A note from Lexie about Quinn in Wonderland, also known as Quinn's Adventures in Wonderland.

Thank you so much for reading this story and sticking with me through all the madness I threw at you! This story was simply a result of some aimless summer creativity and a whole lot of free time. It's been an incredible journey combining two of my favorite fandoms into one silly piece of fanfiction, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing. This story became something I never thought it would. It even comes up on Google, for goodness sakes! For every single comment, question, review, and concern I've ever received for this story, thank you from every part of my heart! It all just meant so much to me!

There are just a few things I would like to address...

Hatter/Quinn
I received quite an uproar of comments about this ship. Personally, it was a bit humorous how in the beginning everyone seemed to refer to Hatter as Puck, but as the story continued on, the name Hatter was the one that stuck. There were a few scenes I typed up first before writing this story as a whole. The first one was the White Queen and White Knight/Mr. Dodo reunion scene, and the other one was Quinn and Hatter's goodbye. So from the beginning, I knew Quinn was never going to stay in Wonderland. Alice never did, and I think that's a really important element to keep in the story. We can't all live in our fantasy land forever... but that doesn't stop us from trying to recreate our real life into one we want it to be.

White Queen/Mr. Dodo/Red Queen
This was where I put my Greek mythology to work. This was the love triangle that started the whole war, the Menelaus/Helen/Paris of Wonderland. This was their Trojan War. It goes back to love being the most important theme in the story. People do the craziest things when they're in love. Maybe love is the key to everything, even to both destruction and bliss.

Hatter/Mr. Dodo
And this was where I put my Star Wars geekdom to work. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi anybody? Serious brownie points to anybody who called the parallels throughout the story. Possibly one of my favorite mentor/student relationships ever! Just thinking about the adventures of mischievous little Hatter and the dashing Mr. Dodo makes me giggle. What a funny twosome!

The Prophecy
Contrary to what some have asked, it was not a cop-out. If it was, it was probably the most structured cop-out I have ever written! I knew from the start I wasn't going to do a complete replica of any version of Alice in Wonderland. I had seen soome of Syfy's Alice, Tim Burton's remake, Disney's rendition, etc, etc. but I wanted to make my own version, so I combined as many fantasy elements in my mind as I could and out came this. From the start, I wanted a prophecy that made Quinn the savior, as well as justifying the love between her and Hatter. Fiction needs more heroines, me thinks! So the prophecy was written after writing the "A Long Tale from Mr. Dodo" chapter, and from then on, I carefully worked around that.

Baths, Blood
Probably my favorite symbol in the story. Someone caught onto this, and it made me so happy! If you notice, Quinn takes quite a few baths throughout most of the fic before being absolutely destroyed in the Battle of Wonderland. What does it mean to have this constant cleansing before the final battle? Sometimes, the only way to wash away your fears is to face them.

So what is Wonderland?
I made a lot of parallels between Wonderland and Beth, especially towards the end of the story. Quinn had a decision to make: to stay or to not stay in Wonderland; to keep or to not keep Beth? As ridiculous as the plot of this whole fic is, I wanted it to maintain as in character as I possibly could, and for Quinn, that meant finding a way to include Beth. So this decision of keeping something or letting it go became a central part for the last few chapters, and as we all know, Quinn gave up Beth for adoption so she could have a better life. Quinn left Wonderland to return to her family. In both versions, Quinn became a stronger, tougher girl out of these experiences. That was the point I wanted to make.

So then... what is Wonderland in this story? Was it a dream? Was it a memory? Was it just another universe? Was Quinn the only one who experienced this?

Maybe somethings are just meant to be accepted and not questioned... Maybe that's Wonderland. Blind faith. Internal journey. Love.

Anyways, thank you so much for putting up with my nonsense, thank you always to Emily and Becca for editing my madness, and thank you for accepting my invitation to play around in Wonderland with me for a bit.

Stay lovely,
Lexie