11709/Wonderland: And The Mome Raths Outrabe

Wonderland: And The Mome Raths Outrabe
Date of Scene:	22 June 2022
Location:	Wonderland and the Dream Realm
Synopsis:	Two Dreamers, one Nightmare, and a very bad feeling about this.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Kaida Connolly, Jonathan Sims

---

Terry O'Neil has posed:
'Twas Brillig in Wonderland, and most of its denizens were busy going about the proper preparations for the well-observed ceremony of Tea Time. All except, of course, the Hatter and the Hare, who are currently observing teatime constantly at the Titans' Tower, in a room set aside specifically for them so they would not take possession of the kitchen permanently. But yes. Brillig.

Terry, in human form (for reasons that have been explained elsewhere and therefore need not concern us /here/) is walking along a path in the company of Kaida, and they are on a mission. They still have a few days before Uffish is done with his invention, so they are tending to reports of /strange happenings/ taking place by the edge of the Tulgey Woods. This being Wonderland, one can only imagine what passes for 'strange' here.

A fork on the road causes a brief pause, and Terry suggests that splitting up the party might bet he best way to do a quick reconnaisance- provided they met back at the fork in case they spotted something unusual. "I'll take the right," Terry says, "And you'll take the left and let's walk for, say, ten minutes and report back here."

It wasn't a terrible plan. The logic being that it would take twice as long to explore the forks if they did it otherwise. But logic doesn't tend to pay much in Wonderland, now, does it??

Kaida's fork is pretty ordinary. Not likely to be the kind that she likes, though, because it doesn't have a generous hunk of cheese at the end, but it is still more or less pleasant- the vegetation is pretty, if albeit somewhat lugubrious, what with the sun not getting through a lot of the canopy. The deeper one goes into the forest, though, the less definition the plant life seems to have, as if painted by an older Monet after doing some heavy Abinsthe. The forest goes quiet, however, and in the distance, there is a distinctive sound- someone is crying.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
It's a common misconception that Kaida likes cheese at the end of her path, as it turns out. She'd actually prefer a nice juicy cheeseburger, double, with bacon and a fried egg on top. That, now that is a path worth taking. Either way, she currently has this path as an option and gives Terry a thumbs up and a nod.

"Be careful, you can't be sure you'll be able to do what you need to do given your current situation." She states and then starts off. She's not entirely sure about leaving Terry in his weakened state alone but then again, Wonderland doesn't appear to care a lot about powers as much as it cares about insanity. Just pure insanity. Madness if you will. So, off she goes into the weirdness.

Strangely, Kaida actually only seems mildly impressed by the scenery. After all, she's been to other worlds a lot. This isn't really a stretch. Things are often strange where she goes. Not to mention she sees the world at angles few expect.

And then there's the ccrying. Kaida pauses a moment and blinks, slowly looking around as she considers the sound. She shifts uncomfortably and hmms.

"Honestly, I can't help but feel like I'm going to find something I don't expect but..." Kaida mutters and then sighs before carefully starting toward the crying, using her large ears to guide her.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Somewhere out in the Astral Plane is the realm of dreams and nightmares, and close to that realm is Wonderland. So dreams sometimes touch on the place, particularly dreams of a certain sort. Perhaps it's the nature of this dream that draws it to Wonderland, or perhaps it's the nature of the dreamer. After all, despite the differences, Order and Chaos are often drawn to each other like opposite poles of a magnet. (See also: Hawk and Dove.) And this mind is Ordered indeed; it doesn't need the touch of a deity to be so.

    At first, there is chaos, however. Sirens and screams, people running, while Frost Giants swarm New York. A man and a young girl are running through an alley when one of the invaders appears at the other end. They both freeze. The Frost Giant fires its weapon, and the girl is blown back into the wall. The man surges forward, screaming, and with him comes a burst of energy that slams the Frost Giant to the other end of the alley.

    But the man pays no attention to that; he spins and picks up the girl, starts running with her body through the streets. A maze of dark and twisting alleys, far darker than New York ever truly is, finally resolves into a shelter full of people, a medic to which the man offers the girl's body. He screams at the medic. "Help my daughter! Please! Why won't you help her?!"

    "She's dead, sir." The medic's voice is not unkind. "Please. Give me the child."

    There's a flicker, and then the man is younger, over a decade younger, standing in the basement of a burned-out house. Everything around him stands still. There are two dead bodies, a woman and a man, lying nearby. Another man is frozen in the act of raising his arm as if to attack. The only thing that moves is another woman, dark-skinned, wearing woven green armor that looks like it could be a copy of something from Themiscyra. "Give me the child," she says, and the man looks down.

    There's a newborn baby in his arms. Darker-skinned than the girl had been, definitely not the same child, but something about them is the same in the dreamer's mind.

    Flicker.

    The woman changes. Now she is not in woven armor, but normal clothing, and there's white webbing on one side of her head. Her expression is softer, more familiar. "Give me the child, Jonny." A subtle difference, but maybe important.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
As Kaida goes deeper, following her ears, the world around her becomes more diffuse. It is no longer a defined forest-scape, but splotches of light and dark, a chiaroscuro collage that hints at space, until the splotches of light are almost gone, but the crying becomes louder as the mouse advances.

And then there is light. Kaida emerges from a small hole on the side of a wall, and the usual accoutrements of a kitchen loom above her: a refrigerator, cabinets, a table.

There is a man on the table, head resting on his arms, it is hard to see his face from this angle, of course.

And he is sobbing.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Sorta popping out into the room, Kaida blinks as she casually lands on her feet and looks around. She blinks as she appears in the kitchen, her gaze going over the area and then to the crying man. She looks back at the hole she came in through but then looks back at the crying man. Her eyes slowly blink as she stares at him.

She considers him a moment, swallowing a little as she takes a step forward. She is not sure who this guy is but something about this situation seems familiar. She stares for a long moment before taking another step forward. She is careful, quiet, like she always is but then she just leaps. Landing atop the table with ease and despite the large movement, her feet still land with two barely audible, soft pads. She drops carefully to a three point stance, staring ahead at the crying man, her head tilting, ears twitching.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The other dream re-starts. There is a burning house, and a woman in labor, covered in burns. The man whose mind is so Ordered that Wonderland drew it in has her in a tub filled with softly glowing water, talking her through the process of giving birth. The woman lives long enough to hold the baby and then succumbs to her injuries. Two other men are fighting on a staircase. One of them kills the other. The man holding the baby screams, drops to his knees, prays.

    "Neith! Terrible mother, goddess of--"

    Flicker.

    "Annie! Annie, /please/, I need you!"

    For a moment, the nightmare trembles, fluctuating as if uncertain where it's supposed to go. Then it snaps back to the day the Frost Giants invaded, and the medic is saying, "We'll take care of everything, sir, just give me the child--"

    Back to the basement. The woman with the white webbing in her hair says, "I promise, she'll be well taken care of. Give me the child, Jonny."

    Flicker.

    The woman is back in the woven armor. "As you have asked, the Great Mother will see to her needs. Give me the child."

    The dreamer of this dream is not crying. They're screaming. Beating at the walls of the nightmare to try to get out, to no avail.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Something seems to alert the man. Nothing should have, for Kaida is so small and so stealthy that it shouldn't. Nevertheless, he looks up. Reddened, puffy eyes fixate on the intruder on the table, and suddenly his expression changes from grief... to disgust, and rage.

Shaemus Connolly swings his fist, impacting the table in a clumsy attempt at impacting the mouse, missing by a mile.

BANG

His movements are erratic and his breathing is labored. He pushes his chair away from the kitchen table as he reaches for one of the drawers. The drawer opens with a BANG as he makes a hasty grab for the roller pin.

Bang. Bang. Bang goes the banging of the walls. The dream doesn't break, but it stretches.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Like thunder in the distance, both Dreamers can hear it. Something thundering in the distance, and reverberating.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"Dad...?" Kaida asks and blinks as she leaps back from his slamming fist. She shakes her head and then looks around. She looks back at what looks like her dad and then at the area around again.

"I didn't come here. I never come here." She leaps off the table to the counter and watches as he pulls out a rolling pin. She looks then to the walls as the banging comes and she stares around.

"What is this? What's going on?" She then leaps away before her father can get close. She stares at him and then she frowns and then she clenches a tiny fist while feet and one hand cling to a wall. Her fists grows very tight, so tight blood begins to well up in her palm.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The other dreamer, Jonathan Sims, hears the banging, but trapped as he is he can't question the dream. He really should; he's had training, he lucid dreams all the time, but something about this nightmare refuses to let him wake up, even within the dreamscape.

    The dream shifts and dissolves and suddenly Jon is eight years old, standing on the street, holding a book meant for children half his age. On the cover of the book is a picture of a giant spider. The last page of the book urges him to knock so that 'Mr. Spider' can have him for dinner.

    He raises his hand to knock, and a young man knocks it out of his hands. "What's little Einstein doing with a kiddie book?" he sneers, as he goes to pick it up. Jon tries to protest, but it's too late; the bully has picked up the book and starts reading it, fascinated.

    While Jon tries to follow and stop him, the young man walks up to a nearby house, raises the book, puts it up against the door, and knocks. The door opens--

    no no no no nononoNONONO NONO NO!!!

    "--me the child." It's the medic again, but there's still that knocking in the distance. Jon is hyperventilating. That's impossible. He left Mr. Spider behind long ago. Was it Mr. Spider that killed his daughter? Was it Mr. Spider that took the baby?

    What is going /on/?

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The man reaches for something, anything to throw at Kaida. A teapot-
BANG
-it lands wide. A skillet-
BANG
-it hits high. A metal bowl-
BANG
It misses once more.

And then, Shaemus blinks again.

Someone is knocking at the door.

It is hard to tell when it was that he moved. The whole world seems to be hazy, going out of focus. Someone has knocked on the door, and Shaemus reaches for the back door knob.

BANG
BANG
BANG

The two dreams converge

As Shaemus opens the door, a bright light blasts from without, turning him into cinders almost immediately. The Kitchen collapses along with the rest of the house into rubble, Kaida miraculously spared as she is swept away when the metal bowl scoops her up. She lands a few yards away from the remains of the house, smoke rising everywhere.

And out in the distance, the BANG, BANG, BANG is heard again as an imposing creature stomps away.

Doomsday, carrying a limp figure in red, yellow and blue. It is covered in smoke and suddenly fades out of view.People are screaming. There are bodies. There is running.

For Jon, the world suddenly becomes a white, painful glare. And then ruins.

BANG, BANG, BANG.

Out in the distance, A figure clad in yellow and green rains destruction in its path. People are screaming. There are bodies. There is running.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Kaida stares in disbelief as her father collapses into cinders and fire. She screams and then is gone and flies free of the house and stares it, in ruins and then she shakes her head. She reaches up to hold her head and closes her eyes. She takes several deep breathes as she holds on to her head.

"This can't be real. We're in wonderland..." And she looks up in time to see Doomsday wandering off with...

She shakes her head again and then she can see the attack of Loki and she just swallows as she looks at the various people running, fleeing and screaming and she reaches for her sword. She looks at it and then looks up.

"This isn't real...but...why?" She asks and looks around carefully.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The screaming Jon's been doing is finally audible to Kaida. At the burst of glare he drops to his knees and covers his head, screaming incoherently, bracing against an impact that doesn't come. The scream dies, and for a moment he just crouches there, breathing heavily.

    Then he slowly, slowly uncurls and rises to his feet. He's tall enough to stand out amongst the running, screaming people, and instead of wearing anything he might have worn the day this actually happened he's dressed as a superhero, if an Egyptian-themed one. Gold and teal and blue, with segmented boots, a curved sword at one hip, a collapsed staff at the other. He barely notices.

    "Lyra?" He turns around, staring at the people around him. "Lyra?! Lyra! Where are you?!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Liar!" the voice is harsh, mocking. It comes upon Kaida as the smoke clears in one section of road. There stands Loki in green and fold, with his infamous staff at his hip, and an Asgardian blade at the other side. "Liar," he sneers at Kaida in that calculated, cold tone of his. "You can't save them," he gestures to the people running away, screaming. "You couldn't save your father. You cannot even save yourself." He points towards Kaida, an ominous light beginning to accumulate at the end of his finger.

?The smoke clears for Jon after a gust of wind. As he searches, he finally does find a familiar body, prone on the ground. Over her, there stands a squirrel- an unusual squirrel, black-furred with orange underside and mane, a horn growing from its forehead and long, terrifying teeth and claws. The god Ratatoskr, closing in upon the wounded girl, murderous intent in its eyes. "She won't feel... as she dies..." it hisses to itself.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Pulling free her shield, Kaida looks at all the people falling, shivering as she holds her shield in front of her, blade sliding free of its sheath. She glares at Loki and then she suddenly rushes forward and leaps, shield aimed right for that finger tip as she holds her blade out.

"NO!" She calls out as she flies, "This isn't right!"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon rushes over, getting between the squirrel and the body on the ground. "She's not dead!" She's dead. Hasn't he been through this? More than once? "She's not--she's /not/!" She's dead. Or she's going to die. There's nothing he can do.

    He tries, desperately, to pull on Ma'at's power--and wait, no, that doesn't make sense, Lyra died long before Ma'at--but he can't reach it anyway. He's cut off. So he pull the khopesh at his side from its scabbard and faces the strange squirrel.

    He knows, somehow, that he'll fail. He always fails. He can't save anyone, can't help anyone, not /really/. But he has to try, because he promised someone he wouldn't give up.

    "You're not going to kill her," he tells the squirrel. "I won't let you."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Time almost seems to slow to a crawl as the two advance at each other. Every step reverberating on the ground.

Bang
Bang
Bang.

As Kaida charges towards Loki, in the distance past between his legs Kaida can see someone about her height, staring at her. The Mouse Woman- or, rather, the /memory/ of The Mouse Woman, stares at Kaida and says nothing, watching her as she watches back. But this is /not/ the laboratory, and there is no cage.

Or is there? To Kaida, the sky almost seems to be too low. The world, so vast just a moment ago, seems strangely claustrophobic. As if there were walls that merely were the semblance of a world.

And then, the Mouse Woman is gone. But there, in the space past Loki's legs, the 'wall' seems particularly brittle. The god of Asgard snarls at Kaida, saying: "You're not going to save her. I won't let you."

To Jon, Ratatoskr lunges forward, long claws gleaming like swords. "This is a fight!" the demented squirrel hisses.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"No..." Kaida spins in the air, suddenly whipping her tail and her whole body causing herself to alter course and she ends up sailing past Loki and she attempts to slam into the very air. Connecting or not, she lands and begins to move. She begins to race about. Seemingly, her actions are now madness. She is zipping, this way and that, hitting that mach one speed she is known for in short bursts. Those little blurs of speed.

"No!" She cries out as she zips about, her sword swinging at every arc, "This isn't right! Something is wrong! WRONG!" And she's angry. So angry. Just infuriated. Her father. These people. This just can't be real as she refuses to allow it to be real. She can't let it be real. It just isn't what happened. It isn't what she'd let happen.

If there's a way she'll find it.

If there isn't, she'll make a way.

If she fails, she'll try again!

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon brings up the khopesh as Ratatoskr lunges at him, parrying those claws away from him desperately. He already knows he's going to lose. He's going to lose, and die, and that's just how it is. But he won't go down without a fight.

    The fight is not even. Jon is pushed back and back and trips and falls, trying to keep those terrible claws from him. He lands on his back, unable to pull at any magic to shield himself, the ancient electrum-plated sword the only thing keeping Ratatoskr's claws from him...

    And then he blinks, distracted by the mouse girl zipping by at mach 1. ...What?

Terry O'Neil has posed:
And just as Kaida swings her sword, it seems to reverberate through the whole world. A world that has grown much smaller than it used to be. Or maybe it was always this small.

A crack appears where her sword struck what seemed to be thin air, but it was solid.

And a crack appears in the world. And it grows, and grows. Light starts streaming from the crack, indicating there is a world beyond, as this world starts falling apart. The shimmer of deceit is no longer on Jon, who no longer looks like Loki, and Kaida is no longer Ratatoskr. And all might seem to be well.

Except for the /roar/ that comes from a corner, as darkness begins to gather. They have seen this before.

The Jabberwock is coming.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    For a moment, as the world cracks open, Jon just stares in confusion. None of this is anything like what it was, and nothing feels right, and last he knew he was in a totally other place, not Wonderland at all...

    He stares at Kaida, blinking slowly. "I know you. You're one of the Titans. Kaida, right? Where are--"

    Oh. The Jabberwock. He freezes for a moment, having to push away the terrible feeling that the thing wants to /eat/ him.

    "W-we... should probably go. Away. Away from here. Now." He scrambles to his feet, sword still held at the ready, but his hands are shaking.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Crashing back and forth against the wall until it breaks, Kaida finally sees what she is looking for and then blinks as she looks at Jon. She frowns and then she clenches her sword tighter before pointing at the opening with her blade and turning her shield toward the roar.

"GO!" She calls out to him and she doesn't precisely follow. No, she goes to the exit she seems to have made and pauses at it. She turns back completely, her sword and shield aimed in the direction of the roar and she sucks in a breath, breathing in and out, taking in scents and building up her own rage.

"You DARE to use my father! You DARE to use my thoughts! My memories! Know this, whatever you truly are." Her blade arcing through the air once in a slash, "You will sample my blade before the end and regret will be the taste." And then she too will flee.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon doesn't need to be told twice. As the mouse girl holds the exit, he bolts through it, not willing to lt himself get eaten. Not today. Maybe someday... but not today.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
And as the two flee into the light, they can hear the roar of the Jabberwock behing them- until the cracks close up behind them and the combined dream-realm collapses under its own weight. The mouse and the psychologist fall into light, and it is almost as if they are falling down a rabbit hole of sorts where, for a few moments, there is no gravity and dread, there is only delight.

And then they are both spat out into Wonderland through a fissure in the fabric of its reality.

And right into Terry O'Neil, who is walking back to rendez-vous with Kaida. Jon impacts the redhead, and the redhead is sent flying into an elder berry bush. The elder berries complain vociferously about their sleep being interrupted, but to no avail, as all that can be seen of Terry is his two legs, sticking out of the bush.

"Mfmffftttphtt!"

Kaida Connolly has posed:
As for Kaida, she lands lightly on the ground. Her sword sliding into her sheathe and she looks back at the rift she fell through and then at the legs of Terry and then to Jon. She looks down a moment after, her fists clenching tight and her body turning away from both. They'd figure out all that big clumsy people stuff.

Her tiny fists are clenched monstrously tight, all the same and her eyes close She sucks in several breathes befoer turning around and smiling

"Terry! What are you doing? We just faced some shadow nightmare monster thing and all you can do is annoy the foliage!"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    After crashing into Terry, Jon just kind of sits on the ground blinking rapidly for a few moments, and reaches up to rub at his head before he realizes that it didn't hurt, at all. Hmm. He furrows his brow and shakes his head, trying to clear it, but something's been knocked loose and it won't /quite/ go back into place properly.

    They look up and around at Kaida. "Thank you," they say. "For, umm... I was stuck in there. I've been stuck for..." They blink slowly. "I... honestly don't know how long. What day is it?"

    After a moment, they finally notice Terry in the bush and get up to go over and pull him out. "Sorry 'bout that. We fell down a Rabbit Hole. Which is normally your bag, right? And yet. Here we are. Maybe it was a Mouse Hole?" Yeah, something's definitely been knocked loose.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry blinks, combing a few elder berries out of his hair (they hobble back to the bush, don't worry) and rubbing his arms from the scratches. "Wait, wait... one of you at a time... you went through a -what?" the redhead stares at Jon, and then over at Kaida. "I think I'd like a more detailed explanation-"

BANG
BANG
BANG

Something in the forest is stomping their way towards them. It is far, but it sounds like it is gaining speed.

"-back at the tower! BOOK IT!" he says, grabbing Jon by the arm and beginning to run. The exit to the forest is not too far away, and Raven's portal back to the Tower and out of Wonderland right there as well.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    For a moment, Jon just stares back the way they came, eyes wide, all pretense at hiding his fear just... gone. Then Terry grabs his arm and pulls at him... but as they move closer to the portal, closer to the real world, he starts to fade.

    Surely this is worrisome to Terry and Kaida, but not to Jon. "I'm not really here!" he tells them. "I'm asleep, I'm dreaming! I'll be fine, I'll just..." He pulls away from Terry, arm phasing through the young man's hand, and floats up into the sky. He waves a hand, opening a portal to a spot near but not /in/ the Archive.

    "Good luck! Be safe! I'll see you soon!" And then he darts through the portal, disappearing from view entirely.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
It isn't entirely clear to Kaida what is going on but something somewhere is in desperate need of a butt kicking. Either way, she starts moving with Terry and Jon until Jon just up and vanishes after declaring that hisn't here. She shakes her head as that happens and then just sighs.

"I am not sure what is happneing, Terry, but I don't like it." And with that, she's escaping with the rest.