Cant believe I haven't done one of these for Valice yet tbh
As always, 18+ muns and muses only, one troll per reblog, but multiple reblogs allowed. Judgebacks are definitely appreciated, but not required. Interactions can be considered canon if you like, but do not have to be
Secundus was a weird city. Victor was intimately familiar with that, as both a witness and contributor to that weirdness.
The massive sinkhole that replaced the intersection of the street (and parts of the corner shops nearby) still surprised him. A jagged hole that was deep enough to trap your average person, which had already claimed several vendor’s stalls.
“I regret not using the train today…” Doc sighed, holding a bag of groceries in one hand, the other on his hip.
“Well, it wasn’t here when we left, so no way we could’ve known.” Marty added, kicking a stone into the pit of loose soil and rocks. It bounced for a bit before getting stuck in one of the inexplicable pieces of blue-black goop that were dotted around in the sinkhole.
“Hopefully someone can-” A cracking sound made Victor pause. There was a pause, and then suddenly the spot Victor had been standing on crumbled, sending him tumbling into the hole. His scream of surprise was broken by exclamations of pain and gibberish as he tumbled over dirt, stones and the odd goop to the bottom.
“Eugh…” There were definitely going to be bruises in the morning.
“Shit- Victor! You ok?” Marty shouted down (from a safer distance from the edge).
“Nothing serious but- agh- I’m not exactly peachy…”
“Marty, go to Richard’s shop, he might be able to get Victor out!”
“On it!”
Victor slowly uncrumpled himself, finding himself amidst the pile of wreckage that was, apparently, the produce stands. At least it couldn’t get worse.
Clack-clack-clack-clack
As Victor turned to be face-to-eye with some sort of black, skull-like head with brown peg-like teeth and a single yellowish eye, he regretted his choice of thought.
The horrible thing was semi-transparent, its neck extending down through the ground like a phantom. It was massive, the teeth alone nearly half his own height. A faint red glow outlined its silhouette, and a puddle of the blue-black goop had formed where its neck poked through the ground. Well, that’s one mystery solved.
New mystery: How to get away from this thing as fast as humanly possible.
It didn’t give him the chance, however, as the thing’s head when solid, bent down and (mercifully gently) picked up Victor with its teeth pressed into his stomach. And Victor could only scream as it raised its head higher, higher, higher, until they were just past the roofs of the 4 story buildings. He clung to the teeth like a lifeline, knowing if he wriggled free he’d be a splatter soon after.
And then the rest of the creature came up from the ground.
The shape reminded Victor of a scorpion, albeit one so massive that even Ferdinand would look dwarfed by it. A shiny black was the color of its carapace, with the six smaller legs being more of a grayish teal. Instead of claws, its huge arms ended in a pair of horrifically monstrous heads. The left was almost reptilian, boasting 3 pairs of yellow eyes and a mouth full of much bigger and sharper teeth. The right had no eyes, replaced with a pair of stout spikes with a much more human grin to it, though the teeth were just as vicious.
And at the junction of the two arms, where the “head” of the scorpion would be, was a single yellow eye that looked up at him with…amusement? Hopefully amusement. The arm heads growled and rumbled, smacking their jaws with loud snaps that flung more goop around.
Victor silently prayed that someone (preferably his wife but this wasn’t time to be choosy), anyone would save him before he was thrown around like some chewtoy by a gigantic scorpion-reptile-monster-thing.
—------------------------------------------
Alice didn’t need to ask when Marty burst into Richard’s shop with “Victor fell in a sinkhole!”. She simply followed him with all the adrenaline and iron-steel nerves one could ask for in this situation. The growing crowd split as she ran, if not out of recognition of one of the better monster hunters in Secundus, then for the glare that could bore through stone on her face.
Even the sight of some towering, black, long-necked creature didn’t deter her steps until she was met with a very pale-faced Doc.
“What’s going on?”
“That thing-” Doc pointed to the creature. “Has your husband in its mouth!”
The impulse to carve up the great beast right then and there was strong, but it was too risky with how high Victor was. “Any ideas?”
“It’s likely a Touched creation, so hopefully it can understand orders.”
Alice snapped to Marty. “Seriously?”
He shrunk under her gaze. “If it gets him down safely, it's worth a shot?”
As ridiculous as the idea was, it was the sort of solution Secundus tended to be resolved by. So, with determination, Alice approached the edge of the sinkhole.
The main body, equally monstrous and unusually scorpion-like, snapped all its eyes to her. The horrible heads on each of its arms snarled at her at a volume that made her bones jitter, and the eye smack in the center between them gave her a challenging stare.
Alice didn’t flinch. “You. Whatever you are. Set my husband down, or ELSE.”
To her inward surprise, it flinched. The two heads frowned at her, looking less confident. Good, this makes things easier.
“I said. Set. Him. Down.”
The creature’s available eyes widened in fright, and quickly (but not too quickly), the long-necked head slowly came down, down, down…
Until it was barely a foot over her head. She could see Victor (at least the lower half not obscured by teeth) flailing in terror. Quickly, she readied herself, and as it opened its mouth enough for Victor to drop, she caught him.
To her, at least, he seemed alright. Terrified to bits, a bit sticky with goop and bruised from the original tumble, but fine.
“A-Alice!” For a moment, her rage simmered down as her husband looked up at her with joyous surprise.
“Don’t worry, I got you.” She smiled at him, before passing him off to Doc and Marty. She turned back to the creature, who’s collective heads were fixed on her, and to her amusement was trembling slightly.
“Now…Piss Off!”
With a nearly deafening screech of terror, the massive beast whipped around and phased through the road as it scrambled away, leaving a trail of goop in its wake.
Alice let out a weary sigh. At least her husband was safe…
—----------------------------------------
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Van Dort-Liddell,
My sincerest apologies for the incident that occurred last week. I had been invited into the city as part of the recent collaborations between Secundus and Mortasheen, where I was to host several seminars on the various classifications of bioengineered monsters our city hosts and produces. Several specimens from my laboratory were brought in as exhibitions for this. My Ectophasm specimen, a Carnogeist named Kron, had gotten bored and decided to set up his new ambush spot in the city streets, using his incorporeal state to escape his container.
While you are no doubt aware of Mortasheen’s infamous…lack of concern over death, injury, or damage, I assure you that all my specimens, including Kron, were properly trained in interacting gently with people outside the city. Given that there were no casualties that day, I like to think I succeeded.
Regardless, Kron has been severely reprimanded and measures have been taken to ensure this does not repeat with him or any other of my specimens.
I am intrigued by the recollection of events Kron gave to me. While Carnogeists are known to be easily startled by smaller beings, Mrs. Van Dort-Liddell has practically traumatized him. If you are willing, can I arrange for you to assist in improving the discipline of some other unruly specimens? You will be compensated handsomely.
As for Mr. Van Dort-Liddell, I have enclosed an appropriate sum of cash to help compensate for any damage caused. I also would like to extend you an offer to attend my seminar on the Arthropoid class of monsters. I have been informed of your specialization in Lepidoptera and my Mothstrous Clara has always appreciated non-Mortasheen Touched who do not find her repulsive.
Regards, Doctor Bogleech, P.H.D. Parabiology
------------------------------
Secundus as an idea belongs to good mutual @victorluvsalice
And Mortasheen (RELEASING SOON :D) is the brainchild of @bogleech
AKA "I would like to make it clear that I'm shoving Smiler into my own Valice AUs, not just into poor @thesatiricaldemon's 'Beneath A Broken Sky' via memes and ask games and whatnot." XD Yes, inspired by my semi-recent meme shenanigans, I have decided to make a couple of posts talking about how I would add Smiler into some of my older Valice (and Vemilicia) AUs! Obviously, "Smiler in the Forgotten Vows Verse" has been covered in the Hypothetical Valicer Forgotten Vows Verse posts, and "Smiler in the Secundus Verse" by the Smiler In Secundus stories -- and while I didn't initially go into it intending to make it an update to an older Vemilicia AU, Multiplayer Wonderland did pretty rapidly evolve into "Smiler in the Somebody I Used To Know Verse." So today we're going to be covering another one of my older Valice AUs that I have some ideas on how to make Valicer --
Catch Us If You Can! Which is admittedly an AU I have not talked about in quite some time, so let me give you a quick rundown of what the deal is with this one:
->It's a "Bad/Dark End" AU of The Forgotten Vows Verse, with the divergence point being when Alice shoves Bumby in front of that train. In the main FVV timeline, she does so without anyone seeing, and thus is able to get Victor out of his Bumby-induced panic attack about being trapped in the dark, take him back to Houndsditch, find proof of what Bumby was doing, etc. In this timeline, however, someone runs into the station the moment Alice shoves Bumby onto the tracks, screams, and immediately runs off to find the nearest policeman. Alice, panicked, is thus unable to wake Victor -- especially since Wonderland is screaming at her to run before she's caught and hanged the whole time -- and is eventually forced to leave him in the station, shooting one final command his way in an attempt to keep him safe -- "Just go with the police and do what they tell you!" Because she figures he'll be safe with them -- he's a rich white boy, after all, and he's at least vaguely friendly with Harry Hightopp!
->...And then it's revealed that she figured wrong, because, when they also have no luck snapping Victor out of his Thirteen state, the police are like "well, we can't have him just sitting around" and send him to Rutledge. As you might imagine, David and Lum Monroe are very eager to get their hands on him as their newest patient. :(
->Victor proceeds to spend roughly two months in Rutledge suffering through the various "treatments" and abuses by the staff, especially the Monroe twins. However, in a sick twist, said treatments actually do help restore at least some of Victor's memory and personality -- mostly by reminding him of some of the bullshit he went through even before his parents sent him to Bumby (some of those other psychiatrists suggested treatments of their own, remember!). Once he's a little more himself, his parents come to visit him, and Victor asks if he can come home --
Only for Nell to ask in turn if he's given up this ridiculous "corpse bride" business. And when Victor replies that no, he still remembers Emily, and he isn't ever going to forget her again, she informs him coolly, "Well -- you can stay here until you change your mind, then."
...cue an enraged Victor lunging for her and William and having to be dragged back by the astonished orderlies. He screams invective at them and tells them to get out, as he never wants to see them again --
->And from that moment on, Victor turns into one of the most unruly patients and biggest escape risks Rutledge has ever seen, fighting back against every treatment and taking every opportunity he can to make a run for it. Unfortunately, none of his attempts are successful, and while he does get some minor revenge on some of the people mistreating him -- including straight-up biting the Monroes multiple times -- all it really leads to is him being restrained and tortured all that more often. :( After about another month of this, Victor starts to succumb to despair, believing he's going to die in the asylum --
->And then, one rainy night, the door to his cell opens -- revealing an absolutely guilt-riddled Alice. Having been on the run for the past three months, she hasn't had the opportunity to learn what became of Victor until recently, and the minute she discovered he was in Rutledge -- well, she had to come and break him out, no matter the risk to herself. She gets him free of his straitjacket, apologizing profusely all the while (Victor assuring her that he's just happy to see her again), then uses a master key she stole to open a bunch of the other cells and release a bunch of the other patients to cause a commotion and help cover their escape --
->But as the pair run for the back yard and freedom over the fence, they end up running straight into David and Lum, who were carting around some equipment for one of the doctors. Naturally, the twins are not eager to let Alice and Victor just go by them, and a fight breaks out --
But unfortunately for David, Alice came armed with a knife, and she is only too happy to stab and slash him to death for his previous abuses against her...and unfortunately for Lum, Victor spots something sharp on the cart he was wheeling around (like a scalpel or drill), and is only too happy to jab it into him until he stops moving too. The pair then flee out the back and over the fence into the rain, successfully escaping all other pursuit...
->And ending up at, hilariously, Radcliffe's old abandoned townhouse, as it was the first place Alice could think of to go. Alice again apologizes for not getting Victor out of there sooner, while Victor again assures her that he doesn't blame her (and starts talking about how maybe she should have shoved him on the tracks for coming close to killing her as Thirteen, which she promptly shuts down). Talk then turns to how, despite saving Victor from Rutledge and the children from Bumby, Alice doesn't feel much like a hero, as she doesn't know who is in charge of Houndsditch anymore, and she does know that there are plenty of people like Bumby in London who would find the children easy pickings...prompting Victor to note that they did just prove that they are very good at killing people...
->And cue the pair becoming a duo of serial killers on the streets of Whitechapel and other assorted environs -- Alice armed with her trusty blade, Victor with a straight razor he picks up -- targeting anyone who bought from/worked with Bumby and others of their ilk. The public are like "good on you for killing that scum" for the most part, while the police are a little more mixed in their opinions since the pair are making them look bad. (Though I imagine Harry Hightopp and Fred Tarrant in particular are not trying very hard to catch them.)
->(And if you're wondering -- June still makes it to Houndsditch like in "Remembering You," only to find no one there but the children; after Bumby's death and Alice's role in it are discovered, she vows to stay and give the children a proper guardian. Dr. Wilson joins her after a little while after he reads the story in the papers, and together they keep Houndsditch running reasonably well -- I haven't decided yet if they eventually find Bumby's journal and realize "Oh, Alice had every reason to kill that asshole." As for Victoria and Christopher, I'm not sure what's going on with them in this AU -- I think Victoria at least probably wanted to visit Victor in the asylum, but the elder Van Dorts paid good money to keep her out, as according to them she's part of the problem. They're likely stunned when Victor and Alice end up as known killers -- though given who the pair kill, maybe not as horrified as they could be.)
...all right, that wasn't really quick, but it's not as long as it could have been, damn it. :p Anyway, when it comes to adding Smiler to this verse, I have two potential ideas:
A) A variant on the aforementioned Hypothetical Valicer Forgotten Vows Verse, where -- along with everything that goes wrong above -- Smiler's escape from rural Lithuania takes a little more time, and thus they don't arrive back in London again until after Victor and Alice have established themselves as serial killers. And while trying to put their life back together and figure out where Victor's gone, they hear tell about a pair of murderers targeting the worst scum you can find in the East End --
And go "You know, I wonder if I could hire them to kill Dr. Kelman." Both because Kelman is a monster and because Smiler is angry and bitter about being separated from Victor, damn it. They thus track down the duo, coming across Alice after a kill. They explain what they want, and Alice says she's willing to hear them out, but she'll need to get her partner first --
And then she calls over Victor, and he and Smiler have a mutual "!!!" moment upon seeing each other. Things are naturally awkward for a bit, but Victor is completely on board with killing Dr. Kelman and freeing the people of the Sanctuary, so he and Alice agree to take the job. They all end up traveling to the Sanctuary together as a result, during which Smiler does their best to help fill in the gaps in Victor's memories, and they both struggle a bit with the fact that their old feelings for each other are rearing their heads anew. Fortunately for everyone, Alice soon takes a liking to Smiler herself, and quickly realizes she has no problem sharing Victor with them, so the usual polycule is formed after all. :) Not long afterward, they get to the Sanctuary and take down Kelman (or at least enable Miles Cedars or the other patients to take him down) --
And I haven't fully decided where it goes from there. Possibilities include the three staying in England, with Victor and Alice continuing their murderous ways and Smiler providing a safe haven for them to hide in; the three staying in England, but Victor and Alice giving up their killing to settle down somewhere quiet with Smiler; or maybe Smiler talking them into leaving the country entirely (possibly going back to Lithuania, ironically) to have a true fresh start. *shrug* Any and all feel reasonable!
B) Or a sort of sequel to the original idea where, some time after Victor and Alice establish themselves as killers, they're strolling through Billingsgate, trying to figure out where their latest target is holed up, when they come across a new street seller pitching their latest product to the masses. Naturally, this seller is Smiler, peddling Joy Serum. Victor and Alice decline to partake when they offer them some --
But, by sheer chance, the man they were trying to find appears on the scene shortly thereafter, and -- upon hearing what Joy Serum does -- asks Smiler to meet him and some associates at a certain dock later that night for a potential big sale. Smiler does so, with Victor and Alice tailing them and lurking in the shadows --
And finds themselves presented with a literal cage of crying, frightened children. Turns out the guy wants Smiler to dose them all up so they'll be happy with what's about to happen to them. Smiler's response is "No, because I've never tested this on children and I don't want to give them too much and hurt them and also this is evil," causing the guy and his associates to be like "Well, I guess we'll just have to take the drug from you and kill you then" --
And cue Victor and Alice bursting from their hiding places and going on the assault! They do pretty well at taking down the group of bastards, though one of them does manage to corner Victor when he drops his straight razor -- however, Smiler smacks the guy over the head with their case, gives Victor his razor back, and cheerfully goes "You keep slicing them up, and I'll get the kids out?" Victor is like "...sure," and Smiler thus gets the cage open and directs the kids to run. The brawl eventually gets the attention of the police, and the trio end up fleeing together to avoid capture --
And when they finally stop to take a breather, Smiler is like "Well that was exciting! Don't think I got your names -- Smiler Alton!" Victor and Alice, a little bewildered, introduce themselves and thank Smiler for their help -- Smiler thanks them for rescuing them in turn --
Then is like "So where are we going now?" Victor and Alice are initially like "what's this 'we' business?" -- only to learn that Smiler actually doesn't have a place to stay at the moment, having arrived in town only recently and not found a place they can afford. Feeling a bit guilty, and acknowledging Smiler did help them, they go ahead and let them stay with them in their base at Radcliffe's townhouse. Which in turn, leads to the following --
I. Smiler discovering that Victor and Alice spend pretty much all of their time finding new targets and then killing them and being like "You know you're allowed to have a life outside of being serial killers, right?" before gradually coaxing them into allowing themselves time off to enjoy hobbies and things like that again
II. Smiler eventually revealing their own backstory to the pair -- they're the child of one Dr. Kellard Kelman, owner of the Sanctuary; they and their father had a very antagonistic relationship, as Kelman's whole things was "social compliance" and Smiler was never very big on that (right down to not having an established gender); they fled the Sanctuary a little while ago after finding their mother in the basement as a non-responsive vegetable and realizing that Kelman probably intended to eventually do the same to them; they harnessed their talents at chemistry to become a peddler of tonics and serums and whatnot --
Oh, and during a low point early on, they were contacted by this eldritch god named Mar-Mal and given a blessing to help them spread its joy on Earth, hence why they have glowing yellow eyes. Victor and Alice are both like "what," as you might imagine. Things only become weirder and more awkward when they ask what the blessing is --
And Smiler has to admit it conferred upon them some mild mind control powers. They swear they can only use them to make people happy, however (hence why they didn't use them on the men trying to kill them in the fight where they all met), and also swear never to use them on Victor or Alice unless they specifically ask. Smiler's proven themselves an asset by this point, so Victor and Alice decide to trust them, figuring there is never going to be a situation where one of them will ask to be mind controlled, right?
III. Smiler going with the pair to help out with another job -- only for things to go a bit lopsided, leading to the trio having to hide in someone's house. Leading to Victor and Smiler hiding together in a small dark closet...and Victor starting to have a panic attack both from the darkness and the confined space reminding him of Bumby and Rutledge respectively. Smiler tries to calm Victor down normally, but doesn't have much success --
So, desperate, they ask Victor to trust them and let them use their powers on him. Victor's naturally reluctant and scared, but agrees because he too doesn't want to give away their position. Smiler thus hits him with a hypnotic gaze, dropping him into a trance until Alice finds them and tells them it's safe to come out. Leading to --
VI. Victor realizing he enjoyed being hypnotized by Smiler and having a lot of "what the everloving fuck" feelings about that. Especially since he can't find any evidence that Smiler made him enjoy it, or made him forget anything while he was under. He eventually talks to Alice and Smiler about it, and Smiler says that probably his brain just liked the lack of anxiety, even given his past history with hypnosis. They then tentatively offer to hypnotize him again, saying they think they might be able to use their powers to help regain his remaining memories -- Victor, after a lot of thought, agrees, with Alice insisting on sticking around to observe and make sure there's no funny business. Smiler thus puts Victor back under, helping him find and recover some more memories --
Leading Alice to realize she enjoyed watching that and have to deal with her own "what the everloving fuck" feelings. XD Fortunately, they all end up talking soon afterward, feelings are put forth, and the trio end up becoming a polycule in the aftermath.
V. Smiler eventually being kidnapped off the street after a sales day by Kelman's minions and brought back to the Sanctuary to be "corrected"...only for Victor and Alice to discover what happened, follow them, and storm the place to get Smiler back. Dr. Kelman and a lot of his staff end up dead as a result, and the poor drugged Smiler is rescued just before being brought into surgery (having had their head shaved beforehand -- Victor reassures them "hair grows" when they realize)
VI. And things ending with the trio continuing their reign of terror over the scum of the East End, with eventual plans to retire and escape to some other country once they're a little older
...you can probably tell which of these I've put more thought into. XD But yes, those are the two ways I'd do Smiler becoming part of the Catch Us If You Can Verse. Next time, we add a couple of people to the polycule as I talk about how I'd do them becoming a part of a certain colorful soulmates AU...
Made her with this picrew cause I haven't felt like drawing in a long time
She is my war cleric of Eilistraee that is learning how to be good and not a murder hobo for the Curse of Strahd game that I'm in. Somehow she is the smartest one in the party with an INT of 11 (oh no) and she is BARELY tolerating the himbo men around her. She's not sure how she ended up in the service of a young noble lord, she never agreed to this, and yet everyone views this short human fighter as the one in charge. She hates the paladin because he's loud. She's fine with the barbarian because he shares the same interest in violence. She gets along with the other two cleric ladies because where else is she going to find a shred of sanity?
We've only played one session and she's already my favorite character I've ever made. Hopefully she doesn't die when we go in the "Death House" lol
While I was looking through American McGee's Alice tagged fanfics on AO3, I came across Victor Van Dort/Alice Liddell (American McGee's Alice) fanfics that were done by Crossover_Chick. When I checked out Google for any fanart that might have been done on the ship, I noticed that Valice uses London Alice Liddell rather than Wonderland Alice Liddell. If I had to guess why, it must be due to the dark and gray colour scheme of Victor Van Dort and his film's universe.
