Alice Margatroid

[Denarius]

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Alice Margatroid
Aliases:
The Seven Colored Puppeteer
Daughter of Shinki
Child of Wonderland

Personal Information

Age: 70-300
Gender: Female
Species: Once human, has now evolved into a full demon by intaking a large amount of magic. With this, and the ranking of her creator, Alice's rank is probably only a few nicks away from the ranks of those of Astaroth, Angel of Death, and maybe Satan himself. Of course, due to the fact that she's never stepped into actual Hell to prove herself, this means little to nothing besides bragging rights. Alice prefers to let her dolls talk for her, both figuratively and literally.

Alice calls herself a "Magician" demon. Her strength and stamina are on par with a human, but she no longer has to focus her magic on gathering mana, and can instead directly convert her thoughts and focus into energy for her spells, which allows her to go into more complex fields without problem. Actually, she probably eminates magic power just by thought alone. Also because of her inheritance from her mother, she can also move by levitation, which happens to be faster than traditional means of travel most of the time.

Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral, or just Neutral. Alice refuses the ideas of laws and organizations, favoring the ties of actual friendships and a tangible relationship over the illusion of community that most organizations bring, as even those groups are detached. However, Alice herself prefers to travel alone, and act on her own will, apart from her friends, though she's quick to assist whenever possible.

Canon or Original:
Canon, from Touhou Project
Date of Birth:
Unknown
Place of Birth:
Makai, aka the Realm of Demons
Physical Appearance: See above. Alice is a seamstress as well as a doll maker, so she's known to dress in multiple different outfits as well.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Combat Information
Special Abilities:

Doll CO: Alice prefers strategy over all else, and never allows herself to break the commands she's given to herself. The rules Alice follows at all times:

- Never use magic directly, only in the form of dolls.
- Never take an use a doll's weapon. The dolls must move and attack for themselves.
- Never break strategy and summon overwhelming dolls. A strict number and assembly must be adhered to. Strategy may change, but it may never break.
- Accept defeat and all its consequences.

Strife Formation: Alice's specialty is making use of her multiple dolls and magic to organize small squads of units to fight under her service. Although she has countless named tactics for where dolls are meant to go and how to act, they can be categorized into basics. Alice will follow her tactics to the world's end, and will never stop her tactics and attack headstrong without dolls. Although, that doesn't mean she's going to avoid some dirty-handed tricks when using dolls. It's all strategy, after all. It should also be noted that these dolls, like Alice, can levitate and fly.

Eerily Luminous Shangai Dolls
The basic of the strategies Alice employs. One larger, major doll by the name Shanghai takes the lead. Donning the cloth of the maiden, she wields a variety of small, one handed weaponry and a shield. That said, it's often seen for Shanghai dolls to wield a larger two-handed jousting spear on them, although this tends to be a more unruly weapon choice. Shanghai is smaller than Alice, barely reaching up to Alice's chest. During Alice's outside travels, she is normally accompanied by this Shanghai doll, for both personal assistance and as a preliminary preparation for attacks.

Alice herself keeps control of the doll with one hand, which allows her to also release three smaller Shanghai Dolls to support her in close range, should anything happen. These smaller Shanghai dolls are weak in comparison to the real one, and fade instantly after use. Due to this, they're meant more for emergency defense rather than offense. Smaller dolls are recorded to have all the weapons the original Shanghai holds, but without the shield. Smaller Shanghais can carry a regular human sized shield, but in compensation, lose the ability to hold any weapons. In comparison to the original Shanghai, these smaller variations are as big as Alice's head, and resemble more of the household dolls that one would see around the house.


Hanged Hourai Dolls
The other doll Alice may sometimes be seen with. Hourai is the altered foil to Shanghai. Wearing red clothes and sometimes two bowties instead of one, Hourai represents a more volatile, offensive version for battle. Hourai wield weapons such as double-sided lances or blades, heavy weaponry such as the bastard sword, or sometimes they will dual wield weaponry that Shanghai would normally only wield one of. This is an example of the volatile nature of Hourai, an offense unit with less defense.

Hourai is manipulated with the left hand, in contrast to Shanghai's right. Alice uses her right hand in this case to summon smaller Hourai dolls. Similar to the Shanghai dolls, the Hourai dolls are also a one-time fade-away attack, but their purpose is not for defense. Their main purpose is to support the larger Hourai doll with cover fire, be it from magic beams to weapon fire. As such, the mini Hourai dolls use long range bows, crossbows, small firearms, or no weapons at all.

Unlike Shanghai, Hourai is also stuffed with an emergency stock of gunpowder. Should she find a favorable chance, or is hit mortally, Hourai can explode in a final desperation attack. Of course, activating this prevents Alice from using Hourai again until she can properly reconstruct her outside of battle.


Spring Kyoto Dolls
A combination of Shanghai and Hourai. Abandoning the ability to use the Mini Shanghai or Mini Hourai, Alice uses both hands to control the larger dolls at once. Although Shanghai and Hourai no longer have their smaller counterparts to support them, they do have additional boosts. Their power is slightly improved, and their weapon choice is enhanced. Shanghai can now wield a large shield, larger than Alice, at the cost of removing weapon options. Hourai can now use the magic beams and long ranged weaponry of the Mini Hourai. Of course, Hourai cannot dual wield long range and close-combat at the same time. Due to the natural risque of this strategy, Alice uses this for maximum damage when she herself is in a safe position, free from most potential harm. Also to note: Hourai can still explode, and in the case that she does, Alice would simply transition directly to Eerily Luminous Shanghai Dolls


Russian Matryoshka Dolls
Modification of the Hourai Doll, but made to be completely stuffed with gunpowder. These small dolls are but HALF the size of the Mini Shanghais and Hourais, but they are summoned and sent out up to six dolls. As expected of gunpowder dolls, the Matryoshkas are suicide units, armed with absolutely no form of offense besides their own small selves. Their defenses are greater than Hourai's however, and the only thing that can ignite them prematurely is a flame, which causes them to create a small explosion. When Alice detonates them, however, the infused mana causes them to explode in a larger flare, essentially making them a grenade. Although Alice does not have to set off all Matryoshka dolls, she can only have up to 10 dolls on the field at any given point. Due to the colorful patterns in which they explode, Alice also uses these dolls for light shows and fireworks. Their explosions are comparable to something like Kirby's Firework from Kirby 64, or maybe Donald's Ultima in Kingdom Hearts 2.


Doll's War
A full execution of Alice's skills, using a combination of the tactics in Hanged Hourai Dolls, Eerily Luminous Shanghai Dolls, and Russian Matryoshka Dolls. The trade off, in the end, is less powerful overall. Like Matryoshka Dolls, Alice is able to summon up to 6 dolls at a time, with 10 being the maximum amount of dolls summoned. However, instead of using the suicidal Matryoshkas, Alice can summon Mini-Shanghais, Mini-Hourais, and/or up to 2 Matryoshka dolls. This time, the Mini-Shanghais and Mini-Hourais have both their original weapon composition, and the weapons that the original Shanghai and Hourai can wield in battle. However, unlike their larger counterparts, Mini-Shanghai and Mini-Hourai cannot switch their weapons mid-battle. They must be deactivated and replaced by Alice if she wants to use a different weapon scheme. This is actually Alice's personal favorite. Due to the large amount of dolls, she can basically walk around her house and not have to do any manual labor, and instead have the dolls take care of the work for her. Furthermore, the large number and diversity of the dolls allows her to create numerous doll formations, and name plans and formulas to play during a fight.


Grand Guignol
The highest rank of Doll's War, imbibed with unholy magic and the Puppeteer's trick. High ranked Puppeteers are able to plant strings that connect the puppeteer with any target. Grand Guignol plays a lot like Doll's War. However, there is no maximum doll count. Rather, Alice must summon 6 dolls every time, and all 6 dolls must fire and be spent as soon as possible. These dolls, the Ghost Guignols, are actually not real dolls, but rather, mana "pneumas" that are given a physical appearance as dolls. As such, these dolls are intangible, making them unstoppable.. but also completely worthless as shields.

The Ghost Guignols have no weapon, but merely spit out a single thread of string. This string, another pneuma, shoots out until it hits a solid surface. If this string misses, the doll will die and vanish in smoke. If the string hits a target, however, the doll will not die and melt into Alice's body, causing the string to connect with Alice herself. These strings are completely impervious to any form of attack: In order to destroy the strings, both the soul of Alice and the target's soul must perish. However, the strings do nothing on their own, but simply connect the target to Alice. Multiple hits on a single target do not cause multiple strings, but rather, makes the single string change in color and brilliance.

However, as soon as a string exists, Alice can then use Moirai. Tugging the string, she forcefully pulls the string out of the target. This does direct damage to them, registered as an a sudden sharp sting from within the person's body. The amount of damage depends on the amount of times a person was hit by the Ghost Guignols, equating to about 2% of the target's max health per hit. Yes, Grand Guignol CAN cause an INSTANT DEATH scenario, but only if she was able to successfully snap a string that was strengthened 50 times.



Pros and Cons to each Strategy
Shanghai
+ Easy to summon, almost always available instantly
+ Has the best defense of the tactics, with a shield on both Shanghai and Mini-Shanghais
+ Shanghai can take multiple hits, even more than Alice could in combat.
- Least damage potential compared to other tactics.
- Shanghai's capabilities are all average

Hourai
+ Better attack potential, with both Hourai's offense and the doll's support attacks
+ Better look on the offensive side, with powerful close combat and a diverse long-range ability
+ Hourai can take multiple hits, has the same stamina as Alice
- Mini-Hourais are not as good at defending as Mini-Shanghais. Alice is more open to a direct attack
- Hourai herself can explode, which disables the entire tactic.

Kyoto
+ 2 strong units, essentially creating 3 targets that have to be killed
+ Easy transition: Alice can summon Hourai or Shanghai directly and activate this tactic without waiting.
- Leaves Alice without any possible defense.
- Less diversity in usages, nor does it allow for transition into other tactics

Matryoshka
+ Highest consistent damage, with the explosive ways of Matryoshka dolls
+ Many dolls can be summoned at once, giving plenty of space to miss attacks and to organize larger plans
+ FIREWORKS~!
- Alice is once again, left open. It's not like she can defend herself by exploding a doll in her own face.
- Dolls are weak and usually die quickly. Quick or wide-ranged attacks can quickly dispose of the dolls before they can do anything.

Doll's War
+ Greatest diversity, holding dolls and attacks from all other attacks together
+ Dolls are in great numbers, allowing for Alice to perform an endless amount of plans and tactics for use.
+ Second highest damage potential, if used properly.
+ Has good utility outside of battle.
- Dolls are quickly eliminated, in a few attacks
- Individual dolls do little damage, meaning plans meant to do damage can quickly lose potency if a few dolls miss

Grand Guignol
+ Greatest damage, capable of instantly destroying an enemy
+ Threads are harder to dodge than magic beams, and dolls can't be destroyed through normal means
- Alice herself is completely undefended, once again
- A large amount of hits must be gathered before truly lethal damage is dealt
- Absolutely unideal for use when dealing with more than one target.
- Threads can easily be blocked with almost anything

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.


Weapons:

Shanghai
Young Maiden of the Blue, a doll dressed up proper for battle. Her hair, her face, and the way she moves herself in battle, amongst other things, makes her about as human as you or me. In fact, she might as well be considered a "homunculus doll", the only thing holding her back from being considered human is the fact that she is only an automaton with no soul. Instead, Alice controls her directly with the skilled hand only a puppeteer can provide. Skilled enough, however, that Alice can perfectly imitate life without much thought to it, simply with the common motions she had always had, and was taught with. Life capable to the point where Shanghai has its own voice, logic, and personality.

Shanghai herself is a curious, always moving doll who flies around Alice like a fairy, taking her time to tend to Alice's hair and clothes as needed. With her curiosity is a form of innocence, and becomes Alice's "smile", helping to create a more amiable atmosphere for when Alice herself is too cold-hearted to show care herself. Almost as if Alice gives Shanghai the job of smiling so that she herself doesn't have to exercise the muscles in her face to waste energy on people she believes don't need it. Shanghai doesn't wear out, which also allows her to perform most of Alice's tasks as well. She's also more methodical and logical in her works, which is why Alice puts her in charge of most organization parts of a job, along with smaller menial tasks that people would normally forget how to do. Stuff like sewing, fashion, cooking, and managing mechanical devices are some of Shanghai's usual things. Shanghai's design is also what influences the appearance of the Mini-Shanghai, which is a smaller counterpart, and the Ghost Guignol, which is a bleached florescent version of the Mini-Shanghai.

When outside, Alice keeps Shanghai around her. Most besides Alice's side. Shanghai does like to wander off the path and, with consent from her puppeteer, wander away from Alice and observe the little things in life. Details of the world around her. Is it for the analysis of the world, or just to enjoy the beauty of it? Only hers creator knows for sure.

Hourai

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Named after the legendary city of treasures. Hourai was first created by Alice soon after she was fully reborn as a demon of the world. At first, Alice never used Hourai, simply calling it another Shanghai, just with a slightly altered color scheme. As time passed, and her magic and strategy became more refined, Hourai's internal composition was altered and she became yet another persona of Alice; just another automaton like her sister Shanghai. However, it seems Hourai stuck out above her other personas at some point, as it's seen that Hourai has become a separate doll like Shanghai is. Like Shanghai, Hourai moves with what looks like its own life, as if it was human. However, she is also depicted to have been trained more rigorously, with a strict uprising. Due to that, her normal movement becomes rather slow and careful, moving as if she really was a princess, even if her manner of dress was not that much more refined than Shanghai's attire... if at all.

Hourai is the cynical one, holding the type of death glare of game face that would strike one as someone with power. Alice intended this so that it would mirror Hourai's more violent purpose of acting as a doll specifically made for offensive combat. Hourai is also less obedient to Alice, usually huffing as she's told to do orders, and sometimes downright denies orders, as the doll would rather not do work unbefitting for a princess. Of course, if Alice breaks into her for it, Hourai would eventually break down and do it. Amount of mumbling depending on how quickly Alice got her to do something. However, despite this attitude, she is also the most romantic, and is better for an artistic say and is often the one who cries and shows actual emotion. While Shanghai stays in a semi-permanent state of curiosity and diligence, Hourai's mood shifts depending on what she sees, giving her more feel to the doll, though Shanghai is usually the more desired choice, simply due to her smile.

Although she is mainly used for combat, Alice depends on Hourai to help her write novels or do illustrations for novels or paintings. Although she is not exactly eager to do work, Hourai's technique is precise and sharp. She doesn't like manual labor, so instead Alice gives her higher, but less important, jobs to do. Hourai becomes a sort of maid that focuses more on the shine of things. When with Alice, Hourai usually keeps her distance, or pretends she's preoccupied with something else. Though when addressed, be it by Alice or by someone else, she immediately starts talking or listening... usually with quite a bit of attitude. It's Hourai's design that inspires the appearance of Mini-Hourais, and the Matryoshka dolls, which are basically Mini-Hourais with a green-brown color scheme.


Grimoire of Alice: A book of demon magic given by her creator for her own personal use. When she first used it, it had completely rebirthed her, giving her the current abilities she has, along with giving her a new body and mind as a demon. Ever since then, she abandoned this gift in favor of creating her own powers. It has been sealed and may never be used. Rather, she uses the energy it siphons to store her dolls as cards for a more instantaneous summoning.

Alice's Past
History:
A young child stood at the coffee table at the roof of the castle. Underneath her was the crystalline kingdom of a newborn world. Demons wandered the planes aimlessly, only stopping when another appeared. Another prepared for this endless, uncivilized battle. This was their society, a community of madness, with the culture of violence. On top of it was was their Creator, who was always to be called "Our Beautiful Goddess". She had decided to overstep boundaries and create a demon world for her own uses, for her own experiments. Yes... everyone who lived here was nothing but a puppet that Beautiful Goddess would eventually cast away, using the raw materials for something once again. Most likely, to be used to expand the world, and add a few more diamonds to both the castle's exterior and the Goddess' circlet. But this story is not of the Beautiful Goddess, it is the story of the child, the special human who was allowed to call the Beautiful Goddess a name that no other demon could comprehend. This girl, Alice, was allowed to call the Goddess "Mother". The Goddess had created Alice as a sign of superiority amongst the other demons. A child who had more power than most any other demon, but was still considered human. The Beautiful Goddess was respected and Alice was coddled. Anyone who disagreed was allowed to be burnt at the hands of either Sariel or Yumeko.

"Alice, what are you reading? I thought you were studying..."

The girl quickly closed the book and pushed it away, thinking that by somehow doing that, the Goddess would suddenly forget what had happened, that she could get away with lying and avoid punishment. She smiled at her mother, who only returned the look with a blank face. Alice leaned forwards, hunching her shoulders together as she opened the storybook once more.

"I was just reading about people. It's a story about a girl who perished in fire, and was then reborn to be a human that would played with by the leaders of a nation...

Mama, why was the girl sad to be alive? She never dies, but the two leaders die at the end of the story. Why is she so sad, then? Mama?"


But the Beautiful Goddess was already gone. Alice closed the book again, and ran her hands along the edges of the books she had to study. She was so eager to find out how the girl gets saved at the end. Mother had told her stories like those were silly, because the girl always lived and that they all live happily ever after. Alice didn't mind, she liked those books. She liked living happily ever after. This time, though... the girl didn't mean much to her anymore. The girl wasn't going to live happily ever after, was she? She slumped over on the table, shivering as the cold of the table would numb her cheek as she rested there. It was disappointing when people aren't happy. She pulled the largest book until its spine was in front of her face. Grimoire of Alice... it was the book that Mama had given her when she was first created.

It was dinner now. Alice sat besides her mother amongst the other residents of the castle. They were not like the demons outside. They were more powerful, more refined. The Beautiful Goddess said that anyone who dined at that table were her children, and that they would be destined to do the same for their children. Everyone who lived in the presence of the Beautiful Goddess would inherit the Goddess' destiny. Alice didn't understand destiny that much. All she knew was that it was when other people tell you what to do, and what's going to happen to you. Alice didn't know what she wanted, or what was going to happen. Beautiful Goddess knew a lot, so Beautiful Goddess knows what Alice wants, and so she picks Alice's destiny. That was okay. Mama knows a lot. She would make the right choice.

"Alice, child. What is your destiny?"

"To be with Mama!"

The Beautiful Goddess had decided to send Alice to a puppetmaster as an apprentince for him. She said it was part of Alice's destiny, for her to learn puppet magic. Alice wasn't sure, but when she saw the beauty of the world, of the bustling city life with all its festivities. How the yellow-brick road was full of laughing children with their parents, how they all stood in front of the candy shop, or the doll factory, picking what they wanted. Most importantly, she was enraptured by the dolls. All of them, in so many shapes and sizes. Dolls, hanging ribbons on the front door and sometimes in Alice's hair. Dolls, throwing the confetti around everywhere, sometimes with extra gifts in them as well. And most importantly, the dolls of her master, who always smiled and would walk down the streets with a funny dance. One stopped in front of her as soon as she had landed, and lead her to walk towards the center of the world. Alice mimicked its soldier walk, and giggled when it fell over. She herself fell over with it, just so it didn't feel lonely. Alice had yet to realize that these dolls didn't have emotions. All she knew was that this place was for her, and that she would be happy here.

Her teacher was the Mr. Hatter, who shared the same eccentric and goofy attitude the dolls portrayed. The gaunt figure's movements were quirky, his tone was sing-song, and he made sure that wherever her was, there was someone else with him to share a smile with. Alice's teacher seemed to be the "Beautiful God" of this world. That morning when they first met, the Hatter brought her over to the tea table that overlooked one of the major crossroads of their town. Here, they would share the same morning ritual of tea and sugar, before starting the festivities and lessons. Sometimes, other people would join her.

The hatter stood up on the table and began singing once more. "The most important thing to puppeteers is honoring their ties with their friends. You know why, don't you?"

"I wish you'd make table manners imporant too, teacher!" Alice would yell. Hatter would sit down obediently, dipping his head down in an apologetic manner before...

"Because it's those very hearts that strengthens the ties to their dolls! The threeeeads of their magic!"

"Oh good grief!"

This was their morning ritual every day, and Alice would have it no other way. She would learn all the magic behind dollmaking here, the magic of puppetry, and most importantly, the idea that one's destiny is determined by one's dreams. She had found the idea that destiny was not because someone else was telling her what she was going to be, but rather that she was going to be what she dreamt of. But what were dreams? Alice had dreams. Dreams of candy and flying with the giant demons that would circle the castle sometimes. Dreams that she could meet the heros in her storybooks to see if she could rescue the princess with them. But this world was all her dreams put together! So did dreams predict what would happen to one in the future, that they would tell her what she would do? But she never dreamed of what Mama had in store for her. Not that she knew what the Beautiful Goddess wanted for her. The new puppeteer hugged her Grimoire, wondering whether Mama dreamed of her, and whether that was why Mama knew her destiny. For now, she was with Hatter, the dormouse Portha, and the aging rabbit known as Doppio. That was her world, and her Wonderland.

Alice returned to the realm of demons, and life moved from one monotonous life to another. She did focus on her dolls now, though. To make and take care of the dolls that she could control. Though right now, she could only perform with one or two dolls. It made for a good party trick, but not much else. Alice had yet to prove she was worthy to be called the child of the Beautiful Goddess, a child born for greatness. To be honest, she wasn't sure of it herself. Her life of monotonous days was only interrupted with her dreams now. Dreams of the Mr. Hatter and of the City of Puppeteers that he worked to bring up. She wasn't sure why she dreamt of this. Alice had finished her training, and was now considered a puppeteer. Why would dreams, which predict one's destiny, tell her about the place once again? Alice became more hopeful upon wondering about this, as she saw it as a truth, that she would return to the world of the puppets and be able to have tea with her Master once more. Not as Teacher and Student perhaps, but more as equals who wish to do nothing but continue the life of puppets. Most importantly, to continue their morning ritual.

(This next part is directly from this story here. I encourage you to take a read through it. It's a very good story, and I can't bring justice to it. You won't regret it.)

Almost as if her dreams for a more interesting life was granted, the world of demons was stormed by two humans, who wished to talk directly to the Beautiful Goddess. It was something about illegal traveling. Alice didn't understand most of it, but watched the distant smoke as the glares of explosives would slowly approach the castle. Was this going to be the end? Were they here to take the Beautiful Goddess' throne? Alice wasn't going to just let them pass, and left the castle to attack them. She was ultimately defeated, and these humans continued their assault. What had happened, though? Was Alice not destined to be the same as The Goddess? Why could she not fight them? And why was it that the Beautiful Goddess allowed this world to melt into flames! What is she doing, not even defending her own sacred daughter? After the incident, Alice decided to abandon her faith in the Beautiful Goddess.

"Alice?"

"I said don't touch me! It's because of you that I was bullied by a strange witch! This world has turned into a sea of fire all because of you! Why didn't you come to help me?!"

It was now, that Alice decided to do things her own way. She opened the Grimoire of Alice, and let herself absorb all its magic to attack the humans in a second chance, to try and destroy them... She never really told anyone what happened afterwards. It seemed that she was killed, but then reincarnated into a new body, with the strength and ranking of a demon. With this, she decided that she had surpassed her mother and left the demon realm to find something more meaningful than a foolish destiny given by a flawed being. Instead of destiny, Alice put her efforts into life, to see if it was within a being's power to create life from objects with no life. She was unsuccessful, but had come very close with the creation of Hourai and Ghost Guignol, the latter basically being the soul of a human being. Over this time, she remained secluded within the world Gensokyo. She herself didn't realize how robotic her own life had become, artificial her emotions and anger was. Perhaps Alice herself had forgotten why she was angry in the first place, or whether her anger was even logical.

One springtime, Alice was now face to face with two humans. These two failed to recognize her, but she could see them for who they were. They were the humans who decided to attack Alice's homeworld. Alice did not attack them with revenge, though. She lied instead, letting them remain unknown to Alice's past, and how they had once met. She befriended them, but distanced herself as much as possible. She couldn't care much for friendships, especially with these sorts of enemies... There was another reason why she distanced herself from them. All the humans did was torture her mentally. Remind her of the fall of that Demon World, and how she failed to show her worth as a creation of the Goddess. This continued for 2 years, until these friends apprehended her and confronted this hatred. To try and show the faults of her emotions in the way only Alice could understand. Through magic, and through violence. Alice was forced to dig into her memories, to think about who she was, and why she had hated her mother for what was, after all, only a minor issue.

It dawned on Alice that it was because her mother had lied to her. An old memory that she had forced and forgotten was brought back, and with it came all its original impact. Alice was orphaned as a child, and was brought to the Beautiful Goddess. She was raised as a child, while everyone else was created to serve. In reality, the true embodiments of the Beautiful Goddess' power was in Yumeko and Sariel, but never Alice. Even if Alice was treated as a destined person, she was only living in a fake world, of fake people. Yet her mother said nothing to her. After this, Alice returned to the demon realm. She wished to apologize for her actions as a child. After which, the puppeteer would sever all ties with the world, and move on. When she arrived, though, she was greeted with open arms by her mother. Alice was wrong yet again. Her mother was not a person who only focused on power, and she had never abandoned Alice. Though, it was ironic in the end. Alice had become someone who wished to outdo her mother, and become a creator herself. In the end, she herself was a creator of artificial life, just as her mother was. She doesn't think about this much, nor does she go back to Makai. Even if they had loved her, they were nothing but artificials. Even her mother.

Alice's destiny seemed to continue. Her dreams of the Puppeteer's world, even if it did not truly predict her future, did come true. She received a message from Portha, stating that Mr. Hatter had caught a disease, and that he needed the help of a fellow puppeteer. Upon returning, she had found that the world had changed from what she remembered. The festivities were gone, and the stores had all been boarded up and closed ever since the doll industry fell. Hatter had worked to try and rejuvinate the world, but had fallen ill himself trying. Though it had, oddly enough, worked. Hatter's illness had attracted all the previous puppeteers, to assist in treating his illness. By the time he was well, the town was filled with its old dolls once more. Puppeteers honor their ties with their friends, after all. Alice had found herself, even if it was for one day, at the tea table with Mr. Hatter once more, in a world of festivities and dreams again. It was here that she had found her destiny, one apart from the life of artificial things she had been surrounded with ever since she was a child. Alice wished to fufill the true desires of a puppeteer, and would leave this world, leave the demon world, and leave Gensokyo to build the ties between everybody. She left these worlds, and began a search for realizing her destiny, and to build lasting, real ties with real people. Hence begins the Puppeteer's tale.

===========================




Personality:
After this incident, Alice decides to quit pondering about the truth of life and destiny, simply stating that the answer to "What is Life?" is "Life is worth living". Her purpose was more for other people now, to make sure that the ties between others was strong, for the future of those that can use those ties for the world. As such, perhaps her greatest goal is to make friends and make family. As if her meaning in life and her destiny was to create something genuine. Something that has developed as Alice's hatred for her old family grew. She had grown tired of the lies of others, and had lost her original meaning in life when she discovered she was the only truly living being in that world. The idea of a fake replacement became horrifying to her, the idea that a single person could be deluded into such ridiculous truths by the others around him or her. She found it disgusting and wished for nothing but the truth, and nothing but the genuine article within things. Because of this, she also grew hatred for organized groups, especially larger organizations, where members are split into even smaller groups, and then connections are severed not only between the outside world and the organization, but also within the organization itself. Viewing this as the most chaotic of things that exist, and absolutely unneccesary, Alice does what she can to avoid joining into factions or groups, preferring that she had ease of way in all groups instead.

Talking to others however, seems to be of a little challenge. Her isolated lifestyle, and the way she's trained her dolls for battle, and toned her mind in a similar fashion have turned her presence and aura into a more evil variation. Even if she has good intent, the way she carries herself and the glare within her eyes is unmistakable, and sometimes intimidating. It's difficult for her to talk because of this, and instead uses her dolls to convey certain emotions. This is why Shanghai and Hourai, despite being soulless beings, often move and act as if they did have souls. It was Alice's way of breaking the ice when nothing else would work for her. If a person can't connect with her, they may have better chances with Shanghai. They don't need to know the puppet's just being controlled by her, though in the end, it may not even matter. Manipulation may be a bad thing, but if it can connect people who would have never worked together otherwise, then it is worth the use. Combat is one of Alice's favorite things, and she treats the sport as if it was a standard board game or video game. She has all use to, seeing as how her weapons in battle are her dolls. It also means she usually battles with a smile, until things get more serious.

Alice prefers the company of other magicians, who can talk to her about some of the various forms of magic, and of their choice scriptures for their respective fields. Her favorites however are the styles of puppetry and summoning, for obvious reason. She can relate to those who use their magic to create automatons, and in fact, wishes to see their strategies and usages of the various golems and puppets. It's all part of learning strategy after all. Though, Alice has yet to see one who uses the puppets as extensively as she has. It's a good thing, though. She's closer to reaching a goal, perhaps. Alice is still looking to improve herself, not only in her battle strategies, but also in how she tries to extract and grant her dolls a soul. Though it's been pushed down on her list of priorities, it is something she actively seeks and researches. Her doll magic has also become her hobby. Along with sewing, but that's something else. However, it's difficult talking to people similar to her, people made for battle and people who give off the darker aura. These people tend to not try and communicate, and so their presence only serves to mock Alice, or that's how she reads it as. In these sort of situations, Alice would rather just stay away from others and tend to other aspects of her life.

As a demon, Alice basically has immortality, and will never perish due to age. However, she's very very young for a demon, despite her power. She tries to mask this fact with her speech and her power, but sometimes there's just no way to hide the way she behaves. Alice is often quick to be offended based off certain things people say, and holds a grudge very often. It mutates to the point where she forgets why she was angry, but only knows that she has to be angry around this person. After all, if she was angry at them once, it must have been a good reason and ought to be upheld, even if forgotten. Alice states that as immortals, the concept of age itself becomes meaningless, as Life is Worth Living. So mentioning her age itself would not faze her. Mentioning some of her childish ways, however, will surely stir up a response. Especially when one realizes that Alice is a big person for sweets, and refuses to share her favorite candies when she gets them. Hint: Her favorites are caramel-filled chocolates. Even at an older age now, Alice is a huge story reader, and prefers to read fiction works over any non-fictional piece. Although her tastes in genre have definitely changed, she never did stop reading, and has recently begun writing stories herself, though most of the stories are borrowed from what she reads. It's poorly done, but it doesn't matter. She has a whole immortality to get it right... eventually.

A good focus of her everyday life is in her dolls. She makes sure her dolls are in good contition, and puts them to work around the house and everywhere else. Alice also makes sure that they all had their personality and words, even going to the point where she interacts with them as if they were completely different people. When one sees it at first, it's a bit charming. When they realize that it's all a one-man show performed and manipulated by Alice, it becomes a little more eerie. She likes to hold a doll in her arms, hugging it lightly. Alice herself, due to the her puppetry, also does little to no manual labor on her own. Because of this, a lot of her main focus is either in her hobbies, or in her visual appearance. She puts a lot of effort into how her hair appears and how her attire is. To find a bit of filth on her image annoys her to no end, and she often has her dolls examine and clean Alice whenever they can. Of course, most of this is only outside of fighting. When in combat, she could care less about appearance, as the main focus is on the enemy at all times.
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[Silver Eyes]

Dolls. *shivers* Accepted. Thought next time you make a bio, we would appreciate it if you kept the alignment and the species simple and just explain it in another portion