Name: Names are like hats. Currently he is the Hatter.
Nickname: Alice calls him the Hatter and he allows her and others to do so. He has had other names before. Names are like hats. Or cigars.
Age: Old. He just doesn't look it. He appears to be in his early forties.
Gender: In a strictly physical sense male.
Sexuality: Heterosexual.
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Height: Just under two metres or six feet and six inches.
Weight: Ninety kilograms or, two hundred pounds.
Notable body features: He always wears a top hat and dresses fairly sharply, if rather anachronistically in black, white, purple or a mix of these colours and he always carries a lit cigar. For Alice he has taken to wearing a waistcoat, silver fob watch and chain. When she is around he also tends to carry a teacup and saucer, but will discard it disinterestedly the moment that she leaves. Should he choose to do so he can cause glowing skeletal tattoos to appear over his flesh. However these are normally undetectable to the naked eye. His appearance tends to reflect his mood. If he becomes angry his clothing will become increasingly tattered, torn and frayed and his tattoos will appear. He leans on a black walking cane with a silver head, although he shows no sign of truly needing it.
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Personality:
The Hatter is largely inscrutable. Quite why he is in the woods or what he actually does is unclear. Certainly he only began to appear as much as he now does after Alice arrived in the woods. His sense of humour is lewd and crude and his attention span is wildly variable.
He is honest. After a fashion. The Hatter will keep his word and expects other to do the same. Just remember he doesn't see things the way humans do. He is loyal. After a fashion. The Hatter respects loyalty and expects it rather than friendship or admiration. He does not get worked up easily. He simply does not care about most things, so few things give him a reason to get angry. He certainly has his trigger points and is unlikely to react well to any of them being tripped.
The Hatter is instinctively clever and resourceful based on living off his wits and experiences. He might not know how to make an atom bomb, but he surely knows how to make a house burn.
However much the Hatter might look human at the skin and bones level, deep down inside he isn't. This inhumanity might also explain why he never seems to run out of cigars. Or money. Or 'medicine' for Alice despite him having no obvious source of income. There are always more of these things in his coat pockets, always more drink in his battered silver hip flask.
He has only a vague interest in mortal concepts such as friendship, justice, truth, honesty, fairness, right and wrong.
He enjoys all the pleasures of life and will often encourage others to indulge in them as well whether this is good for them or not.
He is generally upbeat, relaxed, smiling and happy. He is willing to talk, drink, eat, smoke, fight and gamble with anyone that he meets. He does not seem to care about the outcome, only the hedonism, the rush of the moment matters and his interest can fade quickly if the rush does. This is because the Hatter simply does not actively care about most material things or most people. Things that do matter or that he takes an interest in matter to him a lot. Alice currently matters. Not much else does. Things that do not matter can be used and discarded as he sees fit.
Talking of Alice there's definite moth and flame relationship here. Quite who is the moth and who is the flame is not as straight forward as you might think though. Certainly the Hatter regards Alice as his own personal possession and he will be very, very, very angry if she is harmed or even upset. He is clearly as obsessed with her as she is with him, although the reasons for his obsession are unclear beyond Alice's obvious physical charms. Quite how long this obsession will last or what will happen once it fades is currently unclear.
The Hatter has no qualms about using violence to the point of death to get his way if he chooses. Mortals are toys and sometimes they break and sometimes it's fun to break them.
The Hatter is old and rather aloof. It will not initially enter his mind that someone else might be a rival to him. It also does not occur to him that there might be ways to make sure even he does not keep going on.
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Biography:
Sometimes when you are very, very old and you don't really belong anywhere it's nice to have someone who is pleased to see you. Alice calls him the Hatter, but he was here before she was and will still be there when she is gone. Whether or not he is, was or has ever been a Hatter is irrelevant. Names are likes hats or cigars after all.
Perhaps he first saw her wandering in the wood. Perhaps he glimpsed her through a window and unlocked the asylum door through which she fled. Perhaps he simply emerged from the shadows she was wandering in because she needed something, someone, anyone. Perhaps he was there long, long before any of these things happened and Alice just did not notice him at the time. Perhaps none of these stories are true. For his part the Hatter is clearly captivated by Alice's youthful beauty and firm, pale young body. Yes he makes use of his toy and feeds her obvious addiction to keep her close, but he also protects and watches over her jealously, covetously. Alice is safe to wander as she pleases unless you want to cross the Hatter. She is the only person he speaks kindly to (whether or not he is actually kind to her is another matter entirely) and is genuinely pleased to see. She has also changed who he is, at least on the surface. He has changed his appearance to better become the Hatter for her. He would not do such a thing for anyone else.
The other mortals wandering around the woods serve as amusing distractions and sources of entertainment, even sustenance at times. His head might be turned by a pretty face or a firm thigh, his attention drawn by a fine glass of something strong, but these are momentary distractions. It is always to Alice that his eyes are drawn and will always return. There can be only one favourite, one treasure, one trinket, one Chosen and currently that is Alice. She alone truly matters. For her he is someone. He is her Hatter.
