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[becomerobot]

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March- NSFW w/ @backshots

[becomerobot]

[Continued from here.]

[Viktor's smirk is assured, but he wobbles his head in a slightly bashful manner. This moles, huh? His body changed all over, turning such distinctive markings across his skin into freckles of gold or silver bolts. On his face, he still had the two most obvious marks, the one beneath his eye and the one above his lip. They're easy to pepper attention to, so very obvious in their placement. That Jayce appreciates them is sweet, that does make him feel... human, still. He likes that feeling, it helps ground him, holds him in place with the gratitude of still being able to feel fully.

He adjusts his legs and lifts up from kneeling besides that chair. Jayce is hoist up with him, held beneath his butt and braced between his shoulders by an open palm. The man does have some weight to him again, which is a good sign. That he's not so withered away to just skin and bone.]

Of course you like this. I get to carry you back to our bed.

[While they could just keep being grossly intimate with one another here, Viktor is sure that Jayce also needs rest. You know, after they have their fill of each other for affection. He will just begin walking on that way, this having become something of a pattern now. Because of that, he must joke,]

This time, we can stay a mess. [make a much worse mess of each other, even, who knows, such possibilities are endless]

glorious backshots

[hexrot]

[ there is a bit to unpack there and at the same time, it's been so long envisioned, jayce can only see viktor through a lovestruck lense. ]

I like this, [ as if viktor too, did not in some way bask in his new form and capacity. jayce shakes his head, all the while his lips lightly curl enough to flash his front teeth and gap during his own jest. our bed. well, yes, they've been sharing one since the very first night of their arrival. it's the first time it's been referred to as theirs and jayce's fondness over the fact shines through like rays of sunlight through the holes of tattered drapes.

viktor is just being . . . charming, and jayce cannot help the combination of smirking and staring, holding viktor over the shoulder and allowing his legs to hang off the carry. unnecessary.
uncalled for. but jayce chews on the inside of his lip, looks far more enraptured than he does humiliated. ]

If you're not careful, I'll get used to this.

[ there'd been so much responsibility shoved to his shoulders over the years, so much leadership he'd never asked for— it was nice to be allowed some respite, featherlight in his most beloved's arms instead. ]

[becomerobot]

Get used to it.

[Viktor says as a simple assertion. Do it. There's no effort stopping him. As much as Jayce wishes to get carried around, Viktor would outstretch both arms to indulge him.

Because Viktor does enjoy this, yes, the capability of this new body and all the strength it afforded. Viktor would have replaced every part of himself with machine to achieve this kind of outcome. Still himself, but no longer held back by circumstance and poor health. In some twisted way, this place had given him everything he'd wanted for himself, through horror and abrupt change.

He's not arguing with the results. Especially not with Jayce held up in his arms,]

I'm not letting you out of my arms for a while. As a fair warning to you. [he doesn't suspect Jayce wants to get far from him anyways. They have a bed to warm up together. One not far now, Viktor's now very long strides move them quickly to and through the Convoy.]

[hexrot]

[ jayce lifts his brows in mock concern, but the shimmer stained slight show of teeth and gap is a giveaway to the sheer lack of it. oh, goodness him. perhaps viktor was right in that: he will gladly get used to this. they are the only arms that could ground him enough to experience something positive from this forced change to his biology. no matter, no matter— jayce had a tendency to loosened screws when his concerns amounted to viktor. waving off the hexcore's murder of skye in favor of viktor's life was a flag to his instability. the ravine penalized him for that. what of this, though—? is he allowed to overlook the reality of his shattering humanity for this?

just this once. he could clutch the reason he's even fought to stay alive all these years for a semblance of happiness. ]

Pretty sure that approximates to a hostage situation, V.

[ does he look like he's complaining? no. he looks absolutely smitten. ]

[becomerobot]

... That is fine. Those are often romanticized.

[Viktor, don't just say it like that. Come on, man. He's not really a literature guy, but he knows the one about the beast and the stolen bride. Or princess. Something like that.

He gets to their Convoy room door and just kicks it open with a smooth gesture. Truly Viktor has had the limiters on his entire life. He would have been such a menace to society if he'd been able to kick open doors before.]

[hexrot]

[ good thing jayce was joking, but he has to push the remaining air in his lungs right out into a snort after that one. ]

I've always wanted to be held hostage by our work, you know.

[ back when the council had started to wrap their claws around him for funding and using his image. his stress was over top, then. how he wished to just go back to the lab and do something productive instead of, like. choosing presentation banner colors. or listen to them argue. and don't get him started on hexgate security, he'd barely had time to even fantisize about being back in the lab. in fact, it would sometimes hurt to think of it. to think of viktor. he should've allowed himself to feel more, even if it would be pain. pain makes it mean something.

right. but enough of that. present. not past. besides that, jayce grips viktor's shoulder plates and begins to chuckle under his breath. he's not daft enough to tell viktor to not. please. when's he eve kicked down a door? jayce supports his wrongs. keep going. he's not the fun police. ]

[becomerobot]

I'll just have to do as a substitute for our work, then.

[He's not so brutish to knock the door off it's hinges, but he did kick the door open- and he'll kick it right back closed! The lock jostles at that and clicks shut behind them. Viktor can only think good, glad the mechanism is on their side. He just wants to be locked up with Jayce a while, a mutual hostage taking and having situation.

Jayce is set very gingerly down onto the mattress. There's some hypocrisy in how Viktor is treating him so fragile and precious, when he'd have kicked Jayce for doing the same to him. They have different sensibilities, that's all. Viktor wants to dote on the man as much as he's allowed to, even if he's a bit clumsy at it. His hands aren't letting go of the man, shifting from where they were needed to keep him supported upright to trailing around his sides. Testing and exploring his newly revived form, so much less withered and ghoulish than it had been during his decline,]

... Are you still feeling much better?

[hexrot]

[ for the sake of continued joking: he welcomes you, stockholm syndrome.

the plush hug of the cushioning under jayce welcomes his backside, and the view is . . . rather stunning. he enjoys looking up, just as much as getting shoved down the line. there's a time for everything, though— and jayce invites the proximate distance, spreading the fasten of his knees enough to appeal to slotting himself closer. he loops his hands under the curve of viktor's palms in a gentle brush until they find the lateral bends of his torso down to his hips. jayce does the same, looping arms around viktor's neck sloping down his arms. nodding, slow: ]

Never have been.

[ he's. brimming, with energy. he was hot and vibrating at his core. pulsing with renewed life force. hyperresponsive, alert— as if all of his senses have amplified to their topmost. even the inorganic matter the pads of his fingertips chart across had a sleek, echoing texture to it. it makes his eyelids twitch when the hum grows, but it's not . . . bad. just loud. smooth. blazing. ]

How much of this do you feel?

[becomerobot]

[Jayce's hands exploring his form is welcome, if curious to Viktor about as much as to the other man. There is an energy buzzing beneath the plating of his new skin. He answers as best he can, considering how to describe it.]

There is sensation, it is simply... different. There are sparks running below where you touch, reacting with slight delay. It isn't dull or numb, quite the contrary. Highly... electric.

[All very interesting, really. Viktor wonders what is so distinct about it, and thinks it might be that gentle and firm touch produce very similar sensations for him now. They are equalized at an odd middle, light touch is felt acutely and rough touch is felt without discomfort. He's tougher, sturdier, but also more sensitive to anything he touches.

Well, except for when he was being fed on. That was definitely intense and... definitely pleasurable. His inner workings have a broader range of sensation than his outer shell, maybe. Feels strange to think about.]

Kissing you feels just as it should. [no different in his face, after all. That's a blessing for the time being. If the mask returned, that would probably be a different matter, but for now he is still human there.

He double checks this claim by kissing Jayce again, lingering at the man's lips with careful consideration. He's studying. Yep. That's how a kiss should feel, alright. Noted.]

[hexrot]

[ it is curious to consider but all the more thrilling to perform exercises on. it all holds about the same amount of charge they'd get from their early discoveries, if not more. how . . . fun, and simple, those were. jayce listens and takes his own notes, both on what viktor describes as much as what he personally feels (any sparking? thrums? he could feel it following his fingers). he's allowing his hands to tread lightly, but considers, just as lips approach his, that the pressure exerted from his palms could benefit from a change.

jayce feels now, eyes closed and kneading the bumps, dips and irregular grooves with lethargic, analyzing progress. the light click of parting lips has jayce knocking his head forward with low words and electric suggestion. ]

I think our data's insufficient.

[ they clearly need to kiss more. he needs another, and sneaks a second and third brush to the corners of viktor's lips, the last of the cluster upon his mole. they could vary weights and pressures, wet or dry, different angles, different spots. jayce's tongue swipes over the shine of his mouth and stray whiskers before he begins his next kissing endeavor: a languid, damp invite, face tipped sideways and inhaling the scent of his partner inside his cheek. he could count the gaps of space following viktor's canines on each side, and how he'd curl his tongue to him. phenominal, how it lights up every sensory synapse.

touch doesn't stop there, his palms have made it to his slender abdomen and narrowed hips, testing the bolts and bars on the way down. there are fissures, above and in the sockets of his femurs decked in gold and twined with purple— how far in did those go? what were the limits of the symmetrical golden rods of what used to be his hip bones? jayce's fingers test every slip he could find and probes within, carefully, gently, until the very last rim of space available to him is found. that, or if he's given signals to abort. ]

[becomerobot]

[Jayce, please, those pinch points are not going to be good if Viktor moves in the slightest. He stills very much to have Jayce exploring those joints. He bats rather fussily at Jayce digging fingers anywhere they might get stuck or, god forbid, sheered-]

You're being a hazard to yourself, Jayce.

[Viktor grasps both the man's hands by the wrists and pulls them up to his face. He leans into the touch of thumbs to his skin and Jayce's other fingers to where metal began. One of Jayce's palms will get a couple slow kisses, while they're guided there.

Viktor trails his lips to tentatively press to his wrist, where the acceleration rune was bonded into his skin, webbed by patterns of the anomaly. Even if it represented rot, Viktor will dote on it, because that same anomaly could heal Jayce if fed. He's as resentful of it as he is grateful.]

[hexrot]

When've I not?

[ if there were any, jayce could count them on a hand. maybe shredding his hands in viktor was the true way he wanted to go. but, fine! he'll respect the fun police! (this is all a joke). despite jayce's quite desperate want to touch and be touched, he respects this limit once breached— and once he got to see, briefly, that little wrinkle at the bridge of viktor's nose that would've likely followed him getting lightly wacked with his cane. jayce's restless hands are successfully led back on course, distracted by devout kisses in his palms and to his embedded wrist. the chill of stone isn't found— its quite warm, in fact, as hot as jayce was, rooted in the veins saturated with nutriment. the bit of contact raises the hairs on his arms and goes up his neck, ripples across his chest under his simple garage-found clothes. a bit of anexaggerated response, but— it's nice. ]

[becomerobot]

You used to require some convincing. [of which Viktor provided, because he is also a risk magnet. Had to be, to get anywhere in his life. Push boundaries was for science, though, not for one another.... not when they already pushed back against death itself.

Viktor takes Jayce's hand and presses it to the center of his chest, where the brace he once wore for his back had fused into metal and gold. The metal stranding there have the illusion of sinewy muscle, but there were gaps giving way to the interior. Wiring and pumps, self installed, run by batteries he picked up from scavenging. It buzzes more than it beats, but there is a pulsing to what Viktor replaced his heart with. For some reason, he wants Jayce to hear it and feel it beneath his palm,]

I upgraded the replacement I made. Rechargeable batteries, easier maintenance. [he's running on scraps and wit and raw desperation, but when hadn't he been? Viktor thinks he should feel much more different than he does and yet he doesn't. Augmenting his body was routine for him, this is just more dramatic.]

If only I had a hexgem, I would have used that. Would have been... more fitting, perhaps.

[hexrot]

[ correct! used to. jayce has gotten some screws loose because of . . . jaybe, viktor? the reaction this receives is a raise of his brows and a knowing dip of his head. he's been all good intentions, bad decisions over the moons compared to being a little uncertain. comes with years next to this man. touché.

jayce has no time to mention it though, even in light jest— only gesture to it. the hand brought to viktor's whirring bust has the draugr in a silent standstill soon enough, though, the humor in his features giving way to attentive tracking of what he feels under his palm. an insistent, nonstop motor that roars behind its encasing.

one more pause at length, and jayce uses it to switch his hand out for his ear, placing the shell of it close to viktor's former ribs. he has to be careful with his antler rack, he'd rather not skewer an eye so his head is kept in a bit of a side slant to avoid unwanted proximity with. with that. the sound is there, deep and ringing.

brilliant, he whispers. and here he'd been, scavenging for parts— viktor was always so many steps ahead of him. ]

I'd make you one if I could. [ a heart for a heart sounds . . . appropriate. but that was if he could. the runes require more testing. but, it's not about that; jayce expresses his longing to help, but that is it. ] How long does a single charge last?

[becomerobot]

There is always room for improvement. I welcome your attempt at a better solution.

[Jayce is welcome to tinker with him. He's one big experiment, now. A machine that is fit to being better optimized. With Jayce leaning in to listen to his inner clockwork, Viktor's hands reach to the antlers so close by his face. Not out of worry, but fascination. He peels some of the torn velvet away, only for it to creep back into place. Ah. Well, that's not going anywhere it seems. Hopefully it didn't hurt- he can better keep his hands to himself on that one if Jayce winced,]

I haven't stressed tested myself. I swap it each morning with a fresh charge to be safe.

[he used to take pills each morning to mitigate his illness, so it just fits into his routine that way. Viktor wasn't sure how long this body would last without the replacement of that key organ. Perhaps arcane magic would keep him upright a while on its own. Perhaps he would die as quickly as any man without a beating heart. That is probably better left untested.]

[hexrot]

[ jayce does not so much as recoil, but he does react. an odd, tingling sensation is caused, like peeling away at skin that's spent too much time under the sun. not pain, but he wouldn't mind the extra grooming. it felt mildly uncomfortable to have them there at all, and so jayce keeps his head lowered where it is, a gentle dip in the direction of a hold while he kept his face to viktor's bust. sensation in some spots were dulled, in others, where the perpetually decaying velvet sat shredded, varied from highly to barely receptive. a mixed pot of uneven, damaged or clinging nerve endings. ]

If it's been favorable, we should keep it that way. And I'll look into alternative power sources. [ jayce's thumbs stroke where his hands have now settled: at the notches of viktor's slim waist (no venturing into unknown holes this time), and after a pause: ] Can you try that again?

[becomerobot]

Plucking at this velvet? Is it a relief to have it taken off?

[Viktor will delicately do as he's asked, if given the further go ahead. He analyses where it appears the most loose and decayed. The fresh parts are where Viktor believes he shouldn't mess with, for fear of hurting or tearing at free nerves. The dead parts, that can be cleaned up.]

Actually, this might call for... [third arm is well suited to this task! The claw ends are sharp and very precise, can snip at the flesh to trim free what is extra.

Also, Viktor just seems to enjoy using the extra limb, like he always had fun using the Hexclaw in their testing. So, like a little bug at work cleaning a corpse, which is just what this is, Viktor is cleaning up those antlers. Might not last long, but it is a pleasing bit of grooming for Viktor to perform for Jayce.]

[hexrot]

[ this isn't strange for them at all at this point, is it. at all. fits the tin perfectly. it relieves the itch and adds a soothing bit of foreplay. jayce relaxes right into a slot in one spindly lap and considers, for a minute, if he should show viktor his chest, too. there's news there, a sight that doesn't look as horrific as it did splayed wide.

he'd get his shirt off, eventually. no need to rush now that his partner is pleasantly occupied with the third arm. ]

Feels nice.

[ even though he might just simply find more peeling off or hanging by decaying threads in new spots the day after this one. some of them will simply cling back after getting plucked. jayce would find his antlers would always be in a state of decay, eventually, decomposing layers never entirely healthy. ]

Viktor, [ he's . . . skipped this earlier, with reason. purpose, but he doesn't want to ignore it. it'd be an easy fall back to something so innovative, something meant to power anything, but. jayce has seen what an agumentation with hextech could do. viktor was no longer caged by illness— he is alive. they don't need magic. at least, jayce isn't so attached to it in the same way he'd been some years back. that wasn't the reason why. ] We don't need Hexgems. No Hextech.

[ not that . . . they were anywhere near something similar. the runes and arcane of this world were another beast, entirely. their combinations yield no results beyond a highly enigmatic puzzle and little possibility to return to runeterra. would their respective timelines even exist if they returned at this point, the changes they've suffered intact? a good or bad possibility?

things to think about when he can't sleep. ]

We'll make something better with what we have.

[becomerobot]

[This task is one Viktor is very well suited to, a precision based skill. He's also very good at controlling that third arm, already. Thanks, no doubt, to his many experiments and practice with the Hexclaw. Soon enough, the antlers are as clipped clean as they can be. The excess is discarded into bedside trash bin, despite Viktor having one or two bugbrained impulses to chew on the stuff. No. Nope. They have had enough cannibalism between them for one evening, reign it in, Vik. (Maybe another time he'll fail this restraint check.)]

These antlers... do they have much sensitivity to them? [He inquires as he reaches to rub a palm over the now smooth exterior of one. A gentle petting to match the rest of their tender and exploratory affections,

As for Hextech, Viktor cannot help a furrowed brow, looking serious as ever. Resigned, in a way,]

We spent... so much of our lives on Hextech. To just give up on it... [it felt so wrong, but Viktor remembers the Hexcore, he remembers it whispering to him, tempting him towards more and more extremes. He winces to think of Sky- of how she turned to dust-]

No. You're right. Anything else, but tampering further. So many others had to pay the price just for us to learn our lesson. No more.

[hexrot]

[ jayce bobs his head in quiet agreement, even if that shifts the weight around in his skull in a way he's not yet accustomed to. there's a strange, equal balance on both sides, but depending on which side he tips the most it all starts to burden one half more than the other. the sensitivity is relative. on hard, bone-white branches, there's nothing to feel. where velvet still clusters and clings for dear life, there's a phantom touch that riles into a too sensitive shiver, that fades up until where the bone is prestine. he's distracted fram giving a more detailed answer, instead showing without words— palms caress bone and jayce closes his eyes, tilting into it.

it had been jayce's life for longer than he'd been alive. he may not have been privy to let it go at hextech's peak, but now? after he's seen what it could cause, what its done to rune terra, to viktor, to himself, what he's done with those damn weapons—

there was no other answer than to fix it, and stand by the true dream. they were their own paradox. jayce lifts his head carefully, now; he can't quite so how clean the antlers are, now, but it felt a touch more refreshing to the air cushioned around them. jayce steadys a hands on one side of his partner while the other tenderly guides viktor's golden gaze to his. his head bobs again, as if to gently confirm with the fortitude of his words: ]

I have everything I need.

[ there is one thing in his life that he'll never give up on. he knows it's not hextech. it's viktor. hextech was only a catalyst. a destructive spark in fate that brought them together. ]

[becomerobot]

I love you too, Jayce.

[That's Viktor, cutting right to- well- the heart of what is being said. He levels his gaze to Jayce's with a steady and reaffirming look. They're in this together, no matter what is next for them. A pair, a partnership. Lovers, now, all said and yet not all done.

Pulling back that third arm and steadying his other two, Viktor holds each side of Jayce's biceps, giving them a gentle squeeze. A small smile. The look he gave the man when Viktor first told him his name. It felt like a lifetime ago,]

Would you like out of those shimmer stained clothes? [A little teasing, but given what Jayce has been through, he can be forgiven being a messy eater. As for Viktor's clothing, he couldn't very well fit into the uniform he arrived in. All he has to shed is a cloak he fashioned to hang around him, which is already pushed back behind his shoulders. He can unclasp that and push it off himself fully, letting the fabric fall in a heavy cascade to the floor of their room.]

[hexrot]

[ words that could make the weakest man strong. a whisp of disbelief rushes past his lips and betrays the gentle curve of them. brushing away at the clasps of his unfastening cloak to hurry its impending descent. that look was lethal. it was nearly a decade back. so long ago, and yet— it's one of the sharpest memories he has. lucid and bright around the eyes, his lips, and it makes jayce's stress-wrinkled face melt with bittersweet nostalgia. he could kiss him.

he can. he does, with his partner's face in the contours of his hands, a short plant that ends in more teeth than plush flesh because of their spread. ]

I'm not usually this sloppy.

[ a continuation to any light jesting, he's fine with it— makes the reality of what it was a bit more bearable. a bite easier to process, smoother to swallow. jayce crosses his arms at the lower edges of a simple shirt taken off the racks of a gas station and makes a move to yank it toward his head. he'll need help. it's terribly easy to snag on an antler and tear.

underneath, he's all body hair he doesn't want to shave off anymore, and snug bandages around his bust to mask the ugly gape that never closes. he almost feels like— a silly fucking teenager doing something frisky in the backseat, or in the library. giddy, uplifted. he wants to keep feeling that way, although he feels silly with his face caught under stained purple cotton he can't get off because his hands knock into the sharp edges of bone. ]

[becomerobot]

[He can. He does. Viktor smiles into that kiss he's granted, feeling like it is a gift he's finally ready to accept. His love for Jayce was long held, firmly rooted in him, but it never fully bloomed. He just couldn't let it. There were too many complications, too much going on at any given moment. Even after arriving here, being confessed to naked in a shared bath, Viktor couldn't help be rebuke such feelings.

It is such a weight off his shoulders, to not repress this affection and fondness for the man before him. Even when Jayce is becoming trapped within a shirt with too small a neck hole.]

You are usually this ridiculous.

[The antlers are not going to give, so the shirt has to. Viktor reaches with his third arm and snip, snip, snip. He opens a larger spot at the neckline so there's room. Careful to follow a straight line, they could salvage it if neither of them tried ripping it off Jayce.]

I believe we'll need to modify your clothing to accommodate this, eeh, magnificent rack of yours.

[hexrot]

[ well, there goes the shirt. in hindsight, the other changes he'd snagged would likely suffer the same skewering fate. jayce remembers a tailor on the network some days back. it could work. jayce's tongue clicks under muffled laughter. he couldn't really argue when his beard hid away most of the purple stain around his mouth, kissing having spruced the tinted color to his lips and leaving the shade a touch more natural. he is still very sloppy, and absolutely ridiculous to keep going like this at all. viktor was one and the same to even want anything with him this way. he waits just as ridiculously with his arms locked up in twists of fabric until they're cut loose and swiftly give way to his muscle. buttons and zippers for the rest of his unlife, likely. or just no shirts at all. no one would complain.

jayce's messy fingertips shave at the borders of the bandages, but otherwise decides against leaving the ugly laceration bare for such a moment. it can't be comfortable to look at. he knows it's not, for him. the few stitches that arcade had made was supposed to help, but who knew how much it's held up. he'd rather focus, for a moment, on what is teasingly magificent. ]

I'm starting to think you like them.

[becomerobot]

Like? Well... they give me a terrible urge to chew on you. I'll save that for elsewhere.

[threatening, Viktor, don't just say stuff like that. He's being good, no chewing yet.

His hands fall ever so softly over Jayce's bandaged chest, weary of what was beneath the bandages. Should they really be getting more intimate, knowing the state the man is in? Not all desires are well advised... Viktor will be careful. It feels rather sturdy beneath his palms, thumping with the beat of what was once his own heart. Now Jayce's. The more time goes by, the more suitable that becomes.]

Your heartrate is back up to normal. That's a good sign, I feel. And your skin- it's not so terribly pale. We need to keep you well fed, Jayce. Don't hesitate to ask me. Promise.