[open]

[justella]

Who: Jacinda and YOU!
Where: The gardens or the rest of the mansion
When: 3/5
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jacinda was just trying to get to her daughter not end up in another world.
The Story:

She isn't exactly sure what's happening- Henry came into the bar to tell her that Victoria had been arrested, which meant that Lucy was going to be hers again. That’s all she needed to hear before she was rushing out the door. All she can think about as she races through the streets is Lucy and bringing her home, finally. They can be a family again and maybe this time life won't find a way to knock them back.

She's at the tower and in the elevator, fidgeting and willing it to go faster, Lucy is on the other side of those doors and as soon as they bing open Jacinda is moving. Shes moving so fast she doesn't realize at first that this is not the tower, in fact she's not even inside anymore. She's taken a number of steps into a garden that she doesn't recognize. She stalls to a halt, startled and looking around.

"What the hell?" She spinning but there is no elevator behind her- just garden. Everywhere garden.

"Lucy?" Her voice is quiet and unsure the first time she says it, and then it picks up strength. "Lucy?!"

This has to be some kind of trick, or hallucination. How can she go from the tower to wherever the hell this was in the blink of an eye?

"No, no, no no," this wasn't happening. Not when she was so close to getting her daughter back, to getting everything she wanted.

"LUCY!"

Eventually she will move, it’s cold out there and she’s not dressed for winter. She’s looking for answers inside the mansion, poking her head into rooms, reading the pamphlet and trying to figure out what’s real and whts a crazy hallucination brought on by stress.

Comments

[henrydaniel]

Henry knows that voice. Usually when it's directed at him, it's a yelling voice, but still. He looks up from where he's been heading back to the mansion and turns around quickly. Jacinda's here.

It's a weird feeling, the way his heart speeds up, because they're both cursed, they don't know about anything that's real between them. But with Wonderland in his past, Henry has the knowledge that Lucy was telling the truth. She was right. Henry's wife is in Wonderland, and he doesn't even know her. She doesn't know him. Married for at least ten years (he assumes) and he doesn't even know his own wife.

He shakes it off quickly and jogs toward her voice. "Jacinda!" Right then, he decides to keep everything about curses and magic (in regards to his own family) from her. At least until she's more used to the concept of, well. All of this.

[justella]

She hears his voice and immediately she turns towards it. She hadn’t wanted to like Henry after that first day, she didn’t want him swooping in and rescuing her like she was some sort of damsel in distress and couldn’t rescue herself, but somehow he had gotten under her skin. She looked forward to seeing him hanging around the bar and despite Roni’s warning that a new relationship wouldn’t be good for a custody case getting him out of her head was going to be tough. She tried to fight it but she had ended up liking him.

So it was relief she felt when she spotted him jogging towards her, she had no idea what was happening but she knew him and maybe they could figure it out together. “Henry!”

[henrydaniel]

As soon as they're close enough, Henry can't help it, he just sort of wraps her up in a hug. But that's what he does, he's a hugger, and he keeps it brief. Looking at her now, though, with a sense of who she is to him is harder than he thought it would be. He likes her, he's always felt it even before Wonderland, and knowing it was justified but not being able to do anything is actually, truthfully, a terrible feeling.

"You're okay, I promise. I got here the same way. One minute I was at Roni's and then I was here."

[justella]

Well, the hug is new- they haven’t done that, but it’s not unwelcome, especially since she’s on about to tip the edge of freaking out. She blinks at him taking in what he says.

“Where the hell is here? And where is Lucy? Henry, I was going to get her, you just saw me leave the bar and now I’m suddenly in a garden? What’s going on?” Yup, there’s the panic.

[henrydaniel]

Henry's hands go to her shoulders, squeezing reassuringly. "She's safe, she's back home. This...I don't know, Jacinda, this is crazy, and I know it sounds that way. I thought it was, too." And he did because this dude's still cursed and at that point, he couldn't even remember Wonderland.

"This is like..." He tries to think of a good parallel, then he thinks he has it. "Did Lucy ever read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? This is like that. Like we all went to a world where weird things happen and there are adventures and new thing to figure out, but time doesn't move at all. So no matter how long we're here, as soon as we figure out a way to leave, we'll go back to the second we left. I promise, Jacinda."

[justella]

She wants to believe him, she knows he also cares about Lucy, even in the short time he’s known them, and he’s proven that he would keep her safe, but belief isn’t something she’s ever been good at. She’s not like her daughter.

“So, you’re telling me that we’re in Narnia?” Because of course Lucy read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, she read it with Jacinda. She’s giving him a look that clearly translates that she thinks he’s crazy. “How long have you been here?” She had just seen him, he couldn’t have gotten here so fast.

[henrydaniel]

"No, not Narnia. Wonderland. And I've been here...for a while. I first came here when I was a kid. Lucy's age. I've gone home and come back a few times. The last thing I remember from home is Lucy's garden. That night, I was heading to Roni's and then, instead, I was here. There are a lot of people here, Jacinda. From all over who don't know how the hell they got here, either."

There's so much he has to explain and he absolutely doesn't know how.

"Look, even if the rest is unbelievable, please believe that I would never let you think something's happening to Lucy or that she isn't safe."

did someone call for a fellow princess?

[spiritofgoodness]

[ Snow doesn't actually run into Jacinda until after Henry's panicked text, and she hasn't even had a chance to respond yet. So, she has no idea who she's running into though, if Lucy had a certain book, Snow was certainly an important figure in said illustrated novel.

When she runs into another woman who appears to be exploring, Snow smiles softly, friendly as ever. ]

Are you new? It's confusing at first but it gets...well. Not less confusing, but easier to navigate.

XD

[justella]

[ Henry had given her a small tour, but Jacinda is curious so she’s poking around everywhere. Snow looks familiar but she isn’t going to put it together just yet.

She offers the woman a smile in return. ]

Yeah, I- I don’t even know where to start in the confusing department. But I’ve pinched myself so I know I’m not dreaming. [ She doesn’t even think Lucy could come up with a dream like this. ]

[spiritofgoodness]

[ Snow offers an encouraging smile that's also laced with understanding. ]

I've been here a little over three months now, and some days I can't believe this is all real. I do think, though, that I could help with questions if you have any? My first day I was trying to process and random questions would come and go, but there are so many. At least there were for me.

[justella]

I have so many question I don’t know where to start. It’s a lot to wrap my head around. I don’t come from a place with magic- I’m not even sure I believe in magic but well [ she gestures around them. ] hard to argue with this whole place. You’ve been here three months? Is that normal? Do people usually get stuck here that long?

[spiritofgoodness]

My stepmother has been here for four years. It's certainly possible to be here longer.

[ Snow sighs softly. ]

Unfortunately - or, I don't know yet - fortunately - magic is very real. At least it is where I'm from. So being here isn't much of a stretch in that regard.

[justella]

[ Years. Henry had said he’d been there for four years too. ]

Yeah- my...friend here said he’d been here for four years too, off and on since he was a kid. Which is crazy because I was just with him back home. It’s a lot to take in and figure out.

[ She shakes her head, she’s trying not to...she’s not really sure, scream in constant panic? It seems unproductive and not like it will get her back home. Plus this woman seems sweet and very helpful, no need to scare her. ]

I’m Jacinda.

[emojis]

The sound of Jacinda's voice draws her to a stop without her consciously realizing it. It isn't because she's happy to see her, mind you, Jacinda being here just makes things for Drizella a little more complicated in terms of true love's kiss leading to dead Henry leading to dead Drizella.

At the same time, there's a part of her she isn't willing to admit to that would have been happy to see her once upon a time. The little girl who had slipped in between the cracks for a few days used to call her her sister, but Drizella is doing her best to stomp down those feelings and not let herself get attached to anything.

The minute Henry and Jacinda break the curse, everything is going to change for her here. She shouldn't start by getting comfortable now. And more to the point, Jacinda likely wouldn't believe if she was happy to see her anyway.

Taking a deep breath, she rounds the corner towards the sound of the other woman's voice, and puts on her best business face. "Don't worry. Your spawn isn't here."

[justella]

Henry had warned her that Ivy was here so it’s not very shocking. She didn’t have the best relationship with her step-sister, in fact she didn’t have one at all. She never really knew why that was, Victoria treated them both terribly in different ways. Jacinda had given up on every getting her love or approval a long time ago, Ivy it seemed still sought it out. Sometimes Jacinda felt for her, she knew how horrible Victoria was, but then Ivy opened her mouth and any sympathy went right out the window.

“I’ve been informed of that already.” If she had even even acted like she remotely cared about her niece it would be a different story but Jacinda knows spawn is exactly how Ivy looks at her. “What do you want?”

[emojis]

She gives a small shrug in return, looking up at her stepsister with a thin smile. "What? I can't say hello?"

Okay, she probably normally wouldn't, but that's not the point, and it takes her a minute and a deep breath for her to figure out how to make it all make sense. "You and Henry may be the only people here who haven't gone completely batshit."

She is referring to Regina and Hook, just for the record.

[justella]

Ok, so Jacinda soften a little- just a little. Ivy is her sister and they are in a strange place, still her guard stays up. She crosses her arms over her chest and lets out a sigh.

“What do you mean?” This whole place is completely batshit. “So you buy into this whole Wonderland thing?” Because if anyone was more sensible than her it was her sister.

[emojis]

"I've been here a couple months now. You kind of have to if you don't want to go literally insane."

And she did mean literally. But she gives a small shrug in return. "But Roni is going by 'Regina' and apparently wore pantsuits before she had a midlife crisis and bought a bar, and I'm pretty sure Rogers either drank the kool-aid or hit his head but he's into pirate cosplay now. Hook for a hand and all."

[justella]

A couple of months...but Ella just saw her. Nothing makes any sense and Ella is just beginning to think Ivy is right, if she doesn’t accept it she’s going to go insane.

She can’t help it, she lets out a small laugh. “A hook? An actual hook?” Because that’s the only reaction she can have right now. Incredulous laughter.

outside the bar for maximum confusion lbr

[madehervows]

[Alright, she knows she has to play it safe, has to try and introduce Jacinda to all of this delicately but that is so not her. So, she decides to try and keep her distance until things have been sorted, even just a little.

Unfortunately, fate has other ideas when she quite literally runs into Jacinda as she's leaving the fifth floor bar.]

-- I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going.

yesssss

[justella]

Oh no, I'm sorry, I- Roni?

[ Well, Henry hadn't been lying, she definitely looks like Roni, but then Jacinda notices the differences; clothes and hair and even the way she carries herself. ]

Or, not Roni. Henry told me you just look like her.

[ Sorry Regina, your daughter in law is just really confused]

[madehervows]

[And as much as she wants to interrogate her daughter-in-law, she pushes that instinct down because there's too much at stake.]

That must make you Jacinda. [What? It's not weird she knows that.] Henry's told me a lot about you.

[Okay that's weird if she's not Roni.]

-- He thought I was Roni, too, and we got to talking.

[justella]

[ She’s sorta staring, because it’s really strange. Everything in this place is really strange. ]

Yeah, yes- Henry talks about me? [ Because that’s what she’s taking away from this. She’s both flattered and a little confused by that. Why would Henry talk about her to anyone? ]

[madehervows]

[You know why, Jacinda.]

You've come up, once or twice. He said your daughter is a big fan of his book?

[...Hopefully that makes it less weird.]

[justella]

[ look she’s not getting her hopes up. ]

Oh, yes, she is. She’s convinced his book is real and we’re just all cursed the same way. She tracked him down and sort of pulled him into our lives.

[ Not that’s shes complaining...anymore. Or even then really, she was just mad. ]