#Tim McGee's Travelers In Wonderland would have her pulled into Wonderland in its sequel

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Somebody I Used To Know -- Corpse Bride: Madness Returns?

Hey all! A while back, I talked about an AU I called Somebody I Used To Know. The gist of said AU was that Victor and Alice were childhood friends, only to be separated when the fire happened and Alice was committed. Around the time of American McGee’s Alice, Victor finally found out she’d been committed instead of being in hospital (as his parents had claimed) and started visiting her in bedlam. He proves to be one of the few people she’ll actually respond to -- and, in a bit of accidental magic, ends up being pulled into the AMA Wonderland and goes through it with her.

Now, that’s all well and good, but what happens after AMA is over and done with and Alice is released? The game does have a sequel, after all -- we can’t let Dr. Bumby escape justice! Nor can we pass up another opportunity for Alice and Victor to activate two-player mode in Wonderland. The obvious solution would be to have Victor visiting his friend around the time period of the second game and being pulled back in with her thanks to shenanigans -- but my chosen timeline complicates things by putting Corpse Bride between AMA and A:MR. Which also adds the thing with Victoria and Emily to deal with. What’s a girl to do?

Well, if you’re me, think about it a lot last Friday and come up with this solution:

FOUR-PLAYER WONDERLAND.

Basically, my idea is that Alice and Victor remain in touch after she’s released into Bumby’s care, and when he tells her about the surprise wedding, she naturally insists on coming over to provide emotional support (after a bit of an argument with Bumby, who caves on the condition he come too). She and Victor have actually developed some feelings for one another by this point, but Victor’s unsure if Alice feels the same way, and Alice isn’t sure when she’ll be ready for a real relationship and doesn’t want to hold him back if he likes this Victoria in the end. The rehearsal goes poorly, Victor flees and accidentally marries Emily, Alice gets to know Victoria a little better while telling her about her new fiance -- and is present when Victor shows up on the balcony, followed by Emily. And the realization that there is an afterlife and that her parents and sister are probably down there, coupled with her nagging suspicion the fire WASN’T an accident, triggers her reentry into A:MR Wonderland early. And, of course, she drags Victor along.

However, thanks to Travel Into Fantasy being a natural talent of hers in this verse and other arcane reasons I haven’t fully sussed out yet, Victoria and Emily get pulled in too thanks to touching Alice and Victor when THEY’RE pulled in. Everyone is -- surprised.

After that, I haven’t gotten the full picture yet, but here’s what I do know:

-->All the A:MR domains show up, though triggered for different reasons (the Van Dorts being fish merchants is probably enough for the Deluded Depths, and it’s possible Nell reminds Alice of Radcliffe for the Mysterious East); there also may not be any “real-world breaks” between domains (perhaps I’ll bring back the spinny portals from AMA!)

-->Victoria and Emily get their own weapons -- I haven’t decided on a full set yet, but I know Victoria will have a sewing-needle rapier, and Emily will probably have something based on her wedding bouquet.

-->Emily’s “murdered bride” backstory will probably get wrapped up into Wonderland (maybe spawning a few unique enemies), allowing them to figure out Barkis is the one who killed her at the same time as figuring out Bumby murdered Alice’s family.

-->Final confrontation may have Bumby and Barkis working together -- not that this will save them from their canon fates (or, well, from death anyway).

-->Emily will be able to look like her living self in Wonderland, and even feel things again (something that thrills her to no end when she first lands).

-->. . .Yup, it’s another poly AU -- Victor and Alice admit their feelings for each other during the game, and fall in love with Victoria and Emily over the course of their adventure. Of course, sadly, Emily knows she can’t stay with the others, being a walking corpse in reality. But the knowledge that she is loved, and having her murder finally avenged, helps her to move on. . .

-->Except “moving on” in this case means “becoming a permanent resident of Wonderland.” Which all of the other three can still enter. Nobody’s quite sure how it all happened, but they’re happy they can all be together in their dreams, at least. (And of course the living three are together while awake -- Victor marries Victoria, who takes Alice on as her “lady’s maid” to disguise the threesome.) (I’m sure the inspiration for this bit comes from a favorite fic of mine, A Cordial Victorian Haunting, where Emily ends up as Victor and Victoria’s house ghost and they all meet again properly in a dream.)

-->And post-death everyone’s Heaven is a happy Wonderland where they can be together forever yay~

Starting to think I need to rename this blog, considering how much I’m getting into the poly thing. . .eh, I still have plenty of just Valice AUs, I suppose. But I like the plot twist I came up with for this one. Now to design some new Wonderland weapons. . .