lcb2-radiohead

[lcb2-radiohead]

//ended up taking waaay longer off than intended because I got sucked into other projects. Taking an indefinite hiatus, but it probably won't be long. I won't give a hard date for it though because that's just setting myself up for failure.

//Taking the next couple days off for my birthday, will be back with two posts a day wednesday.

[lcb2-radiohead]

//Taking the next couple days off for my birthday, will be back with two posts a day wednesday.

[lcb2-radiohead]

"I treated Elizabeth poorly," Victor said. "I knew this. I was so focused on my work..."

He shook his head, "No. There is no excuse. When we were young, she was my best friend. We drifted apart when I went to university. When I got so wrapped up in my work."

<"What was she like?">

"Vivacious. Energetic. Warm and affectionate." He sighed, "Everything that I'm not."

A series of images appeared. First was Victor meeting Elizabeth for the first time. They were both very young, maybe 9 or 10. She seemed to positively glow in his memory.

"I remember the day I first met her. Father returned from District 22 with her in tow. His sister had died and her husband, an executive in V-corp, did not wish to leave her care to strangers."

That would make them... cousins? I feel like that is frowned upon, though I guess with small communities, including nobility, it's probably inevitable.

Another image of Elizabeth running up Dragon Hill, with Victor struggling to keep up.

"We were the best of playmates. I was a sickly child before she arrived, the Curse taking a toll on my stamina. But Elizabeth pushed me just hard enough to make an athlete out of me."

An image of the two of them as early teenagers. Victor reading, Elizabeth sitting near him with a sly expression. She pounced, planting a kiss on the startled Victor's cheek, a blush spreading quickly.

"...my parents said she would be my wife someday, and I took it to heart. We both did. She would often say how she would love to marry me."

The images faded.

"But what was it you wanted?" Scheherazade asked.

"I... don't know," Victor said. "I thought I wanted that too, but..."

He shook his head.

"The stairs have returned," said Okonkwo.

Sure enough, there they were right beside him. We followed them up to see what the next floor had for us.

[lcb2-radiohead]

"Good musculature... damn, some of this is augmented. I have to go fully organic, or it won't stick... Ah, the thighs are original! Hah! I can use those muscles for the biceps. I need them extra long..."

"Right, well..." Krempe looked uneasily at his work. Apparently grave robbing was one thing, but seeing Victor dissect a corpse was a bridge too far. "I think I'm gonna check out, this part makes my skin crawl. Good luck, Victor. And really... you need to break it off."

"Mmm hmm, of course," Victor said without listening. He was busy removing the muscle fiber by fiber and laying the thin strips out on a paper-covered tray.

Once he had finished with the right bicep, he slid his chair over to a slab that I hadn't even noticed until now. The form underneath was massive even in an incomplete state. It could only be Adam under there.

Victor pulled an arm out from under the sheet, mostly skeletal. He started layering the bicep muscles over the bone, stretching the tendons to connect, and using a small spray of his own blood to make the connection stick. It was painstaking work, but it moved at the pace of a montage. A few fibers here, then suddenly the work was halfway done, and then almost finished. Dawn was creeping through the shuttered windows by the time he was done.

He was about to lay one last strand when the phone rang and startled him out of his work. The muscle strand fell to the ground. Was it the cold of the floor? Floor dirt messing with the salt balance? Whatever the case the muscle immediately curled up into a knot.

He picked up the phone and said, "Dammit! What now?"

"...Victor? Is that even you?" Elizabeth said.

The pain of his mistake was clear on his face. "Elizabeth! I'm sorry, I just...I was in the middle of something and the phone..."

The memory faded before the conversation could go any further, leaving us alone in the attic lab.

[lcb2-radiohead]

On the next level of the tower, we entered a well-appointed but cramped medical lab.

"This is... my old lab," Victor said. "Back at university, where I first..."

"Created me," said Adam.

Victor sat in a spartan leather chair with an IV attached to his arm, blood filling up a small bag. When the bag was full, he managed to remove the IV and bandage the wound with only one hand.

"Impressive," Gulliver said. "I couldn't even do that."

I'll have to take his word for it, but it did look like it took a lot of practice.

A hatch in the floor started to rattle. It wasn't until then that I realized the stairs we came up were gone.

"One second!" Victor shouted. He stood up, but clearly didn't account for his lack of blood, as he became woozy for a second. He stumbled, and managed to just avoid sprawling out on the floor by taking a knee. After taking a second more to recover, he reached over and unlatched the hatch.

"Open..." he groaned.

Krempe emerged from below.

"When I heard that thump, I thought I lost you," Krempe said. "You really need to keep doing that?"

"My blood serves as the binding factor," Victor said. "Without it, none of this will work."

"If you say so," Krempe said. He dragged something large and heavy up the stairs and into the room.

"Careful!" Victor said. Krempe seemed to find that funny, given how incautious Victor was with his own body.

Krempe pulled the body sack into the room, heaved it up on a shoulder, and dropped it onto a table.

"Quick! Get it open!" Victor said. "It's already been a few hours, we need to keep it fresh as possible."

Krempe unzipped the bag revealing a large, muscular man. Probably a member of some lesser Syndicate, from the tattoos. Meanwhile, Victor pulled a sort of tent over it, with a tube connecting to a nearby gas tank. He released the valve, and the tent filled with a thick white fog.

"There. Let it marinate for a few minutes. Hopefully we'll get something out of it."

"You know, if the Pack finds out about this..." Krempe said.

Victor scoffed. "They'll chalk it up to some rival syndicate, and soon we'll be awash with test subjects. How's Henry?"

"Oh, you know," Krempe said. "Deep in his studies. You should read some of his poetry."

"I have no time for poetry, but I'm glad that you do," Victor said. "What excuse did you give him this time?"

"Unlike some people, I'm open with my partner," Krempe poured himself a glass of whiskey and took a swig. "I told him you needed some muscle for your cadaver studies."

"Hmm... Not technically a lie. Clever," Victor said.

"Elizabeth called," Krempe said.

"Did she? Well... I'll listen to the message tomorrow."

Krempe sighed. "She called Henry."

Victor paused in the middle of venting the tent. "Why in the world did she call Henry?"

"Because you wouldn't answer. She thinks you're having an affair."

Victor laughed at that. "Me? An affair? You know my only mistress is science."

"Yeah," Krempe said. "You and science seem to be getting it on pretty well."

The tent safely vented, Victor got to work examining the corpse.

[lcb2-radiohead]

Victor raced to the tower only to find the door was ajar.

"Elizabeth! No!"

There she was, lying on the bed. Her neck bent at an unnatural angle. Her body already cold.

Victor... broke. Both of them did. They collapsed, mirroring each other in their grief. Despite all the years, the wound was still just as fresh as ever for Victor, the grief no lessened with time.

The door closed behind us. Both Victors looked up and snarled. One grabbed his goedendag, the other his bottle of wine. They stormed out, and we followed.

Adam, was of course, nowhere to be seen.

The two Victors overlapped as they ran down the stairs. One of them tripped and barely caught himself on the banister before he cracked his head on the stone floor.

At his feet was the body of Henry. Or at least, it was dressed like Henry. His head had been smashed against the wall, completely pulped by a massive fist. Our Victor stopped and dropped to his knees, joining the other one again, weeping over a man who they were clearly very close with.

Some of the wedding guests came to see what the commotion was about, Krempe at their head.

"What did you do?!" he shouted at Victor.

"I didn't do anything! It was the creature! You must have seen it!"

"We saw nothing!" another guest said. "Except you murdering Henry!"

"No!" he said. "It was... Elizabeth is upstairs! It killed her too!"

"Victor..." Krempe said coldly. "The only one to go up or down those stairs was you. And Henry, when he heard you wailing. You killed him!"

The rabble were turning hostile. While the Victor of the past turned and ran, the Victor of the present stood his ground. He pulled out his goedendag, and the layers peeled away to show the lightning rod within.

"With my science, I strike the throne of heaven and earth!"

Lightning leapt from the rod to the wedding guests. They were all incinerated in a flash, or perhaps the illusion simply burned away. Adam reappeared from the collapsing mirage.

"Is that really how you remember it?" he asked.

"It's how things happened," Victor said icily.

"I remember it quite differently..." Adam shrugged and smiled with his black teeth. "Of course, this is your story."

"It is. And that day was the day I swore vengeance against you. I would hunt you to the ends of the earth for this injustice against me."

"You?" Adam pointed an accusing finger at Victor. "Your injustice? What about the injustice you wrought against me? What about your own actions? I gave you every warning and yet you refuse to accept culpability in the consequences!"

"These deaths are on my head, that is true, but only because I had the arrogance to create you! Your existence is my only fault!"

Adam scowled down at Victor. I really didn't want another fight...

"Why was the bride covered in blood?" Raphael asked. "Her body was a collage of pain and violence, yet Elizabeth had no such markings?"

Victor looked at him, and then looked away. I could tell he knew the answer but didn't want to say it, so I let him put it off a bit longer.

<"How about we continue up the tower? I'm pretty sure we will find the bough up there.">

Along with some answers, hopefully.

[lcb2-radiohead]

We left the room and found ourselves not in the tower hallway, but in the entrance hall again. Numerous men and women milled around, all in the remains of tuxedos. Jackets, vests, and cummerbunds had been discarded. Ties were undone, if present at all. A few had stripped down to undershirts. All were holding various weapons. Guns, swords, hammers, pitchforks, improvised clubs, and even a few more exotic weapons.

One of the men walked up to Victor and put a friendly arm around his shoulder, "Victor, what in the world are you doing down here?"

Krempe walked over and said, "Seriously, it's your wedding night! You should be up there with your partner."

"I just wanted to double check. M-make sure everything's prepared."

The man on Victor's shoulder said, "I mean, when you asked me for help on your wedding night, I thought you meant something veeery different." He shrugged, "Offer's still on the table if you need it."

"Henry!" Krempe chastised, but there was a laugh in his voice.

"Not interested, never will be," Victor said, pushing Henry away. He was smiling though, looking a little bit more relaxed. "Besides, Elizabeth would never agree."

The three men laughed.

"Look, we'll go back out on patrol," Krempe said. "But there's only one way into that tower. You're safe. Be with your wife."

"Yes..." Victor said, looking back at the tower. "My wife...Elizabeth..."

He took a bottle of wine from one of the wedding party and turned back to the stairs.

[lcb2-radiohead]

The Bloody Bride sapped the Sinners' will with her screams, while the misshapen corpses battered their bodies. Fortunately, I was able to lessen the effects of the former with Alafin Okonkwo and the latter with K-corp Medic Gulliver. Victor's condition meant that he needed more of the latter support than the former, but having it meant that I could use more risky IDs like Deici Victor without worry.

Overall, I'm getting a lot better at choosing IDs for the situation, now that my options are growing.

The Bride dissipated with one last shriek, leaving the way to the bedchamber empty.

We opened the door and saw a luxuriously appointed, if somewhat faded, bedroom. Victor and Elizabeth were...

uh..

Well.

Their clothes were still on, at least.

I thought to close the door out of sheer embarrassment, but Adam held it open.

"I don't think we should be watching this..." said Diaochan.

"Oh I'm watching," Raphael said.

I slid my hand over Mela's eyes, and she huffed.

"I think she shouldn't be doing this," observed Scheherazade. "Victor is not into it."

Everyone turned to her.

I set my embarrassment aside and realized she was right. Victor was, at best, distracted. Though he returned her affections, it was halfhearted.

Mercifully, he pulled away before it went any further. It was only a minute or two, but felt like several uncomfortable, voyeuristic hours.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked. "Is it me?"

"No, no," said Victor. "I just... I realized I forgot something downstairs. Uh...excuse me, one moment."

He left the room, and the vision faded.

"It wasn't her," Victor said ruefully. "It was me. I was just... distracted."

"You're a terrible liar," Scheherazade said.

[lcb2-radiohead]

"The castle was... dangerous," Victor said. "In poor condition. It always had been, as far as I can remember. But the first floor and the east tower were fine, if a bit drafty."

It was as if a layer of reality peeled away. The L-corp facade dissolved, and the castle returned to how it must've been when Victor was last here.

Another Victor ran past us, dressed in a tuxedo. He was younger, healthier, but no less haunted. A beautiful young woman in a white wedding dress dragged him behind.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Elizabeth said.

"Is this really a good idea?" the younger Victor said.

She smiled as she replied, "No, of course not! It's a terrible idea! That's what makes it fun."

Victor's eyes were not on his bride, but on everything else as she dragged him up the stairs. Halfway up, she pushed him against the wall and into a hungry kiss. He seemed shocked by it, and when they pulled back the real Victor was left behind looking heartbroken and ashamed.

At the top of the stairs, the bride turned and asked, "What's wrong? You can't be that nervous."

"It's not that, it's just..." the past Victor trailed off.

"We don't have to if you're that nervous," she said, suddenly serious.

"Oh, no! No! I want this as much as you do! More, even!"

Elizabeth turned to Victor, looking at the real one standing behind his past self.

"But you didn't, did you?" She said. "The wedding, breaking into the castle, everything... it was because I wanted it."

Victor was barely able to stand from the pain, let alone speak, as he gasped, "No... I... Elizabeth.... I wanted the world for you?"

"Then why did you kill me?" she said. There was a flash of light, and she was standing there neck broken, covered in blood from dozens of savage wound. Then both she and the younger Victor were gone.

"This was your fault!" Victor said, pivoting to where Adam stood. Surprisingly, Adam was not reveling in Victor's pain, but looking oddly distressed himself. "You did this, not me!"

"Yes. I did. I killed your wife on your wedding bed." Adam turned to me. "But you know how I kill. Quick and clean. No unnecessary suffering. Did that look clean to you?"

There was so much blood, I had to shake my head.

"It's fake." Victor said. "You have control of this place too."

"Not as much as you," Adam said. "I resonate with the bough too, but only through our connection. As soon as you walked through that gate you became the master of this castle."

<"Maybe we should open the bedroom door?"> I offered. <"There are surely answers in there...">

Within a second, the Bloody Bride was back, her neck snapped and her head hanging limp. The misshapen corpses surrounded her and with a horrifying scream she ordered the attack.

[lcb2-radiohead]

The marble floor was slick with rotten blood. Adam kept opening up more doors, sending more monsters after us.

"You know," he said, hand on another door. "You could take over for me at any time."

"What do you mean?" Victor said.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there are more doors here than this castle is supposed to have. I've opened the same door three times. You're changing the environment here, even if subtly."

I had not, in fact, noticed that. After giving it a moment's thought though, it was clear. I wondered what allowed Adam to be able to pierce through the illusions of the Depths when even I couldn't.

"So you're saying you didn't create these things?" Victor asked.

"Oh I absolutely did, but you're sustaining them. Replicating them. And you're doing it because you know where I'm headed and what door I want to open." To punctuate his point, Adam opened the door a crack. Hands with too many fingers immediately started reaching through. "If you want us to get anywhere, you should probably take over as narrator."

"Fine!" Victor shouted. Adam closed the door again. "What would you have me say?"

"Perhaps about your own history with this castle. After all, you've been here before."

"Yes..." Victor said. "And the last time was the day I swore eternal vengeance against you."

[lcb2-radiohead]

//Hooray! Finally getting over writer's block! I now have two posts in the queue instead of just one! Hopefully I can build up a backlog and go to a more frequent posting schedule again.

[lcb2-radiohead]

Champion Alcaea suplexed one of the misshapen corpses into another, destroying them both. Another was absolutely shredded by Sergeant Kid's twin automatic weapons.

The corpses were not hard to deal with but I was still disturbed by their origin. As the Sinners finished them off, I asked Adam, <"Does K-corp know about what you're doing here?">

"Of course. I don't know the details, but sometimes their drones record it as I lure tourists to their fate."

Life is cheap in this city, I typed.

"And death pays well." He looked at me and creased his brow. "Really? A heart so soft can't last long in this world. I should know."

After a moment, he added, "If it helps, I priced the castle tour such that anyone who would be able to pay it is well outside the average person's sympathy."

Did he actually care about my opinion of him? This was strange.

With the battle done, I removed their IDs. Victor turned to Adam and pointed his weapon.

"You... how did you do this? How did you merge the bodies?"

"I believe you know the answer to that, father," said Adam. "So tell the class. How do you merge one corpse with another? Surely it's not the same technique as the nameless genius of Wuthering Heights?"

"No..." Victor said. "I refuse. If I divulge the secret... I can't let anyone else replicate my results."

"You know very well that's impossible," Adam said.

"It's his blood," Raphael said. "Your blood too. Just like Siegfried's wooden prosthetics. The 'Dragon's Blood'!"

"But as you can see, my blood is rotten," Adam said. "My blood can do little but stick them together like a glue. It can't quite meld them together as the living blood of a Frankenstein can. That is why I need you."

"I will not help you," said Victor. "We've done this dance before, demon."

"I never said I needed your help," Adam said. "As you may recall, I am your equal if not your superior in intellect, and I've had your notes for years. I just need your blood."

Victor itched at the spreading rash on his skin. It was now very much like scales. "I will not let you unleash a horde of monsters on this world."

"That is well within my capabilities already, as you have seen. In fact, I've grown quite adept at building monsters."

He opened another door, and sure enough, another horde spilled out.

[lcb2-radiohead]

"Is everyone else okay with this?" Diaochan asked.

Alcaea replied, "I don't think anyone's okay with this, but it's not like we have a choice."

"Welcome, friends and creator, to Castle Frankenstein. The origin of the evil you see standing before you."

"Liar. I didn't create you here!"

Adam's voice was like ice as he said, "I didn't say where you created me, did I?"

<"Victor, you should avoid getting under his skin..."> he was about to protest, but i added, <"...until we need the distraction.">

"Anyway," Adam said, returning to his charming and theatrical manner. "We will start the story of Castle Frankenstein at the end, with the fall of L-corp. For it was less than two years ago that the order went out. Every lab was to be sealed and buried. All personnel left inside would die. That included the lab here, in Castle Frankenstein."

"Yet this was more than a lab. It was a barracks where L-corp soldiers trained. It was a retreat for the executives who ran the day-to-day business of the company. What of them, who were not in the lab when the bury order was received?"

As she spoke, Adam led us through the grand hall to a large set of doors. He threw them open on what must have been a well-appointed dining hall at some point. It had been repurposed into an executive board room, and then repurposed into an abattoir.

Corpses were piled on the grand central table. Mounds of them stacked up near the ceiling in the corners. Some of them looked like guards or scientists. Others looked like executives. Still others looked like tourists, answering that lingering question of mine. Yet they all seemed to be fresh as the day they died, not a hint of rot or decay.

The others reacted strongly to this despite the lack of a smell. I think it was Scheherazade who vomited, though I wasn't looking at them. I didn't look away as Adam spoke.

"A gas spread throughout the facility. A gas that caused any life to cease, including anything that might promote decay. A gas I found very useful in keeping my activities private, and one that I believe you yourself once used, Victor."

I could feel enraged heat radiating off of Victor, "...I had to keep specimens from decay...I never expected...."

"Tell me, did you invent it yourself?" Adam said, "Oh, no matter. It was your work L-corp used for their kill switch, here and elsewhere. Couldn't let any of their secrets out."

"Oh look, it seems like there are survivors," Adam said, as the corpse piles began to stir. "No, just kidding. They're all dead. But look at them move!"

The mostly intact corpses stood and walked towards us. Some of them had pieces of other corpses attached to them haphazardly, like stuck together with glue.

"I'll wait until you're done," Adam said.

[lcb2-radiohead]

I think the previous anon was asking if Adam was single. And I'm guessing you don't know either.

I would assume that anyone carrying the sort of psychic revulsion that he does would probably lack intimate relationships of any kind. Certainly, he's not the strangest or most grotesque creature in the city, and people more deformed than he have found their admirers, but it goes well beyond his physical appearance or personality. It's like he's a void of *rightness,* a hole in the fabric of what *should be.* I don't think anyone can truly grasp the feeling unless they've been in the same room as him.

I'm less affected by this than others, but I think someone like him would have difficulty even purchasing companionship.

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Same anon, I notice you didn't actually answer my question. And you seem to be scared for your life around this horrifying man. Methinks there may be a spark betwixt thee? I'm coming to very normal conclusions.

I mean, a spark would describe the reaction he had to touching my head. Strangely, no one else has ever had that reaction before.

I admit i am fascinated by him even if he scares me. I feel like there is a connection of some kind. Perhaps if I find out how he was made, it could help me understand myself better.

[lcb2-radiohead]

So your friend Adam... is he seeing anyone? *giggles, twirls hair*

Friend is a very strong word for someone i have only been in the same room with twice and both times I was afraid for my life.

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As we entered the great hall of the castle, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see Adam there waiting for us.

"Ah, Tabula Rasa. Glad you could make it."

"Your quarrel is with me, demon!" Victor hissed.

"Yes," he said with disdain, "It is. But my interest, creator, is with them."

The others stepped up to defend me, but I waved them off. Mela ignored me and stood between us anyway.

"Tell me, Tabula Rasa," Adam asked, "What do you think of the tour?"

<"Can someone translate for me?">

"Oui," said Vidocq. She was the most reliable translator by far.

<"Well, it was unfortunately cut short. We never got to the castle part.">

"Yes, I see." He turned to look at Fannie and Frisk, standing pretty far behind us. I realized that this was their first time seeing him, feeling the spiritual malaise radiating off of him. As such, they were both looking queasy and having trouble standing. "Looks like the tour guides didn't do their job."

<"Don't hurt them!"> I said. I stood between him and the LCCB operatives and held up my hands. Vidocq started to translate but he got the gist and tilted his head quizzically.

<"They're just normal people. Not like us.">

I meant like the Sinners and myself, but Vidocq slightly mistranslated. She said, "Not like you and Monsieur Orpheus."

I would have corrected her but he smiled at that. Oh god help me, he was beaming. On that face, it was an expression that could curdle milk.

"Well then, I'd best finish the tour. After all, two of the most important events in Victor's life took place in this very castle."

I heard a soft rumbling sound beside me and I realized Victor was growling. Literally growling like an animal.

"Yes," Victor eventually said. "Let's finish this."