[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

[techmaturgy]

I don't know if I would call it a god.

[That feels presumptuous, and he's only doing what people should do with this kind of power. Viktor is not invulnerable, either. He hardly considers himself divine, even if others might.

What's important is how similar it is, to the imagined future.]

But I have awoken to power, and a physical transformation.

[magicalarchaeologist]

[ Everyone has different experiences in their future but Viktor having a similar one to what they experienced here is interesting. All Istredd saw was the end of an era and a tragedy for himself, but he wonders if for some people, this is as inevitable there as it is here. An interesting theory, and Istredd loves thinking about those. ]

A transformation similar to what you experienced here? Were you ... robotic?

[ It took Istredd time to understand what a robot is but he has a robot literally in his domain now so he's figured it out. He remembers the way Viktor appeared and while robotic isn't the exact right word for it, there was something about the way he replaced his limbs and body parts into something stronger and better, that reminds him of that. He never fully understood the details of how he changed, only that he did. And that it disturbed Kyle, as far as he could tell after their falling out he never questioned. Not that he belives that would matter now.]

I'm sorry that happened. Or are you not sorry?

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor doesn't know if he would call it robotic, either--perhaps bio-mechanical. All of that is a bit difficult to explain, though, especially when he can simply show Istredd. He takes a step, allowing his appearance to change into what he remembers from the Commune. Like this, Viktor's changed body is evident. It isn't exactly the same as he was, in the imagined future, but it's close enough, his living metal arm having overtaken his entire person.]

It was not a gradual augmentation. The circumstances...required that it all happen at once.

[And though Jayce had made the choice for him, Viktor had, after his first experiment, planned to do this to himself.]

There are some things I regret. But I have been able to continue my work. That's what matters.

[magicalarchaeologist]

[ Istredd's eyebrows shoot up as Viktor changes to his new shape, surprised to see the metal arm and then the change to the rest of his body and limbs. It is a drastic change and he wonders about the internal alterations that must have required too. It's extensive and that has to have had problems for him both physically and mentally. He's concerned. ]

It just happened all at once? That can't have been pleasant, to be altered on such a fundamental level.

[ He remembers that Viktor's changes did come slowly, piece by piece, in their god forms, so he could make these choices and decisions on his own. To do it all at once, that's significant. Istredd feels a way about it but he's mostly taking cues from Viktor's own behavior. Where he seems more accepting than happy about it, but that's necessary. To just adapt with what you have. ]

Is it all that matters now? Because you are sounding like your other self, my friend.

[ Who didn't care about much outside of work, not even people. ]

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor sees the immediate concern on Istredd's face, but remains largely impassive. Though the dream was just as imagined as the strange future, he still feels as though he's had time to come to terms with all this. It simply is what it is, at this point.]

It was necessary.

[He'd been angry with Jayce at the time, but now understands his partner's actions, even if he doesn't necessarily agree. And now that he's continued to live, he's been afforded the opportunity to help others, which is all he's really wanted. When Istredd says he sounds like his other self, Viktor offers a huff that might be a laugh.]

Believe me, I know. It makes me wonder if certain things are inevitable, even across universes.

[magicalarchaeologist]

Possibly. Who we became in that vision is an extension of who we are now. I don't think some people want to see that.

[ There were people very unhappy with where it all ended up and Istredd was not one of them, but maybe that was part of it. He's used to introspective thinking and being in tune with who he is, for better or for worse. No one he saw change was vastly different from where he thinks they're capable of doing even now. Istredd didn't see anyone in that future and go 'now that makes no sense, they'd never do that.' ]

But I do remember that your loved ones were worried about where you ended up. I personally found you very reasonable, but I'm not them.

[ Istredd and Viktor didn't know one another well before that and since they've become friends, genuinely in his opinion, but it also is sort of a connection between two people with logical intellectual mindsets. No feelings are really involved.

Besides, they both know he's talking about Kyle. ]

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor's lips pull tight--this is, of course, nothing he doesn't already know. After the imagined future, he'd resolved to do things differently, for those that care about him. But he's ended up like this anyway, hasn't he? It makes him wonder how much is simply inevitable. If he's doing himself a disservice by attempting to fight it. If it could have the same disastrous results as what came from trying to fight his illness.]

I've spoken with Kyle.

[So, Istredd is not the first to know. He's shown him his new form, the commune, and told him of his dream. He sees no reason not to put Istredd at ease, in that regard.]

We have an opportunity to do things differently, this time. And this form...it doesn't exist in the real world.