#in wonderland we're all mad {wanted connections}

[ivory-forged-steel]

Grownup Arthur and Tracy vibes cause those two are totally siblings by heart and I’ll die on that hill

All the kids raised in the Haven (Tracy, Arthur, Klaus, Logan etc) are basically all siblings and friends. The Haven next gen would be INSANE and UNSTOPPABLE

𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑾 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑬𝒀 & 𝑴𝑨𝑫𝑬𝑳𝒀𝑵 𝑪𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑬 . Outer Banks ( 2020 – ) .

[ariel-seagull-wings]

ALICE'S WONDERLAND BAKERY

@themousefromfantasyland @princesssarisa

Alice's Wonderland Bakery is a preschool series for Disney Junior, which premiered on February 9, 2022. It is placed in the same canon as the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland.

The series revolves around Alice, the great-granddaughter of the original Alice Pleasance Liddell, who is a young baker working at the Wonderland Bakery. As she explores the kingdom on various culinary adventures, she is accompanied by Fergie the white rabbit, Hattie, and Rosa—the Princess of Hearts.

The teapot-shaped Wonderland Bakery has a kitchen where some of the equipment are animated, namely the oven and the mixer. The bakery also has a pantry which is vertical tunnel where the ingredients are on shelves on the sides, and anyone who enters will mostly float inside as if they are in space. The desserts (and to a lesser extent foods) the characters make are mostly magical, resulting in either troublesome or pleasant effects.

Alice's Wonderland Bakery is based on Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951), which in turn is based on the Alice book series by Lewis Carroll.

In the film, there is a scene in which the Mad Hatter hosts a tea party with teapots that pipe music, hats producing three-layer frosted cakes, and exploding firework candles in the sky. 

Disney Television Animation decided to produce a heritage project based upon the scene, which would also take inspiration from the sense of connection brought by food.

Creator Chelsea Beyl said:

"I started thinking about all the whimsy, the comedy, and the peculiar characters that are in the original movie and thought, 'Wow, preschoolers are going to love this' ... It's silly. And then we're combining all that with baking, which, of course, kids love to do as well."

In May 2021, Disney Junior greenlit the series, to air on the network in 2022.

According to co-executive producer and art director Frank Montagna, the shift in storytelling from a 1950s 2D-animated film to a 2022 computer-animated preschool TV series was unexpectedly simple. He stated that there are many enjoyable activities in Wonderland, such as the tea parties, cards, and mazes.

The team removed the frightening elements from the original film and kept the entertaining ones. Throughout the book and the film, there are references to the words "Eat me" and "Drink me". Because of this, Montaga came up with the idea of fusing Alice in Wonderland with a bakery when Beyl initially presented the show to him. The show highlights the importance of food, which is used as a form of creativity and self-expression; Alice makes friends and learns of other cultures through food.

Beyl stated that "food [is] essentially [Alice's] superpower ... [and] how she connects with all these curious and peculiar characters." The series pays homage to the original Alice, who is always thinking, by having its version of Alice constantly trying to figure out things.

It did not take Montagna long to come up with the design for Alice's Wonderland Bakery since the original Alice in Wonderland "has always been such a core part of [his] being".

Since the original designs were so shaped-driven and everything was already round, bouncy, and rubbery, he found converting them into 3D models rather easy.

The team at ICON Creative Studio, according to Montagna, worked tirelessly to give the show a "bouncy and rubbery" feel, particularly with the Cheshire Cat—the only character from the 1951 film to appear in the series. Montagna believed that the team truly needed him to embody his role from the original film. Since television computer animation budgets were rather small, many factors needed to be considered carefully. For the character to be correctly rigged, the team would need to be very clear about how they wanted the character to look.

The team wanted the characters to truly reflect modern-day children, which also required giving them origins that Carroll may never have imagined.

Beyl sought to reimagine some characters from the original film to enrich Wonderland with a wider range of cultures.

The Hatter family's character design, kitchen—as well as the recipes Alice and Hattie cook together—are drawn from Japanese culture. Meanwhile, several aspects of the Hearts family were influenced by Cuban cuisine and culture, including their dialogue (which includes Spanish words), clothing, palace, and set design.

The show later introduces a Persian-influenced caterpillar family. Certain characters are also gender flipped.

Numerous foods from different cultures are featured in the series, including pastelitos (Cuban), mochi (Japanese), carrot calzone (italian), grape gazpacho, huevos habaneros (spanish) and kuku sib zamini (Persian).

The series references several iterations of Alice in Wonderland, including the 2010 film directed by Tim Burton. The White Rabbit hole served as the model for Alice's pantry, which features an endless supply of food items. For the ingredients, the team aimed to combine wacky Wonderland-style elements with real-world meals. Examples of this are "Bread and Butterflies", "Disa-pears", and "Rea-pears". Since nothing is impossible in Wonderland, the team were able to incorporate many unrealistic ideas of food into the show, including an upside-down cake.

On June 6, 2023, it was announced that Kathryn Beaumont (who voiced Alice in the 1951 Disney film) would be making a guest appearance in the 22-minute special "Alice's First Day in Wonderland".

[fallenangelofsalt]

[Inkloop] Oh damn, I'm glad this has a happy ending but everyone is going to need so much therapy. Are those in the RTLC aware of each other or do some of them think they are alone? The loops seem to be affecting even those who don't remember? Kalim being the last makes sense with his childhood but I'm surprised Jamil would ever claim that which def makes me wonder what the heck happened before that. Which OBs are the most dangerous (other than Malleus, which I think is a given XD)?

As a rule, I cannot handle either Major Character Death or sad endings. I want my blorbos to suffer eleven levels of hell but I will cry if it turns out it was all for nothing. It will be rough and very gory, but they'll get through this.

Heavy spoilers and violence under the cut:

At first they think they are alone. There is a pretty obvious tell for when someone is added to the RTLC, and Yuu figured it out after Ruggie's death. But anyone newly added has no reason to suspect they aren't alone until the rest of the RTLC goes up to them and tells them what is going on.

Basically, the blot doesn't fully go away, even if they don't overblot early. It's less of a "Hey, you're about to OB, stop it" and more of a creeping madness that fluctuates between loops, but slowly gets worse. One loop Leona is being his usual pre-OB self, the next he doesn't even bother with his dorm as a whole, the next he actually mauls someone for speaking against him, the next he's just a tad more intense than usual, and on it goes.

This fluctuation is actually the reason why Kalim OB'd. At that point, Kalim had suffered to hell and back, and Jamil's madness was at such a low point that he was actually really really worried about him. Their relationship is Complicated but after Mr. Smiles And Sunshine did a complete 180 in basically everything of course he got worried. The "We're friends" line was supposed to calm him down, and it backfired. Hard.

As for the most dangerous OBs, Kalim, Adeuce, and lastly Ruggie.

Kalim because at this point he's been bottling it for for his whole ass life, got murdered by the person he trusted and loved the most, and overall just gave up on caring until Jamil accidentally stepped on a landmine connected to a nuke and opened up the reinforced iron gates containing all of his years-long repressed rage, unleashing a biblical-tier flood of melt-your-skin boiling rain upon all of Scarabia right in the middle of winter break. Also I gave all the OBs extra powers because why not. So he's also got control over a bunch of very thorny, very poisonous plants growing all over the dorm. And inside people. Also a lot of things are on fire.

Adeuce because their OB gave them Wonderland Powers, more especifically the ability to bend space itself and alter sizes, so everyone in NRC is basically stuck in a ever changing maze and sometimes get less than 7 inches tall, witch is a very bad thing when you are 1. Stuck with a lot of normal-sized, panicking people who are not paying attention where they're stepping and 2. Being actively hunted.

Ruggie has 3 Phantoms. Big ones. He is also going on a canniballistic spree and can now control dead bodies. You can probably see why this is bad.

[ivory-forged-steel]

I feel like Arthur could use siblings....or at least sibling like interactions 🤔

"You're just going to screw me like everyone else in my life. I know you will." "No, no, because I'm all you've got."

[anonymeqaupdates]

So I'm still working on the next review but I wanted to say congrats on the book 4 arc which concludes the djinn arc. Man, your fanfic is the best out of all the Twisted Wonderland fanfics given how the high the stake is and the way the characters develop with the shipping tension, comedic scenes, and angst. Even including the best version of Yuu and having connection to Disney movies more. Not to mentioned your ocs being memorable to know.

When I first saw your fanfic, I didn't seem be interested given I assume it will not be interested. But as I read it, I began to invest and how amazing the story grows. You even make each characters a chance to shine rather they are major or minor. You even made me love some of the ships that are not normally be seen like with Leona and Ruggie (since not many invest it given with other ships like Vil and Malleus on Leona), the poly-1st years, Cater and Trey, Jeizul (Love this sadistic duo), and Cater and Trey.

I also love the add of original scenes not many of the fanfics who just write the entire story and just felt it is just the game just fanfic with add scenes. You even give much awesome improvements and originality on all the four books including book 2 in which you made the conflict better than what the game handle with Leona being painted as the bad guy for something he didn't do, Ruggie lying for Leona's sake, and Jack wanted to stop this madness. Let's not forget book 1 which shows Riddle's conflicted relationship with Floyd and book 3 Azul's descend to madness for everyone's lies that seeing the tweels suffered is exciting to see.

And many, Jafar is such a ******* yet the great written villain you love to hate. Even more threatening than he was in his movies especially being creep he is to take down teenagers as always.

Also let's not forget the two stars, Jamilkal. Where their conflicted relationship affected everyone and how the time travel change everything with Kalim being independent and chose to open his circles to new friends while Jamil is still a snake with his villainous friend Ruggie but no longer withheld his strengths and shine. Yet they still deal with lies and betrayal to one another and how the djinn possession **** them up. I hope the next arc we will see their relationship develop.

I want to say more but couldn't think more. But I hope you best for the future especially we are entering book 5 to see the pomeferio's time for angst.

I can't wait to see your additional parts with Jack and Vil being exes and I can imagine Jack's concern of him and Epel, Ghost Marriage (Seriously, my favorite event and can't wait for this gentlemen to get slapped), Fairy Gala, VDC, and Jamilkal moments (I want to see their kiss). Also can't wait for Yuu moments.

Also hope to see your final thoughts on Scarabia and Octavinelle.

-🧋

I'm speechless, honestly this means a lot to me.

When I started this I really didn't think a lot of people would be interested and it was to help me get rid of the brainworm. (And instead they have multiplied). I wasn't sure I would even have the capacity to finish it and while we're not there yet we are slowly catching up with the games!

The love and support of the people who read FIBIB and commented on it was really a big proponent on keeping me going and growing the story like it has. Including the game events would probably wouldn't have happened without your enthusiasm when I brought up the idea. Nor would I have felt this comfortable deviating from canon like I did.

And your reviews also helped me see when I needed to clarify plot points and decides where to take the story at times.

In any cases I'm grateful for all the support and I'll be happy to keep reading your messages until we get to the end of that crazy story.

thanks 🧋,

A_N_O_Nyme

[icharchivist]

Wasn't j.j.'s va notoriously racist tho? Like despite that they keep casting ing him on black dudes and 😨

yeah that's also why i'm not too hot discussing about him like i could be for literally any other hypmic seiyuu like it's the one guy i'm a bit cringing everytime he's here

but yeah he did blackface and he made various jokes about African cultures in general on his insta (mocking some jewelries for instance). If he did more i didn't keep track of it but yeah this was a huge thing

but yup they otherwise still keep casting him as black dudes in media in general, he's literally THE guy in the industry people go to when it comes to play black dudes.

(he's also in twisted wonderland playing Sam for instance)

from what i know it's because he's been particularly vocal about black american culture in Japan, but like, in a way that is mostly all about the aesthetic without thinking critically about it (in other word, it feels very much like cultural appropriation), but since he has a clear passion for it the whole industry seems to have pinned him as The Guy who knows black culture and now they always have him somewhere when they want to refer it.

it's extremely exhausting and cringe worthy imo and he keeps popping up like this in projects because of that.

Like his racism definitely comes more from seeing black people as entertainment with no interest in connecting with the culture other than its aesthetics, and therefore making callous jokes and appropriation out of "passion". It's still racist, and it's still extremely cringe that he's considered "the" voice about it because of that.

he's like those type of racist weeabo yaknow?

so yeah mad cringe. I don't think i can like, super speak up about it in general with the fact i have no connection to any of the culture we're speaking about here -- but yeah. it's. yeah.

[boldlyvoid]

so... this interview got me thinking.

J: Your fans are amazing fans. I will just say that. I know you said it earlier, but they obviously are so excited that you're here on our show, so we're getting a lot of buzz from your fans. And they were like, "Wait. What are they going to talk about? What's going on? I heard this. [ Blabbering ] "This is ten seconds long." There's Easter eggs that maybe aren't even really Easter eggs.

T: Yeah, it's sort of a tradition that we started a very long time ago. I think the first time that I started dropping sort of cryptic clues and things in my music is when I was 14 and 15 putting together my first album. And I wanted to put -- I wanted to do something that incentivized fans to read the lyrics because my lyrics are what I'm most proud of out of everything that I do, every aspect of my job, so I really wanted people to read the lyrics. And, um, when I was a kid, I used to leaf through CD booklets and just read the teeny, tiny print and just obsess over it. And so I wanted to incentivize them. So in my lyrics, for my first, you know, several albums, I would have all lower-case-letter lyrics, except for capital letter, capital letter, capital letter every once in a while. And if they circled the capital letter, and wrote them down, it spelled out a secret code, a secret passage.

J: That's so fun.

T: It was really --it was really fun, and it would either tell them a story about the album or a hint about what the song was about. And so that's when it started. But when it got out of control was...

[ Laughter ]

T: Yeah. Was when I started to realize that it wasn't just me that had fun with this, that they had fun with it, too. And I should never have learned that because then I couldn't stop. And then all I started thinking of was how do I hint at things? Like, how far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance? Can I even plan things out that far? I think I'm gonna try to do it. The first time that we did a crazy video like that was a video called "Look What You Made Me Do," and I started playing with doing nods to former musical eras I've been in, in my career and all kinds of weird stuff for them to just go through the video and be like, "That over there! What's that? What's that? What's that? Does this connect to that? What does that mean?"

J: I do that.

T: Really?

J: Yes! I did that with "Folklore." I go, "Wait. What? Betty? What?"

T: There's a lot. There's a lot going There's, like, a fictional love triangle between three fictional teenagers in the "Folklore" album.

J: I know all about it.

T: There's all kinds of, like, really, really --Yeah, we go really into the weeds over it. And look. I think that it is perfectly reasonable for people to be normal music fans and to have a normal relationship to music. But if you want to go down a rabbit hole with us, come along.

J: Taylor is your person.

T: The water's great. Jump in. We're all mad here.

Which is a hint at Alice in wonderland. back when this first aired, everyone thought she was referring to the fact one of her bonus tracks on 1989 was Wonderland, it's also the name of one of her perfumes. this went with her first TikTok when she released Wildest Dreams Taylors Version... which Taylor Nation confirmed today was a hint at midnights and not 1989 TV.

what's interesting to me about the use of this, is that Clocks go Tick Tock. it was her first tiktok! she's in midnights variant blue and the section of the song is "You'll see me in hindsight. Tangled up with you all night. Burning it down."

it's obvious she's been making a lot of references to night and fire. but also time. Time is the biggest component of this album. And it's the most important theme inside Alice in Wonderland.

Credit

If Lover is Midnights Sister Album:

the Forward in lover gives us even more clues on what to expect.

she mentions her journals, she started writing them when she was 13. she has every memory written down on pages and she shared them with us. The Delux version of lover came in 4 volumes. 4 sets of journals documenting past and highlighting moments of love.

What if Midnights is the night before Lover? she did write Lover in the middle of the night.

And then i remembered the Vault Tracks were clocks...

stopwatches to be more exact.

she's been telling us everything we need to know this whole time.

[luesmainblog]

What Made Alice in Wonderland 2010 A Bad Movie, And Why That Made Me Love It. "Alice is such a cliche 'not like other girls' minimum effort feminist idea of a Strong Female Lead." yes, and that makes her relatable to me! for reasons i'm about to get to.... "Corsets were just their versions of bras, they weren't tools of opression, i'm so tired of that trope." you know who really hates restrictive clothing like corsets/back braces, squishing clothes like bras, and texture-changing clothes like stockings? AUTISTIC PEOPLE. from the MOMENT she is introduced, Alice is so visibly autistic it makes me Wiggle. while that may not have been the intention, the character becomes infiniately more likable once you assume that. infact, it heightens the message of the movie; "you're mad, but all the best people are." "Alice looks bored the whole time, and there's basically no tone to her voice." that's the autism, babey!! but also, that's not true. Alice's "bored" expression tends to be when she's uncomfortable, upset, or otherwise not overcome with emotion. she spends most of the movie looking like that.... because she spends most of the movie upset, uncomfortable, and in a position where she can't emotionally connect because she's pretty sure this is just a dream. but when she's happy? she's got a smile that absolutely lights up the room. watch her when she's talking about how her father used to believe 6 impossible things before breakfast; she is beaming. and look at her when she's confused: brows furrowed, staring at people, looking around her to understand wtf is going on. how is that "bored"? her physical stiffness is an extension of this; autistic people can often struggle to express themselves in "readable" ways, and when you've been brought up in a very Proper society that demands you think about your every move, you tend to develop a lack of expression whether you want to or not because you get in trouble less when you're not emoting. part of emoting is how you move your body, and so we often end up just. not? not in the smooth, unpuppetted way the rest of you do. autism can also just make it Harder To Move Your Body or feel it as a part of yourself rather than an annoying thing that you're responsible for. "if it's all real, why all the parallels that seem like they'd work their way into her fantasy?" because it is a fictional story and writers enjoy having parallels. "why does everyone just Follow the Prophecy? why don't they change it?" exactly!! why?? paying attention to the Culture of underland and how it's effected by the calender thingy is part of the fun! gaining an understanding that they all fully, TRULY believe in that thing can help to explain some of the seeming madness. "why does the mad hatter keep switching accents?" pay attention to how he acts with those accents. the voice, the disposition, what he focuses on, they ALL change. this man is plural. and he doesn't like it in here; it's awfully crowded. "it's supposed to be a childish fantasy, not a war movie!" the core of Alice in Wonderland is the experience of what it's LIKE to be a child. nothing makes sense, but you have to go along with it anyways. now we're a young adult; very little makes sense, but you have to go along with it, and if you don't then you're not ~meeting your potential~ and bad things will happen Because You Didn't Listen. this is still, at its core, alice's experience in the real world made fantastical and amped up to 11. "how does she STILL think it's a dream?" first of all, she is coping. second of all, because NOTHING THAT'S HAPPENING FITS IN TO HER WORLDVIEW OF HOW ANYTHING WORKS IN REALITY. plus, honestly? i get the feeling she comes to view this experience as a way to work through her personal issues. and it's easier to do that if she can tell herself it's just a dream. "Underland??" yup! makes sense to me; the child didn't quite understand what she was told about this place. it's a place Under the real world. everything checks out!

I just watched the Alice in Wonderland live action movie (the 2010 one) because I remember watching it when I was younger and it was a very important memory to me, so I looked for it and rewatched it

But apparently it's very hated??? And bad?? Why? I was looking for some reasons in Google and most of the stuff I saw could he easily disproven, at least from this one specific thing I found (I haven't been looking that much but the reasons seem pretty stupid ngl)

Can someone give me good reasons why it's bad?? Without the whole "Alice looks bored the entire time besides the scene where she was falling down a hole" she thought she was dreaming so I can understand that one

[keyenuta]

Twisted Wonderland: Eng Release Ground Rules

First of all, after 84 years of waiting and hoping we've finally got it. An official, Twisted Wonderland localization is arriving in a few agonizing weeks!

Now then, with that out the way, let's get some ground rules set up for the oncoming storm.

Translations, translations, translations: Ok starting off, let's all agree to be calm about differences we see in translations. I know we've all gotten used to fan translations, which speaking of, y'all are the true MVPs. Literally without y'all doing the Herculean task of translating all this text, the fandom would be barely a twinkle in any of our eyes so thank you all so much for your going on 2 years of work. But for the rest of us, let's not get mad if things aren't exactly how we pictured it, some things will have to be changed, some jokes will not work in English.

-Tsunotaro is a big one, they will have to change the joke or translate it directly people

-We've already seen Dormleaders-Housewardens, and Headmaster-Headmage. These are things we will have to get used to like it or not. Now then, since we only have a limited scope on other changes let's move onto

2. Fandoms will Fandom: I know many friends and other people in the community are worried about new people coming into the fandom and being toxic. And as much as I hate it alongside you, if this comes to pass, we must accept its a natural state of the internet. I don't have a solution to this, other than stay to your friend group, ignore the toxic people, or try and spread more positivity that outweighs the bad. And finally, we have to be open minded about new people entering the fandom, not everyone will be a toxic little gremlin, nor will everyone be a perfect angel. We must take people as they come and not try and generalize new people. Because if we act uppity and give new people the wrong impression of us, they will feel jaded and then spread more negativity. Basically it's good to be worried, but let's not be gatekeeping people, we all enjoy the game and the characters so let's allow others to enjoy it too like we did.

3. Spoilers: This is gonna be the shortest one, but it's important as well, when the game is officially out for English, we have to be careful not to spoil new people as best we can. We don't know how they'll release the chapters yet, but assuming it's like Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 at launch, as hard as it will be, just please be careful with spoilers of future chapters. New people deserve to go in fresh like we did.

4: Just don't be Toxic: This is a general rule but it connects to everything else, just don't be toxic as we're all here to just enjoy ourselves. If you see drama you don't wanna be a part of, or see a person who's toxic, use the block button and treat yourself to what you enjoy in the fandom. No one toxic is worth your time and mental health.

5. Gacha rules: This is just be careful with your money, this is still a gacha after all so just be responsible. Only spend when you can afford to, and stop yourself if you're spending too much. You don't need everything at the cost of you paying rent or affording food and basic necessities. I'm sure you can get some things again at one point or another, Disney doesn't need anymore money, especially your own.

Soooo, yeah these are my 5, don't be jerks list for when the game gets released, thanks for coming to my ted talk!

And if you have anything to add, please reblog and add what rules you'd want to see as well!

Pre-registration begins Dec 21

[neakco]

Not My Wonderland Part 1.1

AO3 Part 1.2 Part 2 Part 3 Masterlist

Marinette gets locked in a forgotten storage room by bullies and Tikki finds a mirror that takes them to Wonderland.

Sadly this isn't the Wonderland of fairy-tales, that age has long passed.

Who knew that her adventures in Wonderland wouldn't even be the most exciting thing to happen to her.

Part one is all about Marinette's adventure in Wonderland.

Spoilers for Sy Fy's Alice.

Marinette stopped her punch just short of hitting the wall. Why had her parents and Jagged thought an elite school in Gotham would be any different than an elite school in Paris?

 

She tested a dust covered stool before dropping onto it and causing Tikki to sneeze.

 

“I'm sorry.”

 

“No worries Marinette.” The Red kwami flew up to give her a small hug. “It wasn’t your choice to get locked in a forgotten storage room beneath the dorms.”

 

She chuckled darkly as Tikki began exploring the forgotten room. Marinette took the time to lean back and reflect. Hawkmoth had been defeated and Adrien, her Chat, had ended up devastated. The memories had been too much and he had started living at the hotel. It was there that they had been overheard by Jagged discussing leaving the country to escape. That was also where Jagged had grabbed them to drag to the bakery in order to announce to her parents that he was sending the two of them to Gotham Academy.

 

The academy had been fine at the beginning, then she said just the right thing where the wrong person could overhear and now she was the emotional punching bag for her dorm. Locking her away was a new trick, just meant she would need to carry lock picks. It was true that Tikki could just phase through the door to inlock it for her, but neither wanted to risk getting seen. Plagg was enough of a safety hazard on that front.

 

Worst case Adrien would find her tomorrow evening when she was late to hang out. She had a bit of food in her purse and a bottle of water.

 

“Marinette?” Tikki’s voice was odd, less high pitched.

 

“What did you find?” She walked into the labyrinth of forgotten things and froze at the sight of a giant golden framed mirror. It was breathtaking. She reached her hand out to stroke the intricate design but stopped, there wasn’t a spec of dust.

 

“It’s okay Marinette.” Tikki gripped her outstretched hand, “This mirror I’d a portal. I am so happy, I haven’t been back in probably ten of your years.”

 

“I thought you were in the miracle box.”

 

“Plagg and I can connect from the box once a decade. Come on.” She tugged her forward. “Most people would need the stone but Kwami created the mirrors .” The small kwami was vibrating in excitement. “Once we are through we can return to a different mirror in Gotham.”

 

Marinette straightened her spine and leapt forward before she could lose her nerve.

 

She was falling. Was it bad that falling to her death had become common back in Paris? Not that she believed she was going to hit the ground hard, being Ladybug for so long had let her feel the magic surrounding her now. It was like a comforting hug, she just had to relax and trust the portal.

 

Marinette landed on a soft patch of moss and grass that seemed to be located inside a building. Creeping forward slightly let her see more rooms just like hers.

 

“Tikki?” She whispered.

 

After a moment of tense silence she snuck further down the hall. If she was right than travellers were probably separated for safety reasons. Tikki had also seemed quite excited to visit so it was possible she had moved outside.

 

Opening a door she gasped, it looked like someone had built a city on top of another city than let the whole thing fall into ruin. Too large a step and she would fall right off the edge and into what she hoped was water. Although at this height there wouldn’t be much difference between water and concrete.

 

There was a very deliberate sounding shoe scuff followed by a knock on the wall to her right. Turning let her see a young man that could have passed as her twin if he was a couple years younger.

 

“Good morning miss, first time through the Looking Glass?”

 

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, “I don’t see how that is any of your business.”

 

The boy grinned impossibly wide and showed off his pointed teeth. “Wonderful! It is a horrible idea to trust easily, but it is my business I’m afraid. In fact it is my only business.”

 

“What?”

 

“I am a guide to those that need it.” He bowed but lost his smile, “Business hasn’t been the best. Only one local client and all my potentials are snapped up before they even arrive.”

 

Marinette started to retreat slowly into the building, “While I am sure you are an excellent guide, I am not staying long.”

 

The man opened his mouth to respond but was drowned out by a humming engine.

They both turned to the noise and his eyes grew more feline and glowed for a moment. Marinette wasn’t entirely sure that she hadn’t imagined it, but the noise growing louder was more concerning. It appeared to be coming from a ginormous flying iron bee with spotlights.

 

The light hit her full on, blinding her, just before the strange man tackled her into the building. He started to mover her face around to look at it from different angles, “Wait where’s the burn?”

 

She was about to shove him off when she heard a familiar voice, but deeper than ever before.

 

“Cheshire, where are your manners? I know Plagg and I taught you better.”

 

The man, Cheshire, jumped up gracefully as his hair shifted slightly more purple than black.

 

“Tikki, is that you? It’s been forever.”

 

Marinette took the hand up he offered as she stared in disbelief. Instead of a tiny red Kwami she was looking at a beautiful women in a spotted red dress.

 

“Wonderland has changed so much since your last visit. We could have used you and Plagg.”

 

Marinette glanced around at the dilapidated building. “Wonderland? Isn’t this rather industrial for a fairy-tale?”

 

Tikki frowned, “It looked a lot more like the fairy-tale the last time I visited.”

 

Cheshire leaned back in the air and floated on his back, “That was over a thousand years ago Teeks.”

 

“I thought you said you visited ten years ago.” Marinette gasped as she looked between the two.

 

Tikki kneeled gently grabbed her hands to ground her, “Time works differently here Marinette. One year here may only be three days back home.”

 

Marinette would have collapsed hard on the ground without Tikki stabilizing her. She was now in Wonderland, Time is weird, she met the Cheshire cat, the cat wasn’t a cat, and Tikki was…”Wait, why are you human?”

 

Cheshire started laughing, “This is where kwami come from little bug.” He did a couple of somersaults in the air to get closer and rested on his stomach. “Kwami have three forms here, kwami form, animal form and a mostly human form.” He grinned widely, “Tikki, Plagg, and myself are the only exceptions.”

 

“Why?” She looked at Tikki but saw that she was lost in thought so looked back to Cheshire.

 

“Tikki IS creation, Plagg destroyed his limitations just because he could, and I am what happens when creation and destruction try to have a kid.”

 

“Chesh.” Tikki scowled as Marinette looked at him with a bit of awe.

 

He giggled, “Okay, truthfully I change shape because I need to be able to look comforting in order to guide some people. I really do treat Tikki as my mum though.”

 

“So you decided to look like you’re related to me because you thought I would find it comforting?”

 

Cheshire’s feet hit the ground hard, “What? No!” He looked both surprised and offended, “This is all me.”

 

“Really, because if I had an older brother he would probably look like you.” She let go of Tikki’s hands and crossed her arms.

 

“Maybe Tikki is your mum too.” His eyes narrowed on her face, “Would explain  why the scarab didn’t burn you.”

 

“I have really enjoyed seeing you again Cheshire.” Tikki smiled softly, “Are you on a day off? Last time you could only spare a couple moments to say hello.”

 

His face fell and he walked forward. Peeking outside he gestured for them to follow.

 

Tikki gasped loudly, “It used to be so lovely. What happened?”

 

Marinette thought she looked ready to cry.

 

“Last time you were here you…” he paused to look around suspiciously before lowering his voice, “You helped the white knights by giving them what is now known as the Stone of Wonderland.” He glanced towards Marinette. “The stone is needed to power the Looking Glass for anyone not a kwami or wearing a miraculous.”

 

He held out a hand for them to stop before turning into a stripped dark purple cat and walking around a corner.

 

Marinette stayed quiet, this place felt dangerous. Listening carefully she could just make out a passing conversation about tea. She started to doubt she had heard right when she also picked up pieces that made the tea sound like highly addictive drugs.

 

Cheshire came back as the conversation got too far away to hear. He quietly shifted back into a human and gave them a forced grin, “Sorry about that, where was I?”

 

“The stone.” She supplied, figuring she could ask about tea later.

 

He started moving from shadow to shadow, “With the knights at his side, the red king brought us into a thousand years of peace and prosperity. Then the red queen took power. She raised her army if cards and wiped out all the knights.” He smiled almost fondly, “About one hundred and fifty years back the Alice of your fairy tales found her way here. I did my best to guide her and to her credit she did bring down the whole house of cards.”

 

“Wait.” Marinette looked shocked, “Tikki came back here 10 years ago and a thousand years passed, yet the fairy-tale has been around over 100 years and you say she only came here 150 years ago. Wouldn’t that only be only a year or two in my world?”

 

“Alice didn’t come through the mirror. She came through an old tunnel, they connect differently and can toss you forward or back in time. It was why the Looking Glass was created.” He paused to look around before speaking  bitterly, “Continuing with the story, unfortunately the Queen’s defeat didn’t last long. She decided from there that knowledge was bad and started burning all our books. She also discovered that people from your world can be harvested of emotions. She then takes the emotions, bottles them, and sells them in her tea shops as a way to keep the people drugged and happy.” He smiled more genuinely as he pressed a button.

 

With a small sound a patch of grass like a city park rolled out of the cement.

 

Cheshire gestured to the view overlooking the whole city, “Welcome to Wonderland Little Bug.”

 

Marinette stepped forward to take in everything; the city, the lake, the far off forest, and the distant glow from buildings unknown. “It’s…” She paused to find the right word.

 

“Sad, pathetic, horrendous, gross, insane?” Cheshire grinned.

 

“No, it’s beautiful.” She turned to look back at him. “Like it is just waiting for the rain to stop and the sun to shine through.”

 

Cheshire seemed to stare at her in wonder before Tikki interrupted.

 

“What do you mean, the queen is drugging people?” Tikki was buzzing with nerves, “The Wonderlanders I know would fight back “

 

He flinched and somehow added stripes to his purple shirt, “They are trying.” His grin was now a distant memory. “The Spades have orders to kidnap or kill any resistance. Those left are all hiding, but they struggle to even get food. There are more and more refugees every day that do not fight.”

 

“Why can’t you bring them food?” Marinette asked.

 

“If only I could.” He turned younger, “I only exist for them to perceive when I am a guide. The only person that can even hear me is an old hermit who believes me talking to me to be him using black magic.” He shrunk a little more until Marinette would place him at her age level, but he had also gained cat ears and a tail. “I can’t stand seeing Wonderland like this.”

 

Glancing at Tikki, Marinette could see that she also hated it. “What about the people taken from my world?”

 

He shook his head, “The White Rabbit keeps the docile somehow.”

 

Tikki buzzed even louder as Marinette began to pace. “Time flows different.” She muttered before turning quickly to Tikki. “How long until tomorrow back home?”

 

“A few days maybe, possibly months or years. So far my connection with Plagg tells me only a few seconds have passed.” Her buzzing stopped, “Why?”

 

“I want to help.” Determined, she turned back to Cheshire who was watching her with a bit of awe. “Will you be my guide to becoming Robin hood?”

 

He bowed low and when he straightened he was again fully human except for his smile. “I will guide you through Hell safety in this quest if you just ask it of me.”

 

Tikki still looked worried so Marinette gave her a hug. “It will be okay, together we make Ladybug, and together we can help your people.”

 

Tikki’s smile was hesitant but she still returned the hug. “Alright, but we go home when I say we have to.”

 

Cheshire came over and hugged both of them, “I know just the place rob.”

 

Cheshire crept them along the edges until they could see a house among the tall industrial buildings. “This is Hatter’s tea shop. He plays the fence like a coward but you can probably pretend to steal food from him for the resistance.”

 

“Why doesn’t he bring the food himself?” Tikki flew up to slightly to get a better look and Marinette wondered where the wings had come from.

 

“He brings food when he feels like it. He likes his luxury too much to casually risk it for others, that’s not to mention that he demands pay for his altruism.”

 

Marinette’s eyes narrowed, “I refuse to ask a person like that for help.” Chat would have known that her grin meant trouble for someone, “Can you tell me when the kitchen is empty? I plan to steal everything we can carry.”

 

Cheshire nodded and faded from sight. Marinette was going to enjoy stealing from Hatter.

 

Tikki handed over a ladybug patterned wicker pack basket that was almost as large as she was. Then proceeded to teach Marinette how to transform without her using the ambient magic of Wonderland.

 

It took a few tries as the process was quite different. Her outfit was quite different to her Ladybug suit, she had black pants, red shirt, dark spotted jacket and black gloves. Looking in a nearby window she was able to see that instead of a mask  her eyes were covered by a red smear, like war paint.

 

Cheshire reappeared a few hours later as Marinette was failing to summon her yo-yo.

 

“Ready to go Little Bug?”

 

“More than ready.”

 

“Excellent. Think up a code name and follow me.”

 

A small part of her wanted to use Robin but really didn’t think the colours matched. There were a few other red and black bugs out there, she could be one of them.

 

While she was thinking Cheshire led them around the building to a back door. Right inside there was an office of some kind that had a carpet of grass and some white furniture. One couch even had a man taking a nap under his hat.

 

The snuck past him and took a right turn into the pristine kitchen. There the three separated to quietly fill the basket. All they left was one box of orange pekoe tea perfectly positioned on the counter as a message.

 

From there Cheshire led them along some more narrow ledges and down a few ladders before stopping to point at what looked like a cheap motel.

 

“If anyone asks, we were sent by Caterpillar and please save all questions until we leave. These people are more than paranoid and less than intelligent. The last thing we want is them knowing we can deflect bullets.”

 

Tikki and Marinette nodded though the former was looking increasingly concerned.

 

He took one step forward and paused, “Oh and wait a fee seconds for the elevator to settle after it stops.” He took quick steps to one of the numerous doors before knocking. “I am returning a library book. It’s the work of Edwin and Morcar.”

 

An older voice answered, “How does the little crocodile improve his shining tail?”

 

“Pours water of the Nile on every golden scale.”

 

The door opened onto a subway car and all three rushed in.

 

The old man looked them over critically. “Who are you?”

 

“Caterpillar sent us. We have a gift for Dodo.”

 

Marinette worked hard to swallow her questions as the man grunted and started the, elevator? Never thought she would be grateful for Hawkmoth, but she doubted that she could handle all this if it wasn’t for his own brand of madness.

 

Exiting the car they were greeted with a shotgun wielding twitchy lady.

 

Cheshire smiled without showing his teeth. “I take it security is a tad tighter than we were informed.”

 

“Times are hard.” The lady answered in a high voice.

 

The old man pushed them forward with a gun of his own. “It’s up to Dodo to decide you are telling the truth.”

 

“Lead the way good people.” Cheshire raised his hands in surrender. Tikki did the same but Marinette was holding the straps of the basket. Thankfully their escort didn’t seem to mind.

 

From the hallway they could see a slum made of books filled with sickly and starving people. Marinette had to hold in a growl, people would pay.

 

At the end of the hall was an office overflowing with yet more books.

 

“He says Caterpillar sent them with a gift for you.” The old man announced.

 

A chair swivels to reveal Dodo, an intimidating figure if you had never stared down Gabriel Agreste.

 

“Thank you Duck.” Dodo stood and looked them over, his eyes lingered on Marinette and her large pack basket. “And just who are you?”

 

“Cat.”

 

“Ladybug.”

 

Marinette blinked, what was that red bug she’d seen in her garden? “Lanternfly.”

[devising-stuffs]

Week 7: Devising logbooks ᕕ( ᐕ )ᕗ

19/11/2021 Morning class

Today we worked in the theatre instead of in the class upstairs and we split into groups to fill the gaps on scenes we had yet to look at in the book of Alice in wonderland! The group I was in decided to focus on the Duchess chapter! ଘ(੭ ᐛ )♡

Process!

We noticed that even though we have a lot of the material now, we don't know how to connect everything fluidly. Therefore, we decided to work on a possible transition from the previous chapter to this one to tackle this.

In the theatre, there were these arch windows that were out in the space. Seeing them sparked an idea in Joanna's mind so after receiving permission, we got to working on the idea. The windows were wheeled which she thought would add to the whimsical feeling of the original story.

We both decided to stand in place for two Alices; her being the one from the previous scene and me being the one for the chapter we're building on. We played around with ways we could spin the windows around so she could swap places with me. Throughout one of our attempts, Curtis had the idea of one of us exiting the same time the other entered. Joanna executed this idea by crawling under the space below the windows in time with me as if crawling through a gap in the wall. We went with this idea instead since it clearly shows Alice exiting and entering a brand new space in a way the children watching would easily understand

In the book, the description of the house says how it's loud and chaotic because of the chef in the kitchen and the loud crying of the baby in the Duchess' hands (get a screenshot of this bit)

I contributed my ideas on the staging of this section of our piece and I suggested we try to create the chaos in the book. I recommended that the Duchess (who was played by Nana in our group) and the baby (Lee) should be placed centre stage and the chef slightly off to either one of the ends of the stage as the 'kitchen area.' I also had the idea of recreating the noises the thrown pots and pans would make by the cast that's not involved in the scene to bang on the furniture or hit props for a short period of time to help set the atmosphere of the scene. When we rehearsed these ideas, I tried to show in my face and physical actions that the madness of the house was unsettling to Alice and she didn't like it, however she soon succumbed to their madness as soon as she interacted with the characters.

Another part of the chapter inspired me to create a method of bringing in audience interaction. This part was the lullaby the Duchess sings the baby to sleep. We improvised this bit when we showed back to the class, but I definitely feel like this would be great to develop in future!

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ଘ( ᐛ ) ଓ+..｡*ﾟ+

Second class

Tasks:

Create the 'building blocks' for our piece- Anne bogart

In this less practical lesson, we discussed as a group what the 'building blocks' of our piece are. The reason why we did this is to help filter our ideas to a fixed plan instead of vague suggestions.

The term 'building blocks' is sourced from Anne Bogart's 'Viewpoints book.' These block come in three categories which are:

Question

The question's purpose is to stimulate the thought of what we're trying to achieve out of the piece. What is the theme of the piece? What do we hope to get out of the piece? Who is the piece made for? The question is able to hit all of those points and will be what we will always come back to when we reach a tough spot.

Anchor

The anchor is what we are going to use as our main theme for the production. This is the energy that we want our play to maintain so we have the anchor so we can remind ourselves of this.

Structure

The structure is the way we format the piece. How are we going to tell the story? Our idea of the way we present the production is what this is for so we can make the rest of rehearsal process similar.

Below are the building blocks that we came to by the end of the class.