11860/Wonderland: The Girl That's Never Been

Wonderland: The Girl That's Never Been
Date of Scene:	05 July 2022
Location:	The Looking-Glass House
Synopsis:	Nadia goes into the Looking-Glass House and finds her own reflection.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Iason

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Terry O'Neil has posed:
What Mary Ann had given Nadia had contained but a single letter, a few lines scribbled in immaculate handwriting.

There a world uniquely doubled
had her curious person troubled,
Wond'ring if it could be seen-
The house beyond, if she but leaned
And dared to glance this world anew
Would she find it all askew?
Seek this place if you be Alice
Or else admit you've come with malice!

The letter wasn't signed, but it had the seal of the Church of Alice- a stylized thimble surrounded by a perfect ribbon formed by a hair ribbon.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia sits in her room in the tower reading the letter after carefully extracting it from the box. Even if she hadn't read the books that Terry gave her, the mirror imagery is kind of hard to miss. A House beyond the mirror, that was in the story. This however poses a problem, because one of the things that Nadia learned while she was thoroughly researching all extant public and not so public records of Alice Liddel is that the house where that particular mirror would be has long since been demolished.

    The next idea that occurs to her is try and reach the house from within Wonderland. This idea doesn't get very far before she realizes how horribly lost she is likely to become not knowing the way and with a native guide unavailable at the moment.

    This leaves the third option, which might have been the first option but it involves talking to Raven, which is definitely a third option situation. Though once that trial has been accomplished and emerged unscathed from, the portal's destination is changed to the Looking Glass House (remember no stone throwing) and Nadia steps through to see what awaits her there.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The house is a grand old house, albeit somewhat in a state of disrepair. It doesn't look as if this part of Looking-Glass Land is visited often, even the flower beds which had at one point made the garden outside of the house their home are gone, with a little note by the dug-up beds that reads: 'Went To Look For Greener Houses.'

Nevertheless, the house still stands, and as Nadia approaches it, she can see that the door is not, in fact, closed, but ajar, almost invitingly so.

There really is no place to go but inside. Well, and around the house, but that proves rather unremarkable, compared to the inside.

The inside is covered with dust, and all pieces of furniture seem to be covered by white sheets, most of them have grown frayed over countless years. The foyer leads to a large hall where a hearth once might have kept someone warm, but even the ashes of the last fire have been scattered by the breeze that blows through one of the broken windows.

Over the mantlepiece, where the famous lookin-glass is supposed to be, a white sheet covers the entirety of the space, potentially hiding something.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    "Just how long have you been forgotten?" Nadia asks the house in that rhetorical sort of way people use when really talking to themselves. Clearly not forgotten by everyone though or she wouldn't have a letter guiding her here, assuming she is even in the right place of course. Wonderland does love its riddles.

    Making her way up the path to the door, she is dressed in her Alice attire from headband with hairbow, to yellow pinafore, to black patent leather Mary Janes. She stops at the flower bed and picks up the note. "Well that is a shame." NadiAlice muses aloud again, "But one can hardly blame them. Maybe if I fix up the place they'll come back or new flowers will take their place." But nothing to be done about that now and she presses forward, the invitingly open door too much for her curiousity Alice or not. To be sure, at a subconscious level, her senses are standing on edge for any signs of traps or ambush but that is more the result of years of conditioning than any active mistrust of Mary Ann and her letter. Still one never knows what might happen in Wonderland.

    Once inside Nadia sets about looking around, there is so much to see, it really is a shame for the house to be in such a state and she takes it upon herself to blow the dust off of things and remove the sheets to see what lies beneath and try to bring some life back into this old house. It's easily an hour or more before she even makes it it to the large hall and that final sheet covering the mantlepiece. It too however is pulled away without hesitation to find what lies beneath where the Looking Glass ought to be.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The sheet falls to reveal a surprisingly clean reflective surface. The famous mirror is, indeed, still intact. It is a remarkable piece of glass, massive enough in size to allow a full grown person to pass through it in the past, but at the moment that seems very unlikely since the mirror is not actually reflecting the hall, or Nadia, for that matter.

At first, it appears to be completely black, but little by little a dim light can be seen as it flickers- a candle by which someone is reading. This someone has their back to the viewer while rocking gently on a rocking chair.

Much about them is hard to discern, since only the pages of the book are easily seen, since that is where most of the light lands. The person on the chair is of small stature, that is plain to see, but not much else. The candle appears to be either suspended in mid-air, or being held up by some piece of furniture too dark to see.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Size is not something that much matters to Nadia in the end, whether the mirror was big enough or not. Extending her biomechanical wings from beneath the pinafore, she ascends to the top of the mantle peering into the depths of the mirror. "Hello?" She reaches out, leaning forward to press her hand against the mirror and through it if it will admit her before pushing her way all the way through. "Sorry to disturb you. Have you been in here long? The house seemed abandoned."

Iason has posed:
When the figure turns around, the candlelight falls on her face, and she quickly approaches Nadia's end of the mirror, growing larger.

Alice Liddel stares at Nadia with an amused expression. "Why, what a funny question to ask. I have always been in here, just as you have always been out there.

The mirror, strangely enough, almost becomes liquid under Nadia's hands, but just as she is about to push through, it bounces back, not letting her in.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You'd have nowhere to go, and then where would you be?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia is struck by the question of Alice Liddel's reflection. There were perhaps more things in her mind to ask the reflection that might as well be her own, but all she can think to say is. "But isn't that the most interesting place of all? The unknown. Somewhere? Nowhere? Yeswhere? Manywhere? Allwhere? Anywhere? If I don't look then how do I learn and know? And if I know then perhaps I will be in Knowwhere." It seems to make perfect sense in the moment, though perhaps she's been spending a bit too much time in Wonderland. Or at least some might see it that way."

Iason has posed:
Alice tilts her head and looks like she is considering Nadia's words carefully before she answers. "I think that would make sense, because the more you know, the fewer mistakes you make, so if you are Knowhere, you can be said to be one in No Err."

Her eyes fixate on Nadia and she taps a fingertip on her chin. "The very enthusiastic lady said you would come. Have I really grown up that much older?" She leans in closer to the glass, "That is, if you really are me. Am I you?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia spends a moment gathering her thoughts. She should have known a moment like this would come.

    It was all with the best of intentions. The first time she didn't even say she was Alice, she just appeared to save her friends and let the church goers draw their own conclusions. After fighting the giant mechanical Alice though, she knew it was going to be impossible to hide and it seemed like if she could help the Church and help Terry and Wonderland, why not be Alice to get everyone on the same side to defeat the Jabberwock?

    Faced with the reflection of Alice Liddel though, or is it her reflection? What if they are the same? Regardless she doesn't want to lie to her. Against all odds Nadia managed to escape the Red Room with her good nature intact and so she finds herself puzzling through how to actually explain all of it, particularly because there are pieces even she isn't sure about.

    "Time is a strange thing. We can prove it doesn't move in a straight line, but we experience it that way all the same. But then there are places like this, full of magic where it seems not to move at all. Here for example, it might seem like only a little while has passed but on Earth it has been over one hundred and fifty years. Alice Liddell, the girl who came to Wonderland, passed almost one hundred years ago at the age of eighty-two. She had three children of her own and they children of their own in turn."

    Nadia pauses both for a breath and to gauge the reaction of the girl in the mirror, because it is a lot in multiple senses of the word. "I did not even know about Wonderland until I met the Cheschire Cat, he told me that I look like the girl who came to Wonderland and had me read her stories. Reading about her adventures it was uncanny how alike we seemed, curious, full of questions, and even changing in size. And when I saw her pictures," She gestures towards the Looking Glass. "It was like looking in a mirror."

    She reaches up to rest a hand against the Looking Glass again. "I grew up in a different sort of Underground. A brutal vicious place. I never knew my mother, but she left me with a name and for a long time it was all I had and what I always strive to be, Hope. I don't know about Fate or Destiny, it is hard to believe when people talk about them because, how do you even measure that with science? Some people talk about past lives and migrations of the soul. I have been trying and trying to understand magic but I still don't get it. What I do know is this. When my friend the Cheshire Cat needed help and Wonderland needed help and he needed help to help Wonderland. I came, am I really the Second Coming of Alice as some claim I am? I don't know. But what I can be is their Hope either way and that Hope can erase the Jabberwock for them. Am I you reborn? Are you me now? That depends, to borrow the Catepillar's question, Who are you?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Alice's face lights up as Nadia speaks, "Why, it's almost like hearing myself speak! Or, rather, my memory hearing the memory of who I was speaking. For, you see, I am not Alice." The little girl shrugs, and smiles. "I am the mirror's memory of Alice, which is close enough for this exercise."

Some might say that mirrors can't remember and that is just silly- but people forget that you can't *reflect* on anything if you can't recall it.

"So I am what I reflect. And it does seem that you give off just the right reflection. I would like to think You are indeed like the me that I am not but which I reflect upon. But perhaps the most important question I need to ask is..."

The little girl touches the glass on her side, "Do /you/ know why a raven is like a writing desk?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia is momentarily caught off guard by the question. She had been wearing a smile from ear to ear at the positive response of the mirror and really the things the mirror was saying were really interesting. It was almost like her mind was starting to understand a certain scientific thread underlying the way things work in Wonderland, if only a little.

    It's not an entirely unfamiliar question either. She read the antique copy of Alice in Wonderland that Terry lent her and several newer editions as well when she was preparing for this mission. She recalls the Hatter originally saying there actually wasn't an answer and even Carol's later edit that it is because both produce few notes. But another answer occurs to Nadia as she reflects on the riddle, an answer reflective of who she, herself, is.

    Nadia reaches her hand to touch the mirror in the same places as the reflection's hand. "Because, both may be penned, but they can never truly be captive."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
And as Nadia puts her hand on the reflection's, Alice Liddel smiles.

And then the mirror goes dark.

"An answer truly worthy of Alice!" Mary Ann says, bursting into the room with a rather jubilant expression.
"Perhaps," one of the male Bishops is with her, trailing her with a sour expression. "It was not-"
"Oh, nonsense, that made perfect sense and you know it. Alice- Alice!" Mary Ann trills, heading for the young woman with her hands held out, as if to grasp hers, "You have proven yourself!"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia remains looking at the dark mirror for several moments longer, even as an exuberant Mary Ann and trailing bishop burst in.

    Finally, she turns and at the sight of Mary Ann's outstretched arms, NadiAlice gives her a hug. Hugs are practically a default reflex for her and she has taken a liking to Mary Ann. She just seems so nice. "How long were you there?" Nadia asks curiously, both because she was unable to detect them in her initial search of the place as well as wondering how much of what she said they actually heard.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Long enough," the woman confides, her smile never faltering, "And I believe you /are/ Alice, returned to us. Clearly Cheshire took too long to look for you, so of course you had to come back in some other way... now, let us adjourn to the kitchen, I have some tea prepared. You must tell me everything you and your friends are planning, I vow that you can count on the support of the Church for any one of your endeavors!"

The Bishop stays at the entrance to the living room, however, and does not follow them. As the two women disappear into the kitchen, he shakes his head and strides outside, to the very entrance of the house, where a Knight is waiting.

"Inform the other Bishops that I am calling a Council. Our leader has been bamboozled by an impostor and is not to be trusted."