abraxaslogs | [open] january/february catchall

Entry tags:

[open] january/february catchall

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: January through early February
Where: Cadens, the Horizon
What: open stuff, closed stuff, dangerous and illicit magical surgery, the usual
Warnings: the usual references to terminal illness including a steep decline and medical procedures/surgery. will list additional warnings as needed.

[open and closed starters in comments! This is also a general catch-all for Viktor’s do-or-die attempt to cure himself, and the events leading up to it, and his recovery (to come later). 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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Viktor is generally not squeamish--even if they hadn't practiced this extensively, he's seen too much just from living in Zaun to be fazed by the sight of surgery. Having it performed on him, while awake, is something else entirely, and he has to squeeze his eyes shut when Nadine begins.

It is not even remotely painless. They've prepared for this, they've done this in the Horizon both with feeling fully blocked and without, but now it's happening in the real world and Jayce's healing and Alucard's blood will only do so much. It's thanks to those efforts (and various other medications they've scrounged up), that he isn't going into shock immediately. Still, the longer they draw this out, the more likely it is that will happen, and the team will be left with a nonfunctional Hexcore and no path forward.

That determination is stronger than the pain of being cut into, or the pressure of the saw against his ribcage. He focuses, instead, on the hand in his, knuckles white from squeezing. The Hexcore, too, is ready and waiting, as it seems to come alive the moment blood—-his blood—-is spilled. Nadine works slowly and carefully, which he appreciates, given the fact that she’s only ever done this to corpses, but he finds himself increasingly impatient, the heartbeat in his ears closer and closer to the rhythmic pulse and spin of the Hexcore.

There’s more to be done—-the next step is the runes, marked into his damaged lungs, but Viktor’s gaze focuses somewhere past the group, eyes glassy, his grip suddenly loosening on Jayce’s hand.

“I can—-“ His eyebrows furrow, not in pain, but bewilderment, like he wasn’t expecting this. “I feel it. The Hexcore.”

Edited 2023-01-23 03:48 (UTC)

Jayce is squeamish and even someone who isn't squeamish would be hard experiencing seeing their loved one go through something rough. So he focuses instead on his healing, he focuses on Viktor's hand and on the steps they have to take in order to get past this. He hasn't gone into shock, he's still alive, so far so good.

When Viktor's grip abruptly loosens, Jayce grips it tighter, his large hand contains all of Viktor's hand in a second, fingers holding at his wrist. "Viktor!" Jayce's healing only gets hotter where it touches him and he tugs at him, a warning, a reminder. Something to ground him to this place.

"Runes next, we have a plan. Ignore it. Stay focused." His grip on Viktor's hand and chest are hard enough to hurt, but he is holding onto him however he can. "It's time to crank it, V. Remember?" Jayce is afraid of him drifting. "Crank it."

Yes, the plan—-he knows the plan. They all do, they’ve practiced it dozens of times. Viktor is vaguely aware of Jayce’s grip on his hand, of his voice in his ear, but there’s a louder voice now. It’s not speaking any language he recognizes, but he’s drawn to it regardless The Hexcore, already bound to him by blood, seems to want more than that, and Viktor isn’t sure he wants to deny it.

It’s offering more than a cure. A new kind of existence for himself, if he wants it. Why not chase this to its logical endpoint? All he has to do is take it.

“You don’t understand,” he whispers. Viktor has felt this before, when the Singularity created entities from their nightmares. He’d been afraid of it, then. Now, he seems fixated, despite Jayce’s best efforts. Despite the fact that Nadine is still working, he shifts where he’s propped up on the gurney, trying to leaning forward and reach for it.

The rest of the group will know this isn’t part of the plan. The plan is as Jayce says—-careful inscription of the necessary runes onto afflicted tissue, then an infusion of the Ikorr serum, then the activation—-but Viktor seems too transfixed to give the orders. When he can’t immediately get himself off the steel table to close the distance, he lets out a cry of frustration and thrashes, tearing at the tubes and wires, sending metal tools and trays clattering to the floor.

Alucard does not ask for anyone to move or stand aside when Viktor starts to throw his own plan awry. There's no point and there's no time. This is one of the moments he's needed, because it was anticipated that there might be a struggle. Viktor's like a bag of flour to Alucard, this is the easiest thing in the world.

He steps with human rather than vampire speed. One hand to where the tubing and wires are to hold the spot down and prevent them from actually being torn out, the other to the opposite shoulder of where the tubes have been hooked, creating two firm points of pressure.

It not a kind thing that happens next. Alucard applies pressure, slow. Steady. Making sure that if he's getting kicked then he's covering for the other two because he can heal from the damage much easier.

"Viktor." Alucard doesn't like trying to channel his father's voice. The authority that would drip from it, the anger that he remembers from the worst day of their lives. But here, now, it is essential. A way to break through magical noise that is absolutely threatening to derail the proceedings.

This certainly never happened when practicing.

"Shit!"

Nadine has no choice but to withdraw and step back, jaw tight and eyes wide with sudden fear. The curse slips out without thought, low and quick. Viktor needs to lie still, he needs to stop, he's going to bleed out...

But all manner of things were indeed prepared for, and she knows that now she just needs to stay out of the way. Alucard is quick to act, making it seem simple to take the situation in hand. Out of habit, she finds herself offering a quick little silent prayer that this interruption isn't a prelude of things to come.

And that it doesn't set them back any. Time is of the essence, every second wasted...better not to think about it. This will work, it will go fine.

She's ready to step back in and resume, the moment it's safe.

Jayce starts to panic at first when Viktor starts moving and he can't helping thinking about the way the other Viktor was, when he insisted Jayce had to destroy the Hexcore. He couldn't do it. Jayce thought maybe that meant he wasn't able physically, being so sick, but maybe it was more than that. Luckily for all of them, Alucard is there to be swifter in his response, and that gets Jayce the seconds he needs to stop panicking too.

He can't remove his hand from where it is as it's still pulsing magical healing at him, part of the reason Viktor is stable as it is, so he has to let go of Viktor's hand, which is terrifying. But instead he firmly grabs Viktor's chin, snaps it toward him. Jayce steps right into his view, leaning closely. "Viktor, ignore it. Look at me." He uses a tone not unlike Alucard's own authoritative one, but it means something a little different between them.

"Come back to me. You have to come back."

Viktor makes a choked noise when he's pinned, but the fact of the matter is that he's in no physical condition to resist, even if Alucard wasn't vested with supernatural strength. His distress seems more tied to some kind of mental anguish, rather than physical, but it's not hard to imagine that he's pushed himself past the threshold of the medicines and healing magic.

When he's disrupted by not one, but two authoritative voices, Viktor struggles momentarily. The sheer powerlessness of it all, fills him with something indescribably--wanting the pull of the Hexcore but forcibly withheld from it, knowing that all of this is wrong. He's wrong. They have to carry on with the plan, but he can't bring himself to give the next instruction.

"Jayce, please--" He's not sure what he's begging for, Alucard's hands on him and the sound of Jayce's voice pulling him back but leaving him bewildered, the static of the Hexcore ringing in his ears. At the very least, he can't thrash around anymore, but that only seems to distress him further. "The runes."

That's as much as he can eke out, the implication being that the rest of the group should act quickly.

Jayce is having hindsight in a completely different timeline and it's a strange thing to have happen all at once. But he has to focus on the here and now to handle this or it'll go so far off course they won't be able to right it. He and Viktor are the two who know these runes extremely well, well enough to handle this quickly and carefully, and he can't count on Viktor anymore. Nor should he, considering the situation.

It would have been easier to do the runes if Viktor was calm and lying still, as they had planned, and it is going to make the next part difficult. He should have known better, having seen a version of this damned thing before. "Alucard, hold him as still as you can, if he moves ...."

It could ruin a rune and they don't have the best chance of fixing that. "Nadine can you hold onto his legs? In case he tries to kick." He knows it all sounds crazy that Viktor seemed like he wanted this and put them all through the plans and he's the one messing it up now out of no where. Jayce just needs him to be still long enough for this part.

He maintains his healing hand on Viktor which is mostly stabilizing and not pouring more in yet, and with his other he extremely carefully carves the runes into the tissue. Jayce is so focused on the requirement of the moment that he doesn't think about the reality, which is a good thing.

"Ready for the serum?" Jayce asks Alucard as he finishes this up as quickly as he can. It's Alucard's serum and work, his partnership with Viktor.

Despite the fact that Viktor is pleading with his team to get on with it, he doesn't make it easy. He gives a few more aborted thrashes, but they're all futile now that everyone is holding him down. The forced stillness seems to get through to him, at least a little, though his arm under Alucard's grasp tries to reach for one of the scalpels, as if he wants to cut the runes himself.

All of that is prevented before he can even begin. Jayce takes the lead--as he should--and all Viktor can really do is wait and let it happen. He does his best to focus on his partner, bent over him, and the strong hands holding him down, squeezing his eyes shut against the interference of the Hexcore.

He knows what's next, of course, and he braces himself for it. Viktor doesn't have much room to move, but he shifts his hand slightly, grasping at Alucard's forearm, giving him permission to take the next step.

"I can take the stab if it comes to it."

The statement is meant for Jayce's and Nadine's information and decision making, not Viktor's. A stab would not be ideal, but Alucard can heal faster than any one else in this group. It will be fine. All of this is actually better than the dhampir expected.

One hand leaves Viktor, reaching for the serum that has been loaded up in what was simply deemed the biggest needle found in the city. Alucard suspects it is meant for animals, not people, and he didn't like it when he was filling it up in preparation for this moment. He doesn't like it as he takes it in hand now, ruby-black liquid within, glinting in the light. His blood. Ikorr's little trade secret. The product of months of experiments and some very kind mice.

"When I move my other hand one of you needs to apply pressure."

Alucard doesn't hesitate after that. He grabs Viktor's other arm in a flash and aims for the elbow, where he knows there's a vein and that it will accept the needle's larger gauge. He can't force the liquid in too fast. It is injected carefully. With as much precision as possible, until every last drop is gone. With a clatter, the needle is returned to the prep table from whence it came.

"Done."

This entire procedure is crazy, but this particular stretch with Viktor fighting them... Nadine hadn't anticipated this. She holds his legs down and watches, jaw clenched, as Jayce and Alucard get the situation under control.

Or as much under control as possible.

No amount of practice could have prepared her. Everything's happening so quick, there's hardly any time to even think about what they're doing. She's quick to nod when Alucard warns them, and is ready to apply pressure as needed once the needle comes out. Maybe they should have used straps, to keep Viktor in place...

Hindsight. Nothing to do for it now, except hope there's no more thrashing and protest from the patient.

In developing the serum, one of the first things that Viktor and Alucard discovered was how fast-acting it was--a testament to to the potency of the blood or the sap or both. That particular quality comes in hand now, when it hits his bloodstream almost immediately. The whole point of this serum is to help him withstand the arcane power they're about to channel through him, but the potency provides him clarity of mind, as well.

Viktor gasps as if he'd been underwater, looking bewildered, as if he seemingly coming back to himself, unaware of what just transpired moments ago. He knows where they are in the plan--impossible to lose sight of, at this point, but as the serum rushes through his veins it chases away the static hum of the Hexcore.

And he knows, then, that it's now or never.

"I'm ready," he chokes out, hand underneath Alucard's hold reaching out. "The activation. Like we practiced."

There's a lever on the Hexcore's rig, meant to input turns back and forth, arranging the runic array. Once that's done, the magical forces channeled through it should do the rest.

The serum is a relief in more ways than one, and Jayce is hopeful when Alucard injects it that it will do exactly as it does. Whatever power the Hexcore has, it hasn't been able to become as powerful at manipulating Viktor as it may have in their world. The many ways in which they have planned this is why it is going to work, as it never could have in Piltover.

Jayce is glad the runes are finished before he had an ability to think about what he was doing. Focusing on what they need to get done matters more than him being squeamish. He pulls the lever, crank it, like they've said before and now, but it will be the piece that matters here. Everything to this point was to keep him alive, and this is the defining moment.

He turns his attention back to healing, making that his entire focus from now on. Jayce pours his magic into Viktor's both on top of the serum to try and boost his life force, not caring if it bleeds his magical endurance to the very end of it. They're in the end zone now.

The principle of it is simple, especially for people like Jayce and Viktor, who have been working with magitech for years now. The Hexcore, as a conduit, channels arcane energies. The runic array--or in this case, the precise combination of arcana symbols on the Hexcore itself--determines the type of output, which then receives further instruction from the runes that Jayce has just inscribed on the "subject" (Viktor). By telling it exactly what to do and forcing it into the pre-written instructions, they should theoretically stave off any further interference.

Theoretically. This is the final step--the one that will put Viktor in direct contact with the device. Jayce pulls the lever and the Hexcore spins and reconfigures, blue-violet bands of light radiating from it.

All it needs now is the activation, the visceral connection between Viktor and the thing he built. He's already inoculated it with his own blood, back when they were experimenting on plants. Now, when told to look for it, the Hexcore recognizes it again, pulling it in, offering pure magic in exchange. The connection is made--the runes inscribed into Viktor himself.

He’s barely afforded an opportunity to react, though he manages a startled cry in the moment before it begins. Everything illuminates, the outlines of the cut runes glowing brightest, the Hexcore itself seeming to strain against its holding platform, one last attempt at a burst of magical energy before it’s constrained by the commands it has been given. Viktor seizes on the table, and it’s easy to see that without some kind of constitution-enhancing substance, the sheer force of the arcane forces channeled into him would be far too much for an ordinary human to withstand. Superfluous energy lashes out in wide lightning arcs, crackling against the walls and shelves, scattering papers and tools and leaving singed trails in its wake.

Then, all at once, it subsides. The Hexcore stops whirling and returns to its resting state, undulating gently as if it hadn’t just unleashed a torrent of barely-contained energy out into the room. Viktor’s hand slips from Jayce’s grasp as he falls backward, dazed, on the precipice of unconsciousness. In the incision, though he is most certainly too incoherent to notice, the telltale pink of healed tissue, the glow of the runes subsiding.

Jayce has seen this before, or a version of it, so when he knows it's about to crank, he tells the other two: "Keep your head down!" When they made Hextech for the first time, it should have killed both of them with how much energy was crackling and zipping in every direction. He is not surprised at all when the Hexcore amps up and that is exactly what happens. He leans down and keeps his head close to Viktor's as he holds onto him and keeps healing through it.

He doesn't look as Viktor begins seizing because he knows he'll panic, and instead all he can do is close his eyes tight and not get blinded by the incredible explosion of energy. That luckily does not actually hit any of them, but zips around the other parts of the lab instead. Jayce never saw the Hexcore in action, but Hextech at least is familiar.

As Viktor drops back, he looks at the incision and sees something changed. He frantically grasps for a pulse, even if he can see Viktor breathing unsteadily, just to reassure himself. "We need to close him up, quickly. Are you okay?" This to Nadine, hoping that she can keep a steady hand after something as insane as what just happened. Otherwise he will have to. His hopeful eyes turn to Alucard. "Can you move the Hexcore, please?" He doesn't trust that he won't immediately smash it after seeing what happened, but getting it away from Viktor is vital right then.

Alucard grew up in a household that consisted of one doctor and one polymath who dabbled in the medical arts and magic. His father never combined the two in front of him, and so while Alucard had a rough idea of what to expect, seeing it in practice has proven to be something else entirely. Even practicing hadn't been this intense.

His eyes try to follow every movement while trying to keep Viktor steady. The connection, the way it sparks to life, the raw power that surges through the room. How they all don't break under the intensity of it is a miracle in and of itself. All thoughts to put aside until this is done and then--

--and then it is done.

Wordlessly, Alucard moves the Hexcore. Off to the side, behind Viktor so it can't be seen. Out of sight, out of mind, and Alucard finds his hands shaking as he carries it. It is placed on a metal tray without a noise, and the dhampir returns to Viktor to be another set of hands. Or else to turn off the serum supply, and declare all of it done.

Everything around him in the moments after the Hexcore falls still is more like a dream than anything else. Jayce's voice and the instructions he gives are muffled, and Viktor sinks, like he's suspended underwater. He can feel himself slipping further into unconsciousness, but that fact doesn't alarm him. He can't possibly describe what just happened--he'll have to leave that up to his companions, to assess his vitals and ensure that the Hexcore actually worked--but he feels different, in a way that lets him understand that the danger has passed.

He can't speak, too shocked from the pain and the sheer force of arcane energy coursing through him, but as he feels it ebb there's a lack of pressure in his chest, and he knows they've done it.

Even if he were capable of words, he doesn't think he could find them. In his last waking moments, he reaches out for Jayce's sleeve, fingers grasping at him weakly, as if to say that everything is okay now. He's going to be okay.

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[open] january/february catchall

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CW: Needles

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i am calling this wrapped thank you every one