The White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, and Alice.

Inevitably, these characters have to be there, and they have to serve certain roles in the story.  Alice has to be the protagonist.  The White Rabbit has to be the catalyst that draws her out of her normal life and into Wonderland.  The Cheshire Cat has to be the guide that gets her here and there, without ever really telling her where she's going.

My issue is that this setting really doesn't have room in it for anthropomorphic animals.  So we have to concentrate more on the function of these roles than the form.  What does the Cat need to be able to do?

My cat must be able to come and go at will, and lead Alice where she needs to go.  His presence needs to be ephemeral, fleeting.  Like his namesake, he should probably never speak clearly.

The more I think on it, the less I need the Rabbit to be a character.  I'm beginning to get an idea in my head, another 'what-if' scenario.

What if the Cheshire Cat 'dies' early in the novel, before Alice comes on to the scene.  What if he hides his consciousness in a specially prepared white rabbit?  What if that rabbit is then given to Alice as a birthday present?  At that point, the rabbit becomes the cat's tool and vehicle, a way to manipulate Alice at the onset, and something for Alice to protect as the story progresses.

There needs to be communication, and a plot.  So... the Red Queen wants the Cat, or something that the Cat knows.  She gets the Cat's body, but his mind is gone already, in the Rabbit.  Alice gets the Rabbit, without knowing what it is.  Shortly thereafter, the Queen discovers where the Cat's mind has gone, and goes after Alice, sending her fleeing into the underworld.  And probably some time in that last section is when the Cat decides to start talking to Alice, probably through some sort of technological interface.

Musings on the Mad Hatter and March Hare

I'm sitting here, thinking about what must be one of the key characters of this story.  How can you have an Alice story without a Mad Hatter?  And he can't just be 'mad'.  Why is he mad?  What is his madness like?  There has to be a sensible reason why he's missing a few screws, and with the lack of mercury in hat making in the dark future, we're shy the classical excuse.

What if it's drugs?  A long term abuse of hallucinogens might be a way.  Addicted to the point that stopping will kill him.  So suffused with his drug that he moves in a cloud of it, drawing others into his lunacy as he passes.  He still lives in the real world, but it's all seen through a twisted glass.

Which brings up the March Hare.  Of all the characters, he and the Dormouse are the most troublesome.  I can't see a way to change them into humans without losing what they are.  And then it hit me.  What if the Hare is something that only the Hatter can see?  An invisible friend brought on by the drug, a companion in his constant haze of madness.

Where did the Hatter come from?  How old is he?  Why did he start using the drug?  What is the drug?  What does it really do?  How addictive is it?  Can you overdose? Likely not, or he would have by now.  Perhaps he's grown to a point where the drug isn't toxic to him anymore.  It's a part of him.

Well, the more questions I have to answer, the more answers I have to write!