entrancelogs | Winter Wednesday Wonderball

Entry tags:

Winter Wednesday Wonderball

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.

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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?

[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?

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.]

[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.

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.

[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.

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?]

[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?

[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.

[Jay gestures, wide and theatrical.]

How's the weather, then?

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

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.

[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.

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.

Oh.

[Sounds like an advantage, from Jay's perspective, but this Tim seems more the extrovert.]

Is it...everything you hoped it would be?

[It's sarcastic, but he's genuinely curious.]

[More curious than Tim probably was, last time he said it.]

[The Mirror snorts.]

What kind of party doesn't even have a ritual sacrifice over a fire pit? That's, like, the bare minimum for party enjoyment, and all this place has is fancy hearts and Christmas cookies. What a letdown.

[Is he bullshitting? Is he being facetious? WHO KNOWS]

[He's probably joking.]

[...Right?]

You, uh...have that kind of party before, or is that just your, like...ideal?

What do you think?

[Paired with a dazzling grin, a faint waggle of his eyebrows - come on, with a winning look like that, you can absolutely trust this face and this sentiment.]

[He said it himself, Jay. You are way too easy to mess with, and you just keep providing the paint for these excellent fucking targets.]

[He seriously won't let up, won't he? Jay wants to come out of this trainwreck of a conversation with at least some scrap of useful information about home or the Mirrors or just Mirror Tim or something, but it seems this guy's bound and determined to give Jay as little as possible.]

[Like the Real thing, but worse in basically every way. Great.]

[The next words come out defensive.]

What I think is it sounds like a joke, but, I mean, Wonderland's weird enough already, so I guess it'd be stupid to throw it out completely.

Who'd you even sacrifice to, anyway? The Queen of Hearts?

The Jabberwock.

[How long can he keep this story going? God, this might be priceless. Imagine if he returns to Tim and feeds him this heaping pile of tripe and they both start thinking that it's legit and - god, that'd be fantastic.]

[That'd really just be - fantastic.]

[Jay squints.]

[Sounds fake as hell, and yet...]

Would that...accomplish anything?

[The Jabberwocky's supposed to be in the Core, right? He's been bracing himself for a 'surprise' reappearance since they got the Queen out, but that hasn't happened yet, has it?]

[Either the Mirror's bullshitting him (likely) or he knows more than he's letting on (also annoyingly likely).]

Well...that is the big question, isn't it?

[C'mon, Jay. You were expecting a straight answer?]

Maybe I don't know. Maybe I'm in the dark as much as you are. I'm just better at not telegraphing it.

[Now there's something that rings a little truer. He can't just assume it's right because it feels right, but he'll remember it. (And if he doesn't, the tape will.) He'll just have to put it in the 'cryptic bullshit Tim's Mirror says' pile with the rest of the cryptic bullshit Tim's Mirror says in the hopes that he'll be able to sort through it later.]

[And Jay's not telegraphing it because he wants pity or anything like that. You just can't get answers if you don't ask questions. And yeah, sure, asking questions about stuff the other guy thinks is obvious makes you look like an idiot. And he's fine with that. Really.]

What's the point? I mean, is there anything useful you get out of pretending to know what's going on?

Well, you don't get people treating you like an idiot, for one.

[The smarmy mother of fuck actually winks at him, for that one. Golly, but Jay's used to being treated like an idiot, isn't he?]

But maybe you're just too used to that to bother stopping.

What do you want?

[He's getting riled up. Sure. He's letting this asshole rile him up, but he's sick of this.]

I mean, at least I'm getting something done. Even Tim's asking questions for once, but what the hell are you doing?

Hey, you came at me, pal. You're the one poking and prodding.

[He doesn't live in a world where that shit comes easy, after all - where he asks for answers and they are simply deliveredto him, open-handed and bereft of strings attached. That's never been how the world works.]

You really expected me to take that lying down?

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mirror jay's kind of party

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