I know, but--you have to get away from there. You have to leave to prosper. [He had to leave the Undercity to prosper in Piltover?] If you stay, they'll keep doing--
[What ISN'T fine is getting startled by the change, and then getting pummeled by bad. His expression visibly struggles with the upset of watching, of listening. He looks away, grimacing, then squeezes his eyes shut. All he can think of is Rio.]
Stop! Stop... Please.
[He doesn't want to see them DIE OVER AND OVER. STOP BEING HAUNTED. HE'S HAUNTED ENOUGH.]
[Great! Thanks! He slowly opens his eyes and exhales quietly.]
Why change a destroyed world when you can build a new one of your own?
[Just saying. He glances up, frowning.] I do understand. I want to change the Undercity, too. But I... had to leave first. [Not quite the same, but maybe the sentiments are.]
I remember their pain, too, while Piltover looks away.
[He's looking at the cube, not hungrily, not like he wants it... but like he's piecing it out, like he's surveying it. Thinking. His eyes slowly lift again.]
This is a long shot, but... can you show me how it works in your dream? [Thoughtfully to himself:] I wonder... if... the Hex Core can communicate with it at all...
It is reminiscent of the High Dimension Core I had, but I do not know if it acts the same. I can only show you what it could be capable of from my experience with a similar object. [ oh, but he is interested in this hex core deal. ] What are you planning, Viktor...
That's fine. Please show me anyway. I'm pretty sure they aren't functioning right now, so... Just theorizing.
[He scratches his jawline thoughtfully.]
The Hex Core is a runic matrix that I realized... responded to organic material. Some of my blood accidentally got into it, and it... changed. It learned. It evolved. The key to... life and death, to who knows what all else, lays inside it, but I just couldn't get it... to... work right.
[He shakes his head.]
Do you know what happens to... Independent Plants when they die by any chance? Like... physically. No, I guess you wouldn't know if you were the only two...? What about injury?
The tesseract is active, but in the hands of other officers for research.
[ oop. Well, the dream takes shape of using Vash as a portal with the core to enter the dimension where Plants draw their power. Just that whole deal, I guess, with that cyoa realm where Vash has to battle while he's an effigy black hole. ]
How interesting.
[ Viktor really going through it with these questions. ]
[WOW, NO? He hates this?! VASH!!! He looks visibly mortified by this process, stepping forward like he can somehow stop it until he becomes frozen in place by the inability to do so in a dream.]
This--this is... It's... Plants? These are... there. I think? The... vines... And it... Things regenerate? When we cut into it...
The ownership date was finalized today, so its capabilities are unlocked.
[ april fools very funny. Vash really does turn into an effigy with wooden vines that stretch out, flowers blossoming from them—dark purple geraniums with petals that glow a soft light on their edge. They roam and take over the space. Vash is just stuck in his little cyoa, frozen in time. ]
If you want answers, then you should ask clearly.
[ The scene disappears because Knives thinks that Viktor is too stimulated by it. ]
Thanks, Knives is learning. The flowers aren't lotuses which Viktor can now find interesting to remember when not HAUNTED by memories. He shakes his head.]
I don't even know what question...
[It's frustrating to boop into a place and not be familiar with a lot of things when you're normally fairly alright. He glances at the cube again, brows furrowing.]
[ AS WE CAN SEE BY WEDNESDAY THEY HAVE NOT EXPLODED
Sorry about Rio, Viktor. ]
... I don't know, but a number of you have had ideas. I as well wonder if that may be the truth. What I do know is that you all are in a place where we cannot reach you and most of your bodies are still in the stasis bay. We are taking the chance to consider it a reality.
Is there anything that has surfaced where you are that would support this theory?
His brows furrow again.] Almost... everything. It all just keeps adding up to... Well, we thought we were... digital at first, but... [He glances away.]
Something happened, and... we realized it wasn't digital. We're... I don't know, this isn't my area of skill exactly. We're maybe... consciousnesses, or something. But there's...
A lot of flesh. And now there's a place with... [Motions as if motioning where poor Vash was trapped in his own cyoa.] Plants? Roots. It looks... like... roots. They're pretty defensive. They tossed Luke out. I guess he was messing with what's inside.
They're working on using the tesseract for an experiment, but on a smaller scale. We will hear of the results in a matter of days. [ He thinking as he's staring down at this cube. ] I wonder if the rifts could be the missing mechanism.
[ He lifts his gaze, looking at him with some confusion. ]
Many of the plants are cross-bred. I don't see how bread-flavored herbs will be useful here.
[He is quietly watching and listening to Knives, but the last part... makes him... snort like he's trying not to laugh, but he can't catch himself before it pops out.
And then he just... kinda laughs. Like genuinely, short. He rubs the socket of one eye with the back of a finger.]
No one will tell you anything, will they? [IT'S BECAUSE HE'S VIOLENT. So are, like, the three or four other people t-posing around Viktor.] It was from the old crew, I mean.
Someone from the team in hydroponics apparently was... cross-breeding plants, looking for one that was like... an hallucinogen? One that let two people share some kind of hallucinogen experience, but what they ended up making was...
I can only thank your lot's warnings, I imagine, even if all they've done is stall our progress.
[ they're right to be wary, it's okay. Knives doesn't quite care. ]
There is no project like that currently archived in hydroponics, unless it's hidden away somewhere else. This ship... It's trying to erase history—or be in control of it.
[ Super interesting because he's wondering why. ]
Dreams are an ill-suited channel for communication. I've only started remembering the shape of our compromises.
[THEY SHOULD BE, GOOD.] It was a secret, I think. Project. Just watch out for the plants because the one they cross-bred was poisonous. And, um... meat, I guess. If you can remember. [What a combination.
He rubs his chin thoughtfully, brows furrowing.]
The old crew are barely hanging on as whatever ghostly forms they are, and the senior crew can hardly remember, so... that makes sense.
... The ship food is mostly comprised of eels. [ Fucking wild, but this makes him again ??? ] Amalthea remembered her chief officer, though I do not know from where. It might be from one of yours visiting. Nevertheless, I'll talk to her about this crossbreed.
[ Which Knives isn't unhappy about. ]
The more the roster is filled, the more we may learn the true nature of the Eudora. The supplemental information you all have gathered has also been helpful, or so I'd like to believe. [ ... ] Has there been any developments where you are? Plans... Thoughts...
Has how you envisioned your future differ from the last you visited me?
Hmmm. He worries his bottom lip with his teeth.] A few of the old crew thought they were eating... meat? Something weird. It could have been a hallucination. [A slight shrug, mostly of uncertainty, not dismissal.
He glances at Knives, frowning, and then looks off to the side.]
Whatever we are, we think connecting us to the bodies in stasis may be a viable plan. Personally, I think... the garbage might be a key. We wake up in a lot of it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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I know, but--you have to get away from there. You have to leave to prosper. [He had to leave the Undercity to prosper in Piltover?] If you stay, they'll keep doing--
[What ISN'T fine is getting startled by the change, and then getting pummeled by bad. His expression visibly struggles with the upset of watching, of listening. He looks away, grimacing, then squeezes his eyes shut. All he can think of is Rio.]
Stop! Stop... Please.
[He doesn't want to see them DIE OVER AND OVER. STOP BEING HAUNTED. HE'S HAUNTED ENOUGH.]
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[ I'm sorry, Viktor. You just have to suffering in Knives' wallowing and fears. ]
Who will remember their pain if not me?
[ It does stop, but on the corpse. ]
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Why change a destroyed world when you can build a new one of your own?
[Just saying. He glances up, frowning.] I do understand. I want to change the Undercity, too. But I... had to leave first. [Not quite the same, but maybe the sentiments are.]
I remember their pain, too, while Piltover looks away.
[He nods at the cube.]
What is it?
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The world isn't destroyed. It's simply incompatible with humans. I also have no intentions of being prey or hunted.
[ He doesn't believe that humans would simply let (his people) them go. ]
It's a high dimension core. To put it simply, it contains energy siphoned from a higher dimension than ours.
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Viktor's brows narrow. He... looks at the cube, at Knives, at the cube again. Oh no...]
That sounds... like the Hex Core.
[Knives doesn't need this at all.]
Do you... have this when you're awake? Do you actually have it from the auction?
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... That was the item you bid on, wasn't it. [ His is a cube shape, though. ] We do have it.
[ we not he ]
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[He's looking at the cube, not hungrily, not like he wants it... but like he's piecing it out, like he's surveying it. Thinking. His eyes slowly lift again.]
This is a long shot, but... can you show me how it works in your dream? [Thoughtfully to himself:] I wonder... if... the Hex Core can communicate with it at all...
[Then to Knives:]
Also... I have a question. About Plants.
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[ but go ahead and ask your Plant question. ]
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[He scratches his jawline thoughtfully.]
The Hex Core is a runic matrix that I realized... responded to organic material. Some of my blood accidentally got into it, and it... changed. It learned. It evolved. The key to... life and death, to who knows what all else, lays inside it, but I just couldn't get it... to... work right.
[He shakes his head.]
Do you know what happens to... Independent Plants when they die by any chance? Like... physically. No, I guess you wouldn't know if you were the only two...? What about injury?
no subject
[ oop. Well, the dream takes shape of using Vash as a portal with the core to enter the dimension where Plants draw their power. Just that whole deal, I guess, with that cyoa realm where Vash has to battle while he's an effigy black hole. ]
How interesting.
[ Viktor really going through it with these questions. ]
We can regenerate and heal ourselves.
[ rip ]
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[WOW, NO? He hates this?! VASH!!! He looks visibly mortified by this process, stepping forward like he can somehow stop it until he becomes frozen in place by the inability to do so in a dream.]
This--this is... It's... Plants? These are... there. I think? The... vines... And it... Things regenerate? When we cut into it...
What is going on...
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[ april fools very funny. Vash really does turn into an effigy with wooden vines that stretch out, flowers blossoming from them—dark purple geraniums with petals that glow a soft light on their edge. They roam and take over the space. Vash is just stuck in his little cyoa, frozen in time. ]
If you want answers, then you should ask clearly.
[ The scene disappears because Knives thinks that Viktor is too stimulated by it. ]
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Thanks, Knives is learning. The flowers aren't lotuses which Viktor can now find interesting to remember when not HAUNTED by memories. He shakes his head.]
I don't even know what question...
[It's frustrating to boop into a place and not be familiar with a lot of things when you're normally fairly alright. He glances at the cube again, brows furrowing.]
Is the place we are... in another dimension?
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Sorry about Rio, Viktor. ]
... I don't know, but a number of you have had ideas. I as well wonder if that may be the truth. What I do know is that you all are in a place where we cannot reach you and most of your bodies are still in the stasis bay. We are taking the chance to consider it a reality.
Is there anything that has surfaced where you are that would support this theory?
no subject
His brows furrow again.] Almost... everything. It all just keeps adding up to... Well, we thought we were... digital at first, but... [He glances away.]
Something happened, and... we realized it wasn't digital. We're... I don't know, this isn't my area of skill exactly. We're maybe... consciousnesses, or something. But there's...
A lot of flesh. And now there's a place with... [Motions as if motioning where poor Vash was trapped in his own cyoa.] Plants? Roots. It looks... like... roots. They're pretty defensive. They tossed Luke out. I guess he was messing with what's inside.
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Then that article that someone put up may have some use to us... [ He had assumed that, but— ] It sounds like you're in a living thing.
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[Not much they can do on their side about it, however. Not right now, at least.]
...Yes, that's what I was afraid of really. Do you know about, um... hydroponics? About the cross-bred plant.
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[ He lifts his gaze, looking at him with some confusion. ]
Many of the plants are cross-bred. I don't see how bread-flavored herbs will be useful here.
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And then he just... kinda laughs. Like genuinely, short. He rubs the socket of one eye with the back of a finger.]
No one will tell you anything, will they? [IT'S BECAUSE HE'S VIOLENT. So are, like, the three or four other people t-posing around Viktor.] It was from the old crew, I mean.
Someone from the team in hydroponics apparently was... cross-breeding plants, looking for one that was like... an hallucinogen? One that let two people share some kind of hallucinogen experience, but what they ended up making was...
[Gestures around them.]
Shared dreams.
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[ they're right to be wary, it's okay. Knives doesn't quite care. ]
There is no project like that currently archived in hydroponics, unless it's hidden away somewhere else. This ship... It's trying to erase history—or be in control of it.
[ Super interesting because he's wondering why. ]
Dreams are an ill-suited channel for communication. I've only started remembering the shape of our compromises.
[ Maybe for the best...... ]
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[THEY SHOULD BE, GOOD.] It was a secret, I think. Project. Just watch out for the plants because the one they cross-bred was poisonous. And, um... meat, I guess. If you can remember. [What a combination.
He rubs his chin thoughtfully, brows furrowing.]
The old crew are barely hanging on as whatever ghostly forms they are, and the senior crew can hardly remember, so... that makes sense.
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... The ship food is mostly comprised of eels. [ Fucking wild, but this makes him again ??? ] Amalthea remembered her chief officer, though I do not know from where. It might be from one of yours visiting. Nevertheless, I'll talk to her about this crossbreed.
[ Which Knives isn't unhappy about. ]
The more the roster is filled, the more we may learn the true nature of the Eudora. The supplemental information you all have gathered has also been helpful, or so I'd like to believe. [ ... ] Has there been any developments where you are? Plans... Thoughts...
Has how you envisioned your future differ from the last you visited me?
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Hmmm. He worries his bottom lip with his teeth.] A few of the old crew thought they were eating... meat? Something weird. It could have been a hallucination. [A slight shrug, mostly of uncertainty, not dismissal.
He glances at Knives, frowning, and then looks off to the side.]
Whatever we are, we think connecting us to the bodies in stasis may be a viable plan. Personally, I think... the garbage might be a key. We wake up in a lot of it.
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[ So he's inclined to agree, but he doesn't dismiss it, either. ]
The garbage.
[ ????????? ]
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At least one had become unstable at the start. Maybe a storm.
[He sort of smirks wryly at Knives.]
The ship's trash still has to go somewhere, right?
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