Chapter Text
After falling from the cliff, Alicia gets an odd feeling while drowning and swears she sees light, before she is fished out of the water by some men and pulled onto land. She hears them wonder where she came from and point out the quality of her clothes, saying that she must be from a rich family.
Blacking out, she reawakens in a hospital.
She’s developed phenomena from her dip into the ocean, which is hitting her hard thanks to her damaged lungs. A detective arrives to find out who she is so that he can reunite her with her family.
When she writes down that she’s a Dessandre, the detective notes that she’s not from one of the local upper families in Krat, questioning if she was in a boat that sank as a reason she was in the water.
Alicia is surprised to learn that she’s in Krat. As far as she’s aware, Krat isn’t close to the seaside down that she had been in and she had only been in the water for a few minutes. It doesn’t make sense.
She’s even further surprised to see Puppets working as hospital staff. She isn’t aware of much of Krat’s history, but she is aware of Puppets and that something happened when she was still a baby that caused the Puppets to go crazy and kill many people in Krat. And after that, “strict restrictions” were placed on Puppets.
Finding Alicia’s family is going to take a while, as anything going in and out of Krat is strictly controlled, even communication.
In the meantime, a few adults visit Alicia in the hospital before turning around. The news of Alicia being a Dessandre, an important name, has gotten around and several upper-class families are visiting to see if they’d be willing to take in Alicia while waiting to reunite her with her family. Many are impoverished but still upper-class hoping to gain favour with the Dessandres for taking in their daughter. Though most turn around when they see the extent of Alicia’s burns, which does not help her self-esteem.
While on a forced walk around the hospital gardens, Alicia runs into Venigni, who is at the hospital for a publicity thing. While he does react to her scars, he quickly moves past them, which she’s happy about. Meanwhile, Venigni is happy to have an audience that actually engages in what he’s saying (she’s interested by Ergo and the concept of a Technician reminds her of Gustave).
When Venigni learns of Alicia’s situation, he happily offers to take her in, dismissing Pulcinella’s concern about whether he’d be up for the task.
Alicia goes to stay with Venigni and settles in to life in Krat while waiting for her family to come get her. She finds that she’s enjoying her life more than before, though is still very sad and questions her life a lot of the time. Venigni teaches her about being a Technician and even introduces her to Geppetto, though she finds something off about the old man.
On learning of her painting skills, Venigni commissions her to create a piece for him. And while Alicia can see nothing but the flaws thanks to her mother’s high standards, Venigni praises her work heavily.
Alicia also eventually starts confiding in Pulcinella, finding it easier to communicate with the Puppet, telling the Puppet about all the people she knew and lost. Pulcinella also offers her advice.
Alicia eventually receives news of her family. Though, the names of her parents and siblings match the ones she gave, and the Dessandres do have a youngest daughter named Alicia, that Alicia is already with her family and only a baby. Alicia tries to comprehend what’s going on while the detective questions who she is really.
Just then, the Puppet Frenzy occurs and everyone is forced to run.
During the chaos, Alicia is separated from Venigni and Pulcinella.
She makes her way back to Venigni’s home (separate from the factory) and barricades herself inside, managing to take care of the Puppets there who frenzied using one of the rapiers that were kept in the house.
The Puppet Frenzy, on top of what the detective said about her family, makes Alicia realise that she’s somehow travelled fifteen years into the past. So, she has that realisation on top of dealing with the puppets trying to kill her.
With the realisation that she’s in the past comes the realisation that she could save Verso from dying in the fire and save the people of the Canvas. But as she spends more time alone, Alicia realises that she can’t have both, as Verso surviving means that Aline wouldn’t go on to paint Lumiere and eventually everyone she knew. But Alicia manages to keep herself calm, as she has fifteen years to come up with a solution.
…
After P is awoken and saves Venigni, he asks P to track down Alicia and bring her to the hotel, giving the location of his home in hopes that she went there.
P finds her and brings Alicia to the hotel, where she happily reunites with Venigni and Pulcinella.
In the hotel, Alicia sees Carlo’s portrait and recognises it as the work of a Painter. It’s not a Canvas that can be entered, portraits almost never are, but it still has Croma. She remembers that the artist, D Grey, is a controversial one among Painters.
She forms a strong bond with P, helping encourage his humanity. His arm reminds her of Gustave, though his personality is much different. And like Pulcinella, she finds him easy to communicate with.
They spar together and Alicia occasionally accompanies him outside of the hotel.
Alicia meets Giangio and becomes interested in his medicines and Alchemy, which he becomes more willing to teach her as he gets to know her. On realising that she’s a Paintress, he strikes a deal for her blood and escorting him around Krat in return for medicines that return her voice somewhat and help with her injuries.
When Alicia idly wonders how Croma and Ergo might affect each other, Paracelsus knows that she has the potential to be one of his order, or at the very least a highly valued tool. He encourages her curiosity and experimentation. He already knows that a version of immortality can be achieved by creating a copy in a Canvas, but the original would still die. But with Alicia, she could find, or be used to find, a true version of immortality through Croma.
When the Krat Experiment is at an end, Paracelsus debates whether or not to take Alicia with him. He ultimately decides to leave her in Krat for now, at least until he returns for the Arm of God. Her friendship with the other potential future Order member, P, needs to continue to grow, as P’s immortality vs Alicia’s mortality could provide motivation for the two to pursue the secrets of immortality. He also thinks that Alicia would learn best if given the opportunity to find her own way with the resources he’s given her, rather than being actively guided.
In Krat, between helping with clean up, Alicia continues to study and experiment with Alchemy. Between her and P, they manage to recreate the cure for the Petrification Disease that Paracelsus had left instructions for. It makes Alicia feel happy and proud that she managed to do something that would help people. That Krat will be saved, unlike Lumiere.
She continues to dive into Alchemy, experimenting with both Ergo and Croma, Canvas and Puppets, to see what results she can produce.
As Geppetto is dead and Alicia’s parents are in another timeline, Venigni adopts the both of them.
Throughout the story, Alicia has been questioning her identity. She doesn’t feel like Alicia anymore, she knows and has experienced so much more than her old self ever did. But she doesn’t feel like Maelle anymore either, as Maelle was strong and unburned. Does she pick one name to go by and make it work, does she try and fuse her two names, or does she pick a new one for who she’s become?
P offers a simple solution, she calls herself Alice. Almost the same as her birth name, but still changed just as she has changed.
Years go by and Alicia eventually has to act on her plan to save Verso. She eventually comes up with a way to both save Verso and make Aline paint the people of the Canvas for her to then save. She just has to let her family believe that Verso died.
On the night of the fire, Verso and Alicia are trapped in the fire, with Verso pinned under burning debris and Alicia knocked out. On the cusp of passing out himself, a stranger breaks into the house and saves the both of them.
Verso is vaguely aware of something heavy being dumped beside him before he himself is picked up before the pain is too much.
Verso awakens in an unfamiliar room, hooked up to medical equipment and his burns bandaged. He is being watched over by a masked women who expresses relief at his waking, her voice raspy and sometimes hard to understand.
At first he’s unable to communicate. He’s relieved to be alive and grateful for the care but confused as to where he is and where his family is. The masked woman tells Verso that he’s lucky that she was able to tend to his wounds before they healed, as fresh wounds are easier to erase than ones that have been allowed to heal naturally. She also comments that he was lucky she was able to completely save his hands, so he can still play.
With the woman is a man with a metal arm and silver hair who doesn’t speak much. He tends to Verso with tasks that require strength. His name is revealed as Pino.
When he’s finally lucid and healed enough to communicate, he asks about his family and location. The masked woman assures him that his family are alive and explains that he is in her home in Krat. When questioning why he’s in Krat instead of with his family and expresses his want to see them, especially Alicia so that he can see for himself that she’s okay, he receives the chilling news that his family believe him to be dead and that he will not be allowed to return to them for a few months.
The masked woman assures him that she’ll let him go eventually, but she can’t until “the time is right” though this does little to assure Verso and he doubts that a woman crazy enough to kidnap him would actually let him go.
Once well enough to stand, Verso is allowed to go where he wants in the large house that he was brought to, though isn’t allowed to leave and has Puppets shadowing him. He knows of Puppets though has never seen them for himself.
Leaving his room, Verso is shocked to find that the majority of the house is covered in a vast mural that covers the walls and ceiling. And from the Croma he feels, the entire house is serving as one vast Canvas, which he had never seen before. The murals are the work of the masked woman, who spends a lot of her time continuously adding to her mural, making her a Paintress who Verso is surprisingly unfamiliar with (as the heir of the Dessandres, he’s expected to know every important Painter out there).
Verso is invited to enter into the in-progress Painting but refuses at first, not trusting the woman with his body.
Part of the home is a large library, filled with many books that seem to be serving as inspiration for the vast “Canvas”, such as geography and physics books.
There’s also a study that’s filled with many notes of calculations that Verso can’t understand at first, but later realises that they’re calculations on different time dilations for a Canvas and how much space a Canvas can hold depending on the size of the painting and the power of the Painter, etc.
And there is an alchemy lab full of things unfamiliar to Verso. He finds evidence of the masked woman making her paints here as well as further notes and calculations that he fails to understand.
There are also many other Canvases in frames, though they are either stacked or on stands rather than hanging on the wall.
Verso eventually asks for the masked woman’s name and after some hesitation she introduces herself as Alice Liddel.
Verso eventually enters the Canvas out of boredom and is amazed at how much work has gone into it, as well as just how vast it is. But he also finds the world surprisingly empty, as if it is waiting for someone to move in. He unknowingly walks the streets of Lumiere, wondering what tale the masked woman made for the city when she painted it. He feels a strong concentration of Croma in the city, as if the city was one of the most important parts for the Paintress to get right.
While in the Canvas, he’s surprised to see Pino there alongside Alice, as the man isn’t a Painter and non-Painters aren’t meant to be able to enter Canvases. Alice explains that she found a way to let non-Painters enter a Canvas for a time, though the effects eventually wear off. After being vague about how when prodded, she eventually admits that part of the process involves distilling the blood of a Painter, herself in this case, which makes Verso wish that he didn’t ask.
Part of Pino’s responsibilities is to enter into the Canvas after Alice when she stays in there for too long and pull her out. Verso witnesses Alice get violently ejected from her Canvas at one point, Pino having killed her in the Canvas to get her out. This was under Alice’s orders from back when she started the process, she is allowed only one warning to leave the Canvas before Pino resorts to forcing her out, so that she doesn’t fall into the trap of staying there at the risk of her health.
Verso is offered to contribute his own painting to the mural as a way for him to stave off boredom (he is given a piano but there’s only so much he can pay that), he can paint anything he wants and Alice will eventually incorporate it into her mural. The paint that he’s given is different from what he’s used to and feels strange to his sense. Alice admits to it being special paint that she made herself through alchemy, though thankfully confirms that she didn’t use her blood in it this time.
Throughout all of this, Verso keeps looking for ways to escape, sometimes resorting to violent fits, or finding ways to let his family know he’s alive. Alice just keeps promising “soon” when he begs to be let go and doesn’t answer when he asks why she’s keeping him captive.
During one of his physical altercations, he snatches Alice’s mask from her face. He sees that she’s been horrifically burned at one point in her life, with one eye a glowing prosthetic and the other a familiar Dessandre blue. He wonders if she’s related to him, a rejected member of the family or a bastard child. Perhaps that rejection is her motivation for his captivity.
…
Verso’s asks about Alice’s Alchemy.
She explains that she got into it to help cure Krat of the Petrification Disease, then she turned to how Alchemy could be used with Croma. Results including the elixir that allows non-Painters to briefly enter a Canvas, a paint that reduces the mental degradation cause by the Canvas it’s used on, and creating more life-like Puppets by hand-painting their faces while infusing them with Croma.
The last method is how she fooled the Dessandres into believing that Verso is dead. Replacing him with a puppet painted to mimic him.
Her current research is into a way for a Painter to permanently enter a Canvas, so that they can continue to exist as their true selves after their body dies, without any mental degradation.
Verso finds the idea crazy. Even if she succeeded, the confines of the Canvas would eventually chafe an immortal being. Then he realises that Alice’s house-wide mural would probably help mitigate that issue.
Still he finds the idea of an immortal life in a Canvas, no matter the size, to be disturbing.
…
One day, a while into his captivity, Alice suddenly announces that she’ll be leaving for a while. She seems anxious, like she’s about to do something big. Pino tries to go with her but Alice tells him that he needs to stay to keep Verso where he is and promises to be safe.
Verso once again demands to know what’s going on and Alice promises to finally explain things on her return.
A week or so later, Alice returns, breathing heavily as if she’s being subject to some heavy weight and crying. Verso can’t help but feel some concern for her.
Alice cries that she “got them”, that she got as many as she could but couldn’t save them all, but she at least got the most important ones. She then drags herself over to where Lumiere is painted on her Mural and enters into the Canvas.
Pino takes the elixir that allows him to enter the Canvas and Verso decides to go in after them, not wanting to be left and out and wanting those answers that Alice promised.
Inside the Canvas, Alice looks much better. She paints many humans into the painted city, though leaves them unconscious and frozen in time. When asked, she says that she hasn’t finished painting yet, that she can’t allow them to awaken into an unfinished world. She pays particular care to three individuals, all in black uniforms with yellow bands around their arms. Verso also notices that the Croma being used doesn’t feel like Alice’s, in fact it almost feels like his mama’s.
Alice then begins painting something different, stating that Verso should find them familiar. Verso is shocked when Esquie and Monocco are painted into being, the both of them reacting to him with familiarity and happily greeting him. These are not copies of his creations, he can feel his Croma within them, they are his creations, somehow transplanted into Alice’s Canvas.
Esquie makes comments that confuse Verso, such as referring to Verso’s “other self”. Esquie and Monocco also act familiar with Alice, Esquie stating that Alice “looks different” and “happier” while Monocco comments on Alice’s plan “working out”.
Alice then states that she should give “the rest” to Verso, saying that he knows the Gestrals and Grandis better than her and would be more capable to repainting them. She presses her palm to Verso’s chest and he feels a rush of his own Croma being channelled into him.
Thoroughly fed up and confused out of his mind, Verso demands answers.
Alice explains the events of Expedition 33, from Aline creating a new life in Verso’s Canvas out of mourning, including a new Verso and family, to Renoir going in and wreaking things to try and get her out, to Alicia going in to try and get them both out only for Aline to paint over her (she speaks like Alicia is a different person), Alicia growing up in Lumiere and eventually joining the Expedition to kill the Paintress, the loss of Gustave and meeting the Painted Verso, to Renoir erasing the rest of Lumiere, to the Canvas eventually being destroyed when the Painted Verso ejected Alicia from the Canvas.
Alice explains that she managed to slip into the Canvas after Alicia. When the Gommage of 33 happened, she grabbed as many people’s Croma as she could get away with without being noticed, she also grabbed Gustave’s Croma after he was killed before it could return to Aline, she was able to grab a considerable number of people without being noticed in Renoir’s final Gommage. And then she grabbed Lune, Sciel Esquie, Monocco, Nocco, and as many Gestrals and Grandis as she could as the Canvas was being destroyed.
Monocco compliments Alice, saying that she’s become craftier since they last met.
Verso is in disbelief of all that he’s been told, it all being too much. Then he starts connecting dots and rounds on Alice.
Alice knew. She somehow knew what Aline would do and how everything would play out in the Canvas. And Verso wants to know how. He also wants to know why Alice let it happen. If she knew that his family would self-destruct over the loss of Verso, why would she keep him away from his family? Why would she let his Canvas be destroyed, even if she did go save his creations?
Alice admits that she did know everything that would happen. And she let it happen because if she didn’t, then the people of the Canvas would never be given the opportunity to live. When Verso questions why some painted lives were so important that his family had to suffer, Alice suddenly gets very defensive and passionate. The people of Lumiere were not just painted lives, they were living and thinking people who were just as human as them, who deserve to exist. And Alicia would be able to attest to that, since she grew up with them.
Exhausted over the revelations, Verso asks if he can finally return to his family. Afterall, Verso’s “death” has served its purpose and Alice has those she rescued from his dying Canvas to transplant into her own.
To his dismay, Alice denies him, though assures him that it won’t be much longer, only a few more weeks. When he questions what more she could want out of his family, Alice goes back to her vagaries, stating that one more thing has to happen before he can return.
In the meantime, Verso occupies himself with painting his Gestrals and Grandis into Alice’s Canvas while Alice works on painting the people.
Eventually, the time comes and Verso is told that he can finally return home. He says goodbye to Esquie and Monocco, Alice does promise that he can return to visit them but Verso has no such plans to ever return to his prison. As crazy as Alice has been, he at least has faith that his creations are safe in her hands.
The entire way back to Paris, Verso keeps expecting some trick. For Alice to keep him captive longer. But they do eventually arrive outside the gates to the Dessandre home.
The family are currently gone when they ring the bell, being greeted by some very shocked servants. Verso is welcomed inside and he forcibly invites Alice and Pino in with him, wanting them to stay so that his family can force answers and retribution out of them for his captivity. His two captors show no hesitation and Alice seems to already know the way to the parlour.
The Dessandres return, visibly saddened until they see Verso, reacting with shock and then elation. Verso finds himself suffocated by Aline’s hug while Renoir and Clea question how he’s there. They had seen and buried his body.
Verso goes to explain but says that Alicia needs to be there for it. His parents and sister look pained and saddened before telling him that Alicia is dead, having ran away and fallen to her death just a day before his return. Clea callously adds that it was likely suicide.
Verso is in disbelief, trying to comprehend his little sister being gone without a chance to reunite with her.
He then rounds on Alice angrily, only stopped from hurting her by Pino. She knew that this would happen as well, the timing too precise. He then angrily explains to his family that she has been his captor for the months that his family believed him to be dead, turning them on Alice and Pino.
When the Dessandre’s demand why she has done all that she has, Alice replies that she had to let it happen, as she needed to save the people of the Canvas and attempting to change Alicia’s fate could have messed with everything. She assures the family that Alicia is alive, and will be pulled out of the sea in Krat, fifteen years ago.
She then removes her mask to show the family her face. The parents and Clea react with shock, realising that Alice’s burn scars match Alicia’s, missing eye included, as well as the rest of her features being similar. They state Alicia’s name and ask how it’s possible that she’s before them as a grown woman, making Verso realise that Alice really does look like his younger sister and he was told that she received severe burns.
The Dessandres struggle to believe Alice’s claim of Time Travel, though it does explain how she knew so much.
She explains about her time in Krat and shows off multiple pictures from that time, as well as a newspaper with a photo of Alicia among the other Hotel Krat survivors, proving her words.
Days go by and the family try to come to terms with everything. They lost Verso and got him back only after all the damage his loss did, and they lost Alicia only to get back a completely different version of her, fifteen years of her life lost to them. Verso especially struggles with seeing Alice as his sister, since he last remembers her as his sweet little sister, and spent so long as Alice’s captive without explanation.
Alice eventually leaves with Pino, wanting to get back to her work, despite Renoir’s objections. She invites her family to visit her, but only to Hotel Krat. After what Renoir did to Verso’s Canvas, she doesn’t trust him in her home, worried that he might do something to her mural if he thought it was for “her own good”.
Alicia returns home and resumes work on her mural, planning out what she’ll paint next.