#(i see you ppl projecting on viktor)

[hexhomos]

top 5 jay/vik pet peeves? 👀

I let this ask simmer a bit in the back of my inbox because... oh man you guys really want to see me rant like that? Unbelievable. But I'll indulge anyway since I could on about this forever:

#1 the way people straight up delete everything about Jayce as a character, be it talis or giopara, just to turn around and act like he's "leeching off viktor's genius" or "a big stupid dumb idiot who cant grasp simple concepts XD" "brainless idiotic himbo" like… this is so tiring to me. Are you trying to call him braindead? Because that's what it sounds like. I don't find it funny or charming anymore thanks to the sheer density and frequent malice adjacent to this kind of content.

#2 Related to above, but also found on its own, SPECIALLY in arcane fandom bubbles: a fixation on Jayce's body as a sexual object or sexual accessory to other people as his "Only redeeming character trait". It's become so prevalent I don't like browsing content for him anymore. Fans will legitimately make up bullshit reasons as to why Jayce is lesser than other characters (the council, mel, heimerdinger, viktor, vi, whoever, you name it) and then hold up more brainless no personality idiotbad himboXD porn as the only thing his character could ever amount to. Way to go! You're treating this show's singular brown lead as actually subhuman. There truly are no words. And it's not like it's hard to give Jayce an ounce of interesting things to do: most of what people attribute to viktor as sciency and driven and passionate is something that he shares with jayce; sometimes, its straight up things jayce came up with and worked on all his life getting penned as "viktors thing". I just find fandom, for one reason or another, holds a severe disinterest in treating them as equals. And it makes their dynamic worse. (This last point is not exclusive to arcane, sadly.)

#3 Viktor woobification, and an insistence that he could neeeeever do anythiiiiing wroooooong, regardless of verse. It makes him into such an uninteresting non-character. Viktor was created to *BE* the mad scientist archetype; this was his initial concept and it persists to this day, you can't take away his responsibility for his mistakes, or pretend it was Jayce's fault, and still expect him to be a good character. I don't even know what you're stanning at that point. I've had ppl genuinely argue with me that viktor never hurt anyone in game canon and that JAYCE had stolen blitzcrank and its like ????? Do you even know who Stanwick is. Please just read their bios. Both of their bios. Viktor lies to clean up his own story and even before the lore rewrite he was the one who'd initiate violence by Invading Jayce's Lab And Blasting Him With Laserbeams. This guy's ingame kit requires you to kill 100 minions before evolving a weapon prototype. He has an ability called "death ray". You don't think that's funny? Your loss. (Related: a lot of able-bodied people treat viktor's arcane disability as something to patronize him over, and it can be really, really uncomfortable to see.)

#4 this is gonna seem minor compared to above but watching people try and vilify Jayce at every turn to make Viktor or other characters look better can be so unintentionally funny. They never pay attention to anything about his character, just spin a wheel of bad generic adjectives and go: "JAYCE is an out of touch gazillionaire SOCIAL CLIMBER queaking for STATUS who eats diamond dust, shits gold and hates lesbians; he also PISSED on my WIFE," whole time the guy is just minding his business, indentured for life thanks to vampiric 'patrons' making him swear fealty for project funding, canonically stated to have built a name making gadgets for the working class, doesn't even like socializing in Any Universe (and this is the exact thing him and viktor bond over), etc etc etc... this shit is embarrassing brother

#5 unironic googoo talk jaymel or melvik or anything that exists in the middle genuinely makes me roll my eyes. Sometimes I feel as though people watched the bomb scene and then immediately erased out how disrespectful and manipulative it was. I don't care for any of these pairings nor the implication that you have to 'make good with billionaires to reach ultimate peace uwu' that comes attached to most of their content. The TVshow being as centrist and corporate as it is explains why this exists, sure, but I feel so ?????? When I see people acting like viktor and mel would be best buddies, as if she isn't canonically the richest person in Piltover before we even have a timeskip and *Directly Responsible for enabling and profiting off much of the fuckshit going on in Zaun* lol. Where do you think that money came from? Seriously?? Come on. I cannot fathom how people can see Jayce's interactions with her as leading to any sort of positive outcome. They get 0 romantic buildup worth caring for and are boring as all hell. And the next one is less common but: whenever people try to fit her plotline into leagueverse I just, LOL. The ruling Medarda in league is a 70-something manlet white geezer. Jayce giopara is a fag and his entire bio was designed around viktor. The council plays no part in their story and they're far more interesting for it, thank fucking god.

[viktcrr-alt]

MAXENCE DANET FAUVAL / NONBINARY — don’t look now, but is that viktor samuels i see? the 24 year old visual arts student is in their senior year and he/they are a rochester alum. i hear they can be observant, ingenious, reticent and dependent, so maybe keep that in mind. i bet he/they will make a name for themselves living in garcia row. ( james. 20. est. she/they. )

LAST INTRO WOOOO !! u know what to mf DO !!

TW DEATH, HEAVY GRIEF, OVERDOSE / DRUG ADDICTION, HOSPITALIZATION, HYPERSEXUALITY, RELIGION MENTIONS, MENTAL ILLNESS

a e s t h e t i c s

old tvs and their static, worn tapes, horror movie screams, spilled ink, a sculptor’s hands, clay-stained, chicken scratch handwriting, messy notes, messy hair, scoffs and eye-rolls, bruised knuckles, sore throats, funeral homes and a crying preacher, shattered ceramics, knife fights, high ledges, vertically-striped pants, red lights, the moon shrouded in clouds, cigarette butts.

general info !!

full name: viktor phillip samuels

nickname(s): icky vicky :/

b.o.d. - jan 2nd

label(s): the black hole, the crepehanger, the impious, the opaque, the tempest, etc.

height: 6′0″

hometown: rochester, new york

sexuality: uuuhhh god … probably pan tbh

pinterest

stats

biography !!

okay so … born and raised in rochester, new york to the well known samuels family. preacher father, a mother, a twin sister born 15 minutes before him - aka tatiana samuels, who died back in january.

kinda … grew up as a really awkward, quiet kid? like … just didn’t really interact with other kids super well, preferred being alone and like … digging up bugs in the dirt. only friend was like … his own sister.

grew out of this as they got older, instead sort of … becoming a bit of a dick? to compensate for years of awkwardness? will bite the hand that feeds him. was a full on nuisance by middle school. tatiana was not, at least, noticeably.

has always been a fan of darker materials, y’know - grim and creepy, morbid shit. big fan of tim burton ever since he was a kid, which isn’t … a good look for a preacher’s son, but he’s never really felt ~in~ with the rest of his family, anyway.

drew disturbing pictures as a kid probably tbh that prompted one or two or five phone calls home 2 assure everything was fine.

has always been really … good at art, in general - from drawing to painting to playing with clay, that’s always been viktor’s Thing.

aNyWaYs. being tatiana’s twin brother was kinda hard sometimes. tatiana and him were near opposites besides their same mean-spirited trait. she was better in the public than he was, but viktor was arguably more talented than tatiana. they both loved each other deeply and found each other as competition for their parents’ attention - a rivalry, of sorts.

high school is when viktor really started to act out - started extreme, like losing his virginity in their church and vandalism around the neighborhoods. faked being possessed in the middle of sunday service. almost had an exorcism performed on him, probably.

the only redeemable trait was like … his sheer talent with art. was in a 3d art AP course, specialized in sculpting - could pretty much create anything he wanted with enough dedication.

because his parents would be focused on disciplining him for his antics, tatiana could sneak away and get away with stuff easier. so like, y’know, that’s on the bright-side of things.

never been particularly motivated to do much - wasn’t planning on attending lockwood but his parents kinda … did and sent in his application for him b/c they were Not on board with him Wasting Away (wanted him out of the house asap)

actually pretty smart !! just doesn’t like … want to apply himself ever. double majoring in english and visual arts because they’re like … two of his only interests :/ plus he wants to write and illustrate his own series of children books with a style similar to tim burton’s

he’d been experimenting since high school but college is where he really started to like … crack down on himself and figure himself out. was out as pan & nonbinary by his sophomore year of college, just … not to his family, necessarily. thinks tatiana always knew, but didn’t … really use it against him, blessedly enough

always felt like the whole twin - connection thing was … both wack and also not-wack? sometimes it felt believable but sometimes he had no idea what was going on in tatiana’s head. but he felt oddly transparent to her, always - like he was predictable to no one but her.

( TW DEATH, GRIEF, OVERDOSE / HOSPITALIZATION BEYOND THIS POINT )

but when tatiana disappeared - it was like, like viktor knew. the moment she had been kidnapped - felt something deeply wrong in his gut. and when tatiana died - viktor felt something cut so severely in him. he knew, he always knew exactly when. he couldn’t put his finger on how - but he knew. even when everybody else held out hope for her to be found - he knew.

went on a bender around the same time, had always struggled w/ drug addiction but it got worse the longer tatiana went without being found.

( also struggled heavily with his mental health, too ?? has manic and depressive episodes. will fixate on a sculpting project for six months and then purposely knock it off the table and destroy it in the matter of seconds once it’s finished for. no fucking reason. impulse spends A Lot. )

when her body was found, viktor went off the rails. ended up overdosing and being hospitalized where he spent the next like … however long months … until they deemed him better.

has been back since the beginning of fall semester in an attempt to finish his senior year - mostly out of his parents’ insistence that he did, because he very much did not want to. 

is still dealing with a lot of trauma & grief, which was only amplified with dean lockwood’s death - causing him to spiral and be unpredictable with his mental health. some days are good, and some days are very bad.

personality !!

the human embodiment of a gremlin, fed after midnight. a goblin, if u will. one of those cats with a narrow head and big ass ears. that’s him.

b i g horror & halloween enthusiast. loves the old campy horror movies. probably has an abundance of masks from different movies. dresses like a grimy millennial beetlejuice more than he should. love those vertically striped pants!

fashion alternates between e-boy (would b tik tok famous if he were like … 17), millennial beetlejuice, and like … goth in a crop top and sweatpants. big fan of crop tops. big fan of sweatpants.

he can be fucking mean. petty, aggressive, instigator. will literally spit in ur face or no reason. kind of person who’ll stick his gum into other ppl’s hair. other than that he’s like … pretty okay. he’s not always mean, he’s just a dick like … 70% of the time lmao

i mean yeah okay he’ll call someone a stinky bitch for no reason except He Feels Like It And Believes It. it’s fine he’s fine, we’re fine.

despite the fact tht he’s probably getting into fights whenever - considers himself 2 be a lover n not a fighter but that’s just because he Fucks a lot. kind of uses it like a coping mechanism, like he’s this big fancy carnival show that’s like ‘come one, come all! fuck the dead girl’s twin brother!’ may have a problem w/ hypersexuality but it’s nothing he’s fully. aware of.

the preacher’s whore son, basically

like i said he’s pan & nb, switches between he and they pronouns but like … he has such a fragile grip on his identity that u could call him ‘dog-faced bitch’ and he’d turn like hey wassup :)

vastly impulsive, like i’ve mentioned … destroys his own creations 4 the fun of it, spends all his money on useless shit, will cheat on someone bc he feels like it. screams into the night sky frequently, like a cat in heat.

i mean he also creates useless shit for no reason too. spent six months sculpting a hollowed out tree the size of him and then took a sledgehammer to it.

dramatic fuck. used to play the organ at the church like … when no one was looking after him and service was about to start. just these creepy as melodies. would do the same thing at home on his keyboard w/ the organ setting whenever he got grounded until his parents took away his keyboard sadjfkg

won’t talk about his time away b/c it’s not rly anybody’s business but ofc nothing is sacred to the watershed app, y’know, nothing’s private.

still like - he absolutely refuses to talk about tatiana’s death and like, his mental health or his addiction (he’s fallen back into it tbh but it hasn’t gotten bad again … yet) or like … anything involving his own emotions

will literally just change the topic! abruptly, no warning, asks about the jonas brothers instead.

that being said he’s obsessed with tatiana’s death. tatiana was very much a rock for him, kinda dependent on her in a way? just … being there, y’know, kept him grounded.

so he obv became a shepherd bc he wants to know Everything there is abt the app, wants to be deep inside it, wanted to know Who Exactly Killed Tatiana and like … not saying he wants 2 commit murder but :/ yknow. he’s very upset.

emotionally unavailable while also like crying twice a day.

will tell you straight up what he wants from you, no bullshit, no beating around the bush - just blunt. if he wants to just fuck, nothing else, then that’s that. if he feels deviation he’ll ghost in like. less than a second. kinda awful like that! feels no shame.

but like … also is emotional ?? as shit ?? it’s confusing. he’ll cry on a whim and then flip u off if u try to console him or like. ask him anything. will bite you.

he goes to therapy but he generally fucks around and wastes most of the time until the therapist threatens to like … idk what therapists r allowed to threaten. to send him off to another therapist? idk.

likes being intimidating but like … not with his body or nothing ‘cos he’s a TWIG, but like … uses his love for horror n creepy shit to his advantage. has an abundance of fake blood. has channeled the energy of jack nicholson and used it on tatiana’s boyfriends before.

( also a big fan of sfx makeup, has dabbled in it)

probably chases kids with a chainsaw (w/o the like … chain … or w/e … so it’s not actually Dangerous) around halloween

he’s generally never doing good, both mental health wise and morally.

would probably steal candy from a baby for the fun of it.

i don’t know if there’s a good to him, deep down, and i don’t know if he sees any issues with himself either !! nothing really breaks through to him anymore, the only person who ever really made him stop and Think about his actions was tatiana.

kinda introverted, recluse type who doesn’t rly like most people or going out, but he’ll go to parties if it means he’ll be high as shit.

pretty observant. likes to analyze people even though he’s probably not … fully right.

wanted connections !!

he lives alone currently but like … ex - roommates where viktor was just. a nightmare to live with.

feel like a lot of enemies is also a possibility !! viktor’s messy.

people that like … knew tatiana. dated tatiana, even, and viktor would pretty much try to intimidate / scare them at any given chance :/

close friends of tatiana too

people who hated tatiana but liked viktor. people who hated viktor but liked tatiana

people who take pity on him and he Hates it viciously and vocally.

a band of hooligan gremlin kids who do drugs and fuck shit up around town like they’re edgy teenagers even though they’re all early to mid 20s.

the girl he lost his virginity 2 in high school lmao … a distant memory

fellow rochester locals, from church or school or whatever

exes from the past !! good terms and bad terms, but i love bad terms a whole lot mainly b/c viktor’s a jackass.

don’t know if he’s soft towards anybody but we can try. we can Try.

friends, old friends, new friends, bad friends, good friends, close friends, frenemies, etc. etc. all of it

hookups !! so many hookups. fwbs, one night stands, whatever.

uuhhhh god. i don’t know. im so sleepy rn. people in the same major or similar majors.

maybe a ride or die.

people he’s a bad influence on / an enabler towards / all around toxic for them / each other.

people he’s fought !! people who’ve seen him get into random fights and were like ‘uh wtf’

fellow shepherds !!

literally anything im not picky.

[streetwisehercules]

NOT a ghost AU

streetwisehercules:

     So

     Inspired by the sexiest haunted hotel thing you sent me I have had an idea

@hereticgods:

     Yeeess

streetwisehercules:

     Ok so

     This is not a ghost au really so keep that in mind as I send you a barrage of texts

     AU where viktor is a minor television celebrity and ghost enthusiast who stars in a television show similar to ghost adventures with Chris/yurio/mila/maybe georgi

     Except instead of trying to start fights with the ghosts (which is pretty much all they do on ghost adventures), viktor gets really into researching them - they go to local libraries and government record houses, talk to locals about Ghost Stories and Town History etc

hereticgods:

     Ok awesome so far

streetwisehercules:

     And then after they've researched they kind of go into the haunted location and set up all their equipment and just sort of chat with the ghost

     It's like the Bob Ross of ghost shows

     Every episode you watch warms your heart because you learn a story of a town, always told with a great deal of care

     (But viktor is also RIDICULOUS on the show - like he absolutely believes in ghosts. He buys every piece of ghost memorabilia EVER. He will detail filming to go see a street tarot reader and ooh and ahh over the reading)

     So chris at one point makes a Joke. It is meant to be light hearted, but viktor is Extra about the things he loves and he LOVES the occult, so.

hereticgods:

     Omg ok

streetwisehercules:

     The joke is: "If you love ghosts so much, why don't you sleep with one?"

hereticgods:

     Gasp

streetwisehercules:

     Now viktor is like "well we can't really film that but i do have a vacation coming up so thanks for the great idea!!"

     (I can't decide if they have got Definite Proof that ghosts exist before - maybe not even on camera, but have they seen like a full bodied ghost? Unsure!)

     So viktor goes to Japan for his vacation and stays at the Haunted Hasetsu Onsen (as it is affectionately known on small online ghost forums)

     Apparently it is Quite Old and some say there is a full bodied ghost lurking around! If viktor is going to sleep with a ghost it shan't be a mere will-o-the-wisp or orb! Only the best!

hereticgods:

     Omg

     Is yuuri a ghost?? Noo

streetwisehercules:

     It is worth noting that all reports of this "ghost" come from foreigners and tourists. No local has corroborated this story, but the few of them who are from Hasetsu and on the ghost forums tend to laugh

     REMEMBER! It's not a ghost au. This is important

     So anyways viktor goes to the onsen and like, he's on vacation but he's a workaholic and so he pretty much starts talking to everyone about the history of Hasetsu and the Onsen, etc.

     Maybe one night while returning from an evening stroll he sees a distant, vague figure dancing in the onsen gardens. It disappears as soon as he gets close

     But the dancing could only be described as OTHERWORLDLY! Viktor is on the right track

     He can't check any records or anything and his interviews are a bit shoddy bc he doesn't speak Japanese btw

hereticgods:

     Oh viktor

streetwisehercules:

     Anyways one night he is up drinking with Minako chatting and he goes to bed late, and in the hallway he sees a figure!!! Skulking gracefully! He seems to stare right through viktor, as if seeing another world!! His eyes are ethereal, glittering in the moonlight!!! His skin gilded in silver!

     He bumps into viktor and mutters "excuse me"!! This is the first time viktor meets the ghost

     He camps out in the hallway CASUALLY at the same time the next night and sees him again! In the same outfit! So obviously a ghost - and besides viktor has never seen a living person with such an elusive magnetic quality to their aura, with such beautiful eyes. Must be a ghost.

     Anyways they actually get to talking and the ghost is very shy! As most ghosts are! Viktor is surprised and delighted to find that he ghost is solid to the touch, and also that when viktor touches his arm he blushes beautiful and viktors face warms as well.

     Viktor only sees him late at night, and he seems very fragile around the edges, almost tired. Probably from keeping up a physical form!

hereticgods:

     Oh my god

     Viktor !!!

streetwisehercules:

     "You seem tired," Viktor says.

"It's worth it to see you, Viktor" the ghost, Yuuri, says.

"Please," Viktor chokes out, face burning, "call me Vitya."

     Anyways viktor sees yuuri dance (ethereal), learns he was taught by minako, and has a conversation with minako in which minako is under the impression that viktor is not an idiot, and viktor is under the impression that yuuri is a ghost.

     Minako gives him a narrow look. "The last time," she says, "that Yuuri's heart was broken, he disappeared for a month. [classic ghost, viktor thinks] So if he gives you his heart, I expect you to take care of it."

Yes, viktor thinks. Yes I would do nothing less. I will hold his heart and keep it close to my chest and they can beat together forever.

     And then eventually they kiss and viktor is OVER THE MOON!!!

     UNTIL

     he realizes that he is fucking falling for a ghost who can never leave the place he died.

hereticgods:

     Oh my god

     Wow

     How could viktor be so dumb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Love the convo with minako

streetwisehercules:

     Anyways eventually viktor stops beating around the bush and is like "I can't take your heart yuuri because I have to leave and you couldn't follow and it would kill me, too."

Yuuri: i could come with you, you know. Maybe not right away, we could do the long distance thing for a bit.

Viktor: OH YUURI, how can you follow me when you're DEAD?

(This would sound like a threat except that viktor is lying on his bed like a fainted Victorian lady wearing an 'ECTOPLASM ROCKS' tshirt)

Yuuri: what the fuck are you talking about

     Yeah I'm realizing in writing this that he is super dumb. That's ok because it's a comedy and not heavy angst

     Anyways they have a talk about what an Idiot Viktor is, and viktor probably bursts into tears and yuuri is like "are you upset you didn't get to sleep with a ghost?" And viktors like "n-no im just so HAPPY!!!!"

     (Yuuri is gone most of the day dancing/idk what else, and he's just shy with guests and foreigners and keeps to his room and the family quarters btw)

     Viktor thought that yuuri wouldn't let him in his room bc it wasn't really his room but a storage closet or something and the gig would be up, but in fact the reason that he didn't is because he has a giant poster of viktor’s show, with viktor shirtless in a fringed black leather vest on his wall

     And then they live happily ever after

hereticgods:

     Omg my god

     Wow

     That's adorable?!!!

     Viktor is really dumb tho

     But it's ok bc yuuri loves him

     I love that yuuri has a giant poster of him

     So why the rumors about the onsen being haunted?

streetwisehercules:

     Well it all started when yuuri came home covered in glow paint from a dance show

     And then it spiraled from there. And like I said he avoids the non-local guests and sometimes he gets so nervous that he just ignores them if they say "hi" or something

     Which then attracted more Ghost Hunters type ppl, who interpret everything as a Sign of Ghost

     In viktors defense they have a LOT of convos that could be taken either way

     Timeline is probably about a month

     Viktor leaves and cries on the plane and wants to call yuuri as soon as he lands but doesn't want to be clingy, but then yuuri texts him like "I know you're probably super busy, but could you text/call me when you land? I miss you." And viktor DIES

hereticgods:

     Awwwwwww

     💗💗

streetwisehercules:

     They flirt with ghost innuendos and send each other lots of good luck charms

     When they move in together their place is full of like....spooky goth/tourist occult things

hereticgods:

     That's adorable

     Yuuri is a big ghost fan too right?

streetwisehercules:

     Yes!

     Viktor takes him along on shoots and yuuri LOVES IT SO MUCH

     they go to dates on ghost tours!

     And hold hands and ooh and ahh when one of them gets a picture of an orb

hereticgods:

     I love it

streetwisehercules:

     I wanna say yuuri is a dancer? And viktor is a huge fan of his as well

     Maybe a hobbyist dancer? Like he taught classes in hasetsu

     And he ends up mostly working on the show with viktor and teaching/taking some classes on the side

     He has a show and he does it to like a song about ghosts and dresses up a bit as a ghost and viktor records it and you can hear him crying in the background

hereticgods:

     Oh my god

     This is really cute

     I feel like you're projecting a little bit

streetwisehercules:

     OK WOW

     Call me out like this!!!!

     As I sit in bed watching lip swatch videos! I thought I was safe! From this kind of attack!!

[puukkolesbo]

hey friend I came here from ao3, hmu with your hc about how gay viktoriya is (also is viktoriya a super extra lesbian? tell me about how she was pining for yuuri after the banquet pls and thank you)

hello friend!! yes, yes lets talk about how gay viktoriya is - i’m planning on writing her pov from the sochi GFP to approximately where words and intention ended next, (hopefully before this week ends!) so fleshing out these headcanons is good!

i’m putting this under the cut bc i have this tendency to get carried awayseriously, boy did this get long

first thing we have to establish: viktoriya nikiforova is gay. super gay. 

gayest of them all, probably.

(chris will fight anyone who says this, claiming that the title of gayest of them all is obviously his)

(it’s okay, they can share. it’s not like they are fighting in the same category anyways)

but yeah. viktoriya is super gay. i mean, she was a gender non conforming baby butch in the making when she was sixteen! yeah she grew her hair out (bc thinning hair & those annoying bald patches run in her fam, and she knew that if she wanted to have long and luxurious locks, she had to do it before thirty) but that absolutely did not make her any less butch. like. give me viktoriya nikiforova is suits and ties and button-ups and asdfghjkl she’s the poster girl of rich and preppy butches every time she steps out of the front door, okay

(at home she’s a messy butch™, with her hair sticking up everywhere & just. lounging around in sweatpants and mens’ t-shirts. that, as i mentioned on ao3 already, yuuri steals and stretches w her boobs bc “we all can’t have been blessed with a-cup, vitya!”)

also she will def stick to the short hair after she and yuuri cut their hair that night in st. petersburg! yuuri might grow hers to the bisexual haircut, but viktoriya sticks to the shorter styles. maybe a nice undercut at some point hmmmm?

.........returning to chris. he and viktoriya are best buds! (gay buds? guds? bays?) 

they probably ended up as each other’s accidental beards at some point: like when chris was around eighteen or nineteen and viktoriya was a little over twenty. neither of them was dating anyone chris met his mysterious bf/fiance/husband a few years after that & they were often seen together in public outside competitions and they tagged each other on pictures on insta etc. and ppl made heteronormative conclusions. they thought it was the most hilarious thing when they realised what ppl thought&probs played along for a while before like. some interviewer asked them directly about their relationship & viktoriya just deadpanned “we’re both gay, dude” and chris nodded seriously and said with the most solemn expression and tone possible, “super gay, dude”

chris and viktoriya definitely have the ‘who is gayer?’ fight on regular basis & they often try to out-gay each other. they also are each other’s go-to ppl when they have problems in their love lives.

this means that chris was the one who suffered the most after the banquet. bc, yes, of course viktoriya is also a super extra lesbian™

(and. lets face it. drunken katsuki yuuri not only break dancing and ballroom dancing, but also pole dancing and dry humping you?? u don’t even have to be a super extra lesbian to fall in love then and there. u just gotta have, like, common sense)

but yeah!! viktoriya was a pining mess after the banquet. 

she had been depressed and lost: all inspiration gone, competing in a sport where no one offered her real challenge anymore. she was pretty much competing against herself, getting her thrill from surprising the audience. except that no one was surprised by anything she did anymore - - so she had no idea what to do, how to get out of that place

until. katsuki yuuri happens

this adorable and totally hot girl gets drunk and shows viktoriya how to have fun again, and viktoriya is smitten

the girl also asks viktoriya to be her coach, but she’s shitfaced, so viktoriya doesn’t take her seriously. (but she does start thinking. thinking about her options, what else could she do besides skating. coaching surely is an option)

then the banquet ends and the girl disappears, and viktoriya is forced back to the unsatisfying reality of competing

she keeps hoping to see yuuri again - (keeps complaining about yuuri’s absence from the competitions to chris. and to yakov. and mila. and yuri. and georgi. pretty much anyone who has ears and comes close to her) - keeps wishing to have that carefree feeling from the banquet again, keeps holding on to this small, stupid hope that it wasn’t just the alcohol speaking when yuuri asked her to be her coach, that she’ll call her or text her and ask again - -

but yuuri goes completely off-radar after flopping the japanese nationals & viktoriya is left to choreographing routines for next season

and if she projects a little when creating the story, well, “best art comes from real experiences, yakov!”

until. katsuki yuuri happens again

the video of her skating to stay close to me of all things goes viral, and viktoriya is sure that yes, good, this girl has to be her extra™ gay soulmate, bc instead of calling or texting she’s doing this super romantic skating mating dance thing

and viktoriya drops everything after the most dramatic goodbyes ever (seriously that scene w viktor and yakov is Gold. that whispered ‘dasvidaniya’???? the most extra thing ever & i need it in all au’s) like the super extra lesbian she is

...and then she greets yuuri completely naked and winks at her for good measure (and finally wins that ‘gayest of them all’ title to herself bc how is chris going to out-gay that??)

AND now i rly have to stop before i start writing the fic here and now, on this answer. hopefully this ridiculous ramble was to your liking even tho i definitely lost the point few times there haha

[hexhomos]

i’m still pretty new to arcane and stuff but i’ve noticed that not many ppl like jayce especially compared to viktor (ik he’s a dick in the league lore? but even arcane jayce gets a lot of flack) and i wanted to ask what makes jayce compelling to you :o

Oh man how could I explain this. I like Jayce Because he is so utterly flawed, not in spite of; he wants things and the things he wants are not always within his reach nor does he have the perfect, correct, clean answer to get them all the time. Not even most of the time.

Here's the thing that is compelling about this: It's Just Like Real Life.

Most fictional characters operate in a flawless cutting motion from point A to point B, a destined-pathos-comeuppance arc towards a core need of being, and I enjoy quite a bit of those! But Jayce is a reminder that things often aren't that simple. You're gonna do things you're not proud of, not by mistake but by choice or an attempt at damage-control; you're going to hurt people you love by doing what you think is right one moment and feel monstrous on the next. You're not going to be in the best position to call the shots. You're going to be selfish and unlikable and manipulated through naivety and goodwill and you are going to Fuck Up. I find that instead of looking at this as a /condemnation/ it is far more productive to take it as a study in empathy. I'm not filthy fucking rich. I don't have superpowers. If presented with a situation in which someone wants to beat me up, I'm not exactly 'primed' to win it. People don't love me unilaterally. I don't have all the answers. I can't solve everything. All of these things will remain true so long as I live.

The fact that Jayce perfectly exemplifies that struggle is compelling to me. I mean, just look at his subplot in arcane: he's quite literally trying to convince people techno-magic exists and is worth investing on. He can't even *do* magic, he saw it once and became obsessed with it because it was the most dazzling thing he'd ever seen. And then it turns out to be quite dangerous, but goddammit, hasn't this been his entire life's work so far? He's supposed to just give it up? Leave it on the dust and change careers altogether? The Ideal Protagonist would go against the grain at all costs. But Jayce is 24 and an ex-college student and he just blew up at his mother after she spoke on his behalf (but against his mental facilities,) on public trial and every single door has been closed to him under a span of 24 hours and he knows full well that he has no power in this situation, not really, so his very sensible answer is to walk up to a ledge and declare that this is the moment in which you give up. That's better than a life without the purpose he chose.

And the thing is, deep down, he's not depressed beyond rationality or unaware of the powers-that-be that made things this way, he's just angry. He still blows up at Viktor for interrupting this One Last Thing. But he /still/ can't solve this just by wishing alone. It's not how the world works. (It's auspicious that Viktor just so happens to have access to as many answers as he did, when he did.)

Jayce Talis is trying his best. Jayce Talis is also so laser-focused on proving himself through one single brilliant contribution to the world that he’s hilariously inept at reading people and managing social situations beyond the comfort of his lab. (Even though he relies on the patronage that comes from pleasing the Kirammans to gain funds in the first place, and later on the support of the council to continue developing projects with Viktor.) He’s also fairly proud and a bit of catty little bitch (something you see in his journals) and if allowed he would quite probably overwork himself to death. He wants to develop a strain of technology that will change life as it is and he wants to be recognized for it and he wants his mother to be proud of him and he’s caught in a sort of self-interested spiral, because I think it isn’t until Viktor joins him that he realizes these things are tangible and possible and they have a real, practical purpose that go beyond Jayce as a single memorable being. This can be ‘Our’ miracle as opposed to ‘My’ miracle. Is it any wonder at all that he latches on Viktor as he does?

Jayce’s hubris in arcane is entirely motivated by how he’s pushed into a speaking-position he’s not prepared to take (And he acknowledges this, he quite literally SAYS “I never wanted this, you pushed this on me” before the whole thing spirals and he starts liking the boots of every councilor in a 10 meter radius just to avoid their dirtier tactics) -- and his laughable cluelessness, his desire to disappoint as little people as possible is what makes his story a tragedy and puts him into so many bad situations.

This has been pretty broadly about arcane-jayce w/ some universal caveats but personally speaking LoL Jayce/Jayce Giopara appeals to me for a lot of the same reasons, though he’s a lot more unabashedly ambitious and loud mouthed and has the sort of autism that makes you love your work and sound like a complete fucking shithead in most other situations because there’s no fucking way to mask your palpable disinterest in vapid bullshit pleasantries. (its ok i can do this joke <3) He takes the humanity/automation split that exists between him and Viktor and makes it about the parts of the human experience that are less-than-idealized but Real, either way.

His story is far from being about “perfect guy” trying to “save the weird creep” -- his fixation with Viktor isn’t just about him being ‘righteous’, it’s about Jayce being whipped for the one guy that Got It. (And he still doesn’t know how to go about it!) He’s rude and antisocial and he’ll probably get bored with you pretty fast if you don’t start talking about engines but he’s here to get things done and not play fetch so it’s not like any of that matters. If Jayce Giopara was put in the role Talis had he’d speedrun bridge-burning so fucking quick it would probably classify for a world record.

And its good! it’s compelling! It’s interesting! and in conclusion: