Alice
From Despoiler - We Tell Stories
Contents |
Story Overview
Alice Klein is a young woman who takes over her Uncle's book shop when he goes away suddenly. She herself is an author.
We first encounter Alice through her blog Treacle and Ink
Treacle and Ink was found from a hidden link on the main We Tell Stories site, a picture of a rabbit going down a hole. It was created using javascript, so was not immediately obvious as a link when rolling over the page. Hiding links on pages is common practice - check source code for unexpected URLS
Week 1
Mar 18
Alice Klein turns up at her Uncle's Shop in Muswell Hill; she's going to be running it for about 6 weeks whilst her Uncle, T Marsh-Ayre, is away. She finds he has already left and the assistant Jacques has keys and a note for her. She also has access to a store room, which is used my H. Loon Antiques-Emporium in Grove Street for storage. She is advised not to enter the room. The About page on the blog gives an email address for you to query the shop. Alice is a writer, who's been having trouble writing recently.
Interactions and Input
Emails and IM are common methods of communicating with story characters - they'll usually respond back!
Emails were written to Alice asking about books, talking about the Penguin contest and suggesting that there appeared to be a message to her somewhere in the project. The first message back was an auto-response, saying that the sales people at the shop will deal with the enquiry soon. Later we find out that the shop is in Muswell Hill (just off the main shopping area and that she is really busy. Some asked her questions relating to the 21 Steps story, but she denied any knowledge of that information, such as the name of the east European girl.
Mar 21
Alice thanks everyone for the emails. She suggests you may look for the message to tell Penguin so they can remove it. She's been getting to know Jacques, who lets her know that her uncle, Hattie Loon and an unknown woman are often around the shop, spending ages locked in the storage rooms before coming out dazed and glassy eyed.
Interactions and Input
In emails, Alice declines to ell us where the shop is, but does say she is waiting to get Jacques out of the way to see the store room. She also wonders why her name is being connected with the Penguin stories - she was at one point supposed to be part of it.
Week 2
Mar 25
The shop is busy and Alice has been getting lots of emails - including people sending her the email sent at the end of The 21 Steps. Alice managed to sneak into the store room to find it full of stuff, including a tantalus. She thinks about using some of the pieces in the shop and selling them.
Mar 26
Alice has started writing again, feeling really inspired. She has found out that Hattie Loon had an accident and is in hospital in a coma; she was injured in the store room. When Alice visited the store room, she looked at a faded journal, an ormalu but what caught her eye was a brass-backed mirror, made of shiny stone. On the back of it is a label 'The mirror of Dr', she also caught her thumb and bled on the mirror. At that point, she felt all dreamy and was impelled to run and start writing - she intends to put the mirror out in the shop.
Mar 27
As a result of the emails to her talking about Alice in Wonderland, Alice decided to redecorate the window display. Looking in the store-room she found some old copies of Alice in Wonderland, one of which contained a note. The note, from marsh-Ayre, talked about The Doctor's Mirror and how he was exploring its power, especially that of 'theopneustos' (in Greek in the note). It notes that the mirror may have been constructed for this purpose but it is important to ensure... Nothing further is available. Alice hangs the mirror up in the shop.
Interaction and Input
The greek word 'theopneustos' means inspiration,god's breath. . Alice is emailed with the meaning, along with warnings about the mirror. Meanwhile, players are busy investigating scrying mirrors.
Mar 28
Alice is too busy writing to have time to blog. She's besotted with her new book.
Interactions and Input
Following on from Slice's story, players email Alice asking her about the book. They're also investigating the mirror, looking at Dr Dee's, which is in the British Museum.
A response from Alice confirmed that she had not found anymore pages of the note; they are also indicating that she can't do without the mirror.
Players note that T Marsh-Ayre = The March Hare. This starts the process of matching characters with Wonderland Characters, such as Hattie Loon being the Mad Hatter.
Mar 30
Interactions and Inputs
Over the weekend, (there was no story input) players speculated. They focused on the book Mythological Objects, cats,analysis of contents in the Slice pictures, mirrors and the lack of a 'get out and do something' part of the story as there was in the first week.
Mar 31
Alice thanks her readers for the meaning of the greek word. She suggests that she has no copy of the book but that Penguin should have given a clue on how to find it. Jacques is getting grumpy, threatening to sell the mirror, so Alice moves it to her room. Today, someone had come into the shop wanting to buy the mirror.
Interactions and Input
Emails from Alice give more information about Mythological Objects. It was never officially published but the former shop owner has a copy which is not for sale. Another email stated that the book was in a locked cabinet to which she had no access, but she is starting to be interested in it as it has a chapter on obsidian mirrors, something she was getting interested in. Another email challenged a player to find the book as she had been getting a lot of queries about it.
At this point, players started going back through the clues, posts and images. They tried destegging images, looking at the houses. Eventually the link was spotted. In the content page posted on Ray and Lynn's blog, some letters had blots under them. Put it together you got 'sniprcomhaigha', ie snipr.com/haigh. which led you to a site with scans of pages from Mythological Objects. The dedication page of the book was dedicated to Alice Klein - we told Alice this. The stories in Mythological Objects are significant in subsequent developments.
Relevance for later parts of the story
p58. Reference to death, with the image of a black-clad female
p86. 'In English folklore, the hare or Jack Rabbit is often seen as a messenger or courier between worlds....There are many ways to summon a fiary, spirit or familiar to aid the transition from our world to The Other Land, but without specialised materials or highly dangerous spells.'
p139 'I had a friend who told me that I just had to look harder for the rules under the rules.'
p140 '"What do you want?" I frowned. "Safe passage?" The little man winked at me. "You might be too late for that already. d'you see?"...he was a tiny read desert snake curled around neatly and bit its own tail. Or do I mean tale? Nonetheless I was grateful for the guidance.'
p142 'we performed our repetoire effortlessly. With my right hand pointing towards heaven and my left pointing towards the earth...Pick a card, and card," he said. And I did.
Week 3
April 1
Her watch has started running backwards, which is thought to be an April Fool by the shop she took it in to get it repaired - Jacques denied knowing about it. The back window in the shop also appears to have broken into, leaving splintered wood. Alice has been looking into a book called Mythological Objects by Christolina Minaret, a book that appeared in Slice. There appeared to be a copy in a case in the shop, but she'd broken into the case to find it was only a dust jacket from the book wrapped around a copy of Alice in Wonderland.
Interactions and input
batgirl got a reply from Alice, wondering if the dedication can really be her.
The conclusion being reached in discussion is that we are looking at a card game involving tarot cards.
Fairy Tales was released. The word in the puzzle led to the name 'Spinankle'.
Using the strong call out in Fairy tales to ' Lie Berry Thing', a profile and Library Listing was found for Spinankle at LibraryThing. From here, it was clear that the goblin was also the Hermit card.
From the profile - "There were three of us. Me, and Hattie, and the other one, blast it what was her name? All I can think of is cheese or treacle. Hopeless."....We found a secret, the three of us. A black mirror and a set of instructions. Follow the instructions and all the stories in the world will be yours.... After what happened to Hattie, I should have known better. But I thought, with the cards, I could control it.... But if that Eastern European girl was right, I'm one card short of a hand. And I don't know how to get it, and I don't know how to find out what it should be. No one here will name the cards, that's another thing. Some rule against it.....In my library, I flick through the pages of the tome in front of me. The card is there. It's right: solitude does bring understanding.
April 2
Jacques is acting strange and is not happy with Alice sneaking around and breaking things. It turns out the key to the display case was under the counter. He's also just broken up with his girlfriend , Bella, and starts crying, dropping a business card with 'The Doctor' written on it. They plan to get drunk that evening.
Interactions and Inputs
Searches and speculations led us to the obsidian mirror owned by Dr John Dee, which is in the British Museum. It seems to be the most famous of these artifacts, at least for its connection with the occult.
April 4
Alice is tired after writing all night. She wants to read a copy of Mythological Objects as it has a chapter about Obsidian mirrors; she suggests that we can help her find a copy.
Interactions and Input
The request in the blog to help Alice find a copy of the book Mythological Objects led people to re-search for the term, leading to a Craigslist ad
- Christolina Minaret - Mythological Objects (London), Date: 2008-04-02, 6:41PM BST,Rare unpublished proof copy for sale. Collector's item. Price on application. Quick sale required.
Week 4
April 7
Alice posted about confronting Jacques about stealing books and items from the shop; she fired him and made him leave. Jacques blamed Belle (his girlfriend) and that marsh-ayre never noticed, but never explained that. Alice had the locks changed on the shop so he could not get back in. She regrets not being able to confront him about the card with 'The Doctor' on it - is that who he is selling things to? Meanwhile, she is trying to do without the mirror, but finding it difficult, she needs to look into it and write.
Interactions and Input
On Monday morning, the Craigslist seller responded that the book had gone but he would be selling some more things and would let us know. The sellers name was Jacques De la Coeur - the name of Alice's assistant. Some players notified Alice, sending her the emails from Jacques which she used in the confrontation to remove him from his post with the shop.
Later that day, players received an email from Jacques, telling them he needed to swap items he had for love charms and romantic things - his girlfriend Belle wants them. This is a live event at a London pub.
April 8
Alice is feeling ill, she's being affected by the mirror, losing time. As she comes out of the latest episode, she hears a voice saying 'the Doctor will see you now'. When she comes to, at 430am, someone is trying to get into, scratching at the window and trying the door. She finds that all her clothes are now on inside out. She puts the mirror back in the store room, but still wants to look at it. She calls out the meeting with Jacques - she's not going to go but asks us to, to tell Jacques that she wants to talk.
April 9
Alice is trying to avoid the mirror. She's been searching for more clues and found a note “Hattie will go first, while D and I observe.” She again calls out for help, to get Jacques to talk to her. She has called the police about someone trying to break in and is ready, with a cudgel and the police on speed dial.
April 10
A group turned up at the pub to meet Jacques, swapping romantic items for goodies from Jacques. Inside where notes which explained how to play a game, John Dee's Tarot and further notes from Marsh-Ayre. A review of the evening.
April 11
The last act of the story Your Place and Mine led to a 'Times' story about the murder. Linked from this page was a book review from Thomas Marsh-Ayre, about Tulip Roots for Onions, a book by Alice Klein. This is about TMA in the other world, playing a round of the card game. (assumed relevant parts)
"Still, there is only one Path out of here, and I must walk it, however long it takes. The notes we found make that clear. The venue for finding the next card is hard to conceive. It could, after all, be anywhere. It is everywhere. But then, sometimes one can't see the forest for the trees....Where four creatures are gathered – and I think, inexplicably, of a convent I once heard tell of, San Miguelion de los Mercados – but the creatures are not important. I am looking for a figure: not quite man, not quite woman. He-She appears. His-Her body is ambiguous. His-Her face is covered by a mask; I had not anticipated that...."Put out your hand," he-she says, "and I will give you everything you came for." I put out my hand. ... He-she places a card face-down in my hand...."This…" I say, "this is not the card I wanted. You have made a fool of me...My brother and I," it says, "will take all we need from you and little Ms Klein. Neither of you will escape the mirror, and when we are done, we will take more than just this world." I blink, and he-she-it is gone. I do not understand. None of the inhabitants of this place is supposed to say the names of the cards. There is only only explanation for he-she-it having done so. They, like me, are a traveller. And now they have made a fool of me, I cannot reach the path I was seeking. I do not know what card to look for next, what combination would give me anything of value. Can you help me? I think, perhaps, Alice might find a way to send a message to me, through the mirror. I think perhaps she could.
Interaction and Input
The players try and work out what cards are in play. CCS thinks the Eastern European Woman gave him the World card in story 1 (which he lost in Story 4). He may have The Moon from Story 2. The Hermit appears in Story 3. The Magician appears in Mythological Objects. TMA got the Fool in exchange for The World.
Apr 13
Alice has been away for a few days staying with friends; she seems to be connecting with mirror world in any reflective surface, staring at Tube windows and hearing Marsh-Ayre. She wakes up later to hear a crash from the kitchen. She finds a woman asleep on her kitchen floor, middle-aged. The door is open, the window is smashed. It's Dorcus Muse, who works at the British Museum, carrying a big hammer.
Interactions and Input.
We finally have the Dormouse.
