[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]

This is not a physical place. I'm perfectly opaque in the real world, I assure you.

[If she was worried. He does understand that this is all a bit difficult to explain, but showing her how he appeared in his dream might be alarming, too. Here, at least, he looks mostly like himself, albeit slightly more cosmic.]

In my dream, the means through which I cured my illness took a different form. It afforded me certain...abilities. Access to this plane is one of them.

[theidlemaiden]

You better not be lying to me. We aren't exactly just down the street from one another right now.

[ Which is to say, yes. She is worried. They did after all have a very real dream(?) of turning into gods not that long ago. Her brows furrow as she uses the leverage to pull herself a little loser to him. ]

Wait. Are we talking about your illness here? Or home? [ The furrow turns into a wide-eyed expression. ] Did you go home, Vikky?!

[techmaturgy]

I have no reason to lie to you.

[And if he's offended by the idea that she might think this, he doesn't so it. Indeed, Viktor seems mostly placid, just glad to see Hilda. It's been difficult, scattered to the winds as they are.

He'll give her the time she needs to process, offering a reassuring smile.]

I didn't go home, not physically. But it is a phenomenon, among us, to dream of our worlds and awaken with new memories. Or something like that.

[Can he call them memories, if he didn't really experience it? Is it, perhaps, just another way things might go, should he return?]

[theidlemaiden]

[ She knows that he wouldn't. After everything they've been through there's no doubt in her mind of that. It's more like that's simply her way of expressing her worry and concern that something else is being set into motion outside of their control again. ]

Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?

[ There's a beat before she looks at him trying to ignore the fact that she can see through his head to the vast expanse beyond him. ]

And this dream you had...did it involve this?

[techmaturgy]

I'm not sure. It's happened to a few of us.

[He says that with a laugh--because it is funny, that she doesn't know. Or maybe it's good, that she hasn't experienced it for herself. Viktor will be the first to admit that waking up was disorienting.

To her question, she nods.]

I told you, I have...abilities, now. I can see beyond the physical realm.

[theidlemaiden]

[ Honestly the laughter is useful here, cutting through the tension and the worry around the notion of strange maybe phoretic dreams. Once upon a time she might have hoped to have jumped straight past the war - but not anymore. ]

Beyond the physical realm?

[ There's another pause as she looks around them. It feels a lot like how she had felt learning schematics so many months ago. ]

You mean like this? Or to different worlds?

[techmaturgy]

[He nods, trying to look reassuring, but of course he's excited to share this with her. Despite his connection to all of his followers, his dream had been lonely. Being here, and using the Horizon to let his friends experience what he can see is special.

Even if Hilda is, rightly skeptical.]

I have not breached the problem of different worlds. [So, not so different than where his work reached a dead-end back home.] But I have greater understanding of how I might accomplish this.

[If he can get back to the Hexgates, the anomaly is there waiting for him.]

[theidlemaiden]

[ There's no hiding the excitement that lights up his gaze. She's spent more than enough time with him both in reality and as a god to be able to read her friend the way she is right now. And if there is one thing that can always melt her skepticism, it's the care and affection that she has for her friends.

Even without that however, the possibility that they might go home sparks hope in her. A hope that has never really left even after the years she's spent here; rather, it's been biding its time, waiting for the day that someone was able to find a way for them to go home. She struggles to keep some of that in check as they float quietly in this space that is now his. ]

But how? Even if you look like you're made up of a galaxy, does that mean you gained some sort of...powers with that? Or did you come across some kind of discovery at home?

[techmaturgy]

[He can sense her sadness, and knows that it's a difficult conversation, about whether to go or stay. It feels increasingly like this choice will be upon them soon--but he's never hid his intentions, to return. The existence of the anomaly is exciting to him in the sense that he may not need to say goodbye forever.

He'll create a miniature anomaly, one he can hold in the palm of his hand.]

An anomalous construct, self-replicating and self-annihilating. A pure, unbridled expression of the Arcane. I believe it could be used to travel between timelines. Between different universes, even.

[theidlemaiden]

[ The appearance of the anomaly is equal parts wonderous and terrifying at the same time - mostly due to the fact that anything with the word "annihilating" is something she's learned to approach with caution. Still, there's nothing stopping her from gazing at it with childlike wonder. Her hand hovers above it, almost nervous to touch it despite it being a figment of the Horizon. ]

And it's stable?

[ It's not that she's questioning him. Her trust and faith in Viktor has been tested time and time again. Rather, it's because of all this time with him has taught her to question things and examine every possible outcome. ]

It won't hurt the people that use it?

[techmaturgy]

I hope so. Or, I could stabilize it.

[It's a chaotic expression of the arcane, to his understanding, but when he saw it at the Hexgate it did seem like it was under control, at least. Viktor sounds more confident than he feels, because this is as close as he's come to his goal. If he can get back to Piltover, and harness this for himself, the possibilities will be truly endless.]

I have to try. And you know that if I believe it could harm someone else, I would no longer pursue it.