Part 4: In which Alice learns her first song, meets her first cat, and solves her first serious puzzle.

Well, Alice, by my count, there are three votes for the middle door, one for the left door, one for the right door, and none at all for giving you an easier time.

All right, let's get this over with. It's not actually that hard to reach the door; I just go to the left screen and hop up those little ledges until I reach it.



Like so. *deep breath* Here goes...



Well, this isn't bad at all. Cozy. Warm. Just the thing after that swimming and falling nonsense. Oh, there's even a book here!

It is a magnificent book. The first page says: Beware of false looking glasses that lead to deceit and danger.

This is actually an interesting bit of advice. It turns out that there are two areas in the game that you never have to enter to finish it, and, if you're not careful, you can get trapped in them by the Queen of Hearts. Both areas are accessed by a portal mirror like the one we saw earlier. In fact, if I recall, you never actually have to meet up with the Queen of Hearts if you avoid both areas. Naturally, we'll be visiting them both.

Why do you people take pleasure in my pain?

Relax, we'll get you out again. Oh, while I'm thinking of it, that fireplace looks suspicious. You should check it out.



My poor dress. Well, here goes...



Well, this is a rather pointless secret passage. I suppose I'll head back and choose another...



...door? Wait, how does that even work? I don't remember seeing any twisty passages. Well, since I'm here, I'll try this door and...



...see where it... goes? That doesn't make any sense. So if I go into this door now, where will I wind up?



You see, that's how doors are supposed to work. Sort of. You go through one side, you come out the other. You go through the other side, you come out...



...the first... my poor head.



I think I need to lie down.

I think we need to see that again. Roll the clip!



Well, there's a pattern, at least. They could be completely random. Right, you can get through this, Alice. The only thing you haven't tried is leaving this study through the door.



And now I shall walk out of this pocket of rock and pray I don't wind up in the mill or something.



Thank you, Lord.



This door doesn't lead anywhere bizarre, does it?

Define 'bizarre'.



Point.

Don't step on my tail.

Oh, excuse me. I didn't mean to offend. Who are you, pray tell?

I am a mouse with a sad tale!

Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?

That's kind, but I'm really feeling a bit peckish and I lost my jar of marmalade.

Is there any point to asking him anything else?

Not really.

Fair enough.

Quick game mechanic note here: the 'Offer' command lets you offer an item to an NPC. There are several default responses they'll give if you try to give them something they don't want, but the one you're interested in is 'Surely you can do better than that.' If you see that, they want something, just not what you're offering. If they say something else, there isn't anything they want. That said, I think Alice can figure this puzzle out pretty easily.

I should hope so. Excuse me, Mister Mouse, would you like this jar of marmalade? I think it belongs to you.

I feel so happy I want to sing!

Crinkle, crinkle, little hat.
I don't have one quite like that.
Lots of points it's got so high
like a hedgehog in the sky.


(To the tune of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.')

Huh. That's not quite how it goes in England or the book.

Well, remember it anyway. You'll need it sooner or later.

I suppose I'm done here. Let's head back outside and see what's farther down this hole.



It's a good thing I took a parasol leap, or I'd have landed on that cat instead of this ledge. I certainly can't get to that door, though, even if I somehow got up there with him. Oh, a poster!

It is a full-color poster with the words: 'See the museum displays. A. Ferret, Curator.'

A museum? I wonder what a museum exhibit in Wonderland is like?

I wonder how many giant animals you're going to run into.

It could be worse.

If you want to win this game, you have to go through Wonderland and become a Queen.

Well, an actual objective! Will wonders never cease. Tell me, who are you? The Cheshire Cat?

The person who knows that you have to be very, very large to reach some things that are up high.

...so you're a hint vendor? Not that I couldn't guess there'd be some size-changing involved. Where am I?

You won't be going anywhere unless you're small enough to get through the small doors.

Ah, macro and micro.

(Let's not get into that.) So why are you sitting around and dispensing rather obvious clues, anyway?

Ta, ta. I'll see you when you come back for the Dormouse's tea party.

The Dormouse? Is he behind that door? Can you tell me how I'm supposed to reach it?

Don't be ridiculous. There are enough people who already are.

...what? Oh! Well! There's no need to be rude.

You needn't get huffy with me.

You're the one who started it! I just asked a question.

My, my, my; but people do make the most interesting pets.

I don't think we're going to get anything more from him.

Nothing you need. Shall we head down?

You talk as if you were the one clinging to a parasol for dear life.



But I suppose I shall. Oh, look! Is that what I think it is?

It is a brass stereopticon. Through its viewer, you see a three-dimensional picture of a child listening to a seashell.

Well, actually it's a stereoscope, but that's quite all right. I love stereoscopes.

Did you know that, in the future, any kid will be able to buy one and a collection of pictures with his own pocket money?

Goodness!

They're not all that popular anymore, though. Which is kind of too bad. I miss the little hand-held movie reels.

The what now?

Never mind, I'm just being old. Check out that tunnel over there.



I think I see an exit! I wonder where it leads?




...well.

This is where the game starts getting serious about jumping puzzles. Alice can't reach the upper levels yet, but she can climb that rope and hop around on the nearby ledges.

Which should allow me to take a closer look at what's on those tables.

It is a cute little sponge cake in the shape of a clover-leaf. The icing says 'EAT ME'.

Ah, I remember these! There was only one in the book, of course, but I'd better take them all. There. Now to take a bite of one...



Whenever you change size, the game has to load new sprites from disk. It takes a couple seconds.



Goodness! I imagine I'll be able to leap a fair sight farther now.

Yes, but you're too heavy to climb ropes.

That's all right; I can hop up those little platforms, then leap over to the fireplace on the right. That should get me upstairs.



And it does! I suppose I'll just help myself to these, then.

It is a bottle of elixer with the words 'DRINK ME' etched into the sides.

I noticed those two small doors, so I assumed these would show up.

When I first played this game, it took me a while to figure out those weren't coffee tables or something. Incidentally, one way to get stuck in this game is to run out of elixirs or cakes, so change size judiciously. (The other way we've seen so far is to enter Wonderland without the comfits; everything else we could have missed, we can return for at some point.)



I certainly won't fit in that door like this. I'll just drink an elixir...



...and another.





Awww, you're adorable!

I look like an asterisk!

But an adorable asterisk!

Let's see where this door leads, shall we?



Ah, I can get these cakes now! I'll have to eat a cake to jump high enough to reach the one on the left, but I'd have to eat one anyway to make the jumps on the left. I'll just have to be careful not to fall.



And here I am. From here, I can easily hop over and get the other cakes and elixirs; the easiest way to get to the lower ledge is to walk off the upper ledge and steer left with my parasol. I'll do the same from the lower ledge to reach the key I saw earlier...

It is a large iron skeleton key.

And done.

The key unlocks the small door on the ledge to the right. Don't drop it; you'll need it later to open this door again.

Not a problem. I'll just have an elixir, parasol down, walk over...



...and leave this most peculiar room behind. And I didn't even wind up drowning in a pool of my own tears!



In retrospect, I should have seen this coming.

Well, we've covered quite a bit of ground, so this seems a good place to pause. The next update will be bonus content featuring Alice's large and small movemeet animations; after that, someone's going to be getting wet again!

Jumping puzzles were nice while they lasted.