BREAKING } from Ace of Spades, the Wonderland Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #14

[choosetruth]

The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen.

On Monday, in front of a crowd filled with Mirrors and Reals, the ground opened up beneath the Queen of Hearts and swallowed her up into a bright light. In her place, the White Queen, long thought dead, was restored through the boxes of donated memories. Anywhere else, the war that's been brewing for months would be the big story of the day, but Wonderland has never been anywhere else, and the much-touted war turned out to be a chess game. The Red Queen beat the Queen of Hearts, she took it poorly, and then the real story started.

Before her resurrection, the White Queen was the sister about which we knew the least. The earliest record I have found is a memory revealed during a Wonderland party. It shows the three queens as children.

[Embedded video.]

More recently, one of the Red Queen's gifts revealed another memory. It was, fittingly, tied to a white queen chess piece. It showed the White Queen's murder, from the point of view of the perpetrator.

[Another embedded video.]

The killer used the Vorpal Sword and either was or appeared to be one of the White Queen's sisters. I have received confirmation that she was murdered from several sources, but no one has been able to or willing to identity of the killer. The Cheshire Cat said that "perhaps" it had witnessed the murder, but when pressed for an actual name, said, "I'm smarter than to make enemies of them." The Red Queen confirmed her death, but as for the identity of the perpetrator: "That is something I cannot tell you, for I was not there." The Queen of Hearts declined to comment.

While signs do point towards the Queen of Hearts as the murderer, there is only circumstantial evidence so far. Even the White Queen wasn't certain. She assumed the Queen of Hearts, but had no memory of the actual event. "I fell, right to the ground and the next time I opened my eyes was the first time you all saw me. Everything else I remember, my life before that betrayal."

But on further questioning, that's not all she forgets. She claims she never ruled over anything, but Tweedledee and Tweedledum informed me that the Duchess had served her once. I managed to speak to the Duchess before she vanished. "There has been one other, one single proper Queen, the one who ought to be here still. Her loss is greater than you could ever imagine, bad enough to have an impostor sit in her place, do not do not presume that more such vermin could be in the cards." Her implication was clear: the White Queen is gone, and one of her sisters is an imposter who has taken her place.

The White Queen has no memory of the Duchess, or of ever ruling anything before her resurrection. Her role, as she remembers it, has always been keeping peace between her sisters and wielding the vorpal yarn. That much, at least, is consistent in all reports of her character and with her actions so far. She seeks peace between Mirrors and Reals and wants everyone to stop fighting.

We saw the results of the White Queen's quest for peace two winters ago in an alternate Wonderland shown to us in a shared dream. According to the residents there, it was a Wonderland ruled by the White Queen after she had defeated the Queen of Hearts. There had been no events since she had taken over. But no one on the Real side remembered ever having a life before Wonderland, though their Mirrors' memories remained intact. The Real memories were being kept in jars, each labeled with a name, locked away in a secret room.

The White Queen claims she does not have the power to do this. She might be telling the truth, but considering how many gaps there are in her memory, she also might not know. As always, Wonderland leaves us with more questions than answers, but for the moment, at least, the Mirrors seem to be in better hands than they were before. Let's just hope it stays that way.

[As usual, Georgia leaves copies of the article close to several mirrors, and leaves hers uncovered in case anyone wants to talk about it. They deserve to be informed about their monarch.]

Comments

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[thesamurai]

[ Michonne reads all of this and thinks about it for most of the day before messaging Georgia with her final thoughts. ]

She could be full of shit for all we know. What'd your gut say?

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[choosetruth]

My gut says she's not intentionally lying to us. But there are too many holes and inconsistencies for it to be the full truth.

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[thesamurai]

So if something's left out, it might not even be her fault.

Someone wanted her dead at some point, usually there's a reason. She have any idea what that reason might be?

[ Maybe it was just to be sure she wouldn't ever ascend to this position, that'd be Michonne's best guess. ]

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[postictal]

what worries me is how we now have contradicting information about what the mirrors even are

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[choosetruth]

We're being lied to. The question is, by whom, and do they even know they're lying.

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[postictal]

and if we're being lied to about that what else are we being lied to about

[And yes, he is fully goddamn aware of the hypocrisy of it.]

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[beatupgrass]

I don't trust any of this. It sounds like a con.

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[choosetruth]

What, you find something suspicious about someone being swallowed into the earth and someone else appearing out of nowhere and declaring themself queen?

I'm shocked.

[beatupgrass]

It's those convenient gaps in her memory that bug me.

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[suspense_kills_me]

Do you think this is going to change how the Mirrors view us?

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[choosetruth]

They're not one hivemind. They all have different opinions about us. Though I don't see why it would. Nothing's changed on this side.

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[thereporter]

[ did someone say monarch?

Julia is at least polite about sweeping into Georgia's office (she knocks and everything!) but she has a perturbed look on her face. ]

I have a bad feeling about all of this.

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[choosetruth]

Really? Cause my feelings on someone getting swallowed into the earth after watching my friends get killed in a fucking living chess game are great.

[She's just saying. Anyone who's accepting the White Queen as unquestionably a good thing isn't paying much attention.]

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[shslliar]

[As usual, Kokichi takes notes on everything before putting his two cents in.]

So, what do you think would happen if the QoH suddenly shows up while the other two are still around? And will this be the end of the mysterious blue donation boxes?

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[choosetruth]

I don't do conjecture with this little information. I have no idea.

But it does seem likely the donation boxes won't show up again. If they do, we'll have another mystery on our hands.

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[rightcall]

( Clementine is not doing... great after the chess match. As soon as she got out of the holding room, she left to go to her room. She didn't bother to stay and watch what happened with the stupid Queens, because she honestly doesn't care anymore. She knew Georgia would write up an article with the basics, and she knew nothing ultimately was going to change anyway. They're all just pieces in some big stupid game. )

So are we more or less fucked than before? Or is this another thing we'll just have to wait to find out more about before we can decide?

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[choosetruth]

[Georgia has been doing her best to not think too much about how horrible it was to watch her friends struck down. Especially Clementine. If she thought pulling out her gun and charging the field would have done any good, at that point she would have.

As it is, she just keeps reminding herself they're fine. She saw everyone reappear in the field. CLementine's okay, and thus Georgia has to be too.]

Short term? Less fucked. Long term? We'll have to wait and find out. It'll be nice not being spied on, but I don't trust her as far as I can throw her, and my upper body strength is not extremely impressive.

[angewiesen]

Can't believe I let myself get dragged into their stupid game...

So things are looking good for the Mirrors. Probably. But what does this mean for us? White seems better than Hearts, but I'm not liking this whole selective amnesia thing. Feels like we aren't dealing with the genuine article.

[choosetruth]

Don't blame yourself. It's not like anywhere sane would have a chess game and call it a war.

You might be right about that. The Red Queen herself said she seemed different, though the trauma of dying and losing memories could account for that. In any case, I imagine it will be good for us short term.

Long term, the question is harder.

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[bibliocorn]

Informative as ever, thanks, Georgia.

I suppose the question really is, is what happens when or more importantly IF she gets her memories back. If she has that sort of power, and suddenly becomes aware of it. Well.

[She has a whole army on her end now.]

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[choosetruth]

Of course. It's always nice when this place gives me actual news to report.

[She can always find stories. But puff pieces and opeds and event write-ups just don't have the same oomph.]

It's very hard to say at this point. It depends a lot on what's contained in those missing memories, why she was murdered, and if her motivations change when she gets them back.

[Or if her motivations stay the same but this starts to seem like a decent way to fill them. It is technically a way to ensure peace, isn't it?]

[insincerecharm]

Nothing about this place ever starts making sense, does it?

[choosetruth]

You have no idea how much I hated every damn word of this article.

[It's good writing, and solid reporting, and still sounds like it belongs on the Fictional page.]

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[normandysbest]

She told me she has no intent on forcing people to be loyal after the death limit.
All of this seems too good to be true, right? I'm not crazy?

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[choosetruth]

Absolutely right. Though I already see a whole lot of not too good. Not least is that the dreams we had where the White Queen was in charge do technically fulfill her goal of peace and happiness. That most people wouldn't want it is beside the point.