#it's a thing now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

victorluvsalice · 2 years

Text

AU Thursday: Fairy Tale AUs Return! (Well, One Does, Anyway. . .)

You can blame @nitewrighter and their incredible “Cindy” AU (check it out, guys, it’s on AO3 now too!) and my friend @nebbychan working on a Valice “Beauty And The Beast” AU for this. XD

Okay, so, back in 2019, I did a series of posts detailing some fairy tale AU ideas I had for some of my favorite ships -- namely, a LizJangles take on Beauty And The Beast; Vemiglot/Everdortmack takes on Snow White and The Little Mermaid; and a Valice take on Cinderella. I concluded it with a post where I detailed that I would LIKE to do some sort of multi-fairy-tale AU for Vemilicia, but I wasn’t sure how to work it with four people and four fairy tales, so I put it on the back burner.

Fast forward to the present, and -- inspired by those above -- I have finally come up with a multi-fairy-tale-AU I rather like! Though I should note, the ship isn’t Vemilicia anymore.

It’s Four Victorians On A Roller Coaster.

Yes, apparently the missing ingredient all this time was Smiler. And now that they’re here (and I’ve finally found a suitable fairy tale for Victoria), this show has gotten on the road so fast it’s a little concerning. There is a LOT of worldbuilding going on in this head of mine, folks, but let me see if I can give you the simple version:

-->The fairy tales and their respective “protagonists” in this world are:

Victor Van Dort - Snow White: Probably one of the obvious ones, really. As usual, Victor’s the son of the king and queen of the small-but-rapidly-upcoming kingdom of Dort, known for its riches thanks to the abundant fish in the oceans off its coast. Nell, in this universe, contracted with a Fae to have a child “with skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony, quiet and kind and fair.” Nine months later, she was furious to have given birth to a boy. The Fae, Air, told her that maybe Victor would later decide they were a princess -- Nell’s furious response of “I don’t want a boy who thinks he’s a girl, I want a girl” ticked Air off so much that they immediately cursed her to be barren the rest of her days, forcing her to deal with the child she had. Victor grew up very much knowing he was supposed to be a princess, and it hasn’t done good things to his head.

Victoria Everglot - Catskin: What the hell is “Catskin,” you ask? It’s a “Cinderella” variation where the protagonist is a princess/high-born woman in hiding from her parents, and who uses the super-fancy dresses she picked up before going into hiding to attend a series of balls and win the heart of the prince. I chose this particular fairy tale because “Catskin” has the girl on the run from an unwanted marriage (with the fancy dresses being gifts from the suitor that the suitor wasn’t supposed to be able to procure), while most of the other variations of this type have the girl running from her own father’s attempt at an incestuous marriage after the death of her mother. Victoria’s got enough to deal with, thank you! Anyway, she’s the daughter of the rulers of the large-and-old kingdom of Glot, next-door neighbors to Dort, whose fortunes have been slowly but surely dwindling. Maudeline and Finis very much wanted a son and heir, and were extremely disappointed when their child turned out to be a girl -- and even more so when the royal physicians said that Maudeline would never bring another baby to term. So basically Victoria’s been ignored by her own parents most of her life, shunted off on her nanny and maid Hildegarde. This has not exactly done good things to her head either.

Emily Merrimack - The Little Mermaid: Another one that was probably obvious from the older posts -- but the twist on this one is that Emily didn’t start as a mermaid. What happened here is, Emily was born a minor nobleman’s daughter in Dort, and gained a reputation as a town beauty as she grew up. An “Edward Barkis” rolled into her hometown one day and wooed her, convincing her to run away with him and get married -- but he was only after the gold and jewels he brought, robbing and killing her before dumping the body into the sea to hide the evidence. In this universe, though, if a person dies at sea or is dumped there shortly after the fact, they are given the opportunity to reincarnate as a merperson. Emily took the chance, and soon became a beloved member of “Below,” what the merpeople call their home. She’s particularly close to Elder Gutknecht, the wise old wizard who provides spells and potions for those who need it. She’s still upset over the fact that she got murdered rather than married, and kind of misses the land a bit, but she’s happy enough with her new life below the waves.

Alice Liddell - Cinderella: Again, as you might have guessed from above, though like Emily’s Mermaid, this is a little different from my original conception. Alice was born the second daughter of a respected teacher in Dort, and grew up happily with her mother, father, and older sister Lizzie -- right up until one Angus Bumby entered their lives and decided he had to have Lizzie despite her obvious hatred for him. He broke into the Liddell home, had his way with poor Lizzie, then burnt the house down, leaving poor traumatized eight-year-old Alice the only survivor. While she recovered in the local hospital, he then set himself up as a philanthropist rehabilitating problem orphans and rebuilt the Liddell house to serve as his Houndsditch Home headquarters. He took in two apprentices/wards from their uncle -- Dennis and Columbus Tweedle -- and then, when Alice was about thirteen or so, adopted her from the orphanage and turned her into a servant into her own house to keep an eye on her. Alice, while not aware that he started the fire, knows something isn’t right about this whole situation. . .unfortunately, she doesn’t have the evidence, time, or reputation to call Bumby, Dee, and Lum out on their bullshit -- she’s just barely getting by herself these days, with her only real friend being the barn cat, Cheshire, whom she imagines talks to her and gives her good advice. Again, not doing good things to her head!

Smiler - N/A at present: Okay, so -- Smiler’s deal in this world is that they and all the other Secret Weapon coasters (Nemesis, Oblivion, Galactica (formerly Air), Th13teen, and Wickerman) are Fae creatures -- Rita’s around too, but as a human who chose to stay permanently in their realm after starting a relationship with Th13teen. I wanted to give them a specific fairy tale as well, but I’m having trouble finding one to pair with them (thought I had something with a friendly twist on “Rumplestilskin,” but I can’t think of a way to work the “spinning straw into gold” thing into my plot), so right now they’re “generic fairy helper character.” Anyway, Smiler and their fellow Fae live in a section of the Fairy Realms accessible by walking between the towers of the ancient Alton castle. They’re all explicitly friendly Fae -- yeah, some of them can act like edgelords on occasion, and they’re not above spooking people just for a laugh, but it’s all in good fun! Humans are allowed to come and go as they please, and all of the food is offered freely and without any “you have to stay here forever if you eat of it” enchantments. (Other enchantments may apply.) Smiler in particular is known as the “Minister of Joy” and enjoys trying to make people happy, though occasionally they’re a little overenthusiastic about it.

-->The actual plot kicks off when Victor Van Dort is engaged to Victoria Everglot for their parents’ and kingdoms’ mutual benefit -- the Dorts will gain an old and proud ally and have their status as a new kingdom greatly raised; the Glots will get access to some of the Dort fishing wealth. However, before Victoria can even travel to meet her intended groom, a “Lord Barkis Bittern” -- claiming to hail from the kingdom of “Burton” -- rolls into town and starts presenting himself as an alternative candidate. Maudeline and Finis, who don’t particularly like Nell and William, are only too happy to contemplate him as a son-in-law; Victoria, by contrast, was already not keen on marrying someone she’d never met -- but is even LESS keen on marrying THIS asshole. Her maid, Hildegarde, suggests she ask for some sort of expensive token that only the Van Dorts can provide -- Victoria promptly demands a dress as gold as the sun and as silver as the moon.

-->The Van Dorts actually manage to create this dress (and it actually looks good despite Nell trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be), and it’s sent off to the Everglots -- but Barkis manages to intercept the package and pass the dress off as his own. Horrified and not believing for a moment Barkis got that dress himself, Victoria decides to run away. Hildegarde gives her some simple clothes and a coat of catskin (”it’s just the name of the fabric!”) to help disguise herself, and she bolts in the dead of the night. . .though she can’t help taking the dress with her, as it is beautiful. She ends up over the border in the small town of Newcrest in Dort, where she ends up getting work as a seamstress.

-->While all this is happening, Victor -- to help settle his own mind about all the nonsense surrounding his upcoming nupitals -- goes out on a boating trip. . .but a sudden storm wrecks his boat and separates him from his servants. Emily, in the area and seeing him about to drown, rescues him and brings him back to shore. A combination of her own lingering wish to walk on the land again coupled with “oh, this guy is cute” makes her decide that she wants to try becoming human again, and she goes to Elder Gutknecht for help. He discovers a spell that will allow her to trade her voice for a pair of human legs -- there’s a permanent version that involves cutting out her tongue entirely, and a temporary version which just takes some blood from it and comes with the caveat that she may never fully submerge herself in water again, lest legs and voice switch back. Emily, wanting to have the option to come back to her underwater home and NOT wanting to slice out her damn tongue, goes with the latter -- Gutknecht prepares the potion, and she swims to shore with a scavenged dress and drinks it. Wandering inland looking for a place to stay, she too finds Newcrest, and ends up working at the same seamstress shop as Victoria, where the two become fast friends.

-->Meanwhile, with his intended bride having vanished, Barkis decides the best use of his time is to go eliminate the competition. He crosses over to the Dort kingdom, disguises himself as a royal huntsman, and takes Victor out on a hunting trip -- where he tries to kill him, claiming he’s acting on orders from the Queen to cut out Victor’s heart and bring it to her to eat to try and end her own curse. Victor manages to escape the murder attempt and flee (knowing the woods better than Barkis) -- but, having grown up very well aware he was supposed to be a princess, he can’t quite shake the idea that his own mother might have tried to have him killed. He decides to go into hiding for a little while so he can determine if that was the truth and avoid other assassins. . .and what do you know, he ends up in Newcrest. Specifically, he ends up at the Ball & Socket pub and boarding house -- run by cook Ms. Plum, bartender and waiter Paul, singer and entertainer Sam “Bonejangles” Thatcher, and containing permanent boarders Generals Wellingdead and Bonesaparte, the town crier, and the local pastor, Galswells. Victor gives them a modified version of what happened (namely, he claims only to be the son of a nobleman, using his middle name “Fitzwilliam” as his last), and they tell him he can stay as long as he needs, earning room and board through odd jobs.

-->One of said jobs is helping Ms. Plum prepare and deliver food orders -- this is how he meets Victoria and Emily (lunch ordered at the shop; Emily recognizes him solely as the guy she saved, and explains through notes about her deal -- Victor thanks her again for her help and hopes she’s enjoying her time on land); Alice (meals ordered by Bumby and the Tweedles -- he’s taken by the sassy young woman who opens the door); and Smiler (a trip to the Alton Towers to drop off some pies; Smiler ends up guiding him through meeting all their fellow Fae, and Victor finds he likes their enthusiasm). The five end up becoming very good friends, Smiler using their magic to help with chores when they can.

-->This state of affairs goes on for a month, month and a half -- and then the royal carriage driver, Mayhew, ends up in Newcrest and recognizes Victor. He tells him that no, there was no plot against him by Nell, and Victor reluctantly agrees to come home with him, saying his goodbyes to his friends (still without revealing his true identity). The girls and Smiler are sad to see him go and express the hope that he can come visit again.

-->Upon Victor’s return, Nell decides to host a grand celebratory ball, inviting all good families of consequence in the kingdom along with a bunch of foreign princesses as Victoria’s still missing and she doesn’t trust her to show up again anytime soon. Victoria and Emily are naturally not invited, but Smiler is (well, there’s a group invitation for any of the Fae who might want to show up) --

-->As is Alice, since Arthur had JUST enough clout to qualify. Alice doesn’t have any expectation of winning the prince’s hand, but she’s only too happy for a night off from her horrible “family.” Victoria and Emily happily help kit her out for the big night -- but Bumby forbids it and allows the Tweedles to wreck Alice’s dress before sending them away to stay with friends for a night and leaving on business of his own. A devastated Alice is left crying in the courtyard --

-->Only for Smiler to show up, thinking they could head out together. They’re stunned and infuriated not only by what happened to Alice, but at Victoria and Emily’s hard work being ruined, and decides all three girls are coming with them to the ball. They whip up some new magical dresses for Emily and Alice (Victoria deciding to risk wearing the one she got from the Van Dorts, as she has added a few personal touches to it so it doesn’t look like EXACTLY the same dress), turn a pumpkin into a carriage, some dormice into horses, and Cheshire into a coachman, and they all head off to the ball. They’re just chilling into the corner when they spot Victor and are like “oh hey, his family must have been invited too!”

-->And then Nell yells at him, Victor calls her mother, and the mood changes to “WHAT THE FUCK HE’S THE PRINCE?!”

-->Victor, for his part, is pretty damn shocked too when his old Newcrest friends suddenly show up in the debutante line (yes, even Smiler, who joined out of sheer panic), and once the “formal” introductions are over with, there’s some whispered arguing about the whole thing (Victor pointing out that he was sure at least EMILY recognized him as the prince, with Emily writing protests that she just knew him as some guy who nearly drowned; also Victor recognizes Victoria’s dress after a bit and is like “hEY!”). They quickly get over it, though, and Victor spends as much time as possible with them, dancing with all of them (again, even Smiler) and just -- enjoying their company. Of course, this does have the unintended side effect of all of them realizing they’re in love with him -- yes, even Smiler. The girls and Smiler discuss things among themselves, and decide that they’ll let Victor pursue whoever he wants and they’ll figure things out after that. They also end up leaving early, around midnight, to avoid Victoria being found out by anyone else before she’s ready.

-->Unfortunately, this turns out not to be early enough -- unbeknownst to the girls, Barkis was in attendance in his “Burton nobleman” guise and recognized Victoria, while Bumby also dropped by and spotted Alice and immediately panicked over her getting close to both a prince and a Fae. Even worse, Barkis noticed his worry and started a conversation, and the two realized they both have vested interest in no one marrying the prince. Cue the worst team-up in the history of the world.

-->Post-ball, Victor’s feeling a little overwhelmed by royal life again, and asks politely if he could take a visit to Newcrest, saying that he could use some time to get his head together and decide on a potential bride. Nell is pleased to see him actually thinking about marriage proactively and gives permission, and he is escorted there by some guards. In the woods just outside the town, though, Victor has to stop for a bit for the “call of nature,” and the guards withdraw to give him some privacy --

-->Cue a disguised Bumby, posing as an apple peddler, showing up and offering the prince an apple. Victor, who loves apples, takes it and bites -- and has about two seconds to clock that it tastes funny before he’s on the ground, seemingly dead. Bumby flees, the guards find Victor, and the prince’s death is announced throughout the land. Victoria (who was JUST plucking up the courage to go home), Emily, Alice, and Smiler are all completely heartbroken.

-->A couple of days later, there’s a grand funeral, with Nell (going overboard as usual) having Victor lying-in-state in a glass coffin surrounded by a deep decorative fountain. The girls and Smiler all attend, grieving -- and this is when Smiler clocks that Victor’s not dead, but cursed, and rushes to the coffin to check what exactly the curse is with their magical senses. Turns out to be one of those “eternal sleep that looks like death” poisons! This means that one of the standard curse breaks, true love’s kiss, applies --

-->But, uh, who is that, exactly? The girls and Smiler are wondering how to offer themselves up as potential candidates -- when Barkis butts in and starts deriding Smiler, asking if Nell really wants to listen to this loon --

-->CUE EMILY RECOGNIZING HER MURDERER IN A RAGE. And, well aware that notes are not gonna cut it, she runs up and dives into the fountain to swap her legs back for her voice and emerges in full mermaid form to accuse him. A stunned Barkis is a little late in jumping to his own defense, but Bumby comes up to help him out -- which leads to Victoria and Alice storming the stage, so to speak, Victoria outing Barkis as the man who made her flee Glot and Alice asking why Bumby is helping out this known jackass. There’s quite a lot of shouting, and either Bumby or Barkis lets slip that the prince was an idiot for eating an apple sold by a stranger --

-->Hang on, the royal family never told anyone JUST how Victor got poisoned. And Alice finally clocks that the key Bumby’s got on his watch chain is Lizzie’s room key, proof that he was in her house that night, and remembers that he was skulking around the night of the fire. Bumby and Barkis, realizing that the evidence is piling up against them, try to flee --

-->But Smiler is having none of that. They summon Oblivion to their aid, who drops them down a void hole. . .and they may or may not end up on Nemesis’s dinner plate.

-->And it’s around this time that Victor comments on how scary Oblivion is, making everyone realize he’s awake and okay. Everyone’s a little puzzled as to how -- was it dumping Bumby and Barkis into the abyss? -- until Oblivion points out that there’s so much true love in the air between the five that it must have override the “kiss” requirement. Turns out Victor loves all of them as much as they love him (and Victoria and Emily having developed feelings for each other, and Alice and Smiler a true friendship, does not hurt matters).

-->Now, they’re all up for polyamory, but they’re all aware that there are some issues with Victor being royalty and needing a legitimate heir and such. However, it turns out that one of the first kings of Dort had only one son and -- not wanting to lock himself out of good alliances -- made a law that a single heir may have multiple spouses. Nell is like “what are your qualifications” and Victoria promptly goes “I’m his original fiancee” (Smiler fetching the dress for her to prove it); Emily “I’m a mermaid and I can help you negotiate deals with the Kingdom Below so you can get even richer without overfishing;” Smiler “I’m one of the Fae and if you’d like to have better relations with us after what happened between you and Galactica, you’ll let me marry him;” Alice “okay, yeah, I’m just the daughter of a well-liked teacher, I get that I don’t--” Victor “I LOVE YOU AND MY PARENTS ARE GETTING THREE GOOD POLITICAL MARRIAGES OUT OF THIS, THEY CAN TOLERATE ONE JUST FOR LOVE uh not that I don’t love the rest of you”

-->And so a few months later there’s a series of royal weddings (Smiler having given everyone the ability to shift between a human and a merperson form for the one with Emily), Dort and Glot become one kingdom, and the royals get to work! First item on the agenda being “okay, how do we turn this kingdom into a republic or other form of democracy because we’d actually like to retire and go back to living like we were in Newcrest.” XD

Whew! That took a while. . .though, looking back on it, I think I might have a way to do the “Rumplestilskin” stuff if I switch in which order Emily and Victoria arrive at the seamstress shop. Say -- have Emily transform while Victoria’s making her demands, get a job there -- and then, hearing of the royal order for a dress of silver and gold, the head seamstress declares she can spin straw into gold and silver to get the commission. She promptly makes filling it Emily’s problem -- Smiler steps in to help, with Emily giving them some token of hers to make it a proper fairy deal (maybe her mother’s old wedding dress?). Then, when Victoria arrives, Emily makes it clear that Fae deals need exchange, so when Smiler offers to help them to the ball, she asks what they need in return. Smiler jokingly says, “Whoever’s kid is born first should do it--”

And Victoria, without thinking, agrees, making it binding. Smiler’s like “I DIDN’T MEAN THAT?! I DON’T WANT TO STEAL YOUR KID?!” But they decide they’ll worry about it later because none of them are planning on having children yet, if ever (Emily’s not sure she even can). And by the time of the ending. . .well, when Victoria has her and Victor’s first baby, she just hands them over to Smiler to hold first and says “terms fulfilled.” XD This all does seem to require making the seamstress another minor villain. . .then again, I could use more AMA/A:MR characters in this mess. . .hmmm. I’ll think about it!

7 notes · View notes