[Kylo]

Vance griped as he stomped into the forest with his sketch book. His dumb boss had ordered him to get out and work on sketches for a fairtale piece he had been assigned to. He snarled at a squirrel who misfortunately crossed his path. This was starting out to be a terrible day for him and the happy chirping of birds only made it that much worse. He sat down on a rock and kicked a mushroom dead. Smiling at its demise he began to sketch its corpse. Now this he could work with. Yes death was always fun to draw.

[Kitsumi]

It had been a lot easier getting into the Mirlando than it was getting out, Alice learned, as she felt her body being sucked and twisted through the vortex that she hoped would take her home. She landed, with a thud, on her back, and the breathe was temporarily knocked out of her lungs with a small woosh.

It took her a moment or so to recover, but when she could finally breathe, she snapped open her eyes and looked around. Letting out a small, excited cry, she leapt to her feet. "Roraldi!" She exclaimed happily. "This is Roraldi Forest! I'm home!" She danced around in a small circle, her hands clutched to her chest in excitement.

Then, she noticed a male sitting on a rock nearby, and wondered if he had seen her.

{1-1}

[Kylo]

Vance looked up after hearing a rather soft thump. Spotting a young women in a blue and white dress he tilted his head curiously. He then heard her shout and watched her dance about excitedly. "Uh excuse me, but what the hell is wrong with you? It's just a friggin forest nothing special." He slammed his sketchbook shut and stood up to look at her more closely. First of all her dress was seriously old and secondly she was just plain weird. She looked like sme old character from an acient book. What was it called again? Wonderland? Oh well it didn't matter, what mtter was that there was some weird ass chick here.

[Kitsumi]

As the man called out to her, Alice, not noticing his angry tone of voice and rather rude manner, ran up and hugged him. "I'm home!" She called happily. Grabbing his hands, she pulled him into her dance, spinning and twirling until, suddenly sent off balance, she went reeling into the man. Both of them went down, with Alice landing on top. Still giggling and humming happily, she put a hand to her mouth, her face flushing slightly. "Sorry," she said. "I just got excited. I've been gone for ever so long, and you have no idea how horrible it is to be married to a mad man when you're really in love with your employer's husband!" She giggled.

{1-2}

[Kylo]

Vance stared in horror at the women and generally looked as if he had seen the most disturbing thing in existence. Immeadiately he pushed her rather forcefully off of himself and stood up. Brushing himself off he glared at her. "Seriously what the hell is wrong with you!? And what does your marriage have to do with being home!? Xai're you're a friggin' lunatic!" He cursed to himself and snatched his sketch book up from the dirty forest floor and brushd the leaves off it. "Who are you anyway?"

[Kitsumi]

When the man pushed her, Alice flipped over and landed on the ground on her back, for the second time that day. Glaring at him, she said, "Hey! You could have just told me to get up, you know!" She stood, and straightened her dress, which had ridden up, revealing a bit more of her leg than she had wanted. "And now that I'm here, I'm not married to that mad man anymore! So that's what it has to do with everything."

When he asked her who she was, she immediately gave a deep curtsy, one that she had learned from years of practice in the palace. "I'm Alice. And what is your name, sir?"

{1-3}

[Kylo]

He smirked at her and noticed her legs. He then smiled wider. "Nice calfs." He snickered maliciously. "Unless you got a divorce you're still married you know." Clearly the women was off her rocker. Everyone knows that moving doesn't end a marriage. Divorces ended marriages.

"Like Alice from 'Alice in Wonderland' Alice? Seriously what the hell is going here?" He watched her curtsy and nearly puked. It was just too darn fairy tale like for his tastes. Fairy tales are not meant to be real, they're meant to stay in books where they belong. "Name's Vance. Now please explain in friggin english how the heck you got here."

[Kitsumi]

Noticing his gaze on her legs, and then hearing his words, caused her to blush suddenly. "Hey, that's totally unnecessary." She huffed, crossing her arms across her rather abundant chest. "And I wasn't exactly 'married' per say, it was more like being auctioned off. Now that I'm back here, away from that freaking Mirlando, I'm not forced to stay with him." Without even knowing what she was doing, her hand went to the bruise that had almost healed on her cheek. There were many more all over her body, but she kept it hidden with lots of makeup. The makeup had began to rub off, though, and the bruises were becoming visible.

At his mention of Wonderland, Alice's head snapped up. "What? Alice in Wonderland...but...that's so odd. You see, Mirlando, the land I was in...it means Wonderland." She suddenly grabbed his shirt, pulling him close to her. "What does this book say? I have to know if it's anything like what happened to me!"

"Vance, huh?" She nodded. "Nice, masculine name, I suppose." She sighed. "And I don't exactly know how I got here...I fell into a hole, around five years ago, and landed in Mirlando...or Wonderland, as some call it. For that whole five years, I've been searching for a way home. Finally, I found a magician who thought he could send me home. I guess he succeeded!"

{1-4}

[Kylo]

Vance's eyes grew wide at his shirt being grabbed and brushed her off of himself. "Chill out! So he friggin used ya? Sick freak. I may not be a gentleman but usin' a chick is effing sick!" He may not be nice to people, but he didn't ever abuse or use a women. "Well Wonderland's an effing strange book. I only read the first book, never the second. In the first one she got back home and it turned out that everything was a freaky ass dream." He started to soften slightly. He could understand abuse, hell he lived through it for years. "Hey the guy can't hurt ya now. You're safe now. If that freak ever came here I'll kick his arse for him!"

[Kitsumi]

Alice huffed. "No, not that...I mean what was Wonderland like in the book?" She ignored the fact that he brushed her off, although she did keep from grabbing onto him again. "Was Hatter Maddigan in the book? Or Harvey Lapin, the white rabbit - he's the one that sold me to Hatter." She shuddered. "He was...well, mad! One minute he would seem like a normal gentleman, the next, he would be going on and on about birthdays and un-birthdays, tea parties and singing mice!"

Vance's next words sounded suspiciously close to comfort...and Alice suddenly lost it. She threw her arms around him, leaned into his chest, and began sobbing uncontrollably. "H-he hit m-me!" she cried. "I t-thought I was n-never gonna g-get home!"

{Level 2 Reached}

[Kylo]

Vance was taken by surprise again when she threw herself around him, but this time he did not pull away. He gingerly wrapped his arms around Alice and held her close. "It's...it's gonna be okay now. I-I won't let him hurt you." He stroked her hair softly and whispered soothingly to her. "The hatter, he didn't have a name in the book, neither did the rabbit. They....never hurt Alice in the book." He kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair some more.

[Kitsumi]

Had Alice been more aware to her surroundings, which did happen every once in a rare while, she would have noticed how uncharacteristically Vance was acting by comforting her. He had seemed a bit peeved at her mere seconds ago, and now he was holding her and soothing her as if they were close friends, or lovers, even. But at the moment, all that Alice knew was that it felt good, and that her tears were beginning to slow.

"T-thank you," she murmured, in between sniffles and choked sobs. She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, knowing that her mascara and probably eyeliner too were smearing, but not really caring at the moment. After all, no one was around to beat her if she didn't look picture perfect now. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to break down like that." She moved ever so slightly so that instead of her face being pressed against his chest, her head was leaning against his shoulder. "You've been so very kind to me...perhaps there's something I could do for you?" Having been in Mirlando - or Wonderland, is it was more commonly called, apparently - she was used to every bit of help she received having to be repaid.

{2-1}

((By the way, I've made up a human form for Alice. Here it is:

[Kylo]

"Oh shush. You don't owe me anything. I've been where you were and I know how much it hurts." He stroked her hair again and smiled. "I know what, why don't we go back to my apartment and get you some home made food? It'd do you some good to gain a little weight." He poked her belly lightly and snickered. "You're not so bad I guess. You're a lot like my little sister, annoying but cute." He loosened his hold on her and took her hand. "It's not too far from here and I got a futon you can sleep on if you need some rest. Just...don't tell anyone I'm helping you okay? I've got to keep up my appearances you know." He snickered again.

[Kitsumi]

Alice glanced up at him, a watery smile on her face, and black streaks tracking from her eyes to well down her cheeks. "Thank you...you're much kinder than the company I was with in wonderland." She sighed, and leaned her head back against him for a moment.

When he mentioned her going back home with him, she leaned back and smiled widely. "Oh, I would like that very much!" She giggled as he poked her stomach. "Well, they don't feed maids very much...apparently hunger makes you work harder, or so they said." She took his hand, and gave him an angelic smile. "Oh, I can be very, very cute. But don't worry, I won't tell anybody. After all, you have to keep looking like a grumpy old man, right?" She stuck her tongue out at him, before she began skipping forward, pulling him in what was probably the wrong direction.

{2-2}

[Kylo]

Vance chuckled and pulled her back to him. "Wrong way Alice." He began to lead her out of the woods and towards Whisper Forest. "Just outside Whisper Forest is where I live. It's a bit of an odd place but it's alright." He smiled happily and continued to lead her. It was not too long before they arrived outside the gates of a small village. "I live in there," he anounced.