I've got my ticket for the long way 'round | Closed

[onlyredroses]

Who: John Blake [oversight]
Where: Somewhere
When: Saturday, July 2nd. Maybe.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It's been whispered among Wonderland captives for years. Don't die five times. Do not die five times. We've seen the choice of one, but...what is the other option?
The Story:

When Blake comes to, he will find himself alone in a vast, white void - so bright that it will hurt to open his eyes.

It is a striking difference from the utter nothing that mansion deaths are, and yet it isn't quite life either - it's warmth and energy, directionless and wild. There is nothing all around. No up. No down. Nothing to be seen for miles, except for Blake himself.

This should be the moment when Blake returns to life, where breath floods into his lungs and he awakens in Wonderland once more, but...that does not seem to be the case, for once. There is no beat in his heart and he is on the absolute edge of existence, barely an entity at all.

There is nothing, and yet there is everything all at once. It is warm like a flame, with the strangest inkling that the heat could swallow someone whole. These are not pearly gates and they are not the fires of hell. It is something though, but difficult to pinpoint just what.

And Blake is alone.

For now.

Comments

[oversight]

Returning to life is an experience in of itself, strange and upsetting but miraculous in the way reality can never be. Some part of John knows this. It feels like the default now — years in Wonderland can do that — but objectively, he knows none of this can last forever.

Eyes offended by the brightness, he closes them for a moment until he finds the right combination of squinting and shielding his eyes that allows him to see (although it doesn't stop his eyes from watering). Despite this function acting as normal, the lack of vitality pumping through his veins draws his attention and leaves him feeling a bit more afraid than he's allowed himself to experience in years.

"Hello?" he greets the emptiness, although John's not quite certain he should expect an answer. He knows Philip revived after his fifth death, so clearly this isn't the end, but...

But he's really done it this time. There's no denying that.

[onlyredroses]

He's certainly done something, alright.

Surprisingly, a voice answers him, though it does not come from behind or in front of him, but below. Very far below, from the sounds of it.

"I'm not coming all the way up there, John Blake."

When he looks down, he'll see a red blur but then all of a sudden the entire world will tilt. He does not fall exactly, but the world drops below him and the figure below him moves upwards, as though the entire space they occupy rolled and rotated.

The red blur is no longer so blurry, and Her Majesty the Queen of Hearts is not disoriented by the shift whatsoever.

"Ah. Much better," she says. "It's difficult to two people to...talk, when they are not on the same ground."

This is the closest he will ever get to being on the same level as her.

[oversight]

It's fortunate, perhaps, that John isn't looking to attain anything, including level ground. He struggles to feel right after this shift and that, and the way Wonderland's worked for him, the ground's never quite stopped tilting beneath him.

She knows him — of course she does — but they've never met. Certainly he's never met anyone like this, or like her, and as he tries to grasp what might come next, he's reminded of a history that's only played out in part while he's been here.

"What do we have to talk about?" He's blunt, up-front, not intending to be bullied even if he gets the very distinct impression he has no power of his own. Hands balled into fist at his sides, he bites back his anger. Now that he's this close, he could easily see himself striking out.

"I'm dead, aren't I? What more're you gonna do to me, huh?" A huff escapes him and he crosses his arms, hands still in fists. "We're not on the same ground 'cause I've got nothin' to lose."

If he had a beating heart, it would most certainly be driving its way out of his chest like a jackhammer right now.

[onlyredroses]

The Queen of Hearts tsks at him like he's a child, like he's just been placed in time out and not an other worldly void.

"So dramatic," she says. "Of course you have something to lose. Everyone does, whether they're aware of it or not."

For a moment she glances him up and down, as though surveying what exactly he has to lose. She can easily think of a dozen things, and if she tried harder she's sure she could come up with dozens more.

"In any case, I'm here to make you an offer," she says, suddenly all business. She circles her way around Blake, watching him closely. "You're here because you've died. But you don't have to stay that way, if you don't want to. You can be brought back again."