A/N: This was inspired by a prompt on the Inception Kink Meme, but I sadly can't find the prompt again D: If anyone knows where it is, or the OP, it would be very nice to tell me or alert them of this story. The prompt was something along the lines of (Alice was the first Architect, the Mad Hatter the first Chemist.)
Anyways, please enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Before there was payment, before a Cobb or Mal or Ariadne, before PASIV, before military training, or even before totems, there was a girl. A man. And a few others too. And the girl said to the man,
"Won't you take me somewhere?"
The man was a Mr. Hatter, and the girl was an Alice, and they ate cookies in the garden and Mr. Hatter made all sorts of tea Alice had never ever heard of.
And Mr. Hatter said that maybe he could.
"A field, Mr. Hatter?" Alice asked, a pronounced pout on her face. "We can get fields at home."
"It is not what it is, but what aliens plant in your mind." Mr. Hatter said and took Alice by the hand and led her through the tall grass. "If you are not happy with the dream, build one yourself. Truly, Alice, I can't think of everything."
Alice made trees so high you couldn't see the top and the sky so purple it rained grapes.
"Curious and curiouser." She said when Mr. Hatter made it so everything in the dream was upside-down. "I do say we are getting better at this."
There were times when Mr. Hatter wasn't around to play with Alice, (and play time was almost endless, when they found how time traveled so differently.) so Mr. Hatter gave her means to dream with others.
There was the Queen of Hearts (that was her sister, who for all her logic, wanted to be a Queen) and the White Rabbit, (the garden boy. He took care of stray bunnies) and the funny Cheshire Cat (who was the most curious of all. He was Alice's grand father, the relative she liked most of all.)
They acted out stories, separate at first, then Mr. Hatter (who was the Mad Hatter, always at six for tea time. The man was never ever late.) said they could all play together.
Alice named the world Wonderland, because the world she built was really quite wondrous.
She was the only one who stayed herself. She pictured herself as the heroine of sorts.
None of the people in their minds had ever hurt them, but then came the Jabberwocky. He was supposed to just look scary, not actually hurt them.
But he did.
The Mad Hatter never never never forgot the look on sweet kind happy Alice's face when the beast sent his orange claw at her.
"This stuff is just all too frightening for me, I do say."
There are times when Alice (not little Alice anymore) walks through the garden, and she is sure the flowers are talking behind her back.
(They aren't)
She doesn't go into the forest anymore, not when the Jabberwocky is about.
(It's not)
She doesn't dare drink tea anymore. There could be chemicals in it to send her further into the dream.
(Mr. Hatter drank too much tea, and one day they all woke up but he didn't. Ever.)
And there are days when she cried because no matter how hard she tries, she can't make the buildings move anymore.
And there are days when she can't stop laughing, because her world is not real.
And since her world is not real, it's okay that she jumps from the top of a building she can't move anymore. Because when she wakes up, she'll be back in the garden, away from Wonderland.
(She doesn't wake up.)