[open]

[techmaturgy]

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: end of January/February pre-event
Where: Cadens, the Horizon
What: it’s canon update time baybe and things have become…weird…
Warnings: potential references to suicidal ideation, and also a manslaughter. arcane season 2 spoilers through episode 6.



[open and closed starters in comments! If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. Details on the canon update, including new powers are here. I’m on plurk at whitticus and on discord also at whitticus.]

Comments

[ordinar]

[Suddenly, he's reminded of another dream: the vision of the distant future they'd all shared when they approached the Singularity last spring. That felt real too. One possible path of many. Wilhelm still doesn't know what to make of the things he saw in that phantasmagoric state. The person he transformed into. But he doesn't like to think that he's locked into only one future. If that's the case, then what was it all for that he came to this world?]

You saw...the future in your dream?

[A pause.]

Do you think it's what might have happened if you'd stayed?

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor simply nods, having already resigned himself to what likely awaits him back home. Enough of it lines up with the recollections of others from his world. For all of his talk of alternate timelines and parallel universes, everything that happened in his dream seemed a natural progression of the events Jayce described.]

I think so, yes.

[He'll have to come to terms with that, sooner or later--that's part of why he's up here. Imagined or not, some version of him committed these transgressions.]

I had no memory of this place, in my dream. I want to think, that, if I were able to carry over the knowledge of what I learned here, I would not make the same mistakes.

[ordinar]

[Wilhelm doesn't need to know the exact contours of what Viktor did to understand. He knows all about mistakes. Just this month, he'd finally visited the memorial commemorating the victim's of Thorne's attack on Libertas. Despite all he's done to work through the knot of guilt and grief tangled around what happened that night, it hasn't fully come undone — but it's loosened so that he can live his life.]

I think so too. [That he wouldn't make the same mistakes. Maybe it doesn't mean much coming from him, but he isn't just saying it as a platitude.] The version of you who did those things...he doesn't really exist anymore.

[He has changed by coming here. Wilhelm knows because he has changed too. He's not the boy he was a few years ago.]

[techmaturgy]

I suppose that's one way to think about it.

[Viktor had insisted, when hearing about a potential future self from Jayce, that there could be no guarantee it was his future. Now, he's been proven wrong. He's starting to wonder how much of one's fate is prescribed, despite fighting his whole life against it.]

It makes me wonder what might happen if we ever do return.

[In reality, not just in a dream.]

[ordinar]

[Uncertainty flutters across his expression.]

You don't want to return, do you?

[Now that Viktor has Kyle. Now that Kyle has chosen to stay in Cadens to be with him. To Wilhelm, love seems like the most important thing, weighty enough to tip the balance in any deliberation.]

[techmaturgy]

I'd like to go back, someday.

[He has responsibilities to his home, and he doesn't think it would ever sit right with him, if he never returned. There are people there counting on him, and so much he still wants to do.

Now, at least, he has the luxury of time.]

But there is much to explore, first. [In the vastness of the universe, and all the spaces between all the different worlds. Viktor feels, now, that it's closer than ever.] I asked Kyle to come with me.

[ordinar]

[Whatever sharpness began to ache in his chest on Kyle's behalf soon smooths. So they would go together. It's romantic in a way that appeals to his youth: choosing to be with someone no matter the universe.

In the same breath, a new hurt blooms. Someday, he'd have to say good bye to Kyle, a more permanent parting than what he's already resolved himself to. Wilhelm swallows it, the sadness that rises up prematurely, shoving his hands into his pockets.]

I'm glad you found each other. And...I hope you get to go someday.

[He hopes that they get that choice.

As for himself, he's already tired of starting over. Picking up and beginning somewhere else. If he could choose, he'd stay in this world.]

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor studies Wilhelm's face for a moment, knowing that he doesn't need his approval but searching for it anyway. If what he just dreamed of comes to pass, even in any universe, he does not deserve this happiness.

He will take it for himself, anyway, because he is only human. Viktor wants Kyle to be happy, too, and Kyle has made it clear where he wants to be. They can keep each other, for a little while longer.]

Would you leave here, if you could?

[ordinar]

[The difference is that Wilhelm always thought he deserved happiness; he just felt like it would always be out of his reach. Now that he's got it, cupped carefully in his hands, he never wants to let it go. The turn of his head is decisive.]

I don't know where I'd go. My home is in this world.

[In Thorne, despite all its flaws. These days, the concept of home is rooted more in a who than a where. Traveling is fun — exploring new places, seeing new landscapes, trying new things. But coming back to what's familiar is better.]

[techmaturgy]

Then, I hope you get to stay.

[That's what all this is about--making sure every Summoned has a choice, whether to leave or remain. Lately it's been feeling like their existence in Abraxas is somewhat tenuous, with the Singularity's behavior, but it isn't bad to hope. To wonder if a real life can be made here for them, without the threat of vanishing.]