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Post by mcr on Jan 27, 2021 23:25:19 GMT -5
Elsewhere =========== Meanwhile =========== Elizabeth races down the path with all due haste when a blur of speed pulls alongside her, moving so fast as to make Time itself almost seem to stand still. Tugging gently at her dress, Quicksilver exclaims: "Oh no! We're late! Come quickly, quickly! Late late late!" Grabbing hold of her, he downs one of the bottles of shrinking potion, and the world starts to spin. At first the trees grow taller, then the bushes, then the grass, and then the mushrooms and insects stand at equal height to the pair, and she is standing in a sea of leafy green stretching farther than the eye can see. Almost dragging her, Quicksilver skids to a halt as he brings Elizabeth to a set of child's playthings: a doll, dainty little porcelain cups, a stuffed rabbit, a rocking horse, now gargantuan compared to the pair. Even the tiny plastic chairs, made to fit a doll's body, stand twice as tall as she. Sitting at the head of a table is a face Betsy recognizes. Not one of the Cuckoo sisters, but one she knows far better. The one she sees in the mirror every day. Dolled up in an outfit equally as lavish as her own, the girl speaks, in a voice that sounds eerie coming from the mouth of another when echoing her own: "Mr. Rabbit, if I am Elizabeth Braddock, who is she?"
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 28, 2021 11:47:06 GMT -5
Elizabeth felt like she was falling, but her feet never left the ground, even as the ground grew closer and closer. She reached her hands high up, as if grabbing something could help, but anything she could or did grab just wound up being too much for her to handle. The world was suddenly a much larger place and Betsy wrapped her arms around her stomach as it tossed and turned. She felt as if she had staggered off one too many rollercoasters. The meal she had before her trip to the gala threatened to make a second appearance, but with a brackish swallow, Betsy managed to keep everything under control, even if everything around her had spiraled the opposite way.
The mad tea party she was suddenly face-to-face with did little to help her current panic. What the hell had happened? Seemed speedy slipped her something that had done the opposite of Wisdom's dosage. When she saw herself peering at herself from the table, Betsy's teeth set in an angry, terrified grimace. She rounded on Quicksilver, thrusting a finger in his face.
"What the hell is the meaning of this!?" She wanted to pull her sword on him, but she was still so exhausted from controlling the vines. He could even see that, if he cared to. Her posture was not as confident and her chest was heaving with each deep pull of breath. "Take me back!"
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Post by mcr on Jan 28, 2021 12:05:16 GMT -5
Seeing the frightened look on her double's face, the other girl shifts backwards from her seat, leaping off the chair with the hem of her dress acting like a makeshift parachute.
"Are you Alice?"
She questions, innocently.
"The Queen has been waiting for you, I think. Of course, she thinks I'm Alice too, but that's not who I am, am I?"
Circling Betsy, the girl pokes at her with a tentative finger, as if trying to ascertain whether what she's seeing is real.
"I've changed so many times since this morning, you see."
Seeking to console Elizabeth, the girl speaks:
"It's not so bad here. You can have all the sweets you want."
A dainty plate carrying tiny sweets, smaller versions of the same ones Pym used to grow to giant size appeared in her hands.
"And as many friends to play with as you like. The Queen is ever so fond of games."
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 28, 2021 12:14:35 GMT -5
"Are you Alice?"
Elizabeth watched her see-saw gracefully through the air and narrowed her eyes. "Not at all. I'm Betsy. Betsy Braddock."
"The Queen has been waiting for you, I think. Of course, she thinks I'm Alice too, but that's not who I am, am I?" Circling Betsy, the girl pokes at her with a tentative finger, as if trying to ascertain whether what she's seeing is real.
"Ah -- oy!" She caught her wrist tightly, clearly not a fan of being prodded by her strange look alike. "Stop that. I don't know who you are or what your Queen wants, but she's clearly mental."
"I've changed so many times today I've lost track."
Elizabeth tossed the girl's wrist away. "What do you mean? Tell me!"
"It's not so bad here. You can have all the sweets you want." A dainty plate carrying tiny sweets, smaller versions of the same ones Pym used to grow to giant size appeared in her hands.
She shook her head vigorously, trying to contain her frustration. "I've lost my appetite. You said you changed. What were you before?" But the girl kept going, and Betsy shrieked internally.
"And as many friends to play with as you like. The Queen is ever so fond of games."
"Well, I'm not. I'm fond of answers, the only remedy for a thinning patience."
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Post by mcr on Jan 28, 2021 12:26:55 GMT -5
The girl withdrew her hand apologetically, her eyes widening.
Rambling, she replies in one breath:
"WellatfirstIwasasleep,butthenawake!AndthenIwasachesspiece,thenacroquetplayer!AndthenIwasgiant!ButnowI'msmall!Anegg!Acat!Allsortsoffunthings!Andthen!"
Her voice grows gradually faster, until all Betsy can hear is a high pitched squeak.
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 28, 2021 12:41:43 GMT -5
Elizabeth reared back a little as the girl's schedule of transformation became faster and faster! Her hands clapped over her ears as that squeal pierced through. "Argh! All right, all right!" Elizabeth grabbed her doppelganger's shoulders and squeezed. "Just... just hold on," she put her hand over 'Alice's' mouth. "Let's just take a big breath and let it out. In..." she took a deep breath, "and out."
If this settled her enough, Elizabeth would slowly let her go, and smooth out any of her dress she rumpled. "Now. Tell me about this Queen." Elizabeth cocked a glance over her shoulder at the abnormally silent Quicksilver. "If you have anything to add, you can stay at our tea party."
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Post by mcr on Jan 28, 2021 12:53:19 GMT -5
Betsy's double calmed herself, following the lead of her other. As the two converse, Betsy notices that the girl takes on more and more of her own mannerisms, copying her speech patterns, her facial expressions, the way she holds her body, learning and adapting at a perhaps alarming rate.
The girl replies, slumping back into the same defensive posture Betsy has adopted, now miming every little way she moves:
"It's the most peculiar thing. She was so sad when she first got here, but delighted when we found each other. She said it was our destiny, like a lock and key made for one another."
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 28, 2021 12:59:24 GMT -5
The subtle changes did not go unnoticed and Elizabeth felt a thread of trepidation begin stitching its needle work into her gut. "Describe her. What does she look like? Where can I find her?" Elizabeth pointed above. "My friends," lack of a better word in this situation, "can't play any games if they're going to have their hands so full at the moment, can they?"
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Post by mcr on Jan 28, 2021 13:36:47 GMT -5
The girl stiffened her back, held her chin up just so, her mouth widened into a manic grin. Miming le Fay, she droned in monotone, clearly unimpressed by the theatrics Morgana had shown today:
"'Off with her head? Off with her head?'"
She waved her hands as if flailing an invisible blade:
"Ring any bells?"
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 28, 2021 13:53:23 GMT -5
Elizabeth dropped into a battle stance, unnerved enough by her double's behavior. "Does this?" FWOOM! That rose-colored sword conjured into her hands once more, crackling and spitting power, hungry for a fight. Roses bloomed and shed petals into and out of existence from her hands and the blade. Her eyes began to slowly glow pink as their glare shifted between Quicksilver and "Alice".
===*=== Health 4 Energy 12
Action 1 Close Combat 4 (+5 from Psi-Weapon) - Longswords, shifted to defense.
Action 2 No Action.
Modifiers Reflexive Dodge +3
Equipment None
Health 4 Energy 8
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Post by mcr on Jan 28, 2021 14:41:06 GMT -5
While Betsy's doppelganger merely intended to mimic Morgana as a description of the witch rather than a display of hostility, it appears she is not quite so innocent as she seems.
Her eyes grow sharp and uncaring, a crack in the visage she puts on, showing an inner emptiness as cold and dark as the realm she has found herself in. Her irises glow an unnatural blue to match Betsy's pink:
"So you like to play rough? Two can play at that game!"
Blue energy formed around the girl's arm, snaking downwards towards her hands. Folding her palms together and pulling them apart, a blade of her own forms, crackling with equal power.
"I do not know who you are, imposter, but know this: I will not lose to a lesser double."
Her voice is hard, devoid of feeling or empathy. She stands at the ready, waiting for Betsy to make the first move.
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 28, 2021 15:08:55 GMT -5
"Impostor?!" Betsy shrilled. "If you were ANYTHING like me you would know --" Elizabeth charged, spitting venom.
"I always attack FIRST!" Elizabeth went for the bind, hoping to lock swords with her twisted sister.
It was Jamie's turn on the strip and he never took prisoners. Brian liked planning his cuts and strategies based on his opponent, but Jamie just liked swinging until he got the hit he wanted. He grinned confidently as he settled into his stance. Brian and Lord Braddock were on the sidelines as Elizabeth took her place on the strip across from her brother.
"Don't worry," he said, "I'll go easy on y-- WHOA!"
Elizabeth had lunged without a moment's hesitation, swinging down and up and at the sides. Jamie did his best to break each attack with one of his own, but she just kept pressing in. Finally, they bound, and she hooked her cross-guard into his and wrenched the sword out of his hands before throwing a boot into his stomach. Jamie stumbled back and when he pressed up, two swords were pointed right at him.
Elizabeth tossed a lock of blond hair from her determined violet gaze. "No. You won't."
===*=== Health 4 Energy 12
Action 1 Close Combat 4 (+5 from Psi-Weapon) Longswords
Action 2 No Action... YET!
Modifiers Reflexive Dodge +3
Equipment None
Health 4 Energy 8
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Post by mcr on Jan 29, 2021 14:37:47 GMT -5
As Betsy lunges towards her opposite, a deafening explosion shakes the ground from the sheer force and speed of a sonic boom many times over. Seconds later, a giant bullet blows apart the tree stump in which they had been encircled. Hundreds of splinters, some as tall and heavy as they are or more, fly everywhere, threatening to impale or crush the pair in a deadly shower.
The girl swings her blade in an arc, slicing in a circular pattern. Betsy, perhaps expecting a counterattack, braced for the impact of their two blades, hoping to parry and pivot to gain leverage.
But as she does, the air seems to stand still. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Quicksilver moving at what must seem to be a snail's pace, the same feeling she felt when moving alongside him looking on at the world outside. The wood shards have stopped moving, and the girl, holding out her hand, is concentrating on keeping them in place with a telekinetic power not so unlike Betsy's own, but different in its own way.
Closing the distance, Betsy dives into and under the other girl's blade. But the girl's stroke was not aimed at her, nor for a conventional attack. The slash rends the very air itself, ripping open a hole between worlds as Betsy falls through, the girl following into the portal.
Passing through the portal, Betsy feels a moment stretching into an eternity, a cold, bottomless well of an abyss enveloping her, as if trapped in an endless nothing. In that instant, that infinite time between times, she feels like an outsider, looking on to a hazy, distorted picture of the place she had just exited. And in less than the blink of an eye, she returns.
They find themselves safely out of the path of the shards, the girl dropping her control over them as the magic enchanting the realm begins to take its hold.
The blue energy lingers from the portal until it gradually fizzles away, and the girl's energy sword twists, snaking its way back up the girl's arm until it too disappears.
The girl begins sobbing, clearly shaken by the experience:
"When...can...I...go...home?"
She cries.
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Post by OurLadyWar on Jan 29, 2021 16:27:42 GMT -5
Elizabeth collapsed to the ground as they emerged from the portal. The same sensations she experienced when Quicksilver had shrunk her down to Alice's world struck the Braddock girl anew. She could taste the stress of her stomach in her mouth and spat off to the side as she coughed and recovered. "Dammit," she groaned as she dropped fully to the ground, the earth cool on her cheek.
With what energy she could muster, Betsy pushed to her hands and knees, and was determined to put eyes on 'Alice'. When she finally caught sight of her, Alice was a sobbing, shivering mess. Betsy sighed as her sword flitted out of existence, the concentration and anger spent to keep the blade there finally disintegrating. Seeing herself sobbing and mewling to go home melted Betsy's heart. When the manor burned, when Jamie went mad, when Brian disappeared... her whole world felt like all those splintered shards that had rained through the air only moments ago.
Betsy crawled to Alice's side and grabbed her in a fast embrace around the shoulders. "Then let's go home..."
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Post by mcr on Jan 30, 2021 12:04:46 GMT -5
The girls see Quicksilver take one step, turning into a dozen, then a hundred as Time begins to catch up with them. The boy races out of the way in reaction to the explosion and the debris, but the shards of wood begin to spin, taking on a mind of their own. Launching outwards, the woodlands leave the girls to themselves as heavy footsteps land in their place. The air fills with a giant stench, the air putrid. If Hell itself had a smell, surely this is what it would be. The other girl pulls away from Betsy, not out of animosity, but dizziness, barely able to stay on her feet. She bends over, coughing and wheezing violently at the taste of Azazel's teleportation bringing a fourth dimension briefly into theirs.
A more crude emetic there may not be, as the girl is forced to dispel the contents of her stomach right there on the grass.
Turning in shock, she apologizes to Betsy:
"What...is that?"
Holding out her hands, she looks upon them with curiosity:
"Betsy, you may wish to grab hold!"
She suddenly begins to expand outward, growing as the Pym Particles causing her to shrink remain no longer in her body. Betsy has enough time to move away or grab on, and doing so would cause herself to grow - the opposite effect of being held by someone under the effect of Pym's shrinking particles like Quicksilver earlier. ================================================== [[Since Betsy is looking ready to rejoin the others, I think this gives her an easy way to do it without having to search for or conjure her own Growth sweets. If this doesn't work for you, I can edit, but otherwise please feel free to rejoin the main Issue. You'll be in the regular turn order, and I'll update the Reference Sheet with the Panel 6 Turn Order since you were sort of asynchronous with them before.]]
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