Owner	Pose
Donna Troy	'Theophilis'. The name appears above the bed where the gangling figure plucked down from where he had been nailed to a tree in the middle of a vast hedge maze had lain for almost a month. It's one of the very few facts known about the strange man, something Vorpal had managed to recall about him. He's not in any citizenship records, he's unknown to the authorities. Were this not the case there's little question he would have stayed in the medical facilities at Titans Tower in the depths of his coma. However he is stable and has nowhere else to go, and when he awakes, he may have valuable information, so there he has stayed.     He has awoken, very briefly, on several occasions. On none of those occasions has he been awake long enough for anyone to get to the room where he is sequestered before he had drifted back into his coma. Thus that name remains the only thing anyone really knows about him. Apart from his other name, that is.     The one everyone knows. The one in the book. The famous name.     The Mad Hatter.     The Hatter stirs. He pulls at his blankets, wrapping them around his narrow frame, and rolls onto his side. He gives a long, slow yawn, and smacks his dry lips together. A hand rises up to his head, and pats the top of it. Finding nothing there but rather tangled hair, the hand reaches out and pats around the surface of the bed around him. It continues its exploration beyond the limits of the bed, until it finds the small bedside table, and explores the contents of the table, fingers running over medical equipment like a scampering spider until it comes across the familiar contours of the brim of a tall top hat.     Eyes shoot open. Fingers grab the hat. The Hatter sits up suddenly, places the hat on his head, and smacks his lips again. He looks around, blinking, and smiles. He reaches up to remove the paper price label from the band of his hat and reads it. The label says 'In this style: $68.99 or 0.024 frabcoin'.     The hatter returns the slip of paper to the hatband and looks around again. "INFLATION!" He declares loudly.     Around the tower, alarms go off.
Nadia Pym-van Dyne	For all of your medical emergencies, Nadia is probably not the first person you would call or even the second. But when things go wrong in the Medbay she is often close at hand, mostly due to the proximity of the Science Labs. Labs are something Nadia possesses access to in abundance, but the Titans Tower labs remain one of her favorite places to work, particularly when it comes to Team related projects. Today is no exception and she is buzzing about the space dressed in her favorite fashions that walk a fine line skirting both punk and goth without truly straying into either, Vivienne Westwood would be proud. Over which has been draped a lab coat with a nameplate bearing Pym-Van Dyne, worn almost like it is some sort of cape. When the alarm goes off though, well she is briefly torn for a moment, but ultimately sets down the really interesting thing she was working on and springs into action, rushing into the Med Bay. "Hey everyone, Hat Guy is awake!" She calls through her T-Comm.
Kian	Kian has been a Titan long enough that his reaction to an alarm is almost programmatic -- go see what it is and if he'll be any use.     The only delay is in strongly advising ('ordering' is too much) his kinfolk to stay in his room.  And they've been on Earth long enough to listen -- now, anyway.  It's kind of finally sunk in that what Kian does on this planet is just completely beyond rational explanation, at least relative to the peace and quiet of their homeworld.     When he drops to a light landing just inside the doorway, it's not with any clear idea what he can do.  He only has the vague awareness that on the off chance he's needed, he should be there.     He glances upwards, in the general direction of the dorms.  Gods grant a couple quiet days so Terry can send his kinfolk home and to safety, and recover before he's needed again.     He's beginning to worry that might never happen.
Sarah Rainmaker	The sound of an alarm catches Sarah Rainmaker by surprise as she would stumble from where she was. In her room, still bandaged and not leaving it. So it takes an alert for her to go out. An arm is up in a sling, a leg in a brace, and hse's got bandages up and down her body, along with her hair being short and scrorched. So as there's an alarm she's flying for quickness.
Terry O'Neil	Terry has been having a Normal One, as the expression goes. The collision of several things have had the Cheshire on edge: deadlines at the Planet, deadlines /on/ the planet, and the sleeping not-quite-a-beauty in the Medbay. So it is understandable that he jumps a little when he hears Nadia's voice through the comms, and then a lot when the alarms start going off. "Goddamnit, it had to happen /now/?" he grumbles, hastily shutting the laptop and standing up from the main room table where he had been working on his entry for the Planet... and some technical writing for Karen Starr. At the same time. He's more than a little frazzled. "I'm on my way," he says, and then realizes that his T-Comm is on the table, so he has to double back, put it on proper, and repeat himself, <<I'm on my way! If anyone wants a Rabbit Hole there, speak now or forever hold your chess pieces.>> He takes the elevator instead of a Rabbit Hole. Because he needs those moments to gather himself.
Garfield Logan	Gar Logan was doing one of those 'hover nearby' things, asking Terry questions about his story and this and that when the alert came in. It interrupts him from interrupting Terry, which could have given the redhead and part-time cat a chance to actually write more if not for..well. The News. "He's awake? Is that good? I mean, maybe he can at least answer some questions for us and get us closer to figuring a few more things out, right?" he asks. <<I'm on my way with him!>> he adds over his own comm.
Donna Troy	'Hat guy' stars at Nadia with overly large eyes when she comes into his room to check on him. "I most certainly am NOT awake!" he declares in offended tones, crossing his arms over his chest in a huff, and doing his best to ignore her presence.     Donna's voice chimes in over comms, joining the rest of the chatter. <<Gods, finally. I thought he was going to stay asleep forever. Gar? Try to make sure he and Terry don't conspire to do any crazy Wonderland stuff together. By which I mean Terry's memories of Wonderland things are oddly vague. Keep an eye on him. But otherwise -- Terry, you're our Wonderland expert, if such a thing is even possible. See what you can get out of him. I'm on my way, be there soon.>>     Judging by the wind sounds accompanying her voice, Sarah isn't the only one flying right now, but Donna's probably flying somewhere outside. Which means 'soon' may take a few minutes. She has been spending even more time in New York just lately.
Kian	Kian makes his way back to the "hat guy's" room, catching the tail end of his declaration as he slips in.  "You appear awake to us," he says.  Three cheers for the Rannian translator.  "Don't worry if everything looks weird.  This planet is like that.  You sort of get used to it eventually, at least as a matter of self-defense."     His expectation is that he's not the only one responding to the alert, so he clears the doorway.  "Do you need anything?  Water?  Something to eat?  If what you need are explanations, I'm afraid I'm the wrong person for that.  I'm sorry."
Sarah Rainmaker	Sarah Rainmaker would just enter in and glance, floating and moving very slowly, "So is he a threat or.." Her going to listen in along on things while in a bit of pain. Her bandages recently changed, at least, but she was still moving slowly. Going to use her functioning arm to lean over and brace herself against the wall while watching the others to listen.
Terry O'Neil	The Cheshire cat doesn't look exactly beaming with joy. Apprehensive is more the likes of it. When he enters into the medical bay, he stops dead in his tracks so quickly that Gar could be in danger of slamming into him if he's not quick. Fortunately, the Green teen usually has good reflexes when he's not distracted. His eyes flit from Nadia to Sarah to Kian, who is already giving the famous literal literary figure the Birdman's Guide To Earth And Everything You Shouldn't Expect From It Including Making Sense. Making sense is not something the Mad Hatter is particularly known for. "... Theophilus." Vorpal's voice is a little on the raspy side, his eyes are wider than usual, and his tail swats behind him in an anxious display. This seems to get the Hatter out of his indignation, at least for now, getting him to sit upright on the bed. Beady eyes fixed on Terry, his eyebrows shoot up and a flicker of recognition flashes across his face- only to fade away and be replaced by a frown. "Young man have you never been told that it is it is /very/ rude to walk around with someone else's /someone else/? You happen to be wearing a rather old acquaintance of mine, but the fit is all wrong. Far too short." He clicks his tongue disapprovingly, "And young. You could have at least had the decency to not be a kitten, it would have been more believable." Vorpal's jaw drops, looking down at himself. Then back up. To his credit, he still has the presence of mind to answer Sarah. "He's not a threat... he's just..." The cat takes a few steps forward. "Theophilus, it's /me/." "And who /are/ you?" the man asks pointedly, eyebrows going higher still. The Cheshire cat hesitates. And then, a little louder than he really intends to, he says: "I'm the Cheshire Cat!"
Garfield Logan	<<Yeah, you can count on that,>> Gar answers when it comes to not letting the Wonderlandians conspire. Somehow he doesn't think that's what will be going on, anyway. By the time they arrive and Vorpal makes his abrupt halt, Gar does a reactive little pirouette of sorts, stepping to one side and spinning away from bumping into him. He squints between Chaos Cat and Mad Hatter, and he raises both eyebrows at what Theophilus says to Vorpal. The two have discussed the potential ramifications of who this man is, but in the moment some of that is forgotten. What he says is, "Of course it's him. Don't you know the rule about how someone becomes him?" This takes precedence over greeting the rest who are in attendance. No doubt it's about to get weirder than usual.
Donna Troy	"A rule?" Theophilis asks Gar with a look of amused disdain. "That's proves he's no Cheshire cat then. Whoever heard of a cat following rules?" He tilts his hat jauntily on his forehead and looks around at the people assembled by his bedside, before his attention turns to Nadia. He gives a start, then settles again.     "No no. I keep thinking that Alice, but Alisn't." He smacks his lips again. "This is quite the worst tea party I have ever attended," he declares. "In fact I do not think you can count this as a tea party at all. I see no tea, nor no party. Therefore it must be a ."     The door opens and Donna enters, looking windswept. She has obviously been flying fast. She glances at Sarah where she's propped against the wall, recuperating her injuries, and then studies Theophilis.     "Are you feeling recovered?" She asks him. "Do you remember how you got here?"
Nadia Pym-van Dyne	Nadia gives the Hatter a look of 'uh right sure' with her eyes and facial expressions when he informs her he is not awake. "You're either awake or Janet slipped me a slow acting mushroom." She can't really ever rule that out completely. But then Terry is talking to the Hatter and her eyes go back and forth, back and forth between them like she is watching a rather fascinating game of Tennis, only it is strange verbiage instead punctuated by Terry's declaration of Cheshire Cat-ness. (Not to be confused with Cheshire Katniss). "Al isn't what?" She finally asked the Hatter. "And who is Al?"
Kian	Kian slips in alongside and just behind Terry, taking the other side of him from Gar, as this is certainly the cat's show now.  "I don't think we ever said this *was* a tea party," he says a little dubiously.  "Will it help if you think of it as a non-tea non-party?"     He looks at Terry, and back at the Hatter, and repeats the process.  From his vantage point of five-foot-nothing, all he can add is, "Too *short*...?"
Terry O'Neil	"No, I am decidedly discovered, my young lady, but I shall soon recover myself when I take another refreshing nap." The Hatter rolls the covers off him, sliding his legs to the side of the bed. "Why, the same way anyone got to where they are," the Hatter says, speaking as if every word were an oracular revelation, "How did I get here? By running twice as hard as they can possibly run. Everybody knows /that/." This last bit is addressed to Donna with a mixture of avuncular paternalism and a dash of self-satisfied smugness. The bird-man gets a glance, "Far, far too short. A Cheshire /kitten/ perhaps, but that is highly unlikely. He wasn't all that interested in multiplication, decisively a divisive fellow-" At this point, the man seems to finally take full notice of Nadia, and he stares at her for a few moments. "My word..." he mutters, blinking a little and leaning forward to scrutinize her features better. "Ali-" "Theophilus!" Vorpal finally gets his bearings, clenching his fists in frustration, "I /am/ the Cheshire cat." He exhales. "His /son/, at the very least. But he's gone and I am here, and we need to know what happened!" He glances at Donna, remembering how he answered her very general question. This is Wonderland. And Wonderland and Faerie are kin. And one thing you always need to do with the Fae? Word things in a very precise manner. "Theophilus. We found you at the center of a maze /nailed to a tree/. How exactly did you end up there?"
Garfield Logan	Gar Logan's hands go up, between Vorpal and Theophilus, and he's shaking his head. "Stop, stop, stop. I've read about you," he says, directing his attention to the one also being known as the Mad Hatter. "He and I talked about this," he adds, jerking a thumb in Vorpal's direction. "You're not supposed to be the Mad Hatter from Carroll's stories. You're supposed to be the inspiration for him. You'd stand outside your shop in Oxford, with a top hat worn just like that. You made cabinets and might have invented the alarm clock bed that was supposed to tip the one in it into cold water." He waves his hands now, as if to break away from that recollection. "But it doesn't matter. Everything has rules, though. Even if they don't seem to." Good luck getting him to prove that, though he asides, "But you're right that he hardly follows any, and he's definitely more than just a kitten. Oh, hi Donna. Anyway! I think there's a simple answer to this 'Al-is' stuff. When we were in Tartarus, /Eris/ threatened to make life difficult for Vorpal, and if somehow bringing Wonderland here doesn't cover that, I don't know what does. The question is how we deal with it." Whether he just helped things or made them worse, if not simply more confusing as a matter of course, they'll likely see sooner than later.
Donna Troy	"But my dear Cheshire kitten, I did not end up there, I ended up here. Now is after then, is it not? I would check, but I seem to have mislaid my pocket watch." He pats at his chest in demonstration, as if trying to locate said watch, but he's distracted from his vain search by the presence of Kian. T    "Are you a fly?" He asks the bird-man. "You have wings, but I don't wish to jump to conclusions. It is of course possible that you are flightless. But I can say with certainty that this cannot be a non tea non party. The double negatives would cancel each other out. If it were a tea non party, there would be tea but no party. Put a non in front of that and you reverse the entire things. No tea but a party. I see no party. What we have here is neither a tea party, which would have a party and tea, or a non-tea party, which would have a party but no tea, nor a tea non-party which would have tea but no party. Nor yet can it be a non tea non party, which would have a party but not no tea, as we have already established. What we have here can only be classified as /nothing/, and therefore none of us exist, which is a quite terrible condition for us all to be in. However it probably explains why I have not invented an alarm clock you sleep on, or made any cabarets."     Donna leans forwards, glaring at the Hatter intently, her face coming close enough to his that her nose almost touches own rather larger nose. "I suppose they don't have the term 'going full Fairchild' in Wonderland," she muses. "But I am tempted. Theophilis, try to concentrate. Who caused you to be nailed to a tree, and why?"
Nadia Pym-van Dyne	Nadia looks at the Hatter and then points to herself, "Ali?" She asks giving him a curious look before shaking her head. "My name is Nadia. Nice to meet you!" She nods in agreement with Gar, "Yeah, Alis was Hekatia's friend. The short one manipulating the undead horse people." She listens to all of the talk about tea and various logical conundrums of word manipulation before finally just offering, "Maybe we should make him some tea? Also I can make Terry bigger or him smaller if it will help?"
Kian	"Who I *am*," Kian answers with certainty, "is Akiar.  What I *do* is fly.  And... other things.  But *what* I do and *who* I am are not always so easily mapped to each other.  My wings are important, vitally important to who I am, but I am still more than my wings.  And Terry /tenar'h/," he says, glancing to the Cheshire, "is more than his height.  You call him kitten -- child -- but he is a man, even if he is not the man you say you remember.  He is as fledged, as adult as I and Gar /s'Marek'Mari/."     After a pause, and almost defensively, Kian adds, "And he's definitely not short."
Terry O'Neil	Terry glances at Kian. "Kian... dear, I /am/ short. You are /super/ short," because he simply can't help it. "You're the advanced miniature model that comes out in Japan three years before the rest of the market gets it." He grins "But let's ... not change my size. I am perfectly happy as I am, Nadia." Then turns his attention back to the Hatter and company (ltd). Theophilus winces as Donna comes up close to him, and he frowns, trying to focus- an activity that is decidedly something not terribly familiar to him. Little beads of sweat form on his forehead, and he scratches his hair. Or, rather, scratches the top of his hat. "Why, it was all the trouble with the girl who never was. We had come looking for her- except it was /not/ her, but we thought her so. Although we were assured she was-" he snaps his fingers, "But she was not Alice, she was an Alisn't, and she was with a not-Alice who assured us it /was/ Alice. She found us as soon as we arrived..." he glances at Nadia, his brow furrowing further and his voice growing quieter. "... Nadia? No. No simply no, you are mistaken. Now I see my error... and now I don't have the right things to give /you/, my dear. It really is a most lamentable mix-up, the right Alice without, and the wrong Alice withal. "Theophilus, focus!" Terry adds again, seeing the Wonderlander beginning to drift, "So you found an Alice that wasn't the right Alice... okay. But who was she?" Pause. Seeing how this can go wrong, he adds, "How do we find her, and what does she look like? Does she have a name?"
Garfield Logan	Having said what he could think of, Gar goes the opposite direction now: silence. He crosses his arms and frowns, showing what he's thinking of this whole thing. Not much of it makes sense, but expecting otherwise would have been the greater mistake. Instead, he lingers near Vorpal and Kian, most of his attention on Theophilus, the Hatter Who May Or May Not Be, But Is Most Certainly Mad.
Bart Allen	Bart Allen is walking up to the Titan's tower with Emiko when they heard the alarm. Luckily they were both in costume already. At the Alarm, Impulse will scoop up Red Arrow, and the extra duffle bag they have with them, and starts heading in, stopping only for a moment to look at a read out to see where the alarm is from. Then with a blur, he is running along the wall of the elevator to the right floor and coming in with a skidding stop, and setting Emiko down on her feet.
Victor Stone	Vic looked into the situation from afar when the alarms went off, but finally decides to come on over the medical facilities himself. "They really do all talk that that in Wonderland, huh?" he comments as he comes in on Theophilus Hatter's proclamations about Alice, or Alisn't, or... whoever he's talking about.     His brow furrows as he considers the situation. "Does he think /you're/ Alice?" he murmurs to Nadia.
Emiko Queen	There's just something about being zoomed around that is exhilarating! So when Bart hefts her up to carry her to the labs for the alarm, Emiko is still smiling when they arrive and she's being set down. Since they've just arrived, she takes a moment or two to get her bearings and determine just what is happening. Leaning in towards Bart, she murmurs, "You certainly know how to sweep a girl from her feet." A bit of gentle ribbing before she's looking back to the bed and the... Mad Hatter? Blinkblink. This is definitely a new one. Oh she'd heard the stories, of course, who hasn't... but to have one coming to life, well that's a horse of a different color.
Donna Troy	Donna straightens and looks back at Nadia, blinking in surprise. "No... you mean Hekate, not Hekatia. And you're thinking of Eris, not Alice. Eris is the goddess of discord, and yes I share Gar's guess on this one. Bringing a few Wonderlanders here to torment Terry is just the kind of thing she'd be likely to do for a little revenge. Eris...."     She's noisily interrupted by the Hatter interjecting "Erisn't! And Alisn't either! It's all quite simple really. Though I must confess it seemed simple when I thought Eris and Alice, too." He gives out a long suffering sigh, folds his arms crossly, and glares at Terry. "A true Cheshire would have procured some tea for his old friend by now. Instead all you do is ask ridiculous questions. You know perfectly well what she looked like. She looked like any other Alisn't would look. And as for a name, of course she has a name. Have you ever heard of a person without a name? Can you imagine it? Why, without a name you wouldn't get anything done! How would you know it was you who wasn't doing it?"     Donna puffs her cheeks out. "Well that's probably as close to an admission that Eris was involved as we're likely to get. Or at least as close to a comprehensible one." She backs away to give Terry more room to question his compatriot, and nods her greeting to Vic, Bart and Emiko as they arrive. Emiko gets a slightly more lingering look than the rest as she's a new face on the scene, but there's no suggestion she's startled by the arrival of a stranger. Emiko may find the collection of unfamiliar faces a little more startling, but at least Donna, Gar and Vic she'll recognize as long-standing members of the team she might have joined all those years ago, shortly after Gar had joined.
Kian	"The books you gave me about Wonderland?" Kian remarks to Terry, "they made more sense than this.  Or maybe they lost something in being copied to this world."     He watches the Hatter, trying to understand and for the most part not wholly succeeding.  "Will it help if I try to reach his mind?  Or would I just end up on the floor whimpering?"
Terry O'Neil	The Cheshire cat takes a deep breath. "Alright. Yes. Theophilus..." the Cheshire cat begrins, "What I meant to say was-" he stops. There are new people here. Or, well, one new person. Bart, he knows, so he gives Emiko a little wave. "Hello, Guest of Impulse's," he says, gesturing to the Hatter, "I apologize for... everything you will see. Family situation." Turning his attention back to Theophilus, his ear perks at Vic's interjection. He taps his chin at the prospect, as if entertaining something that they could use to their advantage. He then opens a Rabbit Hole to his kitchen, and reaches into his refrigerator. He turns to offer something to the Hatter after the hole closes- but the expression of the Mad Hatter at seeing the Rabbit Hole was hard to miss- a wide-eyed look of recognition. "So- you came looking for someone-" "That is the way it works, my boy, most people look for someo-" "And this person you were looking for," Terry jumps in, only for the Hatter to interject- "Well, yes, it /was/ a perso-" "Was /Alice/?" ?Fractured memories do help him remember that conversations with Theophilus could be like a very competitive game of jump-rope. You had to judge the right time to jump in. "Obviously! I-" "But /why/ did you come look for Alice, Theophilus?" And then the Hatter glances at Terry, narrowing his eyes, a suspicious look coming over him. "Because -you- did." And then, he takes advantage of Terry's momentary surprise to grab the glass of tea from his hand. While the Cheshire cat stares with his jaw dropped, the Mad Hatter gasps. "Iced! Iced? Iced! Am I being given the cold shoulder? Who ever heard-" he glances at the room occupants, gesturing to his glass, "of this? This is not tea. This is cold tea. This is /dead/ tea!"
Nadia Pym-van Dyne	Nadia blinks slowly at the Hatter. "I am mistaken? I think I know my name, my mother gave it to me. It means Hope because I am her Hope." She then peers at Vic and his suggestion, "Wait like the book?" Yes, Nadia. Like the book. Like the book character you are all questioning. "Why would he think I am Alice?" Nothing about this Hatter makes any sense to her.
Bart Allen	Bart Allen looks over to Vorpal, and says "She is Red Arrow, prospective member." He tells the other man in a way of introduction. He hmms and studies the mad hatter a moment, and looks over to Donna, "So, he is from the same place Vorpal is?" He scratches his chin, and will lean in to whisper to Vorpal. "Could we have someone heal him, so he gets drunk like you, and then he would talk easier?"
Emiko Queen	Emiko offers a smile to Terry, "Family is family. We all have our... quirks." Then she's watching the exchange between the two and her interest grows. The episode with the iced tea has her looking to Terry again, "If.. may I offer.. I could make a pot of tea. While you two talk?" She's new, unknown, it might be best if she handles the background tasks while the others handle the talking and questioning. She flicks a glance to Bart, smiling faintly, then over to Donna with a quick nod and a brief smile. Trying to be unintrusive and still helpful.
Victor Stone	Vic glances to Emiko and gives her a brief smile and a nod, but then looks back at Nadia and says, "Yes, like the book. And... I don't know why he'd think that, ask him."     He grins at the Hatter, then. "Just because the tea's cold doesn't mean it's dead--ice cream isn't dead cream, is it? You should try it before you knock it though. Is it sweet tea, Terry? Or just iced?"
Garfield Logan	"Nadia, check it out." Gar digs up his phone and scrolls through his images until he finds what he's looking for, holding it out so she can see the screen. "This is Alice. Ahh, Alice Liddell. Everyone thought she was just the inspiration for the Alice in the stories, but.." He looks toward Vorpal for a moment, then continues, "..apparently the Cheshire Cat isn't the only one from the stories that's actually real. Anyway, who does she remind you of?" Side by side, Alice Liddell and Nadia Pym-Van Dyne could pass for the same person, or twins. "That's probably why he thinks you're her."
Donna Troy	Donna nods her head at Bart. "Yeah. All the weirdness that has been happening in Metropolis the last few months? Turns out it might not have been Terry's fault after all." She flashes Terry a quick wink. "Someone or something, though we suspect someone called Eris, has been causing Wonderland things to come to Metropolis. This guy is one of those Wonderland things. "     The Hatter turns to face Vic. It's a very slow process. His shoulders stay absolutely still and his head turns gradually through eighty degrees, like a slow motion owl. "If you scream, clearly you are not dead," he tells Vic. His head sloooowly turns back. "Your friends say such strange things, Cheshire kitten. You had a better taste in friends in the old days.     Donna gives a nod to Emiko. "There's a machine in the lab next door," she says. "Let's try him on some Earl Grey. It might make him feel at home."
Kian	Kian can't help but laugh a little.  "Not Terry's fault?  Maybe we're *already* in Wonderland!"
Emiko Queen	Emiko flickers a quick smile towards Vic as well, then glances to Donna, "Will tea from a machine suffice? If this is truly the Mad Hatter... tea is sacred. A ritual that must be observed. I can prepare it, properly. With pot and kettle and all, I just.. might need Impulse to run me over to collect the items and come back. Five minutes. We can have proper tea for him." Not that she isn't willing to go get tea from next door! But if the books are the guidelines, it might not be sufficient for exacting tastes.
Terry O'Neil	"That's a thought, Red Arrow. Good prospect find, Impulse. Vic, it was a perfectly nice Jasmine te-" He stops. Terry's head moves just as slowly as the Hatter's, slowly pivoting to face Kian. The look he gives the Akiar is /almost/ daggers. "Vorpal will remember that," he says slowly, and there is even a little floating text vignette that says the same thing that pops up next to his head. "I am almost tempted to tell you to go ahead and read his mind, except you won't be able to walk straight for a /week/. I have a human side that grounds me. He doesn't." And then he turns back to face Theophilus as Gar shows Nadia the pictures of her historical doppelganger. Alice was real. Had been real. That begs the question- was Peter Pan real? That means somewhere out there there /might/ be a band of pirates that- Focus, Terry. "Yes, maybe fixing him some tea might help calm him down..." glancing at the Hatter, he exhales. "Alright. So you went looking for Alice because I went looking for Alice." "Well. The you that isn't you but was him did, in any case," the Hatter says, reaching over and plucking something out of his sleeve and brushing off to the floor. It looks like an infinitesimally tiny egg of some insect. "And arguably you are him, but not him." "What did you come to do with Alice, Theophilus?" Terry says, sounding a little exasperated. He is right- the human side of him grounds him some, he is only this chaotic when he's completely high on order magic. Or when he spends far too much time in feline shape. The Mad Hatter sets the odious glass of iced tea next to him, as if to put it out of sight and therefore out of mind. To his disappointment, it does not vanish out of existence. The man fixes Terry with a steady gaze. "To give her the Regalia." Terry stops, and frowns. "The what?" The Hatter stares at Terry, almost in disbelief. "My dear boy... you really /must/ be ill if you don't remember /that/." The Cheshire cat frowns, and the Hatter says, in a sing-song voice, very slowly: "And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be"~ "Where I am now, of course" Terry answers, almost mechanically. And then he blinks. And then he blinks again. "Oh no. Oh no no no..." Theophilus sighs, glancing at Nadia. "I am so sorry, my dear. We really should have asked /her/ if she was sure about /her/ name." The Cheshire rubs his forehead. "This... might be bad, Donna. Guys."
Bart Allen	Bart Allen nods his head to the others and will take a step away and then he is gone. The young man is not gone long before calls down over the coms. "I think I got everything needed for the tea, but I need to go deal with a robbery in central city. I will be back, if ya need me to grab anything else let me know." And with that he appears back in the room for a moment, and leans in to kiss Emiko's cheek and then he is off again.
Garfield Logan	Gar Logan snrfls at Kian's words, then Vorpal's retort along with the little pop-up thing. That will still take getting used to. While he's still showing Nadia the photo, he adds with a hint of irritation, "Let's get him the tea he wants, then can we finish getting answers here? Where do we need to go, and what's the bad news? I'd like to get to the point before my green hair starts turning gray, if that's even possible."
Victor Stone	Vic blink-blinks as he peers over at what Gar shows Nadia. "...Wow, okay, I see why he thinks you might be Alice. That's... really uncanny, actually."     But then Terry drags his attention and he frowns. "...What? Neither of you are making much sense. What's going on?"
Donna Troy	"Tweedledum and Tweedledee," Donna says. She's been doing her research. Her words will be pretty meaningless to anyone who hasn't. Some degree of elucidation is to follow though. Donna turns to Terry and tilts her head. "He's talking about the Red King, right? In /Through the Looking Glass/ they believed that the Red King was dreaming, and if he woke up..."     Donna stops herself suddenly, blinking. "...the dregs of that foolish mortal's subconscious..." she says, the words sounding distinctly like she's quoting something. "Does that mean... does it mean that part is true? Someone is /dreaming/ Wonderland?"     She turns her gaze back to the hatter, eyes narrowing. "Okay, /Theophilis/. I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to answer it clearly and succinctly and without any detours. Two questions, and I want two relevant and accurate answers. If you manage to give me them, you will get a lovely cup of /hot/ tea to drink. If you do not, you may find yourself being forced to eat your hat. I can't promise you won't be. It has been a long and hard few weeks for me, and my temper is not at its best. /Who/ nailed you to a tree, and /where/ can we find them now?"
Emiko Queen	Emiko smiles when Bart runs to get the things, then reappears to give her the cheek kiss. It's returned in the moment before he's off again, then she's looking back to the room. She starts to slip away to go fix that tea, but is paused and glances back to Vic, "Everything Donna said... but also.. Alice gets crowned in that story. She becomes Queen Alice, and there's a banquet held in her honor, but it devolved quickly into a fight and Alice captures the Red Queen..." And with that offered, she slips from the room to go fix up a pot of tea.
Nadia Pym-van Dyne	Nadia looks at the picture on Gar's phone, and back at Gar, and back at the picture, and back at Gar. "And... you're sure you didn't steal this from Russian spies or SHIELD?" Though she already knows the answer to that since its on the internet plain as day, it just really is uncanny. "Maybe she and I are related? It stands to reason that we have very similar DNA." Her eyes drift back to the Hatter. "Or maybe this is one of those magic things." Yes, 'those magic things' the ones that she can't quantify with SCIENCE! yet but have been clearly shown to exist. "Like a past life or something?" She looks at Donna as the person who knows things about Gods and Magic, "Are past lives a thing?"
Terry O'Neil	"That... that would explain why I did what I did in the Dream Realm," Terry muses, lookin decidedly unsettled by yet another drop of knowledge. "He is talking about the Red King. The Red King is the center of... well, everything. Always asleep at the foot of The Tree..." Terry recites as if reading from a barely remembered book. Theophilus sits up straight. He is not fazed at the threat of going from Haberdasher to habergnasher, but keenly focused on the promise of a proper cup of tea, as nature intended*. He peers into Donna's eyes. "The Alisn't nailed me to the tree." He frowns, "Because she Alisn't, she didn't want to come back with us and save us. She is set on becoming Queen of /Here/. I made much show to object, and she made a show of listening to me, but then I realized she was merely killing time..." he shudders and closes his eyes, "... she is a brutal, cruel queen. My poor, poor friend. I only noticed that she wasn't to be convinced after she had held me up. And she left me and has made her dwelling in a park fit for a Queen. She took Hare with her..." Terry frowns, "And she has... the Regalia." Theophilus nods solmenly. The Cheshire cat exhales and looks at Vic. "I... vaguely remember. Hard to put it into words, really... but the Regalia- the Crown and Scepter of the Red King- they're a big deal. The stories say that when the King first arrived and dreamed of Wonderland, he-" "He first had tea!" Terry stares at Theophilus. "Okay. He first had tea. Which I guess existed /before Wonderland existed/," he says, "But whatever. Then he slept, and from his sleep a tree sprouted, and from that tree came all of Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land..." he falters, frowning and glancing at Theophilus. The Hatter sighs, and shakes his head. "You've had too many lessons and you've become lessened, my boy. From the wood of the dream tree the King made the Regalia- the Crown and Scepter." Terry frowns and looks at Donna. "... so whomever this person is, she has been using the Regalia..."
Victor Stone	"And using the Regalia... is that causing all the Wonderland weirdness?" Vic may not be great with chaos and puns, but it's an easy enough leap of logic to make. "Because it's created from the tree that's at the center of Wonderland, the first thing the guy who dreamed it into being dreamed up... the Regalia can... what, turn a place Wonderland-y? Or... make them overlap...?"
Donna Troy	"Thats sounds likely Vic," Donna says. She arches an eyebrow at her old friend. "So, does that mean you're prepared to admit that there's no such thing as a Snark yet?" Donna's lips break into a sudden grin and she gives Victor an elbow nudge. It's just a gentle one, but if he starts trying to explain how there's a really good scientific explanation as to why Snarks are excluded from the rest of the Wonderland Nonsense and have some real external existence, she may nudge a bit harder. His servos can take it.     "Back in the old days," Donna begins, slightly dreamily, "I mean... before Doomsday. Before I left the Titans. I was studying at Met U. It was an interesting time. I was... the Titans weren't particularly big on codenames back then, apart from Nightwing of course. But I mean, people knew Cyborg was really called Victor Stone. And people knew that Troia was really called Donna Troy, even if that wasn't actually true. Most of the time the other students were pretty cool about it. I mean sure there were a lot of questions, and people wanted me to sign things sometimes, but generally I was allowed to just... get on with things. Be a student."     "But there were always /days/, you know. Days where people could get annoying. One of the great things about Met U was that it was very easy to keep out of people's way. Big open campus. But most of all, the campus backed onto Queensland Park. Stretching all the way down to Mountroyal. If this Alisn't has made her dwelling in a park fit for a queen, I think that's a good place to start looking."
Emiko Queen	Emiko returns carrying a tray in her hands. On it is a white teapot with red flowers hand-painted onto the sides, a matching teacup with saucer. Steam rises up from the spout of the pot, and there are small dishes of lemon and sugar, a teaspoon, even a smaller crock with cream inside. She didn't just 'make tea' she -made tea-. Don't mess with the Japanese when it comes to tea. Even the British don't have the length of history when it comes to tea. But this is indeed a proper tea, Earl Grey, steeped for precisely three and a half minutes, and piping hot. She stays towards the back while waiting for a good moment to bring forth the tea!
Terry O'Neil	The Cheshire cat's ears flatten back on his head. "... I live right by Queensland Park. At the Carrol Arms apartment- yes, I know. I don't want to think too closely about it. I was living there /before/ I even knew who I was." "And who, my boy, /are/ you?" the Hatter pipes up, and then his eyes widen appreciatively as Emiko enters with, practically, the Holy Grail for Teophilus. "My word. I do not think I have ever seen such a perfect thing, not even in my Unbirthday." He extends a shaking hand towards the tray, almost as if loath to disturb the symmetry. Terry rubs his forehead yet again, and exhales. "Something like that, Vic. Only worse. You know how I'm basically a node of chaos magic? The Regalia would be like that, only... immeasurably more so. This makes Unsense-- the zoo was a first attempt. But every attempt since then has been stronger, more formidable. Like she's growing more practiced in using them. We /have/ to find her soon because someone with a Napoleon complex shouldn't have access to tools that can help you treat reality like an etch-a-skech."
Victor Stone	Vic glares at Donna. "I am willing to admit that maybe, /maybe/, given the lack of evidence, that there's no such thing as a snark. Maybe. But I still kind of want to go looking for one." He smirks at her for a moment, then listens to everything else.     "So... sounds like we look for 'Alisn't' in Queensland Park, and take the Regalia away from her. That a plan?" He looks around at the others.
Nadia Pym-van Dyne	Nadia shrugs a bit when her question about whether past lives are real goes unanswered, something to research later. Because that picture really is uncanny. She nods along listening to the theories about the 'Regalia' and where they might find this would-be Queen Alisn't in the park. But when all is said and done there is one key detail that she seizes upon. "What's an Etch-a-sketch?" She asks with a gravity possibly mistaking the term for another artifact of power or arcane ritual.
Donna Troy	"Sounds like a plan Vic," Donna says. "Maybe we'll find a Snark on the way." She gives him a quick wink before turning to Terry. "This is your area of expertise, Vorp. But yeah I'm with you on this being something we need to get a move on. I mean regardless of whether she's getting more practiced, this whole thing is getting pretty annoying."     She puts a hand on Nadia's shoulder, smiling at her. "Maybe we should arrange a disguise for you first," she suggests. "In case people keep mistaking you for Alice. It's probably not a past-life thing. There have been what, ten billion people born since she was? Probably more. There are probably hundreds or thousands of people who look pretty similar. As far as I know, the whole past life thing... well yeah it can happen, but it's not exactly normal."     An answer to her previous question at last. Maybe she'll get an answer to the Etch-a-sketch question eventually too.
Emiko Queen	Emiko smiles at the Hatter's response to her tea tray. There is something to be said for taking pride in one's tea. She glances to Donna to make sure that it's okay to give it to him, and barring any negative response, will do exactly that. The tray will be set where he can easily reach it, though she will ask, almost by rote, "Shall I pour?" She also flicks a sidelong glance towards Vic, "Given that Wonderland is real, and all it's associated creatures, beings, and peoples... that itself is evidence enough to suggest that the snark -is- real, after a fashion. Lewis Carroll wrote a poem about the hunting of the snark. It even borrows some setting and wording from the Jabberwocky poem from Through the Looking Glass. So it could easily belong to the same reality."
Terry O'Neil	"The Snark isn't real," the Cheshire cat says, absent-mindedly, "But nevertheless, it exists." Clear as mud. He brushes bac his hair with one hand, pushing it out of his eyes. "You know, Nadia, technically speaking /I/ have a past life, since part of my father's memories live in me. However fragmented..." He frowns, "But it's /awfully/ coincidental if that's what it is, Donna. She looks like Alice. She can shrink herself and grow. She asks a lot of questions. I mean..." "Nevertheless, whatever it might be, yes, let us follow the plan. But first..." he sighs, "I need a drink. But I'm not old enough to drink. So I'm going to get some tiramisu. Who's with me?" The Hatter claps his hands in anticipation, everybody else forgotten for now as Emiko offers to pour. "Oh, yes, let's /do/ have that cup of tea!"