local-extraterrestrial

[local-extraterrestrial]

This this this THIS.

I see everything you're saying, but I'm particularly caught up on his leg. I wrote a whole-ass analysis on this at some point but I've lost it somewhere in the depths of my notes. Alas. Either way: I refuse to believe this man would ever be able to walk properly, let alone this soon.

In the impact frame of his leg breaking we can clearly see that this is not just a complete breakage of both his tibia and fibula (bones in the lower leg, connecting the knee to the ankle), but also likely a compound fracture.

[A compound fracture (also known as an “open fracture”) is a bone fracture that is accompanied by breaks in the skin, causing the broken ends of bone to come into contact with the outside environment.]

While we don't see either of the bones strictly sticking out of his leg (which I like to joke is because they would've had to add a gore warning if they did that), we do see the bones pushing at the muscle and skin of his calf, definitely causing a degree of muscle damage that would take a long time to heal. Another thing that points me in the direction of a compound fracture is the fact we later see he has an open wound on roughly the spot where the bone would've pieced the skin. But that is just guess work.

And even then, we see he has to manually realign the bones. Which, in case you don't know, is something you should never do with a complete or compound fracture. But he doesn't exactly have a choice, does he? This kind of fracture requires surgery and literal metal rods and plates to align and stabilise the bone. And this is two of them. (Also one thing that haunts my nightmares is the fact that to set a fracture that bad without any sort of surgery, he likely would've had to pull the bones apart before pushing them back together. Geez, my own leg hurts just thinking about it.)

Meaning, the bones are definitely misaligned and would under no circumstances heal right.

And to make matters worse, the impact frame also shows us that the bones also splintered upon impact, likely made even worse by him having to so indelicately realign the bone. Which not only means that the pieces missing would've made the recovery process even longer, but that those splinters are likely still in his leg. As in, in there. In the muscle. Shrapnel-style. Making every single movement of the muscles EXCRUCIATING. That's literally a bunch of small knives in his muscles. Horrible. And that might have contributed to the infection we see developing. His muscles and tendons are no doubt fucked to hell and back.

Add to all that the fact that, due to the placement and cause of the break, this might've also messed up his knee, likely a displacement of the patella (kneecap). Messed up shit, really.

In conclusion, Jayce Talis shouldn't have been able to walk with any semblance of a normal gait, even with the brace. This man needs a doctor ASAP. And physical therapy.

Also on the note of PTSD, the incident with the blizzard definitely caused a lot of trauma. I like to think that cold temperatures tend to trigger him so he really doesn't like winter.

And my personal headcanon is that the whole Arcane glitching thing leaves him with migrane-like symptoms and a general sensitivity to magic and shit like that.

Overall, OP your brain is magnificent. Hope you get all the writing and/or art inspiration you ever wish for.

Smth smth i need more fics/discussion about disabled Jayce. I'm high on the disabled jayce cocain, im sorry

I know this man had diarrhea for days because he was eating fucking radioactive salamanders (that I don't think he even cooked properly) and drinking unclean water. His guts are fucked. He must've drastically lost weight, as well as having hair loss and early grey hair. He has ptsd. Smell of a raw meat OR rot just sends him into panic. NOT TO MENTION THAT HE ALREADY MOST SURELY HAD PTSD FOR NEARLY DYING IN A BLIZZARD AND THINKING THAT HIS MOM DIED SO I BET HE ALSO HAS A SEASONAL DEPRESSION. Light sensitivity... Twiches... Chronic pain....

And imagine Viktor WHO LITERALLY KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO SUDDENLY FIND YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF A RAPID HEALTH DECLINE trying to just... be there. Tell him what he himself needed to hear all these years. Helps him to adjust to a new reality of not being able... well generally not being able bodied anymore

I want to explode them both.

[local-extraterrestrial]

This. THIS. OP your brain is magnificent.

But I also have one thing to add to the point that season 2 Viktor isn't quite... Viktor. The fact that he doesn't even glance at Jayce's injuries. He doesn't even seem to notice them, or if he did, he doesn't acknowledge them. And, keep in mind I haven't watched season 1 in a bit but, the Viktor we knew cared about Jayce a lot. Definitely enough to notice the BLOODIED BANDAGES WRAPPED AROUND HALF OF THE GUY'S TORSO. And, furthermore, past Viktor would've noticed the fact that Jayce winces as he stands up. He's clearly in pain and Viktor doesn't even react.

So yeah. That ain't quite Viktor anymore.

I am literally so baffled by how so many people think the Viktor/Jayce separation in Arcane S2 was:

1. Rushed

2. Deserved, because Jayce ignored Viktor’s wishes and that’s what Viktor was reacting to

3. A choice Viktor was making, literally at all

Let’s go through these one at a time but they’re all related.

1. Yes it’s rushed. That’s because of time constraints per episode, sure, but forget that for a second. Viktor getting out of his goo cocoon and immediately leaving while still STARK NAKED is weird. It’s very weird. It’s meant to be a five alarm fire, red klaxons blaring, levels of really fucking WEIRD. The guy is LITERALLY NAKED he just walks out, barefoot, into the Undercity.

It’s weird and it’s meant to seem weird and indeed, inhuman, because that is not Viktor. Those are not Viktor’s choices. That is not who Viktor is. And the fact it is so rushed is part of the warnings, and meant to show us just how much something is very very wrong.

2. Tying into Point 1, if this was a real disagreement between Jayce and Viktor as we knew them through S1, Viktor would have stopped to get some damn trousers and shoes. I know it sounds like I’m joking but legitimately, there is no (or very little) conscious human thought going through Viktor’s head in that scene because a human being choosing to leave their partner of years over legitimate disagreements would have stopped to get fucking dressed before they left. That is not Viktor.

And to briefly launch into a defense of Jayce, he has spent literal years with Viktor doing science to address Viktor’s failing health. He knew about Viktor’s fear of dying. They’d both dedicated themselves to hextech in the hopes it would better people’s lives but the more selfish goal at the heart of that research for both of them was that it would save Viktor’s life.

Viktor only told Jayce one (1) time to destroy the hexcore and he didn’t explain why at all. Jayce didn’t know about the self experimentation. He didn’t know about Skye’s death because Viktor never told him.

Jayce spent years working on a cure for Viktor and in a moment of blind panic used their research to save his loved one’s life based on what 99% of his interactions with Viktor with one (1) outlier would have told him that this is what Viktor would have wanted, which was to live, and using their research to make sure he lives has always not only been on the table, it’s literally been the main focus of their overarching research goals minus one weird and unexplained thing Viktor said once while a zillion other things were going on in Jayce’s life.

Jayce using their research to save Viktor wasn’t a conscious defiance of Viktor’s wishes, it’s literally what 99.99% of Viktor’s wishes that Jayce knew about would have pointed towards. He was as far as he knew enacting Viktor’s wishes, the wishes Viktor had for years upon years. Without knowing about Sky, Viktor’s one request to destroy the hexcore was a weird and out of character request that had no explanation. It didn’t hold up when compared to everything else Jayce has ever known and experienced with Viktor.

3. Whew, anyway, the bigger point is that Viktor is a Hexcore puppet at this point so it doesn’t even matter if he had legitimate grievance against Jayce. He’s not leaving because of grievances, legitimate or otherwise. Viktor would never leave Jayce like that (or while STARK NAKED).

Literally in one of the last scenes we got that gave us a glimpse of Viktor’s inner life and motivations, he told Singed that Jayce would understand and stay by his side no matter his choices or transformations.

Singed is skeptical. But Viktor WAS RIGHT. Jayce didn’t even blink, didn’t hesitate at all to hug him after he was transformed so drastically. But my point is: real Viktor was actively worried about losing Jayce. Real Viktor would not take off like that.

And in one last defense of Jayce, I think the reason he just lets Viktor go there is that he has always respected Viktor’s autonomy.

Jayce notes in S1 that Viktor would often disappear without warning. He never tried to control Viktor’s movements. That’s what makes Jayce yelling at him for going to the Undercity so shocking to both of them in S1.

Jayce is also traumatized and shell shocked himself when Viktor leaves. He’s not prepared and he doesn’t argue. He doesn’t do what he probably should which is prevent Viktor from leaving (literally naked and barefoot!) because it doesn’t occur to him to control Viktor’s movements but also because he’s in shock.

But he really should because again, that’s not Viktor. That’s not Viktor making a conscious choice, that is another power and impulse puppeting what is left of Viktor, using his tenuous connections to his identity like his guilt over Sky and his/his + Sky’s overarching desire to help people in the Undercity.

It has nothing to do with Jayce. Jayce’s choices are not why Viktor is leaving. And the real Viktor would never leave Jayce under such abrupt and INHUMAN circumstances.

We are meant to be as alarmed and confused as Jayce was. It is a part of a pile of evidence that something is very wrong with Viktor and indeed, the Viktor we knew is not the one in charge of his actions right now. How much of him is even left in there is what remains to be seen, and if who he was can ever come back.