deercountry | june catch-all

Entry tags:

june catch-all

Who: viktor and others, open to all with some closed prompts in comments
What: june catch-all, some tdm prompts
When: june
Where: various

content warning; terminal illness, arcane season 1 spoilers

misc lab stuff and various fruits.

[viktor's lab in the willful machine is usually left unlocked when he's working inside. friends or acquaintances have likely been told they're welcome to stop by if they like, either to say hello or to get help with whatever a vaguely sketchy lab could handle. of course someone he doesn't know can just walk in too or knock. maybe there's a sudden downpour and that ajar door is tempting? go for it.

the lab has been slowly filling with all sorts of nonsense on the various tables- lasers! tasers! some weird machine hooked up to a blood gem? it is not unlikely to be walking by and hear some minor booming noise and either a curse in czech or a satisfied 'a-ha!' feel free to investigate.

this month there's something else too, a bowl full of fruit. all the fruits mentioned in the tdm in fact, there to be tested on though it looks more like they're just for guests if people are unaware there's some weird shit going on.]

Just a moment, make yourself at home. [he might say to guest. that would include eating some fruit, right? enjoy. probably not the raw lemon though, that's weird.]

[ooc; if you want to memshare i am game, my only hard limit on memories is no suicide stuff please. self sacrifice is fine! feel free to ask to make sure one is okay. if you'd like a viktor memory let me know any hard limits and what sort of memory you might prefer!]

gaze and time loops.

[having lungs mostly working for the moment is pretty great, in viktor's humble opinion. it means walking around the trench doesn't come with the risk of coughing up blood and attracting beasts and generally having a bad time, along with added perks like not getting so easily winded and going for longer. it also means he finds himself out longer than he usually would, which maybe isn't the best, as it turns out.

for example, making his way home through gaze and hearing the chilling cry of a beast, sighing and trying to make his way around what turns out to be the wrong corner. maybe that's where he sees your character before the snarling of a too close beast starts in earnest.

and then snap! they're both back about an hour, where they passed on the street. the look viktor gives is somewhere between resigned and 'fuck this, actually.'] There is a term for this. 'One of those days,' I think.

[ooc; if you'd like to wildcard or do something else you can pm me here or find me at

dichotomy]

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He doesn't try to cling to Viktor's hand, he's not a child, but Shen Yuan can't quite suppress his shiver when Viktor lets go. At least the other man seems to miss the brief, anxious look Shen Yuan gives him, just to make sure he's still there.

"Mm," he quietly agrees. "This would have been me, if I'd still existed in that world when Binghe emerged from the Endless Abyss. I suppose I should be grateful to whatever entity brought me to Trench, for helping me escape that fate." Even if it is unfair to his poor blackened lotus, forced to go through five years of hell only to have his vengeance swept out from under him while his back is turned...

Oh well. "Come on," Shen Yuan says, turning away from the body. "This place at least looks like the Water Prison of Huan Hua Palace. If it follows the descriptions I read, then the exit should be this way. You'll want to watch your step, of course; the floors are liable to be slick, and the 'water' is really flesh-eating acid."

"Ah." Of course the floors are flesh eating acid. Shen Yuan's world (one of them) was really something.

"Who... was that?" he does ask as they turn away, being very careful indeed as they walk. His cane doesn't do well on slick surfaces so the caution of double checking makes it a slow go, refusing to find out if damage reflects on him here or not. "The man we just saw. I can safely say I hope this Binghe does not make his way to these shores now."

Shen Yuan goes slowly as well, keeping an eye on the floor and trying his best to lead Viktor along the driest possible path. Even though they haven't known each other that long and there's no telling what their relationship will be like after this, the last thing Shen Yuan wants is for the other man to get hurt when he's just trying to help. Assuming Viktor can get hurt here, which frankly is not a risk Shen Yuan is willing to take.

"That was me," he answers Viktor's question, "That's what I looked like when I lived in this world, only --" He laughs quietly, wryly amused when he realizes how that can be taken, "I still had all my limbs. That thing," he turns to gesture back the way they came, "is what I would have become. Binghe's revenge." Man, that's what Airplane should've titled that chapter. Way more poetic than 'Human Stick.'

As the two of them near the exit, Shen Yuan tries to remember what kind of security the Water Prison had in the book, in case that's relevant information now. There were the acid pools, of course, and the waterfalls in front of each cell, but wasn't there another one blocking off the main entrance and exit? There was a switch, he recalls, that had to be held down with weight equivalent to a person's body...strange that the falls are all turned off, when he and Viktor appear to be the only two people in the prison...

The reason why becomes apparent when the staircase leading up to the ground level comes into view. They aren't the only two people after all, they're just the only two living. A young woman dressed in bloody golden robes lies on the ground, her body keeping the switch depressed -- and her face is one Shen Yuan recognizes.

"Oh no," he says, genuinely saddened despite his confusion. "That's...that's Qin Wanrong. She died at the Immortal Alliance Conference, just a few hours before Binghe fell into the Abyss. He was supposed to save her so he could marry her and her sister later, but he was too far away from the river when the monsters attacked. She died instead."

That whole scenario was just...so, so weird. Binghe keeping so far away from the young ladies as they washed their feet in the river, not even bothering to flirt back when they tried to bat their eyes at him, and... "Qin Wanyue never got poisoned either," he recalls. "She was supposed to receive a poisoned wound, and Binghe was supposed to defend her for three days while they looked for a herb that might've healed it...Not that it would've worked, only papapa with a heavenly demon can heal that toxin...but it didn't happen. It just went straight from the demons attacking to the rift into the Abyss opening without a break in-between. It was so strange..." So weird, in ways Shen Yuan is only starting to notice now as he finally reviews those horrible events in his mind. It really wasn't very much like the book at all, now that he thinks about it.

Edited 2022-06-30 06:57 (UTC)

"Ah. Well that is... an unpleasant sight to be confronted with." Yikes, Binghe. At least it didn't seem to be a proper memory, or so he hopes. Better than it being a piece of Shen Yuan's past rather than a definite future he's already lived through.

It's a fascinating place, apart from all the baggage. Ionian in a way, though not quite, the design and aesthetic very foreign to anything Viktor's seen before. If circumstances were different he'd be very curious about the mechanism or magics that made the place function, but at the moment... yes. Maybe he's a little more worried about becoming soup.

The body of the young woman gets a frown, his gaze turning to Shen Yuan. "Was that some prophecy not fulfilled?" he asks, confused as he turns his gaze back to her, the switch. "It sounds very much like this student, this Binghe, was being toyed with one way or another. Why? To what purpose?"

"Eh?" Shen Yuan startes out of his reminiscing, flinching away from Viktor like he's been caught out. "Y-yes," he says, hiding his face behind his sleeve. "It was a prophecy of sorts, the...you know, the future emperor's glorious rise to power and the foundation of his harem. That...that kind of thing."

"Oh, Shizun," a soft, gentle voice drifts down the stairs. "Is that really what you're going with?"

Shen Yuan freezes in place, even forgetting to breathe for a couple seconds as a tall figure dressed in black and red robes walks down the stairs, his face calm, bearing straight, hair satiny and lustrous in the torchlight. Shen Yuan's breath escapes as a quiet sigh. Even if they were in fear of their lives, how could anyone fail to admire Luo Binghe's masculine beauty? He's truly the perfect stallion protagonist -- so it's kind of a shame he has to go and be a huge jerk.

"Is this really the wise and kindly master I served for so many years?" Binghe asks the cold dungeon air. "It seems so unlikely, with how foolish he sounded just now."

Shen Yuan nearly chokes on his shocked gasp. "Binghe!"

"Shizun," the lordly half-demon rejoins, with a nerve-wracking sneer. "Just how long do you plan to run from your mistakes?"

The flinch is curious, though Viktor would not blame the man a jumpy temperament given the situation. Hell, even he turns his head in a quick jerk when he hears someone approach, a tall, alarmingly dire looking man.

Even before Shen Yuan says it Viktor can guess this is Binghe. Who, apparently, has a lot to say about proceedings.

Viktor isn't sure if this is good or bad- better than violence, no doubt. His glance goes to Shen Yuan, offers, "The ritual mentions untangling the dream itself. As unpleasant as it may be it could help us reach the core of this, if you engage him." Another glance to Binghe and he says, "This is ultimately your mind."

So it's more than likely these are things Shen Yuan has thought himself, or buried. Maybe. He's not sure if that would be better or not.

“Shizun should listen to his friend,” Binghe says, smiling kindly – it’s not a smile Shen Yuan ever saw on his own white lotus disciple’s face, but he recognizes it just the same. It’s the kind of smile that hides a knife behind velvet and brocade, poison inside a delectable cake. It’s the kind of smile Emperor Luo Binghe only ever showed his enemies, before he…He…

Shen Yuan takes a deep breath, another one, wishes for Xiu Ya’s help – shit, if he’d put a hand on her hilt before they’d started the ritual, would she be here right now? Damn it, why didn’t he think of that before? – and masters himself without her help anyway. Well, mostly. His voice still shakes a little as he says, “My mistakes,” especially after Binghe’s smile widens and he gives Shen Yuan an encouraging nod. Badly rattled, he continues, “We’re – you’re here to make sure I face up to them, right? Okay,” he says when Binghe nods at him again, his eyes so wide and bright – damn it, it’s really not fair for someone to look that beautiful and that scary, all at once!

“Okay,” he says again, and lowers his head, keeping an eye on Luo Binghe through his dangling bangs as he drops into a deep bow. “I’m truly, terribly sorry for throwing Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss. I, I didn’t want to do it, and the fact that I did it anyway, it – It was a terrible failure on my part, I should’ve been smarter, protected Binghe better –”

“Is that what you think you were there for?” Binghe interrupts with a perfectly arched eyebrow. “To protect me?” Shen Yuan’s apology immediately stammers to a halt as he looks up at Binghe in unfeigned confusion.

“What else…?” he asks, standing up straight again. “I was your teacher…” Binghe shakes his head with a sigh.

“Shizun has such a terrible memory,” he says sorrowfully. “Allow this disciple to remind him.” And before Shen Yuan’s registered the move, before he can even think about dodging, Binghe’s landed an open-palm strike to his chest, knocking him backwards.

Shen Yuan’s back hits a soft, squishy surface, giving enough that he actually bounces a couple times before coming to a halt. He lies there, aching and panting for breath for a moment, before opening his eyes.

…Yep, that was his own bedroom ceiling, in the apartment he’d occupied in Beijing. Fuck. He sits up slowly, noting that his legs are shorter, his hands somewhat pudgier, his clothes – these are probably the exact hoodie and jeans he’d been wearing when he died. Even if he doesn’t remember what exactly he’d been wearing, the information might’ve been stored somewhere in his unconscious mind. Or it was just magic, whatever.

It’d have been nice to delude himself for at least a couple seconds that his whole transmigration had been some kind of fucked-up food poisoning-induced dream, but he can’t. He can hear someone moving around in the living room, where nobody’s supposed to be, and he’s already embarrassed himself more than enough. He shoves himself up and staggers towards his bedroom door, opening it roughly.

“This is the worst,” he informs Viktor, with a scowl on his face.

Viktor makes a note of a few keywords- Endless Abyss? That sounds like a good thing to be mad about, if he's honest. Then again all the twists of whatever this relationship between teacher and student is seem to be of the grand sort. Acid, torture, abyss.

He startles when the strike comes to Shen Yuan, expecting far more blood and gore, certainly not the sudden shift in perspective. Where they end up is modern, not recognizable exactly but far more familiar to Viktor than the halls of before.

Shen Yuan turns out to be different too, and when he comes scowling Viktor asks, "It seems... complicated. Where are we now? This looks closer to the sort of cities I'm used to seeing." Though even a glance out the window- wow, talk about a huge city. At the very least the Binghe wasn't against trying to push to the heart of the matter either.

"This is my apartment, from my first life," Shen Yuan explains. He looks out the window himself, arrested for a minute by a skyline he'd never paid all that much attention to while he was alive. It's...weird, isn't it, how much it makes him feel now. "We're in Beijing -- a vision of Beijing, anyway -- in the country China. Have you heard of it?" Come to think of it he never did ask Viktor what his own world was called. It could be an alternate or future Earth for all he knows.

"Come sit in the kitchen with me," he says, beckoning Viktor over. "I think we deserve a couple minutes to think and catch our breath." And he wants to see if this nightmare precludes modern conveniences like soda pop.

It doesn't, it turns out, and a few minutes later he's found and opened two bottles of raspberry-flavored cola and placed them both on his kitchen table. "So," he says, after he and Viktor have both had a moment to take in the carbonation (it's...actually a lot of sugar, Shen Yuan's disappointed to find. Living in a fantasy approximation of Ancient China has apparently ruined him for modern flavors) "you said before that Trench really hates letting us keep secrets, right?"

"I cannot say I have. Not surprising I must say, very few people are from a world remotely similar to mine," Viktor answers as he glances to the window, admittedly impressed by some of what he sees. Not the clean lines of Piltover or the grunge of the undercity but wholly alive in a fascinating way.

He follows after though, still fascinated by the place and biting back several questions. All in due time, he imagines as he takes a seat. "This level of technology is more what I am used to," he admits as he takes the cola, surprised when he can actually taste it. He has a sweet tooth from hell so he rather enjoys it, taking another drink before focusing again.

"No, not particularly. I have been forced to share deep insecurities, turned to a monster until I accepted hidden parts of myself, had very personal memories shared and that is only some of it." Very dry. He sighs as he places the can down. "Often it feels like we are being made to face ourselves and our pasts. I can only assume that is happening here."

"Sometime I really would like to hear all about your world," Shen Yuan says as they get settled in. "We could exchange stories." Ugh, stories. Poor chase of words on his part, for all he'd meant it sincerely. He listens with silent grumbling on his part as Viktor outlines the bullshit Trench has already put him through, and rubs his forehead afterwards with a less-silent groan. "I was afraid you'd say something like that," he grouses. Stories and mistakes... "There is one other thing I've been avoiding mentioning, partially because I thought it would be too weird even for Trench, partially because it's embarrassing. But this whole quest-chain might as well be designed to humiliate me, so." He props his chin up on his hand, staring out the kitchen window.

"There was this book, a serialized novel, that I used to read when I still lived here," he says quietly. "It was honestly pretty shitty, dropped plotlines and continuity errors all over the place, low-IQ side characters, everything always had to play out as melodramatically as possible, but I kept reading because I...I just really liked the main character. He was, you know, the kind of borderline-villain protagonist who started with nothing, enduring thousands of misfortunes, and then unlocked a secret power that made him nearly invincible and let him go back to wreck bloody vengeance on everyone who'd ever wronged him." He grimaces with deep, heart-felt embarrassment. "A transparent power fantasy, but I liked him. Or at least, I hated how shitty the actual story was in comparison to him. I used to get so angry with Airplane -- with the author for it. I felt like Luo Binghe deserved better."

And there it was, the heart of the matter. Shen Yuan hides his face in his hands. "Of course the whole 'pay back kindness and evil ten-fold' thing got a lot less appealing when I suddenly woke up in the body of one of Binghe's antagonists!" he groans. "Really sucked all the fun out of the power fantasy!"

Edited 2022-07-14 16:56 (UTC)

"I would enjoy that, in truth. One of the perks of this place is hearing of the other worlds." At least there's something to all this, even if it's interesting stories. Not that he really hates being here in the Trench, if he's honest, but that's another matter entirely.

But ok, time to listen to this, his brow rising as he does. It's one of the weirdest things he's heard about a world or life here so far. He sips his drink as he considers it all, brow furrowed.

"So this... was some being toying with you? Or were others put into this story as well?" Baffling. Also horrid, the idea this might be a weird little game to some powerful force. "Was this some pointless lesson in literary critique?"

Shen Yuan relaxes as Viktor reacts to his story with surprise and understandable confusion, but at least no outward signs of disbelief. That's one hurdle cleared. In fact he relaxes far enough to actually laugh at that last suggestion.

"There's an idea," he says wryly. "The author was stuck there too, in the body of a weasely little double agent who was eventually executed by his demon boss after his usefulness ran out. Maybe the whole thing was Airplane's ironic hell for writing such a shitty novel, and as his most outspoken critic I got dragged into it too."

It was an amusing thought, but the facts didn't quite line up. "Of course," he said wistfully, "you'd think if that was the real point of the world, the System would have arranged for me to meet him earlier, instead of leaving it up to chance after I'd already lived in that world for three years. The impression it gave me was that I'd have the chance to change the plot -- turn it into a "true classic" were the words it used -- but at this point I'm pretty sure that was bullshit. It let me change a few things, like putting a stop to all the ways the original goods abused Binghe, but every time we hit a major story milestone it forced me to make sure things played out like in canon. What was the point of repairing Shen Qingqiu's relationship with Luo Binghe if he still threw Binghe into the Endless Abyss? If anything it probably just made the betrayal hurt more, poor thing..."

The corners of Shen Yuan's lips turned down in a deep frown. He'd never actually articulated all that before, not even in his own private thoughts. It was just too painful to think about, so he just...hadn't let himself think about it. At all. But he wanted to finish this dumb quest and escape this nightmare, so...Trench really hadn't left him any choice.

"In truth? It sounds like the whims of cruel and pointless beings with too much power," Viktor says, dry but a little sharp. At those beings, for making toys of this, what seems a harmless story. Then again apparently it wasn't just a story.

And that is something Shen Yuan's words make him think of. This Binghe, as a real person, being toyed with. How odd it must be to meet a beloved character from a story, to have them made real before you, only to be denied the right to true free will like... what, some test? Amusement?

"Did you grow fond of him as a person?" he asks, willing to delve into more personal questions since, well, they were already here. "It must be odd, to meet a story and learn them as a person who seems to have agency, a life. A little eh... meta and existential, really."

"Did I -- of course I was fond of him!" Shen Yuan protested, just a tiny little bit offended on Binghe's behalf. "He was -- god, it's so unfair that you're only getting a glimpse of him now, after the stupid plot blackened his heart. He was such an amazing kid. He was so smart, and kind, and a little clumsy but --" Uuuuuugh, feelings. Shen Yuan's face gravitates back into his open palms. "I really enjoyed being his teacher," he mumbles.

"You know, he never actually asked me why I stopped beating him?" he says, in tones of deep bewilderment. "I mean obviously that wasn't really me, it was that bastard Shen Qingqiu who by the way should never have been put in charge of children, but -- the System put me in Shen Qingqiu's body. It made me impersonate him, so...What, from Binghe's perspective his asshole teacher just randomly went from literally beating him bloody on a regular basis to treating him kindly and even protecting him from harm when demons attacked the peaks?" He laughs bitterly. "It just goes to show what a good person Binghe really was, before the plot broke his heart. In his place I'd have been suspicious as hell."

Viktor resists the urge to smile a little at that reaction- interesting. To him it seemed rather easy for a person to lose interest once character in a story became real and tangible, but if anything Shen Yuan's tone seemed to imply he perhaps grew more fond.

Of course then he grimaces because ugh. Yeah, keep that character the hell away from kids. "It sounds as though that was part of the plot, one way or another. Breaking this man down with tragedy and trauma until he snapped and commits atrocities in catharsis for the reader.

"What I don't understand is why involve you. Is it some test to see if changing these base elements would lead to the same tragedies?"

"Exactly," Shen Yuan agrees. "The tragedies wouldn't have had the same impact if he hadn't been so pure and innocent. That kind of character type is a genre staple, although most authors aren't so heavy-handed about it. Airplane was like an idiot dumping cayenne pepper all over a meal when the recipe just called for a few pinches, that hack."

Viktor's next question, however, gets a groan and a big old shrug. "I don't know," Shen Yuan groans, letting his head fall back against his chair. "He hadn't come back out of the Abyss yet, when I woke up here. I guess it would've been nice if he'd come out still willing to forgive me for that too, but realistically speaking what are the odds of that? I personally condemned him to years and years of hell, and it's not like he knew he'd survive and come out of it stronger than ever. He's got every reason to hate me."

A tired, bitter laugh gently wafts from the until-now empty kitchen doorway. Shen Yuan tenses up again as he raises his head and catches sight of Luo Binghe, leaning against the doorframe. "And so we come to the crux of the issue," Binghe sighs. "Shizun has so many wonderful things to say about this disciple when he was young, but now? Shizun must really believe that the Abyss stripped me of all positive and worthy qualities."

Ok, it takes Viktor some effort not to do more than snort that that description. Shen Yuan certainly had a way with words, especially words to do with this 'Airplane' and their work.

The arrival of the man again has Viktor glancing over, eyes landing back on Shen Yuan again as he considers. "He is right. It's understandable to fear what he is capable of, given how horrendous it is. But he is still truly a person and not a character, yes? And one with some fortitude. I cannot help but wonder if you explained the situation truthfully perhaps you would be surprised."

A pause. "Regardless, he deserves the full truth. His life was made a toy, and you seem to be one of the only ones who think he deserves better."

"The System would never have let me tell him the truth --" Shen Yuan begins to say, anxious and dismissive in his anxiety -- but then he stops, pulling himself up short like a robed gentleman spying a mud puddle in his path. "But the System isn't here, is it?" he wondered out loud, his gaze sliding over to the demon lord watching his mental progress like a cat crouched beside a mouse hole (or, perhaps, a royal bridegroom awaiting the arrival of his bride).

"What does Binghe think?" he asks, still too diffident by half. "Would he listen, if this teacher tried to tell him all?"

"Answering Shizun: how should this ignorant disciple know? He was made from Shizun's mind, was he not? I only know what Shizun knows," the demon lord answers, so petulant and pouty that despite the danger it still puts half a smile on Shen Yuan's face. Perhaps that's why the faux Binghe immediately unbends enough to add, "I think any version of me would appreciate a chance to speak with Shizun without him immediately trying to run away. This disciple so hates seeing your back."

Any subtext in that remark goes completely over Shen Yuan's head. "I'm sure you do," he says sadly. “Okay…fuck it, come here.” And upon saying this he suddenly stands up and all but throws himself into Luo Binghe’s arms. Nobody is more surprised by this than Binghe himself, but he immediately wraps his arms around Shen Yuan and clutches him close, clinging like he’d like nothing more than to drag the shorter man bodily into his own chest and squeezing until Shen Yuan squeaks.

“I won’t run anymore, okay?” he says, leaning back a little so he can look up into Binghe’s face. “I promise I won’t. I’ll stay and tell Binghe everything, next time I see him.”

The last of Binghe’s composure cracks like an egg. “Shizun –!” And he leans down to bury his face in Shen Yuan’s hair, his own great shoulders shaking with cathartic sobs. And it’s on that image, of the great and terrible demon lord clinging like a child to his old teacher, that the dream finally, finally ends.

Shen Yuan immediately drops Viktor’s hand like a hot brand, his face fiery-red.

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june catch-all

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