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also. when it comes to vander and silco. the thing is, i don't like at all conceptualizing vander as the good guy tm and silco as the bad guy tm. they were both community leaders, right? really committed to the independence of zaun. sevica turns from one to the other. which makes me think that vander had 110% the capacity of being as cruel as silco, and that silco had 110% the capacity of being as benevolent as vander. like. there was a time in which they fought alongside each other. given that if anything silco is extremely commited to his ideals i feel like it had to be vander the one who had to change.

but also more generally i'm just picturing them being young. vander probably learned to negotiate thanks to seeing silco bullshitting his way out of fights. silco probably learned to be intimidating thanks to watching vander in fights. i just sdfghjkjhgfdsfg

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Drew Viktor and Jayce from Arcane season 2.

(Meant to put 2024 not 2004 LMFAO)

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amnesia/reincarnation AU where post finale jayce wakes up in an alt. universe where Viktor never left Zaun (and rio is a cat LMAO)- jayce basically sleeps on his doorstep for a week begging to be heard out whilst viktor is like 'what is WITH this weird homeless piltie'

bonus:

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Stumbles through the door confused and dazed ,, I ,,,, I like cowboys a lot

Which means Jayvik Cowboy AU okayyy ,,,,,I have like 15 million jayvik wips but this is the only thing I managed to finish.. I like cowboys I dunno

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Can I assume your friends call you Doc Ock? — My friends actually call me V. My enemies call me Doc Ock.

...and then jayce b. parker got thrown around the room for 20 minutes and didn't even try to help ekko morales steal the hextechmax head scientist viktor octavius's computer

thank you twitter user LEXHTTPS111 for planting the seed of doc ock viktor in my brain. i will be thinking about this for the next seven years.

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Arcane but it's on Snapchat

Took this idea from this and a friend-

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thinking about all the "failure" timelines that must've existed in arcane.

the timeline where mage viktor fucks up the rescue and jayce freezes to death as a child. mage viktor has no idea what happens in that one after that point, he never goes back to it.

the timeline where vi dies in the apartment explosion and jayce commits suicide, and hextech gets invented a decade or so later by someone else entirely. sometimes mage viktor looks in to see if the different innovations offer any value, but only rarely.

the timeline where viktor accidentally drowns in childhood. mage viktor visits that one sometimes, a mysterious figure who appears and disappears from jayce's life at various intervals, at least until he arrives at one point and finds only a freshly dug grave.

the timeline where viktor and jayce are at odds with one another, rivals turned sneering foes, viktor using a far simplified iteration of hextech to enact a clumsier dream of evolution, while jayce rots alive in the gilded halls of piltover's elite -- barely recognizable as themselves.

the timeline where viktor never leaves zaun, and one day encounters a disgraced former academy student standing on a bridge, and offers him a space in his own modest workshop instead. they never invent hextech, but they do find ways to keep viktor alive as the years progress. after a while mage viktor can't bring himself to keep going back to that timeline either, though it's for different reasons than usual.

the timeline where jayce and viktor's hextech is more aggressive from the start, and they accidentally speedrun the glorious evolution in just a few short years, before either of them even fully understand what's going wrong. barely cognizant of the disaster before it swallows everyone whole and doesn't even leave viktor behind.

the timeline where they never manage to get more than a few flashy tricks and gimmicks out of the project, and viktor dies of his illness, and jayce lives the rest of his life as a deeply unhappy man running his family's factory and dreaming of hooded figures with familiar silhouettes.

there are just so many possibilities!

also thinking about the timelines that don't exist.

like the timeline where jayce destroys the hexcore and lets viktor die.

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In case anyone was having a good day, a single frame of viktor’s face in the hex goop flashes in over his face under the hood in the opening credits/intro.

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Jayvik sleeping in the lab headcannons

Jayce and viktor put two couches in the lab as soon as they get their first sponsor. They are placed directly next to each other end to end with the arms touching.

Jayce’s couch is wide with deep cushions that squish under his weight and an obnoxious vintage pattern. It has a thick pillow on both ends, and the thinnest little throw blanket with a cheesy print on it that his mom gave him to put on a couch when he moved into his first dorm. It looks like he could sleep with his head on either end, but he always sleeps with his head next to Viktor and he uses the other pillow to prop his legs up cause his feet stick up over the arm cause he’s so tall.

Viktor’s couch is solid gray and very firm. It has no cushions on the back, just all four of his pillows to use as back support if you sit which no one ever does. The blanket is thick and fuzzy and a rich royal blue and looks like it could save you from a winter storm. The couch has a relatively low back so that viktor can leave his cane and his leg brace resting against the back within arms reach, and he hangs his back brace over the back as well.

Viktor keeps a sleep mask in the desk closest to their couch corner because it was always dark in zaun and he can’t sleep in the light still.

Viktor takes ten minutes to get in the “right spot” where he leg and back and all his other shitty joints are supported by a pillow or his blanket but as soon as he stays still for 30 seconds he’s immediately out. He always leaves his right toes out of the blanket.

Jayce sleeps on his face. Viktor is convinced that he will suffocate and has gone out of his way to find him a baby pillow that is breathable. Jayce thinks that viktor’s worry is cute. Jayce’s arm sticks off the side of the couch and rests on the floor.

Viktor sleeps like the dead, only shifting minutely, but with his mouth parted and the occasional snore. Jayce fucking spins in his sleep. He falls asleep on his face but where he wakes up is completely variable. Viktor once had to slap him awake because he spun around completely and had his stinky toes next to viktor’s face. Viktor was not amused but Jayce thought it was fucking hilarious.

When they finally start dating, Jayce moves his couch to be directly across from Viktor’s with just enough space for Viktor to get onto his couch. They fall asleep holding hands and Jayce gets lulled off by Viktor’s even breathing.

When a deadline is coming up, they shack up in the lab for weeks at a time, the takeout boxes piling up and fresh clothes only brought in by Ximena who insists on washing their clothes at least every three days.

Jayce keeps one of his retainers in the bathroom next to Viktor’s contact solution. His mom yelled at him about how expensive his braces were when he admitted that he was spending a lot of time sleeping at the lab without one.

Their toothbrushes sit in a cup together, Jayce’s is red and Viktor’s is blue. They share a tube of toothpaste.

Viktor’s deodorant stays next to the bathroom sink. Jayce’s stays at his desk so he can use it every few hours cause he produces too much heat.

The shower has a single XL sized bottle of old spice body wash that is labeled “Vanquish”, a bottle of 2 in 1 shampoo labeled “Giant Squid”, and a small bottle of conditioner scented like honey and coconuts. Jayce sometimes opens it just to stand under the water and smell, imagining that he can shove his nose into Viktor’s honey scented hair. Viktor notices that it has been moved every time Jayce takes a shower, but only says something the one time Jayce tries it in his hair— “Jayce, that conditioner is 10 gold. Please do not use it.” He secretly enjoys the fact that Jayce smells like him all day and tries not to pay attention to the fact that Jayce has a silly smile on his face all day and seems to have a hard time focusing on things.

Before they get their couches, there is simply a pile of blankets and pillows under one of the spare desks. They take turns napping there when the afternoons are too long and they didn’t sleep well the night before. Viktor always encourages Jayce to go first, some excuse about being in the middle of an equation or something. Secretly it’s because he adores the feeling of the pillows and blankets being warm and smelling like Jayce when he gets in. Little does Viktor know that Jayce also likes the idea of Viktor cocooned in his warmth and his scent and is perfectly happy to watch him cuddle up after him.

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I know in the original concept the creators imagined Viktor having both of his parents

But I can’t shake the image of a single mother from my mind (perhaps because there is so many single parents over here. Vander, Silco, Singed, Ximena, Jinx and Sevika to some extent)

Have you guys ever thought about Viktor’s mom?

Who was this woman? What was she like?

Who was this woman whose response to her baby coming to her saying that he wanted to go to the academy to learn is “say less baby” and make/buy him a academy uniform and probably instructed him to “fake it until he made it”?

Did she cross the bridge with him, fixed his brand new tie and, after kissing him in his forehead, in an accent thicker than his, reassured him by saying:

“When you’re going to change the world, don’t ask for permission”

She clearly had fate in his intelligence to send him there with only his cane, an uniform, a thought and a prayer

How much of her son is her doing? He is confident about his intelligence, sure in his capabilities as an scientist and engineer.

Was it her doing? Did she look at her very tiny boy with his twisted leg and think to herself “I’m going to encourage this passion! My baby will never doubt how smart he is even if he has none of the resources of topside!”

Were those same encouragements that backfired later as Viktor’s internalized ableism? After all, even his mother only valued his intelligence, so maybe…

Did she die before she could notice? Before she could grab him by his bony shoulders so much like her own and shake sense in to him? “My idiot boy, you are as precious to me as you always where. With or without your smarts I would love you regardless with all my heart”

Would she even say that? Or was the internalized ableism that Viktor displayed also present in his mother? Perhaps a even more explicit form of it maybe.

Was their condition genetic? Did Viktor learn to walk with a cane by copying what his mother did with hers?

Did she have a mind like his but never had the resources to chase her aspirations?

Did she want to be a scientist as well? An engineer? Perhaps a doctor even

Did she craft Viktor’s very first cane with half ass knowledge, some drift wood, blood, tears and all the love she could give since she could not afford the cane much less a doctor for her baby?

Did she know about Singed?

Did he tell her about the strange man he meet at the caves?

Viktor, does your mother know that you are creating drugs with a strange man in the fissures?

Where was your mom? Why were you all alone?

Her baby was alone, playing by himself with a tiny boat he made.

Was she at work? Did Viktor had to spend long periods of time alone as his mom was out trying to make the ends meet?

Was this job, possibly the mines, that made her prioritize encouraging his intellect instead of reaffirming to him that he is already enough? Something not out of malice but out of limited time together?

If you only see your baby every morning before work and every night after it how would you know that he is starting to believe himself broken and imperfect?

Did she get to know Singed? Did she approve of her son being his apprentice for a while? If she did what is wrong with her????

Was she like “any knowledge is good knowledge! Go and make some illegal drugs honey. Just come back home in time for dinner.” ?

Were she in another timeline, in another possibility, the Herald to Ximena’s Defender?

Is there a reality were she is the one to rise as machine infused in flesh because she expected the Talis boy to help save her son only to watch his face get plastered everywhere while her baby rotted in his shadow?

Did this version of you, mother of Viktor, become infuriated when that same Talis boy came to you with condolences in his lips and a clear broken heart with the weight of “if onlys” on his large shoulders when your baby succumbed to his illness?

Did that enrage you?

“YOU DONT GET TO MOUR MY VIKTOR! YOU WERE THE ONE THAT LET HIM DIE! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP HIM, MAN OF PROGRESS, BUT INSTEAD YOU LET YOUR EGO INFLATE TO THE SIZE OF A ZEPPELIN WHILE MY BABY STRUGGLED TO BREATH ! ALL IN THE NAME OF THE PROFITS OF THE CITY THAT STOLE HIS BREATHE IN THE FIRST PLACE”

Did you rip your own heart of your ribs so you couldn’t feel this heart break no more? So you could have a clear mind as you vowed that your Glorious Evolution would make damn sure that no mother from Zaun would suffer the same fate?

Would you have loved Jayce as your son in law in any other circumstance?

Who were you mother of Heralds?

What’s your name?

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Jayce LITERALLY watching his love for Mel turn into his love for Viktor with all of Mel and Vik’s parallels. The scene where Jayce is in the cave and hallucinates Mel on the other side of the fire, and then it flickers and she’s gone and Viktor is there instead is a visual representation of Jayce’s love swaying towards Viktor in a more romantic why. This is later backed up but his line that he has been confused, this line has always felt a bit strangely placed until I thought about the cave scene again. He was confused about his feelings and if he could feel them bc of what he saw in the AU and what Viktor is going to do to Piltover.

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the sillies

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first kiss

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Meljayvik ramblings, with trans Viktor:

I think it would be funny if meljayvik were together but kept it strictly meljay and jayvik and were super scheduled and cordial about it, melvik barely interacting

UNTIL

Viktor is particularly grouchy and frowny in the lab one morning, making more snappy comments than usual, but otherwise normal. Mel comes into the lab to drape over Jayce's back where he's sat, more touchy than usual and struggling not to pout, when she thinks no one's looking.

Jayce feels his 'be a good boyfriend' senses tingling and squints back and forth between Mel and Viktor, thinking for a moment before sucking in a breath.

Jayce: oh no

MelVik: what?

Jayce: we need to go. Viktor, get your stuff. Mel, tell Elora to clear your schedule, this is an emergency.

MelVik (irritated): wtf, why?

Jayce: you've synced up.

MelVik: ???

Jayce: ummm... you're both... menstruating right now, and we need to go home so I can get Viktor his favourite blanket and that hot waterbottle you like Mel, and I have a stock of the chocolates from that dessert place that you both like different things from, and then I can make some mac and cheese and do the good footrubs and we can watch that documentary you like Mel and the soap opera you like Viktor and-

And so after that Viktor and Mel spend so much time chilling out together on Jayce's couch while he runs around getting them stuff like a period genie, that it's pretty natural that they fall into a relationship too

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🦋"Playground"🦋

that one gif haunts me to this day

(1 | 2)

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Have a snippet from the mutual pining while fucking scenario, before the fucking actually starts. This is in the early years of the time jump between 1.03 and 1.04.

He notices the red-purple bruise under the hinge of his jaw while he's checking his tie in the mirror. Ah.

He usually insists on no marks in places that can be seen. Not out of shame. Maybe it had started out that way, years ago, but these days he just likes the thrill of having something private, a part of his life no one else can access.

His partners are usually more obedient, but this guy had gotten a bit carried away. And he did have a very nice mouth.

He considers covering it. But then, why should he? He's just going to the lab. Jayce probably won't even notice.

Jayce notices immediately.

Jayce joins him at the lab bench with two cups of tea: a first one for himself, and a fresh one for Viktor, to replace the half-drunk one that's gone cold at his elbow while he tinkered with the Hexgate prototype.

He sees Jayce's gaze track immediately to the bruise, catches the flicker of an urge to touch before he contains it. "Are you okay? You've got--" He can see the pieces fall into place. "Oh! Oh. You were with someone last night."

"It has been known to happen," he says evenly.

"Oh! Hey, no, I mean-- Um. Good for you." He is an assiduous cataloger of Jayce Expressions, and Jayce's face is flicking through a truly astonishing array of them now.

He can't keep staring. The tiny, fiddly screws on the baseplate of the oscillator are a good distraction from whatever continues to happen on Jayce's face.

"So, um..." Jayce starts up again after a minute. "Are you, um...are you into them?" He is also an assiduous cataloger of Jayce Tones of Voice, but this one is indecipherable.

"It's not like that. It's just sex. We didn't even exchange names."

"Oh."

He sneaks a glance out of the corner of his eye at what Jayce's face is doing and that is...also indecipherable.

"Jayce. Surely you know that there are places where this happens."

"I've...never really thought about it before."

Of course he hasn't. Jayce enters a room and all heads turn to him. He's never had to go out of his way to find that kind of attention.

He goes back to focusing on the screws, and after another minute Jayce says, "Do you, um. Do that often?"

He could stop the conversation right here. If he tells Jayce this is none of his business he's sure he will never bring it up again. But...he is an assiduous cataloger of Jayce Tones of Voice. And Jayce's tone isn't judgment or disgust. It's curiosity.

"From time to time," he says. Whenever the skin hunger gets to be more than he can handle, or he can tell it will be the right distraction from pain.

"With strangers." Jayce still seems to be processing this as an unfamiliar concept.

"Yes."

"With men."

He's not quite sure how Jayce made that leap, but why lie? "Yes."

"Is that...safe?"

It's not the question he expected. "I have strategies in place to mitigate the risks."

Always pick men who want him to be in control, who will let him steer the interaction into something he can work with, positions that won't leave his leg screaming the next morning, or, if he's lucky, even betray it as a weakness at all. In the years since he realized that there were people who desired him, he's gotten increasingly good at picking out those kind of men, cultivated a persona that will draw them toward him: haughty, cold, expecting to be served; channeling every rich Piltie who ever looked down their nose at him; sitting draped on a couch in the kind of bar where these things happen, demanding someone go fetch him a drink, of which he will take only a few small sips before suggesting they get out of here. If he can get them interested before they notice the cane he can usually get what he wants.

"Oh," Jayce has said again.

"Is this different from how you thought of me?" Jayce certainly wouldn't be the first, and he wouldn't hold it against him.

"No! I mean, um, I haven't--" Jayce clears his throat abruptly. "Haven't thought of you, um, any...way."

He sneaks a glance at Jayce and he has color high on his cheeks, staring intently at the notes from yesterday's testing that Viktor knows he has already reviewed. Jayce is making a new face, one he's never seen before.

Huh. He'll have to file that away to turn over in his head later.