video - unseelie locked;

[digophelia]

[ Alice has been trying to draw in her sketchpad for a while now and it's clear from how wrinkled the piece of paper is, that she's tried to draw on it to no avail. It's been erased numerous times. Right beside her are her imp and her rabbit, as always. She's been quiet at the villa, she's locked herself up acting stranger than before. ]

How funny it is when the mind brings so many images and memories that it cannot even transfer onto a sheet of paper. I know what I see, but it cannot go through my fingertips and onto my paper, unlike so many times before.

[ By the tone of her voice, she means more than that. Guarded as ever, Alice will not say what it is, other than she reluctantly places her pencil down on the paper. Art blocks are terrible, and they're more terrible than before. ]

I am sorry... for my absence. Please don't think of me as silly, but I lost a good companion of my mine. My mare. My horse. I took her in after my first battle, when her owner had fallen. I loved her dearly, she was my friend, too, as much as anyone else I know here.

[ Alice says this while trying not to cry. ]

I loathe to think of another animal as a replacement, but seeing as it is a necessity, I have no other choice. She had fallen in battle when I separated from the others.

[ When she went on her rampage after the Jabberwock, though she's not going to say that. Alice just rubs her rabbit's ears instead while looking at her blank paper. ]

I can try and buy one, if needed, if anyone wants to humor me. I know this is a silly request after everything that has happened -- selfish, even. I think it might be best if I left, for a small while, so I can clear my head and be useful again. No good comes of being a shut-in.

[ After all, ever since she came back, she's been acting stranger and much more distant than before. There is more here that she wants to say; she struggles with saying it. ]

I, well- never mind that. Please be well, all of you.

Comments

[selfimage]

Mourning is a thing that happens, but you needn't punish yourself because you wish for new company.

[ a pet is a pet, after all. company is company, and wanting to connect after something that's left you emotionally drained? that doesn't seem all too bad to him. ]

I'm sure you won't forget, and who can ask for something more from you?

[ when quite a lot has been stripped. ]

[digophelia]

Never underestimate the depravity of others.

[ A lot has been taken from her when she was younger, when she barely had anything. There were always those who still used her, when she had nothing more than the clothing on her back. ]

Our comrades fought valiantly, didn't they? For the sake of preserving what's left of Caer Scima.

[selfimage]

[ that's a little telling, but he lets it go. ]

Caer Scima will be built again. If I've seen anything of us Unseelie, it's that we're quite defiant.

If it falls, we'll rebuild it. Better, faster, stronger. Million Dollar Caer Scima.

[digophelia]

[ There's something she's not getting here, is she? ]

Unless you mean to have Caer Scima scurry off on the back of a spider, I don't see what you mean.

[selfimage]

Ah—well, think of it this way ... since it fell, we have the chance to build it better. That's what Million Dollar Caer Scima is about.

Take out the faster part, we'll just go "better and stronger."

[digophelia]

Then that would suffice, yes, but curiouser and curiouser... what do you mean "Million Dollar Caer Scima"?

[ Lord help her, she's curious. ]

[selfimage]

[ Loki leans in to the locket a bit, adding to the suspense. ]

I take it you don't know the story of one Steve Austin?

[digophelia]

No, I have not.

[ Should she have? ]

[selfimage]

Ready yourself for a tale that rivals no others.

[ he holds up a finger, shakes it, and then straightens his voice. proper drama needed, scuz me. ]

Mister Austin was once a hero of a major Midgardian war. Medals, airplanes, all the recognition that was bestowed to him with his victories. The whole nine yards. Yet, in all of his noble intent, he wished for more. He took off into the far reaches of the cosmos, pushing the envelope to revel in his pilot-like prowess. [ he waves his hand. ] He even tested his limitations on earth, testing new winged vehicles.

Bu-uu-uut there was an accident.

[ pause. opens his hands. ]

Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive.

But there was hope! They built him up again, dabbed in cybernetic enhancements, made him stronger, faster better! It also cost six million dollars.

[digophelia]

Curiouser and curiouser!

[ While this may not seem like nothing to anyone else, Alice's old self comes out when she hears the story. It sounds like a Wonderland story, but not quite. Rebuilt pieces like the Hatter? That sounds dangerous and yet- ]

What are "cybernetic enhancements"? What do they do? Are they steam-driven?

[ Naturally, she thinks of the Mad Hatter, because that's exactly what he would do. Alice's green eyes grow a little big. ]

Is he in pain after all of that? [ Is this an actual person you know? ]

[selfimage]

No, the OSO did a fine job and making sure that he was taken care of. You can consider him more like their pet project. The cybernetics were his arms, legs, eye, that sort of thing. Since he was injured to the point of near-death, they had to work quickly.

But after that, no one could stop him in his pursuit of cybernetic man things.

[ what episode had he left off on right before he had gotten here? somewhere between the two made for TV movies. ]

[digophelia]

How terrible that he lost all of limbs and eyes! That must have been very painful. But he sound fortunate enough to have lived.

What are cybernetic man things?

[ He makes it seem as if they're more than just normal things. ]

[selfimage]

Fighting the mob, getting into trouble with the Russians, saving the life of his very obviously casted love interest, and, as if it needed a cherry on top, pursuing Bigfoot. All in a day's work for anyone with six million dollar cybernetic enhancements. His adventures were boundless.

[digophelia]

Mob? What mob? Why was he in the trouble with the Russians? And what is a "bigfoot"?

[ PLEASE TELL HER MORE, SHE'S NOT LEAVING. ]

[selfimage]

The stereotypical kind of mob, if you're really curious, all fedoras and machine guns with comically short cigars hanging from their mouths. The kind of bad guys that you always see in tales like this—that's where the Russians come in. Those reds were at the height of American political anxiety, so they had to paint them as an enemy. It just goes to show—hm.

It's part of the narrative context, I suppose.

Er—and bigfoot, well ...

[digophelia]

[ She remembers her father making off-handed comments how weird Americans were, but this is well beyond that. She listens, she also has strange images of it, of course. But Russians...

Maybe the color red is synonymous with evil doers? It reminds her of the red pawns.]

Does that mean you're American? Papa always said Americans were strange, but-

[ She's not too sure. ]

But what is a bigfoot? What matter of creature is that? Is it an actual foot? Or a creature with big feet? [ SHE'S NOT LETTING THIS GO. ]

[selfimage]

American? No, I'm not of the folk. [ they weren't really recognized in the way that they were. especially now, when the gods had packed their bags and left Midgard. ] I'm an Asgardian, but I do occasionally enjoy their cheese.

[ there's a light shrug. ]

A bigfoot is exactly what he sounds like. A large, hairy foot severed at the ankle. I think there's something mixed in there about an unfortunate accident with running and scissors—ah, I can't remember. It doesn't matter! This foot-based creature roams the lands, dipping a toe in all things inappropriate.

[digophelia]

Asgard? As in the rainbow bridge?

[ Alice is like a child in the sense that thanks to the oddities of Drabwurld and Wonderland, she takes this as factual. And why not? She's seen strange things, she knows stranger people. ]

Really?

[ Exactly like a child. But this is something that will help her sleep, oddly enough, despite the fact it sounds really messy. ]

What do you do with a bigfoot?

[selfimage]

Rainbow bridge.

[ pistol fingers. ]

Well, the foot's so large, that it would really be up to the foot and not the one pursuing it.

[digophelia]

Does that make you one of their gods?

[ She's familiar with folklore, it had been a big part in the Liddell household, after all. ]

So, not even your Steve Austin could do anything about it?

[selfimage]

So it does.

Not even if he decided to chase said severed foot up the Bifrost. The creature itself is elusive, hence the dramatic arrival of the Six Million Dollar Man.

[digophelia]

I am somewhat familiar with the Eddas, but I haven't heard of a "Six Million Dollar Man" chasing a severed foot through the Bifrost. And there are plenty of stranger creatures, like eight legged horses.

[selfimage]

Might I mention that some of which are vastly, vastly, exaggerated.

[ he's pointing forward. nope, we're not gonna go there, Alice. ]

[digophelia]

As are most things in life, aren't they?

[ All she remembers there were crazy horses, trolls, and dwarves. ]

[selfimage]

Stories are more interesting that way.

[ there's a pause, and then he concedes. ]

There is an eight-legged horse.