mypartnerintime | [Entranceway IC Inbox]

[Entranceway IC Inbox]

[Her voice is light and cheerful on the pre-recorded message.]

Do the thing!

[Max plays the recording and holds the phone up to her ear so she can hear it properly. Her expression begins as being surprised, but quickly changes to a look of curiosity and... well, nervousness.

The recording comes to an end before she speaks.]

Well that's not creepy at all. Is it Wonderland?

I'm not sure. [As creepy as Elizabeth finds it, she still looks rather exhilarated at having uncovered something so potentially illuminating ... or potentially even more confusing.] Wouldn't that be something, though? For the place itself to have a-- a consciousness of sorts?

[Max thinks about that, gently holding her head in her hands. That would be interesting, and actually explain a lot.]

We always say things like "Wonderland's mean" or "Wonderland's crazy," or like it actually does things. We basically treat it like a person sometimes, don't we?

It makes a lot of sense. [Elizabeth glances round almost in wonder, thinking that the walls and floor around them may pulse with life and consciousness. It explains how the rooms are always changing, at the very least.] But ... how?

Beats me. How does anything happen here? [She follows Elizabeth's gaze around, then shrugs.] Magic.

[She frowns a little, not liking such a simplistic answer but knowing it's the only one she's going to get.] I wonder what the Queen of Hearts thinks of all this. Does Wonderland itself having such magic mean that she has any power at all?

She doesn't seem powerless. That's for sure. [The few times Max has seen her have been pretty scary.] And the mirrors follow her, right? Maybe Wonderland is the same.

So they're sort of in opposition to one another? Does that mean we follow Wonderland in the same way our mirror versions follow the Queen? [Elizabeth feels like she's getting more confused than anything.]

[Max rubs her finger along a cheekbone, wondering.]

I was thinking more like Wonderland follows the Queen... just like a mirror. Maybe they need each other.

[But this is all just wild speculation. Max holds up her hands in the universal gesture for "but I really have no idea".]

[Elizabeth rubs at her temple, feeling a little overwhelmed by the gravity of the possibilities here.]

That would mean there's no way to take down the Queen, right? Without destroying Wonderland, that is.