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

[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.]

[choosetruth]

[Or because she is a wholly new person. Depends how paranoid you are.]

What was your relationship like before her death?

[burntvideocassette]

Yeah, and...and what was she like before?

[alltheways]

She was a sweet youngest sister.

[She says that as though that's all the explanation that's needed.]

[postictal]

But it just took one look for you to know that something was...off.

[She seemed ill at ease, after all, from more or less the moment the Queen of Hearts disappeared.]

Did you know that was coming? Was that always going to be the end of the match if you lost? The Queen of Hearts just being...sucked away like that?

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay's eyes widen. Good question.]

And did the--d'you think the Queen of Hearts knew when she decided to...declare war?

[There's some definite sarcasm there. That chess game was a terrible time for everyone involved, but it wasn't war.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun has pretty much decided to take himself out of the part of the conversation about differences between a sister who has returned from the dead and the sister who had died. His insight--while actually really on point for such an absurd conversation--is really not anything he wants to get into in any kind of company. Besides, he's mostly having that conversation with the hallucination version of his dead sister in his head.

At least he's having the conversation silently.

He does tune in again when the subject shifts a little to the consequences of the game and the players' knowledge of them.]

Or are the outcomes of these matches usually a little less dire?

[choosetruth]

[Under other circumstances, George might notice just how unhappy with the situation Shaun is. Right now, though, all of her focus is on the Red Queen and asking her questions. She trusts Shaun to keep an eye on their perimeter, and until he says otherwise, she can devote all her energy to her interview.]

"Sweet youngest sister" isn't a person, it's a trope, and certainly not one that would hold up after a huge traumatic event. Do you have specific memories of her?

[alltheways]

[The Red Queen looks at George with narrowed eyes for a moment and gives a decisive nod.]

You're a persistent journalist.

[And then she promptly turns her attention to the other questions.]

My other sister's disappearance was not the expected outcome of that match. To tell the truth, I was not entirely sure what would happen--though I should have foreseen her... [Is tantrum too strong a word?] objections prior to my victory.

[choosetruth]

[She's not sure if that's meant to be a compliment or an insult, but she takes it as a compliment. It is is her general aim.]

You didn't answer my question.

[alltheways]

The answer is this: Of course I have specific memories of her. But I have no intention of sharing them.

[postictal]

Even if they might help us? We're running blind here. If we can help, wouldn't it be...beneficial to share what you know about her?

[He's not the diplomat here, christ. But why?]