Ten Trips Through Wonderland (Trips 6-10)
Mar. 17th, 2010 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akainagiTen Trips Through Wonderland (Trips 6-10)
Author:AkaiNagi
Rating: PG
Pairing: Alice/Tarrant
Summary: Prompts 6-10/10 from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
10_prompts
Prompt: Promise
They had made so many promises to each other during their year-long engagement, that Alice doubted either of them remembered them all:
“I promise to never make you wear a corset,” then he’d whisper in the rough outlandish brogue that made her insides shiver, “all the less for me to take off.”
“I promise never again to clean up you workshop.” Honestly, men could be so territorial. Especially when ribbons and lace were concerned.
“I promise to never make you dance a quadrille.” He promised dutifully, but still couldn’t fathom her violent dislike for such a perfectly boring dance.
Her hands framed his face after stopping a particularly violent rant. “When you fall mad,” she solemnly swore, “I’ll always be there to catch you.”
But when Mirana, before a crowd that seemed comprised of all of Underland, asked them if they promised to love, honor, and keep to only each other, so long as they both should live, suddenly that was the only promise of their lives that seemed to matter.
Prompt: Lost
Periodically, he knows, he loses himself. Comes with the territory of being half-mad. He inhabits the annoying middle ground between those who are fully sane and those who are too sunk in insanity to care.
But he does care.
Ever since she returned.
It frightens her, he knows, when that switch is flipped and his Outlandish mad self comes out to play. He can be a nasty bugger; a violent, unpredictable sort, driven by memories of guilt and rage and death. He’s only too happy to scream and rail and visit violence in return on whoever is closest.
And she is close. She is his closest. And he wants to keep her there, beside him, but for the fear of the other coming out and scaring her, harming her, making her run from him in fear, maybe never to return.
What would it be like to lose himself in her, he wonders. To lose himself in her cool and tranquil waters, rather than in the blazing fire of madness that periodically consumes him.
And each time she draws him back from that mad place, he thanks his lucky stars, or bats, or teatrays or whatever celestial orbs rule his fate that she has not been scared away. Not yet. Those tranquil waters are still there, waiting for him to be ready. Waiting for her to invite him in.
Prompt: Beginnings
The first time she was placed in his arms, he knew he was smitten. Pacing the floor, he marveled at the impossibly small bundle of life he held in his work-roughened hands.
“Happy Birthday, little one. You’ve already met your mother; she’s the impossibly beautiful one over there who did all the work. Well, I’m your father. I’m a little ‘round the bend, but your mother says all the best people are, and you should always listen to your mother because she’s usually right.”
“Usually?” a tired voice chuckled from the bed.
“Alright, almost always,” he corrected. “Starting tomorrow I shall make you your first bonnet. Blue will suit you, just like your mother. And when you are older I shall teach you all manner of things like how to hat, and how to make tea, and when the boys come round you I shall gouge them all with hatpins.”
“Tarrant. Don’t you think you're getting a tad ahead of yourself?”
He moved to sit next to his exhausted wife. “Nonsense. Can never be too careful where my daughter is concerned … Alice, love?”
“Yes, Tarrant,” she stifled a yawn.
“Is this real?" His face was full of hope tinged with terror. "Is this really truly real? You’re not dreaming this are you?”
Alice laughed, lifting a hand to caress her husband’s face. “Nope. Too sore to be a dream. This is our life, Tarrant.”
He felt a burning behind his eyes, the well of emotion threatening to overflow. He was no longer the last of his clan. They live through me. Through her. He placed a kiss on the tiny brow and was rewarded by a sleepy snuffle.
“Lara Hightopp. Welcome home.”
Prompt: Snare
“Hold on tight.”
If she had realized what the Hatter was doing while he was doing it, she would have put up more of a fuss.
As it was, before she knew it, she was being flung an impossibly far distance, balanced precariously on the brim of a hat, over a river. In her panic she dimly heard a cry of “Down with the Bloody Red Queen!” before she landed with a bone-jarring thud on the far riverbank.
It was then that it occurred to her that the Hatter would have a devil of a time getting over there.
It wasn’t until she saw the numerous red guards, more than she could count, surrounding the hapless hatter and spiriting him away, presumably to the clutches of the Red Queen, that she realized escape had never been his intention.
He was a sacrifice. He was sacrificing himself so that she could escape.
Feelings rose in her. Guilt. Impotent Rage. Fear. She crawled under the hat and curled into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest.
And as she tried to settle in for the night, her mind kept returning to the Hatter, what they might possibly be doing to him, and how, at the first opportunity, she was going to rescue him. From under the nose of the Bloody Red Queen if necessary.
Prompt: Silence
He realized early on that Alice had an amazing gift of stillness
This was a quality the Hatter, half mad as he was, was in sore need of. All the comings and goings and unwelcome voices that swirled in the maelstrom of his untamed mind seemed that much quieter when she was near.
The simple caress of her hands on his face brought the voices down to a dull roar in the background. The first time she pressed her lips to his, he marveled at the softness and sweetness of it, but also, the stillness in the moment. The raging demons in his mind faded into quietude.
The first time they lay together, she welcomed his body into her own with the same generosity, selflessness and love with which she welcomed his heart; offering a safe, calm harbor for both.
He was awestruck in the moment, how it was just the two of them. Their bodies fit like they were made to come together in this precise way. And this time, when the crowding in his mind dissipated, he saw clearly what he wanted; her, this way and in all ways not just now, but forever.
A dream so simple it was mad to even think it: he would have Alice for his wife.
Author:AkaiNagi
Rating: PG
Pairing: Alice/Tarrant
Summary: Prompts 6-10/10 from
10_promptsPrompt: Promise
They had made so many promises to each other during their year-long engagement, that Alice doubted either of them remembered them all:
“I promise to never make you wear a corset,” then he’d whisper in the rough outlandish brogue that made her insides shiver, “all the less for me to take off.”
“I promise never again to clean up you workshop.” Honestly, men could be so territorial. Especially when ribbons and lace were concerned.
“I promise to never make you dance a quadrille.” He promised dutifully, but still couldn’t fathom her violent dislike for such a perfectly boring dance.
Her hands framed his face after stopping a particularly violent rant. “When you fall mad,” she solemnly swore, “I’ll always be there to catch you.”
But when Mirana, before a crowd that seemed comprised of all of Underland, asked them if they promised to love, honor, and keep to only each other, so long as they both should live, suddenly that was the only promise of their lives that seemed to matter.
Prompt: Lost
Periodically, he knows, he loses himself. Comes with the territory of being half-mad. He inhabits the annoying middle ground between those who are fully sane and those who are too sunk in insanity to care.
But he does care.
Ever since she returned.
It frightens her, he knows, when that switch is flipped and his Outlandish mad self comes out to play. He can be a nasty bugger; a violent, unpredictable sort, driven by memories of guilt and rage and death. He’s only too happy to scream and rail and visit violence in return on whoever is closest.
And she is close. She is his closest. And he wants to keep her there, beside him, but for the fear of the other coming out and scaring her, harming her, making her run from him in fear, maybe never to return.
What would it be like to lose himself in her, he wonders. To lose himself in her cool and tranquil waters, rather than in the blazing fire of madness that periodically consumes him.
And each time she draws him back from that mad place, he thanks his lucky stars, or bats, or teatrays or whatever celestial orbs rule his fate that she has not been scared away. Not yet. Those tranquil waters are still there, waiting for him to be ready. Waiting for her to invite him in.
Prompt: Beginnings
The first time she was placed in his arms, he knew he was smitten. Pacing the floor, he marveled at the impossibly small bundle of life he held in his work-roughened hands.
“Happy Birthday, little one. You’ve already met your mother; she’s the impossibly beautiful one over there who did all the work. Well, I’m your father. I’m a little ‘round the bend, but your mother says all the best people are, and you should always listen to your mother because she’s usually right.”
“Usually?” a tired voice chuckled from the bed.
“Alright, almost always,” he corrected. “Starting tomorrow I shall make you your first bonnet. Blue will suit you, just like your mother. And when you are older I shall teach you all manner of things like how to hat, and how to make tea, and when the boys come round you I shall gouge them all with hatpins.”
“Tarrant. Don’t you think you're getting a tad ahead of yourself?”
He moved to sit next to his exhausted wife. “Nonsense. Can never be too careful where my daughter is concerned … Alice, love?”
“Yes, Tarrant,” she stifled a yawn.
“Is this real?" His face was full of hope tinged with terror. "Is this really truly real? You’re not dreaming this are you?”
Alice laughed, lifting a hand to caress her husband’s face. “Nope. Too sore to be a dream. This is our life, Tarrant.”
He felt a burning behind his eyes, the well of emotion threatening to overflow. He was no longer the last of his clan. They live through me. Through her. He placed a kiss on the tiny brow and was rewarded by a sleepy snuffle.
“Lara Hightopp. Welcome home.”
Prompt: Snare
“Hold on tight.”
If she had realized what the Hatter was doing while he was doing it, she would have put up more of a fuss.
As it was, before she knew it, she was being flung an impossibly far distance, balanced precariously on the brim of a hat, over a river. In her panic she dimly heard a cry of “Down with the Bloody Red Queen!” before she landed with a bone-jarring thud on the far riverbank.
It was then that it occurred to her that the Hatter would have a devil of a time getting over there.
It wasn’t until she saw the numerous red guards, more than she could count, surrounding the hapless hatter and spiriting him away, presumably to the clutches of the Red Queen, that she realized escape had never been his intention.
He was a sacrifice. He was sacrificing himself so that she could escape.
Feelings rose in her. Guilt. Impotent Rage. Fear. She crawled under the hat and curled into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest.
And as she tried to settle in for the night, her mind kept returning to the Hatter, what they might possibly be doing to him, and how, at the first opportunity, she was going to rescue him. From under the nose of the Bloody Red Queen if necessary.
Prompt: Silence
He realized early on that Alice had an amazing gift of stillness
This was a quality the Hatter, half mad as he was, was in sore need of. All the comings and goings and unwelcome voices that swirled in the maelstrom of his untamed mind seemed that much quieter when she was near.
The simple caress of her hands on his face brought the voices down to a dull roar in the background. The first time she pressed her lips to his, he marveled at the softness and sweetness of it, but also, the stillness in the moment. The raging demons in his mind faded into quietude.
The first time they lay together, she welcomed his body into her own with the same generosity, selflessness and love with which she welcomed his heart; offering a safe, calm harbor for both.
He was awestruck in the moment, how it was just the two of them. Their bodies fit like they were made to come together in this precise way. And this time, when the crowding in his mind dissipated, he saw clearly what he wanted; her, this way and in all ways not just now, but forever.
A dream so simple it was mad to even think it: he would have Alice for his wife.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:42 am (UTC)and him asking "is this real..." oh, touching in every right way!
lovely work - thank you so much for sharing!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 12:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:03 pm (UTC)*offers her a towel to mop up her puddle*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 01:15 am (UTC)I bet they'll get better and better!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 10:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-18 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-23 02:43 am (UTC)