@LANthus
Marisa is only the lead in pairings with her and Reimu because she loves teasing the shrine maiden and getting that ice cold facade to crack despite her best efforts to play it cool. And books that she's stealing^H^H^H finding.
@LANthus
My headcanon is that Marisa is a huge tease and a flirt but otherwise isn't especially interested in relationships because she doesn't feel it's safe to be that vulnerable, which is why she's so flummoxed and thrown off balance by Alice approaching her romantically. Poor girl doesn't believe she's worth affection even though Alice knows she is ;w;
@Nine I mean, that's not a bad theory but if I recall Alice has like an entire room of just marisa dolls she plans to animate and I'm no Marisa but if anyone had that in their house I'd ditch any relationship with the person too.
@LANthus
Oh heck, and with as powerful as Alice is there's no way Marisa wouldn't have "popped round for a visit on the way past" and decided to "borrow a book or two" while Alice wasn't there... So probably saw that room with the dolls and noped the heck out. Alice does come on rather strong I guess. Must be nervousness. She does spend an AWFUL lot of time alone.
@LANthus
Meanwhile Reimu shuts off her heart because she's worried about today's lover becoming tomorrow's prey... But if ever unleashed she will devote her life and all her being to her loves... But she's also poly as fuck so... It manifests as this overwhelming desire to protect all of Gensokyo. previous bosses become playable characters due to her love of them thusly. :D
@Nine exactly.