Okay, but old man mage Viktor from Arcane getting overwhelmed sometimes from the EVERYTHING of his situation, and just needing a breather every now and then. He hates having to do it, doesn't feel he deserves it, but is also VERY aware that under no circumstances can he allow his mind to unravel. There are too many timelines he still needs to try and help, and also he's just... too powerful. He would be so, so dangerous to the multiverse if he fell to madness.
So, every now and then, he takes a short trip into one of the more... unusual worlds. Ones where things are WILDLY different but also somehow more stable than the timelines more similar to his own, and don't tend to need outside interference to prevent another him from happening.
(They're the settings for the various LoL character skins and settings. For the sake of this post, picture timelines and alternate universes in this setting as a rope that’s been partially unraveled, and then each of the cords that form the rope are also unraveled. Each different setting/universe (ex: Arcane vs old LoL lore vs the High Noon skins setting) is one of the big cords of the rope. The unraveled fibers that create those cords/universes in the first place are that setting’s various timelines. Mage Viktor is working to save as many of the fibers in his own cord as possible, but he is aware of and able to travel to other the other cords/worlds that make up the rope, but he is not responsible for ensuring things don’t got tits-up in these worlds the way they do in his own. (And yes, every single LoL character is somewhere in every single setting, even if they didn’t get an official skin in that set. So there’s a High Noon Jayce, Deathsworn Ekko, Crystal Rose Viktor, and so on and so forth. Because, through fandom, all things are possible, so jot that down.))
It's nice for Mage Viktor to just... exist in these other worlds for a bit, generally speaking. Some of them are also terrible, yes (side-eyeing Battlecast Viktor so hard), but most of them are pretty decent overall. It's reassuring to see worlds that aren’t threatened by him and his Jayce's cycle, and interesting to see how varied they can be. It's interesting to see such overt variations of the people and places he knows so well, and it reminds him some of why he keeps going.
Anyway, lately he's been visiting the setting that contains the official main-setting LoL lore as it was prior to Arcane. The Machine Herald has caught his interest, not just because he actually figured out a way to save himself (and comes from a Zaun that's ALWAYS been an independent entity from Piltover), but because he made his own version of the hexcore. Only his isn't, you know.
It... feels somewhat familiar to the senses Mage!Viktor has via the Arcane, but it's in the same way the Machine Herald's mask is familiar in comparison to Mage!Viktor's face as the Arcane Herald. Similar in base and concept, but you'd never mistake one for the other. Also, he can't be sure (which in itself is intriguing), but it feels a bit like the Machine Herald's hexcore might be... amused? By Mage!Viktor? He's not sure if it's actually aware (or sapient) in the way the hexcore of his setting is, but it's got a- a feel to it. Like it's amused by the mage. Fond of Machine Herald Viktor and the various tasks and tests he uses it for. Content to be what it is, even as it maintains a steady connection to the Arcane. An inherent reminder of mage Viktor’s own failings in his own universe.
And that’s what this setting really is, at least for Mage!Viktor: a double-edged blade of comfort and pain. Because, on the one hand, here's a world where ‘he's’ not only not at risk of, you know. Destroying everything. No, this Viktor's also still helping people. More slowly, on a much smaller scale, but he's still got humanity's best interests in that new heart he built for himself. And his version of the hexcore is a stable, useful tool that he wields comfortably. It's reassuring to see. A relief, even.
On the other hand, it's also extremely painful to watch this world, because it underscores how badly he himself messed up. Where Viktor has potentially huge number of people/a naturally-formed cult/religion (ie, the Church of the Gloriously Evolved) that considers him a prophet of their goddess, and he just… nopes out of that mess (in stark contrast to the Mage’s own commune, and how badly he failed them). And it's agonizing to watch the Machine Herald and Jayce Giopara locked in their ongoing conflict, even though the old mage can tell how much they miss each other. And, honestly?
All this Is actually one of the reasons he's been visiting it so often recently. This setting is reassuring, but not too comfortable to be in (because, let's be real, it’s amazing this man hasn’t been crushed to a fine paste yet with the amount of guilt he’s carrying, no way he believes that he's allowed to be truly happy until he's done absolutely EVERYTHING he can to help, and such a time (if one ever comes) where his constant oversight and intervention are no longer necessary to prevent another timeline like his own)).
Only problem is, while the Machine Herald isn't anywhere NEAR as powerful as mage Viktor, he's still a VIKTOR.
Ie, an unconventional super-genius.
Not only that, but this is a Viktor who grew up with hextech, and who potentially helped his own Jayce develop synthetic hextech, since the original hexgems were discovered six hundred years ago by Clan Ferros (using new hexgem lore for this, just because I don’t want to deal with All That in regards to the Brackern, they’re morally dubious enough (what with worsening the Zaun Grey, how they are produced in Zaun but only available for sale in Piltover, and Clan Ferros’s monopoly and Clan Ferros-ness about everything regarding them) without them being the condensed souls of sapient stone scorpions. Crystals are generally and historically a been naturally-limited resource anyway, since they were hard to get and in limited supply, so that’s what’s going on here, too). Meaning that this Viktor's been around magic and hextech his whole life. Meaning he can tell the signs of it having been used in an area in ways that versions of him more similar to mage Viktor can't, and that more divergent versions of Viktor in general haven't had a real chance to learn, since they have their own variations on hexgems and their use and history (not to mention that the mage hasn't visited their dimensions as often). And, being the vaguely (but also reasonably) paranoid bastard he is, the Machine Herald sets up some traps for his mysterious mystical intruder.
It should be noted, Machine Herald Viktor in no way has the power to actually hold mage Viktor here. I love the Machine Herald best of all the Viktors, but I’m under no delusions about where they both land on the power scale of all the iterations of all the different LoL characters. (Though the Machine Herald himself doesn’t know what he's actually up against, naturally.) So his trap acts less as the impassible barrier it was intended to be, and acts more similarly to closing a sliding glass door that someone's about to walk through while they aren't looking, but not locking it. So mage Viktor basically walks face-first into the Machine Herald’s trap, bumps his nose, and is so surprised that he drops onto the visible, material plane long enough for the Machine Herald to show up and start asking questions. (And, to be fair to mage Viktor, part of this is because no one's actively surprised him in an unspeakably long time; he'd half thought it couldn't happen anymore.)
Anyway, not quite sure exactly what happens next (as of this moment), but the two end up talking. They’re Viktors, after all, and everyone knows that Viktors are inherently curious creatures that are drawn to potential intellectual stimulation.
One thing I know for sure is that the Machine Herald judges Mage Viktor very hard, because why would you rely almost fully on magic when augmentation is an option????
Less likely to end the world.
This is rather annoying for mage Viktor because, 1) that's true, and 2) he can't even bring up the Machine Herald and Jayce Giopara’s relationship issues as a counterargument to Machine Herald Viktor having his own mistakes, because mage Viktor managed to ensure his potential relationship with his own Jayce is never going to happen.
It's extremely aggravating.
Anyway, something something, mage Viktor nudges the Machine Herald to take the actions he does in Path of Champions (trust Viktor/reconciliation ending), something, Vikjayce reconcile, something something something, Vikjayce notice they have three spare hands (counting the hexclaw) between them and use them to grab mage Viktor's hands. Something something, they bang like whoa man, something something, mage Viktor’s still doing his work in his own setting, but he’s also part of the Vikjayce relationship now. Vikjaycvik, if you will.
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