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: (376)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-14 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[They... could go to a bar? Palamedes has been to one bar in his life, here in Trench, so he knows there are bars. Ordinarily he wouldn't choose a bar, but the adrenaline of pulling off a successful heist is highly persuasive. Would it not be ill-fitting, actually, to just go home and stare at their spoils for hours? They'll have time for that.

Which is to say:]
We can go to a bar. They're clustered in Cellar Door, if I recall new year's.

[He flinches from the press but doesn't pull his hand away, letting Viktor do what he can. Once he can wash his hands properly and rustle up some actual bandages, they'll be good to go; this helps, for now.]

What; me? That's slanderous talk. [it is not. he is guilty.] Don't encourage me.
megatheorem: (246)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-14 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Not sure; I was there, but it was a special occasion and I never went back on an ordinary night. Most of the evening was someone bothering me into putting on stage clothes, or some such.

[It was a non-gray outfit with a pattern on it, but Sixth sensibilities are what they are. Somewhere in a storage bin in the bunker, this real people outfit (tm) is still lurking.

In any case, this grim resignation is even more encouragement for him to make all manner of jokes, but Viktor surely knows that.]


I'll rein myself in, but that might make it worse when I can't help it. The shock factor, and so on. [He wiggles his fingers a bit and then closes them around the rag, so they can keep moving without distraction. Hmm,] I've got it.
Edited (grammar,) 2022-04-14 20:38 (UTC)
megatheorem: (027)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-14 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
They did. I had also had a fizzy pink drink with some kind of alcohol in it, which contributed.

[Much of the outfit-swapping from that night is a blur now, thanks fizzy drink. Someone else harangued him into putting on boots? He hated it, but it was a friend thing, allegedly.]

You're too generous. [About both his humor and his hand, which would one hundred percent be subject to even more jokes if it were replaced, with - a machine hand? He assumes? There are a handful of Lyctors around who could simply conjure him a new fleshy hand, but hm, well-

Well. Only one of them he'd even consider approaching for a favor. He would rather not lose a hand at all.]


Can you get the door? I'll manage the spoils.
megatheorem: (193)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-14 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh — somehow that's the thing that embarrasses him, at least halfway - he laughs, a little sputtering thing, surprised and at a loss for any way to defend himself. Read him for filth, yes, he was undone by a single cocktail — such is the fate of his necromancer physique.

But the board first, nudged through the open door, where it teeters in the air for a moment longer before plot contrivance cues deem this the moment the blood magic wears off, and it thunks down to the floor.]


Crime? [haha] I'm inclined to agree. Put it wherever you want — I'm going to wash my hands.

[Get the rust off and out of his cut, at least, since there's nothing to be done about the bloodstains but let them fade with time. He disappears into the tiny bathroom to do just that, emerging a few minutes later with a bottle of ye olde antiseptic and a roll of bandages tucked under his arm.]

I had a thought: I should have bottled the blood before we left.
megatheorem: (007)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-14 11:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Their secondary life of crime, yes, for certain. Palamedes realizes with beautiful delay that he did not steal any chalk, so maybe...?

No; not tonight, anyway. Tonight is for celebrating, as soon as he has most of his hand's faculties back again. In answer he simply holds out hand and first aid materials to Viktor, moving over to the wee kitchen table where it will be quicker and easier to dress the cut. It's not so deep that there's any concern, physically; aside from what may have gotten into it in the process, which is the big one.

Now that it's washed out it just looks like a mean slice, albeit a strangely too-dark one, thanks to the blood type. He presses his other thumb into it and frowns, a thing which is totally necessary. Not the worst wound he's shoved a hand into in Trench, by far.]


There's a necromancer trick to push the thanergy around for a quick stitch. [This he says with a look over at the blood-smeared board, like, and he would do it if he hadn't emptied a cup or two of blood onto that not fifteen minutes ago. Pros: it's not bleeding everywhere, which he might be influencing himself until the bandage is on.] But yes; please and thank you.
megatheorem: (018)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-14 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[Mm, and despite the mean slice across his palm, this is a... nice moment? He's been terrified out of his mind every time Camilla got hurt and needed him to bandage up a wound of hers, and while the stakes are far lower right now - he did this to himself for a stupid prank, ultimately - it's close to the same feeling of closeness as those moments after. Quiet, with the antiseptic and the bandages. It's nice that he doesn't have to do this one-handed with a lot of muttered swearing.

He doesn't even wince egregiously - only like, a few times! - simply flexes his hand when Viktor is through and nods gratefully.]


I don't want to think about it before I've had my fizzy pink drink, [he says, exaggerated for comedic effect. Fuck those rusty knobs in particular? Goddamn.] We both had some unforeseen complications, that's all.

[Haha... good golly. He stands, still wiggling his fingers experimentally.]

Let's celebrate.
megatheorem: (027)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
If you're looking to me for alcoholic expertise, you've got a load of disappointment coming.

[He doesn't even remember what it was called! Which means, quite literally, he did not read what it was before he decided he would drink something pink and fizzy for the sake of novelty, because not even a half-drunk blur can foil his perfect memory that badly. So: fizzy, pink. Alcoholic. A baseline, if nothing else.

But away they go, and while The Red is where he remembers ordering pink fizzy drinks and being made to put on Costumes (read: normal people shirts), he gives it a Look before continuing on; no, that's too fancy. They don't need to be fancy, particularly not when, arguably, they are on a budget. It is on to Earworm, then, and he makes some idle commentary about actually never coming here as they head inside.

He likes the big neon worm; he doesn't mind the humidity one bit, which might be a surprise. Since Viktor is giving him the lead, lead he does to an out of the way table, to squint at the drinks menu over the bar, looking for something fizzy and ideally pink.]


How rowdy is the undercity? No; don't tell me yet. Let me muddle through pretending I know anything about alcohol, first. [what is a beer.....]
megatheorem: (064)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Truth be told, he would like something pink and fizzy. Alcohol, in his limited experience, which is the new year's party and the walk to this table a moment ago... smells? It stinks. He definitely caught a whiff of some cheap champagne smelling like wet yeast on the walk over here, so his suggestion is anything that doesn't come with a noxious odor.

He is still squinting up at the drinks list, though. With a hum, he sits back, tapping his fingers on the table before—]


I don't know what any of this means. There's a blue one in that picture, how advisable would that one be?

[He points; it's certainly a cocktail, fizziness unknown.]

Better question: does beer smell like wet mud?
megatheorem: (030)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Well, I'm not going to trade any of my extremely lucrative stones for yeast in a mug, [he says with a scoff, sitting back - and then pushing up from the table, motioning for Viktor to stay put.

Surely alcohol will help Palamedes hold still. Stay tuned.]


We'll both have the blue one. Stay here; I'll get them.

[It's a picture, certainly, the skinny form of Palamedes marching into the crowd closer to the bar itself as if he belongs there. Credit him that, he gets up to the bar with no issue; other than a few glances as people step aside, whatever he's doing seems to work.

(It's the Warden voice. He's accustomed to being listened to, at least some of the time.)

Actually ordering the blue drinks is a little more complicated, because he just says "the blue one," but within a few minutes he's returning with one blue drink in each hand, passing Viktor the one he isn't awkwardly clutching in his bandaged hand, in case he tips that one over in a moment.]


Here's to the mystique of these drinks, hm?
megatheorem: (033)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Viktor, be normal about drinks. Palamedes has no designs on equivalent exchange in mind for this - if anything, he wants Viktor to sit and be comfortable instead of buffeted through the bar crowd, and the actual payment is a nonissue. How much could two blue mystery drinks cost? He has nice rocks to spare.

And if anyone tries to fight them, he knows a good trick that holds a body still until he can vacate the premises, so there's that. Here's to heists, and mystique, and drinking this acid blue mistake for the sake of all of it.

He takes a ginger little sip, brow furrowed, as if he will suddenly discover he's a savant for alcohol — ah, but no, it's just Blue Flavor.]


Neither do I. Do you feel more celebratory yet? I could start a timer.
megatheorem: (243)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
[One moment please, Palamedes has to take a second to imagine Viktor sitting in a rowdy bar full of almost-nudity and loads-o-violence, which is momentarily just funny enough to get him to smirk over the rim of his glass, as he raises it for another sip.

Well, it's Blue, for sure. He's already working on ill-advised blood loss and being mostly gray cloaks by mass, so - who knows if he'll even feel it when the liquor starts to kick in, or if it will hit him all at once and he'll fall over. Time to find out.]


Good — I don't think they'd give me my stone back for the drinks. It was more hectic at new year's— in The Red, that big place we passed. I'd credit the holiday for that, though. What else do they do for fun, in the undercity?
megatheorem: (031)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
There was a talent show, and even as an audience member, dressing up was... good? I don't honestly recall. I still have the outfit.

[Did he. Steal it. He may have just gone home wearing it. Oh well. Palamedes' life of casual crime continues.

Anyway, oh! Drugs! Good god, but the undercity is so very much compared to the Sixth, which is earnestly just a Library. Palamedes isn't scandalized so much as he's curious? Intrigued, maybe? This is literally the kind of thing he's only read about in fiction, given his upbringing and own insistence on spending all of his waking hours working.]


No. [nope.........] We used to stand around and look at the view screens, but Cam got tired of being around the panel cleaner — we're allergic.

[Big childhood fun!! He slouches down in his seat some, swishing his drink lightly in his glass and watching it, hmm.]

There was the Copper Garden, but that was where we entombed the important people. I'm starting to suspect the Sixth is boring.
megatheorem: (018)

[personal profile] megatheorem 2022-04-15 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
[He shakes his head; earnestly, he doesn't know, he only went there one time. Were many of the activities there probably sexually charged? Sure. Did Palamedes drink pink fizzy drinks and sit on a beanbag chair while not being harangued about his fashion sense? Indeed.]

You'll love this one— we didn't have paper. It's too rare. We have flimsy, it's oil-based.

[And mm, his gaze flicks to the crutch and back again, and he nods lightly. He's glad, privately, that little Viktor had his boats to look at and the smaller ones to play with, amidst the undercity's apparently endless excitement. All things considered, he'd have done just fine on the Sixth...]

The view screens get old after the nth time you watch the constructs do the cleaning. Once you've seen your hundredth space rock collision, you get bored enough to go do anything else.

[That said,] You would have loved our labs. I was a terror to every committee that let me stand in front of them, so you can imagine the kind of work we got up to.

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