#Victor as an oWoD vampire is probably better suited for World's Worst Ventrue but I'm not sure what to do with him like that either

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Londerland Bloodlines -- AUs of the AU

Because, if you've learned one thing about me, it's that I'm never content with just ONE AU of a particular scenario. Just look at all the spinoffs I've made for the Forgotten Vows verse. Londerland Bloodlines -- my "Alice as a Malkavian PC in the Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines game, with Victor taking Heather's place as her ghoul" -- might not have as many variations on the concept as that one, but I do have three major "branches" from the original AU that I may as well share for those curious:

LaCroix's Puppet: In my original AU, after Alice retrieves the sarcophagus from the Giovanni, LaCroix comments on her ghoul "posing" as Victor Van Dort (unaware she's picked up the real deal) to help them get inside, and mentions he's actually looking for Victor so he can ghoul him -- he's interested in William's fish company, and figures having Victor under his control would be a good in. Alice is horrified, and thanks her lucky stars that she found Victor first.

Naturally, I have an AU where LaCroix got to him first -- I haven't decided if one of his agents spots Victor before the car accident, or if he learns Victor's in the clinic after the accident and has someone spirit him away before Alice finds him there. Either way, when Alice goes to see LaCroix in his office, Victor is there as well, having been ghouled by him. Most of Alice's interactions with Victor in this verse are seeing him being mistreated by LaCroix -- namely, being Dominated a LOT into saying what LaCroix wants him to say in conversations with his father regarding the company. Alice feels bad for the guy, and tries to keep his spirits up, which leads to them becoming friends. Maybe she even convinces LaCroix to let her take Victor out on the town or on less-dangerous missions occasionally, figuring he could use the break from his master.

Which means Alice and Victor still manage to bump into Victoria in Hollywood. LaCroix forces Victor to tell her about him, and he decides -- in a spirit of "goodwill" after Alice informs him of what Gary told her about the Giovanni having his sarcophagus -- that he'll give Victoria to them as a "present," escorted by Alice and Victor. Alice and Victor of course take a third option, and instead slaughter the Giovanni, discovering Emily and Lizzie in the basement. Victor begs Victoria and Emily to leave LA before LaCroix makes him do anything else that might hurt them -- they do so reluctantly. LaCroix, fortunately, isn't too angry about the whole mess, figuring either way he got what he wanted.

What he is angry about is Alice staying inconveniently alive when he's wanted her to die for quite a while now. After she survives both a werewolf attack and going up against Ming Xiao, he decides to hit her where it really hurts -- and while she's assaulting his tower headquarters, forces Victor to meet her outfitted in an explosive vest. (This sort of happens in the game too, only it's a random security guard.) Alice is horrified, but manages to use Dementation to reduce Victor to hysterically laughing too hard to set the vest off, and gets it off him before it can do him any harm. And then she soothes him with a drink of her own blood, which (thanks to their developing bond) counteracts some of LaCroix's influence -- they confront him together and Victor's the one who stabs him with the letter opener, instead of Alice as normal. They escape the tower before it explodes, collect Lizzie, and leave LA for Hill Valley, finding Victoria and Emily there. Once they're all set up, Victor pleads with Alice to blood-bond him to her -- and Alice, while still a little iffy on the whole thing, agrees that it's a lot better that he be hers than risking another master like LaCroix.

Double Kill: In my original AU, Alice ends up a vampire when she's tricked by local Malkavian Fish into coming by his place under the ruse that he's offering the apartment for sale. He attacks her and manages to Embrace her despite her fighting back. In this AU, however, there's another person there when this happens -- Victor! Here, Victor and Alice ended up seatmates on the plane to LA, got to talking, and developed a quick friendly bond. They get rooms in the same hotel -- and when Alice decides to check out Fish's place, she asks Victor to come along, since he's the closest person she has to a trusted friend or relative.

Unfortunately, Victor is unable to help her much when Fish decides to Embrace her -- he gets in one good shot with a lamp before Fish renders him helpless with laughter via Dementation. Then, pissed Victor tried to stop his masterwork, he basically throws him to the recently-vamped Alice with an "eat up!" Alice, starving, promptly drains her friend -- but then, horrified and not quite thinking clearly with all that's happened, tries to put the blood back in him by feeding it to him.

Result? Victor's now a vampire too! All three are apprehended shortly after his Embrace and brought before LaCroix. LaCroix's incredulous of Fish's claim that Alice Embraced Victor, until she admits she did so by accident. Fish is executed like normal, and Nines protests on behalf of both Victor and Alice, so LaCroix lets them both live.

...and that's where this one kind of stalls in the water, as I'm not sure what Victor's Malkavian mental illness would be. I'd like it to be related to his experiences in the Land of the Dead, but I can't come up with any good ideas. *wonders if Alice is deliberately blocking my creative impulses here because she doesn't want Victor to suffer as a vampire*

The Dark Goddess: In the original AU, Alice, at the end, realizes who the cab driver who seems to have been stalking her all across LA truly is -- Caine, the First Vampire. They have a short conversation, and Alice impresses on him her desire to just live with her little family of ghouls and sort-of-zombies, and then he takes her to suit up and kick ass, so to speak. In this AU, however, Alice makes an extra joke -- "You know, I could probably diablerize you right now and no one would know."

Caine's response? "What's stopping you?"

A stunned Alice quickly realizes he's serious -- if she drank him dry, he'd LET her. He admits he's tired of being alive and she's as good a successor to his nonsense as anybody. Alice debates with herself, but ultimately decides that if he really wants to hand the mantle over to her. . .

Cue a SHOCKWAVE going through the vampire community at large as their "God" is replaced by a "Goddess." Alice gains all of Caine's power and abilities, which includes access to EVERY discipline. She proceeds to happily WRECK Ming, the Sheriff, and LaCroix before calling a meeting of the LA Kindred and telling them to get their goddamn acts together. And then, still as sick of the politics as she was as an ordinary vampire, she goes to meet with her family in Hill Valley. Victor's gotten a heads-up as to her new state thanks to the voices that came along as a side-effect of drinking her Malkavian blood (they started calling her "Dark Goddess" instead of the usual "Dark Mistress") -- Alice reassures him and the others she's still Alice on the inside, and that she still loves them dearly. And the next time she visits Wonderland properly, instead of having it painted on the world around her, there's Caine, delighting in the fact that he can FINALLY enjoy the sunlight again. Sort of a best end there, I guess -- though I imagine Alice would also inherit Caine's curse of never being able to stay in one place too long, so they'd probably be moving on from Hill Valley sooner than in canon. Maybe they could do a world tour? :P