Ryan's Gulch Application (Declined)
Jan. 6th, 2013 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forgotten_vows☞ Player Information;
Name: Vicky
Player Journal:crossover_chick
Age: 26
Contact: fangflux AT hotmail.com; the Dreamwidth inboxes of eitherforgotten_vows or crossover_chick
Other characters currently played at Ryan's Gulch: N/A
☞ Character Information;
Character Name: Victor Van Dort
Canon: Corpse Bride
OU or AU?: AU (crossover with “Alice: Madness Returns”)
Canon point: Almost a year after Corpse Bride, and about a month after the end of “Alice: Madness Returns”
Setting: Victor’s home time period is Victorian-era England in the year 1875. It’s a time of scientific progress, class movement, and a lot of factory smoke. There’s a lot happening all over the country, but Victor’s experiences have been shaped by three specific locales:
First, his childhood home – a tiny, grey village in the middle of nowhere. Situated near a dark river and a large, gloomy forest, the village is largely the outer wall, some tightly-grouped houses, and the town square. There’s also the church, located over the stone bridge that crosses the river, which serves as a home to the village’s pastor, Pastor Galswells. The village is a place that runs on rules and routine. The people are simple folk – clockmakers, greengrocers, carriage-drivers, things like that – as grey and quiet as their little town (with the sole exception of the town crier). They tend to dislike excitement – even the news of a important wedding in the town didn’t stir most people’s blood. There are (or were, as the first has moved away, and the second been discredited) only two truly prominent families – the Everglots, the local nobility; and Victor’s own family, the Van Dorts – fish merchants who’d made a name for themselves by putting their product in cans. Thanks to his father’s business, Victor had a life of wealth and privilege (if not much actual happiness) in the village up to the age of 19. That’s when, thanks to him accidentally proposing to a murdered bride’s hand, he found himself visiting The Land of the Dead.
The Land of the Dead (a.k.a. Downstairs or Below) is the complete opposite of Victor’s home village. It’s a bright and cheery place, full of fun and laughter. The world is filled to the brim with color – even the people down there have turned a brilliant shade of blue. Those of them who still have skin that is – rot is a fact of life Below, and quite a few of the residents are skeletons, or getting there. However, nobody pays it much mind – spare body parts may be collected for resale or used as flavorings in what passes for food down there. The general mood of the place can be summed up as “Welcome! Have a drink and enjoy your afterlife!” (Well, unless you’ve proved to be an evil bastard – the residents were not exactly pleasant when confirmed murderer Barkis Bittern joined their ranks. . . .) Although a little surprised to find a breather in their midst, the people of the Land were quite happy to have Victor join their “family” as the corpse bride’s new husband. Victor, initially unnerved by the locale (to say the least), warmed up to it rather quickly, and now looks back on his time there with fondness.
However, once the whole mess with the corpse bride was resolved, Victor found himself at odds with his parents, who didn’t believe his story about the afterlife. Believing him to be mad, the elder Van Dorts sent Victor away to be treated at The Houndsditch Home For Wayward Youth. Located in the Whitechapel district of London’s East End, the Home is an imposing brown brick bulk set across from the London Underground’s Moorgate Station, and only a street away from the local open market. Previously owned and run by Dr. Angus Bumby, its supposed purpose was as an orphanage and private “asylum” of sorts for children with difficult pasts (Victor was an anomaly, accepted only because his parents were willing to pay top dollar for his treatment). Its actual purpose was as a “factory” for child prostitutes – Dr. Bumby was erasing his patients’ memories and selling them on the black market. Fortunately, Dr. Bumby’s evil was discovered and stopped by his maid/patient Alice Liddell, though not before he’d done quite a lot of damage to both the children and Victor. Whitechapel itself is an area rife with beggars, thugs, prostitutes, pimps, and poverty-stricken workmen. One can hardly walk down the street without seeing some scene of violence or debauchery. Going from a comfortable nouveau riche existence to that was quite the shock, and Victor never did get quite used to the way things worked around there.
History: Victor Van Dort is the only son of William and Nell Van Dort, nouveau riche fishmongers. Not much is known about Victor’s childhood beyond the fact that he had a much-loved dog named Scraps. It can be safely assumed, however, that he grew up in the village (likely in the large mansion his parents own in the town square), that he’s been drawing since a young age, and that he received piano lessons at some point (as he shows skill in both drawing and playing piano). It can also be assumed that he was something of a loner, as he never mentions any friends in the village (indeed, there seems to be exactly one other person his age in the entire place).
At the tender age of 19, Victor was stunned to find himself betrothed to Victoria Everglot, the only daughter of Lord Finis and Lady Maudeline Everglot. The parents of the couple had negotiated the marriage based on mutual need – the Van Dorts wanted the respectability being related to nobility would give them, while the Everglots wanted the use of the vast Van Dort fortune, theirs having run out long ago. The fact that their children had never even spoken to one another didn’t enter into it. Victor and Victoria only met shortly before the wedding rehearsal, thanks to Victor lingering at the piano in the Everglots’ front hall. Luckily for all concerned, the two liked each other on sight.
Liking Victoria didn’t stop Victor from being nervous about the wedding, however. During the rehearsal, he kept flubbing his vows, culminating in dropping the ring and setting Maudeline’s skirt on fire with an accidentally-dropped candle while retrieving it. A furious Pastor Galswells banished Victor from the house, declaring the wedding would not go on until Victor had learned his lines. A humiliated Victor fled into the nearby woods, seeking privacy to practice. After a few failed attempts, he at last got his nerves settled and said his vows perfectly, even placing the ring on a nearby branch that looked like a hand.
He quickly found out that the reason the branch looked like a hand was because it was a hand. Out from the ground emerged a corpse bride, who accepted Victor as her new husband. Dragged down to the Land of the Dead, Victor discovered his new “wife’s” name was Emily, and that she’d been murdered by her former fiancé (who had convinced her to steal her family’s gold and jewels and elope with him). Emily had vowed to wait in her grave as long as it took for someone to marry her, and had mistaken Victor’s practice for an actual proposal. Victor, although sympathetic to her plight, was also quite frightened of her and concocted a plan to escape the marriage. Tricking Emily into bringing him back to the Land of the Living, he sought help from Victoria, only to be caught and pulled back Downstairs by his new bride. After an argument (which included some rather thoughtless comments from Victor), Victor eventually apologized via piano duet to Emily, realizing that he quite liked her too in the process.
Upstairs, both the Van Dorts and Everglots were horrified to learn of Victor meeting a “dark-haired temptress” and disappearing the night before his wedding. Determined to find their wayward son, the Van Dorts convinced the Everglots to give them until dawn to search him out. After Victor’s visit to her, a confused and terrified Victoria attempted to get help for him from her family and Pastor Galswells, only to be declared mad and locked in her room. Visiting noble Lord Barkis Bittern offered himself up as a replacement groom to the elder Everglots, who seized the opportunity and forced Victoria to marry the man over her own objections. As the news about Victoria’s new wedding was broadcast around town, the Van Dorts’ driver, Mayhew, died, leaving the Van Dorts to ride obliviously into the countryside. He delivered the news to Victor upon his arrival Downstairs. Victor, not knowing Victoria was not marrying the newcomer of her own free will, fell into a depression. Shortly afterward, he and Emily learned that their marriage was null and void because Victor was alive and she dead. Having nothing left for him in the Land of the Living, Victor decided he liked the corpse bride enough to kill himself and give her a proper wedding. The residents of the dead prepared a fantastic party and traveled Upstairs, disrupting Victoria’s reception and taking over the church.
The second ceremony started without a hitch. However, before Victor could go through with his suicidal vows, Emily stopped him, having seen Victoria watching them from behind a pillar and realizing she could never hurt another bride the way she’d been hurt. She returned Victor to Victoria – only for Victoria’s new husband to walk in and reclaim her. To everyone’s shock and horror, Lord Barkis turned out to be the same man who’d murdered Emily! He’d been intending to steal Victoria’s dowry, only to be foiled when Victoria informed him the Everglots had no money. Victor, determined not to see his living beloved suffer the same fate as his dead beloved, fought Barkis with a barbeque fork (provided by Mrs. Plum) when Barkis tried to drag Victoria away at swordpoint. Although he fought valiantly, Barkis came close to killing him, and Victor was only saved by the intervention of Emily. Barkis proceeded to accidentally kill himself by making a mocking toast with the poisonous wine meant for Victor, and was chased Downstairs by the vengeful dead. Emily, her murder avenged at last, officially freed Victor from his promise and passed onto Heaven, dissolving into a cloud of butterflies.
After all that, Victor fully expected to marry Victoria Everglot in short order. The elder Everglots, however, were so terrified by the walking dead that, the moment Victoria came home from the church, they grabbed her and fled to a long-disused house in the country, where they started shopping around for a new suitor. Victoria made some valiant efforts to get back to Burtonsville and Victor, but was consistently thwarted.
Meanwhile, Victor’s parents finally returned from their inadvertent trip. Not having been in town during the rising of the dead, they refused to believe their son’s story, instead thinking he’d gone mad. When they went to discuss the situation with the Everglots, they found their house empty. A frantic search was mounted to find the missing nobles, while Victor continued to try and convince his parents of the truth of his story, to no avail. Not even the townspeople would back him up, most of them too intimidated by Pastor Galswells, who angrily declared Victor damned for raising the dead.
Finally, the Van Dorts located the Everglots, and the families met – only for the Everglots to inform them that Victoria was already married. Victor went to visit her and her new husband, Mr. Christopher White, and discovered Victoria had heard about Pastor Galswells’s declarations and had mistakenly believed he’d committed suicide (going after Emily again once she disappeared). Under that misconception, she’d agreed to marry Mr. White, who was fortunately a kind and loving man she’d come to love herself. Victor let her go gracefully and wished her all happiness.
Back in Burtonsville, Victor briefly sought out Emily’s hand, believing he really had nothing tying him to the Land of the Living anymore and willing to give their relationship another try. He found it missing, however, and realized she had given up searching for a husband. With everyone he’d loved having left him, Victor fell again into a deep depression. Meanwhile, William and Nell, furious about what had happened with the Everglots, decided that the only way to salvage the situation was to make Victor forget Emily. And that is when they learned of one Dr. Angus Bumby, who specialized in making patients forget painful memories via hypnosis. A deal was made, and Victor was shipped off to the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth in Whitechapel, London.
Victor arrived at Houndsditch in early April of 1875. He almost immediately hated the place. Angry at being told to forget the unfortunate bride he'd helped free, he refused to cooperate with Bumby’s therapy, only ever going into the lightest of trances. Bumby naturally developed a dislike for the young man in return. A battle of wills sprang up – Bumby trying to force Victor to forget Emily, Victor trying to convince Bumby he was either not mad or a lost cause so he'd finally be left alone. In between, the young man dealt with the mockery of the younger residents of the home and the disdain of the native residents of Whitechapel.
Fortunately for Victor's continued sanity, there was one person at Houndsditch that made living there bearable for him – a young lady named Alice Liddell. Dr. Bumby's oldest patient (recommended to him after her release from a ten-year stay in Rutledge Asylum following the death of her family) and maid/errand girl for the Home, Alice initially disliked Victor for his "lies" about visiting the afterlife. However, her anger soon turned to curiosity – both about the Land Below, and about Victor himself. As the months passed, the two opened up more and more to each other; Victor telling Alice about his adventures in the Land of the Dead, and Alice telling Victor about her adventures in her childhood imaginary world called Wonderland. The two became very close friends, to the point where, after some months together, Victor found himself falling in love with Alice.
Unfortunately, in September of 1875, things took a turn for the worse for both of them. Alice, struggling with conflicting desires to forget her past and discover the truth about the house fire that claimed the lives of her parents and sister, toppled over the edge of sanity and fell back into Wonderland. The realm had changed during her time in Rutledge, from an innocent playland into a world where Alice could literally battle her psychoses – as Alice had done on a previous visit, killing the Queen of Hearts to free herself from her insanity and survivor's guilt. This time around, however, Alice found her inner world in peril from a different force – an Infernal Train, spreading oily Ruin that corrupted and destroyed Wonderland. Alice quickly discovered that her only chance of derailing the train lay in fighting her way across Wonderland and recovering the memories she'd tried to forget for so long.
Unfortunately, doing so meant letting her body wander around without purpose or plan in London – something Victor Van Dort didn't like at all. As Alice battled her way through the various subrealms of her mind, Victor spent most of his time searching for her and doing his best to keep her out of danger (including, at one point, saving her from a burning building). He also fell deeper in love with her, although he refused to act on his feelings, certain they wouldn't be returned. (Little did he know that Alice would realize she loved him too on her journey through her mind.)
Finally, Alice recovered the last of her memories and learned the horrible truth – Dr. Bumby had been the one to kill her family, burning down the house after forcing himself on her sister (whom he was obsessed with). Around the same time, Victor discovered Bumby’s other dark secret via stumbling upon the doctor’s diary – the Houndsditch Home was in fact a front for child prostitution. Bumby was mindwiping and selling his young charges to the highest bidder, and had similar fates planned for Alice and Victor. Unfortunately, Bumby caught Victor before the young man could escape with the diary. Victor was mentally tortured until he finally submitted to Bumby’s mind control, having his memories erased and being turned into Bumby’s slave Thirteen.
On November 5th, 1875, the twelfth anniversary of the fire, Alice confronted her corrupt therapist at Moorgate Station, where the doctor was waiting for Alice’s replacement (having given up on her ever returning to the Home). Bumby summoned Thirteen (to Alice's horror) and tried to get him to kill Alice, but Victor recognized her and instead attacked Bumby. Bumby reasserted his control over Thirteen, only to be shoved in front of a train by Alice in revenge for all the evil he'd done. Alice managed to break Bumby's control over Victor. She wasn't able to restore most of his memories, however, leaving him an almost total amnesiac. Fortunately, one of the memories he did regain was seeing Dr. Bumby’s diary. He and Alice retrieved it and brought it to the local police, discrediting the former doctor.
With Dr. Bumby dead, someone was needed to take over the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth. That someone proved to be Dr. Heironymous Wilson, Alice’s former psychiatrist, recently retired from Rutledge Asylum. Bumby's intended replacement for Alice, June Thatcher, also arrived, and together with Alice they began working on restoring Victor's memories. Victoria and her husband also paid a visit to the home to help – unfortunately to no avail.
Finally, while napping one day, Victor had a dream about Emily, who told him that his best chance for getting his memories back was to ask Alice to lend him her strength – specifically, those weapons she owned that were good for getting through walls. Alice, looking for alternative medicine for her beloved, got much the same advice from Dr. Fixxler of Dr. Fixxler's Mysterious Elixirs. Alice drew pictures of her sturdiest weapons to help Victor in imagining them, and that night, Victor used them to smash through the wall in his mind, defeating Bumby's influence on him and reclaiming his memories. Although still in love with Alice, he decided that they should wait to upgrade their relationship until the coming of the new year, to give them both some time to heal after all the pain Bumby had inflicted on them. It’s shortly before he tells her that he’s grabbed by the Teleport Plasmid.
Additional Links:
Corpse Bride on Wikipedia
Alice's page on the Alice Wiki, which contains the most complete plot synopsis of "Alice: Madness Returns"
Personality: Victor’s not the most outgoing of people. Shy and deeply introverted, he hates crowds and doesn’t like to socialize much. He’s prone to stuttering and fidgeting when nervous – in particular, he tends to fuss with his hands or tie. For all that, though, he’s oddly adaptable – once he ascertains that wherever he is isn’t dangerous, he’ll find himself a little niche and possibly make a friend or two. If he’s excited or in a particularly good mood, he can handle being the center of attention, but don’t expect to see that often. He’s most comfortable on his own, or with one or two friends or loved ones.
Like most upper-middle-class men, Victor was raised to be polite. He tries his best to be kind and gentle, and he hates disappointing people. For a very long time this amounted to him letting his parents shove him around, but after the clusterfuck that was Houndsditch, he’s moved past that. He might still be more susceptible than most to a good sob story, but he’s not going to let himself be anyone’s pawn anymore. He’s very protective of his loved ones, and will even risk death to keep them safe. On the other hand, he doesn’t always handle conflict well. He tends to try and avoid facing problems – to the point of running away if something scares him enough – and sometimes won’t see an obvious solution even if its staring him in the face. He also doesn’t always think before he talks, occasionally coming out with hurtful comments when under stress.
Victor is a very creative person, and his favorite activities are drawing (usually butterflies) and playing the piano. While he doesn’t mind sharing his art so much, his music tends to be a little more private – he only plays to or with close friends. He also enjoys lepidopterology (the study of butterflies), making detailed sketches with annotations of various specimens he’s caught. Ask him about what he knows, and he might talk your ear off.
The experiences of losing Victoria and Emily, living in Whitechapel, and being abused by Dr. Bumby have given Victor a very healthy dose of cynicism. While he was never the most optimistic person, he’s learned that people (at least, living people) tend to look out for themselves before anyone else, and that there are some real monsters in the world. As a result, he’s become ever-so-slightly paranoid, distrustful of new people (especially older, bearded men with glasses) and liable to assume the worst in any situation. He’s even more secretive than before, reluctant to open up to anyone right away, and tends to be even more snappish under stress (though he’s liable to instantly apologize for undeserved comments). He also has some triggers that set off a nasty display of temper:
Being an abuse victim, he still has nightmares and bad days where he can’t stop thinking about the week he was under Bumby’s control. He’s even more skittish than usual during those times, and likes to find places to hole up where he can have a good cry away from prying eyes. He’s absolutely terrified of complete darkness and will do his best to always have something that produces light on him in case he finds himself in such a situation. Going blind would reduce him to a lump of jelly. He also has a newly-developed fear of the number thirteen, though he does his best to hide that.
Abilities: Victor has no supernatural abilities, but he does have a few special talents:
How did your character arrive in Rapture? Teleport Plasmid
Why are you choosing to continue your character's development here from another RP? N/A
Network sample:
[There’s a click, then a series of taps that suggest someone randomly poking buttons.]
Oh dear, how on earth – wait, does that light mean it’s on? How do I – hello?
[More tapping, and the video feed abruptly springs to life, showing the face of a pale young man with dark eyes and hair. He’s staring at the radio in what can charitably be called utter bafflement.]
Hello? They told me that I could use this to talk to people. . .even though I’m n-not sure who to talk to. . . . I am sorry if I’m bothering anyone, I’m just – rather in shock, and –
[He swallows, then takes a deep breath.]
Could anyone please tell me a bit more about where on Earth I’ve landed?
[He adds in a whisper:]
If I am on Earth. . . .
Log sample:
Moving while feeling like you’re standing perfectly still should not be a familiar sensation.
But it is. Victor can’t deny it. This baffling contradiction in states is exactly how he felt when he was traveling to and from the Land of the Dead. But – he can’t be going back there. He hasn’t stumbled upon any corpse brides, their hands conveniently stretching out to him, awaiting a proposal. He hasn’t been swarmed by a flock of ravens, or shattered one of their freshly-laid eggs. And he certainly hasn’t drunk any poisonous substances. (Although, really, the water that comes out of the taps at the Home does make him wonder sometimes.) He’d simply gone to his room, picked up his sketchbook – and then, out of nowhere, he was surrounded by red fog and completely unable to move. What is this? he wonders, frightened, confused, and just a little angry. I’m not ready to have another adventure! Unless this is a secret entrance to Alice’s Wonderland. . . .
A moment later, the cloud clears, and Victor finds himself nose to doorway with a little stone building.
Startled, he stumbles backward, looking around. Below him is grass, and a circular path made out of polished rocks. Above him, a ceiling painted to look a bit like the sky. To his left, a small stairway leading up to another grassy area, complete with little pond and bridge. He’s in – some sort of indoor garden? No, he recognizes those slabs of stone sticking up out of the ground. And the building in front of him – it’s a mausoleum. He’s in a cemetery. Whatever grabbed him deposited him in a cemetery. “What sort of sick joke--”
And then he looks right, and the words get stuck in his throat. Because to his right is – a window. Looking out over what seems to be a massive city.
And a school of fish.
His sketchbook falls from his hand as he gapes at the scene. He’s not just in a cemetery. He’s in a cemetery that is indoors – and underwater.
Well then.
Maybe he really has somehow made it to Wonderland.
Name: Vicky
Player Journal:
crossover_chickAge: 26
Contact: fangflux AT hotmail.com; the Dreamwidth inboxes of either
forgotten_vows or crossover_chickOther characters currently played at Ryan's Gulch: N/A
☞ Character Information;
Character Name: Victor Van Dort
Canon: Corpse Bride
OU or AU?: AU (crossover with “Alice: Madness Returns”)
Canon point: Almost a year after Corpse Bride, and about a month after the end of “Alice: Madness Returns”
Setting: Victor’s home time period is Victorian-era England in the year 1875. It’s a time of scientific progress, class movement, and a lot of factory smoke. There’s a lot happening all over the country, but Victor’s experiences have been shaped by three specific locales:
First, his childhood home – a tiny, grey village in the middle of nowhere. Situated near a dark river and a large, gloomy forest, the village is largely the outer wall, some tightly-grouped houses, and the town square. There’s also the church, located over the stone bridge that crosses the river, which serves as a home to the village’s pastor, Pastor Galswells. The village is a place that runs on rules and routine. The people are simple folk – clockmakers, greengrocers, carriage-drivers, things like that – as grey and quiet as their little town (with the sole exception of the town crier). They tend to dislike excitement – even the news of a important wedding in the town didn’t stir most people’s blood. There are (or were, as the first has moved away, and the second been discredited) only two truly prominent families – the Everglots, the local nobility; and Victor’s own family, the Van Dorts – fish merchants who’d made a name for themselves by putting their product in cans. Thanks to his father’s business, Victor had a life of wealth and privilege (if not much actual happiness) in the village up to the age of 19. That’s when, thanks to him accidentally proposing to a murdered bride’s hand, he found himself visiting The Land of the Dead.
The Land of the Dead (a.k.a. Downstairs or Below) is the complete opposite of Victor’s home village. It’s a bright and cheery place, full of fun and laughter. The world is filled to the brim with color – even the people down there have turned a brilliant shade of blue. Those of them who still have skin that is – rot is a fact of life Below, and quite a few of the residents are skeletons, or getting there. However, nobody pays it much mind – spare body parts may be collected for resale or used as flavorings in what passes for food down there. The general mood of the place can be summed up as “Welcome! Have a drink and enjoy your afterlife!” (Well, unless you’ve proved to be an evil bastard – the residents were not exactly pleasant when confirmed murderer Barkis Bittern joined their ranks. . . .) Although a little surprised to find a breather in their midst, the people of the Land were quite happy to have Victor join their “family” as the corpse bride’s new husband. Victor, initially unnerved by the locale (to say the least), warmed up to it rather quickly, and now looks back on his time there with fondness.
However, once the whole mess with the corpse bride was resolved, Victor found himself at odds with his parents, who didn’t believe his story about the afterlife. Believing him to be mad, the elder Van Dorts sent Victor away to be treated at The Houndsditch Home For Wayward Youth. Located in the Whitechapel district of London’s East End, the Home is an imposing brown brick bulk set across from the London Underground’s Moorgate Station, and only a street away from the local open market. Previously owned and run by Dr. Angus Bumby, its supposed purpose was as an orphanage and private “asylum” of sorts for children with difficult pasts (Victor was an anomaly, accepted only because his parents were willing to pay top dollar for his treatment). Its actual purpose was as a “factory” for child prostitutes – Dr. Bumby was erasing his patients’ memories and selling them on the black market. Fortunately, Dr. Bumby’s evil was discovered and stopped by his maid/patient Alice Liddell, though not before he’d done quite a lot of damage to both the children and Victor. Whitechapel itself is an area rife with beggars, thugs, prostitutes, pimps, and poverty-stricken workmen. One can hardly walk down the street without seeing some scene of violence or debauchery. Going from a comfortable nouveau riche existence to that was quite the shock, and Victor never did get quite used to the way things worked around there.
History: Victor Van Dort is the only son of William and Nell Van Dort, nouveau riche fishmongers. Not much is known about Victor’s childhood beyond the fact that he had a much-loved dog named Scraps. It can be safely assumed, however, that he grew up in the village (likely in the large mansion his parents own in the town square), that he’s been drawing since a young age, and that he received piano lessons at some point (as he shows skill in both drawing and playing piano). It can also be assumed that he was something of a loner, as he never mentions any friends in the village (indeed, there seems to be exactly one other person his age in the entire place).
At the tender age of 19, Victor was stunned to find himself betrothed to Victoria Everglot, the only daughter of Lord Finis and Lady Maudeline Everglot. The parents of the couple had negotiated the marriage based on mutual need – the Van Dorts wanted the respectability being related to nobility would give them, while the Everglots wanted the use of the vast Van Dort fortune, theirs having run out long ago. The fact that their children had never even spoken to one another didn’t enter into it. Victor and Victoria only met shortly before the wedding rehearsal, thanks to Victor lingering at the piano in the Everglots’ front hall. Luckily for all concerned, the two liked each other on sight.
Liking Victoria didn’t stop Victor from being nervous about the wedding, however. During the rehearsal, he kept flubbing his vows, culminating in dropping the ring and setting Maudeline’s skirt on fire with an accidentally-dropped candle while retrieving it. A furious Pastor Galswells banished Victor from the house, declaring the wedding would not go on until Victor had learned his lines. A humiliated Victor fled into the nearby woods, seeking privacy to practice. After a few failed attempts, he at last got his nerves settled and said his vows perfectly, even placing the ring on a nearby branch that looked like a hand.
He quickly found out that the reason the branch looked like a hand was because it was a hand. Out from the ground emerged a corpse bride, who accepted Victor as her new husband. Dragged down to the Land of the Dead, Victor discovered his new “wife’s” name was Emily, and that she’d been murdered by her former fiancé (who had convinced her to steal her family’s gold and jewels and elope with him). Emily had vowed to wait in her grave as long as it took for someone to marry her, and had mistaken Victor’s practice for an actual proposal. Victor, although sympathetic to her plight, was also quite frightened of her and concocted a plan to escape the marriage. Tricking Emily into bringing him back to the Land of the Living, he sought help from Victoria, only to be caught and pulled back Downstairs by his new bride. After an argument (which included some rather thoughtless comments from Victor), Victor eventually apologized via piano duet to Emily, realizing that he quite liked her too in the process.
Upstairs, both the Van Dorts and Everglots were horrified to learn of Victor meeting a “dark-haired temptress” and disappearing the night before his wedding. Determined to find their wayward son, the Van Dorts convinced the Everglots to give them until dawn to search him out. After Victor’s visit to her, a confused and terrified Victoria attempted to get help for him from her family and Pastor Galswells, only to be declared mad and locked in her room. Visiting noble Lord Barkis Bittern offered himself up as a replacement groom to the elder Everglots, who seized the opportunity and forced Victoria to marry the man over her own objections. As the news about Victoria’s new wedding was broadcast around town, the Van Dorts’ driver, Mayhew, died, leaving the Van Dorts to ride obliviously into the countryside. He delivered the news to Victor upon his arrival Downstairs. Victor, not knowing Victoria was not marrying the newcomer of her own free will, fell into a depression. Shortly afterward, he and Emily learned that their marriage was null and void because Victor was alive and she dead. Having nothing left for him in the Land of the Living, Victor decided he liked the corpse bride enough to kill himself and give her a proper wedding. The residents of the dead prepared a fantastic party and traveled Upstairs, disrupting Victoria’s reception and taking over the church.
The second ceremony started without a hitch. However, before Victor could go through with his suicidal vows, Emily stopped him, having seen Victoria watching them from behind a pillar and realizing she could never hurt another bride the way she’d been hurt. She returned Victor to Victoria – only for Victoria’s new husband to walk in and reclaim her. To everyone’s shock and horror, Lord Barkis turned out to be the same man who’d murdered Emily! He’d been intending to steal Victoria’s dowry, only to be foiled when Victoria informed him the Everglots had no money. Victor, determined not to see his living beloved suffer the same fate as his dead beloved, fought Barkis with a barbeque fork (provided by Mrs. Plum) when Barkis tried to drag Victoria away at swordpoint. Although he fought valiantly, Barkis came close to killing him, and Victor was only saved by the intervention of Emily. Barkis proceeded to accidentally kill himself by making a mocking toast with the poisonous wine meant for Victor, and was chased Downstairs by the vengeful dead. Emily, her murder avenged at last, officially freed Victor from his promise and passed onto Heaven, dissolving into a cloud of butterflies.
After all that, Victor fully expected to marry Victoria Everglot in short order. The elder Everglots, however, were so terrified by the walking dead that, the moment Victoria came home from the church, they grabbed her and fled to a long-disused house in the country, where they started shopping around for a new suitor. Victoria made some valiant efforts to get back to Burtonsville and Victor, but was consistently thwarted.
Meanwhile, Victor’s parents finally returned from their inadvertent trip. Not having been in town during the rising of the dead, they refused to believe their son’s story, instead thinking he’d gone mad. When they went to discuss the situation with the Everglots, they found their house empty. A frantic search was mounted to find the missing nobles, while Victor continued to try and convince his parents of the truth of his story, to no avail. Not even the townspeople would back him up, most of them too intimidated by Pastor Galswells, who angrily declared Victor damned for raising the dead.
Finally, the Van Dorts located the Everglots, and the families met – only for the Everglots to inform them that Victoria was already married. Victor went to visit her and her new husband, Mr. Christopher White, and discovered Victoria had heard about Pastor Galswells’s declarations and had mistakenly believed he’d committed suicide (going after Emily again once she disappeared). Under that misconception, she’d agreed to marry Mr. White, who was fortunately a kind and loving man she’d come to love herself. Victor let her go gracefully and wished her all happiness.
Back in Burtonsville, Victor briefly sought out Emily’s hand, believing he really had nothing tying him to the Land of the Living anymore and willing to give their relationship another try. He found it missing, however, and realized she had given up searching for a husband. With everyone he’d loved having left him, Victor fell again into a deep depression. Meanwhile, William and Nell, furious about what had happened with the Everglots, decided that the only way to salvage the situation was to make Victor forget Emily. And that is when they learned of one Dr. Angus Bumby, who specialized in making patients forget painful memories via hypnosis. A deal was made, and Victor was shipped off to the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth in Whitechapel, London.
Victor arrived at Houndsditch in early April of 1875. He almost immediately hated the place. Angry at being told to forget the unfortunate bride he'd helped free, he refused to cooperate with Bumby’s therapy, only ever going into the lightest of trances. Bumby naturally developed a dislike for the young man in return. A battle of wills sprang up – Bumby trying to force Victor to forget Emily, Victor trying to convince Bumby he was either not mad or a lost cause so he'd finally be left alone. In between, the young man dealt with the mockery of the younger residents of the home and the disdain of the native residents of Whitechapel.
Fortunately for Victor's continued sanity, there was one person at Houndsditch that made living there bearable for him – a young lady named Alice Liddell. Dr. Bumby's oldest patient (recommended to him after her release from a ten-year stay in Rutledge Asylum following the death of her family) and maid/errand girl for the Home, Alice initially disliked Victor for his "lies" about visiting the afterlife. However, her anger soon turned to curiosity – both about the Land Below, and about Victor himself. As the months passed, the two opened up more and more to each other; Victor telling Alice about his adventures in the Land of the Dead, and Alice telling Victor about her adventures in her childhood imaginary world called Wonderland. The two became very close friends, to the point where, after some months together, Victor found himself falling in love with Alice.
Unfortunately, in September of 1875, things took a turn for the worse for both of them. Alice, struggling with conflicting desires to forget her past and discover the truth about the house fire that claimed the lives of her parents and sister, toppled over the edge of sanity and fell back into Wonderland. The realm had changed during her time in Rutledge, from an innocent playland into a world where Alice could literally battle her psychoses – as Alice had done on a previous visit, killing the Queen of Hearts to free herself from her insanity and survivor's guilt. This time around, however, Alice found her inner world in peril from a different force – an Infernal Train, spreading oily Ruin that corrupted and destroyed Wonderland. Alice quickly discovered that her only chance of derailing the train lay in fighting her way across Wonderland and recovering the memories she'd tried to forget for so long.
Unfortunately, doing so meant letting her body wander around without purpose or plan in London – something Victor Van Dort didn't like at all. As Alice battled her way through the various subrealms of her mind, Victor spent most of his time searching for her and doing his best to keep her out of danger (including, at one point, saving her from a burning building). He also fell deeper in love with her, although he refused to act on his feelings, certain they wouldn't be returned. (Little did he know that Alice would realize she loved him too on her journey through her mind.)
Finally, Alice recovered the last of her memories and learned the horrible truth – Dr. Bumby had been the one to kill her family, burning down the house after forcing himself on her sister (whom he was obsessed with). Around the same time, Victor discovered Bumby’s other dark secret via stumbling upon the doctor’s diary – the Houndsditch Home was in fact a front for child prostitution. Bumby was mindwiping and selling his young charges to the highest bidder, and had similar fates planned for Alice and Victor. Unfortunately, Bumby caught Victor before the young man could escape with the diary. Victor was mentally tortured until he finally submitted to Bumby’s mind control, having his memories erased and being turned into Bumby’s slave Thirteen.
On November 5th, 1875, the twelfth anniversary of the fire, Alice confronted her corrupt therapist at Moorgate Station, where the doctor was waiting for Alice’s replacement (having given up on her ever returning to the Home). Bumby summoned Thirteen (to Alice's horror) and tried to get him to kill Alice, but Victor recognized her and instead attacked Bumby. Bumby reasserted his control over Thirteen, only to be shoved in front of a train by Alice in revenge for all the evil he'd done. Alice managed to break Bumby's control over Victor. She wasn't able to restore most of his memories, however, leaving him an almost total amnesiac. Fortunately, one of the memories he did regain was seeing Dr. Bumby’s diary. He and Alice retrieved it and brought it to the local police, discrediting the former doctor.
With Dr. Bumby dead, someone was needed to take over the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth. That someone proved to be Dr. Heironymous Wilson, Alice’s former psychiatrist, recently retired from Rutledge Asylum. Bumby's intended replacement for Alice, June Thatcher, also arrived, and together with Alice they began working on restoring Victor's memories. Victoria and her husband also paid a visit to the home to help – unfortunately to no avail.
Finally, while napping one day, Victor had a dream about Emily, who told him that his best chance for getting his memories back was to ask Alice to lend him her strength – specifically, those weapons she owned that were good for getting through walls. Alice, looking for alternative medicine for her beloved, got much the same advice from Dr. Fixxler of Dr. Fixxler's Mysterious Elixirs. Alice drew pictures of her sturdiest weapons to help Victor in imagining them, and that night, Victor used them to smash through the wall in his mind, defeating Bumby's influence on him and reclaiming his memories. Although still in love with Alice, he decided that they should wait to upgrade their relationship until the coming of the new year, to give them both some time to heal after all the pain Bumby had inflicted on them. It’s shortly before he tells her that he’s grabbed by the Teleport Plasmid.
Additional Links:
Corpse Bride on Wikipedia
Alice's page on the Alice Wiki, which contains the most complete plot synopsis of "Alice: Madness Returns"
Personality: Victor’s not the most outgoing of people. Shy and deeply introverted, he hates crowds and doesn’t like to socialize much. He’s prone to stuttering and fidgeting when nervous – in particular, he tends to fuss with his hands or tie. For all that, though, he’s oddly adaptable – once he ascertains that wherever he is isn’t dangerous, he’ll find himself a little niche and possibly make a friend or two. If he’s excited or in a particularly good mood, he can handle being the center of attention, but don’t expect to see that often. He’s most comfortable on his own, or with one or two friends or loved ones.
Like most upper-middle-class men, Victor was raised to be polite. He tries his best to be kind and gentle, and he hates disappointing people. For a very long time this amounted to him letting his parents shove him around, but after the clusterfuck that was Houndsditch, he’s moved past that. He might still be more susceptible than most to a good sob story, but he’s not going to let himself be anyone’s pawn anymore. He’s very protective of his loved ones, and will even risk death to keep them safe. On the other hand, he doesn’t always handle conflict well. He tends to try and avoid facing problems – to the point of running away if something scares him enough – and sometimes won’t see an obvious solution even if its staring him in the face. He also doesn’t always think before he talks, occasionally coming out with hurtful comments when under stress.
Victor is a very creative person, and his favorite activities are drawing (usually butterflies) and playing the piano. While he doesn’t mind sharing his art so much, his music tends to be a little more private – he only plays to or with close friends. He also enjoys lepidopterology (the study of butterflies), making detailed sketches with annotations of various specimens he’s caught. Ask him about what he knows, and he might talk your ear off.
The experiences of losing Victoria and Emily, living in Whitechapel, and being abused by Dr. Bumby have given Victor a very healthy dose of cynicism. While he was never the most optimistic person, he’s learned that people (at least, living people) tend to look out for themselves before anyone else, and that there are some real monsters in the world. As a result, he’s become ever-so-slightly paranoid, distrustful of new people (especially older, bearded men with glasses) and liable to assume the worst in any situation. He’s even more secretive than before, reluctant to open up to anyone right away, and tends to be even more snappish under stress (though he’s liable to instantly apologize for undeserved comments). He also has some triggers that set off a nasty display of temper:
- the abuse of women and children (particularly sexual abuse)
- murder, especially that committed solely for material gain
- being grabbed from behind or touched on or around his butt
- being told he’s insane or a liar should he tell someone about the Emily story (varies – he’s gotten used to the general “you’re nuts” and will probably just give whoever says that a look. Imply he has necrophilia, though. . .)
- being called a “cocksucker” (He. Will. Go. Nuclear. Bumby called him that.)
Being an abuse victim, he still has nightmares and bad days where he can’t stop thinking about the week he was under Bumby’s control. He’s even more skittish than usual during those times, and likes to find places to hole up where he can have a good cry away from prying eyes. He’s absolutely terrified of complete darkness and will do his best to always have something that produces light on him in case he finds himself in such a situation. Going blind would reduce him to a lump of jelly. He also has a newly-developed fear of the number thirteen, though he does his best to hide that.
Abilities: Victor has no supernatural abilities, but he does have a few special talents:
- He’s a skilled pianist and often composes his own pieces. He’s also good at improvising based on what others have played. However, he’s not likely to try to use this talent to make a living – music is a pretty private thing with him.
- He’s also a skilled artist, focusing mostly on ink drawings of butterflies (both scientific and just for pleasure). He might be willing to turn that into a trade, although he’d prefer not to do anything where he has to draw in front of a crowd.
- He’s an EXCEPTIONAL climber, and can scale damn near anything if he can find some sort of foot and hand holds. If anyone needs anything high up, he’s your man.
How did your character arrive in Rapture? Teleport Plasmid
Why are you choosing to continue your character's development here from another RP? N/A
Network sample:
[There’s a click, then a series of taps that suggest someone randomly poking buttons.]
Oh dear, how on earth – wait, does that light mean it’s on? How do I – hello?
[More tapping, and the video feed abruptly springs to life, showing the face of a pale young man with dark eyes and hair. He’s staring at the radio in what can charitably be called utter bafflement.]
Hello? They told me that I could use this to talk to people. . .even though I’m n-not sure who to talk to. . . . I am sorry if I’m bothering anyone, I’m just – rather in shock, and –
[He swallows, then takes a deep breath.]
Could anyone please tell me a bit more about where on Earth I’ve landed?
[He adds in a whisper:]
If I am on Earth. . . .
Log sample:
Moving while feeling like you’re standing perfectly still should not be a familiar sensation.
But it is. Victor can’t deny it. This baffling contradiction in states is exactly how he felt when he was traveling to and from the Land of the Dead. But – he can’t be going back there. He hasn’t stumbled upon any corpse brides, their hands conveniently stretching out to him, awaiting a proposal. He hasn’t been swarmed by a flock of ravens, or shattered one of their freshly-laid eggs. And he certainly hasn’t drunk any poisonous substances. (Although, really, the water that comes out of the taps at the Home does make him wonder sometimes.) He’d simply gone to his room, picked up his sketchbook – and then, out of nowhere, he was surrounded by red fog and completely unable to move. What is this? he wonders, frightened, confused, and just a little angry. I’m not ready to have another adventure! Unless this is a secret entrance to Alice’s Wonderland. . . .
A moment later, the cloud clears, and Victor finds himself nose to doorway with a little stone building.
Startled, he stumbles backward, looking around. Below him is grass, and a circular path made out of polished rocks. Above him, a ceiling painted to look a bit like the sky. To his left, a small stairway leading up to another grassy area, complete with little pond and bridge. He’s in – some sort of indoor garden? No, he recognizes those slabs of stone sticking up out of the ground. And the building in front of him – it’s a mausoleum. He’s in a cemetery. Whatever grabbed him deposited him in a cemetery. “What sort of sick joke--”
And then he looks right, and the words get stuck in his throat. Because to his right is – a window. Looking out over what seems to be a massive city.
And a school of fish.
His sketchbook falls from his hand as he gapes at the scene. He’s not just in a cemetery. He’s in a cemetery that is indoors – and underwater.
Well then.
Maybe he really has somehow made it to Wonderland.
