Winter Bingo: Card Four, Column Two
All Hail The Spoon!
Prompt: spoon
Time Period: Post-"Secundus," pre-"Secundus 2"
Notes: Just a silly piece featuring a sleep-deprived Victor and a rather baffled but amused Alice. The "spoon as a battle cry" bit is a reference to "The Tick," while "Spoony" is a shout-out to the internet reviewer of the same name.
“Do you know what’s a funny word?”
“What?”
“Spoon.”
“Spoon’s funny?”
“Spoon’s really funny! Spoooon. Spoon. Spoon. You say it enough times and it stops making sense!”
“Really.”
“Yes! Think about it. Spoon. It really doesn’t mean anything. It’s just what we named a certain utensil. We could have used it as a battle cry if we wanted.”
“. . .A battle cry?”
“Why not? Imagine how confused and frightened the enemy would be if we came charging down the hill at them shouting ‘SPOOOOON!’”
“Confused, certainly. . . .”
“Or we could use it as a name! Spoon. Spoony! Good for a boy or a girl! Though I get the feeling it would go better with a boy. . . .”
“All right, Victor, I’m taking this as an object lesson. No matter how much you plead with me, never let you stay up for more than two nights in a row to finish a project. Come on, we’re going to bed.”
“Spoonerfly!”
“Later!”
Dancing Lessons
Prompt: tango
Time Period: Post-"Secundus," pre-wedding
Notes: Another fic about Victor and his dancing ability or possible lack-thereof. Alice's theory in this fic is my own – Victor's actually pretty good on his feet when he's not all stressed out. The dance with the chess people was covered in Come And Join The Dance from last year.
“Oh, dear, I didn’t actually get your foot, did I?”
“No, but it was a rather near miss,” Alice said, looking down to where Victor’s left foot had just clipped her right boot. “And I think it’s a good thing that I’m wearing very thick shoes.”
Victor shook his head, cheeks pink with embarrassment. “I’m s-sorry. I don’t know why you’re so sure I can learn this. Dancing has never been my s-strong point.”
“You did fine that time the Chess people invited us.”
“Yes, but they don’t care all that much whether you’ve gotten the steps perfectly or not. If I fell there, everyone just laughed and helped me up. R-regular people are much less forgiving.”
“Maybe so, but I still think you can do this. You danced the Lobster Quadrille just fine.”
“Yes, but you can walk your way through that–”
“Victor.” Alice met his eyes. “You know what your problem is? You overthink every movement. When you’re not worrying about every little step, then. . .well, try just listening to the music instead of thinking about where your feet should go. You know the steps – just let yourself do them.”
“I – I don’t know if I can. . . .”
“Try.” Alice pulled him a little closer. “I really think you can do this if you just stop worrying.” She grinned at him. “Come on, what harm will it do?”
Victor thought briefly about listing a few ways, starting with stepping on her foot and ending with knocking her to the floor. But he recognized the look she wore – she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “All right,” he said. “L-let’s try again.”
Alice grinned and restarted the phonograph. Victor closed his eyes and did his best just to concentrate on the music. At first it was hard, and he kept stumbling as he thought about his feet and where they should go. But, after a while, it became easier to just focus on the tune and let his body move as it would. And to his shock, Alice was right.
When he wasn’t worrying about every step – he could almost be graceful.
Wine of Babbling
Prompt: drunk
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," sixteen-year-old Victor
Notes: After making sure this wasn't a repeat from either 100 Drabbles of Summer, I decided to make this prompt about what happened the first time Victor got drunk. I always found it amusing to make him a little chatterbox when drunk. . .
“Oooh, my head. . . .”
“Finally back with us, Victor?”
Victor blinked blearily a few times, then managed to focus on the face of Mayhew, leaning over him. “What happened?” he asked, trying to ignore the way his own voice seemed to be trying to crack his skull open.
“I tried introducing you to a good ale last night – thought it might relax you some,” Mayhew said, half-smiling. “It did its job a little too well, I think.”
“What? Why?”
“Don’t remember? You were babbling on all over the place about anything that popped into your head. You must have tried to tell me your life story twice over.”
He had? Victor tried to remember, pushing past the headache. Yes, if he thought about it, he did sort of remember talking and talking, the alcohol making him believe that whatever he said was pure gold. . .
Wait. His life story – had he told Mayhew –
The thought was like having a bucket of cold water dumped on him. He stared up at Mayhew, wondering if he dared ask. “M-Mayhew. . .did I – did I say anything h-horribly embarrassing about w-when I was f-fifteen?” Please say no please say no I couldn’t bear the shame the pity –
“Nah, you just told me how sad it was Scraps had to go like he did,” Mayhew said, patting his head. “Nothing about – well, I’m sure you know.” He winked.
Victor managed a smile. Yes, he did know. And thankfully, Mayhew didn’t. His secret was still safe. “Mayhew?”
“Yes, Victor?”
“I think I’m just going to have the o-occasional glass of champagne from now on.”
“Good idea.”
Repeating the Past
Prompt: ghost of Christmas past
Time Period: Post-"Secundus 2," toddler Chester era
Notes: This one just hit me upside the head one day as the perfect answer to this prompt. Victor naturally would feel weird about having a son who looks so much like him, and watching the kid grow up – well, comparisons to his own childhood, and to his parents, were inevitable. AND this fic is where I finally get to properly introduce Victor and Alice wanting to have more than one kid! Score!
“All right, what’s got you staring at your son as if you’ve never seen him before?”
“Nothing,” Victor said, not taking his eyes off Chester as the little boy unwrapped another present. “The whole reason I’m staring is because I have seen him before. In the mirror.”
“Ah, struck again by that? Honestly, I’m shocked you can remember what you looked like at two years old,” Alice commented.
“My mother has pictures. . .and it’s more that – I very vaguely remembering doing just what he’s doing when I was two,” Victor said slowly, as Chester exulted over the toy butterfly his father had built him. “And with him looking so much like me – it’s like I’m s-seeing myself, in the past. I keep half-expecting my mother and father to suddenly appear on our couch.”
“I hope they don’t,” Alice said, sending a glare toward the invisible couple. She touched Victor gently on the arm. “Does it bother you?”
“It – it makes me w-worry,” Victor admitted, voice low. “That I’m going to make the same mistakes they made.”
Alice squeezed his arm. “You won’t. I know you, and you’re not a thing like Nell or William Van Dort. Chester is going to have a much better childhood than you ever had. I promise.”
Victor finally tore his eyes away from his son to look at her. A smile appeared on his face. “Thank you.”
“Daddy!” Chester toddled over and tugged on Victor’s pants leg. “Make it work!”
Victor obligingly wound up the butterfly and sent it flying around the room. He watched his son scramble after it for a long moment. “Alice?” he finally said.
“Yes?”
“D-do – do you think a second child would look more like me or like you?”
Alice grinned. “I think we should find out.”
Light Up The Sky
Prompt: Northern Lights
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus" after Victor and Alice start dating
Notes: The instant I saw this prompt, I knew I wanted to write something about the night sky one sees in the Tundraful level of "Alice: Madness Returns." It's absolutely gorgeous and fits the prompt perfectly. It's also exceedingly hard to put into words, as I soon discovered. It took me days to get this into a form I liked even a little. Do yourself a favor and look up "Tundraful" on Google or YouTube and see the "real" thing. It's worth it.
Science note – what Alice describes Lewis saying is all part of how the aurora borealis works. Look it up on Wikipedia. Also, the title comes from a song I rather like by The Afters.
“Oh my God. . . .”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Alice smiled. “Lewis got the idea after hearing some stories from arctic explorers about the night sky at the poles. Something called the aurora borealis. He figured there had to be a way to recreate it here.”
“It’s–” Victor stared up at the ribbons of vivid green twisting their way across the night sky, like the smoke trails of unearthly cigarette. Here and there, they were edged with faint pink, or dissolved into blooms of bright blue. Behind them, the stars twinkled in a vast expanse of midnight black. It was beautiful beyond words. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I imagine you say that a lot in Secundus,” Alice teased.
“Well, y-yes, but. . .this is something else. And Lewis did this all on his own?”
“Yes. He said it was all a matter of charging the right particles and exposing them to magnetic winds and – I’m afraid I don’t understand most of it, but it’s something to do with getting atoms all excited and then calming them down.”
“It’s all right. I don’t know if I want to know exactly how he pulled it off.” Victor felt his mouth stretch wide in a smile as he watched the light show above. “Science is wonderful.”
Prompt: spoon
Time Period: Post-"Secundus," pre-"Secundus 2"
Notes: Just a silly piece featuring a sleep-deprived Victor and a rather baffled but amused Alice. The "spoon as a battle cry" bit is a reference to "The Tick," while "Spoony" is a shout-out to the internet reviewer of the same name.
“Do you know what’s a funny word?”
“What?”
“Spoon.”
“Spoon’s funny?”
“Spoon’s really funny! Spoooon. Spoon. Spoon. You say it enough times and it stops making sense!”
“Really.”
“Yes! Think about it. Spoon. It really doesn’t mean anything. It’s just what we named a certain utensil. We could have used it as a battle cry if we wanted.”
“. . .A battle cry?”
“Why not? Imagine how confused and frightened the enemy would be if we came charging down the hill at them shouting ‘SPOOOOON!’”
“Confused, certainly. . . .”
“Or we could use it as a name! Spoon. Spoony! Good for a boy or a girl! Though I get the feeling it would go better with a boy. . . .”
“All right, Victor, I’m taking this as an object lesson. No matter how much you plead with me, never let you stay up for more than two nights in a row to finish a project. Come on, we’re going to bed.”
“Spoonerfly!”
“Later!”
Dancing Lessons
Prompt: tango
Time Period: Post-"Secundus," pre-wedding
Notes: Another fic about Victor and his dancing ability or possible lack-thereof. Alice's theory in this fic is my own – Victor's actually pretty good on his feet when he's not all stressed out. The dance with the chess people was covered in Come And Join The Dance from last year.
“Oh, dear, I didn’t actually get your foot, did I?”
“No, but it was a rather near miss,” Alice said, looking down to where Victor’s left foot had just clipped her right boot. “And I think it’s a good thing that I’m wearing very thick shoes.”
Victor shook his head, cheeks pink with embarrassment. “I’m s-sorry. I don’t know why you’re so sure I can learn this. Dancing has never been my s-strong point.”
“You did fine that time the Chess people invited us.”
“Yes, but they don’t care all that much whether you’ve gotten the steps perfectly or not. If I fell there, everyone just laughed and helped me up. R-regular people are much less forgiving.”
“Maybe so, but I still think you can do this. You danced the Lobster Quadrille just fine.”
“Yes, but you can walk your way through that–”
“Victor.” Alice met his eyes. “You know what your problem is? You overthink every movement. When you’re not worrying about every little step, then. . .well, try just listening to the music instead of thinking about where your feet should go. You know the steps – just let yourself do them.”
“I – I don’t know if I can. . . .”
“Try.” Alice pulled him a little closer. “I really think you can do this if you just stop worrying.” She grinned at him. “Come on, what harm will it do?”
Victor thought briefly about listing a few ways, starting with stepping on her foot and ending with knocking her to the floor. But he recognized the look she wore – she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “All right,” he said. “L-let’s try again.”
Alice grinned and restarted the phonograph. Victor closed his eyes and did his best just to concentrate on the music. At first it was hard, and he kept stumbling as he thought about his feet and where they should go. But, after a while, it became easier to just focus on the tune and let his body move as it would. And to his shock, Alice was right.
When he wasn’t worrying about every step – he could almost be graceful.
Wine of Babbling
Prompt: drunk
Time Period: Pre-"Secundus," sixteen-year-old Victor
Notes: After making sure this wasn't a repeat from either 100 Drabbles of Summer, I decided to make this prompt about what happened the first time Victor got drunk. I always found it amusing to make him a little chatterbox when drunk. . .
“Oooh, my head. . . .”
“Finally back with us, Victor?”
Victor blinked blearily a few times, then managed to focus on the face of Mayhew, leaning over him. “What happened?” he asked, trying to ignore the way his own voice seemed to be trying to crack his skull open.
“I tried introducing you to a good ale last night – thought it might relax you some,” Mayhew said, half-smiling. “It did its job a little too well, I think.”
“What? Why?”
“Don’t remember? You were babbling on all over the place about anything that popped into your head. You must have tried to tell me your life story twice over.”
He had? Victor tried to remember, pushing past the headache. Yes, if he thought about it, he did sort of remember talking and talking, the alcohol making him believe that whatever he said was pure gold. . .
Wait. His life story – had he told Mayhew –
The thought was like having a bucket of cold water dumped on him. He stared up at Mayhew, wondering if he dared ask. “M-Mayhew. . .did I – did I say anything h-horribly embarrassing about w-when I was f-fifteen?” Please say no please say no I couldn’t bear the shame the pity –
“Nah, you just told me how sad it was Scraps had to go like he did,” Mayhew said, patting his head. “Nothing about – well, I’m sure you know.” He winked.
Victor managed a smile. Yes, he did know. And thankfully, Mayhew didn’t. His secret was still safe. “Mayhew?”
“Yes, Victor?”
“I think I’m just going to have the o-occasional glass of champagne from now on.”
“Good idea.”
Repeating the Past
Prompt: ghost of Christmas past
Time Period: Post-"Secundus 2," toddler Chester era
Notes: This one just hit me upside the head one day as the perfect answer to this prompt. Victor naturally would feel weird about having a son who looks so much like him, and watching the kid grow up – well, comparisons to his own childhood, and to his parents, were inevitable. AND this fic is where I finally get to properly introduce Victor and Alice wanting to have more than one kid! Score!
“All right, what’s got you staring at your son as if you’ve never seen him before?”
“Nothing,” Victor said, not taking his eyes off Chester as the little boy unwrapped another present. “The whole reason I’m staring is because I have seen him before. In the mirror.”
“Ah, struck again by that? Honestly, I’m shocked you can remember what you looked like at two years old,” Alice commented.
“My mother has pictures. . .and it’s more that – I very vaguely remembering doing just what he’s doing when I was two,” Victor said slowly, as Chester exulted over the toy butterfly his father had built him. “And with him looking so much like me – it’s like I’m s-seeing myself, in the past. I keep half-expecting my mother and father to suddenly appear on our couch.”
“I hope they don’t,” Alice said, sending a glare toward the invisible couple. She touched Victor gently on the arm. “Does it bother you?”
“It – it makes me w-worry,” Victor admitted, voice low. “That I’m going to make the same mistakes they made.”
Alice squeezed his arm. “You won’t. I know you, and you’re not a thing like Nell or William Van Dort. Chester is going to have a much better childhood than you ever had. I promise.”
Victor finally tore his eyes away from his son to look at her. A smile appeared on his face. “Thank you.”
“Daddy!” Chester toddled over and tugged on Victor’s pants leg. “Make it work!”
Victor obligingly wound up the butterfly and sent it flying around the room. He watched his son scramble after it for a long moment. “Alice?” he finally said.
“Yes?”
“D-do – do you think a second child would look more like me or like you?”
Alice grinned. “I think we should find out.”
Light Up The Sky
Prompt: Northern Lights
Time Period: Anytime in "Secundus" after Victor and Alice start dating
Notes: The instant I saw this prompt, I knew I wanted to write something about the night sky one sees in the Tundraful level of "Alice: Madness Returns." It's absolutely gorgeous and fits the prompt perfectly. It's also exceedingly hard to put into words, as I soon discovered. It took me days to get this into a form I liked even a little. Do yourself a favor and look up "Tundraful" on Google or YouTube and see the "real" thing. It's worth it.
Science note – what Alice describes Lewis saying is all part of how the aurora borealis works. Look it up on Wikipedia. Also, the title comes from a song I rather like by The Afters.
“Oh my God. . . .”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Alice smiled. “Lewis got the idea after hearing some stories from arctic explorers about the night sky at the poles. Something called the aurora borealis. He figured there had to be a way to recreate it here.”
“It’s–” Victor stared up at the ribbons of vivid green twisting their way across the night sky, like the smoke trails of unearthly cigarette. Here and there, they were edged with faint pink, or dissolved into blooms of bright blue. Behind them, the stars twinkled in a vast expanse of midnight black. It was beautiful beyond words. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I imagine you say that a lot in Secundus,” Alice teased.
“Well, y-yes, but. . .this is something else. And Lewis did this all on his own?”
“Yes. He said it was all a matter of charging the right particles and exposing them to magnetic winds and – I’m afraid I don’t understand most of it, but it’s something to do with getting atoms all excited and then calming them down.”
“It’s all right. I don’t know if I want to know exactly how he pulled it off.” Victor felt his mouth stretch wide in a smile as he watched the light show above. “Science is wonderful.”