There is a crack of thunder as you sit up in your bed, the figure standing at the opposite end of the room is the size of a small child. Their silhouette is cast against the lightning as it brightens the room, it catches the edge of the metal blade in their hand. A laugh echoes through the room, a high pitched echoing laugh that chills your spine. You find yourself unable to move. As the face rises the demonic red eyes meet yours, a smile widening with red and yellow stained teeth. The face seems so young, barely 6 years old but the eyes are ageless and terrifying. You can barely let out a cry before your whole world goes dark.

When you come to the first thing you hear is the caw of a crow, the feel of the cold earth under you. As you sit up you feel dizzy, as though gravity realigned itself to your current position. Around you are a few others, in varying states of consciousness, the ground under your hands is grey, as if the colour had drained long ago. The black skeletons of old trees litter the area, an old stone path runs in several directions, there are no birds singing, no breeze, no horizon, you are not even sure there is a sky.

Looking around the world around seems to face in and out of focus, though they seem to come into clarity at different times. A tree close by remains blurred while the bent and rusted fence next to it is in sharp focus. The ground beneath is cold, broken and cracked bricks that may have once been a path now slowly being lost to the spindly weeds reaching through like fingers. As the wind whispers past they almost seem to be clawing, pulling themselves through the ground.

The trees that litter the area are all without leaves, black and crooked as they twist towards the sky, golden and overcast with clouds racing must faster than the wind around would suggest. You cannot see where the sun is, the golden hue equal from one side to the other. The ground past the path is lit by the same dying yellow light, cracked and the only plants escaping it looking as strangled as the trees that stand like hopeless onlookers to the decaying scenery.

Joe grunted softly as he slowly opened his eyes, wiping away the crud as he sat up. There was a pause, then a swirl of disorientation as nothing was as it had been when he crashed into bed after yet another late night at the garage. "What in the ever-loving fuck?" he rumbled softly...slowly sweeping his head around to take in the place that sure as hell wasn't his bedroom.

First rule...assess the situation..second rule....assess resources.. Joe slowly sat up then stood up, stretching his lanky frame out to it's fullest extent then wandering over to see whether the other bodies around were alive.

Perhaps sensing the presence of the awakened man as he approached, Jemima too, roused from sleep. Gritty bricks and a sharp weed pressed against her cheek. Groggy sleepiness and generic where-have-I-woken up confusion turned to stone cold sobriety and alertness in an instant. She clumsily flipped over into a sitting position, one hand reaching out defensively in front of her towards the man, the other clutching her wrinkled cotton shirt tight around her chest. Later, she might thank goodness she'd passed out before she could get into her jammies. She managed a "Whauugh?", which might have meant, roughly translated from hung-over, 'Who are you, where are we, and how the hell did we get here?'.

In reply to Jemima York (msg # 4):

"Short answer lady, I have no fucking idea." Joe made sure to stay a decent distance away from the female waking up, uncertain of how she'd react once a bit more alert.

"This certainly isn't anything like what normally happens when I'm asleep...for one it's not in  the McLaren garage!"

Keeping half an eye on the lady just waking up, Joe cracked his neck to get rid of what would normally be the usual post sleep stiffness. "You seem to be still getting yourself together, I'm gonna check on the other folks that seems to be here."

Taking a step or two towards one of the other bodies lying on the ground, Joe blinked his eyes several times, trying to make sense of what he was seeing...one of the trees in particular being out of focus despite everything else around it clear and true. Aiming his voice over his shoulder towards the lady waking up "Hey...that tree over there...is it out of focus for you as well?"

Lilith is startled awake be the yelling of a male voice. She sleepily rubs her eyes and yawns. Dried twigs poke her in the back, she squirms around and sits up suddenly.

"Ok who the hell are you and where am I?"

Joe continues to try and focus on the weird-ass out of focus tree for a bit before glancing over to see one of the other bodies sit up...ok second person, another female....could be good...could be bad.

"Where we are, I have no freaking idea because this sure as heck isn't anything normal..."

"Swot I jstakd," Jemima offered groggily as she awkwardly dragged herself onto her feet. She frowned. We can do better than that. "S'what I just asked...", better. A little.
Holding her hand to her throbbing head she looked around, not particularly noting the weird ass tree because from her point of view, everything was a bit blurry. She then voiced the MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION. "Anyone got any coffee?"

In reply to Jemima York (msg # 9):

Lilith smiles wryly, "do i look like i carry coffee around with me?"

She gestures to what she is wearing. Lilith is wearing a black and purple crop top with a unicorn giving a rude gesture design on it. Her leggings are black with a purple racing stripe down the outside of each leg.

Getting up she goes walks over to the other woman and extends her hand to shake.

"Good Morning i guess, I'm Lilith. You can call me Lily if you prefer
This message was last edited by the player at 05:33, Sun 15 Mar 2020.

Jemima offers the mostly-genuine smile of an antiques dealer that has to remain polite in the face of idiots and swindlers, often concurrently. There's more warmth in it than usual however, as she's glad she's not facing this coffeeless nightmare alone.

"After the Bible Lilith? Always was a fan. I'm Jemima," taking that offered hand, she gives it a business-like shake.

She herself is wearing a grey suit, blouse, skirt with kitten heels. She'd look professional if everything wasn't extremely rumpled, with a few small globs of what, on close inspection, might reveal itself to be sweet and sour sauce.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:41, Sun 15 Mar 2020.

" Yup," Lilith chuckles, "After the Bible Lilith, my parents at the very least had a sense of humour!"

Lilith looks over the the man that was yelling.

"So what's your name? and also what are you going on...." She stops mid sentence and starts to wander over to the blurry tree.

"That's so interesting!!"

Joe holds an arm out, blocking the lady who called herself Lilith from getting closer to the weird ass tree.

"People mostly call me Irish, and I wouldn't go too close to that thing until everybody's a little more clear headed"

Julien had been awake moments longer than he might have made out, watching and listening to those around him as they woke. Finally he sat up, snatching his tophat from the ground where it had rolled from his head. Part of the left side of his head was shaved short, the rest of his hair grown long and swept to the right. It was naturally black, but the length of it was dyed electric blue, only the roots and the shaved part jet black.

He was dressed, clearly, for clubbing, in a black jacket that seemed to be styled after a straight jacket, if somewhat stylised. It hugged his narrow waist and metal buckles on black strapping rattled as he moved. One leg of his straight-legged pants was black, an angled silver zipper on the thigh and another on the shin, plus a blue tartan pocket on the outside of the knee. The other leg was, conversely, blue tartan a black pocket, zippers mirrored on the thigh and shin. His boots were heavy, combat-style and decorated with rings and straps.

Settling his hat back on his head, his green, heavily kholed eyes took in those around him and one leg bent at the knee, his forearm draping over it. Long, beringed fingers dangled lazily, his body language unconcerned.

He couldn't remember taking anything. Hell, he hadn't taken anything for months. But this sure seemed like... Well, maybe it wasn't drug-induced. That wasn't beyond the realms of possibility either. And he had been pretty drunk. Clearly drunk enough to not have managed to get undressed. Or maybe he hadn't even made it home. Or maybe he hadn't even made it out of the club.

Everything was pretty vague... almost as vague as this... wherever they were.

"Got-any-coffee-Jemima," he drawled, British accent thick and appealing as his loosely-hanging hand indicated her. "From-the-Bible-Lilith," A wave towards her as well. "And Mostly-Call-Me-Irish... got it."

He could have gone some coffee himself, actually, he thought as he rolled to his feet, long legs splayed and hands on hips, his fingerless leather gloves creaking a little.

"I'm Julien." He tipped the tophat slightly, offering a smile. "Charmed, I'm sure."

Bloody hell, god only knows what the fuck is going on and I'm here with some fucking Brit club poser!

Joe nodded an acknowledgement at Julian. "Welcome to who knows the hell what!"

Looking over at the Lilith and Jemima, Joe twisted his features into a scowl. "Does anybody have any idea what the heck happened other than it seems like we were all sleeping and now we're....wherever and whatever this place is?"

The group of people stood under the shadow of the blurred tree, its pale bark different from the blackened thin ones that littered the area. Its branches reached to the sky like apathetic limbs without energy or care of the air of confusion brought by the humans scattered at its roots. But although the trees themselves had no eyes to see there was at least one set that observed the group with a casual glance, a soft chuckle leaving invisible lips as it moved closer.

Julien grinned at Joe.

"Thank you. The welcome is appreciated," he said, his voice teasing.

He cast his gaze around, noting the difference between the tree they were standing under and the other ones both nearby and far. He took a step closer, drawing up beside Lilith. "I agree with From-the-Bible. It's jolly interesting." He patted her shoulder lightly, if she didn't move out of his reach.

"No idea what happened. Can't even remember if I made it home..." he added, reaching out to hook a midnight-blue fingernail behind a strip of papery bark and tugging a little to see if it would tear free.

Artsy types..all the same sometimes...anything out of the ordinary and it's moths to a flame.

"Not quite sure that's what I'd call it"

Joe moved away from the funny looking tree and did a small circuit around the group, looking to see if there was anything else different from the rest of this weird landscape, or if there was any sign of other things moving around.

The young mans hand did indeed connect with the tree, though it seemed that little bit too close and yet to far at the same time. His hand did touch something solid, solid enough to take off a piece of bark that he was able to hold. But just like the tree it was as though he was looking past the bark, feeling it in his fingers but it looking as if it wasn't in them at all.

For the Irish man, looking around the landscape let him see what lay beyond this seemingly dead place. The crossroads they stood on seemed to branch out in several directions, while a few seemed to wander jaggedly into distance, one headed towards a more lively looking forest where the green of the treetops was offset by the golden hue of the sky. While another seemed to head towards a more sparse area, in the distance seeing the shape of what looked like a castle spire. In the branch of the blurred tree was a pair of green eyes. Beyond the tree, a fair way away was a tall forest where the trees reminded one of the ones from old stories, frightening looking branches that intertwined to block out all the light. The eyes were gone now. At the beginning of the roads were signposts that were broken, the remains of the signs shattered on the ground.

Whoever is up there must be bloody good at hiding..
Joe looking on the ground for a moment then picked up a pebble. Tossing it up and down in his hand, he looked over to the junction of the tree that the pair of eyes were.

"You know, it's not very kosher to be spying on folks"

Got-any-coffee-Jemima had turned her back to the tree as Julien reached for it, shuddering at the thought of what it might feel like. The bloody thing looked like a hangover personified and she didn't need more of that. Noticing the shattered signposts she pulled a pair of wire-rimmed glasses from her jacket pocket and placed them on her nose...
took them off again with a grimace...
polished the grease of last night's dinner off them with the untucked corner of her blouse...
put them back on.
"Hmmm?"
This in half-curious response to Joe's seemingly random comment (she hadn't seen the eyes). She bent over to take a closer look at the fragments.
"Someone didn't want us to know where we are. Or where we should go."

"Sounds about right! Could be somebody or something else, or it could be our little shy friend up there hiding in the tree."

Joe kept bouncing the pebble in his hand "You've been rumbled, might as well come out and say hello."

Lilith smiles at Julien when she feels his hand on her shoulder, then follow him to the tree. Her eyes follow both Joe and Jemima to the top of tree. She just missed seeing what they had saw.

" Who's rumbled? I don't see anything," she reaches out and touches the tree now that Joe isn't barring her way. she herself pulls the bark away looking at it. ^{I'll keep this it looks like an interesting thing to put in one of my sculptures}

she then moves toward Joe and scowls where he is looking. Lilith crosses her arms which makes her shoulders widen slightly and the muscles tighten.

Julien smiled back at Lilith, who also took a sheet of bark and tucked it away somewhere. For his part, he held the bark at arm's length, drew it forward to his nose, stretched it out again. He couldn't bring it into focus, no matter what he did.

"This... reminds me of a really bad trip I had once..." he murmured.

The piece of bark went into one of the deep pockets on the side of his pants and he sashayed over to see what everyone was looking at.

Apparently nothing...

But Joe seemed to think he'd seen... something.

"What's up there?" he wondered.

"Ok whomever you are, I saw your eyes peeking out in the branches. Might as well come out and introduce yourself."

Joe paused for a few moments then when nothing happened, lightly tossed the pebble into the tree near where the eyes had been.

Joe gave a small grunt as he felt an impact on the back of his head, lightly touching the impact site to make sure that it wasn't bleeding.

Hrmmm....second person? Something else? Blargh, who the fuck knows at this point.

Slowly turning around to face where the object possibly came from, Joe slowly started running his eyes across the other trees

"Well, looks like there's more than one thing watching us right at the moment."

Not paying much attention to the main group, Jemima tried to make words from the fragments of broken signs. "Qun hurt. Hut tree. Vllllllug. Shik fust. Nope," the last not being an attempt at a word so much as a resignation.
Rising from her crouch and brushing off her knees, she gave the fragments a little push with one foot in a half-bottomed attempt to see.. what? If they'd magically re-form? If there was something underneath? Maybe just out of pique.
With a soft haurmf she returned her attention to ... wait had he said... "More than one? One what?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:53, Tue 24 Mar 2020.

Julien put one hand on a hip and peered up into the tree where Joe seemed to think some...thing... some...one... was watching them. There didn't seem to be anyone there. Throwing a rock didn't work.

"What the hell?" he said after a moment. "Hold this for me, won't you?" He tossed his tophat to Joe and began to actually climb up the tree to find out if there was, in fact, anything up there.

Joe swiftly turned at the motion of the corner of his eye and tried his best to avoid damaging Julien's top hat while catching it.

"Just be careful dude, that tree doesn't look to be overly stable!"

As Julien got up past the main truck, Joe began offering direction "Yeah, just over that side about another metre up, that's where the eyes were staring out from"

Sliding her glasses half way down her nose so that she could see properly over the top of them, Jemima watched the flamboyantly-dressed chap climb. She wrapped her hands underneath her elbows, hugging herself, as she shook her head in negation.

"No. Nope. Not a good idea," though these were said more to herself than aimed directly at the madman climbing into the headache-causing abomination. She took a step backwards, but her eyes still followed Julien with morbid curiosity.

The branch where the eyes apparently were was only about 4 metres from the ground, the upper branches swayed a little as the human moved towards the spot being gestured to. Even from this height the area could be seen clearer, the level of death and dust around the immediate land was even more powerful when one could see the greener forests around them, one brighter green than the other. But there was green near them, the two large green eyes staring at the Englishman from just above Jemima's shoulder, a grin appearing under them that kept growing wider and wider.

Julien followed Joe's instructions, blowing blue hair out of green eyes and finally settling on the branch where the other man had said he'd seen another pair of eyes. Well, there was nothing here that he could see and he opened his mouth to say just that, but the words died in his throat and he snapped his teeth shut again with an audible click.

Indeed, as he'd looked around from his perch, gaze taking in the forests in the distance and the death not-so-distant, he caught sight of Joe's eyes. Well, not Joe's eyes, because those were where they belonged, in Joe's head, but the eyes Joe had presumably seen. Only they weren't in the tree any more. No, indeed.

His own green eyes met the greener still pair, hovering by Jemima's shoulder and he slowly cocked his head with great interest.

Whatever he'd taken was either really good or really bad, but in either case he'd fallen off the wagon in a big way. It was so weird, though. He could have sworn he hadn't taken anything - beyond his prescribed medications that was.

Maybe someone spiked his drink?

All these thoughts wandered with relative laziness through his mind as he continued to watch those floating eyes and finally he said; "Well, they're not up here, Mostly-Call-Me-Irish. But I found 'em, sure enough."

Lilith's eyes widen as she watches Julien climb the tree. She goes to try to stop him but is too late to catch hold of him. She then follows Julien gazer to the eyes perched over Jemima's shoulder.

"Jemima don't move!!" Lilith stalks the eyes very slowly.

"Who are you? What do you want? More Importantly where is your body?"

Lilith reaches out to where a body might be for this thing.

Saying 'don't move' is right up there with 'don't look behind you' when it comes to things-people-never-do-when-you-tell-them-to.

Jemima was, of course, no exception to this rule, and though she initially froze, as Lilith reached out she, of course, spun on the spot and tripped on her own feet. She landed on her butt with a thump and immediately looked up at the hovering, green eyes.

The disembodied green eyes look down at the prone woman, the smile tilting down and letting the gentle light shine across the surface of the bared teeth.

"No need for that" said a cool and steady voice "I did not scream when you appeared in front of me."

Hovering 5 feet off the ground the smile turned upside down, the eyes lagging a little before settling to their spot under the mouth.

"That's, um..." Julien rubbed his eyes and blinked owlishly. "Everyone else saw that, yeah?"

He didn't feel like coming down from the tree. Admittedly, the pair of eyes and smile could clearly float about, so something like being up a tree was unlikely to protect him. Nevertheless it gave him a false sense of some level of security. Not much, if he was honest, but some.

"Also, that floaty mouth is actually talking... Uh... Good morning... if it is morning... Sir... if you are a Sir..."

Jemima harumphed softly and muttered "I didn't scream..." as she got to her feet just to one side of the apparition and brushed herself off.

Squinting at the grin she postulated more audibly, for the good of the chap in the tree and the group at large, "It's not a Sir, it's a cat, though every cat I've met would consider itself royalty. I would have asked where we are but I'm guessing the more literary among us might already have guessed an answer to that, if you are who I think you are," this last directed directly to the floating eyes.

A purr echoed from the place where the eyes floated, they surveyed Jemima with interest,

"You probably would not believe the answer even if you did ask. Though I am grateful you didn't, I do so hate having to repeat myself"

Slowly the grey head of a cat, the wide grin stretching the face unnaturally. The now floating head backed up slightly, bobbing as though on water.

"and why... pray tell, can a Cat not be a Sir?"

Huh? Literary...cat...you gotta be kidding me, WTF is this Alice in Wonderland Bullshit?! Joe sttod there for a few moments while his brain processed what was happening and come to the conclusion that what was happening was seriously out of the realm of possibility...unless some asshole had put something in his food.....

"Oh...great...so apparently Im having a giant acid trip? Funny, I've always heard them described as colourful rather than bland and boring"

"It all depends," Julien muttered in response to Joe's words, finally swinging down from the tree with all the grace of a giraffe.

He was also making the connections the other man had made with Jemima's words. Alice in Wonderland? Well, it made sense. That did seem to be something like the infamous Cheshire Cat. But at the same time it made no sense at all, because that was a story and this wasn't.

"Maybe we're all having a bad acid trip," he mused, coming up alongside Joe. "Though I must admit, I've never had one quite like this..."

Lilith gasped audibly as she watched Jemima fall, her hands out in front of her waving uselessly. "Oh Sorry!"

She extends her hand to Jemima and helps her get to her feet.

"Of course I knew he was familiar! But how? i live alone and i'm damn sure nobody spiked my drink?!"

She extends she hand slightly to the head  to the cat. "You were my favorite character of the story. Would you mind if i check if you are actually here?"

Lilith extends her hand a bit further making a beckoning gesture to him.

The purring continued as the Cat looked at the humans, not looking them directly in the eye but more observing them as one would watch ducks on a pond.

“It's not the first time my existence has been reduced to the effect of a substance.” he said nonchalantly, rolling around as the full body of a grey cat appeared in the air. “I wonder if you your own existences are but the product of someone elses mind, I mean.... would you be able to tell?”

The cat rolled around in the air, tail growing and shrinking as it coiled and uncoiled around the body.

“But here is a relative term. Where is here? Or is it there? Are you here? Maybe you're not, perhaps I am not, yet you are. What is here will not always be here and yet while it is here we don't know if it is”

Joe mentally sighed and then pinched the bridge of his nose at the waffled nonsense the cat looking thing was sprouting.

"Alright then whatever you are...what's your game with this?"

The grinning Cat looked at Lilith with fascination, eyes growing wide like a cat about to accept a good head scratch. But at Joe's words the feline disappeared, a wave of cool air washed over the woman's outstretched hand as her fingers felt they were grasping at hairs made of silk, cool and delicate. The feeling went through her body as the light sound of moving air travelled away and up to the lowest branch of the blurry tree. Appearing again the mysterious creature arched his back and stretched out,

“In this world its not what you are but who you are, then again I did once meet a when you are. Fascinating man, though very hard to get truly acquainted with.”

He jumped down from the branch, though never reappeared as his body vanished between the seeing eye and the branch.

“Though I like games,” said a voice near Julien's shoulder, the weightless feet meeting his clothes “But I never really liked to play. I prefer to watch”

Jemima watched these shenanigans with amusement and curiosity. Knowing how a Cheshire cat behaves, and actually seeing it happen are two quite different things.

She smiled at Joe's straightforward question. She was beginning to like the no-nonsense-ness of the fellow already. However, knowing now where, in theory, they were, she suspected that nonsense might be the only way forwards.

Tricks and riddles and nothing being quite what you expect. Is that what their ragtag group had in store? How did Alice survive? She went with the flow. She asked questions. She... played along.

Jemima put on an air of charming innocence and tapped her chin, "I wonder, dear Cat, which path would you have us take, so that you could watch us play?"

Ok whatever the hell you are...you wanna play silly riddles, I'm going to let somebody more in tune with this jive take point....

Joe's features slowly settled into a neutral look, paying attention to the Cat looking thing with the occasional scan around them, trying to make sure nothing else weird popped up while they were occupied

Lilith shivers as the air washed over her. She crosses her arms and rubbed them when the final wisp leaves her.

She smiles knowingly at Jemima and nods to her slightly.

Best let one person take point,  she joins Joe in scanning the immediate vicinity for threats.

Julien didn't seem at all bothered when the soft paws touched his shoulder. He in fact reached up to take his own turn at patting the cat, if he would be allowed, though he opted for a chin scratch, given their positioning.

"I've met people like that before," he said dryly, waggling his brows in a lewd manner that left no doubt as to what he was referring to.

He wondered privately, though, if they should do the exact opposite of whatever the cat's answer to Jemima's question was. He seemed pretty shady to Julien. And slippery too.

Raising their chin the feline was more than happy to accept attention from the man as he mulled over the situation before them.

“Well.... you see, while I normally enjoy Red's games she does tend to go through player quickly.” they moved their head to get rubs on their ears, purring deeply “So it all depends, if you want the people on charge, if you need more time, if you want power or if you want some assistance. All of these are possible, though I cannot even guarantee half of those. You're hardly the first here and not everyone is a patient as me anymore. Shame really”

The loud purring continued and echoed though the clearing. There was nothing around them other than the dead trees and the distance sights of forests and the castle. The red spire looking oddly clear through the golden haze of their current location.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:41, Mon 06 Apr 2020.

Geez, so this is kinda like the book it seems...gah..how did that story go?? Best to let the cat thing talk for the moment...

Returning Lilith's acknowledging nod with an almost imperceptible one of her own, Jemima tried to resist rolling her eyes at Julien's comment and wagging brows.

The word Red made her wince slightly. If they HAD to face the Queen, they could do with time, power AND assistance... but which first? And how to make sure it didn't get muddled, misinterpreted, or messed with? As little as possible at any rate.

Jemima pondered, crossing her arms and tapping her chin.

"The offer of time comes with the implication that we might have a limit. Not a pleasant thought. Coupled with this, the offer of power implies that we might be in need of it before long. Hmm, not that you aren't being of wonderful assistance to us already, but being naturally a knowledge seeker myself, I'd vote for that last. Dear cat, is there a direction we might go to achieve all three or must we choose?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:42, Sat 11 Apr 2020.

Julien had to agree with Jemima. Knowledge was power. However, he didn't know if it was the most pressing need. He turned his green gaze to her.

"I can't argue with you, really. The best way to navigate a situation is by knowing how to do so. However, it might be that time is what we really need. If there is a time limit - which, mind you, we can't assume - then perhaps we need more time to gain knowledge and, if the chance happens to arise, power." A pause, then dryly; "Mind you, if we knew how long we had, if there is indeed a time limit, that would help too. Knowledge."

He gave a wry grin. "I'm starting to talk like you, Pussy Cat. Perhaps we should swap places?" he remarked to feline on his shoulder.

Ok..so main bad person in the book was red...queen of hearts and her playing card soldiers....so if this is like the book then maybe the mad hatter and the hare and the white rabbit could be useful? Or were they just plot devices to spew out riddles...dammit...

The cat's grin widened, if that were possible, the corners far beyond where its skull should have been able to stretch.

“To achieve all three you could split yourself into three pieces...”

They walked along the back of Julien's shoulders into the air, stepping as though on solid ground. Their back legs stopped while their middle and front tore off, still moving, then their middle hung and separated from the front. The head and front paws looked down from their invisible walkway.

“....though that may be easier for myself than it would be for you.” They said as the rest of them slowly caught up with the front. “ Not everyone has my mastery of multitasking”

They turned to Julien,

“Swap places? If you were I and I were you then you would wish to be me and we would be in the same situation where I wished to be you and then you would be I”

They chuckled to themselves,

“and that would just be silly”

They groomed himself for a moment, long purple tongue licking reaching out and smoothing the hair on their front leg.

“I'm simply hoping you last longer than the last ones that were brought here. I do so enjoy new company...”

Hrm..known facts thus far - looks like this place is on a time limit of sorts. How did Jemima phrase it...time,power and knowledge? Split into three..so... perhaps one direction is the quickest to the exit, or safe point? One way for getting power and the other getting knowledge of what the hell this crazy shit is all bout?

Still being mindful of the cat shaped thing, Joe wandered over to the broken signpost and had a look at the different pieces.

Half a mo....maybe....

Joe suddenly kneels down and starts moving the bits of the signpost about

"QUNHRT....HTTRE...VLLG....SHKFST.....Queen Heart...Hatter...who could the other two possibly be? Village...and...Shakfeast...no..that doesn't sound right....vowels are not in there...hmmm"

Frowning lightly, even as she enjoyed the cat's logic about swapping with Julien, Jemima pondered.

"While each of us alone is incapable of splitting into three, we could certainly, as a group, split up, while remaining whole, as it were."

She watched Joe thoughtfully, appreciating his logical approach. The first two fragments of words did indeed make sense now, though the second two were still a mystery to her also. Shake fist? That didn't sound helpful, or right. Could it be an N instead of an H? Not shark, but Snark, the hunted bird? That wasn't helpful either. She shook her head.

"Though we've only just met, I'm hoping there's some reason we arrived together and I for one would be loathe to split up, but what does everyone else think?"

Joe looked up to Jemima and gave a dry chuckle.
"Thinking about every movie I've ever seen, splitting up is the quickest way to get yourself dead quick. The more eyes to watch out the better I think!"

Julien wandered over to where Joe crouched, trying to decipher the signpost.

"There aren't enough of us to split up," he agreed. "We have to pick a direction."

He stared at the SHKFST part and couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was. He didn't know enough about Alice in Wonderland. Plus, despite his intelligence, he'd never been exactly great at word games.

"Shake fist?" he offered. "Shark fest? I don't think I want to go a shark fest..." He snorted.

Joe rubbed a hand over his face after softly verbalising aloud a few different vowel combinations that could work with the last bit of the signpost.

"I dont remember the book very well, we had to read it in school and I got dragged to the movie so I'm not that aware of places in there...do any of you have any idea what it could be?

Julien looked up.

"Movies and books might not be a good frame of reference, anyway. Even the most beloved tales get... changed over time. Even... censored, if you like. In the book, first, then in the movie even more..."

He brushed his slender fingers across one of the signs.

"Standing here does us no good, though. None at all. So... I mean, at this point, we could spin a goddamn bottle and follow it. Luck is as good a reason as any to pick a direction."

He looked around to the others. "Plus, I don't know about you, but I'm actually getting bored standing here."

"Fuck it. If I remember right the Hatter was the one that Alice had to meet to progress so I guess that would be the first one to go to."

Joe looked up at the Cat "See you around I'm sure."

With that, Joe started off towards the path that appeared to correlate with the shards of the sign pointing to the Hatter...if that indeed what it was...

Turning to Joe the cat tilted his head,

“So I give you four options and you make a fifth? You are quite mad Sir if you think that's how the game is played...” they purred “But that may have been one of the original four.... in which case you are quite clever”

The cat stretched its long body, claws kneading the air.

“Funny how those two seem to cross each others paths.”

With one outstretched paw the cat pointed to one of the directions down the crossroads, towards the path winding through the sparse  forest. The path wound through the few dead trees with no discernible traits as it made its way to the edge of sight.

“Say hello to the Hatter for me, its been a while since he's seen me. Not that he would know”

With that the feline winked and was gone, the shine of their eyes lingering for but a moment before the humans were left at the crossroads.


_______


The Game Map has been Updated
This message was last edited by the player at 12:12, Wed 20 May 2020.

"Quite mad," Julien echoed, striking out after Joe on his long legs. "They're the one who's quite mad."

He was just happy to be moving, in whatever direction. It didn't really matter. Besides, he liked hats.

He made sure his own was sitting at just the right rakish angle as they walked.

If Jemima had been more on the ball she might have pointed out that the cat hadn't specified the directions of the choices they'd been given... but then she's sure she would only have been met with a convoluted answer and her hangover wasn't helping her brainpower at all. If there was no coffee to be had, she needed the next best thing. Also the Hatter, from memory, was an ally, at least of Alice's.

"Better the devil you know. And with any luck, there'll be tea..." she murmured as she headed in the direction that the fluffy riddler had indicated.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:00, Wed 20 May 2020.

Lilith shook herself from the careful watch she appointed herself as the other conversed with the cat.

" oh the Hatter?!" "wait i know where we're going! He's did help Alice, well in roundabout sense of the word anyways."

She walked quickly to catch up with the others, she was a little excited at thought of meeting more literary charaters.

Julien grinned as Lilith caught up to them.

"I'm partial to hats meself," he said, tapping the brim of his own tophat. "And you? Do you have a favourite sort?"

The dust danced in the air around the feet of the displaced humans as they walked down the path together. Joe strode forward with conviction, determined to get somewhere other than this barren dead forest. The others filed behind him with varying enthusiasm in their steps while the cracked stone pavement wove around the remains of trees and shrubs. The land seemed so open and broken but around them was the signs of what it once was, a rusted broken fence around what may have been a flowerbed, the broken remains of a fountain which the path lead around as if displaying a macabre accident one wishes they could look away from. For a time they seemed to be approaching something, a tall forest rising up on the horizon. But as quickly as the world rose to their sights their path was changed again, Joe took another step and disappeared into thin air before the others behind him. As if the strings of words were pulling at their feet, the others stepped forward as well.

---

End of Chapter