1. Dolls and Friends
Dolls don't dream—that's what the Captain and Miss Lucrecia both said.
They are very smart people, and Alice always trusts smart people - she knows that she doesn't know much about the world, so when faced with some more complicated problems, she will choose to directly believe the "conclusion" told by the captain.
But sometimes she would wonder if she really had never dreamed - in those earliest memories, in those most vague and trivial fragments, in those sleeps that the captain called "puppet's trance", she always felt that she seemed to have visited... dreams.
With a "bang", the iron spatula suddenly flew up and hit Alice on the head. Alice, who was distracted, suddenly woke up with an "Ouch", covering her head and looking to the side.
The spatula stood shakily on the stove, bouncing and making clicking sounds, looking three parts threatening and seven parts annoyed - Alice actually didn't know what "some xx and some xx" meant, nor did she know why emotions could be expressed in several parts, but Nina often used it this way when writing essays, so she learned it too.
There was a sizzling sound of hot oil coming from the wok next to it, and it seemed that the smell of burnt oil would rise from the smoke in the next second.
"oops!"
The puppet cried out in surprise, and quickly grabbed the wobbly spatula beside it, and apologized while stirring the food in the pot: "Sorry, sorry, I was distracted... Hey, why can't you stir-fry it yourself when you have time to hit me..."
The spatula couldn't answer her question, because it was struggling with the hot oil in the pot. Instead, the bucket and knife rack next to it began to shake and make a clattering sound. To ordinary people, this was just the noise made by the possessed objects on the ghost ship. But Alice seemed to understand these messy noises. She rubbed her forehead while busy preparing today's dinner, and chatted with her "friends" in the kitchen as usual: "Hey, I know, because I'm in charge of cooking... Where are the plates? Come over here... Not yours, but the big one next to you. This is a big one... Is there water in the sink? Oh, it's ready, right? Thank you..."
The kitchen was as lively as ever. Alice and her "friends" were busy preparing dinner for the captain and other creatures on the ship who needed to eat. When the busyness finally came to an end, she wiped her hands. The random thoughts that had been interrupted before came up involuntarily. She crossed her arms and thought for a while, looking seriously at the pots and pans that had just quieted down: "Hey, did any of you have a dream?"
The kitchen was silent. Her "friends" seemed to be stunned by her inexplicable question. Then, after a while, she heard two meaningless clicking sounds coming from the knife rack not far away.
"...Okay, you guys really don't have any experience in this area, so I shouldn't have asked you."
Alice muttered helplessly, then she pushed the cart containing food and left the kitchen and walked towards the dining room as usual.
But the problems in Miss Doll's head did not end there.
When dinner was over and night fell, when the last ray of sunlight disappeared on the sea level and the cold light of the Creation of the World reflected the endless waves outside the ship's side, she returned to her own room, sat in front of the window blankly, staring at the night view outside the small window, and the previous question popped up in her mind again - do dolls have their own dreams?
She really cared about it.
The incident at Breeze Harbor is over, and many people's lives are back on track. But in that huge "dream", this puppet who can't dream always feels that she has missed many important things. When the captain entered the dream to explore for the first few times, when the friends on the ship were trapped in the dream of the Nameless Man, she and Luni could only stay in the real world and wait - although the captain didn't say anything, Alice always felt a little... regretful.
I wish I could dream.
She sighed softly and looked out the window.
It's getting late, and now it's time to go to bed - a qualified crew member should have a healthy and regular schedule, and go to bed when it's time to sleep. This is what the goat-headed first mate taught her, and Alice has been doing a good job of following it.
There is a tidy single bed and a gorgeous large wooden box in the room. These two are the "beds" for the dolls. One of Alice's favorite things to do before going to bed every day is to carefully choose which bed to choose tonight.
She chose her own large wooden box.
This was something she had when she was "born". Although it was more comfortable to sleep in a bed, when she slept in a box, she would feel a sense of "nostalgia". Sometimes she would miss this feeling very much.
Alice put on her nightgown—a present the Captain had bought her on his last visit to town—and climbed into the trunk with ease, pulling the lid from the side and closing it carefully.
A calm and gentle darkness fell. The doll placed her hands on her chest and whispered to herself as usual: "Good night, Alice, good night..."
2. Light sleep
Alice didn't know how long she slept - the doll's sleep was empty and hollow. She felt as if she had only closed her eyes for a moment in the darkness, and then she heard some distant and vague noises suddenly coming from outside the door, which made her open her eyes.
She pushed open the lid of the heavy wooden box, sat up from inside, and listened to the noise outside with some confusion.
It sounded like the voices of many people, many people talking, shouting, and walking around, but the voices were mixed together and it was impossible to distinguish any content at all.
Are there so many people on board?
Miss Doll was puzzled for a moment, then she got up and changed her clothes. She carefully pushed open the door of the room, trying to find the source of the sounds.
No figures could be seen outside the room. Only vague noises could be heard coming from an unknown direction. A thin, strange fog floated in the corridor, with vague and indistinguishable outlines floating in the fog.
Alice thought for a moment, came out of the room, walked quickly to the door of a nearby room, and knocked on the door hard: "Shirley! Shirley! There is a strange sound on the ship!"
There was no response from Shirley's room, and the door was not locked - it creaked open and there was nothing inside.
Alice looked at the empty room in confusion, then suddenly turned and ran in another direction. Nina, Morris and Vanna's rooms were all empty.
There was no one in the entire cabin.
A trace of uneasiness finally emerged in Miss Doll's heart. She turned around quickly and ran across the entire corridor, and came to the deck with a thump.
But this is not the deck.
After running out of the cabin, she was surprised to find herself on an open surface - a strange and cold place.
This seemed to be a square, but endless thick fog enveloped everything around, including the scenery outside the square, so she could not tell where this place was. She only felt that there seemed to be countless figures of different heights, weights and body shapes standing in the thick fog. The faces of these figures were so blurred that they could not be recognized. They seemed to be gathered together and discussing something in a low voice. The layers of voices mixed together, and the buzzing sound was completely inaudible.
Alice looked at the fog around her and the people in the fog in surprise. She tried hard to think about it, but couldn't figure out what was going on.
She turned around and found that the wooden door of the cabin she had come from had disappeared in the thick fog.
A vague feeling of uneasiness emerged from the puppet's heart.
"Captain?" She called out in a low voice, then raised her voice a little, "Captain?
But no one in the fog responded to her call - only a feeling suddenly rose from the bottom of her heart, making Alice subconsciously look towards the center of the "square".
She hesitated for a moment and walked forward slowly.
She passed the hazy crowd and the foggy open space. A huge wooden frame suddenly appeared at the end of the fog.
The wooden frame was as high as a church door, and at the highest point, a sharp and heavy blade was suspended on a slide by a sling.
Alice slowly came to the somewhat scary wooden frame. For some reason, she felt that this scary and cold weapon was somewhat familiar. She subconsciously reached out and touched its rough wooden frame and the rope fixed on one side of the frame.
There was no one around the wooden shelf, only an empty space, which made Alice feel a little strange, but suddenly, she heard a voice coming -
"Are you dreaming?"
Alice was startled and turned her head hurriedly to look in the direction of the sound - then she heard a familiar and crisp "pop" sound next to her ear.
Her vision was spinning, and then her head hit the hard ground. She felt as if her head rolled on the ground for several times before finally stopping at someone's feet.
A figure appeared in her sight.
Alice's head lay on the ground, and she looked in surprise at the beautiful lady who looked exactly like her and was standing next to the wooden shelf. The lady was lowering her head and looking at the head on the ground with a look of surprise and interest.
Alice thought for a moment and opened her mouth: "Save...save...save...save..."
The silver-haired woman who looked exactly like her suddenly laughed, bent down to pick up her head, and returned it to the puppet body that was groping around next to her.
Alice grabbed her head, gestured on her neck twice, and finally installed her head in place with a "pop".
Then she widened her eyes and looked at "another self" who was standing next to the wooden shelf with a half-smile on her face.
This puppet's brain isn't very good, but at least she can still react at this time.
"Lennora... Her Majesty the Queen of Frost?" She looked at the person standing in front of her in amazement. She recalled many things the captain had mentioned to her, including the "big event" that happened to Frost before. She suddenly showed an incredible expression, "I heard from the captain that your soul left - have you come back to life?"
"Lei Nora"'s expression was obviously dull for a moment: "Can you change the word?"
Alice thought for a moment and sorted out the words she had learned from others on the ship: "Then you are cheating..."
"I'm back to life." The Frost Queen nodded happily.
"oh."
Alice nodded, not quite understanding. But before she could ask any more questions, the Frost Queen shook her head again: "But what you saw... was not the real Lenora."
"Ah?" Alice was a little confused. She looked up and down at the "Queen" in front of her in confusion. "You are not real? Then who are you?"
"A piece of intercepted information, a reorganization of data, a 'redundant part' that LH-01 stuffed into your soul," "Lennora" looked at Alice with a half-smile, speaking difficult words that made the latter even more confused, "I am your memory, your imagination of the past... But from the execution level of LH-01, I am no different from the real Lennora."
Alice listened to the words that the "Queen" told her in a daze. After a long while, she finally blinked as if she had woken up: "What do you mean?"
"…I am Leigh Nora, I came into your dream to talk to you while you were sleeping."
"Oh, now I understand," Alice nodded happily. "Why didn't you say it earlier? What you just said sounded so confusing to me."
Hearing Alice's response, a subtle expression appeared on the Frost Queen's face, but soon, this subtle expression turned into a smile.
"That's nice." she said softly.
"What's so good?" Alice didn't hear clearly and asked subconsciously, but soon her attention was focused on other things, "Ah, you just said I was dreaming? Am I dreaming now?"
"Yes, a dream that is both long and short, and that you have had countless times," the Frost Queen said gently. "Now is the first of the dreams - you meet me here, and it is like this every time."
Alice was confused again.
"I've had this dream countless times?" She pointed at herself curiously, "When? Why can't I remember it?"
"Because your dreams will always dissipate in the data recovery of the next day - you will forget these dreams because they are of no use to you."
Alice blinked, and subconsciously walked towards "Leinora", towards the Frost Queen who seemed to know a lot of things. But when she was about to ask, the Frost Queen suddenly raised her hand and pressed it on her shoulder.
"You've been here long enough," "Lennora" said softly, "Go to the next floor, good night, Alice, good night..."
With a sudden feeling of falling, Alice felt as if she was suddenly pushed into a bottomless void. She screamed subconsciously, then raised her head and looked at the light that was rapidly disappearing in her field of vision: "Hey! Where do you want me to go? What are you going to do?"
"I stay here and enjoy a moment of peace - the peace that Lenore once longed for most."