[OPEN/EVENT] Take me to Wonderland;

[cursebreaking]

Who: Emma Swan, Jo Harvelle, Angelus, Lily Evans, Rebekah Mikaelson, Mirror!Emma, and anyone who wants to cross paths with any of them.
Where: Throughout the mansion, both Real and Mirror Side.
When: 12/12 until the end of the event.
Rating: R, for Angelus reasons.
Summary: Event catch-all! Will add things in as needed as the event progresses.
The Story:

Emma

12/12 - 12/14, Holiday Punch

[After more than a year and a half spent in Wonderland, one would think that Emma would know better than to help herself to anything the mansion offers unprompted -- and, in general, she does, but there's something about the decorations and general holiday spirit that the mansion has been trying to drum up that she finds infectious. While she has yet to come across and cakes or mushrooms that make people grow or shrink upon eating them, the fact is that it could still happen, and being wary about what she touches or eat should be second nature.

The punch, however, does neither of those things, and upon drinking it, she actually finds herself to be feeling a bit lighter, smiling from ear-to-ear and with any worries or anxiety that might have been plaguing her concerning the dream they'd all shared about the Jabberwocky not long before having vanished without a trace. In fact, she finds herself feeling so festive that she manages to pull a Santa hat out of one of the closets for herself, as well as one for Lucky, completely with a dog-sized Santa coat that she manages to wrestle him into, though it takes some doing.

While she won't be staying in one place for long, she'll be seeking out friends and relatives alike while she's in such high spirits, as well as leaving little stockings filled with various types of chocolate and a number of candy canes hanging on the doorknobs of certain rooms throughout the mansion. Henry Mills, Killian Jones, Regina Mills, Mary Margaret Blanchard, David Nolan, Neal Cassidy, Robin Hood, Belle Gold, Mr. Gold, Zelena, Evelyn O'Connell and Philip Lafresque can all expect to find a stuffed stocking complete with a cheerful note proclaiming 'Happy Holidays' from Emma on their doors.]

12/15 - Onward, Mirror Side

[It's entirely without warning that Emma finds herself on the mirror side on Monday morning, having been on her way up to the diner to meet with Henry for breakfast before her surroundings seem to shift, violent and immediate. She recognizes her new surroundings for what they are -- she's been here several times before, and the last switch she'd made with her Mirror had been much the same: sudden and unexpected, leaving her reeling in its wake.]

What the...

[She pats herself down quickly to appraise herself; she finds her phone without trouble, but already knows full well it won't do her any good on this side of the glass. Her resistance notebook would have worked great-- if she'd had it on her person. Breakfast hadn't included any resistance business, which meant that she was unexpectedly stranded on the other side of the glass with no way to contact anyone else.

She sighs heavily, raking a hand through her hair.]

Great. This again.

[With no James or anyone else in the immediate vicinity to brainstorm with. Fantastic. Just what she wanted: to be alone on the foreign side of the glass.

To anyone else who happens to cross over, she'll be doing her best to locate any other Reals and avoid the Jabberwock-- for now.]

Jo

12/13 - 12/15, Aged Down

[Anyone who heads to the bar with the intention of talking to the proprietress will find her to be missing in action as of the 13th, something noticeably unusual -- come hell or high water, Jo sinks a decent amount of her time either behind the bar itself or keeping the place in good shape, even when things seem to be threatening to go sideways -- in fact, especially then. Instead, anyone who seeks her out will quickly realize that she's nowhere to be found, though Jormy can be spotted trailing along behind a girl with curly blonde hair who looks to be about seven or eight. While this miniature version of Jo won't be wandering into the bar anytime soon, she'll be spending the duration of her stay in Wonderland exploring the mansion and grounds high and low, including spending most of the afternoon on the 14th lost in the stacks in the library and spending several hours investigating the closets and kitchen cupboards on any given day. On the 15th, she'll have stumbled upon the location of the resistance hideout out in the woods, trying to collaborate with Jormy to find a way in. Whatever's behind those locked doors has to be good, right?]

12/17 - Onward, Real and then Mirror Side

[Jo is prepared to mobilize the moment she sees the Red Queen's message about the rabbit hole, but first, there are preparations to be made. She arms herself to the point of being loaded for bear, complete with a number of her knives tucked away in various places on her person and her favorite shotgun, though weapons aren't the only thing she needs to take care of before she goes. If she's crossing over, she can only assume that her Mirror will be doing the same, as so many already seem to have done, and that means taking precautions. The last thing she wants is a repeat of last year's Halloween -- her Mirror had been quick to seek out anyone Jo gave a damn about and did a serious amount of damage, something Jo really doesn't care to revisit.

On the Real Side, she can be found demon-proofing her own room by painting a devil's trap just inside the door, which she pulls a throw rug over once it's dried, followed by laying salt lines along the door and windows. Next up is the bar, which gets the same treatment, though she doesn't bother covering the trap on the floor. Her Mirror, she figures, is most likely to get stuck in her room, but there's no reason not to take steps to make sure other key points are covered. Finally, she goes around to individual bedrooms throughout the mansion, spray-painting devil's traps on the floor outside -- the mansion has repaired damage on itself before, and maybe the carpets will clean themselves too quickly for the traps to do any good, but she still makes the effort. Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Adam Milligan, Simon Lauchlan, Charlie Bradbury, Allison Argent, James Potter, Isaac Lahey and Elijah Mikaelson will all find that the entrances to their rooms have been marked with devil's traps if they're still present on the real side and happen to wander past.

That done, she makes her way to the rabbit hole the Queen had revealed over the broadcast, weapons and a backpack of food and first aid supplies in tow. From the 17th onward, Jo can be found on the Mirror Side, attempting to establish a base of operations (open to any friends or allies there) in the first empty bedroom she finds and doing her damndest to track down any of the Reals who have been switched since the Mirrors first started coming to their side. Her top priority will be getting the lay of the land and making sure her fellow Reals are safe, but rest assured, when the time comes, she's prepared to throw herself headfirst into the fight against the Jabberwocky.]

Angelus

Real Side

[For Angelus, the last few weeks have been irritatingly samey, having spend the better part of November locked up in a cage fashioned especially for him -- as a matter of fact, the 35th room on the 10th floor has been converted into a prison using the mansion's brand of magic. For the most part, he's been content to bide his time, occasionally sniping his jailers with an irreverent remark or two when they happen to drop by, whether to ensure he's still where he's supposed to be or to deliver bags of blood. The cage can't hold him forever, no cage ever has, and he severely doubts the witch's ability to get his heart back -- even if she does, a heart isn't exactly a soul, and if he had to hazard a guess, it would be that simply shoving it back into his chest won't be enough to put Angel back where he belongs.

Not that he wants to take that chance.

Still, for now, he has no choice but to wait -- and it's when the holiday decorations rip their way through the mansion that he finally starts complaining, often and loudly. Whoever last delivered his blood seems to have left the door to the hallway open -- either that, or he somehow managed to be flexible enough to grab it himself, but anyone who passes by the room is likely to hear him calling out to them, an attempt to get anyone's attention in order to relieve the boredom. It had been dull enough before, but now with garlands and lights wound around the bars of his cage?

Dear God, this place is insufferable.]

Just when I thought this place couldn't get any worse, it had to go and make itself festive.

[He snorts, pinching one of the lights between his forefinger and thumb to crush it and cause it to short out.]

Wonder if I could use one of these things to hang myself.

[Considering he doesn't need to breathe and can heal a broken neck, it probably wouldn't do much good, but he's desperate for some kind of relief. Another week or two in here and he might just go out of his mind for real.]

Lily

Real Side

[Lily doesn't trust food that's been offered by Wonderland one bit, regardless of how often she's made use of the closets and cupboards to get what she needs. That was different -- it was on her terms, but when the mansion starts trying to push even something as innocent-seeming as cookies, that's a red flag to her. Naturally, her boyfriend and their assorted friends don't seem to be quite as skeptical as she is, which means that she'll be spending the first several days of the event herding Marauders who are in need, particularly James, who she'll be attempting to keep from indulging from day one -- and failing miserably.

When it becomes obvious that some of the Mirrors are starting to cross through the glass and that a number of the Reals are missing, she changes her tactics and relocates to the clinic, where she'll be offering to use her healing magic to help anyone who's injured: Real, Mirror, or otherwise. Even if the Jabberwocky is thought to be on the other side of the glass, she knows that altercations between Reals and Mirrors always seem to be unavoidable whenever they're on the same side, and she's prepared to do what she can to help.]

Rebekah

12/15 - 12/18, Holiday Punch

[Any mention of Mirrors or the Jabberwocky seem to be lost on Rebekah, to be quite honest -- once rumors start flying, she doesn't pay them any mind, still being a rather new arrival by Wonderland's standards and still having trouble taking anything in this place seriously. Like all the stories say, everything about Wonderland seems mad to her, as well as childish, and she's chosen to view it like any other prison -- insufferable and, if she has things her way, temporary.

Her perpetually black mood regarding her situation -- including her recent kidnapping -- seems to vanish on the 15th, however, thanks to her having unknowingly tasted the punch while she was in the process of interrogating an uncharacteristically cheerful Klaus. For the next three days, the vampire will be all smiles, her usual snide or haughty remarks dying before they manage to reach her lips. She can be found throughout the mansion, but is most likely to be found lingering in the dining hall as she sizes up its potential for social gatherings or in the library whenever evening rolls around.]

Mirror!Emma

12/15 - Onward, Real Side

[The minute the Jabberwocky showed up, Emma knew that staying on the Mirrors' side of the glass wasn't an option. She wasn't much of a fighter, she had always been a runner instead, and this was as good a time as any to put that into practice. In the past, she's headed over to the Real side without saying a word to anyone, but this time she opts to include one person in her escape plan -- an accomplice, someone she knows is as interested in protecting his own ass as she is in protecting hers.

Crossing over goes smoothly, but she knows that once she's among the Reals, she'll have to avoid the real Emma's army of white knights. They'd descended on her when she'd come through during the search for the sword, and instead of going to use her Real's room as her own, she finds an empty one to squat in for the time being. That said, sitting on her hands and waiting for the Jabberwocky to make his way across realms isn't an option, either -- as soon as she's crossed, she goes about collecting supplies, which includes ransacking the kitchen and abusing the closet of "her" room on the fifth floor, where she carelessly leaves the door open after one of her brief trips to the bar.]

Mirror!Jo

12/17 - Onward, Real Side

[It's almost immediately upon her being forced to the Real Side that Jo's Mirror makes her way to her Real's room. She'd rolled her eyes at the blatant devil's traps that had been laid out in front of the bar and a couple of other rooms along the way, but when she finds no such thing in Jo's own room, she snorts to herself and pushes the door until it swings open, letting herself in. Maybe her Real didn't bother protecting it because she didn't intend to be here, but the Mirror was still sure she could use it to suit her own purposes while trapped here--

Until she crosses the threshold and finds herself stuck regardless. Grimacing, she stoops down and grabs hold of the rug to pull it up and reveal that a trap has been painted underneath. It won't hold her forever, but not thinking to check first had been an amateur move, and she sighs heavily as she drops her head back, irate.]

Well, shit.

Comments

[freewill]

The mention of Sam causes a flicker of guilt and uncertainty to pass over Castiel's face, although to most people it would look like nothing more than discomfort. Sam Yao died at his hand, even if it hadn't been something he could control, and he has yet to speak to him about that, to even apologize. Now is hardly the time, but it's still a sharp reminder of how he's been avoiding that particular issue.

That will have to wait, though. That's what Castiel tells himself as he files it away.

"The jabberwocky isn't killing us -- not those who are from the Real side, that is." Obviously Mirrors have been dying. All of the blood splatters they'd glimpsed on the mirrors' glass had been proof of that. "It's devouring memories instead."

Really, they should have known. It's what Wonderland itself feeds on. Why wouldn't the jabberwocky do the same?

[lightgunhustler]

"Devouring memories..."

Wonderland did that very thing on the regular, but she has the feeling Cas means more than just a word or two here and there. Devouring didn't exactly suggest that anything was being done in moderation.

Losing your memories, she'd always thought, had to be just as bad as dying. Maybe worse, in some respects. The idea of not knowing who you were or what the people around you meant to you, what anything meant-- it was terrifying. She sighs, raking a hand through her hair as she processes.

"Do we know roughly how many people it's gotten to so far?"

[freewill]

Castiel has been there. He lost all of his memories to the leviathan, for almost an entire year. He'd made a whole new life for himself despite not understanding some of his own abilities. In retrospect, it's difficult to say if he'd been happy, but the process hadn't killed him.

It had just turned him into someone else, and that's a frightening concept on its own. He is so much more than a faith healer married to a woman only because she'd been the one person in the world he really knew.

"Crowley, at least," Castiel replies after a pause, but then he shakes his head. It's difficult enough to keep track of things on the Real side, let alone here. "Beyond that, I don't know, but it would be safe to assume that anyone who's tried to fight it has most likely been affected."

Unless someone was smart enough or fast enough to get away.

[lightgunhustler]

Crowley. Jo's not sure how bad she feels about that case in particular, but she refrains from commenting, instead pressing her lips together as she considers how quickly this could spiral out of control if people weren't careful.

They'd have to be smart about any attacks they launched on the Jabberwocky, or else they'd be losing people left and right. They might not die, but losing themselves wouldn't be that much better-- and there was no guarantee that the creature wouldn't get fed up with memories and just start snapping people in half again, either.

Another sigh as she braces her hand against her hip. "That's a lot of potential amnesiacs, Cas."

[freewill]

Jo doesn't say anything that Castiel doesn't already know, but he realizes that she's commiserating, and so he nods instead of shooting back a dry comment.

(He would rather save those for Dean.)

"I realize -- though I can't say that I blame those who are making a stand against it." Given how Jo had armed herself, it seems that she'd had the same idea in mind, but maybe now she's having second thoughts.

"If the memories are making it stronger, then it may not be long before it breaks its way to the other side." That's what Castiel's looking to prevent. He doubts they have any chance of killing the beast, but delaying it is almost just as important.

[lightgunhustler]

"No, me neither."

Not in the least. His observation is right on the mark-- she'd come here fully intent on doing whatever she could to help take that thing down, but even the threat of losing memories wasn't enough to make her want to give up and head back. What had to be done here was too important, too vital to everyone's survival to reconsider.

"That just means we have to work faster." Simple as that. "If we keep it from getting stronger, or at least slow it down, we'll have time to rally more people, or-- who knows. We might even take it down ourselves. Do you remember what they talked about last year, when folks came back from that awful future? You'd been one of the people who'd been able to kill the Jabberwocky, before it ate the shield. It came back, but it bought people time."

[freewill]

There's definitely the consideration of which is the worse fate: death, or losing all of one's memories, the very things that make someone who they are. In the end, Castiel still thinks he would choose the latter. There's always the slight chance those memories could be returned, whereas death? It can be reversed sometimes, but all too often it's permanent.

When Jo brings up those visions from this time last year, Castiel nods in acknowledgment. He remembers how his future self had been able to temporarily kill the jabberwocky then, he had watched some of those ghost images over and over again to study them.

"Apparently, it doesn't work that way this time. I don't know if it has to do with being on this side instead of the real one, but even those who would be powerful enough haven't been able to kill it." Which is why Castiel hasn't immediately jumped into the fray himself.

"We could try luring it to the Core, but we know how that turned out in the other future." He can't say he's eager to make a repeat attempt.

[lightgunhustler]

That, admittedly, was a setback Jo hadn't expected. She hadn't thought this would be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but not being able to use some of their strongest firepower right out of the gate made this even more challenging than it already was. She grimaces, bracing her free hand against her hip.

"So the only real tricks we had up our sleeves are out of the question." Great. "I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to try the Core, either. It's possible, as a last resort, but-- yeah. Yeah, you're right."

The last time that method had been put into effect-- if it could be called the last time, considering it was from a possible future-- people had died. Too many people.

"We could trap it somewhere, maybe-- get it on lockdown to buy ourselves some time and flexibility."

[freewill]

From what Castiel understands, it had also been a last resort in the doomed future, something they'd attempted after years of trying to put the beast down. They shouldn't turn to that so quickly, not when their lives could be at stake. Both Castiel and Jo will be of more use alive than dead, he can say that much with confidence.

Trapping it would be a decent idea, if that hadn't already been attempted. Castiel heaves out a sigh and shakes his head. "Crowley tried to put it in his cage, and it broke through with hardly any trouble."

He realizes he's been offering nothing but bad news, but he'd rather be straightforward with Jo about their odds. "At this point, all we can do is try to slow it down."

And risk losing all of their memories in the process, apparently.

[lightgunhustler]

Crowley was hardly the most reliable ally in any case, Jo wanted to point out, and she felt leaving the fate of the Jabberwock in his hands for any amount of time was probably an enormous mistake-- but she doesn't say as much. Castiel is just delivering news, and how she feels about the people involved is neither here nor there. It's not relevant, but it still makes something uncomfortably angry rise up to just beneath the skin.

She sighs. He's right. All they can do is try to slow it down.

"Then that's what we'll do," she tells him flatly. "I have a couple of ideas, but I'd like to do another sweep or two for friends who got forced over before we bunker down and put anything into action."

[freewill]

It's not as if Castiel is particularly fond of Crowley either, but given that he's the one who had taken charge with putting the cage together, Castiel had accepted that it was a good idea and contributed as much as he could. Which all turned out to be for nothing, apparently, so he considered it a moot point. They had to focus on the current moment.

He doesn't fault Jo for wanting to go on a search for other friends of hers. She likely realizes that she doesn't need to worry herself too much over him, whereas she may have other companions who are less equipped to handle a crisis situation like this.

So Castiel nods, willing to wait. "Did you want to make a time and place to reconnect later, then?"

[lightgunhustler]

"I could just shoot you a prayer?"

She smiles wryly. It might seem a little cliched, but hey, if they have the tools to get in touch whenever they like, even on the other side of the mirrors, they might as well use them. "Failing that, we could meet right back here in a few hours, but it's not like it'll be hard for us to get in touch with one another."

[freewill]

It is true that prayer is the simplest way to contact him, and at this point Jo has become comfortable enough with the idea that she actually suggests it herself. She might even be more willing to summon him that way than Dean is. Dean seems to prefer texts.

"That works," he agrees. He could let her go then, but he decides to speak up once more with something that he maybe doesn't need to say, but feels the urge to anyway. "Be careful."