal]

His roommate, for this event, is apparently Elizabeth - which is mildly better than someone he doesn't know, but is not really what he'd call an ideal circumstance, because his freak self's little masquerade around the mansion left some marks. Most notably, a long slit of red running down his front to his side, which has since been bandaged but is yet to heal completely, has him moving considerably slower and with a great deal more wincing than is altogether healthy.

But sleep evidently doesn't come easy for her, which is maybe why Wonderland decided they should be grouped together; despite the general consensus being that he should be getting more rest than he does, sleep has never been as simple as lying down and closing his eyes.

He hasn't lit one up since waking, even if the nicotine would probably soothe his jittering nerves, the way his heart hurls itself against his chest. It'd be pretty low of him to commit to something like that when there's no balcony, or even a window to open to the cold.

So when Elizabeth wakes panting like she's being chased, Tim's already awake. He darts a glance in her direction slowly, almost guiltily, before his eyes slide back to the crisp whiteness of the falling snow.

"Rough night for you too, huh?" His listless tone suggests that it's not a question so much as it is a tired observation.

[uncaging]

Elizabeth hadn't asked what had happened to Tim, worried about stirring unpleasant memories, but it's clear just looking at him that he's had a rough time of it recently. She'd desperately hoped that this retreat would do them both some good - distance from the Mansion was the one thing that she most definitely needed.

But of course the nightmares hadn't left her here. As she shoots bolt upright, feeling her heart hammer in her chest, her first thought is the worry that she'd woken Tim and disturbed his sleep, ruined his respite from Wonderland. There's a part of her that's rather selfishly relieved that he's had a rough night too, that it wasn't because of her that he's awake at such a late hour.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I haven't been sleeping well, not for a while now."

[postictal]

"Nah." He waves off the concerns she starts lobbing his way with a tired shrug, huffing out a long, slow sigh. "Wasn't sleeping much anyway."

He winces slightly as he folds one arm across his chest, still studiously examining the floor - as if that might make the ensuing situation any less awkward, or the conversation any easier to broach.

"Are you, uh...are you okay?"

God knows why he's bothering, but she doesn't deserve to be dealing with a surly, selfish asshole on top of everything else.

[uncaging]

"I'm fine," Elizabeth replies almost automatically, though she's sure Tim knows as well as she does that it's a lie. She sits back a little, brushing the hair out of her face and pulling the blanket up around her. "I've been having nightmares ever since the Mirror side."

[postictal]

"Fine" is subjective, anyway. His eyes flick shut briefly as he processes the admission. Not really a surprise. The only thing he can be grateful, as far as Jay's concerned, is that he never has to know if he ran into Tim's own Mirror or not. He'd disappeared not long after.

It ended up mattering very little, in the end.

"What happened?" It occurs to him, belatedly, that that's the sort of tactless inquiry that's gotten Jay puzzled scrutiny in the past, and he hastens to add, "if - you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine. I mean, I know it's a lot."

[uncaging]

"No, it's all right." She swings around so that her legs are dangling over the edge of the bed, debating whether to switch on a lamp but knowing she'd felt bad if she woke Tim up even more with the extra light. "I was trapped over there the whole time. Almost a week. I thought ... I thought I'd never make it back, that I'd die over there."

[postictal]

"Your Mirror...prepared for something like that. Didn't she?" Smart enough to keep her Real on the Mirror side for the whole week, the same way Tim's own Mirror did. Rigged his room to be sealed shut, every camera pointed directly at him. He'd tried to break every one of them, but he doesn't need to double check to know that, inevitably, he failed.

His Mirror had contingencies within contingencies. Braced for the impact. Smarter, probably, than Tim ever will be.

[uncaging]

Elizabeth looks down at her feet, nodding sadly. She'd never encountered the sort of petty vindictiveness that her Mirror seemed to have toward her before, and she never wished to again. "I don't know what she's like. I've never met her myself, thank God. But it was such-- such a cruel thing to do."

[postictal]

That's not surprising. Most of the Mirrors are good at that sort of thing, he's learning. That's...one thing he can be grateful for, as far as Jay's disappearance goes; he'll never have to find out how Wonderland chose to twist him into something malformed.

"I know it's kind of a hard thing to..." He trails off. What does he know, really? Pretending that he's got any right to be giving advice or anything like that.

He just knows what he'd think, what he still thinks, the thoughts he can't grind beneath his heel.

"Just...it's not your fault. Whatever she did."

[uncaging]

"Thank you," she half-whispers. She needs to hear that from other people, no matter how much she tries to tell it to herself. "That's part of the problem though: I don't know what she did. I came back to find my room was almost destroyed, the pages of my books had been torn out and she'd drawn crude symbols all over my paintings. I swear some things are missing, too. And I keep thinking-- if she did that to me, who knows what she did to someone else. What if someone's hurt because of her?"

[postictal]

Sounds familiar. Even if the Mirrors didn't have an organized agenda, it seems to be universal that they're bent on completely ruining whatever it is their Reals have going for them, period.

"You ask around at all? To see if anyone...met her, or ran into her?" Not like Tim's one to talk. He's got a pretty clear idea of what it is his Mirror did, but he's sure as hell not going to call attention to any of it by asking anybody questions regarding abstruse messages left on checkerboard lawns.

[uncaging]

Elizabeth shakes her head. "I know I should, but I'm a little afraid to find out."

[postictal]

"Most people'd know it's not really you." But again, Tim's own hypocrisy rears its ugly head. So why didn't he do the same?

He's got a lot more to hide, maybe, than Elizabeth does. He doesn't know. If she does have something under wraps, maybe she'd simply rather not watch her Mirror unearth it.

[uncaging]

"I wish I could just stop thinking about it." She knows that the guilt she feels is stupid, but she can't quite shake it. "But if I weren't here, she wouldn't be either. She wouldn't be able to hurt anyone."

[postictal]

"You couldn't've known what she'd do." That's what he tells himself, anyway. If he wanted to understand what it was his Mirror was more capable of, maybe he could try and learn, but -

But that'd make him more like that man himself. Wouldn't it?

"Is...I mean, is anyone else guilty of just being here, if their Mirror does something wrong?"

[uncaging]

Elizabeth is about to respond in an even more self-pitying way, then checks herself, almost managing a smile even if it's something of a guilty one.

"That's the sort of thing I'd say to anyone else having this problem, yet I can't accept it myself. Funny, isn't it?"

[postictal]

"Yeah," says Tim, who can't quite manage a smile but lifts his eyebrows in that slightly sardonic upward cant. "You're not the only one."

Just remember you're not the only one, if that helps.

He'd said that once, even if who he'd been saying it to had been in denial the whole time. Maybe it's true across the board.