mehanizovati: (27)
Viktor ([personal profile] mehanizovati) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2022-03-31 12:24 pm

april catch - all

Who: viktor and others, open to all with some closed prompts
What: some late march/early april logs, including some tdm stuff. i'm happy to attach something else on if anyone's interest in doing something specific
When: late march through april
Where: various

content warning; terminal illness, arcane season 1 spoilers, likely game typical beast gore/body horror, potentially ableism mentioned, claustrophobic imagery



open prompts.

fishers of dreams - the lighthouse, early april (tdm)

a. while awake


[if you've been roped into this lighthouse business too you may enter to find a man already there. he seems vaguely disgruntled by the business, offers vague greetings but otherwise sticks to scribbling in his notebook. it looks like schematics and formulae, but anyone with an eye for either might notice they tend to trail off and start in odd bursts.

viktor will offer to cook when evening falls (or whatever seems to be the right mealtime in this place) so maybe that is a better time to strike up conversation. the smell coming from the kitchen is heavy on whatever spices the place stocks, promising pain to anyone who doesn't have the stomach for that sort of thing. worse if he finds the rotgut liquor tucked away, which he will pull out and offer despite smelling more like turpentine than anything edible.

these tricks of the eye though, flashes of people vaguely recognizable, he chalks it up more hallucinations. last month was mushrooms, so this? irritating, far more distracting, but it followed the pattern.

it isn't until later in all this he'll track whoever is with him down.]
Did you see someone else come through? There, just up the stairs.



b. nightmare

[trying to reach the odd lighthouses is fruitless, the shadows converge and when the dark clears the area seems more closed in than before. it shouldn't be, he was just outside on the shore, yet now the dark sky seems to hang too low, lower still, suffocating.]

What now? This is another illusion of sorts, is it not? One this place is so fond of. [viktor sounds more irritated than anything, maybe defensive since the grip his has on his crutch is white-knuckle tight. in the distance seems to be a lighthouse, though the light is far and the area is so stifling, promising a tunnel that will close and snuff out the light entirely.

it's ridiculous of course, the walls are not that close, certainly not enough for this suffocating grip on the lungs and throat. there's no real explanation, less so when a few steps forward and the ground begins to dot with great metal cables, the distinct, sickly sweet smell of chemicals in the air. there are pools between them where the ocean should have been, this time shallow spills of what could be gasoline or something similar, slick rainbow puddles, oily and difficult to walk through without slipping or sinking.]

(ooc; for this one please, feel free to add your own character's nightmare in any flavor at any point!)



odds and ends - willful machine, early april

[viktor can be found around the vendors often enough, especially those specializing in scrap metal, tools or small machinery. for the most part he doesn't stick out, except for the fact often his massive omen often accompanies him, some sort of huge pink salamander/axolotl that he'll lean against or ask rather politely to help carry larger purchases.

he doesn't seem to notice or care about any attention, though the creature will blink curiously around. feel free to approach or find him haggling rather intently for such a stick of a man, accent thickening when it gets heated enough. maybe you want the same scrap? or are looking for something and he's standing nearby enough to notice a lost look and offers assistance?]



[one might also find him about by the sound of a nasty coughing fit. he stands with his back curled, a rag to his mouth as a makeshift handkerchief. it's a wet cough that shakes his entire frame, and when it's over his sniffs and clears his throat, straightening.

the cloth is stained in a pale color that catches the perpetual moonlight of april. paleblood, that he regards for a moment before folding the cloth in on itself with a small frown.]





closed prompts.


jinx - willful machine, late march

[viktor doesn't stay by the lamp exactly. he would usually but he hardly sees the point when this person he's meeting knows him by sight as far as he can tell. it leaves him feeling comfortable to wander within eyeshot mostly of the lantern, strolling down the canal docks to find a place to stand and watch the boats cut slowly through the water.

he likes it here, he thinks, in this district. the noise and foot traffic, the winding canals and dirty water, the boats bobbing to and fro - it wouldn't be a bad place to set up. a lab that will double as his home because he doesn't see the point in separating the two any longer, even if he can practically hear heimendinger's tutting about his work-life balance in his ear. it will be closer to the vendors, less of a hike to acquire what he'll need to start fresh. first a new brace for his leg and back, then some basic experiments into lunar energy to get a feel for it.

his lungs flare and burn, minor enough he manages to swallow it down without reaching for the rag in his pocket. he makes a note of the severity and timing, adds it to his growing mental list that seems to indicate his illness does indeed remain but is diminished. promising, if he's being optimistic, but at the moment he feels only a sense of irritation that now he doesn't know the timeline of his own life. one he might be shortening drastically with this ridiculous stunt.

a sigh and viktor goes back to watching the boats, trying to clear his head. he considers trying to message vi and ask her opinion of this but... no, he doubts he'll get anything. he's not sure if he disgusts her as a class traitor or amuses her in truth. better to just see for himself what he's gotten himself into like a fool.]




allen - willful machine, early april

[the 'grand tour' doesn't amount to much yet, the lab area just a large, empty space dotted with a few tables and a couple of desks, not even a chalkboard he's been keeping an eye out for or something that could do the same. one of the desks at least is littered with junk, at the moment tools and the starts of a knee brace, a table nearby with all the scrap he's managed to grab that could be useful in the future. one corner has a cot, maybe he'll clear out whatever other small rooms the place has later for a bedroom proper. maybe not.

viktor seems satisfied with it as he gestures around, and rio has commandeered one of the tables for her own to lie across.]
A solid start, I think. I like this area, this eh... Willful Machine, that is.

[he'll never admit part of it is the boats. everyone's allowed a sort of childish interest, right? they're soothing, even if they lack the motors that fascinated him.] Have a seat, if you'd like. How have you been since the tombs?



wildcard.

[as i said, feel free to ask for anything else, including other tdm prompts, i am more interested in seeing the worlds built by others for the archway prompts so i didn't include any here. my plurk is [plurk.com profile] dichotomy or you can dm me here!]
megatheorem: (in front of my salad?)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-20 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
[No, wait, give him that hand, he turns his hand palm up to catch Viktor's fingers and give them a fond squeeze, for going to places that aren't so shiny.]

It's a big building. [clearly this is why this place does 50 different things, yeah,] If we're going to a tea shop, I expect you to drink some tea without complaint.

[If he hears one single "leaf water," sir... But: fancy wine, which to Palamedes is indistinguishable from cheap wine, so he makes a face down at the menu like, this matters? Wine is all sour juice, why bother.]

It would be somewhat counterproductive to do this while drinking, don't you think? Let's not get a fancy wine just to look at it. Here, this one; [he leans forward some, so he can point at a Fish that Sounds Fancy on Viktor's menu] that seems like an esteemed dish.

[It is at this point that a different waiter brings Free Bread, a concept Palamedes has never heard of, and he just looks at it. Help. No one ordered this. What does he do.]
disrupts: (18)

[personal profile] disrupts 2022-05-20 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Both of Viktor's answers are relatable, and V can't help but nod because yeah, he gets that. Making use of whatever's around is how he was brought up and, even after he settled in Night City temporarily, it was still an important way of life for him. He won't go into the details of how, if nomads had let society categorize them as poor, he'd have likely sat in a similar wealth bracket as Viktor had.

It's been a long time since he learned that lesson about what society will try to dictate about socio-economic status and therefore personality and morality, if a person let it. ]


One o' the first tests as a nomad kid is if ya paid enough attention to your family when they were doin' maintenance on the vehicles. Get to a certain age 'n you're expected to have your own vehicle in good enough shape to keep up with wherever the road takes the clan.

[ Learning how those vehicles worked at an early age wasn't a choice so much as a necessity, but it's not one he'd change for anything. ]

Cyberware's roots're in medical advancements. 's where it all started back in the old days. Mostly 'cause people'd come back from the war blown to shit, and slowly the prosthetics that were made got better and better. Still ain't accessible to everybody now. There's a black market for it, chop shops that're 'bout as safe as they sound run under the radar.

[ He pauses, clearly remembering something unpleasant. ]

Problem with NC is if ya got the eddies - the money - you can run the shadiest chop shop you want. Long as ya got eddies to grease the right palms... people in power gonna look the other way. And it's always at the expense of the poorest, most vulnerable people.
rosae: ( 𝑬𝑫𝑰𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑩𝒀 𝑹𝑶𝑺𝑨𝑬 ) (Default)

[personal profile] rosae 2022-05-20 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
No, you're right about that. I know there are some young ones around here, but... I can't imagine her being only nine and living... here. ( Rose agrees with a little smile — slightly grim, but relieved, too. She's had the thought before of how horrible it would be if Sharon were navigating this place as a nine-year-old. It's... almost unthinkable. As strange as the loss of losing nine years of her daughter's life has been, Rose is eternally grateful for it, too. Which is...a strange paradox, and something she hasn't quite had time to really process, inbetween everything this place has had going on over the months. )

Yeah, it's been kind of a mind trip learning about all of the things my future held. ...Holds? ( Sharon's divulged a few things that happened in her timeline, things that still feel so far away for Rose in hers. It's... very strange, surreal. )

Sometimes, it all still feels like some bad dream.... ( But Rose blinks then, at the man's words, looking back up at him. That's what she'd been afraid of. Not that this was all coincidence, but that it could mean something. That it knows how to target a person, how to draw out what's inside... She's absolutely terrified of it doing that for Sharon, considering.... what's inside of her daughter. What she's been through. )

It's definitely... cruel, in a very particular way, if that's what it's doing. ( Rose still doesn't know for sure, but the evidence she's been gathering over time here seems to point that way. )

Of course, I suppose I don't have much to compare it all to... Things like magic didn't exist, in my world. ( A thoughtful frown as she pauses. ) Is magic common in yours?
tealeafs: (as you bloom again)

1/2

[personal profile] tealeafs 2022-05-20 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Huh.

That is a good question. Chizuru spent so much time around people who were much higher in both rank and status than her that just got kind of used to being the one overly bowing at others, without often receiving it in return.. Hence why the girl looks like she's got to think about Viktor's question for a moment or two, momentarily turning her attention back to the stew to make sure it doesn't burn while they're standing here. ]


Um, well.. I don't think it'd be inappropriate. I guess it'd just show you're just truly that grateful for me coming here..
tealeafs: (like tree branches)

[personal profile] tealeafs 2022-05-20 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ ...

Wait.

Hold on. That's getting dangerously close to a compliment, right. If not something equally as positive. Chizuru seems to realise that, her expression quickly turning towards surprise as she says: ]


B-B-But! Me coming here isn't anything that special..! I'm sure you could get so many friends to come over here!
megatheorem: (031)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
[Mm, show him all the weird veins, extra neat bf characteristics. They'd be even more the sickening couple if Palamedes dragged his chair around to sit right at Viktor's elbow again, like he did back in the Earworm, but this establishment seems a little too fancy for that? He'll consider it.

He scoffs, giving Viktor's fingers a scolding little flick before finally sitting back on his own side of the table, ahem. Viktor will drink leaf water and he will enjoy it, thanks.]


Is the length of the menu prose indicative of quality? I should give up on my novel and write menus from now on. [look at all these words for this one fish... ah, and the bread, which he is still incredibly wary of.] We had a dining hall, and designated meal hours; as you can imagine, waiting wasn't much of a consideration.

[He... takes a piece of bread?? Perhaps he will pick at a corner of the crust, hm. After a moment, deftly handling restaurant concepts, he says,] Fancy bread.
megatheorem: (251)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
[Gosh Viktor don't say ass board in public, they have an image to maintain?? Don't say it specifically because it makes Palamedes snort, which he must hastily hide behind his piece of bread so that he still seems fancy and refined.]

Careful; I'll start writing menus for your cooking, as practice.

[Will he make spicy stew sound weirdly horny? Just watch him. He's in the midst of deciding how much fancy butter he wants to slather onto this fancy bread when the waiter returns, and he's completely content to let Viktor handle this whole thing, so-]

Ah— that's enough. For now.

[He has to wait until the waiter has turned their back before he gives Viktor a strained look, like, what am I saying?? There should have been a guide.]
megatheorem: (284)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
[Palamedes adds 'horny stew description' to his mental list of things Viktor wants him to do... well, alright! He'll get to work ASAP!]

If you insist. That means you have to give the dish a name, but don't try too hard.

[hexstew. don't. anyway,]

As a last resort, I could pretend to get lost on the way to the bathroom. What should we ask him first? I've been thinking, 'Why so much red?'— I know the obvious answer, but blood here is hardly all red.

[and it's like. dark in here. what is this, a cheesecake factory.]
megatheorem: (305)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
[Hexstew is banned. Palamedes gives him a look right back, wary and warning; please, no hexfoods. Please.]

Maybe your street food? Call it something with more staying power. [something Cool...

But oh, they're going to get lost going to the bathroom, great plan. Palamedes will walk straight into the kitchen and loudly wonder where the toilets are, and then they'll be banned from The Red on top of the school. Good times ahead.]


You're telling me that red is the sex color. [Well, he supposes it tracks? And yet it is not a sexy, sexy grey.] Alright. I'd also like to know about the octopus, if we're leaping straight into the decor. Let's ask back and forth, so we seem less like we're interrogating.

[Just like overeager tourists? It'll be fine.]
megatheorem: (284)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
'Mushrooms on a Stick' is very... hex tier. [Possibly even worse. He's appreciating by the word, here, please make it a full sentence.] You can do better than 'Mushrooms on a Stick'; I'll make it worth your while.

[flirting about food, again... ahem.]

You did think it was a brothel until recently. It might still be, somewhere in the back? There are so many curtains. [Ones that he briefly leans away from the table to crane his neck to see, hm yes, there are mystery rooms in this place, that either contain answers or debauchery and nothing else. Definitely.] We could ask how long it's been a— place of entertainment. Narrowing the time frame. At the very least, we ought to ask how long the big red rock has been out front.

[.....and,] Why does there need to be a sex color?
megatheorem: (108)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 08:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, if it's for the mystique... As long as it isn't hex again. Teach me some useful phrases sometime.

[What counts as a useful phrase is up to Viktor. Maybe teach him how to say "mammals becoming flushed," that one's very mysterious. Palamedes leans his elbow on the table, nudging his tiny bread plate out of the way - the one singular bite he took of fancy bread was delicious, to be sure - and considers. What if, instead of waiting around for the fish... no, he's focused.

If his monster glow seems to dim a little, it's because of how focused he is on the task at hand and nothing else, particularly not getting lost.

But, like,]
When you let me keep my glasses on. Usually. [He glances down briefly at Viktor's green-tinted hands, hm,] I'm working on another hypothesis I can tell you about later. After this.

[Variables, and so on. Later, for sure.]
megatheorem: (376)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Curses aren't interesting. [He waves a hand, gosh, he can curse the ordinary way if he wants,] Teach me something sentimental. Then you won't have to worry about me ruining the pronunciation in public, as it'll be for you.

[Mm, now that focusing on the mission is completely out the window for the moment, he reaches for Viktor's hand again, eyebrows raising.]

There's a dessert, too? [so much food... have mercy.] How quickly can you ask questions without our waiter getting suspicious? Not that I'm undermining the importance of our goals, here; but.

[Well, but. One does not get too many opportunities to explore one's handsome plant monster boyfriend to the fullest extent. Ahem.]

Well, now you've got me thinking about passionate color palettes.
megatheorem: (193)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
You're not going to tell me what those mean, are you? [But he can piece together from the look on Viktor's face that he isn't secretly telling him how to say something like 'tea is disgusting and coffee is superior,' so— mm. He'd love a precise translation, of course he would, but whatever it means, he decides he very much likes to hear Viktor say it.] Tell me the first one again? Milá—?

[Oops, he's decided the pronunciation actually matters very much, if he is to call Viktor this presumably sweet thing, please pause in the plan for a quick linguistics lesson. Ooh, maybe they can write a little translation cheat sheet, date activity—

Twelve courses, though. Miserable. Only the sappy language learning keeps him from outright grimacing at twelve courses.]


Repeat customers who make fun of the food and don't like the finery. [ehhh it's probably fine,] Twelve courses might actually kill me. Even three.
megatheorem: (sixth lecture)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-05-21 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll have to start guessing. [Technically, a fun new project? No, that's silly; he'll be content with this other definition, for now. His personal brand of affection doesn't normally extend into this kind of term of endearment, but since it's the thing Viktor offered, well. An exception?

He glances down at the table, mumbling the word a few times over before he's satisfied he isn't totally mangling it.]
In that case: you're blushing, miláčku.

[God, they get more saccharine the longer this fish takes to be cooked. Palamedes doesn't even know what a sorbet is, either-]

Stop, though, you're going to put me on the floor. Why? The food doesn't know what you cut it with. That is seriously... unhinged.

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