dead to the power of two | OPEN

[runeing]

Who: celen's boys (aka charles and viktor), you?
Where: viktor's lab, lupin, the farm
What: viktor finally loses the battle against his illness and comes back. meanwhile, charles is learning magic (badly).
Warnings: death and dying, mentions of child abuse



PROMPTS IN COMMENTS.

▷ charles.
▷ viktor.

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charles rowland 💀 ota + closed below

[incorrigibles]

magic practice ▷ OTA

[incorrigibles]

[ this particular day finds charles at the farm — he is done volunteering for the day, and instead sits there in the middle of the field, heedless of the cold february weather. in front of him is a large tome that, when he lifts it up, one might see reads major arcana ii at the back. ]

No, [ he mutters, ] Nope, that's not it. Hold on, let me try this again —

[ who is he talking to? apparently the sheep who is hanging out nearby, or maybe just himself. in any case, he starts to recite something — latin, perhaps, by the sound of it — and it makes a golden cord appear right in front of him... only, the cord lashes forward, twirls itself tight around his leg and tugs him until he falls flat on his face on the ground. then, it simply disappears in a flash. ]

... Ow. [ lifting his head, charles looks up and straight at one of the farm cats, sitting right there and looking at him. it makes a sound like prrr, and charles glares at it. ]

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, furball.

[ and then, only just noticing you there, ] Oh. Uh, how long have you been there?

[nilhilistic]

[ rafal had been squinting for the most part. human magic is so odd sometimes. wands and books, staffs and rods. but then magic isn't an innate quality for them as it is with dragons. ]

Long enough, it seems, to be confused.

What are you doing?

[incorrigibles]

What does it look like?

[ he mumbles this not-actually-a-real-question in a somewhat petulant tone, like, yeah, he knows it looks bad, and the fact rafal has to ask is just more proof of that. he pushes himself up to a sitting position, and runs his hand through his hair before he actually answers, ]

Trying to learn magic. It's going... uh, reckon it's going pretty poorly, so far.

[bulleting]

[Caitlyn visits the farm often enough, thanks to it being the official lodging of her white chocobo, Toby. She used the lands near the farm for training, too, but today she's happily spending time riding the bird she doesn't spend nearly as much time with as she would like.

They've been riding for some time, but knowing the bird needed to rest and eat, they were trotting back towards the barn when she noticed a familiar face seemingly get...tugged into the air then fall flat onto his face?? Caitlyn raises a curious brow, bringing Toby to a stop a few feet away from the ghostly disaster.]

Long enough to see you face plant in the dirt. [Caitlyn fights back a smile. She would dismount and offer to help him up, but...ghost, yeah? Not much use in trying if her hand is going to go right through him.]

Are you alright?

[incorrigibles]

Great, [ says charles, in a despairing tone — played up just a little, though, because if she's going to laugh at him, he might as well lean into it. ]

I'm aces, except for the way my ego might never recover.

[ as he pushes himself up, he presses his hand on his chest like it hurts to say that... but he's also fighting a smile, now. ]

late january; un: altius

[chimericalclaw]

[It's been about two weeks since their collective dreaming. He's done a spectacular job of pretending nothing is wrong, going about his usual business and delving into a new venture to distract himself.

The distractions have stopped working. With the idea that perhaps he needs a different one, he texts a particular ghost:]

Charles, do you have time for that walk we discussed?

[incorrigibles]

[ meanwhile charles, who actually ended up having quite a nice time during the dreams, has been going about his everyday life as normal; and when the text comes in, well, he's just delighted, honestly. the guy remembers what they talked about! and wants to actually come with him! ]

yeah!! course i do, i'm real glad you asked! when do you wanna go?

[ somehow, he manages to make even his text responses drip with enthusiasm... ]

[chimericalclaw]

[It's not as though Altius thought Charles wasn't being sincere when he offered, but the response certainly confirms it solidly.]

Is today doable?

[As soon as possible, preferably. He has to keep moving, or... something might catch up with him.]

scoots in here

[coolerjunpei]

[On a perfectly normal evening, Junpei is doing the dishes. He insists on this, because Charles does all the cooking despite not getting to enjoy the food, therefore Junpei will do the dishes, no arguments. Not that he'll stop Charles from lingering and passing him plates and so on, which is usually how it goes, because why should they ever be in separate rooms for more than ten minutes at home? Silly.

So here he is, rinsing a pot. Odd as the shared dreams were a few weeks ago, they weren't that terrible? Things have been good for a while in Aldrip, and of course things are always good here in their ultra domestic household. Junpei's biggest stress in the past few weeks has been cleaning up sandwich messes at work, which is nice.

He rinses the pot and passes it to Charles, because of course Charles is right there, and he says,] Hey, can I ask you a personal thing? You don't have to answer.

[That's a given, of course, and they've been better at not not answering, but he still likes to say it.]

twirls you

[incorrigibles]

[ the past weeks have been... nice, actually, even with the dreams — he'd enjoyed the ones he'd been in, with the exception of a few of them, and outside of that life in aldrip has been relatively good. well, it's always good with the two of them, of course, no matter what else is happening, and the domestic routine is a steady warmth in his chest every time.

he's been branching out with dishes lately, too, and today was for panko-crusted chicken with rice, hence the pot junpei is rinsing, because they don't have a rice cooker — charles takes it, and as he's reaching for a towel to dry the pot and put it back in its drawer, he says, ] Yeah, course you can.

[ if there's anyone here who has the right to ask him anything, ever, it's junpei. but he does dry the pot and put it away first, before turning to him; something in the tone tells him he shouldn't be answering this while focused on the dishes... or maybe it's the immediate offer for him to avoid answering altogether. in any case; he's done with the pot, he's listening, so hit him with it. ]

[coolerjunpei]

[Oh, Junpei thinks, as he picks up a plate, he's listening-listening, alright. He's going to keep scrubbing dishes, but only because he knows if he doesn't, they're going to forget to finish these until tomorrow, and then it'll be gross? Regardless.]

So I was thinking the other day, and maybe I'm just thinking too hard, but I've never seen you without a shirt on. And I'm not, like, complaining, [of course not, every time Charles reaches up to a high shelf or wears Junpei's t-shirt and he gets a look at a sliver of midriff he loses at least an hour of productivity,] But is that... a thing?

[A thing, but what else would he call it? It was a coincidence before but now it feels like a pattern, and when it's one of them with a pattern of behavior, it's somehow always one of those shitty things they try not to talk about. So: here's talking about it, unless Charles takes the free out, which is still on the table.

It's just, well. Knowing them, Junpei figures it's got to be either "I'm just a shirts all the time guy, even at the beach," or the worst thing he's ever heard. Either way, they made that promise...]

viktor 💠 ota + closed below

[runeing]

post-death ▷ OTA ▷ cw: mentions of suffocation

[runeing]

i. laboratory

[ viktor dies, and on the seventh day after, he awakes in his bed, almost as if it is all a distant dream, about to fade away as the day dawns.

viktor dies, and wakes, and the dread that seeps in is worse than the cold air on a winter's day in the undercity, settling inside his chest and bones as he takes one breath after another, tries to reassure himself that his lungs still work, that they are not slowly filling with blood and suffocating him once more.

and then he gets up.

and though for the rest of that day, his laboratory and workspace are quiet and abandoned, the next day they are once again lit up, signaling to any possible passerby that he is there and back at work. ]

ii. lupin

[ late that week, one may find him sitting in a table at the back of lupin, staring into his glass of liquor (vodka, with a dash of licorice extract added in for flavour) contemplatively. ]

I thought it would feel... different.

[ he mutters this, quietly, watching the liquid swirl as he turns the glass around once, and again, and again. what meaning is there in death, if it means nothing? he should be dead. here, back home — both, neither. none of it seems to matter much.

and if it doesn't... then does it matter, if he abandons his guilt and wants to avoid the experience of slowly suffocating on his own blood for the second time? he will not touch the hexcore, no, never again — but the hexcore is not the only available avenue, here. back home, his course is certain, his fate sealed for him; here, not so much. and if none of it truly matters, then perhaps... perhaps. ]

ii

[solitarysoul]

[Levi was often found at The Last Drop, since he worked for Silco and sometimes in the bar itself, but Lupin was really more his speed. Calmer and quieter, almost but not quite like the jazz club he occasionally snuck into when he still lived in Prehevil. So he's gotten himself a beer and is headed to find his own table in the back when he passes by just as Viktor muses.]

Hm? Did you say something?

[runeing]

[ he's not used to too many others occupying the tables at the back, where it is most isolated — and so levi speaking makes him blink as he lifts his head and then say, dry and quiet, ]

Just talking to myself.

[ which, hm, if that doesn't say a lot about his state of being right now, he's not sure what does. in any case; his mind isn't doing him a lot of favours right now, so maybe something else will. ] What do you think of death?

ii

[mysophobic]

[ A semi-quiet respite is what Shigeru needs after he goes about his night at one of the clinics or hospitals. He tries to keep himself busy with work, with anything honestly, but the dreams and nightmares tend to keep him up regardless of how exhausted he makes him. So he finds himself at Lupin cradling his half-empty glass in black-gloved hands. But he does overhear Viktor's words pausing as he walks by. Did he mean the dreams or something?? ] Thought what would?

[ It comes out even before he has a chance to stop himself. ]

[runeing]

[ oh, there's someone else here — viktor spends a whole five seconds trying to think of a possible way to get out of this conversation, but then again... hadn't he just been contemplating how it seems none of it really matters, here or back home? what he thinks about things certainly doesn't seem to, so maybe picking the brain of someone else over this might prove fruitful.

his own brain is definitely not being fruitful in any capacity except the depressing kind, right now.

and so... ]

Dying, [ he says, wry and blunt. ]

i.

[donger]

[ Heimerdinger has been making use of the laboratories at the STEM club facilities, and has yet to spend much time in Viktor's lab. Since they parted ways, he's given his former pupils a bit of a wide berth, even if their divisions mean little now that they are all here together in Aldrip. But, when he receives word from Jayce that Viktor has died and subsequently returned to life, well. He's not about to let that news pass by without some further investigation.

He stops by the lab on the seventh day, and continues on his way once he sees that the lights are out. But he swings back around on the eighth day, and upon seeing signs of life inside, lets himself in. ]

Ahem.

[ A small clearing of his throat is all he will do to get Viktor's attention before continuing on. ]

I'm glad to see you up and about once more, my boy.

[runeing]

[ in hindsight, perhaps he should have been expecting this. oh, he expects jayce, of course, and caitlyn and vi — two people he never had the time or possibility to get to know properly back home, but who he counts as important to him, now. but this? no, he doesn't think heimerdinger is here out of concern for him.

and honestly? after the emotional exhaustion after trying to process his death and all the feelings attached to it, the idea that he might be asked to talk about it not through how he feels but rather through logic and only logic — well. that's a nicer thought. ]

Professor Heimerdinger, [ he says in greeting, nodding his head as he works on something that seems like an intricate metal paneling. ]

I assume Jayce told you. [ there is no thank you for the, hm, well-wishing; this is the state of affairs, and it all happened the way it did, whether he wanted it to or not. ]

ii

[grappler]

[Vi hadn't been the one to initially serve Viktor, but she'd known he'd come in. but she'd been trying to fix the faucet in the sink that had been incessantly dripping onto the floor. after some work and a little bit of materials to patch it up, she's successful.

and, she's going to reward herself with a drink.

she walks out from the back as Viktor speaks, her hair a little mussed and a mildly dirty hand-towel over her shoulder. despite how cold it is outside, she's got a tanktop on too, but cleaning and fixing things had made her hot. her sweatshirt is stuffed in the back somewhere for when she cools back off. she'd known that he'd died, and... there was something about him coming without her invitation was a bit of a comfort. even if she might be a bad influence on him with the drinking, at least he felt like he had somewhere else to go. right?

she pours her own drink on the rocks, straight vodka with just a bit of soda water to curb it. she stirs it with her finger (what? it's her own drink), before she speaks to him.]

What would feel different?

[even if she... wonders if she knows what he's talking about.]

i

[bulleting]

[Aldrip is nothing in not consistent. While there were irregularities from time to time, it's cycles stayed almost constant. While the time Vi died had been different, her appearing back in their bed, bloody and unharmed, almost immediately, when Caitlyn died, it was a different story. Like when people disappeared and returned home, she had been gone an entire week. Seven days was how long she was missing, her information still in the contact list for Vi to fret over, and then it was like nothing happened. Considering the context in which Viktor died, Caitlyn assumed it would be more like her situation, and sure enough, it seemed to be.

She checked in frequently, wanting to see if her hypothesis was correct, but also, she worried about leaving Jayce alone. Trying to distract him wasn't easy, but she tried. She knew he would be struggling with this. They all were, in one way or another, but Jayce was definitely taking it the worst.

Only on day seven, Viktor's lab is still dark. There's still no answer at the door when she knocks, and she begins to second guess everything. Was she wrong? Was he not going to come back? His death was different than what she experienced, so maybe he would come back differently?? She wasn't sure, but it left her uneasy for the rest of the day.

Needless to say, she was back on day eight, antsy to check in again just in case, and was flooded with relief to see the lights on once again.

Thank all the gods.

She just hoped it was actually Viktor inside, as she approached the door and knocked eagerly.]

i

[scientits]

[ right. so. the thing is.

the thing is, he shouldn't have been surprised to find viktor's corpse in the lab one cold winter morning. he's a scientist, he's observant, he'd been already worriedly tracking viktor's deterioration as much as he'd (badly) pretended otherwise. it's certainly less out of the blue than a sudden explosion, and at the very least he knows that death here holds far less permanence than back home. it would be no different than a medically induced coma to promote healing, he'd told himself on the rare occasions where he'd been able to bear thinking about it at all. he'd be more prepared for it this time.

(he hadn't been prepared for it at all. there is no ease in the familiarity of the sight of viktor's lax expression, the stiffness of his limbs, the deathly pallor of his skin - and for a moment, jayce chokes on the stench of smoke, his eyes gritty with ash and tears, heart drumming a million beats per second and breath caught in an unvoiced scream as he clutches the body to him tight and searches for a miracle, any miracle--

anyways. there's a couple pages of notes in the lab now missing thanks to coming into contact with a truly unfortunate amount of vomit. )

still, initial (and entirely reasonable) freak out aside, he thinks he's handling this fine? viktor's body lies untouched by magic or science, aside from drawing the blankets up and fluffing his pillow to make sure he's as comfortable as can be. and sure, maybe jayce hasn't left the lab since the incident, but that's nothing unusual for him and it's not like he can just walk away from a potential breakthrough when it's something this important. he's running multiple experiments and theorems at once, after all - a chalkboard covered with magical runes here, a design for an iron lung there, multiple blood tests that he really needs to keep track of in the corner - he can hardly be expected to just leave. or eat. or sleep, for that matter. he can sleep when he's - well.

the point is, he really doesn't know what caitlyn is so fussed about when he's doing frankly a lot better than the first time around. but she does eventually manage to drag him into civilization and a nap, and when he comes back to the lab - the body is gone.

( there may have been another freak out at this point wherein in his sleep deprivation, jayce immediately leaps to the assumption that someone stole viktor's corpse, then after a frantic search for clues realizes that's insane and instead panics that somehow the resurrection's gone wrong and viktor's been deleted from this simulation entirely, before finally landing on the much more reasonable conclusion that viktor just probably woke up and left of his own volition.

there may also be a hole in the wall now being guiltily covered up by the chalkboard. he'll fix it later. )

and really, that shouldn't have been surprising either. he's well aware of viktor's proclivity to disappear and reappear without warning, and by now he's long used to squashing down the instinctual surge of anxiety. while jayce's mind can follow his partner's down any road when it comes to matters of intellect, he knows there's still certain areas he may never be able to understand. viktor can more than take care of himself - and if there's somewhere in this town he can retreat to for whatever solace he needs, if he can just nonchalantly walk away from his death as if there wouldn't be people worried sick about him, then. that's a relief. really, it is.

( he thinks about laughing hysterically. he thinks about screaming. he thinks about maybe finally taking that long-delayed plunge off a roof just to see what the fuss is about, since that club seems to be so fucking popular these days. )

in the end, jayce just bites his tongue hard, rolls up his sleeves, and gets back to work. what else is there to do while he waits? ]

CLOSED TO OCTAVIAN ❯

[runeing]

[ there on the floor, spots dancing across his vision, his lungs feeling both wet and burning at the same time, viktor manages one last message — spoken in a weak voice, interspersed with coughs, he sends it to octavian: the second theory... seems to be correct. do not let anyone near the hexcore. i will... see you in a week. i hope.

(the second theory, of course, is his hypothesizing about the way aldrip treats him: theory one is that it is keeping him alive, not letting his state worsen to the point of death; theory two is that it will let him die, only to bring him back, rinse and repeat.)

true to his word, exactly a week from that, he wakes in his laboratory again — and where once, he would have got up and gone back to work, there is something else to do, now. he grabs his cane and his coat, and walks the distance separating his workspace from octavian's, knocks on the door, three rapid taps once he makes it there. ]

kicks my feet up

[manifestering]

[All things considered it isn't a message Octavian is surprised to get; slightly surprised that it's Viktor's voice, rough as it sounds, although he supposes with the mention of the Hexcore it makes sense that he wouldn't want to leave a "paper trail" where someone could realize it's here.

But other than that it's not a surprise. Octavian listens to it and does nothing especially dramatic; Viktor would not want him to rush to his side, if he would even get there in time, and leaving a lengthy message in return is not Octavian's style. He will miss Viktor if the second theory is wrong on the point of returning in a week, this is true, but that much he will keep to himself until Viktor is hopefully in front of him again.

In the end he doesn't actually reply at all, but nevertheless he will look after the core, no one will ever get into his safe. Part of him wonders if the thing reacts when Viktor dies, but he made a promise, and the safe remains locked.

Three taps on the door can only be Viktor (because Charles or Root would knock and also shout something at him, bless them), and he leaves what he's doing to answer the door and gesture Viktor inside. Only once he's there and Octavian has shut the door does he turn and wordlessly hold out an arm for Viktor to come here, come here, dying is terrible, come here.]