#FABLEFALLEN: dependent blog for @grimmertales
MY WONDERLAND IS SHATTERED; IT'S DEAD TO ME !!!
name. pleasance hargreaves. also known as. alice liddell. age. 27 (210). dob. 9 november, 1777. pob. oxford. story of origin. alice's adventures in wonderland; american mcgee's interpretation, specifically. occupation. bartender @ the trip trap. residence. a truly grim studio apartment on the crooked mile. furnishings are bare, wallpaper is peeling, refrigerator is always empty—that sort of vibe. gender. non-binary. pronouns. she/they. orientation. ??? traits. imaginative, empathetic, curious, quick-witted. reckless, obstinate, volatile, ruthless.
faceclaim. eve hewson. height. five foot exactly; she hasn't grown an inch since the age of eight. build. very slight, verging on frail. little to no curves. hair. a dark brown, so much so that it looks black in most light. shoulder-length. dull & lifeless. usually thrown up into a ponytail; sometimes brushed. eyes. grey-blue, steely. they truly are windows to her soul. style. grunge? often dark, often layered, often casual. they dress for comfort and utility, not for fashion. jewelry. notably, none at all. aesthetics. a broken bird of a girl, replete with bedraggled hair and bony limbs; dirt lodged firmly under your fingernails, poorly painted with chipping dark polish, and starkly contrasted against the sickly grey of your skin; being unable to stare down your reflection, even through grimy looking glasses that you avoid.
father. charles liddell †. mother. alexandra liddell, née hargreaves †. siblings. constance liddell, 10 years her senior †. pets. partial to felines. they had a black cat called dinah in her childhood.
SOME TRIGGERING CONTENT AHEAD (FIRES, FAMILY DEATH, INSTITUTIONALISATION.)
a human fable, alice was once—supposedly— no more than a little girl with an incredible (and powerful) imagination.
the daughter of the dean of a grand educational institution, she lived a comfortable and content life alongside her sister, her parents, their staff, and the family cat.
tragically, when she was barely eight years old, her family perished in a house fire. [for reference, this is the year that the remaining fables take a final stand against the adversary.]
she and dinah [the cat] were the only survivors. she had been in a deep sleep, away in wonderland, only roused by the mad hatter and the white rabbit alerting her to the smell of smoke that had suddenly interrupted their tea party. though she tried to run to both her parents' and her sister's rooms, the flames were relentless, and she acquired serious burns in the process. unsuccessful, she ultimately leapt from her bedroom window, dinah under one arm and her rabbit doll under the other. the thick blanket of snow outside may have cushioned her fall, but she was left badly burnt, and with a broken shoulder.
during this recovery process, they often spoke in slurred riddles, sentences poorly strung together, rambling on about a shadow in the hallway, cats and rabbits screaming at them, a swinging key. the prospects of their survival at the time were seen as virtually non-existent: a coffin was built for her, and the family's bodies left in an ice locker so that they may all be interred together. against all odds, however, and within the span of two years, alice eventually recovered from their physical injuries.
the mental ones, though? there was no escaping them. she fell into a state of catatonia, her memories of that night in the house blocked. she was transferred from the hospital to an asylum, where she would remain for the next sixteen years, fading in and out of lucidity, and subjected to countless cruel and futile 'treatments'. her trips to wonderland continued all the while, its condition directly linked to her psyche—every bout of electroconvulsive therapy brought havoc to the land, every ice bath plunging its inhabitants into dark depths.
alice was eventually released at the age of 26, though they struggled still with their past and the state of their mind. despite the sessions of therapy and hypnosis that she regularly received, she began to experience intense hallucinations, all to do with wonderland, all increasingly more horrifying than the last.
surprise surprise! the ever-deteriorating state of her sanity is reflected in the chaos and disorder in both wonderland and the wider homelands. confused and bewildered and just downright terrified, alice flees as fast as they can, boarding the last ship to cross into the mundane world without so much as a backward glance to any rabbits or hatters or door-mice.
though not a necessity, she decides a change of name cannot hurt. pleasance hargreaves—honouring her mother's maiden name is a sweet touch, one that brings forth emotions in her she would rather beat down. pleasance, however, is steeped in something more sinister: the admonishments hurled at her by asylum staff, a virtue she seemingly lacked. they always have been the type to keep picking at a scab, agitating a wound rather than letting it heal.
fabletown does not magically fix her problems. nothing ever has, and she doubts anything ever will. they spent a good few years in and out of knights of malta, a regular attendee of their psychiatric wing, no more advanced than the homelands equivalent.
it was difficult to acclimatise herself to this new city, the mundane world, and she was still haunted by wonderland—what haunted her more, though, was her inability to visit, her ignorance as to whether her friends are okay, her guilt at leaving them all behind. she never goes off in search of them, though, a rare facet of cowardice shining through in a girl usually so reckless.
they live a quiet and simple life: she works at the trip trap, throwing out drinks, muttering phrases that maybe kind of make sense to the patrons sat at the bar. she tries to keep a low profile, and mostly sticks to the crooked mile as far as the fabletown compound goes.
PINTEREST. MORE TO COME!
