Six Impossible Things?
curiouser and curiouser are you, little mouse. you’ve never cared for the proper life of a lady that your mother tried to prepare you for, full of etiquette and clean dresses. you rather be running along in the hedge maze, chasing that bunny rabbit you swore just took a left down that rabbit hole, past the momraths. you live in your own land, one very different from the real world. though, it feels real to you and what is real, anyway? you fear you’ll never know, especially after your mother shipped you off to the island in hopes you’d come back a proper lady.
Name: Alice L. Dodgson Age: 23 Birthday: May 4th Parents: Charles & Helen Dodgson Sister: Margaret Dodgson Pronouns: She/Her Home: Emberwick North, Ahtohallan Occupation: Scribe/Assistant at Myth Smith Positive: Curious, adventurous, accepting Negative: Curious, stubborn, absent-minded Face claim: Florence Pugh
Before
Alice Dodgson never fit in, no matter how hard she tried.
Good manners, proper behavior, and excellent etiquette – all of these filled much of Alice’s youth as her mother sought to make sure her daughters lived up to the family name in polite society. It meant the girl knew which spoon to use at an afternoon tea as well as the correct outfit for any number of social meetings. Beyond that, her mother oversaw her education – giving her a solid grounding in reading, art and musical appreciation, and penmanship. She did try her best to be a good student.
Unfortunately for her mother’s aspirations, Alice tended to be more interested in her father’s tales of faraway lands and the history of the Thirteen Kingdoms. Between his stories, she also learned out to spot the valuable imports from a false one made by someone in town.
More than that, however, Alice dreamed.
She dreamed of traveling and meeting people of different cultures. When they would travel through the village, she would always try any new flavor of tea or food that came in on the merchant ships. She loved seeing new materials in the market and finding a new book. Often she would get caught up in her “daydreams”, seeming to see something just beyond the ken of her family. It exasperated her mother and older sister, but her father encouraged her – both in her dreams and in her willingness to accept the “impossible”.
Then she lost her father to the sea.
A well-to-do merchant with a minor title, he possessed an adventurer’s soul and sought to press further and further into distant lands and kingdoms. He would often bring back fascinating tales of distant lands as well as gifts and knick-knacks from the various places he visited. But the sea can be a dangerous mistress . . . giving and taking without a care. During a great storm, his ship went down with all hands, leaving his family in mourning.
It took a good deal of time before Alice managed to pull herself out of her melancholy, but eventually she rediscovered her dreams. Such dreams – of travel and exploration – worried her mother. Her mother didn’t want to lose her daughter as she’d lost her husband. Alice’s older sister settled happily into the proper young lady and Alice’s mother wanted the same for her younger daughter.
Unable to manage her daughter, she decided to send Alice to Ahtohallan in the hopes that it would satisfy the young woman’s desire to travel as well as forcing her to deal with reality by taking care of herself.
After
It took a bit for Alice to finally feel comfortable on the island. Knowing her mother wanted her to settle down and become more . . . well, more like her, Alice didn’t quite trust most of the people there. Once it became obvious no one intended to force her into some kind of mold, she allowed herself to be herself. At least as much as she ever could be – after all, didn’t learning new things make someone a new person? And didn’t she learn new things every day?
However, she did manage to put down some roots and even manages to hold a job at the Myth Smith. It can be touch and go from time to time due to her penchant for daydreaming or getting caught up in something no one else ever seems to see, but her excellent penmanship and polite manners keep the customers happy.
Making her home at Emberwick North, she wonders if perhaps she’s still a bit on the crazy side. Does it make any sense to live in a place on the edge of the sea? The sea . . . which both draws her and frightens her. Her dreams of travel wrestle with the memories of her lost father and she can’t decide which is greater – her desires or her fears.
Generally speaking, if Alice is not at home or work, she can be found in gardens, in the woods, in a museum, or basically anywhere that catches her eye. The type to always be following some will-o-the-wisp, she tends to make friends with the odd and the curious . . . and they make her feel more at home.