abraxaslogs | [open] march catchall

Entry tags:

[open] march catchall

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: throughout March
Where: Cadens, the Horizon
What: open stuff, closed stuff, general nerdery, horizon visits, whatever I WANT
Warnings: the usual references to terminal illness, will list additional warnings as needed.

[open and closed starters in comments! If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. full horizon details are here for any and all wildcarding needs. For everything else, I’m on plurk at

whitticus and on discord at whitticus#8139.]

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i. workshopping

[By now, Viktor is “settled”—whatever that’s supposed to mean. He’s certainly more comfortable than he was upon initial arrival, but despite his continuing distaste for the entire situation, he has a plan, now, and work to do. He’s well aware that taking Goro's offer of money and workspace is a bad idea. Despite reassurances otherwise, he knows where things stand, and that he needs to be extremely careful about the situation he’s found himself in, as tempting as it might be to use this newfound patronage as carte blanche to go as big as possible as quickly as he can.

Of course, he’s very good at convincing himself that he has everything under control. This is all going to start small, anyway, as much of the work will be theoretical in nature, at least initially. Still, he would be remiss not to get himself situated in the workspace offered to him, which is what has him out in the marketplace, engaging in various transactions, loading up a crate of parts under his free arm and then puzzling out what to do with the rest. Sure, he could make a few trips. Why do that, however, when there’s another Summoned right here?

(That’s you).]

Excuse me. [Maybe he already knows you. Maybe not. Either way, he needs an extra pair of hands.] Yes, you. Do you have a moment?

ii. miscellaneous nerd stuff (jk it’s all nerd stuff)

[If he’s not handling his own business, it’s easy to find him floating from workshop to storefront to makeshift lab, doing odd repair jobs around the neighborhood or offering general equipment improvements to anyone who might need it—including (and perhaps especially) fellow Summoned. Given the fact that he’s more-or-less just starting out, you may have to bring him the materials yourself—but depending on what you need, he’s happy to figure something out.

By now, he’s also frequenting the science academy, sitting in on lectures, asking a lot (A LOT) of annoying questions, hassling professors with more annoying questions post-lecture, getting into heated discussions with people about metaphysics, or something. You Have To Stop HIm.

After the eclipse, he spends more time in the academy libraries, researching the cosmic phenomena of this world. If someone else is there for the same purpose, well. He’s not surprised, exactly, and in the spirit of collaboration is more than happy to share his research.]

Edited 2022-03-14 02:13 (UTC)

[Of course he likes this—how can he not? Viktor is an inventor, someone who has spent his entire life building things, and once he makes his second trip to the Horizon, with an understanding of what it is and what he can do in it, he wastes no time.

Frequent visitors to the Horizon might notice that there is a new domain in town, a wall that follows the line of a river, cutting between two cities, one with a prominent skyline, the other built into the ravines below. The bulk of it is not accessible—more of a backdrop, the real contents of the domain contained inside the wall and in the crevasse below. Very little has been done to keep prying visitors out—might as well take a look around, right?]

i. you can't waste taxpayer dollars in the mind palace

[Most of the domain is housed in the interior of the wall—heading up the stairs (or lift) and past the clockwork machinery of what appears to be a water treatment facility reveals a long hallway and double doors. Not ominous!

Possibly it’s the sound of an explosion that brings you into the space. Something has most certainly just blown up—Viktor is standing in the middle of the cavernous room that is the lab and possibly also some smoldering ruins, seemingly thrilled with what has just transpired, and looking slightly maniacal. Apparently, given free rein to imagine up any experiment that he could possibly want, his first inclination is to do the most volatile thing imaginable. It quite literally can’t hurt, right? Possibly it takes him a moment to realize he has company, and when he does he has the wherewithal to look slightly embarrassed.]

Just, uh. Testing the limits.

ii. intellectual property

[When Viktor is here, the door to the study is open, and possibly this place is a little more welcoming to visitors (and less full of weird equipment test runs and explosions). This is clearly a personal space—there are books everywhere, and houseplants, and coffee, and even though he’s probably been here for like, an hour tops, every table and blackboard is filled with notes and schematics. You are welcome to take a look, but Viktor is quick to speak up from his workspace if you decide to peek at something he’d rather you didn’t.]

Do you mind? That’s proprietary.

[If you've met Viktor outsize of the Horizon, the difference may seem a little striking. Given the ability, he seems to have done away with whatever ails him in the real world—his face is fuller, less pale, and he stands straighter, using a cane instead of his usual crutch. If you haven't met him, well. Good. Less opportunity for prying questions (outside of the sensitive blueprints, of course).]

iii. what's this weird cave doing here

[If you’re particularly intrepid, it’s just as easy to go down as it is up, and exploring below the wall leads into a rocky crevasse. he water that flows through is unnaturally clear. One gets the sense that it's probably not this clean in reality, and is, instead, the result of a conscious decision to construct this place in a way that it could (or, perhaps, should) be. Continue on and the path heads underground, into a cave entrance and grotto.

It’s slightly rarer to find Viktor here—you’re more likely to be ambushed by the creature-in-residence, instead, but in the event of such misfortune he is quick to intervene.]

Don’t worry, she’s harmless. [Well, he hopes, but the real Rio had always been docile, and therefore it follows that his faithful mental recreation would be as well. Ideally. He’s still wrapping his mind around the apparent ability to conjure sentient entities within the Horizon, even if this is simply the recreation of a memory. It’s possible he looks a little bewildered, not only at someone finding their way down here, but at the situation itself. Isn’t this comforting!]

iv. casual b&e

[He is also, of course, snooping. A naturally curious mind, Faced with something so incredible as the Horizon, the first thing Viktor wants to do is test its limits. Though he seems to have enough awareness that it might be rude to actually enact changes or to otherwise encroach on someone else’s domain, that doesn’t stop him from, you know, taking a few little walks, leading to the inevitable.

He’s in your house (domain)!! He’s touching your stuff!!! He sees nothing wrong with any of this!!!! Maybe you should have locked it up better if you didn’t want anyone poking around!!!!!!]

[So, he can literally conjure up living creatures in the Horizon. That's one thing to know, theoretically, and quite another to actually do. It takes him by surprise, the fact that the Singularity can take a memory that he gives it and extrapolate accordingly, but he supposes the point of this place is that it functions on the seemingly limitless power of creation. He’ll start with what he knows, because that’s easiest, and then see what happens.

The next thing to do is test the parameters. Systematically, methodically, like the scientist he is. Can he bring things out of his domain? Objects? Can he bring an ostensibly living thing out of his domain, and into someone else's? Are there limits to any of this, beyond the relatively small size of the Horizon itself? He knows not to infringe on anyone else's space (though he imagines he could, if he really wanted to, it just seems rude and unnecessarily aggressive), but he sees no reason why he can’t take walks through them. Anything he can glean about his fellow summoned is useful, after all, so he takes Rio and goes for a walk.

It’s more an experiment than anything, to see if there’s anything preventing him from doing something like this—if there’s a distance limit to his own constructs, or if anything he makes might be affected by someone else’s creations, this will probably be the easiest way to find them. What it looks like, probably, is a guy out with his weird dog. Everything is cool and normal here.]

Edited 2022-03-20 02:26 (UTC)

[He's "settled", sure, but he's not comfortable, really. It's going to take more time for that, but Viktor is nothing if not industrious. Despite his first forays into the general scientific community of Cadens, a few bruised egos haven’t necessarily harmed his endeavors. It helps that Viktor is both incredibly sharp and generally industrious, which gets him a few odd jobs here and there—fixing one thing or the other, making improvements to something else. Nothing permanent, yet, but he understands that reputation is just as important as everything else he’s trying to secure, and the more he ingratiates himself with he locals, the more they’ll come to trust his skills and the more momentum he’ll gain.

So he isn’t settled. But he's in a better place than he was a few weeks ago, thanks to some actual patronage, and part of this process includes maintaining even tenuous connections. Luckily, Ciri isn’t difficult to locate (she’d said as much), and it takes only some cursory asking around to determine her usual haunts. She'd said to come find her when he'd secured space, and, well. He's done that. As promised, he's waiting for her in one of the alchemical shops that she frequents, fiddling with some kind of delicate glass alembic as he waits.]

It took me a few weeks, but--

[He's not really bothering with any formalities--Ciri seems like someone who means business, so he'll get right to the point.]

I'm in a better position to discuss a potential arrangement.

Edited 2022-03-18 19:34 (UTC)

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