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Who: Charlie Bradbury and all you crazy kids out there!
Where: Mostly the library, but she can be found in the kitchen stocking up on snacks, too.
When: 9/17 and on
Rating: pg?
Summary: Charlie is trying to brain up riddle things and keep herself busy and useful. The mirrors are coming and shenaningans are afoot! This is a catch all for the event, so any mirrors come her way!
The Story:

One Charlie Bradbury has practically moved into a corner of the library.

Her presence is obvious, even when she isn't curled up in one of those super comfy chairs with a book in her lap. There's not a whole lot in these books that can help her with the riddle set before them, but at least it's something. Keeping her brain busy usually helps in the sudden epiphany department, and that's exactly what she's hoping for.

There are breaks, naturally. Food runs to the kitchen, since pulling food out of a closet still seems real strange when she thinks about it. Plus, she doesn't really trust the closets - she's pretty sure they're mad at her.

Which is silly, but whatever. Being paranoid keeps her safe.

Ish.

Point is, Charlie has now moved into the library and she's working hard. There are at least three notebooks full of scribbles, ideas she's struck with that she needs to get down to run across someone else. Riddles could be fun, but in this case it was a little more dire. She's not sure if that's a good motivator, or if it has her so nervous she's just screwing up all over the place.

It's possible anyone who walks through those library doors are going to be accosted by one energetic redhead who is on a mission.

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Half of Natasha's own teammates have moved into the library to work on this riddle, so Natasha's been swinging by occasionally to check up on them. Especially since she's trying to figure out who's the real version and the mirror version for half of them. Some are more obvious than others but that doesn't mean she's not still keeping an eye on her friends. Just in case. This entire thing has her a little on edge, understandably.

Still, it doesn't keep her from swinging by around lunchtime with a large platter of sandwiches for the bunch that's exiled themselves in here to research. She knows how her teammates work. They start going all genius and forget they still have human requirements like food and sleep.

"Anyone hungry?"

There are times where Charlie forgets that she's actually sharing the library with the Avengers - at least, until one of them talks a little too loudly, or something like that. Then she sits there full of nervous energy because it's the Avengers, but she doesn't want to be that weirdo who stalks the superheroes.

She does make it a point to walk by on occasion, and this is one of those times.

"Can anyone get in on the sandwich action?" She asks, pushing herself up on her tiptoes as she eyes the platter. All this research is making her famished, personally.

"I brought plenty," Natasha answers with a friendly smile as she glances over her shoulder in the direction of the redhead, waving her over. "Come help yourself. I know how these guys get and I figured it wouldn't be a far leap of logic to imagine at least a few of the rest of you would be along the same lines."

"How goes the researching?"

Charlie is quick to go over and snatch herself a sandwich with a thankful smile. It was hard to keep food in mind when they feel like they're on a huge deadline, with no end date in sight.

"Thanks." She puts off on taking a bite just yet, fiddling with the sandwich as she talks. "It's slow going for me. I'm really good with puzzles and stuff in games, but this is a whole new level of hard."

"Well, then you have more patience for it than I do," Natasha chuckled, shaking her head. "Some things I'm decent at figuring out but this... just sounds like nonsense. Then again, this is Wonderland. I suppose that's to be expected."

"I dunno if it's patience, or if I'm that stubborn. Probably 50/50." Charlie shrugs a bit, smiling. It's a headache trying to figure the thing out, but at least it's something to do that feels like they're getting somewhere. She is not down with the Duchess keeping the sword, that's for sure.

"I just can't get it to make sense. I'm sure there's plenty of super smart peeps working on it that are further than I am. But hey, the more eyes on the thing the quicker it should be solved, right?" She takes a bite then, chewing thoughtfully as she glances over the others in the library. Nobody's had a miraculous Eureka! moment yet, but she's expecting it. Too many smartys in one place.

"Not to mention, sometimes the super smart people miss the obvious answer that's staring them in the face while they're off running all the complicated theories," Natasha counters with a bit of a secretive grin, because yeah, she's worked with more than her fair share of geniuses. "Hopefully having as many different people as you have looking at it will keep that from happening."

"Touché! You're right, sometimes getting more complicated makes people miss things." Charlie likes a lady who can see all angles.

"Fingers crossed. Everyone I've talked to seems to be as stumped as I am, but that's the way of riddles, isn't it? It's gonna take that one random thing that'll make someone have a eureka moment and it'll be smooth sailing from there."

She hopes.

"Who knows, she might have us running around in circles while she has some lulz at us. Or feeds her pigs...or whatever." Pet pigs, while cute, aren't her thing.

"At this rate? That wouldn't surprise me," Natasha drawls, looking exasperated for a moment before shifting to hop up and perch on the edge of the table, one leg swinging absently beneath her. "Still, from everything I've been told, the sword sounds pretty necessary. There doesn't seem a way around that part of it."

Charlie's taking her time with her sandwich, half forgetting she even has it in her hand while she's thinking back. When they had a visit from a few future friends, they'd learned a lot about the ugliness that lay in store.

"The sword is definitely in the Must Need column. Also someone to weld it, but I'm pretty sure we've got all kinds of folks around who can swing it. And swing it good." Charlie would totally try her hand at it, but her experience has mostly been limited to, you know, fake swords. Way different. "I haven't gotten a look at this Jabberwocky thing, but it sounds scary. Where are they even keeping it? Is there some weird pet storage under the mansion or something?"

"There is, actually," Natasha laughs at that statement. "There's a crocodile down there. Or there was, last time I checked. No Jabberocky though, as far as I know, unless he can shapeshift. And yeah, I know of one or two people here who know their way around a sword."

Charlie laughs, shaking her head. While she hasn't ventured into the basement recently, she remembers a conversation with one Tony Stark that mentioned the crocodile. "Someone told me about it a while ago, but I thought he was just pulling my leg."

But then she's distracted by the thought of the Jabberwocky being able to shapeshift. Taking a moment to finish her sandwich, she tries to remember the story - is that a thing it can do?

"I hope shape shifting isn't one of its super powers. Other than killing everything in sight." She brushes her hands off, sighing. "What I don't get is why the Red Queen doesn't just take care of it. I got the impression she was one of those all knowing types."

"No, there's really one down there. A friend of mine feeds it occasionally, or so he's said," Natasha answers with wry amusement, moving to perch on the edge of the table for the time being.

She gives Charlie's musings some serious thought, because there have been a lot of theories bouncing around for the past few days and she's still trying to catch wind of them all, hoping to find something interesting she hasn't learned yet.

"The Red Queen... She's different from the Queen of Hearts though, isn't she?"

Just how many queens did they have around this place?

"She's supposed to be on our side. Not that I buy that." She shakes her head, her lips pursed. The Red Queen seems easier to deal with than the Queen of Hearts, but both seem to enjoy giving them as little help as possible.

"Haven't seen her for a while, so I have no idea where she's vanished to. Probably whatever weird dimension they live in." She's heard some about times when the Red Queen was around - the chess game to end all chess games sounded like it wasn't fun at all. Kinda scary, actually. "The whole thing seems to be some kind of power struggle between both Queens. Haven't seen anymore yet, but I know there's a White Queen in the books."

Not that she remembers much about her, sadly.

"I'm not sure I believe any of them being on our side, really," Natasha replies dryly, rolling her eyes. "Then again, this place doesn't inspire many feelings of trustworthiness. Except maybe among those of us who are all in the same boat."

And even then, it was a toss-up.

"True that. Sucks big time, too. You'd think we'd have someone on our side in this thing. Like the twins or the sleepy mouse or something."

She can't imagine even the Wonderland natives are happy in this place. Then again, maybe they don't know what happy is. Maybe they have some sort of crazy Stockholm Syndrome.

"I thought out of anyone, Alice would be on our side. She seems a little too far gone to know what's going on. At least, when she makes an appearance."

"Granted, I haven't had a lot of encounters with them. Some days I'd give anything for the damn caterpillar and his hookah, though," Natasha scoffs, shaking her head in wry amusement. "The only time I've seen any of the residents of this place pop up is to tease us with imminent chaos descending on our heads and even then they aren't all that reliable. Not sure I've bumped into Alice, though."

Charlie laughs at that. Hey, if they manage to find the mysteriously missing caterpillar and his hookah, she is on bored for these shenanigans.

"I've seen her once that I can remember. Super spacey, typical Alice I guess. Not the most down to earth chick around, know what I'm saying?"

She just can't get over how Alice seems to just be content, though. She tried to get back home in the stories, after all.

"Maybe she's just been here so long she's just forgotten herself or something. Forgotten what it was like to be home."

"Or this has become home," Natasha counters, looking thoughtful for a moment as she glances around the library. "I can see how that could happen, after enough time is spent here. And for some, this is still a much better place than where they come from. It's not so far-fetched an idea, the longer people stay, the more important connections they make here."

Charlie tries to picture it, considering this place home, and honestly she can see it. For herself, since she's not had an actual home in what seems like ever - like Natasha said, it wouldn't be that far fetched.

"That makes sense, but you know...I never actually see her talking to anyone. She's like one of those ominous doom bringers before an event comes around. What does she do all day?"

And here she pauses, looking thoughtful.

"What do any of them do? I mean, the mirrors actually have lives on the other side and everything, but what about the twins and the mouse and all of those dudes?"

Natasha lifts a shoulder in a shrug and shakes her head. "Beats me. I haven't even been able to locate where they stay when they're not being portents of incoming doom. And trust me, I've looked. Maybe they just pop into existence long enough to be bad omens before going poof again?"

"Maybe." The whole thing drives Charlie crazy, honestly. There has to be some kind of answer that would explain everything, but Wonderland does a good job of keeping them all running around without answers.

"I dunno, maybe one day someone can get their hands on one of them." She says thoughtfully before realizing she might be implying torture. "Not that I think we should like punish them or anything - maybe they're just doing their job, a regular old nine to fiver before going home to the kids."

She doubts it, but she's also not a fan of causing someone pain, freaky twins, sleepy mouse or not.

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