[ unlike viktor, kiraman does not close his eyes. he's attentive, watching closely as his eyes narrow and home in on these webs. it feels a little like resistance until they begin to grow more clear, more aligned with viktor, and more obvious. he doesn't move his hand away yet but he's monitoring the space as it shifts. ]
Wonder if that's because it's just for you and not the collective. A space meant to be hollow to connect with the rest. But it's here. That's a start. [ and it doesn't appear to be on the verge of collapse. ] So... we start working toward the middle then. Right?
[The connection is there in the way his bones hum. His hand lifts; he idly rubs at his sternum. Probably the tickle within it. Vander had been such a struggle. He's not sure if it will be the same, or different. How long will they have to return to do this until there is a breakthrough?]
It will be like a maze. We'll need to find our way through different parts. The Hexcore will try to hide.
So sentient in the sense that it knows we're coming for it. [ give him a second, he's trying to work with his own abilities as a UI to bring up anything to help them remember their path. a glowing light to lay out or anything. ]
Well come back to this point when we need to leave. It might take time to check the different directions. Should I be following your lead? Maybe it won't hide from me as fast.
[He gives Kiraman time to fiddle and watches, curiosity curling out of him. When you become increasingly interested in new forms of science because you are a nerd.]
I'm assuming you are what it's hiding from. The abnormality. [He looks off through the webbing, reaching out to brush some.] It can't run, at least. It will be here, somewhere. It may just take time to find it.
[ tmw I'm not sure if him being digital slightly trumps what he can normally do while in the arcane but it's fine it's rp science. we have a path of light. ]
I have time. [ he will duck through some of the webbing to walk ahead, peering through for a good path and leaving the light behind to mark their way. ]
...how long did it take you to find Vander, exactly?
[We say so in RP land. Caspian can do whatever he wants.
DON'T LEAVE HIM. Viktor moves to follow, ducking under and through webbing, nudging some out of the way as he passes.]
A little less than a week... His mind was hidden far back inside of the instincts of an animal. He was resistant. We would both grow tired, so I had to leave and come again for several days.
[ he does try to touch some of the webbing though to satisfy his own curiosity. but yeah, yeah, he won't go too far ahead. ]
But if you left, how did you resume from where you left off? Or did you have to start from the beginning each time and just keep pressing forward? [ he saw the memory but he likes clarifiers anyway. ]
[Thinks about how the living are having a great, messy time; meanwhile, this thread is about the desperation of trying to fix Viktor's soup brain.]
Each time was different. A different maze. Sky and I would push through until we arrived at something pivotal.
[The webs are, indeed, organic. Fleshy, rubbery. Not terribly disgusting - they lack any stickiness, any residue. Touching them produces a low song in the back of Kiraman's mind which puts life in them.]
No wonder it always took so long every day. [ he lets a hand rest on a piece of the web, focusing on the feeling and the sound in the back of his head. a finger gently presses to see if there's any impact on viktor himself. ]
But if this is the inside of your head, and a person's always thinking and feeling, of course the route would change.
[The webbing thrums, and then it attempts to pull away when the hand lingers too long. Viktor's brows furrow, and the emotion of being uncomfortable passes in a wave. Tendrils of webs stretch across the space between them from ones nearby, blocking them from each other.
Viktor reaches out and gently pulls one side away, coaxing it back.]
Let's keep going. [Before they get walled off.] We need to get out of this.
[ he flexes his hand a little as he pulls away. oh... weird vibe. but the strands begin to weave in front of them and block them off, and he reaches forward but viktor beats him to the punch. he watches the tendril curl in on itself and a new pathway open. ]
How far do you think this part actually goes? [ slipping into the opening to go past the tendrils. bye! ]
[the way it was my turn to lose a notif WAIT I REPLIED TO THIS AND IT DIDN'T GO THROUGH????? DW!!!!!!!! i forgot what i even typed now.]
I don't know. Lengthy, I imagine. The first pathway.
[WTF, DON'T LEAVE HIM? Surprise ripples out of him when he startles.] Cas - [climbing quickly through after] - pian!
[The "road" ahead is barely a road. A slightly less webby clearing through with translucent, organic material beneath their feet over the forefront of the chasm of the universe. A wave rumbles through the webs toward them from the distance.]
...Even with Vander, we never ran into anything dangerous.
[ he does at least stop and hover while he waits for viktor, because this is still a little spooky. also, he was startled by his own name, but it's fine. ]
... a little less stable here. [ a comment more than anything. ] You think because you're so intertwined to it there might be something dangerous to this one?
[ he lingers back, stepping closer to viktor to act as support and also put some space between him and the webbing. ]
I'm not worried about that. It's about making sure you don't collapse under the weight of your own head. And that's what I'm here for. [ ... ] You would know better than me though. So I'll follow your lead. You just tell me where to go. I can defend us.
[All the things which normally do not come through are here now: worry and uncertainty and maybe a little apprehension. He has never met Maddie and yet, he does not want to get someone important to her in trouble.
He is not Viktor, though, if he is not stubborn. The emotions pour together into resolution.
His head turns, and he gazes, as his lids flutter, out toward the webbing, through it. If anyone can find it, he can. The connection is there. The hum is between his ears in his mind, like hearing a song underwater. It isn't unlike the music heard when he was trapped in initial reformation. His eyes open and refocus.
To the right, the webbing sinew pulls apart and opens a path. A feminine voice whispers, "Viktor." He glances at Kiraman briefly then turns to carefully dip through it.]
[ he picks up on all of these emotions, and a hand comes up to rest on viktor's shoulder for a moment. relax... this is fine. they probably won't blow up. ]
It's okay. [ reassuring. calm. a steadying presence, because he's played this part before, and as he waits he keeps his fingers grounded into viktor's arm to keep him focused.
the webbing peels away, a path granted, and he hears a woman's voice. assumes it's sky, really, and he lets go to allow viktor to walk forward with him right on his tail. ]
[The gap is dark, but the other side has a halogen sear to the glow of the webbing walls around them. He winces slightly against it, raises a hand to shield his eyes.
A tunnel stretches out in front of them, sterile, alien. A familiar, brown-skinned woman stands at the opposite end, facing them, one Kiraman can see, too. Sky. She resembles them, body and hair aglow but face visible. She is too far to see any movement, but a voice close to them whispers Viktor's name again.]
I can see her...? Sky!
[The woman turns away and is swallowed up by the glow on the horizon as she moves on.]
Sky!
[Goodbye, he begins hurrying froward down the tunnel.]
[ his eyes squint shut at the sudden light, and his gaze hones in on this woman. she's glowing but visible and she's far away, and in real time he's watching viktor's hallucinations get the best of him. ]
Viktor, wait a second! [ no!! he is following!! this woman is not here (probably)!! ] Saying it like that is very concerning, by the way!
[Though Viktor is not far ahead, not quite running necessarily, the webbing sneaking out tries to make a grab for Kiraman's ankles. More alien webbing stretches in front of Kiraman, between the two of them, splitting them into two tunnel prisons.
Less the weird instinct of someone not being behind you and more an intrinsic Knowing here, Viktor stops and turns around, worry spilling out of him.]
[ he's about ready to say it's because she's probably not supposed to be here, but he does not get that far before the webbing grabs him and there's a noise like a startled cat. HELLO. he's just swatting at it with his hands. ]
Man, can you maybe call off your brain? [ he's busy trying to hop out of the webbing and shake it off his ankles, pushing the webbing aside as best as he can to try and get back to viktor. ]
[His hands pull at the rubbery webs strung between them, his face desperately peering through the gaps of holes within to make sure nothing else is happening to Kiraman.
Not sure if a good or bad thing, to have emotions now, and all of them be anxiety.]
Let go!
[One of his gangly, glowing arms comes through a hole; he reaches for Kiraman.] It's trying to split us up. [Of course it is.
His arm suddenly goes rigid, all of him goes submissive not unlike when you grab a kitten by the scruff. His head tips up, and the whole of his eyes go white.]
Y̶o̵u̷ ̴d̶o̵ ̸n̷o̴t̶ ̸b̶e̷l̴o̸n̶g̵ ̵h̴e̸r̶e̷,̷ [says a voice through him, the strange ungendered echo he usually has louder, more pronounced.] D̷e̷v̸i̴a̴n̷t̷ ̷a̵b̷e̵r̸r̸a̴t̵i̶o̵n̷s̴ ̵w̵i̷l̶l̷ ̸b̵e̴ ̸a̴s̶s̴i̸m̷i̸l̶a̸t̸e̴d̶ ̷o̸r̵ ̵t̵e̷r̶m̷i̶n̴a̷t̸e̵d̴.̵
Of course it is! [ he does not like that, and he's wriggling his way closer to try and grab viktor's arm. of course, viktor is suddenly possessed by the arcane and kiraman's ready to abort to get them both out. ]
If anything's the deviant, I think it's you. [ he's just grabbing viktor's arm to try and yank him forward anyway? if anything, to break him out of that trance. ]
[Sometimes, things do not go as planned. This is, like, every day for the two of them really.
The pull bounces him into the spongy webbing, but that at least jostles him. His eyes close, and then they open again with the glow gone. His hand grabs a hold of Kiraman's upper arm for stability and uses the other to try to shove away the webs.]
[ the problem with being geniuses is their hubris really does get the best of them all the time. like now! this is still not entirely registering as a bad idea, but kiraman is grabbing viktor's arm with both hands now that he's holding on, pulling harder to get away from the webs and into a clearing that is less grabby. ]
We knew this would be a possibility, but I was hoping it wouldn't be that immediate. [ slaps a web. go away!!! ] Maybe the answer is to trick your brain somehow.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Wonder if that's because it's just for you and not the collective. A space meant to be hollow to connect with the rest. But it's here. That's a start. [ and it doesn't appear to be on the verge of collapse. ] So... we start working toward the middle then. Right?
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[The connection is there in the way his bones hum. His hand lifts; he idly rubs at his sternum. Probably the tickle within it. Vander had been such a struggle. He's not sure if it will be the same, or different. How long will they have to return to do this until there is a breakthrough?]
It will be like a maze. We'll need to find our way through different parts. The Hexcore will try to hide.
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Well come back to this point when we need to leave. It might take time to check the different directions. Should I be following your lead? Maybe it won't hide from me as fast.
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I'm assuming you are what it's hiding from. The abnormality. [He looks off through the webbing, reaching out to brush some.] It can't run, at least. It will be here, somewhere. It may just take time to find it.
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I have time. [ he will duck through some of the webbing to walk ahead, peering through for a good path and leaving the light behind to mark their way. ]
...how long did it take you to find Vander, exactly?
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DON'T LEAVE HIM. Viktor moves to follow, ducking under and through webbing, nudging some out of the way as he passes.]
A little less than a week... His mind was hidden far back inside of the instincts of an animal. He was resistant. We would both grow tired, so I had to leave and come again for several days.
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But if you left, how did you resume from where you left off? Or did you have to start from the beginning each time and just keep pressing forward? [ he saw the memory but he likes clarifiers anyway. ]
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Each time was different. A different maze. Sky and I would push through until we arrived at something pivotal.
[The webs are, indeed, organic. Fleshy, rubbery. Not terribly disgusting - they lack any stickiness, any residue. Touching them produces a low song in the back of Kiraman's mind which puts life in them.]
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No wonder it always took so long every day. [ he lets a hand rest on a piece of the web, focusing on the feeling and the sound in the back of his head. a finger gently presses to see if there's any impact on viktor himself. ]
But if this is the inside of your head, and a person's always thinking and feeling, of course the route would change.
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Viktor reaches out and gently pulls one side away, coaxing it back.]
Let's keep going. [Before they get walled off.] We need to get out of this.
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How far do you think this part actually goes? [ slipping into the opening to go past the tendrils. bye! ]
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I don't know. Lengthy, I imagine. The first pathway.
[WTF, DON'T LEAVE HIM? Surprise ripples out of him when he startles.] Cas - [climbing quickly through after] - pian!
[The "road" ahead is barely a road. A slightly less webby clearing through with translucent, organic material beneath their feet over the forefront of the chasm of the universe. A wave rumbles through the webs toward them from the distance.]
...Even with Vander, we never ran into anything dangerous.
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... a little less stable here. [ a comment more than anything. ] You think because you're so intertwined to it there might be something dangerous to this one?
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I'm sorry, I... [Frustration.] I don't know what waits for us on this journey.
But it's true it's a part of who I am. There is no me without it, and there is no it without me. [The worry is evident.] We should just be careful.
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I'm not worried about that. It's about making sure you don't collapse under the weight of your own head. And that's what I'm here for. [ ... ] You would know better than me though. So I'll follow your lead. You just tell me where to go. I can defend us.
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He is not Viktor, though, if he is not stubborn. The emotions pour together into resolution.
His head turns, and he gazes, as his lids flutter, out toward the webbing, through it. If anyone can find it, he can. The connection is there. The hum is between his ears in his mind, like hearing a song underwater. It isn't unlike the music heard when he was trapped in initial reformation. His eyes open and refocus.
To the right, the webbing sinew pulls apart and opens a path. A feminine voice whispers, "Viktor." He glances at Kiraman briefly then turns to carefully dip through it.]
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It's okay. [ reassuring. calm. a steadying presence, because he's played this part before, and as he waits he keeps his fingers grounded into viktor's arm to keep him focused.
the webbing peels away, a path granted, and he hears a woman's voice. assumes it's sky, really, and he lets go to allow viktor to walk forward with him right on his tail. ]
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A tunnel stretches out in front of them, sterile, alien. A familiar, brown-skinned woman stands at the opposite end, facing them, one Kiraman can see, too. Sky. She resembles them, body and hair aglow but face visible. She is too far to see any movement, but a voice close to them whispers Viktor's name again.]
I can see her...? Sky!
[The woman turns away and is swallowed up by the glow on the horizon as she moves on.]
Sky!
[Goodbye, he begins hurrying froward down the tunnel.]
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Viktor, wait a second! [ no!! he is following!! this woman is not here (probably)!! ] Saying it like that is very concerning, by the way!
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[Though Viktor is not far ahead, not quite running necessarily, the webbing sneaking out tries to make a grab for Kiraman's ankles. More alien webbing stretches in front of Kiraman, between the two of them, splitting them into two tunnel prisons.
Less the weird instinct of someone not being behind you and more an intrinsic Knowing here, Viktor stops and turns around, worry spilling out of him.]
Kiraman! Let him go!
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Man, can you maybe call off your brain? [ he's busy trying to hop out of the webbing and shake it off his ankles, pushing the webbing aside as best as he can to try and get back to viktor. ]
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[His hands pull at the rubbery webs strung between them, his face desperately peering through the gaps of holes within to make sure nothing else is happening to Kiraman.
Not sure if a good or bad thing, to have emotions now, and all of them be anxiety.]
Let go!
[One of his gangly, glowing arms comes through a hole; he reaches for Kiraman.] It's trying to split us up. [Of course it is.
His arm suddenly goes rigid, all of him goes submissive not unlike when you grab a kitten by the scruff. His head tips up, and the whole of his eyes go white.]
Y̶o̵u̷ ̴d̶o̵ ̸n̷o̴t̶ ̸b̶e̷l̴o̸n̶g̵ ̵h̴e̸r̶e̷,̷ [says a voice through him, the strange ungendered echo he usually has louder, more pronounced.] D̷e̷v̸i̴a̴n̷t̷ ̷a̵b̷e̵r̸r̸a̴t̵i̶o̵n̷s̴ ̵w̵i̷l̶l̷ ̸b̵e̴ ̸a̴s̶s̴i̸m̷i̸l̶a̸t̸e̴d̶ ̷o̸r̵ ̵t̵e̷r̶m̷i̶n̴a̷t̸e̵d̴.̵
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If anything's the deviant, I think it's you. [ he's just grabbing viktor's arm to try and yank him forward anyway? if anything, to break him out of that trance. ]
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The pull bounces him into the spongy webbing, but that at least jostles him. His eyes close, and then they open again with the glow gone. His hand grabs a hold of Kiraman's upper arm for stability and uses the other to try to shove away the webs.]
I'm sorry...
[As if he knows exactly what happened.]
It knows through me.
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We knew this would be a possibility, but I was hoping it wouldn't be that immediate. [ slaps a web. go away!!! ] Maybe the answer is to trick your brain somehow.
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