abraxaslogs | [open] january/february catchall

i. mind palace etc

[If Viktor is a rare sight in the workshop this month, he’s even harder to find in the Horizon. It’s not as though he doesn’t want to be here—on the contrary, the sicker he gets the more he wants to vanish to a place where he can have the strength and clarity of mind to keep working. The Hexcore, however, exists in the real world now, and needs to be tested accordingly.

When he is in the Horizon laboratory, it’s to practice the actual procedure. He runs through it a dozen times—with Alucard, with Jayce—they even bring Strange in to help, taking advantage of his modern medical knowledge while they can. The magic, however, is all up to the Hexcore, and Viktor’s uncertainty lies with the fact that he’s not sure it behaves the same in the Horizon as it will in reality. A risk he’s going to have to take.

Despite the fact that their test runs aren’t “real”, they’re exhausting nonetheless, though Viktor finds the idea of being even more exhausted in his physical body to be a daunting prospect. Once he vanishes away any evidence of surgery, he can be found in his study. Blackboard drawings of mechanical projects have been replaced by anatomical diagrams and arcana symbols, and Viktor himself is hunched over a desk, scrawling feverish notes, to the point where he might not even notice an intrusion.]

ii. the overlook

[As the procedure draws closer, however, Viktor finds he can’t stay away from his domain for long periods of time. He doesn’t have to be sick and exhausted here, and with their hard-fought plan looming, finds himself in need of contemplation. Luckily, he has a place in the Horizon for just that, though you might only know to look for him here if you know him well.

Still, he doesn’t seem to object to visitors, even if he’s not much for words at the moment. It’s possible silent company is enough.]

Edited 2023-01-10 05:33 (UTC)

[When their allotted time at Nocwich comes and goes, Viktor decides that he can't afford to wait until they're allowed to return again. Beyond that, the amount of specialized equipment they'd need to transport there (to say nothing of the Hexcore itself) means that there's too great a risk of interception. Smuggling seems far too risky, given the stakes, and if anything is contraband, it's the magical computer that runs on secret Academy property and also blood.

The surgical tools and various drugs are probably a no-go as well.

It means they'll have to forego Strange's physical, in-person assistance for the actual procedure. Viktor is apprehensive, knowing that he won't have a real surgeon with medical knowledge far beyond what could even be conceived of in his own world, but he knows he's been backed into a corner on the matter. He'll just need to move forward with what he has.

The Horizon, then, is the answer. Viktor sends Stephen a message, and they agree to meet in the lab.]

Obviously, this is not ideal. [An understatement, all things considered. Vitkor leads his guest inside briskly--unaffected by his illness within his domain, he doesn't waste any time moving slowly. The Hexcore (or the imagined version of it, anyway) spins idly on his desk.] If I thought it was worth the risk for you to be there, I would find a way, but it seems foolish to endanger all of this-- [his research, the procedure, the people who are helping him] --unnecessarily.

Edited 2023-01-12 00:39 (UTC)

No, it isn't.

[Ideal, he means. Stephen says it lowly, a pinched brow on his features resembling the look of someone vaguely disapproving, born of immediate concern. He isn’t here to argue the point—not when it’s clear the logistics are not feasible, requiring crossing territory boundary lines amid waxing and waning tensions—but not being involved, much less present, during such an intensive surgery sets him ill at ease.

To say the least.

He matches Viktor’s pace, led inside the lab.]

I know we’re not left with a lot of options, all things considered, and I realize that my presence isn’t exactly make or break.

[But they’d be foolish not to acknowledge that it would, at the very least, help.]

But this is and always was a risk. And now it’s a heightened one. You’re okay with that?

[It's unfortunate that this is the piece of the puzzle where Viktor could use the most assistance. He has the Hexcore, and he has a substance to help him withstand the transformative magics, but modern surgery in the way that Strange understands it is beyond him, and everyone he knows but Tony (who is, notedly, not a surgeon). He's thought of Nadine, of course, and she'll probably be their next best bet, but she's used to cutting up cadavers for study, not living subjects. The general technology level of Cadens, too, is lacking in this department.

Not ideal is probably an understatement.]

I have to be.

[Viktor thinks he's made it clear that there's very little he won't do, in order to not die. Yes, he's afraid, but he'd much rather try and fail than allow himself to waste away.]

Our stop-gaps are becoming less effective. If I wait much longer I may not be able to withstand the procedure.

[That's the problem, isn't it? It's do or die, and quite literally. And though Stephen is a risk-taker in his own way (calculated risks only, or so he would like to tell himself), this still brings him unease. The worst kind of chances to take are when lives are on the line.

But it's Viktor's decision, not his. If he was honest, he'd probably do the same thing.]

I understand. Doesn't mean I have to like the circumstances.

[But to criticize would really be hypocritical on his end, and he's grown enough in the last few years to recognize this. Begrudgingly, sometimes.]

But I know what it's like to be willing to try anything that could be your best bet. [His hands, their scars; reminders of a time when he flitted from surgery to surgery, for reasons far less pivotal in retrospect than what Viktor is going through.] So I'm not going to try to talk you out of it.

Just... keep in touch. Before, and after. You can consult with me for as much as you like, until you can't any longer.

[Because of the surgery, and hopefully nothing worse than that.]

I don’t think anyone likes these circumstanced.

[He doesn’t. Jayce certainly doesn’t, but even if they weren’t functioning on a newly-imposed time limit, Viktor doesn’t think he’d want to carry on with stop-gaps forever. He doesn’t want to be reliant on magic or medicine or various serums to keep his illness at bay. He wants to be cured, definitively, or die trying.

All of that is a little hard to articulate, but he gets the feeling Strange understands.]

We will. Nadine has some surgical experience, if you know her. [Of course, by “surgical experience” he mostly means “has autopsied corpses”.] That said, the medical technology in the Free Cities is likely far beyond anything you’d consider reasonable, or fully safe.

[Viktor turns, giving his chalkboard notes a good look up and down.]

The procedure we’ve developed is fairly invasive, given the technological limitations. [No keyhole surgeries or even the aid of imaging equipment.] If you’re available to help us practice in the Horizon, I believe that will greatly increase our chances.

[Kell needs only a short message from Viktor to excuse himself from his current company, come back to his room, and in no more than a blink of an eye he's already walking through Viktor's domain. Viktor shares his with Jayce. Kell has been in Jayce's part several times already. Not here, though. This is new. It must be Viktor's.

Still, it doesn't take him long to find Viktor.]

Is this somewhere from your city?

[Kell's approach doesn't go unnoticed, though he waits for the other man to approach the ledge before he speaks up. Viktor is perched on the curve of the keyhole-shaped opening, gazing out on the ravines below. Slightly beyond that, across the river and seen through a chemical haze, are the spires of buildings.]

I used to come here to think.

[So that probably explains a great deal. Viktor raises a hand to gesture outward, at the skyline poking up from the fissures across the river.]

That's the Undercity. Where I'm from.

It's a good place to think. Peaceful.

[He had a few places like that. Places where he could go, when he needed to disappear. He comes closer to sit next to Viktor. His gaze follows Viktor's gesture over the river to the spires and the fog. It reminds him of London. The Grey one.]

What is it like to live there?

[Kell knows some. A little from what Jayce had told him, but this is a chance for Viktor to tell it his way. He owes at least that.]

And generally unknown.

[Which is the important part--Viktor valued time alone to think, especially given the fact that he started going there before he was technically allowed in Piltover. Kell asks him what the Undercity was like and Viktor gazes out over it again, seemingly formulating his answer.]

It is...unkind. [An understatement. Zaun shows no mercy to those who are physically weak, though it isn't as if Piltover was good to him, either. On the surface, maybe.] But there is a...scrappy ingenuity about it, that I miss. People doing and making incredible things, with so little.

[Whatever wistfulness he has at that sentiment, it fades after a moment. Vitkor's gaze drops to his shoes.]

The runoff from the mines poisons everything. People there spend their entire lives breathing fumes. If the work doesn't kill them, the pollution will, eventually.

[This is the hard part, even if he's sure that Kell, on some level, already knows.]

It's killing me.

Then why would they...I'm sorry.

[Kell cuts himself in time. He knows why, why people live there, why their rulers, their elites allow this. Jayce told him. Not in this much detail, but he did. The elites do not care. The Council does not care.

Even after months in Thorne, seeing how royalty here behaves. How they treat their own people. Kell can't really fight instinct to demand more of them. The rulers are responsible for their people. That's what he was taught since childhood. Himself being a part of said elite. That he has a responsibility. Seeing other examples, hearing other people's stories, Kell hates to admit that his home country is an exception.]

This what you are trying to find a cure for.

[He’ll certainly fill in the blanks for Kell, but it seems like he comes to the correct conclusion all on his own. Fighting back against decades of systemic neglect is not a task that he, personally, was up to. Viktor thought he could enact change from within Piltover’s systems, but that proved to be just as difficult, and then he’d run out of time.

Now, it’s uncertain that he’ll ever be able to return, and do what he set out to do. The most he can do is try to cure himself here, instead, and sort out the summoning ritual when he has the time to do so.]

Yes. [It sounds simple, but of course they’ve run into their own difficulties. Viktor wants to be optimistic, but he needs to hedge his bets, hence this talk.] I moved to Piltover as a young man, even, which is supposed to make me one of the lucky ones.

Still, not lucky enough to escape it completely.

[Kell has promised Rhy that he'll figure out a way to get them back home. He's been stalling on that promise. Honestly, he's not that certain if he really wants to go back. Sure, Thorne is not all roses. Actually, it's a pretty despicable place. But he most likely will be facing prison whenever he comes back. So he thinks he can understand complicated feelings Viktor might have about his own place of origin.]

And how did Piltover treat you? If I remember correctly, you were already quite accomplished when the two of you met.

No, not completely.

[It turns out that nearly two decades of breathing toxic fumes doesn't leave one unscathed, even if they do manage to leave. By the time Viktor gained admittance to the Academy, his fate was already sealed--it would just take another decade or so for that to become evident.

But maybe he'd always known. He's never been able to escape his origins, not really.]

I was the assistant to the Dean. [Viktor sounds surprised, that Kell might consider that accomplished.] A respectable position, for someone of my status, but not a career.

Oh, I'm sorry. I don't really know how higher education works. I was always taught by tutors... or priests. Mostly the latter, to be honest.

[Because studying magic was the most important. Everything else was treated as an afterthought. Maybe not combat. He was supposed to be a shield for his brother, so he had to know how to fight. Some etiquette, so he knew how to behave in official setting. Dancing. But that's all.]

That's unfair. They didn't realize you are brilliant?

[Kell has no idea what an assistant to the Dean does, but from Viktor's tone alone, he guesses that it's not cutting edge research. The compliment he states as matter of fact, barely realizing it's a complement at all. Because it's so obvious.]

I suppose they did.

[Heimerdinger wouldn’t have pulled him out of the Undercity if he didn’t recognize Viktor’s potential, but he’d been stifled from the start. An assistant was all he could hope to aspire to, given the politics of the Academy and the optics of someone from the Undercity achieving too much. If he hadn’t risked it all on Hextech, he doesn’t think he would have made it anywhere.

The truth of it is easier to admit, now.]

What patron would fund my research? No one would have taken that risk on someone like me. Financially, socially. That assistantship was the best I could have hoped for, until I found Jayce.

[Kell listens with furrowed brows. He understands. The Arnesian Empire was no beacon of sainthood, but he likes to think someone would have recognized true genius and gave him opportunities he deserved. Putting your most talented people to tasks they excel at is not only logical, but beneficial both for them and the crown.
Only when Viktor mentions Jayce, it's when Kell's scowl goes away. He smiles at the memory.]

I'm really glad that you did. You two make such a good team. It's a joy to watch.

[He offers a small, bittersweet laugh.]

You wouldn't find many back home who would share that opinion.

[As in, Viktor was generally inconvenient to Jayce's marketability, so it was for the best that he stayed in the shadows. Sometimes he wonders what might have happened if he'd pushed to share the spotlight, but given the rest of Piltover, he knows it wouldn't have amounted to anything good.]

I'm glad that you think so. Working with him has been...one of the greater privileges of my life.

Then they are fools.

[Kell spats his opinion with no hesitation. Well, he was the boring one always. Some said he makes Rhy look bad. His luck that such opinions always had been thoroughly and aggressively ignored by Rhy. But he's not blind or stupid not to realize that it could have been otherwise.]

Well, you're clearly happy together and it shows. And I don't mean just work. [Now he hesitates. Those are things he doesn't have clever words for.] It is a gift, and a privilege, to have a person in your life who gets you. It makes all the difference.

[For him, it's Rhy. It always has been and always will be Rhy.]

Yes, they were.

[He can say that freely about Piltover, now, without reservation. There are no social niceties to keep up with, here. He isn’t in danger of losing his tenuous station and everyone, Summoned and locals alike, don’t question his and Jayce’s partnership. Despite his complicated feelings about being here, he recognizes the importance of what it’s afforded him.

And he knows that Kell understands. It’s not hard to deduce that he’s talking about Rhy.]

Jayce was the first person who did. [Get him, that is.] I know how valuable that is. It’s why I have to survive this.

[At any cost.]

You will.

[Someone could say it is cruel of Kell to say things like that with such conviction. He has no way of knowing what the result of their risky procedure will be. There's nothing he can do to make it less risky, no way he can help. But Kell has some experience with impossible things. There are times, times like this, when you just can't accept another outcome. Times when you just must demand of the universe to bend your way. Will it, is another matter. Entirely out of your control. But demand you must...and just hope it will work.]

[open] january/february catchall

the horizon

dr strange (closed)

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the overlook - a visit

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wrap this one too? it looks like a good place to