OPEN | with a confusion of ideas

[lifeskills]

Who: Victor Frankenstein (lifeskills) and anyone in the neighborhood.
Where: The dining room.
When: Jan. 20th.
Rating: PG-13, maybe? Possibly? We'll see.
Summary: Going to art school instead of medical school would've saved a lot of people some trouble, just saying.

The Story:



<sub>[It's been an odd week. It's always odd in Wonderland, but it's not often he starts a week off by getting a sunburn in the middle of winter (and he knows exactly whose mind that Egyptian adventure had come from, as if there was ever any doubt). It's been an odd year, if he's being honest. Odder than most, and that's saying something considering he's been in Wonderland for over two now.

To think it'd been around this time last Christmas that he'd been looking at a future vision of Lily and Dorian Gray ballroom dancing, and not knowing who they were. Not knowing the significance they'd have in his life once he returned to London--and he had, in time to put together all of the hints Wonderland had been dropping. About himself. About the tragic events that were coming.

Victor has taken up residence at one of the dining room tables, a common enough sight during breakfast and dinner hours while grabbing a bite to eat (lunch is usually an afterthought grabbed on the go). Only a coffee cup sits near him now--and a journal, propped up on a folded knee. He's been drawing, but not the kinds of research sketches one would have found inside in times past when scientific rigor was the focus.

As he goes to adjust his seat, the journal falls from its precariously balanced position, scattering loose pages along the floor. If a page should skitter close to one's foot, they'll find series of abstract drawings dotting it. Doodles, really. Random hieroglyphics. A pyramid crowned with a jewel. The White Queen's symbol. A blonde woman, beautiful features made sharper by her intensely piercing eyes.]</sub>

Sorry. It slipped.

_{[Excuse him while he tries to scoop those up before someone steps on the detritus of his thoughts.]}

Comments

[poppycock]

[ it's certainly possible he has met da vinci—and degas, freud, magellan; the list does go on. klaus has certainly studied da vinci's work at length and with admiration. he wasn't alone either in keeping abreast of the renaissance as it occurred, but the respectful and polite manner in which victor pays him that mind is equally appreciated and deserved.

and worthy of a moment's consideration; he wonders if it is all manners that directs victor's language. in their castle, he would have assumed victor's behavior as the idolizing words of an ambitious wizard. before their sojourn into another life, he would have thought victor interestingly uncomfortable around a powerful species of another kind.

it's why, after the space of a pause (after noting the careful way victor slips the drawing away) klaus draws an errant line on the cool polished tabletop and asks, ] Is it true? The account of your fictional life; I assume you've heard of it. Are you the infamous doctor of yore?

[lifeskills]

<sub>[Victor can see the shape of the question coming before Klaus has finished, and it gives him pause for one long second.

Honestly, he's a little surprised; he'd have thought Klaus would have suspected by now. Suspected and come to his own conclusions about what manner of blood Victor is wearing on his hands. This isn't the first time he's been asked--not even the first time he's been asked this abruptly--but coming from someone as strategically keen as Klaus, it seems oddly innocent. A low ball pitched underhand.]</sub>

Unavoidable, after I unwittingly began introducing myself by my given name. _{[So yes, he's heard of it.]} You were one of the first I met back in the early days, actually.

<sub>[And they'd beat around this particular bush, though back then Victor would have already been looking for an excuse to change the subject, or talk along the outside edges of it. With time comes accountability.

He's not sure why Klaus is asking now, but-- He takes in a breath and answers plainly.]</sub>

You mean have I resurrected the dead? Yes, that much is true.

_{[No longer does the confession ride on a secret swell of pride, however. That arrogance has burned itself out since he and Klaus last spoke about it, long ago with a different Klaus entirely.]}

[poppycock]

[ there is no reason to pretend. victor knows who he is and is cautious enough to know or suspect in part what he is capable of—for it is a low ball, but it is not pitched underhand. he means to level them. he does not want victor's careful and measured respects; he does not want deferential nonsense. victor is as much a capable monster as he is. what's more under that fear and calculation, klaus knows he must know it.

he studies the doctor placidly, his fingertip tapping slow and steady onto the table. finally, he answers, ] Well, I suppose we have that in common. [ and isn't that a humorous aside. ] I wonder, [ and he does wonder, moving to shift forward in his seat, ] did you know my family before?

[lifeskills]

<sub>[Attention is a double-edged sword. For Klaus, this line of questioning might be harmless, idle conversation between residents making use of the dining room, a way to pass the time. For Victor... who knows. Cats taking interest in canaries can end a few ways, some of them not so well for the canary.

For now, though, Victor doesn't sense danger in entertaining the topic, and he aims for the same casualness Klaus displays in his body language. A stray musing thought skids across his mind: which part does the hybrid find a commonality with? Being the one resurrecting the dead, or being the one to slough off his old life for a new existence? Something of both?]</sub>

Some, in passing.

_{[Another truthful answer. He'd promised not to reveal the conversations he's had with Elena to date, but the prior presence of the Mikaelsons can be easily corroborated--it's not worth lying about.]}

I met Kol and Rebekah, while they were here for a brief time. I believe there was another, but our paths didn't cross.

[poppycock]

[ it is harmless, but despite appearances, it is not idle. the truth is not all strategies are underhanded, nor does it mean they are without risk. victor could be just as easily reticent to a subtle question as he might be to a straightforward one. cats sometimes do not catch the canaries, but klaus believes this one would be a fine enough chase, either way.

and he does so like the chase. victor is somewhat of an enigma. there is something reserved about him, something as hidden as his drawings of a beautiful woman. those small peeks into the man klaus sits with now has only whet his appetite and knowing victor knew klaus' family makes him all the more curious.

and so: he chats. ] Ah, that would be Elijah, I assume. My noble, elder brother.

[lifeskills]

<sub>[A pause to consider, then a nod. That name does sound familiar. There had been upsets with the Wonderland vampires, as he recalls--perpetrated in part by the previous Klaus, and mitigated by Elijah.

And Kol... Victor had gotten the sense Kol intended to go to war with them all if need be. Quite the dysfunctional family--not that he's one to talk.]</sub>

I believe so. Is it just you and Rebekah now?

_{[There are other vampires from Klaus' world about, but not Originals, as far as he knows. Though in a sense, if all vampires descend from the Mikaelsons he supposes they're all related in a distant way.]}

[poppycock]

[ victor would be right—they are connected. or they were, more accurately; for klaus it is different. no one knows it here but his link to his sirelings has long been broken; an unfortunate and deadly consequence his enemies sought to remove him from the protection of that link: when an original dies, all vampires they have beget die with them.

it's best those that are in his sireline here—all of them from mystic falls, actually—do not know. klaus has no idea if due to timelines are they still linked or not and he's none too eager to find out.

nor is he particularly eager to divulge more to victor about his family, but his family's presence is no secret either. klaus' brow lifts at the mention of rebekah. he wonders if they've crossed paths. ] There's our eldest sibling, the long-lost sister, Freya. A long story, [ he adds with some humor. ] And you? Have you any family or acquaintances here?

[lifeskills]

<sub>[Another sister? That gets both of Victor's eyebrows lifting, wordlessly giving away his ignorance that he hadn't known there was yet another sister. Given Klaus has said before they have a thousand years of history behind them, he imagines that's a long story indeed.

He'd be lying if he wasn't on the curious side about how an immortal comes to be "long-lost," but for now, having gotten his answer, he opts not to ask and make it seem as though Klaus sitting down was an invitation for an interrogation. Klaus hasn't asked about the woman in the drawing yet--he can return that favor.]</sub>

In the early days, there were two friends from home for a short while, but not since then.

_{[And Caliban, briefly, in the crush of newcomers that had briefly crowded Wonderland's corridors while the multitude of parties had been going on. Victor's lips thin for a passing moment. Caliban counts as family in his own way, and family is a rather complicated beast to discuss, just as it is for the Mikaelsons.]}

The closest to a peer would be a one Mr. Dorian Gray. We don't share a world, but we do share a... literary sphere.

_{[Said knowingly as Klaus will probably grasp what he means. Fictional Victorians make for popular stories.]}