#perhaps lonesome dreams has made me a sucker for cheesy pulp genres. but this one isnt cowboys so perhaps i have always been this way

[danidoesathing]

Oooh, yes! Viktor and Jayce not realizing that the other is "themself" until it's almost too late! (I think Viktor would realize first, after he temporarily dissipated the Hexcore's illusion of him: Jayce's heartbroken reaction and subsequent rage would likely make him go "wait, is this actually the Hexcore? He's way too upset at this". And meanwhile, Jayce only realizes that Viktor's actually Viktor just before or during the final battle-which doesn't really help, since it just flips his obsession onto the Machine Herald instead.)

It feels only right for Viktor to get his orange/gold color scheme back as he moves away from the Hexcore's influence. (The aesthetic I see for post-Odyssey Viktor is a bit of a merge between the conventional Machine Herald design and the big Cosmic form in the Astral Plane, with a Space Sci-Fi Aesthetic. (Like, a thinner Machine Herald with armor more akin to Sci-Fi Power Armor than knight armor, lit with glowing gold TRON lines, and a Hexcore that has Zero-G debris surrounding it. He's also weirdly ethereal in some ways-not in the "divinity/god" way, but in the "Spacefarer/alien emissary" way.)

Yeah, the Mage could've sent Viktor to an abandoned facility with Ora-but sending him to the crew of the Morning Star was way funnier. This way, Viktor gets the Ora, goes on the wildest trip of his life, and can't get out of Making Friends. (He does get Found-Family'd.)

(Also, if Viktor succeeds and shatters the Hexcore's influence, Jayce is going to be horrified at how he hurt his friends and family in the depths of his obsession.)

(Also, I think it would be fun to call this variant of your Herald of Tomorrow AU the "Herald of a Space-Faring Tomorrow" AU. It has an old timey, Pulp Sci-Fi feel to it in a way that feels fitting of Odyssey, and it ties into Viktor using Futuristic Space Technology to help the people of Zaun.)

exactly they are inherently tragic bitches who cannot communicate until its too late <3 viktor still has that slight hope but doesn't want to delude himself and risk everything for a very very slim maybe. It's not until the hexcore is interrupted/incapacitated that jayce realizes that it's actually the real viktor. and even then he's still thinking that he's under the influence of Ora rather than straight up possession, because he still cant figure out why would viktor be fighting him.

(idk if viktor would do the same "blast through the chest murder but not really murder" thing jayce does in either this or the base herald of tomorrow au, but i do think it'd be wonderfully fucked up if in the base au there was a scene like that. in the odyssey one, he might do it off the bat like jayce in the show, but the base au viktor wouldnt do it unless he got cornered. jayce is fully confident that viktor wouldnt hurt him until the hexclaw shoots right through his chest. utterly fucked up <3!!)

i do like the idea of taking the design parts of the Machine Herald (a version that of viktor that was built by himself, for himself with his own bare hands) but still keeping the primary design of the Arcane Herald (in sorta in the same way jayce giopara and jayce talis have inherently different designs. they're the same technically dude but still distinctly different). also a space sci-fi herald look would go hard no matter the context.

mage viktor: jayce usually gets sent to the hellscape pit to harden him and get through to him how awful this world is so he can kill the other me. and viktor you get uhhh [checks notes] sci-fi space dimension with a ragtag group of outlaws that you'll slowly come to trust and care for as you look for a way home.

viktor: fuck. cant you just send me to the pit

mage viktor: no. learn to rely on others