Mad, Mad Wonderland

Chapter Seven: The White Knight

Ted Starling liked to think that he was the smartest person in Wonderland. And really, he was, but to admit the fact would seem petty. He wasn't egotistical in the slightest; a bit prideful, maybe; but not egotistical. It was really just a known fact around the town.

As the only inventor in Wonderland, it surely made sense.

It seemed in the town of Wonderland, you either had an occupation no one else had, or you were nobody.

He was a well-known inventor, known around the country for his various inventions and contraptions. He was a celebrity, but the strangest thing was, no one seemed to know anything about him. He did no interviews, had no website; no one even knew how old he was. No one had any idea where he lived, and he liked to keep it that way. His personal life was his information only, and no one had to know anything about him.

His brother liked to call him a recluse, but who was he to judge?

Ted made inventions for anyone who wanted them. Of course, a price needed to be paid, but it was worth it, was it not? People liked to call him eccentric, but honestly, he was just crazy. All geniuses were crazy; it was a fact.

The inventor did all his work in his attic (which was much bigger than an average sized attic, mind you) It was cluttered with what most people would immediately label off as junk, but to Ted, it was his masterpiece. The pieces just needed to be put together to make something great. Strange contraptions of various sizes filled the room, and scrap metal and things no one would have a name for littered the spacious floor. The attic was dark; only a single light bulb hung from the ceiling. A candle sat on the desk next to a mountain of papers, lit and dancing in the darkness.

Although he was quite intelligent, he was also quite careless.

His attic had almost been set aflame several times, and he had almost been injured multiple times by his failed inventions. But Ted Starling was never one to give up, and he refused to listen to anyone when they tried to convince him to do so.

"You're so irresponsible," his brother would always say. "One day you're going to be in a situation and you'll have no idea what to do."

"Says the one who willingly drank poison."

Even geniuses had their flaws.

Ted would spend hours in his attic, sketching various plans and blueprints, putting together objects that no one would have ever considered to be able to work together. It was due to this that he had become quite unsociable. The only visitors he had were his clients, and he rarely had any social calls. Even his sister and brother rarely visited him. The only frequent visitor was that pesky Gnat, and Ted could hardly call him a friend.

"You're always stuck up in here," he would say. "People are going to think that you need to be taken to the nuthouse."

"And how do you know I don't need to be?"

His attic was his sanctuary, his home, and in some cases, his asylum.

He would stay up there for hours, completely oblivious to the world outside. His plans and inventions trapped him in the dark space, completely determined to keep him in with them. It was as if he was trapped in a maze, the only companions with him being his own inventions. He couldn't seem to get out, no matter what anyone did. Because of this he had become quite sickly; pale and with a hacking cough, he sounded as if he had already aged a decade. And in the darkness, if you gazed at him in a certain light, his hair would seem to have turned gray.

But really, he didn't mind.

His inventions were his only friends; always there for him and always there to keep him company. He knew that, unlike the other residents in Wonderland, his inventions would never betray him. The only time anyone ever saw Ted Starling happy was when he made a new invention. The liveliness everyone would see when his inventions worked would make him seem like a totally different person. His inventions were everything.

If only he knew they would also be his downfall.

~You have to be half mad to dream me up. – The Mad Hatter

a.n.Not one of my best chapters. I had no idea what I was going to write for this chapter. I had a hard time writing this one. I hope you still managed to find something promising in this chapter. I updated this one quite quickly, seeing as we'll never get to the main plot by the rate I'm going. I still have many characters I need to introduce, so I hope the updates will get speedier.

Why I've based Ted off of the White Knight: The White Knight is from 'Through The Looking-Glass' and is an inventor who rescues Alice from the Red Knight. In one of the Rapid Fire books, I believe it was said that Ted was the smarter one of the Starlings, and so I based him off of the White Knight. There is no White Knight in 'Alice In The Country of Hearts'.