Winter Wednesday Wonderball

[vitaelamorte]

Who: E V E R Y O N E
Where: The Ballroom, Real Side
When: December 20th
Rating: PG
Summary: The invitation sent for you. Now the festivities begin! Come and join, Mirrors and Reals, and have a wonderful winter time!
The Story:

At last the invitations spell TODAY, and come 7 o'clock sharp the ballroom doors open to a beautiful winter landscape in icy blues and whites. Snow and ice of both the artificial and real variety decorate the ballroom, and white fog floods the dancefloor like an icy winter mist, making the atmosphere complete. Nevertheless the temperature is still pleasantly cool, allowing all to enjoy themselves without hiding their gowns under thick cloaks.

Decorations both standing and hanging are cool, elegant and... made with heart, though various symbols of the cool season, such as snowflakes and luscious winter conifers, have their place in the mix just the same. Chairs and tables of ice line the ballroom for anyone who wishes to rest their tired feet or enjoy the rich buffet of food and drink. It goes without saying that everyone's favourite cookies are still available, looking as delicious as ever. Still, there are alternatives, should anyone prefer to abstain for some odd reason.

For your entertainment piano music of various kinds fills the room at all times. The ball will continue well into the night, with food and drink replenishing as needed, and music playing as long as people will dance to it. Come dawn of the next day the ballroom will go quiet, all delicious goods will disappear, and furniture and decorations both will begin to melt, signalling even the most dedicated party guests that it's time to leave.

So go forth, dance, eat and drink, and be merry, and... perhaps spare just one moment to think of the ones less fortunate than yourself.

Comments

[pseudological]

Traffic. You would not believe the daily commute.

[Expecting a straight answer from this smug asshole is like asking a cop not to shoot first. It's just not in his nature.]

Who's got time to play "Red Light, Green Light" every time they feel like seeing what's so goddamned great about the other side? Good enough for the chicken, maybe, but... [he shrugs meaningfully.] What can I say? You guys just aren't interesting enough for most of us.

[burntvideocassette]

[Really? Really? At least Tim's lies are convincing.]

[...And they still land Jay in the same spot regardless.]

[Fumbling, Jay tries for a bluff.]

I-I wasn't interesting enough that night at 3 AM? When you told me I'd "done something"?

[Time makes the trauma grow...well, not smaller, but a little easier to talk about. He's hoping he got the wording right. Hard to know without the footage.]

1/3

[pseudological]

I dunno if you know this, Jay, [says the Mirror, who looks like he's trying to fight back a burst of completely inappropriate mocking laughter because he is the worst and smuggest and most condescending piece of shit imaginable,] but you are really easy to mess with. All I need to do is say something like, oh...

2/3

[pseudological]

[His expression abruptly goes stonily, utterly serious.]

Tim lied to you about Jessica.

3/3

[pseudological]

[And the switch is flipped. He's back to his smirking, awful self.]

And you'd believe me.

[burntvideocassette]

[There he is, smirking and insufferable, like he thinks it's real funny that he's managed to screw with Jay's head twice. (Twice. This is as good as a confirmation; it's the closest he's gonna get, he's sure.) And then--]

[Jay's wrestling a tape away from Tim. He's ziptied on the floor, the bands wearing at the skin of his wrists, yelling, "You're a--]

[No. Fuck this. Fuck this.]

That's not news. I already watched that tape.

[pseudological]

Jay. Buddy.

[The look he's giving him right now. The look. It's teeth-aching condescension drenched in honeyed arsenic, saturated in something that one might be able to recognize as glee, muted as it is.]

You do realize the world didn't stop when you did, right? The story just kept on spinning without you. And, wouldn't you know it?

You kinda missed a lot.

[burntvideocassette]

[Game Over]

[Load | >Quit]

[Of course the world didn't stop when he did. Tim went forward, and he killed Alex, and he survived, however long he got to exist out there in the world before Wonderland dragged him away.]

[And sure, he missed that. He missed that, even though he didn't deserve to die he just wanted answers after all these years]

[That's what happens. The world keeps going without you.]

[What does this have to do with Jessica? She's probably as dead as he is (and Tim let him believe she was out there for months).]

[Focus.]

[The Mirror's just trying to mess with him.]

Yeah? I figured that.

[pseudological]

Did you?

[He cocks his head, innocent as ever. As innocent as any of them are, in this. Some people were ruined by the infection that crept over their hearts and minds and souls. Some people were like Alex, or like Brian, or like Jay; it was done to them.]

[But some people?]

[Some are just born ugly.]

Anything could have happened after that point. A lot did happen, in fact. All those answers came pouring in, right after you kicked the bucket. Funny, huh? But, ah -

[He makes a show of covering his mouth with one hand, as though catching himself.]

We should really let Tim decide when it's best for you to know things like that. 'Cause he's just so reliable about when he decides to throw you a bone, huh?

[burntvideocassette]

[He's just going down the list, checking off every line guaranteed to get him riled up. Because he's so easy to mess with. Because he's easy to lie to and manipulate and coax and lead right into the path of a goddamn bullet.]

[Find Alex. Find the Ark.]

[God, he's an idiot.]

[(And Tim's a liar, and there's so much he knows Tim still hasn't said. How long did he live? How long before Alex died? The Mirror says the answers came pouring in what does he know what does he know?)]

[really easy to mess with]

[Tim said there was stuff Jay shouldn't know, for his own safety. Jay doesn't want to believe him (because who could?). Their agreement puts all the power in Tim's hands, and the Mirror knows it, but it's finally gotten the Real Tim to speak up for once. They've been talking, actually talking, and it's starting to set in that Jay's got time to be patient. The danger's not as immediate as it was back home. If there's one thing Jay can believe, after nearly seven months here, it's that Tim Wright doesn't want him dead.]

[Jury's still out on this asshole.]

Look. Tim and I've got an agreement.

[Tim says some information's dangerous. His Mirror seems to want nothing more than to put Jay in danger. That's quite a combination, when he looks at it that way.]

But you and I don't.

[pseudological]

You gonna lie to me, Jay?

[He chuckles, his grin twisting into something visceral and ugly - as if to say as if you could.]

I'm shook. What will I ever do without your endless cooperation? It's not like the last agreement you made with Tim ended badly, right? [Ended with Jay gut-shot, and Tim consumed with guilt, and that's not even getting into the debacle with the fucking zipties.]

It's not like you're unreliable when it comes to trying to find answers on your own, right?

[But, hey. He's just the narrator. Who ever heard of an unreliable narrator?]

Stick and carrot, for one Jay Merrick.

[burntvideocassette]

[He's not a liar. He's not unreliable. He was trying to find the truth. That's the point. People had to know the truth about what happened--about what was happening, and Jay himself was just a means to an end. Jay's condition wasn't important, so why even bring it up?]

[Alex said he wanted help, but he pulled a gun on Jay instead. Tim said he wanted to help, but he left Jay zip-tied and helpless on the floor of his room surrounded by papers screaming your fault, your fault]

[None of this was Jay's fault. This was all done to him.]

[Stick and carrot, for one Jay Merrick.]

[And he's goddamn sick of it.]

I'm not lying to you. I'm saying we can talk about whatever we want.

[pseudological]

Sure we can.

[He snags a glass of something or another from one of the tables and takes an experimental sip. His grin crooks upward, a right-handed smirk. The contents are definitely alcoholic, and what does that say about someone like him?]

So what's it you wanna talk about, hotshot?

[burntvideocassette]

[Seeing Tim with a cup of some mystery party drink strikes Jay as fundamentally wrong, though he can't quite put his finger on why. He smokes like a furnace, so it's not like he's straight-edge or anything. He hasn't seen Tim drink before, but Tim hasn't seen him drink either.]

[Too risky.]

[He winces at the nickname. Hotshot. He's not sure if that's better or worse than sport, but he's leaning toward worse.]

You said there was a lot I missed.

[And chances are that isn't a lie, but it's not like Jay can trust a single word out of this guy's mouth. Even when he's speaking the capital-T Truth, scrawled across the mirror and across notebook pages and across frames saved and backed up and password-locked.]

Would you mind...clarifying that?

[pseudological]

Hm.

[Pursed lips, a soft hum of contemplation, and his head goes to one side. Big question, that. Big, curious question. Would you mind. So polite of him, too. Gotta appreciate the effort. Even if it is, hilariously, not one he probably likes having to make.]

I dunno. I'm kinda under the impression that you plan on running right on back to Tim to tell him all about our little chats. I mean, I know how you feel about privacy, but I'm a man with standards.

[That. That's his best joke yet.]

[burntvideocassette]

[Goddamnit.]

[He'd been so careful up until...what? Oh. That night, where he was too out of it to take proper precautions. Tim's Mirror probably followed him all the way up to the sixth floor. Sheet over the mirror or not, he probably heard every word.]

[He knows what the Mirror wants to hear. He's also tempted to see how far he can test his luck here. Stupid idea, yeah, but he's also the guy who stole Alex Kralie's keys, and that worked out pretty well.]

[(Except that it didn't work out at all, did it? It just made things worse.)]

[Focus.]

That was one time. [And one more, in the garden, but there aren't any mirrors in the garden, so this should be fine, right? Right?] Not exactly a pattern.

[pseudological]

You got proof of that, buster? Or are you just hot air?

[He's probably enjoying this a little too much, like an insufferable bastard. The fact that he has someone at his doorstep, begging for information, trying to get in his good graces because the Real Tim isn't being so accommodating, is nothing short of a fantasy come true.]

[He's awful, please destroy him.]

Your track record isn't really the greatest, when it comes to promises.

[burntvideocassette]

[It's hard to prove a negative, and the Mirror knows it.]

[(Not to mention the fact that it's a barefaced lie, and Jay knows it won't stand up to scrutiny.)]

[Also, screw Tim's Mirror. Tim--the Real one--is even worse with promises than Jay is, and he doubts his Mirror's any different. "No more secrets." God, how'd he fall for that one?]

[As much as he knows it'll be the verbal equivalent of lighting a flashing red "I'm lying to you" sign above his head, Jay changes direction.]

What's so bad about Tim finding out, anyway? I mean, what'll it do? Get him pissed off at you? 'Cause I think that's already happened.

[pseudological]

It's not me I'm worried about, Jay.

[A dirty lie. It's absolutely the Mirror's own plans he's concerned about fussing with this, and as much fun as it is to mess with Jay, the little squirt has a tendency to wrap himself up in other people's plans and throw spanners into them, willy nilly. That can't precisely be denied.]

Our Tim never just blames himself, after all.

[Or have you forgotten the feel of his right hook?]

[burntvideocassette]

[Shit.]

[He's got a point. He's got a really, really good point, actually, and it hits Jay all at once: He's just given Tim's Mirror some fantastic ammunition. Here he is, like a jackass, doing exactly the thing Tim doesn't want him doing, barely a month after they finally started to build up something resembling cooperation. Barely a month after Tim finally started telling him things of his own volition.]

[Tim's Mirror doesn't have a visible camera, but that doesn't mean anything here. His own Mirror's got a camcorder. (He saw it from across the room, in what might have been the most unsettling moment of his stay here in Wonderland if not for that massive shadow thing a couple weeks ago.) Tim's Mirror could've gotten a hidden camera from George's Mirror or Shaun's or the closets or anyone. He could have a microphone. It could be that the whole conversation's going unrecorded, but even if Tim's Mirror just scrawls the story across the mirror in the hallway or something, it'd be stupid to think Tim would write it off. It would be too easy to believe.]

[Either he keeps quiet about this and prays Tim's Mirror does, too, or he tells Tim himself so the Mirror won't get there first.]

[Shit.]

[Stick and carrot, for one Jay Merrick.]

No. No, he...he really doesn't.

[He needs a subject change, now. Even if he can't talk about home, he needs to make this conversation worth something.]

[He's paused too long. He can't think of anything to say, and he's paused too long, and he knows if he looks up at the Mirror's face, he's gonna have that condescending smirk, and he can't deal with that right now, but he can't think of anything to say.]

How's...how're you doing? On this side? I mean, how're you liking it?

[pseudological]

[Wow, that's got to be the clumsiest and worst subject shift in the history of ever.]

[At least until Jay opens his mouth next, that is.]

[Something landed, he knows. Something made its mark and nestled in that well-meaning, hollow-boned skull of his, and while he could take a guess at what, he can't really know for certain. Something's wound the bird boy up some, though, and he can use that.]

[He can use a lot of things about Jay. The poor sod just lends himself to it.]

You're not even gonna ask me about the weather? I'm disappointed, Merrick. Really.

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay gestures, wide and theatrical.]

How's the weather, then?

["Merrick". Who does he think he is?]

[pseudological]

Cold.

[He grins.]

You're a scintillating conversationalist. Anyone ever tell you that? Are you filming a documentary on parties, next? I think there's a lot to that; I hear there's even gonna be one for New Year's.

[burntvideocassette]

[Of course he'd remember that. Out of all the things that could've been erased, that one just seems to stick around.]

Wonderland, party capital of...Wonderland.

[That didn't quite land the way he expected.]

Seriously, though, what're you doing here? I mean, the Queen of Hearts gave permission, I guess, but she didn't sound too happy about it.

[pseudological]

Do you know how many parties we get on the Mirrorside?

[A pause, and he sips at his glass again for effect. Nice one-liner, Jay. You pick that one up from the Real Tim, or your failure of a Mirror?]

I'll give you a hint, since your deductive reasoning doesn't seem to be real on point tonight: it's not a lot.