[The shut down of the Herald, of Viktor's whole sense of personhood, collapses like a dying star. Of course, that implosion is met by an equal opposite. Everything within Viktor sparks and combusts, outward, outward, and outward. His body is filled again with consciousness and he struggles within the husk of himself. Nerves flare and sensation cannot be distinguished between anguishing pain and peak pleasure. There is no good nor bad, there is only the intensity of feeling. Feeling does not always mean hurt.
He remembers who he is, he reaches for his face and presses down the mask there. Viktor knows it will not pull off, it has to return from where it came. Somehow, he knows this, it is instinctive, an animal impulse. He writhes his head, thrashing against himself, and the mask begins to crumple by his force of will for it to retract. It is like a bundle of tin paper being balled up and retreating. His face peels back into place, fuses together once more, and he tears at his mouth and nostrils. Suddenly, he needs to breathe-
Both peel and pop open, flesh unfusing. He gasps, ragged and suffocated. Eyes pop open next, vision blurry and purple, shimmer-shot from burst vessels clouding his sight. Blinking that away, letting it run down the sides of his face in tears, he remembers.
He looks down and sees Jayce. Dead. So obviously dead. And yet, he calls out to him, as if there is some sliver of a chance he'll get a response,]
Jayce..? [he knows there will be no answer. It crushes Viktor to know this. The depth of heartbreak he feels is worse than any pain he's felt in his short, agonizing life. He failed himself, he failed Sky, he failed Jayce. Yet, completely overwhelmed with despair more vast than any he's ever known, Viktor feels so grateful to feel anything at all.
Numbness had been worse.
At least like this, he can scream. He does so, loud and broken, clutching his forehead. Tears roll down the sharp angles of his nose and cheekbones and chin. They fall into Jayce's open chest. In his grief, Viktor loses track of time, it could have only been seconds or it could be hours. He just mourns overtop Jayce's lifeless body until his eyes finally peel open and... he sees the shimmer of his blood mixed with Jayce's wounds.
The anomaly within. It reacts. It reacts in patterns that Viktor recognizes. It grows. Self replicating in the same way it was also self destructive. His mind, it buzzes, it comes back alive. He tears into his own bottom lip with his teeth, drawing as much blood as he can as quickly as he can. The rest of him is winding metal, but inside- he has blood. Shimmer. Variant shimmer- Evolved shimmer-
Another test. He lets it drip from his mouth onto Jayce's wounds and they react further. Flesh grows in sinewy patterns, webs with circles between. Is this can heal his body to a working state-
Then all Viktor needs is to replace what he broke and reignite the whole engine.
If it's madness or delusion, Viktor can't care, not anymore. He stands from Jayce's corpse and rushes away. He needs some basic supplies. Tubes, pumps, and jumper cables-
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
He remembers who he is, he reaches for his face and presses down the mask there. Viktor knows it will not pull off, it has to return from where it came. Somehow, he knows this, it is instinctive, an animal impulse. He writhes his head, thrashing against himself, and the mask begins to crumple by his force of will for it to retract. It is like a bundle of tin paper being balled up and retreating. His face peels back into place, fuses together once more, and he tears at his mouth and nostrils. Suddenly, he needs to breathe-
Both peel and pop open, flesh unfusing. He gasps, ragged and suffocated. Eyes pop open next, vision blurry and purple, shimmer-shot from burst vessels clouding his sight. Blinking that away, letting it run down the sides of his face in tears, he remembers.
He looks down and sees Jayce. Dead. So obviously dead. And yet, he calls out to him, as if there is some sliver of a chance he'll get a response,]
Jayce..? [he knows there will be no answer. It crushes Viktor to know this. The depth of heartbreak he feels is worse than any pain he's felt in his short, agonizing life. He failed himself, he failed Sky, he failed Jayce. Yet, completely overwhelmed with despair more vast than any he's ever known, Viktor feels so grateful to feel anything at all.
Numbness had been worse.
At least like this, he can scream. He does so, loud and broken, clutching his forehead. Tears roll down the sharp angles of his nose and cheekbones and chin. They fall into Jayce's open chest. In his grief, Viktor loses track of time, it could have only been seconds or it could be hours. He just mourns overtop Jayce's lifeless body until his eyes finally peel open and... he sees the shimmer of his blood mixed with Jayce's wounds.
The anomaly within. It reacts. It reacts in patterns that Viktor recognizes. It grows. Self replicating in the same way it was also self destructive. His mind, it buzzes, it comes back alive. He tears into his own bottom lip with his teeth, drawing as much blood as he can as quickly as he can. The rest of him is winding metal, but inside- he has blood. Shimmer. Variant shimmer- Evolved shimmer-
Another test. He lets it drip from his mouth onto Jayce's wounds and they react further. Flesh grows in sinewy patterns, webs with circles between. Is this can heal his body to a working state-
Then all Viktor needs is to replace what he broke and reignite the whole engine.
If it's madness or delusion, Viktor can't care, not anymore. He stands from Jayce's corpse and rushes away. He needs some basic supplies. Tubes, pumps, and jumper cables-
He needs his stupid fucking electric truck.]