Alicia Clover ♣ Alice Yotsuba (AU) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosettareflected) wrote2017-01-19 08:45 pm
rosettareflected) wrote2017-01-19 08:45 pm
Entry tags:
Application: Recollé
Alicia is accepted to ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
recolle; applications must be posted in the thread, so this copy is for reference.
recolle; applications must be posted in the thread, so this copy is for reference. PLAYER
YOUR NAME: MaxSalsa
18+?: Aye.
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
eternities
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Nobody yet.
YOUR NAME: MaxSalsa
18+?: Aye.
CONTACT:
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Nobody yet.
CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Alice Yotsuba
AGE: 14
CANON: Dokidoki Precure
NAME: Alice Yotsuba
AGE: 14
CANON: Dokidoki Precure
CANON HISTORY: The Precure Wiki is kind of a joke, so I'll be doing this the hard way. Dokidoki has a season movie, which will be included below, and a series of non-canon crossover movies, which will not. As a side effect, that means each season exists in a vacuum - no Precure (at least, not under these terms) will trigger a regain off a girl from another season, aside from the word Precure itself and general shoujo anime topics.
Alice Yotsuba is the heiress to the illustrious Yotsuba Group (literally referred to in-show as the Yotsuba zaibatsu, to give an idea of its wide-reaching control), who have their hands in a wide variety of industries from manufacturing to public works to entertainment. Over the course of the first several episodes, we're shown that the Group owns the local television station, produces its own iPad competitor, and has just finished construction last year on a radio tower (more on that one in a second). She's grown up going to a fancy private school (which she still attends), but befriended Mana Aida and Rikka Hishikawa early in life, as they snuck onto her property to play with her at a young age. Alice had a weak constitution as a little girl, and so had to stay around the property, leading the other girls to come inside, but eventually Alice collapsed and it fell to a (much) younger Mana to seek help. When later confronted (interrogated, but that's a strong word to use concerning a young girl), Alice's father ended up accepting Mana and Rikka to be the girl's friends, enrolling in public school to stay alongside them. That blossomed into a strong bond - perhaps too strong. To help get her body into proper health, Alice learned martial arts under her grandfather, and at a certain point she became protective enough of her friends that she found her temper snapping at least once. By the time she realized what she was doing and got control of herself, she'd beaten a group of bullies fairly soundly, and she recoiled from that power, vowing not to fight again in fear of her own strength.
Skip forward to the modern day; the year is 2013, in a Japanese prefecture called Oogai. Mana and Rikka attend the local public middle school, where Mana is the student council president and Rikka is the secretary. Alice is... sideways from this, as she returned to private school to rid herself of the temptation to knock sense into people, but the girls get together for activities around town and frequent tea parties on the lawn of her family's mansion. As the story opens, Alice is en route to her family's recently-opened property, the Clover Tower - supposedly the tallest radio tower in the world. As she arrives and is greeted by the facility's manager, she starts to display some of her trademark eccentricity, choosing to wait in line to get in - quoting an adage that, unbeknownst to her, Mana's just used literally two minutes earlier - rather than simply go in as is her right as the owner. That turns out to be the right choice; some kind of commotion starts in the lobby, and a giant monster appears. The monster proceeds up the elevator shaft, and while Alice - and Rikka, who is also here with Mana as part of a class trip - remains where she is, Mana charges up the stairs to save a little girl whose mother she'd helped find a few minutes prior. Whatever is happening seems to be serious, as there's a lot of shaking and crashing coming from up above, but Alice holds out faith that everything will be fine.
On the observation deck and rooftop, Mana turns out to be fighting for her life; a force calling itself the Jikochu (literally selfishness; this is a little easier to distinguish) is attacking from another world, and has two of its generals on top of the tower. It turns out that these generals created the monster the girls saw below, and the only force that can stop them is the legendary warriors, the Precure. Mana ends up in trouble, but is saved by one such warrior - Cure Sword, a mysterious purple-themed girl who seems to take an instant dislike to the girl. In a pinch, Mana meets three small beings - they call themselves fairies, but are in the shape of small stuffed animals - and one of them, Sharuru, offers to partner with her, so Mana can become a Precure. Taking everything in stride remarkably well, Mana transforms into Cure Heart without missing a beat, and while she has to learn her powers as she goes, she manages to drive off the enemy and save Cure Sword from meeting the ground at terminal velocity in the process.
Over the next couple days, Rikka inquires about what happened, and Mana tells her the truth - but Rikka doesn't believe her. She's forced to believe after all when another monster attacks the middle school, and Rikka is left to support Cure Heart, after Mana transforms in front of Rikka, who she doesn't care about exposing the secret to. Raquel, another of the fairies, ends up offering to partner with Rikka, and when Cure Heart gets into trouble and Rikka is tired of standing back and letting herself be protected, Rikka transforms into Cure Diamond on the spot with no regrets, choosing to stand beside her friend instead of half a step behind. These two battles happen on a public street, and Alice happens to catch the video while she's reviewing activity in the city; after the two leave Lance, a third fairy, unattended in the school, Alice picks him up and in the meantime invites the others over for tea. Confronting them about their newfound powers, Alice declines to join them - even after Lance offers to become her partner - but agrees to become their manager of sorts, keeping an eye on their public presence (and erasing pesky video that might expose them) and using her wealth to buy problems out of their way. This works well enough for a time, but eventually, Alice finds she's uncomfortable leaving them out there to fend for themselves, despite knowing that being a Precure comes with a huge swell of strength to break something - or someone - in a fit of rage. Having to watch Heart and Diamond beaten down repeatedly eventually decides her, though, and a combination of Lance and her butler Sebastian convince Alice that her power can be used to protect her important people, instead of just to destroy. She joins the other Precure who have gotten themselves into a pinch, and transforms into the warmth of the sun, Cure Rosetta. Unlike the other two, who have ranged spell attacks and can generally function independently, Rosetta has a different powerset: Alice's desire to protect instead of harm yields a Precure form focused on melee attacks - mainly counters and throws - and especially shielding.
These three are later joined by Cure Sword, who is actually from the same other world the fairies are from - the Trump Kingdom - and is seeking to save her world and its princess. Sword is living in this world under the assumed name of Makoto Kenzaki, who is a rising singing talent on this side, hoping to use the fame to gain information on her missing princess, Marie Ange. While she's reluctant to work together with anyone, a combination of Mana and Makoto's fairy, Davi, convince her that working together will let them cover more ground faster, and the girls join up into a four-Cure squad.
Time passes. The girls end up finding trouble in a variety of places, using their powers as the Dokidoki Precure to fight the Jikochu wherever they turn up to cause trouble. Early on, they discover a large egg that hatches a baby fairy, who the girls name Ai-chan and more or less adopt after the egg's owner - Joe Okada, an accessory shop owner - determines the baby is more used to them than to him. A combination of taking care of Ai and doing more research turns up the Royal Crystals, linked to activities the princess supposedly enjoyed; a total of five crystals were made manifest, one for each of the Precure in their own color, and one more in red. That one came into the possession of a girl named Regina, princess of the Jikochu and a tough customer that also took an immediate liking to Mana. All of the other girls found themselves a little jealous of that, Rikka moreso than the others, but they made do, though Regina's possessiveness made that hard at times. Regina, incidentally, is honestly trying to be a good friend, but going about it entirely the wrong way most of the time. Joe turns out to be Jonathan Klondike, a royal knight of the Trump Kingdom and Marie Ange's fianceé. A mission, sponsored by Alice who provided a helicopter for a trip to a distant glacier, led to the girls recovering Marie Ange's body, sealed into crystal, and Jonathan taking it to a secure location for analysis and recovery.
That summer, a fateful trip to the beach led to a brainwashed Regina dropping in to reclaim the remaining Royal Crystals for herself, refusing to acknowledge Mana as anything other than an enemy, and a struggle nearly ended in defeat for the Precure before their rescue by a new warrior: a fifth Precure, older than the other girls, calling herself Cure Ace. With overwhelming power, Ace repels Regina, before sternly telling the other Precure they're going to have to get a lot stronger if they're going to keep moving forward. Ace turns out to be an elementary-school girl, Aguri Madoka, whose transformation ages her up but only lasts five minutes. To whip them into shape, Aguri leads the other four through a series of trials, teaching them the Five Oaths of the Precure - which are really just suggestions, honestly, but they're sensible enough - and generally shaping them into better fighters. Satisfied with their strength, Ace joins the group proper, bringing their number to five.
With the girls sufficiently empowered to take on their enemies, Aguri tells them of the predecessor Cure's fairy, who still lives in this world, and the legendary three treasures of the Precure. One of these, a magical mirror, is held by that fairy; the other two, the Miracle Dragon Glaive and the Eternal Golden Crown, are still missing and need to be located if the girls are to have any hope of victory in the future. Alice leads the team on a private jet to an island in the open ocean, where they are quickly greeted by a dragon and end up in a rough fight to defeat it. The dragon in question turns out to be the fairy, and gives Mana the mirror, which can scry other places and transport the user, among other functions. Shortly thereafter, two new generals appear and thrash the team pretty badly; it falls to Mana to pull everyone together, despite their broken spirits and broken mirror, and get them moving against the enemy again. That united will resonates with the shattered artifact, and it forms five Magical Lovely Pads, in the shape of iPads but with more or less the same functions the mirror had.
The fighting becomes more fierce; Bel, third in command of the Jikochu behind the king and Regina, leverages the power of the others in more and more elaborate plays to try and defeat the Precure, but is (barely) repelled each time. In need of more power, they search beneath the Trump Kingdom's royal castle for the Dragon Glaive. It doesn't take them long to find it, but it won't budge from where it's driven into the stone, not even for Ace. Regina, however, shows up after some time away, and under her hand it slides out like a knife through butter. Making matters worse, it responds to her and its full power is unsealed, which Jonathan insists should only happen with Marie Ange herself. Regina uses this newfound power to assert control over her minions, and the Precure end up having to fight her in a series of battles, each girl trying to break through to her and get her to see reason. Alice's part in this series is to follow Regina into space, flying a fighter craft stored under the mansion, to defeat her and a tree monster that she'd brought into space to destroy the planet.
Late in the fall, the girls find themselves very suddenly attacked by an enemy calling himself Marsh, who blames Mana for everything bad that's ever happened to him and seeking to trap the world in memories of days past. The Precure are sucked into his scheme, dumped into memories of their collective pasts but without memories of the others; Alice recognizes Rikka right away, as she walks with her father into a social function and crosses Rikka, who is with her own parents, but doesn't regain her memories until their fairies break into the space and quite literally run into them. The two end up fighting their way out, and rejoining the others. Marsh, it turns out, is being manipulated by an evil clarinet, and it takes some fighting and some speeches before the Precure can take the upper hand. In the process, they discover that Marsh is the remaining spirit of Mana's beloved pet dog, Mallow, who died while she was young. Marsh doesn't survive this experience either, though Mana at least gains a semblance of closure as she enters Cure Heart Engage Mode and turns the night pink in a new dress very strikingly similar to her grandmother's wedding dress.
Winter comes. Jonathan tells the girls he's found the Eternal Golden Crown, and in his brilliance has brought it back with him to Oogai. It doesn't resonate with the girls - until Aguri touches it, and for a moment seems to lose herself, before she snaps back a few minutes later. They adjourn for the evening at her request, and when Mana, Rikka, and Alice return the next day, Aguri, Makoto, Jonathan, and the Crown are gone. They manage to track them down in the Trump Kingdom, where Ace has challenged Regina to a final battle of sorts; the Crown dmuped Marie Ange's memories into Aguri, who now knows the full truth of everything. Some years ago, when the Jikochu attacked the Trump Kingdom, Marie Ange managed to seal King Jikochu, but it took most of her power. Weakened, she and Makoto tried to flee to Earth, but when Bel found them, Marie Ange pushed Makoto through and took the remaining attack herself. Fighting to retain herself under the strain, she split herself into three parts. Aguri, the purity in her heart; Regina, the selfishness in her heart; and Ai-chan, her body reborn. There is, therefore, nothing in the crystal Jonathan recovered - there wasn't a body in the first place, or rather it's been with the girls this whole time. This conflict leads to King Jikochu finally waking up and starting to rampage, cutting open a rift in space that links the ocean off the coast of the Trump Kingdom's castle to the waters just off the coast of Japan, relatively near Oogai, and causing the battle to spill over to Earth, where nobody is prepared.
The resulting battle is hard-fought; Mana accidentally reveals the girls' identities to the world at large shortly after it begins, but that's forgotten in the aftermath, as each of them fights to give Heart a path into the core of King Jikochu, whose form is massive, easily visible on the city skyline. Alice, for her part, creates a distraction: a giant Lance, as tall as a skyscraper, though it uses up the entirety of her power, and she has to be caught by Sebastian at ground level with a stunt airbag. Reaching the core, Heart manages to save the king of the Trump Kingdom, sealed within King Jikochu, and the crisis seems to be at its end...
...until Bel shows up and takes the remaining darkness into himself, becoming a monster for true. Individually and as a team, he's more than a match for the girls, so they try a different tack, each of the others giving their power to Heart, who uses it to attain a new form: Cure Heart Parthenon Mode, who proceeds to purify Bel into oblivion once and for all, the sky seeming to turn pink for just a second.
In the end, Aguri and Regina resolve their differences, Regina choosing to stay on this side and be a normal girl alongside Mana. The rift is impossible to close; ships now bring trade between Japan and the restored Trump Kingdom, under the watchful eye of the Yotsuba Group, who manages the operation and charges for negotiations. This is largely orchestrated by Alice, who happens to have an in with the leaders of the kingdom, given her group just saved one with the help of another. Between that and the cell phones connected directly to the Prime Minister, things are looking good for Alice, and for the Precure in general.
CANON PERSONALITY: Alice comes from a vaunted archetype of characters who are defined by their fortunes. Something in the way? Buy it out of existance. Need to acquire something? It's done. Creature comforts? Anything is available, anytime. Need laws casually ignored? It's possible enough. All of these are things Alice is capable of, occasionally on her own but usually through Sebastian, her butler who acts almost like an extension of her will. She needs only make her wishes known, and they become reality. She's become accustomed to this; while Mana and the others have given her some independence, she also very much needs her helper to orchestrate big workings. She does appreciate him, especially since he tends to take the place of the parental figures so often absent from her life, but at the end of the day she's the boss and he's the servant, and she does respect that boundary. (Sebastian, for his part, does the same - if he were any more physical, he'd resemble a certain butler from Hellsing in that way.)
Her motivations can be summed up in two words: Mana and Rikka. Alice fully believes she owes everything she is today to those girls, and she will give them the world if they only ask. Around them, she softens, letting her walls down and sharing everything of herself openly. Her tea parties are as much an excuse to take a deep breath as they are a chance to catch up. Alice has hinted at least once that her feelings for her best friends may be something stronger than a platonic bond, but she also understands them well enough to keep that to herself - it'd only trouble them, especially after Mana and Rikka come to a bit of an understanding late in their eighth-grade year about their bond. It won't stop her from following them to the ends of the earth, and keeping an eye on them with whatever means are at her disposal. Indeed, Mana is her role model in more ways than one, and more than a few of her other traits are informed by how Mana acts and feels.
Alice is kind of bad at being a sensible person, which is why she has a combination of Mana and Sebastian to temper her occasional urges. From the very first episode, when Alice asks if they can take the monster home rather than running away like everyone else does almost immediately, Alice has a habit of ignoring the decent choice and skipping straight ahead to what might be fun - or to what's most profitable. Of course, she'll also always choose whatever keeps her friends safe first - it's that single-minded devotion that drives even this trend. She jumps on opportunities when they present themselves, and acts without concern for the consequences, though this is at least in part because the Group can smooth those consequences out should something go wrong.
Outside her eccentricities, Alice is kind and wise, if in a different way than Rikka or even Mana. She understands people's motivations, and knows how to get them to look the other way, or to cooperate if that's what's needed. To an extent, she appreciates the value of subtlety; she simply chooses to act in excess instead, but she's capable of laying low when the job requires it. She also knows how to work around her limitations. When she doesn't want to become a Precure, she instead finds another way to help, even as restricted as that role ended up being while she retained it. When convicing Makoto to join the group is met with resistance, she simply uses her contacts to find her location and give Mana more chances. Alice isn't shy about using all the resources at her disposal to solve problems. She's slow to judge and even slower to act in judgment of others; even when confronted with things that she really should be dealing with, she simply stands there and works out her options, so long as someone isn't trying to punch her face in.
Alice's temper, something she was concerned with as a girl and has remained worried about ever since, is legendary amongst her friends and acquaintances. Ever since her little run-in with schoolyard bullies all those years ago, she's staunchly refused to use her power to do battle, choosing other ways to settle things instead. If she could do that much damage even then, what could she do now? With the power she's trained for all this, or with the power of Precure? Still, when Lance reminds her of her grandfather's teachings, Alice re-evaluates her policy, settling instead for a lesser definition: she remains non-violent wherever possible, but sometimes that isn't possible, especially when it's Mana and Rikka in the way. For those times, there's creatively applied violence to just the extent needed to repel an attack. Alternately, there's Cure Rosetta's form, which has the convenient auto-repair properties. Her views on fighting show in her powerset, in a bit of a meta capacity: not only is Rosetta's loadout the least offensive among the defensive Precure (Sunshine has something akin to micro-missiles, Mint is green but still counts with her earth abilities), but it's the least offensive outright. Of course, given she's plenty dangerous without powers, that may simply be a result of Rosetta's powers adapting to fill the weaknesses in her ability set.
Even without accounting for her Precure form, though, Alice's anger is better-controlled now than it used to be. Others have tried to take advantage of her tendencies more than once, but to Alice's surprise (and, indeed, relief) she simply doesn't snap the way she used to, even when pushed. Whether it's Mana's influence or simply the wisdom and control that come with age, Alice is able to keep functioning and keep a lid on her anger when she's pushed repeatedly. That doesn't mean she'll give her enemies any quarter, of course - Rosetta doesn't stop for anything, not until the job is done, and Alice simply pushes her opponents back until they have no choice but to retreat.
SKILLS/ABILITIES: Alice's signature skill is transformation into a legendary warrior: a Precure, specifically Cure Rosetta. Rosetta is a yellow Cure: speaking in terms of prior series, that means she's moderately powerful, focuses on shields, and has a slight tendency toward physical attacks over magical abilities. All Precure are significantly stronger and more durable while transformed, able to break stone and get back up after being thrown through buildings. Even while not transformed, Alice is faster, more aware, and stronger than she would be otherwise, though it isn't a huge boost - noticeable, but not significant. Precure refer to themselves and each other by their titles when transformed; hereafter, Alice will refer specifically to the civilian form and Rosetta will be specifically the transformed state.
The Dokidoki team's powers are governed by Cure Loveads, small objects not unlike pins and sparkle and shine, made of various compounds that are probably magical equivalents of gold, silver, and some kind of crystal. Each member has a Loveads that lets them transform; one that powers a starter-level finishing move (for her, that's Rosetta Wall, which is instead a shielding ability that forms two small clover-shaped barriers on her hands) and a starter-level team attack; one that powers a mid-level skill when used in a magical device called a Love Heart Arrow (Rosetta Reflection, a powerful reactive shield in the shape of a clover that throws incoming projectiles back where them came from - and can be thrown, broken in half, stepped on, and used in other various ways) and a mid-level team attack; one that powers a high-level skill when used in a different magical device called a Magical Lovely Pad (Rosetta Balloon, which Rosetta more or less tells us does whatever the hell she feels like; the most notable time it's used, it creates a skyscraper-sized version of her fairy) and a high-level team attack; and one that turns the whole team into super forms. None of the team attacks or super forms will function without a full four- or five-Cure team; since it's looking like that's a thing I'll have, I'll cover those below. However, to be concise, each new ability requires the corresponding magical artifact and also the correct Loveads. In addition, Rosetta can only access her magic while she's transformed - Alice is a civilian, slight boosts aside.
The whole team together has access to three team attacks, not counting finale attacks and movie attacks which aren't really repeatable outside specific circumstances. When the whole initial team - Heart, Diamond, Rosetta, and Sword - has access to Love Heart Arrows, a specific Loveads slotted into all four of them at the same time causes all of them to unfold into bows with shining strings, and when drawn together, they all fire an "arrow" of sorts - a blast of purifying power called the Lovely Force Arrow. Later, given Magical Lovely Pads, those four plus Ace can use the Royal Straight Flush, where the latter four can lend a chunk of power to Cure Heart, who uses it to fire a single, extremely powerful blast at an enemy. Given a third item exclusive to Cure Heart, that attack is powered up further into the Lovely Royal Straight Flush.
Alice gets a total of three magical artifacts: her Lovely Commune, which is actually her fairy partner Lance turned into something that looks a lot like a cell phone (and without which she can't transform); her Love Heart Arrow, which is aplastic toy in the shape of a heart collapsible bow with a touch pad in the middle, with a slot for a Loveads (for Rosetta Reflection); and her Magical Lovely Pad, jokingly referred to by fans as an aiPad, and shaped as such, though its apps include a teleportation function, and it's equipped with a Loveads slot. The latter two can be summoned from thin air while Rosetta is in form. Alice also has access to a fair amount of technology in and of herself, given that the Yotsuba Group is kind of absurd and controls a surprising amount of infrastructure. Alice owns a proper, non-magical iPad that has the Group's logo instead of the apple, plus the pink limo her butler Sebastian drives her around in that rises from the retractable lawn and opens a wall of the mansion for quick exit, plus the VTOL-capable fighter craft also stored under the retractable lawn... The computer bank inside the house is similarly terrifying, with taps into the school's security cameras and a variety of traffic cameras, among other things, and including the ability to remove video from those feeds and even YouTube - the Group's ability to suppress information it doesn't want getting out is terrifying indeed. At one point, Alice and Sebastian even come up with a man-portable machine that will cause a subject to undergo a transformation weirdly similar to a Precure transformation... but without any apparent magic, and able to transform a man, something no Precure season has managed to date (or after this, either).
For herself, Alice is skilled in business, able to handle some of the day-to-day management of the Group's operations by herself, though she prefers to leave it to Sebastian. She's very prim and proper, able to handle speaking to important people without issue, and she's used to being able to go more or less anywhere she wants without standing out unnecessarily. She also has various talents associated with being a proper heiress, including painting, the piano, ballroom dancing, flying her fighter plane, and less-expectedly gardening and hanakotoba. Last but definitely not least is her martial arts training; under her grandfather, she's picked up rather a lot of different skills. Her styles include karate, kendo, judo, and aikido, though she tends toward the direct styles when she has to use them, and much prefers not to use them at all. Still, when push comes to shove, she's a powerhouse even without magic.
Alice Yotsuba is the heiress to the illustrious Yotsuba Group (literally referred to in-show as the Yotsuba zaibatsu, to give an idea of its wide-reaching control), who have their hands in a wide variety of industries from manufacturing to public works to entertainment. Over the course of the first several episodes, we're shown that the Group owns the local television station, produces its own iPad competitor, and has just finished construction last year on a radio tower (more on that one in a second). She's grown up going to a fancy private school (which she still attends), but befriended Mana Aida and Rikka Hishikawa early in life, as they snuck onto her property to play with her at a young age. Alice had a weak constitution as a little girl, and so had to stay around the property, leading the other girls to come inside, but eventually Alice collapsed and it fell to a (much) younger Mana to seek help. When later confronted (interrogated, but that's a strong word to use concerning a young girl), Alice's father ended up accepting Mana and Rikka to be the girl's friends, enrolling in public school to stay alongside them. That blossomed into a strong bond - perhaps too strong. To help get her body into proper health, Alice learned martial arts under her grandfather, and at a certain point she became protective enough of her friends that she found her temper snapping at least once. By the time she realized what she was doing and got control of herself, she'd beaten a group of bullies fairly soundly, and she recoiled from that power, vowing not to fight again in fear of her own strength.
Skip forward to the modern day; the year is 2013, in a Japanese prefecture called Oogai. Mana and Rikka attend the local public middle school, where Mana is the student council president and Rikka is the secretary. Alice is... sideways from this, as she returned to private school to rid herself of the temptation to knock sense into people, but the girls get together for activities around town and frequent tea parties on the lawn of her family's mansion. As the story opens, Alice is en route to her family's recently-opened property, the Clover Tower - supposedly the tallest radio tower in the world. As she arrives and is greeted by the facility's manager, she starts to display some of her trademark eccentricity, choosing to wait in line to get in - quoting an adage that, unbeknownst to her, Mana's just used literally two minutes earlier - rather than simply go in as is her right as the owner. That turns out to be the right choice; some kind of commotion starts in the lobby, and a giant monster appears. The monster proceeds up the elevator shaft, and while Alice - and Rikka, who is also here with Mana as part of a class trip - remains where she is, Mana charges up the stairs to save a little girl whose mother she'd helped find a few minutes prior. Whatever is happening seems to be serious, as there's a lot of shaking and crashing coming from up above, but Alice holds out faith that everything will be fine.
On the observation deck and rooftop, Mana turns out to be fighting for her life; a force calling itself the Jikochu (literally selfishness; this is a little easier to distinguish) is attacking from another world, and has two of its generals on top of the tower. It turns out that these generals created the monster the girls saw below, and the only force that can stop them is the legendary warriors, the Precure. Mana ends up in trouble, but is saved by one such warrior - Cure Sword, a mysterious purple-themed girl who seems to take an instant dislike to the girl. In a pinch, Mana meets three small beings - they call themselves fairies, but are in the shape of small stuffed animals - and one of them, Sharuru, offers to partner with her, so Mana can become a Precure. Taking everything in stride remarkably well, Mana transforms into Cure Heart without missing a beat, and while she has to learn her powers as she goes, she manages to drive off the enemy and save Cure Sword from meeting the ground at terminal velocity in the process.
Over the next couple days, Rikka inquires about what happened, and Mana tells her the truth - but Rikka doesn't believe her. She's forced to believe after all when another monster attacks the middle school, and Rikka is left to support Cure Heart, after Mana transforms in front of Rikka, who she doesn't care about exposing the secret to. Raquel, another of the fairies, ends up offering to partner with Rikka, and when Cure Heart gets into trouble and Rikka is tired of standing back and letting herself be protected, Rikka transforms into Cure Diamond on the spot with no regrets, choosing to stand beside her friend instead of half a step behind. These two battles happen on a public street, and Alice happens to catch the video while she's reviewing activity in the city; after the two leave Lance, a third fairy, unattended in the school, Alice picks him up and in the meantime invites the others over for tea. Confronting them about their newfound powers, Alice declines to join them - even after Lance offers to become her partner - but agrees to become their manager of sorts, keeping an eye on their public presence (and erasing pesky video that might expose them) and using her wealth to buy problems out of their way. This works well enough for a time, but eventually, Alice finds she's uncomfortable leaving them out there to fend for themselves, despite knowing that being a Precure comes with a huge swell of strength to break something - or someone - in a fit of rage. Having to watch Heart and Diamond beaten down repeatedly eventually decides her, though, and a combination of Lance and her butler Sebastian convince Alice that her power can be used to protect her important people, instead of just to destroy. She joins the other Precure who have gotten themselves into a pinch, and transforms into the warmth of the sun, Cure Rosetta. Unlike the other two, who have ranged spell attacks and can generally function independently, Rosetta has a different powerset: Alice's desire to protect instead of harm yields a Precure form focused on melee attacks - mainly counters and throws - and especially shielding.
These three are later joined by Cure Sword, who is actually from the same other world the fairies are from - the Trump Kingdom - and is seeking to save her world and its princess. Sword is living in this world under the assumed name of Makoto Kenzaki, who is a rising singing talent on this side, hoping to use the fame to gain information on her missing princess, Marie Ange. While she's reluctant to work together with anyone, a combination of Mana and Makoto's fairy, Davi, convince her that working together will let them cover more ground faster, and the girls join up into a four-Cure squad.
Time passes. The girls end up finding trouble in a variety of places, using their powers as the Dokidoki Precure to fight the Jikochu wherever they turn up to cause trouble. Early on, they discover a large egg that hatches a baby fairy, who the girls name Ai-chan and more or less adopt after the egg's owner - Joe Okada, an accessory shop owner - determines the baby is more used to them than to him. A combination of taking care of Ai and doing more research turns up the Royal Crystals, linked to activities the princess supposedly enjoyed; a total of five crystals were made manifest, one for each of the Precure in their own color, and one more in red. That one came into the possession of a girl named Regina, princess of the Jikochu and a tough customer that also took an immediate liking to Mana. All of the other girls found themselves a little jealous of that, Rikka moreso than the others, but they made do, though Regina's possessiveness made that hard at times. Regina, incidentally, is honestly trying to be a good friend, but going about it entirely the wrong way most of the time. Joe turns out to be Jonathan Klondike, a royal knight of the Trump Kingdom and Marie Ange's fianceé. A mission, sponsored by Alice who provided a helicopter for a trip to a distant glacier, led to the girls recovering Marie Ange's body, sealed into crystal, and Jonathan taking it to a secure location for analysis and recovery.
That summer, a fateful trip to the beach led to a brainwashed Regina dropping in to reclaim the remaining Royal Crystals for herself, refusing to acknowledge Mana as anything other than an enemy, and a struggle nearly ended in defeat for the Precure before their rescue by a new warrior: a fifth Precure, older than the other girls, calling herself Cure Ace. With overwhelming power, Ace repels Regina, before sternly telling the other Precure they're going to have to get a lot stronger if they're going to keep moving forward. Ace turns out to be an elementary-school girl, Aguri Madoka, whose transformation ages her up but only lasts five minutes. To whip them into shape, Aguri leads the other four through a series of trials, teaching them the Five Oaths of the Precure - which are really just suggestions, honestly, but they're sensible enough - and generally shaping them into better fighters. Satisfied with their strength, Ace joins the group proper, bringing their number to five.
With the girls sufficiently empowered to take on their enemies, Aguri tells them of the predecessor Cure's fairy, who still lives in this world, and the legendary three treasures of the Precure. One of these, a magical mirror, is held by that fairy; the other two, the Miracle Dragon Glaive and the Eternal Golden Crown, are still missing and need to be located if the girls are to have any hope of victory in the future. Alice leads the team on a private jet to an island in the open ocean, where they are quickly greeted by a dragon and end up in a rough fight to defeat it. The dragon in question turns out to be the fairy, and gives Mana the mirror, which can scry other places and transport the user, among other functions. Shortly thereafter, two new generals appear and thrash the team pretty badly; it falls to Mana to pull everyone together, despite their broken spirits and broken mirror, and get them moving against the enemy again. That united will resonates with the shattered artifact, and it forms five Magical Lovely Pads, in the shape of iPads but with more or less the same functions the mirror had.
The fighting becomes more fierce; Bel, third in command of the Jikochu behind the king and Regina, leverages the power of the others in more and more elaborate plays to try and defeat the Precure, but is (barely) repelled each time. In need of more power, they search beneath the Trump Kingdom's royal castle for the Dragon Glaive. It doesn't take them long to find it, but it won't budge from where it's driven into the stone, not even for Ace. Regina, however, shows up after some time away, and under her hand it slides out like a knife through butter. Making matters worse, it responds to her and its full power is unsealed, which Jonathan insists should only happen with Marie Ange herself. Regina uses this newfound power to assert control over her minions, and the Precure end up having to fight her in a series of battles, each girl trying to break through to her and get her to see reason. Alice's part in this series is to follow Regina into space, flying a fighter craft stored under the mansion, to defeat her and a tree monster that she'd brought into space to destroy the planet.
Late in the fall, the girls find themselves very suddenly attacked by an enemy calling himself Marsh, who blames Mana for everything bad that's ever happened to him and seeking to trap the world in memories of days past. The Precure are sucked into his scheme, dumped into memories of their collective pasts but without memories of the others; Alice recognizes Rikka right away, as she walks with her father into a social function and crosses Rikka, who is with her own parents, but doesn't regain her memories until their fairies break into the space and quite literally run into them. The two end up fighting their way out, and rejoining the others. Marsh, it turns out, is being manipulated by an evil clarinet, and it takes some fighting and some speeches before the Precure can take the upper hand. In the process, they discover that Marsh is the remaining spirit of Mana's beloved pet dog, Mallow, who died while she was young. Marsh doesn't survive this experience either, though Mana at least gains a semblance of closure as she enters Cure Heart Engage Mode and turns the night pink in a new dress very strikingly similar to her grandmother's wedding dress.
Winter comes. Jonathan tells the girls he's found the Eternal Golden Crown, and in his brilliance has brought it back with him to Oogai. It doesn't resonate with the girls - until Aguri touches it, and for a moment seems to lose herself, before she snaps back a few minutes later. They adjourn for the evening at her request, and when Mana, Rikka, and Alice return the next day, Aguri, Makoto, Jonathan, and the Crown are gone. They manage to track them down in the Trump Kingdom, where Ace has challenged Regina to a final battle of sorts; the Crown dmuped Marie Ange's memories into Aguri, who now knows the full truth of everything. Some years ago, when the Jikochu attacked the Trump Kingdom, Marie Ange managed to seal King Jikochu, but it took most of her power. Weakened, she and Makoto tried to flee to Earth, but when Bel found them, Marie Ange pushed Makoto through and took the remaining attack herself. Fighting to retain herself under the strain, she split herself into three parts. Aguri, the purity in her heart; Regina, the selfishness in her heart; and Ai-chan, her body reborn. There is, therefore, nothing in the crystal Jonathan recovered - there wasn't a body in the first place, or rather it's been with the girls this whole time. This conflict leads to King Jikochu finally waking up and starting to rampage, cutting open a rift in space that links the ocean off the coast of the Trump Kingdom's castle to the waters just off the coast of Japan, relatively near Oogai, and causing the battle to spill over to Earth, where nobody is prepared.
The resulting battle is hard-fought; Mana accidentally reveals the girls' identities to the world at large shortly after it begins, but that's forgotten in the aftermath, as each of them fights to give Heart a path into the core of King Jikochu, whose form is massive, easily visible on the city skyline. Alice, for her part, creates a distraction: a giant Lance, as tall as a skyscraper, though it uses up the entirety of her power, and she has to be caught by Sebastian at ground level with a stunt airbag. Reaching the core, Heart manages to save the king of the Trump Kingdom, sealed within King Jikochu, and the crisis seems to be at its end...
...until Bel shows up and takes the remaining darkness into himself, becoming a monster for true. Individually and as a team, he's more than a match for the girls, so they try a different tack, each of the others giving their power to Heart, who uses it to attain a new form: Cure Heart Parthenon Mode, who proceeds to purify Bel into oblivion once and for all, the sky seeming to turn pink for just a second.
In the end, Aguri and Regina resolve their differences, Regina choosing to stay on this side and be a normal girl alongside Mana. The rift is impossible to close; ships now bring trade between Japan and the restored Trump Kingdom, under the watchful eye of the Yotsuba Group, who manages the operation and charges for negotiations. This is largely orchestrated by Alice, who happens to have an in with the leaders of the kingdom, given her group just saved one with the help of another. Between that and the cell phones connected directly to the Prime Minister, things are looking good for Alice, and for the Precure in general.
CANON PERSONALITY: Alice comes from a vaunted archetype of characters who are defined by their fortunes. Something in the way? Buy it out of existance. Need to acquire something? It's done. Creature comforts? Anything is available, anytime. Need laws casually ignored? It's possible enough. All of these are things Alice is capable of, occasionally on her own but usually through Sebastian, her butler who acts almost like an extension of her will. She needs only make her wishes known, and they become reality. She's become accustomed to this; while Mana and the others have given her some independence, she also very much needs her helper to orchestrate big workings. She does appreciate him, especially since he tends to take the place of the parental figures so often absent from her life, but at the end of the day she's the boss and he's the servant, and she does respect that boundary. (Sebastian, for his part, does the same - if he were any more physical, he'd resemble a certain butler from Hellsing in that way.)
Her motivations can be summed up in two words: Mana and Rikka. Alice fully believes she owes everything she is today to those girls, and she will give them the world if they only ask. Around them, she softens, letting her walls down and sharing everything of herself openly. Her tea parties are as much an excuse to take a deep breath as they are a chance to catch up. Alice has hinted at least once that her feelings for her best friends may be something stronger than a platonic bond, but she also understands them well enough to keep that to herself - it'd only trouble them, especially after Mana and Rikka come to a bit of an understanding late in their eighth-grade year about their bond. It won't stop her from following them to the ends of the earth, and keeping an eye on them with whatever means are at her disposal. Indeed, Mana is her role model in more ways than one, and more than a few of her other traits are informed by how Mana acts and feels.
Alice is kind of bad at being a sensible person, which is why she has a combination of Mana and Sebastian to temper her occasional urges. From the very first episode, when Alice asks if they can take the monster home rather than running away like everyone else does almost immediately, Alice has a habit of ignoring the decent choice and skipping straight ahead to what might be fun - or to what's most profitable. Of course, she'll also always choose whatever keeps her friends safe first - it's that single-minded devotion that drives even this trend. She jumps on opportunities when they present themselves, and acts without concern for the consequences, though this is at least in part because the Group can smooth those consequences out should something go wrong.
Outside her eccentricities, Alice is kind and wise, if in a different way than Rikka or even Mana. She understands people's motivations, and knows how to get them to look the other way, or to cooperate if that's what's needed. To an extent, she appreciates the value of subtlety; she simply chooses to act in excess instead, but she's capable of laying low when the job requires it. She also knows how to work around her limitations. When she doesn't want to become a Precure, she instead finds another way to help, even as restricted as that role ended up being while she retained it. When convicing Makoto to join the group is met with resistance, she simply uses her contacts to find her location and give Mana more chances. Alice isn't shy about using all the resources at her disposal to solve problems. She's slow to judge and even slower to act in judgment of others; even when confronted with things that she really should be dealing with, she simply stands there and works out her options, so long as someone isn't trying to punch her face in.
Alice's temper, something she was concerned with as a girl and has remained worried about ever since, is legendary amongst her friends and acquaintances. Ever since her little run-in with schoolyard bullies all those years ago, she's staunchly refused to use her power to do battle, choosing other ways to settle things instead. If she could do that much damage even then, what could she do now? With the power she's trained for all this, or with the power of Precure? Still, when Lance reminds her of her grandfather's teachings, Alice re-evaluates her policy, settling instead for a lesser definition: she remains non-violent wherever possible, but sometimes that isn't possible, especially when it's Mana and Rikka in the way. For those times, there's creatively applied violence to just the extent needed to repel an attack. Alternately, there's Cure Rosetta's form, which has the convenient auto-repair properties. Her views on fighting show in her powerset, in a bit of a meta capacity: not only is Rosetta's loadout the least offensive among the defensive Precure (Sunshine has something akin to micro-missiles, Mint is green but still counts with her earth abilities), but it's the least offensive outright. Of course, given she's plenty dangerous without powers, that may simply be a result of Rosetta's powers adapting to fill the weaknesses in her ability set.
Even without accounting for her Precure form, though, Alice's anger is better-controlled now than it used to be. Others have tried to take advantage of her tendencies more than once, but to Alice's surprise (and, indeed, relief) she simply doesn't snap the way she used to, even when pushed. Whether it's Mana's influence or simply the wisdom and control that come with age, Alice is able to keep functioning and keep a lid on her anger when she's pushed repeatedly. That doesn't mean she'll give her enemies any quarter, of course - Rosetta doesn't stop for anything, not until the job is done, and Alice simply pushes her opponents back until they have no choice but to retreat.
SKILLS/ABILITIES: Alice's signature skill is transformation into a legendary warrior: a Precure, specifically Cure Rosetta. Rosetta is a yellow Cure: speaking in terms of prior series, that means she's moderately powerful, focuses on shields, and has a slight tendency toward physical attacks over magical abilities. All Precure are significantly stronger and more durable while transformed, able to break stone and get back up after being thrown through buildings. Even while not transformed, Alice is faster, more aware, and stronger than she would be otherwise, though it isn't a huge boost - noticeable, but not significant. Precure refer to themselves and each other by their titles when transformed; hereafter, Alice will refer specifically to the civilian form and Rosetta will be specifically the transformed state.
The Dokidoki team's powers are governed by Cure Loveads, small objects not unlike pins and sparkle and shine, made of various compounds that are probably magical equivalents of gold, silver, and some kind of crystal. Each member has a Loveads that lets them transform; one that powers a starter-level finishing move (for her, that's Rosetta Wall, which is instead a shielding ability that forms two small clover-shaped barriers on her hands) and a starter-level team attack; one that powers a mid-level skill when used in a magical device called a Love Heart Arrow (Rosetta Reflection, a powerful reactive shield in the shape of a clover that throws incoming projectiles back where them came from - and can be thrown, broken in half, stepped on, and used in other various ways) and a mid-level team attack; one that powers a high-level skill when used in a different magical device called a Magical Lovely Pad (Rosetta Balloon, which Rosetta more or less tells us does whatever the hell she feels like; the most notable time it's used, it creates a skyscraper-sized version of her fairy) and a high-level team attack; and one that turns the whole team into super forms. None of the team attacks or super forms will function without a full four- or five-Cure team; since it's looking like that's a thing I'll have, I'll cover those below. However, to be concise, each new ability requires the corresponding magical artifact and also the correct Loveads. In addition, Rosetta can only access her magic while she's transformed - Alice is a civilian, slight boosts aside.
The whole team together has access to three team attacks, not counting finale attacks and movie attacks which aren't really repeatable outside specific circumstances. When the whole initial team - Heart, Diamond, Rosetta, and Sword - has access to Love Heart Arrows, a specific Loveads slotted into all four of them at the same time causes all of them to unfold into bows with shining strings, and when drawn together, they all fire an "arrow" of sorts - a blast of purifying power called the Lovely Force Arrow. Later, given Magical Lovely Pads, those four plus Ace can use the Royal Straight Flush, where the latter four can lend a chunk of power to Cure Heart, who uses it to fire a single, extremely powerful blast at an enemy. Given a third item exclusive to Cure Heart, that attack is powered up further into the Lovely Royal Straight Flush.
Alice gets a total of three magical artifacts: her Lovely Commune, which is actually her fairy partner Lance turned into something that looks a lot like a cell phone (and without which she can't transform); her Love Heart Arrow, which is a
For herself, Alice is skilled in business, able to handle some of the day-to-day management of the Group's operations by herself, though she prefers to leave it to Sebastian. She's very prim and proper, able to handle speaking to important people without issue, and she's used to being able to go more or less anywhere she wants without standing out unnecessarily. She also has various talents associated with being a proper heiress, including painting, the piano, ballroom dancing, flying her fighter plane, and less-expectedly gardening and hanakotoba. Last but definitely not least is her martial arts training; under her grandfather, she's picked up rather a lot of different skills. Her styles include karate, kendo, judo, and aikido, though she tends toward the direct styles when she has to use them, and much prefers not to use them at all. Still, when push comes to shove, she's a powerhouse even without magic.
CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Alicia Clover
AU AGE: 17
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Nothing major here; Alice's appearance translates fine into a traditional setting, though her almost-orange eyes and hair probably end up a little closer to brown. Taller, of course, with a little more striking of a figure - if she's going to act, she needs to own it. Rather than Alice's signature buns, tends to wear her hair either in braids, a high tail (or two if she's feeling capricious), or just cascading down to mid-back. Prefers more attention-grabbing colors - reds, greens, anything fancy. Sparkles are sometimes but not always present. Conservative but present jewelry; earrings, mostly, understated but classy. Almost as strong as Alice would be absent Precure powers, with the toned body to match; she trades her grandfather's discipline for the reality of needing to be in shape for roles, along with needing to be able to escape her adoring fans. While transformed into Cure Rosetta, that form's visual cues stay exactly the same, save for the dress lengthening a little to maintain its effective coverage. ETA 1/30: The palette swap looks something like this.
AU NAME: Alicia Clover
AU AGE: 17
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Nothing major here; Alice's appearance translates fine into a traditional setting, though her almost-orange eyes and hair probably end up a little closer to brown. Taller, of course, with a little more striking of a figure - if she's going to act, she needs to own it. Rather than Alice's signature buns, tends to wear her hair either in braids, a high tail (or two if she's feeling capricious), or just cascading down to mid-back. Prefers more attention-grabbing colors - reds, greens, anything fancy. Sparkles are sometimes but not always present. Conservative but present jewelry; earrings, mostly, understated but classy. Almost as strong as Alice would be absent Precure powers, with the toned body to match; she trades her grandfather's discipline for the reality of needing to be in shape for roles, along with needing to be able to escape her adoring fans. While transformed into Cure Rosetta, that form's visual cues stay exactly the same, save for the dress lengthening a little to maintain its effective coverage. ETA 1/30: The palette swap looks something like this.
AU HISTORY: Alicia was born in the summer of 1999 as the only child of Ross and Tara Clover, filmmakers, in California. Ross had a dream, to make it big as a director and go to Hollywood to shoot the Next Big Thing. Tara had a similar dream, but was more content to manipulate someone else's film to make it shine. The two of them were thus a match made in heaven, and they'd been a power couple for some time before Alicia's birth. Having a young daughter didn't really slow them down much, either; it simply meant Tara was a little less available for a while, and by the time Alicia was four, she was very much used to being on the move all the time. Still, her parents made time for her, and despite everything they were a happy family.
It was around this time that Ross had the bright idea that he could give his little girl a fan club by including her in the family business; she wasn't quite ready yet, but soon she'd have her first role as an extra, if only as a little girl being led by the hand through a scene moving down a city street. It gave Tara an excuse to get her girl in a cute dress, so it was a win for everyone, and it meant Alicia could start to get a feel for what her parents did. And she loved it; appreciated the lights and the fame and the people taking on a role other than themselves. She'd told her papa she wanted to do this later in life; he laughed, and said he'd help her get there, whatever that took.
By the time Alicia was seven or eight, her parents were looking to settle down somewhere, to have roots to return to - despite his dream, California wasn't it. Too busy, too dangerous, too big. Ross eventually settled on building a home in Recollé: just big enough to get work done, small and sensible enough to raise a child, and with decent cost of living to boot. Keeping things as low-profile as he could, he had the place built over the course of about a year, and they moved into the new place in the summer of 2008, pitching it to Alicia as a birthday present - a new home, a new life, and a new place to call her own. All were excited, Alicia included: this would be a new start for her, and a new place she could grow into without everyone being so crazy about her father's work. Somewhere she could be herself.
Of course, there was a balance to strike here - just because they'd picked a place and moved in didn't mean location shoots weren't a thing. And it would be silly to leave even a well-adjusted, responsible nine-year-old girl home alone. So they took her with them for shoots, ending up in all kinds of exotic places. That meant she missed school, but Ross had the foresight to retain a tutor on the personal payroll, who kept her in sync with what she was missing, though never too far ahead; it wouldn't do for her to come back from a shoot and alienate her classmates by being suddenly much better-learned than them, after all. It was also around this time that Ross determined he needed help to keep the house in order, and on occasion to keep himself in order while out and about. That brought about the hiring of a manservant, which in turn led to James - who has never given his last name aloud, stating it's unnecessary - joining their payroll. Alicia took an immediate shine to him, if not for the normal reason: rich girls in stories always had a dependable butler to help them in a pinch, and so this was clearly hers. It took a little bit for him to settle in, but all of them quickly got used to the extra set of hands around the house, and he was efficient but also largely invisible - there when needed, in the background and easily written off when not. If nothing else, it gave a trusted keeper for when Alicia needed to be left behind, and helped her establish a certain amout of independence; Ross decided early on in production that his little girl would not be coming along for the zombie movie. (Sales proceeded to be mediocre at best, and he resolved not to need to leave her behind again.)
As she grew, Alicia began to understand more of how her papa's business worked, and asked if she could take on more work, wanting to help. His bright laugh could be heard all around, and in his next film she found herself with a few lines. Not many, but something that would get the camera on her for several seconds. Beyond that, he said that being a fan of his work was enough, but as she grew up a little more he'd see what he could do. That was her first credited role, despite the character not even being named, and when Alicia saw herself on the screen at the opening, speaking the lines and making a credible effort to put forth a good performance, something seemed to sparkle and shine inside her, and from there it was off to the races. Along with this newfound appreciation for being behind the camera, she started to notice more people actually recognizing her from the movies, and after one close call, she asked her father for ideas on how to keep undesirables from being a problem. After a moment for grumbling about a desire to take care of it himself, he agreed that he'd have someone teach her how to defend herself. And sure enough, there was a person at the house in a few weeks that started to teach her the basics of karate. When they went to shoot the action-thriller In Bloom for several weeks in Japan, she had a local teacher in aikido who was quite good but spoke at best broken English (which led to Alicia trying to learn his language, and being able to thank him in broken Japanese by the time they were leaving); for a trip to a small island off the West Coast, a local who'd learned judo as a boy passed on the low-level points of the style to her. Like this, her library grew, and her general prowess along with it. She didn't have a lot of time to learn some of the styles she was being taught, but she picked up on them quickly enough, and by the time she was fourteen, she was fairly scary in a fight, which she ended up (accidentally, she claims) getting into on mildly frequent occasion. Sometimes it was hooligans looking for an easy mark; sometimes it was a random guy getting too grabby; and sometimes it was legitimately a fan that wanted to meet Alicia in every sense of the word. All of these were thrown and beaten to the ground as necessary, and while she wasn't at fault, it became a little of a headscratcher for Ross and Tara.
Her bigger breaks have been in recent years; she had a notable, named role for the first time in Island of Dreams, the movie shot on the island, and just recently she had a larger part in At the End of a Song, a sappy love story shot in the Midwest. Playing the female lead's second daughter, she had to learn to act and speak like a proper high-class lady, while also interfacing with the male lead on occasion. It was a more complex role, and more than once she was afraid she'd forgotten her lines, but somehow everything came together, and she found herself falling into the flow of the scripe more than once, the lines coming to her lips like she'd spent years memorizing them to prepare. Song released in October, a couple weeks before Halloween, was Ross's highest-grossing movie to date, and got decent critical reviews; one in a popular weekly media magazine specifically rated her own performance as "solid for a relative unknown" and noted that "her obvious hard work paid dividends". Riding that high, she's been in largely a good mood since the release, and she's been trying to keep the vocal and social forms she picked up for the movie as part of her personality afterward, but it's taking a little bit to force the real her to adapt. As the game opens, she'll be looking ahead to the next great challenge while she continues to ride that feeling as long as it'll carry her.
AU PERSONALITY: Alicia is, on the surface, not that different from Alice's core personality - she's still powered by money, and she still depends on someone to keep her in check (James) when she gets going and really needs to stop. But there are different forces driving her that give her a very different spin on that personality, making it something else entirely. Being closer to her parents, Alicia is a little more loose with her affection, and isn't as closed off in general, given she'll have been introduced to a lot of people across various movie sets. In general, she's a cheery person, a little carefree, and unconcerned with what the future will bring. She is a little bit dependent on approval of what she's done so far, with a bit of a "praise me more" attitude, but she also appreciates that she has worked hard to get where she is, and so that praise is probably deserved on some level. To an extent she's probably worked a little too hard for her most recent roles; what she sees as a desire to keep an aspect of her role's personality is perhaps a little bit of an inability to turn the role off; indeed, she has a little trouble switching out of the elegance she's acquiring.
On the whole she's a surprisingly down-to-earth person, given she's rich and spends a lot of time doing and watching fantastic things, and somewhat wise for her years. She doesn't raise too much of a fuss about her money, and she really doesn't think of herself as better than other people - not any more than putting in the work would explain. She's kind and relatively patient, and her drive leads her to understand that people are putting in effort and not to push them too hard for things that likely not their fault. That said, she occasionally has issues with the scale at which money buys things - she understands on the surface how to solve a problem, but tends to overcommit resources, which sometimes necessitates intervention, or at least a gentle reminder that, no, not everyone can throw so much at a problem. This, combined with her independent streak that her parents allowed for and then specifically hired James to combat somewhat, means she gets into trouble from time to time, either because she went too deep into an idea, or she got into the more traditional kind of trouble and needs bailing out before she does something a few people are likely to regret.
A combination of those trends and her fame has separated those that know her into a few camps: her diehard fans, who tend to see her as an untouchable symbol that must be preserved (and occasionally get into fights with the other groups); those that think she's terribly eccentric and need to be given a wide berth; those that think she's just using her family relation to get into the business and actively dislike her; and the majority that simply don't care, also giving her a wide berth. Those groups keeping their distance mean that, while Alicia has acquaintances, she doesn't really have friends - either someone dissuades them, or they're part of one of the groups that stays back for their or her own sake. It means she doesn't have a lot of friends her own age, not necessarily through fault of her own, though she's not lacking bonds, as she's close with her parents and James. She'll always default to sticking close to them when push comes to shove, but she'd really like someone that sees her for herself, and not for the image her acting has projected in front of her. Similarly, she wants to be able to interface with other people, and peel away the "roles" they play around other people to get to the actor or actress inside.
It was around this time that Ross had the bright idea that he could give his little girl a fan club by including her in the family business; she wasn't quite ready yet, but soon she'd have her first role as an extra, if only as a little girl being led by the hand through a scene moving down a city street. It gave Tara an excuse to get her girl in a cute dress, so it was a win for everyone, and it meant Alicia could start to get a feel for what her parents did. And she loved it; appreciated the lights and the fame and the people taking on a role other than themselves. She'd told her papa she wanted to do this later in life; he laughed, and said he'd help her get there, whatever that took.
By the time Alicia was seven or eight, her parents were looking to settle down somewhere, to have roots to return to - despite his dream, California wasn't it. Too busy, too dangerous, too big. Ross eventually settled on building a home in Recollé: just big enough to get work done, small and sensible enough to raise a child, and with decent cost of living to boot. Keeping things as low-profile as he could, he had the place built over the course of about a year, and they moved into the new place in the summer of 2008, pitching it to Alicia as a birthday present - a new home, a new life, and a new place to call her own. All were excited, Alicia included: this would be a new start for her, and a new place she could grow into without everyone being so crazy about her father's work. Somewhere she could be herself.
Of course, there was a balance to strike here - just because they'd picked a place and moved in didn't mean location shoots weren't a thing. And it would be silly to leave even a well-adjusted, responsible nine-year-old girl home alone. So they took her with them for shoots, ending up in all kinds of exotic places. That meant she missed school, but Ross had the foresight to retain a tutor on the personal payroll, who kept her in sync with what she was missing, though never too far ahead; it wouldn't do for her to come back from a shoot and alienate her classmates by being suddenly much better-learned than them, after all. It was also around this time that Ross determined he needed help to keep the house in order, and on occasion to keep himself in order while out and about. That brought about the hiring of a manservant, which in turn led to James - who has never given his last name aloud, stating it's unnecessary - joining their payroll. Alicia took an immediate shine to him, if not for the normal reason: rich girls in stories always had a dependable butler to help them in a pinch, and so this was clearly hers. It took a little bit for him to settle in, but all of them quickly got used to the extra set of hands around the house, and he was efficient but also largely invisible - there when needed, in the background and easily written off when not. If nothing else, it gave a trusted keeper for when Alicia needed to be left behind, and helped her establish a certain amout of independence; Ross decided early on in production that his little girl would not be coming along for the zombie movie. (Sales proceeded to be mediocre at best, and he resolved not to need to leave her behind again.)
As she grew, Alicia began to understand more of how her papa's business worked, and asked if she could take on more work, wanting to help. His bright laugh could be heard all around, and in his next film she found herself with a few lines. Not many, but something that would get the camera on her for several seconds. Beyond that, he said that being a fan of his work was enough, but as she grew up a little more he'd see what he could do. That was her first credited role, despite the character not even being named, and when Alicia saw herself on the screen at the opening, speaking the lines and making a credible effort to put forth a good performance, something seemed to sparkle and shine inside her, and from there it was off to the races. Along with this newfound appreciation for being behind the camera, she started to notice more people actually recognizing her from the movies, and after one close call, she asked her father for ideas on how to keep undesirables from being a problem. After a moment for grumbling about a desire to take care of it himself, he agreed that he'd have someone teach her how to defend herself. And sure enough, there was a person at the house in a few weeks that started to teach her the basics of karate. When they went to shoot the action-thriller In Bloom for several weeks in Japan, she had a local teacher in aikido who was quite good but spoke at best broken English (which led to Alicia trying to learn his language, and being able to thank him in broken Japanese by the time they were leaving); for a trip to a small island off the West Coast, a local who'd learned judo as a boy passed on the low-level points of the style to her. Like this, her library grew, and her general prowess along with it. She didn't have a lot of time to learn some of the styles she was being taught, but she picked up on them quickly enough, and by the time she was fourteen, she was fairly scary in a fight, which she ended up (accidentally, she claims) getting into on mildly frequent occasion. Sometimes it was hooligans looking for an easy mark; sometimes it was a random guy getting too grabby; and sometimes it was legitimately a fan that wanted to meet Alicia in every sense of the word. All of these were thrown and beaten to the ground as necessary, and while she wasn't at fault, it became a little of a headscratcher for Ross and Tara.
Her bigger breaks have been in recent years; she had a notable, named role for the first time in Island of Dreams, the movie shot on the island, and just recently she had a larger part in At the End of a Song, a sappy love story shot in the Midwest. Playing the female lead's second daughter, she had to learn to act and speak like a proper high-class lady, while also interfacing with the male lead on occasion. It was a more complex role, and more than once she was afraid she'd forgotten her lines, but somehow everything came together, and she found herself falling into the flow of the scripe more than once, the lines coming to her lips like she'd spent years memorizing them to prepare. Song released in October, a couple weeks before Halloween, was Ross's highest-grossing movie to date, and got decent critical reviews; one in a popular weekly media magazine specifically rated her own performance as "solid for a relative unknown" and noted that "her obvious hard work paid dividends". Riding that high, she's been in largely a good mood since the release, and she's been trying to keep the vocal and social forms she picked up for the movie as part of her personality afterward, but it's taking a little bit to force the real her to adapt. As the game opens, she'll be looking ahead to the next great challenge while she continues to ride that feeling as long as it'll carry her.
AU PERSONALITY: Alicia is, on the surface, not that different from Alice's core personality - she's still powered by money, and she still depends on someone to keep her in check (James) when she gets going and really needs to stop. But there are different forces driving her that give her a very different spin on that personality, making it something else entirely. Being closer to her parents, Alicia is a little more loose with her affection, and isn't as closed off in general, given she'll have been introduced to a lot of people across various movie sets. In general, she's a cheery person, a little carefree, and unconcerned with what the future will bring. She is a little bit dependent on approval of what she's done so far, with a bit of a "praise me more" attitude, but she also appreciates that she has worked hard to get where she is, and so that praise is probably deserved on some level. To an extent she's probably worked a little too hard for her most recent roles; what she sees as a desire to keep an aspect of her role's personality is perhaps a little bit of an inability to turn the role off; indeed, she has a little trouble switching out of the elegance she's acquiring.
On the whole she's a surprisingly down-to-earth person, given she's rich and spends a lot of time doing and watching fantastic things, and somewhat wise for her years. She doesn't raise too much of a fuss about her money, and she really doesn't think of herself as better than other people - not any more than putting in the work would explain. She's kind and relatively patient, and her drive leads her to understand that people are putting in effort and not to push them too hard for things that likely not their fault. That said, she occasionally has issues with the scale at which money buys things - she understands on the surface how to solve a problem, but tends to overcommit resources, which sometimes necessitates intervention, or at least a gentle reminder that, no, not everyone can throw so much at a problem. This, combined with her independent streak that her parents allowed for and then specifically hired James to combat somewhat, means she gets into trouble from time to time, either because she went too deep into an idea, or she got into the more traditional kind of trouble and needs bailing out before she does something a few people are likely to regret.
A combination of those trends and her fame has separated those that know her into a few camps: her diehard fans, who tend to see her as an untouchable symbol that must be preserved (and occasionally get into fights with the other groups); those that think she's terribly eccentric and need to be given a wide berth; those that think she's just using her family relation to get into the business and actively dislike her; and the majority that simply don't care, also giving her a wide berth. Those groups keeping their distance mean that, while Alicia has acquaintances, she doesn't really have friends - either someone dissuades them, or they're part of one of the groups that stays back for their or her own sake. It means she doesn't have a lot of friends her own age, not necessarily through fault of her own, though she's not lacking bonds, as she's close with her parents and James. She'll always default to sticking close to them when push comes to shove, but she'd really like someone that sees her for herself, and not for the image her acting has projected in front of her. Similarly, she wants to be able to interface with other people, and peel away the "roles" they play around other people to get to the actor or actress inside.