A Very Mad Tea Party

Written by: Sapphire Faerie

Note: to avoid total confusion, I'm including a cast list, so you'll know which PIers are which. However, this will be in story form, not in play form.

Cast

...Alex as Xandra

Ahoteinrun as Inrun

Alex as Alex

Ammer as Ammer

Apricus as Rissa

Caesara as Cae

Cyanna as Cyanna

Tinkerbell as Ayse

Hunter Lupe as Hunter

Igg as Igg

Ixistant as Ixistant

Koku as Sasha

Lady Night as Lady Night

Lillie as Lillie

Sapphire Faerie as Chass

simsman2400 as Marc

SpiraLethe as Spira

Starchaser as Ariel

Sock as Sock

Teddymon as Greg

Vkceankraz as Kim

Xil as Dan

Yoshi as Yoshi

Chass sat at her desk, feet up, and tapped a pen against her chin. She balanced her notebook against her knees with her left hand and stared at its blank pages. The computer hummed idly in front of her. She thought much better on paper than on screen, but at the moment she was drawing a blank altogether. Her deadline was nearing and she had no idea what to write for the next issue of the Pink Ink.

"Chass," said a voice behind her. She jumped slightly and slammed her feet down onto the floor, causing her notebook to go skidding away, and spun her chair around. Inrun was standing a few feet away looking annoyed.

"Hmm?" Chass asked as she attempted to retrieve the notebook.

"The guys are missing." Inrun crossed her arms.

"The guys?"

"Every male Pink Ink staff member seems to have vanished."

"Hmm ... I had noticed it was awfully quiet around here. Sure they're not just ... I dunno ... upstairs watching a ..." Chass gave an involuntary shudder, "... game?"

"We looked. Cae wants everyone to meet in her office to discuss this." Inrun turned away, "I've got to go find Lillie."

Chass tossed her notebook back onto her desk, and scurried toward Cae's office at the end of the room. She slipped inside and looked around. Cae sat at the large desk, frowning and punching keys on her keyboard. Everyone else was sitting and standing around, mostly quiet, but a few were whispering. Chass found Alex and Xandra in one corner and joined them.

"What exactly happened?" She asked.

"Not sure... I heard there were signs of a struggle," Alex whispered.

The door opened again, and Inrun entered, followed by Lillie.

"Sorry!" Lillie whispered blushingly to the group.

Cae stood up and looked around. "At approximately 1 PM, all seven male Pink Inkers disappeared. Oddly enough, the other fifteen of us didn't notice a thing. I like to think it was due to a mutual dedication and total absorbtion in article writing ... But I know better. I know about the PS2 in the break room, Ayse."

Cae had paused and was looking directly at Ayse, who opened her mouth, but didn't say a word. Nevertheless, Cae smiled and moved on.

"I know about it because I sneak in there myself sometimes. Anyway, we do have a couple of leads. A purple earring was found under Ammer's desk, and I seriously doubt it's his. Also, Sasha found a brochure for Wonderland Park in the south stairwell. We're now waiting for the security video from that stairwell to finish downloading."

Silence fell upon the group as they waited. When the video finished, Cae turned her monitor to face the group, and asked Ariel, who was nearest the light switch, to turn out the lights.

The video started, and the girls watched unblinkingly. The seven missing coworkers were clearly identifiable moving down the stairs. They were following an eighth figure, who was unrecognizable. The figure in front was clearly the one that dropped the brochure. The tape ended shortly after the figures vanished from sight. The lights turned back on, and the whispering began.

"Who was that?!" Rissa's tiny voice demanded.

"What do we do now?" Sock asked those near her.

"Wonderland Park ... I've never heard of it, have you?" came Lady Night's clear voice.

Cae interrupted the hubbub with her announcement. "We have to rescue them of course. You ladies have 15 minutes to get yourselves together and get outside. We have to take an emergency 'field trip' to Wonderland Park." With that she dismissed the ladies, and they filed out.

Chass straightened her desk and shut down her computer before joining the others outside. Kim was sitting on the steps fiddling with a digital camera. "Is that for photographic evidence?" Chass asked.

Kim blinked, "Actually, um ... I've never been to Wonderland Park, so I thought I'd take pictures. But we can use it for that too."

Igg stepped outside and glanced at the small clusters of girls standing about, "How are we all getting there anyway?"

Cyanna spoke up, "Lady Night's going to borrow a bus."

"A bus?!" Igg said trying to hold back both laughter and awe.

"The Lady's got connections." Cyanna said with a grin.

Just then the bus pulled up, with Cae already on board. "Come on ladies! We don't have all day." She tapped her foot as she waited for everyone to get settled. Once they had, the short trip to the nearby park began.

There was an air of nervousness among them. No one knew exactly what they might find. All they could do was wait and see when they got there and hope for the best.

The trip ended soon enough, and everyone piled out and stood around staring at the entrance to the park. The park was enclosed by a giant hedge, and seemed to, not suprisingly, have an Alice in Wonderland theme.

Lillie was the first to step through the gates. She had been smart enough to grab the brochure to the place before they left the Pink Ink Headquarters. She opened it up and studied the map briefly before turning back to the others. "It's not a large park at all. The different areas are just divided by hedges, it shouldn't take long to search the whole park."

So that was just what they did, going from one area to the next. They saw plenty of people about, but no one they recognized. Chass seemed to be more interested in the park itself rather than looking for the guys. It wasn't until they reached until Spira stepped into an area of the park ahead of everyone else, and exclaimed, "I don't believe it!" that she came to her senses.

There, in a large grassy area, sitting around a large table, were all of the missing coworkers. This seemed to be the Mad Tea Party area of the park. And boy was it mad. The boys were all sitting docile and staring straight ahead, as though entranced. Each was wearing a frilly doll-style dress over their clothes. The table was set for an extravagent tea.

At the head of the table sat their captor ... Tymaporer. Her face had drained as pale as paper when she realized she was caught. Her eyes were wide, and she was gripping the arms of her chair in near panic.

"Tyma! What on earth have you done?!" Inrun demanded.

Tyma opened her mouth a couple of times, like she couldn't get the words out. But finally they came, "I just wanted to have a tea party!" With that she burst into tears. She buried her face in her hands, but between sobs her voice could still be heard. "I'm so.. sorry. I just wanted ... to have a ... tea party!"

Cyanna ran up and put an arm around Tyma. "Don't cry. We're not angry with you."

Sasha had walked up to Marc and was poking him in the arm, he barely responded. "What did you do to them?"

"I only entranced them a little! I promise!" Tyma had stopped crying and was starting to calm down.

Spira walked up and stood behind Hunter. "Cae, do we really have to rescue them? They're kinda cute like this." She gave Hunter a pat on the head as she spoke.

Cae looked at the boys sitting so quietly. "Ya know ... I think you're right."

A grin suddenly spread across Sock's mouth, "Let's put makeup on them!"

"Great idea!" Ayse said, also with a grin.

"Let's not go overboard." Ariel warned, "They'll have to come out of this soon, right Tyma?"

"Yea, pretty soon." Tyma was fully calm by now.

"In the meantime, why not enjoy it?" Xandra asked, settling herself into an empty chair.

"Yea, Tyma, you've got room at your party for a few more, haven't you?" Sasha asked.

"Of course!" Tyma looked happier than ever.

"Good, because I don't think I can look at these cakes any longer without digging in." Lillie laughed and sat down. She was right - the table was laden with tiny frosted cakes, crumpets, biscuits, and several steaming pots of tea and cocoa.

Rissa looked slightly disappointed and muttered something about wanting to braid Ixistant's hair, but sat down anyway.

Everyone found a place at the table, and there was much laughter, at least from the girls. The boys drank their tea, but didn't do much else.

It wasn't long before Chass was leaning back in her chair, full of warm tea and cake. She was happy because now she knew what to write about for PI. She'd closed her eyes and was thinking about exactly how it would all come together, when the sound of a teacup being broken alerted her.

Seven male bodies had nearly simultaneously jumped up from the table. As Chass glanced down the line of them, each seemed more shocked than the prior at his own attire.

"What on earth?!" Yoshi asked glancing at the pale green dress he wore and then at the girls still sitting happily at the table.

Ammer had ripped off the yellow dress he'd had on and was holding it in front of him, staring at it speechless.

Dan made a face and looked down his front, "Why do I always end up in a pink dress in PI?!"

Greg grinned and turned to Dan, "So it WAS you!"

"Umm.. why is my hair braided?" Ixistant asked.

Chass turned to Rissa who gave a small smile.

And thus our story ends.

Disclaimer: I take full responsibility for the absurdity of this story. But I think somehow I'm gonna try to blame video games for this one... Yea.. I blame Kingdom Hearts!