How. [ another question said like a statement. ] Every individual is unique to a point, so what did you do to heal them?
[ they should let this go, but they do not. ]
You're wrong, by the way. Humanity isn't always the problem. It may be the weak point, but it becomes the strongest link to stabilize a person when built right.
My partner, Jayce, fused me with something we created: the Hexcore. He did it to save my life. It connected me to it, to the arcane. I channeled the arcane to heal them; the condition was we became one. A collective.
[His head tilts slightly.]
What makes you think the end build will remain with all of those uncontrollable variables? [This doesn't sound as if it's asked rudely, but curiously.] Rage, love, envy, greed.
[ oh, well, this actually explains quite a bit. they do not seem to struggle understanding the concept, giving a short nod to that. ]
A hivemind. A space where when one is healed, the rest are healed, but when one is hurting, the rest become infected.
[ again, mulling over that for a moment. ]
I know it will because I've done it. [ they will just outright say so. ] Removing those emotions... if you take away the things that make up their psyche, they deteriorate faster. But stimulating them, engaging in a way that gives them motivation to continue their processes, that was the key to stabilization.
[Both brows lift in interested surprise, but then collapse into a thoughtful furrow. He's looking at the laptop, but his peculiar eyes are sort of looking through it, and it's clear he's having a clinical debate with himself (hopefully) about this.
Something is holding him back.]
No... We would keep them from deteriorating... [He wouldn't let that happen! :')] They would have what I've heard in their minds: better lives.
[He refocuses with a blink.]
But you've done this? And it continued to work? I don't understand how. Those are the things which always destroy everything they work for.
We as in... all of you who are already in the collective. Right. I got that. But who's idea of better are you using? What counts as a better life, and how much are you risking to get it?
[ this is about when kiraman realizes that perhaps viktor has some brain problems, but they are sort of fascinated. ]
It's not the way you think. It made it possible for people to live peacefully with no disease, no war, and no pain. They kept their emotions, and their memories, and their thoughts. All of them are unique. By linking two pieces together, it stabilizes the remaining build. Even with volatile emotions... if that new piece is there, the deterioration stops and doesn't destroy itself.
[The correction is given as if he doesn't even realize he has used anything plural. He has brain problems. It's not Cloud soup, but it's definitely stew.
The answer to the other question is right there, but now he's doubting it. This seems impossible for him to believe, yet he's thinking it over. Suddenly, his head turns, and he glances over his shoulder like he had before, and then he turns back again.]
Okay. [ they say this vaguely placating and partially acknowledgement. if viktor believes it... well, they want to pick him brain, a little. see what's going on in there, what he's actually thinking and doing.
You said that. I'm not sure if I can believe you. Everything I've seen has been the opposite. I allowed them to keep it. Their... uniqueness. I didn't force anyone to come to me.
But those on the outside... the ones not connected, they destroyed what we had built. [He has to acknowledge something he doesn't want to do.] I sustained them. The probability that everything crumbled after... Jayce killed me is... one hundred percent.
You were the catalyst. [ they seem to understand that, a hand coming up to where their chin probably is as they prop their head up. ] Was it your goal to bring everyone into one? If the infrastructure crumbled by removing one key component instead of triggering the next operation, are you sure that was the right way to go?
[ they ask this neutrally rather than trying to sway him one way or another. it's difficult to say how curious they might be, but they're listening closely. ]
[His lips thin into a line. This is fine by him, he never thought he should even be alive. He supposes he isn't now.
But something else beneath the surface thinks otherwise. This is the way.]
The ultimate outcome is to simply exist at the highest state of being, [and the echo is slotted under his voice again. His eyes turn up to the three-dimensional blueprint.] They could have all been free. No more pain, or suffering, or violence.
[ oh they really hate that echo, actually. unfortunately, their ass is standing here going "i bet i could fix him."
they do not say this. ]
I'm not sure how going back might work out on our end of things. [ they did not really discuss that part. ] Are you really living if you're only existing though?
His brows furrow like before. The inner debating. It sounds like something Jayce would say - the "new" Jayce who blew a hole in him.]
He said it was a curse... but no one would ever suffer again if they were all one, if they could hear each other's thoughts. If they lacked everything which made them commit the worst evils against each other.
But if you do that, you have to think about other emotions that could still cause them to commit the worst evils. Such as love. If you take away all emotion, are their minds the same?
What greater love than to be at peace with everything inside one collective...?
[Something about the logic of what Kiraman says and what his Eldritch brain insists is a painful contradiction, though. His face winces, and then he squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth. He can hear her voice again through the constant hum.
Instead of just his head, his whole body wheels around to look.] I can't see you! [He sounds a tad more desperate than intended, but it's weird to him she isn't manifesting.
You and I have different ideas of a collective. [ you know, better kiraman than one of the others actually because they do not seem remotely bothered that viktor is yelling like a crazy person. they are about to ask a question, but they change their mind a moment later. ]
Who's usually with you? [ tell them about your hallucinations. ]
He stands there searching the horizon as if something will suddenly appear and relieve him. He doesn't like hearing her voice, but not being able to see her anywhere... That's weird.]
Our assistant, Sky.
[It sounds less insane saying only that and not explaining Sky got vaporized by his idiocy. Since most people would say she was dead. But she isn't! :') She is in the arcane...]
[This doesn't seem like a dodge, more of a warning to Kiraman. No Sky appears to him, so he slowly backs up until his legs bump the fountain, and then he sits down.]
Jayce wanted to create magic, and I thought his work had potential, so I decided to help him. [The echo is decidedly quiet while he's talking about this.] We invented Hextech, the joining of the arcane and technology. We wanted... to give it to the people, to make their lives better. To help them.
The Hexcore was... a side project. A runic matrix of arcanic possibility. But we could never figure out the pattern... and I was running out of time.
I learned it could evolve. It could become more organic. It could heal, but it wasn't stabilized. What it healed would soon wither and die. I did everything I could to find the missing piece. In desperation, I decided to test on myself.
[ they do not seem bothered by the fact it is a long story. if anything, it means they put the laptop aside for a moment to give viktor their attention. ]
Arcane magic. Right, of course. [ said in the tone of someone who has never experienced magic but is relating it in a separate way. ] So you became business partners to... try and do better for humanity. To prolong their life, even past what might have been possible. And combining magic and technology built the bridge to let each cross over. A web.
[ they are getting it. ]
Finding the root was what you were missing. Trying to solve for X. If you could find that answer, you could plug it into the rest of the formulas, open up the patterns and resolve the complexities. [ it's always about solving for x. ] And since you tested it on yourself, it meant you healed, but there was still the decay rate. The side-effect of an unstable organic being that caused a tiny fissure just large enough to make the frame collapse if enough pressure is applied.
But you didn't let that happen. [ not said in a "because you fixed everything" sort of way, but in a "because you refused to let it" kind. ]
We just wanted to help the quality of life of others, especially those in the polluted Undercity. We had no intentions of avoiding death initially, not until... I became ill. Even then, it was less about living forever and more about just being able to live at all.
[He peers off into the middle distance thoughtfully.]
We were in a council meeting. There was growing unrest between the Undercity and Piltover. An explosion happened, and I would died.
But Jayce fused me with the Hexcore. He said... it was as if we were connected. We were, I suppose. I had tested it on myself.
This is the result of that transmutation.
[He lifts one arm and turns it and the hand slowly so Kiraman can see the flesh, indigo and glowing, pieced together with metal.]
Through me, the arcane works its miracles. So I took our magic to the people like we always wanted.
[ they stay quiet, listening to viktor thoughtfully and letting him say his piece. ]
Just... how bad was the Undercity? Was it always that way? What did Piltover want?
[ what explosion. how. why. but... ]
Even before Jayce put you here. You knew you were going to die, so it didn't matter if you tested it on yourself. [ context clues... ] And then you became the prophet against your will. Someone other people came to follow even when you never thought or wanted it before. Because there wasn't another option after that.
[ they stare at viktor's hand, taking a moment to examine it before flexing their own hand subconsciously. they remain quiet, but they have thoughts. ]
... I knew that dying would save the world. Or, I guess, I knew that in order to save the world I would have to die. But dying gave me the chance to do things I couldn't have before. Connected me to things I couldn't reach on my own, accomplish what nobody else could. But it was for the freedom of other people. The choice to be individuals. Becoming a part of a collective without that unique component... would've gone against my mission. All to extend life, eventually.
He doesn't answer them yet, lets Kiraman finish, lowering his arm to his lap. His head aches when he tries to think about the logic behind the good of that outcome. Being in a collective longevity with all uniqueness intact isn't unwanted, just a struggle to obtain. For him. He thinks.]
The Undercity's actual name is Zaun. It's called the Undercity because, as you can guess, it sits below Piltover. It became Piltover's dumping grounds, a city rife with disease and pollution and, later, addiction. Piltover outcasts were shunned there. Zaunites wanted independence and acceptance, but they could barely live much less vie for their autonomy.
After I awoke from the transmutation with the Hexcore, I was convinced I should have died, yes. But once I began helping my people, I realized... I could turn what I had been given into something beneficial.
But there was always those who didn't mind seeing it ruined. Who brought their wars and disagreements and oppressions into my commune.
[ yeah, sometimes that is what they do. lailah and mary are stuck with this tool. ]
So it's a classism thing then. [ they don't sound too surprised, more neutral about why viktor was wanting to make a change. ] That's the thing about people in power. When they have it, they refuse to let go until someone else comes along to overpower them.
How did you discover the arcane to connect into the hexcore?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Did it work? Finding peace. [ there's another pause. ] What... were you healing them from?
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I healed whatever they wanted me to heal. Diseases, bodies, addictions, even their minds.
no subject
[ they should let this go, but they do not. ]
You're wrong, by the way. Humanity isn't always the problem. It may be the weak point, but it becomes the strongest link to stabilize a person when built right.
no subject
My partner, Jayce, fused me with something we created: the Hexcore. He did it to save my life. It connected me to it, to the arcane. I channeled the arcane to heal them; the condition was we became one. A collective.
[His head tilts slightly.]
What makes you think the end build will remain with all of those uncontrollable variables? [This doesn't sound as if it's asked rudely, but curiously.] Rage, love, envy, greed.
no subject
A hivemind. A space where when one is healed, the rest are healed, but when one is hurting, the rest become infected.
[ again, mulling over that for a moment. ]
I know it will because I've done it. [ they will just outright say so. ] Removing those emotions... if you take away the things that make up their psyche, they deteriorate faster. But stimulating them, engaging in a way that gives them motivation to continue their processes, that was the key to stabilization.
no subject
Something is holding him back.]
No... We would keep them from deteriorating... [He wouldn't let that happen! :')] They would have what I've heard in their minds: better lives.
[He refocuses with a blink.]
But you've done this? And it continued to work? I don't understand how. Those are the things which always destroy everything they work for.
no subject
We as in... all of you who are already in the collective. Right. I got that. But who's idea of better are you using? What counts as a better life, and how much are you risking to get it?
[ this is about when kiraman realizes that perhaps viktor has some brain problems, but they are sort of fascinated. ]
It's not the way you think. It made it possible for people to live peacefully with no disease, no war, and no pain. They kept their emotions, and their memories, and their thoughts. All of them are unique. By linking two pieces together, it stabilizes the remaining build. Even with volatile emotions... if that new piece is there, the deterioration stops and doesn't destroy itself.
no subject
I wouldn't allow that to happen to them.
[The correction is given as if he doesn't even realize he has used anything plural. He has brain problems. It's not Cloud soup, but it's definitely stew.
The answer to the other question is right there, but now he's doubting it. This seems impossible for him to believe, yet he's thinking it over. Suddenly, his head turns, and he glances over his shoulder like he had before, and then he turns back again.]
How can that be...?
no subject
but they let him look around and absorb that. ]
I made it work.
no subject
You said that. I'm not sure if I can believe you. Everything I've seen has been the opposite. I allowed them to keep it. Their... uniqueness. I didn't force anyone to come to me.
But those on the outside... the ones not connected, they destroyed what we had built. [He has to acknowledge something he doesn't want to do.] I sustained them. The probability that everything crumbled after... Jayce killed me is... one hundred percent.
They needed... to all be one.
no subject
You were the catalyst. [ they seem to understand that, a hand coming up to where their chin probably is as they prop their head up. ] Was it your goal to bring everyone into one? If the infrastructure crumbled by removing one key component instead of triggering the next operation, are you sure that was the right way to go?
[ they ask this neutrally rather than trying to sway him one way or another. it's difficult to say how curious they might be, but they're listening closely. ]
no subject
But something else beneath the surface thinks otherwise. This is the way.]
The ultimate outcome is to simply exist at the highest state of being, [and the echo is slotted under his voice again. His eyes turn up to the three-dimensional blueprint.] They could have all been free. No more pain, or suffering, or violence.
I need to go back... to help them.
no subject
they do not say this. ]
I'm not sure how going back might work out on our end of things. [ they did not really discuss that part. ] Are you really living if you're only existing though?
no subject
[also why....... get therapy idiot.
His brows furrow like before. The inner debating. It sounds like something Jayce would say - the "new" Jayce who blew a hole in him.]
He said it was a curse... but no one would ever suffer again if they were all one, if they could hear each other's thoughts. If they lacked everything which made them commit the worst evils against each other.
Their minds would live.
no subject
But if you do that, you have to think about other emotions that could still cause them to commit the worst evils. Such as love. If you take away all emotion, are their minds the same?
no subject
What greater love than to be at peace with everything inside one collective...?
[Something about the logic of what Kiraman says and what his Eldritch brain insists is a painful contradiction, though. His face winces, and then he squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth. He can hear her voice again through the constant hum.
Instead of just his head, his whole body wheels around to look.] I can't see you! [He sounds a tad more desperate than intended, but it's weird to him she isn't manifesting.
Sorry they got the unhinged dude.]
no subject
Who's usually with you? [ tell them about your hallucinations. ]
no subject
He stands there searching the horizon as if something will suddenly appear and relieve him. He doesn't like hearing her voice, but not being able to see her anywhere... That's weird.]
Our assistant, Sky.
[It sounds less insane saying only that and not explaining Sky got vaporized by his idiocy. Since most people would say she was dead. But she isn't! :') She is in the arcane...]
no subject
Yours and Jayce's. You said you created the hexcore. Explain.
[ not a question this time, actually a statement. they want to ask about the arcane, too, but maybe they're tied together. ]
no subject
[This doesn't seem like a dodge, more of a warning to Kiraman. No Sky appears to him, so he slowly backs up until his legs bump the fountain, and then he sits down.]
Jayce wanted to create magic, and I thought his work had potential, so I decided to help him. [The echo is decidedly quiet while he's talking about this.] We invented Hextech, the joining of the arcane and technology. We wanted... to give it to the people, to make their lives better. To help them.
The Hexcore was... a side project. A runic matrix of arcanic possibility. But we could never figure out the pattern... and I was running out of time.
I learned it could evolve. It could become more organic. It could heal, but it wasn't stabilized. What it healed would soon wither and die. I did everything I could to find the missing piece. In desperation, I decided to test on myself.
no subject
Arcane magic. Right, of course. [ said in the tone of someone who has never experienced magic but is relating it in a separate way. ] So you became business partners to... try and do better for humanity. To prolong their life, even past what might have been possible. And combining magic and technology built the bridge to let each cross over. A web.
[ they are getting it. ]
Finding the root was what you were missing. Trying to solve for X. If you could find that answer, you could plug it into the rest of the formulas, open up the patterns and resolve the complexities. [ it's always about solving for x. ] And since you tested it on yourself, it meant you healed, but there was still the decay rate. The side-effect of an unstable organic being that caused a tiny fissure just large enough to make the frame collapse if enough pressure is applied.
But you didn't let that happen. [ not said in a "because you fixed everything" sort of way, but in a "because you refused to let it" kind. ]
no subject
[He peers off into the middle distance thoughtfully.]
We were in a council meeting. There was growing unrest between the Undercity and Piltover. An explosion happened, and I would died.
But Jayce fused me with the Hexcore. He said... it was as if we were connected. We were, I suppose. I had tested it on myself.
This is the result of that transmutation.
[He lifts one arm and turns it and the hand slowly so Kiraman can see the flesh, indigo and glowing, pieced together with metal.]
Through me, the arcane works its miracles. So I took our magic to the people like we always wanted.
no subject
Just... how bad was the Undercity? Was it always that way? What did Piltover want?
[ what explosion. how. why. but... ]
Even before Jayce put you here. You knew you were going to die, so it didn't matter if you tested it on yourself. [ context clues... ] And then you became the prophet against your will. Someone other people came to follow even when you never thought or wanted it before. Because there wasn't another option after that.
[ they stare at viktor's hand, taking a moment to examine it before flexing their own hand subconsciously. they remain quiet, but they have thoughts. ]
... I knew that dying would save the world. Or, I guess, I knew that in order to save the world I would have to die. But dying gave me the chance to do things I couldn't have before. Connected me to things I couldn't reach on my own, accomplish what nobody else could. But it was for the freedom of other people. The choice to be individuals. Becoming a part of a collective without that unique component... would've gone against my mission. All to extend life, eventually.
no subject
He doesn't answer them yet, lets Kiraman finish, lowering his arm to his lap. His head aches when he tries to think about the logic behind the good of that outcome. Being in a collective longevity with all uniqueness intact isn't unwanted, just a struggle to obtain. For him. He thinks.]
The Undercity's actual name is Zaun. It's called the Undercity because, as you can guess, it sits below Piltover. It became Piltover's dumping grounds, a city rife with disease and pollution and, later, addiction. Piltover outcasts were shunned there. Zaunites wanted independence and acceptance, but they could barely live much less vie for their autonomy.
After I awoke from the transmutation with the Hexcore, I was convinced I should have died, yes. But once I began helping my people, I realized... I could turn what I had been given into something beneficial.
But there was always those who didn't mind seeing it ruined. Who brought their wars and disagreements and oppressions into my commune.
no subject
So it's a classism thing then. [ they don't sound too surprised, more neutral about why viktor was wanting to make a change. ] That's the thing about people in power. When they have it, they refuse to let go until someone else comes along to overpower them.
How did you discover the arcane to connect into the hexcore?
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