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Weaving the Narrative
🕑 Added 2021-03-04 06:31:47 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
I'm working with Alex to push the Asylum Narrative towards the next stage of completion. This has involved fleshing out backstory and motivation for the cast of characters surrounding Alice (in Wonderland and London - past and present). Radcliffe, The Queen (of Hearts), and Shadow Alice have all had the spotlight shined on them. And we're also working through the areas beyond those explored in the previous Narrative Document that you saw.
Once we have a few more bits tied together, we'll share another draft with you for comments, feedback, and Crowd Design.
But first, a quick peek into what's going on these days (and some Crowd Design)...
1. Depression Realm - Vale of Tears / Alice Retrieves the Brain / Frozen in Time Show Alice Collecting the Brain from the Vale of Tears.
How is it protected? Perhaps trapped in a prison of falling water? Or Rocks, that are impassable unless time is restored and they fall aside? How can this be shown visually? Discuss.
Brain in an Alice Statue? Confirm.
AM: With "Eyes," we found Dormouse and Hare were using this Piece because they had no eyes of their own. And they were using The Eye to thwart the functioning of the mining colony (Shadow Alice thrives on viewing terrible scenes from the past). The Brain will be used similarly... and it links into the fact that everything in this area is frozen. Frozen as a result of overthinking. "Your mind (overthinking things) is your own worst enemy" - that sort of thing. That raises the question: Who is using the Brain to freeze the Vale of Tears?
Aside: There's a scientifically proven connection between crying and the release of brain chemicals useful in alleviating the effects of trauma. Crying is a form of healing. Also... "As they pass through the valley of tears (Hebrew: עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא), they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools" - biblical. Meaning that you must first pass through tribulations before ascending to heaven (eternal peace).
Who doesn't want us to cry? Who doesn't want us to pass our tribulations? Shadow Alice. Who does she position to control The Brain so that it stops crying in The Vale of Tears? Who makes it so Alice cannot pass through?
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This is an example of a back-and-forth between myself and Alex. He's posed some questions about "The Brain" (one of the Pieces of The Champion). And I've gone in and outlined some of the thinking about this area and that particular Piece.
Right now, we're mainly focused on the area beyond Vale of Tears. A section tentatively called "Abyssal Station" where we'll find March Hare and Dormouse up to some nefarious business. But we need to fill in this bit about The Vale before going too far forward.
The description and gameplay for the area beyond the Vale of Tears begins...
VALE OF TEARS (DEPRESSION REALM) - Abyssal Station
We’re all scared (blind) here.
Alice steps from the Hall of Doors into Abyssal Station. Before her eyes is… darkness in all directions. There are specks of light flickering in the distance. Fires? Eyes? Faint voices whispering something about The Man in The Moon.
Like an explosion, The Infernal Train screams past Alice lighting the scene around her - a morbid Subway Station made from bits of dollhouses and decorated with a collection of broken doll parts and toys. The station windows look out on… dirt. Arms and legs and heads of dolls buried in layers behind the glass.
The sign overhead reads: Lookingglass Railway: Abyssal Station
“Welcome to the Abyss, Alice! So glad to seeee you. We’re so glad you’ve not forgotten us… yet.” Behind one of the windows sits March Hare, screaming into a microphone, waving excitedly at Alice. His eyes are crudely stitched shut. March Hare and Dormouse are the foremen/workers in charge of this area. They throw a series of obstacles at Alice to thwart her progress and block her escape.
We PLAY as Alice navigates the scene heading towards the direction indicated by her Inner Compass. There are several exits from the station all leading through roughly cut holes in the walls of the station. These become dirt passages descending into a vertical cave-like structure.
Alice enters a Termite Mining Colony buried beneath the Memory Tree of Alice’s mind.
Alcoves and chambers, filled with fungi and mushrooms, dug out of the rotting material of Alice’s memories. Giant Termite Drones fly through the air overhead carrying bundles of dirt to and fro. Mechanical conveyor belts and rusted hulks of mining machinery whir and grind throughout the scene. Here, fragments of Alice’s past are half-revealed in a vertical catacomb of detritus. This is where memories go to be recycled into the fertilizer that feeds imagination.
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We're working along a theme of the Five Pieces being used to block Alice's ability to integrate her trauma, reconnect with the Inner Child, and transform into her future self.
CROWD DESIGN
And here's a chance for YOU to join in the narrative fun!
What wonderland character do you think would fit into the role I've outlined for The Vale of Tears and the "Keeper of The Brain?"
As stated in the task comments above...
Who is using the Brain to freeze the Vale of Tears?
A couple of prompts for this exercise: Aside from Hatter, who comes to mind when you think "Wonderland's Biggest Brain?" Or what character would be the last one to cry in an emotional situation? Who in Wonderland is the most emotionally "stopped up?"
We might also want to think about character motivation... What Wonderland character would have reason to overthink everything to the point of getting stuck? Or would WANT to see everyone stuck? In this case, we might have to invent that motivation out of thin air (but hopefully with some reference to the previous games).
Well, if you can make sense of all of that... let us know in the comments below your thoughts on The Brain in the Vale of Tears.
From Shanghai with Lots of Thread,
-American
Comments
Sarah Heist
I would say the flowers are the most emotionally detached. Alice could have to go through and remove a series of the flowers at the root with somehow an image of the roots being tangled in and throughout the folds of the brain
Saleh Abu-Rashid
These sound cryptic. I like em. I never saw the Vale of tears as the depressing part. Depression is empty and hallow. I always saw the vale of tears as the part of Alice where she lets all her sadness out. She lets herself cry to make her feel better.
Sarah McKeegan
Love your ideas!
Don’t think anyone’s mentioned the Frog Footman, who was too busy telling Alice there was no point in knocking on the Duchess’s door (as he and Alice were on the same side of the door) to do anything practical like actually letting her in ... and then just sat on the doorstep and did nothing. He seems to me like the sort of person who’d overthink things to the point of going into a sort of paralysis, and who’d be happy to use the brain to freeze Wonderland ( having finally reasoned that everything in life is pointless, a reflection of Alice’s own depression) and leave everything in stasis rather than letting things progress forward to something better!
Truedragon5374
Maybe a version of the Mock Turtle? In the original book, he was crying because he thought he used to be a turtle but now is part cow or something. Maybe he doesn't want to feel sad so he used The Brain to stop ALL the tears, including his own. He refuses to cry and this makes him feel worse but still refuses to cry.
Agreed! I really do love this concept
Karolina Belomestnova
Humpty Dumpty works perfectly then. Imagine if after his defeat Humpty Dumpty had a great fall... into the recycler. And egg shells *are* used for compost, you know.
I honestly think that no matter who it is that ends being in command of the brain the idea that they would disappear and become recycled in Alices mind would be a terrifying prospect. Imagine if they did what they did to remind Alice that they exist they are still here. That they won't disappear like other characters in wonderland have done during the shift.
I feel it needs to be the red queen, for the same reason Gregory states above
How bout its revealed to be the caterpillar? Could have him turn into some type of frost butterfly boss. But he's not very emotionless, at least in the books. I don't remember him getting flustered with Alice in the games, but its been a while. I also like the ideas of it being a twisted version of Dodo and/or a league of Wonderland characters that watch over the peice(s).
My first thought was Dodo -in the story he comes after Alice's tears. He leads the caucus race (which could be used here to send Alice on a goose chase, literal or figurative), and in a twist of trying to "get dry" he freezes everything (it's not "wet" afterall) (though in reading other comments I can see Humpty or Gryphon)
please take a jab at corporate wage slavery. this sounds like the place. it's also an opportunity for an obsession with time, but i don't see the rabbit mentioned
Perhaps as an inverse suggestion of a character who was “stuck” I’d mention the Red Queen (the chess one). In “Through the Looking Glass” there’s a bit where she runs with Alice but they never move from the spot there in, all the speed in the world wasted to stay exactly where you are, leaving one exhausted and spent for nothing. Also, might this station be where the Toymaker idea finds a new home? He had last been a potential weapon shop owner in the earlier ideations of “Asylum”, and as his design was very like a burrowing spider perhaps he is a thing that stalks the tunnels below, maybe using his storefront in the station to trick Alice down into his hunting grounds, an echo of the memory of what the real Bumby had done.
Juan Romero
It has to be the Chesire Cat! that would be a huge plot twist!
Going a bit through the looking glass here and it was a long time ago i read it. The red king could work. I think he is asleep so could be thinking at that time or overthinking. She beats him cause he was asleep so he might be mad about that. He isnt sure if he is in Alice's dream or she is in his. This worry could have eaten him up and made gim overthink and dislike Alice and frozen things to either sleep more (ha) or work out how alice beat him
not sure what else to add to these good suggestions but I thought about Pig.. would be interesting to see him return with some sort of cynical motive! he's mysterious and the last to be suspected with feelings of enmity
A litteral walking (and talking) brain? With growing brains out of it. More brains = more thoughts at once => overthinking.
I had even considered the Torch Gnomes from AMA couls be enemies in this area too. Yet another forgotten group of characters maybe they are still slaves but this time to our titular big 3
That could work actually. I mean they have sort have been forgotten! Perhaps they're vendetta against Alice would be that she made them disappear virtually. Lost alone. Forgotten
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Maybe a league of characters that never got much love in the series before. Bill McGill, Humpty Dumpty, and The Dodo.
Perhaps its more then one character working in cahoots? The Dutchess Bill the lizard and the Dodo all working to trap Alice or stop her. They all have different reasons they all have what's and desires. The false promises made have turned them against Alice and made her the enemy in their eyes
American McGee
Some good reasons in there as well. Excellent.
American McGee
That could be fun. Good one...
American McGee
Yeah, that makes sense... nice one.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Wasn't Bill McGill kind of a simpleton?
Gryphon maybe? His overbearing attitude strikes me as one who would be willing to stop time for everyone for the sake of his own desires - and he's very focused on "fact" making him seem either intelligent or at least convinced he's intelligent
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
I would like to see The Dodo fill the position. We’ve seen dodos in this series before, but never yet THE Dodo. He’s somewhat of an authority figure, but you can interpret him anyway you choose. It would be an interesting play on the terms “bird brained” or “dodo brain” to have him be sort of a brainy character. And the fodder enemies can be his army of less anthropomorphized dodos, much like we saw in AMR.
Rosuav
Wonderland's Biggest Brain? Humpty Dumpty. He argues about the meanings of words, argues with Alice about her age, etc, etc. Also, he had a small presence in the first game, but didn't get to say much. Perhaps we'll find out how he came to be seated just there...
American McGee
Oh, my pick is Bill The Lizard. I'll write more about him and my reasons, later on.
