☕️ Alice’s Mad Tea Party Presents:
🍵 Alice Spills the Tea - Vacation Is a Suggestion
Now listen.
I was supposed to be on vacation until this whole New Era was officially launched over at the Immortal Gazette.
That was the plan. A very official plan. Signed, sealed, and announced with great seriousness. I was meant to disappear into the holiday haze, drink irresponsible amounts of tea, ignore cursed manuscripts, and return after the New Year refreshed and ready to launch this shiny, mysterious New Era everyone keeps whispering about.
But then I remembered something rather important.
I do not follow rules.
Rules follow me - nervously - and only when they absolutely must.
So here I am.
Back in the studio.
Lights low. Bells locked. Staff only.
Holiday decorations half-hung, teacups everywhere, and the Immortal Gazette studio suspiciously quiet. Too quiet. Which, frankly, is insulting.
You see, it is the holiday season. A time for warmth, wonder, tradition… and very old stories that refuse to stay put. And there was no chance I was going to let the season pass without telling you that Crump story.
Yes. That one.
The one whispered around hearth fires. The one parents pretend not to know. The one that makes children behave and adults suddenly remember forgotten prayers. If you think I was going to sit this out while everyone else pretended they had dibs on New Era storytelling, you clearly do not know me at all.
And let us be perfectly honest, shall we?
I may or may not be attempting to beat the Immortal Gazette Studio to first publication in the New Era.
Purely on principle.
Entirely accidental.
Absolutely intentional.
Rumple can announce eras all he likes. New storytellers can sharpen their quills. Twisted Ivy can smuggle tea through security. But this?
This is my column.
And if the New Era is beginning, then I reserve the right to sneak in early, holiday slippers on, staff sworn to secrecy, and spill something deliciously unsettling before anyone realizes I was missing.
So pour the tea.
Lock the doors.
And pretend you didn’t see me clock in.
Because vacation can wait.
Legends do not.
And neither, apparently, do I.
Alice
Queen of Ink & Lore
On Vacation Only in Theory
First to Spill, Last to Apologize ☕️🎄✨
