Welcome to Gaia! ::

You walk along a single path for quite a long time until you finally reach a set of gates made entirely out of thorns. Inside a single staircase that leads downwards. At the base of the stairs you reach a hallway, no, a dungeon. Prison doors lie on each side of the hallway, sealed. Torches, lit with bright red light, pave the pathway forward. You walk further, further, as a voice hisses and calls to you. At last, you reach a door at the far end.

"Stay," booms a voice, harsh and powerful, thick with uncontrolled rage, "stay, visitor, and listen. I am [ Destruction ] contained. As long as I remain sealed, I will not destroy, and you cannot destroy me. The cage can only be unsealed with the purest of red crystals, infused with Destruction. There will be a time, but not right now. For now, you are a guest. For now, you are invited as a guest. Stay, a little longer guest, and let me ask a little more about you."

MAIN QUEST: THE RED QUEEN
- Look at the questions below and answer these asked questions ICLY, whatever pertains to your character. Please do these in order! You can do all of this in one post. [ You must finish this quest before you start any of the RED QUEEN sidequests ]







Quest Complete Reward:
After completing the quest, please claim this prize. You can only claim this prize ONCE even if you come back to do more of these effects. The doors that open up lead to the SIDE QUESTS.

+ 10 levels
+ 5 loot cards you can redeem HERE
+ 3 fragments. Don't forget to claim it HERE. THIS IS THE LAST TIME TO CLAIM FRAGMENTS.

*Borg entering*

In his wandering, Borg stumbles into someplace different.

Or, at least he didn't think that this place is still on that table.

You walk along a single path for quite a long time until you finally reach a set of gates made entirely out of thorns. Inside a single staircase that leads downwards. At the base of the stairs you reach a hallway, no, a dungeon. Prison doors lie on each side of the hallway, sealed. Torches, lit with bright red light, pave the pathway forward. You walk further, further, as a voice hisses and calls to you. At last, you reach a door at the far end.

"Who is it?" He asked to the owner of the voice that has been calling to him, walking closer to the door--

"Stay," booms a voice, harsh and powerful, thick with uncontrolled rage, "Stay, visitor, and listen. I am [ Destruction ] contained. As long as I remain sealed, I will not destroy, and you cannot destroy me. The cage can only be unsealed with the purest of red crystals, infused with Destruction. There will be a time, but not right now. For now, you are a guest. For now, you are invited as a guest. Stay, a little longer guest, and let me ask a little more about you."

"Are you...no, a Queen should not be locked inside her own castle-"

"I am the one asking the question. Now, first, visitor, tell me about yourself. Your real self."


"Me? I'm...Rei. Rei the human...or was once. Now I am Rei the Tsukumonogami, that somehow got sucked inside a MMORPG game. I don't have much to tell about myself, so... is that enough for you?"

"I would like to hear truths before lies. So if you have to fabricate something to tell me, I command you to keep that lies to yourself. Next, visitor, I want to hear about your journey."

"My journey? Here?"

"Yes."

"Letsee, first I tumbled down into a rabbit's burrow in my dream, and somehow dragged into a registration process of a MMORPG. And get lost because I believed Chesire to led me. And..."

He continued talking about his days here. About the Insanity and all else.

"That would be enough. It was...interesting, to be said. Next, explain to me the world you live in. Not this one, the one your real bodies occupy. " The voice said.

"If you said 'real body', do you mean my human body or the Ghost body?"

"Either would be fine."

He then proceeds to tell the voice behind the bars about the town he's living in right now, the Halloween. How that place is very interesting for him, how that the populace was...let's say, VERY different from Earth. And everything.

"On your entire life, have you ever been hurt by someone you love?"

"That's a sudden straight," he muttered, while smiling weakly. "But yes, I have. I would be lying should I said no anyway. But I can't tell who it is."

"I just only wanted to ask who and when."

"Pass. Next question?"

"Then this is my next question. Tell me a secret about yourself.
Say any secret, it's not a secret without it being secret..."

"Well well well. I has cheated once in my 2nd grade math test. Does that qualify?"

"That's also a secret. Then, last question: What is it that you wish for the most?"

"The eradication of human race---"

The voice laughed.

" 's suffering. Hey, cutting someone in the midst of speech is not very polite."


The laughing voice continued for a while before stopping.

"Soon," the voice finally responds, "It will be soon. I crave [ Destruction ] and should I be favoured then this world will break and crumble and I will build a new one without pain or secrets."

"As long as you don't wipe it all first." He said again.

The voice disappears and several of the cages swing open, each one leading to a different area, and three white fragments hovered on the air before him.

"Huh. Laters then."

The Queens. Just as King had observed (the name's appropriateness belatedly dawning, Waxwing did not have the emotional energy to invest in appreciating the neat little coincidence).

He let her monologue, the usual late-stage-stress effect of depersonalization having fully settled in, leaving him with a sensation of watching himself play out his own life (or this person's life) on a screen. Dispassionate.

There was never any real sense of competence or direction in these situations. He had begun to suspect there never would be: that the only thing to do when he was thrust into the weird gauntlets and interrogations was to proceed forward, to speak honestly, and to hope, fervently and sincerely, that he was doing the right thing. Not the correct thing: the right thing.

He could never know for sure, but he made, distractedly, a movement of acquiescence at the suggestion of being asked questions: a jerk of his chin, a twitch of his hand. It felt unwise to deposit a lot of personal information into a strange vessel, but then again: what choice had he otherwise? None at all.

"First, visitor, tell me about yourself. Your real self," said the creature in the cage, and he hesitated, but only for a moment, and when he spoke it was with the same habitual, tired quietness he deployed on people like Leslie.

"Habitual failure," he answered, attempting to be succinct. There was a sensation of the walls closing in, and he repressed a sigh, limply succumbing to the questioning while drawing his fur-lined cloak around him in the sudden chill: "I don't know. Series of labels? Present: Hunter, of less than a year and of no particular skill set. Former: son, brother--" he hesitated, "--father. In a shallow biological sense of the word. Junkie," he added, without inflection. "Get a job, etc. I am informed that I hide my smiles like little treasures," he finished, with a derisive, mocking sneer, as though he'd read the sentiment on the inside of a cheesy birthday card, "and that I am complicated but worth it, whatever the ******** that means. But the same person erroneously assessed me as a good man so take that for what it's worth."

This was apparently sufficient to satisfy. "Next visitor, I want to hear about your journey."

"I've spent most of it," he answered honestly, "when I wasn't wandering around in circles lost, sitting in a tavern trading memories off to a walrus to get drunk. I answered a question for a caterpillar and I hope he rots in hell for asking it, or whatever you have here in lieu of hell, and I hate that, because he was my ********' favorite before I got here. I got married," he added, holding aloft the hand on which there was still just one ring. "I guess that's relevant. But mostly: drunk."

"Explain to me the world you live in. Not this one, the one your real bodies occupy."

This one was met with a long pause. "In my world before," he said finally, "you are given a choice between conformity and non-conformity. I craved one but was only capable of the other, and as a result I was punished by most of society and admired by a tiny, broken, stupid ******** segment of it. I spent a long time telling myself the part that admired me was better, nobler, smarter, because lying to yourself is something you learn in the world I come from. You are forever judged by your failures, and almost never for your successes. Your shortcomings will be remembered and hound you until the day you die, and any small accomplishment you make is going to be immediately overshadowed the next time you ******** up. We're cruel to our own, because there's a certain level of invisible you're expected to be unless you're blessed with money or--or other advantages, and if you ******** it up they erase you entirely instead. We pretend the ones that ******** it up aren't there. We look the other way. But they see us doing it. We do it even to the people we love. Especially to the people we love."

He didn't know what else to say. It was a terrible answer, totally lacking in substance and as usual falling short of what he'd meant to say. As usual, his words didn't match up to the mess in his head. Luckily, she continued.

"Have you ever been hurt by someone you love?"

"Of course I have. Everyone has." He could tell that she was about to ask for more, and so he steeled himself to volunteer it. "Do you want me to pick one? I'm pretty sure everyone could elaborate on this theme for hours, if you let them. I was hurt when Bird looked at me like I was a disappointment instead of being afraid of me. I was hurt when April vanished. I was hurt when she never even called so that I could know she was alive somewhere; I was hurt as ******** that she never called to ask how her own ******** daughter was doing, because I'd--well. I was hurt when my father gave up," he continued, and the monotone recital cracked a little, there, and emotion escalated in the undercurrents of his voice.

"I was hurt that he gave up so much earlier than my mother. I was hurt when Alex didn't follow me into sobriety so that I could have a single ******** friend. I was hurt when Konstantin Bashmet could only see me as an inefficient failure instead of seeing me as a person and trying to understand, not that that wasn't ********' expected by that point." He paused, drawing in a shaky breath, and he would have continued the torrent of perceived offenses and slights and injuries, but she asked another question instead.

"What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing," he said dully, and the room grew darker once more, and he corrected himself: "I don't mean in that some sense of ********, or fearlessness. I just mean that I'm..." He groped around for words, betrayed by them as usual. "I'm... you ever hear the expression 'can't see the forest for the trees'? It's... it's like that," he said, all shame, all humiliation, at the pain of being honest with himself: a thing he so rarely he did. "Everything. Afraid to stay alive, afraid to die, afraid to be good at my job, afraid of ******** it up, afraid to touch her, afraid she won't touch me. I don't--I don't ******** know. I'm scared of everything," he finished, dragging it out of himself, offering it up to the unknown altar, and adding bitterly: "I intentionally avoid this kind of ******** introspection, you know?"

"Tell me a secret about yourself."

"Besides being afraid of everything?" he asked, unaware, oblivious, that this was no secret at all: not to anyone who knew him. To his mind the shell was intact and unbroken. "Three times I started laying the foundation to take my own life and three times I told myself the reason I didn't do it was because I didn't want to hurt my daughter. Didn't want her to grow up thinking she hadn't been enough to keep me around. And then I agreed to fake it, so that I could get away from my problems--and I told myself I did it for her. I did do it for her," he added, faintly pleading, begging the faceless voice to accept it as truth. Please believe me. "It wasn't just--it wasn't just because I was too... it wasn't."

"What is it that you wish for the most?"

This one had him pausing for a long, long time.

"I wish I hadn't," he said, and he didn't specify what, because it was a long, long list, but it was apparently enough. "And I wish I could stop, but I won't."

"Soon," she said.

The doors opened, and what choice did he have but to go forward?

Deciding that he'd lounged about enough, Marosa made his way to the castle and faced the Red Queen in the cage, who stared at him with haughty indifference. It felt eerily similar, this particular scene, and the fey crossed his arms and stared at her until she spoke.

First, visitor, tell me about yourself. Your real self. Her body coiled against the bars, almost yearning to touch him, but her eyes were cool and hard.

"Feyrath." He answered with ease. It was the truth, but it wasn't the entire truth. The faerie was careful with his wording, and a coy smile weaved its way onto his face. "Oi'm a faerie." This answer seemed to satisfy her, and she nodded before continuing onto her next question.

Next visitor, I want to hear about your journey.

Glancing up to the ceiling, Feytouched thought for a moment. "The first thing oi did was go tae a tavern, and try tae greet people and help them along. As well as just gain a feel for the world and tae admire the beauty in it." He hadn't gotten to meet very many people, mostly having stayed at the tavern and drinking their local selection.

Ah well.

Explain to me the world you live in. Not this one, the one your real bodies occupy. The Red Queen's eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head curiously at him, her eyes still dark.

Feytouched stared at her, fingers clutching the sides of his arms. "Oi live in a vast place of monsters and creatures that live on FEAR. We need it to exist." He pursed his lips, shrugging. What else did she want? He wasn't certain what exactly to answer.

Have you ever been hurt by someone you love?

"Aye." The faerie closed his eyes, remembering very well the memory that had formerly haunted him. "Because of me, her life ended." By her, he meant Muirin, his first love. But as time went by, he was uncertain if it was truly love, or not. Perhaps she'd been his best friend. He didn't know. What he did know, however, was that by his hand she ended up most certainly dead. "My fault, in retrospect, but... we kinnae help who we are." Another shrug was given as the faerie slid his golden eyes away.

What are you afraid of?

This question was difficult. "... losing my current love. But she has proven herself tae be strong." A firm nod. He'd been over this with Yaya, before.

Tell me a secret about yourself.

"Oi used tae hate meself. Not... anymore." That, too, had been with the help of Yaya. Where would he be without her?

What is it that you wish for the most?

His golden eyes glowed. "Honestly? Oi dinnae know." A third shrug, and he gave a smile. "Oi already have everythin' oi want." Giving the queen a bow, he exited, a bit disturbed about the conversation that took place. Was she asking... everyone these questions? He couldn't have been the only one.

Why did this feel so familiar? And what would come of this foreboding feeling of his...?

Feytouched hoped he was wrong.

Main quest – Red Queen’s Castle


The feeling of invisibility dissipated in about an hour since he had left the tea party. Clopper was now wandering rather aimlessly down a single path he had chosen. The sprite did not know exactly why he had chosen that path but it seemed like a perfectly normal path to walk down on. Normal that is, until he came upon the castle of thorns.

“Whoa,” said Clopper in awe. “I’ve never seen such a huge and... ... ... ... dangerous looking place. Now would be a good time to have that power of invisibility,” said Clopper, still convinced that he had been invisible for an hour back then.

“But...I don’t think I should turn back...,” said Clopper thoughtfully. “I mean, all that is left back there is the titanic tea table and the monster in the woods. Best press on,”

Saying so, the sprite let himself in without so much as a ‘by your leave’; which he soon regretted when the voice of the Red Queen boomed across the empty castle and reverberated around the stone walls.

First, visitor, tell me about yourself. Your real self.

“My real name’s Valtiel,” said Clopper with open honesty. Not that he’d lie if anyone had asked him as such. “I used to be a spirit of a horse,”

Which did not seem to impress the Red Queen as she went ahead with the second question.

Next visitor, I want to hear about your journey.

“It was...well...there were certainly some scenes which I could do without,” said Clopper as he recalled the events of his Wonderland adventure. “Like being chased and gobbled by that monster in the woods. The talking trees and tea party was alright though,”

Once again Clopper’s reply seemed irrelevant to his questioner as she pushed on with yet another question.

Explain to me the world you live in. Not this one, the one your real bodies occupy.

“Errr...I am a student of Amityville Academy,” said Clopper. “It’s not a bad place. Quite large, like this place but with more…students around,” continued Clopper. “There are all kinds of students really. Demons, ghosts, reapers, undead, monsters and suchlike. And we are taught how to scare and behave like proper Holloween folks,”

Have you ever been hurt by someone you love?
“No, “ said Clopper looking rather surprised at the question. “I guess...it’s because I’ve never been in love. Can’t say about the life I had before being a ghost though,”

What are you afraid of?

“I’ve always had this...gut feeling that I should be looking for someone...a rider,” said Clopper as he rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. “It’s like...once I find her, my quest will be completed... so...yeah...I am afraid of never finding my rider and be forever doomed to search the land,”

Tell me a secret about yourself.

Well, how’d you like that? After pouring out his greatest fear (not that he knew why he was doing it), the Red Queen had continued on with her curt questionings.

“I actually like being in harness...when I am in horse form, of course,” said Clopper quickly.

What is it that you wish for the most?

“I wish to find my rider,” said Clopper. “And perhaps then...my freedom,”

But the response given by the Red Queen was less than comforting. Booming something ominous about destruction and the building of a new world, the voice slowly fades and Clopper was left with the choice of exploring several new areas.

Wow, this path was long. And boring. Still, IBB couldn’t really complain. Not when she considered the crazy mind and body altering foods back in the last area. Or the Jabberwock before that. Or the glitchy trees… Okay. She was completely fine with boring. Besides, it was kind of pleasant to just walk and scan the scenery.

After a good, long time walking, IBB saw a set of gates made of thorns. Curious, she quickened her step and wentt o inspect them. A staircase going down lay inside them. And rather than doing what some might consider to be the smart thing and walking away, the tiniest of Hatters push through the gates and went down the stairs. Once inside and down, the eerily lit dungeons stretched out before her.

Shivering slightly and hugging herself, IBB followed the strange, red torches, trying her best to ignore the hissing voice that seemed to be directed at her. Just when she was re-considering her stance on turning around and walking away, she came to a door.

"Stay," booms a voice, harsh and powerful, thick with uncontrolled rage, "stay, visitor, and listen. I am [ Destruction ] contained. As long as I remain sealed, I will not destroy, and you cannot destroy me. The cage can only be unsealed with the purest of red crystals, infused with Destruction. There will be a time, but not right now. For now, you are a guest. For now, you are invited as a guest. Stay, a little longer guest, and let me ask a little more about you."

Squeaking and jumping at least three feet into the air from startlement, IBB looked around, trying to think of some way to answer that wouldn’t make the Whatever-it-Was angrier..

“S-sure,” she stuttered. “Okay. Why not?”

With a nervous glance around, she settled herself by the door and prepared herself for whatever bizarre questions there might be.

”First, visitor, tell me about yourself. Your real self.”

Frowning slightly, for this was not at all what she’d expected, IBB thought for a moment.

“Well, my everyday name is Gwenyfarh and I’m a werebat. I’m ridiculously tiny. I’m not very good with other people. They kind of scare me. So I tend to read and study a lot. I guess you could call me a wallflower.”

”Fascinating. Truly. Next visitor, I want to hear about your journey.”

Sighing, IBB decided that a tiny amount of sass was in order.

“Not one for beating around the bush are you? Okay, so my journey. Well, I fell down a dream rabbit hole and at the bottom I met this AI named Alice who pretty much gangpressed me into signing up for this dream MMO. Then, there were talking trees,” IBB continued to talk. Leaving nothing out, she recounted her experiences with the trees, the rude caterpillar, the two cheshire cats, the magic morphing food. Every single thing she could remember, she told, not sparing herself in the least.

“And the worst part was the honey tart turned me into a damned bunny! And there were Bread ‘n’ Butterflies and macarons and well, after that, I found the path here and met you.”

”I see. Explain to me the world you live in. Not this one, the one your real bodies occupy.”

Oof. Now how was she supposed to explain that?

“Well, it’s different. All kinds of people live there and for the most part, it works. I mean, there’s ghosts and reapers and monsters and demons and everything. And there’re the tiny monsters and things that we keep as pets. And then there’s school. They teach us to control our abilities so that we can effectively use them to harness and collect FEAR. Lot of politics too, but I don’t really understand those. To be honest, I haven’t even made it to the school yet. My parents would rather I say in the colony, get married and have a million tiny bat babies.”

”Have you ever been hurt by someone you love?”

Jack! This voice wanted to know an awful lot. Drawing her knees up under her chin, IBB answered frankly, “Yes.”

”How? When? I wish to know more.”

Of course it did. With a sigh, she set about explaining.

“My big brother Aven left home when I was very young. He never said goodbye and we’d always been very close. All I know any of it is that he and my parents had a terrible fight right before he left. They thought I was asleep, you see.”

”What are you afraid of?”

“Oh good grief. I don’t know, lots of things…”

“Elucidate.”

Growling, IBB answered, “Fine. I’m afraid of growing complacent. Of being happy with the way things are and never feeling curious or interested in the bigger world. That’s my parents and I hate it. I hate that they don’t question anything, that they’re content to sit in their little bubble and never venture out. I don’t want to end up that way. I don’t want to be them and it scares the hell out of me to think that I’ll wake up one day and be that way.”

”Tell me a secret about yourself.”

“Y’know, it would be nice if I could see the logic to your questions. Fine, whatever. You want a secret? I write purposely bad poetry and submit it to different contests and things. I don’t tell anyone because they’d just harp at me about wasting myself. I like writing terrible poems. It’s fun and it keeps me sane, okay?”

Okay, admittedly, IBB was starting to feel a bit defensive by this point. Irritably brushing a strand of hair from her face, she waited for the next round of questions.

”What is it that you wish for the most?”

Well, at least that one was easy.

“I want to see Aven again and know why he left the way he did,” she replied in a soft, sad voice. “I want to know that my brother still loves me.”

"Soon," the Red Queen finally responds, "It will be soon. I crave [ Destruction ] and should I be favoured then this world will break and crumble and I will build a new one without pain or secrets."

“Umm, yay?” IBB responded, not at all sure how to take that particular speech. Suddenly, all around her, cage doors swung open and the voice vanished, leaving IBB sitting alone with a small treasure chest.

Okay then.

Divinity found himself in a dungeon next. The castle itself was twisted with thorns, a prison more than a functional building. He found himself at a barred prison from which a voice emanated and stopped him in his tracks. It demanded answers of him and he had few.

"First, visitor, tell me about yourself. Your real self."

He gave the Queen a long, slow look. It was a question it was almost impossible to address in a succinct fashion. He was not even sure that he had a true self at all. "In my world I am a hunter, forcibly enlisted to a small private army." he said. "I have many selves and none of them are true."

"Next visitor, I want to hear about your journey." the Queen asked

"I have fought, gotten married and wandered aimlessly through this world, I seek to return to the world outside and nothing more."

"Explain to me the world you live in. Not this one, the one your real bodies occupy." she went on, and he replied.

"The world I come from is imperfect, riddled with weak and feeble creatures who feel too much and think not enough. A world where one human will crawl on the shoulders of another to succeed, a scrabbling ants nest suffocating those at the bottom to save the ones at the top. " His voice was void of expression, simple statement of fact.

"Have you ever been hurt by someone you love?"

"No" he said coolly

"Why not?" she replied

"Because I have never truly loved." And it was the truth, after a fashion. He loved America according to Butch, but he did not think it could be real love. Real love was vulnerable, it went both ways from what he could gather. He would hurt America but she could never hurt him.

"What are you afraid of?" she pressed ever onwards.

"Nothing." he said, and meant it completely.

"Tell me a secret about yourself."

Secrets were complicated, they involved a desire to keep information to one's chest. He did so only when it led to future benefit, he knew nothing that would presumably interest this entity.

"I covet." he said.

"What is it that you wish for the most?" she asked.

"Perfection." he replied.




<>
My character's username: Divinity
My character's level: 22
Character's HP: 30
Current party: --
Current Guild: --
Location: Tulgey Wood
Small IC description of character: Tall, extremely pale and slender with delicate features, long slender wings and light clothing.
Character journal: [x]

The red castle in front of him was covered in thorns. He stood at the gates with wary eyes. The dark red of the bricks intimidated him, but there was no turning back. He could only move forward, so move he did. Hairs stand on end when he descended the staircase and encountered the caged door. “Er, my real self?” Nervous, R0GU3 looked around to see if there was anyone else around before he answered in a murmur. “I’m a hunter of the death division. I’ve been a hunter for a few years now. I was a single child in Wisconsin. I, uh, studied engineering…” His voice trailed off.

As the queen asked for his journey, he grew more confident, pleased to move on from his real identity. “I’m not sure how I got here, but I landed in Tulgey Woods. I wandered around—I got chased by a Jabberwocky too, I think—until I found some tea party. Then I found a path that lead to your castle.” A simple answer for a simple question.

He rubbed his neck, nervous again now that his real life was called back into question. “Well, I live in the human world, but as a hunter I live on this hidden island. I usually stay on the island, but sometimes I also go out on missions to different cities and towns. And…I don’t know, the human world is so vast and varied, it’s hard to put it into concise words.” The rabbit shrugged helplessly, hoping that his answer was sufficient, and as the voice moved onto the next question he breathed a mental sigh of relief.

“I’m sure I have,” he started, “but I can’t remember it. Rather than be hurt by someone I love, I’m sure it’s the reverse for me.” His eyes glazed over as he lowered his head and stuffed his gloved hands into the pockets of his pants. Fortunately, the voice chose not to prod further.

“I’m afraid of a lot of things. Aren’t people often like that?” R0GU3 hoped so, otherwise he would just be another coward. The lowest of the low. “But the thing I’m scared of most is trying to help and making things worse. Of not helping and letting the worst to happen.”

“A secret?” He was always smiling, so his smile stretched just a bit wider to reveal the insincerity as he leaned in close to the bars. “I can’t remember the last time I was okay.”

His face remained close to the bars as he pondered the voice’s last question. Hands were folded behind his back while his eyes flicked to the side. Once he found his answer, he pressed his lips together and leaned back. “Resolution. An ending.” Any kind of ending would suffice as long as something could uproot him from his inner conflict.

Muscles tensed at the mention of Destruction, but the voice had disappeared. Different doors swung open, and there was only one thing he could do.