closed } it was the truth that fell from these lips

[choosetruth]

Who: Georgia, Shaun, Tim W, Jay, and the Red Queen
Where: the Hedge Mazes
When: 6/12, afternoon
Rating: PG-13 for the Masons' swearing
Summary: Tim's been holding on to the red queen chess piece he got for months, ever since they freed the Red Queen from the core. It's time to use it.
The Story:

[Perhaps Georgia's being paranoid, insisting they meet all the way out in the Hedge Maze away from any mirrors. After all, the White Queen has claimed that Mirrors no longer need spy for her. Perhaps they could do this in public, somewhere free for anyone to walk in and hear. Perhaps the Red Queen's magic would be enough to hide them anyway, and this is just excessive.

They have a chess set. They have a piece. They have a fuckload of questions. They're one person down from their original group, but there's nothing they can do about that. It's finally time to use the piece.

Georgia puts the chessboard on a bench.]

The white queen piece was activated by setting it out on the chess board. Try that?

Comments

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun bounces the small bag he's carrying.]

And if it turns out that things are different with a living queen and we have to actually play, I'm ready for that too. [He glances sidelong at George and then back toward Tim and Jay.] If either of you think you can take me.

[postictal]

Sounds good to me. The...chess piece. Not the...other thing.

[Shaun would win, anyway. Tim pulls the piece of his pocket, rubs his thumb over it one last time. He hadn't realized how he'd grown to reach for instinctively over the past few months, up until now. A lifeline he kept holding onto.]

[Time to use it.]

Ready when you are.

[burntvideocassette]

Not the other thing.

[Entirely too much chess the past few days. He's done.]

[And if he's hovering a little more than usual, edging between Tim and the chessboard, that's fine. It's understandable, rational even. Definitely not paranoid.]

[Despite the nervousness, he can't quite keep himself from shooting Shaun a sidelong glance and muttering:] Probably kick your ass, anyway.

[choosetruth]

You couldn't kick a fly's ass, Jay.

[She can't resist. She nods at Tim, checking her cameras more out of habit than because she thinks anything's not recording.]

Go ahead.

[postictal]

[Jesus. This is no time for a dick-wagging contest, so Tim instead elects to follow through, setting the piece on the board with a quiet click.]

[Fingers crossed?]

it's absolutely time for a dick-wagging contest

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay shoots her an exaggerated frown. How dare.]

[alltheways]

[The Red Queen's appearance isn't flashy at all. She's just suddenly there, standing just beyond the chess board.]

How can I help you, my dears?

[choosetruth]

[That was fast. Georgia turns to face her, straightening.]

We have questions about your sister.

[Probably not shocking, all things considering.]

The much less dead than advertised one.

[postictal]

Unless "gone" meant she was always gonna come back.

[Tim is not so petty to fire an I told you so at any of them, but let it be on the record officially: he told you so.]

I guess we wanna know if we should be worried.

[alltheways]

[The Red Queen doesn't answer right away. Though her expression gives away nothing, her silence might.]

I must admit, I was also quite surprised.

[burntvideocassette]

Surprised's one way to put it.

[Sure, maybe she's just surprised. Or maybe she's NOT.]

[choosetruth]

You didn't seem happy about it.

[That's the most interesting thing to Georgia. Why isn't she happy about her sister being alive again?]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Technically, they could all kick Shaun's ass--everything he ever learned about chess, he learned from watching George and their dad, and that wasn't exactly... well. It was complicated. and he hadn't been the intended audience of any of it.

He's been watching the exchange between everyone, arms loose and casual. He doesn't think he's going to have to shoot anyone, but he'd rather be prepared, just in case. And he's as bemused as George about the Red Queen's reaction to seeing her sister again. He knows what it meant to him to see his sister again, and while he knows their relationship is unique, he would have thought she would have had more of an enthusiastically positive reaction.]

I mean, you didn't even give her a "welcome back from the dead" high five.

[alltheways]

[The Red Queen looks at Shaun in amusement, but then turns her attention to the others again.]

You must excuse my...shock at the sight of my sister.

[choosetruth]

Is shock really the right word?

[Prepared as she always is, she pulls out a folder with printed out pictures. Screenshots from the footage she shot at the match. Specifically, screenshots of the Red Queen's face.]

I may not be known for making many facial expressions myself, but I'm perfectly capable of reading them. Shock's definitely there, but it's more complicated than that, isn't it?

[That fake smile. The almost robotic, scripted way she'd talked. Red's hiding something.]

Please, don't lie to me.

[postictal]

But you seemed worried.

[He's been hanging back; he's not the questioner. George is better at getting to the meat of things than he is, and they all know it. He stands behind the rest, arms crossed across his chest, staring at the Queen with his brow pinched.]

[That's the thing. He knows concern when he sees it.]

[alltheways]

Of course it is complicated, my dear. Losing one sister only to gain another? Of course it is a matter of concern to me.

[choosetruth]

[She's evading. Being flighty. It's Wonderland, their family drama can't be this simple.]

She doesn't remember her murder.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun gives her a bright smile.]

Do you?

[alltheways]

I was not there. Only she and the culprit know who killed her.

[She folds her hands.]

And yet here she is.

[choosetruth]

She doesn't know. That's the entire problem.

[One of many problems.]

Is she the same as she was before she died?

[burntvideocassette]

Even with the missing--missing time?

[He'd know, wouldn't he?]

[alltheways]

She is not.

[Not the same. Not the same White Queen that the Red Queen had once known.

Her eyes are downcast, looking at the chessboard at her feet.]

Perhaps it is not possible to be the same.

[choosetruth]

But there's different and then there's different.

[No one can go through a death like that and come out entirely the same. Georgia, of all people, should know.]

Is it just trauma and memory loss? Or is she an actual different person?

[alltheways]

She appears to me as a wholly new person. But I cannot explain why I get that feeling.

[Perhaps it's just that the reality is different from what she built up in her mind.]