Alice Novak
Fujimura's niece, Jun's neighbor, and the guitarist who turned Motoko's solo act into a band. Uses voice chrome to compensate for a natural weakness — and it shows if you know what to listen for.
// Appearance
The summaries don't linger on Alice's appearance beyond the impression of a working musician — someone who carries herself with stage presence even off it. She drives a beat-up Mahir Supron van. Her voice has an electronic edge that Motoko's Rockerboy skill identifies as chrome-assisted autotune masking a naturally poor singing voice. She presents as confident and direct, but the confidence cracks when things get personal — particularly around Jun.
// Background
Fujimura's niece, living on the same floor as Motoko and Jun while her band Violent Hemorrhage gets established. She first appears knocking on the apartment door hoping to jam with Jun — and flirting, which Jun completely misses. Motoko offers to play instead, replicates Alice's songs from memory after hearing them once, and files the encounter as the start of a private music rivalry. Alice's band plays NeoRock Electrosmash at TC-affiliated clubs; Motoko attends a show and notes that Alice's singing uses throat chrome to autotune a naturally poor voice.
When Violent Hemorrhage's guitarist Carmen quits and smashes his DeLuze Orphean on the way out, Alice recruits Motoko as a temp fill-in. What starts as a single gig becomes permanent: Alice makes a direct personal appeal ('This is as serious as it gets for us'), Motoko accepts her and her bandmates Klein and Jared as her backup, and Stand Alone Complex is born. Alice handles main guitar while Motoko takes vocals, synth, and lead; together they play the Electric Orgasm, the 7th Hell, and the MSM skybar. Alice pushes for harder rock in the setlists, handles the electronic vocal sections of Faint, and is enthusiastic about MSM's sponsored chrome upgrades where Motoko flatly refuses. She's here for Jun, for the music, and for the shot at something real — in roughly that order.