Alice Liddell 033 // A Waif

[madcuriosity]

Who: Alice Liddell and somarium
Where: The Church of Holy Light
Style: Third but I'll match
What: Alice spends her days at the church until Javert finds her a new home. Alice is attempting to cope.
Warnings: Angst, cute, and the ball of tangents and curiosity that is Alice.
Status: OPEN!

Comments

[selfmotivations]

Barnaby wasn't particularly religious, nor spiritual. Not one to be comfortable with the idea of putting faith in anything but himself, and what he had to do, churches were seldom places he chose to frequent. In fact, they sometimes left him with the suspicion that more harm than good would be done. They made him think of funerals, and that was enough to steer him away

[madcuriosity]

She didn't expect anyone to suddenly respond to her. Honestly, she didn't expect anyone to answer her except Basil in his silent gaze. So what a surprise it had been to have that question directed at her. Was she looking for something? Yes, she was looking for an answer. She was looking for a sense of peace and calm that kept evading her. She always felt nervous now, with a calm that sat at the edges of her fingertips and fell like water droplets at the inkling of someone mentioning the wrong subject, the wrong word, the wrong name. Alice felt so unlike herself she didn't know who she was anymore. Was she still Alice? Was that why her dresses didn't fit anymore? The dresses were Alice's dresses, therefore they didn't fit this new girl she had become.

She just wasn't sure she liked this new girl. She still felt like Alice.

"I don't know."

[selfmotivations]

The answer surprised him, strange as it seemed coming from a girl her age. A little philosophical, Barnaby thought, which suggested something had happened to her. There was, in Somarium, also the possibility that she wasn't quite how she appeared - but Bunny still tended to err on the side of apparent common sense when it came to that. Common sense being what he was used to.

Far be it from him to be the comforting type, but, eyebrows knitting, he took a few steps forward.

"Are you alright, miss? Is something wrong?"

[madcuriosity]

Oh yes, something was certainly wrong. So very much was wrong in fact. She felt like she was going mad from being the only one to notice. However, she didn't know this man. She'd never seen him before, a new arrival but... not one since... she wasn't even sure. He could be, yet she didn't think so. No one else had arrived in the beginning of the month. Simply because she didn't know him didn't mean

[selfmotivations]

And he was fairly sure that the words were a lie - he may not have known her at all, but the strangeness of the situation, the stillness about her shoulders, the hesitance to it... Barnaby was far from an expert when it came to human behaviour, but he wasn't immune to the signs that were in front of him. The thought of pressing the matter, however, hardly crossed his mind. He was a stranger, after all - it simply wasn't his place, not least of all because he didn't want to intrude on someone else's privacy

[madcuriosity]

"Oh ah, no there are churches. But they're... more churches in buildings only. There weren't any proper sermons or any sort of congregation. Ces-" she stopped. No, it wouldn't do to be so informal about the Cardinal. "Ah, the Cardinal couldn't very well kick out the people living in the churches. So... he built a new one, I suppose."

[selfmotivations]

"He must be very dedicated," Barnaby conceded, looking around them again. His first thought was that this Cardinal must have been here for a long time, but reflecting on that, his own time in Somni seemed to have raced by so far. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Have you been here for long?"

[madcuriosity]

"I'll have lived in Somarium for nearly two years come December," she said as she continued to speak to the gentleman. Most children were taught never to talk to a stranger. Alice had come to the conclusion, it wasn't talking that became the issue. Most of the people in Somarium were very kind, or, at the very least they wanted nothing to do with her so they merely ignored her. There were very few in Somarium who had ever attempted to harm her.

"When did you arrive?"

[selfmotivations]

Two years. He'd begun to think being trapped here for such a long time was an exception rather than a rule, but the more he heard about it, the heavier it weighed on the back of his mind. It wasn't quite as trying here - not now he'd confirmed the future, and started rectifying things with Kotetsu, but he still didn't want to be stuck here. He couldn't (wouldn't) allow himself to consider the place a home, even if there had been happy moments her.

"July," he said, voice turning soft.

[madcuriosity]

"Ah, you've not yet experienced the more curious matters of Somarium. It is a lovely place though. My name is Alice, sir, Alice Liddell. How do you do?" she offered a curtsy in greeting.

[selfmotivations]

"Alice," he repeated, with a smile that was just slightly awkward - clearly, he wasn't used to that kind of courtesy. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Barnaby - Barnaby Brooks, junior."

His eyebrows quirked quizzically, though, his head canting to one side. "I was under the impression it was already pretty... curious."

[madcuriosity]

"Oh no, Somarium can get far more peculiar than this, you won't believe me though."

[selfmotivations]

His expression turned wry. "After what I've seen thus far, I think I'll believe a lot of things about this place."

[madcuriosity]

She gazed at him for a long moment. No one ever really believed her so... well... perhaps he would. "Somarium is able to change itself."

[selfmotivations]

Eyes widening, he stares at her for a moment - "Change itself?"

[madcuriosity]

"Oh yes, it can make you think you were born in this world and it can turn into a giant jungle or go back in time!"