Playing in the Queen of Hearts' Castle

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Ooc: I will post an update Joe. I had to leave early because of work but now I will post again ;)



While Emmett and Jake are both asleep the Snow Queen comes forward. She carefully tries to figure out if they are really sleeping or if they are faking it. She has seen the battle the two brothers had and she just knows they aren't the two easiest men to capture. The Snow Queen slowly walks forward and she rises her spear and says a couple of words. Suddenly the cloud turns heavily dark and snow comes out of the sky. It isn't an ordinary snowfall but more a blizzard which grows bigger and bigger. Her sleigh arrives and The Snow Queen demands her servants to pick up the two men and to put them in the back of her sleigh. Before she flies off the Queen makes the two men sleep more deeply. Then she gets into her sleigh and within a few seconds the sleigh with it's new passengers vanishes.
Her laugh is heard through the skies and everybody nearby looks up but nobody seems to know where this laugh comes from.

At the gardens the Queen of Hearts looks more lazy than usual. She is tired of waiting and decides to go to bed. The King is getting impatient as well but he rather stays waiting at the gate than going back inside the Castle again.

Hatter: This is most unusual
Rabbit: I agree with you
Hatter: The King never shows his fat face often. He always stays inside because he is too lazy to walk
Rabbit: Something must be going on because he is waiting on someone or something

Then suddenly out of nowhere a sleigh appears at the gate. The King looks up as The Snow Queen gets off the sleigh

SQ: You have attacked the two strange men as I told you to do so. They didn;t make it easy and for that you have failed
King: But they were tough! From what I've heard they showed a lot of resistence
SQ: You should have sent more men to catch them but your men fled cowardly like they were children
King: But imagine getting a bullet through your body will not only kill you but also those behind you. We are just cards you know
SQ: Hmmmmm........for this time I will ask no further questions but the next time you are warned. Now to show you I'm keeping my word I will give you the victory over the Lands of Clubs, Aces and Diamonds. The Diamonds are easily corrupted but the Aces are more tough. When your men enter the land of Diamonds you will find them asleep. Take them all and claim your victory. It will happen at all lands but you have to enter one land first before the other land falls asleep. You have to take over one by one
King: But why not all the same time?
SQ: You didn't make it easy for me so I won't make it easy for you. Now go and claim your victory over the land of Diamonds. My suggestion to you is to kill those cards of the land of Aces. They will be your worst enemy

With these words the Snow Queen enters her sleigh again and flies off laughing very loud

Rabbit: Hatter...did you see that?
Hatter: Who is she?
Rabbit: I don't know
Card soldier: She's the Snow Queen

The Hatter and Rabbit look around and see one young card soldier standing behind them. He bleeds heavily

Hatter: OMG! You are wounded!
Rabbit: What happened?

The Card soldier tells them everything. The Hatter and Rabbit take him to the others and tell them what they've heard.

Me: He is still young
Rabbit: Yes, he is one of our newest and youngest card soldiers. He has been sent to war without knowing what would happen.
Eric: But what are we gonna do next? Are we going to follow the Snow Quen and try to save the brothers?
Hatter: I have a feeling the Queen is making a huge misstake by capturing those two
Rabbit: We also have the other lands to warn about the upcoming threath
Hatter: If they are going to enter the land of Diamonds first and find them asleep and claim victory we must make sure we arrive at the land of Clubs before this evil spell is catching them
Eric: So this means when the King enters the land of Diamonds and claims victory the next land is going to fall asleep?
Hatter: That's right. This means we must reach the Land of Clubs before the King arrives at the Land of Diamonds
Me: But the Aces are their worst enemy. Maybe we should catch up with the Aces first. They could be valuable allies
 
The Gryphon who helped Pippin earlier finds Vanessa's party as soon as he can do so unseen.

"I'm disgusted at what I've gathered of events here," the Gryphon tells Vanessa. "The Queen of Hearts, left on her own, would normally forget giving an execution order almost as soon as she had given it; but now her malice has become serious, and our King's with it. That Snow Queen obviously has a lot to do with this. She can't comfortably stay in these temperate regions; but through the Hearts Empire now forming, she will wield as much influence here as she cares to.

"I do, however, have one piece of _possible_ good news for you. I've done some scouting around on my own. Out in the countryside, Alice and those with her are in the process of searching for certain magical artifacts which may be able to thwart the Snow Queen's interference in our world. If you can find what has become of the elusive Lady Inkling, she may know more about this. Not that you should change your present plans for that, since there's no saying when Lady Inkling may turn up again."
 
Walrus: Well done my friends! But now I must be off!
Me: You're leaving?
Walrus: Yes, I must. Farewell now!
Me: Goodbye. *studies the shoes closely*
 
Me: A soldier who is young and has been sent to war returned and informed about what happened to those two men. They fought to defend themselves and I can't and will not blame them for doing what they did. They were in the mid of a brutal attack and there was nothing left for them to protect themselves. They have fallen into the hands of this evil Snow Queen. We are not sure whether we should warn the King and Queen of Aces

The Gryphon looks at Nessa and shakes his head

Gryphon: The Land of Aces always has been enemies of the Hearts. From what I know they will attack the Aces at first. As soon as their decision is made the first victims will fall asleep caused by this strange and evil spell the Snow Queen provided our bad King and Queen. So whatever decision you will make you must think twice where you are going. I think the Daimonds are loyal to the Hearts but not all are so cooperative. Maybe you should try to go to both the Land of Diamonds and the Land of Clubs if your decision is to go there first. Whatever decision you make both will be good. In times of evil you have to look for the best option
Eric: I suggest to go to the Clubs first. On our way we can always search for Alice and Peter and ask them to join us. The last time we saw Lady Inkling she was together with Copperfox and they both left to go to the Monologues topic.
Hatter: Maybe we could split up in teams. One team is going to search for Alice and Peter and the other team is going to the Land of Clubs and try to warn them. Knowing the Queen it is going to be a very fast victory. She already wrote some orders to execute all cards of Aces
Eric: That's a great idea and maybe we could meet up somehwere. Maybe the Gryphon can help us because he can fly and can see possible danger

The Gryphon flies away and returns a few hours later.

Gryphon: You have four till five days to reach the Clubs. The Queen has ordered to attack the Aces first. She activated the spell so I'm afraid everybody will be sleeping in the land of Aces by now. After she has reached this Land she will leave an execution order and immidiatly move to the land of Diamonds and then she will go the the Clubs. My suggestion is you are going to leave right away if you want to warn the Clubs. And the other team is going to find Alice and Peter and Lady Inkling. I will fly back and forth to both teams and will keep you updated about the progression

Hatter: Alright, let us split up in teams right now
Rabbit: Eric, Nessa and Pippin are coming with me
Hatter: I will take the heart soldier and Merry with me and as soon as we reach the other we will have Peter, Alice and their compagnons
Me: But what are we gonna do with Jake and Emmett? They are trapped and we must free them
Rabbit: We don't stand a chance against her. There is nothing we can do even if we enter the castle
Me: But she couldn't freeze Eric's heart when she attacked him
Rabbit: This was something different. She was focused on getting you out of her Land but now she found the two brothers she is way more dangerous and will doi whatever it takes to keep them there

The Snow Queen arrives at her Snow Land. She looks at her bird.

SQ: My little darling....I've got them both!
Bird: You did my Queen?
SQ: Mwuahahahahahahaha!!! Now they are mine! I will corrupt his heart and then we will rule forever!
Bird: His heart? But my Queen there are two of them
SQ: I only need one. Save Emmett and kill the other!
 
The Walrus leaves and Peter, Caspian, and Alice must decide what to do next. Finally, they decide to go and look for ToJ. Perhaps if they find her, they will also find the others.
 
Toj was following Edmund And Hannah, still trying to make sense of the conversation Edmund had had with the cards

ooc: I'm lost...what's going on Cf?
 
They retraced their steps even further until they reached the cliff where Alice had noticed the birds and the card soldiers. Peter and Caspian, who were not afraid of heights, marched right up to the edge and looked out. Alice, of course, stayed a safe distance back from the edge and watched them.
 
Toj was starting to feel short of breath..she hadn't touched the flute for some time though..

i wonder if the flute can control the armies...

EDMUND EDMUND!
 
OOC to Orange: As far as I understand it myself, here's the breakdown.

The Snow Queen, a wicked-witch type from European fairytales who may have been C.S. Lewis' inspiration for the character of Jadis in LWW, has intruded into the affairs of Wonderland. She tried to enslave Eric Lindros and Pippin Took. When Vanessa and some others (including the White Rabbit, who is a "native" Wonderland character) went to rescue Eric and Pippin, Lady Inkling had to intervene to prevent them from all being caught or killed by huge apelike beasts who serve the Snow Queen. Inkling, in a similar way to the effect of Queen Susan's horn, called for help in this, and the help that came was the two gunslinger brothers Emmett and Jake. These three then drove off the monsters, allowing Vanessa, Eric and those with them to return to the Hearts Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Pevensies, Alice-in-Wonderland herself, and other characters including your own, have been searching for magical items which might prevent the King and Queen of Hearts (now revealed as cooperating with the Snow Queen) from attacking the other kingdoms of Wonderland. The Walrus and the Gryphon, also original Alice-in-Wonderland characters, have done the things they've done as MY attempt to keep things moving and make the characters more aware of what each other is up to.

Inkling--who often disappears mysteriously--did not have the power to beam the gunslingers directly back where they came from; so they had to attempt to travel physically to the pass which would allow them to get out of Wonderland. But the Snow Queen, magically observing the brothers, has come as near as her evil heart can come to falling in love with Emmett, who of course is all the GOOD things she never even thought about being. That's why she was willing to spend the lives of so many Heart Kingdom soldiers, AND her own snow beasts, to capture Emmett and Jake. Jake is not of direct interest to the Snow Queen, but she can use a threat of murdering Jake to get Emmett to do what she wants.
 
Me: Be careful!
Peter: Don't worry, Alice.
Me: Sorry, I can't help but be worried.
Caspian: We know that. Look!
Peter: What?
Caspian: Over there; do you see?
 
In a most uneasy dream state, Emmett seemed to feel himself being lifted by human hands, and loaded into something similar to a buckboard wagon. In his dream, it seemed further that a woman too beautiful for words was saying to him: "There is a reason why all other women disregarded you, brave man: they were all unworthy of you, and by the workings of destiny they themselves knew it in their hearts, so they did not waste your time. Only one is worthy to possess you, and I am she!"

"Possess?" growled Emmett. "That don't exactly sound to me like a decent marriage proposal, even if it IS a leap year when ladies are permitted to propose to gents. I believe in the commitment of marriage that both spouses bind theirselves to till death; but I never thought of it as me OWNIN' a wife like you'd own a mule. And I don't think I cotton to BEIN' owned, neither."

The smile his words evoked from the spectacular dream-lady was so dazzling that it was almost possible to ignore the tinge of cruel mockery in her voice. "But you don't yet understand how much I can offer you. Never fear: you have all the time in the world, now, to learn about me."

"I reckon I already got an idea what you can offer, ma'am. It'd be about the same as what that crooked Sheriff Cobb was offerin' our buddy Paden in Silverado; but the price tag was for Paden to go along with all of Cobb's illegal shenanigans."

The woman laughed a laugh that rang false. "There's no comparison! With me, you can have, and BE, more than up to now you could begin to imagine! I have gone to great pains just to be able to MAKE this offer to you, for you are an exceptional mortal, worthy of elevation to higher things."

"Great pains, ma'am? Does that mean YOU set those toy soldiers on Jake an' me, and forced us to kill so many of 'em? You got a lot of blood on your hands, gal, and it ain't the likeliest thing to make me feel tender towards you."

Another laugh from the cold beauty made the dream-scene begin to fade; but before Emmett lost consciousness once more, in his secret heart he could hear the rumbling voice of Aslan: "Remember, My son, it is evil, not good, that lives on wishful thinking. She would have you believe that she is all-powerful, but she is not. Accept the adventure that is given to you, and do not lose your courage."

It was to be some time before Emmett actually awoke.
 
And when Emmett wakes up he finds himself in a very unusual place. A place he doesn't recall but somehow it does ring a bell. When Emmett looks around he notices his brother Jake who still seems to be asleep. Back inside the Castle the Snow Queen calls her servants. One of them is Arthur. He is a man around age 40 and he has raven black hair and his eyes look like they could fall out of his head at any moment. They are very light blue but within them was no light. Arthur is a man who carries a lot of hatred with him. He doesn't know mercy neither does he know the feeling of true love. Except for his Queen. Arthur has a deep obsession for the Snow Queen. He desires her more than anything and he would even sell his soul to marry her. But the Snow Queen never shows affection for him. Not even a tiny wink. She often beats her servants with her spear and tells them to work harder and not to be so lazy. Now Arthur heared this rumor and he wonders if it's true. There is this man the Queen seems to desire so much she even helped the King and Queen at another world in return for this man. Now she captured the same man and Arthur becomes more and more curious. What will he look like? Will he be an easy target and will Arthur loose his Queen to this man? Arthur silently smashed a plate when he heard the news and now he was about to face the man. His anger turns into curiousity. Who is he? What does he think?

At wonderland two teams split up. The Rabbit goes with Eric, Nessa and Pippin while the Hatter and Marry goes off together with the heart soldier.
The gryphon is flying away to gather information. The hatter takes the Left direction while the Rabbit goes right. Soon the Rabbit and his compagnons are on a small path with nothing than trees on their left side. The Rabbit team plans to go to the land of Clubs.
 
During the brief undisturbed moment before anyone else enters the place of confinement, Emmett tries to wake up his brother, but Jake--usually a light sleeper--remains under the spell. Emmett then whispers in his brother's ear: "Just in case any part of your brain can hear this, Jake--they didn't do much of a job searchin' me. I still got a fistful of birdshot shells in my pockets. No shotgun to shoot 'em with; but they might could still be useful. If I threw 'em into a fire, for instance--not as I'm sure they HAVE any fires in this here icebox--their goin' off would be a fine distracter for us makin' a break. Too soon to make any real plans, but try to keep your eyes open for any moment that this Queen lets down her guard. At the same time, I ain't forgot what ya said about how maybe she could be made t'see the light."
 
Peter groaned. More card soldiers. Alice gathered up all of her courage and walked as close to the edge as she dared and looked out.
"More of them?" she asked.
"I'm afraid so," Peter replied.
"Do you think there's a way down?" Caspian asked.
"Yeah, falling," alice replied.
"Very funny," Caspian said.
 
The Walrus, knowing that the card soldiers Alice noticed have no reason to be hostile to him, approaches them and asks them what mission they are about.
 
The card soldiers look at the Walrus

The leader: We are on our way to the Land of Aces. Our King and Queen have given us orders to go there. Whatever the reason might be is none of your business
Walrus: I didn't ask you why you were going but I asked you what your mission was. So the Queen has done it again?
Leader: Not the Queen. This time the orders came from our King who made an arrangement with a friend from far
walrus: Whatever your mission might be it does saddens me to see you are following the orders without thinking. The Queen has sent you way too often on a mission and fewer are coming back. Is it worth all this?
Leader: We have to obey to our King and Queen
Walrus: Then I have nothing more to say. I wish one of you would have been wiser knowing this will lead to nowhere. Only more hatred and pain
Leader: That's your opinion Walrus, now if you want to excuse me

The Walrus gets aside allowing the cards to pass. He shakes his head and goes off

The Rabbit leads Nessa, Eric and Pippin through the woods. The path they followed lead them into the woods. Fortunately the Rabbit knows the way well and he knows all tricks and traps.

The Hatter however has a bit more difficulties with leading his compagnons. The heart soldier is a bit afraid to meet his fellow soldiers and is not willing to go back. So the Hatter has to search for different ways to avoid paths which will lead directly to the cards army


Emmett tries to wake up his brother but knows some evil work is behind all this. Arthur is waiting to meet him but the Snow Queen doesn't allow him. She wants him to stay inside the Castle's main room instead of going out of it. She takes her snowglobe and watches it. She sees Emmett in it trying to wake up Jake.

SQ: Soon my little cowboy you will be mine. Whether you like it or not. You will have no other choice. Because if you don't do it I will do it for you and I won't hestitate to use my powers
 
Edmund: What waht?

ME: Sis are you all right do you need us to stop?

TOJ: Yeah, can we because I can't breath right now

* Hannah came to her side*
 
OOC: Gentle Voice and Lady of Narnia, decide between you--to whom the Walrus might come to tell the conversation he had with the soldiers. Meanwhile...

============================

The Snow Queen's attention was drawn away from her snowglobe as her skua came in with his latest information on the progress of the Hearts army in rallying from the damage inflicted by the gunslingers. While she was thus preoccupied, the deranged servant Arthur--who had been entrusted with the shotgun taken from Emmett--acted on an irrational impulse.

Emmett's efforts to awaken Jake were interrupted by the creaky opening of the door to the room in which they were confined. In came a man whom the gunslinger had never seen before...holding a shotgun which Emmett had never see POINTED AT HIM before.

"Interloper! Thief! Seducer!" snarled the stranger. "She's MINE, and she'll remain mine!"

Emmett stayed calm...and kept his own body in between Jake and the twin muzzles. "Now, mister, if y'all mean who I think you mean, you got my word that I don't even WANT her! Never did! And since you're one to take action for yourself, how's about takin' action to spring Jake an' me out of here, and you can have that gal ALL to yourself with my compliments!"

"Don't try to mislead me with oily words!" The glaring servant brought the shotgun closer to Emmett's face, affording a clear view INTO the barrels. "Of course you desire my Queen--because ALL men desire her! But only * I * have served her with true faithfulness, and only * I * shall have her!"

"What you shall have," Emmett quietly told the stranger, "is a face full of backfire. When I dropped that shotgun, it went muzzle-first into dirt; I can SEE the dirt in the barrels. If you pull those triggers, your Queen'll have a corpse for a lover. Ya wanna kill me? Then draw that dagger you're wearin', and try your luck stickin' that into me. The only--" But he was interrupted by Arthur's ever-more-shrill fury. "No more lies, thief of beauty! Now you DIE!"

Inexperienced with firearms though aware of their existence, Arthur only pulled the right-side trigger properly ...but this was enough to produce the effect Emmett had warned of. The reversed explosion that destroyed his head, also flung him straight backwards to bounce off a chest of drawers.

The noise, meanwhile, half awakened Jake. But Emmett had no time to try to finish that process; another procedure was even more urgent.

Springing alongside the dead man, Emmett retrieved the shotgun with one hand, while pulling from a pocket one other item that had been left with him: a Gunslinger Steakhouse ballpoint pen. With this--once he had removed the live shell from the left-side barrel--he went rapidly to work to clean out the dirt from both barrels. When he felt sure that he could fire the weapon with a happier result than the stranger had enjoyed, he inspected the right hammer. It seemed to have survived the breech-blast far better than Arthur had. So he slipped into this barrel the live shell he had just removed from the left...placed another shell from a pocket into the left barrel...helped himself to the dead man's sheathed dagger and the belt it hung on...and THEN swung his attention to Jake again.

He would have liked to try disguising himself in the dead man's mostly-intact clothing; but trying that would have been risking getting caught with a shirt pulled over his head. Haste meant more now than any attempt at stealth.

"C'mon, Jake, we're bustin' out!" Emmett's exclamation, which he made to sound more optimistic than he felt, was rewarded with a response from the younger brother at last. "Did I hear 'em use dynamite?" Jake asked.

"Next best thing. Hurry, now, get on your feet. Lean on me--no, on my LEFT side; I need my right hand free t'shoot. No questions, just haul your hind end along with me!"

They were scarcely out the door, finding themselves in a corridor that ran off left and right, when Emmett saw who was investigating the noise: two more of the snow apes...one from each direction.

There was only one chance. Letting Jake sag against the wall, Emmett shot into the face of the monster that was slightly the nearer of the two--then without even waiting to see how much damage he had done, whipped around the other way and fired into the second beast as it was almost on him. Dropping below its grabbing arms, he ripped through its femoral artery with the dagger, then grabbed the slashed leg and heaved. The dying creature fell--as its blinded comrade seized Emmett from behind.

But Jake had finally regained full awareness. The dagger that Emmett lost as he was grabbed too quickly to evade, Jake retrieved, and sank it to the hilt in the monster's neck--barely in time to save Emmett from having HIS neck snapped apart.

Seeing that Emmett was not severely injured, Jake broke the shotgun, fished new shells out of Emmett's pockets--for some piece of his brain HAD heard what his brother said about that before--and reloaded while Emmett was getting the rest of the stars out of his skull. A moment later, Emmett's toughness had reasserted itself; leaving the dagger in Jake's possession, he reclaimed the shotgun.

Pure chance determined which way they ran in the corridor, since they knew nothing of the layout here. They ran the way they happened to be facing when Emmett felt ready to run again.
 
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