[ Upon the caller touching the podium, the lost soul will find their way into this holy house. Summoned as a soft silhouette of light, anyone can confirm it is Viktor and the summoned can take a glance at his semi-familiar surroundings.
It is a church.
It almost seems like the complete opposite of a place one would go for spiritual peace.
Large stained glass windows cover the walls, depicting scenes of hands coming together, intertwined with vine-like structures, and groups of humanoid figures happily reveling with one another. Rows of pews are lined up facing the dais where there is no altar, but rather, a podium.
At the podium is his caller and right beside them is Amalthea giving off nervous energy.
Here 3 questions will be answered, no more and (hopefully) no less. ]
lucien is here! and he has visibly been in the healing pods okay before he gets fussed at. he even has a fake eye that still seems like it's kind of uncomfortable and new, and there's a scar around the eyesocket. the lightning mark is fairly well hidden in his current clothes, but bits of the fractal pattern peek out from under his shirt and up the side of his neck. apart from that there's nothing obvious with clothes on.
he's sitting on the first pew, arm over the back of it, watching the space where the summoning happens, nails drumming along the wood. ]
I got your letter. You are crazy, by the way, but I think you knew that.
This startles him every time. HE WILL NEVER GET USED TO BEING YANKED OUT. He looks a bit more like himself, and he's a little scared it's another round of whatever, but as soon as he recognizes the church--Lucien--his expression gets worried. Embarrassed. Worried. NOT THE LETTER BEFORE THIS!!!
He surveys Lucien from where he is, the eye, the weaving scars. He really gave Lucien more than anything else...]
...You shouldn't have called me here, it's too dangerous.
[ where is his apology edible arrangement, viktor ... also does he still have a missing hand. can they regrow those in the graveyard.
and bro. the letter literally minutes before this. clicking his tongue and crossing his arms, tail swaying around his ankles. ]
You don't even know what the danger is, and I've been through plenty of dangerous situations and come out smelling of daisies, so I'll pick and choose my dangers as I please. I barely had a choice at any rate, you show up on Wednesday wearing the face of demonic entity, then a glorious prince strides in to tell me that well of course he would never want to make you choose. As if there is any real choice to be made. [ why would anyone sane or insane not choose the giant handsome good-hearted prince. ] We walk through hell together on Thursday and then a letter arrives the moment I wake up telling me that you're - what was it - weighing the options of telling me you love me.
Also I'm supposedly tasked with a mission to find the missing corpse of Callisto's brother in addition to the news that I, in fact, have a room to myself now.
So that is how my week has been. If the creature that haunts the soul of this machine chooses to consume me, it might be a blessed fucking relief.
He did not want to do this here like this; he should have done this Wednesday instead of being an idiot. His expressions run through a roulette. Clearly, he either disagrees with some things, or is hurt by some things, or is confused by some things. In the end, he stands there and does not say anything through it, his hands curled into fists at his sides. Hands plural.
He opens his mouth, then closes it. What does he answer first in such short time? Does he just dodge around, demand a question? Would Lucien hate him for it? But he can't do that, can he? He isn't that sort of man, exactly like he isn't the sort of man not to apologize profusely for being the shittiest wizard imaginable and throwing a tantrum in a forest.]
You're wrong. [He will go back.] There was no weighing. I meant what I said to you even if I've never done this before in my life. He's kind, and someone had done him such a disservice by cursing him to me. But... we're not the same. We're nothing alike. There's a place for him to go back to if we can, a place that needs him and respects him.
No place needs me, Lucien. I'm just a speck of dirt in the universe.
[THE WAY AMALTHEA HAS TO BE BETWEEN THIS AGAIN.]
That's how I lived so far, and that's... how I'll die. A speck of dirt.
[ amalthea standing here, listening to this. lucien just accepts amalthea will know all of his worst secrets, which is mostly the one about him caring so so so so much that it makes him explode into the worst of his queer little theatre kid habits. he does actually glance over at her at this, because even he has the ability to be a little ashamed of how much he's about to lay out here in front of her.
he's supposed to be asking important questions about how to save themselves from a cursed spaceship and potentially eternal torturous oblivion but he'd practiced all these times for the power to say more, so he's taking advantage of it. if he's going to get his soul thrown from his body and be haunted by the faces of the dead every week, then he is going to get his feelings out about it. ]
You're good, and kind, and you care more than anyone I've ever met. I believe you when you say the nonsense about changing things, about making things better. And I don't care if the universe thinks you a speck or not. I will make it to listen to what you have to say. I would damn everyone in this place to bring you back, though I know you would hate me for it.
I need you. I love you.
[ look, he'd never told brevyn he'd loved her because brevyn hated that kind of stuff, and constantly accused him of being a sappy, overdramatic shit. lucien is the romantic one. he'll fucking say it. and then because he's annoying as fuck and wants to force him to answer a question instead of reacting to this little theatrical shitfit: ]
[The back of his neck grows increasingly hot when he watches Lucien glance at Amalthea, and he remembers she is here. Again. Suffering through their bullshit.
He's not sure what he's prepared to hear really, if anything. He's not sure why he's holding his breath. Maybe Lucien will just dodge him, too. Maybe he'll get ridiculed? He needs it, blundering through all of this blindly, fastly, like an idiot. Whatever he's expecting, he most certainly isn't what he gets.
He looks stunned. There is so much in that alone he wants to scold for, so much that's eye-opening after being stupid, but then Lucien bestows upon him the first question, and the words in his throat falter. His expression struggles gently.]
...Things kept disappearing off and on this week. We were visited by two more ghosts. We've realized our bodies probably are not real, that maybe we exist another way. There are giant bipedal rats serving us... like at Épc*t.
[He makes a face about this, as if he did not expect to have the urge to say this.]
--You don't get to say all of that and then just ask me a question!
[ okay sorry but if he did not think lucien had feelings for him after he icicled his eyeball out, electrocuted him with chain lightning, set him on fire and then hit him with a magic missile and lucien still was like, here, sweetie, take my items so you can actually land a fucking hit, then he is the dumbest boy in school. ]
That's my job. I'm supposed to ask questions.
[ that's called revenge for fucking polyamorous frogging him. ]
[WELL, POLYAMORY WAS JUST SUDDENLY THERE LOOKING HIM IN THE FACE. He is just the dumbest boy in school then really. Because he thought that. And he thought all of the mishaps made it worse.
It's like he thinks Lucien is relatively nice because Lucien is nice to HIM.]
Don't hurt anyone else, not for me. You knew I was going to say that, right? More importantly, don't hurt yourself for me. How many times do I have to say it? I know you're doing it. I wouldn't be here again right now if you weren't.
Stop that! I'm not going to have anyone left to come back to!
[ well unfortunately there's nothing a queer little theater kid loves more than drama so that kinda worked out for him.
lucien rubs at his temple, nose scrunching up. ]
I'm not hurting myself. I think it's ... relatively safe as long as it isn't twice in a row, so save your fussing for next week. And I'm doing what you asked. About the pieces. So don't pretend as if I never listen to you.
[ god!!!!!!! he even went to the medbay pod without having to be threatened, okay. ]
You mentioned your bodies - they're in the stasis pods on our side, so perhaps there's something to returning you to them.
Finding the identities of the old crew and Callisto's brother's body. Should that be the priority?
[Oooo, don't tell him to SAVE IT when he isn't gonna BE HERE, and then just lay on the obedience!!!!]
You--
[His face screws up again. He clenches his jaw, almost like a restraint while he thinks.]
No and yes. Stop making the question complicated.
[...]
Worry about the crew as you go. It's easier between all of us. Find [he glitches out] body. He gets tummy aches. But be careful about Callisto. Both sides of any bargaining have to be upheld. His, too.
[ it's a very funny way to avoid having to talk about feelings for too long to throw a question mark in there and compel him to answer that instead of talking about them for too long. ]
Tummy aches. [ he stares off into the distance. ] I don't see how that helps, but alright.
[ he'll go looking in the places most likely to have large stashes of tums. ]
[But that's all he says. The look on his face softens some. For as annoying as Lucien is about other things, he must suffer the puppy dog eyes when Viktor is sad, or terrified. That is the balance in the universe.]
...
[Why does he act like he's standing in front of a firing squad?!]
[Once Lucien is there, he reaches up anyway to pretend to touch Lucien's face with the tips of his fingers. He looks apologetic, guilty.]
...I wasn't completely honest with you. [He hesitates.] I didn't tell you... that... it doesn't matter what happens after this, I don't think.
I'm... going to die anyway. When I go back, even if it's ten seconds less. Not from whatever is making me sick; that's just an added bonus. But because I was in a room... and something broke through the window and... exploded. I'm pretty sure it killed all of us. Me, Jayce, all of the council members.
[ i'm pretty sure it didnt because you were renewed for season 2 but i won't ruin the drama of the moment
lucien just leans his head into the fingers, however illusory, and hums, thinking that over. there's a lot to be concerned with in that statement but he's stubborn. a solvable problem. he'll figure it out if he has to. it only makes his jaw set and tighten for a moment, trying to ignore the way his stomach drops. ]
And I'm walking into the maw of a power I cannot stop and cannot control and have destroyed my last chance for an understanding with those who oppose me. [at least he admits it.] So we both have problems, I imagine.
[ a long pause. ]
We don't have to go back. To where we're from. I asked.
Frowning, he brushes his fingers around the edges of Lucien's ruined eye, down to trace the tips of the spiderwebs of lightning. It's very obvious he does not like hearing the same of Lucien.
[ he bites his lip, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. possibly. nervous? a weird look on him. ]
The only way to truly get rid of them is to destroy them. I know where they are. I have all the tools to get there. I even have a plan. But they can only reach so far, control only so much.
[It IS a weird look on him, STUPID BINCH. Viktor makes a face about every single thing Lucien says. He swats at the arm even if it passes through it.]
I'm wasting a letter just to get on you later about this. I'm wasting your letter every single week until the end to tell you how stupid you are for this.
[He may or may not be pouting. It doesn't matter.]
[He is trying not to fucking be exasperatedly amused by this question and failing.]
Try to find a way... to put us back where we belong over there unless we tell you otherwise. [...] Keep remembering to ask us that question, and maybe one of these weeks, we'll have your answer.
Aye. Put soul back in body. I could have told you that. I'll keep asking.
[ he can feel they are coming to the end of this, and is getting reluctant to keep speaking too much - in case it runs the timer out on the connection.
anyway, this is almost bizarre. they have spoken so much this week that it almost feels like. fucking? normal? whatever counts for normal here. It's going to rough going back to hastily exchanged 300 word notes. ]
[Lucien hates it every time, but Viktor truly stands there doing nothing but staring at him. Studying him, studying all of his face, every line, saying nothing only worrying his lips between his teeth.
Then he leans in suddenly to kiss Lucien on the lips, unfelt and quick, nervous, but he takes half a step backward after just as quickly. Like Lucien is on a train about to start away down the tracks.]
At least you get a room all to yourself now, right?
[ he snorts softly, both at the joke and the very cute gesture - he can't feel it but it doesn't really matter all that much. fucked up and weird to be on the same page about it which is that sure maybe they are both going to die horrible deaths but also they can be real queer about it? leaning his head to the side, a few fingers against his own cheek, as viktor pulls back. ]
Oh, I don't know. I've been staying with Throné ... who also stays with Arthur and Temenos. It's incredibly crowded. Hm. That seems idiotic. I don't know why I'm doing that. [ ... ] Take care of yourself, send less insane letters next time.
[ just for traditions sake: ] Say hello to Diluc for me as well?
[ Amalthea keeps the podium channeling, but this eventually has to end... The dead and the living are meant to be separated—that divide is important.
While Viktor returns whence he came, Lucien finds himself slipping. For a moment, he can feel Viktor's presence, warmth, touch... and see his surroundings change. It's no longer a church, but an abandoned space where pulsing flesh grows through the cracks. He can faintly make sense of tables and chairs, but not much else from the darkness that shadows his vision. Yet in that darkness, Viktor becomes clearer and clearer with each passing second.
... The soft humming from the channeling podium ends, but these sensations continue.
Lucien feels his soul and body slowly split, sinew to sinew... He can be with him, if he wanted. He can abandon this shell. The excruciating pain is temporary, after all.
Lucien will feel a deathly chill from the touch of Amalthea's hand, but uh-oh. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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It is a church.At the podium is his caller and right beside them is Amalthea giving off nervous energy.
Here 3 questions will be answered, no more and (hopefully) no less. ]
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lucien is here! and he has visibly been in the healing pods okay before he gets fussed at. he even has a fake eye that still seems like it's kind of uncomfortable and new, and there's a scar around the eyesocket. the lightning mark is fairly well hidden in his current clothes, but bits of the fractal pattern peek out from under his shirt and up the side of his neck. apart from that there's nothing obvious with clothes on.
he's sitting on the first pew, arm over the back of it, watching the space where the summoning happens, nails drumming along the wood. ]
I got your letter. You are crazy, by the way, but I think you knew that.
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This startles him every time. HE WILL NEVER GET USED TO BEING YANKED OUT. He looks a bit more like himself, and he's a little scared it's another round of whatever, but as soon as he recognizes the church--Lucien--his expression gets worried. Embarrassed. Worried. NOT THE LETTER BEFORE THIS!!!
He surveys Lucien from where he is, the eye, the weaving scars. He really gave Lucien more than anything else...]
...You shouldn't have called me here, it's too dangerous.
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and bro. the letter literally minutes before this. clicking his tongue and crossing his arms, tail swaying around his ankles. ]
You don't even know what the danger is, and I've been through plenty of dangerous situations and come out smelling of daisies, so I'll pick and choose my dangers as I please. I barely had a choice at any rate, you show up on Wednesday wearing the face of demonic entity, then a glorious prince strides in to tell me that well of course he would never want to make you choose. As if there is any real choice to be made. [ why would anyone sane or insane not choose the giant handsome good-hearted prince. ] We walk through hell together on Thursday and then a letter arrives the moment I wake up telling me that you're - what was it - weighing the options of telling me you love me.
Also I'm supposedly tasked with a mission to find the missing corpse of Callisto's brother in addition to the news that I, in fact, have a room to myself now.
So that is how my week has been. If the creature that haunts the soul of this machine chooses to consume me, it might be a blessed fucking relief.
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He did not want to do this here like this; he should have done this Wednesday instead of being an idiot. His expressions run through a roulette. Clearly, he either disagrees with some things, or is hurt by some things, or is confused by some things. In the end, he stands there and does not say anything through it, his hands curled into fists at his sides. Hands plural.
He opens his mouth, then closes it. What does he answer first in such short time? Does he just dodge around, demand a question? Would Lucien hate him for it? But he can't do that, can he? He isn't that sort of man, exactly like he isn't the sort of man not to apologize profusely for being the shittiest wizard imaginable and throwing a tantrum in a forest.]
You're wrong. [He will go back.] There was no weighing. I meant what I said to you even if I've never done this before in my life. He's kind, and someone had done him such a disservice by cursing him to me. But... we're not the same. We're nothing alike. There's a place for him to go back to if we can, a place that needs him and respects him.
No place needs me, Lucien. I'm just a speck of dirt in the universe.
[THE WAY AMALTHEA HAS TO BE BETWEEN THIS AGAIN.]
That's how I lived so far, and that's... how I'll die. A speck of dirt.
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he's supposed to be asking important questions about how to save themselves from a cursed spaceship and potentially eternal torturous oblivion but he'd practiced all these times for the power to say more, so he's taking advantage of it. if he's going to get his soul thrown from his body and be haunted by the faces of the dead every week, then he is going to get his feelings out about it. ]
You're good, and kind, and you care more than anyone I've ever met. I believe you when you say the nonsense about changing things, about making things better. And I don't care if the universe thinks you a speck or not. I will make it to listen to what you have to say. I would damn everyone in this place to bring you back, though I know you would hate me for it.
I need you. I love you.
[ look, he'd never told brevyn he'd loved her because brevyn hated that kind of stuff, and constantly accused him of being a sappy, overdramatic shit. lucien is the romantic one. he'll fucking say it. and then because he's annoying as fuck and wants to force him to answer a question instead of reacting to this little theatrical shitfit: ]
Do you have any new information to share?
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He's not sure what he's prepared to hear really, if anything. He's not sure why he's holding his breath. Maybe Lucien will just dodge him, too. Maybe he'll get ridiculed? He needs it, blundering through all of this blindly, fastly, like an idiot. Whatever he's expecting, he most certainly isn't what he gets.
He looks stunned. There is so much in that alone he wants to scold for, so much that's eye-opening after being stupid, but then Lucien bestows upon him the first question, and the words in his throat falter. His expression struggles gently.]
...Things kept disappearing off and on this week. We were visited by two more ghosts. We've realized our bodies probably are not real, that maybe we exist another way. There are giant bipedal rats serving us... like at Épc*t.
[He makes a face about this, as if he did not expect to have the urge to say this.]
--You don't get to say all of that and then just ask me a question!
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That's my job. I'm supposed to ask questions.
[ that's called revenge for fucking polyamorous frogging him. ]
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It's like he thinks Lucien is relatively nice because Lucien is nice to HIM.]
Don't hurt anyone else, not for me. You knew I was going to say that, right? More importantly, don't hurt yourself for me. How many times do I have to say it? I know you're doing it. I wouldn't be here again right now if you weren't.
Stop that! I'm not going to have anyone left to come back to!
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lucien rubs at his temple, nose scrunching up. ]
I'm not hurting myself. I think it's ... relatively safe as long as it isn't twice in a row, so save your fussing for next week. And I'm doing what you asked. About the pieces. So don't pretend as if I never listen to you.
[ god!!!!!!! he even went to the medbay pod without having to be threatened, okay. ]
You mentioned your bodies - they're in the stasis pods on our side, so perhaps there's something to returning you to them.
Finding the identities of the old crew and Callisto's brother's body. Should that be the priority?
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You--
[His face screws up again. He clenches his jaw, almost like a restraint while he thinks.]
No and yes. Stop making the question complicated.
[...]
Worry about the crew as you go. It's easier between all of us. Find [he glitches out] body. He gets tummy aches. But be careful about Callisto. Both sides of any bargaining have to be upheld. His, too.
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Tummy aches. [ he stares off into the distance. ] I don't see how that helps, but alright.
[ he'll go looking in the places most likely to have large stashes of tums. ]
Only one more question.
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[But that's all he says. The look on his face softens some. For as annoying as Lucien is about other things, he must suffer the puppy dog eyes when Viktor is sad, or terrified. That is the balance in the universe.]
...
[Why does he act like he's standing in front of a firing squad?!]
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I was able to speak with Sidon for a short time after, so it won't be immediate. Like I said, I've gotten better at it.
I could also wait to ask it and we could talk, or whatnot.
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...I wasn't completely honest with you. [He hesitates.] I didn't tell you... that... it doesn't matter what happens after this, I don't think.
I'm... going to die anyway. When I go back, even if it's ten seconds less. Not from whatever is making me sick; that's just an added bonus. But because I was in a room... and something broke through the window and... exploded. I'm pretty sure it killed all of us. Me, Jayce, all of the council members.
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lucien just leans his head into the fingers, however illusory, and hums, thinking that over. there's a lot to be concerned with in that statement but he's stubborn. a solvable problem. he'll figure it out if he has to. it only makes his jaw set and tighten for a moment, trying to ignore the way his stomach drops. ]
And I'm walking into the maw of a power I cannot stop and cannot control and have destroyed my last chance for an understanding with those who oppose me. [at least he admits it.] So we both have problems, I imagine.
[ a long pause. ]
We don't have to go back. To where we're from. I asked.
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Frowning, he brushes his fingers around the edges of Lucien's ruined eye, down to trace the tips of the spiderwebs of lightning. It's very obvious he does not like hearing the same of Lucien.
But he does look surprised about the last part.]
What about the Eyes? The Somnovem?
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The only way to truly get rid of them is to destroy them. I know where they are. I have all the tools to get there. I even have a plan. But they can only reach so far, control only so much.
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I'm wasting a letter just to get on you later about this. I'm wasting your letter every single week until the end to tell you how stupid you are for this.
[He may or may not be pouting. It doesn't matter.]
Ask your last question.
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How can we bring you back?
[ a waste of a question maybe, but going to stubbornly ask it anyway. ]
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Try to find a way... to put us back where we belong over there unless we tell you otherwise. [...] Keep remembering to ask us that question, and maybe one of these weeks, we'll have your answer.
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[ he can feel they are coming to the end of this, and is getting reluctant to keep speaking too much - in case it runs the timer out on the connection.
anyway, this is almost bizarre. they have spoken so much this week that it almost feels like. fucking? normal? whatever counts for normal here. It's going to rough going back to hastily exchanged 300 word notes. ]
... What a week.
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Then he leans in suddenly to kiss Lucien on the lips, unfelt and quick, nervous, but he takes half a step backward after just as quickly. Like Lucien is on a train about to start away down the tracks.]
At least you get a room all to yourself now, right?
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Oh, I don't know. I've been staying with Throné ... who also stays with Arthur and Temenos. It's incredibly crowded. Hm. That seems idiotic. I don't know why I'm doing that. [ ... ] Take care of yourself, send less insane letters next time.
[ just for traditions sake: ] Say hello to Diluc for me as well?
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While Viktor returns whence he came, Lucien finds himself slipping. For a moment, he can feel Viktor's presence, warmth, touch... and see his surroundings change. It's no longer a church, but an abandoned space where pulsing flesh grows through the cracks. He can faintly make sense of tables and chairs, but not much else from the darkness that shadows his vision. Yet in that darkness, Viktor becomes clearer and clearer with each passing second.
... The soft humming from the channeling podium ends, but these sensations continue.
Lucien feels his soul and body slowly split, sinew to sinew... He can be with him, if he wanted. He can abandon this shell. The excruciating pain is temporary, after all.
Lucien will feel a deathly chill from the touch of Amalthea's hand, but uh-oh. ]
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