Masterpost with links to the completed and in progress stuff.
***
The Comprehensive Addison Guide
Ongoing.
Deltarune. Spamtenna, Orange/Blue, and a couple more.
Art, essays, heacanons, and more set in the same verse with a somewhat overarching story.
Really, it's just a really long string of my thoughts on Addisons, Spamton, several related ships, and some events pre- and post canon.
The Guide on AO3.
Shorter and more frequent updates - on Bluesky.
Tag on the blog: The Comprehensive Addison Guide (for everything).
Illustrated version of the guide: part 1 / part 2 /
Art: closeups /
Animatic about Spamton keeping the Neo body, and his thoughts about it: the latest WIP.
Frames from the animatic: 1 / 2 /
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In The Dark
Finished.
MCYT. Cryptid AU. Badboyhalo/Skeppy.
This is something between Red Riding Hood and Princess Mononoke. A story where two immortal creatures meet in the dying town, and learn what it takes to not drown in the shadows of both the past and the present.
The tag for the AU on the blog: In The Dark (it has everything)
You can find the story, with illustrations here:
First meeting / part 1 / part 2 / part 3.
Little side-comics: one, two.
Additional story details with illustrations: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
Ongoing - on hiatus.
Gorillaz/PPG. Sideblog for the multimedia long project. 2doc, snace, and more.
AU with (slightly) more realistic timeline and lore, set in phase 5.
This is the story where time, fate, fae laws, and family bonds all mix in various confusing and terrible ways. And also Ace Copular is Murdoc's son.
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Zaun AU
Finished for now, but there's more backlog I might publish later.
Arcane.
Headcanons and scripts, with occasional art.
The AU where Viktor and Jayce both live in Zaun, and Arcane is actually about class struggle and oppression.
Jayce / Viktor
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Arcane analyses
On importance of the Viktor's comfort blanket
ON COGS, BUTTERFLIES, AND THE NATURE OF THE SHARED DREAM
#JayvikLived and why it makes the most sense
Porceline, cogs, and kitsugi
***
Dragon Business
Ongoing - on hiatus.
Yakuza sideblog.
The place where my friend and I slowly publish the big backlog of all the stuff we came up with, while playing yakuza games. There is an overarching story, a lot of headcanons and shitposts.
Where you can find all you want to know about them, all you didn't want to find out, and everything you never even thought to wonder about.
Or: It's just a really long list of my thoughts and headcanons on Addisons, Spamton, several related ships, and some events pre- and post-canon. This is, in some way, notes for the fic I'm never going to write, organized in a form of an essay (with illustrations).
Relationships: Spamton G. Spamton/Tenna, Blue Addison/Orange Addison. Spamton G. Spamton/Swatch, Pink Addison/Swatch
---
The Guide on AO3 updates more frequently, because I can add the illustrations to it later!
So everyone who wants to can go and read ahead, it's already over 15k, and on character profiles. Also, there are new illustrations from pages that are not published yet.
good morning im ibuprofened tf out bc my teeth hurt but you know what hurts more? the concept of jeongje having a crush on dongsik since they were teens but never catching his attention that way and then a cunt/affectionate shows up and quite literally steals him away and yes maybe i have been reading/rereading all of katierosefun's fics on ao3 but that's not the point the point is that i wouldve killed myself so quickly jeongje you are so much stronger than me
#yes #yess #I also offer a counterpoint hc #that they had a casual teen boy Thing going on back in the day #like #why you're hanging out in that cramped cozy shed huh #was dongsik banned from jeongje's house #because of his corrupting gay influence #hmmmm? #anyways #they never officially dated or anything #but the tenders was there #and then #everything else happened #and loosing dongsik to pain and then to han is hashtag real #also all their friends do know something was going on w them before #but they politely keep quiet #and han is completely oblivious #to the hive mind understanding going on between everyone #all throughout canon #but it can become a delicious turmoil point later on #when he finally figures it out #or more like #someone will just mention it in a less vague way around him #what was I on about #that past and present tenderness #and the understanding hanging over everyone all throughout the story #is very delicious and adds to the tragedy
user studychaosdaze YES YES YESSHWHEYEUWWJWJK!!!!! EVERYTHINF YOU SAID AND EVEN MORE!!!! like thats not a headcanon to me thats how special this concept is!!!!!!!!!!! its just makes their relationship so much more complicated (not that theres any need like theyre already doing great at that wo us interfering but i do love me some angst) like.....the what if......jeongje perhaps thinking one day they'll get together even if they havent kissed once since they were 20.........seeing Dongsik's attention being captured by a random man who's annoying AF.......hoping he stills stands a chance somehow someday.............crying screaming thrkwing up
Oh, jeongje, at 40 somehow still dealing with the same problems he had as a teen...... Even his mom is still on about dongsik being a bad influence and trying to keep them separate.
And yuyeon is still there, haunting them... I do think jeongje really cared about her, too. Being a teenager is hard, and nobody understands, so ofc he can have a bunch of complicated and confusing feelings about the nice and pretty siblings that he's really close with in so many ways (and they're twins, too, to top it all off). And ofc it then gets marinated with vague sense of guilt for 20 years, g-d bless.
How close do you think jeongje's affection got tangled up with this guilt and pain over all these years? He may have felt it was inevitable that one day he and dongsik will gravitate back together (jeongje is living with one foot in the past at all times, after all). He never did anything about it, but hey. Dongsik did return to the town. Eventually. Not feeling all that great. But. Hey. Jeongje is also not feeling great. Look at all the deer in his notebook. Can a well doing person draw all this?
So, yeah, bet next 3 years were slow and cozy and a little eerie. Do you think jeongje ever wandered what that eeriness was? Why it hurts to be alone with dongsik? Did jeongje ever examined why his hand starves away from touching dongsik, when the light hits his eyes in the sharp harsh way headlights would?
And then all the pain and secrets started to reveal themselves. Like, ohboy.
And also the new self-righteous boy, lik a ghost of their youth, was the first one to overcome his and his families misdeeds, and his own mistreatment of dongsik. And he got to hold dongsik's hands and his affection, too. He kept doing things, while jeongje was shackled by the past and the guilt. So maybe that's fair that the boy got to have dongsik looking at him like that, or speaking about him with this gentle amusement so familiar to jeongje.
Do you think jeongje can discern the pang of pain he feels at it from all the other pain wrecking his mind like a storm?
9-9/
Also, the parallel of juwon later also succumbing to the paralyzing guilt, ohhhh. They keep leaving dongsik alone because of their fear and self loathing......
Somebody gotta step up and not let the same story repeat again.
Where you can find all you want to know about them, all you didn't want to find out, and everything you never even thought to wonder about.
Or: It's just a really long list of my headcanons in a trench coat. All my silly little drawing ideas require *checks the document* literally over 10k words of explanations, so you're getting both.
This is the little AU that haunts me, where Viktor and Jayce both live in Zaun, and Arcane is actually about class struggle and oppression.
Here you can read Jayce's backstory. And in this post we'll tackle Viktor's.
VIKTOR AND HIS (TERRIBLE?) LUCK
- In this timeline, Viktor's parents died way earlier, while he was still a kid.
- It happened very soon after, or even right around the time when he had a falling out with Singed. Double hitting little Viktor with tragedy here.
- Little Viktor pointedly didn't go after Singed, even if it meant he ended up in an orphanage. There was not enough food, education, and definitely no good perspectives in life there, but it beat trying to survive on the streets.
- It was the mining company's orphanage. As in, they sponsor it and put orphans of their employees there (the life expectancy on the job is not that great, after all). And the orphanage raises the kids in the same trade. The new generation of miners with almost a sure guarantee of the job after they’re old enough to start working. Great system all around. Ha. ha.
- Viktor's parents were not miners, but he lived in the same gray infested district where most of them and the orphanage were settled, so he got sent there by proxy.
- He spent at least a year there.
- But Viktor couldn't just sit around, just be content with getting pre-trained for swiftly dying on the first month of work right after leaving that damn place.
- Viktor didn't really try to make friends, and got in trouble several times for breaking into the school after hours.
- Partially because he kept working on his own little projects in secret. Like a breathing mask that filters out or converts gases.
- There weren't many resources around for him to test and build his projects around the orphanage. So Viktor quickly turned to scavenging and stealing stuff he might need around the city. This took a lot of his free time and involved way too much walking around to be comfortable, but what can one do. Science can't wait.
But not everything he needed was easy to come by.
- Trying to build an efficient mask was proving to be difficult, and demanding on resources. Viktor's knowledge and his school's chemistry lab couldn't fully keep up with his ambitions on this one.
THE INCIDENT x2: THE COLLISION
- So when Viktor heard the whiff of a rumor that a reclusive scientist guy got settled in some warehouse nearby, the guy that looks suspiciously like Singed, he decided to seize this chance.
- The scientist in the storage facility was indeed Singed, and he had a bigger, well stocked lab in there.
- After spying on it for a bit, and with prior knowledge of some of his former mentor’s habits, Viktor figured out when and how he can get in there, and for how long he can stay in the lab without being noticed.
He made sure to be very careful, and not leave any evidence of his presence, or the fact that he's using the equipment and stealing things here and there.
(He thought he was being so stealthy and smart about it all, ohboy).
- Viktor was still in his pre-teens, very early teens here, btw.
- This went on for a few months.
- Until one day Viktor got carried away and overstayed in the lab. And got almost busted, when Singed came back, and with a bunch of mafia guys in tow.
- They spread out to watch the exits, and little Viktor had to scramble, hide in the cupboards, and crawl under benches without losing his cane, leg pain be damned.
- Because Singed and Silko just -had- to walk around the lab talking about business and their future plans and schedules. Silco tried to push Singed into moving the lab or letting Silco put more security around this one. Like, stuff keeps getting stolen from him here and there. Not a lot, but this wouldn't do.
- And Viktor was very careful and stealthy. He -almost- made it out without being noticed. But, again, there were armed mafia goons on all sides of the place.
- So they got him, like a little rat boy who overheard a lot of plans for highly illegal stuff, and brought him and his broken cane to Silco (and absolutely unfazed Singed).
OF FATHER FIGURES AND REBELLION (part 1: Singed)
- And, well. Silco couldn't let the boy go. Viktor's life was very much expandable here in the face of the bright future Silco was about to build. But, like, it was still a bit awkward. Boy is scared and angry and even has a little bite to him.
- And one (maybe even Viktor for a second) would think Singed would cover for Viktor. Pretend he's still the wayward protege. But that's a lot to expect from the guy. So all Singed managed to muster up with 0.00005 of conscience he had left in him was a thoughtful "You might want to keep the child" to Silco. "He will be of use".
("these words will have consequences" moment)
-
Singed: This will be a smart investment.
Silco: I'm sure having a sickly but smart child around with bright ideas that are destined to waste away in the mines will not awaken anything in me.
Singed:
Singed: If you say so.
-
- With no cane (at first) and no safe place to go, Viktor couldn't really run away.
- And from the other side of this predicament – benevolently adopting a child, sorry, a future employee from the streets was cool and all, but Silco really didn't know what to do with a kid milling around his place and becoming meaner and meaner to the bodyguards with each passing day.
- So Silco avoided dealing or talking with Viktor for a bit, and then, bless his morally gray soul, tried to sneaky offload him on Singed.
Because the science child needs proper science education, and he's the best science guy around. And even familiar to the kid, too! So. Babysitting duty it is.
- Like, Viktor needed something to do. Had to be socialized a bit. When Silco got him a new custom-made cane, Viktor broke a couple of toes of the first bodyguard that spooked him.
(It was mostly an accident).
(That cane was too heavy and awkward to handle).
-
Singed: Thanks, but no thanks. He doesn't really listen to me anymore.
Singed: Your problem now.
Silco: >C
-
- Viktor was still stuck hanging out with Singed for a bit there, while Silco was busy with, well, business and having his adoption crisis.
- It was a lot of fun (No. No it wasn't.).
- Viktor was still angry with Singed about Rio, and also for working with some criminal guy now, and not caring much about (Viktor or) anything, really.
- Singed was really truly indifferent to all this drama, as long as Viktor didn't fuck up (on accident or on purpose) whatever he was working on. And even then, he'd just sigh and comment on the spirit of youth getting to Viktor's head or something.
- Because only the lack of experience could allow Viktor to waste time sulking around and wasting the opportunities life throws at his feeble feet. Right now, to continue the research Singed is interested in at the reasonable pace, he needs more funding and resources than Singed can or cares to muster up himself. He had the opportunity to get it all, and so he's here, trading money for results with Silco. For now.
If you want to keep on your goals and get somewhere with them and with your life, you've got to take the chances you get, and squeeze out the most out of them. Even if they might seem dirty and unappealing. Most times it still beats being buried in an unmarked grave.
- Singed will not wink wink nudge around this, he's a pretty direct guy. Viktor is lucky to be alive and have some possible future ahead. Singed doesn't care one way or the other, but it's very impractical of Viktor to wallow in all this "sold to one direction" suffering.
- This hurt to swallow, but still left an impression on Viktor.
- His relationship with Singed evened out over the next years, but stayed strained. From Viktor's side. Singed really, truly didn't care. He's focused and unbothered by any parental drama happening around him. Apart, of course, from his own.
- Singed did care for Viktor and taught him well, and even appreciated him as an occasional assistant and later as a fellow man of science. But ultimately Singed always was more focused on his own goals. He let the vague leftover opportunity for the gentle connection wither away. And Viktor with an array of vague and contradictory feelings about his almost father figure, that Viktor would not admit to have without significant pressure.
GROWING PAINS
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Viktor growing up: Me being so sickly and in constant need for medical attention must be stretching my usefulness thin. Must not become a liability, must work even harder.
Silco, with several surgeons on call, pulling debts, and ready to bite heads off for top quality accommodations: *pins schedule for Viktor’s weekly massages on Viktor’s bedpost, tucks it in his notebook, sets up alarms*
-
Silco, actually touched by the efforts the child made to help him: ah, g-d dang it...
Viktor, not sure what exactly from the things he did worked: o-o ???? ?? ?
Singed, who just wants to work on his drugs in peace:
He's so not invested in all this. Leave him to hunt wolves and dissect lizards. He needs his recreational animal hunting for samples.
-
- It took Silco a moment to stop waving his new reality away, get Viktor a proper cane and generally figure out what to do. And at first he did it all because it is, you know, just practical.
- But, yes, Silco, you will not get away with letting the child grow like moss somewhere on the shelf until he starts bringing results.
You gotta figure stuff out.
- It's a trap. He will fall in and hit the ground hard.
Silco will memorise every single prescription Viktor has, and will have to regularly hunt the child down to make sure he eats. Because some pills have to go with food.
- They'll have a talk one day (just like the talk Viktor had with Singed). About taking what's needed to keep going, staying on top of your goals.
There's no point in sitting there and suffering. For what even? To feel superior? Over people who do not struggle like you are? Who are not in pain? Pfft.
- Silco will ask Viktor if he thinks he is the only one who knows what it's like to be unable to function without meds or aid. Of course, it is not to the same degree, but they both were poisoned by this city.
Much to consider for little Viktor. Many things to sit side by side in silence about.
- What do you think It'll be like for them to develop an evening routine of medical care? Silco takes his meds, counts out Viktor's, while Viktor measures Silco's shots. Viktor does his stretches, while Silco prepares him sweet milk.
-
Viktor, emerging from the lab after a week-long binge of working:
Silco, appearing from the shadows behind his shoulder: ........Noticing you’ve missed your morning exercise 3 times already.... … .. .
Viktor:
This will have consequences. (C) Silco.
Like, who's gonna be groaning and whining for another week while trying to get out of bed? Who's gonna need compress and a call to the masseuse? Hmh.
OF FATHER FIGURES AND REBELLION (part 2: Silco)
- In his teen years, Viktor got dragged through many chem-barons meetings and parties in the guise of a cup bearer- I mean secretary. Because Silco could trust only him with some sensitive documents and info.
- Vague hopes of raising himself a diplomatically suave successor crushed hard over Viktor treating these ventures like a cat would a bath.
- Viktor can and would ruin a trading deal for Silco just because he was taken (dragged, cursing and flailing) from his lab while some tests were still running.
Why was Viktor in the lab, when he was set to be ready for the business meeting 30 min ago? Dedication to the craft. Next question.
- Oh, you think you have it hard, Silco? Wait till his sister shows up, try to get her to behave. Will remember the good old days.
At least you can discipline Viktor by giving him, idk, a gazillion stacks of paperwork for a week.
- Silco didn't stop Viktor from pursuing academics and science, of course. Even encouraged it.
- He essentially encouraged Viktor researching and developing things that would help them in the plan of building up Zaun's strength and independence. Yes, sometimes it meant building weapons.
- Viktor wasn't really happy with doing this, but growing up with Silco he saw the value in what he was trying to do, and wanted to see their city free and independent one day, too.
- And when they'll get closer to that goal, when people will stop being trampled down and dying from neglect and malice of the privileged assholes, Viktor will have a chance to put his whole attention into working on his other projects. To invent things that will improve the everyday lives of people.
But for now it's revolution first, necessities later.
- Viktor still can tinker with his other projects, still slave over improving his mask design, and other biomechanical aids, research plants and all. He has all the funds he might need, Silco believes in everything Viktor does, 100%.
But, you know. Those things are designated to his free time. They are not the priority. Yet.
- An -yet- Viktor still felt the tension. The dissatisfaction. The pressure and constraints these expectations put on him. He believed in Silco's cause, of course, full stop with him. But it always felt like he could do more with his other ventures, if he was free to put his efforts into directly helping people right now.
- Silco understood that this tension existed, but somewhat underestimated it. He believed in Viktor's loyalty no matter how many arguments they had, and even with Viktor's various outbursts and "making a point" sabotages.
- Oh, the roundabout way of making weapons for one group so it will win (so your people will), and there will be no need to use weapons so much. *looks at Jayce in s 1 act 2*
- Oh, the later contrast of Jinxes weapons being very violent and destructive and painful, and Viktor's being more simple and efficient.
-
Viktor: *invents stunning bullets that can knock people out for various periods of time*
Viktor: I am being so ethical c:
Silco: *uses them to torture people*
Viktor: >0
THE DEVIL ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TEST TUBE
- In addition to everything else, in this timeline Viktor was studying and invested in bioengineering.
- And he was (on and off) helping Singed with the development of Shimmer.
- Viktor wouldn't want Rio's suffering and legacy to be in vain. For it to be a berserk drug with terrible addiction.
- Viktor: I Will Fix This. For normal and noble and just reasons, that don't involve any projection or guilt. At all.
- Shimmer was developed as a healing and strength booster drug, and Viktor and Singed spent a lot of time ironing it out.
- Well, Singed worked on perfecting the desired results, that he (and Silco) needed. If one cares for the difference. (Viktor did.)
- Silco pushed for the earliest possible release of the product, Singed didn't care much, Viktor's opinion was sidelined a lot.
- The future consequences of all this were building up and up.
THE OVERVIEW
- This kind of upbringing left its mark, and Viktor grew up even more bite-y and stand-offish, and more ready to make difficult compromises with his morals if it meant getting closer to his own goals.
- That stayed the same – to help people of the undercity.
- I think it will be fun to have Viktor on the hot spot, spearheading the research to free his city from oppression. Have him choose compromises after compromises just for a chance to do it one day.
- To have Viktor's need to prove his worth and his right to be there grip him more strongly. His desire to show that he's just as capable, just as strong as everyone else. That he's capable of handling everything he was dealt and more.
- All of this will be stretching his control of himself and his life thin.
His insecurities and fear forced him into a role with few choices and many regrets.
- Since Viktor started to get better medical attention when he was still a kid, the condition of his leg is not as bad when he's in his 20s, and it doesn't deteriorate as fast. He still needs a cane and later a brace (maybe not the same one?).
- Because his leg is in better condition (and thanks to Silco getting him into regularly doing physical therapy and gymnastics) Viktor's back is doing better, too. He does need regular massages and to wear a corset (sometimes or regularly) to keep in this way.
- Currently, I am not sure if we'll need to keep Viktor's terminal illness in this AU. We know so little about it from canon, and there's enough going on narratively in the AU to keep it going.
It can stay as slowly coming to surface chronic condition caused by the gray. Viktor would have a weaker respiratory system, low oxygen levels in the blood (maybe need that supplemented sometimes). Have chronic fatigue. He'll be more prone to get colds and infections.
- I'll think about it more (and do share your thoughts if you have them), but so far I don't think the actual ticking timebomb (heheh) of it is necessary.
--
BEFORE: Jayce's bio
UP NEXT: the explosion, the plot, the gayness, and other fun things
Welcome to the little AU I like to think about, where Viktor and Jayce both live in Zaun, and Arcane is actually about class struggle and oppression. Let's start with Jayce's backstory (you can find Viktor's here).
First of all in this house we fully accept the theory that Jayce and his mother are not from Piltover. They moved there to live with Jayce's dad when Jayce was still a kid (most likely from Ixtal). We appreciate and dig deep into mixed immigrant kid Jayce Talis narrative (yes, there will be more posts exploring this theme in canon later).
With that in mind, let's begin.
THE PILTOVER DREAM
- Let's imagine that house Talis was a bit further on the decline when Ximena and Jayce moved to Piltover. Couldn't keep up with the capitalist progress and the demands of high society anymore, losing even more of the status and wealth each passing day.
- They already downsized to owning only one factory somewhere in Zaun already. And eventually Jayce's dad had to sell it, too, to close the last debts.
A fun point to think about, because it was either leaving his grandchildren paying off the failed business expenses decades from now, or losing everything right now, and living in poverty, but without that shadow over the family. Let's not think too deeply about aggressive business takeovers and monopolies of Piltover, it'll get too sad and aggravating fast.
- Eventually, and rather fast in the grand scheme of things, Talis and his family moved to Zaun. Where he continued working as an engineer at the last Talis factory he had to sell. How about that turn of events, huh.
- Now imagine you and your mum escape poverty, get to the bigger, shinier city in another country to reunite with your dad... but end up spending only a year there at most, before you all have to move to the local poverty capital. And all the kids there look at you like "ew, you're one of those bourgeois bitches".
- So yeah, Jayce's formidable years were not as fun, not a lot of friends made between his autistic straightforwardness and the shadow of Piltover making up an imaginary chip on his shoulder.
- His dad had a nicer official job, too. Gained somewhat of a passable, if not overly friendly, reputation. Worked hard, and didn't complain or bring up any hazing. He needed this job and this reputation, after all.
"It's complicated" status on LinkedIn.
- He taught Jayce what he could in the late evenings, and let him rampage through the family's library before starting to slowly sell it off.
- Nice times didn't last long, though. Couple of years after the move to Zaun, Jayce's dad passed away at work, in a gruesome accident. Crushed to death while fixing up the broken machinery. The funding of the factory was dropping even more rapidly now, and it was not possible to keep up with all the safety protocols anymore.
- His family received a small compensation (he wasn't following the safety protocols, after all), and had to size down again, and move even deeper in the undercity.
- Ximena had to take on more work again, just like when Jayce was a (smaller) child. But now she couldn't take some of the finer, less stressful jobs, because of the missing fingers. This stuck with Jayce. This character will remember this from now on and forever.
But hey, at least there's no need to go into the mountains on the regular despite the weather conditions, right? Ha ha.
JAYCE (AND TALIS)
- Jayce stopped using or mentioning his last name even before his father's death. Though it stopped haunting him with biting remarks from the peers only after him and Ximena moved again.
- But Jayce still had his ambitions, his -dream-, his drive, the sleepless nights, and the remains of his father's library.
Never really leaving the bottom of the pit, ground 0, from the start, did make him even more passionate about harnessing magic and improving the lives of the workers.
- But let's be real here, he is kinda selfish about that. About his passion.
He could've gotten a job as an assistant in some repair shop or with a local mechanic. Be safer, have better chances of the job and salary growth. Of supporting his mother.
- And oh Jayce is all about that, that is also his big goal in life. He moved out and got a job (way too early) in his teens, to take some pressure off Ximena.
- But he got a job in the formerly Talis owned factory. The same one his dad died in.
- Because, you know. If Jayce wanted to make progress in his research, he needed access to the industrial forge and the finer quality equipment.
- So small repairs stayed as just a side gig, while teenage (maybe he was around 14 or something?) Jayce began the fast journey to permanently fucking up his back doing manual labor.
- And yes, his official position was linework, loading and/or (later in the timeline) smithing. Because they couldn't hire an engineer, no matter how promising, without papers confirming proper education. It was a proper Piltover factory, after all. They gotta do things the right and legal way.
- Instead of Kirammans, Jayce got the shift manager that lets him tinker with his own stuff at dead hours, because Jayce is a good boy who's ready to work two jobs, one under the table, all for under the table scraps pay.
- And when I say "moved out", I mean Jayce is living in prime real estate of a big industrial crate that got written off from the factory he works at. It's propped somewhere really close by to it, in the back alleyways that never see the sun.
Very practical of him, can catch more hours in the factory, and not worry about traveling back and forth, cutting down his research and work time.
- Only a few people in the factory know he's the kid of the Talis. Jayce puts a lot of effort into not bringing it up. No need to complicate things, and make more obstacles for his actual work and life goals.
- Jayce still signs every page of his research, though. But only with his last name. He thinks he's being bitter and conspiratorial about it.
THE INCIDENT x1: THE CRASH
- But guess what. Nice times didn't last long, yes. After (at most) a year and a bit at the factory, the disaster struck.
Jayce was working his usual late hours all alone, fixing some heavy machinery that broke down for the third time that week, when some very out of date mechanisms gave out and very unfortunately crushed Jayce's leg way ahead of the schedule.
Oh, Jayce almost dying on company time, just like his father before him. And in an eerily similar fashion, too.
- He didn't die, though. He was brave, and (after waking up) put his bone back into its place, and (after waking up after -that-), asked the shift manager for his non-mandatory monthly couple of days leave. Like a champ.
- He was still young, and stubborn, and terrified by what happened, and of the look the shift manager gave him after dropping Jayce off at the crate.
So he laid there on the floor (no carpet in the crate) in a daze of pain and delusions, not thinking about how this injury may cost him this job and the chance of continuing his research. Like a champ. Until the night of his last day of leave.
- And when no new miracle came through, Jayce gathered all the scrapes he could reach to make a makeshift splinter and a crutch. Maybe even from the hammer prototype handle. And set out on the long trek to the local meat vendor guy.
People at the factory mentioned him sometimes as some sort of underground doctor that helps out factory workers that can't afford visiting a proper clinic. And asks a reasonable price, it seems.
- Neither gods nor Jayce know how he managed to get to this guy's place on his own, but it took a lot of hours.
- Imagine Jayce, already pumped full of not approved for humans painkillers slumped over the metal table, doing his best puppy dog eyes like "Can you do something quick? I have to make it to the morning shift, dowctor 👉👈"
And the local butcher shop surgeon going "Yeah, me too, boy".
-
Doctor: How did you get here, boy?
Jayce: Hamner ✨✨✨✨✨*
His Best Friend.
*that's Jayce throwing up over the surgery table.
-
- Yes, Jayce's vague hopes of getting a really good splinter went out of the window real fast.
The doctor, looking at the cracked open leg with big signs of infection and pieces of bone all over the place: “Meh, not today. Not gonna perform a puzzle. You clearly won't be paying for the extra hours, and my slop coffee's getting cold.”
- Jokes aside, he did explain to Jayce that trying to fix his leg will take a long time and probably multiple surgeries, and even with all that it will never work properly again. He will not be able to get back to his previous work for a long while. Most likely – at all.
- And Jayce couldn't have that. So he swallowed his initial panic and agreed to the amputation. Because he may have a shorter recovery time, if he's lucky. Because he can start walking again in a shorter span of time. If he's lucky. Because, sure, he can't afford the prosthetic, but he can figure it out, he can make something himself, whatever, crank it, chop it off, boss.
THE FOLLOWUP
- And, well. Jayce did eventually figure it out.
He probably had to move back in with Ximena for a while, while he recovered, and build his new leg with some input from the back alley doctor. It was quite simple and basic, his first model.
- Jayce had to keep building new ones over the next few years, as he grew older and bigger.
- He did return to the factory as soon as he could (perhaps a bit too soon, even), and continued his research.
- Jayce tried to not draw attention to his missing leg. There were plenty of amputees on the job, but all of them got their work injuries way later in life, and had plenty of strength and experience backing them up. Jayce didn't have any of that yet, only the vague rumors that he's an outsider following him all his life. So he kept quiet, and to himself. A perfect cog in the machine.
- Meanwhile, his continued research of body augmentation and prosthetics got him into a new side gig.
As payment for his operation, the back alley surgeon got Jayce to work on prosthetics for his other clients.
As in, after their operations and/or amputations, the doctor would refer people to Jayce. For a reasonable fee, of course.
- The problem in Zaun lies not only in the low life expectancy and the amount of severe injuries in the workforce. Prosthetics can make life bearable for most. It's in the prices, too.
Can regular old uncle Fedya from the nail making factory get a pair of relatively ok working fingers to keep sorting nails 16/6 after he got his hand stuck while cleaning a press? Without going into lifelong debt? Much to think about.
- The market of prosthetics is monopolized by that sickly cat chem-baron that Sevika cut into pieces. But that will happen in the future, back then he was still very much alive and ready to absorb or eliminate any competition.
- So Jayce worked on the downlow, and never took money for his work.
- And even with that he eventually ended up on that baron's radar. The fact that he did his prosthetics for free made it even worse, actually. Hah.
- But Jayce's patients didn't rat him out. The earliest ones, at least. Maybe later the back alley doctor made the rule of blindfolding patients before Jayce will work with them. Just in case.
- Sometimes families of the people Jayce helps pay him back in food. Sometimes they bring supplies for the secret lab he definitely doesn't have, shhh. Such a bright gentleman can definitely find some use for all this toootally useless junk they had lying around. He takes it, or they throw it away, you know. Or whatever.
THE OVERVIEW
- I think it will be fun to have Jayce be a silent mechanic with no name.
The patients for prosthetics never see his face, or hear his voice much. Or at all. Jayce learned to work in silence. He never leaves signature markings on his prosthetics and machines. He learned to linger in the shadows and not draw attention to how he looks or moves. To who he is.
The need to fit in and being needed forced Jayce into another version of the same rigid mold.
- Jayce has unchecked social anxiety, and gets nervous and uncomfortable when too many people pay attention to him. Or just being around big groups of people for long periods of time. He, unlike the Arcane!Jayce, was not prolongedly trained to stomach it. Social events tire him 10 times faster.
- He doesn't ask many questions, he's just there. Slouching, to occupy less space with his (smaller and shorter than in Arcane, but still) giant frame, and also because of the back pain.
- And yes, almost 10 years of hard labor starting from teen years (with not much proper training, too!) got Jayce chronic lower back pain way earlier than his coworkers. It mostly bothers him at night though, so it's alright, hahah. Doesn't impact his work much. Still easy to hide, so it's basically neglectable. Ha ha.
- Jayce doesn't keep up with his appearance that much. Looks somewhat like a stray dog. Unkept, and sometimes grimy from work, but mostly clean. Hair reaching the chin, pulled into a half ponytail, Vander-style. It's only long enough for the layer of soot to protect from the fire and metals.
- He is mostly going by Jay in this timeline. At first, he did only at work, to have more distance from his family name. But then it just stuck.
Only his mum (and later Viktor) calls him Jayce.
- Sometimes Jayce traded various knick-knacks at Benzo's. He didn't always have the money to buy things, but Jayce can barter for stuff and do little repairs.
- And no, he's not gonna stay for a full-time job, thankyouverymuch. Jayce is -very- into 16-hour shifts and his damp crate in the alley. He's all good
- Yeah, put the box of discount parts near the door, Ekko. It's for the stray.
- The back alley doctor is a big, intimidating looking guy, who runs a meat selling or other kind of food shop. With the vibes of that food stand guy from Arcane.
(To the reader: if someone knows a character from the league that would fit the bill, then do tell. I will gladly adjust and implement more canon stuff).
1) League!jayvik dimension and time travelling through key points of Arcane.
2) Arcane!Jayce dimension travelling through all not-Arcane league universes (before coming back to s2 act 2) and learning important lessons in each. Teaching some important ones, too. Probably fucking up a lot. "My job here is done" moments.
3) Post canon Arcane!jayvik dimension and time hoping through all Arcane and not-Arcane timelines and universes until they find a way to stabilise the rune. They're having a blast, developing their relationship, and teaching everyone lessons by blasting everything with gayness and drama.
