Audience - Viktor

[holyspirits]

Comments

[sprayandpray]

[ it's fine! they just completely blow up the lore every 10 years! so around when the mmo comes out they'll blow it up again!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!

well. she takes his hand! ]

[hextech]

[YOU GET SET OFF EVERY TIME IT'S SO FUNNY AAAA your love-hate. He closes his fingers around her hand then reaches over with his other to place the fingertips against her forehead. Light starbursts behind her eyes. The sensation creeping into her is cool like steel, artificial in an industrial sort of way, yet equally electric with a dark, primordial current. Its song is only a reverberating hum, but a song in the dark nonetheless. When her vision returns, or maybe she finally opens her eyes, it's difficult to tell if she is floating or falling. There is not anything relative to her in the chasm of stars and nebulae for comparison except Viktor. He looks a bit as they saw the guardians before: an iridescent, sometimes translucent, glowing silhouette aside from the whole of his visible face. He is different - healthier, fuller, with shorter and fluffier hair (or what would be hair), and his eyes are honey and alive. He smiles actually; amusement surprisingly bleeds through.] There.

[sprayandpray]

[ thank you for writing these beautiful words i will continue to write like a caveman. wow pretty!!!!

but also he looks healthy, and more noteworthy than that: emotive. ]

Is this... Where is this? [ a pocket dimension? another plane? inside of his soul? ]

[hextech]

[i understand i am simply a neurotic writer enjoy. I FORGOT TO SAY SHE LOOKS LIKE HIM BUT SHE DOES YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS I KNOW. He looks like a person, not a controlled vessel!! Yay! The question makes him laugh a little.] The collective. Or... it would be if they were all here.

[sprayandpray]

[ okay but she would look so pretty with her long glowy hair? (my real reason for allowing her to do this.)

anyway. how to broach this delicately... ]

You're different, here.

[hextech]

[SHE WOULD!!!! The only reason to be in this hellhole.] Am I? I feel like my usual self.

[sprayandpray]

You look more... honest.

Happier, maybe.

[hextech]

[A bit of confusion trickles out.] Honest? It must be because we're in this place. [IT IS BUT NOT THE REASON HE THINKS.]

[sprayandpray]

[ what does that MEAN ]

Are you more comfortable here than elsewhere?

[hextech]

[........Hmm. He has never considered if this was a thing or not, so he has to pause for a bit to think it over.] A little, yes.

[sprayandpray]

[ she assumes that he just feels safer here since it's a kind of isolation. but she doesn't really want to say that directly. ]

Why do you suppose that is?

[hextech]

[Stop making him think about his preference for being himself!!!!!! His brows furrow. He lifts his head to glance out at the expanse. Why...?] It's where I can do the most important work.

[sprayandpray]

Connecting with people?

[ she's not sure what else you would do in a skybox space that seems to just show people in a... vulnerable state. ]

[hextech]

Yes. [His mood perks a bit.] Connecting with all of them. Knowing their thoughts, taking care of them. They were all here, every one of them. [Sorry that you are in the husk of a hivemind, Lailah.]

[sprayandpray]

[ luckily she is stupid so this is like. fifty degrees less unsettling than it should be. (but, like, still a little...) ]

And is that not a matter of an emotional connection?

[hextech]

[Girl......] It's a mental one. But I understand what you're trying to do here. I never had a problem with the emotions, but the commune became collateral because of them. Because of others.

[sprayandpray]

But that's always going to be a risk.

It has to be. Should be.

[hextech]

A group of happy pacifists should be collateral?

[sprayandpray]

That's not what I mean.

Individuality is the important part. There's meaning in taking the risk to trust others because it's a risk.

[hextech]

[His mood plunges in the relieved and understanding sort of way.] You think this despite how often people hurt others? The risk of being... harmed, killed, hurt is... worth it?

[sprayandpray]

As much as I would like for it not to hold any risk... That isn't realistic. Violence happens every day.

[ in her deranged world there is gun violence every 5 seconds. ]

But to open your heart knowing you might get hurt means all the more because the risk is there. It's a leap of faith.

[hextech]

[Can't believe his well-planned, delightful, altruistic higher evolution hivemind dreamscape is being shot down left and right.] I do not want pain and suffering to happen to anyone.

[sprayandpray]

[ maybe he should have been chopping up people's bodies and turning them into metal instead of becoming one with THE VOID. >:(!!!!!!!!!!! ]

That's kind of you. Neither do I.

And we can work to reduce it as much as possible. To provide people with better outlets, better opportunities, better resources.

But you can't eliminate pain.

[hextech]

[:'(] There has to be a way. [The emotions are stubbornly resistant, but, like, in a kinder way than the neutrality of him outside of this place. Great intentions! Terrible execution.] There is always a way. I just have to find it.

[sprayandpray]

[ hrmmm. unfortunately emotion bleed means she's feeling stubborn too. ]

... Have you ever mourned for someone that you lost?