pentamerone: Homecoming [Open to Alice]

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Hatta (

madasahatter) wrote in

pentamerone,
@ 2009-06-20 14:42:00

Entry tags:

!incomplete, !places: ozland, alice, hatter

Homecoming [Open to Alice]
The trek back home was a long one, and while his travels around parts of Pentamerone were interesting and a bit adventurous, it was simply good to be home. Home to the endless piles of dirtied teacups, pots, and saucers. Home to the both wonderful and aggravating life with the girl who had wandered strangely into his life twice now.

Night was falling as Hatter made his first step onto the property, stopping only briefly to inspect. Everything seemed to be in sorts, and once that check was successful, he continued up to the door. He nearly knocked before chuckling to himself at what an odd notion that would be, knocking on one's own door when there was surely no one at home except for him, and he would be the one doing the knocking. He brandished a small key ring from the pocket of his coat and listened to the clinging and clanging of metal as he flipped through to find the correct one.

The keys were placed back in their proper place within his pocket as he stepped through the unlocked door, closing the gateway behind him. He was only standing just inside of the threshold for a moment when a strange feeling hit him. Not that it really did any good, he sniffed once, then twice.

Something wasn't right here.

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curious_child
2009-06-21 12:03 am UTC (link)

The plush furniture was still permeated by the myriad scents of different teas - African Red, China Green, a vanilla-scented Ceylon - and the house itself was unchanged. And yet, where there had been stacks of brittle teacups and spills across most surfaces, along with a general kind of disorder of hats and umbrellas and other parephenilia, now the house was neat and orderly. There was light flooding into the front room through the curtains which had been neatly mended and tied open with matching velvet ribbons, and the entire house had a feeling of scrubbed cleanliness.

From the kitchen there was a friendly-sounding clanging of pots and pans, and the sound of someone singing unself-consciously to what she thought was an empty house, just to pass the time. In the kitchen, Alice was up to her elbows in a sink full of warm, soapy water, and was scrubbing vigorously at a kettle in what seemed a picture of content domesticity. Her gingery hair was pulled back in a long braid, but wisps fell gently across her eyes. She swept absently at them, then wiped her hands briskly across the apron tied around her waist and, with a look of determination and satisfaction, went back to the dishes, her back to the door.

"Why does the wind in the tree sound like a lullaby? Is that the merry music from beyond the laughing sky? Why can't the swallows remain? Where is it that they fly? Why can't I go along with them, beyond the laughing sky?" she sang in a voice that was clear and pretty, if not necessarily beautiful.

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madasahatter
2009-06-21 06:35 pm UTC (link)

Once the sound of cleaning drifted to his ears, along with the singing, Hatter began to slowly move forward towards the source. He expected to be welcomed home, whether it was by Alice or the familiar sight of his house, and this was most certainly unacceptable.

Eyes wide (as if opening them that wide could make him see more than normal), he crept into the doorway of the kitchen. The source of the song stood with her back to him, and that was no Alice. He stood there for a moment, silently sputtering as he brain reeled. This was unacceptable! This was downright rude!

Finally, words did manage to escape in the midst of his mental maelstrom, and they ended up sounding more like an over-frustrated squeak of words rather than a true exclamation. "I beg your pardon!" Hatter blinked at his own words. He'd almost be amused with himself if he wasn't so busy being furious.

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curious_child
2009-06-22 01:34 am UTC (link)

Alice, startled, dropped the sugar dish she was washing into the soapy water, where it disappeared with a soft ploop, and spun on her heel. Although she expeienced an initial moment of alarm, after giving the strange man standing in the doorway a once-over, any fear she had experienced subsided. She dismissed him as a threat almost instantaneously - he would probably have been insulted if he knew just how harmless she found him.

"Hello!" Alice chirped brightly in response to his rather confrontational squeak. "Who're you, then? And what are you doing in my kitchen?" Her tone was friendly, but there was a touch of indignation and perhaps even scolding in her last question. After all, who wouldn't be a bit miffed to find an absolute stranger, a man, no less, had come right into her house without so much as a knock or a 'by your leave'?

And yet, there was something about him that tugged at her in a way she couldn't explain, some feeling of familiarity and even fondness that rose from beneath the shimmering mist of lingering magic which shrouded her memory. Do I know him?

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madasahatter
2009-06-22 02:02 am UTC (link)

He couldn't help but stare at her for a moment, dumbfounded. First it was because, while she didn't look familiar, she certainly felt it. It could have been how she held herself, or the way she spoke. Second, it was because she didn't even seem the slightest bit alarmed by his squeak of outrage.

"I think, my dear, you have things a little backward," Hatter said and twirled his finger in a circular motion. "This house is mine and... and..." He stopped, eyes looking around the remainder of the kitchen. He had only noticed her first, and not the fact that his kitchen was, well, clean. He moved to the table first, raising his hand above it as if he was measuring the height of something that wasn't there before looking back at her wildly. "Where's the teacups? The saucers? The teapots?"

He moved, again, only this time to the counter. "The teapots are gone. Where's the tea?" Hatter spun to face her again, hands back on the edge of the surface he just inspected. "There must always be tea!"

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curious_child
2009-06-22 02:29 am UTC (link)

His outburst was interrupted by the shrill whistle of a kettle on the stove at the far end of the room. Nonplussed, Alice offered, "Tea?"

Without waiting for his answer, she moved to the stove and took the kettle from the heat using a dishrag around the handle. "Three sugars and milk?" she called over her shoulder, already knowing somehow that that was the way he took his tea. How could she know such a thing? Alice shook her head as if to clear the distracting thoughts from it, and moved to the man with two saucers in her hands, one for him and the other, with sugar and lemon, for her.

"The china is in the china cabinet," she said handing him the cup, "Where it belongs. And as for the matter of the house, I am afraid you're quite mistaken, Mister... whoever you are. While I am prone to backwardsness at times, in this case I am quite certain. This is most certainly my house."

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madasahatter
2009-06-22 02:36 am UTC (link)

Oh, well.

With a small clearing of his throat, he straightened. There was tea. Good.

"Tea? Why yes, thank you. But as for this house being yours I am afraid you are prone to uncertainty as you are backwardsness." Hatter nodded matter-of-factly as he took the tea from her and went to finding where she had gone and put his saucers. "You see, I lived here for some time and took a brief respite for another time. Sampling teas, mostly. And now I come home to find that someone else seems to have claimed my property." He spoke quickly, and his words ended up coming up more coherently than they did in his head. He would have pat himself on the back if his hands weren't busy.

Hatter took a small sip of the tea, and stopped, his gaze sliding sideways from the cup before him to her. "Wait. How did you come to know how I like my tea? What's your name?"

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	curious_child 2009-06-22 02:42 am UTC (link)
	His sudden attention made her wary. "Alice," she said slowly, watching him closely. "What's yours?" She took a sip of her tea, which was still a bit too hot, in order to do something with her hands and ease her faint sense of discomfort. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

madasahatter
2009-06-22 02:52 am UTC (link)

Hatter hadn't been expecting that answer. "Alice..." He repeated again, almost as if in a confirmation to himself. "You don't look like the Alice I know." But she was in his house, where he had left her, and insisting it was hers.

However, she didn't recognize him. A wave of paranoia hit him, and he had to take another sip of the scalding tea in order to shove it back down. "Name's Hatter."

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curious_child
2009-06-22 03:08 am UTC (link)

Alice gasped, simultaneously managing to choke on a mouthful of tea, as her memory came back to her like a brick to the head, inspired, she could only imagine later, by the mention of his name. "Oh! Oh, my gosh! You're - ! I'm - !" She had a moment of intense animation, when it seemed as if this return of comprehension would be too much for her, and then she snapped back to normal.

"Well," she said, fixing her gaze on Hatter. "That was certainly interesting. And you!" she cried suddenly, flying across the kitchen at him and thumping him soundly on his arm. "You just left! What kind of person does that, just up and leaves without telling anyone to go drink tea, you great buffoon, and leaving me here by myself without so much as a word, that was exceedingly bad mannered of you, you - what's happened to your hair?" Her gaze was drawn to the top of his head, which sported hair which was rather more, well, floofy than she remembered. "And the house," she said, surrveying the kitchen in horror. "It's wretched. Did I do that? Oh, dear."

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madasahatter
2009-06-22 03:30 am UTC (link)

For a moment, all he could do was stare. First it was Alice, then he swore it probably wasn't, now it was. He was thoroughly confused (which was not a common occurence, as he rarely admitted those few times), though the smack to the arm brought him soundly back to reality. Well, back to the situation at hand, at least.

"Not just for tea," he said indignantly, "I - You - Nothing is wrong with my hair!" Hatter sputtered, reaching up with a free hand to check his own head. It wasn't different. Or, much different. It was still his hair and it was still where it should be: on his head.

Then he took his hand from his head and replaced it on the saucer to steady it. "Rude as it may have been, I've missed you." Hatter said in a sing-song voice with a wide grin.

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curious_child
2009-06-22 03:48 am UTC (link)

Alice couldn't stiffle a small giggle as Hatter defended his hair. Oh, it was good to remember him, this person she had known as a girl and found again, just the same, just as funny and insane and wonderful. She took a moment to take in his grin, feeling pleased. "I'd like to say the same, but I'm afraid I apparently forgot your existence entirely," she said teasingly, then smiled. "I am glad you're home, though."

For a moment, the implications of that unconscious choice of the word 'home' resonated within her. It was a bit more proprietary and intimate than was perhaps really welcome, and she had a moment of self-consciousness as she watched to see how he would react, if he noticed at all. "Well," she said, one foot scuffing at the floor, "Would you like a hug, then?"

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madasahatter
2009-06-22 03:55 am UTC (link)

Hatter meant to point out that she looked different, but found himself temporarily side tracked as he looked down at her with a few blinks. She just welcomed him home. Never mind that the main reason he left was to get a break from her. Alice welcomed him home. He didn't quite know what to think of that. Part of him wanted to correct her, even though she did technically live here, and part of him felt oddly warm and fuzzy.

He set the tea aside on the counter and pushed off from leaning on its edge. "Well," he said and opened his arms a bit with a smirk. "Come on then."

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curious_child
2009-06-22 04:14 am UTC (link)

Alice grinned hugely and swiftly put down her cup before nearly vaulting into Hatter's arms with a soft, "Oof!" Once she had her arms wrapped snugly around his waist and her face against his chest, Alice was silent for a moment. Then, with her voice greatly muffled by Hatter's clothes, she observed, "Hugs are nice."

His clothes smelled like tea and buttered crumpets, and she surreptitiously sniffed, smiling into the lapel of his suit.

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madasahatter
2009-06-23 12:21 am UTC (link)

He looked down at the top of her reddish head, laughing at little at the observation. She was right, though. "Most certainly," he replied, keeping his arms wrapped around her for now. Well this was a strange turn of events.

When the thought of strangle popped into his head, it tilted to the side as he remembered that she was different. Hatter released one hand to lift a small lock of hair as he squinted down at it. Yep. Thought so.

"So what in the name of Time went on here while I was gone," he half asked, half mused. He came back to a clean home, to an Alice who remembered she was Alice but didn't look like her and didn't recognize him until he said his name.

The next time he decided to take a long leave and come back, the first thing out of his mouth was going to be Hatter. Just in case.

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curious_child
2009-06-23 07:33 am UTC (link)

Alice's mouth scrunched to the side in thought. "Lightnin' bolt," she decided. "Came out of the sky. It was all fizzy and magic." She couldn't resist twiddling her fingers in his face, just to illustrate exactly how fizzy and magical the bolt really was. "Made me feel strange," she added, "And I forgot a lot of things. And I acted kind of weird, I guess." She surveyed the impeccably neat kitchen, with its cozy lamp-light and clean counters, with a look of scathing distaste.

"And I'm different," she noticed, observing her arms, now spattered lightly with freckles where before they had been unmarked, and tugging a strand of reddish hair to he face, going slightly cross-eyed trying to examine it. Then she held a hand up to Hatter's nose. "Shorter, too," she decided. Now her head only came up to the bottom of his chin. "What d'you think? Is it all right? I could always look for a mushroom or something."

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madasahatter
2009-06-24 01:04 am UTC (link)

Hatter realized, as she went over her inspection, that he should probably remove his arms from her. Yes, and the tea was going to get cold if he didn't drink it quickly enough. Her height was only really noticed when she hugged him, and he didn't notice the freckles until Alice went and pointed them out. Gods, she was covered in them.

"Naaaah," he said dramatically and shook his head before looking back down at her. "You're perfectly all right, my dear. A bit shorter, yes, but the shorter folk have the advantage of fitting in places taller sorts can't." Hatter nodded quickly, and continued. "As for your behaviour, Miss Alice, it has been more than weird." The clean surfaces, dishes stacked neatly away... it all was slightly unnerving.

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curious_child
2009-06-24 08:30 pm UTC (link)

A slight smile played over Alice's face. She wouldn't have told him - indeed, she hadn't even consciously known it herself - but she had been a bit apprehensive about his response to her new appearance.

At his second comment, Alice cocked her head slightly to the side as she considered how to remedy the problem of the too-neat kitchen. Meanwhile, she polished off the last of her tea, which had cooled slightly in the time it sat unattended. Then, struck with a solution, Alice left her dirty cup and saucer on the counter. She plucked another cup from the neat stack beside the sink and fixed herself a second cup of tea. The abandonment of that first cup, sitting ubiquitously upon the empty counter, was a small step, but it was something, a move towards the chaos of china and dishes that was only proper in this place.

"Clean cup?" she offered innocently, then cracked a grin.

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