Group 4: Antique, Cyrus, and Chinzo ((Quest))

[Doogie]

A piece of paper appeared before each of the group members reading:

Marianne! Bill! Come quick!
I need you to help me burn it to the ground!

That was their riddle. Hopefully they'd understand.

((Mkay, so, this is y'alls riddle. You need to figure it out (whether that be through PM's or whatever) and then you must make two posts each to be able to get to the place that is the answer to the riddle.

Note: The answer may be from the game, or the movie. It isn't restricted to either of the two.

Have fun! If you have any questions/concerns/random things that will keep you from posting, PM me!))

[chinzovsmarth]

Chinzo looked up and around at his teammates. "Well, then. I do that it is the White Rabbit's house, seeing as according to a diary of Alice, she became super large inside a house and the White Rabbit thought that it was a monster. Marianne is the Rabbit's maid, and Bill is a Dodo with an affinity for fire. Let's get there!" he pointed dramatically into the distance, puffed some sparkles into the air, and took off as fast as his pumping little legs could take him.

(Thank you Antique, I might not have figured that out myself. )

[sanjiro]

Cyrus gave the man a questioning look, and said, "Bill is that lizard guy, isn't he? Not sure about this Marianne person, but..." He never finished his sentence, as the man had already begun to run off. Oh well. He had no better ideas, and if this person was going to run off, then they might as well stick together. He gestured to the girl in their group, and took off after the man.

[antique]

((No problem. <3))

Antique had no idea what was going on, but she decided to play along! After all, it was nothing but a dream, right? A rather SILLY dream, but a dream nonetheless! None of what the boys said meant really anything to her, other than they were supposed to be looking for something.

"Okay, lead on, good sirs!" she cackled as she ran after them.

[chinzovsmarth]

His little legs pumping, heart beating, and legs burning, Chinzo sped throughout the steamy and humid mushroom forests of Wonderland. It seemed odd that no Heartless had gotten in their way, seeing as they were apparently in record numbers, at least around ex-Blacchia, Chinzo could only wonder why the Heartless weren't pestering them. Not that he didn't like a good Heartless slaughter - it was simply odd. Chinzo's thinking was promptly interrupted as soon as he saw the house. He sat down on a nearby log, panting, and took off his top hat to wipe his bald brow. The other man was following him, and the lady followed him. He remembered now that the man had said that Bill was a lizard, then he though about it while relaxing on the log. "...Oh yeah! I was thinking Dodo was Bill, cause he has a beak, but... Yeah. Anyhow, thanks, both of you! ...Whatever your names are. Oh, sorry! I haven't introduced myself," he said as he jumped up from the log. "I am Chinzo Verzmarth, at your service." he tipped his hat and fell into an extravagant bow, with a cloud of rainbow sparkles surrounding him. Each few sparkles that fell to the earth made a multicolored mushroom jump up from the earth with a pop!

[sanjiro]

Cyrus continued to sprint, as the forest passed in a blur, before finally slowing as the house came into view. He leaned against the white fence that surrounded the house, and caught his breath while waiting for the girl to catch up. He grinned at the man's odd introduction, and decided to make one of his own.

He raised his hand above his head, before shooting off a few small balls of fire into the air, which exploded in a shower of sparks and flame. "Cyrus Drakon, from Traverse Town." As he said this, the flames hit the ground, and sprouted into burning flowers. "Huh. That's never happened before."

"Right... we were supposed to call the Mad Hatter, right? Do you think we have to actually burn it down first?"

[Doogie]

((Mod update! I am now putting a 360 word count rule in place. I will be copying and pasting each of your posts in a Word Document to see if it is 360 words. The first time after this rule starts, you'll get a warning, and need to edit it, and make it long enough. Second time, you'll get another warning. Enough repeats, and you will be disqualified from the event. So, from now on, 360 words please! ))

[antique]

Antique bent over and put her hands on her knees to breath in the fragrant air deeply. My, my, for a dream, it had really vivid feelings! And the flowers smelt simply amazing. Yes, for a dream, this certainly was very vivid indeed. Anyway, she was the last to get there, mainly because her attention span seemed to be awfully short and she was too busy looking at everything in front of her and around her.

Just when she got there, the two were introducing themselves. As she leaned on the white fence that belonged to the darling little house that was supposed to be their chosen destination, the first male, that kind of reminded her of a pale bulldog, seemed to shoot sparkles, and grow mushrooms. Fuchsia eyes widened in easily amused wonder. He must have been a magician! Then, she gasped, just at how rude her dream-self was. “Oh! I’m, uhm, Antique!” she said, lifting the edges of her pink laced dress into an elegant curtsie. “It’s very good to meet you both!”

Her last name barely came to her, and it didn’t seem like she really cared about it. She looked to Cyrus. “Traverse Town? No way. Me too!” Maybe she was dreaming about him because she had met him at one point? She wasn’t sure. She would have remembered a face.

“Burn it down?” she repeated, and crossed her arms. She lifted up her hand, and proceeded to create a blob of water. “Sorry, burning isn’t exactly my forte,” she paused, as if she were thinking deeply. “But I can put the fire out….! I think….” she said. She wondered if her magic was more powerful in her dreams, which she was convinced this all was. “Anyway, I think he just said to call him…so…”

“MAD HATTER?” she called out, though the end of his name was lifted up into a lilt, as though she were questioning it. Then, quickly thinking, she quickly put her hands around her mouth to amplify the sound. “UHM. COME OUT, COME OUT…WHEREVER YOU ARE?”

She felt absolutely silly as a few quiet moments passed. A flush came over her cheeks. Is that not what she was supposed to do?

[Doogie]

"MAD HATTER! UHM. COME OUT, COME OUT…WHEREVER YOU ARE?"

"You called for me my dear"? the Mad Hatter said after his hat came flying toward them. "Ah yes, the scavenger hunt! Why yes, you have reached the correct spot!" he said as he slowly materialized under his hat.

"Now, to give you all an item, and give you the next riddle! Here ya go! Now, off with you!" he said as he slowly dissapeared, then his hat did.

In his place, was a "Dress fit for a Queen", but was unfortunately so small that it fit inside a pocket. On top of the dress was a slip of paper that read.

When you come here, you might be here for a while.
That is, if you don’t know how to say no to a story...

Now, all that needed to be done was for them to find out where they should go. Hopefully, they would not find the wrong place.....

[chinzovsmarth]

"Well, I know, of course! Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum's grove! They told Alice a story about curious oysters and a Walrus and a carpenter. They really wanted to tell her." Chinzo picked up the little dress and placed it in one of his jacket pockets. "Now then, let's go. I'd hate to keep Mr. Hatter waiting." He waved to the others then charged his legs with mana, blasting off again (Group Four is blasting off again...! xD) through Wonderland. He stopped at a sad, gray beach with cold water splashing around and little hermit crabs crawling about, their tattered brown cloaks fluttering absently in the wind. Chinzo felt sorry for the hermits, but it was only natural for the world to have hermits, and crabs, too, so it was really quite useful for its versatility. It also cut down on sadness, because humans didn't have to be hermits, so-

A rustle from the dark green bushes behind Chinzo broke him out of his thoughts. A Heartless? Perhaps. Chinzo's negative vision couldn't detect a thing through the crazy dreamland- physics of Wonderland. How he had come to love his new vision, with its Heartless-sensing abilities and longer site and probably other mysterious perks he hadn't found out about yet. What had he done to deserve it, though? Maybe he almost killed himself and failed painfully. They say self-sacrifice is the greatest virtue, but for no result, maybe not. Ah, well. He mustn’t dwell on these things. He'd gotten this vision because the Candle Queen thought he deserved it, and no one knew better than her.

He looked over to the side, and saw a break in the trees, with several signs pointing at it and a welcoming tan road flowing through like a dust river.

"This must be the way. Come on!"

[Doogie]

((Mod update!! Word requirement has been changed to 300 words. I realized just how many words 360 were. So, I changed it to 300. Make sure you have 300 words please!))

[sanjiro]

Cyrus tried to follow, but, unwilling to waste his mana for such a stupid reason, and already knowing the answer to the riddle even without the man's help, decided to take a short cut. He pushed aside a large bush, revealing a winding path through the forest. "Huh. Maybe this is the right path."

He took only a few steps down the path before it slid suddenly, and he barely had the time to curse before he was sent tumbling down into a... garden? At his feet was a piece of cake. How curious. He picked it up, and took a small nibble, but felt no difference. "Weird. Nothing is ever normal in Wonderland..." Suddenly, he felt himself open up like a telescope, and he shot up, realizing that the garden was surrounded by even more forest.

"Lovely," Cyrus muttered sarcastically, having no idea where his group went. By now, he reached at least 9 feet tall, which made moving rather awkward. This was not helped by a bird flying around his head yelling something about serpents. He knocked the annoying thing away, and sent it flying off into a shrub somewhere far off.

Continuing to make his way through the forest at his now nearly giant size, he at last spotted a clearing, where a most peculiar tree was growing. Hanging from a tree were several bottles, and, having no better ideas, he took one and drink a sip. Instead of changing his size like he had guessed, he saw, from the reflection of a nearby lake, that his hair had turned a fiery red color. He groaned, and tossed the bottle away, and picked up another.

He placed a drop on his tongue, and felt himself shrink again, back to his normal size. While this was all well and good, he had no more idea of how to get to the Twin's Grove than before. Just as soon as he thought this however, a loud squawk drove his attention upwards, where a flock of birds were flying due Northeast, in the shape of an arrow. With no better ideas, he decided to follow the birds. It was Wonderland after all. Hopefully he would meet up with the others there.

[antique]

When you come here, you might be here for a while.
That is, if you don’t know how to say no to a story…

So, that was the next riddle? Antique barely understood the first one, to be completely honest. This was turning out to be a very strange dream indeed. Where was her dream where she was surrounded by beautiful men, namely Mikael, Roze, and other assorted attractive men who argued with each other about who would polish Antique’s sword? Or her dream where she was eating the most delicious cakes ever? Or Lady Jadis was praising her on fully learning magic?

She exaggeratedly sighed as the two boys that made up her group ran off to find the next answer. Somehow, one of them (surprisingly) had darted off, leaving a smoke trail, with his very tiny, stump legs. How in the world he had managed something like that was beyond her. Just when she was about to turn to the other boy, he seemed to have disappeared as well! Groaning, she shouted, “This dream was no fun at all!”

Deciding to decode the riddle was useless. So, the best thing to do was probably track one of them. The first one who had run off probably knew where he was going--so…following the tracks left behind in the dirt, she slowly followed after. It wasn’t too hard of a task to do--hopefully she wasn’t mixing up his footprints and signs of being somewhere with someone else. That wouldn’t have been bubbly at all.

Her eyes wandered around as she tracked, seeing rocking horse flies as she went. She had to stop the urge to pause and try and catch them.

“Unyuuuuu….” she pouted, as she continued along the way.

Somehow, she came along an ocean. Or some kind of beach front. She hopped on one leg occasionally so as to not step on the things scuttling around.

“Where areeeee you guysss?”

[chinzovsmarth]

"Hey! Hey, you! Lady water knight person!" Chinzo waved and danced about conspicuously in front of the trail. "Over here! Cyrus went someplace else, but I know the way!" Chinzo caught Antique's orange eyes. Or, no, they were purple, or violet, or fuschia or something. Negative vision was not working out for him, at least sometimes.

He heard a crashing from behind him in the forest, and saw a giant! A giant... Cyrus? No. It couldn't be... Could it? Oh well, the giant was crashing through in the same direction he was, and hopefully would stay that way. He couldn't tell anymore, because he shrunk again, probably back to normal size. He waved his hands and they glowed a bright gold and a wavy mist surrounded them. He whispered something, clapped his hands together, and blew on them. A soft wind whispered through the trees and lightly danced upon the windchimes of the forest and nearby houses. Upon Cyrus's ears, though, the breeze sounded somewhat like this:

"Cyrus. It's me, Chinzo. I'm with Antique, the lady-knight. Keep going in the same direction until you find the grove. We'll meet you there shortly." Upon Antique's ears, however, the breeze sounded like this:

"Antique. It is I, Chinzo, the man waving to you. Follow me into the path so that we can find the prize."

With that, he took off again into the road and emerged in Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum's grove.

[sanjiro]

Cyrus nearly stumbled as the wind blew past, sounding oddly like words. Deciding to respond, he quickly snatched up a strange looking reed growing near a large pond in front of him, and lit the tip on fire. He blew softly on the smoke, and up rose the words, I know! in hazy, black letters. It was nice to get some confirmation of some sort, though, and he continued with much more confidence.

The current obstacle was this pond. It seemed more like a river due to its long, narrow shape, but the water did not appear to be moving at all. Still, it would be too much trouble to find out how far the pond extended, and since it was Wonderland, there may not be an ending at all. He scanned the area for any signs of a boat, or stepping stones, but there was nothing. Cyrus picked up a decently large stone, and tossed it into the pond, to test the waters. To his amazement, the rock merely floated upon the surface.

“Riiight... that's not something you see everyday. Well, as long as you're not from here I suppose.” He took a tentative step forward, and watched as the water merely rippled as he stood on its clear surface. He slowly traversed the narrow pond, feeling quite foolish while doing so, as he must have looked ridiculous, walking with his arms extended to keep his balance, for he was sure that if he tripped, he would fall into the water's depths.

The moment his feet hit dry ground once more, he heard a splash behind him, and the rock he had throw sunk to the bottom. He paid it no mind, and rushed forward, for he had no desire to be the last one there. Pushing apart the branches blocking his path, he found himself at Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum's grove at the same time as Chinzo. “Well that was fun,” he muttered, but was glad he had somehow made it.