ar_cane | somnia

[ if only every distraction of viktor's magic in the works could fix him as much as it did his attention. big, owlish eyes to soak it up. a glance of pure, youthful wonder and a barricade of questions filed in his brain, aligned in order of importance and greater curiosity. it's on the tip of his tongue, plays with his lips—

it lasts as much time as jayce needed to listen to viktor's question enough to focus on an answer instead. jayce groans at the news, tipping his head back and distracting his vision with the atrium's view of the night sky above, no longer an angry, foreboding crimson, thank the gods. when jayce brings his head back to get a look at it himself, his lip lifts and bright strands of silver on dirty chestnut glints in the magic's guiding light.

god damn it, not again. ]

Not as I should've, [ he confesses, and not without a sorry drop in his tone. ] but I did what I could. With what I had.

[ nevermind that he looks like he's walked into a bloody fountain and let the remains dry. not his, at least. ]

[ Viktor glances at Jayce's face, the boyish wonder that cannot be deluded even by pain, and smiles inwardly. It feels cheap to think that he had been the origin for that delight in the first place, that he had saved Jayce for selfish reasons that he still didn't quite understand. If the arcane was so evil, why plant the obsession in young Jayce's mind? He could have easily rescued the Talises without making such a big fancy show of it, or without giving Jayce the stone. Was it simply because in all timelines, in all possibilities, Viktor couldn't imagine giving up the time he'd had with Jayce? Was he really so rotten as to doom so many people to death all so that he could have a lab partner and close friend for a few years before dying?

It makes his chest clench tight with emotion to think about what the world would have been like without Hextech and to wonder if he might have met Jayce under other circumstances. Then again, would he have been interested in the other inventor without that passion in his eyes? The emotion in his voice when he spoke of magic? It's impossible to say, and they'll never find out now. ]

You're a mess. [ He says it with fondness that doesn't give anything away about the serious thoughts churning through his mind. ] If you can sit still through a thorough cleaning, I have a gift for you.

[ if he was giving a puff of a laugh under his breath (a mess, right, something he always managed to be even when he tried not to) is masked by the rub of his fingertips against his face until they find the reflective jewel crown surrounding his hairline. jayce pushes past it and allows viktor his work without interruption, but .
. . his exhaustion parts to make way for surprise. an almlst startled look in his eyes partially melts away the tension, making him fond and inquisitive underneath his veil of suffering. he doesn't remember when they've ever exchanged gifts— it was mostly ideas, staying up late and excitedly losing themselves in research, in tiny "gifts" that amounted to more funding, getting their hands on an expensive shipment of rare metals or, even better— results. there had been the new cane and brace jayce forged for viktor, but—

for some reason, it didn't compare to this out of the blue occassion. ]

Well, [ jayce shifts, just enough to get himself comfortable to stay in the same position for a while, bunching fabrics in his hands and exposing his leg for full medical display. ] now I have to behave for once.

[ he too, sounds fond. ]

[ Replying with a soft hum of laughter himself, silent agreement that it will be behaving "for once," Viktor gets to work. They're lucky that he doesn't require the same kind of necessities for survival, allowing them to save up more food and water and medical supplies simply on the fact that only one of them is using anything. They aren't hoarding by any means, though, and Viktor would happily share with anyone who asks for aid.

With Jayce agreeing to sit tight, Viktor is able to boil some water to sterilize it and then set to using a combination of antiseptics and alcohols to clean the rashes. As he wipes away old scabs and caked on blood, he can tell that something is emerging from beneath the skin and leans in to get a closer look. What he sees reminds him of the fingerprints adorning Jayce's forehead: solid bits of shimmering material that catch the light now that they've been mostly revealed. ]

They look like... scales. [ He says it with disbelief as he catches the water before it boils over and sets it aside to cool. Leaving for a moment, he returns with his satchel and retrieves a roll of clothes from inside which reveals a series of neat little tools that he's scavenged. He cleans a small pen knife by holding it in the flames for a moment before dousing it with rubbing alcohol, shaking it dry before tapping the broad edge against one of the pieces of... whatever the hardened skin beneath the scabs is. ] What does that feel like? Something lodged in your skin, or something attached to it?

[ jayce spends most of his time hiding his grimaces, pushing out sighs pent up from straining his fists in fabric and allowing viktor to clean without any interruptions through his movement. it's not until he mentions scales that the man props himself upright, stiffly but disbelieving.

lo and behold, he catches a glint in the dark, in the expanse of offered light from viktor's runework. he almost forgets to answer when the uncanny shimmer reminds him of his scars in thr iridescent way they poke out from the cleaned scabbing. he almost— doesn't know what to satly. he had a dream, once, before here, twisted into a beast before the vines of the ruined world swallowed him. he can't remember what it was with detail. it is stuck at the tip of his tongue. ]

—Uh, [ refocusing, jayce dips his head back and forth while he defines the sensation . . . the scalpel-like tool has his breathing hitch, mostly to brace himself for anything that could be painful, but— the scars only flex, and so do the scales. ] Attached, but— feels lodged in others.

[ likely where they still push to breach the skin's barrier. it doesn't take half a moment for jayce to turn the wheel and already see them at a microscope. he nods to that amd braces furthet. ]

Pull one out.

[ Viktor looks up at that, searching Jayce's face for a moment, but he doesn't bother to ask if he's certain he wants to go through with it. He knows his look of determination, the lines of his brow when he's set his mind on something, and Viktor can't deny that he's curious to examine the growth more closely. If Jayce's body is changing, they need to figure out how and why if they want any hopes of slowing or reversing the transformation. Giving a curt nod, he deftly slides the blade of his scalpel beneath the scale and presses the pad of his thumb to the top, creating makeshift tweezers. He begins to inhale like he's steadying himself but quickly yanks the scale free before Jayce can tense up in anticipation. It comes away clean, a bit of blood at the edge that had been buried deepest in the skin.

Dropping the scale into an empty vial and setting it aside for later, he cleans the wound once more and wraps it in fresh fabric to hopefully keep further infection out. With the important task at hand, he carefully packs up his supplies and tucks them back into his bag as the fire crackles next to him. Between its heat and the soft nest covering the floor, the atrium was quickly becoming much warmer and cozier. ]

We'll examine that later. For now, your reward for being a good boy.

[ Reaching into the neck of his scarf, he withdraws something and holds his hand out to Jayce in offering: his leather cuff with a familiar blue stone embedded in the middle, golden Talis crest adorning the buckle. Holding it out to Jayce like this reminds him of that night they'd allied themselves in a clandestine partnership, of reaching out to someone equally lonesome in his pursuits that looked like a ticket out of Viktor's stagnation as well as his solitude. ]

Don't ask me how it's here or where it came from. I found it laid out for me like I was meant to find it. [ Which had been strange, considering it belonged to Jayce, but maybe it was a means of bridging some of the space between them. ]

[ better a quick pinch than slow, painful pull. well, it's still rather painful, but the keyword there is quick. with the scale plucked, jayce feels only a pinprick that has him briefly wince, but by the time his lips feel the pressure of his front teeth and his palm squeezes under his leg, it's already over.

viktor did have talent in his fingers. jayce gives an approving nod, and looks appreciative. hell, he's admiring his partner's swift work and glad that he's matching his freak in wanting to learn more about the changes rather than scolding him for being weird. he supposes they are both fairly . . . weird. two sides of the same coin, or something.

it's not weird to think that at all, either. you know what else isn't weird? the gut reaction he has to good boy. for a little more than a second, jayce is incredibly glad that he doesn't have the time to ponder it nor the skip in his chest nor the temptation of heat on his face. because there is something of an old friend being held out to him, and jouncing jayce back into the past. it is not only a symbol of their salvation, their partnership, what was once a prized possession, turned invasion of his body, then aa token returned to the man who had saved his life— this changes everything. fingers brush into the inorganic twist and turns of viktor's enlarged hands to retrieve the leather brace, jayce's eyes spark with nefound hope and treasure— ]

This means— [ he gestures with it, and almost a question, but undoubtly a smile that twitches the corners of his smudged, chipped lips: ] There's a way back—?

[ The warm brush of calloused fingers makes Viktor wish he could close his hand around Jayce's just to feel more of those worn, strong hands in his. Instead he pulls back when the bracelet has been returned to its owner, curious what Jayce's reaction might be; Viktor had barely believed his eyes when a bone crumbled apart to reveal the lost treasure. He's seen the memory of the leather disappearing and the runestone embedding itself in Jayce's wrist, and there are still scars there to prove it even if the stone had been destroyed in the arcane hurricane of their making. The last thing he imagines is Jayce seeing it as a way back. ]

Back? [ There's a frown in his voice, confused and trying not to be hurt. Of course Jayce wants to return to Piltover, he has family and friends and a future there if only he can make his way home. Viktor has nothing to look forward to apart from being ostracized at best, imprisoned at worst, alone again and made to pay penance for his crimes because death had failed to take him. ] Jayce, the pieces were destroyed in two different timelines. The fact that it exists here is a paradox.

[ something in jayce clicks in telling him that this upsets viktor to some degree— but quickly, almost defensively, he recalibrates with an answer: because he is worried about home, he has no way of knowing if everyone is safe or not, and if things couldn't go back to the way things were, by the gods he still wanted to know and he still wanted to try. ]

Aren't we a paradox? [ that didn't stop them from existing— and what if it wasn't destroyed? with the bracelet and runestone still in hand, jayce gestures with it. ] We have to try, at the very least try and— I don't know, communicate with someone—

[ with his thoughts racing, disorganized and mapping out points of concern a mile a minute, jayce's lips thin tightly together and brows pull into a pinched arc— he conveys exasperation. ]

Viktor— We don't belong here. That's all I mean.

No. That stone was destroyed, or at the very least removed from its band and fused to your wrist. Now they're here together and intact? For that to be true, what happened to us couldn't have happened.

[ Even if somehow, the bracelet had been brought from a different point in time, then that would still cause a paradox by not being in Piltover for Jayce to bring to the end of the arcane. That's not necessarily the topic that Viktor is focused on the most, however, because the thought of trying to communicate with Runeterra terrifies him with the possibilities of what they might learn. What if they hadn't done anything to stop the evolution, nor the spread of the arcane? What if all of that pain had been for nothing? What if Viktor had been willing to die for what had ultimately been a lost cause?

Tensing, Viktor wraps his arms around himself to fold into the smallest machine herald he could be. ]

I don't belong anywhere, Jayce.

[ jayce's jaws tense at the thought of that making sense, and viktor knows quite a lot about the arcane, too much for him to properly retort. there's little arguement in a space viktor knows like the back of his hand, and while it may be difficult to admit . . . he was right. the crystal and rune were powerless, the fantastical hum whirling from beneath its uneven edges was gone, and who would realize that more . . . than jayce, himself?

there's something worse that prods at jayce's attention, and it is the fact that he cannot stand viktor thinking so little of himself, even if the world were against him there was one other person that would always be by his side— ]

That's not true, [ instantly, the words come, rush off his tongue without any second thoughts in how it sounds because it's nothing but the truth. and his hand extends to the herald's back, fingers catching at a hem of fabric that wedges his hand between the knobs of his metal vertebrae and his blanket. ] your place is with me.

[ jayce searches for viktor's wounded gaze, and viktor would surely feel it: reflective jewels and golden eyes in the dark, all on him. ]

And we'll carve ourselves a new place in Runeterra. I don't care where it is— [ jayce's voice catches, and he slips his hand from the other's back to his arm. ] As long as I'm with you, I . . . Don't need anything else.

[ just news, for him to rest easy. but he could easily gain that by word of mouth. rumors. easy enough. right?

but they can't do that here. can they? ]

[ Jayce stumbles over the words in his haste to get them out, making Viktor wonder if it's because he knows that hesitation will come across as disingenuity. What he doesn't anticipate is the tough to his back, fingers against the protrusions along his spine that are like vestigial remnants of the rods that had helped hold him together and upright before. Your place is with me. He says it so easily and without knowing how much that means to Viktor, how much it could mean if he let himself sink into the dark corners of his mind.

His face turns towards Jayce, neck craning because he can't see him until his one good eye is able to rest on that familiar face turned to strange. Everything he's saying fills Viktor with longing, wishing that Jayce could mean all that he says in the way that Viktor truly yearns for. That's not the truth of it, though, and it's not a possible future no matter how badly he might want it. ]

Jayce... Look at me. I don't think there's a place for me in Runeterra.

[ there he is; and when viktor finally looks back at him, jayce has nothing but affection at its highest peak. not pity, it is empathetic affection, and hopeful to boot. jayce keeps one hand on the runestone, but the other slides to viktor's back once more as he leans closer as if to urge the idea forward, power it up. ]

I bet there could be. [ and with a beat, hopeful and perhaps a little foolish: ] We don't need much.

[ but he is earnest when he says it. ]

[ Looking at Jayce in silence, drinking in his face from so close and savoring the softness that smooths the lines of pain and hardship carved there, Viktor sighs. He's starting to realize that no matter how much he tries to free Jayce from the burden of his company, he's going to care too much to abandon him. ]

I suppose the only way to send you back would be if I go with you. [ He reaches over to rest a hand on Jayce's knee. ] We both know you'll get into trouble if you're alone.

[ a brief beat brings jayce to a huff. well, yes— and obviously so. but warms him even more is the weight pressed around the circle of his knee. the entire thing is gone under gold capped fingertips and shining knuckles. jayce feels a shiver running up his back to his scalp, but tries his best to ignore the tingle spreading through his scalp. ]

If I haven't proved that yet, I'd question my efficiency.

[ with a small smile that clings to his lips like a winter chill before autumn ends, jayce's eyes downcast with a small realization of a warm sort of awkwardness he doesn't want to pull away from just yet. encircling the leather bracelet in his free hand and noticing in the dimness of night, it still shimmers like stars in his eyes— he gestures at it.

he has a hunch, despite being obsessive. viktor's opinion mattered, it always did, so he has to ask again, as if to confirm what he's already seeing: a runestone that has lost its power, but not its meaning. ]

. . . You really think it can't be done?

[ it's still . . . beautiful. for some reason or another. more than he remembered. ]

Edited 2025-09-14 19:44 (UTC)

[ The closeness is disarming, reminding Viktor of nights spent in their lab with chairs pulled close together as they poured over notes and shout hypotheticals back and forth, parrying with rebuttals. It would be so easy to return to the way things were if it weren't for the constant reminder of what he's become, the weight of it on his body, the cold of his touch that he's certain Jayce must instinctively wish to flinch away from given his past traumas with low temperatures.

But, for the moment, it's nice. Viktor can pretend that Jayce looks past the hard metal skin and the broken face and sees him as he would appear in a dream: strong, healthy, handsome enough if not conventionally so. Not a monster, not his former self, but the man he always thought he could be under better circumstances. ]

Nothing is impossible. [ He shrugs beneath the borrowed warmth of the shawl draped across his shoulders and back. ] I just... wonder if that is the genuine article, or a facsimile. The gem has no power in it.

[ true. ]

We can find out, [ he runs his thumb across one of the fractile surfaces, cut clean like crystal. it felt the same. the leather around the gem's embem was even chaffed from friction, just as it used to be. ] run some tests.

[ jayce could not shake off the second feeling that denotes a stroke of . . . objection towards running the risk of damaging or losing the stone altogether. it was just . . . beautiful and meaningful and— his, now. ]

—Tomorrow. [ jayce, hold off on experimenting and studying something for the next day? he could blame it on how exhausted he is. he doesn't want to admit to the fact that he doesn't want to lose the runestone so soon, keep it close— because it's almost a weird thought to have, once that never crossed the forefront of his thoughts when he was well without it, only a scar staining his wrist in its wake. ] As a gift, though, [ he encircles the bracelet with his palm, now, removing his hand from viktor to clip it back onto him, jayce murmurs, soft and yearning, almost: ] Thank you.

[ Viktor is far from surprised that Jayce suggests doing science now that they've had a runestone, inert or otherwise, fallen into their laps. The addition of starting tomorrow, however, does catch him slight off-guard; historically, neither of them have been good about putting personal needs ahead of experimentation or other pursuits of knowledge. Jayce must be truly tired to think of holding off tests, or else realize they don't have their lab at hand to run things instantly. It will take time to salvage parts to make the kind of equipment necessary to figure out if there is any of the arcane left in the stone.

The thanks startles him a bit, making him chuckle. ] As a gift, it was just returning to you what is rightfully yours.

[ There's also a selfish part of him that's happy to see it cover the arcane scaring, the pit where another gem had been pulled from Jayce's wrist to serve as a catalyst for their deaths. ] But, you are welcome all the same.

[ hah, jayce breathes, and for a moment it's simply left at that. jayce knows he has many questions still, all ready to be asked now that his (semi healed?) wound is dressed, leather wrapped around his wrist and thumb still playing with it like a prize won. was it rightfully his? viktor's? theirs? when he looks up, damn, does he have a start, but . . .

jayce cannot seem to say anything of substance once his eyes are back up. a fuse in the circutry has snapped, or buzzed, and he just . . . watches viktor, in an extended stupor of thoughtfulness. how much he's helped, how much he's done for jayce, how much it felt like he was just some huge fucking weight lately . . . "good boy".

there're too many emotions attached to that for jayce to take apart, but he's startled. curious. er— he shoves it under a rug before he can think of it any more. not that what ever else is pulled from the backdrop is any better. the bone deep hunger he'd felt when the moon bled black and red, and the soothing effect viktor's presence had on that. the emptiness fades. the heated anger withdrawls. the warmth at his core . . . remains, but at a different drip. more contained. ever present. jayce parts his mouth to speak, but nothing quite comes out— at first, because a blip in his thoughts has him unsure of what to say when striken by so much at once.

that is, until the heavens come to save his ass. a reflection of blue slides across viktor's frame from the windows high above them. then another, green. another, pink-blue. until the prismatic twinkles spread over the floors. ]

What's—?

[ the sky outside beckons, a blanket of northern lights. ]

[ Jayce looks up at him, and for a moment, Viktor expects him to quickly avert his eyes. He had coerced him into promising not to stare, and yet lately, Viktor can't help wondering if he should have been more specific that it didn't mean he wasn't allowed to look at all. So when the gaze lingers, when it feels like they're slowly moving closer together as if drawn by magnetism, he doesn't shy away nor scold Jayce for looking, for seeing. If his eyes could peer beyond the surface of Viktor's mangled mask, or maybe even perceive it with anything other than pity and disgust, maybe there could be a little hope for him yet.

Those plush lips part silently, and Viktor nearly lurches forward. It's like a pull at the center of his chest, a hunger that isn't his that he's compelled to feed. The feeling is terrifying if not foreign, an instinct that could so easily destroy the gentle peace they've tentatively built up between their broken bodies.

He turns away as Jayce finally speaks and, for a terrifying second, thinks he might have moved enough to have Jayce questioning him. But no, he turns and his face is met with soft colors playing across it through the windows above, and he raises himself towards it in wonder. ]

It's beautiful.

[ jayce can't see much of it from here, just the reflections, the afterglows, the little jerk of viktor's body moving towards him from the corner of his eye pointed high above them, possibly because of a thought that jayce needed something. he watches, just as another slide of color catches on viktor's metalic sheen and paints him a seafoam green, decorated in magenta-gold highlights from the cap of his middle finger to the altered ligaments that braid with dark matter.

beautiful. the corner of jayce's lip twitches into a smile, as he catches the thought, and he knows full well what he's looking at. who he's looking at, and jayce couldn't swell any more at the thought that if there was a singular thing surviving has gifted him, and that he'd never trade, was viktor presence. i>viktor's thoughts, viktor's actions, viktor's mind . . . beautiful.

there's beauty in imperfections.

jayce's teeth catch his lip as he dips his head down and away from the heat that rises, thankful that it's rather dark and perhaps too colorful to notice. yeah. he didn't know where his head was, maybe desperate and ready to die with viktor knowing just what he felt. all of which, jayce wasn't sure would come up with such ease, now. they've just . . . only just . . . managed to have smoother interactions. less arguements, more conversations. he couldn't tighten the bolts into a strain, not now.

think fast . . . ]

Could be better with a view. [ jayce knows he just got here, finally resting, brace off— but with a renewed resolution, he's going to pad the inside of the brace before strapping back up, from thigh to shin. he could cover up the tears in his pants with blankets, clean up while he's at it with any amount of spare cloths and water, and save the clothes shopping for after a plausible few hours of resting . . . yeah. he just wants to take viktor up there, now. ] If you can get my stick, we can go to the roof.

[ The windows may offer glimpses of the lights, but he can already assume that it doesn't do justice to a full display in uninterrupted sky. It still surprises him when Jayce suggests they go out to see it, though, especially when the roof means taking stairs and his legs is still healing. But when he looks down at him, at the face he knows so well beneath the unfamiliar lines and facial hair, sees the colors reflecting in his hazel eyes, Viktor knows that he doesn't have it in him to deny Jayce. ]

It's still cold out. [ His tone is factual rather than combative, wondering if Jayce will change his mind. Viktor has always known how much his partner dislikes the cold and the snow, the memories it brought back of struggling to survive. Curious that the same experience would make him so in love with magic. ] We'll need to bring blankets as well.

[ eh, well— the beauty of the northern lights and watching them with viktor felt worth it. a little lul from the rest of the night earlier which was, up until this point, a real shit show. and if he wasn't going to sleep now, he'd much prefer to watch the lights and pick viktor's brain.

jayce is already shuffling to stand upright. ]

Make sure it's enough, then.

[ the hint of a smile is still on his face, even as he winces through the strain of standing. gathering his staff under him, closing the shawl over his shoulders tight and movingover to their supplies. going to take some things on the way up to make their lives easier. ]

[ That makes Viktor pause and regard Jayce, and if he had the facial features to do so, he'd be raising a questioning brow. Him make sure? Jayce is the one who wants to do something potentially uncomfortable, and Viktor isn't going to baby him forever.

Maybe just one night.

He huffs and looks away, but not before he notices the wince. Standing and easily overtaking Jayce as they walk in the same direction, he recovers the makeshift staff and offers it to Jayce. With that settled, he can return to the pile of blankets to grabs a few and hastily fold them up so he can carry several in his arms. ]

You should eat some protein to help with the healing. And drink more water.

[ viktor must understand this has suddenly become a team effort, a mutual hangout. he has been dragged into the company of interlude that they could very well use, and jayce has managed to find something to be in good spirits about— despite everything. the only appeasing indicator that his intention means well is the hopeful mood he's put in. if, at least, the light waft of pleasant anticipation is anything to go by. thank you, he murmurs, letting his gaze stay for a second longer to watch viktor return to blanket plucking.

besides, jayce too, is preparing to bring quite a few things with. it only dawns on him when he picks up two tin cups from their supply corner that viktor no longer drinks. they could not share in the meager liquids they've harvested. shortly after, it dawns on him that he also does not eat, and won't be sharing in the protein he'd eagerly considered bringing extras for.

the dejection hits him so sharply viktor might be able to hear the jut of his split, lower lip as he tries to . . . recallibrate his direction with this. ]

Uh . . . Yeah, I was— going to. [ . . . ! his bag. where was his bag— he had a few books in there from when he first met sharon, he hasn't had the chance to show them to viktor. shuffling through the belongings, jayce finally manages to pull out two moderately sized books that could fit in a hand. in all honesty, they were easy reads in terms of length, especially for scholars. but he'll get to sharing once their up. little sachel of water, food, some blankets that he can manage over his own shoulder and the books. time to go up. ] For us, actually.

[ but he holds the books up, to quickly smooth the hit of that honesty out, ]

But I think I have something better.

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