📖TRANSCENDENT T@LES 01 (ALICE IN WONDERLAND)📖 - Writing Various Things

As stated on the title, this story is the first part of SideM's current longest story series, Transcendent T@les, abbreviated as TT for short. The series is about all the idols (yes 49 of them!!!) performing in stage plays based on famous fairytales from all around the world with some fun twists mixed in. Despite being a story series, each of the stories are about a different fairy tale, though they're all connected for being about a journey of…a certain guy. Every stories also have a daily life section on the first half where the idols prepare themselves for their performance, doing P@ssion Challenge related to the group's assigned fairytale, and deepening their bonds with each other since this time, the groups are composed of members from different units.

DAILY LIFE PART

The story started with Producer and Ken got called by the President to his room in order to discuss a potential new project, which was for the all 315Pro idols to participate in a stage play series. This idea was offered by the President's acquaintance, an owner of an old theater that was planning for said theater renewal. The President saw this opportunity to promote both 315Pro Idols and for the revitalization of the theater. Thought the project to be interesting, Producer and Ken excitedly accepted to work on the project.

Some time later, Touma, Hideo, Makio, and Ren arrived at the office after being called by Producer. The Producer themselves came into the scene then proceed to explained the stage play project that would feature 315Pro idols to four of them, which revealed the stage play's theme to be based on fairytales known all over the world that would be divided into 12 performances with different fairytales each. Like Producer, Ken, and the President earlier, Touma, Hideo, Makio, and Ren were pretty pumped with this project and were very grateful for the opportunity. After that, Producer gave each of them a script with the title "Alice in Wonderland". All of them immediately read their script…only to be confused by how different the script was compared to the version they were familiar with, since Alice was somehow completely absent and Touma was assigned in playing an amnesiac character which, of course weren't in the original "Alice in Wonderland" (seriously, "Alice in Wonderland" without Alice??? the theater guy got some unique sense of humor LOL, but it's not like Alice is completely gone from the story…) though Makio quickly pointed that the stage play's script is "based" on the original "Alice in Wonderland" and not a direct adaption after all. Beside Touma's role, there were Hideo assigned as the White Rabbit, Makio assigned as the Hatter, and Ren assigned as the King. Ren, being the extremely prideful as usual, was really happy with his role and thought the role as fitting for someone like him. Since the script given to them was quite different from the original version they remembered, they decided to reread the original version so they could compare the differences between the two version in order to understand their roles properly, however Ren refused at first as for him just the script was enough. After that, Touma, Hideo, and Makio basically begged him to read the original book with the reason that doing so would help him in his acting. Convinced, Ren straight away ordered P to gave him the book but P told him that the office didn't have the "Alice in Wonderland" book. This prompted Touma, Hideo, and Makio in planning to go to the bookstore together to grab a copy of the book for each of them, with a reluctant Ren alongside them since he previously suggested for P to be the one to go to the bookstore instead but the other four stated that P was way too busy to do that.

At the bookstore, they successfully acquired four copies of "Alice in Wonderland" so Ren expected them to come home immediately but to his dismay, Hideo and Makio went to bought the magazine they were looking for and Touma went to check the recipe section. When all of them finally got the book they wanted, it was revealed that all of them bought something related to food; Touma bought a curry recipe while both Hideo and Makio each bought a different magazine about sweets. Then they ask Ren what kind of books he likes to read as he was the only one not buying anything beside the "Alice in Wonderland" book, which he answered that he doesn't read books and he will finish reading the "Alice in Wonderland" book quickly. The group then planned to do a reading session together, something that once again Ren found bothersome at first but they managed to bait him to join them with mentioning about eating cakes while reading.

During the group reading session…Ren immediately fell asleep when he started reading the "Alice in Wonderland" book, right after he ate the cakes so the rest of the group just let him be. Few hour later, Ren awake and found that the rest of the group has finished reading the book and were discussing the difference of the plot compared to what they remembered. Then they planned to do something in order for the fans to know the plot of the original book, in a way that even someone that find reading books hard to do would able to also understand it perfectly (like certain cough idols in this agency cough one of them is literally in this group no matter how much he tried to denies it cough ). While they were in the middle of the discussing their plan, Producer asked them if they had finished reading the book in which Ren replied that he had read it until the part where Alice fell into a hole …Touma immediately pointed at how he barely even read the book 😭 Lost in deciding what to do for their plan, the group asked Producer for advice, with Producer suggested them to read the original book's story aloud for the fans instead. The group agreed at the suggestion, even developed it into a recorded storytelling theater for their P@ssion Challenge corner to make it even more interesting.

During the filming of their P@ssion Challenge, they reenacted the original book's story exactly as they planned earlier. After the filming was finished, Producer complimented them for their performance. Ren complained at how he wouldn't want to do shit like reading books and drawing ever again, but when Touma and Hideo praised his drawings of unique looking "monsters" he scoffed at them for not understanding the artistic sense of his genius self. Touma then said that they will start the rehearsal for the stage play on the next day.

At the beginning of the rehearsal, each of the group members introduced themselves to the director of the stage play and the old theater's owner, Ui Seiku. Then, Ui instructed them to get ready for actor-to-actor introductions and the first read-trough. The group talked about the times they acted on action oriented works together, and Makio pointed that he was kind of jealous of Ren always getting flashy and cool roles with Ren mocked him for being too weak for those kind of roles. As a comeback, Makio gloated to him with the fact that he DID had starred in some roles with action scenes though Ren just brushed him off. Their discussion about their acting branched off action oriented works, with Makio also pointed that Touma's scene where he confessed to the heroine in a romance drama they starred together was a huge hit among the female students in his school which made Touma slightly embarrassed. Ren ranted about how pointless is it to remember as unimportant as someone you used to worked with, Hideo replied that it was just something he remembered naturally as he regarded the times he was working with others as memories with them. Then, Ui finally called the group to do their read-through.

After the read-through, Ui praised them and said their performance is exactly of what he is looking for and all they need to is to polish their acting even more. Several days later, the group practiced their action scenes together while praising each other improvement. When they took a break, Makio declared that he bring something special for this occasion and brought out "Secret Roll" which was…a roll cake Souichirou full of whipped cream for them to eat it together. After their practice was over, they decided to eat out together, with Touma invited them to come over to his house as he wanted to try out the curry recipe he had bought the other day (remember the bookstore scene earlier?). Excited by the invite, Makio offered to bring cake, Hideo said he will also make some pancakes, and Ren didn't mind as long as there are foods for him to eat.

At Touma's house, as promised Touma served them curry based on the recipe with Ren got the jumbo-jumbo size serving which he has requested before, right after his arrival. Makio and Hideo complimented the curry while Ren asked for a second serving, a jumbo-jumbo-jumbo sized rice! Makio and Hideo called him out for this out of worry since he just finished a jumbo-jumbo size serving but Ren arrogantly claimed jumbo-jumbo-jumbo -jumbo sized is nothing for him. Touma immediately pointed that Ren add another "jumbo" and told Makio and Hideo to eat as much as they like.

After a while, they divided the task they needed to do. Hideo and Makio handled the pancakes making while Touma and Ren washed the dishes. In the process of making the pancakes, Makio praised Hideo's skill and both of them talked about the Sweets Club inactivity due to the members busy schedules, with Makio brought up Souichirou's improved baking skill to the point of him got praises from Ange Shiraki (this is a reference of Cafepara's 10th Anni story). Meanwhile, Touma quietly watched Ren with a smile on his face when they washed together, then quickly retorted to him that he didn't expect him to be good at washing dishes since Ren was weirded out by his stare. Ren replied that the ramen dude (a certain man named Michiru) usually making him wash the dishes and told him to wash the stuff he ate from (sasuga Michiru…). Ren added, if is it THAT weird for him to do the dishes and Touma affirmed his suspicion as he didn't even expect him to help out. Ren pointed out that if he didn't finish washing the dishes soon he won't able to eat dessert but Touma teased him a little, saying if that was the only reason which frustrated Ren.

After a while again, the group ate various deserts together, including the pancakes that were made earlier and the cakes that Makio promised to bring. While enjoying the desserts, they started making connection between cakes and their relevance in the story of "Alice in Wonderland" as cakes in that story affect the titular character size several times. They also reminisced various jobs they had done during the Passion Period and that P@ssion Period was going to end soon.

STAGE PLAY PERFORMANCE PART

The group started their performance of "Alice in Wonderland". The roles consist of (side note, some of these roles are actually not what they seem):
- Touma as ???

- Hideo as White Rabbit

- Makio as Mad Hatter

- Ren as King of Spade

Once upon a time, a man woke up in a jail cell. Not only that, apparently he lost his memories so he couldn't remember the reason of his arrest, heck he wasn't even able to remember his own name! As he tried to think the way to escape, the jail opened by itself and the man took no time to leave. He spotted the White Rabbit, thus asked him if he is arrested as well but the White Rabbit just walked past him. Mixing frustration and desperation, he amnesiac man yelled at the White Rabbit, asked him if he know anything about his identity, with the White Rabbit apparently not surprised by his amnesiac state and quickly ran off somewhere due to his fear of being late before the amnesiac man could ask anything else. Didn't know what else to do, he decided to chase the White Rabbit but the White Rabbit quickly outrun him. Suddenly, he smelled the fragrance of black tea so he went to the direction to the source of the fragrance since he was thirsty thanks to the whole White Rabbit ordeal.

As the amnesiac man reached his destination, he met a man preparing and arranging various things and decided to greet him. The man then invited him into joining a tea-only party. The amnesiac man asked him his name, but the name decided to messing with him a bit until he introduced himself as the Hatter. The Hatter instructed the amnesiac man to take a seat wherever he likes, but constantly scolded him for picking seats belonging to other people and told him to read the name tag on the chairs to know his where to seat. The amnesiac man told the Hatter that he lost his memories so he didn't even know about his own name so the Hatter gave him a leftover name tag, which happened to be "Alice", and offered him a seat.

The amnesiac man, now named Alice, delighted by the delicious tea and claimed how it would be better with some cakes, which the Hatter ultimately agreed but mentioned it's impossible since all the cakes were gone since they were taken by the King. Enraged by this fact, Alice decided to protest to the King in which the Hatter also wanted to do but he said they need to eat something first, since there weren't any cakes the substitute for them were…mushrooms…and all of the shrooms have side effects. The Hatter ate a cream puff shaped mushroom which ended up making him acting all timid. Curious about the other mushrooms' effect, Alice ate a square shaped mushroom, which made him acting all high and mighty. The effects on both men didn't last long, as they came back to normal quickly, with the Hatter then noted the way Alice just acted made him think he would become a king of sorts (what in Odra level of foreshadowing). They tried to taste some more mushrooms, but the Hatter remembered their planned to protest to the King about the cakes. Both of them went to the castle, with mushrooms that they brought to fulfill their hunger on the way.

Alice and the Hatter arrived on the castle, but unfortunately for them the King's soldier forbid their entry and both of them ended up arguing with said soldier. The White Rabbit hear the noise and asked about their business that made them came to the castle. Alice requested the White Rabbit to bring them to the king but the White Rabbit suddenly ran away again out of fear of being late, so Alice and the Hatter decided to chase after him. There was a glimpse of the King acting tyrannical to his own soldiers, threatened them with the risk of arrest if they upset him even in the slightest and used them as croquet hoops. When they arrived, the King snapped at the White Rabbit for bringing the other two people to him, with the White Rabbit blatantly denied the accusation and introduced the King as "The King of Spades". The King of Spades was furious at Alice for escaping the jail and smugly revealed that he was the one that cast a spell on him to erase his memories in the first place. Alice begged him to give him back his memories while the Hatter begged him to return the cakes, but The King of Spades refused both of those requests, which resulted in Alice and the Hatter to called him a tyrant and a glutton.

Tired of their babblings, the King of Spades offered them to play a game with him and promised to grant their wishes if they managed to win. Unfortunately, Alice and the Hatter lost as the game was obviously rigged on the King of Spades' favor from the start. The King of Spades then put both of them on trial to decide the punishment that aligned with their crime, losing the game to him. After he struggled to decide a proper punishment since the White Rabbit kept refuting his suggestions one after another, the King of Spades finally decided with the punishment, put them on jail and erase their memories (exactly what he did to Alice before).

In the jail, Alice and the Hatter woke up and as expected, their memories were completely wiped out. While they tried to figure out their identity, they were hungry but lucky for them, they found bunch of mushrooms in their pockets which they decided to eat a lot of them at once so their hunger disappear. After they ate the mushrooms, both of their memories came back and they remembered their identities. The Hatter remembered his name and all of the events prior to their imprisonment, meanwhile Alice remembered his actual identity that he had forgotten since the beginning of the story, "The King of Hearts". After hearing the revelation, The Hatter joked that the kingdom has two kings, the forgetful king and the gluttonous king. The King of Hearts then pointed that the gluttonous king is actually a sham and he wanted to defeat him in order to get his castle back, in which the Hatter offered to lend his hand so he could get his cakes back. The White Rabbit appeared and confirmed that he knew the King of Hearts' identity all this time, so in response the King of Hearts questioned him on his decision in obeying the fake king in the first place. The White Rabbit said that he only submitted in order to wait for the opportunity for the King of Hearts regained his memories and to gather the soldiers so they can reclaim the castle. Then, the White Rabbit gave the jail keys to the King of Hearts so he and the Hatter could release the imprisoned soldiers, as he was in a hurry due to the fear of being late (again). Afterwards, the King of Hearts, the Hatter, and all the released soldiers were having a tea-only party at the Hatter's place to took a break (since the King of Hearts wasn't Alice anymore, he wasn't permitted to sit in Alice's seat so he decided to sit on a tree stump with his name tag on it, lol).

The King of Hearts, the Hatter, and the soldiers rushed to the castle in order to face the King of Spades with the White Rabbit's instructions. When they finally met up with the King of Spades, the King of Heart declared that he and his soldiers will captured him. The King of Spades was almost cornered, until he attacked the King of Hearts using his magic which made him unable to get closer to the King of Spades so he searched a weapon he could use. The Hatter gave the King of Hearts a flamingo while the White Rabbit gathered a lot of hedgehogs to the King of Hearts, in which he used them for playing croquet as a way to attack the King of Spades. The match showed no sign of ending, which made the Hatter hungry so the White Rabbit told him to eat the cakes nearby. This caused the King of Spade to be angry and lost focus on the match, so the King of Hearts used this opportunity to ordered his soldiers to capture him.

Following the King of Spades capture, he was then put on trial for hoarding all the cakes in the kingdom and taking over the King of Hearts' castle and doing whatever he wanted. The Hatter asked the King of Spades' objective in doing all the horrible shits he did for the entire story. He answered that he wanted to create his ideal kingdom where could eat a lot of feasts, playing croquet, and throw everything he doesn't like into jail o̶k̶a̶y̶ ̶P̶r̶a̶b̶o̶w̶o̶. As the punishment, the King of Hearts decided to put the King of Spades in jail, then asked his real name since he larped as the kingdom's king for the whole time. He revealed to everybody that his actual name is…

Oz.

IMPRESSION

As a whole, the story of TT01 "Alice in Wonderland" is a very satisfying and engaging. It definitely make me has a high expectation for the rest of the series. After all if even the very first story of the series has a lot of unexpected developments that's mean the next stories are gonna have even more exciting things in the stores right? Also I suspect that both the daily life and stage play share share a theme and this will apply for every stories, like for example, the daily life and stage play of TT01 centered a lot on "food". Or maybe it's more like the theme of the stage play is reflected on the daily life part? Kinda off topic, but I have seen people complaining that the group lineups for TT are too random or something but I actually kinda like it as it's mean interactions between characters that doesn't interact often.

The daily life part is so hilarious, if I wasn't in a room with a lot of people while reading I would be laughing out loud while reading so all I could do was to let out little snorts, especially any scenes involving Ren and foods but overall I really love that this group's members were so united and passionate (haha) when it's about food! I also love it scene of Touma and Ren washing the dishes together, now I understand why the context of why I had seen some Ps saying that Michiru had raised Ren properly around the time this story first released. I'm so proud of both Michiru and Ren!

For the stage play part, actually…I got spoiled (more like I spoiled myself since I was the one that got way too curious about this story series so I searched for other Ps' impressions lol) about some of the story surprising elements (like Touma is actually playing an amnesiac the King of Hearts and the King of Spades is actually Oz all along) but the way the story is presented still makes it an enjoyable story even with all of that information. I'm definitely glad they actually make new sprites for the idols wearing their outfit based on their role for this part (which I didn't expect at all because of previous story series' just used the stories' respective static CG when the idols conversed with each other if they wear something other than their usual unit outfits, though I think that would be unfortunate if they do that in this story series). I also read the lyrics of TT01's corresponding song (Wonderlander's Party) and it was far more 1:1 to the idols' role in the story than I thought that I found it amusing and quite funny (this is a praise). I found it amusing that, thanks to Oz appearing in TT01, a lot of Ps immediately guessed that TT12 would be about The Wizard of Oz but for an incorrect reason as they thought a character that supposed to "belongs" to previous TT is wandering in disguise in the current TT (I saw some Ps predicted that a certain blue haired genius in TT02 is going to be Alice somehow present in Urashima Taro's tale as the actual Alice is absent in TT01).

I think my favorite role in TT01 is the Hatter, he's so playful but get his priority straight through the story, though he was distracted at times (I keep muttering to myself that the King should just give him his cakes already lol). The Hatter was always one of the characters that I like the most when I watched the Alice in Wonderland movie like decades ago which is a feat itself as I didn't really remember much about it, but Makio's portrayal of the Hatter is like a mix of eccentricity, silliness, and cuteness (I especially like it when he made the winking-tongue out expression (idk what this expression is called I'm a boomer about shit like this man), which he did quite often.)

Also Oz…I wonder why he was so desperate in having a kingdom to his liking, to the point of taking over another fairytale and erased the original ruler's memories? Was it pure greedy desires or did he have an yet-to-be-revealed motive that cause him to do all that? One thing I noticed that other characters speaks eccentrically/in a posh way/refined way (idk exactly how to describe it in English...) at times, even when the King of Hearts lost his memories (I read somewhere that the characters of the original book speak that way though I actually haven't read the original book yet so I can't say much), meanwhile the King of Spades/Oz always speak in a straightforward way, kind of a foreshadowing that he is as an outsider of this tale. Overall, I'm definitely excited to find out more about this guy and what's the deal with him, this story series is about his journey after all.