Alice

**Alice** is the second hero introduced in the series. They are the protagonist of *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*.

## Appearance

Alice is a small, slender child with blue eyes and blue-blonde short hair. They wear a yellow dress with a baby blue sash, poofy white sleeves and a white collar, as well as white socks and dark blue slippers.

## Personality

Alice is a very polite and kind, if a bit peculiar child. They speak in a very proper tone to everyone they meet and seem to have a way with words.

Whether from their misadventures in Wonderland or similar experiences in the real world, Alice has developed extreme anxiety, often falling into a panicked, then depressed state when a situation overwhelms them.

If sufficiently angered, Alice has quite the sharp tongue.

## Synopsis

### Before Forever After

Alice was presumably brought to Wonderland the same way all the other characters were brought to their respective stories: via The Fates. At one point they encountered Tank when he was still a Prince Charming, but the two of them lost each other almost immediately. Alice wandered through Wonderland alone for a while, scared and confused by the place's lack of logic and disheartened by the repeated claims of multiple Wonderland-inhabitants that they were lacking and didn't fit in. They gained a reputation for being mad due to their often erratic behavior, with the Cheshire Cat even referring to them as "The Mad One".

Eventually Alice managed to find their way to the Mad Hatter's abandoned tea party and fell into an exhausted sleep. They would soon be awoken by a returning Tank and the new Prince Charming, Robin.

### Forever After

After being woken up by Robin and Tank, Alice shows confusion over Tank's new fairy-wings and asks him whether he was an angel now, then deduces that since Tank has brought help, their adventure must be real and not a dream like they'd thought. Alice expresses their frustrations and sorrow over being trapped in a place like Wonderland where nothing makes sense and everyone seems determined to make them think they are mad, also showing fear that they might have indeed lost their mind. When Tank assures them that they aren't mad, just different, Alice expresses bitterness over always being *too* different no matter what they do and that they never seem to belong anywhere, using their rapid size-shifting during their travels in Wonderland as an example. Robin then comforts them, saying that feeling out of place is merely part of growing up and she and Tank both assure Alice that they are the only one who can decide how much space is proper for them to take.

Alice takes heart after hearing the Princes' kind words and resolves to take their adventure head-on, with Tank and Robin by their side.

A short time into their continued track through Wonderland, the three of them come across the Duchess' baby, still transformed into a pig. Alice comments that it was an ugly baby either way.

After some wandering around not getting anywhere, Robin invokes a fairy tale mechanic by loudly shouting about how oh-so-lost the group are. This attracts the Cheshire Cat, who informs them that the Queen of Hearts has been ordering executions for everyone in her frustration over not finding Alice, including him. He only escaped because the cards became confused over his ability to separate his head from his body. When Alice hopefully takes this as a sign the queen can be rational, the Cheshire Cat replies that while the queen can be "rash", she is incapable of being "-onal". Alice calls him out on talking nonsense again, to which the Cheshire Cat asks if it isn't better to speak "honest nonsense" than "dishonest reason". Alice replies that it is not, as "honest nonsense" is a contradiction and if one knowingly speaks against sense one *isn't* being honest. The Cheshire Cat shows himself delighted over Alice standing up for themself and beating him with reasoning. He tells them that they might just see a way out of Wonderland after all, then leaves for the woods.

Tank congratulates Alice on putting the Cat in his place, with Alice themself being happy that they managed to do so. After this, the group resume their travels.

They eventually run into the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, both of whom mock Alice for keeping poor company. Alice once again stands up for themself and retorts that the company they keep is none of the pair's business. The Mad Hatter calls them a "rude child" and he and the Hare attempt to further bully Alice, accusing them of not only stealing the queen's wig but also getting them arrested for conspiring with them. Alice gets sick of their heckling and yells at them that they didn't do *anything*, whether Hatter and Hare believe it or not, and that the queen should make her accusations straight to their face, instead of sending others to make them. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare reveal that they have led a number of card guards to the group's location and quickly retreat.

Tank and Robin order Alice to hide behind them, but Alice states that they've had enough of the nonsense and demands the cards to take them to the Queen of Hearts.

When arriving at the queen's castle, Alice further demonstrates their new-found courage by objecting immediately when a card guard claims that he and the others have captured Alice, asserting that they came of their own free will to have a word with the queen. The queen replies that Alice is not here so that they may have a word with the queen, but so the queen can have a word with them, to which Alice points out that that amounts to the same thing. This causes a minor bustle in the courtroom, as the King of Hearts frantically tries to stop the court scribes from recording Alice's comeback. The queen screams for silence and angrily accuses Alice of having stolen her execution wig, citing the Knave of Hearts' testimony as evidence. Alice counters that they have never met the knave and nor has he met them, meaning he cannot possibly know whether or not they were the thief and so the queen has no proof at all. The queen continues to accuse Alice, claiming that not belonging and being an outsider is precisely the point, but Alice replies that being an outsider is not a crime.

The queen throws a tantrum, yelling that the crime is stealing her wig, to which Alice asks how she knows it was stolen at all. The queen answers that it isn't in any of her rooms and Alice asks whether the queen could have merely misplaced it. The queen denies this as a possibility, but when Alice further asks when she last put it on, the queen can only remember that it was at the last execution. Alice inquires when the last execution was, which prompts an uncomfortable silence to fill the courtroom, as the queen cannot recall the exact date. Alice points out that the queen's inability to remember the last execution means it was quite some time ago, which in turn means the wig could have been stolen long before they came to Wonderland.

The queen demands the king to tell her the date of the most recent execution and the king fumbles, naming the rules of law and the comings and goings of writs of pardon as muddying factors. This makes Alice realize that the queen has never actually executed anyone. They deduce that the king must have simply pardoned everyone she sentenced behind her back, while the card guards merely pretended to carry out her orders. The queen falls into deep denial, claiming that no one would dare lie to her like that, because she is the Queen of Hearts. Alice retorts that she is not, as a queen has power and she evidently has none. They call the queen "a child playing dress-up" and declare that it is time for everyone present to grow up.

All of Wonderland disappears, as Alice, Robin, Tank and the queen revert back to their true height. Alice comforts the distraught queen over the loss of her castle and encourages her to finally go out into the world and make something she can truly call hers, instead of relying on a fantasy. They watch as the queen accepts her fate and walks off into the nearby woods.

Alice tells Robin and Tank that they would like to "wake up" as well and lie down on the meadow, closing their eyes. They are last seen peacefully sleeping (or perhaps waking up) as Robin reads out their Happily-Ever-After.

## Relationships

### Tank

Tank and Alice met when the former was still a Prince Charming and he tried to help them through Wonderland. However, Tank was unable to deal with Wonderland's bizarre logic and he and Alice ended up separated shortly after they met. Alice doesn't seem to hold much of a grudge for Tank leaving them, though they were sad that he'd seemingly abandoned them. They were nonetheless happy to see him again when he and Robin found them at the tea party. Tank on his part is very protective of Alice, repeatedly calming them down when their anxiety got the better of them and getting angry when the creatures of Wonderland showed no understanding or sympathy for the child.

### Robin

Robin first encountered Alice while carrying out Hira's bidding in Wonderland, after inadvertently framing them for the theft of the Queen of Hearts' execution wig. Robin expressed sympathy for Alice's desire to belong and encouraged them to make their own space at their own pace.

### The Queen of Hearts

Alice and the Queen of Hearts got off to a bad start after an unspecified incident at the queen's croquet match, involving the Cheshire Cat and Tank in his Prince Charming-times. Alice spends the majority of their time in Wonderland trying to avoid the Queen of Hearts and being afraid of her. They lose that fear after an encouraging talk from Tank and Robin, from which point on they start standing up to her and speaking out against the queen's unfair treatment of them. Despite being quite cross with her, Alice also shows some sympathy for the queen, as they recognize her as at heart a fellow lost child, unable to escape from Wonderland and afraid of the outside world. Once they return to the real world, Alice and the queen part on somewhat amicable terms, with Alice encouraging the queen to create a place she can truly call hers, instead of hiding away in a self-indulgent fantasy-land.

## Abilities

### Deductive Reasoning

Alice is a very smart child, able to infer the solution to riddles or problems with only little hints, such as when they used the queen's inability to remember the last execution she carried out with the obvious nervousness of the King of Hearts to correctly deduce that the queen had never really executed anyone.

Prior to this, they were able to use the Cheshire Cat's own words against him to prove why he was wrong about "honest nonsense".

## Etymology

* Alice is an angliczisation of the Old French name *Alis* (or older: *Alais*) which in term is derived from *Adelaide*, an Old High German name. It roughly translates to "of noble character, rank of nobility".

## Trivia

* Alice is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
* Alexandra stated that Alice was one of the hardest characters to design, due to the difficulty she had in finding a look for them that was perfectly androgynous.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/HannahAlexArt/status/1466925064327405570
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/HannahAlexArt/status/1466925064327405570
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/HannahAlexArt/status/1466925829078745088