Snippet #2302042

"Oh?" Alice actually reacted slightly to Jacob's comment about her name, tilting her head to the side slightly in the manner of a particularly curious bird examining something new and unusual. Granted, she wasn't pecking at him, but still, it seemed like an appropriate metaphor. After a moment of thought, she gave her half-present, sly grin, as though proud of herself for some reason or another. "I don't think anybody's ever said that to me before." She lapsed into silence at this point, seemingly intrigued by Jacob's follow-up on her donut theory. As he spoke, she frowned, beginning to apparently contemplate his response rather deeply. Then, slowly, in a sage manner, she shook her head. This time, the motion was very slow and prolonged, making it clear that the gesture that fit so well with her own subdued demeanor was meant as a disagreement rather than to merely snap herself back to reality.

"Some things have to be definite," She said uncompromisingly. "If nothing was definite, then everything would be meaningless. Words, laws, and even people would be impossible to understand. Truth can't be relative, or else it doesn't exist at all. The world is confusing enough with natural laws and definite truths to follow. Think of how bad it would be if there was nothing definite at all. Trying to understand would be like trying to go to the store to buy a Popsicle, but the store is all out of Popsicles, so you can't get one. And they never sold Popsicles to begin with, because there is no store, and even if there was, and even if they did sell Popsicles there, and even if they currently had Popsicles in stock, then you still wouldn't be able to buy or eat one because you're just part of a butterfly's dream and don't actually exist. Stuff like that. Nothing makes sense no matter how much you try to make sense of it because there's nothing to make sense of and no way to do it because you're operating on the premise that nothing makes sense to begin with." This entire tirade had been delivered in a perfect deadpan, yet Alice had scarcely stopped for breath. For someone who gave the impression of complete, objective apathy, acting like she was just observing the world instead of living in it, she really did seem to like stating her opinions. Despite her quiet demeanor, she used more words than most more apparently talkative individuals. In any case, despite the bizarre analogy she used to make her point, there was a certain sensibility in what she said. But, moreover, although it was veiled behind her sudden torrent of words, there was a certain dislike she seemed to hold for... something. It wasn't exactly discernible why she seemed vaguely upset, but, for a split second, her eyes - perhaps the only parts of her face that changed their attitude on a regular basis - seemed almost sad.

This emotion was, however, quickly washed away as the boy recovered from his momentary stupefaction and then began to stammer and act in a way, that, evidently, confused her. She tilted her head first to one side, then the other, one of her eyes narrowing as though in contemplation, the other widening slightly as she raised an eyebrow, seeming to find Jacob's stammering, flustered attempts at a response to be very strange indeed. He contradicted himself at least three times, and his words came so fast and yet so irregularly that Alice honestly couldn't grasp what his meaning was. She tried to discern it for quite some time, furrowing her brow and frowning more and more, shifting uneasily where she sat and several times shaking her head violently to herself. At last, staring at the floor as though defeated, she mumbled something that, like her previous remark, seemed rather melancholy - or at least, as close as she got to it. Her demeanor was still very much subdued, as though she was on some sort of sedative, but there was a distinct air of discomfort about her face, even though her expression was now a conflicting mass of... something. The emotion she was displaying wasn't exactly clear, her face seeming like a mashup between countless different facial expressions that, overall, sent such a mixed message as to be indiscernible save for her irritation or gloom, or maybe guilt, or maybe a thousand other emotions... at.... something.

"I... I don't get it," She said quietly. Her voice was still calm and quiet as ever, yet her complicated expression gave her words a tone of final defeat that her actual tone failed to. "You... think I'm pretty, but you don't want to look at me... but you do... but you don't and never will...?" She abruptly began to shake her head violently, shutting her eyes tightly as though in some form of irritation, but the meaning of her expression was still unclear. "I can't understand it. It doesn't make sense," She declared at last, giving a slight shrug and abruptly returning to her calm, featureless expression as though some sort of reset button in her mind had just been pressed, instantly wiping away all traces of the mystery-emotion she'd been showing before. It wasn't a question, a request for explanation. It was just a statement, a final proclamation of her verdict, an absolute "truth" that, like her previously stated opinion, had absolutely nothing relative or subjective about it. That was all there was to it, apparently.