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shardmods ([personal profile] shardmods) wrote in [community profile] shardbond2025-02-02 11:59 am

WEEK 4






You were successful in repelling the robots attacking the city, but you've been left with far too many questions. For once, Tails doesn't have any answers for you, and a gloomy uncertainty has fallen over your three allies. It probably doesn't help that everyone had a rough time of it last week. A win is a win, but it doesn't really feel like a win when you're not even sure who this unknown threat is...

Regardless, life goes on. Things are a bit different this week in Chicago, however.


THE CITY


You'll need to be careful now more than ever when heading out into the city. Though Eggman's usual robots are still present, their numbers have been cut drastically. Far fewer drones patrol the streets, with only the occasional tank or B33 to be seen. You can still find and fight them, and they will still call for backup, but it seems like you all really have destroyed a lot of them.

But there are the new additions to Eggman's forces. Unlike the white chrome versions, these are here to cause problems. You can find them patrolling sometimes... but usually you'll find them in the city proper, destroying whatever they can. Whenever they catch sight of you, they will stop at nothing to try to pursue you and destroy you.

The city itself is still undergoing changes, with more of that white chrome spreading throughout, as if infecting the structures themselves. The Badniks will still destroy even that, though; it's more like they're mindless machines than carrying out any precise orders.

But in a stroke of good luck, occasionally you'll find that some of the humans recognize the danger they're in. It's only when confronted with a robot - but you might hear a scream, or see them try to run away, and if you save them, you may even be able to get a few words in before they simply return to their monotonous lives. You won't be able to get any truly valuable information from them, but they will thank you repeatedly for helping. They don't seem to realize that they're being controlled by someone else, even if you ask them about it.

VISIONS


If you thought last week was a lot, get ready for the madness of week 4!

You may still have nightmares. You may still be pulled into each others' nightmares (same as last week, if you'd like to play out more of these). Or maybe you'll finally be able to catch a break and get some z's, but even if you are lucky enough for that, you'll still be dealing with everything else.

You may find yourself randomly teleported into the city. This happens at random, and can happen to multiple people at the same time. One minute you may be waking up, the next you'll find yourself surrounded by robots ready to kill you. And yeah, the robots are a feature, not a bug. No matter how it happens, you will always be facing down robots whenever you're brought into the city. Enjoy!

But maybe your luck holds out and you're unaffected by that. Well, there's still the visions to deal with!

There are two different kinds of visions that may happen.

The first are the more minor ones - where you may see the people closest to you (positive or negative). They will appear for others as well, and they will gladly speak with you - though they aren't exactly behaving in the way they should. They will torment you, reminding you of past failures and imperfections, and speaking as though everything is your fault. They will follow you wherever you go, and will only fade when someone else has helped you come to terms with the horrid things they're saying. These visions are a manifestation of a character's psyche and thus are based on their own perceptions of their friends/enemies and their own faults. They're incapable of interacting with the world or the characters, but they sure can insult you!

The second are much larger in scope. No matter where you were, you may find yourself pulled into friend's memory. These memories are one-for-one versions of what exactly happened, though now you're here! Are you playing the role of someone else, or are you just a bystander in all that's happening?

The character having the vision may or may not be aware of you initially, but once they're made aware of your presence, the vision will still play out as the memory would. The only way to stop it - aside from simply letting it play out in its entirety - is to drastically alter the memory in such a way that it cannot get itself back on track. Considering the trauma some of the people in this game have, it might be a good idea to help break them free of it.

Regardless of which happens to you (the nightmares, the teleportation, or the visions), your vision will turn bright red for a moment afterwards - it vanishes quickly enough, but it leaves you with the eerie feeling that you're being watched.

SHARDS


Your powers are growing, and you'll find you're able to defend yourself with your power in some way, even if yours is a power made for support. All characters are now able to fire off a blast of energy in their shard color to defend themselves - this attack will grow stronger in time, but at least everyone should be able to defend themselves (somewhat) now?

As you fight with your allies - particularly those you have a close bond with, positive or negative - you may feel the tug of something in the back of your head; it tells you that you can do more. Together, you can become more powerful. You can use your shards together. Doing so will grant you a new power, or strengthen the one you already have. The more you trust one another, the easier this power will be to use.

It might be good to experiment with these new powers; after all, you never know when you may need them.

TAILS' TASKS


Like last week, Sonic Team is still in need of rings. Rings are still annoying to get. You'll probably need help to get them, but they're worth collecting. So make sure to grab some for Tails!

You may also be tasked with tracking Chaos Energy. Like with tracking rings, Tails will give you a device that can pick up on the signature. You should be careful in approaching, especially if the signature is a large one, considering the three enemies you faced last weekend. Still, Chaos Energy may lead you to more of Eggman's fake Chaos Emeralds, which could prove useful...

Tracking the source down will lead you to one of the weekly enemies with a shard somewhere on its body. It will be much harder to kill than the regular versions of that enemy, and capable of some kind of special power (players' choice). Crushing the shard will weaken the enemy and bring it back down to its normal power level, making it fairly easy to defeat, but if you manage to defeat it without breaking the shard, you can bring it back to Tails for examination.


ENEMIES


Though you can still find the enemies from previous weeks in Chicago throughout the city, their numbers have thinned. Mostly, you'll be running into new faces - robots that don't look anything like Eggman's usuals. They are very rarely actually patrolling or idling, instead focused on destroying parts of the city or attacking any people unfortunate enough to get in their way.

Moto Bugs are... rather cute. They roll around on their singular wheel and can slash with their front claws, though primarily they deal damage by ramming into things at fairly high speeds. They're fairly weak, all things considered, especially by now. They're completely powerless when knocked over or onto their backs. Though one Moto Bug is weak, you will never find them alone - instead, you'll usually find at least 3-5 of them in a group.

Crabmeats are robotic crabs. Where does the meat come in? Unclear. Regardless, they're stronger than Moto Bugs and are capable of both bashing with their massive claws and snipping, and either way they are capable of a good deal of damage if you get hit. They're slower though, which means getting out of the way shouldn't be too hard. Like Moto Bugs, these usually are never alone, often working in pairs.

Buzzers are bees. Did you think we were done with bees? We are absolutely not done with bees. These bees function almost identically to the B33 models in that they're capable of firing lasers from their stingers, divebombing to try to sting, and generally be(e)ing a nuisance. Unlike the B33 models, they do not have a glaringly obvious weak point and are a bit harder to hit and destroy as a result. Though you may rarely encounter only one of these bees out in the wild, usually you'll run into groups of them and they will not be(e) happy to see you.



hexalding: (did i disappoint you)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-02 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[i; minor]

[Generally recovered from the fight, Viktor had a job to do; improving the group's combat mobility and getting at minimum Percy something a little faster than a skateboard. This brought him to venture cautiously into the city, his laser firing on a group of Moto Bugs in particular. Spare parts weren't going to just manifest themselves, after all. Once that was done, Viktor could be seen carrying a couple of said poor unfortunate robots back towards his room--and then stoppng like he'd seen a literal ghost, dropping everything up to and including his staff in a cacophonous noise of metal.]

[Standing in front of him, an unfamiliar figure, unarmed but with murderous intent in hazel eyes.]

[As the week continued, he threw himelf entirely into his work more obsessively than usual; on occasion he would say something in another language as if holding a conversation, then glare at the taller man hovering over his shoulder and answering in an undertone. An easy way to determine what was or was not a hallucination, but not everyone would be so fortunate.]


[ii; visions]


IIa; averted suicide attempt, brief casual ableism
[The confiscated research fascinates you about as much as it repulses your mentor, this is a sentiment you feel as much as witness as Viktor (younger, healthier, on no more than a cane instead of the crutch and braces he would later rely on) pages through a leatherbound journal in concentration. It fascinates enough that you see him sneak out one book full of notes and equations--laden with symbols you have never seen before--and seek out the man who wrote them. (He initialed every page of his notes, and you see Viktor roll his eyes at the observation.)]

[You feel a sudden instiable curiosity as Viktor steps out into the evening air of Piltover, the beautiful City of Progress--his cane marks a staccato rhythm on cobblestone streets, making his way through the academic district lit by yellow-white lampposts.]




IIb; cw implied mind control, loss of agency, death
[You are everywhere. A hundred places, a hundred perspectives, all of them blending together in a perfect stream of information--visual, tactile, olfactory, audible--that you can somehow comprehend despite the overwhelming amount being far too great for a single human mind. Deep beneath Piltover, beneath most of Zaun in its deeper fissures, this place is a gentle sanctuary. A light in dismal surroundings, a verdant paradise with clean air filtered by the abundant plantlife.]

[Every single person here came to you seeking aid; Shimmer addiction, copious ailments like the one you once suffered, broken bones, and you healed each and every one of them. Saved them, when no other could or would. They call you their Herald, and they are content here; a single bastion of peace in a world besieged by conflicts. Each of them has opened their mind to yours and bears a simple mark, fingerprints left by magic--your magic, given to you by the same force which granted you a second life.]

[You remember how the Hexcore whispered to you, how you feared its power, but you know now you were wrong. You know, because you no longer feel fear. You feel very little, in fact--emotions dulled into an ethereal calm.]

[He's coming here, you know this--the person who helped you realize this dream, who gave you life through the Hexcore. The thought sets a faint warmth somewhere in your chest, distant but recognizeable comfort. Familiarity, the sense that this person belongs here. That you want to show him everything you have accomplished.]

[In this meditative trance, the whispers of a sudden startled fear come to you, and as you adjust your sight to theirs that feeling of warmth grows into a familiarity like coming home. You see through another's eyes, a man with a colossal hammer in a place where weapons are forbidden--but you respond with an immaterial whisper of reassurance. Bring him to me, said in a wordless intent laden with gentle familiarity and care; signaling that it is the Herald's wish he be guided with a compassionate hand, that this man is no danger to you.]

[You--that is, the observer, standing in this verdant paradise perceiving things outside your own mind--have the objectivity to see your surroundings for what they are. The people here have lost some part of themselves; possessing free will enough to function, but their larger indviduality stripped away and replaced with this ethereal connection to a larger hivemind.]

[It's fundmentally wrong, and judging by the look on the ragged newcomer's face, he knows this just as well as you do.]

[Do you follow him?]



[iii; wildcard]

[anything else/lighter stuff! apparently we're building hoverboards this week so we can be sonic riders: firelights edition]
Edited (would you believe i read 'will appear' as 'won't') 2025-02-03 01:25 (UTC)
crosswired: (097)

I - hello im here to meet the boyfriend

[personal profile] crosswired 2025-02-03 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
[The crashing sound is enough of an alert to have him sit up from where he'd been in his own bedroom, discarding what he'd been working on to whip the door open --

Well. One party he recognized, and the other looms between him and where Viktor now stands frozen. Who in the world...]


Viktor. [Cautious, eyes on the stranger, then back on the man he knows, a sharded hand tentatively lifting in case one of those robots needs to become ammo here in a moment.] What's going on?
hexalding: (i can feel the light shine on my face)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-03 11:13 am (UTC)(link)
When...did you get here...?

[It wasn't quite fear written on Viktor's face--not yet--but a genuine shock and apprehension. This was wrong in a way he couldn't yet place, but they had seen enough new arrivals that he was completely caught off guard.]

Knd of thought you'd be happier to see me. [His voice was a stark opposite to the other man's, like everything else about him; taller, broader, rougher in a way that Viktor's delicate inorganic appearance wasn't.] Or did you really think you could just run off and everything would be fine? What are you gonna do, start another cult?
Edited 2025-02-03 11:13 (UTC)
crosswired: (019)

[personal profile] crosswired 2025-02-04 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh his eyes narrow sharp at that - not at Viktor, but at the stranger. Bitch who are you?]

Someone you know, I take it?
hexalding: (i can feel the light shine on my face)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-04 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I...I'm not-...

[That's the funny thing, Vakama. You, specifically, have heard this voice--in your own dream, for a fraction of a second, shared in the abstract concept of 'compassion'.]

['There is beauty in imperfections.']

Not what? Look at yourself, Viktor--you're not even human anymore. You're nothing but a broken mechanical doll.

[Except where that tone was so gentle as to be near reverent, the man staring down Viktor now just sounds bitter and disgusted.]
Edited 2025-02-04 22:12 (UTC)

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cw terminal illness mention

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guffawsungraciously: a really pissy look. maybe a little revolted. (THIS COMPETITION IS STUPID!!)

ii

[personal profile] guffawsungraciously 2025-02-04 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
[...ah. A place not unlike the world they're in, except it's pretty and green instead of shiny and chrome. And there are feelings that are not his own, and he hates it, thanks.

...but hey, check out that guy. Yeah, sure, he'll follow him. From behind..]
hexalding: (don't think of what it's cost me)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-04 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
[Thee man with the twisted hammer looked like he'd walked through hell and back several times over, walking steadily despite favoring his left leg with the makeshift brace constructed around it. He has a sharpness to him, something resigned--as though he came here to commit a horrible but necesary act. He drew the occasional second glance as he passed by members of this too-perfect commune, though that same immaterial whisper speaks in subconcious reassurances; do not be concerned, this is a friend, he is no danger.]

[And you believe this, with the hollow husk that was once a heart. The other man has been touched by the arcane, has been changed in a way you do not yet understand, but he is still your partner. Without any doubt, you knew he would return to you. You know the two of you will change the world together, just as you both always dreamed you would. You can heal him, if he desires it, and then the two of you will be of one mind in more than the metaphorical.]

[He, and therefore Jasper, are led through this twisted Eden to a central structure, resembling a massive insectoid cocoon in construction and yet not made of any identifiable material. As if it ws simply willed into existence from nothing. Stepping in cutiously--almost as if he does not know what to expect--the pair of you find a simple empty chamber.]

[And you find the Herald in a meditative trance.]

[Slowly, you Viktor pulls himself from the absolute omnipresence of the minds of your followers; a hundred lines of consciousness withdraw and you he begins to wake up, seeing your partner standing below you a stunned man with a massive wepon standing in front of you.]
guffawsungraciously: a somewhat confused look. (who is this... sassy lost child?)

[personal profile] guffawsungraciously 2025-02-04 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
[...no.

No, he doesn't want to be here. How does he get out of this memory? He doesn't want to think about this. Anything like this. He doesn't want to watch this, whatever it is. Why is he here.

...well, alright, it was because he followed some himbo with a big weapon, which is the cause of many of his problems, but despite his attempts to disengage he feels the inexorable pull to stay here and. Observe. Witness some memory of a teammate who is a near-stranger and have feelings about it.

He hates this.]
hexalding: (it was all for a cause)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-04 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
[The hammer is pointed directly at you Viktor, its massive head unfolding to a torrent of wild and uncontrollable magic in the gem at its center. It's beautiful, says a thought flickering through your mind, fascinated with something that twists and shines with the concept you named 'wild runes'. Primal magic, sheer force rather than the controllable factor the two of you so often worked with.]

[The ragged sentinel's form flickers with the same chaotic arcane magic--(you sense ssomething even you do not comprehend, some force beyond your understanding guiding his path, seeking one outcome amidst hundreds), and as you stare in a state frozen between awe and concern in your quieted emotions, you think-]

[...Jayce? Stop, what are you doing-]

[Your Viktor's partner screams in heartrending pain, and the hammer fires a tremendous burst of power--straight through your chest, through the roof of your shelter in the middle of your undercity sanctuary, and for a moment all you know is pain.]

[The next, you are Viktor is on the floor; flickers of arcane magic and firing biomechanical synapses spark from the massive hole in his chest in place of blood. You are not angry (not at him, never at him, there could never be hatred in your heart for him) because you can no longer feel anger, or fear, or much of anything. The Hexcore freed you from that.]

[And as you struggle to keep your fading eyes on your grief-stricken partner, you know it can do more than that. You know it can save him and you alike from this senseless pain. With its power, you can save everyone from ever feeling the agony of this heartbreak.]

[(You did not understand then what you know now. He broke his own heart to save you from yourself.)]

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cw: mild body horror

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holeful: (Now I get to say "my wife")

iia

[personal profile] holeful 2025-02-05 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's a weird feeling, almost half understanding what's scrawled on these notes through the filter of Viktor's understanding. It's not fully clear, but enough of a vague awareness, paired with what Viktor said before, that as he quietly follows Viktor out onto the street, he speaks up to ask;]

Is that the research that helped you develop the "hextech" you mentioned, Mr. Viktor?

[Did Viktor even realize he was there? Don't worry about it.]
hexcrafter: (from you i should walk away)

cw interrupted suicide attempt

[personal profile] hexcrafter 2025-02-06 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Yes and no, in that order!]

[Viktor did not seem to notice Fukuda, at least not yet. His path leads you and him alike to an opulent Piltovan apartment building, a massive hole blown in its wall from the explosive accident that revealed said research before it could be completed. I was trying to create magic, the person in question had asserted at his hearing--the determination alone caught your interest, the impossibility of his statement more so.]

[The magnificent City of Progress was one founded specifically to avoid what your mentor calls 'the tyranny of mages', and yet his caution now seems...well, if this power can be invoked and harnessed as these calculations imply, then is it not right to at least try?]

[However, as you enter the broken apartment itself, a letter and wristband lie on a table, and the source of this mad idea and intricate notes stands at the edge of that second-story hole in the wall--]

[Panic grips your chest and flashes across Viktor's face; the understanding of not only a senseless waste of life, but of potential. This is someone unheard of, a topsider willing to take mad risks to improve lives, improve your home, and if you don't think of a way to stop him right now he's going to-]


['Am I interrupting?']

[Janna's mercy, you are terrible at this. But it startles him enough to get his attention, and in a panicked flurry Viktor barely manages to keep out of his demeanor, he keeps the other man talking. He speaks with passion and frustration about his work; about the beauty of magic, his reverence making it sound more like a benevolent god than a natural force. A god with one acolyte, because his research was shut down with a harsh refusal of further examination. 'No one believed me', he finishes, looking back out beyond the hole in the wall.]
holeful: (Now I get to say "my wife")

cw:referenced past suicide attempt (a different one)

[personal profile] holeful 2025-02-06 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Even if Fukuda was the type to assert himself, he wouldn't have been especially willing to here for two reasons. One, this is a frankly shockingly beautiful man, what right does Fukuda have to talk to someone who's that pretty and apparently from the notes Viktor's speaking of, brilliant???

But more substantively... Who would Fukuda be to tell someone else not to attempt to end their life? He understood what drove someone there, especially with the vague semi-shared context he has from Viktor's memory. When you don't have anything else to lose, when the prospect of continuing another day seems interminable, the idea of just Stopping is so, so hard to resist. And he hadn't resisted. The fact that he's here now and fine with it was a complete fluke, even if it's not an unwelcome one.

So instead he just sits down, not planning on interfering, but then Jayce says that, and Fukuda can't help but nod in understanding and muse;]


Thinks like that just make you wish other people could see inside your head, don't they?
hexcrafter: (the worst thing that’s happened to me)

[personal profile] hexcrafter 2025-02-06 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Surprise, if anyone thought Viktor was the unhinged one--well, they would be right, but this does not make Jayce particularly stable by comparison. Then again, who could really blame him when not a single person actually believed a word he said?]

[No one, except for Viktor. Even at a glance, the equations are sound; faulty only in their application, a simple matter of adjustment that he has failed so far to notice. But you can see the easily fixed mistakes, can see the gears turning at mach speed in Viktor's head; moreover, you can feel a brief ray of hope rarely allowed to those of the Undercity. These feelings burn in your chest like the sheltering light of a campfire in the dark as you see Viktor step forward to stand at the edge beside him.]

['I was an outsider the moment I set foot in Piltover,' Coming to stand at the ledge beside him, you hear Viktor speak with a gentle sincerity felt in your chest. He confides in this relative stranger, how no one had ever believed in a disabled student from the Undercity save for himself. The other man watches in a despondent silence, and for a moment it almost seems he might still consider taking that fatal step forward-]

['I want to help you complete your research.' Viktor concludes, and the relative stranger--Jayce Talis stares at him like a man seeing the sunrise for the first time. 'No one thinks it can be done,' he counters in disbelief.]

['When you're going to change the world-' Viktor's gold eyes are sharp and bright, the beginning of a defiant smile starting to pull at the corners of his mouth. '-don't ask for permission.']

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plushes: (190)

nyoom nyoom hoverboards

[personal profile] plushes 2025-02-06 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ He stumbles into Viktor...somewhere in the base, later in the week. And, as discussed, Viktor is probably working on some schematics or blueprints. Hmm. What could this be about?

Coincidentally, Percy is carrying his skateboard around.
]

Oh, Viktor! [ Can he peek... ] Working on something?
hexalding: (take a seat)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-06 10:21 am (UTC)(link)
There you are, Percy. I was actually going to look for you, this involves you specifically.

[The schematics look weirdly like a steampunk skateboard without wheels, at least for now.]

Can I see that board for a minute? I need a few measurements.
plushes: (03)

[personal profile] plushes 2025-02-07 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, this-?

[ He wasn't expecting this, but he'll hand Viktor his board. ]

Are you trying to make one for yourself?
hexalding: (did i disappoint you)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-07 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I could not use something like this. I'm making you one with better mobility. If it works, I might be able to replicate it for some of the others.

[not even missing a beat while he casually measures dimensions and writes them down, barely looking up.]

Back home, I have seen people fight on air-propelled boards not dissimilar from this; with this world's level of technology, I believe I can replicate that easily.

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hashtagafreakingghost: (her blood runs hot to cold)

iia

[personal profile] hashtagafreakingghost 2025-02-07 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ashley sure is one who will find a curiosity and seek it out. It doesn't even feel strange, like it's her own in that moment. She follows Viktor, looking over Piltover, real Piltover, unable to keep her mouth shut. ]

Viktor? Viktor, where're you going?
hexcrafter: (the best thing that’s happened to me)

cw interrupted suicide attempt

[personal profile] hexcrafter 2025-02-07 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
[He didn't seem to notice her yet, walking far more steadily than he had in prior dreams; much less gaunt and tired, nearly a full decade younger. You get the feeling he wants to approach this matter immediately, before all the other research apart from the book he's carrying get destroyed first thing in the morning. Piltover was founded as a haven against the dangers of magic, as your mentor might phrase it, and said mentor was going to waste little time.]

[You remember, briefly, the sharp intent of thi journal's author at the hearing earlier that day: I was trying to create magic; surely we, the pioneers of science, can use it for good.]

[And you find it strange that a scion of a noble house--even a lesser one--would actually care, much less enough to attempt the impossible. As Viktor walks into an opulent apartment building with a massive hole blown in the second floor, you might catch a brief flicker of confusion at the idea. However, upon entering the destroyed apartment, the first thing Viktor notices is a wristband and letter on the table, and at the edge of that hole in the wall-]

[Panic grips your chest and flashes across Viktor's face; if you don't do something right now, then he's going to be bloody smear on the ground and a tragic waste of intellect, life, and potential all at once. Fuckfuckfuckfuck-]


['Am I interrupting?']

[Janna's mercy, you are terrible at this.]

[But it startles him enough to stop him doing soemthing stupid, and with only a little provocation to keep him focused on Viktor rather than a sudden and unpleasant death, the smaller man quickly keeps him talking. The relative stranger speaks in honest-to-gods reverence about magic--you would later learn it had saved his life, a faceless mage in white delivering him and his mother from a snowstorm years before. This one incident...an incident you would someday understand you caused led him to see magic as a benevolent deity, no matter what anyone else thought.]
Edited 2025-02-07 03:31 (UTC)
hashtagafreakingghost: a flower for every name (every story's a waiting game)

[personal profile] hashtagafreakingghost 2025-02-11 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Everything Viktor says—and feels, especially feels—it floods through her. He's doing whatever he can to save this man- this person she feels he doesn't know but will.

She knows. This is him. This has to be— ]


...Jayce. This is...how you met Jayce.

1/2

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undoingdaughter: (pic#17581512)

IIb

[personal profile] undoingdaughter 2025-02-08 11:55 am (UTC)(link)
[Here again.

Everything about this verdant place, a flower in the gutters of the Lanes, so vibrant and full, it grounds on Jinx's nerve. A fire was lit in her stomach, threatening to broil over with a deluge of feelings she suddenly had to face.

It's wrong. That she's here, that he's here. That all of this is still here.

And yet, she follows.
]
hexalding: (sure there's nothing left to try)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-09 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[That same ethereal calm persists throughout; the Herald's silent reassurance, the absolute control he does not have the capacity to even recognize as such. Deluded by his own corruption, you feel something that you as a human possessed of free will is just wrong, like an immaterial will in your head whispering that what you're doing is saving people.]

[For right now, though, there is just a muted sense of warmth, like you have been waiting for exactly this. Your--that is to say, Viktor's--partner, touched by the arcane yet still undeniably himself in all the ways that matter. Hoping he would accept your invitation, because you have so much you need to show him. Advancements made thnks to the augmentations he unwittingly gave you.]

[He walks into the massive insectlike cocoon of a central structure, and there you see the Herald himself floating in a silent meditative trance; omnipresent, a hundred senses all at once.]

[...Jayce grips the hammer a little too tightly, with reluctance but a clear intent.]
Edited 2025-02-09 13:12 (UTC)
tworo: ([difference])

iib

[personal profile] tworo 2025-02-09 07:32 am (UTC)(link)
[A human mind cannot comprehend so many datastreams at once, but a mechanical one can.

At least, it could in theory. Turo has experienced a similar multiplicity of perspectives before; he is a part of the Lab's security system, spanning several facilities and a monitoring system throughout the crater, and he likes tapping into cameras from the outside besides. Hundreds, though - that's more than he's ever been connected to at once. The data itself is also incompatible. He lacks several human senses, can't quite integrate the olfactory information or the fewer but still-present flows of taste. Even as the alien sense of calm leaking into his processors from somewhere keeps Turo from reacting as strongly as he normally might, he starts to breathe sharply and shallowly. Fans begin to whir somewhere in his torso as his backup cooling systems come online. There's very physical consequences to pushing your processing limitations, consequences he's viscerally familiar with.

This is wrong. This is dangerous. He would be panicking, if not for the calm making any such reaction fizzle out into disconnected strands of code. Even so - even if he doesn't quite feel a sense of urgency, he can still logically determine it's wrong. The newcomer seems the likeliest route to an explanation, and perhaps an end. He follows.]
hexalding: (it was all for a cause)

[personal profile] hexalding 2025-02-09 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[The only peple who really seem to grasp how fundamentally broken this settlement is beneth the tranquil surface are you and the ragged man yu're following--something about him looks resigned, as if he's bound and determined to do something about it.]

[What that something is, the hammer probably has something to do with it.]

[If that is the case, that omnipresence does not seem to realize it; this person registers as the concept of safety and security, incapable of being a threat in any imaginable calculation. He's led to the central structure; massive, almost like an insectoid cocoon of indeterminate material.]

[Within it is the source of that all-encompassing awareness and presence; the one they call the Herald, focused outside himself and slowly pulling back to a single awareness.]

[Beside you, the grip on the massive hammer tightens, the man's other hand reaching for a secondary handle that almost resembles a trigger.]
tworo: ([software])

[personal profile] tworo 2025-02-09 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[Is that Viktor? What happened to him? The atmosphere is still such that Turo cannot feel as much alarm as the sight probably warrants, although a dry observation does slip through: this is the man he was expected to entrust with his repairs?

The fellow-feeling between them is still strong enough that he is not worried about the ragged man or the weapon he bears. Turo draws a little closer to him, in fact, seeking some of that security for himself. He's never trusted anyone like that before; frankly, he's no longer sure he's even capable. It feels...warm, comfortable, safe. He watches the man's hands with idle curiosity, and makes no move to intervene.]

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