abraxaslogs | EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

Entry tags:

EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

Event #7 - The Sight

go to the OOC event info and plotting post

The night before APRIL 18, your dreams are disrupted by a vivid image of the same eclipse that occurred last month. The black sun seems to be an endless void in the sky, growing ever darker - until it suddenly opens into an eye that stares straight at you.

When you wake up, much of your night seems a blur except for the vivid dream of that eye. Whether you find it unsettling or try to ignore it, the image is something you cannot get out of your mind. If you ask, you will discover that none of the locals of your faction saw another eclipse. Speak with your fellow Summoned, however, and you may learn that while there was no eclipse that formed over the world, you were not the only one who had this dream.

Of course, dreams don't need to mean anything. You can't feel or see any immediate effects, and nearly everyone around you is going about their day as usual. Maybe you should do the same.

The Awakening

It might happen that very morning or a day or two later. You could be discussing the dream with a fellow Summoned or perhaps you simply brush shoulders with them as you walk by. Whatever it is, as soon as you make brief physical contact, one of you is struck with a sharp pain in your temple that grows into a terrible headache. It's disorienting and painful as the world around you shifts to someplace you may or may not recognize. Like an old film reel, you watch the events of the past play out before you: the past of the other Summmoned. It might be something they would rather hide, a moment of failure or despair, or something they are immensely proud of and brings them great joy - or even a jumble of several images over the course of a person's life. But you see it as if it were real and right in front of you all the same. When you come to, you'll likely find yourself on the ground or bent over, possibly with one or more people around you to see if you're okay. It'll take you a bit to gather your bearings, and the subsequent pounding in your head could last from minutes to hours.

Or, maybe you aren't the one who receives the vision. Instead, as you watch, another Summoned might grasp their head and crumble in front of you. They may go silent or groan in pain. They'll be impossible to shake out of their stupor until it's over. If you ask what happened, they may be inclined to tell you the truth - that you, you were what happened to them.

Or, if your Arcana signs happen to line up in a specific way, you'll see each other in the shared memory itself. You may also find that for certain Summoned, you can help soothe the effects, calm their emotions, or help draw them out of the memory before it consumes them for too long. It's not entirely clear what determines which effect, but one thing is for certain - within each memory, every Summoned as they appear in the past seems to wear the mark of their Arcana somewhere on their person.

For some, they might experience this only once. For others, they might experience it multiple times: with the same person, with several other Summoned, or with a different memory each time. Over the next 7 days, you'll find the Summoned around you are all receiving a glimpse into each other's past, as if the Singularity has awoken an eye within each of you.

Flee for the safety of the Horizon if you want, but you'll find that in there, it's much the same. In fact, inside the Horizon, the other Summoned don't even need to be anywhere near you - just existing in the Horizon space itself together will be enough to possibly set off a headache-inducing vision.

The Factions

What has occurred between the Summoned will not go unnoticed within the factions. While it's difficult to say how faction officials have picked up what's happening, it'll be obvious they do know.

In THORNE, characters will be asked to remain in the castle walls until further notice. Characters will not be allowed to leave the castle grounds, not even to go into the surrounding city, and anyone who is already outside will be requested to not leave again as soon as they return. If asked, they will be told it's for their own safety, given the Singularity is behaving unpredictably and the Summoned have a unique connection to it. Soothing potions and healers are on hand to offer assistance, if anyone is particularly suffering from ill effects.

In the FREE CITIES, characters will find the army by the outposts show more activity than usual. A higher number of guards will patrol the streets throughout the event, particularly in areas frequented by the Summoned. Anyone who publicly and visibly experiences the effects of the memory share (pain, doubling over, etc.) will be offered assistance by the guards. They are generally there to help, but they are also there to maintain order and ensure anyone behaving erratically due to this incident is properly contained. This might include confinement for a day or two if anyone is especially posing a risk, but no one will be punished except in the most extreme cases, as the locals are aware this is not within the control of the Summoned.

In SOLVUNN, the locals will be watching what's happening with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. Host families and neighbors will be on hand to help with charms meant to offer protection, as well as general care and assistance (soup, blankets, and so on) if your character seems to be especially under the weather or afflicted by the event. Towards the end of the event, more elders and mages will be out and about to check up on the Summoned to make sure they're doing okay. If asked, the mages will say they aren't sure what's going on, but that they are currently divining with the gods and hope to have a definitive answer soon in the upcoming days.

None of the factions appear to be doing much more than keep a watchful eye on the situation - but as the week comes to a close, officials will start making a decision as to what they want to do and how to handle the Summoned who have demonstrated this unforeseen connection to the Singularity.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[there is a moment of passing concern as she catches a glimpse of viktor, looking worse for wear. it's really hard to assess these things when it comes to people she cannot actually check up on outside of the horizon. she wonders—and wonders—if she should not have just moved to the free cities, if only to be closer to those she's grown so fond of.

this thought, however, disappears from her mind as he starts talking, looks all the better, and wanda can't help fumbling with her hands when he smiles.

(people don't usually smile when they see her—it's... been a while since, anyway.)

wanda offers a small smile in return.]

I find that the Singularity proves to be a little more elusive in giving us answers, especially when we're hoping for them. [said smile grows a little more relaxed when he looks open to conversation, hands held together over her lap in her usual nervous turning of the rings she's decorated her fingers with.] I — saw one of your memories.

[she quickly amends:]

You were with Jayce. Everything was... blue, and it was — beautiful. That was your work, wasn't it?

Edited 2022-04-24 15:24 (UTC)

[He's less distressed at the the thought of Wanda seeing glimpses from his past than he might other people. At the very least, he trusts her to understand, which he finds surprisingly refreshing. Her honestly is also helpful, and he doesn't seem so upset by the fact that she's seen something, especially not when she tells him what it was.]

Ah. You got one of the good ones.

[Implying, of course, that there are other, not-so-good ones. Hers certainly wasn't good, but he can get to that in a moment. Viktor plans to be honest with her, in turn. It's only fair.

He smiles a little more genuinely, at the memory, making it clear that it's a fond one, for him. Beautiful, yes, Viktor nods.]

We proved his theory, that night. Harnessed magic. [And then, something of a wry grin--] Nobody thought it could be done.

It must have been very exciting.

[despite how composed and generous both viktor and jayce are with their patience and amiability towards her (and, likely, others), wanda gets the impression that they may not have been the popular guys back in their own world—at least not initially.

and she understands that so, so well; to be the one expected to fail, or to not be able to pull the trigger when it came down to it. but wanda never hesitated in her own battles, hard as they were, in perhaps the same way these two men never hesitated to trust the process, believe in their theories.]

—you looked it, anyway. [excited, happy, even.] I understand now why Jayce thinks so fondly of you.

[when nobody thinks something can be done, it is but the other individual who does believe that becomes such an instrumental, valuable part of a person's life.

like vision had been to her.]

Considering that failure would have meant expulsion and exile? It was thrilling.

[Also, the best resignation letter he didn't write.

Viktor is fairly certain he would've been able to weather being banished back to the Undercity, though he doubts Jayce would've fared as well. It's an interesting thought experiment, to think about where they'd be, now, if the experiment had failed. Still friends? Still working together, in any way that they could? Or would Jayce never have forgiven him, for convincing him to give it a shot and then failing him.]

I fixed his math. Convinced him to try the experiment again. [He did a little more than that, but he's not sure how much of that night Jayce would want him to divulge to other people.] That's all it took--just some corrected equations and a nudge in the right direction. The rest of it was all his. A childhood dream made real.

Any other person would try and take the credit for it.

[wanda will not kid herself in thinking she understands how scientists and equations and half the things they look into. still, she knows of men who are greedy and more than happy to express to the world just how incredibly wise they are.

to see viktor and jayce working as a team makes complete sense to wanda, given what she managed to see through her accidental peeking into jayce's mind.]

You're trying to replicate that here?

Ehn. It was not the type of research anyone would want to take credit for.

[It wasn't until they'd successfully made it work that anyone even began to entertain Hextech--just hours earlier, Jayce was thrown out of the academy for dabbling in the Arcane. What he'd needed wasn't just someone who could correct his math. Viktor had been the first not to fear it. That's a reason it was successful as much as anything else.

To Wanda's question, he provides a nod.]

In principle, it's not so different than the "new" magic they practice here. However, where Cadens seeks to eliminate magic entirely, we see it as a complement. Magic and technology, each enhancing the other. The applications are limitless.

[Viktor, for his part, is thoroughly sincere--he truly believes this, it seems.]

I think my only worry is that they would want to use it in Cadens to pursue their more... military goals.

[wanda heaves a sigh and pulls her legs in, closer to the ledge she sits on, turning to look out into the horizon. there's a warm, golden light that shifts their way, a feeling of warmth replicated through it.]

—but I only have an outsider's idea of what it's like where you are. I've heard about a potential war, on top of everything else.

[she turns to look at him, a questioning look in her eyes.]

Is — everything okay?

[there's been a bit of an 'off' vibe since she approached him.]

This is also my concern.

[And he does sound exhausted by that. Viktor is constantly juggling his need to work--to improve, not only for himself but for others--with the knowledge that whatever he makes here will be utilized in some way by this country's military. Shifting their priorities in that regard is a larger political task that he has neither the political savvy or will to do so. All he can really hope is that his own efforts to safeguard his technology will be enough.

She's been talking to Jayce, it seems. Viktor has said precious little about the actual political situation of their world, mostly because he's been (selfishly) enjoying being assessed on his own merits, for once in his life. Nobody here looks at him as fissure trash, because nobody knows what that means. Even the thought of explaining Piltover and the Undercity is exhausting, so he just avoids it entirely.]

The political situation that we left behind is irrelevant, at this point. [There's nothing he can do about any of it as long as he's stuck here, and he has other things to worry about.] I'm okay.

[That's not necessarily true, but there's more he wants to discuss before he derails all of this with the question he imagines she's really asking. She's been honest with him, so it's only fair that he offers her the same, in turn.] I saw something of yours, I think. You were part of a military outfit?

[this thought keeps skipping in her mind, she likes viktor, because he does not speak to her like she is unable to understand (despite her mentioning that she doesn't understand a lot of many things in his realm of study), and—sometimes—it feels like she's talking to a kindred spirit. someone who understands this sense of being somehow lesser.

like there is a need to protect identity and intentions.

as a sokovian, she feels this defensiveness creep into her conversations without meaning to; it is somehow less difficult to keep it from creeping into her tone of voice when talking to him. funny, how little they know of each other's background but how easy it is to identify it by feeling alone.

wanda genuinely is glad that he is okay, but the words that follow give her reason to pause.]

I— ...yes, a while ago. [not that it was strictly military, but the way sam and steve had the group working in tandem was very much militarily focused. wanda straightens her back, rests her hands on her knees.] I worked with the Avengers, a group from my home who — well, it's very complicated, but they... saved me, from some certain fate. I had no home to return to, no family, and with my powers I thought I could help make a difference.

[she keeps eye contact with him.]

There was an explosion, wasn't there?

Yes.

[No easy way to say that, though Viktor has resolved not to pry or ask for more information than any one person is willing to give. He has questions, of course, about these so-called Avengers, and what they were meant to do and how she fit in with them, but he'll let her volunteer the information. They're both vulnerable, and despite his curiosity, he doesn't want to overstep.

Still, she's asking him for clarification, and he owes it to her to be honest. Mostly, the whole situation makes him feel immeasurably sad--he can only imagine how powerless she felt in that moment, even after doing everything she could to save lives.]

I...understand that you did what you could. [He has no idea what he'd do, in a situation like that. No idea what he'd do with that kind of power.] It wasn't your fault.

[she offers a bemused exhale, something of a chuckle at his words. it's not in his detriment, but rather a mocking reaction to her own pity, to the shame and guilt that still hangs over her. it's not viktor's fault, though—he does not have the whole context.]

I can count the people who think the way you do in one hand.

[wanda presses her lips into a thin line, thoughtful for a moment.

(and he is right to think that he should let her volunteer as much information as she wants, and let that satiate his curiosity.)]

People fear me. This power— in the hands of someone like me. I grew up hating those I worked for. They bombed my home, destroyed my childhood, killed my parents. [she swallows and shakes her head.] I wanted to blend in like the rest. I changed the way I spoke and I dressed like them, but... No one would let me forget I was from Sokovia, and that I was dangerous.

[she looks at him.]

You can ask Sam about the Sokovia Accords. He'll deny it, but they were created because of me. People like me needed to be controlled, kept in a leash, no matter how broken they are. [she doesn't think much of herself in this instance, but of bucky. steve chose his side for a reason, and it wasn't just because they were best friends.] At least we all get a fresh start here, huh.

Edited 2022-05-25 03:15 (UTC)

I'm admittedly not well-versed the politics of worlds outside my own, but in my experience, people fear what they don't understand, often to the detriment of everyone.

[He isn't going to pretend to have the full context, but this reminds him, of course, of Piltover's general fear of magic. He can understand the fear of such power, but he knows Wanda personally, which means it's difficult to see her as some kind of faceless existential threat, in the way the people she speaks of might. The idea that any human being, with magical ability or not, should be kept on a leash is abhorrent to him, and his eyebrows furrow at the very thought of it.

What he does understand, more intimately than she might guess, is the feeling of trying to fit in with a society that does everything in its power to reject you. He could ask a great deal of questions, but it feels more appropriate to offer some of his own experiences in return. Level the playing field, a little, even if he knows he can't really understand.]

My home was...an unkind place. Systemically neglected by the ruling council in Piltover. I was able to leave, eventually, to attend the Academy, but no one ever let me forget where I came from.

Edited 2022-05-25 17:29 (UTC)

[what he offers from his experience in trying to level the playing field is like a refreshing glass of water. her own experience has always been so solitary, so lonely, especially after pietro's death; no one could truly understand, and when he was alive it was almost like they shared the burden of their grief and anger. she is imperfect without him, after all, and it is all too much for her to bear all on her own.

but here is viktor, speaking of an experience that runs parallel to her own, in his own world. he isn't telling her what she wants to hear, wanda knows, because viktor has been nothing but honest with her from the start.]

You too.

[—the relieve that escapes her in saying those words catches her off guard. it's about being seen, about being heard, isn't it?]

People like us... We're just the same as everyone else, and the world just decided that our homes made us less than the rest. [it happens so much in her world, across nations, continents. she knows sokovia is not the only country that has been stomped on.] Is this why you took a risk with Jayce?

[in piltover, with the hextech.]

Edited 2022-05-26 03:10 (UTC)

Well, I don't have any powers, but my involvement with Hextech was...inconvenient, for many people.

[People don't necessarily fear him, they'd just rather he wasn't there, or inextricably tied to Hextech and everything that means. He's found it refreshing, to be here and be treated on his own merits, and have his face and name tied to his work in a way it couldn't be back home. He imagines she appreciates the fresh start as well, even if it's for slightly different reasons.

He has no real problem talking about the circumstances that lead him to Jayce--she's seen most of it, after all, though of course there's no real way for her to know his intentions, watching it from the outside. Viktor can't help but smile a little at the question, as if he's reliving the memory himself.]

I was the Dean's assistant. A comfortable position, for someone of my status, but not a career--not a way to do the work I wanted. When Jayce explained his Hextech theory, I knew it could be used for immeasurable good. I never would have forgiven myself if I'd simply allowed them to throw him out of the Academy and destroy his work.

[Viktor has never been complacent. When the opportunity arose, he seized it. The rest is history, mostly.]

Edited 2022-05-28 17:41 (UTC)

[these things he says, like being an inconvenience for many people, these are the kinds of worries—anxious thoughts—that they don't have the luxury of expressing. there is no general audience that won't look at their position in the world, however lowly it is, and not say they deserve less. it was 'inconvenient' for the world at large that a former sokovian rioter had powers that put her in the same league as iron man and captain america.]

You made something of yourself. Despite the odds, sounds like.

[it's intention, isn't it? not knowing what 'these people', them, would want to do with the power that was removed from them because they were born in the 'wrong' place. selfish thoughts breed selfish solutions, and wanda doesn't think she could ever truly remove herself from that anger.

she personally never could make a lot of her life. there was no school for her and her brother outside of a few classes in the orphanage. there was never anywhere to climb to, and the destruction of sokovia basically meant that she and others from her home would slowly have their identities erased, absorbed into other countries to start their lives over as if war hadn't already broken them beyond repair. perhaps their grandchildren won't hold these same scars.

it was nice to dream a little about being able to leave it all behind without repercussion when she had arrived in the united states, when she held on to vision's promises of a future together. it was all too good to be true.

viktor, on the other hand, speaks of how he did have that opportunity, of becoming something more than the place given to him by the universe. she can only imagine how difficult that journey must have been. even as he sits here across from her, his words always polite and measured, his thoughts a logical string—]

We made it out, didn't we?

[fractured, struggling still, but they made it out. out of the war that governed their lives, out of the social stigma that dragged in their every step. for better or for worse, they made it out. her words are quiet.]

My brother — Pietro — he was killed a few months before the memory that you saw. Sometimes I... think of my family, and how they never got to have a foot away from the war. This freedom doesn't feel earned when it's just me who gets to have it. [she wonders if viktor is alone, too? despite jayce, despite other friends in his world.] Even with my powers, I am powerless, limited.

Unlike you.

[unlike his drive. if only she weren't pulled down again and again by grief, by sorrow. perhaps she could do more than just enough to survive.]

Edited 2022-05-28 19:41 (UTC)

It's...complicated.

[As much as Viktor wants to agree with all this, there's still context she's missing. Too much he's not sure he can fully explain without delving into uncomfortable things about himself. You made something of yourself, she says, as if he isn’t just going to be a footnote in Jayce’s biography. Unlike you, she says, like he hasn’t spent his entire live lining the pockets of the Council while his people see none of the benefits of his work. All he’s done—clawing his way into Piltovan society from the depths of the fissures—is still not enough. It will never be enough, not until he can enact real societal betterment, something he’s coming to realize is far too big of a task, even for the level of technological innovation he and Jayce have heralded. On top of that, he’s run out of time. He simply won’t be able to do what he needs in the months he has left.

She’s not wrong when she says that Viktor made it out, ostensibly. Pulled himself up by his bootstraps and secured himself a place, but it’s not worth anything if nothing changes. To hear someone with such incredible power say that he’s the one who accomplished something is almost laughable.]

Everything I did was with the hope that my work could enact real improvement for the Undercity. I’m not sure what my accomplishments will mean, in the long run. [Viktor spent too much time playing by their rules, trying to make incremental changes under the thumb of the Council while those he left behind continued to suffer. He’s not sure if he can trust Jayce to carry out his mission after he’s gone, not that it matters, anyway, trapped in this other world as they are. Still, there’s no making it out, for him. Zaun is with him, always, in the most visceral way possible.] When you leave a place like that, you don’t—you don’t leave, not really. I still carry it with me. It was foolish to think I could escape it.

[It’s not just a metaphor, for Viktor, and at this point he’s not necessarily talking about the city itself. He realizes, maybe a little too late, that he’s revealed more about himself than he might have liked to. His fingers lace together in his lap and his gaze drops to meet them.]

I’m sorry about your brother.

Edited 2022-05-29 16:08 (UTC)

[there's a soft smile, grateful for his words, but here is also the grim understanding of their circumstances. they are barely the first ones to be part of something that is different, and their souls cry for change—for things to be better for their people, for their homes, right away. the reality is that they will likely not see it happen at all in their lifetime.

wanda knows that things will not be better for her people, not until sokovia is allowed to be a word to describe nostalgia, a far-off story for young children to learn about, to be proud of.

it doesn't ever, ever leave them, but he's working towards something. of course, she doesn't know that his time is running out.]

What... was your home like? And I don't mean Piltover. [jayce had already told her a lot about it]

[She understands immediately, it seems. No, Piltover is not his home. It's the place he lives, and maybe he would like it to be a home, eventually, but it's been a decade and no one has ever let him forget his origins. Perhaps, in an unsuccessful bid to leave it all behind him, he's done his best not to talk about it in detail, at least until now.]

The Undercity--Zaun--is, it's an unkind place. The runoff from the mines poisons everything. People there are poor, and desperate, and spend their entire lives breathing fumes. If the work doesn't kill them, the pollution will, eventually.

[It's killing him, is what he doesn't say. Still, this probably explains why he'd worked so hard to get into the Academy--the Undercity isn't necessarily kind to the physically weak. He needed to press his advantages where he could.]

But it is also endlessly vibrant. Innovative. There's a certain scrappy ingenuity about it, that I miss. Piltover claims to be the City of Progress, but they are...complacent, in comparison.

[he doesn't say that it's killing him, but with a tilt of her head, with her powers to read minds with or without instruction, she becomes empathic to the situation. is it why he's sick? why jayce worries so much?

the difference in their speech, in the warmth on their faces—even if the contrast is not because of zaun and piltover directly, it makes sense to her now.]

Why look for innovation when you aren't fighting for your life?

[it wasn't war what ran over zaun, it seems, but it was poison. day in and day out, feeding it to their bodies with every breath they took.]

Any attempt for Sokovia to advance was crushed under the explosion of bombs and gunfire. My country never changed, all twenty-six years that I lived there. [she looks off to the side, where the sunset glow warms them, just past the overlook.] And this place?

[this place that is definitely not the laboratory and office space she know nows came with the piltover territory.]

I suppose you're right.

[But really, it just makes him feel foolish for thinking he could make tangible improvements while working through Piltover's systems. The most he could do was tools for workers, something so in line with the Council's financial interests that they'd have to approve it--but even that was rejected. Now, it seems like he's wasted all of his time.

Not that any of it means anything, because Abraxas is his reality, for the time being. The possibility of getting home, even if he weren't working on a deadline, is slim. Jayce is optimistic about finding a cure, but Viktor is less so. He'll probably die here, in this strange world, one way or another.]

You survived. That's what matters. [It means that for as hard as outside forces tried to end Sokovia, they didn't succeed. Sometimes that has to be enough.

She looks out from the little keyhole where they sit, and he gestures outward to the cliffs below and the towers beyond it, rising up from the ravines, willing them further into focus so that she can have a better look.]

I used to come here to think. You can see it, from where we are. The Undercity.

[it all comes into focus slowly as he wills his horizon to function under his command, and, in the same way, so do his words. words like 'you survived' from just about anyone else would sound like torment, igniting the anger inside her.

no, not with viktor.

how refreshing to feel really, truly understood. the last time she felt this way had been with vision, and pietro before him. in this world it was peter parker. free of judgement, it is more than a pleasant surprise even now.]

Innovative.

[the word comes to the forefront of her mind, as she sees the buildings and houses accommodating to the geographical challenges of its location. she turns back to him.]

I like this view a little better than your lab. [she smiles lightly.] I can see why you would come here.

I'd like to see more of it some time, if you are up for it.

Yes, if you want.

[He might like that, actually. Viktor built his domain to reflect the places where he spends his time, but it occurs to him now that he could show her Zaun, as he remembers it—the streets. The architecture, the scrappy workshops where he cut his teeth as a teenaged engineer. That’s something he hasn’t even considered doing for Jayce, but it’s apparent by now that Wanda understands in a way he doesn’t. Maybe he can be a little more open about that part of himself, with someone who shares similar experiences.

He offers her a smile—it’s tired, but still genuine.]

Maybe after we sort out…whatever this is.

[she nods, because she is certain that this acquaintanceship of theirs has extended past a general interest in each other's craft. she could call it a friendship, even. how novel.

and he's right; perhaps it is not the best for them to linger in the horizon, with the memories being blasted into their minds without warning.

before that, wanda wants to clear something up:]

I no longer belong to that group. Most of the people in it— from the memory you've seen, they're no longer alive. Or have retired. Only Sam remains active, but I... I'm done with the superhero gig.

And I won't make the same mistakes I made then.

[lol,,]

Edited 2022-06-02 17:24 (UTC)

[He's not overly-concerned with Wanda's ties to this military operation, though he's unsurprised to hear about the disbanding of such an organization. perhaps it was formed with good intentions, but meeting violence with more violence never ends well.]

I don't think it's fair to judge others based on actions they took back home.

[This is not entirely true--he'd probably have a few things to say about genocidal maniacs, but it's clear from the memory that Wanda was attempting to keep people safe. Context is important, and though it's certainly not the path Viktor would have chosen, he understands that she was under duress. It complicates things.]

This world is a second chance, for many of us.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject