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Stanley Padgett	Those who are here for the assault on Wonderland will find both Stanley and Charlotte here at the bus stop outside of Silver Springs Union High School. Stanley explains that this is an entry point to the Reversal, and then the pair will bring everyone with them to the other side... The transition is like sliding S i d e w a y s T h r o u g h R e a l i t y, a cross angled vertigo sensation until they are in the Reversal.     It looks... different though. Last time, they arrived in a world of smoke and mirrors and brutalist concrete edifices to industry and progress all wrapped up in neon and xenon, in front of a ruined keep that represented Silver Springs High School, or at least the vision of it that was warped by Dr. Hunnicutt.     Now, they are ankle deep in muted grass and moss, and where the towering buildings stood, now it is trees and mushrooms and skewed Grandfather Clocks, all set to different times, their dials turning at the wrong speeds. But there's a very definite path inwards through the horribly colored and wrongly lit Wonderland, flanked on both sides by the Card Soldiers who stand at attention. The path Twists and Turns but is Perfectly Straight at the same time. It leads forward towards a series of lunch tables, all jammed together to form one table, infinitely long, covered in teapots and rotten food.     At the head of the infinite table... sits the White Rabbit.     The White Rabbit is not some cutesy humanoid rabbit. It is a grotesque 8-foot-tall rabbit, mouth stained with tea and rotten vegetables, with horrible Yellow Eyes, its face twisted into an unnatural rictus, wearing an overcoat covered in pocket watches. It croaks as everyone makes it to the Tea Room. "...You're EARLY. How could you be so FOOLISH? This is an AWFUL TIME for tea. It's so EARLY. The VERY IMPORTANT DATE has come and gone... AGAIN. Get out now, or I will remove you MYSELF."         White Rabbit, The Tyrant of Wonderland.         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CE3yZKO_QA     Stanley, for his part, is already in his Revolution form, the sleek neon trimmed tabard draping over his shoulders, his foil gleaming in the dark. "Chet, we just want to end this, and we know you don't know how... so We're gonna have to beat it out of you like I did Dr. Hunnicutt."     A beat. "...Sorry?" And then he launches across the room in one motion, flashing to ram his foil into the White Rabbit. It impacts on a pair of pocket watches that interpose themselves with the point of his sword, and he flings off to the side. "...DANGIT."
Stanley Padgett	The White Rabbit howls into the gloomy sky, a hazy smoke of Temporal Agony that hangs in the air. "COME AND FACE ME, TICK TOCK. YOU ARE ALL LAAAAAAATE!"
KNK	Did Violet really promise to return? Rose hadn't even appeared in the pizzeria in person, but now, both have shown up, all of a sudden -- quite suddenly, dropping the effect of their personal-sized cloaking fields right in front of Charlotte and Stanley. Ninjas, now present.     "Okay, let's see this 'reversal' thing."     ...and where the towering buildings stood, now it is trees and mushrooms and skewed Grandfather Clocks...     "Are you sure we're really here and not sitting somewhere else, tripping balls?"     The path Twists and Turns but is Perfectly Straight at the same time.     "Yeah, I'm pretty sure the shit I'm seeing can't be real."     "Then how come I'm seeing the same thing?"     "Visual-- huh, wait, no. Internals are all green. Has to be drugs, but can't be drugs. Okay, I'm stumped. I give up."     "You think we can take those clocks out with us? I bet I know someone into 'em. Oh, you smell that?"     "Rot."     It is a grotesque 8-foot-tall rabbit.     "Is this a mutant thing, or horrfic science, or..."     The White Rabbit howls into the gloomy sky, a hazy smoke of Temporal Agony that hangs in the air.     "I thiiink it's more of an anomalous thing!"
Captain Hook	Ah...dreams.      Wonderland holds that marvelous dreamlike quality one would expect of a place carrying that name. Trees, mushrooms, skewed grandfather clocks, time turning wrong, whimsical soldiers. Indeed it is Wonderland in the same way that Neverland is Neverland - fantastical, but just a tiny bit *off*.      Were William Hook the type to let that sort of discomfort show he would be doing so. Instead Hook has pulled his broad pirate hat over his eyepatch. His bright blue eye is uncharacteristically cold, the only hint to anyone besides perhaps Hibiki of his feelings on the subject matter. At his side is his cutlass. Spinning on his hook is his flintlock. He walks with the gait of a man with absolute confidence, blue coat slung about his shoulders like a cape, back upright, clothes in impeccable condition, stride unbroken by the strangeness.      He is not here to save the day, but the man certainly cuts a dashing, swashbuckly figure for sure.      Hook does not stop at the end of the table. Instead he simply steps up onto the chairs with no more difficulty than ascending a staircase. He plants one foot higher than the other so he can drape his free hand over his knee, still spinning the flintlock.      "Honestly."      Hook sighs and spreads his arms. "What does a *Colonial* know about *teatime*?"      That's all the banter the rabbit gets, because now Hook is dancing across the chairs in perfect rhythm, humming a tick-tock song as he does so. It's keeping his mind off the rabbit's horrible rictus-grin. It's keeping his inner metronome in the face of the endlessly wrong-ticking clocks. And it's keeping him focused as he, despite it being *patently* impossible, fires and reloads his flintlock.      It's really fascinating to see a man with a hook hand shoot a gun and reload it in one motion. The hook jerks back to pull the trigger. The gun fires, the recoil sending it backwards. The recoil dips it into the black powder. Hook's motion slips a ball into the gun and packs the powder in one fell swoop.
KNK	There isn't any audible communication between the two when they actually move to attack. Violet runs forward, but promptly disappears, maneuvering with the perfect poise necessary not to upset any tea cups as she circles around the Rabbit's left. Rose is still half-visible as she reaches to her back, pulling out a pair of briefcase-sized mystery containers. She tosses each a good fifty yards, in different directions. The metal bounces once, then sets down, with spikey legs popping out to hold it in place as each case unfolds into a squat little turret covered in garish neon pink and green. They orient targeting lasers onto the rabbit, and begin unloading a raucous barrage.     The paint is wholly purposeful. They're a lot more noticeable than Rose, herself, as she unlimbers a massive rifle.
Timespace Riders	"Hi, everyone. I see a few new faces... my name's Sougo Tokiwa, and I've been helping with the investigation into the time loop." Smiling despite the tenseness of the storybook forest, he offers a little bow. "Since I can make loops of my own... I've come to find out that Chet really just wants out of all this. It's starting to wear on him, and he's scared and stressed out." With a small frown, he adds, "Try not to be too hard on him, once this is over, please."     Woz rolls his eyes, but says nothing.     The two of them waste no further time, and both armor up.                        o/` Ka-meeen Rider! o/` ZI-O. . .                                                      KAMEN RIDER WOZ? WOZ?!                                 Zi-O, an armored fighter in silver, white and pink, bears a helmet resembling the face of an analog watch, with a cuirass like the band of that same watch. His retainer Woz, in silver and green with blue detail, resembles a smartwatch.     "As you wish, dear Chet,~" Woz intones with menacing poltiesse and a regal flourish of his hand. A spear matching his color scheme with a touchscreen halfway down the haft appears in his hand, while Zi-O manifests a silver and pink longsword.     The two fighters charge in, splitting up. Woz, holding his spear behind him, brings it around for a series of harassing low thrusts aimed at its front paws, hands spaced closely together--less power, more prodding, before he mixes in a standing roundhouse.     Zi-O, meanwhile, strikes from above, leaping into the air to rake the sword across the hulking rabbit's back. A burning arc of pink energy follows his strike, which is then followed up with a superhuman shoulder-check to try and bowl the rabbit over!     "It's the shadows cast by someone's heart," Zi-O calls to Rose and Violet. "Twisted by isolation and fear. We need to overcome it, if we're going to save the peoeple trapped in this time loop!"
Kukuru	As promised, Kukuru arrives. As promised elsewhere, she arrives with a bag. It's food, of course, but those with more sensitive senses of smell might notice it smells far sweeter than her usual fare. It's almost pleasant, even, in that homey bakery kind of way that might not be particularly appropriate considering her surroundings being so fungal foresty with all those messed up clocks, and also... There's no Delilah here. Kukuru lets out a quiet noise as she packs that bag right back into her pockets, stuffing the whole thing back in despite her pockets being otherwise normal dress pockets on her usual white and green ensemble. Thankfully, she does it before the group starts approaching the infinitely long table, so there's no concern about the rotten food contaminating her own! She still looks grossed out by the sight of that stuff, though, and her disgust holds steady as she looks right over at the rotten-faced rabbit. "You shouldn't talk with your mouth full. Also..." Kukuru lets out a straining noise. Apparently, she's trying to come up with something clever to say and failing spectacularly at it. Instead, she leaves that to her companions here, and spends her time instead getting her torso-sized claws out (of the same normal pockets, even) to join Stanley in the squad stance-up. "I don't really get all this stuff, either, but... I trust Stanley's making the right decision here. And everyone else, too, if they're all here for the same reason." She affirms, then falls backwards into a cloud of purple energy. A second one appears to the side of the White Rabbit, launching Kukuru right out of it. She twists in mid-air to try and slam her claws downwards at the White Rabbit, aiming to overwhelm those clock-based defenses with overwhelming force rather than anything even remotely resembling finesse or technique.
Rita Ma	Rita seems ill-at-ease at the bus stop, rolling a pleat of her skirt between forefinger and thumb and never quite seeming to find a posture she's comfortable in. It's not the danger of the Reversal or the Tyrant, exactly, that has her feeling this way. Being shot at scared her, but it didn't put her in a mood like this.      "Mr. Stanley?" she says before they enter, looking like she already regrets asking. "If I asked you to close your eyes while we're fighting, would you do it?"      ----      Rita sheepishly smiles and waves at one of the card soldiers, once she's overcome her initial shock. "Thanks for letting us through." Sure, they were at blows earlier, and they definitely aren't even people, but it wouldn't sit right with her to just say nothing.      Her nose crinkles up when they approach the Tea Room, both for its spatial dissonance and the smell of rotting food. "I don't think I like lunchrooms much anymore," she murmurs under her breath. But 'worry' cuts past 'disgust' when she sets her sights on the Tyrant.      "Mr. Chet..." It's a monster. It's awful. They are definitely going to have to beat it up, and there isn't even a morally complicated question about it. But even as Stanley lunges and glances off those pocketwatches, Rita still hesitates.      "Why'd you do it? Why'd you wish for something like this? I know it's not even making you happy. What are you so scared of, that you'd keep tomorrow from coming?!"
Remee Halcyon	There's a new young woman in with the Watch contingent. She's feeling a *little* out of place here - she's radiating a lot of 'new kid trying to fit in' energy, glancing at the others as if trying to see if there's any cues she's about to miss (which is in fact what she's doing), and radiating a lot of 'first time on a mission' energy - doublechecking her equipment, which all looks polished-shiny, barely used, and has an unnecessary amount of accessories along with it (ex: a sniper scope cleaning kit that you'd expect to use once in a dozen missions). "Oh, neat! A bus stop," she says, on arrival, as if she hasn't ever seen one in person. "Are we waiting for the bus?" And then the transition happens. This is new. "It looks like... art?" she suggests, for something to say, and then her nose wriggles. "And... smells like... sullied dreams and lost time? With hints of... spoiled tea and unseeken... spores? That's new, too." "Oh- there's the spoiled tea, at least..." she says, seeing the lunch tables. Onward! "Oh - we're early." Remee nods. "Terribly sorry! We'll come back later." She turns to leave. "Or - we're late? Or - agh, make up your mind, then, you rabbit!" She draws her rifle and dives under the infinite lunch table, taking the first moderately hidden spot she can find for the moment, figuring on being able to use her allies' more flashy attacks to draw attention while she gets into position. And then, lying prone under the infinitely long table, she takes careful aim and fires. ... Admittedly, she's taking aim at the rabbit's ankles, since that's the only visible bit from where she's lying, but still.
Hibiki Tachibana	Last time, Tachibana Hibiki made the mistake of doing Hibiki things and trying to appeal to the White Rabbit at the last minute, at risk of causing some kind of irreversible harm to the Shadow or his other half.     This time, she is empowered by information and knows it's perfectly a-ok to knock its metaphorical block and literal clock(s) off. And when that's the only way to get things done, that suits her more than fine.     "So 'Wonderland' really did spread out here..." The change in environment as soon as the Reversal is crossed into is impossible to miss, compared to the crumbling castle of before. She doesn't spend overly long worrying about what'll happen if it'll somehow encroach out even further than this - since that's going to stop today, if there's anything to be done about it. So there's no hesitation at all in her pushing onward, onward, and onward further down the winding but ultimately (just the way she likes it) straight path to their familiar destination.     The twisted lunchroom turned tea room, and its sole monstrous occupant. "You can sure try, but today's uninvited guests aren't going to leave that easy. I don't even want to /hear/ about 'early' after how long Lampport has had to put up with all of this..." She murmurs into the scarf of her Symphogear, even while yanking it down with a thumb. It's not as if she doesn't know that words are going to be almost entirely lost on this thing. But she can't help saying at least that much, before her hand slips away and it joins the other in raising up and clenching in a readied, tensed-up stance.     "...And I sure as hell don't want to hear about 'late', either! Make up your mind, already!"     Some frustration hits her voice as the magical girl stomps forward and launches herself ahead fast enough that several teacups and plates on the table go spilling as she passes by. All to build up an extreme amount of momentum helping drive a heavy punch in towards the White Rabbit's stomach, and it's just fine by her if any of those watches lining its waistcoat get in the way.     She'll just crumple them underfist and keep on going.
Charlotte Newman	Charlotte had arrived courtesy of a beat up Honda driven by someone who has perhaps had too many energy drinks. She at least showed up with enough time to compose herself from what must have been a wild ride, to the degree that it is a blonde in black and pink waiting to meet the rest.     She has accessorized with a baseball bat. It is adorned with a wide assortment of cute stickers. Folks are greeted politely enough as they arrive, up until she helps convey this group of mad people into the Reversal.     After S L I D I N G S I D E W A Y S through reality and permitted entrance to the dining hall, she folds her arms to hear out the grotesque rabbit's screaming.     "Late and Early at the same time..." She closes her eyes, "Yeah. It's a time loop, of course it's both of those at once." Arms unfolding, she holds the bat out vertically, pointed down in one hand. The other holds just shy of the wooden pommel, "Come out, my other self!"     Twisting out of Charlotte's figure is another, taller shape. Bound in chains, clad in chromed and matte metals and shining with light cast from beneath the edges of armored plates, the persona GALATEA manifests behind and above the girl.     "If you think you've got what it takes to throw all of us out, I only have one word for you--" Charlotte twists the bat, shifting her stance and pointing with it, "Agidyne!"     The metal-clad manifestaiton behind her twists; the unbound arm raising to expose a cannon on the wrist. This fires with a loud crack, hurling a fireball in a parabolic arc downrange at the White Rabbit's seat; where it should explode quite nicely.
Lilian Rook	For the most part, Lilian is simply glad that this batch of insolent teens actually listened to her, and took to heart the sensible advice (demand) of getting this out of the way as early as possible so that they aren't running up against the day-loop clock like an unmedicated student with a final project deadline. That makes everything very simple.     Right from the very start, Lilian is dressed neither with the pretense of this being a social visit paid to the lower classes, nor with the military paraphernalia of her combat skin, but neck to toe in slender-fit, mirror shined black plate, glittering gold in the fantastical seams that theoretically have no way of coming off. The very same suit she had first, and only, worn in proximity to the Union Busan. Her usual white gold lily hairpin looks as if it were intentionally planned all along, framed between tines of a black antler circlet.     Greatsword in hand, hair unbound, not a gun in sight, she might very well be the second most fairytale thing visible. Even the way she struts the path feels different. Something in her upright and unhurried body language screams 'quest' instead of 'mission',     'You think we can take those clocks out with us?'     '...You're EARLY.'     Lilian slaps her hand against the nearest environmental clock, fingers splayed over its face, and turns her wrist clockwise. The hands accelerate forward at a hundredfold and some pace; two minutes per second. "My mistake. 'Chet'." she says, not the slightest bit apologetic. "You care about the time quite a great deal, don't you? I'll catch us all up to exactly where we should be. Just for you." The rapid acceleration jumps to several other near clocks nearby. The din of ticking becomes white noise.     She looks, just for a moment, for a reaction.     Some of the transition frames are missing from between her standing near a clock, and severing the legs from under a lunch table and kicking hard enough against its freefalling underside to launch the tabletop like a shuriken into the Rabbit's open mouth from a standstill. She's even timed it exactly such that it blocks the Tyrant's vision of the charging Elites from the front, and conceals Rose just before her shot.
Stanley Padgett	Rita tries to reason with the White Rabbit while attacks start to rain down on it, and it just howls. "THIS IS INEVITABLE. TIME MARCHES TO ONE CONCLUSION." Ugly yellow eyes turn to face Rita... as the attacks start to pummel the creature. Kicks and turrets, flintlocks and claws, swords and rifles, HIBIKI PUNCHES and RIDER COMBOS, and TIME SHENANIGANS.     Lilian's Time Shenanigans only obscure the rest of the attacks a little bit, the Rabbit's paw moving with preternatural speed to swat that table out of the way.     The fireball scorches the coat of the Tyrant, leaving the stench of burning fur in the room.     Hibiki's punch clocks the Rabbit, sending it sprawling into both Sougo and Woz who Double Crack it. There's awful noises already starting to burble out of the Tyrant.     Hook's flintlock and the turret, and Renee's shot all pepper the Rabbit, blasting some of those pocket watches off as they swing up and around to defend the Rabbit's middle.     And then Kukuru slashes a chunk out of the Rabbit's ear, sending it spinning into the murk. It dribbles with ugly ichor, stainign the white fur even more.     The Rabbit's response is to simply rear back, rising up a full 15 feet over the room, and howl.     "THE TIME IS COME TO TALK OF MANY THINGS. OF SHOES AND SHIPS AND SEALING WAX, OF CABBAGES AND KINGS!"     And with each word, more energy curdles in the air, building up an AWFUL temporal energy. It just.... it feels wrong, plainly wrong, even more so to those with time powers in the group. It's like the Rabbit KNOWS that these powers exist, but it's beating reality into shape to make them happen. It's clunky, it's kludged together, but it releases in a massive wave of backlash, that smashes across the room, and tries to make bits over everyone's body move forward and back in time at random.     Stanley' yelps a bit at the wave of Awful Clock Energy that crashes through him, an afterwake of ghostly Stanley's writhing in pain at some point now or in the future. He watches Charlotte's attack, and winds up himself. "RIGHT. Come out, MERCUTIO." From his side steps an 8 foot tall Fencer, clad in neon leather armor, carrying a pair of sabers. The creature's glowing mask shows no emotion, as Stanley winds up and lashes forward with his OWN foil. Mercutio takes a double swing at the Rabbit, snaking past the Pocket Watches to gouge out two of his own gashes along the side of the creature, rivulets of grey-orange ichor roiling down its flanks.
Remee Halcyon	"... of cabbages, and kings," says Remee under her breath. This isn't *too* outside of what she's used to, honestly - storybook stuff is storybook stuff, the mode is the same even if the means are different. And, of course, the power being built up smells wrong. Her senses are pinging on reality being altered - she realizes what's coming just in time, and goes to roll out from underneath the infinite lunch table just as the attack is launched. It's a close call - and she ends up rolling out from underneath the infinite lunch table twice, which is a very confusing experience. And from there, it's a matter of getting out across the battlefield - being seen as little as possible, at least by the opposition. Quiet, low, getting out towards the rings of giant mushrooms around the area... ... And from there, setting up for another shot. At the rabbit, or... no. Her gaze glances down the table. The rabbit might be able to shrug off gunshots. She needs something more... debilitating. "I'll huff, and I'll puff..." She lowers her sights, and squeezes the trigger- and the leg of the table nearest the rabbit evaporates in a hail of splinters, followed by the piping hot tea kettle sliding down the suddenly imbalanced table to ideally splash all over him!
Charlotte Newman	There's something intensely wrong about how the Rabbit unleashes its power. Not just Wrong, but patently Gross. Charlotte can't quite put her finger on what bothers her so much about this, being poorly versed in the intricacies of Time as she is. All she knows is that this Shouldn't Be Happening.     It feels even more gross when the Awful Time wave washes over her and things start trying to go in temporal directions they aren't supposed to. Beside her, Galatea thrashes in her chains, only abating once the wave has passed. Charlotte pulls herself together, stepping forward and up onto the dining table as well.     Galatea twists, raising her hand upward, surrounding Charlotte in a pillar of crimson light, bearing a passing resemblance to flames. This fades quickly as she approaches the enormous, grotesque rabbit, giving her bat a twirl. Similarly, Galatea disappears, distorting back into the girl she appeared from.     Quite suddenly the girl stops, planting her forward foot and hauling the bat up into a traditionally Ready position. A glitter-infused sticker proudly proclaiming 'LET'S GO!' gleams briefly before she swings it-- First, into the tea kettle sent sailing by Remee's shot, directing the (now dented) kettle right at him-- and then with a leap, a second swing downward on the White Rabbit's head.
Kukuru	"So he's... Chet's feeling down?" Kukuru asks Zi-O, trying to confirm if she's understanding it right. "That might explain it, then. Bad stuff happening can really mess with someone's head..." She continues, letting out a low sigh while dropping into another portal to get some distance from the White Rabbit as he starts howling. "But if he's that angry now, would just beating his Shadow up really help?" She asks, this time directed towards Stanley ^and Charlotte as the resident Persona-havers. When the White Rabbit's comes surging forward, Kukuru launches herself upwards with a big jump, but that's not quite enough to get out of the way of the oncoming time shenanigans. There's a moment where she actually feels better in the most general sense, but that only serves to make the swerve back to future pain hurt even more. She takes a moment to let her nanites get to fixing whatever damage that caused, and then she sends out her healing stuff around the room to try and keep her allies on their feet. "It sounded like it worked before, though... Right? Against that Mister... Whatever?" Kukuru already forgot Hunnicutt's name. "So if that's the case... It'll work now, too!" Instead of opting for another teleporting attack, she starts walking straight at the Rabbit, claws brandished and arms held sideways to make herself as big of a target as possible.   Rather than wasting energy trying to go for anything flashy or tricky, she just heads straight at it, not even breaking into a jog in favor of making the threat of a giant approaching hit constant for the White Rabbit. Once she's close enough, Kukuru promptly swings both of her claws inwards at the White Rabbit, trying to stab her claws right through it to start tearing away at it with more of that freakish strength of hers.
Hibiki Tachibana	An utterly horrible, cobbled-together mess of temporal energies bursts through the area, and Hibiki does what she does best, besides hitting things hard.     She holds her ground and digs her feet in, stomping down to get a foothold even as she's battered head-on. "Hngh...!" She's sort of accustomed to adapting to deal with time-related things by now. Sort of. Just getting hamfisted by this stuff is much more blunt than she's used to, though.     There are several out-of-sync images of the girl beating around her as the attack roils through her body, but every last one of them is gritting their way through it and riding it out to the end. She actually doesn't even wait for the wave to finish emanating before she begins tightening muscles, slowly lowering herself...     "I think the only thing you're interested in hearing talk is yourself! Keep on trying to do that after I--!"     Whatever she was going to say doesn't come through, but it's pretty easy to guess what it was going to be, from the way she abruptly launches herself off the floor to close the distance again. The White Rabbit looming over everything and all of them just makes it a far bigger target for her, leaping right up towards its deformed and stained head knee-first in order to deliver a heavy strike with it - right up to the chin, to try and force that mouth to clamp shut hard enough that teeth might just crack.     And only after that does a tightly wound-up fist come right behind it, rearing back before being swung with the torque of her body turning with it to throw a vicious hook into the side of its face to attempt to outright /topple/ it.
KNK	Though she can't be seen, Violet's voice is still easily audible. "Oh, that doesn't look right--"     The wave of temporal energy crashes down, and Violet's                     world                 slows         to a crawl.     Separate systems report desynchronization in her field of view, in the space above where her eyes should be able to see. Errors mount in the millisecond after the wave reaching her outstretched hand. Her fingers would twitch, drawn forward in backward in space and time, but before the first motion can complete, the first ripple passed, semi-isolated control systems in her arm are sent shutdown signals, cutting themselves off before cutting their own power. Artificial muscles would go slack without the electrical impulse, but gravity has yet to catch up.     When the smallest, spinning splinters of the table tossed forward by Lilian and then aside by the Rabbit have completed one half of a rotation, the wave has reached Violet's wrist, and she's finished analyzing, eyes wide, the shape of the distortion from the wrong light it emits. She can't move against it, because her arm is switched off.     Two turns off a spinning shard of wood, with hundreds to go before it embeds itself in the dirt like a dart, and the wave has progressed down her subjectively still form to her shoulder. Her fingers are sent their reboot signals, the wave of artificial sleep (though it isn't) and even more artificial wakefulness followed just before and behind the temporal attack crashing against her.     Her mind is the only thing she can't switch off. It's the only thing that's left to experience nonsensical vertigo -- nonsense, because she switched off her eyes and ears for the six spins, less than a tenth of a breath, she'd calculated necessary to not know what the world looked like, with different parts of her mind experiencing it at different rates.     She falls to the ground, but from the perspective of very nearly anyone else, she's already picking herself up again by the time she hits.     Rose was further away, and had time to get ready. It's not quite as bad for her. Good enough that she gets her shot off, the anti-materiel rifle firing its oversized rounds with a deafening bang, ejection-rack-slide-bang, giving away her new position in exchange for something far harder to ignore than her turrets, as they wind through the last of their ammunition.
Timespace Riders	Zi-O eats the energy blast head-on, knocked to the ground. The impact digs furrows into the soft, grassy earth. Attempting to get back up has... complications. "Eh? Eh?!" The hour and minute hands on Zi-O's helmet move wildly, his arms and legs skipping out of phase with the passage of normal time.      Woz, however, is both unaffected and unamused, despite being caught in the blast zone. The energy seems to strike his armor and dissipate like waves slapping against an unmoving cliffside. "Heretic. You dare attack my Demon King with this forgery?"      While Zi-O recovers, Woz changes forms and goes on the offensive.                            Huge! Destructive! Hearty!                                                       Futurering Kikai! KIKAI!                                 The retainer's armor changes, with sturdy golden plates flying over his breastplate and pauldrons, each inlaid with intricate red circuit pathways. Two golden wrenches form the 'antennae' of his rider helmet.     With puffs of steam vented from his armor, four mechanical manipulator arms shoot outwards, grasping with immense strength around the rabbit's ears. With a powerful yank, Woz is rocketed upwards, delivering a brute-force knee to the Tyrant's cheek, just a moment after Hibiki struck the same spot. The arms then make a pummeling, clambering descent down the rabbit's body, placing the retainer in a defensive position between Zi-O and the Tyrant.     Zi-O, meanwhile, procures a laser pistol, materializing into his free hand. In jerky temporal start-stop, he gets back to his feet and makes a combat roll to squeeze out three burning pink shots as he emerges from behind the recently-landed Woz. "I think so, Kukuru!" Calls Zi-O back. "I have a good feeling about this."
Rita Ma	Rita grimaces at the White Rabbit's reply. "What happened to the Shadow Chet we talked to? He was sort of mean, but... he wasn't like this! You don't have to be this way at all!" But it's hopeless, of course.      Rita tries to leap behind one of those mushrooms for cover against the temporal wave, but it doesn't avail her. When she staggers back out, a mishmash of pasts and futures, it's- what is that? Is that even Rita?      For a moment her eyes are black and glowing orange. For a moment the skin of her arm is spiderwebbed with dark unhealthy veins. For a moment there's a glimpse of a taller silhouette, dressed in white, elegantly grotesque-      "I don't -forgive- like this. It -be brave- hurts." Rita is bent over, holding her stomach like she's going to throw up. Then it passes, and her features settle down. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.      The distance between her and the White Rabbit vanishes with a quick leaping dash. She doesn't attack him in the moment she passes by. Instead, she touches the blood running down his flank.      Just one droplet on her fingertips is all she needs. With her back turned to the rest of the party, Rita licks the ichor off. A biological connection.      Rita is 'the Queen of Monsters'. Normally this is an abstract fact. But in the moment her tongue touches blood, it becomes very, very salient: not merely 'the Queen', but 'your Queen'. Something as unhinged as this isn't likely to fall neatly into line, so she keeps her orders simple.      At the moment the greatest concentration of her allies' attacks rain down on the monster, she strips away its defenses with a moment of involuntary paralysis. "Halt." Her hand is outstretched; the word is not spoken, but for the Tyrant, it is heard.
Captain Hook	The clocks run sideways. They're forced into a real time as Lilian forces her will on them. There's a very quiet sigh from Hook - of relief, of course. The white noise means he doesn't have to keep up his beat. The white noise means he doesn't have to keep up his hum. The clocks being set into a pattern - even a loud pattern - is a pleasant removal of a distraction.      The table is flung at Lilian. Hook, standing on the table, hops down-      -and then finds himself on the *other* end of the table, backwards in time. He is struck dead-on before he even knows what's happening, sent spiralling backwards into a mushroom-      -except the mushroom is the table and his head bangs against it firmly, because now he is in front of the table where he hopped down, and-      -now he is getting hit by the table again-      -the front end-      -the back end-      -and then Hook finally is quite through with this whole nonsense. When he is next flung backwards into the table's back end, his rapier comes down to stop it, and he sprints over the table-      -and he is flung forward in time directly in front of the rabbit in full sprint.      He's got it now. The tempo is down. The mad tempo is in his head.      It's like watching a beautiful dance. The man's rhythm is without compare, now that he's gotten the tick, the tock, the madness of the clocks. The flintlock spins into its holster as the cutlass takes the first strike. The mushrooms reflect in the crescent blade. The arc is gorgeous. Not a single wasted motion, and yet, a wildness to it, an untamed, undisciplined element that could only belong to a pirate.      He whirls, his back to the rabbit so he can bend backwards and grab it by the lapel with his hook. "Mr. Markson of Class 5-B, are you listening?"      He unhooks the lapel as Remee fires. The splinters explode. The hot water comes falling down.      The cutlass spins with Hook. He catches the splinters on the tip of the blade. In the arc of his slash they become wooden flechettes on the tip of a sword. As his hook comes around to slash the rabbit's face the cutlass snags the boiling water out of thin air and *splashes* it into the rabbit in the next strike.      "Mr. Markson of Class 5-B, I am going to tell you how to break your curse, and you are going to listen to me, because I am Captain William Hook, and a Captain is to be listened to."      He ducks under Charlotte whirling the kettle into the rabbit without looking. His hook comes up to catch it and backhand the thing with the massive, heavy weapon. "You are trapped, are you not? Trapped in the endless grey. In a cycle without end. The same day. It repeats without end. Today is the same as yesterday. Tomorrow will be the same as today. Every day is the same day in this dream."      Kukuru comes swinging in, and Hook dances out of the way. His flintlock comes up to fire at the rabbit's side, to push it into Kukuru's attack, to force it forward so it can't make any sudden moves, so it has to watch every side simultaneously. He won't let it focus.      "I will not lie to you. I will not tell you that all you must do is break free. That all you must do is wish. That all you must do is smile. Those are the words of someone who has never lived in an endless dream. Who has gotten exactly what they wished for and then found that nothing gold can stay, that even dreams lose their lustre when you start to see the cracks."      His blade crashes into the rabbit's. His hook moves to pin the hand long enough for Hibiki to punch it in the face. For Hibiki to get off her epic combo. For Hibiki to bring the kindness of strangers in an entirely different way. And, well, for Woz to add the knee to the face, but not everything can be part of a metaphor, even in a world born from metaphor.
Captain Hook	"These people are here for you," Hook says, his voice quiet, "They have come here to help you, in their own way. Mr. Padgett, the young ladies, Hibiki, the three gentlemen, all of them. They have come to bring the kindness of strangers to your doorstep because you are suffering."      Rose's anti-materiel rifle goes off. Hook slides behind the rabbit, raises the cutlass, and brings it down exactly as the bullet would reach the blade - so that even if the rabbit dodges the first strike it will have to contend with the bullet again.      "Can you feel the power of that kindness? That power, through these blows against this horrid parody born from your desires? You aren't wrong to wish, Mr. Markson. You weren't wrong. You didn't do anything wrong. You were lured by a promise and given that promise - and then the promise did not let go."      Hook's hook literally swings around to grab Zi-O's lasers out of the air and bounce them directly into that same cheek. That same spot. Hammer it. Hammer it as hard as possible. Beat the rhythm into Chet's ears. The drumbeat of time marching on.      "Yesterday may be the same as today. That you cannot change. You cannot escape the grey that has been. You cannot escape what you have already done."      The cutlass is flung up in the air. Hook's free hand grabs the rabbit's shoulder. He hops over it and catches the cutlass, landing next to Woz.      "But tomorrow is another day. It sounds so simple, so foolishly simple, doesn't it?"      Rita orders the thing to halt. Hook takes the opportunity. He kicks off the ground and goes swinging in. He's not superhumanly strong, he's not superhumanly fast, he's not superhuman at all (save for that bizarre capacity for manipulating ranged attacks of course), but damned if those wild and mad swings don't have a perfection all their own. However long the halt lasts he presses the advantage.      "Yet so hard to grab onto. So hard to understand. So hard to make yourself believe. That's why you reach out and grab these hands being offered you! Because you do not need to face tomorrow alone! They are all here for you! These people, who do not even know you, have come to break you free of today! Have come to help you believe that tomorrow can be a new start! A new day! A new beginning!"      Oh yes. This, William Hook knows all too well. Bleeding, bloody, a black eye (around his patch), Hook continues to press the assault, to keep it on its hind feed for Lilian, to keep the rabbit on him instead of on it, to keep the rabbit's attention, to *push* that the people who care can come forward.      Hook does not care about Chet Markson.      But he knows this world all too well.      "Grab it, Mr. Markson! Grab the hands offered and climb up out of the endless grey void!"
Lilian Rook	'THIS IS INEVITABLE. TIME MARCHES TO ONE CONCLUSION.'     "Well, if you're able to cope with it by thinking that, then I suppose that's good." says Lilian, gently swinging her sword up to her shoulder. "For someone like you, I suppose it might as well be true. It's a rational reaction, when you're first exposed to things you can't fix and can't change." She begins walking forward, in no hurry for some reason she has yet to explain, merely trodding grass and splinters under heel. "That time is merciless and the future is set is the common conclusion for people who suddenly realize they have no power over it."     'OF SHOES AND SHIPS AND SEALING WAX, OF CABBAGES AND KINGS!'     "Lewis Carroll, yes, I've read his work." Lilian replies, to no ostensible purpose. There's no way that she doesn't sense the Tyrant charging up if everyone else can, but she acts so blithely ignorant of it that it becomes concerning. She taps the flat of her sword against her shoulder, sighs, and then abruptly snaps "This is pissing me off.".     "You're just realizing time isn't your friend now? As a teenager? And over what, a three day weekend? You can't even begin to understand what the value of time is. You --your creator, whichever it is-- picked up this up out of simple teenaged angst, over having no real freedom and no stones to try and claim any."     "With this amount of power over time, this is the best you can do? To stick your head in the sand and try and fail to lose track of it? You seized control of one day, and you've done nothing with it but bellyache about the real problem."     "This is revolting. What a gross misuse of something so important. Even your attack --the one you're about to release-- is so sloppy it makes me want to throw up. The fact that you think you can use your appropriated angst and ill-conceived sophistry against me like this is sickening. Even for a 'dark psyche', you don't really believe a word of this, do you? That your dissatisfaction is 'time'."     Lilian quietly spells out 'eight', 'seven', 'six', on her lips, and then adds, "Time marches as I permit, to the one conclusion I want. Figure yourself out, because you don't get a say. All the time in the world is mine."
Lilian Rook	No, she was perfectly aware of the charged temporal attack. Waiting for it, in fact. It reminds her of a certain battle with a certain golden bastard where she had to figure it out on the fly. Given that this one is much more simplistic in function though, there's nothing more than she has to do than wait for it to come out. To sense the temporal wave on the air and see the moment fellow Elites buckle against it.                 -----[stop]-----     "Cute trick. I'm very familiar." says Lilian, where no one can hear. Hopping up on the edge of a chair, tilted over on its corner and floating a foot off the ground from the instantaneous snapshot of being hurled aside, she balance-walks along its sideways edge and steps across to an upturned table.     "I must have been . . . seven or eight? Goodness. But you know, randomly scattering an inertial reference frame doesn't mean anything without a difference in speed between observers along the vector, fourth dimensional or otherwise."     Strutting up to the edge of the table, Lilian walks out across its recently detached leg, peers down over the edge at the Tyrant now beneath her, and slides her sword down from her shoulder into her grip. "That is to say, moving back and forth doesn't work when nothing is moving at all." She tips over and pluges down, simply passing straight through the temporal energy wave.                 -----[start]-----     Lilian falls out of the air directly above the giant rabbit. A broken table leg goes spinning away at a thousand miles an hour at an angle different from all the other ones. A black streak descends on the Tyrant's neck from behind. A single sword blow cuts the air with a sound like a thunderclap and strikes with a total force that demands an answer between the two: be decapitated or be flattened into the ground.
Stanley Padgett	Rita's sudden DECLARATION fixes the creature to the ground. It is TRANSFIXED.     The grotesque Yellow Eyes of the great Rabbit roll in their sockets, as more of the creature is heated and toasted and stabbed and Time-d and bonked and blown to bits with a great fuck off rifle. And with every single attack that's made, Captain Hook is there to make things Worse/Better.     Hibiki and Kukuru and the Riders CRUSH the creature. Hook'd.     Ninja gunshots and splinters. Hook'd.     BASEBALL BAT. Hook'd.     Time Assisted Chair Leg to the Head? Hook'd.     But Hook is treated to the same spattering, the same mess that comes with every attack that's been made thus far. The the rot that exists inside of this (+purple,Tainted Wonderland)] is all just... bottled up and dispensed from this Thing, and it's getting all over the Pirate.     Its jaw is shattered, there's great bits of it missing, one leg is now horribly bent in the wrong direction, and it does nothing to react to it all. That's not to say there's no reaction, bits of it are flying all over the place, more of the great rot leaking out from it... It doesn't seem to be doing a lot to try and defend itself here, other than errant temporal horseshit and pocket watches interposing themselves in front of attacks. Was Rita's hex just that good? Is Chet's Tyrant even trying now?     Perhaps this is an Obligation. That it MUST defend its patch. That the Tyrant needs make sure that their Wish is not undone. This Horrid Wonderland.
Stanley Padgett	R    But then something wells up inside of the Tyrant, and it turns its baleful eyes on Hook, and on Rita, and then it's moving again. "I... I MUST..."And 'Thing' is just the right way to describe the next action from the creature. The howling madness of the Rabbit is more muted, as it seems to be gathering up its power again.     The already broken jaw, shifts open in a different, awful angle, and the words moan out of the shattered rodent's face.     "I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye, How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie. The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat, while the Owl had the dish as its SHARE OF THE TREAT!"     Perhaps inspired by the sudden face full of hot tea, it rears up, and those rivulets of ichor that have pooled on the ground simply grab at the tables in front of the Tyrant, suddenly slimy and solid enough to whip them around. And everyone will be getting a face full of tea, rotten meals, gross leftovers, half-eaten school lunches, and whatever other gross fungal shit has been festering out here.     It is... vile. Wrong. It's not even rotting, there's real despair in this food. Raw anguish. Three weeks of terror and horror at what he's done all curdled up into the guise of Bad School Lunches and Colonial Tea. The Raw torment of Time Spoiled.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley takes a pot full in the face, but... but strangely doesn't seem to be affected by it. He snarls and howls out. "CHET. THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH." And then both Stanley and Mercutio, who manifests behind the Brave Fencer, bite their thumbs at the Rabbit. "OVER HERE YOU GREAT BIG WASTE OF SPACE. HIT ME."     The Rabbit howls in rotten agony, forced by some awful will to turn and face Stanley. As it does so, great swaths of fur ripple and sag and slough from where attacks have landed, revealing more of the rotten underpinnings of the Tyrant.     "PADGETT! YOU DID THIS. YOU... THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! TICK TOCK PADGET, TICK TOCK, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE." The Rabbit howls in madness as it wheels to try and take swipes at the Fencer, who is doing his damndest to flickerstep and dodge everything. Garish neon and xenon afterimages dance around the Rabbit, and Stanley can be seen peppering the Rabbit with pokes of his rapier. "I' got this, Captain Hook! Get out of there!"     Can he keep it up?         PHASE CHANGE     New Song! https://youtu.be/CsKE8XjpR_8
Remee Halcyon	Remee's nose rankles more than most. This is... the problem with being able to perceive beyond normal reality - she can *smell* the spoiled time. She can smell the spoiled *everything else* too. She gets the heck out of there, grabbing her shirt and yanking it up to cover her nose as she runs away from the torrent of spoiled food and spoiled metaphysics - it's hard to tell which is worse! Covering her nose with her shirt doesn't actually help block the smell much, but the effort makes her feel marginally better. She sets up again at another spot - taking cover behind one of the upended picnic tables, and then bringing her rifle up to reload it. "Tranquilizer rounds..." she mutters to herself (slightly muffled) as she fishes in her gear. "Slow it down a bit more..." When she pops back out from behind cover, it's to fire a quick pair of darts from her rifle - ones loaded with substances that should work potently even if the rabbit isn't entirely... non-metaphorical.
Captain Hook	No, Hook is afraid not.      The blade swings around. No ranged attack in the world can land a blow on Captain Hook, no matter how skilled the opponent. You do not *shoot* Captain William Hook. You *duel* him. A pirate, a fairy-tale pirate, a storybook pirate, does not go down to a sniper shot or a bullet to the head, because that's not Sporting, it's not Dramatic, it's not *A Story*. Those are the rules.      But there is no amount of cutlass that can deflect *the table itself*.      So while Hook walks away clean of the lunch and the spoiled tea and the ambient despair (hah! As if Hook could be touched by that. He is a man who has already lived it and come out the other side. Despair holds no meaning for him whatsoever.) he sure doesn't walk away clean of the table to the face. It hammers him *directly* aside. He rolls and smashes into a grandfather clock, and the clock comes down in front of him, obscuring him from view.      This works out.      Because, now that others have taken the focus, now that Hook has introduced the emotional weak point...      Well, Hook can do what he *came* here to do.      Surreptitiously he places an unassuming brown treasure chest on the ground. It is not a fancy chest. It is a simple chest, with a lock and key. It is the kind of chest you dig up in story-books under an X in the sand. The kind of chest that the Map leads to.      He knocks open the chest.      But it's not doing anything...maybe he's looking for something.
Kukuru	The Rabbit is looking less and less White to Kukuru with how jacked up it's looking between it's messed up eyes, the blood and ichor coming off of it, and the rotten food getting hurled all over the place. It's surprisingly distracting to her, and she has to back off again as it just... Doesn't react. "What's wrong with it?" Kukuru almost sounds concerned as she says that, claws still braced in front of her as she comes away from that exchange with a chunk of flesh that the Rabbit doesn't even seem to care about. "Does Chet know we're here? Is he... Trying to help us?" She asks, reading far too much into the no clues being given. It's only when the Tyrant speaks again that she finally listens, far more than before. "Must... Must what?" She asks, that concern showing through once more. That proves to be quite the problem for her, then, when it starts attacking once more with all manner of rotted food and spoiled garbage. Caught on the back foot, Kukuru can only manage to shield herself with her claws, but the physical damage from scalding hot tea and the mental damage from getting pelted with so much vile garbage in the physical and metaphysical sense has her recoiling with a startled and somewhat pained screech. "What a... So that's what he's been dealing with. Then... W-we gotta at least stop this, so he can recover! I think. Isn't that how it worked last time?" As she asks that question, Kukuru slams her claws into the ground in front of her and drags the rest of herself backwards slowly, apparently preparing for something. Once she hears some kind of vague signal (this time, Remee's rounds), she counts to three, then launches herself forward just as another cloud of energy appears in front of her. Once again, Kukuru's using her teleporting powers to great effect. That forward launch sends her through another cloud of darkness that opens up above and behind the White Rabbit. As she falls, she swings downwards, but keeps moving through a second portal that opens up in the ground. That, in turn, launches Kukuru right at the Tyrant's front with both claws poised to punch right into center mass as she tries torpedoing herself into its body with little regard for how she might land afterwards.
Charlotte Newman	After landing a satisfyingly solid blow on the Rabbit's gross face, Charlotte plants a foot on its body and uses that to shove herself back and away, sweeping her bat in a flourish as she does so, much like one might do with a sword. She lands on one of the side tables, scattering filth and trays and fluid without needing to touch it with her bare hands.     She rises to her full height, pulling her bat forward pointed downward as before, calling out, "Persona..!" Galatea twists out of her silhouette, straining on the chains binding the persona's figure. Her free hand lifts over the bat's pommell--     --And then the rabbit grabs tables. The table Charlotte stands on is the first to go, wrenched out from under her feet and sending the girl sprawling amidst the foulness, scattered on the floor with so many rancid leftovers, mingling terrible feelings and terrible sanitation all in one go.     Regrets have a tough time sticking to Charlotte though. What gets her is when the same table slams into her from the side, pitching the girl across the room again as she's getting back up. Galatea, to her credit, floats up over the swing, then drifts down to take position beside Charlotte as the girl regains her feet.     "Ugh..." she mutters, drawing her arms up, looking down at herself, "No way is this washing out..." She casts a glance up at Galatea's expressionless metal face, then returns her attention to the White Rabbit. The Persona lifts her arm, the cannon emitting a click-whine of a loading cartridge. Charlotte thrusts her bat forward, directing while Galatea rears back and unleashes another cannon-like shot. This one, pulsing with heavenly white light, explodes into magic above the Rabbit rather than by hitting him, bursting with a crack like thunder.     "Megido!"
Timespace Riders	"Woz! Cover me--I have an idea!"      Woz's mechanical arms contest the flung tables, deflecting or outright halting violently their passage through the air, when they threaten his Demon King. The force of the blows meeting his own strength sends small fissures into the ground below, striking up clods of horrid earth. Rotten food nevertheless pelts him, the impact of plates and cutlery striking sparks in his armor.      Zi-O procures a futuristic pocketwatch, with a familiar white doll on its face. 'QUEEN!' echoes through space when Zi-O presses the crown. Once the watch is slotted, the Timespace Driver's LCD chronometer reads AU11. The frantic ticking of a clock is heard, before Zi-O spins the Driver.                                   ARMOR TIME!                                       A lifesized, halo-crowned doll emerges from a pink portal that appears before him, flying alongside the rider and cupping its cheek adoringly. Flawless white plastic gleams, with rounded pauldrons sporting a regal cloak of billowing smoke. It snaps into place and fits itself over him, the bodysuit beneath the plastic shifting to a deep, rich red. The halo above becomes an analog clock, and the helmet's face, a window into the glimmering expanse of space. Pink nebulas form katakana reading 'RIDER.'                         Heart to Heart! Queen-in-Veils!                             "That's right, Kukuru! And that's why... I'm gonna try love, understanding, and forgiveness! Chet..." Gone are the straight sword and pistol--they're replaced with a glimmering greatsword, forged from a field of stars. "All of this fear and panic and loneliness inside you... it's squeezing on your heart. We're trying to help you let it out, and you need to let us!"     Woz's manipulators begin to fight back, wrenching two tables from the grasp of the spilled ichor, swinging them by the legs to rain down blow after blow upon the rabbit. Lilian's exasperated assessment of Woz's ego is accurate--as his human arms are thrown wide throughout the assault.     "I wasn't that great at school!" Zi-O makes a rallying cry, leaping atop the table Remee's using for cover just as she darts back behind it, before springing forward to get back into close-quarters with the Tyrant. Just as the tranquilizers hit, Zi-O makes a half-sword thrust into the rabbit. It doesn't wound in the conventional sense, because I don't want that! Rather, much like the tranquilizers are meant to sap the *ability* to fight, Zi-O's stellar sword attacks the Tyrant's *will* to fight for this twisted dream.     Withdrawing the sword, Zi-O funnels the momentum into a great, hewing shoulder-to-hip cut, the weapon's passage cutting an alarmingly deep ravine into the ground despite its decidedly non-lethal impact on the creature. "But I made it rhrough--and you will, too! Stanley didn't make this wish--you did! So please... stop blaming him and understand it's okay if you're scared! Even the unluckiest people don't have to do the same day twice. Aren't you ready for this to stop?!"     "You don't have to do any of this alone!" The massive swing of the sword makes it easy for Zi-O to transition into a backflip, his smoky cloak billowing behind him as he hurls a spiral galaxy at the Tyrant. It explodes on impact, creating a dazzling, blinding display following Galatea's bright attack.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Will--" Hibiki knew how he must've thought about this entire thing, very very well, even without words needing to be involved. But to see him come out swinging, very metaphorically and literally, in such a fashion is enough to take even her off guard - her falling away from the White Rabbit, him, and Woz through the air almost feels like it's going in slow motion, and not because of their foe.     ...Was all of that enough to get through to what's 'beyond' this monstrous rabbit, to Chet imself? Even past Rita's control over it forcing it to halt, is any of it slowing itself down actually getting somewhere? Landing back on the ground, her mouth falls open briefly, eyes widening just a bit. Right at the same moment the White Rabbit begins reacting once again.     And the room is full of foulness, rot, and other awful things. Hibiki is assaulted from every single angle, her arms crossing up as some projectiles are battered away and others are taken head-on. She, more than normal, is sensitive towards emotion - so when the feelings placed into each and every one of them /really/ hit, they hit deep. Between that, the Captain's vocal assault, even Lilian's comments on time...     "I'm not going to let you...keep on twisting someone's wish into something like this..." Hibiki heaves under her breath between batterings--until Stanley draws its attention, and she takes the chance to bash the next teacup out of the way before stomping down and getting a dashing start forward.     As the magical girl goes, her right fist comes back behind her shoulder, the mechancial gauntlet of her Symphogear opening up, morphing, bulking up and extending out towards and past her cocked elbow. "The last time we were here...! I said that nothing was ever going to change when you're stuck in the same few days forever!" Is she talking towards Hook, the Rabbit, or even just to herself? "And I meant it! If you're going to just keep this crap up no matter what I say, I'm sure as hell going to make sure that you at least listen to him!"     Mid-sprint, the machinery finishes shifting from pilebunker to rocket-propelled gauntlet - and the set of thrusters on both her skirt armor and the fist ignite to abruptly shoot her ahead the rest of the way. It's focused on Stanley. Which means it's wide open.     "The only way I know how--to make something get through a head even thicker than MINE!"     Hook mentioned feeling their 'kindness' through blows. Hibiki takes that to the next level, springing off the murky earth to once again close into melee range and sucker punch the hare in the torso with a heavy-handed, ridiculously heavy blow straight into those rotten underpinnings - where just for second, through the power of 'connection', her fist has a whole mass of emotions behind it too, able to be /felt/ and transmitted forward. There's frustration, empathy, pity...and the need to help, more than anything. And if the Tyrant doesn't care, then maybe they'll reach Chet past it, connected to him as it is.     "--Instead of blaming Stanley, take a LOOK at how hard he's trying to help you!"     Her shouting is loud enough to drown out even the sound of her gauntlet's turbines whirring and kicking up into a blurred spin, right before it punches straight inwards to add a second impact behind her initial punch - a shockwave-rippling, air-cracking punch that'll roil through the Rabbit's entire body and go to suddenly try and /smash/ it into and through the ground.
Rita Ma	Rita's face is briefly stern and imperious as she gives the telepathic order, but it quickly shifts to revulsion and pity at its horribly wounded and decaying state. "Chet..."      The table-flipping attack doesn't entirely catch her off-guard, but being hesitant to use her more overt abilities means she can't fully evade either. Some of that rotten food splatters on her arm as she jukes low and dives under the flying table. "Ah-!"      Its melancholy seeps into her. Her grimace deepens as she circles the rabbit, waiting. For what? "Just because he hasn't had it as bad as you, Ms. Rook, doesn't mean he's okay. He's suffering. It's awful."      "Chet, I'm sorry. You were hurting enough already to make this ugly wish. Getting it hurt you even more. And to break it and make this better, we have to hurt you again. I wish we didn't. When all of this is over..."      Rita fumbles. What do high school kids do together that's fun? "Do you want to go to the arcade together?"      It's probably pointless, talking to a rabid rabbit with a broken jaw. But it's bought her enough time. That drop of blood she tasted earlier has soaked in, pouring a familiar chilly warmth into her body.      The rabbit goes for Stanley. Rita is off to its side. She raises her hand again, but not to command: the skin bleaches white from the fingertips to her elbow, with orange-grey veins to imitate the rabbit's ichor.      This is a little revealing, but it's better than dropping the disguise altogether. And when he's suffering so badly, sacrificing a bit of her image to help him feels important.      The air shimmers in an imitation of the Tyrant's own crude time manipulation. The grass in a cone aimed at the White Rabbit withers dead and brown; the mushrooms behind him slop down into putrescence. And he himself, already rotting-      "It's been three whole weeks, Chet! You hate this too, don't you? I don't know why you still have to hold onto this wish. But I'm telling you it's okay to just let go." Those last few words are a command. And with it, the Tyrant's putrefaction drastically jumps forward.
KNK	Violet is back on her feet, and she has a question. "What's 'cabbages'?" She's more aware of kings, if not the 'hereditary monarch' kind.     'PADGETT! YOU DID THIS.'     "What did you do, Stanley? What's this guy got on you?" Rose has to abandon her sniping position immediately after, when the teapots begin flying, but this is the easy part. This is the part they both know how to deal with -- things are flying through the air, in massive quantity and complex nonsense-patterns, but it's the kind of nonsense the ninjas can handle. 'The chaos of battle' is homey enough.     Hook's cutlass (and hook) and Lilian's greatsword menace from up close, together with Zi-O, and Violet slips in to round out the bullying arrangement, taking up the empty space when Hook stops to retrieve a chest. Her blade is drawn more than 'like' lightning, the snap of electricity accompanying its sudden appearance, the glow and flash of its edge showing how it, and the air around it, ionizes and heats. Its vibration is too high a whine to hear, merely serving to make the blade seem sharp where it is truly dull, slicing through flying defensive pocket watches with as little resistance as it swats flying teapots.     Despair manifested in physical form, here in Wonderland, is far easier to resist with violence than the usual kinds encountered.     Violet harasses with blows in parallel to every other, perfectly timed to never alternate, to never allow attention to switch between her and someone else, but to make every moment worse, catching the incoming attacks from others out of her peripheral vision and synchronizing as if by reflex. The slightest pause is filled by the bark of paired submachine guns from Rose, her turrets having clicked shut, fully expended, seconds before.     But that's just harassment. It's sharp, dangerous, puncturing and powerful, but it's not an attack. It's something that could be confused for one, in one's weakness, but it's only cruelly purposeful stress.     The attack comes moments later, in the space of Zi-O's backflip.     Time doesn't freeze. That's for others. Every thrown piece of tableware, every rotten piece ofe meal, half-eaten leftovers and materialized despair, is solid as it flies through the air, an attack on every elite here. Solid and heavy and dangerous, and that's what lets Rose leap over top of it, and run along the inedible trail. The toe of her boot just barely touches a spinning tray, a plate, a pot, mass of unidenitifiable meat, weaving over and under and through the three-dimensional maze, not minding that every stepping stone attempts to carry her farther back. Her approach is marked by the distanced flashes of automatic fires, marking every step closer, the magazine expending its full thirty rounds in under a second. Spent and returned to snap into thigh holsters that close on their own.     I shouldn't be doing this.     Violet took distance, only to approach from the opposite angle, allowing little time to breath between. She needed the room to accelerate, to turn a standing sprint into a dangerous rush, the kind that claps the air and pulls a cloud of discarded forks and plates into her slipstream. Her blade is a constant trail, the entire path carved through the air as if at once, just as the passage of light from sky to ground and back again in a gathered storm.     Even when she moves like that, she doesn't let anything touch her. Lilian and Zi-O are there, to stand tall and commanding and take its attention. Rose is there, to--     Rose plants one palm against the table, spins, keeps all the momentum of her approach, and channels it into her heel, to take Chet on the chin.     --Violet's blade finishes its path through each of the four limbs.     Perhaps letting go will be easier without hands.
Lilian Rook	'PADGETT! YOU DID THIS. YOU... THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!'     "You did this yourself. Have some dignity for pity's sake."     Lilian drives her sabatons two inches deep into the dirt simply absorbing the shock of her plunge. Grass and moss are torn up and thrown from the instant, fluid switch to a hawk stance, back heel sliding out and sweeping a full quarter circle whilst the forward toe leads. The black blade glints ominously overhead, high and ostensibly unguarded, like preparing to administer an execution.     'What's wrong with it?'     "It shouldn't exist. That's what's wrong. Focus and eliminate it." says Lilian. Redshifted colour flickers in Lilian's eyes as the Tyrant hurls its congealed lifeblood every which way. The thousand possible ways its horrific rampage could play out are superimposed upon each other in an instant. The way her pupils race back and forth doesn't track to her actually watching any of the tables or chairs or teapots or flying spatter at all, but something only she can see. Her armour groans faintly with tension, somehow more like clenched muscle than fatigued metal.     'And that's why... I'm gonna try love, understanding, and forgiveness!'     "Heed not the words of that which abides neither adversity nor attainment. Stay not thy hand for unnecessary persons."     The ground crunches under Lilian's back foot-- and then the wind blows through the empty space she had just stood, tousling the untouched grass. She exists twenty feet away, in a split second gap between streams of ichor, and is already an afterimage by the time the rabbit can see.     Before anyone can see. The speed of light lags behind her new position at the center of the table cluster-- no, to the left and over the infinite table-- no, right next to the Tyrant's left paw. The grounded, vectoring stomps go off all at once like a chain of small explosions, threaded by a trail of indistinct black phantoms. The very last is followed by a split second like having an ear to the chopping blades of a reactor turbine fan-- and as if the Tyrant had stuck a limb into one, two dozen overlapping arcs of red bursts out from Lilian and into the giant rabbit.     Lilian flashes past the Tyrant's front legs, throwing hips and shoulders into a crescent moon cleave through both limbs that cracks the air with the sound of broken glass. She plummets down past its face without moving, slashing horrific gouges across its eyes and snout with the dizzying revolutions of her greatsword. Before she even touches the ground, she is already shooting across its flank, rapid footwork strafing its furry side with an endlessly chaining flurry of raking slashes in upper lamniscate, and then she is sliding under its belly, gouging and twisting and rending into its viscera with all the force she can in half a second. She appears out of thin air right before its face as it turns, and building up triple the torque with a single full revolution, brings the heavy blade straight down between its eyes, before the blood thrown from her first slash has even reached the ground.     It sounds like the slightly staggered firing of a tank line. The violence and gore is anything but the 'duelist' manner in which Stanley fights. But the way Lilian weaves between hook and Violet, strikes opposite to Hibiki and interleaves with Rose, is somehow effortlessly elegant all the same, in its own, slightly terrifying way.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley is doing his damnedest to try and keep this Thing's attention, leaving it open to assault, that's nice, but is that really going to work out in the end for Stanley?
Stanley Padgett	Hook is doing something NEFARIOUS, INSIDE A CLOCK. Okay.     Tranq darts smack into the Rabbit, sinking all the way into the rotten pustuled flesh of the Tyrant. They cause the 'skin' to shudder and slough off, revealing the darts underneath. Ugh.     Megido rains down from Galatea, and Charlotte blisters an entire chunk out of the backside of the Tyrant, raw goopy purple sinew and tissue left in its wake. Gross.     A TELEPORT COMBO from Kukuru smashes up the other hind leg, leaving a piece of 'bone' poking out of the flesh.     Zi-O ENGAGES IN HEROISM, he REALLY does. That slash slices clean through Not-Chet, the Tyrant's yellow eyes going glassy for a moment or two, before it spatters and spits with its broken, shattered jaw, getting goop on Zi-O.     Hibiki already broke its jaw, what more can she break? Let's go for some RIBS and SPINE. The punch RIPPLES through the Rabbit, and there's a horrible explosion of S T U F F from its back as the shockwave passes through the Tyrant.     Rose and Violet get their Sandevestan on, and TIMECOMBO the Rabbit with slices and bullets and there's just, it's gross, there's gore and ichor everywhere, the White Rabbit no longer White in the slightest.     Rita... having JUST stolen the Tyrant's move, immediately turns it against the Creature. The Temporal Agitation, the horrible rotten curdling of time... crumples bone and twists flesh and there's another wide hole in the creature, like the one that Charlotte Left Behind.     And then Lilian just utterly dismantles, dissects, and vivicests the beast's psyche with one long temporal arch and...
Stanley Padgett	And all of Stanley's afterimages coalesce into one razor sharp motion, there's a sickening slick noise, as Stanley, one hand on his hilt and the other shoving in on the pommel, sinks his foil guard deep into the Rabbit's forehead, right next ot where Lilian and Hibiki leave off their attack.     There's a horrible, awful, unravelling noise, as the tissues and rot and gore and everything that makes up the Tyrant of the White Rabbit peels away into Wrong Angles and Evil Math and Wasted Time...     And what falls to a busted lunch table is Shadow Chet. Some of you haven't seen him before. He's just... a freshman kid, looking well groomed and posh, clearly from the richer side of the Charter School, but with the same yellow eyes of Shadows. "Ah... hnnnnn fff... I... you you win! I can't... you..."     He's flinching and stuttering, and fending off attacks that are no longer happening...     And somewhere around the party, there's a horrible sensation of Unwinding Tension.     The Wish has been broken, and Wonderland is Crumbling.
Captain Hook	Ah.      Behind the splintered grandfather clock, beneath the splattered wood, covered in bruises with blood dripping down onto his eyepatch from a head wound he's quite sure he has, William Hook smiles.      "There we are. Right on time."      The chest's glow abruptly inverts, and things start to go just the tiniest bit mad.      Well.      Mad*der*.      The dream world trembles. It shakes as if the hand of God had come down to lift it forth and pry it from its moorings. It quakes as if the world itself had been smote by an uncomfortably close falling star. The world shakes, slanting sideways.      Hook, meanwhile, is standing perfectly straight next to the chest.      The sky begins to curl inward on itself. It is perverse to look at. The twisted heavens writhe and thrash as a funnel of dreamstuff touches down inside the glowing chest. The stars, the clouds, everything Wrong and Unnatural warps around that funnel. The world is being drained into a treasure chest.      "Terribly sorry," Hook says, his voice calm and cheerful, perfectly audible over the raging tempest that is a dream being devoured, "I'm afraid that I came here for something a great deal more profound than helping that young man."      The edges of the world begin to close. Card Soldiers from far away come whirling down the funnel. They wail - the empty sound of a card against bike spokes.      The clocks melt into the whirlwind. The mushrooms are uprooted. The wind is terrible, horrible, impossible.      Wonderland drains into the Magic Chest in its entirety.      And then Hook just kicks the chest closed.      The twisted dream is gone, and so is the chest, and so is the Captain.
Stanley Padgett	And Wonderland is just... Gone.     You are all standing in a world of smoke and mirrors and brutalist concrete edifices to industry and progress all wrapped up in neon and xenon, in front of a ruined keep that represented Silver Springs High School.     Shadow Chet is sitting on the steps of the edifice, looking very confused at... everything. "...Huh?     Stanley is sharing that. "Huh?"
Charlotte Newman	The Rabbit relents, breaks, and dissolves under the onslaught. As it crumples and Chet's shadow emerges, Charlotte lets out a relieved sigh, straightening her stance. Galatea twists back into her, disappearing as easily as her Persona had appeared. She opens her mouth to address Chet when all hell breaks loose.     Wonderland circles the drain in a more figurative sense, prompting her to bring her arms up over her face, "What the heck..!"     And just as soon as it had started, for those mad several seconds, it ends. Leaving her and her companions here-- in the familiar Reversal. With the noise dying down, she glances up along the neon-etched edifaces of the buildings, then down, her eyes playing across those gathered.     "Everyone accounted for? Everyone in one piece?" She can get to the 'what the hell was that' once the more immediate concern is settled; unless someone answers it before she can ask it.
Kukuru	With the Tyrant losing more of his form by the moment, Kukuru shouldn't be surprised when it soon gives way to Shadow Chet appearing once again just like he had been before their first encounter. Somehow, she still manages to look surprised.  Surprises seem to be the thing of the hour, then, as Captain Hook reveals his true intent in being here: to steal the sky! And everything else that makes up Wonderland, even, as it all goes right into that strange chest of his. To her credit, though, Kukuru actually looks much less surprised or even upset by that. She even smiles and waves at the spot where Hook and his chest had once been before finally turning back to Shadow Chet and Stanley. "Don't worry. I don't really get what happened, either, but... Are you feeling better now?" She asks while approaching the latter, slipping her claws into her pockets (gunk and all) so she can take Stanley's hand to try guiding/forcing him to join Shadow Chet at the table. "Zi-O's right, you know. There's... You gotta figure things out, okay? Even if it's hard now, you can make it through all the sucky stuff. You just gotta keep going, you know?"
Remee Halcyon	Remee gets some insights into *what* and *how* Captain Hook did things, so she's ended up spending most of her time right now explaining some things on the radio.
Rita Ma	"It's okay, Chet. It's all over now, isn't it?" Rita reaches out to him with her rabbit-white right arm. Normal color flows down from her elbow to her fingertips. "We don't want to hurt you any more. Actually, we want- ah!"      Rita stumbles and leans on the nearest intact mushroom as the world shakes begins to fade- which promptly disappears when Hook stuffs the entirety of Wonderland into his treasure chest, leaving her to simply fall over with her weight unsupported.      "I'm fine, Ms. Charlotte. You did amazing! Have you ever fought one of those before?" Rita picks herself up off the asphalt, dusts off her knees, and looks around at the Reversal with renewed wonder and relief. "Maybe I ought to be mad Captain Hook stole it all, but... I'm just glad to be out of there."
Hibiki Tachibana	At long last, the White Rabbit comes undone. And what's left behind is exactly what Hibiki was hoping to see - Chet's Shadow, unharmed and whole. Taking out the Tyrant really was the right call, after all. And she's left touching back down onto solid ground, panting for breath, the overstressed machinery on her right arm venting steam and closing back down into its natural state as things begin winding down...     Literally, even. Is that feeling that of things returning to how the Reversal should normally be here?     Wait. Uh.     This is a little more literal than even literal.     Despite being one of the people here who probably knows Captain Hook the best, she's clearly as surprised as Stanley and Shadow Chet as Wonderland vanishes right into the chest so casually kicked shut, and the good Capain makes his exit. "...Good grief..." It takes her whole seconds to even start processing what just happened. "You've /gotta/ be kidding me..."     And then she just lets out the most exasperated, 'what can you do' kind of sigh as she slowly begins straightening back up, slowly turning her attention towards their former foe. Where she gives a much smaller, more bracing kind of inhale-exhale to steady herself.     "Kukuru said it. It's not like you're gonna be alone in any of that sort of stuff, either. Not really." She gives Stanley a brief glance, and then goes right back. "...You got at least one person who'd always be on call to help you out if you need it. And probably a lot more besides."
Stanley Padgett	Also, the music has shifted again. https://youtu.be/Ha2V-lQvD_w Welcome to the Reversal.
Timespace Riders	"UWOH!" Zi-O's startled cry is drowned out by the roar of a vortex, the plastic-armored rider turning every which way in cartoonish shock.     Woz simply crosses his arms and observes it with an upturned nose (hidden though it might be behind his faceplate). The retainer's mechanical manipulator arms fold back into his armor, with another puff of steam from the vents therein.     When all is done, and the two of them are left standing before the fortress that was, with nary a tree or toadstool in sight, both riders drop their armor.     "I'm fine--Charlotte, right? Thank you."     Sougo smiles at Shadow Chet. "Hi, Chet. It's Sougo again." The two had undoubtedly seen each other multiple times, what with Sougo deliberately placing himself into the loop. Stepping through the neon haze, he takes one of Chet's hands in both of his own. "I bet he is," says the Demon King, looking over his shoulder at Kukuru. Back to Chet, "Keeping all of that inside you couldn't have felt good. Mm... I know it's selfish to ask, but I need a favor."     Woz arches a brow.     "Please let people in more often. You won't be friends with everyone, but... well, if you'd do that, you'd see that the people around you have more in common with you than you'd think at first. Math was my worst subject, too! I hated it. But I did my best anyway, because there was someone I wanted to graduate with, and I had a dream that was bigger than what I'd learn in school." He squeezes gently, before releasing Chet's hand. "I don't know why you feel the way you do about Stanley. But he put himself in a lot of danger to help you, even knowing how you felt. ...I hope we'll see you at the Arcade, like Rita said."      "Your time spent trapped in a gnarl of your own creation should serve as punishment enough for your clumsy, misguided grasping at my Demon King's rightful throne." Woz smiles 'sweetly,' pointing briefly, daintily at Chet. "May it temper your churlish tendencies towards those he deigns to favor."
Hibiki Tachibana	"For what it's worth, I'm totally awful at math too." Hibiki intones again towards Shadow Chet, as if to purposefully not let Woz's sickeningly sweet comments hang in the air for too long. Or maybe because she is simply a kindred spirit.     Maybe both. Probably both. "I still need my best friend to cover for me for, uh...most...of my schoolwork even besides math, actually..." Ah. Awkwardness rising by the moment. She clears her throat. "...But that's just another example of it being okay to rely on other people. So...take what Sougo says to heart, okay?"
Charlotte Newman	"Mm," Charlotte nods once to Zi-O when he says her name, an affirmative noise. She glances across the rest present as things start to wind down and the tension starts releasing. Lifting a hand, she settles her eyes on it; allowing those more familiar with Chet's situation to speak with him directly. Instead, Charlotte lifts her hand to hover above the handle of her bat once again, "Come forth, my other self. Just one last time..."     Her silhouette duplicates; with the metal-clad Persona twirling out in a flare of neon and xenon colors; hovering behind and above the girl. Charlotte closes her eyes while Galatea raises one hand skyward. A magical shell of Heavenly Light is fired directly upward.     "Mediarama."     Perhaps a dozen meters up, the shell bursts with a silent 'puff' into a shower of sparkles, which drift lazily downward like snow into the cold industrial Neon-lit streets of the Reversal. As it does so, it soothes the hurts and wounds of those caught under the umbrella of Light.     "Thank you," Charlotte murmurs, glancing up towards Galatea's inexpressive face. The Persona then returns to her, dissolving into the girl's form once more.
Stanley Padgett	This is all a lot to process, but Shadow Chet just looks up at Sougo at first and blinks. "...Wait, you went to see me... uh... on the other side? That's... okay, why? I have no idea what he's been doing. I... I just..."     Rita's heart-to-heart to rabbit's paw gets a look of confusion before he looks down and makes a face. "...at least someone around here will get some use of what I was, huh?"     Stanley claps the freshman on his shoulder and then smiles. "Don't worry, I'll help you cheat on Tuesday, how's that sound?" Stanley, no.     Shadow Chet looks down at his hands as people keep hounding him about math and friendship and everything and the Shadow startles. "I appreciate it, I guess, but... I..."     There's a tick-tock sound coming from the young man, and he reaches into a pocket, to pull out an old-timey pocket watch. Hook must have missed one.     It clicks over, and an alarm starts to ring.     Shadow Chet looks up and smiles. "...Time's up?" And with a happy grin, and something of a whiff of freedom, or release, Chet's Shadow shifts from something real and tangible, back into one of the mist-like, meandering Xenon Shades that murk around in the background of the Reversal.
Charlotte Newman	Quite suddenly, Charlotte's attention snaps right over to Stanley and Chet, "I heard that, Stanley! Cheating is nowhere near an acceptable solution! We're going to study!" She leans forward, one hand resting on her hip while the other lifts and points. She stresses the next statement with authority: "ALL OF US."