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victorluvsalice · 21 days

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Mini VITD Sims Lookbook (Largely Alice Focused Edition)

Hi all -- I ended up downloading and playing with some more Victorian and Victorian-esque CC for Sims 4 last Saturday, looking for some new looks for my Valicer In The Dark versions of Victor, Alice, and Smiler (mainly Alice, as per the title). And, as I'm still getting the next Chill Valicer Save update ready, I figured I'd share the results, in case any of you were interested/wanted some more CC to download! Here we go:

First up, we actually have something that I downloaded from someone’s lookbook post for their Alice Sim a little while ago (I'm afraid I don't remember whose at this point ^^;) – a conversion of Alice’s London dress from Alice: Madness Returns! As in, one Mimoto-Sims ripped this dress straight from the files of that game (along with a bunch of others) and turned it into an outfit in Sims 4! :D I’ve been looking for this for a while, and I’m quite pleased with it, though it is a little weirdly shiny – and if you think Alice suddenly looks a LOT thinner than usual in this dress, she is. Apparently I didn’t make my Sim Alice underweight enough! I think I prefer my Sims 4 version having a waist that doesn’t look like it could snap in half at any moment, though. XD

Okay, onto the CC I actually downloaded on Saturday, with Alice modeling the Ever Elegant Blouse v2 and the Rather Ravishing Skirt v2 from Gilded Ghost’s New Woman set! I ended up pairing these two together because, with the apron, I thought this made another good “maid” Alice outfit – though she looks like she’s working somewhere fancier than Houndsditch in this set, that’s for sure. (Now I’m tempted for her to somehow get her hands on a maid’s outfit from the Van Dort estate when her and Smiler’s attempt to return Victor to his parents ends up in them robbing them for being shitheads who don’t care about their son...) But it’s a nice look for her, and I am THRILLED that this and the other tops from that set worked with her necklace! :D Seriously, so many outfits hide that necklace, and given that it’s suppose to be her wearing Lizzie’s room key, I’d like it to be visible more often than not!

Case in point, the necklace is also visible in this outfit, which is Alice wearing the Jacket Jubilee top with the Perfectly Plain skirt from the New Woman set. This set I just thought looked nice on her, and made a nice – semi-formal? This feels fancier than casual, but not fancy enough to be formal. Like, maybe this is something she’d wear if the gang were heading to the Golden Plum for a nice dinner, or to a park for a trio date. That sort of thing. Not “fancy neighborhood” wear, but a step above hanging around the house.

By contrast, Alice is definitely not leaving the house in this outfit. XD This is dzifasims’s Bespoke Corset, paired with a plain Get Famous skirt that I thought looked like a shift or underskirt (I thought the corset CAME with one, but apparently I was mistaken). It’s nice to have a plainer corset that doesn’t look like it was bought for sex purposes, unlike the base game one. Though I do like the “bought for sex purposes” one too. XD Alice probably prefers this one, though – it’s more her style, and I think it makes good underwear for her.

Onto the masc stuff, with Smiler showing off pandorasimbox’s Azariah’s Sacksuit. I have mixed feelings on this – the basic shape of the suit is okay, and I liked pairing it with the bowler, but as per usual this suit did not have any of the right swatches I needed for Smiler. The problem is, people do a lot of muted colors for Victorian-style clothes, and even the ones that include brighter swatches tend not to do a lot of yellow. Meaning I often end up with poor Smiler wearing beige because that’s as close as I can get. *sigh* I mean, I do rather like the look on them – they kind of look like they’re auditioning for a Charlie Chaplin movie – but it’s gotta be BRIGHTER, you know? *sigh* I gotta learn how to recolor clothes... (Also, amusingly, the boots are actually from Moschino – they actually look Victorian enough when you cover up the tops with a long pant.)

Fortunately, while [LonelyBoy]’s TS4 Solardius Outfit doesn’t have a yellow swatch, it DOES have a black swatch with gold decorative details, and that I can work with – especially when paired with the High School Years shoes I love so much for Smiler in the “black with yellow stitching” swatch. :) Not sure how much I like the high collar on Smiler, but this is certainly not a bad look for them!

And it CERTAINLY isn’t a bad look for Victor, who suits that high collar much better. XD As you can see, Victor got the nice dark blue swatch with the red tie, which is kind of the inverse of his tie/vest color scheme in the movie. XD But it suits him, and again, this seems like a nice, semi-formal outfit he might wear for an outing with his partners where he wanted to look a little more put together. :)

And there you have it – me playing with my favorite trio like dolls again. XD What can I say, it’s fun to dress them up in new outfits! And these particular sessions help inform me of what I’d like my trio to wear in the Valicer In The Dark universe. Since, you know, I’m pretty well obsessed with that these days. XD So don’t @ me, downloading CC is writing research, okay? Okay. :p

#sims 4 #cas looks #fashion #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #valicer in the dark au #well appropriate that I had this in the queue after getting that ask about Valicer multichapter fics #and me talking about the first fic in the VITD series that I'm working on XD #but yes more fun with CC clothes #I really do like Alice's outfits #that's an excellent conversion of her canonical dress #I have taken a turn toward preferring Maxis Match stuff but I will make an exception there #and her new dresses and corset fit her very well #and Smiler and Victor are rocking the Solardius suit #particularly Victor who looks very nice in that shade of blue #aw but the sack suit #I really DO need to learn how to do clothing recolors #there's so much stuff that would suit Smiler so well if it came in the right swatches!#who do I have to pay to add bright yellow and yellow-and-black stripes to everything #no more of this beige nonsense Smiler needs to be LOUD AND PROUD #...also someone explain to me how jewelry works in this game and why some tops hide necklaces and others don't #I genuinely don't understand :(#Sims 4 you are confusing #queued

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thevalicemultiverse · 8 months

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OOC: Valicer In The Dark Verse Officially Open!

Here's the pertinent details, copied from my official Verse Google Doc:

~V: Valicer In The Dark (VITD)

It is a world of darkness — literally, in this case, because the sun exploded eight and a half centuries ago. In this land of eternal night, the city of Duskwall has established itself as both the premiere port of the Imperium of the Immortal Emperor, with hunters bringing in the gallons of living leviathan blood that powers the lightning barriers that keep the horrors of the deathlands around at bay...and as a vicious hub of crime and violence, fueled by the vast inequality between rich and poor. Within said city, Alice Liddell was dealing with the demons of her past as she battled hallucinations both beautiful and grim; Victor Van Dort was preparing for an arranged marriage that would elevate his nouveau riche family to the status they felt they’d deserved; and Smiler Alton was just trying to sell happiness in a syringe in the name of the cult of the Advocates and their god Mar-Mal. But then, one foggy “day,” a chance meeting between the three changed everything...

Premise: You can blame the folks over at OXBox and OXtra for this one. Specifically, you can blame their two seasons of “Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark.” Even MORE specifically, you can blame their “funny moments” pages for Oxventure and other RPG campaigns on TV Tropes, which happened to mention “Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark” and provided a link to the page for BITD for me to read through and decide “well, I want to know more about this.” And after perusing the official website, purchasing and reading the PDF of the official book, and watching both seasons of the Oxventure series — yeah, it was kind of inevitable that I’d end up making my own AU set in the city of Duskwall for my new OT3 of Victor, Alice, and Smiler. I highly recommend going to John Harper’s official BITD site for more information about how the actual RPG itself works, and the book is a real fun read, but here’s the basics to keep in mind regarding the world:

As stated in the blurb, the world is pretty much always dark — there was a cataclysm AGES ago that shattered the continents and blew up the sun, leaving only weak embers that flare up a tiny bit at dawn and dusk (I imagine the sky turns vaguely purple for a little bit, then that’s it). Hand lanterns are a popular accessory in the city!

That same cataclysm also made it so the dead no longer pass onto the afterlife, so the entire world is EXTREMELY HAUNTED, with feral ghosts trying to possess people and feast on their life essence being both a feared fate and a fact of life for the people of this world. The mysterious and anonymous Spirit Wardens collect the bodies of the dead to burn them in special fires to prevent ghosts from escaping (if they can get to them in time), and every city is surrounded by a powerful lightning barrier to hold off the hordes of ghosts, demons, and other unknowable horrors in the lands beyond (aka the mentioned “deathlands”).

The basic aesthetic of the world is dark, grungy steampunk — except instead of steam, the power source of choice is “electroplasm,” the raw essence of life most often harvested from the blood of leviathans — vast demonic creatures in the ink-black seas around Duskwall. Electroplasm, as the name suggests, is what fuels anything electric in the city, from humble street lamps to the giant lightning barriers. It also allows them to grow food without sunlight, as certain creatures (mainly sea life held in giant aquariums) and plants can be infused with the stuff to turn them into “radiant energy” generators, which glow brightly and allow the plants around them to grow faster and better. Every noble family in the city has a leviathan hunter ship, and fortunes turn on the amount of blood they bring back. John Harper himself said it best at the end of the book (Blades In The Dark, page 308): “This was once a storybook fantasy world of magic and wonders, which was destroyed and an industrial civilization was built on top of the ruins. Don’t expect scientific realism here.”

As for our main characters and their places in this world. . .

Alice was the daughter of Dean Arthur Liddell of the prestigious Doskvol Academy (located in Whitecrown, THE fancy bit of Duskwall – the Lord Governor lives there, away from the riffraff) and his wife Lorina, and the younger sister of Lizzie. The family had a happy life living in Brightstone (the next-fanciest district) – up until one Angus Bumby entered Doskvol Academy and became obsessed with Lizzie. When she rebuffed his advances, he broke into the house, had his way with her, and set the place on fire to both cover his crime and try to destroy the bodies so they couldn’t let out ghosts. Alice was the sole survivor, and after a year in hospital spent convalescing from her burns, got sent to Rutledge Asylum, here situated right next to Ironhook – Duskwall’s freaking PRISON. This Alice is probably the only one who had a WORSE time in there than in canon, as psychiatry is basically an unknown art in Duskwall, and most everyone with some sort of mental trauma is just locked up to rot or has their soul ripped out so they can become an empty Hollow zombie to be used as cheap slave labor – a fate Alice avoided solely due to being a minor. She still had her Wonderland in this world, though, and was able to use it to lever herself out of her catatonia and eventually deal with her grief enough to join the waking world…and promptly ended up sent to the Houndsditch Home in Charhollow (one of the “poor but honest” districts), where she helped the owner, Dr. Bumby, as a general dogsbody and girl-of-all-work, and received his special hypnosis-based therapy to help her forget her past. As per A:MR, after about a year there, Wonderland kicked her in the pants and helped her realize Bumby was the one that killed her family – but unlike canon, by the time of the main action of the AU, she has NOT pushed him onto any train tracks. Mostly because that would likely result in him leaving a ghost, and a spectral Bumby is the LAST thing she wants to deal with.

Victor is the son of William and Nell Van Dort, fish merchants living in Nightmarket (one of the main shopping districts, and where the “new money” tends to live). William invented canned fish when Victor was young, which the public pounced on, and his canneries easily made the Van Dorts the wealthiest family in Nightmarket. Nell wanted to eventually make the transition to Brightstone, though, and thus when Victor came of age, she started trying to arrange a marriage with one of the noble families living there. She got lucky shortly before the beginning of the AU, as the Everglots (an old noble family whose fortunes were on the downswing thanks to their leviathan hunter ship coming back dry more often than not, meaning their power, prestige, and most importantly coin was running out) consented to let Victor marry their daughter Victoria in exchange for some of that sweet sweet Van Dort fortune. As per canon, Victor and Victoria met right before the wedding rehearsal, and while they liked each other, it wasn’t enough to calm Victor’s nerves. Three hours of failed practice, one dropped ring, and one burn on Maudeline Everglot’s dress from a forgotten candle later, and Victor was banished into the streets to learn his lines. He wandered around for a while, trying to get them straight in his head, and eventually got them right down an old forgotten alley…only for the wandering ghost of a bride, Emily, to hear them and think they were meant for her. Victor was promptly dragged into the “ghost field,” the spectral echo of the city where ghosts live, and held captive by Emily (whom he did feel sorry for, but ghosts are bad news in Duskwall – they tend to lose their minds quickly due to not being able to pass on, and Emily was showing a few signs of “going feral,” as it were). The main AU is actually kicked off by him finally escaping her and finding his way back to the material plane by falling out of a wall in front of Alice and Smiler…

Smiler was the “son” of one Dr. Kellard Kelman, owner of The Sanctuary, a refuge for people who have “lost their smile” – in actuality, a horrible hellhole of a “mental hospital” where Dr. Kelman conducted experiments on the patients and threw failures in the basement. Smiler and their father clashed about a lot of things (including Kelman’s brutal methods for ensuring “social compliance” and his refusal to accept Smiler as nonbinary), and eventually Smiler just ran away at about twelve years old, rather than be a part of Kelman’s nonsense any further. They ended up in Silkshore (the “red light” district), where they encountered Carol and Matthew Alton, members of the Advocates cult, who worship Mar-Mal, the Unending Smile. Matt and Carol took in the young Smiler and told them what the cult was all about (basically, maximizing happiness however possible, from genuine kind acts to straight-up selling drugs and hypnotizing people) – Smiler thought it all sounded better than Kelman’s deal and joined up, changing their name from Marmaduke Kelman to Smiler Alton. They proved to be a very eager little cultist, developing a knack for hypnosis and – as they got older – a talent with chemical concoctions, eventually making a drug that induced a heavy state of bliss that they called Joy Serum. The invention of this drug caused Mar-Mal to mark them with its favor, turning their previously green eyes a glowing yellow (Matt and Carol were so proud!). At the start of the main AU, they spend most of their time brewing up and selling Joy Serum in Silkshore – not far from The Mangled Mermaid where Alice’s old nanny now plies her trade as a prostitute, meaning Smiler and Alice were acquainted just from her visits to see Nan there (Smiler in fact just straight-up gave Alice some money to buy lunch one day, making them about the closest thing she had to a friend there).

So! With all that in mind, the actual meat of the AU starts with Alice having fled the Houndsditch Home looking for help with her Bumby problem (either a way to bring evidence to the Inspectors, the only members of the police force known to be incorruptible, or at least not subject to bribes, or a way to kill him and make sure he didn’t come back as a ghost). Her first instinct was to go to Nanny, and along the way she encountered Smiler, packing up after finishing their sales for the day. They asked her what was wrong, and she decided she could trust them enough to let them in on what she’d found — however, her attempt to tell them what was going on was interrupted by Victor’s attempted escape from Emily, as he fell out of the ghost field in front of him. Concerned, the two ended up helping him over to the Mangled Mermaid to get some food and water in him and help him calm down after his experience. Unfortunately, Emily managed to follow them there and got rather annoyed at finding her husband in a brothel – fortunately, before she could do any damage, Smiler managed to talk her down (mainly by reminding her that humans gotta eat). Victor took the opportunity to finally explain to her what he’d been doing and that he was already engaged –

But when he mentioned Victoria’s name, Nanny commented that she’d heard that she’d already gotten married that day, to someone named “Lord Barkis.” And Emily recognized the “Barkis” name, as that was the name of the man who killed her. She and Victor agreed they had to go see Victoria for her own good, just in case she’d gotten married to a murderer, and Smiler and Alice chose to come along as back-up, and to talk to the Bluecoats (nickname for the local police) about Alice’s recent revelation over her family’s death not being an accident, but instead murder. The four took a gondola over to Brightstone (as Duskwall is part Venice as well as being part Victorian London, and is cut all over the place by canals) and crashed the Everglot-Barkis wedding reception, where Emily did indeed identify Barkis as her murderer. Barkis attempted to take Victoria hostage as the guests fled, but the group was able to free her – Victor sending her away to get help or at least find a safe place to hide – and Emily ended up destroying herself to possess Barkis and kill him with an electroplasmic bomb he had on him for some reason, thanking Victor for at least helping her get revenge on her killer and tossing a spare bomb to Alice to help with her own issues. The Bluecoats finally arrived once the deed was done, and searched the corpse while the trio tried to explain what happened –

And then one of the Bluecoats found a fancy brass mask on Barkis. Marking him as one of the Spirit Wardens, the group that goes around collecting corpses and burning them in electroplasm to make sure that the city isn’t entirely overrun by ghosts. A group of people bankrolled by the Immortal Emperor himself.

Yeah, that wasn’t good. The Bluecoats, already not really believing the gang’s story, decided they’d murdered Barkis (or, at least Alice and Smiler had – Victor got added to the list when he refused to just run off back home or bribe them) and were prepared to take them in, but Alice managed to hold off the entire patrol with a butcher’s knife just long enough for them to start running. Through various means (like Alice practically leaping over a carriage in her way double-jump style, Smiler just straight-up injecting a purser with Joy Serum, and Victor managing to accidentally lead a couple more into a very angry, very electric ghost by using his new ability to sense hidden ghosts to help his new friends avoid it), the trio was able to escape into Six Towers, a previously rich neighborhood fallen to ruin and squatters in recent years. They found shelter in an abandoned building, which proved to be the old home of one Elder Gutknecht, a former occult researcher who had managed to keep his senses after death and become a genuinely friendly ghost. The three began wondering what to do next, and Alice finally told Victor and Smiler the full story about Bumby…

And then Victor and Smiler were like, “Well, we’re already accused of murder…”

And so the group became a crew of criminals, ready to take that bastard Bumby out of the picture, before moving onto more traditional scores. I picture them as a group of Shadows, spies, thieves, and saboteurs, though there’s a bit of a Hawker element because Smiler is of course still selling Joy Serum (and is working on an inhaled drug called Giggler Gas). And even though they are criminals, they’re trying to help where they can – Victor, after figuring out how to infuse insects with electroplasm to make glowing moths and stuff to help plants grow, wants to make a community greenhouse for people; Alice still looks after the kids at Houndsditch as best she can from afar, and is only too happy to kill other people hurting children for free; and Smiler of course does want to spread happiness, even if it’s in a bit of a bizarre way sometimes. They’re my chaos crime morally gray group and I love them.

Character tags include:

~C: Victor Van Dort (a kind-hearted if not always clear-thinking new-money noodle of a young man, whose anxiety has NOT been helped by being kidnapped, however, briefly, by a ghost bride. He’s doing his best to cope, though, and train his new powers. He is the group’s Whisper (who are the ones who develop a special affinity for the ghostly and demonic in the city) and has the ability Ghost Mind, which allows him to sense every ghost in his presence no matter if they’re visible or not)

~C: Alice Liddell (a young lady with a tongue as sharp as her favorite blade, she nonetheless tries to do the right thing by the people around her, and has a soft spot for cats, rabbits, and her newfound friends. If only she could do something about those damn hallucinations… She is the group’s Cutter (the ones who are best suited to solving a problem with violence), and has the abilities Not To Be Trifled With, which allows her to push herself to perform a feat of great physical force, or to take on up to six people at once on equal footing, and The Devil’s Footsteps, which allows her to push herself to perform a feat of great athletic prowess or maneuver in such a way that she tricks her enemies into attacking each other)

~C: Smiler Alton (a cheerful nonbinary person always ready with a smile, a friendly word, and, if necessary, a needle full of Joy Serum to make people happy. They genuinely want to make the world a better, brighter place — just their ideas of how to do so are strongly informed by growing up in a happiness cult. . . They are the group’s Slide (the ones who are the smooth-talkers and master manipulators) and Leech (the ones who are the chemists and tinkerers), and have the ability Alchemist, which makes them better at crafting anything alchemical (like their Joy Serum))

This verse has no time period or subverse tags.

This verse may touch upon such subjects as rape, murder, burglary, weird mind control stuff, cult activity (though intentionally made kinda silly), and other things that you might expect to find in a horrible crime-ridden city.

This verse is open to everyone!

#~M: meanwhile in our reality (OOC))#~V: Valicer In The Dark #~C: Victor Van Dort #~C: Alice Liddell #~C: Smiler Alton #((it's official yay #I finally got around to it #feel free to ask them things!))#~M: with this hand I will lift your queue

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victorluvsalice · 4 months

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youtube

Parachute - Alec/Eliot/Parker Fanvid by twwings

Sorry, Leverage OT3 Shippers, I'm stealing your song. XD A little more seriously, I saw that post about "Leverage OT3 propaganda" reblogged over on @polyshipweek, decided to check out the video, and ended up really liking it and the song. And because it was an OT3 video, I naturally started associating the song with my OWN Valicer OT3. :) The actual lyrics might be a little more plain Valice (referencing things like keeping a relationship hidden from the haters, telling someone they're the only one you trust, going "you and me against the world," etc), but I don't think that it's too hard to adapt them to a Valicer situation. After all, twwings did it with the Leverage OT3. XD

And, of course, the specific Valicer situation I'm thinking of is the Valicer In The Dark one -- the attempts at a Valicer music video that keeps popping up inside of my brain involve those three the most. (In particular, one of the "down, down, down" bits sparks an image of Victor falling off a building mid-heist, forcing the other two to help catch him and pull him back up -- which is a scene I'd had in my head before, but it's enhanced by putting it to music.) But yeah, I'm enjoying the vibes here, and I'm happy to add this to my own OT3 playlist. :)

#song saturday #parachute #ingrid michaelson #valicer #ot3 #leverage #valicer in the dark au #I've never watched Leverage but I admire everyone's faith in the OT3 #they do seem to have a great dynamic #as exemplified by the music video :)#seriously it's really great #even if you're not a Leverage fan you should enjoy it #and the song's lovely #I really like picturing my OT3 to it #especially mirroring a few scenes in the video #I particularly like all of them looking out from behind the crate XD #good stuff!#queued

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victorluvsalice · 1 month

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Valicer OT3 Week, Day Seven: Free Day!

It's the finale of OT3 Week! Thank you @ot3-week for bringing it to us! And, as is tradition, the final day is a "free day" for anything you may want to write --

And without a prompt to guide me, I naturally went back to my beloved Valicer In The Dark trio! :D Because my favorite AU of the moment definitely needs to be represented during this week as well. So have the trio hanging out in their lair after they've gotten established and fixed the place up some, with Victor bringing up an interesting topic of conversation...

“This is about as far from how I expected my life to go as possible.”

Smiler looked up from their spot on the floor, hand still wedged in the brushes of their Smile Sweeper automaton. “Hmmm?”

“It’s just – whenever I pictured my future, I pictured the plan my parents had made for me,” Victor continued, absently picking out a melody from the piano. “An arranged marriage to whoever was most likely to get them the status and the house in Brightstone my mother so craved. A job working in, then running Father’s cannery once he was ready to give up the reins. Children whenever Mother decided she wanted grandchildren. Things like that. I never – I hoped that I would come to love whoever my parents picked out for me, and that they wouldn’t mind me having a dog, but other than that...I didn’t really have any dreams for myself.” He looked around the living room. “Certainly not any that included me running away from home, becoming a Whisper, and setting up house in Six Towers with two people who actually and truly love me.”

“Don’t forget becoming a semi-famous criminal,” Alice put in, eyes still on her sketchbook.

Victor snorted. “That too. But yes – it’s really not where I thought I’d end up in life.”

“I don’t think any of us expected to end up here,” Smiler pointed out, finishing unwinding the thread that had tangled in the brushes. They flipped the Sweeper back over and switched on its electroplasmic battery, causing it to come back to life with a happy ping! “On my end, I thought I’d be living in Advocate headquarters for the rest of my life. Helping out fellow Advocates, advancing our causes, eventually trading Joy Serum sales on the street for taking over the shop in Nightmarket from Mum and Dad. Maybe get married and have children, maybe not – I wasn’t going to commit until I knew for sure it was going to make me happy. But in my future, I always put the Advocates first.” They grinned. “Then a man fell out of a wall in front of me and Alice, and everything took a big old left turn.”

“It was more to our side,” Alice said, smirking as she looked up. “But they have a point, Victor – do you think I expected any of this to happen? I couldn’t picture a future for myself at all for years – all throughout my time in Rutledge. It was too hard to think of a life without my family. And even when I realized I had to and defeated the Queen of Hearts to get myself out of there, I never thought much beyond the next week or so – simple survival always took precedence. Hell, even when you caught me on the way to Nan’s to talk to her about Bumby and what I should do, Smiler, I didn’t have any plans beyond taking care of him.” She bit her lip, lowering her sketchbook to her lap. “I think, subconsciously, I assumed I’d immediately get caught for his murder and Hollowed out.”

“Alice,” Victor started, getting up from the bench.

“I’m fine,” Alice assured him, holding up a hand. “And that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? I’m fine. Not perfect, but – bloody hell, in a better state than I ever thought I might achieve after Rutledge. I still talk to things that aren’t there, sure, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was. Wonderland’s even gone from hindrance to help, in fact – you two know my hallucinations are better at picking up things than I am sometimes. And as for the rest of it – I’ve got a roof over my head, I’ve got time for hobbies, I’m making a difference for those less fortunate than myself – in a very illegal manner, granted, but fuck the Bluecoats and all the corrupt shites they stand for–” She looked from Smiler to Victor, expression softening. “And I’ve got two people who love me, which is two more than I ever imagined.”

Victor smiled, going to join her on the couch. “Me too. I’m – I’m so happy I fell out of that wall in front of you two. Or, to the side, or – near you,” he finally said with a laugh. “Let’s just say near you.”

“I’m happy too,” Smiler said, releasing the Sweeper onto the floor and getting up to join them. “I don’t even want to imagine life without you two now. You’re my best friend, Alice – and you’re the best partner I could have ever dreamed of, Victor. I love you both so much.”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Alice said, taking Victor’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “I know it was a bit of a long, bumpy road to get here, what with all the nonsense surrounding how we met and our chosen profession, but – I am so glad we put in the work.”

Victor squeezed her hand back, then took Smiler’s as they sat down next to him. “Me too. I am truly blessed to have you both in my life. I can’t wait to spend all our remaining years together.”

“Same,” Smiler said, leaning their head against his shoulder.

“Same,” Alice echoed, doing the same. “I just hope we have plenty of them – we have ticked off a lot of powerful and important people.”

“Well, they have to find our heavily-warded and ghost-protected house first,” Smiler said with a cheeky grin. “And good luck to them.”

“Mmm – though, that reminds me,” Victor said, looking between them. “I overheard in the greenhouse the other day a woman talking about how she was looking for someone to steal a brooch back from her estranged husband...”

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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The "Valicer In The Dark Meets Baldur's Gate III" Not-Incorrect Quotes/Shitpost Collection

(Don't worry too much about spoilers -- most of this is early-game stuff, with just a couple of things relating to stuff in Act II)

Alice: [having just met Lae'zel on the Nautiloid and been informed of the situation with the parasites] And who are you, exactly?

Lae'zel: Who am I? Your only chance of survival.

[later, after the imps have been fought, and everyone's met back up and freed Shadowheart:]

Victor: [introducing himself as they get back on the move] I'm Victor.

Alice: I'm Alice. [pointing to Lae'zel] And this is Only.

Lae'zel: ?

Alice: Well, you've given me nothing else to call you.

Shadowheart: [after being informed the trio live in a world without a sun and that's why they're being so weird about the sky being blue] I -- are you Shar's Chosen? Is this some sort of test? Am I not supposed to believe you when you say you like sunlight? I can totally not believe you if that's the case!

Alice: ...I feel like we've missed something.

Smiler: [lying down and sunbathing] Yeah, it's in the sky above us.

Withers: What is the worth of a single mortal's life?

Victor: I -- I would say priceless. You can't put a value on life itself.

Alice: I say it's worth whatever you're willing to pay to defend it. Only the owner of said life can set the value.

Smiler: I'm pretty sure the standard rate of assassins in Duskwall is four Coin minimum -- not sure how that translates to your money.

Victor & Alice: [look at Smiler]

Smiler: What? It's a legitimate answer!

Withers: I shall be here, in thy camp, for whenever thou has need of my services.

Alice: Oh? What kind of services do you offer?

Withers: A mending of the threads between life and death. Should thou or any of thy compatriots perish, I will cleave soul to body once more.

Victor: Cleave soul to -- wait a minute, isn't that how you get vampires?

Astarion: [rearranging his tent, pauses and gives them a really weird look]

Alice: [during one of the meetings with Raphael] You do seem like a very powerful devil.

Raphael: [preening] I consider myself no slouch, yes.

Smiler: [cheerfully] I bet your blood could power an entire city block for a month!

Raphael: [blink blink] ...thank...you?

Strange Ox: Ah, you're addressing me. A humble ox. How...quaint.

Smiler: [tilting their head] What are you?

Strange Ox: As I said, a humble ox. I don't know why you're --

Smiler: No, I mean, what's an ox?

Strange Ox: ...

Smiler: [standing behind a table lined with eight samples of the same Potion Of Glorious Vaulting, with Victor, Alice, and the companions all gathered around the front of it] Thank you all for coming to this blind taste test, where we will be disproving the idiotic notion that you only need one specific ingredient per potion to create something that does what you want it to. In front of you are eight individual Potions of Glorious Vaulting, each made with a different type of Ashes -- I would like you each to drink one, test the effects, then rate it based on how strong the effects were, how long they lasted, and how tasty it was.

Wyll: You care about the taste?

Smiler: Of course! If we're going to be making potions, the least we could do is make them pleasant to consume! We're working toward maximum happiness here! Now everybody pick one and let's get jumping!

Gale: [realizing the trio isn't with them as they move through the mind flayer colony under Moonrise] Hold -- where's Victor, Alice, and Smiler?

Karlach: I think I saw them looking at a cage in the last room.

Lae'zel: Chk -- they should know by now that we cannot pause and look at every little thing that --

Smiler: [rejoining the group carrying a certain intellect devourer, beaming, as Victor and Alice come up behind them] Hey everyone!

Lae'zel: [stares at the brain] ...

Astarion: Why are you carrying an intellect --

Lae'zel: THAT. THING. SURVIVED?!

Us: Hello Angry Friend!

Lae'zel: I'M NOT YOUR FRIEND

Aylin: [after everyone's agreed to meet up with her and Isobel again later at the camp] Now -- you will leave us. We must take succour in one another's bodies and words.

Isobel: Aylin. We'll see you later.

Victor: [hiding a smile] Of course.

Alice: [biting back a chuckle] Later.

Smiler: [big beaming grin and a double thumbs up] Enjoy the hot lesbian sex!

Victor: Smiler!

Aylin: I intend to.

Isobel: AYLIN.

#valicer in the dark au #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #(very minor ones nothing for Act III but I guess there's a little bit for Act II here)#not incorrect quotes #had probably more fun with these than I should have #Lae'zel cracks and tells Alice her name when she tells 'Only' and Shadowheart not to fight before they reach the helm #Alice of courses persists in calling her 'Only' when she's annoyed with her #and Smiler is like 'VINDICATED' when Withers admits that resurrecting people is a matter of coin #'see I told you he might want the economics answer!'#also yes ghosts possessing soulless bodies is how you get vampires in Duskwall #not to mention most of them suck life straight out of other people #a blood-drinker like Astarion is unusual there #as for the 'blood could power a city block'#most of the electroplasmic power that helps light up Duskwall comes from leviathan blood #and leviathans are a large form of devil #so it really was meant as a compliment XD #and yes I looked at how alchemy worked in the game #and Smiler was immediately like 'what do you mean ANY SALT'#they take their craft seriously damn it XD #and also you should be allowed to hug Us #put that in the next patch Larian #queued

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark -- Duskwall Slang

Since we did a VITD lookbook yesterday, I figured we might as well keep the train going today and talk a little bit about some of the worldbuilding I've done for the Valicer In The Dark version of Duskwall (the main setting of Blades In The Dark). Specifically, I've decided to share the short list of slang that I've come up with for people to use! Because that's always fun, right? :) The first entry on this list is taken from the book itself (page 42, specifically) and adapted a little bit, but all the rest are purely my own invention:

-->“Flashing a/their/your Coin” and variants – making an ostentatious display of wealth, to the disgust of everyone around them (the term "Coin" itself is in fact slang for a large sum of money, taken from the days when the Imperial treasury would actually mint large solid gold coins intended to cover major transactions; most people these days rely on small silver pieces called "slugs"). Example: “You spent all that money on THAT outfit? Really flashing your Coin, huh?”

-->“Moving to Six Towers” – indicates that the person said to be moving was previously rich and important, but has fallen on extremely hard times and is on the verge of ruin (referencing the fact that Six Towers USED to be one of the richest neighborhoods in the city, but has turned into a bit of a slum with most of the nobility previously living there moving into Brightstone). Example: “The Everglots’ leviathan ship hasn’t had a good haul in six months. Think they’ll be moving to Six Towers soon.”

-->“Scavenging in the Lost District” – indicates that the person said to be scavenging is taking an INCREDIBLE risk in the hopes of getting a high reward (due to the Lost District being an abandoned neighborhood outside the lightning barrier keeping the city safe and guarded by the Spirit Wardens...but also having many lost riches within its bounds). Example: “You want to rob Lord Mayor Powerwallet? Talk about scavenging in the Lost District!”

-->“Living Coin to Coin” – living paycheck to paycheck, as the average weekly wage in Duskwall is equivalent to a Coin’s worth of money. Example: “Poor old Tom – what with his sick mother and five children needing feeding, he’s living Coin to Coin.”

-->“Only good for mushrooms” – indicates that the thing being talked about is absolute shit. Example: “Don’t order the ‘special ale’ at the Withered Talon, it’s only good for mushrooms.”

-->“You want to call the crows?” – equivalent of “You want to get us killed?” in response to a risky course of action (referencing the Deathseeker crows that find corpses for the Spirit Wardens). Example: “You want to FIGHT Lord Mayor Powerwallet’s bodyguards? You want to call the crows?!”

-->“Barrowcleft approved” – indicates the item in question is homemade but of very high quality (Barrowcleft being a poor, rural neighborhood with one of the best, and fairest, markets in the city). Example – “You carved this yourself? Why, this is Barrowcleft approved work and no mistake!”

-->“Dust Day fare” – an extremely meager meal made from poor-quality ingredients, referencing the popular nickname for the fifth day of the week from Charhollow, which itself references the fact that poor people’s food stores are the thinnest on this day. Example – “Canal water soup with potato peelings. This is Dust Day fare, all right.”

-->“Crit Six/rolled a crit six” – means that something is exceedingly good, or that something that you have done has succeeded beyond your wildest dreams; references the most popular dice game in Duskwall, where rolling double sixes is an automatic win. Example – “I went to open the safe, and I rolled a crit six – the door practically came off in my hands!”

-->“Welcher” – a term for someone who hires a criminal or crew for a job, and then not only refuses to pay them, but actively tries to murder them (directly or otherwise) to avoid doing so. Only one of the highest leaders of the most well-known crews may declare someone a Welcher, and then only after receiving sufficient proof, as the term is a death sentence – the scoundrels of Duskwall do not take kindly to their clients trying to stiff them, in both senses of the word. Example: “All right, I’ve seen enough – I’m ready to declare that Lord E.A. Bethesda is a Welcher. Hope he’s prepared for every scoundrel in the city coming for his ass...”

Further updates to come if and when I think of more stuff! Which I probably will, as this is fun. :)

#valicer in the dark au #blades in the dark #slang #okay okay the 'crit six' one is actually a reference to the fact that rolling double sixes in the RPG itself is a critical success #I couldn't resist the meta fun XD #and 'welcher' comes from the fact that the GM is actively encouraged NOT to have anyone who hires the scoundrels betray them #as that is good for a story but doesn't make for good gameplay #I wanted to explore WHY people might not want to screw the PCs over #and came up with 'anyone who does it winds up very very dead'#poor Lord EA Bethesda :p #that's a real character in my Duskwall by the way #maybe I should do a character list for a future update #I actually have a decent amount of worldbuilding ready to go #though I still have to finish up a few more sections #like a few more details on how ghosts work #the book keeps a lot of stuff deliberately kinda vague and sketchy so you can fill in the gaps with your group #free real estate for fanfic writing purposes that's for damn sure :D #queued

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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VITD Sims Lookbook: Alice

And finally, with Victor and Smiler done, we finish off with some looks for our lovely Cutter, Alice!

Alice gets straight into the custom content with one of her everyday outfits, wearing the blue swatches of the 1890s Working Girl set by @vintagesimstress! And unlike the last time I showed her in this outfit, this time she has the apron overlay to go with it. XD Looks good on her AND gives her the proper working-class vibes!

For bedtime, Alice gets a pretty nightgown -- and much like Smiler, while they're not era-appropriate, I had to give Alice the cute bunny slippers too. XD What, we know she likes white rabbits! If I remember correctly, that nightgown is a dress that comes with the Cottage Garden Fan Stuff Pack made by @plumbobteasociety -- I thought it looked nice as nightwear for her.

For that semi-formal party everyone's going to, Alice gets a Realm of Magic top and skirt that make her look at least somewhat respectable. While I think the outfit as a whole is a little pale, I really wanted to use that top on her -- I think she looks good in it. And the skirt ended up working with it pretty well (which is good, because it took me ages to find one that actually went with the top. Some of this shit is HARD to match, let me tell you!).

And for a formal occasion -- well, unlike the boy and the non-binary person, Alice doesn't need to rely on CC here. Get Famous provides a beautiful Victorian dress for her to swan around in! (Though I should probably download a few for her anyway, for variety's sake -- or at least a couple of hats that might go well with this outfit. Head looks a little naked here!) She looks ready for a day in Brightstone, doesn't she?

Okay, admittedly I didn't intend this outfit as an athletic outfit, just another everyday one (though I suppose Alice COULD wear it for working out). And this Cats & Dogs dress is probably a little too modern to fit the proper BITD vibes. But I really like it for the simple reason the patchwork skirt looks like something Alice made herself -- finding and saving up scraps of fabric so she could have something else to wear besides her iconic striped blouse and black skirt. And you can't deny, it DOES look good on her!

And finally, for those chilly days, Alice gets in on the cozy vibes with a cherries-and-flowers theme -- the sweater (and I believe the skirt) is from Cottage Living, while the hat is a recolor created by Plumbella (from "illegally downloading clothes for my sims," in this SimFileShare folder (as you might imagine, it's the one called "beret")). She looks pretty comfy -- and those boots were definitely made for stomping around the streets in the snow and rain.

And that's that! Hope you enjoyed this look at what my VITD characters would probably wear in their universe. Next time (after Valicertine's Day), we're back to the Chill Valicer save for store shenanigans and magic shenanigans! See you then!

#sims 4 #cas looks #fashion #alice liddell #valicer in the dark au #I do find it amusing that Alice's outfit selection has the most CC in it #but she DIDN'T need a CC Victorian dress thanks to Get Famous #but yeah probably should get her some more Victorian dresses at some point #the main problem is that most of them are upper class dresses and she is not an upper class person #but a few fancier formal options would be good #really like the 1890s working girl set for her though thank you Vintage Simstress #and the patchwork dress is very cute on her #though maybe if I could find a separated skirt I could pair it up with a more era-appropriate top #and you've probably guessed that cherries hat is one of my favorites for her #which is why I was shocked to discover I DIDN'T have the download link at hand while making the post #I knew it was a Plumbella creation but it took me a while to track down the video where she made it #and from the the SimFileShare link where she shared it #like sheesh what the hell me #but then again I think I downloaded it before keeping better records of what was in my game #just glad to have the link now yay #might do another one of these at some point #still thinking about doing that VITD-inspired save file #so I want to make sure they all have plenty of clothes :p #queued

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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VITD Sims Lookbook: Victor

All right, we've seen Smiler -- time to move onto the group's beloved Whisper, Victor!

First up, a perfect everyday casual outfit for Victor once he ditches his parents and moves in with Smiler and Alice -- look at that nice red waistcoat! :D This Realm of Magic top actually looks something like what you might see if the Victor in the movie took off his tie and his jacket -- yeah, okay, it's more brightly colored, but poor Victor deserves to have a bit of color in his life, damn it. XD

For bedtime, we have some lovely blue pajamas for my boy. I went for a slightly-mismatched look between the solid blue top and the striped pants, but I think it works for him. (Besides, most of my own pajamas are like that.)

For those sort-of-formal party situations (or any situation where Victor might want a nice jacket), I decided Victor had to have this particular Realm of Magic jacket because it has a little silver moth pin on it! :D That is very much in keeping with Victor's aesthetic. Though looking at the pants again, not sold on those thick cuffs -- I think they make poor Victor's feet look even smaller.

And for those times when Victor has to go full formal, here we have him showing off the Authoritative Aristocrat's Suit from History Lover's Sims Blog! (Paired, of course, with a Simmer of the Dawn top hat.) This looked like a good "fancy" outfit for Victor, even if he is "new money" rather than an aristocrat. XD Feels, again, like something he might actually wear in the movie if we ever saw him at his actual wedding, or going to a fancy party.

As for when Victor needs to get athletic -- okay, I know this is one of the teen High School Years sports team outfits, but I really liked it on Victor as it felt like he was throwing on his old "private school" gym kit for working out. XD It just fits him! (Though I guess this does imply that private schools exist in my Valicer In The Dark AU -- maybe as part of the universities? *shrug* I shall have to update my worldbuilding!)

And finally, Victor gets his own comfy sweater to hang out in for those nippy days around Duskwall! Part of me wonders if the undershirt is a bit too casual for Victor, but I really like the sweater itself -- and he's supposed to reject his nouveau riche upbringing and become at least a little bit less of an anxious mess during his time with the Three Pillars, so hell with it. Victor can have proper casual looks. :p

#sims 4 #cas looks #fashion #victor van dort #valicer in the dark au #seriously I stumbled across that first outfit for Victor and went :D #that's just freaking perfect for him #really feels like a proper variant on his movie outfit!#and then that RoM jacket with the little silver moth pin #basically a lot of RoM stuff actually suits Victor quite well #which I guess makes sense he IS the Whisper of the group #which makes him the most magically inclined #and yeah I just tried the high school sports team outfit on him for a lark #and was like 'that is both funny AND appropriate'#so I guess Victor went to some sort of private school in this verse #(or public school if you want to use British terminology)#suddenly it occurs to me I should figure out the education system in my Duskwall #I STRONGLY DOUBT it has mandatory schooling #but it has universities so there's probably SOME sort of schooling for younger people #I don't think there's official boarding schools or anything though #travel between different cities is #well it's POSSIBLE there's trains and such but I suspect most people avoid travel whenever possible #to you know avoid the EXTREMELY HAUNTED DEADLANDS OUTSIDE EVERY SETTLEMENT #I'll figure it out #queued

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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VITD Sims Lookbook: Smiler

Hello all! As promised at the end of my last Chill Valicer Save update, this week I'm showing off some "Valicer In The Dark"-inspired looks for my OT3 that I made at the end of last year (on Christmas, in fact -- I was in the mood to play with CAS that day). Let's dive right into it with our favorite Slide/Leech (Sleech, if you will) Smiler, shall we?

Starting with another variant on what I consider to be their "standard" VITD outfit (as seen in previous posts like this one), this one without the hat and with belted pants instead of just button-up ones. I think I prefer Smiler having the belt to not having the belt, but *shrug* Well see what happens going forward. That yellow waistcoat and the yellow shoes are always a must, though -- thank you High School Years!

For bedtime, we have some very Smiler pajamas -- and while bunny slippers probably DON'T fit the "vaguely Victorian" aesthetic of Blades In The Dark, I had to give them to them anyway, because come on. XD Though maybe I should give them a different color of bunny -- do they come in black? I'll have to check at some point in the future.

For those parties that require at least a semi-formal look, we have this outfit! Looking at it now, I'm thinking that it may be a little too dark -- the shoes and pants together in particular look a bit too plain -- but I like that purple waistcoat on them. Nice alternative look to the yellow one!

And if you need to go full "visiting Brightstone" formal, here's Smiler in a full Victorian day suit! Specifically, they're showing off one of the outfits from the Men's Day Suit Collection by @simmerofthedawn! (Plus one of the recolored top hats they did with their first collection of men's suits.) I really appreciate that SimmerOfTheDawn made sure to include a healthy number of swatches with all these outfits -- including a few good yellow options, as you can see here. Yeah, the shade's a little darker than I'd normally like for Smiler, and I kinda wish the jacket was black instead of dark gray, but hey -- it still really works for a Smiler-about-town!

By contrast, here's Smiler's extremely casual athletic outfit, for those times when they're planning on doing something that they know is going to make them pretty sweaty. It's just something to throw on, then throw in the washtub afterward! Again, wish I could have found a proper yellow swatch for the shirt, but you can't have everything. And if this is meant as a "don't care about my appearance" outfit, it doesn't really matter anyway. :p

And finally, a Smiler for those chilly days in Duskwall (which -- is most of them, because NO SUN), wrapped up in a nice thick sweater. :) Really like the bit of yellow striping -- Smiler doesn't get enough stripes to play with in their outfits! Mostly because they're almost always the wrong colors. *sigh* We need more good yellows and good yellow stripes in this game! My roller coaster Sim demands it!

#sims 4 #cas looks #fashion #smiler alton #valicer in the dark au #yeah Smiler can be a bit hard to dress sometimes #because their core colors are yellow white black and purple #and it can be hard to find good yellow swatches in particular #especially ones that aren't paired with another less-good color #like I think there's another yellow vest in the game that would be great if it wasn't matched with a blue shirt #ah well at least I have that one perfect yellow waistcoat #and CC to help fill in some of the gaps #finding Simmer of the Dawn's men's suits was great :D #love me a good Victorian look #...even if I think the waistcoat in that one outfit could stand to be delineated from the pants a BIT more #but again I will take it #Smiler looks good and that's what matters :)#queued

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victorluvsalice · 26 days

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Valicer OT3 Week Masterpost

Did it for Polyship Week, so should do it for OT3 Week as well! This is just a straight-up list of the fics by day, with the relevant AU information and anything else you might need to know next to it in parentheses; "established" AUs (that is, AUs I already had tags for, instead of being a one-shot AU for the specific prompt) have their AU tag linked as well:

Day One: Meet Cute (Modern!AU)

Day Two: The Cool Kid, The Jock, And The Nerd (High School!AU)

Day Three: Childhood Friends (Vaguely Victorian!AU, Kidfic)

Day Four: The Knight, The Princess, And The Dragon Are Actually All Together (Medieval Fantasy!AU, hypnokinky and slightly NSFW at the end -- the post itself has the "Mature" community tag)

Day Five: Nontraditional Soulmates (Soulmates!AU)

Day Six: No One Wants To Leave The Cuddle Pile (Modern!AU, slightly hypnokinky near the end)

Day Seven: Free Day (Valicer In The Dark!AU)

Hope you enjoyed this week of Valicer prompts! As always, I am continuing to work on Valicer fic in the background -- making some good progress on the first official "Valicer In The Dark" fic, "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of." Really hoping I can release that for general consumption soon!

#ot3week #fan fic #valicer #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #human smiler AU #valicer soulmates AU #valicer in the dark au #plus all those one-shot AUs I did specifically for the week #at least one of which is trying to escape containment #*eyes the Vaguely Victorian!AU kidfic and its efforts to become a 'three player American McGee's Alice' AU*#I swear my brain just wants to write all the Valicer AUs at once #if I had infinite free time you'd see so many Valicer fanfics from me #but unfortunately I have limited free time #so we're focusing on the True Obsession that is Valicer In The Dark #be prepared for weirdass crime trio in a city of eternal night shenanigans upcoming #and also more Song Saturdays dedicated to them #because I have at least two more songs for that verse I found semi-recently #...once again stolen from the Leverage OT3 people XD #I should probably just watch the show at this point huh #queued

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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youtube

Miley Cyrus - Used To Be Young (Official Video) by Miley Cyrus

Another Song Saturday featuring something I've heard and enjoyed on the radio, I'm featuring this song today because, in my head, it relates to my Valicer In The Dark trio! How, you ask? Well, when I first heard the song, the "I know I used to be crazy/I know I used to be fun/You say I used to be wild/I say I used to be young" bit from the chorus struck me as something an older Smiler might say as they were forced to slow down by age --

And from there, the whole song became about the gang when they were older -- specifically, them going out on their very last job. The music video that basically plays in my head is the older Smiler, Victor, and Alice getting up in the morning and going about their routine to the first set of lyrics and chorus, with various reflective surfaces showing their younger selves and how they've changed with time (young!Smiler enthusiastically tossing themselves onto the bed to wake up Victor and Alice versus older!Smiler just letting them sleep in). In the second set of lyrics and chorus, we move onto the job, which is a basic bit of thievery for someone -- but the gang isn't as flexible and energetic as they used to be (Victor slips while climbing a wall, and while his young reflection in the window scrambles right back up, it takes him a minute to resume the climb; Alice tries to fight off some guards, but while her young reflection in something shiny easily holds them off, she isn't as fast and gets hurt), and so while they manage to pull it off, it's a very near thing. Smiler patches everybody up during the bridging vocals (the "oooh oooh ooooohs"), and Victor admits he doesn't think he can do this anymore. Cut to them dropping off the stolen item with the client and Smiler informing them that "congratulations, you're our last-ever customer."

And THEN, in the third set of lyrics and chorus, things turn sweet as they head back home, reminiscing about the good times ("Messed up but god was it fun") and checking in on their greenhouse (which is a thriving community garden, in contrast to the wreck that young!Victor finds in the reflection in one of the glass panes). Before returning to their lair, having supper, and settling into bed. With the final reflection showing the older three and the younger three in the exact same position as they fall asleep.

...Look, it just gives me feels, okay? And this is already a "feels" song, so let me have this. :p

#song saturday #miley cyrus #used to be young #valicer #valicer in the dark au #look just the title makes me think 'older Valicer trio dealing with how your body starts betraying you as you age'#and things just kind of went from there #I kind of like it as a template of where they end up in life #like they can no longer pull off some of the feats that used to come easily #meaning they can no longer keep up with the scoundrel lifestyle #and will have to find something else to do as they work their way through middle age #but they get to retire comfortably #as pillars of their local community #knowing they made their neighborhood a much better place during their time as the Three Pillars #and still being very much in love :)#like I said -- feels #I have them #queued #Youtube

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark Vs Baldur's Gate III

Okay, so, yesterday I happened to mention that I'd gotten into Baldur's Gate III -- and that a certain Crime Trio of mine (based on an entirely different RPG, I might add), had decided to lay claim to it as a potential AU of their OWN AU. No, I don't know why I'm like this either. *sigh* Anyway, there's not really that much to it at this point in time -- while I have spoiled myself on the story (and seen a bunch of cutscenes thanks to my friend @gaydragonwizards), I haven't actually played that much of the game itself and thus don't know exactly how the trio would react to EVERY quest and NPC in the game. I do know some basics, though:

-->The AU starts with the Nautiloid happening to pop into the Valicer In The Dark universe by mistake while navigating -- the mind flayers decide they may as well abduct some people while they're here, and unfortunately Victor, Alice, and Smiler, walking the streets of Six Towers, are in range of the tentacles and taken aboard to be infected

-->Smiler wakes up in the canonical pod and finds their way to Us, saving them and immediately bonding with the little intellect devourer ("I'm a they/them too!"); Alice wakes up in a different pod nearby and is the first to meet Lae'zel, and helps her fight the imps; and Victor wakes up in the same room as Shadowheart, and is working on freeing her when the others arrive -- they get her out, get to the helm, and manage to fight their way to the transponder and connect the nerves

-->If you're wondering about potential language barriers, one of the good things about the tadpoles randomly connecting your mind to other people's is that it allows you to pick up Common super fast -- I basically see them getting a bit of an "information dump" on a few key things about the reality they're currently in during the initial connections

-->Also, in the process of freeing Shadowheart, the group find that woman in the other room and mess with her console, accidentally causing her to change -- a creepy moment made even creepier by Victor's Ghost Mind ability letting him briefly see the woman's soul escape...and then burn up as she transforms into a mind flayer. We will come back to this later

-->After the crash landing, Victor, Alice, and Smiler are very confused when they wake up to see a blue sky...and then, after waking up Shadowheart and being told, essentially, "it's blue because it's sunny?" are utterly GOBSMACKED to find themselves in a world with an ACTUAL SUN. Though shock and delight quickly turn to "oh wow, this is actually a lot hotter than we're used to, we need to find lighter clothes fast" XD

-->From there, they pick up the rest of the companions and work their way through the main plot, hoping to both find a way to get the damn tadpoles out of their heads and get home (because as nice as a world with a sun is, it's not Duskwall, and Smiler in particular would like to see their parents again plz)

-->Naturally, being pretty good-hearted people, they do the nice versions of the quests and help people out as much as possible -- though, also being a group of Shadows who nick things and sabotage schemes for their living, I can see them offering tips to the gang of tiefling children thieves and scam artists to help them in their chosen path. XD Also, Alice probably has to be talked out of killing Kagha right then and there when she threatens Arabella, and I'm not sure the snake survives THAT little encounter. Alice has a thing about people threatening children, as you might expect!

-->I foresee a lot of confusion on both sides about how different Duskwall and the Shattered Isles are from Faerun -- not just the sun thing, but also Victor having access to an entirely different form of magic (Gale in particular is like "wtf is this??? This is not Weave???"); the group not knowing what horses or cows are (both animals are extinct in their world) and having to be introduced to them -- while, on the flip side, being perfectly cool with eating rat; and the trio being briefly like "well, it's horrible what happened to that poor woman on the Nautiloid, but at least her ghost won't be slowly going insane and trying to feast on the life essence of the living" and the others being like "what." Leading to Victor, Alice, and Smiler learning that this world has an afterlife and being like D: as it dawns on them that the total destruction of the soul is not an accepted way to keep the world from being riddled from ghosts here. (The others are once again like "what the FUCK is wrong with your reality?")

-->Smiler spends a good portion of the early game looking for Us, before finally accepting sadly that the intellect devourer probably didn't survive the crash...and then they get to the mind flayer colony under Moonrise in Act Two and "Friend! You found the helm!" :D They are beyond happy to see Us and won't hear a word said against them from the other companions (who are naturally BAFFLED as to why Smiler wants an intellect devourer as a pet) -- and Us, for their part, is entirely loyal to their friend Smiler and all THEIR friends, because the kindness Smiler showed to them on the Nautiloid caused them to bond more closely with them than the rest of the hive :) Victor and Alice warm up to the little thing pretty quick, while the others...well, they get used to having a brain wandering around pretending to be a kitty. XD

-->Part of me would like Shar to somehow be responsible for the Shattered Isles no longer having a sun...and thus be real annoyed that people are still living in that world eight hundred and forty-seven years later (as Alice puts it, "you brought the darkness, and we just lit it back up again")

-->And in the "overpowered nonsense that wouldn't make it into any actual story stuff but is fun to think about," I enjoy pondering the possibility of the trio, when faced with the Avatar of Myrkul, using Victor's Whisper ghost-fighting stuff on it -- and successfully forcing it into a spirit bottle. I imagine the other companions would be like "how the FUCK did you bottle part of a GOD?!" while Myrkul would be just "...guess it beats dying again." Oh, and Withers finds it hilarious in his droll way. XD Bonus points for talking to Myrkul about what the damn plan with the Absolute even gets him, Myrkul realizing that he's somehow been had by the Netherbrain, and switching sides against his former compatriots because, yeah, this mind flayer invasion does NOT benefit him in any way, wtf.

-->Or, if you would like DIFFERENT godly intervention, I did have an idea where Mar-Mal is also able to access Faerun through the blessing they gave Smiler, and uses its influence to protect Smiler from the tadpole instead of Smiler having to rely on the Dream Visitor and the artifact. They task Smiler with spreading their influence and getting worshipers so Mar-Mal can do more on this plane, and Smiler happily talks up their god to anyone who will listen (also sharing what samples they have left of their Joy Serum). And fortunately for them, people are willing to throw at least a few prayers the way of a god of pure happiness...meaning that during the endgame, when it's time to fight the Netherbrain, Mar-Mal's gotten just enough power to come into Faerun, filling the sky with spiral clouds as they manifest. The gang still has to fight the Netherbrain, but it's easier as the Netherbrain is, um, a bit distracted trying to not be mindwarped by Mar-Mal! XD And once the threat is defeated, Mar-Mal is able to open up a temporary portal to bring Victor, Alice, and Smiler home. With the implication that they could get back eventually...like, say, in six months to catch up. :p

Whew -- bit more than I expected here! I don't know if anything is actually going to come from this -- I mean, I definitely have to get the REGULAR Valicer In The Dark stuff done first -- but it's fun to think about as I play the game. And it has inspired me to make a few not-incorrect quotes/shitposty scenes...

#valicer in the dark au #baldur's gate 3 #vitd bg3 #yeah my brain is -- weird #I think we can all accept this now #I just like the idea of the trio ending up in this bizarre new world and needing to adapt #and confusing the hell out of the locals in the process XD #might be some meta fun to be had with the fact that D&D and Blades In The Dark play VERY differently too #Alice utterly ignores turn order while fighting because that's not really a thing in BITD #Victor of course has totally different magic #and Smiler is being charming and having loads more success with a bigger dice pool XD #and yes they have a special bond with Us #if only because I developed a special bond with Us after seeing them for the first time in YouTube videos #what can I say the brain is cute and I love them #and now Smiler loves them too #best brain kitty #queued

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victorluvsalice · 1 year

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Valicer Polyship Week, Day Two: Huddling For Warmth (Valicer In The Dark AU)

Day Two of Valicer Polyship Week, courtesy of @polyshipweek, and we’re up to the first of a pair of Valicer In The Dark AU fics! This is the verse where Victor, Alice, and Smiler are a crew in the Blades in the Dark setting of Duskwall, having been brought together by Alice and Smiler trying to help Victor with his “ghost bride” problem, only to find themselves and him accused of murder after said ghost bride takes out her killer. So they just kind of embraced being criminals and set themselves up in a lair, ready to do at least vaguely Robin-Hood-ish crimes (and sell drugs, in Smiler’s case). The problem is, said lair (a version of Elder Gutknecht’s tower from Corpse Bride) isn’t exactly in the best repair at the time of this story, meaning that keeping warm on a chilly, drafty night is a bit of a problem. . .good thing I let them have my nice big purple blanket to keep themselves warm. XD Enjoy!

---

“Ugh. . .why is it always so cold in here?”

“Well, you not having an ounce of body fat on you cannot help.”

Victor shot Alice a look. “I can’t help that. It’s true of everyone on my father’s side.”

“It wasn’t a judgment, just an observation,” Alice told him, tucking in the side of the blanket they were sharing a little more tightly around herself. “I think it’s safe to say the real culprit is every crack and chip in this old wreck of a house that lets in the breeze.”

“It’s not as bad as it was when we first moved in,” Smiler offered up from Victor’s other side, as usual looking on the bright side of things. “Once we got the glass in the windows again, things warmed up a lot!”

“Define ‘a lot,’” Victor groused, snuggling deeper into the soft purple cloth swaddled around the three of them. Yes, making sure to grab this before we fled my parents’ house was my best idea yet. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any brilliant ideas for a new kind of heater?” His eyes flicked to Alice. “One that doesn’t rely on open flame?”

“We can light the fireplace,” Alice said, though her tone was reluctant. “I can get over myself when it comes to avoiding losing some digits to frostbite.”

“No, we saw your face when we tried lighting it the first time – I’m not going to be the one to plunge you back into bad memories,” Smiler said firmly. “Besides, it doesn’t work very well, and we don’t have a good way to clean it, so. . .” They snuggled up against Victor. “What sort of heater do you want? Like the radiators your parents had in their mansion?”

“Ideally. . .though I guess that means we have to figure out running water first,” Victor admitted, frowning.

“Hey, I don’t mind turning my talents to plumbing! We need to do something about the bathroom anyway.”

“Other than toss the refuse down the nearest street drain?” Alice remarked blandly.

“That would be nice – unless there’s a mushroom farm down there,” Smiler said, sitting up straight. “We should check, actually – I bet you some lord or other set up something before the place went to ruin. And even if there’s not, we could set one up – who’s gonna check the tunnels here in Six Towers? We can get a few samples from my parents and see what grows!”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Victor admitted, before reaching out and pulling Smiler back in against him. “But let’s save it for a less-cold evening, shall we?”

“I’m in favor of that – even if squelching through our own poop would be pretty warm,” Alice said with her best Cheshire Cat grin.

Victor made a face at her. “You’re disgusting.”

Alice laid her head on his shoulder, blinking up at him. “And yet you haven’t kicked me out of the huddle.”

“Yes, well, you’re warm too.” Victor slipped his arm around her. “I love you. Both of you. And not just because you’re warm.”

“And we love you,” Smiler said, kissing his cheek. “And not just because you’re warm, because that would be a lie. Seriously, how is it you never gain an ounce no matter what you eat?”

“I don’t know! And I’m not about to summon up the ghosts of my ancestors to ask, so don’t mention it.”

“Aww. . .”

---

#valicer polyship week #PolyshipWeek23 #valicer #fanfic #valicer in the dark au #huddling for warmth #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #the smiler #corpse bride #American McGee's Alice #yes as you might imagine it was kinda chilly when I wrote this XD #and yes I own that big purple blanket they're all cuddling in #it's really good for keeping warm in winter #as they're finding out :p #and yes sewer mushroom farms are a thing in Duskwall #mushrooms are one of the key foodstuffs in a world where the sun got shattered into mere embers 800 years ago #and yes this was inspired by my Gutknecht Bend build from a little while ago #I still kind of want to make a wrecked version of it #and maybe use it for a challenge save #where I make Victor Alice and Smiler as their Valicer In The Dark selves #have them move into it using the Makin' Money scenario #and then have to make bank and fix up the house without getting 'real' jobs #maybe one day!#if and when things calm down a bit in my supposedly 'lazy save' XD #queued

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victorluvsalice · 7 months

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AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark -- Accused

Time for more Valicer In The Dark, with my current favorite of the snippets I have written so far. :D This entry takes place a little while after "Discoveries" -- after getting a gondola to Brightstone and the Everglot Manor, the trio and Emily invaded the Barkis/Everglot wedding reception, causing chaos and causing the guests to scatter. Barkis himself fled into the streets with Victoria, but Victor, Alice, and Smiler were able to get her away from him (with Victor encouraging her to run for help, which she did), and Emily ended up possessing Barkis to stop him trying to kill Victor. Which led to her finding a couple of electroplasm bombs on his person, tossing one to Alice ("in case you need it to solve your problem"), and using the other to blow both herself and Barkis up. Of course, the local Bluecoat squad (run by Sargent Tannen) showed up only AFTER this had all happened...and while the trio were doing their best to explain the whole mess, one of Tannen's men just made a very unfortunately discovery on Barkis's corpse...

---

“Ah – Sargent Tannen?”

Everyone turned toward the Bluecoat – Alice was reasonably certain he was named Thomas – examining Barkis’s fried corpse. “We – we have a bit of a problem,” Thomas continued, holding up a partially-melted mask.

A partially-melted bronze mask.

Alice’s jaw damn near hit the cobbles. “What – how – he – he couldn’t have been,” she said, shaking her head against the damning evidence before her. “Not a chance!”

“To be fair, all of them are completely anonymous,” Smiler pointed out, looking as stunned as she felt. Beside them, Victor gaped, equally as shocked by the implications. “And it would explain why he had electroplasm bombs on him.”

“I refuse to believe it!” Alice insisted. “That asshole, a Spirit Warden? It boggles the bloody mind!”

“Purrhaps, but no one said you had to be good to be a Warden,” Cheshire told her, though even his smile looked a little fainter in the light of this news.

“And Bumby’s convinced everyone that he’s the heart and soul of charity,” the Queen of Hearts reminded her, rolling her eyes. “Why should this Barkis be any different? He fooled at least one woman to her death, after all.”

Tannen stared at the mask for a very long moment. Then a cold smile spread over his face. “Well well well,” he said, turning back to the three. “Seems like your little story just doesn’t hold up.”

“What? Sir, with all due respect, nothing about our story changes just because he happened to be a Spirit Warden,” Smiler said, putting on an increasingly-nervous smile of their own.

“Really? You want me to believe a Spirit Warden got killed by a ghost? One that you lot claim he himself murdered?” Tannen tched a few times. “I don’t think that’s very likely, do you?”

“Well, no, but it can’t be impossible,” Smiler argued. “There’s all sorts of scary spirits out there.”

“And these folks are the best of the best when it comes to dealing with them.” Tannen paced back and forth in front of them, hands held behind his back. “No, I think I know exactly what happened. I think this little slip of a dogsbody girl, the one who everyone knows ain’t right in the head, the one that poor Dr. Bumby took in out of the goodness of his heart, found herself an Advocate willing to listen and talked ‘em around into helping her kidnap the son of one of the richest families in the city to see what they could get for a ransom, striking the day before his wedding to make sure he would be missed. And when his family didn’t pay up, and his bride just married someone else...” He went over and nudged Barkis’s corpse with his toe. “Well. Somebody got a little mad and murdered that new husband in a fit of rage.”

“What?!” Alice stepped forward, balling her fists. The other Bluecoats immediately closed in tighter around them, raising their batons. “That – that isn’t what happened and you know it!”

“You – cannot possibly – have you met any other Advocates?” Smiler demanded, waving a hand in the air. “We believe in happiness! How am I going to foster that by kidnapping someone?!”

“Wouldn’t it make you happy to get a nice fat payday?” Tannen chuckled. “I don’t blame you for trying, mind. Just a shame that the fellow you ended up offin’ was a Spirit Warden. If you’re lucky, you might just end up with life down in Ironhook. If not...” His grin got wider and meaner. “They always need new souls to power the Hulls they got makin’ the hunter boats.” He casually flicked his hand. “Boys, if you could cuff Miss Liddell and–”

“No!”

Victor stepped forward, eyes narrowed in righteous fury. “You’ve got this completely wrong!” he continued, hands held tight at his sides. Around him, the Bluecoats glanced at each other, wondering if they dared do anything to someone known to be rich. “I was taken away into the ghost field while practicing my vows after the rehearsal by a ghost who thought I’d agreed to marry her! Alice and Smiler were the closest people around when I finally found my way back into the real world, and they helped me! Took me somewhere warm and made sure I got a good meal in me! And they didn’t hesitate an instant to come with me and Emily when we learned that Victoria’s husband was likely the man who’d murdered her! They were just trying to make sure that – that b-bastard down there didn’t kill anyone else! I don’t care if he was a – a Spirit Warden! That doesn’t automatically mean he was a good person!” He pointed a finger at Tannen’s chest. “And it doesn’t mean you can j-just make up a story to throw two undeserving people in jail!”

Tannen looked at the finger, then back up at Victor. He chewed his lip, then leaned in conspiratorially. “Well – I may be willing to admit I’ve made a mistake,” he said softly, holding out a hand. “You know. If you can back that story up.”

Victor sighed heavily, then plunged a hand into his pocket. “Yes, of course, I – I...”

He paused. He felt around for a moment. Then the anger drained from his face as a briefly-forgotten fact suddenly came back to him. “Oh...I – I don’t have my wallet,” he breathed, glancing back at Smiler and Alice.

Tannen raised an eyebrow. “No? Nothing? Huh.” He smirked and stepped back, raising his voice again. “Oh dear me – it looks like Master Van Dort was in on this ‘kidnapping,’ lads! Conspiracy to defraud his own loving parents! We’re gonna have to haul him in too!”

Alice’s head snapped left and right as the Bluecoats began to move in, unhooking manacles from their belts with a fiendish glee. Fuck – and there’s no point in telling this lot about Bumby, they’ll never believe me...or even if they do, they’ll never do anything about it. It’s just so much easier to take the lot of us to jail for a murder we didn’t commit, and – and Victor’s parents will almost certainly bail him out, and Smiler’s fellow Advocates rescue them from the cells, but me – I’m going straight back to Rutledge, and since I’m old enough this time they’re just going to Hollow me out and that’ll be the end of me and Bumby will continue ruining all those children’s lives forever –

“Unless you stop waiting for help and get moving!” Cheshire said, appearing by her side with claws outstretched and tail lashing the air.

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step!” Caterpillar added, flitting about her head. “Or, perhaps in this case, a single stab.”

“That idiot Carpenter had the right of it before – are you a pawn, or a Queen?” the Queen of Hearts snarled, tentacles slithering like snakes through the cobbles around her. “Do something, or we are all lost! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”

A furious heat surged through Alice’s veins, almost akin to the spray of a Ragebox or the explosion of Hysteria. “You miserable, self-important, misbegotten toadies!” she yelled, tearing her knife from her apron strings. “I’ll show you I’m not to be trifled with!”

The Bluecoat behind her snorted and raised his baton – Alice spun on the spot and jabbed her blade between his ribs, causing him to stumble back screaming. Alice tore the Vorpal Blade from his flesh and whipped around, parrying the next blow from his companion before kicking him in the knee. A third came in, truncheon swinging – Alice ducked under it and stabbed him in the groin, getting a pained sympathetic hiss from all the menfolk (and one nonbinary person with the right equipment) in the area. The fourth, Thomas, straight-up dove for her like she was a runaway dog – she flung herself out of the way, and he cracked his chin on the cobbles. The fifth attempted to pull his gun, but he hadn’t even gotten it halfway up when her knife went through his wrist, making him shriek and drop it. Alice kicked it away, then – spotting a shadow coming up on her fast – whirled again and put the Blade straight through eye of the unlucky sixth member of Tannen’s squad. He roared in agony and fell to his knees, scrabbling at the weapon – Alice did him the favor of pulling it out, then looked up. Tannen, Victor, and Smiler all stood there, eyes wide and mouths agape, as if they could see her at her Wonderland best. Which was admittedly quite gratifying, but... “Run?” she suggested to her new friends.

Fortunately, that was all it took for Victor and Smiler to get moving, darting down a side alley. Alice was straight on their heels, managing to weave around Tannen as he broke from his trance to try and grab her. “Get up! Get up!” she heard him scream at his injured squad as they booked it. “They’re getting away!”

“Damn straight we are – that was brilliant!” Smiler added, shooting Alice an impressed grin as she caught up. “I didn’t know you could do that!”

“To be fair, I didn’t either!” Alice replied, unable to help a laugh of mingled shock and relief. “Not outside my head, at any rate!”

“Best time to learn!” Victor called from his position at the head of the pack. He skidded to a brief stop as they reached the mouth of the alley, then hooked a left. “Come on, this way!”

“Right behind you!” Smiler said, swinging left after him.

“And they are right behind you, so keep a move on!” Rabbit warned Alice, darting past her as the sound of booted footsteps started closing in on her.

“Wasn’t planning on stopping!” Alice shouted back, skidding left as she left the alley. She booked it down the street (this one full of shops and restaurants) after Victor and Smiler, past some startled ladies out for their evening constitutional. “Ugh, if only I could pull off that damn butterfly dodge here...”

“You may want to try anyway – incoming!” Hatter yelled, leaping past her.

Alice immediately looked behind her – just in time to see Thomas, now bleeding from the chin and with a look that could melt iron – lunging for her, arms spread wide to envelop her in the world’s worst embrace. She let out a rather undignified shriek and whipped sideways in an attempt to escape –

Only to find a fancy carriage pulling up beside her like a rolling roadblock. Without even thinking, she jumped like she might in Wonderland, hoping somehow to get enough height to clear it – her foot hit something hard – the door handle? The little window sill? – and she leapt again –

And found herself indeed atop the carriage, swaying but upright. Thomas gaped up at her, as did the startled carriage driver – Alice couldn’t blame them, as she was pretty shocked herself. “How in the Emperor’s name–”

“Running now, questioning later!” Rabbit cried, leaping off the other side of the carriage and sprinting toward Victor and Smiler, who’d apparently had the same thought she’d had about crossing the street to get away from their pursuers and a bit more luck in doing so. “Come on, come on!”

“Right!” Alice hastily clambered off the carriage, ignoring the baffled shouts of those within, and ran to meet Victor and Smiler as they doubled back toward her “No, no, it’s okay, I’m fine!” she assured them, waving a hand. “Keep moving!”

“How did you do that?” Victor demanded, slowing deliberately as he and Smiler turned back around so she could keep up. “I swear, when I turned around and saw you jumping like that, it looked for a moment like you’d learned how to levitate!”

“Sheer luck, I think – and an active imagination,” Alice added, glancing down and seeing blue overtaking the black in her skirt. Not the best time, brain, but if you keep it to that, I’ll allow it. “We can figure out how I learned to fly when we’re free of this lot!”

“Keep going!” Tannen’s voice roared behind them, reminding them of the danger. “Thomas, you idiot, Donovan’s already gone on ahead! How have you not gotten a hand on them yet?!”

“Not my fault, sir!” Thomas replied furiously. “That bitch has the devil’s footsteps!”

“And doesn’t she count herself lucky to have them,” Alice muttered as they pounded on, down another alley beside some sort of jewelry store. “Desperation breeds all sorts of talents, I suppose...”

“That I can believe – I’m really good at climbing things thanks to having to escape bullies in Nightmarket when I was small,” Victor admitted, pushing his hair back from his face. “Still, that was incredible.”

“Yeah, you’ll have to teach us how to do it!” Smiler said, shooting her a smile.

“I don’t know if it can be taught,” Alice said, swiping a hand across her eyes to knock the sweat out of them. “It really was just luck. I doubt I’ll be able to do it again.”

“Well, hey, if you do pull it off again, let us know and we’ll – whoa!”

A Bluecoat with a bleeding wrist – almost certainly the “Donovan” Tannen had just mentioned – burst out of a side door in the jewelry store, slamming into Smiler and knocking them into the nearby wall. “Got you now!” he declared, digging his fingers into Smiler’s collar despite his injury. “Like to see you smile your way out of this one!”

“Leave them alone!” Victor yelled, grabbing the offending arm and trying to drag it off. Alice yanked her knife out again, ready to assist as violently as the situation called for.

“No, no, it’s fine, you two – I know just how to deal with people like him,” Smiler assured them, waving a hand as the other one disappeared into their pocket. “They just need a little more joy in their lives!”

“Oh yeah?” Donovan snarled, jerking his arm to free it from Victor’s grip. “And you’re the one to give it to me?”

Smiler grinned and winked. “Well – I am a bit of an alchemist.”

And with that, they yanked their out their fist and jabbed Donovan in the neck with what Alice recognized as a Joy Serum syringe. Donovan yelped and stumbled back, clawing the emptied needle out of his neck. “There we go – have fun!” Smiler said with a cheery wave, before gently giving Victor a shove. “I always keep a spare on me, just in case – he won’t be a problem now, but how about we keep moving anyway?”

“Sure...that’s, uh, safe?” Victor asked as Donovan wobbled in place, a rather dazed-looking smile starting to spread across his face as he giggled vaguely.

“Oh perfectly, he’ll be fine! You know, so long as someone sees to the blood loss from that wrist,” Smiler qualified with a quick look back at the puddle spreading across the cobbles.

“I don’t particularly care if anyone ever tends to that or not,” Alice admitted, pushing them both along. “Rabbit’s going to have our heads if we don’t keep on, so...”

“Right, right...” Victor took point again – not that he had much choice, given he had the longest legs of the three of them – and paused briefly at the junction ahead. “Okay, so...I think the Sanctorium is that way, so...the other direction should be Shimmer Canal. . .right, come on, this way – NOT THIS WAY, NOT THIS WAY!!”

Victor did an about-face out of the alley he’d chosen so fast, Alice was half-certain he’d just flipped around without actually going through any of the intervening bits. He shoved Alice and Smiler backward, down a gap between two stores, eyes wide with sudden horror. “What? What is it?” Alice demanded, trying to peer around him to see what had frightened him so.

“Ambush?” Smiler asked, doing the same.

“No, no,” Victor squeaked, rapidly shaking his head. “It’s–”

“Really, Master Van Dort?”

The trio all froze, then skittered deeper into their hiding spot, Victor holding himself protectively in front of them. “‘Not this way’ shouted at the top of your lungs?” Tannen’s voice continued, as his booted footsteps drew closer and closer to the junction. “That is the most amateur bit of work I’ve seen since I started on the force!”

A moment later, Tannen himself emerged into the T, accompanied by Thomas (apparently the only Bluecoat of his squad still both able and willing to walk). “These rich snobs don’t know the first thing about properly escaping pursuit,” Tannen groused, getting a nod from Thomas. “No, it’s all just throwing money at the problem – which, don’t get me wrong, I’m quite happy with, but still. Like that sort of thing would fool anyone.” He turned down the alley Victor had originally picked, not even bothering to turn his head, Thomas right behind. “I’ve got you now, you little–”

“ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!”

The most spectacular electroplasmic display Alice had ever seen erupted out of the alley – glowing, sparking goop splattering across the walls and cobbles while great arcs of current shot through the air, making her hair stand on end. A horrible gray something that Alice thought might have once been a woman streaked forward after it, seizing Tannen in its grip before he could even have a chance to scream. It howled with the mad rage that only a feral specter could properly express and raked ghostly claws across his chest – claws that still, somehow, managed to cut, tearing deep gouges into his flesh that crackled as they burned with a distressing pale light. Thomas shrieked and tore back the way they had come – Good thinking, Alice decided, and grabbed Victor and Smiler by the hand and towed them away down the gap, leaving the screams of the feasting specter and the deeply unlucky Tannen behind.

They ran for a little bit in silence, across a couple more toff-filled streets, concerned only with putting as much distance between themselves and the specter as possible. Finally, though, they paused in yet another alley behind a dress shop, Alice releasing her compatriots’ hands so she could press hers to her breast. “...well,” she said as she caught her breath. “That was – horrifying.”

“Yup,” Smiler said simply, taking off their cap and running their fingers through their hair.

“I know,” Victor agreed, wiping off his face. “Oh, that...that is going to...haunt my nightmares...”

“Mine too...but...how did you know she was there?” Alice asked, turning to him as she leaned against the wall. “Ghosts like that usually don’t make themselves known until they pounce on their prey.”

“I – I ju-just saw her,” Victor stammered, waving a hand around. “The m-moment I stepped into the alley. I could s-see her plain as day, and I could f-f-feel how powerful she was. I – I just count myself lucky she didn’t see us.”

“Me too,” Smiler said, shaking themselves like a dog spraying water. They shot Victor a grateful smile. “You probably just saved our lives there.”

“I c-couldn’t just let you walk into that! Even if I’m not...I’m not...I...what’s happened to me?!” Victor demanded of the world generally, flailing his arms. “How could I see her before – she’s a ghost! You don’t see ghosts! Not unless they let you! I’d never seen a ghost at all before until Emily came along! And now they’re just – everywhere?”

“Everywhere?” Alice repeated, abruptly keenly aware of just how haunted the city was supposed to be even with the help of the Spirit Wardens (and if they let people like Barkis into their little club, suddenly she understood why).

“Yes! I – that street we just ran across – there’s three ghosts on it!” Victor declared, pointing behind them. “N-not dangerous ones, not like her, but – I saw them, going t-through the motions of their lives! And I don’t know why!”

“You did just spend about an entire day in the ghost field,” Smiler pointed out, expression thoughtful. “Maybe you’ve developed a sort of – ‘ghost mind’ as a result? An extra sensitivity to the supernatural?”

“Seems logical to me,” Alice nodded.

Victor stared at them a moment. “So I’m – I’m just stuck seeing ghosts now?”

“Maybe? I mean, we’d have to keep an eye on you for the next few days, see if the effect wanes any,” Smiler said, smiling brightly now that the immediate danger was over and the fun of scientific exploration was before them. “Oh, and see if you can consistently tell the difference between echoes, specters, horrors, reconciled...”

“Easy there, Advocate,” Alice said, pulling on Smiler’s sleeve gently as Victor began tugging anxiously on this tie. “Let’s get out of Brightstone first – then we can start worrying about Victor possibly being a little bit ghosty.”

#valicer in the dark au #fanfic #valicer #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #yeah okay this snippet does feel like basically half an actual story chapter #or maybe an actual story chapter #but I really like it #I had a lot of fun writing Alice taking on the six Bluecoats #and then the chase sequence #I feel like I did a good job with this one :D #and for those of you with a keen eye #you may notice that this whole sequence is about the trio demonstrating the special abilities they have on their playbooks #complete with in-universe 'callouts' of a sort #they may not be official scoundrels yet buuut #they have definitely got the skills for it!#queued

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victorluvsalice · 7 months

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AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark -- Discoveries

I am back with more Valicer In The Dark AU fanfic! Because I've actually written a fair bit for this AU over the past few months, and I figured that as long as it is sitting on my hard drive... Today's entry takes place a little while after "First(ish) Meetings" -- while Alice and Smiler were successful in getting Victor to the Mangled Mermaid so he could rest with a bowl of mushroom soup and get his head back on straight, it turned out that Emily managed to follow them there. And she's just realized what kind of place her new "husband" is hanging out in...

---

“Is this – is this a brothel?!”

The ghostly bride whirled on Victor, literal sparks flashing in her blue eyes as the air around her began to hum with electroplasmic charge. “Did you really run away from me to visit a whorehouse?!” she demanded, advancing on her unfortunate groom with hair twisting and curling around her face like devilfish tentacles, and her veil and train streaming behind her in an invisible breeze. The other patrons of the Mermaid promptly began clearing the area, a few preemptively making for the door.

“No! I wasn’t – t-this is j-just – this w-wasn’t my i-intention!” Victor babbled, holding his hands up in front of him in desperate supplication as he backed himself into the wall.

“Then what was your intention?” Emily demanded, face contorted with fury. Alice felt around again for her spiritbane charm, ready to chuck it at the ghost’s head if necessary. “Hmm? What possible reason could you have for coming here that isn’t – you know?!”

“Uh – food?”

All heads jerked around toward Smiler, standing a few dangerous feet from the confrontation. “He’s telling the truth – he didn’t really mean to come here,” they continued, giving Emily their best disarming smile. “Alice and I brought him here when he stumbled out of the ghost field onto the street where we were talking – but it wasn’t for the company. Nothing against you ladies, I’m sure you’re all wonderful,” they added, giving one of Nanny’s girls a thumb’s up. She returned it with an expression indicating she wasn’t entirely sure what else to do. “But our main concern was the fact that his stomach was growling louder than a leviathan.” They held up a gentle hand. “I know it’s probably been a while for you, and I’m sorry to bring it up if it causes you pain, but – living people do need to eat and drink if they’re going to stay alive. And you don’t actually want him to die – right?”

Emily stared at them for a long, worrying moment. . .then she blinked, and the hum softened as her veil dropped back down behind her. “No, I – I don’t,” she said, sounding a bit more – human. “I would never...oh, Victor, I’m sorry,” she added, turning back to him. “I – I genuinely do forget sometimes now about eating and drinking, and...” She blinked, electroplasmic tears shimmering in her eyes. “I have no idea how long it’s been since I was murdered, do you know that? I know I’ve been waiting for my true love for ages, but...I don’t think I kept you that long in my world, right?”

“I don’t know – I don’t think so,” Victor said, letting his hands drop. “But it is very hard to tell time in the ghost field, you’re right. . .I’m sorry too, Emily,” he continued in a softer voice. “I – I shouldn’t have just – s-slipped away from you like that. I should have t-tried to e-explain better. B-but I didn’t have the words, and I was s-so scared, and – and like Smiler said, I was hungry and cold, and...” He sighed heavily, pressing his fingers against his forehead. “And absolutely nothing lately has gone according to plan.”

“I know the feeling.” Emily perked up a little, a hesitant smile tugging at her lips. “But – but we can still make this work, right? We can alternate which side of the field we’re on day by day, so you can still eat and drink and – and not have to worry! We’ll even find a nice place to set up house together!”

“I think anyone who sees you two house-shopping is going to call the Spirit Wardens on you,” Alice couldn’t help saying.

Emily shot her a look. “I’m sure once I explain that Victor is my husband, they’ll be willing to – accommodate us. Somehow.”

Victor dropped his head, staring at his shoes. “That’s – that’s just it, Emily,” he muttered in a defeated voice. “The problem isn’t just that you’re d-dead – it’s that I’m already engaged.”

Emily froze – even her veil and skirts stopped bobbing. Alice had to admit, the sight was impressive as it was eerie. “What?”

“Engaged,” Victor repeated softly. “T-that’s why I was saying my vows w-where you could hear – I was practicing them after b-being run out of my own rehearsal for n-not being able to remember them.” He winced. “Well, t-that and leaving a lit candle on my future m-mother-in-law’s dress...”

“What? How and why did you do that?” Alice demanded, hands unconsciously clenching into fists as shadowy flames licked the walls. Behind her, the Queen of Hearts huffed, glaring at the offending groom as if she wished to take his head.

“I-it was an accident! We’d been r-rehearsing for t-three hours, and we’d only just gotten through ‘with this candle, I will light your way in darkness’ w-when we were interrupted by a newcomer...and when I t-tried to recall the next part of the vows, I got distracted and walked right into the table,” Victor said, rubbing his face hard. “Pastor Galswells d-demanded to know if I even had the r-ring, and when I pulled it o-out of my jacket pocket, I dropped it – and, of course, it rolled right under Lady Everglot’s s-skirt. And I was so intent on getting it back, I just – left the candle on her dress. It j-just figures after I had s-so much trouble getting it to light in the first place...” He waved placatingly. “She was fine – n-nothing worse than a small burn on her hem, I promise.”

“Yes, well, maybe make a better habit of keeping track of lit candles in the future,” Alice said, a bit harsher than she’d intended. “You never know when a flame in the wrong place might ruin someone’s life.”

“As Bumby ruined yours?” the Queen of Hearts hissed in her ear. “Ridiculous girl, you know the truth now. Why have you not cut his neck in twain?”

I can’t just kill him – what if the Spirit Wardens don’t find him in time? The last thing I want to deal with is his ghost. And while I’d like to expose him, he’s built up such a reputation as a do-gooder, it’ll be hard to topple. Especially since my own is in the gutter thanks to Rutledge – which you didn’t help with, I’ll remind you.

“I know, I know – I never – oh,” Victor groaned, letting his head thunk back against the wall. “I’ve got to learn to keep my wits about me better...”

“You do,” Emily agreed, folding her arms as she bobbed lightly in place. “So what happened after that? You ran away from your own rehearsal and, what, just wandered down my street saying your vows to yourself? With no idea that I was there at all?”

“More like Pastor Galswells ordered me out, but – yes,” Victor said, crossing his heart. “I’d been walking around, trying to get my head on straight and the words out right, and I – I didn’t even see you until you rose out of the ground before me.” He paused. “I – uh – did run away. Didn’t that seem – suspicious?”

“Well, I knew I’d startled you, but...I thought people knew I died there,” Emily said, expression falling. “That you’d come to – give my soul some peace by reciting the vows. And I know I was a little enthusiastic, but I was so happy, and...” She looked away, drumming her fingers against her arm – an impressive feat for a being so largely immaterial. “All right then, who is your actual fiancee? I’d like to meet Little Miss Living.”

“Hey, there’s no call to be rude,” Smiler chided. “It’s not her fault.”

“Exactly – from everything I c-could see in the few hours we had together, Victoria Everglot is a very nice person,” Victor agreed with a nod. “She never asked for any of this – i-it’s an arranged marriage, my family’s wealth for her family’s status. Please, if you’re in a mood, take it out on me, not her.”

“Everglot?”

Everyone’s attention abruptly shifted to Nanny, who was watching the scene with a curious tilt of her head. “Hang, I swear I heard something about them from one of them criers earlier this afternoon,” she continued, reaching up to fix her sagging bun. “Something about the daughter getting married?”

“What?” Victor started forward, nearly tripping over his own feet. “I – married to who? And when? I – w-what day is this?!”

“30th of Mendar,” Smiler provided.

“Yeah, and she got hitched today,” Nanny nodded. “Rush ceremony, I guess – maybe they didn’t want to waste the cake. Her and Lord – somebody or other, give me a minute...”

Victor stared at them both, head swiveling like it had been freshly greased. “30th of...I’ve been gone a day? And the Everglots already found a replacement?!”

“Seems like you weren’t very special to them, darling,” Emily said, in a tone that suggested she was trying to be mean, but not really succeeding. She sighed, letting her arms drop. “I’m sorry. I mean that. It’s not as bad as what happened to me, but it is horrible to be thrown over so easily.”

“I just...I thought...” Victor slumped into a nearby chair, running his fingers through his hair. “T-the whole point of the m-m-marriage was that the Everglots desperately needed my family’s money, and were willing to deal with my mother’s social-climbing to get it. I mean, they’re barely keeping themselves out of the poorhouse as it is. And when I met Victoria...we d-didn’t have long together, I admit, but – she seemed genuinely sweet. Complimented my piano playing, encouraged me to call her by her first name, seemed the least annoyed by my constant mistakes during the rehearsal...I – I was – just k-kind of hoping...”

“Well, if her parents are arranging the match, she likely didn’t have much choice in the matter,” Alice reminded him. “I doubt she’s any happier about the change in groom – especially if she’s gone from you to a total stranger.”

Victor rubbed the back of his head. “Well, uh, to be f-fair, we ourselves only met yesterday afternoon. Mother – well, she s-seemed to think it was a good thing that I’d never spoken to her before, so...”

Alice’s eyebrows shot up in shock. “What – not even a tea together first? To help you get to know each other?”

“That seems – abrupt,” Smiler agreed, blinking. “How can they be sure you’ll be happy together if they don’t let you get to know each other first?”

“Given what he just said about his mother, I doubt that was a priority, Smiler,” Alice pointed out. “This whole thing seems more like a business deal than a romantic connection.”

“It really is – they didn’t even tell me I was getting m-married until a month before,” Victor muttered. “But like I said, I was hoping for the best after meeting Victoria...and now...” He groaned, putting his head in his hands. “My parents are going to kill me.” He glanced up at Emily through his fingers. “Which would solve our problem, admittedly.”

“Don’t joke – I don’t want you to die,” Emily said with a stern frown. “Being dead’s awful. You’re always cold, and nobody talks to you, and...” She rubbed her arms. “...and I don’t remember what my mother looked like, despite knowing I’m wearing her dress. Or the sound of my father’s voice, even though I know he forbade my marriage to Eddie. And there’s so many big chunks of time now where I’m barely even conscious of myself, where all of you look like candles and all I want is to steal your light...” She sniffled, ghostly tears glittering in her eyes again. “That’s why I was so happy to hear you say your vows. I thought – I thought for sure having a proper husband, being able to be a wife instead of a bride...”

“Oh, Emily...” Victor stood up again, coming over to her. “I – I’m sorry. I wish I’d told you all this first thing. I wish – I wish I could have found you under better circumstances. If things were different...you really are nice.”

Emily sniffed. “You’re just saying that.”

“He’s not,” Smiler said immediately. “He made it clear even while he was trying to escape that he felt bad for what had happened to you.”

“It is a horrible story,” Alice agreed. “You deserved better.”

“You did,” Victor nodded. “And for what it’s worth, I did actually genuinely enjoy that duet you pulled me into in the pub. I’ve never met anyone as enthusiastic about the piano as I am before. It’s – it’s refreshing.”

Emily smiled weakly. “Thanks. I wish things were different too.” She sighed, skirts undulating in her personal breeze. “Look, do you want me to explain–”

“Barkis!”

Nanny snapped her fingers, drawing their attention back to her. “Lord Barkis, that was it! Some newcomer to the city! Must have swooped in and dazzled them with his foreign riches,” she declared. “Hard luck, sure, but it’s hard to compete with Iruvian honey or whatever it is–”

“Barkis?”

Emily’s voice was barely more than a whisper, but it drew all eyes to her just the same. “Edward Barkis?” she continued, a bitter bite in her tone now as her veil started crackling softly.

“Uh – dunno,” Nanny said, backing up a step despite herself. “Crier didn’t say. Why?”

“Because Edward Barkis was my fiance.” Emily spread her arms, letting everyone get a good look at the dark silver stain on the front of her gown, and the open wound between two of her ribs. “Up until he shoved a knife through my heart for my mother’s jewels and my father’s gold.”

“Seems you two are kindred spirits, of a sort,” Cheshire commented, grinning wider over his pun.

I think that description applies more to poor Lizzie than it does to me. “You think it’s the same man, then?” Alice said, folding her arms.

“Might be – Eddie claimed to be the son of a shoemaker, but he could have been lying then too.” Emily turned to Victor, mouth a thin, anxious line. “I think we need to call on the former Miss Everglot quite urgently. Because if her Barkis is the same as mine – she’s going to suffer a lot worse than being thrown over.”

“Right,” Victor agreed, nodding rapidly. “I’d never forgive myself if she...we’ll hire a gondola, the canals will be faster than the streets...oh, wait, no, my wallet’s at home, I forgot to pick it up before the rehearsal, and then I didn’t think I’d need it...”

“I’ll pay,” Smiler said immediately. “I’ll come with you, even. Try and help you smooth things over.”

“What? Oh, no, you’ve done more than enough–” Victor started.

“I’m an Advocate – my whole purpose in life is to help people be happy,” Smiler cut in, holding up a firm finger. “And I think preventing her from getting murdered will make your former fiance very happy indeed! Besides, we don’t know what’s going to happen when you get to her house – in case her parents try to throw you out, or he has friends in the wedding party ready to try and take you out, don’t you want some back-up?”

“If that’s the scenario you’re worried about, I should go too,” Alice said, touching her knife. “I don’t know how either of you are in a fight, but I’ve gotten pretty handy with a blade out of necessity. Some of the creeps in Charhollow don’t listen to anything but a stab in the hand.” She bit her lip. “Not to mention, my own history makes me rather eager to see any arsehole who hurts young women for their own gratification get theirs.”

“On the wrong end of a marriage proposal yourself?” Emily asked, all sympathy.

“No – you might have died before this happened, but I’m the only survivor of the Liddell fire.”

“The Liddell – oooh,” Victor said, sucking in a breath. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize...” His brow (what there was of it) furrowed in sudden confusion. “But wait, I thought. . .the story I’ve always heard is that the family cat accidentally knocked over an oil lamp in the library?”

“A scurrilous lie perpetrated by the perpetrator,” Alice informed him. “I’ve been piecing together my memories of that night over the past few weeks, and Dinah wasn’t downstairs at all – she was in my room. In fact, she’s the reason I was the sole survivor – I wouldn’t have gotten out if she hadn’t shown me it was possible to live through leaping out the second story window.”

“Explains why we didn’t find her furry little body in the wreckage,” Nanny noted, frowning. “So you think someone came in and burned up your family deliberately?”

Alice swallowed. How far do I tip my hand...Nanny might believe me, she must remember poor Lizzie’s complaints, but the others...maybe I can talk around the fact that I think I work for the bastard now? “Yes – that awful suitor of Lizzie’s. I woke to the sounds of him – having his way with her – that night, and when he crept out and saw I was awake, he panicked, shut me in, and grabbed my nightlight. That was the lamp that ended up in the library fireplace and started off the whole conflagration.” She sighed heavily. “And he got away with it because I was in no fit state to let anyone know what I saw – hell, I threw the memories into the back of my mind because I just couldn’t deal with them.” And look what’s happened as a result.

“Beware the trap of guilt without action,” Caterpillar counseled, winging around her head. “Your own healing was necessary before you could help others. Just don’t delay too long in helping them now.”

Emily clasped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. “Oh – oh, I am so sorry. For you and your sister. . .yes, you must come with us,” she added, nodding. “If this is my Barkis, we’ll need the Bluecoats – and while we’ve got them there for me, you can tell them what you’ve remembered too and get that awful man put away!”

“I – I don’t know if they’ll believe me,” Alice admitted, scuffing the floor with a foot. “I’m well-known around the whole city for seeing things that aren’t there and being a general nuisance. They might just laugh in my face if I try to tell them everything I know about the fire is wrong.”

“They won’t laugh if I’m there,” Victor said, expression determined. “I may not actually have my family fortune to hand, but the name has got to count for something. I’ll tell them how you helped me, and that they should at least give you a hearing.”

“Same here,” Smiler promised. “You’re my friend, Alice, and you deserve justice for what happened to you and yours. You deserve to be happy again, plain and simple.”

Alice felt a long-forgotten warmth in her chest as she looked at the two of them. To be called a friend by someone she just occasionally passed by on her infrequent trips here...to have someone she’d just met be willing to vouch for her character...it made her smile, despite all her worries. “Thank you,” she said softly, then straightened up, all business. “Let’s be off, then.”

#valicer in the dark au #valicer #fanfic #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #here's where the 'snippets' start getting long XD #I mean the one I'm working on finishing up this week is at this point basically a chapter of a story #that's how far down I've gone down the rabbit hole with this AU now XD #no regrets I like playing in this universe #and redoing things for this universe #I mean it HAS occurred to me that I will have to establish that Jack Splatter was somehow prevented from burning down the Mermaid #but Nanny can keep her home and place of business in this world. as a treat #and I have fun writing Emily getting more and more electric the angrier she gets #but yeah this was kind of the 'exposition' scene #but I still feel like I did a good job #I'm REALLY proud of the next snippet I wrote though #perhaps that will pop up soon :)#queued

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victorluvsalice · 1 year

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Valicer Polyship Week, Day Eight: Free Day – Outsider POV (Valicer In The Dark AU)

It’s Day Eight, the final day of Valicer Polyship Week, courtesy of @polyshipweek, and we’re ending with the second of my Valicer In The Dark AU fics for the week! This particular fic actually started life as an attempt at the “Identity Porn” prompt for Day Six, with me thinking about all the different ways different people and groups in Duskwall might see Victor, Alice, and Smiler’s little crew -- but after rereading what “Identity Porn” actually means (dealing with multiple identities, like if you’re a super hero or spy), I decided it actually made more sense as a take on the “Outsider POV” prompt from Day Three. And as I’d already used “Bed Sharing” for Day Three’s story, I just grabbed the prompt for Day Eight’s “free day!” So yeah, here’s a simple list fic of how everyone in Duskwall sees The Three Pillars crew to end off the week. Enjoy!

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The Three Pillars of Duskwall, the newest criminal crew to walk the streets of the Empire’s greatest port city, were many things to many people.

To the local Bluecoats, they were an absolute embarrassment – a tiny gang of weirdos that had nevertheless slipped through their fingers far, far too many times for their liking.

To the Imperial Guard, they were essentially just part of the scenery, another trio of criminal scum beneath their notice – at least, after the Spirit Wardens had confirmed that no, the Pillars had not actually killed one of their own.

To the Gray Cloaks of Six Towers, they were eccentric but friendly neighbors – always conducting some sort of strange experiment or ritual in their lair, but largely keeping to themselves unless they had favors to trade.

To the factory foremen and industry leaders of the city, they were terrible thorns in their sides, saboteurs and rabble-rousers with an eye for making their lives all the harder (and occasionally all the shorter).

To the downtrodden works and urchins on the streets, they were beloved heroes, standing firm against those who exploited others and working to help give the common man a better life.

To William and Nell Van Dort, they were abductors and defilers, having stolen away their son and heir and stopped them from reaching the lofty social ranks that would have justified their move to the gleaming streets of Brightstone.

To Victoria White, nee Everglot, they were unexpected saviors – her previous fiance and his new friends having burst in at just the right time to save her from a marriage that would have certainly led to her death, and sent her running into the arms into the arms of her current beloved.

To Nan Sharpe, madam of The Mangled Mermaid in Silkshore, they were just the friends her old charge had needed for years – sure, they’d pulled Alice into a life of crime, but at least they were real people and not just hallucinations of talking cats and rabbits!

To Matthew and Carol Alton, they were delightful new comrades in the fight against unhappiness and woe – perhaps they weren’t official Advocates yet, but they seemed to care deeply about their beloved child, and that was enough for them at the moment.

To the Immortal Emperor of the realm, they were nothing – not even a footnote in the reports he received from his many spies.

And to each other. . .they were the closest of companions, who’d forged their bond through trials aplenty. They were the ones who knew each other best in the world – all their various faults and foibles, all their bad and good – and accepted what they found. They were the ones they trusted above all others, the ones they knew would always have their back through thick and thin. They were Alice, Victor, and Smiler – and they loved each other.

And that was enough.

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#valicer polyship week #PolyshipWeek23 #valicer #fanfic #valicer in the dark au #free day #outsider POV #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #the smiler #corpse bride #American McGee's Alice #I like how this one ended up coming together #took me a bit to get the organization right but #it's a good look at how they're generally perceived around the city #basically most of the richer and more corrupt groups hate them #while the poorer people think they're all right actually #I wanna do more with this AU in future #I have ideas for a handful of scores for them to pull off #some possible tweaks to their playbooks #and even some not-incorrect quotes #just always a matter of finding the time to do it all!#especially since I also have to complete 'The Joker And The Queen'#and especially 'Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland'#busy busy busy #queued

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