I actually accidentally began writing personality and history within the same segment when I first wrote it, so I guess when I broke the two up it was poorly sequenced. I'll be rewriting it entirely here. I don't know if I'll be able to go back through the whole app and fix run-ons, though.
Personality: Alice has never been in a precisely kind world, and she herself could never be truly considered as nice at all. In her eyes, most everybody can be described as an imbecile, a stranger, an absolute annoyance, or a mixture of the above. She's egotistical, and a compliment to her usually won't be returned with another compliment, but rather some sort of passive urging to go on. Try to play insults with her, even in a more playful manner, and she responds with concise, curt, and completely spiteful comments back, even if she's trying to be a bit playful with her words as well. Alice has a very strong tendency to be violent as well, as the common policy in Gensokyo has a tendency to drift towards a "Shoot, and I'll move" mindset thanks to the liberal and commonly used spellcard system.
She does tries her best to try and be polite with others, but that tends to fall short as well. When guests do come around, they usually come in when Alice is already well into some form of work, be it an experiment, redecorating, or planning and strategizing combat formations. She talks little because of it, answering questions concisely and responding to her guests. She does little work on her own, and rather uses her dolls, which are either dormant along the shelves of her residency, or floating about constantly. Although they carry a specific personality (Shanghai is energetic and like to move in elegant circles around things as if it was a fairy, Hourai is almost always dormant unless very precise jobs such as sewing are needed, and rarely says a word), the dolls eyes are blacked out and hollow, and their movements, despite Alice's every attempt, retain some form of stiff mechanical movement. Though Alice never saw it as disturbing, guests tend to decline her offer to stay. She never saw it as something bad, though. Rather, it was a bit of odd motivation for her to improve the fluidity of their movements.
This is all largely due to the fact that Alice has almost always seen people as a problem, rather than a solution. Not just because her usual residents are usually thieves, wanderers, or freeloaders, but also because Alice has had a firm belief that she never needed someone else's support or advice to solve her own problems. If something was difficult, it wasn't because she needed someone else, but because it was a challenge for her to become better and stronger, a mindset she had to carry in order to begin understanding the complex nature of doll magic. She doesn't quite hate the company, though, and a lot of times if you can catch her when she's resting from a long day, she'll be eager to make some effort for some small talk over a meal. But when some job has to be done, which is almost always for Margatroid, a lot of times she found people to be a hindrance, and some people tended to always be a hindrance regardless of when they approach her.
When she first tried living in Gensokyo, Alice made herself a game to use her dolls as little as possible and avoid conflict. She thought that fighting was a brute's game, and something that she would never need to sully her hands with. After the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom and Immaterial and Missing Power, she realized that the way fighting was managed in Gensokyo was based off skill and elegance, rather than pure raw power (most of the time. See: Marisa). In other words, fighting in Gensokyo was another way to show Alice's mastery of puppetry, skill, and poise. Alice actually became obsessed with the art of combat, making an endless series of strategies and tactics to put into fighting, doing every she can to optimize her dolls to absolute perfection. To her, fighting became synonymous with song, dance, and theater: It was a way of expressing herself. Combined with her eternal love for playing games with herself and giving herself limiting conditions, Alice is always eager for combat, and simply mentioning a spar is enough to drive her to demonstrate everything she knows.
At the same time, her doll magic has become a bit of a very ironic reminder of her past. Despite her hatred of an artificial life, the girl has found herself even more isolated a lot of times with her dolls, automatons. In fact, it could easily be said that her obsession with making her dolls as perfect as they can be is no different from her mother's attempts in the past. Despite the fact that she's constantly surrounds herself with a painful reminder of the world she was raised in, Alice has never once expressed any desire to switch her field of proficiency. Even though there are other fields of magic that are just as challenging, such as studies in alchemy or summoning magic, which she hand-waved as too simplistic. Just like with every problem in her life beforehand, she sees her studies as another game. That someday, she'll be better than Shinki, and never have to hear that ugly thought of becoming like her mother. It was her way of proving to the world and herself that a child's life and future isn't shaped or controlled by the world they're in, but rather by the choice she makes in that world.
Re: Moderator Review
Personality: Alice has never been in a precisely kind world, and she herself could never be truly considered as nice at all. In her eyes, most everybody can be described as an imbecile, a stranger, an absolute annoyance, or a mixture of the above. She's egotistical, and a compliment to her usually won't be returned with another compliment, but rather some sort of passive urging to go on. Try to play insults with her, even in a more playful manner, and she responds with concise, curt, and completely spiteful comments back, even if she's trying to be a bit playful with her words as well. Alice has a very strong tendency to be violent as well, as the common policy in Gensokyo has a tendency to drift towards a "Shoot, and I'll move" mindset thanks to the liberal and commonly used spellcard system.
She does tries her best to try and be polite with others, but that tends to fall short as well. When guests do come around, they usually come in when Alice is already well into some form of work, be it an experiment, redecorating, or planning and strategizing combat formations. She talks little because of it, answering questions concisely and responding to her guests. She does little work on her own, and rather uses her dolls, which are either dormant along the shelves of her residency, or floating about constantly. Although they carry a specific personality (Shanghai is energetic and like to move in elegant circles around things as if it was a fairy, Hourai is almost always dormant unless very precise jobs such as sewing are needed, and rarely says a word), the dolls eyes are blacked out and hollow, and their movements, despite Alice's every attempt, retain some form of stiff mechanical movement. Though Alice never saw it as disturbing, guests tend to decline her offer to stay. She never saw it as something bad, though. Rather, it was a bit of odd motivation for her to improve the fluidity of their movements.
This is all largely due to the fact that Alice has almost always seen people as a problem, rather than a solution. Not just because her usual residents are usually thieves, wanderers, or freeloaders, but also because Alice has had a firm belief that she never needed someone else's support or advice to solve her own problems. If something was difficult, it wasn't because she needed someone else, but because it was a challenge for her to become better and stronger, a mindset she had to carry in order to begin understanding the complex nature of doll magic. She doesn't quite hate the company, though, and a lot of times if you can catch her when she's resting from a long day, she'll be eager to make some effort for some small talk over a meal. But when some job has to be done, which is almost always for Margatroid, a lot of times she found people to be a hindrance, and some people tended to always be a hindrance regardless of when they approach her.
When she first tried living in Gensokyo, Alice made herself a game to use her dolls as little as possible and avoid conflict. She thought that fighting was a brute's game, and something that she would never need to sully her hands with. After the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom and Immaterial and Missing Power, she realized that the way fighting was managed in Gensokyo was based off skill and elegance, rather than pure raw power (most of the time. See: Marisa). In other words, fighting in Gensokyo was another way to show Alice's mastery of puppetry, skill, and poise. Alice actually became obsessed with the art of combat, making an endless series of strategies and tactics to put into fighting, doing every she can to optimize her dolls to absolute perfection. To her, fighting became synonymous with song, dance, and theater: It was a way of expressing herself. Combined with her eternal love for playing games with herself and giving herself limiting conditions, Alice is always eager for combat, and simply mentioning a spar is enough to drive her to demonstrate everything she knows.
At the same time, her doll magic has become a bit of a very ironic reminder of her past. Despite her hatred of an artificial life, the girl has found herself even more isolated a lot of times with her dolls, automatons. In fact, it could easily be said that her obsession with making her dolls as perfect as they can be is no different from her mother's attempts in the past. Despite the fact that she's constantly surrounds herself with a painful reminder of the world she was raised in, Alice has never once expressed any desire to switch her field of proficiency. Even though there are other fields of magic that are just as challenging, such as studies in alchemy or summoning magic, which she hand-waved as too simplistic. Just like with every problem in her life beforehand, she sees her studies as another game. That someday, she'll be better than Shinki, and never have to hear that ugly thought of becoming like her mother. It was her way of proving to the world and herself that a child's life and future isn't shaped or controlled by the world they're in, but rather by the choice she makes in that world.