text } from Ace of Spades, the Wonderland Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #11

[choosetruth]

Along with a mansion made of gingerbread, this Christmas brought us a party with an unknown host. Tame by Wonderland Christmas standards, but still perplexing.

[A picture of the invitation is embedded.]

Both the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen thought the other was responsible for the party, and denied their own involvement.

[A clip of their argument is embedded.]

The party included a donation box collecting memories for an unknown cause. The party host has yet to come forward, so there is no way of ascertaining whether they provided the box or not.

[There are photos of both sides of the card. The donated word itself, of course, will not stick in the mind of anyone who gave it up.]

I placed a bug and tracker in the box. The tracker stayed in location for a while, then moved rapidly away from the ballroom before the signal stopped working. The bug did not pick up any noises that would pinpoint an identity or location.

There is another player at work here, one who also uses the heart symbol and appears to have power enough to rival the two known queens.

The White Queen would be a suspect, but her death has been confirmed by the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. Are there other Queens out there? "None that I'm aware of," stated the Red Queen. "But it is possible there could be others. Anyone who reaches the eighth square can become a Queen. Even Alice could become a Queen." When pressed on what precisely the eighth square is and who qualifies as "anyone", she refused to provide details. The Queen of Hearts refused to comment.

The only one of Wonderland's more permanent cast to make an appearance at the party was the Duchess, whose head is now reattached to her body. Although she didn't make an appearance, one of our residents wanted to be certain the Red Queen knew she'd be welcome if she chose to attend.

[There's an image of Frisk next to a red banner with silver letters reading WELCOME BACK RED QUEEN!!!!]

Comments

text;

[revokes]

was there ever a king? I remember a king existed in the books but.

[ the queen denied the existence of one. it doesn't mean much but still. ]

text;

[choosetruth]

I have yet to find any evidence of one. They're going by chess rules, according to the Red Queen, so kings are pretty weak. She says gender isn't a barrier to becoming a queen, though.

text

[angewiesen]

The eighth square... So what, this is all just a game of checkers?

text

[choosetruth]

Chess. If a pawn crosses the board in chess they become a queen.

text;

[rectitudes]

Do you think she was telling the truth at all? I know none of them can be trusted but every now and then, even mad people can be honest.

[ even if they're queens. ]

text;

[choosetruth]

I think she was telling the truth. But she was evasive enough that I would very much doubt it's the whole truth.

text;

[interpersonal]

( she sure missed a lot by skipping this party... and still they know so little.

sounds about right for wonderland. )

Do you think the White Queen is part of whatever the box wants to bring back?

text;

[choosetruth]

I don't know. She's been gone for a very long time, even longer than Alice has been here. But this is Wonderland, so I certainly can't rule it out.

text

[bibliocorn]

So we have several queens in charge of this world?

[Makes sense- Equestria is ruled by Princesses, after all. It would be weird for him to be in a world where the ladies WEREN'T in charge. ]

I don't suppose we have information about who all these people are? I'm still very new and need to be caught up to speed. Interesting how this Red Queen is using the Promotion Rule. Do they base their monarchy on what is essentially a chess board system, I wonder.

text

[choosetruth]

There's a lot of information about the players involved here. Dipper and Mabel Pines have created a rundown that is accurate and concise, if a bit juvenile.

[She attaches a file.]

And it's a bit complicated. The Queen of Hearts is absolutely in charge of the Mirrors, but the Red Queen doesn't really have the same sway over the Reals.

And I think the chess thing is supposed to be somewhat metaphorical.

[Then again, maybe not.]

voice

[scoutsniper]

[ Someone missed all the fun in his Walkabout of Manly Broodiness. He'd say 'thanks ofr the catch up' but...it's you. And him. ]

So, the word means something someone wants us to forget.

And there's apparently a new player in the mix.

voice

[choosetruth]

Possibly. I wouldn't have risked it if it were a word I had any use for. And considering how many words I have use for, that's saying something. But if you can figure out what's so important about finger whirls, let me know.

[She needed to get that tracker in. But she's already given up one memory recently. She doesn't want to give up anything important.]

[Text]

[shslliar]

[This was all useful information! He took notes on everything he found useful, from the mystery of the invitations to the bit about the 8th square.]

[Then he got to the word on the card. Whenever he looked away from the picture to write it down, he'd forget it. Every single time. It just wouldn't stick.]

[That was bad. That was really bad.]

[As he tried not to panic and had to actually copy that word down one letter at a time, he goes to make a comment on the blog. No anons, no tricks, just a question.]

Do you still remember the word that was on the donation box card? Just curious.

[Text]

[choosetruth]

No. I have it written down, but I can't read it myself. I sacrificed it to try and get more information about the box.

[For all the good that did her. She doesn't regret it, though. She had to try.]

text

[testcase]

[Ryoko'd been taking notes on the event, but these are way more useful and way more important, so she'll add them to her notebook. She's not sure if any of it is actually relevant to her, but maybe? Someday? It seems more likely to be relevant than not.]

Thank you for keeping track of all this. I'd share my notes, but I don't think I wrote anything important down.

[She's flipping through her notes, cross-referencing what she has with what's in the text post, but no, nothing important to add. Oh wait, maybe something...]

There's eight squares on a chessboard, right? Is there a giant chessboard in Wonderland somewhere?

[If there is, she's forgotten about it.]

text

[choosetruth]

There's the checkerboard hills, but if crossing that could make you royalty it would have happened already.

I'd be happy to look anyway, if you're willing. Sometimes another set of eyes can see patterns you've missed.

[forwearemany]

Acknowledged. We appreciate your willingness to share this data.

[choosetruth]

Of course. It's my job.

text.

[scathefires]

[... and then there's this asshole.]

too long

didnt read

text.

[choosetruth]

Wow, original.

text;

[agentxthirteen]

Clever to put the tracker in. Irritating that someone tricked so many people into giving up their memories.

text;

[choosetruth]

I don't know if I'd call it "tricked." They did put what would happen right on the card. That's a lot more straightforward than Wonderland usually gets.

[trabryu]

[ Ah, Mondo remembers her. The information she provided sometime back was useful. Or rather, it was good to know, even if he wasn't able to utilise it for greater good. He's the opposite to the brains, after all. ]

dya think the queens have mirrors too
if the white queens really dead

[choosetruth]

I don't think the Queens have mirrors. What would that have to do with the White Queen's death?

text

[hypoxic]

They've confirmed the white queen? The the one from the projection?

[This feels particularly ominous for a lot of reasons.]

text

[choosetruth]

Yes. Alice said it happened before even her time, so it's been over 150 years. No one would confirm who did it.

[She's been digging.]

video;

[beatupgrass]

Seriously? Another one?

video;

[choosetruth]

Possibly. Unfortunately there's a hell of a lot more we don't know than that we know. As usual.

text

[slapfight]

That can't be right...

text

[choosetruth]

Which part?

text

[townwithoutme]

[Kayo spends a long moment turning over these details in her mind. She hadn't thought much about them at the time, but now that it's all lined up here it's easier to think about it.]

Maybe they don't really use a heart.

[It's something she hasn't seen anyone else mention yet, but what seems to her like the most obvious possibility.]

They did a bad job if no one believes it, but if they wanted to frame the Queen of Hearts as the host, the hearts might not really matter.

text

[choosetruth]

I'd argue that they do matter. It may not be a symbol specifically associated with them, but they are making a statement by using them. They're not afraid of pissing off the Queen of Hearts.

But you're entirely right that the symbol may not lead to the sender. Like so much about this damn situation, we just don't know for sure one way or the other.

Text

[romsapience]

After hearing about the previous holidays here, and how we learned more about the White Queen during those times, I’m admittedly a bit disappointed that we didn’t learn any new information about the White Queen during this time.

Regardless, it’s very odd that neither of the surviving queens were the ones to host the ball in the first place. As always, this whole event raises more questions than it does answers…

Text

[choosetruth]

Yeah, but this time we didn't have to go two weeks with zero sleep. Believe me, this is better.

[And she doesn't know if they exactly learned more last time. It was hard to know what they were learning. Wonderland is like that.]

They aren't the only ones to have thrown balls. What I find odder is that neither of them knows who threw it.

[madehervows]

I learned two things about the donation box, if you're interested.

[choosetruth]

I'm interested. Magic?

text »

[croptops]

This is a really neat idea. Do you post these monthly?

text »

[choosetruth]

Weekly in my zine. I only crosspost them to the network when they're especially important.

[She leaves issues of the Shattered Mirror out in the library and in all the eating areas, but it's not nearly the same thing as having a blog that gets sent directly to her subscribers. The network doesn't function in the same way, so print makes sense. But it isn't her first choice.]

text

[punful]

[He might not get along with George, but this seems pretty important.]

wait, neither of them threw the party?

i thought it was red

text

[choosetruth]

And Red thought it was Hearts. Who also thought it was Red.

So either one of them is lying, or it wasn't them.

text

[mrsarcastic003]

It's a shame you couldn't find out more about that donation box. I'm extremely curious about its purpose, and what happened to it when it vanished.

text

[choosetruth]

As am I. I'd like very much to know who we're presumably helping to bring back.

I suspect we'll find out. Not sure if that's a good thing or not yet.

[spycurious]

Chess Queens and a formerly headless Duchess...

Death isn't permanent here, and even figures who seem benevolent are capable of lying-- or she told you honestly what she knew and wasn't intentionally speaking falsely.

[choosetruth]

Who was speaking falsely?