.Pleasant.

Kassie enjoyed life like a cat would enjoy dried tuna.

With gut pains.

(Remember kids, don't feed cats dried tuna. It causes kidney stones)

Kassagel Hyne (excuse-the-strange-name-my-mother-was-part-something-but-I-wouldn't-know-since-she's-dead) was the most cynical human being in Cor Town, a feat deemed 'braggable' by any fourteen-year old. That was the hypothesis she'd come up with after a week's stay.

She'd been sent by the orphanage; someone 'hired her'.

Kassie didn't think it was even possible that an orphan under legal age could be 'hired', but it happened to her, and all through the bus ride, she'd been mulling it over in her head.

Girlie Gracious was the name on the adoption papers 'to keep it official'. It sounded very like one of those freakish super villains she'd read about in comics from her childhood, ones who had a twisted sense of right and wrong, reality, and sanity in general.

It didn't matter that it was suspicious. The orphanage was happy to get rid of her.

Arriving at Cor town, (Kassie guessed that there were some letters missing at the entrance gate, that it had gone under a different name some years ago, but 'Cor' seemed to have stuck through the legal papers and that's what they called it) the first thing she noticed was that everyone was opt to smile whenever they caught her eye. It was a welcoming smile, a warm one that was done so often that insincerity had been screwed right out of their systems.

And there seemed to be a lot of grandmothers. They were mostly pleasant ones, with fluffed up white hair that called her 'dearie'.

She didn't NOT like it (excuse the double negative) but it was really very....

Wrong.

Odd.

Curious.

Disconcerting.

She arrived at the empty, welcoming house late in the afternoon. Lived there for the next seven days.

She couldn't get in touch with Miss Gracious or whatever, but written assurances told her that she'd be starting her 'job' in exactly a week's time.

When that passed, Kassie had realized three things:

The people in the town were so nice that it was sickening, and yet they picked up on sarcasm pretty quick.

People knew people. There was not a single moment of 'pass-and-ignore', with everyone greeting everyone else. Kassie, by those who had yet to learn her name, would be greeted by 'New in town?' and 'hope you like it here'.

Cars were scarce. So far, Cassie had only seen five different types, only one of which she could identify: a Winnebago, pleasant as the town but not without a few dents and mud above the wheels.

Once she saw the man driving the RV. He looked out of place in such a town, chin pocked with stubble, dark hair sticking in dirty-looking tendrils, and a cigarette butt smoking between his teeth.

The man (no more than forty, no less than twenty) had given her a mock salute, an oddly pleasant smirk (perhaps nothing couldn't be pleasant in the town) and had driven out of the gates.

--

She'd met with Miss Gracious. She had this presence. Looking pleasant as the rest of the townspeople, she had a serious line running across her temples, wise eyes and hair fixed down to each strand.

She was blond. Real blond. Every hair colored down to roots, even eyebrows, and, if Kassie was right, the thin layer of hair on her skin. It was golden under the sun.

Girlie Gracious had welcomed her without insincerity, warming Kassie inside and appeasing her cynicism for a short while. And then Gracious explained why she'd been brought.

_________________________________


.Real Rich.

Kitten found that this line of work was a thousand times more fulfilling than anything else in her life, albeit its shortness.

She worked for Miss Gracious. She rode in the RV with Driver, the man with the ever-present stubble on his chin, tendril hair on his head, Marlboro between his teeth.  

Kitten had been fourteen when Gracious hired her. She'd been a cynical little thing, and perhaps she was street smart. She knew she was smart. Everyone who needed to knew she was smart.

Ever since she began working under Miss Gracious, she learned two things:

One was that real rich people didn't exist in society.
Two was that she worked for real rich people.

She did a number of things for Miss Gracious, the range running from balancing her accounts to unlocking digital codes and sneaking past firewalls to the Swiss Bank accounts of her other, 'not as rich' colleagues in society.

Real rich people didn't exist to society. Kitten made sure it stayed that way, so society couldn't find them.

She got her own pay. Kitten didn't take money. Girlie Gracious, legal guardian to Kassagel Hyne (age fifteen) took care of her little girl.

Each of them had their quirk. Driver got his smokes all day everyday, and money never ran out in his savings account for he and his wife and kid. Cock Robin, an in-his-twenties messenger and Gracious' spokesman, received his pay every night he had the mood. Kitten saw his pay once. He had a good taste in men.
As for Kitten, she enjoyed her chocolates cold, fresh, and ever-present in her fridge at the start of the day.

"Hot baths, cushy living, no-questions-asked income. Just do what Miss Gracious says, and keep living like a queen, Kitten." Robin had told her once.

She would nod, pop another bon-bon in her mouth, and keep it shut till needed.

Gracious had business with a lot of big companies. Hell, she MADE half the companies who thought they had a hold on her. Kitten knew the numbers. Any wrong move and going belly-up was the only news those bigwigs were getting.

"Hey, hon?"

"Yea, mom?" Kassie answered, holding the cell loosely to her ear.

"Mind bringing the muffins to the center today? I've got some business to attend to."

"Yea mom."

Kassie picked up the basket from the kitchen counter and grabbed a box from the freezer.

"Hey, Ron." She called. The man smoking Marlboro on the porch looked up. "Think you could drop me off at the Children's Center?" "Not a problem, Kass." Ron replied, making his way to the old RV. "Hey, Kassie, you going to the orphanage, then?" Paul called from next door.

Kassie nodded at their neighbor with a Cor town grin. "Well come on then, Paul. Can't keep the kids waiting."

And the three settled into the van. It was the kind of thing that wasn't a rare sight in Cor town. After all; it was a damn pleasant town.

.end.

------------------------------------------

.Detective Dove.

Robert Dove. Detective. Transferred to Cor Town.

They told me that I needed to calm down a little. Cor Town was pleasant, they said. It'll be like a paid vacation, they said.

Wish that was good enough for me, but I'm a fucking stubborn guy.

I joined the police force to do some good. I wasn't exactly on the high road and things were looking down from where I stood, so I took what the chief calls 'the noble way'. Noble. Right.

Bet you're wondering why I'm being put on duty in the town where nothing happens.

The chief says it's a reward for doing great on the Henderson case. The guy was an extortionist, victimizing the local drug stores in the better part of town.

But that wasn't the reason. I had another lead. I didn't want to drop the case, so the chief resorted to this. I knew I was onto something, and the chief just pulls my assets and sends me here. Henderson wasn't the root of the extortion, and after all his careful treading, I had my doubts that a small-time, big-city detective like me could've gotten him to give himself up so easily.

But it was good enough for the chief. As for me, well, it never works out so well.

When I first drove into Cor town, the only people I saw were senior citizens and kids, all over the streets and walks without a care in the world. I drove slowly, and most of them actually waved at me. Some kids seemed intrigued by the painted on law enforcement sign on the side of the Ford, and one of them even knocked on my window.

Soon as I rolled it down, the little freckly kid seemed to brighten up like nothing else. "You're new here, huh?" He'd asked me. I said I was, and from there, the kids paraded me all the way to the Town Center, the big hall where everything happened.

Apparently,I was one of only four officers in the area, two of which looked old enough to retire.

They welcomed me with a party. I never got such a warm greet anywhere I'd transferred before, but apparently, it was customary in Cor town.

The youngest of my three new colleagues showed me how to get to my new place. I would have said apartment, but it looked nothing like one. It was more of a house, tall, with four floors at best. The apartment manager, Mr. Florence, gave me the key.

"This must be home," I supposed as I settled into my own two-room, the bathroom pretty well stocked and some canned food above the kitchen counter. I opened some for dinner, before a doorbell rang directly to my room.

There were some people standing outside my door, the first of their ages I'd seen since arriving. One was a middle-aged blond lady, carrying a covered basket in one hand and hugging a teenage girl with her free arm, a redhead that I guessed was her daughter.

I opened the door.

"Hi there! You must be Inspector Dove! I just heard that you arrived, I'm sorry for being so late." The blond let herself in, her kid following with a wrapped up box of whatever it could be. I didn't enjoy people barging in, but my gut instinct would have sensed trouble.

Seriously.

"Just Robert, ma'am. Uh... hate to be rude, but WHO are you?" Okay, so I sounded pretty rude, but you can't blame me. I'm used to handling thugs and wise-asses, not chipper blond mothers and their unusually happy teenage daughters.

"I'm the town welcoming committee! I'm Girlie Gracious, it's good to meet you. Oh, and call me Gracious if you like." Said the woman cheerfully. She lay down the basket on my table and her daughter handed me the box.

"It's just something for dinner. Chicken, that sort of thing. We weren't sure if you could cook, so we got you the easy heat kind." The redhead told me. I looked at the box, then at the basket on the table. "Mom's muffins. Best in the world." The teen told me, seeing what I saw.

"Well, I'm sorry, I seem to have intruded on your dinner. Just wanted to make sure you were settling in nicely." Gracious said.

"It's all good here, Miss Gracious."

"Alright then. Well Kassie, we'd better pick up that package for Paul. We'll see you again soon, Robert. I'm sorry for our abruptness."

"Not a problem, Miss. Thanks for..." I gestured to the feast they somehow expected one man to finish.

The girl, Kassie, followed her mother out, waving with a small smile.  It was just like all the others I'd received when I first arrived at Cor Town: flawlessly sincere, almost horrifyingly nice.

If it wasn't so strange, I think I'd be on top of the world right now.

________________

."I", Said the Sparrow.

"Stop that, Robin."

"Stop what?"

"Biting your na- well, licking your nail beds. I'm telling you, Sparrow is on our side."

"Yeah, well, you're lucky you don't know what it's like to be on his bad one."

Kitten shook her head. "This'll be a quick job, Robin. Don't worry about it. I'll be your shield if you'll be such a fucking pansy. Sparrow can't hurt me. But for the record, the thought would never cross his mind."

"Maybe for your case." Cock Robin held his fingers up, peering over where his nails should have been. "You weren't supposed to be dead by now."

----

The Winnebago unloaded a family of three. The blond mother greeted the guards upon entrance, and her redhead daughter as well as a soft-looking, androgynous brunette followed.

They traveled to the top floor, welcomed into one of the cushy suites entertaining a number of wealthy businessman, heavily guarded as any.

The door was barred behind them. Waiting in the suite were a number of suited men and women, guards for each one, and a particularly unique figure in the corner, a handsome baked chestnut-haired male wearing a pair of expensive sunglasses to match a similarly styled pin striped suit. He was easily the richest there, judging from the way the others hailed him, shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

The handsome man got up, opening his arms with a smile. "Ah, Gracious, my dear teacher. So good to see you after all this time." He gave her a fond hug.

"And Kassie. How're you doing, Kitten?"

Kassie shrugged, accepting a friendly rub on the head.

The man turned finally to the longer-haired brunette beside them. "Paul. This is a surprise." He said pleasantly. "Well Miss Gracious does take me everywhere nowadays." Paul responded amicably.

"To keep an eye on you, perhaps, and your itchy fingers." The male quipped, giving him a friendly pat on the back. "Perhaps. They're not as much of a problem now, thanks to you, Roland." He extended a gloved hand. Mark Roland shook with him, expression inexplicable to the others that were watching this somewhat personal scene unfold.

And those who could read the underlying spite between them shivered.

"When you invited us over, Mark, I thought we'd have somewhere to talk with just the five of us." Gracious said calmly. "Ah, well you know how it is. My agents and my bodyguards need to keep me in check at all times. After all, how many people would love to meet me?

CEO and model of his own fashion industry?"

"Well they've definitely got your ego in check." Paul remarked.

"So then," Mark said, ignoring the comment. "What did you want to talk about?" He gestured for the three to sit. "Just a personal job." Gracious said meaningfully.

Mark raised a perfectly-tapered eyebrow. "I'm listening."

"I know you are, Mark." Gracious said, and nothing more.

Mark smiled. "Please leave the four of us alone. Speaking of which, Gracious, where's Ron? It's been a while since I've seen him too."

"He's just waiting downstairs. You know how it is with him and his smokes." Kassie answered. Gracious nodded.

"I see. I thought I made myself clear that I wanted to have a private conversation." Mark said loudly. The agents got up quickly. "And I mean everyone."

"But sir..."

"GO." He barked. They filed out.

Once the room was secure, Mark took a remote from one of the drawers. "What does that do?" Kassie asked innocently. "Something magical." Mark commented, pressing one of the buttons. "Silent feeds? Or loops? Or did you just turn off the surveillance system in the room?" Kassie asked afterward.

"The first. No one really notices anyway. So what IS that job, Gracious?" Mark shrugged off his jacket. "Just a small infiltration for the Roads pharmaceutical." Gracious said quickly, hand over her mouth to avoid being read. "Robin, tell him the rest." Paul frowned, but draped fingers over his mouth as well. "Nothing apocalyptic, they're just cutting corners with the funding they were supposed to give for that vaccine to be distributed to the islands a month ago."

"No fun in that. But it's been a while since I had my last little adventure." Mark said airily. "One which, if I recall, deprived me of a few fingernails." Robin said spitefully, pulling off a glove. "I was just doing my job, Cock." Mark said, his own tone edged with malice. "I'm amazed Gracious even gave you a second shit, a scumbag like you."

"Hey, we're all friends here." Kassie said calmly. Gracious smiled silently. "Come on, Sparrow. One hand on Robin and you'll have the media up your ass for something a little less noble than the fashion industry."

Mark stepped back, looking uncomfortable even with the unwavering expression.

"So do we have a deal, Mark?" Gracious asked. "Course. Anything for old friends." Mark replied, smiling his winning smile, one that often found its way on the front page of top 100 lists.

"Not friends, Mark. Family." Gracious corrected.

Paul slipped his hand back into his glove and got up.

"Well, this was fun, but the errant, negative vibes of stardom are giving me a migraine."

"Okay, Paul. I'll come with you." Kassie said cheerfully. The two made their way out, past very curious-looking people.

"Good to see you again, Mark." Gracious and Roland exchanged kisses on both cheeks and the blond woman walked out of the suite, leaving with him a small white envelope with a number of papers that wouldn't exist soon enough.

--------------------------

.G-G-Good Morning.


Come hell or high water, there was no way they could get him off a case.

Robert Dove looked through his files on Roads pharmaceutical and what information he'd saved from Interpol. Matching the info from the Henderson case, he found only a single link.

GG.

The squealers had mentioned a meeting with someone called GG. It had all been kept under wraps, and not even Henderson himself knew who this GG was. He said they'd met a spokesman, "a fag in a hat" that for the life of him, he couldn't identify. Francis Roads, the CEO of the pharmaceutical in question refused to say anything at all. It was practically a dead end, if they couldn't get any info on this "GG".

He spent most of the nights cross-referencing other mentions of "GG" and ended up with two companies that had gone belly-up and others that either risked bankruptcy or shot up in the stock market.

Dove even attempted to tie in his info on gangs and underground activity in the area. He ended up with a few dozen mentions of this GG.

Robert sighed. Whoever this GG was was big news if the police, or any of the security branches hadn't heard of he/she/it before.

"A little tense, aren't you?" A velvety voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He nearly fell out of his chair, and the all-nighter he pulled almost messed up his momentum. He collected himself enough to grab the arm that was leaning on the back of his chair.

Dove was surprised, though, to find himself facing an effeminate brunette with mild surprise on the smooth features. "I thought so." The male in front of him said, looking vaguely amused. "Who are you?" Dove said, not loosening his grip nor softening his expression.

"I'm here to do a job for Miss Gracious. Sorry for barging in, but the door was kind of... open." The other said sheepishly.

That door was NOT open. Dove wanted to argue, but it sounded childish. And judging from the basket of muffins set neatly on the table, the man (or as much of a man as the effeminate creature before him could possibly be) wasn't lying about being there for Gracious.

"Sorry. I'm just a little...." Unhinged. "Well, I pulled an all-nighter so..." He found himself stuttering.

"Why don't I set up the shower for you?" The other said, still looking amused. "Sorry." Dove said again. "Don't worry about it. Just.... could you let go of my arm?"

Robert looked startled, and let go of the other quickly. He wondered how many more times he could humiliate himself in front of this stranger. Then he remembered what Charlee told him at the station a week prior.

"No one's a stranger in Cor Town. Just try being nice, okay Rob?"

"Sorry. Again. I'm Robert. Robert Dove." He said, extending a hand.

The other grinned. "You need to stop apologizing. I'm Paul Beige. I live next to Girlie Gracious on Mimosa street?" Robert nodded as the other shook his hand. Looking down, he noticed something strange. "What ha-" And he stopped. Was it too rude to ask?

Robert doubted that how he ended up with missing fingernails was something he wanted to talk about.  

Paul looked down as well, and pulled his hand away. "Yeah, it's not something I like to talk about. Buried hatchets and stuff. So anyway," He said with a clap, "Miss Gracious wanted me to see how you were doing. It's been three weeks already, hasn't it? How have you settled in?"

"It's been a month now." Robert corrected, moving to the table. "And it's been... really nice here."

"Nothing bothering you?" Paul asked, making his way down the hall. "Not real- well, actually... Nah, it's just me." Robert said, sentences fragmenting.

"Not getting enough action in this town, huh, Detective?" Paul remarked, voice echoing from the bathroom.

Whether knowingly or not, Paul had just hit the nail right on the head. "Sorry, but don't you have somewhere else to be?" Dove said irritably. "And what the hell are you doing in there?"

"Just making sure your shower's in working order." Paul called back. "And are you always like this or should I let you plead insomnia?"

Robert hit his head on the table, realizing what he'd been saying. "I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I told you to stop apologizing." Paul said, walking back into the kitchen.

"Here. You're gonna want to get back to sleep. The shower can wait." Paul said, with a hint of concern that Robert could detect in the brunette's tone. He handed him a few sleeping pills from the packets he kept in the cupboard.

Paul poured them glasses of water, and took one up with a flourish. "How about a toast? For the interesting morning, Detective?"

Dove stared at him for a second. "Well, nothing actually happened."

"No? Well this is the first time I ever got a tongue lashing from an insomniac detective this early in the morning. If you don't find that interesting, then call me a hopeless romantic."

Paul held up his glass. Robert shrugged, bringing up the other in a ' ping' and downing his pills with the water.

He shut down his PC, already drowsier than he expected. Maybe he already had been sleepy. Just... fucking stubborn.

"Come on, straight man. Let's get you out of that shirt." Paul said, chuckling. Dove stood alert for a second, but Paul pointed out the stains on various sides of the dull T-shirt and promised he wasn't trying anything.

"Hey, I'm gay, not evil." Paul told him as he helped slip the shirt off.

When Robert finally lay on the cerulean sheets, his vision blurring, he remembered one last thing, as Paul put his shirt in the laundry basket.

"Thanks. Sorr- um, hope I wasn't too much of an asshole." He said. "Don't worry. You're a nice guy, Robert. Let's have a coffee sometime." Paul said pleasantly.

"I'm on my way out anyway. And don't worry, I'll lock the door for you." He added.

But it was locked. Robert thought, the last thing he remembered before drifting into peaceful slumber.

__________________________

.Down the Rabbit Hole.

That night, Girlie Gracious and Kassie Hyne, along with Paul Beige and driven by Ron Goodman, left Cor Town in the old Winnebago. This was not a rare thing for that particular group. Nearly everyone knew that they would leave Cor Town, often to return a few days, perhaps even a week later.

And no one questioned them.

"You mean, no one knows what they do or where they go?" Dove asked incredulously. Charlee Lamia, his partner and the youngest on the Cor Town police force, shrugged from behind her pancakes. "Miss Gracious manages all the businesses here in Cor Town. You could say she's the most powerful person here."  

"What about the mayor?"

"The mayor's just a formality. Gracious declined the offer a few years back and they assigned someone careful enough. Even Mister mayor takes Gracious' advice." Charlee said. "And no one's the least bit curious about what the most powerful woman in Cor Town does outside of it?"

"Hey." Charlee warned. "Girlie Gracious genuinely cares for Cor Town. She's lived here for as long as I can remember. Tim said she's lived here all her life, aside from the studies she got in the big city. And unlike all the other kids who grew up in Cor town in her time, she came back."

"Alright. Alright." Robert surrendered. He sipped his coffee wearily.

"So, Rob. What's this I hear about you letting the faggot prince into your room?" The remark almost made Robert spit out his coffee.

"Who-wha-" "Hey, don't forget to breathe, Dove. It's no big deal. Paul's a real nice guy." Charlee said, holding back obvious mirth.

"That's what he said about me. I'd be surprised if you said anyone in Cor Town wasn't a 'good' or 'nice' guy." Robert said. "There are some. Some of those teens who want out. I don't get how the lot of them could lose their values so quickly." Lamia shook her head.

"Well, teenagers." Robert murmured. They stopped talking for a while, Charlee gobbling down her pancakes and Robert reading the papers.

"What, women in Cor Town don't bother to watch their girlish figures?" He commented dryly. Charlee stuck a tongue out. "Only Paul." The two laughed.

----


_{"Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.”}

"We're here."

The time flashing on the street-side digital clock was 11:40 in the evening.

"So the plan-"

"I know. Get in, get the info, get out. I've got until midnight to collect info. The guards will have gotten to the top floor for their rounds by then. The information is stored in the computer and papers in the safe in the north-east corner of the room. Is that everything?"  

"Don't strain your pretty little head, Sparrow." Robin muttered. "Here. We'll be on comm.link if anything happens. I'll crack the computer files, but you're on your own with the safe." Kitten said.

Sparrow slipped on the black mask and the gloves, giving them a thumbs up.

Driver looked over to them from the front. "Good luck on that." "Thanks, buddy."

---
_{Alice falls down the rabbit hole and her dress poofs up like a parachute.
"Well, after this I should think nothing of falling down stairs.”}


"Sparrow? You hear me?"

"Hear ya loud and clear, Kitten."

"Alrighty. Don't put too much strain on the cord. It'll only hold for two minutes at a time."

"Right-o." The black-clothed figure dropped from the ceiling, held only by a thin black cord that looked no thicker than thread. Sparrow flipped over, holding onto the cord with only his feet as his hands reached the table.

"Security code 3925...." Kitten recited the numerals and Sparrow input the combination into the table side.

"There. It's done."

Sparrow sprayed some aerosol. "Yeah. It's done." He nimbly settled down on the floor, retracting the cord. "All right. Link me to the computer and give me five minutes."

Sparrow did, and the files appeared in three. "Good timing, Kitten." Sparrow checked through the files, sending necessary ones to Kitten's linked system.

"Fourteen minutes, Sparrow." Robin's voice warned. "Right. I'm getting this done in...." As soon as done, Sparrow shut down the computer system and made his way to the safe on the corner.

"Hey, Cock Robin. Mind telling me where exactly this magical safe is?" He said, finding an empty corner.

"Thought you'd be smart enough to figure it out. My mistake. It's under the corner tile." Robin informed him. Sparrow lifted the rose-colored ceramic and found the safe. "Code?"

Robin recited the combination, and at the end of it, Sparrow lifted the metal door to reveal the files all accounted for in the safe.

"Sparrow, ten minutes to get out."

He set everything back into place, albeit missing a few important papers, and got up. "Take the stairs to the fourth floor." Robin ordered.

"Fourth? Damn it, Robin, I'm on the twenty-second."

"Then you'd better hurry." Robin said, almost mocking.

"Don't lose your head, Sparrow. It really is the only way out." Kitten cut in. "All right. I'm already getting down." Sparrow said through grit teeth.

Skirting past guards and security cameras came naturally to him now, getting him down to floor four with four minutes to spare.

"Out the window, Sparrow. Kitten's set up a safety." Sparrow found the window in question, finding an almost invisible cord set up. "Hurry, Sparrow. Fly." Kitten said with a giggle. Sparrow couldn't help but smile.

Smile at the triumph, at the familiar feel of his old job, and at the euphoria of 'flying' down the cord.

The whole time, no one saw a thing.

----

It was Dove who saw the RV pull back into Cor Town. He had been on a late night stroll, and saw the Winnebago pull into Mimosa street. It had been two nights ago that they'd left, and he watched Girlie Gracious enter her house, Kassie slumping in after.

"Good eve, Detective." Dove almost jumped.

"You're kidding me. Still aren't getting enough sleep, Robert?" Paul said, his tone almost berating. "No. I'm just not used to being scared out of my wits by someone who should have been in that RV in front of me." Robert replied, breathing a deep sigh.

"Hm." Paul nodded. "You walked all the way here then?" "Just a late night stroll. It's a nice night." Robert said. "Fair enough. You want to come in for a drink?" Paul offered. "Why not? Although this late at night..." Robert trailed off. "Afraid of staying in a gay man's house?" Paul guessed. "No- well, not exactly, it's more of-" "What will people think?" Paul suggested. "Are you a mind reader?" "No, but I have magical gay superpowers." "That's.... good to know." Robert paused. "Got any coffee?"  

The two entered the house, the time being 12:34 in the morning.
----

That night, Kassagel Hyne dreamt of Alice, holding a chocolate in one hand and her cat belt in the other.

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

Kassie nodded vaguely on the mushroom. On her right sat Cock Robin, an arrow in his breast. She supposed this was supposed to be a bad thing, but not really. It wasn't really bad. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't a terrible thing.

Ron sat on a leaf, smoking circles.

WHO~ ARE~ YOU~~~

And she was the cheshire. She laughed. Cheshire Kitten. Always smiling.

Because everything was just peachy-keen. Everything was fine.

_{"We're all mad here...}