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[scienceofthearcane]

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You have reached Viktor. I'm sorry I can't receive your message right now. But if you leave it for me here, I'll return it as soon as I can.

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[scienceofthearcane]

[ No. He is not alright. He might be as far from alright as it is possible to be. ]

Something...happened to me. The time difference of how long it's been here in Folkmore, and the fact that it's been a year for me outside of it is just one of the many discrepancies.

[scalesbalance]

[ He's just talked to Steve Rogers about this: people leaving and reappearing. It's oddly timely which makes Arthur's concerns grow. ]

You went home?

What happened?

[scienceofthearcane]

[ Well, Arthur laid a truth bomb on him. So this would just be Viktor returning the favor. ]

The magical artifact that I had been studying but had since I watched it kill someone I had decided that day to have nothing more to do with it. I made my lab partner promise me that he would destroy it.

He didn't.

In fact when I regained consciousness, what I thought would be that same day, he had explained that he had fused it with me in an effort to save my life. We had worked together since we met in school together but I was devastated by what he had done, so I broke all ties with him and walked out of our lab that day.

From what I have said about the undercity, or Zaun, I am sure that you can imagine the squalor and poverty there. With the new ability to use magic that I had my first impulse was to help as many people as I could. So I found a way to make clean water and clean soil so that there was enough food growing for everyone and I healed as many people as I could.

But what I didn't realize until later was that by healing people's bodies I was taking control of their minds. It wasn't until my chest was destroyed in a magic blast that I came to the conclusion that at the root of all our problems was human emotion. And all those people that I 'healed' became both a hive mind and one that I entirely had control of. So I made all of those people into my personal puppet army of automatons.

It wasn't until much later that I learned the truth of what was happening to me. I was systematically giving up more and more of my humanity because unknown to me at first, the magic that I was making use of wanted to sterilize the entire world of all life. And I was helping it do just that. When the real horror of what was happening connected with the humanity that I was reminded of in the end, I chose to die in order to use a kind of sympathetic magic to unmake the magical anomaly that was fueling the Hex core.

I did not expect to survive. Much less be transported inter-dimensionally.

[scalesbalance]

[ It's certainly a bomb. It takes a while for Arthur to process the text, he reads over it and each time he does it makes the situation more clear and horrifying. While he can't be in Viktor's position he can say that he understands the sense of responsibility to other people and their well-being. ]

Viktor.

You were trying to do the right thing. I believe that.

People...things...entities take advantage of people who want to help others. I know you're going to hold yourself responsible and maybe to a fault--

But I'm glad you're back and not dead. I'm very sorry.

[scienceofthearcane]

[ Honestly, Viktor thinks that being dead would be preferable to this. ]

I hold myself responsible because there is always a choice when using any magic. It would be easy to blame everything on the hex core but it is more complicated than that.

[scalesbalance]

I understand what you're saying.

Power corrupts, whether it's exterior or interior. Maybe a bit of both. But what you can't forget is your intention-- what you were trying to do before all of it got away from you.

[ It's... difficult to say or convey. He knows the other man's emotional wounds must be raw still, his guilt feeling never-ending. Some days he can still picture some of the faces of souls he judged who he wasn't so sure of. ]

If it's complicated it's going to take time to feel through.

Maybe it can be undone? Could Thirteen have been trying to show you something she was also trying to prevent?

[scienceofthearcane]

[ You wouldn't know it Arthur but there was a bit of a scoffed laugh at that. ]

No. For all her ability to do whatever it is that she likes in her own pocket reality, she has no control over what happens in the rest of the multiverse and time travel into and out of it.

The only question I have now is how much the hex core is still affecting me and whether or not my being brought to a Nexus world at the intersection of many different universes is a good idea when I don't know if it's possible for anyone to kill me should that become necessary.

[scalesbalance]

I hear what you're saying. But I don't think Thirteen would bring you back only to put her world in jeopardy.

I think you need to worry about one thing at a time. I know it sounds stupid, impossible even.

But before you ask more questions you need to mourn what you lost.

[scienceofthearcane]

What do you mean by mourning what I've lost?

[ This text conversation is making Viktor give it the side eye. ]

[scalesbalance]

I'm probably not explaining myself clearly.

[ His world isn't magical nor is there healing as a readily available power for most people outside of hospitals. Viktor's world seems to revolve around magic as a chaotic element. ]

You said the people you helped became a hive mind. I'm sure those were people you spent time with-- it doesn't sound like your humanity was just taken, it was exploited.

You have to mourn that.

[scienceofthearcane]

[ Funny you should mention healing, because when you had a lifelong disability and chronic disease, there really isn't very much that could be healed outside of using magic and even when he was experimenting with it Viktor didn't understand until it was too late how much damage it could do. But Arthur is correct about magic being a chaotic force and one that did not concern itself with things like morality. ]

...my emotions have been overwhelming to me since I spent nearly a full year systematically losing them, but if I think too much about it, I feel so much regretful sadness. I knew every man, woman, and child by name.

[ Gods, there were children in his commune. ]


...and now... Now I don't know what to do to make sure I'm not going to hurt anybody.

[scalesbalance]

[ It's hard to perceive the difference in time considering Viktor's absence has only just been noted for him. It couldn't be a Trial-- just something Thirteen casually decided on a whim, it seems. It's cruel, to let residents nest here never to know when they might be flung straight out of Folkmore and back to their own world.

Arthur has heard of these occurrences before but never of someone coming back in a worse state. What could possibly be the purpose?

Is there one? ]

Are you worried the same thing will happen here as back home?

[scienceofthearcane]

[ In Viktor's case, at least, it makes perfect sense why Thirteen would bring him back to Folkmore in this state. He was a threat to his own world, and his invention of hextech had the ability to span many worlds in the multiverse. He was terrified of the magic using him as a conduit to sterilize all life. In a pocket reality, the amount of damage he would be able to do was limited since, right now, the only check on his power was a psychological one. ]

I was already tricked into doing so once, who's to say it won't happen again?

[scalesbalance]

You're one of the most intelligent and resourceful people that I've ever met. I'd say if you're determined for it not to happen again then it won't.

You have people here who want to help you too.

[ Not that he's trying to drag Viktor back into society after such experiencing not only such a drastic shift in time but also something terrible. Arthur feels for his friend even if he doesn't know how to demonstrate it just yet besides listening. ]

Anyway you know this place. It's rare that what you expect to happen actually does. Thirteen has her plans.

[scienceofthearcane]

You do have a point there. It's improbable to the point of being impossible that what you expect to happen ever does.

I will still be dependent on other's moral compass. What I thought was just following a logical thought pattern turned out to be horrific. I could recognize the horror later but while I was making the decisions that led to that horror I couldn't see where I would have gone wrong.

[scalesbalance]

That's the harsh reality of the place. The easy-to-earn currency just seems to be a perk.

Most people don't possess that level of hindsight either. Just... keep your spirits up even if it doesn't feel like the right course of action. I think the people that know you would say the same-- you don't come across as someone who has the intent of harming people.

[ That...sits a little strange with him. Arthur wonders if he has any real authority saying something like this but he ultimately decides to send the message and hope his intent comes across rather than any though of him being a questionable source. ]

Take time for yourself. Do you need anything?

[scienceofthearcane]

[ Did he need anything? Like the moral center that had been a part of Viktor for as long as he could remember? Like the ability to make sense of the emotional chaos that was his in his head, the same way that everyone could make sense of their own emotions? The assurance that if he was taken over by the Arcane someone would be able to stop him? Viktor needed a lot of things. ]

Nothing that you would be able to do for me.