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Alice and Wonderland; the return of the nonsense train
Topic Started: Jul 22 2015, 03:48 PM (38 Views)
surrealcanine
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Alice rubbed her forehead and walked away from the rather ugly sand structure that had suddenly appeared where her train was. Whatever it was called, a baseball diamond or some such. As fascinated as she was by the humans and their culture and technology, she wore her contempt for "society" on her sleeve, as it were. Not that Alice was wearing anything other than her usual hat. Spirit creatures, especially the fuzzy kind, had no need for clothing. And it wasn't like her creator wore clothes all the time either.

Alice was the creation of a lonely tribal boy caught between two worlds, and stuck in the middle of an awkward marriage, no less. Inspired by the animals around him and made manifest by the desire for friends, the foxy-looking spirit inherited some of Mato's darker attitudes, stuff even he might not have been aware of. Empires, governments, corporations, industries... Alice's gut told her all of these were the enemy. After all, if they didn't exist, Mato's life would be just fine. Sure, she wouldn't exist as a result, but she tried not to think about that. Why couldn't the humans just coexist with their own world the way they always had, the way the spirits did? Why try to conquer it and destroy everything that actually mattered in the process?

She sighed. Thinking about this stuff was depressing. At least Mato was different. And she was different too. The technology she imagined in her own dreams improved on the humans' designs. It worked in ways that left beauty and life in its wake, not pollution and destruction. Take her train, for example. It didn't burn coal, instead being powered by circulating water, or air currents. And since it flew, you didn't have to blow up mountains or chop down trees to clear a path. None of the humans who saw her projects ever took them seriously though after they woke up. Maybe it just came with the territory of being a resident of the "dream world"? She had to remind Mato of half the adventures they had together after he woke up. Something about the humans' brains made them very forgetful, at least as far as this world was concerned.

Let's try this again... She tried to conjure the flying train again, this time away from anyone who might go lucid and interrupt her. "Remain centered.... breathe.... focus.... As the stars have taught me... I am one with life.... I am one with now...." As she focused her mind, the scenery around her changed back to a train flying through space. Alice opened her eyes, and smiled and wagged her tail at her success. Booyeah. Ok, time to go pick Mato up... Picking up a water-filled ball attached to the steering cable, she pulled to change the train's course and aimed for Kanthesus. Given his sleep schedule, he was due to pop in at any moment now...
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Russ
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     When suddenly, space.
     Mato immediately recognized that he had arrived in that other world he spent nearly half his time in. A world where the rules of nature were little more than suggestions whispered in the wind. A world where, apparently, he was currently seated in a train hurtling rapidly through space. Stars were flying past just outside the window, white, yellow, blue, and even red. His first thought was simply awe - such a sign never ceased to be amazing.
     His second thought was that space was cold. Even within the confines of the train, he was shivering a bit. Concentrating, he envisioned himself wearing something warmer, a thick jacket and sweatpants. As they materialized, the sense of cold left him. Why couldn't the other world be so simple?
     "Alice?" he called out, knowing instinctively that this locomotive was her doing. She didn't appear to be in this particular train car, but he knew she had to be close. "Where are you? And why are we in space?" He could hardly expect any form of serious answer for that last question, but curiosity led him to ask it regardless. Even as he asked his question, he rose from his seat to move. Knowing Alice, she'd most likely be at the front of the train, so it only made sense to move in that direction.
     Of course, this was the dream world; with enough concentration he could probably take himself straight to her. But he found that limiting himself somewhat helped him make sense of things. Humans were hardly designed to comprehend the inner workings of these strange world. Not to mention, the last time he'd tried simply teleporting to her, he'd screwed up and wound up falling headfirst off a cliff. That certainly hadn't been fun; the shock of it was enough to jolt him awake and cut his time here short. Sometimes, there were something to be said for simplicity. Pushing the door at the front of the room open, he moved forward into the next train car in search of Alice.
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surrealcanine
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Alice wanted to be found, so naturally the next train car was the locomotive itself. "Mato!" she shouted, running over to him and giving him something between a hug and a glomp. Her hat fell off her head as she wagged her tail and nuzzled Mato's cheek with the top of her head, her ears getting squished between the two of them. After about a minute of that, she let go and sat down on a bench in the cabin. "So, guess what. I actually had this train disappear on me a while back. Some kids hitched a ride during their dream and then went lucid on me and pulled out one of their memories. Uh, what do you think? Nice train, right?" She paused. Mato probably had a lot to say about the city again. "So, how was the city? ....Did they make fun of you again?"
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Russ
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     Mato couldn't help but smile, hugging Alice as she glomped him. This was the reason why he took mid-day naps, when he could get away with it. It was really the only time he got to spend with somebody who truly understood him. His parents loved him of course, but they couldn't understand just how messed up Mato's life had become as a result of their actions. Only Alice truly knew that.
     Sitting down on the bench beside her, he felt his smile slowly fade as she began asking him how things had gone. "Not this time," he replied. "I didn't tell them I was leaving. They'll probably start making jokes once I get back though." He let out a sigh, looking down at his own feet, half-noticing that he'd forgotten to give himself shoes to complete the outfit.
     "It's not just them though," he continued, mind turning to the tribe now. "The village kids make fun of me just as much. I came in late last night and left early in the morning, and I didn't see any of them, but I'm sure they're all talking about me right now. I can't waterbend nearly as well as they can, so they treat me like one big joke. And they don't even ask me about where I go when I'm not in the village. They never even bring it up because they think they're better than everybody in the cities!"
     Catching himself, lest he get too worked up, Mato paused, letting out another sigh, before adding "It's not fair. I tried sneaking away to practice my waterbending, so maybe the tribe kids would at least stop making fun of me. But that's not going to stop them, is it?"
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