her head tilts back, looking at this strange boy in strange clothes standing in the yard of the house that she's playing a living doll in. of course she smiles. isn't everything about that now? smile, play, be easy, be pleasant. you can buy your way into everything, it seems, and as alice has come to know, this was a far preferable set up to the ALTERNATIVE, which was never quite the way you'd hope for girls, and almost always a tender but terrifying reminder of their vulnerability within the worst of the world! then again. london's streets weren't known for providing many favours to those left within its grips, after all!
but this boy who looks like he's been swept from those same streets was saying, oh. i have a place, a place to go, and she hears what he's asking underneath it. would you come? on this little adventure of mine? there's somewhere special. and it's hard not to wonder, when, he looks at her with that pinched concern, that same MILD DISTASTE for the present. her smile faltered, finally, somewhat. but you can't come back, not even if you wanted to. her head tilts. her blue eyes blink and...
she wonders what it'd be like. she wonders if he's even REAL. can she trust it? him? herself? oh, dear... he tells he she's a little older then the people they take, not to mention that she's not a boy, which, has her frowning somewhat, tugging at the edges of her skirts, like, isn't it obvious? her lips part - that look as her gaze met his own, like, what waits? if i were to take your hand, what changes, what is born, will this cruel fate be changed? at the ends of her own hands, alice could do just about anything, and he's promising. we can take a look, we can come right back! can you listen?
oh. all alice ever DOES is listen, doesn't she?
while she doesn't know how this lost boy found his way into her midnight yard, the way he looks, posed and promising, telling her there was something GRAND waiting - oh yes, this could be dangerous. but oh yes, this could be something, too, and she's up and off the swing she's on, those few steps between them closed so that her hand could clasp onto his own. he's no longer as nervous, it seems, now that he's decided to take his own personal leap of faith, and frankly, alice could hardly turn away from someone embracing that kind of truth about themselves. that the risks were worth the rewards! she has a feeling, her own will turn the same, this time, that grin made split-wide. "i was never called a very good girl, but i think i'll make an exception~ i'm coming! let's see this magic place of yours."