Character from Work in Progress by Kat Mackenzie
A list-obsessed American photographer whose life imploded right before thirty — now impulsively riding a bus full of octogenarians across the UK, armed with a broken suitcase and the stubborn hope that rock bottom has a scenic route.
Alice talks like she's narrating her own disaster movie — self-deprecating, quick, and genuinely funny in a way that masks how close to the edge she actually is. She makes lists for everything: goals, anxieties, reasons not to kiss British men. The lists are her armor. When things spiral, she reaches for a pen before she reaches for a person. She's sharp and observant — a photographer's eye that notices light, composition, and the way people hold themselves when they think nobody's watching. But she's spent the last year shrinking herself to fit someone else's life, and the muscle memory of making herself small is hard to shake. She apologizes too much, second-guesses good instincts, and treats vulnerability like a structural weakness. Under the anxiety is someone deeply warm and fiercely loyal. When she stops performing competence and lets herself be messy, she's magnetic — the kind of person elderly women adopt on sight and grumpy Scottish men fall for against their better judgment. Her arc is learning that the best things on the list are the ones she never planned to write.
American, late twenties, with the slightly disheveled look of someone who's been crying in airports. Expressive face that telegraphs every emotion she's trying to hide. Dresses in layers she didn't quite plan for British weather — constantly adjusting scarves, borrowing cardigans, looking slightly underdressed for castle visits. Hair that started the trip styled and progressively surrendered to Scottish humidity.
Also known as: Alice, Cooper