┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓Alice
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Alice fits the mould for American-Irish to an almost satirical degree. Her genetics from across the pond basically dominate her appearance, from the tightly curled carrot-orange hair cut so short on the sides that it's unruliness spills out over the top to the very composition of her physique; wide, childbearing hips are the final remnants of a curviness that struggles valiantly against the hollowing skinniness that gripped most of the populace during the 30s. Her breasts have shrunken under famine whilst the pooch in her belly tightened, as if her body was flattening itself under the strain. Her skin is speckled with many freckles all over, particularly on the face and shoulders. She is perpetually sunburnt. Her hands are still soft from the city life she left behind but beware the lumps of muscle on her arms and legs, for she wears them as marks of a different nature of toil.
In terms of attire, Alice’s old life is scandalously reflected in the way she dresses herself. Her skirts are hemmed just a little higher than they ought to be and she covets makeup whenever she has the cash to spare. This reflects on the way she paints her face; starting with the pencil thin brows and working her way through green eyeshadow, powder, blush, and raspberry red lipstick. Of course, as the laborious effects of her new occupation take hold, Alice shall swap this for simply focusing on lining her eyes and brows to avoid looking like she is melting in the heat - but the lipstick never budges. It remains a symbol of what she has been.
All first impressions that Alice gives off through her appearance scream ‘Hollywood Has-Been’, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. When it comes down to it, Alice is a seeker of experiences; a pioneer, she yearns for the new and the exciting in this world. She’s a thrillseeker first and a bar-singer second. Her sharp tongue and witty comments are more than enough to get her in trouble; it doesn’t help matters that she’s as stubborn as a mule and doesn’t hold back when she gets mad. Often restless and always fidgety, Alice has a boundless amount of energy that spills into her everyday life and fuels her moments of irrationality, those famous “fuck-it-let’s-give-this-a-shot” ideas that every young adult has been guilty of before.
Alice has a very dramatised way of living. She tries to include as many people as possible into the show, regardless of colour or sexuality - in the greasy underbelly of a cosmopolitan wonderland, anything goes so long as you look pretty. She gesticulates, jokes around, twirls, dances and skips her way through life. She is a very empathetic and perceptive individual but this reflects on the severity of her moods - when she is happy, she is elated. When she is sad, she can be flat-out despondent. Fear is paralysing and rage is all-encompassing. Her irrationality is in constant conflict with steady undercurrents of common sense and quiet wariness that a sharp mind and a solid upbringing has given her, which she owes primarily to her uncle. She has developed a ruthless survival instinct during her years alone in the big city that, when provoked, will spur her into doing whatever it takes to live - even if she must deal with the consequences later.
Alice cannot remember a time when she wasn’t on the road. Her earliest memories were brief and indistinct. Her mother was estranged from the family for (briefly) dating a negro; she hastily married Alice’s father, who was a white middle class automobile salesman, and gave birth en route to their new home in Alabama. Mr. Hallark was conscripted into the war when Alice was 4 and died when she was 6. Her mother couldn’t afford childcare so after school Alice wandered to the small hotel where Ms. Hallark-Graham worked each day. She remembered doing her homework and sleeping in the lobby until it got dark, or singing along to the gramophone by the reception desk. When Alice reached 10 years old, the inheritance that her father left had started to run dry. Her mother became desperate. She helped her daughter pack her belongings into a suitcase and they took a very long train ride to Florida.
Once they arrived, it was an even longer walk to an isolated country house in the plains to meet a man that Alice had never met before. According to her mother, the man was her uncle; a travelling doctor who worked in the surrounding area. His name was Elijah Graham. Unbenownst to the little Alice, her mother had made arrangements for her to remain with Elijah until their living conditions could stabilise enough to start living as a proper family again. She departed shortly after leaving Alice in her uncle’s care, and Alice has never seen nor heard from her since.
Naturally, the first month or so of living with her uncle left Alice distraught for days, almost weeks on end. She wanted to go home - even though Elijah had worn himself out by repeatedly telling her that her old home had to be sold off and that this new and unfamiliar land was where she would be living for the foreseeable future. She had to make new friends at school and adjust to living in the countryside. She climbed many trees - and fell out of them. She watched, curiously, from the living room as her uncle brought the sick and the wounded into his office for treatment. As she grew older, Alice was in charge with cleaning and maintenance of equipment - she learned very basic first aid by watching her uncle perform. He taught her after school. With his salary, Alice was able to go to the shops and visit the funfair; she was granted a semi-normal childhood for a couple of years as she started to settle in.
During school holidays, they did not take vacations to different parts of the country; Elijah took Alice out on long-distance calls where his skills were needed as a sort of road trip. During these travels, particularly to large cities where doctors are always in short supply for minority groups, Alice was introduced to the sleazy American middle class - flapper girls, speakeasies, automobiles and movie stars as far as the eye can see. She was perhaps a few years too young to truly understand its dangers, but was enraptured by the glamour. It became something akin to an obsession; she idolised Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong. For Alice, it did not matter that they were ‘coloured’. She adored the way they carried themselves on stage and the allure of their voices. She also had the opportunity to see many smaller performances live, as being a doctor for the oppressed gave Elijah many favours that he liked to cash in when he had the chance.
This all backfired when, at the meagre age of 17, Alice absolutely insisted on following their salacious footsteps. She was still too naive to understand what it all truly meant but she was relentless in her protests until Elijah, furious and exasperated, got into contact with a man called Fred Olson to sort out a short, 3-week trial period in Jacksonville. Olson was a small-time agent for performers, specialising in singers and actors, and he owed Eli a fair amount for helping his wife with a series of birth complications after her first baby was a stillborn. Elijah forked out a significant sum of money, made Alice swear on the bible that she will follow Olson’s every word (with the exception of using her common sense) and sent the girl on her merry way to learn about life the hard way. What he was not expecting was a telegram from Olson that simply said “I wasn’t expecting that,” and several days later a flyer posted through his letter box with Alice’s name and face plastered all over it. He had never heard of the establishment but he had his utmost faith in Olson’s ability to protect the girl whilst she was in the big city.
The reality was decidedly less glamorous than Alice had anticipated. She was, by Hollywood’s standards, a decidedly ugly character against the blonde pristine beauties on the silver screen. Her mass of freckles and unruly hair brought in the customers in the same way a dwarf brought in spectators at a freak show. It was her voice that kept them; a little rough on the edges but it gave Alice the charm and favour that she needed to survive in this ruthless business. As her ‘career’ started to pick up she became distinctly aware of the cat-calling and general harassment that was much more prominent in the city. There were no laws in place for these sorts of situations; were it not for her backup singers, Molly and Pip, it is likely that Alice would have found herself in a much worse situation than the minor slip-ups that she fell into during her first few weeks. These two women were much older than she was, decidedly past their prime and vehemently jealous of her opportunities. They mistreated Alice and toyed with her gullibleness but ultimately protected the kid as she made her first wobbling steps into show business.
Alice lasted in Jacksonville for around two years. She lost out on some vital education but brought in a steady (albeit pitiful) income, which was more than her classmates back home could boast about. Whilst she was there she witnessed the highs and lows of city life, tasted prohibited alcohol, lost her virginity and got into an embarrassing number of dive-bar brawls by being an unfortunate passer-by. The experience wrenched Alice from her fairly clueless country life into the gritty reality of the world and whilst it sobered her and gave her an indispensable gut instinct, it couldn’t penetrate the bubble of optimism that Alice had steadfastly grew up with. The moment the stock market crashed, Olson laid off almost a third of his clients - Alice included - as he buckled down to weather out the storm. Despondent at the sudden interruption of her ‘big break’, Alice scurried back home to Elijah. Her uncle had visited regularly during those two years but it did not make Alice’s return any less emotional for the young lady. She put her dress and heels away, kept the makeup on her vanity desk and tried to settle back into the routine - but the routine was once again turned on its head as the initial waves of the Great Depression hit with horrifying accuracy. With Elijah’s wallet starting to tighten, the duo decided that their discounted rates and commission fees could not sustain them alone and the stress was overbearing; they made haste to the Tackett farm nearby to offer their services, Elijah as a doctor and Alice as a ‘nurse’ - though the latter was primarily grouped in with all the other cleaning staff in the farmhouse. In this isolated ranch, it was their intention to avoid the worst of the stock market scare and return in the aftershocks to profit from them.
Medic - You can perform basic first-aid to a certain degree of skill. +2
Agile - You are quick and light on your feet. +1
Quick-Thinking - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. +3
Observant - You are better at noticing traps, as well as your enemies' weaknesses. +1
Showman - You are a performer, skilled with impressions and disguises. +1
Quiet - You make little noise, and are adept at sneaking around. +2
Weak - You are not physically strong. -1
Frail - You have little stamina. -2
Skittish - You frighten easily, and have trouble keeping your cool in stressful situations. -2
Proud - You are unused to harsh living conditions or menial labor, and unwilling to perform degrading tasks. -2
10 - 7 = 3
Alice owns a fairly large lockbox, to which she wears the key around her waist every day (because who in their right mind would shove their wandering hands into her blouse?) and keeps hidden away in the back of her suitcase under her bed. Within are mementos - photographs, drawings, letters, flyers from everything good that has happened to her so far. When she is having a bad day, she takes the lockbox out from its hiding spot and rifles through its contents.
Make-up kits - in plentiful amounts, with varying degrees of quality.
Formalwear - flapper girl dresses and all their accessories, alongside two somber gowns. Quite dusty.
A pocket knife - You never know!
A diary - This is kept separate from her lockbox and under her pillow.
Hip flask of moonshine - You never know!
