♚ {One}

[othersideofwhat]

[Voice Post]
((And a voice post of a most accidental nature, too, as Alice is sitting in the square, just rubbing her eyes and seeming to wake up. Her voice is mumbled and confused at first as she begins to wake, but also scolding at first...))

And as for you!

((A shuffling, almost clattering sound--the Network device is swept up into the air.))

Comments

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[knaveswitness]

Queen Alice? Queen Alice you say?

[knaveswitness]

Alice, she says. Not the right one, of course, but.

[knaveswitness]

Your Majesty.

Xerxes Break, at your service.

Action?

[othersideofwhat]

Oh! Who are you?

And 'your majesty'--thank you, but you see, I'm not sure if I'm still a Queen if I'm no longer on the other side of the looking-glass.

[playstheblues]

Alice?

[othersideofwhat]

Yes?

[playstheblues]

You're safe! You're not hurt?

No one's seen you in...

[othersideofwhat]

No, not at all. I'm quite well, thank you.

audio; goblin want?

[winewomenand]

Oh, dearheart. Listen to you.

That book, if you want, in your terms, it is all yours now. It is a very special book. Like a public message board that you can write with your voice. So we can all hear you.

And you can't leave, unfortunately, so you had best get comfortable.

audio; goblin what?

[othersideofwhat]

Is it? It's a very strange sort of book. It seems as though either I can read it or it will read itself to me, which is ever stranger. But, then, if you're speaking to me, it's also not at all like a book.

But, oh, is it really my own? Thank you.

audio;

[winewomenand]

Hence why it is more like a public message board. Do they have those where you are from? Or has graffiti grown unpopular again in your whatever-time-you-hail-from?

And it is your own. To have and to use. A gift from the capricious gods.

audio;

[othersideofwhat]

I see. I don't think we have either of those things, although we do have newspapers and letters and books, which are a little like them.

[voice]

[quackingly]

Oh, wow! You're a queen? ...I feel like I should know this. Um, do you need help, your Majesty?

[voice]

[othersideofwhat]

Yes, I am! I made it to the Eight Square and was made a Queen. But I'm not sure if I still am, since I thought I'd woken up, but perhaps I didn't after all.

[voice]

[quackingly]

[And the chess references fly riiiight over her head.]

So you're only a queen when you're sleeping?

[voice]

[othersideofwhat]

Well, perhaps that's it, but I'm not sure.

[Voice]

[had_not_lived]

I guess it's a little like a book. And it's yours, so you don't need to find who it belongs to.

[Voice]

[othersideofwhat]

It's a very queer book if it is a book at all. I can read it, but it can also read itself to me. It can even seem to hold conversations with me.

And I'm quite excited if I am able to keep it. Thank you.

[Voice]

[had_not_lived]

It isn't the 'book' you're having conversations with-- it's other people, that you're speaking to through it. People who live here, in the City. Which is where you are.

[Voice]

[othersideofwhat]

Well, I suppose that does make sense. After all, I've met some people who I had first heard about in books. So reading a book is a little like talking to someone in a book. Or on the other side of a book.

Oh! Could that be it? Perhaps that's what happened and I'm not on the other side of the looking-glass, but on the other side of a book!