#this taking place in some sort of variation on the Forgotten Vows Verse felt right

[victorluvsalice]

Happy Birthday Nebby!

@nebbychan, as per your suggestion, here is something featuring Victor making an unusual new friend in a variation of the Forgotten Vows Verse which features a certain black cauldron in its history. . .

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Alice clasped her hands before her. “All right. Let me get this straight. You were roaming the East End, looking for me, when you found your way down a certain alley blocked by a garbage heap.”

“Yes,” Victor confirmed, twisting his tie between his hands.

“For some reason, rather than just go in a different direction, you decided instead to climb over the heap.”

“I’d spotted Splatter in the area earlier and I didn’t want to start a fight.”

“Ah, fair enough. But during your attempt to navigate the garbage, you ended up cutting yourself on something, tripped as a result, and grabbed this old iron cauldron to steady yourself. Leading to your blood dripping into it.”

“That – is essentially what happened, yes.”

“And that’s when the cauldron lit up with mystical fire, and this person–” Alice nodded to the rather large, practically skull-headed man with glowing red eyes and horns standing beside them “–crawled out of it.”

“I was surprised too.”

“He then proceeded to thank you for freeing him from his torment, and pledged his allegiance to you.”

“Given he had just spared me from an eternity of imprisonment in a realm of pure evil and rage, being tortured by those I had hoped to harness for my own ends, I felt it only fitting to do so,” the man said, voice rumbling like thunder.

“I’m not questioning why you did it,” Alice said, holding up a hand. “I’m just – more surprised you didn’t bolt on instinct right then, Victor.”

“I almost did,” Victor admitted, biting his lip. “But I tried to run from Emily, and I ended up in the Land of the Dead anyway. . .besides, I really wanted to know what was going on, and why I suddenly had a horned, rotting corpse at my feet swearing fealty.”

“I suppose I would too. So he tells you his story, which is that he is the ‘Horned King’ of legend, who once tried to use that very cauldron to take over the world with an army of undead monsters animated by pure hatred for the living.” She shot the Horned King a look. “Which you are not planning to do again, right?”

“I have had many centuries to reflect on how badly that went,” the Horned King replied, grimacing despite not having much of a face to do so. “Many painful, awful centuries. Yes, I admit, I once wished to be a god among men. But now – I just want to live among them.”

“Good to know. So yes, this King–”

“I choose to go by ‘Hoki’ now.”

“All right then, Hoki then thanks you again and says you must be a very powerful sorcerer indeed to free him from the depths of the cauldron.”

“He is a powerful sorcerer,” Hoki protested. “I just assumed he was trained.”

“Um – to be f-fair, improving my magical abilities was the last thing on my mind when I ended up in the Land of the Dead,” Victor said, twisting up his tie some more. “Or here in Whitechapel, come to think of it.”

Hoki shook his head. “Hmph. This is why I decided that part of my service to you must be teaching you to master your magic. Yes, you are only committing minor acts of necromancy right now, on corpses already primed to rise, but – well. Uncontrolled power will cause you untold ills.”

“Oh, I’m not objecting to magic lessons!” Victor cried, waving his hands. “I promise you that! I’m just saying, it was never a priority before.”

“Right – so that’s about the time that you explained that Hoki’s – summoning, I guess – was an accident, and what you were doing in the alley? Houndsditch and Bumby and trying to find me?”

“Yes, exactly,” Victor said, clapping his hands together. “And that’s when he said he could easily summon you here and–” He shrugged. “Here you are.”

“Here I am,” Alice agreed. “Whisked away from the nightmarish realm of Queensland to your side.” She looped her arm through his. “Which I am not angry about in the slightest, trust me. I just – I’m still getting it all straight in my head.”

Victor chuckled. “That’s fine – I’m still getting it all straight in mine.” He touched her shoulder. “But – are you all right? I’ve been so worried ever since you wandered off. . .”

Alice stared at her shoes. “I’ve – been better. I’ve been wandering through Wonderland, killing my way through the brutal infection left by the Infernal Train, and I’ve – had some absolutely terrible revelations.” She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “I’ve been repressing a lot of things about the fire, I’m sad to say.”

“It’s understandable, Alice,” Victor said comfortingly. “It was the most traumatic event of your life!”

“Yes, but – Victor? You know that key that Dr. Bumby uses to hypnotize all his patients?”

“. . .yes?”

“It’s my sister’s room key.”

There was a moment of charged silence. “. . .why does he have your sister’s room key?” Victor asked finally, voice dark.

“Because he was utterly obsessed with Lizzie, and – I think him not being able to handle her rejection of him. . .is what led to the fire.”

Hoki raised what on a normal person passed for an eyebrow. “Would now be a good time to mention that my release may require another soul to be put into the cauldron in my place? To keep it stable?”

“Yes. Yes, I think it would.”