God Child ch 1- Mad Tea Party

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Godchild: Mad Tea Party

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Strange Occurrence in London. A man in a rabbit's mask beheaded a young girl in Regent Street and escaped. Because of the weirdness of the rabbit mask, witnesses in terror called him 'The March Hare.'

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"It's all in the Queen's imagination," the Griffon said. "In fact no-one's been beheaded at all."
Mad Tea Party
March hare: Why don't you say something, Alice! All you do is look at us and never say anything.
Mad hatter: It's really really rude of you!

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I'm sure you're thinking this tea party is crazy, yes? You're thinking it's all nonsense, right?!
Well, I've had as much of you as I'm going to take. If you can't say anything, who needs you?
I'll do what the Queen of Hearts does-
You don't need that head of yours!
So now-

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Off with her head!
F/X Alice collapses
Alice: ...anh?

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Alice: (shriek)
(Cain catches her)
Cain: You mustn't let an incubus steal your heart away. They love to take young virgins' souls.

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Alice: Uh...
A- alright!
Cain: Excuse me. Take care.
Alice: Oh- I should have thanked him...
Friends: Alice! Alice, are you alright?!
Friend: I'm so envious! Imagine being rescued by Cain-sama, Alice!
Alice: Cain-sama?
Friend: Oh come on! You mean you don't know!?

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Friend: Cain C Hargreaves, the young Count, from the distinguished and wealthy Hargreaves family. He's just bought a big house in Mayfair and you see him a lot at parties during the social season.
I'd love it if those beautiful mysterious yellow-green eyes of his would look at me!
But he's notorious for his eccentric tastes and for his nickname, 'the death-summoning lord'
Alice: Eccentric tastes?

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Cain: (thinks) Gossip... backbiting... Envy and jealousy... the aristocracy that fawns on wealth and authority
Guest: The Mayfield family often used to hold parties like this, though now rumor has it that Baron Mayfield's finances are in sad shape.
Guest 2: And all through his daughter Victoria's high-handedness
Guest 1: That school she goes to has changed from what it was- now it's all daughters of parvenus. There's no such thing as rank nowadays. It's so sad...
Guest: In these latter days you can even buy a title for yourself.
Alice: By the way have you seen where our friend Edith is?
Alice: I've been looking for her
Friend: She said she wanted to get a breath of fresh air and went out on the terrace
Alice: Edith? Are you there?

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Alice: (sees Edith's butchered body) Aiee!
F/X the murderer bumps into her as he escapes
F/X the swish of his clothes as he brushes past Cain
Alice: Somebody, catch that man!
Alice: He's a murderer- that man in the mask!!

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Alice: It's the man in the rabbit mask!
F/X the man knocks Cain aside

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F/X Cain strikes him with his walking stick
Man: Augh!!
F/X: mask falls to the ground
Man: What are you doing! If I don't have my mask...
Alice: (screams) There they are! The count and the rabbit-man!
Rif: Cain-sama!?

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f/x cloak flapping
Cain: Stop!
f/x shock
Cain: He's vanished!?
That's crazy. He was here a second ago. Where's he gone?

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Rif: Cain-sama! Your leg is bleeding
Cain: (thinks) 'If I don't have my mask...'
Baron Mayfield: To think of a tragedy like this happening in our own house....
Baron: And you being hurt because of it- I can't think how to apologize...!

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Cain: Please don't concern yourself. Compared to that poor dead girl, this is nothing. Besides, my valet here has some medical knowledge
Cain: But I'd like to stay here until the swelling goes down in my sprained ankle, at least for this night
Baron: But... but the house will be in an uproar with the police investigation- surely it will disquiet you even more...
Victoria: Father, what are you *saying*?!
Alice: Victoria- wait!!
Victoria: We've caused Cain-sama all this trouble and now you want to him leave! That's not like you, Father!

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Victoria: First Lorena died and now Edith! I'd feel safer if the count is here.
Victoria: And Alice, you'll stay here too, won't you!
Alice: Ahhh--
Alice: Uh- yes.
Cain: I haven't seen you in a while, Lady Victoria. Lively as ever, aren't you. (Excuse me for not getting up.)
Victoria: I'm honored you remember me.
Alice: (thinks) Victoria
Alice: It's times like this that make me feel how different the nobility are from the nouveau riche.
Yes, Victoria has always been the queen.
When was it...
Victoria: Ah, Cain-sama, what do you have there?

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Victoria and Alice scream
Cain: It's the rabbit mask that the murderer let fall. There's a strange smell to it.
Victoria: So- so the murderer really was the March Hare? (furigana reading: crazy rabbit man ^_^)
Cain: The March Hare... So what you were saying before about Edith following Lorena...
Victoria: Yes- that strange affair that's been exciting all London... The victim was Lorene Morris.
She was found dead with her head cut off. Like Edith, she was a friend of ours.

(page) Victoria: At the school we go to together, we had a club called Golden Afternoons. The four of us would have tea parties together.
Victoria: When people saw the drawing of the man who was running away from Lorena's dead body everyone called this depraved person 'The Mad Hatter.'
Victoria: What shall we do? This wasn't an accident. If he's targeting the members of Golden Afternoons...
Victoria: will we be the next ones?!
Alice: Stop it, Victoria! What reason would a serial killer have to hate us?
Victoria: But first Lorena, then Edith...!
Victoria: And besides that, every night I dream about someone having their head cut off at the tea party in Alice in Wonderland
Alice: What?!

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Alice: I've had that dream too! And so did Edith!
Victoria: What??!!
Alice: So then- this afternoon I must have fallen asleep for a moment. Thank you for rescuing me when I was in danger, my lord.
Cain: Please call me Cain, Miss Alice.
F/X Victoria annoyed
Victoria: Well, your wound must be troubling you. I'll show you to your room.
Victoria: Come, Alice.
Victoria: Oh- what's this, Father...?

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Victoria: You've got some yellow pollen in your hair. Where did that come from.
Baron: Ahh... probably from some flowers in a vase or something. There, it's off. Now off you go, Victoria.
Victoria: Alright.
Rif: Here, lean on my shoulder.
Baron: Oh, count- I'll give that rabbit mask to the police
Cain: No
Cain: I'll do it myself.

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Victoria: Here are the guest rooms. Father had them made for me because I love 'Alice in Wonderland.' The rooms are named after the pictures on the door.
See, this is the White Rabbit room.
And Alice of course is in Alice's Room.
Cain-sama can have the Mockturtle Room.
And today because you're all here, I'll sleep in a guest room too-
It's always the same one-
the 'Queen of hearts' room.
See you tomorrow, Cain-sama

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Alice: Umm- I know she's high-handed, but really, she means no harm
Cain: I know, Alice

Alice: But I do envy her a bit
She's not shy in front of people like yourself
Cain: Why?
Alice: Why? B-because...
Oh!

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Cain: That's a charm to drive away incubi. Good-night, Alice.
f/x Cain's door closing
f/x noise of something falling

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Cain: (thinks) The rabbit's mask I put over there is gone
The criminal...
f/x creak of door opening
Cain: What?
Someone else...?
Victoria: Cain-sama?
Cain: V-Victoria?!

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Victoria: I'm... so afraid of having that dream, I can't sleep! That terrible dream where a rabbit cuts off my head!
Please- just hold me like this!
Cain: So it's true what they say- your house is one step removed from ruin.
It's splendid of you to resolve to restore your family even by selling yourself so cheap. Or did your father tell you to deceive this inexperienced youth and so get a count for yourself?
Victoria: What--
f/x pillow hits Cain's face

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Victoria: You may think you've got power and wealth and honor, but even I know a few things about you!
The family of Count Hargreaves has a history colored in blood!
Everywhere you go terrible things always happen!
*And* you're famous for collecting poisons!
And furthermore- that sister you dote on- in fact she's only your half-sister! You brought her in off the streets where she was raised just to make her your pet!
f/x Cain puts a hand on his gun under the pillow

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Victoria: Ahh!
F/X: shock
Victoria: I'm not afraid of the likes of *you*! Goodnight, and pleasant dreams to you!
Alice: Victoria...
Victoria: That man-- you can have him, Alice.
Alice: (thinks) I won't stand for this!!
Victoria!!
Rif: Cain-sama

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Rif: It seems you guessed right about it-
Cain: So it *is* primula.
Rif: ...and this, as I expected, is what was in the drug on the inside of the mask
Alice: (thinks) I hate Victoria! I hate her!
That's right! Everyone must have felt the same way in their hearts
Victoria is exactly like the queen of hearts, a tyrant always making unreasonable demands of people
Looking down on us just because she's an aristocrat
I wish she'd die!

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Alice: No- why do I keep saying 'I wish she'd die'-
What--
No! That's something someone else said
When... who was it... I can't remember.
That's right! I began to have that dream on the day Lorena's body was found. That day we'd had a tea party. She was killed coming home from it
But why don't I remember what happened at the party?
Let me remember! Those words must have been something someone said there- But who--
'I wish Victoria would die! The Queen of Hearts would say...'

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Voice: 'Off with her head!'
Alice: (screams)
Alice: The man in the March Hare's mask!
f/x sound of shot fired

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f/x sound of mask falling
Cain: It's only a small cut. The wound to my leg is nothing much. But I wanted to assure myself as to why you were carrying on like this-
Baron Mayfield?

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Baron: Curses!
F/X Baron runs through door
Cain: Rif, look after Alice!
Rif: Yes sir
Alice: Cain-sama!
You did this for me...?!

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Cain: So here you are, Baron. You took your time.
Baron: How- how did--
Cain: That yellow pollen that was in your hair a while ago
All the flowers outside your mansion have shed their pollen already. But after Edith was killed, there was one primula blooming in the garden where the rabbit man disappeared.
So my companion discovered the passageway hidden in the shade of those bushes
After you killed Edith you must have come back to the assembly along that passage. It would seem you didn't have time to notice that you'd gotten pollen on you.

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Cain: Now what could be the reason that you abandoned your aristocratic pride so far as to kill your beloved daughter's friends?
Baron: Friends!! That bunch of little girls!
The tea party that those girls held here two weeks ago...! They were chattering away about nothing, and then they began to quarrel...
Voice: Oh stop acting like you're a queen, Victoria.
2nd voice: That's right! Now you're only one of the impoverished nobility!
Baron: They used the rumors of my family's approaching bankruptcy as a pretext for taunting my daughter.
Victoria: How dare you say that to *me*, Lorena!
Alice: Stop it, you two.
Victoria: You can die!
Baron: Then in the middle of the fight, Victoria ran Lorena's throat through with a knife
F/X: scream

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Baron: To think that my sweet daughter would be tried simply because of some girls who had insulted her--
For the sake of the house of Mayfield, that couldn't happen!
I locked the three girls in a room and called on a physician whom I could trust.
He erased their memory through hypnosis.
Then I cut through Lorena's neck with an axe so that the wound to her throat wouldn't be recognized
I put on the rabbit mask I'd gotten from the doctor so that the witnesses would think it was the work of a madman.
Cain: The inside of the mask was covered with a certain drug.
Naturally- the drug was necessary to dispel your rationality and uplift your spirits, so that you could kill again.
Baron: But the doctor said that they might some day recall the memory because it had been so strong. So I tried to shut their mouths.
For Victoria! And for my family!!
And now you too...

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Baron: I won't let anyone stop me!
F/X shock
Baron: ah-- my eyes-- my head is swimming-
Cain: Yes indeed. Your daughter told me as well.
'Your penchant for collecting poison is in vile taste.'
But it's not exactly a poison. Like the drug on the needles in this mask, all it does is prevent your body from moving.

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Cain: So now I'll take my leave of you.
Baron: Wait- Wait! Count--!
(thinks) No! Dawn is breaking! That's right! There's Alice!
F/X: panting
Baron: All I have to do is get rid of Alice!
True, she didn't attack Victoria- but she stood there and watched!
Curses! My vision is clouding...!
Here we are! The picture of Alice. This is Alice's room!
ALICE!!

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F/X: striking with his axe
Baron: Aghhh!!
F/X: panting
Baron: I did it! Now all I have to do is shut the Count up...!
Ahh- the sunrise...
VICTORIA!!!

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Baron: No... Im..poss..ible...
F/X hand shaking
Red Queen: Off with his head! Off with his head!

Baron: Ohh- that nagging Queen!
Ohhh...
Voice: If you want to cut off everybody's head
Cut off your own as well

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F/X: Cain removes the picture of Alice from the door
Cain: Poison is truly terrible, isn't it, Baron?
You can't even recognize that the pictures in your house have been switched around

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Alice: This was a terrible event, but... I do thank you for saving me.
Ahh- will I see you again, Cain-sama?
Cain: The thing about vampires, Alice- once they've eaten a maiden's soul they have no more interest in them.
This served to pass the time.
Rif: But as for the doctor who gave the mask to the Baron and hypnotized the girls, Cain-sama--

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Rif: When the London police entered his home there was a great explosion. A number of people died in the terrible accident.
But it appears this happened after the doctor himself had escaped.
Cain-sama?

Ch. 4

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