Alice Morrow

WHO YOU SEE

Alice is a little bit of a weirdo, but, like most kids her age, has a group of friends to be weird with. It has become easier to be a nerd, to be interested in comic books and watch anime, because no matter what odd thing you’re into, there’s always someone who has watched it too. She gets lonely easily, and she can’t be alone, this isn’t helped by a complete absence of parents. She prefers to think that they had no choice rather than they abandoned her, but it is a deep seated fear of hers, and has coloured her personality accordingly. If anything she could be described as clingy, happier in the company of others than by herself.

She’s not a natural liar, being more comfortable simply avoiding difficult questions than actually answering with falsehoods. This is not to say that she’s incapable of lying, but is bad enough that even white lies are likely to be found out easily enough, or spotted as an attempt to hurt when perhaps that isn’t intended. She is stubborn and strong-willed though, and has a clear, perhaps too clear idea of right and wrong, with an extremely black and white moral outlook.


Alice never knew her parents. Orphaned as a baby, she was discovered abandoned in a derelict house at only a few months old. She was taken in by the state, but as is often the case in such situations, was not fortunate enough to be adopted. There are a number of issues associated with growing up without parents, and though she was never a bad child, much of her early to late childhood was spent in and out of foster homes.

She was sent to a local, overcrowded state school when she turned eleven, and though she had frequently changed schools when younger, here she remained at the same institution in a bid to provide some consistency in her life. It seemed to have a positive effect and she found some friends there, other than the one she had in the orphanage. Though it was awkward when the subject of parents came up, as it is wont to do in young people, it didn’t seem to be too much of a concern for her newfound companions.

Her best friend, after two years in school, resolved into a boy the same age who shared most of her interests. Steven and Alice tried a brief relationship, in as much as thirteen year olds can have one, before realising that they would be better off as friends.

She wasn’t a sterling student, hardly a favourite amongst teachers, and frequently getting in trouble for talking or messing about when she should have been paying attention. She wasn’t a bad child however, simply undisciplined, lacking true motivation or interest in school work. She acquired passing grades in her High School Diploma, but didn’t really have enough confidence in her own academic abilities to pursue a University degree.

She does however, have a certain talent in the kitchen, though only discovered in the kitchen at her home. At the urging of her then ‘teacher’, the dinner nanny for the home, Alice applied for a catering course in the local community college. Two years on and she has proved to have something of a flair for cookery, though she wants something a little more personal than catering, and though she is still studying for her qualification, she has been looking into getting a local job as a chef when she leaves college.

Alice’s new ability is one that you would be unlikely to associate with such a diminutive and unimposing figure. Her ability is a complex one, that interferes with the very laws of physics itself, allowing her to survive attacks no human should be able to, and deal out punishment no other human could. In short, Alice is able to absorb and release kinetic energy. Though it is a conscious effect, striking Alice allows her to absorb the kinetic energy from the attack, and redistribute it as she sees fit, such as a counter attack of her own. She can store this energy, acting effectively as a battery, and then discharge it at will.


The capacity of Alice’s absorption is not infinite, there is a limit, and when she hits that limit her ability will simply stop dead until she can discharge some of her already stored energy. She is also incapable of both absorbing and releasing energy simultaneously, she can do one or the other, but has to concentrate on that change.


Alice’s ability is not passive, she is not always drawing in, or releasing kinetic energy, it is a conscious decision. This means that catching her by surprise can effectively circumvent her defensive capabilities entirely, at least until she recovers enough to react. She is also incapable of totally robbing something of its kinetic energy, at best being able to reduce it to a single joule, effective against most, but still allowing blades to cut her, though not deeply. She may be able to stop bullets, but she cannot prevent the effect of other energies, such as thermal energy from fire, or even electricity.

LÉA SEYDOUX as Alice Morrow