Thursday Charloft Prompts #21-30
4/21/2011: burnout
Time Period: Beginning of Chapter 20 of "Secundus" (Victor's "locked himself in Doc's room" period)
Notes: Another one I had to wrestle down to 100 words -- Victor's terror and self-loathing over his new Touched status and what he did to kill the Queen provided a lot of inspiration. He was definitely not in a good space during this time of his life. Fortunately, Alice will be along soon to help him. The repetition of "Madman. Murderer. Monster" is taken from something I heard happens with Nathan in Repo: The Genetic Opera (have not seen the actual movie, but I actually like a number of the songs). It felt appropriate.
Madman. Murderer. Monster.
Victor sat on the bed, knees tucked up to his chest, forehead leaning against them. He felt horrible – no, he felt worse than horrible. He felt dead inside – dead, yet still terribly, horrifically alive.
Madman. Murderer. Monster.
He’d killed someone. A horrible tentacle monster bent on the destruction of Secundus, yes, but – he’d killed someone. And what if it had been Flint, or Hiccup, or Gromit, or Marty, or – or –
His head still ached with ideas – beautiful, wonderful, terrifying ideas. . . .
Madman. Murderer. Monster.
He whimpered and curled up tighter.
At least he’d finally stopped ruining Doc’s wallpaper.
4/28/2011: TMI
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus" after Chapter 6 Notes: Because one of my favorite lines in the movie is "In fact, when he was a boy, he used to wet his combinations regularly, didn't he William?" Oh Victor, I'm so mean to you sometimes. . .
“I’m back!”
“Oh, hi Victor. You, ah, get your stuff?”
“Yes. . .” Victor frowned. Marty wasn’t looking at him for some reason. “Is something wrong?”
“Um – well, your parents came in while you were out.”
“Oh dear.”
“Yeah. And your mom decided to share some – stories to prove that you’d never willingly work for us. About – uhh–”
Victor sighed deeply. “Allow me: ‘When he was a boy, he used to wet his combinations regularly?’”
Marty nodded, finally meeting Victor’s eyes. “Does your mom get some sort of sick thrill from telling people about you wetting your pants?”
“Marty, sometimes I wonder. . . .”
5/5/2011: deepest, darkest fantasy
Time Period: Post-"Secundus"
Notes: Came up with this pretty quick. Originally I was going to end on something more mood-whiplashy, but I decided to go ahead and keep it light. Victor as a Touched has his dark moments, but honestly, he's usually pretty upbeat about the madness. It's still got a faint touch of angst, but nothing too bad. (Oh, and the bit about the spiders is a nod to Emily's friend Black Widow in Corpse Bride.)
Sometimes, Victor dreamed of going back to Burtonsville. Of returning on Ferdinand’s back, landing in the town square as everyone gaped. He’d let the town crier draw in a crowd, and then he’d show off a few of his Inventions – the glowing butterflies, the talkative spiders, perhaps the darning needle dragonflies. And everyone would admit that he was a genius, and praise him to the skies, and all those boys who had bullied him would apologize, and his parents would say publicly that they loved him.
It would never happen, of course – but it was fun to dream, wasn’t it?
5/12/2011: voyage
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus," though likely during the very first chapter
Notes: The first thing that came to mind, and one of those very rare fics that I had to add to to get 100 words.
The rush of cold air beating at your face. The deafening chug of the wheels just overhead. The smell of smoke and coal all around you. The all too tiny landscape stretched out far below. The cramping in your fingers from clinging desperately to the rope ladder. The watery eyes, the numbed flesh, the bone-deep ache that resulted from hours of dangling like a fish on a hook. The endless terror about dropping to your doom.
Whoever had said it wasn’t the destination that counted, but the journey, Victor concluded, had obviously never traveled trapped beneath a flying steam train.
5/19/2011: faith
Time Period: Anytime after "Secundus"
Notes: This took a little wrestling – I initially wanted to contrast the points of view between Pastor Galswells of Victor's home church and Father (or Pastor, he doesn't care) Gale of the First Church of Steam, but I couldn't figure out a way to shrink it. So I focused solely on how Victor feels about Galswells's preaching now that he's in Secundus. His source canon, while suggesting he's Christian, doesn't say much about what specifically Victor is (Tim and his friends intentionally went vague), so I went with the idea that he's some version of Protestant. I hope that comes across correctly – my religious background is pretty much nil, so. . . . I also went with first-person for this – it felt right.
Pastor Galswells at home always preached that the Touched were damned. That it didn’t matter how religious any particular Touched claimed to be – their “disregard for the laws of God” meant that they didn’t have true faith, and thus they were condemned to Hell. It was the same with Igors, Fabricated, Reanimated, and Automatons – all were abominations, incapable of ever experiencing Heaven’s bliss.
I can’t believe he’s right. Not after moving here to Secundus. The people I know here – they’re good people. To say that my friends are destined to burn simply because they’re different –
Better their Hell than his Heaven.
5/26/2011: memory
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," Victor's teenage years
Notes: Struggled with this for a bit, and then this popped up. Sorry it's on the sad side, but. . .that's what happens sometimes. Besides, it's a mostly cute sad!
“Victor! I have something to show you!”
“What, Father?”
“Look what I found by the factory!” William held a rather bedraggled puppy in front of his son. “What do you think? Should we keep him?”
Victor regarded the little dog nervously. He wasn’t sure about dogs. From what he’d seen, dogs could be really loud and scary –
The puppy suddenly barked cheerfully and licked his nose with a big pink tongue. Victor laughed, his fears subsiding. “Yes,” he said definitely. “We should.”
The memory faded away. Victor sighed, and placed a flower on the tiny grave. “I miss you, Scraps.”
6/2/2011: electricity
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus"
Notes: Oh, I had to do something related to one of Doc's BTTF: The Ride inventions for this one. Introducing the Static-O-Matic Electric Hair Chair – first seen on the preshow videos at The Ride, and first mentioned in "Secundus" in Chapter 3. Another all-dialogue piece – starts Victor, then goes to Doc, and I'm sure you can tell when Marty comes in. :D
“Goodness, this feels so strange. . rather – buzzy. . .you’re certain this is safe, Doc?”
“Absolutely! I told you before, I use this myself. You’ll be out of the chair in no time, anyway. You just need a quick trim.”
“I could have gone to the barber. You didn’t have to turn on the Static-O-Matic.”
“Why waste your money? I promise I’ll give you a good haircut.”
“Hey, what are you guys – Oh man! Victor, you should see your hair!”
“Doc promised me it would be all right!”
“Relax, Victor. I have photographic evidence he looks just as stupid in this thing.”
6/16/2011: panic
Time Period: Chapter 15 of "Secundus"
Notes: Another prompt set at the climax – I really wanted to get to this bit back in 2011! XD Didn't help that I'd been playing A:MR at the time and thus had Alice on the brain. At any rate, have a mini-first-draft of one of the pivotal moments of Chapter 15.
His heart starts pounding as he sees the tentacles burst into the sky and spread into the streets. They’re a shade right on the border between red and pink, and absolutely disgusting. And they’re accompanied by a cruel voice, one that yells that Secundus is now her city, and that all will bow down to the Queen of Hearts.
Marty and Doc get over their shock fairly quickly, but Victor’s rooted to the spot, staring at those horrible tentacles. Where are those things coming –
And then it hits him, and his blood goes cold. No. . .oh no. . .Not Wonderland Park!
6/23/2011: ambition
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus"
Notes: God, this was a hard one to get down to 100! Victor may not think of himself as particularly ambitious, but he sure was wordy here! He has always struck me as a bit more of a reactive than proactive character – though having a mother like Nell would probably stifle anyone's ambitions.
Victor had never thought of himself as a particularly ambitious person. Of course, it was hard to be ambitious with William and Nell Van Dort as your parents. Their ambitions trumped any he might have had. They planned his entire life for him, and, lacking any goals of his own, Victor went along with them. It was easier to go with the flow.
Now though – now Victor found himself with all sorts of goals. Find a flat of his own, go traveling around the country, build a clockwork butterfly.
It was nice to have ambitions that were all your own.
6/23/2011: spar
Time Period: Anytime after "Secundus"
Notes: I've always loved the idea of Alice teaching Victor self-defense, and in the aftermath of Secundus, she's probably eager to see him learn how to fight properly. After all, he won't always be stuck in a handy lab to make killer spiders. Victor, of course, is slightly less enthusiastic about the whole business. Maybe Alice should train him with a barbeque fork. XD
The croquet mallet swung down, just inches from where he was standing. Victor danced backwards, knuckles white on the hobby horse's handle. Alice shook her head at him. "Victor, you can't keep retreating like that."
"I – you haven't h-hit me once," Victor stammered.
"I'll admit you have the speed to avoid most danger. You just need some defense skill for when that's not enough."
"But I can't h-hit you! If I h-hurt you–"
"I don't like swinging my mallet at you either," Alice said, gentle but firm. "But you're also not dying on my watch. Now, come on, one swing. . . ."
Time Period: Beginning of Chapter 20 of "Secundus" (Victor's "locked himself in Doc's room" period)
Notes: Another one I had to wrestle down to 100 words -- Victor's terror and self-loathing over his new Touched status and what he did to kill the Queen provided a lot of inspiration. He was definitely not in a good space during this time of his life. Fortunately, Alice will be along soon to help him. The repetition of "Madman. Murderer. Monster" is taken from something I heard happens with Nathan in Repo: The Genetic Opera (have not seen the actual movie, but I actually like a number of the songs). It felt appropriate.
Madman. Murderer. Monster.
Victor sat on the bed, knees tucked up to his chest, forehead leaning against them. He felt horrible – no, he felt worse than horrible. He felt dead inside – dead, yet still terribly, horrifically alive.
Madman. Murderer. Monster.
He’d killed someone. A horrible tentacle monster bent on the destruction of Secundus, yes, but – he’d killed someone. And what if it had been Flint, or Hiccup, or Gromit, or Marty, or – or –
His head still ached with ideas – beautiful, wonderful, terrifying ideas. . . .
Madman. Murderer. Monster.
He whimpered and curled up tighter.
At least he’d finally stopped ruining Doc’s wallpaper.
4/28/2011: TMI
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus" after Chapter 6 Notes: Because one of my favorite lines in the movie is "In fact, when he was a boy, he used to wet his combinations regularly, didn't he William?" Oh Victor, I'm so mean to you sometimes. . .
“I’m back!”
“Oh, hi Victor. You, ah, get your stuff?”
“Yes. . .” Victor frowned. Marty wasn’t looking at him for some reason. “Is something wrong?”
“Um – well, your parents came in while you were out.”
“Oh dear.”
“Yeah. And your mom decided to share some – stories to prove that you’d never willingly work for us. About – uhh–”
Victor sighed deeply. “Allow me: ‘When he was a boy, he used to wet his combinations regularly?’”
Marty nodded, finally meeting Victor’s eyes. “Does your mom get some sort of sick thrill from telling people about you wetting your pants?”
“Marty, sometimes I wonder. . . .”
5/5/2011: deepest, darkest fantasy
Time Period: Post-"Secundus"
Notes: Came up with this pretty quick. Originally I was going to end on something more mood-whiplashy, but I decided to go ahead and keep it light. Victor as a Touched has his dark moments, but honestly, he's usually pretty upbeat about the madness. It's still got a faint touch of angst, but nothing too bad. (Oh, and the bit about the spiders is a nod to Emily's friend Black Widow in Corpse Bride.)
Sometimes, Victor dreamed of going back to Burtonsville. Of returning on Ferdinand’s back, landing in the town square as everyone gaped. He’d let the town crier draw in a crowd, and then he’d show off a few of his Inventions – the glowing butterflies, the talkative spiders, perhaps the darning needle dragonflies. And everyone would admit that he was a genius, and praise him to the skies, and all those boys who had bullied him would apologize, and his parents would say publicly that they loved him.
It would never happen, of course – but it was fun to dream, wasn’t it?
5/12/2011: voyage
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus," though likely during the very first chapter
Notes: The first thing that came to mind, and one of those very rare fics that I had to add to to get 100 words.
The rush of cold air beating at your face. The deafening chug of the wheels just overhead. The smell of smoke and coal all around you. The all too tiny landscape stretched out far below. The cramping in your fingers from clinging desperately to the rope ladder. The watery eyes, the numbed flesh, the bone-deep ache that resulted from hours of dangling like a fish on a hook. The endless terror about dropping to your doom.
Whoever had said it wasn’t the destination that counted, but the journey, Victor concluded, had obviously never traveled trapped beneath a flying steam train.
5/19/2011: faith
Time Period: Anytime after "Secundus"
Notes: This took a little wrestling – I initially wanted to contrast the points of view between Pastor Galswells of Victor's home church and Father (or Pastor, he doesn't care) Gale of the First Church of Steam, but I couldn't figure out a way to shrink it. So I focused solely on how Victor feels about Galswells's preaching now that he's in Secundus. His source canon, while suggesting he's Christian, doesn't say much about what specifically Victor is (Tim and his friends intentionally went vague), so I went with the idea that he's some version of Protestant. I hope that comes across correctly – my religious background is pretty much nil, so. . . . I also went with first-person for this – it felt right.
Pastor Galswells at home always preached that the Touched were damned. That it didn’t matter how religious any particular Touched claimed to be – their “disregard for the laws of God” meant that they didn’t have true faith, and thus they were condemned to Hell. It was the same with Igors, Fabricated, Reanimated, and Automatons – all were abominations, incapable of ever experiencing Heaven’s bliss.
I can’t believe he’s right. Not after moving here to Secundus. The people I know here – they’re good people. To say that my friends are destined to burn simply because they’re different –
Better their Hell than his Heaven.
5/26/2011: memory
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," Victor's teenage years
Notes: Struggled with this for a bit, and then this popped up. Sorry it's on the sad side, but. . .that's what happens sometimes. Besides, it's a mostly cute sad!
“Victor! I have something to show you!”
“What, Father?”
“Look what I found by the factory!” William held a rather bedraggled puppy in front of his son. “What do you think? Should we keep him?”
Victor regarded the little dog nervously. He wasn’t sure about dogs. From what he’d seen, dogs could be really loud and scary –
The puppy suddenly barked cheerfully and licked his nose with a big pink tongue. Victor laughed, his fears subsiding. “Yes,” he said definitely. “We should.”
The memory faded away. Victor sighed, and placed a flower on the tiny grave. “I miss you, Scraps.”
6/2/2011: electricity
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus"
Notes: Oh, I had to do something related to one of Doc's BTTF: The Ride inventions for this one. Introducing the Static-O-Matic Electric Hair Chair – first seen on the preshow videos at The Ride, and first mentioned in "Secundus" in Chapter 3. Another all-dialogue piece – starts Victor, then goes to Doc, and I'm sure you can tell when Marty comes in. :D
“Goodness, this feels so strange. . rather – buzzy. . .you’re certain this is safe, Doc?”
“Absolutely! I told you before, I use this myself. You’ll be out of the chair in no time, anyway. You just need a quick trim.”
“I could have gone to the barber. You didn’t have to turn on the Static-O-Matic.”
“Why waste your money? I promise I’ll give you a good haircut.”
“Hey, what are you guys – Oh man! Victor, you should see your hair!”
“Doc promised me it would be all right!”
“Relax, Victor. I have photographic evidence he looks just as stupid in this thing.”
6/16/2011: panic
Time Period: Chapter 15 of "Secundus"
Notes: Another prompt set at the climax – I really wanted to get to this bit back in 2011! XD Didn't help that I'd been playing A:MR at the time and thus had Alice on the brain. At any rate, have a mini-first-draft of one of the pivotal moments of Chapter 15.
His heart starts pounding as he sees the tentacles burst into the sky and spread into the streets. They’re a shade right on the border between red and pink, and absolutely disgusting. And they’re accompanied by a cruel voice, one that yells that Secundus is now her city, and that all will bow down to the Queen of Hearts.
Marty and Doc get over their shock fairly quickly, but Victor’s rooted to the spot, staring at those horrible tentacles. Where are those things coming –
And then it hits him, and his blood goes cold. No. . .oh no. . .Not Wonderland Park!
6/23/2011: ambition
Time Period: Anytime during "Secundus"
Notes: God, this was a hard one to get down to 100! Victor may not think of himself as particularly ambitious, but he sure was wordy here! He has always struck me as a bit more of a reactive than proactive character – though having a mother like Nell would probably stifle anyone's ambitions.
Victor had never thought of himself as a particularly ambitious person. Of course, it was hard to be ambitious with William and Nell Van Dort as your parents. Their ambitions trumped any he might have had. They planned his entire life for him, and, lacking any goals of his own, Victor went along with them. It was easier to go with the flow.
Now though – now Victor found himself with all sorts of goals. Find a flat of his own, go traveling around the country, build a clockwork butterfly.
It was nice to have ambitions that were all your own.
6/23/2011: spar
Time Period: Anytime after "Secundus"
Notes: I've always loved the idea of Alice teaching Victor self-defense, and in the aftermath of Secundus, she's probably eager to see him learn how to fight properly. After all, he won't always be stuck in a handy lab to make killer spiders. Victor, of course, is slightly less enthusiastic about the whole business. Maybe Alice should train him with a barbeque fork. XD
The croquet mallet swung down, just inches from where he was standing. Victor danced backwards, knuckles white on the hobby horse's handle. Alice shook her head at him. "Victor, you can't keep retreating like that."
"I – you haven't h-hit me once," Victor stammered.
"I'll admit you have the speed to avoid most danger. You just need some defense skill for when that's not enough."
"But I can't h-hit you! If I h-hurt you–"
"I don't like swinging my mallet at you either," Alice said, gentle but firm. "But you're also not dying on my watch. Now, come on, one swing. . . ."