[OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

[nascensibility]

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[The morning of December 31st, all residents will receive a handwritten invitation slipped under their door.]



You are cordially invited to attend a party
celebrating the New Year

Wonderland Ballroom
8 pm - 1 am

Semi-Formal Attire
Buffet & Bar
No RSVP Required

All Ages Welcome

For inquiries, contact E. O'Connell

[Punctuality in planning is important: the ballroom itself will only be ready for guests at exactly 8 o'clock, bedecked in glittering golds and the red-green of Christmas' vestiges, still clinging to the old year. Dining tables surround a central dance floor, bars and buffets dot the edges of the room and both holly and mistletoe are expressed liberally through the interior.

Mingle, dance, eat and be merry! The New Year will come in at midnight - the band will play and the drinks will flow for long after.]

Comments

[uncaging]

Elizabeth shudders a little as she thinks about the strange dreams - she's still not recovered her sleeping pattern, and if everyone else hadn't experienced the same thing she'd have convinced herself that she'd gone quite mad.

"That wasn't normal even for this place. I hope we never have anything like that happen again."

[postictal]

"You haven't seen something like that happen before?" Nothing to gain from asking the people who've been around longer than he has - which is most people, he's pretty sure, since he's only stuck around for a mere handful of months.

Either way, knowing that something like that could be coming in the future might give him a leg up when it happens again. Not if. When.

"Figures this place wasn't done dicking around with our memories, huh?"

[uncaging]

"No, I've never known an event to be able to reach us in our dreams. Most of the time they alter our memories or the environment itself." It was all the more unsettling to know that they couldn't just hole up in their rooms and sleep until the event was over.

She flinches a little at his turn of phrase, but decides not to say anything. "I'm not sure it will ever be done with that."

[postictal]

He forgets sometimes that not everyone's from Alabama. Maybe make an effort to tighten his language, at least around her. He can manage it around the gazillion kids he's got around here, so he can manage it with her too.

"Everything did kinda look all white for a while," he adds. "All those decorations, the snow...kinda like it was trying to recreate that other world."

[uncaging]

Elizabeth suppresses the urge to laugh, finding his suspicion where she'd only had wonder perhaps a far more reasonable reaction to the changes that Wonderland had made. "Why, that was just for the winter holidays. ...Wasn't it?"

[postictal]

"It was white. Like the White Queen already took over."

His grasp of reality is tenuous in the best of times, and that certainly hadn't helped. An absurd suspicion? Maybe. But his paranoia has, in his experience, a history of being justified. "Maybe put there so we'd have trouble picking the two Wonderlands apart."

[uncaging]

"But everyone knew this was real. It wasn't like the other Wonderland, where everyone thought I was crazy. That was the worst part." She shudders a little, hoping that particular event wouldn't be repeated.

[postictal]

"Everyone telling you that you're wrong until you start to wonder if they're the ones that're right? Yeah." A hand goes to the back of his neck as he glances away, grimacing. He's no stranger to having that little message ground into his head, and this time there was no way to corroborate the evidence with anyone.

"Yeah. That was the worst part."

[uncaging]

"At least it's all over now." She sighs in relief. "I hope we never have an event like that ever again. It's not one we can really prepare for, but just have to endure."

[postictal]

"Maybe we need some way to...I dunno, make sure we're in the right reality, or something."

Someone's probably made a movie about that already, or several. How to check and make sure you're not in a dream. Usually he can do something inane, like counting his fingers or the leaves on the trees, and that's when the dream's logic combusts on itself.

Doesn't mean a damn thing when it looks and feels real.

[uncaging]

"That's a good idea." She was surprised it hadn't been suggested already, although just how they'd be certain that whatever they'd designated as the way to tell if it was real was actually working. "Perhaps a code word, or something we can touch."

[postictal]

"Won't work if a Mirror overhears us, or if an event screws with our memories again, but maybe it'll mean something?" He's not fond of feeling helpless, and he's felt helpless his entire life. He's just kind of all-around sick of it, even if it's little more than a shift in perspective.

He's never had a say in how his life goes. Why start now, right?

[uncaging]

Elizabeth cocks her head to the side a little as she tries to think of a good code for them to use.

"Do you have any ideas?"

[postictal]

Somehow he figures it should be something like let's tell each other a secret no one else would know, but that's - that's a really, really terrible idea, considering that all of Tim's secrets tend to get people killed.

"Maybe a, uh, a name? A name of like...the first person we met here, or something. Mirrors wouldn't know that, right?"

[uncaging]

"That's a good idea. I don't think Mirrors would pay attention to something like that, at least." It isn't difficult for her to remember, either - she'd never forget the shock she had being greeted by a talking skeleton on arrival in Wonderland, after all. "Mine is Papyrus."

[postictal]

Papyrus. Isn't that the name of like...Sans's brother, or something? He disappeared not too long ago, he remembers. Sans seemed pretty locked down after that transpired. Couldn't exactly blame him. Tim's never had a brother, or really any kind of family he could claim to be close to, but losing someone like that must've been - tough.

"Sans," he says, which is...kind of absurd, now that he thinks about it. "Weird, huh? First people we met were skeletons."

[uncaging]

She looks rather pleased at the coincidence, as though it makes this choice of secret code the right one. "That is a little strange. Funny, too. In fact-- I'm so sorry --one might say it's humerus." Her hand flies to her mouth to stop herself from laughing too much at her own joke.

[postictal]

Tim closes his eyes for a moment, because he would laugh, really he would, except that he's kind of medically unable to most of the time. It's a horrible joke. It's a horrible, terrible joke.

"I take it you've met Sans, then," he says, at last.

[uncaging]

"Actually, I haven't," she admits. All she knew was that Papyrus had a brother still in Wonderland. "Is that the sort of thing he'd say?"

[postictal]

"He's the short one." He holds up a hand vaguely level with his chest, estimating. The guy was...yeah, roughly about the size of a small child. No big deal.

"Big on puns."

[uncaging]

"He sounds delightful," she says completely sincerely. "I'll make sure to look out for him."

[postictal]

"Pretty hard to miss," Tim says, dryly. Skeletons aren't exactly what he'd call a common sight where he's from. "But, uh...yeah, he was kinda the first sign that I was someplace else."

[uncaging]

"It was the same for me." She smiles, feeling a little nostalgic. "The house itself could fit into the nicer parts of Columbia, but a talking skeleton? I knew I was somewhere else, somewhere magical."

[postictal]

"I guess that would kinda make you reevaluate your whole worldview, yeah." He'd taken one look at Sans and just decided - yep, this was his life now. He'd reached and passed the threshold where things would continuously stun and shock him, and simply accepted it at face value.

"Columbia - that where you come from, then?"

[uncaging]

"Yes," she replies, frowning a little as she thinks of the place she left behind before belatedly adding, "And it's not in South America - more than one person has asked me that."