Thursday Charloft Prompts #11-20
2/10/2011: hatred
Time Period: Before the epilogue of "Secundus"
Notes: Well, a prompt like this only made me think of one thing – Nell telling Victor there has to be a way to "fix" him after he goes Creative. I've done a couple of prompts about this, mostly showing the despair Victor felt after being more or less disowned by his parents. . .but immediately after hearing that, whoo-boy, you can believe he had the rage.
Victor stormed out of the coffee shop, hands clenched into fists. He couldn’t believe this. His parents – his own parents – Was it natural to want to punch a wall after a meeting like that? Was it natural to want to scream until your throat was raw? Was it natural to want to make butterflies that secreted acid and set them loose on –
No, that last one was certainly not natural. Victor forced his thoughts away from that course with difficulty. He was almost too mad to see straight. How could they? How could they?
How could they say they wanted him “fixed?”
2/17/2011: efficiency
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus" Notes: Went the humorous route with this one, concentrating on lack of efficiency in certain parts of Victor's job. XD The "left-leaning Heterodyne wrench" is a nod to "Girl Genius," which provided a lot of the inspiration for "Secundus." (Also, I somehow managed to put a time skip into a DRABBLE.)
“Victor? I asked for the left-leaning Heterodyne wrench ten minutes ago. What are you doing?”
“Oh! Doc! I’m s-sorry, I just – I got a l-little involved in looking at all the tools. What on earth is this one?”
“That’s a 5/7's Callipean nut tightener.”
“Never heard of it.”
“I’m not surprised. Callipean nuts are very rare, due to their unusual manufacture. . . .”
Later. . . .
“Guys? What are you doing?”
“Hi Marty – I’m telling Victor all about our tools. He expressed an interest.”
“Yes, they’re all very fascinating.”
“Great, but you know, Doc, it’s been an hour since you went looking for him. . . .”
2/24/2011: disgusting
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," Victor's childhood
Notes: This dialogue-only piece comes from a previous Friday prompt – specifically, this bit under "4 Things You Found:"
"A large spider – I discovered it in my room one day. Oddly enough, insects and arachnids are two things I’ve really never been afraid of. I caught it in a jar and tried to show Mother. She screamed and ordered me to kill it – I managed to get away with releasing it into the yard."
I knew I wanted to do something with insects/arachnids with Victor, since he finds them fascinating while everyone else finds them icky. After a few minutes' thought, this popped up.
Oh, and guess what crawled across my computer desk while I was writing this? (That spider saw the inside of a vacuum cleaner.)
“Mother, look what I found!”
“Oh, Victor, why are you – AARGH!”
“Ahhh! Mother?!”
“Why would you show me such a disgusting thing as that, Victor?! Are you trying to kill your poor old mother?!”
“It’s – it’s only a s-spider, Mother. . . .”
“Only a spider my foot! Get it out of here! Kill it! Kill it! William!!”
“No! P-Please don’t kill it! I’ll let it go!”
“Not inside the house, you won’t! Go! Outside!”
“Nell? What is it?”
“That son of yours tried to attack me with a spider!”
“. . .Victor?”
“All right, he may have just showed it to me, but even still. . . .”
3/3/2011: the eighties
Time Period: Post-"Secundus 2," grandparent years
Notes: I was originally going to do a fic about the 1780s (since Victor and friends were, at the time, in Mystery Late 1800s Year (this was before I decided on 1880 for RP purposes)), but I couldn't find a hook to hang the fic on. I thought about going meta for a bit until I remember that 80s could refer to a different set of years. . . . Result? Way, way, way into the future future-fic.
“Alice?”
“Hmmm?”
“Did you ever think we’d live this long?”
Alice turned over, frowning at her husband. “Pardon?”
Victor ran a hand through his white hair, looking awkward. “Well. . .Touched don’t usually have very long lifespans. Neither do people who fight the monsters they create. Yet here we are, both well into our eighties. It just hit me how – how old we are now.”
“Oh yes, we’re old,” Alice agreed with a sigh. “Old and achy and well past our prime.” Then she smiled and interlaced her fingers with his. “But we’re also together. And that’s all that matters to me.”
3/10/2011: revenge
Time Period: Chapter 19 of "Secundus"
Notes: Well, here's an interesting one – according to my original notes, I went through two drafts of this drabble, the first of which refused to be dropped under 100 words, so I expanded it instead and put it aside. As you might guess, that's the draft that ended up becoming part of the actual Chapter 19, where Victor overhears the Queen hurt Alice and his Creative switch flips from "happy happy let's invent" to "ragey ragey LET'S KILL A BITCH." The second draft here, as it currently stands, is kind of a hole-filler between Victor's first and second appearances in said chapter, showing him getting down the actual formula for his killer spiders – and the fact that he's not entirely gone to the madness. And it's pretty good, I think, especially for something I wrote back in 2011.
Victor looked at the formula scribbled on the wall, a tangle of numbers and letters. It was difficult. But it would work. It had to work.
Part of him hated the formula. It was a design for something horrible – something deadly. He didn’t want to create deadly. He wanted to create beauty, to show them all with the magnificence of his butterflies. . . .
But a larger part of him hissed, The Queen has your friends. The Queen will kill everyone you love.
The Queen made Alice scream.
He turned to a nearby workbench, pulling down his goggles.
No one made Alice scream.
3/17/2011: sleep
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus" before the climax, when Victor's having his recurring dream
Notes: I think I love his "glowing butterflies" dream a little too much. XD On a mostly-unrelated note, I've never done as much as I thought I would with the headcanon that Victor's kind of a poor sleeper. Probably because I'm constantly getting him into situations in my fanfic where he gets a sleeping buddy to soothe away the nightmares and such. (Speaking of which, "one horrible nightmare" is the "pitch-black room where I'm constantly being told I'm worthless" one you guys know better from Forgotten Vows.)
Sleeping problems were no stranger to Victor Van Dort. He’d been an insomniac as long as he could remember. Even as a baby, he’d been a restless sleeper. He’d grown used to nights spent staring at the ceiling, trying to calm his mind enough so he could actually get some rest. And of course, there was that one horrible nightmare that seemed to pop up every couple of months. . . .
But the thing that annoyed Victor most about his sleeping habits these days, was that whenever he came anywhere near close to catching one of those glowing butterflies –
he woke up.
3/24/2011: thrown away
Time Period: Anytime during early "Secundus"
Notes: See prompt, think "oh, another one about how Victor feels about getting disowned?" – then actually click on link and discover it's about something he's thrown away. Yeah, it's been a while. Still, it certainly sums up that Victor really thought he had more to gain than to lose by staying in Secundus. For what it's worth, Nell and William never answered his letters before showing up in Secundus because they didn't see the point – either they were fakes, or their mind-controlled son wouldn't listen to them. Fairly logical from their perspective, honestly.
Victor knew he was throwing away a lot of things by choosing to stay in Secundus. A marriage to a noble woman. A connection to the important families. A chance to be seen as truly respectable instead of just nouveau riche. Any chance at a normal life. Perhaps, judging by their silence on the matter, even his relationship with his parents. That was a lot to give up, and he knew it.
But when he considered the feeling of finally belonging somewhere that had come upon him shortly after entering the city – he couldn’t bring himself to care that much.
3/31/2011: death
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," Victor's childhood
Notes: The prompt was about the first time your character encountered it, so here's something short and sad about the death of Victor's grandfather Gregory Van Dort. And another reason not to like Pastor Galswells.
“P-Pastor Galswells?”
“Yes, Master Van Dort?”
“W-where did G-Grandpa Gregory go w-when he died?”
“Your grandfather was a decent enough fellow. He’s most likely made it to Heaven.”
“Oh. G-good.”
“Was that all?”
“W-well – I h-heard that you could b-bring people b-back sometimes–”
“Master Van Dort, do you dare mention that despicable process of Reanimation in my church?!”
“I–”
“That is the Devil’s work! The Touched profane God’s most holy desires when they ‘bring people back,’ as you call it. Or when they create those other mockeries of life and science! They’re all damned, Master Van Dort. Always remember that.”
“. . .yes, s-sir.”
4/7/2011: freedom
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus"
Notes: Just a quick thing about Victor's not-so-secret love of flight, and how the most unusual things can provide you what you really want.
For Victor, freedom had always been best defined by flight. The meandering fluttering of butterflies, the purposeful swooping of birds, the majestic gliding of airships. . .all of it entranced him. And made him rather envious. Those who could fly – they weren’t constrained by earthly demands, by societal rules and overbearing parents. They had the sky – they had their freedom. One day, Victor had thought, I’ll find a way to fly too. I’ll find my freedom up there.
Of course, he’d never expected a flying steam train to be his mode of transportation. But it had provided freedom just the same.
4/14/2011: humor site prompt (cat levitator picture)
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus"
Notes: Unfortunately I can't link you to the original picture I found, because I have no idea where it went (the link on the original post no longer works). But just the general idea of a "cat levitator" was so Secundus I had to pick it. XD
“Meooowww. . . .”
Victor blinked. Had he just heard –
“Moowww. . . .”
Yes, that was definitely a cat, sounding quite unhappy. The cries seemed to be coming from right outside the sitting room window. Victor promptly got up to investigate.
The source of the noise was revealed almost immediately – floating outside was a black and white cat, wearing a most peculiar barrel-shaped device with two lamp-like protrusions and a little hat with bent antennae. It looked at him and meowed again, piteously. “Oh, poor kitty,” Victor said, reaching out and bringing it inside. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you. Doc! We have a runaway invention!”
Time Period: Before the epilogue of "Secundus"
Notes: Well, a prompt like this only made me think of one thing – Nell telling Victor there has to be a way to "fix" him after he goes Creative. I've done a couple of prompts about this, mostly showing the despair Victor felt after being more or less disowned by his parents. . .but immediately after hearing that, whoo-boy, you can believe he had the rage.
Victor stormed out of the coffee shop, hands clenched into fists. He couldn’t believe this. His parents – his own parents – Was it natural to want to punch a wall after a meeting like that? Was it natural to want to scream until your throat was raw? Was it natural to want to make butterflies that secreted acid and set them loose on –
No, that last one was certainly not natural. Victor forced his thoughts away from that course with difficulty. He was almost too mad to see straight. How could they? How could they?
How could they say they wanted him “fixed?”
2/17/2011: efficiency
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus" Notes: Went the humorous route with this one, concentrating on lack of efficiency in certain parts of Victor's job. XD The "left-leaning Heterodyne wrench" is a nod to "Girl Genius," which provided a lot of the inspiration for "Secundus." (Also, I somehow managed to put a time skip into a DRABBLE.)
“Victor? I asked for the left-leaning Heterodyne wrench ten minutes ago. What are you doing?”
“Oh! Doc! I’m s-sorry, I just – I got a l-little involved in looking at all the tools. What on earth is this one?”
“That’s a 5/7's Callipean nut tightener.”
“Never heard of it.”
“I’m not surprised. Callipean nuts are very rare, due to their unusual manufacture. . . .”
Later. . . .
“Guys? What are you doing?”
“Hi Marty – I’m telling Victor all about our tools. He expressed an interest.”
“Yes, they’re all very fascinating.”
“Great, but you know, Doc, it’s been an hour since you went looking for him. . . .”
2/24/2011: disgusting
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," Victor's childhood
Notes: This dialogue-only piece comes from a previous Friday prompt – specifically, this bit under "4 Things You Found:"
"A large spider – I discovered it in my room one day. Oddly enough, insects and arachnids are two things I’ve really never been afraid of. I caught it in a jar and tried to show Mother. She screamed and ordered me to kill it – I managed to get away with releasing it into the yard."
I knew I wanted to do something with insects/arachnids with Victor, since he finds them fascinating while everyone else finds them icky. After a few minutes' thought, this popped up.
Oh, and guess what crawled across my computer desk while I was writing this? (That spider saw the inside of a vacuum cleaner.)
“Mother, look what I found!”
“Oh, Victor, why are you – AARGH!”
“Ahhh! Mother?!”
“Why would you show me such a disgusting thing as that, Victor?! Are you trying to kill your poor old mother?!”
“It’s – it’s only a s-spider, Mother. . . .”
“Only a spider my foot! Get it out of here! Kill it! Kill it! William!!”
“No! P-Please don’t kill it! I’ll let it go!”
“Not inside the house, you won’t! Go! Outside!”
“Nell? What is it?”
“That son of yours tried to attack me with a spider!”
“. . .Victor?”
“All right, he may have just showed it to me, but even still. . . .”
3/3/2011: the eighties
Time Period: Post-"Secundus 2," grandparent years
Notes: I was originally going to do a fic about the 1780s (since Victor and friends were, at the time, in Mystery Late 1800s Year (this was before I decided on 1880 for RP purposes)), but I couldn't find a hook to hang the fic on. I thought about going meta for a bit until I remember that 80s could refer to a different set of years. . . . Result? Way, way, way into the future future-fic.
“Alice?”
“Hmmm?”
“Did you ever think we’d live this long?”
Alice turned over, frowning at her husband. “Pardon?”
Victor ran a hand through his white hair, looking awkward. “Well. . .Touched don’t usually have very long lifespans. Neither do people who fight the monsters they create. Yet here we are, both well into our eighties. It just hit me how – how old we are now.”
“Oh yes, we’re old,” Alice agreed with a sigh. “Old and achy and well past our prime.” Then she smiled and interlaced her fingers with his. “But we’re also together. And that’s all that matters to me.”
3/10/2011: revenge
Time Period: Chapter 19 of "Secundus"
Notes: Well, here's an interesting one – according to my original notes, I went through two drafts of this drabble, the first of which refused to be dropped under 100 words, so I expanded it instead and put it aside. As you might guess, that's the draft that ended up becoming part of the actual Chapter 19, where Victor overhears the Queen hurt Alice and his Creative switch flips from "happy happy let's invent" to "ragey ragey LET'S KILL A BITCH." The second draft here, as it currently stands, is kind of a hole-filler between Victor's first and second appearances in said chapter, showing him getting down the actual formula for his killer spiders – and the fact that he's not entirely gone to the madness. And it's pretty good, I think, especially for something I wrote back in 2011.
Victor looked at the formula scribbled on the wall, a tangle of numbers and letters. It was difficult. But it would work. It had to work.
Part of him hated the formula. It was a design for something horrible – something deadly. He didn’t want to create deadly. He wanted to create beauty, to show them all with the magnificence of his butterflies. . . .
But a larger part of him hissed, The Queen has your friends. The Queen will kill everyone you love.
The Queen made Alice scream.
He turned to a nearby workbench, pulling down his goggles.
No one made Alice scream.
3/17/2011: sleep
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus" before the climax, when Victor's having his recurring dream
Notes: I think I love his "glowing butterflies" dream a little too much. XD On a mostly-unrelated note, I've never done as much as I thought I would with the headcanon that Victor's kind of a poor sleeper. Probably because I'm constantly getting him into situations in my fanfic where he gets a sleeping buddy to soothe away the nightmares and such. (Speaking of which, "one horrible nightmare" is the "pitch-black room where I'm constantly being told I'm worthless" one you guys know better from Forgotten Vows.)
Sleeping problems were no stranger to Victor Van Dort. He’d been an insomniac as long as he could remember. Even as a baby, he’d been a restless sleeper. He’d grown used to nights spent staring at the ceiling, trying to calm his mind enough so he could actually get some rest. And of course, there was that one horrible nightmare that seemed to pop up every couple of months. . . .
But the thing that annoyed Victor most about his sleeping habits these days, was that whenever he came anywhere near close to catching one of those glowing butterflies –
he woke up.
3/24/2011: thrown away
Time Period: Anytime during early "Secundus"
Notes: See prompt, think "oh, another one about how Victor feels about getting disowned?" – then actually click on link and discover it's about something he's thrown away. Yeah, it's been a while. Still, it certainly sums up that Victor really thought he had more to gain than to lose by staying in Secundus. For what it's worth, Nell and William never answered his letters before showing up in Secundus because they didn't see the point – either they were fakes, or their mind-controlled son wouldn't listen to them. Fairly logical from their perspective, honestly.
Victor knew he was throwing away a lot of things by choosing to stay in Secundus. A marriage to a noble woman. A connection to the important families. A chance to be seen as truly respectable instead of just nouveau riche. Any chance at a normal life. Perhaps, judging by their silence on the matter, even his relationship with his parents. That was a lot to give up, and he knew it.
But when he considered the feeling of finally belonging somewhere that had come upon him shortly after entering the city – he couldn’t bring himself to care that much.
3/31/2011: death
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," Victor's childhood
Notes: The prompt was about the first time your character encountered it, so here's something short and sad about the death of Victor's grandfather Gregory Van Dort. And another reason not to like Pastor Galswells.
“P-Pastor Galswells?”
“Yes, Master Van Dort?”
“W-where did G-Grandpa Gregory go w-when he died?”
“Your grandfather was a decent enough fellow. He’s most likely made it to Heaven.”
“Oh. G-good.”
“Was that all?”
“W-well – I h-heard that you could b-bring people b-back sometimes–”
“Master Van Dort, do you dare mention that despicable process of Reanimation in my church?!”
“I–”
“That is the Devil’s work! The Touched profane God’s most holy desires when they ‘bring people back,’ as you call it. Or when they create those other mockeries of life and science! They’re all damned, Master Van Dort. Always remember that.”
“. . .yes, s-sir.”
4/7/2011: freedom
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus"
Notes: Just a quick thing about Victor's not-so-secret love of flight, and how the most unusual things can provide you what you really want.
For Victor, freedom had always been best defined by flight. The meandering fluttering of butterflies, the purposeful swooping of birds, the majestic gliding of airships. . .all of it entranced him. And made him rather envious. Those who could fly – they weren’t constrained by earthly demands, by societal rules and overbearing parents. They had the sky – they had their freedom. One day, Victor had thought, I’ll find a way to fly too. I’ll find my freedom up there.
Of course, he’d never expected a flying steam train to be his mode of transportation. But it had provided freedom just the same.
4/14/2011: humor site prompt (cat levitator picture)
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus"
Notes: Unfortunately I can't link you to the original picture I found, because I have no idea where it went (the link on the original post no longer works). But just the general idea of a "cat levitator" was so Secundus I had to pick it. XD
“Meooowww. . . .”
Victor blinked. Had he just heard –
“Moowww. . . .”
Yes, that was definitely a cat, sounding quite unhappy. The cries seemed to be coming from right outside the sitting room window. Victor promptly got up to investigate.
The source of the noise was revealed almost immediately – floating outside was a black and white cat, wearing a most peculiar barrel-shaped device with two lamp-like protrusions and a little hat with bent antennae. It looked at him and meowed again, piteously. “Oh, poor kitty,” Victor said, reaching out and bringing it inside. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you. Doc! We have a runaway invention!”