Group 2: Relena, Ienzo, and Mercator ((Quest))

[sagefirefox]

Relena walked on with purpose. She knew where she needed to go, and she needed to get their quickly. They passed a wooden sign with the words 'TULGEY WOOD' painted on it and she read it quickly. Tulgey, yes, that was the name she was looking for. She strolled on, walking over gnarled roots of the trees around her and avoiding the many creatures trying to grab her attention. "Sin has an eye or two that can help us out." In the darkness, Ienzo's voice seemed to echo all around them. Relena shuddered from the seemingly endless voice. It bounced around her saying, 'Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin.' Who was this 'Sin'?

She turned around, shot out a hand aimed to Ienzo, and closed her hand centimeters in front of his face. Relena expected to feel the fabric of someone's clothing beneath her fingertips but no one was there. Whoever this Sin was... they weren't here. She knit her brows together in confusion and turned back around. No more questions were asked.

Her footsteps stopped under a particular tree. She looked up as if expecting someone to be there. "Alright, you two decide who gets to call upon the Mad Hatter." She turned and shot a look to both of them, adding on, "I did it last time." There was no way that she was doing it again, being a suck up to the man in charge. It was despicable, having to act all nice and crap. Relena folded her arms across her chest and waited.

[iuma]

Mercator saw the two of them strolling off, seemingly beeing driven by something unexplainable. Wich was perfectly explainable here in Wonderland. Still it pained him to see his talent go to waste. When beeing held in his hands, his maps weren't mere papers with a drawing on them. They were living breathing guides that gave the answer to all your travel questions. If asked correctly.

Still the elder traveller raised his shoulders and shrugged the youthfull desinterrest away as ignorance. He rolled up his map and shoved it in the quiver on his back.
And then followed Relena alongside Ienzo. As they finaly made it to the edges of the Tulgey Woods and entered them. Walking through the thick dark woods without difficulty. His feet cunningly stepping in between all the rocks and branches that were spread out over the forest floor.
During the trip he mumbled softly to himself:
"Guess we'll be taking the lo~ong road. Well a decent walk is good for the circulation."

Quietly he followed as they ventured deeper into the thick black forest. The outlines of the leafless branches were hard to distinguish against the inkblack night sky. A feeling that they were beeing watched could be experienced by all. For it was most certainly true.
A crescent shaped moon was their compangion. That shined omniously from the trees down on them.
Mercator kept glancing at it's presence. Doubting wether it would really be the moon or the notorious cat instead.
In front of his eyes, memories of times long passed were beeing displayed to the elderly wanderer. It made them sparkle with youthfull energy. As the smiling wrinkles beneath his eyes were tensing up in joy.

Seeing her stop at a particular tree, Mercator recognised it from his earlier travels. He knew now for sure that this was the work of the Chesshire Cat. How else could lady Relena walk directly to this place out of the blue. It puzzled the field chronicler how exactly the cat had it's manipulation over her and also why it would help them out with their riddle. Lost in thought he remained silent as he stroke his chin with his hand. Thinking about how this world was affecting his travelling compangions.

[Charme]

Ienzo smiled as he felt Relena's hand grasp at nothing. Elaeus hadn't told her... It was quite funny. The Dark XII still had secrets between each other. And everybody seemed to think they had such a strong foundation. The truth was that none of the members really knew each other. They just fought and followed orders, every once in a while leaving a rude comment in their wake.

They continued walking, Sin's eyes guiding him away from anything dangerous, until they reached a spot deep in the woods. To his right, an odd bird with glasses tilted its head at him. How odd... Ienzo pressured Sin to leave it alone and the ghostly creature pulled itself back inside of his body, coiling with the black tattoo that trailed down his skin.

They stood in the middle of nowhere, with no lights to show the way. It was chilling, almost, as the crescent moon failed its duty to the Earth below it. He would have to share with Elaeus his experience here. The blind Earth element would enjoy this place. He held back a chuckle. Elaeus might just build a summer home here, if he had a sense of humor.

The silver eyes flashed as he looked around. Now where was that advice? He ruffled his black hair as he looked to his two teammates. "I suppose that it's my turn," he said lazily as he pulled himself up onto the nearest branch. "If I knew what we would win in this competition, I might be a bit scared of what I'm about to do." Indeed, he had doubts on the answer of this one. The riddle that man had given them had been a bit... vague? Yet he supposed that was the point. Ruffling his black coat closer to his skin, he looked into the air.

"Hey! Hatter, come 'ere!" he called out with a tone of authority. The host was only a host. The players were the ones with the controllers.

[Doogie]

The Hatter appeared in a puff of smoke as he squeeled in glee. "YAY! You are an awesome group! I like you! BUT DON'T MESS UP!" he said with a sudden attitude change.

And with that, he flicked Ienzo in the nose, and poofed off, leaving a riddle and an "Activation Code for a Tea Bomb". The riddle read:

Beat the drum and sound the horns
Their tongue is sharper than their thorns

[iuma]

Mercator only laughed. A sudden burst of laughter that died quickly. The old man was seemingly enjoying himself.
Walking over to Ienzo he picked up the "activation code for a Tea Bomb" and stuffed it again into one of his many pockets loaded with other trinkets.
After having secured the second item in this scavenge hunt. The elderly wanderer turned back to the tree and sat down onto one of it's gnarling roots that was above the soil.

From his inner pocket, he pulled out a small teapot. One he had swiped from the Mad Hatter's table as they were divided into groups. The same teapot he used during the gathering.
He held it high up in the air and placed his other hand beneath it. Holding it flat with the open palm facing up.
And then started to pour the hot tea onto his bare hand. But the stream of tea materialised into a soccer, a cup, a spoon. Then it filled itself up with tea and even added a little lime at the end.
Stuffing the teapot away again he picked up the cup and sipped from his Earl Grey.

"Nothing like a cup of tea before we continue, wouldn't you agree chaps?"
And drank another sip while making it himself comfortable.
The tea was steaming hot, and needed to cool off a bit more. During this time, Mercator glanced at his two teammates and spoke:
"Since you have both been so helpfull in solving the riddles, I'll give you this one for free. There is only one place that the riddle could point at. "
Mercator righted himself and gave the two of them a captivating stare with his energetic, endless, azureblue eyes. As he spoke with clear and confident voice:
"The garden of talking flowers."

With a smirk he relaxed himself back towards the tree he was sitting against. Seeing if the other two would agree with him or believe that it was something else. Enjoying his tea further.


(ooc: I suggest we do the following, we spend 1 post discussing the riddles, and then 1 post travelling.)

[sagefirefox]

Relena watched Ienzo with ever-curious eyes. He was smirking as if something was unbelievably funny. She thought back to trying to catch Sin and frowned. Yes, it had to be that. Perhaps Ienzo was thinking about how smart he was for keeping his secrets from her. She shrugged, knowing that she was guilty of the same thing. Ienzo didn't know about her twentieth sphere, her Scorplions, or her meteor hammer. Two could play this simple game of hiding powers. Whoever this 'Sin' was, they weren't a Heartless. Relena would have easily felt that presence, which she didn't. This 'Sin' person didn't really have an energy she could feel.

There were more pressing matters at the moment, however. This riddle that the Hatter had given them was quite an obvious one. Mercator provided them with the answer, which provided Relena with confirmation that her guess what correct. "Thanks for that useless information, Mercy. I'm pretty sure we all figured that riddle out on our own." Her sapphire eyes narrowed as she turned to Ienzo. He was pissing her off at the moment. Her nostrils flared as she breathed in deeply. They were on the same team at the moment, so fighting with him about this 'Sin' was out of the question. She was getting impatient though, just standing here and waiting for Ienzo to agree with their thoughts. Relena just wanted to leave to find the flower garden and then they could be on their way to winning this thing.

[Charme]

Ienzo jumped from the tree. The odd stranger had told him nothing he didn't already know. His data had been almost perfect... Those talking flowers. He looked at a silver card hidden in his sleeve.

A couple of months back, he had sent his Neo-Shadows on the hunt for data. After they had returned, he took their Hearts, or what was left of them, and inscribed what he found on a card. Like a computer, his mere thought was translated through shadow, and the card read it, displaying any information on the subject. Unfortunately, it was still a prototype, for it had to have his own power to display anything. Therefore, it could not work with any other Dark member.

The Flowers stared back, a hazy film covering the image. The Neo-Shadows' vision was horrible... The information was listed below. Where they were, what they did, everything. He looked up to Relena and nodded. "Yeah. We got this one." He looked around. They hadn't met any other members yet. It was very odd. He supposed everybody had separate riddles, but they hadn't met up with anybody.

Then again, they were in the Tulgey Woods.

He attempted to see through the darkness, but didn't feel like summoning his ghostly companion. He finally just chose to follow. Wherever they went, Underland would eventually lead them where they needed to be. Brushing his black hair out of his face, he attempted to examine his teammates. What item would they gain at the end of their journey? Would the three have to fight over it? Ienzo didn’t trust the Hatter, and he expected some mad twist at the end of their journey. He didn’t really believe in betrayal, but it wasn’t betrayal in a competition, he supposed.

“What do you think we will obtain at the end of this journey?” he wondered aloud, silently stepping behind the team.

[iuma]

"Perhaps a hat of our own?" Was Mercator's reply to Ienzo's question. What ever the reward would be, it didn't really matter to the old man. He was in it for the hunt itself, the excitement of solving the riddles and travelling to the far reaches of Wonderland. Perhaps it would lead him to someplace new that he hasn't visited before. Although the chances of that were slim.

Finishing his cup of tea he tossed the cup over his shoulder. It dissapeared into the dark bushes that made up the most of the Tugley Woods. Standing upright he stretched his back first. And dusted off any dirt that he had gathered of sitting down.

Standing ready to travel again he looked at his two teammates and spoke on a narrating tone:
"One thing is for sure, he sure loves to give us the runaround. The garden of the talking flowers is located right next to Absolute's mushroom. Meaning we have to travel all the way back to the place where we just came from... I, for one, am not in the mood for that."

Mercator turned around and faced the odd looking tree. While pulling out another parchement from his inner pockets. It was his map of Wonderland and the Tugley Woods with this tree was on it. There were also fine writings circling the tree. Writting in a cartographers code. As the elderly wandered studied them carefully while comparing it with the actuall tree.

Glancing back and forth between his map and the tree he started to point with his walking cane at the branches. While doing this he was mumbling and thinking out loud:
"Lets see... this one goes to the castle... that one to the shore... that one back to the tea party... that one to the house of the white rabbit... aah, this one!"

And after having found the right branch, he reached out with his walking cane and used it to pull a specific branch down.
Like a string the branch allowed itself to be pulled as suddenly the tree opened up.
A drop down door appeared from the trunk, revealing a sight that was different from the rest of Tugley Wood. It was a doorway to another part of Wonderland. Mercator's shortcut he had mentioned earlier. He knew them all, and not just on this world alone.

Through the tree, they could see tall flowers in the distance. They were waving and moving and had eyes into their flowerheads. It seemed impossible but there they were, at only a 30 to 40 passes from them.

Mercator turned to his two teammates and smiled triumphantly while he said:
"Lets not linger. Onward!
... Oh and miss Relena, again it's Mercator. Not Mercy... you aren't slow are you?"
The old man gave a contemplating look at the woman as he wondered if she was perhaps mentally disturbed. But then banished the though as he walked through the trunk into the Garden of the talking flowers.

[sagefirefox]

She didn't feel really like questioning things at the point. Relena looked from Ienzo to Mercator and then down to the tree roots. The only reason she had really come here was to have some fun messing up the competition without having the Dark XII around her to nag about her actions. Now that Ienzo was on her team, Relena actually had to try to win this competition. She wondered why he was a part of the contest; surely the Mad Hatter couldn't give Ienzo anything of interest. Relena didn't really care about Mercator's reasons for joining the contest. He was merely a useless human and she was so much better than him. Humans were only good for entertainment and their hearts.

Her eyes shot up to make sure that Mercator was still on the same page. Sometimes humans were just so slow. It appeared that he was not only on the same page, but maybe even a page ahead. He had just opened up a portal to the flower garden. Relena looked around her to remember her surroundings so that she could use the portal later if she needed to. "Look, Mercy," she put extra emphasis on the nickname and smirked at him, "I'll call you whatever I want." She had her reasons for the nickname, after all, mercy was something that humans showed a lot of. Now, Relena was a Heartless, meaning that showing mercy was a lot like surrendering in a fight. In other words, it was unacceptable. She brushed past Mercator coldly and stepped through the portal.

[Charme]

Ienzo looked to Mercator. The human didn't understand Relena's point whatsoever. He moved closer to the man and crossed his arms.

"You know, Relena's not one to talk, especially to humans." His silver eyes met the odd man's. "If you weren't on our team searching for whatever, as a Heartless, she would have already attempted to eat you. Be glad she's referring to you as 'Mercy'... It's a show of temporary truce." It should have been obvious by now their nature and Heart. The stench of Darkness was quite easy to pick out at close range, and Elaeus had never figured out how to hide that signature. Ienzo nodded to him and stepped away. He smelled odd.

Moving towards the flowers, he walked in the middle of them and sighed. He supposed he would be calling the Mad Hatter again. Relena didn't seem all that happy, and Ienzo didn't feel like arguing. He had successfully avoided most of the Dark XII while he wasn't on a mission, and he believed it was helping him relax. He looked around at the flowers, who were giving him odd looks.

"Oy! Dis one's not Alice!" one called harshly. "A wee little weed wif feet, 'e is!" Ienzo smiled. These flowers weren't in the least bit intelligent. A weed? Far from it. "And look at what odd petals 'e has!" Ienzo's clothing? Black and blue wasn't all that bad...

He stepped away from the flower and looked into the sky. This had to be it. If it wasn't, they were completely lost... He brushed his dark hair away from his pale face, his steel eyes examining the mediocre flowers that surrounded them. Would they get another riddle out of this? Or would they be the winners? Ienzo wanted to see what was at the end of their journey. "Hatter!" he said with a slightly raised voice. "We're waiting..." He rolled his eyes. He had already seen a reoccuring habit with the Hatter. The man had to make an entrance.

[iuma]

Mercator replied to Ienzo's warning with a smile and said softly so that only he could hear:
"She wouldn't be the first to try. But why would you care for a mere prey? Shouldn't you be standing aside your fellow hunter? Or is there perhaps inner strife in the dark pack?
Although of all the names, Mercy, would be the one least fitting for me."

Mercator was acting slightly differently now speaking to Ienzo directly. He was eminating a seriousness now instead of the silly posture he had kept during this ordeal. And also eyed Ienzo with a confident look about his remark about the dark XII organisation not having much of a team spirit.
Still the last sentence came out rather bothersome. Seemingly it troubled the old traveller.

Following the two he also entered the field of flowers and addressed the flowers. Holding his arms open with his enjoying smile and youthfull eyes in contrast to his rimples.
Taking in the wonderous pallet of colors as he exclaimed:
"Ooh, beautifull ladies... beautifull, beautifull ladies. How nice to be able to look at you all again."

"Hmm, who's this? Another stray weed? He looks like he needs some water, and fast to. Still at least he knows beauty as he sees it. "
The flowers were all gossiping through each other and waving their heads closer as they paid attention to the newcomers in their garden.
"Don't you dare root here, only flowers of high standing can be here."

Mercator still kept grinning like an old man and took a more normal position and then told the flowers:
"Root here? Oh no, I couldn't possible to that. Not here nor any other place. A leaf I am, constantly beeing carried by the wind. Only able to glance at such exquisite elegance once in a while."
Some of the flowers started to color in a shade of red as they were blushing.

Mercator made a polite bow as he took his leave and said his goodbye's to the flowers. Some taken by his charm, others finding him sleazy and dirty.
Walking over to the side of Ienzo, Mercator also called out:
"Yes, Hatter my friend. Where are you hiding? Your riddles are childsplay and hardly a challenge. "

[Doogie]

The Mad Hatter popped quite suddenly in the air infront of the caller, and you could practically hear the POP in the air as the Mad Hatter appeared in front of them.

"...I do not take insult lightly!" he said simply as he left as quickly as he entered. The smoke left behind from the Mad Hatter's exit cleared slowly, and in it's place yet another riddle was left, with yet another random item ontop of it.

The item was a pair of Shoes covered in red paint
And the riddle read:

When you’re as wet as can be,
This place might be able to help,
But, be quick, or else, you’ll just stay just the same

[iuma]

Mercator smiled delightfully as the Mad Hatter dissapeared. Sure he was offended but it had leaded to his desired result. Now the riddles weren't so obvious anymore and finaly starting to become a challenge.
It was turning into a true battle of wits. Perhaps now he would find the stimulance that he found to be missing this entire treasure hunt. So far he had been dissapointed by the low level of riddles. Things were finaly starting to look interresting now.

The flowers were all baffled by the sudden appearance and disappearence of the Mad Hatter. Leaning back with their petals in front of their faces. But after overcoming the shock they inmediatly started to gossip and mumbled between themselves. Their tones agitated while their words beeing hatefull and stingy. They had run out of tolerance and patience towards the strange flowers that had wondered into their garden. And needed to chase them away before they would take root. Resulting in their presence for eternity.

Taking hold of the 'shoes covered in red paint', Mercator stuffed those in his larger shoulderbag. That was also filled with lots of other gimmicks and trinkets. After securing his belongings he turned to Ienzo and Relena.
His eyes sparkling with restrained enthousiasme. And the many laughing wrinkles around his eyes beeing pulled up while he beamed in enjoyment.

Adressing the both Dark XII members he spoke:
"Well this one might be worth our time. Like all his previous riddles, I believe the first part about being wet is utter nonsense that should be ignored. As for the changing part, I do reckon he is referring to the Bizare Room. Wich is luckely closeby. Or does any of you two have a better idea perhaps?"

Crossing his arms, the map maker leaned back against the side of the white rabbits house. Making it himself comfortable while awaiting the thoughts of his teammates.