1No Centaurs in Oxford
"Alice is going to take back her wonderland. She refuses to let this corruption spread further.
Alice's audio memories, supplemented by a few visuals was very effective story and game-wise. From this, I Head-canon her as having a primarily auditory memory, who remembers what is said better then the context, and who says it, better than the context it's said in, and can call it up.
She's furious as she makes her way into the doll makers lair. Furious at Bumby, of course, but even more so at herself.
Forget, Forget, Forget.
"Memories must be strictly managed Alice. Unproductive ones must be eliminated."
"I want to forget! Who would choose to be alone, imprisoned by broken memories."
And she had let herself forget. Welcomed it.
"Keep troubles and torments at a distance, where they may be easily forgotten."
"Problems you refuse to deal with don't exist. You deny reality!
"That's not right! I know what's real"
"No, and you allow others to tell you what isn't real."
He was right, she had forgotten, looked away, and ignored. She didn't want to face the truth, and that was unforgivable.
"Flush the unpleasant from your mind, Alice. Reject the painful as you would the unpleasant and depraved. Forgetting is an art."
All while he had waves her sisters room key in her face. She should have recognized it.
But she hadn't wanted to.
"Creepy sod. Touching me... Told Papa never to invite him to tea again!"
She hadn't wanted to see anything, so she had closed herself off from the possibilities.
"His hand was slimy Alice; like an eel from The Isis. And his name won't help. Bumby! If he ever qualifies, his bedside manor will require improvement."
She had helped him cover the truth.
"I'm not a toy! He wanted me to do things I didn't want to do."
No more.
"The undiscovered guilty and the wronged innocents share similar fates. Prisons and chains have many forms."
She faces the Dollmaker, her shaking in rage.
"It's not only about you Alice. Look at the destruction around you! Consider its cause."
That
"Damaged people feed on the emotions of others, Alice. Their strengths... And weaknesses."
Was
"We must all play our assigned roles. Are you a pawn or a queen? An idiot or a practiced fool? However this turns out, consider the prospect you have been mislead. Then ask, by whom?"
Unacceptable
She looks at the workshop around her, internalizing it, no longer hiding from what it represents. She is done with forgetting.
"Am I not the most wretched and selfish of fortune's fools!"
She should have done a lot of things.
"Whoever destroys a soul destroys a world."
Maybe she can't undo the damage she has done. That is her cross to bear. She can, however, stop the train from ruining anyone else.
"Appeasement is never clean."
She walks into the train station/ she walks to the end of the workshop, and she can feel the vorpal blade.
"Authority must be obeyed, or it must be overthrown."
She has always been at her strongest in Wonderland. Tainted or not, this at least has not changed.
She will need that strength today.
Oh boy, this is an old fic, that I have been working to clean up. It's about time.
