OPEN | well, i don't know where they come from but they sure do come

[circlejerked]

Who: Everyone and some adorable, rolly polly, purring kittens.
Where: Ballroom.
When: April 4th.
Rating: PG? It's kittens, how bad can it get.
Summary: As advertised, Anders wished for some kittens, now there are kittens, please adopt a kitten, kittens everywhere.

The Story:

<sub>[In the ballroom with plenty of space for them to romp around, Anders and Alistair set the kittens loose.

When he'd been thinking about them, Anders had had a particular image in his mind: a bunch of kittens sitting in a padded wicker basket like something out of a graphic illustration or inspired by a toilet paper brand. Who wouldn't find that adorable? That's exactly what he'd gotten, and exactly what they load the kittens up in to move them downstairs. Once the basket is deposited in the center of the room, some stay napping in its cushioned confines, others tumble out to explore.

Anders takes the time to bring up food, water, and litter. After some internal debating, he scatters some cat toys around the room, too. Welcome to Wonderland's one and only kitty daycare, for a limited time only!]

(OOC: Don't worry about threading with Anders or Alistair if you want to join in just for kittens. Consider this a mingle log where you can make your own posts, tag around, etc.)</sub>

Comments

[uncaging]

I don't know. [She hadn't tried, but none of the ones she'd opened had gone to the Mirror side, just variations of the one they were stuck in. She shudders as she remembers the condition in which she and Sam had found Alice's room, the desperate writing on the wrong side of the mirror, her only experience with that world so far.] I hope not.

[circlejerked]

Think about it, though! For all intents and purposes, Wonderland seems to be a closed system. No way in or out. You just punched a hole right through it.

_{[Into another version of Wonderland and theoretically on and on and on into more versions of Wonderland, yes, but... it's a start. Certainly more than Anders can do. It's something worth getting excited about, he thinks.]}

You could get a sneak peek on what they're up to over there. How does it work? You've always been able to do this sort of thing?

[uncaging]

I don't want to see what they're up to. [She says it quickly, decisively, sounding a little panicked.] I haven't been able to get through to anything like the mirror side anyway, but ... it frightens me. What if there's a way through and I get stuck there?

[She tries to push the thought out of her mind.]

I've always been able to, for as long as I can remember. I don't think anyone knows quite how it works. I mean, they locked me up to research me, and to keep control of my ability. Maybe if they understood it more there would have been another option.

[circlejerked]

All right, it was just an idea. I didn't mean you'd have to pay them a visit in person, but a window to their world would even the score a little, in my opinion.

<sub>[He can't blame her for having reservations about getting involved with Wonderland's Mirror side--it's not a bear Anders is sure about poking, either. Unfortunately, where there's danger, there's probably also the source of this whole mess.

Putting things to rights is a bloody business, in his experience.]</sub>

Could you not... open a way somewhere else within the same world? Portal yourself out of the place they were holding you?

[uncaging]

It doesn't work like that. [She'd wondered if the alternate versions of Columbia she'd opened up were parts of the same one, but there were always enough variables to make her think twice about crossing through and becoming stuck there.[ Besides, they had some device which siphoned off my power. The tears were quite unstable until I got out of the tower.

[circlejerked]

How does it work?

<sub>[He has a limited frame of reference for this sort of thing. Some artifacts of great power could open gateways, as he knew, and summoning anything from the Fade required breaching the Veil...

But this is different. Different, but no less impressive for it. If anything, the idea of punching holes through walls in the universe he'd spent most of his life ignorant of is more impressive than anything he's heard of in Thedas to date.]</sub>

Keeping you from making the most of it would explain why you couldn't use this talent of yours to escape. It makes a single tower seem measly in comparison.

[uncaging]

I'm not sure exactly how it works, or why I can do this and others can't. [The only explanation she'd been given was the one that tied her into Comstock's fanaticism and his grand plans for her, and she wasn't about to give any credence to it.] All I know are that there are infinite worlds out there, some very similar and some wildly different. I can sense the places where the barriers between worlds are weakest and tap into them, open them up.

[circlejerked]

I have to admit, I've never heard of an ability like that before, either.

_{[A kitten crawls over his foot and Anders smiles at it distractedly before trying to process all of what Elizabeth is telling him. It's a lot to consider. He's still trying to get over the puppies.]}

Being here in Wonderland has opened by eyes to the possibility of there being more worlds out there besides Thedas, but to be able to open up doors to them? It boggles the mind. And you've done this before, used them to travel to other worlds? How come you can't do the same to leave Wonderland? Is it interfering with your ability, too?

[uncaging]

I think it must be. [It was a source of endless frustration for Elizabeth. She didn't understand why the Queen of Hearts or whoever else was responsible for curtailing her power hadn't just taken it away from her altogether. It would surely be less of a risk for them.] I can still open tears here, but only big enough to look through, to bring things through. It requires more energy than I have to make one large enough or stable enough to physically go through.

[circlejerked]

_{[There are other ways to look at this gift of hers...]}

Hm, maybe I'm thinking about this the wrong way. Maybe it's not a matter of leaving but bringing something into Wonderland that could help us from the inside.

_{[The gears are turning--he's officially in escape plot mode.]}

[uncaging]

[She feels as though this is the first ray of hope she's had since she arrived here.]

What do you have in mind?

[circlejerked]

<sub>[He's never thought about trying to escape this Wonderland by fleeing to another version of Wonderland before. Until now, he hadn't thought such a thing was possible without figuring out how Wonderland could move people across dimensions.

Elizabeth's knack for opening doorways could... well, open doors in a figurative sense!]</sub>

We'd have to put our heads together, but if you could bring in anything, anything at all, then we have possibilities. Like getting our hands on something could help disrupt the source of Wonderland's power, for example. Or force the Queen of Hearts' hand. She seems to know more than she's willing to say, but so far she's playing her cards close to her chest.

[uncaging]

[Elizabeth pales a little, though she knows that Anders' suggestions are probably the best way to achieve their goal she's more than a little nervous.]

But the Queen would know, wouldn't she? She'd chop off our heads!

[circlejerked]

As opposed to immersing us in these memory events so we can be killed, come back, and be killed all over again?

_{[A homicidal person trying to cut off their heads with an axe might be the most normal threat they could face when the alternative is dying during an event...]}

[uncaging]

[He has a point, as reluctant as Elizabeth is to admit it.]

I guess I thought it would be different with her, since she seems to be in charge of the place. What if, when she kills us, we don't come back?

[circlejerked]

Let's not be so quick to engrave our headstones with our names, hm? That's if she overpowered us and if she found out. Those are big 'if's, and ones I'd be willing to gamble on. She needs to be stopped along with this entire realm.

_{[But not everyone's going to have the capability to take on their captors or stand against the indignities being performed here. There's no shame in that; they're not all born and bred fighters.]}

I wouldn't suggesting anything that puts you in harm's way, but plotting to get out of here carries a risk, of course. It's your ability; it's up to you what you're willing to do with it. I won't say anything about what I've seen here today if want to keep what you can do to yourself.

[uncaging]

I'll have to think about it.

[It's a little daunting to think that everyone's hopes of getting out of Wonderland might be placed on her, especially when her power is so restricted here, and that's as much as she feels she can promise right now.]

Oh, don't worry about that. I'm not sure who knows and doesn't know about my ability, anyway. From what I've been able to gather, there was another 'me' here before. I'm still not certain how many people here know more about me than I do myself.