#the true title of this story is Rave Frankenstein (in homage to the modern classic Rave Macbeth)

[ray-botic]

@unchartedentity:

#wait#hang on#haaaaang on#is there more of this????#i would love to see more of this concept#the wires and stuff inside of the creature are making me lose my mind#are you gonna develop this story more? i could....perhaps....... be a writer#haha just kidding#unless?#yeah anyway baller job hope to see more of it#frankenstein

short answer: kind of! i started this for a class project (i use "class" very loosely as it was mostly me running around berlin solo having the time of my life and being absolutely overwhelmed with inspiration and then going on zoom and being reprimanded for not having done enough work), and since i graduated i haven't developed it more because i was, frankly, pretty burned out. but i think i would like to return and work on it more, especially as other people seem to connect to it (i felt like a crazy person for being so emotionally invested while receiving blank stares in zoom class LMFAO).

you can see a more polished presentation of everything here . but honestly i'll just throw my entire summary under a cut below, why not

if this sparks any ideas, please feel free to suggest them!! (especially as i hadn't gotten a chance to dive into the source material as much as i wanted to.) and if you want to draw or write anything based on it, you're more than free, that would be super cool actually :-3c

Robert Walton discovers Viktor unconscious in a club bathroom and brings him to the van he lives in to recover. When he wakes up, Viktor is in a delirious state and keeps talking about hunting down a demon. The rest of the story is told by Walton to his sister, recounting what Viktor has told him.

Viktor grows up in a well-off family in East Germany. His father is a government official. He has two younger siblings, Ernst and Wilma (who will later transition and rename himself Wyx), and when he is around 10 his parents also take in a younger girl named Ilse, who is the daughter of Turkish immigrant workers who have been imprisoned and eventually deported after trying to escape the country. When Viktor is in his teens, his mother dies of an illness, which contributes to Viktor’s interest in scientific experimentation. Shortly after, the Wall falls, sending everything into chaos. Ilse and Clerval become close friends with Juliana, a trans artist who is a frequent clubber and represents all things “bad influence” to Viktor’s father. She also becomes a surrogate mother figure to Wyx, who comes out as a trans man, exacerbating tensions in the Frankenstein household.

In the midst of all of this, Viktor moves to West Berlin to attend university and before long is increasingly obsessive and convinced that he will be able to discover how to reverse death itself. The city is in a strange and uncertain state, with many young people taking advantage of its economic ruin to squat in abandoned housing and cultivate an artistic community. While Ilse, Clerval, Juliana, and Wyx all immerse themselves in this culture, Viktor becomes more and more withdrawn, retreating to an abandoned corner of the city for privacy and dedicating himself entirely to working on his Creature. Upon completing it, he finds that it is not the perfect being he wanted but repulsive and terrifying, and flees. Coincidentally, Clerval finds Viktor while the latter is sleeping on a park bench and is relieved to have found his friend after so long with no contact. Viktor brings him back to his makeshift lab, but the Creature is gone. Clerval is concerned about his wellbeing and insists on taking Viktor in.

Wyx’s body is found by Juliana in Ilse’s club, having died while taking his testosterone injection. His father blames her for Wyx’s death, all previous disagreements coming to a head as he believes that Juliana’s corrupting influence has killed his daughter and is at risk of killing Ilse as well. He knows that there is not enough evidence to convict Juliana, but threatens to kill her himself if she ever makes contact with his family again.

The Creature explains to Viktor how he learned about the world, having been overwhelmed by the city and retreating into its underground system of tunnels and sewers. He observes the comings and goings at a literal underground club and slowly learns about language and human interaction, becoming increasingly attached to its owner Ilse and her close friends while remaining unaware of their connection to his creator. He listens to Ilse express her heartbreak and grief over her parents, who she has learned died during their time apart, and her closest companion Viktor, who has all but vanished with no explanation. He begins to believe that, in the darkness and among so many strange-looking people, he might become friends with them. When he sees Wyx privately expressing unhappiness with his body while injecting testosterone, the Creature is emboldened to approach him, feeling  that they are similar— only to panic when Wyx reacts badly and end up strangling him. The Creature finishes by imploring Viktor to create a companion for him and promises to leave forever once the deed is done. Reluctantly, Viktor agrees.

Viktor puts off his task as much as he possibly can. He and Ilse get engaged, something that enlivens his father— he believes that marriage will “fix” Ilse and save her from the same fate that befell Wyx, while simultaneously curing Viktor of his asociality and melancholy. At Clerval’s insistence, he and Viktor take a trip far from Berlin, where Viktor finds a remote place to build his second Creature and tells Clerval to go on without him. He cannot bring himself to finish the experiment, and ends up destroying it, scattering the remains in a lake. The Creature, having been watching his progress, flies into a rage and vows that he will be with Viktor on his wedding night. However, the following morning he is accused of murder by the people of the nearby town— Clerval has been found dead on the shore. Viktor is taken into custody and only released after his father arrives and, still having connections from his time as an East German official, manages to convince them of his innocence. He brings Viktor home, convinced that as long as the wedding goes through everything will work itself out. As it approaches, Viktor grows more and more paranoid, but convinces himself of the same, resolving to fight the Creature himself. On their wedding night, Viktor searches the premises for his creation, only to realize too late that it had intended to kill Ilse rather than him. In the aftermath, Viktor’s father kills himself. Having lost all he holds dear, Viktor resolves to spend the rest of his life hunting down his creation.

a piece from my study abroad project, an adaptation of frankenstein set in '90s berlin. (+ detail shots!)