#buT LIKE THE TIME PERIODS ARE SIMILAR TO ALICES MAIN VERSE AND ITS ENGLAND SO

[cfmycwn]

Hear me out: war of the worlds au

[thevalicemultiverse]

Things You Need To Know About: Aperture Wage Slave

Tag: ~V: Aperture Wage Slave

Premise: Victor thought he was getting a big break when his application to Aperture Laboratories was accepted. After all, he’d heard about the amazing things some of their scientists had come up with – and, being based in America, joining up was good way to leave his past, with two ex-girlfriends and parents furious he’d stuffed up their best chance to be accepted by the upper class, behind. Unfortunately, once he was there, he discovered the company was run by a complete lunatic, and that you didn’t just work at Aperture – you survived it. Fortunately, he’s made a good friend over in the physics department, one Doc Brown – and, despite all his attempts at ignoring it, that new test subject – Liddell – is making his heart flutter in not-unpleasant ways…

This AU was inspired by one of my partner's AUs -- Emma, who plays Doc Brown (jigowatt), created a verse where Doc ended up as a scientist at Aperture Science. (Hers is called Trace Amounts of Time Travel, for the curious.) Being a huge Portal fan myself, I decided to basically piggyback onto that and created a similar verse on my old Butterfly Boy account (since he was my main Science!Victor) so they could play together in that world. When I moved over here, I decided to make it a proper verse on its own.

As a result, this is my least-developed verse -- I only recently came up with how Alice should be part of things! But here is the backstory I've come up with so far:

Victor grew up in Burtonsville during the late 1950s and 1960s, still a child of privilege and wealth thanks to the cannery -- but also a child of science, with an incredible talent for entomology and biology. Not only is he gifted at identifying any species he comes across, by the time he's 19, he's started to breed new ones -- butterflies that glow, bees that can spell the alphabet in their swarms, etc. His parents, while suitably impressed, encourage him to keep his abilities on the down-low -- Burtonsville doesn't really welcome anyone who's different, and they don't want anything sabotaging their attempts at getting a little respectability to go along with their riches. Such as getting their son to date the daughter of the local aristocrats the Everglots. Victor goes along with the match to keep family peace, but finds he enjoys Victoria's company, as she enjoys his.

As they start to pursue a relationship, however, Victor meets Emily Cartwell in the woods, having a good cry over the fact that her ex-boyfriend robbed and ditched her after promising to elope with her. Victor chats with her for a while, and a connection is formed. Figuring he and Victoria aren't anywhere near exclusive (although he makes sure that Victoria thinks this is the case as well), he goes ahead and goes on a couple of dates with Emily as well.

Unfortunately, Emily's in rebound mode, and when she spots Victor on a date with Victoria, she gets jealous and loudly accuses him of lying to her as much as Barkis. Victor does his best to explain and apologize, but she's not hearing any of it -- and unfortunately, the Everglots are in the same restaurant at the time, and immediately refuse to let Victoria see Victor any more. Victoria defies them by sneaking out to see Victor, only to find him at the local tavern, making up with Emily. Now it's her turn to get jealous, and a brief three-way fight results -- which ends when Victor points out they've all known each other less than a month. The sheer ridiculousness of it all hits them and breaks the tension, and they all mutually agree to stop dating so they can get their lives in order and get to know each other as friends first.

However, this decision has consequences for Victor, as his parents are furious with him for breaking it off with Victoria and make their displeasure known loudly and frequently. Victor, reaching his breaking point between this and being forced to hide his scientific talents, decides he needs out of that village -- in fact, he needs out of the country. So he sends in an application to what he's heard is one of the premiere scientific laboratories in the world -- Aperture Science. To his delight, he's accepted sight-unseen, and promptly packs up his life and moves to Michigan.

Where he discovers that the information he received while in Burtonsville was a little outdated. Aperture is the place to go for scientific breakthroughs like no other, sure -- but its owner and CEO is a complete lunatic, safety precautions are practically nonexistent, employees are expected to put up with constant surveillance, and if you don't measure up as a researcher, you're instead made a test subject -- whose life expectancies aren't as great as Cave Johnson would like you to believe. And Victor, horrified, finds there's not really any way to quit without ending up on the testing track either. . .

So here he is, stuck in the most dangerous lab on earth, just trying to keep his head down and please his boss without making too much of a scene. Fortunately he's got a friend over in the physics and engineering department -- one Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, who's survived Aperture for a good many years now and is generally available to at least lend an ear to Victor's complaints and worries. And nowadays, there's that new test subject who signed up too, one Alice Liddell. Victor, pressed into service by Johnson to do her entrance interview, tried to steer her away, but he also couldn't help noticing that she was also very pretty. . .and there was something about that fiery determination in her eyes. . .

But Victor's trying not to think too much about that. He's just going to make his butterflies, avoid Cave Johnson as much as possible, and wonder why he didn't at least send another resume to Black Mesa.

This verse has two distinct time periods/locations threads can be set in:

Who's Ready To Do Some Science?: Victor's just your average employee at Aperture Science -- if such a thing can be said to exist. He mainly works in the biology department, creating new kinds of butterflies to be used as test hazards/decoration, but thanks to Cave Johnson finding out about his artistic skills, he's also now the art department. Even his brief tenure in the labs has jaded him quite a bit, and he's much more cynical and sarcastic than he used to be. Not to mention his worrying has gone through the roof... But he still tries to be kind and friendly (admittedly mostly to people not his coworkers), and he has to admit, he still likes his actual job. Want to see his butterflies? 99% are non-lethal.

Cake And Grief Counseling: It's the future, and everything sucks. Victor, after ending up in one of the relaxation vaults, has awakened to find the facility a mess, his coworkers dead, and a certain murderous AI in charge of things. His only hope is to find a way to the surface and see if there's any humans left up there. And maybe see if any of his friends actually survived...you haven't seen an older man with flyway hair anywhere around, have you? Or a green-eyed girl in an orange jumpsuit? Hell, even Wheatley would be a welcome face...

Common NPCs:

Alice Liddell (throughout)

Shipping: Victor/Alice, though the actual Valice part of the verse hasn't started yet. (Weird, huh?) Victoria and Emily are still back in England, though I wouldn't mind them coming back into Victor's life later. I just doubt it'll be in a romantic context -- but hey, verses have gone surprise!poly on me before. . .

NPC Ships: None

Important Facts:

The "main" part of this verse -- Who's Ready To Do Some Science? -- is set in the time period just after Aperture's hey-day, but before they started making testing mandatory for the employees, about the 70s and 80s. Victor's understanding of cultural references beyond that time will be limited as a result. His understanding of technology beyond that time, perhaps not so much -- he does work in Aperture, after all.

Victor technically has an apartment outside of Aperture, but he's hardly ever there because Johnson likes to have his workers available 24-7, and that means providing eating and sleeping space in the facility. If there's any reason to do a thread outside of Victor's work in this verse, though, there's your starting point.

NPC Alice's backstory is roughly similar to her canon counterpart's -- house burned down by Bumby; ten years in Rutledge; a year in Bumby's care; discovering Bumby killed her family and shoving him in front of a train. She promptly skipped the country afterward and came to Michigan looking for a new life. Signing up as a test subject for Aperture seemed a great way to keep under the radar. Victor, as stated above, tried to warn her off, but Alice, used to defying death in Wonderland -- and figuring she wasn't going to get any better deals anywhere else thanks to her mental illness -- persisted and got the job. She's making quite a name for herself as a particularly tough test subject -- and is developing an interest in the shy, anxious scientist she met as the face of the company...

Given this verse sort of piggybacks onto jigowatt's Trace Amounts of Time Travel Aperture verse, developments there may be mentioned in Victor's threads! We've already invented an Aperture texting device together. :)

This verse is open to everyone!

[thevalicemultiverse]

Things You Need To Know About: Londerland Bloodlines

Tag: ~V: Londerland Bloodlines

Premise: What does one do when, after having been “strongly encouraged” to date the local upper-class girl, they’ve accidentally awakened a corpse bride-to-be, seen the Land of the Dead, saved the local upper class girl with the bride’s help after she was kidnapped by another potential date, set the bride on the path to finally moving on, and agreed to a break with the upper-class girl to give her time to recover? And one’s parents won’t shut up about it? Move to California, of course! Victor hoped Los Angeles would be a new beginning, but it nearly turned into a new ending when he was hit by a car three days in. But then, his own dark-haired, green-eyed angel entered his life – with sharp fangs and sweet blood he just can’t get enough of…

This AU is is a crossover between Corpse Bride, the Alice games, and the Old World of Darkness (and, quietly, Back To The Future). Specifically, it asks the question, "What if Alice ended up the Malkavian protagonist character of Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines, and Victor took the place of Heather Poe, the protagonist's potential ghoul?" In this more modernized (2004, to be precise) world, before the main action starts, Victor and Victoria are not arranged to be married -- instead, they're just being pushed toward each other by the very-enthusiastic Nell and the rather-more-reluctant Maudeline. Victor and Victoria, fortunately, actually like each other, and they're happy enough to go on dates and think about a future together.

They're less happy when, urged by Nell, Pastor Galswells shows up on one said date to extol the virtues of marriage. They're able to have a laugh about it -- but later, on a walk through the local woods, Victor finds himself wondering about a future with Victoria, and does a practice proposal with a plastic ring he got out of those "toy in a bubble" vending machines during the date, slipping it onto a convenient hand-shaped branch.

Convenient hand-shaped branch turns out to be an actual skeletal hand, and its owner -- a murdered bride named Emily -- promptly rises, believing Victor's proposal to be legitimate toward her. Victor tries to run, but Emily catches up and takes him to her home in the Land of the Dead. Victor, terrified, blurts out the whole thing was a joke -- and then, seeing the heartbroken look on Emily's face, clarifies that he didn't even know she was there. Emily's friend Bonejangles explains her history (killed by the man she intended to elope with for the money he told her to bring), and Victor, feeling awful, decides he has to do something for her in apology for getting her hopes up. Emily admits that it would be nice to just have a date Upstairs, if possible -- Victor explains about Victoria but says that if she's okay with it, he'd love to take her on a little moonlight picnic or something. Emily is cool with this plan, and after talking with Elder Gutknecht (the most powerfully magical dead person around), they go back to the Land of the Living so Victor can talk to Victoria.

But when Victor arrives at the Everglots, he finds the lord and lady in a tizzy and the police taking statements. Turns out Victoria has been kidnapped by the second date she had that day -- Maudeline pushed her to meet a "Lord Barkis" once she got home, and Victoria agreed just to get her off her back. Barkis promptly took her hostage and is demanding a ransom the rather-broke Everglots simply can't pay. Victor, horrified, brings this news back to Emily -- and Emily wonderingly admits that her old beau went by the name "Edward Barkis." Getting Elder Gutknecht's help in finding the missing Victoria, they discover that yep, it's the same guy, and that he fully intends to kill Victoria instead of releasing her once he gets his money. A furious Emily (backed up by Victor and a few of her dead friends) confronts him, and they manage to subdue him and get word to the police, sending him to prison and saving Victoria. Emily, feeling like the major anchor holding her to the living world has been released, decides to return Downstairs and have a farewell party or two before preparing to move on, and she and Victor fondly bid each other adieu.

Which is followed by Victoria admitting the whole kidnapping really shook her and she'd like a break from dating altogether. Victor is understanding, but his parents are less so -- and after the fiftieth complaint about how he let their best chance for social importance slip through his fingers, Victor snaps and decides he wants to put as much distance between them and him as possible. One ticket to Los Angeles, California later, he's ready to start a new life!

Three days in, he's hit by a car and rushed to a severely-understaffed clinic in Santa Monica. Victor, certain he's going to die, begs the first person he sees -- a mysterious green-eyed girl in a blue dress -- first for help, then for company as he passes. The girl instead cuts her wrist and makes him drink her blood. To Victor's intense surprise, he not only enjoys the experience, but when he wakes up later -- he's fine.

Fortunately, he's not left in the dark as to the reason for his mysterious cure for long -- a run-in with local bounty hunter Knox Harrington explains all: the mystery girl is Alice Liddell, she's a vampire (a Malkavian, to be specific), and her blood is what healed him, turning him into a ghoul. Victor promptly tracks down Alice, and the two end up living together in her downtown apartment while Alice runs errands for the longer-lived members of the local vampire population (being the newbie, and one who shouldn't have even been made to boot). Along the way, Victor reunites with Victoria, who also fled to California after her parents tried to push her into yet another unwanted relationship -- and with Emily during a raid on a family reunion of the Giovanni clan of vampires. The Giovanni specialize in necromancy, and Emily's spirit had been captured and restored to a kind of life as an advanced sort of zombie in one of their rituals -- along with Alice's murdered sister Lizzie. Both Victor and Alice are only too glad to welcome the pair into their home, and soon a sweet little quartet forms between Victor, Victoria, Emily, and Alice.

However, not all is well in the City of Angels -- Alice has made a lot of enemies in her time as a vampire, and as they start closing in, Victor and Emily are forced to flee L.A. for their own safety. Victoria and Lizzie follow shortly thereafter, having been narrowly rescued from abduction by the evil Sabbat vampires (Victoria, as you might imagine, is sour about being kidnapped TWICE in one year). The four end up settling in the little town of Hill Valley, waiting with bated breath to see if Alice will eventually join them.

She does, having very thoroughly told the L.A. vampires to fuck off. And so Victor settles into a very content future, with three women who love him dearly, an honorary older sister, and a steady supply of that amazing blood from Alice's veins.

This verse has two distinct time periods/locations threads can be set in:

Epic of the Ankaran Sarcophagus: Anything set during Victor's time in Los Angeles, post the car crash (aka the time period of Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines, which starts in October 2004 and probably runs through at least the end of the year). He's a little confused at how he keeps ending up in situations involving undead women, but he's happy playing a supporting role in Alice's various adventures. She saved his life, after all -- and he's come to like her quite a lot for her imagination and determination. Just, uh, don't ask him why he's twitchy sometimes. He's trying not to think about that addiction Alice refuses to feed.

Nice Place To Live: Anything post-V:TM-B, when Victor and company are living in Hill Valley (starting in 2005). Victor's happily settled back down into small-town life -- albeit the kind that includes being part of a romantic foursome with another ghoul, a zombie, and their vampire mistress. And with Alice having finally gone ahead and blood-bonded him, he's a lot more stable in his cravings. He's only too happy to chat with the neighbors now! (Though if you're visiting from L.A., expect to get some side-eye until he confirms you're not part of the Camarilla, anarchs, or Sabbat, come to ruin their day.)

Common NPCs:

Alice Liddell (throughout)

Victoria Everglot (throughout)

Emily Cartwell (throughout)

Lizzie Liddell (throughout)

Shipping: Another poly AU! It started out as just Valice, but the moment I decided Victoria was going to take the place of Samantha -- the NPC in Hollywood who recognizes the player character as a mortal friend -- and figured out a way to get Emily into the main story. . .well, things just fell into place. Victor’s feelings for Alice may be the strongest (thanks to her literally saving his life and being her ghoul, with all the benefits and drawbacks that entails), but he loves Victoria and Emily dearly too, and is all for romance with any of them.

NPC Ships: None

Important Facts:

NPC Alice’s backstory is similar to what she had in the games (Bumby stalked and raped her sister, burned down the house to cover his crimes, Alice escaped and was committed for ten years before entering his care and realizing the truth), only Bumby actively bribed someone in the forensics unit to keep from getting caught at the time and she didn’t suffer quite so badly in Rutledge (no leeches, for one thing). Her move to L.A. was prompted by shoving Bumby in front of the train -- while she was reasonably sure she’d get away with the murder, it still seemed prudent to put as much distance between her and England as possible.

NPC Alice’s sire was a seventh-generation Malkavian called Fish -- a narcissistic asshole who considered Alice’s attempts to leash her hallucinations and delusions a personal insult. He lured her to his apartment by pretending it was for lease -- Alice tried to fight him off when he first bit her, but he overpowered her. He seriously did not expect Lacroix to kill him for the deed. Alice does not hold his death against the Camarilla prince at all.

NPC Alice’s Malkavian madness is basically a permanently-on Londerland. As she’s used to handling these sorts of hallucinations by now, it’s possible anyone who didn’t know her clan might think her a Brujah until she starts having conversations with cats and rabbits that no one else can see. Following the rules of the video game, she has access to the Auspex, Obfuscate, and Dementation disciplines, along with general Blood Buff and Blood Heal. Alice finds inflicting more than hysterical laughter on people to generally be a little uncomfortable, but she loves Obfuscate.

NPC Lizzie became a ghost after her unfortunate demise, anchored to the mortal world by her fury at Bumby and her worry over her little sister. A Giovanni vampire heard about the poltergeist activity at the site of the old house, and managed to capture Lizzie and take her to the L.A. mansion, where she received a new physical body in a ritual to create a more durable kind of zombie. However, the ritual happened to leave her with her mind and free will, and when it became obvious she wasn’t going to play ball, she was locked in the cellar with Emily, the other failure of the day. The two became fast friends in their confinement, and made regular escape attempts -- up until Victor and Alice showed up and were able to rescue them. Lizzie wasn’t happy that her little sister was a vampire, but was thrilled to hear Bumby had died. She’s basically the honorary older sister of the entire group, and rather protective.

Actually, they’re all protective of each other, as is the norm. Victor in particular will take a baseball bat to anyone who threatens his girls (never mind that one of them is a vampire and probably better-suited for dealing with threats).

As a ghoul, Victor heals faster, is a bit stronger and quicker in general, and can amp up his strength, speed, and stamina even more using the vampire blood in his body (in game terms, I imagine him being able to use Blood Buff). He’s also addicted to vampire blood, and, being a Malkavian’s thrall, occasionally hears voices and has prophetic dreams. During Epic of the Ankaran Sarcophagus, he’s struggling with the fact that Alice, frightened of stripping him of all free will via the blood bond, is refusing to give him any more of hers. She occasionally lets him have elder blood from packs she picks up, figuring either those vampires are dead or at least unlikely to meet Victor, but he doesn’t find it as satisfying as hers. Talking to him about his status is likely to make him a bit twitchy. By Nice Place To Live, Alice has realized Victor knows what he’s getting into and wants it anyway, and has blood-bonded him on a weekly feeding schedule. He’ll happily rhapsodize about what a lucky ghoul he is in that time period.

NPC Victoria is also a ghoul bonded to Alice, at least by the time of Nice Place To Live -- she got hurt during the escape from the Sabbat, and Alice gave her some blood to heal her (with more of a warning this time). A combination of the Malkavian blood and being kidnapped twice in one year has made her somewhat paranoid of going anywhere outside alone, especially anywhere that might put her near strange men. Fortunately one of the others is pretty much always available to walk with her and calm her down should she panic.

While Back To The Future’s characters aren’t huge players in this verse, the quintet does know Doc Brown and his family -- largely because they’re renting Doc’s old garage apartment. (They’ve sub-divided it with screens and made a special sun cover for Alice’s bed.) So BTTF characters are more than welcome here!

Bloodlines characters are welcome too (obviously), but be forewarned -- Victor knows very few directly apart from Knox and Mercurio, his fellow ghouls; the rest he generally hears about through Alice. And, uh, Alice doesn’t like many of the L.A. vampires apart from Beckett and VV. There probably won’t be any overt hostilities unless the other person makes the first move, but expect lots of snark.

This verse is open to everyone!