Check! We're going all-in! | CLOSED

[onlyredroses]

Who: The Red Queen [alltheways], The Queen of Hearts, [onlyredroses], and The jabberwock [manxomnivore
Where: Mirror Side, Fifth Floor
When: 12/25/14
Rating: PG-13 for Christmas violence
Summary: With the true Vorpal Sword missing and the Jabberwocky growing stronger by the second, the Queens resort to one last gambit.
The Story:

There isn't much time left. There was never time really, but there's even less of it now.

The Jabberwock has wreaked havoc on Mirror Side, and it's only a matter of time before it grows strong enough to break through to the other side of the glass, where it will become the biggest problem any version of Wonderland has ever seen. Without any sign of the Vorpal Sword, there is no hope of destroying the Jabberwocky this time.

However, there may be one thing that can be done.

The Queen of Hearts stands in the middle of the hall, clad in her armor and weaponless, aside from her fists balled at her sides. She does not waver. She never wavers. But, she turns and looks at the Red Queen, a speck in the distance behind her.

"Are you ready, sister?" She has to shout the question in order to be heard, and searches for a sign that she was.

Comments

[alltheways]

The Red Queen has been thinking about this strategy for some time. It's kept her largely silent and holed up in the space she's claimed for herself on on the Real side of Wonderland, thinking and planning and creating contingencies and fall backs until there were redundancies upon redundancies.

Fortunately, the simplest plan should be the one that would do them the most good for the greatest length of time. She was most certainly ready.

At the Queen of Hearts's call, she raises her shield arm, sure that the flash of motion will catch her attention. To be certain, though, she shouts back.

"Let's begin!"

[onlyredroses]

The Queen of Hearts sees the flicker of movement, the slantest of lights, and knows that they are ready. So, she turns back around and takes a deep breath.

And then, she bellows.

"You listen to me, you overgrown lizard. I will not stand about while you destroy my kingdom any longer! You might foolishly think I've folded, but I've still got two hands left to play! So, come on! Climb out from your slithy toves and face me like the brute you are!"

She pauses, though she's certain it must have heard.

"JABBERWOCK! I COMMAND YOU TO SHOW YOURSELF AT ONCE!"

[manxomnivore]

She could have pleaded instead, begged the Jabberwock to show itself. She could have enticed or lured, with promises true or false. She could have yelled the colours of the rainbow, and screamed a poem backwards. She could have shrieked eternally, all volume and no words. The Queen of Hearts orders instead, to no surprise, but in truth it makes no matter any which way.

Content is meaningless. Cadence nearly as much so. Hunger is a poor conversationalist, and requires nothing more than the raw sound, and the knowledge that at its source sits something that might sate it. Of course the Jabberwock would heed such a call.

But the Red Queen has made a terrible mistake.

The brave warriors she sent are too plentiful, and too delicious. They swarm each corridor, and lurk around every corner. Some hide. So many do not. In the distance the Jabberwock hears the dinner bell ring, but the way towards the main course is a banquet in itself.

Of course the Jabberwock will heed such call.

Soon.

But not just yet.

[onlyredroses]

A long moment passes but there is not so much as a rumble or a quake or a burble. There is an alarming amount of nothing though, and that nothing is more than just unsettling.

It's positively infuriating.

It is in fact so infuriating that the Queen of Hearts begins to laugh, softly at first and then louder and louder until her cackling echoes all the way down the hall.

"You COWARDLY BEAST! Why waste your time at the buffet when you've got DESSERT WAITING?"

[manxomnivore]

A gourmet will only feast on the finest and freshest of homemade potages. A gourmand will be satisfied with canned soup, as long as there is plenty of it. And a Jabberwock? It will swallow soup and cans whole, and devour the gourmand on top. Rarely enticed by special treats it is quantity the creature desires. Quantity. Size. Volume.

...She does have volume in ample amounts.

The Jabberwock turns towards the sound. It stops on the way, for a meal or twenty, but its path is decided. Stairs creak fearfully underneath its mass as the beast ascends, and rounds one final corner. Its goal is clear in sight now: The fifth floor, the most opulent of them all.

And two queens to round off the course.

[onlyredroses]

She waits, listening to the very air around them and waiting for a sign of something.

Then, that something comes, too large to be stealthy about it. It is accompanied by horrific sounds, creaking and stomping and utter destruction. If she tries hard enough, even the suffering of all her soldiers has a faint, audible quality.

Soon the Jabberwock is before her, and she grins wildly at it with narrowed eyes.

"You've gotten fat and shiny from your two hundred courses!" she shouts, seeking any petty reason to antagonize the creature. "What a sad and pathetic thing you are, not coming the first time you're called. How dare you waste my precious time!"

She has no weapons, no shields, nothing but her mouth to cut with.

"You couldn't eat me even if you tried!" she laughs. "You'll never catch me."

As she taunts she bounces from foot to foot, ready to sprint off the second she needs to.

[manxomnivore]

The Jabberwock growls. Its wings lie folded flat against its back, and from the ceiling to its sides the corridor fits around the beast snugly, like an elegant (if strangely mansion-shaped) corset. A being so magnificently fat and shiny as itself will soon no longer be sated by the magical Mirror dwellings and their grey and tasteless gardens.

Indeed the Jabberwock could be looking at its last meal at this very moment. A meal it is guaranteed to catch, to be sure! Slithy toves and winding floors may hide prey for a time, but even the speediest morsel cannot escape biting jaws and catching claws forever. For the most successful and beautiful predators come in all colours, shapes, and sizes.

And this one in particular comes barrelling right down the corridor towards the Queen of Hearts.

[onlyredroses]

This is exactly what the Queen of Hearts had been hoping for, and exactly what a rational person would be dreading.

She allows it to come close, to feel a sense of impending victory before she turns on her heels and bolts. She runs not with fear but confidence and immeasurable speed. She's certain she will not be eaten, that she will come out of this encounter on top, the way she was always meant to. It is not a sacrifice; she is merely luring the Jabberwock to its fate.

There is no hiding what is happening, but the Queen of Hearts still shouts as they approach.

"Sister! I've got it! Do it now, do it at once!"

With that, the Queen of Hearts rushes past the Core, with its familiar light all around the edges of its door, and trusts that the Red Queen will step in to do her part.

[alltheways]

The Red Queen is more than ready to do it and she rushes in at the Jabberwocky as the Queen of Hearts is rushing away from it. She has always been known for being quick on her feet, and now she is only a red blur.

Having coaxed the Mansion into placing a junction where the Core is located, she's able to come in from the side. Meeting the Jabberwocky head on would only be foolish, if her forward memory serves her well; it would be disastrous if the beast were to consume the Vorpal shield and become invulnerable.

She slams into the Jabberwock, a freight train behind the broad face of her shield, intending to force it through the wall and into the Core with only the fact that nothing can pierce or permeate her shield. Surely with its bulk, a heavy enough blow at an oblique angle will send it crashing to the floor.

[manxomnivore]

When it formed again this year the Jabberwock snapped even at words in the air, so thin and fleeting; but anything, anything to give it substance then. Now it has fed so much, and sees itself fit to disregard a queen's solid screams, if it can give chase and have the regent whole instead.

It should have paid more attention.

But the warning is lost on the creature, and somethings sends it reeling. Perplexed at itself for the clumsy change of course, the Jabberwock stumbles violently, and slams into the corridor at its side. For a moment it lies crumbled on the floor, while the echo of its impact begins to show a mosaic of light-filled cracks in the wall.

Only the Jabberwock doesn't stay down for long. It rises, shaking out the daze, and growls at the sight of what truly caused it to leave its course. Behind the creature the wall tumbles down chunk after chunk, and bright light spills into the corridor. Do all red-hued queens taste the same?

The Jabberwock will find out.

More furious and ravenous than ever it turns to her... her, her why would it waste a second chewing her, when it could have this?

The light from the Core flows from its broken prison like water, washing over the monster. The Jabberwock turns around, and gleaming yellow eyes meet a searing white sea. Never, ever before has it been this close to a bite so big and delicious. Drooling maws open reverently--

--but the Core is yet the bigger eater of the two; before it even realises that its claws no longer hold it in place, a sickening slurp has already swallowed the Jabberwock whole.

It leaves behind a broken corridor, deep gashes in the floor, and the last fading notes of a desperate howl.

[alltheways]

The Red Queen regains her footing, but doesn't hesitate, stepping forward after the Jabberwock with her shield still raised. The light of the Core bleaches her skin and hair and armor until even the brightest red she wears looks hardly pink-tinged.

Before stepping over the rubble, she addresses the Queen of Hearts, though she doesn't turn to look at her.

"I will go on ahead, sister, to ensure the beast doesn't return. Maintain our kingdom in my absence, as you always do."

By the time the last words leave her tongue, she's already stepping into the light. The Core swallows her up, shield and all, before the sound has fallen out of the air.

[onlyredroses]

This wasn't part of the plan. Or, at least, it wasn't part of the plan as the Queen of Hearts knew it, but the Red Queen says it with such finality that it's clear that it was always part of her plan.

She's sacrificing herself to keep the beast locked away. It's so noble of her that the Queen of Hearts wants to scream - and she looks like she jsut might. She has nothing to say for a moment, absolutely livid that things have happened the way they have. She sputters between shocked, offended, and just utter rage.

For a moment though, in the bright glow of the Core, she pauses. Her sister is walking away, and after a moment's hesitation, she calls out.

"W-Wait! Sister!"

But she waited too long. The Red Queen is gone, hidden by the brightness of everything. Seconds later, dozens of bright lights shoot out from the Core and dart down the hall like comets - memories seeking their rightful owners. Then, the door abruptly slams shut, and the corridor seems much darker than it was to begin with.

The Queen of Hearts is alone. It's quiet.

After a long moment of being unsure exactly how to feel about the events that just transpired, she eventually turns away from the door and scoffs at no one in particular.

"Self-centered martyr. She always had to be such a show-off."

Then, taking comfort in her anger, she marches down the hall and far away from the rubble. Wonderland will take care of it now that the Jabberwock is gone, and she has fallen Mirrors to remake and decrees to decree.

She has a kingdom to maintain, as she always does.