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Sue Wanda "Swan" Prescott ([info]planted_it) wrote in [info]indarkness_logs,
@ 2010-09-05 00:39:00

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Entry tags:!complete, 2032 09, cheshire cat, swan prescott

RP: Lifeless
Characters: Swan, Ches
Time/Date: Late morning, September 5
Location: Outside, by the garden
Warnings/Rating: none
Summary: Swan now knows what other people feel like
Status: Complete



Swan didn't like the absence of power. She hadn't considered what she had a power, or a magic, or a mutation, but apparently it was something they could control, that they could block. It didn't make sense to her; she couldn't hurt anyone with her power. She just made things grow, gave them life. Why would they take that away from her?

She felt sick as she gazed at the plants in her garden. She knew they had to be talking, knew they were making noises that she could always hear ... but they were silent to her now. This, she realized, was what everyone else in the world felt. What everyone else heard. Nothing. Plants made no sounds to everyone else, but she'd always been able to communicate with them. She'd always loved being surrounded by them.

Now though ... it was almost painful to sit here and not hear them. She didn't like this one bit.

All she could hope was that she was one of the mistakes. That she'd be sent home. She wanted to go back. She wanted to continue her work, her journey. She wanted to see Robin again. She didn't want to be trapped here anymore, especially if they were taking away the one comfort she'd had.

She could see her plants, and touch her plants, but she couldn't hear them. She didn't feel the tingling through her hands, through her body, when she worked the soil. She knew she wouldn't be able to bring any seeds to life. She felt ... useless. This was her contribution, this was what she could do, and now ...

Swan knelt by the carrot patch, brushing her hands over the exposed greenery of the carrots, aching to hear even the slightest peep, but that part of her was locked away by their tormentors. So Swan remained as she was, gazing at the garden, and wishing.


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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-06 08:51 am UTC (link)
Cheshire didn't see any reason to believe that it was any sort of trick that the Psychologists were playing on them, that the powers had been disabled. He didn't think they were being entirely honest that some people had been released into the area that shouldn't have been, but he didn't think it was impossible that some people had been taken from their homes that were now being returned, who were currently in the labs. Likely, the scientists just did not want to deal with also observing individuals while they processed some others back out of their system.

Which meant that there weren't that many of them, and they would be easily overpowered should this rag-tag group ever manage to find an exit. That was good information to know.

With the magic disabled (though he found that he still had use of his voice, which was interesting) he realized quickly that he was little use to the girls beyond a playmate, and decided to take this opportunity to explore a bit. He was mildly thankful that the residents were, at least, beginning to take a more active role in caring for the younger ones. While he did recognize that it wasn't really their problem - some of them were barely old enough to be caring for themselves, after all - someone did need to, and he was grateful of the few efforts that were being made in that regard.

His explorations alone had taken him outside, and he was easing his way around the hotel when he stumbled upon the garden. He noted the girl, and recognized that she was feeling sad, though he wasn't certain why. Slipping his way over to her, and hoping that she was the type of individual who wouldn't mind some furry companionship, he moved until he was pressed against her, bumping his head against her gently.

He'd converse in a moment, but he found that most people enjoyed the familiarity of a cat that couldn't necessarily speak before he launched into a conversation.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-06 10:33 am UTC (link)
Swan glanced over to the cat as he pressed up against her, and she dropped one hand to stroke his back. It had been a while since she'd seen a proper animal -- aside from Dug, here -- so she appreciated the cat's presence.

She wondered if he was an experiment, or if he was someone's pet, or if he was a stray they'd released at random onto the island. She almost thought she was almost sure she'd seen a cat (or at least evidence of one) around the hotel, but she wasn't so sure.

But if he was a victim himself, she wondered if he was more than just a cat. Dug was more than a dog, kind of, but what did Swan know?

"Hello," she said quietly -- just in case.

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-06 11:38 am UTC (link)
He purred softly when she stroked his back, arching slightly to encourage the action. Despite his age and stage he still liked the attention when it was offered. It just needed to be offered by the right person. The Mad Hatter had a bad habit of getting his fur all out of sorts, and he wasn't the only one with that sort of inability to pet properly. He rather liked it when Alice petted him though.

When she said hello, he wasn't certain if she was merely saying that to greet an animal, and not anticipating a reply. But there was a certain expression on her appearance, a sneaking sort of glance, and a curious note to her tone that made him feel comfortable replying auditorily.

"You seemed sad," he said, bypassing the greeting entirely - because he was just like that. "It seemed foolish to by so when there is often so much to be pleased about. I thought I could assist with reversing the frown."

Under other circumstances, he may have left his own frown in place and rotated the rest of his body to make it a smile, but with his magic gone he would have to content himself to snuggles for the moment.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-06 12:09 pm UTC (link)
"Oh..." Swan made a softly startled noise when the cat spoke. She immediately searched for a collar like Dug's, but saw nothing that indicated how the cat was speaking -- unless he really was just a talking cat. She'd never heard of one before, but that certainly didn't mean they didn't exist.

"I ... well, I'm not sure there's anything you can do about it," Swan said quietly, even as she lifted her head to glance around. Maybe someone was throwing their voice or something, but she didn't see anyone else. "It's no worse than what everyone else is going through ... simply being without my ... my power," she said haltingly. It felt strange to her to refer to what she could do as a power, but more than one person had pointed out she had the power of life in her, and what was power but ... well, a power? It wasn't magic, exactly, she didn't think it was a mutation, it was just ... part of who she was.

Except now, that part of her was silent, dormant.

"My name is Swan," she tacked on a little awkwardly.

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-07 05:19 am UTC (link)
He was more amused than he should have been when he startled her by speaking, watching her with a strange sort of fascination as she looked for the source of his voice when it was sitting right next to her. She'd grow to accept it, he was certain, and there was no real need to go into the details of how and why.

"I thought perhaps company would help to ease the pain," he said, moving into view for her so that she'd be able to see his lips moving along with the words, perhaps that would assist her. "I am the Cheshire Cat. There are some who choose to shorten that for convenience sake - Ches seems to be the most common abbreviation. Feel free to create your own. What is in a name, after all, but letters?"

He smiled to himself for a moment before his startling blue eyes resettled on her. "Tell me, Swan," he said. "What is your power?"

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-07 05:28 am UTC (link)
"It's very nice to meet you," she said quietly. Even with the sight of his lips (were they lips, on a cat, she wondered) moving, she still had trouble believing. Dug talked through his collar, but his mouth didn't move to match the words.

So this was different. Very different.

"I ... I'm not sure how to define it," she admitted quietly. "People have said I have the power of life in me, but ... I don't know what it is, exactly, or where it came from. I was born with it. I ... I can make plants grow. Even dead ones. I can wake up dormant ones. I ... I can bring dead earth back to life," she said with a sweeping gesture to her garden. "All this was dead at first," she explained. "Dead, like the rest of this place. But I ... I made it live and made the plants grow again."

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-09 04:57 am UTC (link)
His eyes widened approvingly, and he nodded his head, his tail flicking back and forth with curiosity. "Ahhhh," he said in time with his nods. "A very interesting ability indeed. I am truly sorry for your loss of it, it must be strange to not be able to communicate with them now."

She hadn't exactly spoken to communicating with the plants - he was assuming. If it turned out she couldn't, he would chalk it up to having used the wrong word.

"I find myself a bit out of sorts today as well," he said sympathetically. "I imagine a great many people do. Though we should take comfort in the knowledge that it is only temporary. Our powers should be returned to us in time."

He curled up next to her to offer what comfort he could simply with his presence.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-09 05:17 am UTC (link)
"It might not be," Swan murmured. "Temporary," she clarified. If they could keep some people's powers locked away, why wouldn't they? Why would they take hers to begin with? She couldn't hurt people with it. It only hurt her not to have it.

But maybe that was the point. Maybe the loss of power wasn't about what they could do, who they could hurt, but how they reacted to being without it.

She dropped a hand to stroke the cat's back gently, her eyes playing over the garden. It wasn't enough to sit out here with it; she needed to hear the plants. But that wasn't likely. Wasn't ... possible right now. So she had to settle for this, and wait.

"What ... did they do something to you too?" she murmured belatedly when she realized he'd mentioned feeling out of sorts.

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-11 02:33 am UTC (link)
"It may not," he agreed lightly. "Change comes and goes, and you either learn to weather the storms or are knocked down by them, for there are few things in the world that can stand eternally against them," though after he said it, he wasn't certain whether he'd meant that statement to be comforting or educational or both. Or neither. Perhaps he was just speaking for the sake of making conversation at this point.

"It is my understanding that they have done something to everyone," he said seriously. "Some though, have been more severely crippled than others. For me, it seems a limiting of magic was in order, yet I still have use of my means of communication," he quirked a rather large, eerie smile, both in amusement and to indicate what his means of communication was. "Seems completely non-intuitive. Why some magic and not others? Or really, how? As I imagine should I peer closely I'd be able to see reason in the madness."

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-11 03:00 am UTC (link)
Swan nodded thoughtfully to his statement. Maybe that's what they were doing -- being a storm and seeing who stood up and for how long before they tumbled.

And what of her? Was she standing or fallen? How could she tell either way?

She supposed it didn't matter. It was what it was, and life would go on, with or without her power.

"Whay sorts of magic could you do?"

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-13 02:18 am UTC (link)
"I could stand on my head," he remarked with a quirk of his lips into a smile. While he was aware that she would not understand the significance of that statement, he did not feel a real need to clarify. "It was not your typical sort. The Alice-girl often referred to me as odd. I believe I frightened her with my magic tricks."

Well, that was a lie. He knew he frightened her with his magic tricks. What of it? His intentions for coming here to sit with Swan were to be comforting while she looked at her plants and wished she could still speak with them. There was no sense ruining that by making her fearful of him as well.

"I can also tell riddles," he said, amused. "Though nothing so wonderful as making plants grow," he was thoughtful for a moment. "Though I suppose I really never tried asking the flowers to grow or wake up. They really are a chatty and obnoxious group, I was usually content when they chose to sleep."

He paused, thoughtful. "Is this helpful to you?" he meant his presence, but didn't clarify. "Or should I leave you alone with your thoughts?" He supposed belatedly he could have picked nicer words than that - she didn't want to be alone with her thoughts. She wanted the plants thoughts.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-13 03:55 am UTC (link)
Swan listened to the cat talk, and she nodded slightly. Stand on his head? She tried to imagine that and wondered if he didn't need a wall to brace against to do it, and didn't his tail flop in the way and off-balance him? But she took him at his word, and opted not to ask for a demonstration. It seemed rude, some how, as if she were doubting his gifts.

"I haven't heard many riddles," she admitted. "I spent almost half my life just traveling with Josh, and then ... and then we were helping to save our broken world." She shook her head. "There wasn't much to joke about or riddle each other with."

Swan frowned a little when he admitted the flowers were chatty. Could he hear them? Or were the flowers where he was from different somehow? "The ones here?" she prompted before she shrugged to his question. "It's not unhelpful. It's a very nice distraction."

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-13 08:27 am UTC (link)
He smiled a bit when she mentioned she liked riddles. "We'll start with an easy one. What goes round and round and round a house, and only uses a window to get inside?"

He chuckled a bit, but he was partially sobered by her statement that she'd been left to rebuild her world. While Underland had begun to recover, given that Alice had saved them on the Frabjous day, he could still recall the hardships of war. Many of them had gone mad from them, to be perfectly honest, and his lips quirked upwards at that thought.

"The ones here are quiet," he remarked. "Many things here, seem dull and quiet in point of fact. In Underland, things are far more animated and cheery. Though I suppose cheery may be pushing it. I apologize, I should have specified."

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-13 03:50 pm UTC (link)
Swan's brow furrowed as she tried to piece together what went around a house but only came in through a window. What even went inside windows? Mice and ants and the like used doors just as often as windows. Fences went around houses but didn't go inside. "I don't know," she finally concluded, looking perplexed.

She did nod to his clarification about the plants though, and she relaxed a little. "The ones back home weren't cheerful," she mused. 'They were grateful to be awake and alive again, but I wouldn't say cheerful." Her expression softened a little as she smiled. "Before the world went bad, I had a small garden outside our trailer, with flowers. They were happy," she reflected, almost sadly.

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-15 04:54 am UTC (link)
He chuckled a bit. "The sun," he told her. "Though I suppose that was a trick question - the sun could easily use a door as well."

He paused, and listened to her talk about her garden back home, nodding his head a bit. He did wish that there was more that he could do to cheer her up, though he wasn't overly torn up about the fact that there wasn't. It wasn't like it was his fault that they were here without their powers.

"I'm sure they're still happy now," he told her gently. "Missing you, of course, but still happy. They'll be able to get what they need." He didn't know if that was true, or not, knowing nothing about her world. But he thought that it was appropriate to stay positive at the moment. Saying that the plants would die was probably not the right thing to say right now. "How did... the world go bad?" he asked, somewhat curious now.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-15 05:09 am UTC (link)
"Oh," she said in response to the answer to the riddle. She supposed that made sense, and she smiled a little.

"Everything exploded," she murmured. "It was a nuclear war, and then just ... a regular war. My mama and I were moving, and we'd stopped at a gas station ... Josh was there, and PawPaw, and ... when the corn blew up ..." Swan paused. "It was where the missiles were, in the corn. We went under the store, and ... that's where my mama died. PawPaw too, he was the owner. Josh and I followed a gopher hole out, digging it bigger. Days and days later.

"And then ... we wandered for years and years, just trying to avoid the armies. We did, until ... until we found Sister and my crown and the bad armies that kidnapped me."

She lapsed into silence, staring uneasily at the plants. She didn't like to think about that time. The hard time. She didn't like to think about Sister and Mule and Killer dying. She liked less to think that Robin was there, home, alone, without her. He couldn't continue her work, so what was he doing now?

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-18 04:04 am UTC (link)
While the story and names themselves meant very little to Cheshire, he could understand the meaning behind the words, and the pain that the story caused her. He did know, though some may have found it difficult to believe, what it was like to have hard times. The Red Queen's rule had not been a pleasant experience for anyone. Most of them were significantly madder now than they'd ever been in the past, which was certainly saying something about Underland.

"It sounds truly unpleasant," he agreed quietly, shaking out his fur slightly as though that would dispel the unease he was feeling now at the thought of it. "But thankfully you had friends to help you through it." He glanced around him now. Perhaps that was something else that could cheer him up. "Other than the plants, have you made many here? Friends, that is."

If she hadn't, they could certainly go explore the hotel and meet some people that Swan could be friends with. Perhaps that would help diminish some of the anxiety she was feeling at the loss of her abilities.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-18 04:26 am UTC (link)
"A few," she admitted. "I haven't socialized too much. There's a nice man who works in the garden with me though, and some of the people closer to my age." Granted, one of them wasn't here anymore, but ...

Swan brushed her hands off on her thighs before she offered Ches a smile. Pushing up to her feet, she exhaled softly. "I think I'd like to go inside," she murmured. "Would you like to come in as well or are you staying outside for a bit?"

She didn't mind the company, really, but it was ... painful to sit among the plants and not be able to hear them.

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-18 05:49 am UTC (link)
He nodded. Well, at least there was that, then. He didn't like to think that anyone was forced to entertain themselves simply due to circumstances, such as being shy. Those who opted for privacy were one thing, but the others...

When she got up, he stretched, flexing his claws briefly and working out the kinks in his spine before he brushed his ears back into place. "It would probably be best to go back inside," he decided. "I imagine there are those who may be looking for me. I would love to accompany you a bit longer, if you'll have me." He offered her a wide grin.

Whether or not Lizzy was actually searching for him was not the point - she was probably getting into something she shouldn't be getting into, and he should put a stop to it if he could. He'd head inside with Swan and they'd go on their separate ways through the hotel, most likely. Hopefully he had helped to cheer her up a bit.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-18 06:15 am UTC (link)
"I don't mind," Swan assured the cat as she leaned against the back door before she pulled it open to step inside. She blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the relative dimness within the confines of the hotel.

She held the door open for Ches, and once he was inside, Swan started across toward the kitchen. "Do you need a drink or a snack or anything?" she inquired. If he didn't, she supposed she'd have one for herself and wander on up to her room. And if he did, then she'd get him one.

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[info]waythewindblows
2010-09-18 11:14 pm UTC (link)
"No, that's quite all right," he decided. He was capable, for the most part, of getting his own nourishment - whether it meant pestering Lizzy for it or going about it the long way. Without his powers, he realized, it may prove more of a challenge, but he wasn't really that hungry or thirsty at the moment, so he'd manage all right for the time being. "Though I thank you for offering."

He did follow her to the kitchen briefly, finding himself mildly uncertain where to go from here, before he finally said, "I do hope that you feel better, and that your powers return to you quickly. To all of us, really. You're a delightful individual, and it was a pleasure to get to know you."

He'd bid his goodbyes and head up to his room shortly, but he did want to say all that first.

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[info]planted_it
2010-09-18 11:32 pm UTC (link)
Swan smiled and nodded before she made her way to the kitchen, glancing to him as he spoke. "Perhaps we can speak again soon." Swan thought she was at least moderately better company when she wasn't at a loss and powerless. She knew she might have been a little depressive, but she had appreciated the distraction.

"It was nice to have met you, Ches," she added with a little smile before they exchanged fare-wells and she fixed herself a little snack. Maybe she'd go for a walk or find a book to read.

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