Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down, don't look down...

The White Rabbit, as I picture him, from Alice in Wonderland. Such a charming story, with a grand variety of anthropomorphic characters ripe for age regression.

**************************************************************************************

The White Rabbit procured a new watch, hoping to remedy his perpetual lateness. The new model was old fashioned and made of a tarnished gold, the letters L.C. were engraved upon it. After a few days of using it, the Rabbit began to notice something fairly odd about the watch, the hands at times seemed to run backwards, he was never able to confirm this, only checking it every so often, but it gave him an uneasy feeling whenever the thought occurred to him.

One golden afternoon the Rabbit had had enough, he held the watch up to his ears and shook it wildly, he could hear no tinkling of loose parts, only a faint and completely regular ticking. He stared hard at the face, there was no denying it, the minute hand had moved in the improper direction, it had been pointing to the painted roman numeral "III" a few minutes ago he was sure, now it was halfway back to the "XII". The Rabbit frowned, annoyed at the malfunctioning timepiece. He shook it violently again and stared at the clock face. The minute hand moved visibly back toward the twelve at the top, then again, and again. Now it was at the twelve and it kept moving backwards, it seemed to be accelerating. Now very frustrated he looked all over the watch searching for some kind of adjustment knob or something, but found nothing.

Now he was really angry, this watch was utter rubbish! Then he noticed something, the small cylindrical protrusion to which the chain was fastened could be pushed inward, it seemed actually a button of sorts. Curious, he pressed it down, he felt several jerking movements like gears and mechanisms grinding into motion, from within the belly of the timepiece. Then the whole thing quivered in his palm and the hands began to move. But they were still going in reverse. The Rabbit sighed, highly disappointed, looking down he noticed a few of his garments were askew, he straightened his bow-tie and dusted and smoothed his waistcoat smartly.

He looked back down at the watch, the hands seemed to be moving faster, the minute hand making its trip counter-clockwise within thirty seconds, dragging the hour hand back at a surprising rate. As the Rabbit watched, his eyes widened, the hands were speeding up! Soon the minute hand was nearly a blur and the hour hand soon followed suit, the watch began twitching in his paw like an irritated grasshopper. He gripped it with both hands to stop it leaping from his grip.

As he watched the hands escalate out of control he felt a very nasty chill penetrate his whole body.
**************************************************************************

And so the regression begins. More improv narrative fun. Snazzy outfit, right?


The White Rabbit is part of the cast of characters in Alice's Adventures In Wonderland which was written by Lewis Carroll and the first edition published in 1865.