Alice: Madness RP

[CharlotteDelue]

Alice rubs her eyes and she feels a pang of a headache coming on. She tries to shake it off the headache and the remnants of her dream, but it is no use it is still there and always will be. Of course she could only remember flashes and most of it was lucid anyway.

She got up to her feet, sleep still clouding her brain beckoning her back. "I slept as good as the clinically insane can sleep." Yes it was a deep sleep, that doesn't always mean a restful one. She brushed off her dress and surveyed that her nicks and cuts were healing and the bruises she acquired where deepening into a dark violet. In the the right pocket on the apron that was fashioned to her dress she found two more mushrooms and hurriedly ate them wondering if she would ever have a proper meal.

 

[Razilin]

The pair continues through the chessboard-like fields of Looking Glass Land, with gloomy, overcast skies obscuring any refreshing sunlight that would have kissed these plains. As the hours pass and they put miles behind them, Alice starts to notice a rustling behind them amidst the tall grass. The Cheshire Cat, lounging upon her shoulder in a much smaller version of himself, notices her careful observations.

"Yes, we are indeed being followed," he confirms in a whisper. For once, the amusement is completely gone, replaced instead with a quiet dread. Alice has never seen the Cat like this before, with his ears pressing against his head, eyes darting left and right in desperate searching, his very countenance screaming alertness.

"It is one of the THINGS that now inhabit Wonderland," he says. "They are not of this world, or any other. They are nothing like anything I have ever seen."

From amidst the grass emerges a creature Alice could only call a lady bug, but unlike any brightly-colored, docile insect, this beast is the size of a small house and seemingly made of crystal or glass. Rather than a smooth carapace, its body is thousands of small, interconnecting triangles, so many stitched together end on end, such that any points ultimately smooth out into a curve. Looking upon it brought thoughts of geometry, mathematics, rigidity, orderliness - so out of place in a chaotic world such as Wonderland. How such a large monstrosity could hide in the waist-high grass is anyone's guess, but like silent death it rises, its shadow casting over Alice and her feline companion.

The Cat murmurs at Alice's ear, "This creature is beyond me, my dear Alice. I shan't be of much help to you here. But know this: this must surely be the creature that felled sagely Caterpillar, but like him, it is but a bug. Chanterelles, I may have mentioned before, have a natural insecticidal quality to them."

With that, the Cat hops off Alice's shoulder to hide in the grass.

The crystalline lady bug opens its mandible and lets out a furious roar as it descends upon Alice.

 

[CharlotteDelue]

Alice slowly slides her hand into her pocket, damn, she ate the last of the mushrooms. She looked at the insect not with horror but with curiosity, where was it's weak point? She wasn't going anywhere near it's gaping mouth but what if she could put something in the mouth? For as far as she could tell the only other option was to get it's softer under belly because its geometric top was impenetrable.

Her eyes darted trying to find someplace to hatch her plan that she was now incubating. There! It is was perfect, a tree with a fair sized hidey hole that her slender body could fit into and the place for the only weapon that was stronger than her Vorpal Blade against this creature.

The insect buzzed quickly to Alice's location but Alice got into the orifice just in time. As her attacker hummed about the tree, banging on it ever so often, Alice got her solution to this otherwise doom ridden battle, Chanterelles, her hand ripped a few from the stump. She then stuck her head out and started taunting the arthropod "Here I am you poltroon!" The ladybug's attention was brought to Alice, it charged at her making a ghastly hissing sound almost like a shriek. It opened up it's mouth with its sharp mandibles ready for Alice's flesh. Instead it got a mouthful of Chanterelles.

The insect's mouth begun to quiver and it's body teeter tottering in the air. Then it made this gagging like sound but it was no use, suddenly the mouth opened wider and wider to the point where it split in half like one breaks a biscuit.

Silence. The buzzing is now gone and all one could hear was the grunt and the rustling of Alice climbing out of her burrow. When she was fully out she brushed of her frock and looked around the clearing for the Cheshire.

 

[Razilin]

The Cat playfully leaped from his hiding place in the grass and onto Alice's searching hands, scamping up her arm to curl himself around her shoulders like a heavy scarf. "How valiant and clever you were, dear Alice!" he throatily congratulated, "I am indeed most impressed with that pretty little head of yours, being so clever!

"As you can see, this is one of the THINGS that has invaded our Wonderland. I do not know where they come from, nor what they want. They come, they...erase...Whole plots of land have been turned into figures, boxes, squares, pyramids. Everything is as it once was, but now made of these figures! Like the Lady Bug. It retains its shape, yet not, for it is made of things manufactured, all angles and sharp corners, rather than anything free or natural. This is the danger that befalls Wonderland.

"Perhaps, I hope, you will be able to stop it."

The pair continue through the chessboard plains in silence. Their journey ends as the sun once again begins to set, but now Alice's road takes her to the gates of Looking Glass City, the capital of Looking Glass Land, and sovereign seat of the Red King and Queen, the eternal neighbors of the Kingdom of Hearts.

The "Chessboard City," as it is called, has only meandering streets and many shops, enough to confuse, befuddle, and mesmerize the materialistic. To Alice's eyes, Looking Glass City seems much like a more colorful, more vibrant version of her London. Chessmen and chesswomen walk the streets, some on business, some on play, and many more hawking their wares. They offer weapons and armors, foodstuffs and drinks, and quite a few silvered mirrors, as befit a kingdom named Looking Glass Land.

The overwhelming sights and sounds of the marketplace could threaten a lesser mind, but the Cat proves to be more than adequate a tour guide.

"We must yet reach the Kingdom of Hearts," he says. "As you know, one could reach there by foot or by ferry, the latter of which is here in Looking Glass City, but I fear the price may be a touch steep. As I recall, there is an inn here called the King's Castle, with a number of loose lips that he can exploit to learn more about what lies ahead. And, of course, there is the Red King and Queen to consider as well. Their influence in this land is obviously powerful, but their animosity with the Kingdom of Hearts is even more so. You are known here in Looking Glass Land, and the royalty may prove to be either ally or hindrance in our quest to reach the Queen of Hearts...."