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.

Comments

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.]

[runeing]

[ his plan had been to change nothing — continue on as if nothing had happened, pick up his projects from where they'd been left... only, he looks at the side of the room where some of his blood has permanently stained the leg of the table closest to where he collapsed, and the small space seems almost suffocating —

and so here he is.

here he is, and he's lifting his gaze from his drink up to vi when she speaks; his tone is painfully dry when he says, ]

Death.

[grappler]

[yep, she knew it.

she takes her own drink and leans on the table, shifting the glass a bit so that it sloshes in a circular pattern inside.]

Mmm. I don't think it's meant to be like anything we've ever experienced before... because we only experience it once.

[she tilts her head a bit, and shrugs.]

Well. Supposed to only experience it once. It can happen multiple times, here.

[runeing]

Yes, the only constant of life.

[ the fact that all of them inevitably hurtle towards one, single end — whether it comes sooner or later, well. the singular gift and curse of humanity, that.

become bigger than death, octavian had told him, and perhaps he can. perhaps he will. he will not let this place continue to play with him; and he will not let anyone else choose for him. not anymore. ]

Supposed to... isn't it funny? How we accept things, terrible things, simply because we believe they are supposed to happen. We call them a tragedy and refuse to try and change anything, to choose differently. [ to choose, yes. always. ] That no one has done it before does not mean it cannot be done.

[grappler]

[....................... she's. kind of heard this sort of speak before. she remembers the Viktor from the commune speaking in ways like this -- "fortune cookie", as Jinx called it. but she's going to act cool. totally chill about it.

👍

the only thing she does to show the side eye is that she's taking a very, very heavy drink of her drink right now.]

Oh, so you get existential after you die. I just get drunk.

[when does she not though--

she tilts her head.]

So... you're trying to cheat death now, or something?

[runeing]

Perhaps.

[ with a wry look at her, ] This is the first time I've died. I wouldn't have known how I get, before now.

[ existential? one way to describe it, certainly, but he finds unrelenting a better term — no longer accepting the defeat that comes with the death sentence his lungs had become.

still. he, too, takes a sip of his drink. ]

I am simply refusing to give in. I needed to see whether my hypothesis of this place was correct. Now that I know that it is... I can work with that.

[ that is not a no. ]

[grappler]

Well, now you can join the club with me, Cait and Silco. Though Silco died before he came here, so it's debatable on whether he counts or not.

[she's so casual about this... and somehow? Jinx hasn't died yet.

she's not going to point that out, though. maybe she shouldn't talk about her around Viktor right now.

she looks curiously at him when he keeps speaking.]

And what're you going to do to "work with it"?