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Better Hallucinations
Jun. 19th, 2016 12:25 am"I did wish for better hallucinations," Alice said to no one in particular as she traveled the corridors of this strange place, learning them with her fingertips as she passed.
Sanctuary, he had called it. It seemed less a lie than the Home of Houndsditch, but Alice knew better than to trust to seemings anymore than to covers of books. True a book had saved her life, but that had been the contents not the cover. The substance, not the seemings.
Still and all, it was rather cleaner than anywhere she had been lately. To walk without hearing where she stepped, or worse, smelling it, was a pleasure not to be taken for granted. Taken, surely, wherever it could be found, as it was more fleeting and surreal than seeming. And it might be taken from her at any time.
Like poor old Rabbit. She hadn't had him back but a day when they'd stolen him and performed who knew what ghastly lobotomies on him? Perhaps that had been the cause of his head popping open as it had. More likely not. She'd been there when Hatter crushed him after all.
"Don't natter, Alice," she told herself sharply. "Keep your wits about you." A hallucination was a step away from a nightmare and might change at moment's notice. And parting company with her wits had led to ruin and complicity. The noose might yet await and she had quarters to find (and not be drawn, thank you).
"66G. Here it is." But no doorknob and no key! "Only how does one get in? I haven't seen any potions marked 'Drink Me'..."
Sanctuary, he had called it. It seemed less a lie than the Home of Houndsditch, but Alice knew better than to trust to seemings anymore than to covers of books. True a book had saved her life, but that had been the contents not the cover. The substance, not the seemings.
Still and all, it was rather cleaner than anywhere she had been lately. To walk without hearing where she stepped, or worse, smelling it, was a pleasure not to be taken for granted. Taken, surely, wherever it could be found, as it was more fleeting and surreal than seeming. And it might be taken from her at any time.
Like poor old Rabbit. She hadn't had him back but a day when they'd stolen him and performed who knew what ghastly lobotomies on him? Perhaps that had been the cause of his head popping open as it had. More likely not. She'd been there when Hatter crushed him after all.
"Don't natter, Alice," she told herself sharply. "Keep your wits about you." A hallucination was a step away from a nightmare and might change at moment's notice. And parting company with her wits had led to ruin and complicity. The noose might yet await and she had quarters to find (and not be drawn, thank you).
"66G. Here it is." But no doorknob and no key! "Only how does one get in? I haven't seen any potions marked 'Drink Me'..."
