#everyone has some sort of secret agenda and prying further a horrifying role in that traegdy

[fivekrystalpetals]

I have some 200+ questions about the story so far lol; I am on Retrace XXIII and I need some time to let everything sink in before I move on to the next arc; let me try to frame all my thoughts in a coherent and chronological manner (lol)

1] starting from Alice, because everything in this story seems to revolve around her: she was a human who lived 100 years ago and was murdered during the so-called Tragedy of Sablier with a pair of scissors. the current Chain Alice is only assuming her form and has no memories of her past (which she is trying to collect but I fear the picture they piece together won't be a good one)

after all (re: Rt. 16)--

because her memories were that painful.

I feel like the ‘twisted’ Alice is the actual, remnant spirit of human Alice that created both the dimension inside the musical watch and the one Cheshire is guarding, is also the one Oz met in Retrace I from the graveyard. tho, idk how human Alice became the Chain Alice. or, rather, in Break's words, which is the true version of the chain--is it the Rabbit or is it the girl?

2] Vincent and Gil belong to the same era as Alice. there is some time leap shenanigans going on with them, that's how they landed in the present (or, well, 15 years ago from the present). Gil got adopted in the Vessalius household (as a nine-year-old so 15+9=24) whereas Vincent in the Nightray one.

a minor point: how is Gil growing older with his contract with Raven whereas Break and Sharon stopped aging?

3] Vincent.....this man knows everything. literally everything. Please someone squeeze out the details from him, please. and he is involved (heavily) in the Tragedy, going by these two panels (Rt. 19)

(poor baby ;-; if I have to make a wild guess, either he was lured or brainwashed into this....and he immediately goes into defensive mode, claiming everything is 'that person' 's fault. who is that person? Glen? Alice? although he carried a pair of scissors with him and Oz follows after him, I doubt this pair and the one found near her dead body is the same. def a blind. but I won't leave it out of the options that Vincent did kill Alice)

something else I noticed during that mindscape of Sablier Tragedy is that Oz knows how to get to Alice. he knows the place that was destroyed 100 years ago. idk what to make of this but interesting. this means he must have been alive at that time (Jack Vessalius reincarnation route or something else?)

4] I thought Gil's fear of cats was played for the sake of gags but if it makes him freeze up in a fight against a humanoid looking cat--Cheshire, then it's a serious matter.

5] Cheshire might try to kill everyone in his territory but I am still gonna love him bc he is the cutest cat with the cutest bell that goes ring ring (even if it's for a little while, he made Alice smile while she was alive, look at him snuggled up in her arms)

plus I don't believe Break's words that the Cat is a ‘fanatical follower of the Will’ (Rt:15) and since the Will hates Alice, Cheshire must hate Alice too. I doubt Cheshire would want to kill Alice in any form. he is very loyal to her that even 100 years after her death, he is still here trying to protect the fragment of memory in his bell. he is still trying, in his own little catlike ways, to protect Alice from getting hurt from her painful memories and I just </3 </3

5] Sometime in the past, the Will of the Abyss plucked out Break's left eye and gave it to Cheshire. Why? plus again to my question: what exactly is the Will of the Abyss? What is its connection to Cheshire, Alice and Break? Why does the Will hate Alice? What does the Will want with Oz? and so on

6] Also interesting that here, it’s the Mad Hatter that takes Alice to the mad tea-party conducted by Cheshire Cat

whereas in the original story, it was Cheshire Cat that sent Alice the Mad Hatter’s way. Mad Hatter was not at all gracious to Alice during the mad tea-party lol

Talking of that, Break’s chain seems like some sort of nullification ability (Rt. 20)

aaannd.... Break wonders if the power of the B-Rabbit and that of the Mad Hatter is the same? Break vs Alice soon? But Break's body can't take much of his Chain's power so he will be the first to lose anw

7] Oz feels so strongly for Alice that he singlehandedly started to pull down Cheshire's dimension. In a way, both Oz and Cheshire are the same. they want to protect Alice by destroying everything that hurts her. Cheshire was even ready to go up against the Mad Hatter, against which he stood no chance, just to protect her.

8] Jack Vessalius..... is an enigma. He is hailed as a hero of Sablier, and he, along with the Four Dukedoms, put a stop to the reign of terror under the Baskervilles and saved the country from sinking completely into the Abyss and so on.,..

what I am more curious about is that he appears a lot in Alice's memories and her (the human one, not the chain) reactions to him vary from being highly pleased to be in presence to eagerly waiting for him to downright wanting to kill him. Is she mistaking Oz for Jack? Even Gil mistook Jack for Oz for the same shining golden hair, emerald green eyes. (Rt.17) But Jack was quite affectionate to her in those memories, patting her head and lightly scolding her (Rt.8), then why would she want to kill him? What is their relationship? do I want to know

9] after his speech via Oz's lips, the Pandora officials now believe that Oz is Jack's reincarnation after completing his 100 year cycle. means more burden for Oz to not only maintain the Vessalius House but also the image of Jack.

10] anddd I dunno how to feel about Jack's constant possession of Oz's body. It’s already happened three times now (Rt. 11, Rt.18, Rt. 21) Oz being a hundred year reincarnation of the hero is a bit iffy and cliche but ok, but to be able to ‘possess’ (for the lack of a better word) him every time something arises... if Oz is gonna be under the shadow of the celebrated Jack Vessalius all the time, he won’t have any character development for himself. Oz might try to rely more on Jack than becoming stronger by himself. (two souls possessing one body is only interesting and chaotic when they have opposing interests like Sukuna/Yuuji or Greed/Ling etc.)

11] Baskervilles are even more mysterious. What's their deal? Why do they want the Will of the Abyss? Why did they sink the capital city into the Abyss? Were they trying to make Chains out of the humans by forcing them into the Abyss? and why to massacre everyone? to make crests of blood, FMA-style? After the Tragedy, the remnants of the Baskervilles went into hiding and only came out now with Oz coming of age. According to Jack, they are preparing for a comeback by their master Glen who isn't actually dead apparently. ofc everything starts when our protagonist hits 15

12] The organization of Pandora is... sketchy to say the least. Among many other reasons, but primarily this (Rt. 9)

The members of Pandora too can make a contract with the otherworldly Chains, but apparently, legal. No Seal, no ticking needle, nothing. They get all the benefits from the Chains without risking their lives, which automatically creates a hierarchy of sorts, a kind of divide between the ‘upper class’ and the commoners who blindly walk into these contracts. 

since I am guessing only the people from the four Dukedoms (Rainsworth and Nightray being two) get to make ‘legal’ contracts

the common people get lured into making contracts with the Chains at the promise of ‘ability to change the past’ and eventually, inevitably, failing (bc let’s be real, there’s no way you can do that by killing a bunch of people and even if you do get to change the past, only a hundred new problems will arise and so I never understand the prospects of doing that re: all of those time traveling movies) 

and sinking into the Abyss or dying at the hands of the Pandora

—and watch over the other households (Rt. 13)

(I think Vincent is easily the most perceptive characters we have met so far. He could understand all the underlying politics among the noble families at the age of what? six? seven?

he agrees that part of their status was because of the four families' role in the Tragedy of Sablier but more because they got their hands on the Door to the Abyss. which is really interesting. because it means that the war (massacre?) from 100 years ago also benefited the 'heroes' in many ways. hmmm. was it simply coincidentally spoils of the war? or... was something else going on?)

well, anw my point is that’s for Chains that have already devoured people. But what about Oz and Alice? Oz hasn’t killed anyone nor has Alice eaten anyone bc (Rt.15)

Oz had no choice. He didn’t have any kind of greedy ambition to change the past, to save his business, save someone etc. etc., he just wanted to get out of the Abyss where he had been cast by the Baskervilles in the first place (which they are at again even after ten years)... and the only choice he had, to escape and escape from the mouths of the other Chains dwelling in the Abyss was to make a contract with the strongest Chain there– B. Rabbit. He is not at fault, he had no idea of Chains or Contracts prior to meeting Chain Alice, he did it in the spur of the moment to save his own life and no ulterior motives. 

My question is: If Pandora does have a means to make legal contracts, why don’t they legalize the one between Alice and Oz? The needle’s already moved by two degrees (Rt. 20) and it won’t be long before he is pulled back into the Abyss, this time into the very depths. 

Unless that’s what Pandora wants. 

I literally don’t trust any of the adults around Oz and Alice (except for Gil. I don’t consider Gil as an adult) because Vincent, one of the top echelons of Pandora, is working with the Baskervilles. I don’t know if it’s just him or there are more working with the Baskervilles. (oh but it isn't like he is actually working with them. He is probably planning to backstab them when the time comes and capture the fifth door from them to get hold of the Will.)