[Video]

[maddest]

[Following this.]

Whoooooo wants a slumber party?!

Comments

[Video][private: unhackable]

[haruspicate.livejournal.com]

... and?

[Video][private: unhackable]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

And what?

[Offline]

[waterbends]

[Katara doesn't look shocked, simply sad for him.]

How old was she?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

Oh- six, seven?

[He tries to remember.]

Too young. I couldn't care for her alone. I thought their deaths were my fault. And then Albus came and promised me that he'd turn time back for me, if I just kept him sated with blood- and I did.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

And that's why you killed people.

[It's half a question.]

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

I did it. The world got turned back- and they weren't assassinated that year.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

You saved them.

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

A few years later, the father was assassinated again. The youngest girl, who had survived? She became a contractor. She fed the rest of the family to her chain, before being killed by the contract herself, without managing to change any of it.

If I'd left it alone, she'd have lived.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

Break, I --..

[How do you respond to something like this?]

How long ago was it?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

Mm. Ninety years.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

[lajfkldasjdf]

How old are you?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

Contractors don't age.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

Do you still have to - do things? For the chain?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

No. Albus is dead. I'm contracted to the Mad Hatter these days, and he isn't in Adstringendum.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

[To her tea:]

Do you have to kill people for him when you're not in Adstringendum

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

No. It's a different sort of contract, this time.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

What does he have you do?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

I give him anchorage in my world, that's all. All of his energy comes through me.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

Were those the only people you killed? The ones to turn back time?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

No. I took up with Pandora- an agency dedicated to policing contracts like the one I used to be a part of.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

Then for part of your job with Pandora, you have to.. ?

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

Stop the exact sort of situation I caused when I was twenty.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

Is that still what you do? At home, I mean.

[Offline]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

It is. It- has to be controlled.

[Offline]

[waterbends]

[Katara stares at him for a moment, before sitting up and reaching across the table.. before throwing a handful of sugar at him.]