"Holy hell is it dark in here," Alexander said, reluctantly getting out of his seat. "If I trip on something you're paying the medical bills. Assuming they have medical bills here, that is."
Alexander crept closer to Addison, a look of suspicion on his face. "Seriously, magic? Then again, I do suppose a dormouse was talking back at the table," he whispered to himself.
He laughed a little. "We're in my…mind. Sort of. There won't be any medical bills to be paid." he replied, taking a deep breath. "We're going all the way back to my first lifetime. Before Alice. Before Wonderland was…the way it is today. Before them, images flickered to life as they spun and tumbled past Alexander and Addison, before slowing in front of a memory of standing on a mountain, looking out at the land below. A person stood beside this past version of Addison, a young man with dark hair and an easy smile, his hand linked with Addison's.
"Why are we stopping on what I presume is something about your love life?" Alexander asked, brows furrowed in confusion. "Was your lover secretly reptilian?" he continued, the world's stupidest grin spreading across his face. "All seriousness, though, is that mountain still around? Or has it been eroded into something less majestic? It looks like it holds important history outside of people alone."
Addison rolled his eyes. "Just because Jack happens to be here doesn't make this about my love life." he replied, shaking his head. He let out a breath, eyes lingering on the male for a moment, then he looked out at the land. "No, the mountain does not exist anymore. Not…anywhere you want to visit, anyways. I took us to this moment because this is the best vantage point of the old Wonderland that i know."
"But why do I need to see a vantage point from old Wonderland?" Alexander asked, cocking his head like a dog. "As far as I'm concerned, this is all changed, yes? Then again, I suppose if that river down there is still around…" Alexander trailed off, taking notice of something in the sky. "Is that a fuckin' dragon or some other kind of beast? Or maybe it's just a cloud?"
"Would you just stop running your mouth a damn minute so I can actually talk?" Addison snapped, crossing his arms and looking over at Alexander with a frown on his face. "Or would you like to talk the whole damn time and never get any answers."
Alexander looked taken aback for a second, then pissed. He obliged and shut his mouth, but for good measure crossed his arms and turned away from Addison- childish of him, really.
"I'm waiting."
He scoffed under his breath for a moment. "Thank you." He replied simply. He collected himself, then pointed at areas. The places lit up a little; this was his memory, after all, and he could manipulate it how he wished. "There is where the black queen used to rule from. I don't mean in terms of skin color, before you jump on me for that. She was the black queen, just as the current queens are the white queen and the red queen, respectively." He sighed quietly.
"I assume the black queen's reign ended at the hands of the red and white queens?" Alexander asked, barely watching from the corner of his eye. "There's no way they were just crowned out of the blue. Unless they were like, hot or something? Maybe people would've crowned them for that."
He closed his eyes for a moment. "My lover, Jack, was the Black Queen's enforcer. Her Ace, her captain. Whatever you would like to title it. He was one of her most trusted advisors. She…" he held out a hand, and made a motion. The memory morphed, changing to a different one of a throne room. The floor was a checkerboard, black and white tiles. The walls were painted a shiny black, tall windows letting in streams of sunlight. At the end of it sat a queen. A silver crown sat on her head, a scepter in one hand. To her right stood the man from the mountaintop, one hand resting on a sword.
"She what?" Alexander asked, looking the queen up and down, "She was so attractive it was damn near a crime?"
His glance stuck to her eyes- they were a magnificent silver that glowed with unwavering confidence with a hint of something sinister.
He closed his eyes for a moment. "Ha. No." the sight of Jack still stung, the memory of his lover echoing through the years, those black lifetimes from before Alice the only thing that he always, always remembered. The only thing that always gave him pain, that made him cry from remembering what it had been like. "She…the queens are the only ones who are not reborn like the rest of us. We die, and we are born again, and sometimes we remember, sometimes we don't."
"So, you're telling me… if one of the queens were to die this whole ordeal could be over?" Alexander's eyes dulled a bit at the thought. "Holy shit, man. I wasn't brought here to kill someone, was I? Do the queens die naturally or just keep aging until something results in their demise?"
"I am not done. You are not here to kill a queen." Addison replied. "The Black Queen…" the memory shifted again, to something dark. A creature formed of ink and nightmare, white teeth flashing. "She harnessed the Nightmares. The Jabberwocks. And she and Jack…" he shook his head a little bit, swallowing. "The White and Red Queens were not yet born; neither was the Queen of Hearts. There was only the Black Queen, and she…controlled Wonderland through pain and fear. Jack was her enforcer and right hand man. And I…" he shook his head a little, pushing through to another memory. Of a past Addison, silver hair cut short, bent over a map and talking with a group. "I led the rebellion."
(gtg soon sorry)
"Well shit," Alexander said, sounding near breathless, "If you start crying because of whatever happens next, I'm outta here. I don't really deal well in consoling others."
Alexander had finally turned back to face Addison, studying his facial expression. He looks almost pained, Alexander thought to himself. Then again, I'm shit at reading people.
Addison's laugh was cracked. "I won't cry. This was a very, very long time ago." he replied. He looked at the memory. "We…the Black Queen was going after the heart of Wonderland. So we defended it. It was the last thing she needed. And I…confronted her and Jack." memories flashed past. Talking, laughing, smiling at the dark-haired male, ending with facing Jack in a field. "She had him…kill me." the memory flashed again, shattered and damaged as Jack's form moved, as a sword embedded itself into Addison. "That was the end of that lifetime. The next three I spent locked in an aslyum." his eyes flared at Alexander for a moment, that old madness swirling in them for a moment. "Then the Red and White queens were born. They killed the Black queen, Jack, and most of the Jabberwocks. Neither the Black Queen nor Jack has ever been reborn. The next lifetime, the first Alice came. We all took her to be a symbol of our hard-won peace. And now…now the Red and White Queens are fighting, and the Alice is male."
"I'd say the two got what they deserved," Alexander said, shrugging. "Loyalties should be placed in your lover, not some hot chick who controls your paycheck. On the subject of Jabberwocks, you said most of them? Did the Jabberwocks have anything important?" he asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He was really struggling to find out why he was in Wonderland.
"The Jabberwocks…" he trailed off. "The Jabberwocks were…Creatures. Created by the Black Queen. They just…they destroy and eat and kill anyone they come in contact with. There are few left." he shrugged slightly, shaking his head a little bit.
(whatcha think of my alternate Wonderland?)
(Sounds good! Thinking of a book I read in the past, should we maybe include the talking flowers and make them carnivorous? I know they're from Through the Looking-Glass but I think they'd be a cool element.)
"Hmm," Alexander reflected on what he'd been told about old Wonderland. "Are there any very… curious parts of history here? Things hard to find an explanation for? Maybe events that seemed like they were suddenly stopped from happening? Surely I can't just be here for fun, there's got to be something my step-sister was supposed to be tied to if you say this war could destroy Wonderland."
(ooh perfect!)
"Again: the first Alice's appearance coincided with the ending of the war. I was…rather old at the time, my sanity was not…what I would have liked it to be, but still." he shrugged slightly.
"Ohh," Alexander mumbled. "Am I a sign that shit is about to get fucked up? Like, really fucked up? And if we consider the last war, could it be possible the Queen of Hearts will become like the new Black Queen? Maybe it's just some sort of vicious cycle. There's no way all three of the queens could be killed in one go if only the White and Red Queens are warring. This whole situation has a lot of possibilities but I suppose I'd have to go elsewhere to find out more."
Addison blinked slowly, looking over at Alexander. "You had best pray that that is not the case. The Queen of Hearts is nearly as mad as me, yes, but she has never shown any propensity for evil…" he shook his head a little bit.
"Maybe she's like, gonna bring peace once the other two are gone? And like, get rid of the rest of the Jabberwocks?" Alexander said, a bit of self-doubt in his voice. "I really don't see my significance in any of this, though. Maybe I'm supposed to act as a catalyst for some weird event and then I get to go home? Anyways, how do we get outta yer head?"
He snorted. "The Queen of Hearts is more likely to cut off all of our heads than bring peace." he snapped his fingers, and the memories disappeared, the walls and floor and furnishings of his hat shop reappearing around them.