Mentioned Characters: Alice

Alice Margatroid is a magician who lives in the Forest of Magic. She loves using dolls in her magic and can control many dolls at once or even a giant doll with her magical threads. Her dream is to create a fully autonomous doll. To do this, she would need to imbue it with a soul. Perhaps that is why she once sought the Hourai Elixir, which grants humans immortality. Because the Grand Guignol, the perfect doll she seeks to create, is essentially the same as a human except that it cannot die. In the 80th provisional Gensokyo, Alice works with the other magicians to manage the flow of magical power. Thanks to her skills honed by dexterously manipulating multiple dolls simultaneously, she's good at optimizing the supply and demand of magical power across the Probability Space Hypervessel's many systems. Perhaps she could even use this expertise to transform the Probability Space Hypervessel into a giant doll-shaped robot.

[Part 1 of an unresolved investigation into a lost world] "Do you like dolls, too?" There was no official doll club. The benefit of official clubs is that they receive funding, but to become one, they must pass a strict approval process. This must be reapplied for each year, and if the club fails to meet the conditions, it loses its official status. Alice probably wouldn't have minded if the process were open and fair, but nobody knows why some clubs are approved and some aren't. It's all decided behind closed doors. Alice was a firm believer that clubs were for doing club activities, so she'd rather spend time doing what she enjoyed than waste it sucking up to and trying to persuade the student councils. Of course, it would be much more fun if she had other club members... "...Oh, I see. You just came to watch." Unfortunately, she wasn't having much luck recruiting new members. Part of the problem was that she refused to admit she wanted any. Her doll club had only ever had one member, and even if she never got any new members, she was determined to keep the club going. Alice loves dolls and everything to do with dolls. Sometimes, pursuing what you love can be lonely. She didn't care if everyone else thought she was crazy. She knew she was doing what she loved, and that was enough. Still, when she saw her guest leave almost as soon as she arrived, she couldn't help but mutter to herself... "I wouldn't mind if more people came to watch."

[Part 2 of an unresolved investigation into a lost world] "How do we get more club members...?" Alice was cooped up in her secret room, somewhere in the academy, trying to come up with a plan. Her club wasn't official, so it wasn't her club room. It was a spare classroom filled with unused chairs, desks, and other random junk covered in dust. It was the kind of place you'd go to be alone. Did she have permission to use this room? Of course not. But nobody else was using it, so, in Alice's mind, there was no problem. And there was nothing strange about her sitting there, talking to her two favorite dolls. "I guess the obvious thing would be to put on another puppet show... That might get people interested. What do you think, Shanghai, Hourai?" Alice wasn't too keen on that idea. Sure, she liked puppet shows and wanted to do more, but she was worried that everyone had grown tired of them. She had put on lots of shows, precisely because she enjoys them. She'd done all the classics and even tried to keep it fresh with some original ones of her own, yet to people not interested in puppet shows, they all feel pretty much the same. That's why she was racking her brain, trying to come up with something new. However, whenever she thought she'd be better off doing something other than a puppet show, it made her want to stop thinking altogether...

[Part 3 of an unresolved investigation into a lost world] "...This isn't good. If I only think about what I wanna do, I'll never recruit any members." There's no point putting on a puppet show if there's no audience for it. Clubs are about people coming together to share what they love. But if she kept putting on shows nobody wanted to watch, it might have the opposite effect. It might scare potential new club members away. As these thoughts continued to tumble through her head, she looked down at the dolls sitting in front of her. She knew she was biased, but her handmade dolls really are cute. Sometimes, to achieve something, sacrifices have to be made. Perhaps focusing solely on what she wanted to do was a mistake. Life isn't all fun and games. She thought she could put on shows whenever she pleased, that all she needed was herself. But a show is not complete without an audience. "I really don't want to, but maybe I should try giving my dolls away..." Just the thought of it broke her heart. She loves her dolls. But if she could bear the pain, it would definitely work. Like, who wouldn't want one of her dolls? And surely they'd take care of them... "We've still got plenty of performances left in us, Alice." "Yeah, don't give up." Did her dolls just talk?! No, they couldn't have. Alice must have been more tired than she realized.

[Part 4 of an unresolved investigation into a lost world] Alice put on a puppet show in an out-of-the-way corner of the academy, and it was about as successful as all her other shows. It wasn't met with thunderous applause or ridicule. About the same number of people stopped to watch, and then they left when they got bored. Perhaps some people would have preferred to perform in a big theater, but Alice likes putting on puppet shows in public, where anyone can watch. It lets her feel more connected with her audience. Sure, not everyone will stop to see the entire show from beginning to end, but that's the nature of a street performance, and the nature of connections between people. It's not like Alice knows anything about the people who stop to watch her show, either, but their simple interaction ties a thin thread of fate between them. "Why you looking so philosophical, Alice? Was today's show that good, huh?" "Something good must've happened." While Alice was in the middle of packing up, two girls, regulars to her show, came over to talk to her with huge grins on their faces. That was when she realized that some people do see the whole show. Those two always stay until the very end. "Not really. It was the same as always." Despite Alice's dry reply, it looked like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.