bakerstreet | Can't be together?

Can't be together?

the "should never be together" meme.

When two people come together in a relationship, it's a beautiful thing. What can be wrong with love, right? Right? Except when the union is completely and totally wrong, for whatever reason. Then things can get a little messy.

How To Play
1. Comment with your character, listing their name, canon, etc, along with any preferences.
2. Comment around to others, using the RNG to determine the scenario. It doesn't have to be a lovey-dovey relationship, obviously. There can be hate, sorrow, lust, whatever.
3. Thread! Have fun! Do things!

Scenarios
1. Warring Factions: You belong to rival organizations, armies, clubs, etc. Whatever it is, you're not on the same team.

2. Soldiers on the Battlefield: Or maybe you are on the same side, but this is the wrong time and the wrong place. Plus, attachments cause distractions.

3. Bodyguard and the Guarded: Just like the movie with Kevin Costner! One of you has been hired to protect the other for some reason, and feelings are starting to grow. Are you a professional and cut things off, or do you give in?

4. Prince/ss and Knight: Similar to the above, but with a whole 'nother level of wrong...one of you is royal. Courtly love is okay; still, don't forget your place.

5. Enemies: This vendetta is personal, and you totally hate this person! Don't you? Perhaps you're maybe just rivals, or something as serious as superhero and villain.

6. Family: The ultimate taboo. This person is related to you, so there's no way you should indulge this desire, even if it's the most pure love there ever was.

7. Age Difference: The years between you should keep you both at bay, but it's easier said than done.

10. Teacher/Student: Teachers and students have a unique bond, and to corrupt it is a dangerous thing. Will you dare to act on emotions that could put you both in a destructive place?

11. Already Spoken For: One or both of you are already involved with someone else, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Just know that you can't have your cake and eat it, too.

12. Not Compatible: Your personalities or jobs make it so it's hard for you to be together.

13. Not Compatible...in Another Way: You're both different species, which means you're either afraid to take your relationship to a physical level or you can't because of differences in biologies.

14. Not Ready for Love: You took a vow (or celbacy, of chastity, of dedication), you're married to your work, or you just don't want to be involved with anyone. Too bad!

15. Rich and Poor: One of you has the money while the other is from more modest means. Can the 1% and the 99% ever be bedfellows, literally?

16. Hurt Before: Your heart has been broken, and maybe there's been no time to heal. But here you are.

17. WILDCARD

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( info. m/f pref, but open to m/m with discussion. rich and poor most likely, he can be either the richer or the poorer party depending on how rich the other character is. 1 or 11 could also work. would like an antiquity/historical or fantasy setting pls. )

[Would you be down for an alternate Council Meeting scene where Viktor shows up in person instead of Mel and the Huck Mannequin? I can have him in either full Arcane Herald or Commune flavor, whichever you prefer!

Thinking we could really work with a 5 & 16 combo there. I'm happy to write the starter!]

( absolutely slain by the username, bravo 👏🏻

i vote commune flavour just because jayce is weak to viktor's pallid face, and the prompts sound good to me! )

(I remain shocked nobody had this UN already- I can change anything here if it's not quite your taste, just DM me!)

[The Machine Herald had been slain and his commune routed. The weapon Ambessa was seeking was deemed lost to a blast amidst the fighting. For his part, Singed had managed to revived Viktor on the spot, rather than formulating an incubation chamber for recovery. Mel had gone to intercept her mother directly, rather than stop to check on the Council.

A different fall of dominoes than other timelines, one of many possibilities.

When Jayce is running his hands along the kintsugi gear of the once demolished meeting table, there is the approach of metallic steps. The click of a staff. Behind Jayce, some distance off, walks in his old partner. Slow, even treads accompany a stern expression, but Viktor's usual soft tone persists. Even still, he's draped in the blue and red blanket he'd been given the last time he was in such a building.

Felt like eons ago, a life long past.]

Councilor Talis. [derogatory.]

[ Memories of the day of the attack flash behind his eyes, the horrible scene of Viktor lying broken on the ground being the first moment Jayce had felt uncontrollably hot tears burning in his eyes despite the rest of the desolation. He had been so scared he was going to lose him, it had been instinctive terror.

His heart has broken, spurring him on to desperate foolishness.

Hearing a familiar approach, the way Viktor calls him has Jayce flinching even as he snatches hold of his hammer and turns on a heel. His eyes widen to find Viktor looking, well, whole, because he knows he blew that chest apart. It would never stop Viktor but it was supposed to slow him down, and now ...

Jayce would have had an easier time with a marionnette, ironically. ]

How did you get in here?

[ It sounds stupid as soon as it leaves his mouth, but he can't get anything else out as his heart plays staccato in his ribs. ]

[Whole is not the best word for Viktor's current state, but the way the toga drapes over him covers the injury Jayce last inflicted upon him. Singed hadn't managed to close that wound, his chest remains open beneath that fabric. If Jayce reached for him, he could reach straight through him. A reminder of what was done and of Viktor's remarkable resilience in this form, given some help back to life by his old mentor.

Viktor scoffs at the question, stopping his approach towards Jayce when the man reaches for his anomaly mutated weapon. So changed... it hardly looked like the Mercury Hammer at all... Much like the Talis forged cane was in Viktor's hand, so twisted that it could never be recognized for what it once had been.]

I walked right in. Turns out your people don't question a man they still recognize as a lead engineer. [he looks aside and wobbles his head with mocking humor, sparing an all too familiar "e-e-h"]

You should have aimed for my face.

[ His head starts to hurt again, like the stab of a migraine over and over, and he grits his teeth as he shakes it, gripping at his hair. He sees his own rotting corpse and its sad, moving eyes, hears the begging whisper Don't fail, briefly faltering in his steps as he gasps sharply in pain. Perhaps he got lucky in the commune when Viktor was hooked up to his horrid Arcane-driven machine, because how could Viktor think Jayce would ever aim for his face? Even if he should have.

Stumbling with his bad leg, he steadies himself with the other Jayce's mercury hammer, glaring at Viktor once his vision clears. The pain in his head is so much worse around him in person. ]

You need to leave, Viktor. I won't let you hurt any more people.

[ Fuck knows how, since apparently a blast to the chest was nothing, but. ]

[While Jayce is staggered by his own internal conflict, Viktor steps closer. He's likely only ten paces away by the time he stops again. That hammer is still a danger, he doesn't exactly have Singed in waiting if he gets hit with another direct blast. Though, that's unlikely, Viktor isn't being ambushed in this moment by his old partner.

He will not be stunned, frozen in shock and awe, that the man he knew as so caring and kind would raise a weapon against him on sight,]

Is that what you believe I was doing? When have I ever had any appetite for harm-? I offered salvation to those we failed...

[His eyes fall again to that damned hammer, a symbol of when so much went so wrong,]

You are the one, Jayce, who turned a tool meant to build into one only meant for killing.

I've been an idiot and an ass, I admit that. But what you're doing, Viktor ... turning people into drones at that commune, it's going to end badly if you finish it.

[ Jayce tilts the mercury hammer, or what is left of it, up by a few inches to signal Viktor ought to keep his distance. His narrowed eyes burn, watering at the corners as he stares at his former partner. ]

It will be a war that obliterates this world, with you at the helm. I know. I've been there.

[ His breath hitches, teeth grit at the memory. ]

I can't let you do that.

I healed them. Granted them respite from their solitude, their addictions, from too many unfair circumstances all stacked against them. Circumstances we, by misguiding Hextech, exacerbated... that a Council you joined failed to recognize until it was much too late.

[Jayce tilts the hammer and Viktor tilts his staff, an equal warning for warning. The arcane remains strong within him, even while weakened from Jayce's previous attack,]

Your delusions persist. Before, those were only of grandeur. [grandeur that Viktor encouraged and emboldened, discontented with merely being an assistant himself. They both wanted more and they found that with one another. Viktor shares this blame, he needs... to make things right. That is all they ever wanted to do.

And yet, can Jayce even be persuaded back to that goal, in such a sordid state of mind?]

Now... do you hear yourself? You're speaking nonsense.

It is not nonsense!

[ The uncharacteristic rage that boils over bursts like a dam when doubted, a trauma response to months spent in agony. ]

I spoke to you, you were older. Alone. I don't want that for you, Viktor; I don't want you to regret everything.

[ It's not an existence in which anyone wins. ]

I am beyond hoping I can reason with you, but if there's any part of you left ... Please, stop.

What opportunity have I ever had to grow old, Jayce? A madness has overtaken your fractured mind. There is no seeing reason in madness.

[He reaches his free hand to fall over his own chest, feeling the barren emptiness hidden behind the cloth... behind the last recognizable keepsake of their bond. No matter how far Viktor walked down this path, so far diverged from Jayce, he still wore the blanket he parted from the man with. How many times had Jayce slung it over his shoulders when Viktor fell asleep at his desk? How many times had Viktor fetched it for Jayce when the lab was too cold for his liking-?

There was still warmth to it, in those memories. Viktor can't get distracted by that affection any longer-

There is a tap of his staff to the floor and a rush of magic with it. He aims a balst of magic to the hammer, intent to siphon power direct from the weapon. Around him a barrier of glimmering blue forms, a shield with just enough of a half life to close the distance between them. (The bane of every midlaners existence, Viktor hitting Q and walking forward-)

He can make those ten steps towards him quicker than Jayce has ever seen him capable of before,]

When I heal you, you will think clearly once more.

[ The irony of Viktor calling Jayce insane is so galling that he almost misses the rush of magic, but even though he manages to fire off the hammer its energy gets sucked into the magical barrier. His eyes go wide and he suddenly has Viktor in his face, so he does the first thing that comes to mind and shoves his chest away.

... Only, he doesn't.

His hand goes through, dragging fabric along, and a strangled horrified noise catches in his throat as he realises Viktor hasn't healed like a human in any way at all, allowing himself to stay hollow.

It's awful.

Jayce drops the hammer in shock and claws at cold, hard arms as he gags with the knowledge of what he has done as he tries to straighten, his mind splintering with memories of a different reality. ]

No!

[ It comes out guttural, a reaction more than a word. ]

[Viktor's motion is more assured, bold, and precise than Jayce manages in retaliation. The shield erupts when hit with the hammer's blast, but it served its purpose of absorbing what it needed to. Viktor reaches his free arm over Jayce's and grabs the man by the throat. The ease at which his newfound strength manifests is a wonder, after so many years of feeling so weak within his own body.

He pushes Jayce backward to slam the man's lower back into the interior edge of the council table. Not down onto it, as Jayce's arm tries to push back and only goes through Viktor's chest. The hammer slips from his partner's fingers in an instant of self inflicted shock. The staff in Viktor's hand is deliberately cast aside, hitting the marble floors with a more delicate clatter than the hammer's echoing thud.

One hand upon the man's neck and one free, Viktor reaches the latter to grip Jayce by the joint of his extended elbow. He locks Jayce's arm forward, through Viktor's chest, where the man's hand finds no purchase. The arcane sparks within that empty core. Arching electricity tickles Jayce's skin without burning. The sensation is terribly, hauntingly gentle with its energetic caress.

Viktor's voice falls soft as ever, leaning in close to Jayce's chin, holding the man back from headbutting him. Not so tight that Jayce cannot speak. He pins Jayce's body as much as he can with his lithe, if leaden heavy form pressed in flush. They are connected like gears, each part of a greater machine,]

Hush now, my partner... your fear is about to all fade away. I promise you.

[To have claimed Jayce was the one to have lost his mind is truly very rich.]

[ Viktor was right, Jayce should have aimed for the head. Perhaps in another world, shooting Viktor through the chest was enough to slow him down ... but not in this one.

It is a death knell when he hears his staff hit the ground, choked and pinned with his arm locked in place through that hole. He feels hot tears drip back into his hair yet cannot look away from Viktor, who looks so much like himself and yet isn't. The twisted metal of that flexible, cold body is like an anvil, locking him in place.

I won't fail, I won't fail, I won't, I won't.

But he has.

His expression slackens, soft and sad with the tired smile that acts as a white flag. At least, at the end, he gets to see Viktor up close. ]

I love you, I'm sorry.

[The hand holding Jayce's throat lifts around the back of his neck, upward through his hair, and hooks finger tips along the crown of his head. Viktor still holds firm, but pulls his partner down enough so that he can gently thud his forehead against Jayce's. Their noses nuzzle side-by-side, interlocking. Their lips are close, but do not touch.]

You don't mean that.

[A hollow confession to Viktor's perspective. The love, the remorse, such sentiments rings as empty to him as his chest. There is longing in his words, wishing that things had been different. Wishing that he could have the faith in Jayce he once had. To be the only one to believe in him, in his dream. Enough to risk everything Viktor had crawled up from the depth of the Undercity to achieve. Those days... are long past, but not forgotten.

Fingers sink into Jayce's skin and skull. Magic pulls his consciousness into the vast nebulas of the Hexzone. With the slightest further push, he could overtake Jayce's mind and cure him. Overwrite everything that makes him anguished and confused. This is a mercy Viktor can provide. Salvation.

Viktor hesitates.

The ghostly form of his ethereal self manifests before Jayce's in a realm where time just barely exists. One last chance, holding on to one moment more, wondering if seeing things at the distance Viktor now does will grant Jayce some manner of book ending clarity.

In truth, Viktor just doesn't want to let him go.]

[ The pain has him gasping, mouth falling open, and then reality whips around into a nebulous realm where he can see Viktor (almost his and back to normal) with white hair before him. Everything in Jayce surges forward to scoop him into his arms, cradling the back of his head in a subconscious parody of the grip Viktor has on him outside this space.

He sags with relief to be able to hold him, even if it is only here. ]

I mean it.

[ Jayce doesn't give a second glance to the myriad stars around them, drawing back only enough to drink in the sight of Viktor, touching his cheek. ]

Of course I mean it.

[ And after a moment's hesitation where he looks to be gathering courage, he kisses him. ]

[They will continue to mirror one another, despite all that happens and will happen. Two halves of butterfly wings. Viktor feels all that Jayce does, connected to his mind and heart at once. The sincerity he had denied is present, ever present, divinely true. Faith fails in face of irrefutable fact. Of plainly demonstrated evidence.

Jayce loves him. He's sorry.

The kiss is like a sudden collision of long parallel stars. Abrupt and cosmically devastating. Flashing and collapsing in on itself, breaking the zone from within. Viktor's magic reflects outward, breaking his fingers free of their once firm placement. Leaving only starlight twinkles of opal marking upon Jayce's skin as they unhook from him. Viktor is kissing him back, pushed forward so their lips locked just as the rest of their bodies are fit together. Perfectly measured joinery, seamless as they made so much precisely crafted Hextech. There is a phantom racing of a heart no longer in the place it should be. Cold logic collapses in on heated emotions, the combination overwhelms.

Viktor pushes himself away from Jayce, staggering backwards with heavy clangs of metal feet. Marble flooring cracks under each heel. His hands flail forward before curling back towards his face, pressing into the only human feeling part of himself. He stumbles into the opposite side of the desk, half tripping on his way over. The hammer and staff that lay crossed between them.

His vocal cadence is the same as ever, now hushed in outrage and fried raw, mechanical, and grinding against itself,]

That can't..! Be...

Edited (whoops) 2025-04-22 21:18 (UTC)

[ As their lips melt together in reality, he becomes aware of the kiss just as it breaks. Jayce is not reinforced metallugic skin, he is battered and aching, limping over to lay a hand on Viktor's shoulder before mirroring the astral realm and gathering him into his arms voluntarily. More than that, having felt Viktor kiss back, he uses the blanket they once both napped under to now wrap tighter around Viktor's hollow chest, holding him in protective arms.

He drags down rattling breaths, skull screaming with pain as his mind strains not to break. It isn't allowed. ]

That's enough, Viktor. That's enough, love. Stop, now.

[ Hushing him, a bristly chin rubbing against an overgrown temple. ]

No more.

Edited 2025-04-22 21:30 (UTC)

[Viktor backs away and yet Jayce pursues, follows with open arms, reaches for him. Legs give out beneath him and he lands heavy flat on his ass, hardly dignified. Still, Jayce hugs him, won't let him go. Viktor doesn't have the will to push him away, his struggles are weak by his own will. A want for weakness, for vulnerability Viktor didn't allow himself, but the Jayce allows him the luxury of.

Panicked gasps escape him in dry sobs, his arms falling downward from his face and Viktor curls into Jayce's chest. His knees pull upward, seeking to make himself small, to fold in on himself and interlock again with his partner's caring hold. Humanity overcomes the calcified dullness caused by the hexcore sapping his personhood away, draining him to feed ends that served only the unfeeling arcane. Viktor resents the hushing as much as it comforts him. He buries his face to Jayce's collar and screams into it, all heartfelt fury needing to be venting free. Shaking thighs press together and wrap to Jayce's back, rattling where his longest scar lay.

His arms reach upward and hook over each of Jayce's shoulders, anchoring him in place. "Don't go", the gesture says, "I'll stay."]

Why... Jayce-? How-? [two questions they've spent their whole lives chasing, chasing to the magical fringes of science. Why. How. They've tried to puzzle such inquires out for so long to no avail at all.

They never really asked it of each other, but Viktor does now. How... Why...]

... do we persist?

[ Viktor collapses like a star, literally and figuratively as he explodes with pain while cradled to Jayce's chest. Jayce screws his eyes shut, stroking Viktor's hair. He lets him get it out, running a hand up one of the arms that loops over his shoulders to reassure him as he gazes into the eyes he knows so well and recognises a slice of his partner there again. ]

Because, [ there are no grand answers, only, ] I promised you.

[ He brushes a hammer-calloused palm over the soft skin of Viktor's remaining cheek. He sighs and shakes his head. ]

All I want is my partner back.

I'm not that man anymore... I cannot be what I once was...

[Viktor eyes shift colors to meet with Jayce's. First, a warm glow through the opalescent sheen, then they become molten. Gold. As they had been when he was a man. Some part of that man he denies being is still in him. He is not the same man, but neither is Jayce. Neither is anybody, as time goes on. Everybody changes who they are from who they once were...

They don't usually have to die twice in the process, but Viktor is exceptional in that regard. He shakes his head, screws his burning eyes closed.]

Whatever promise you made, I am not... who you made it to, Jayce. We broke every promise we every made to one another- we can't do this.

[and yet Viktor cannot let him go, in fact, his fingers curl tighter into Jayce's shirt as he speaks]

Edited 2025-04-21 01:02 (UTC)

[ Character Info | Preferences | Plotting Contact ]

A male Gardevoir with particularly potent telepathic and empathic powers. Equally fascinated and confused by human culture, which he fantasizes about joining despite being a forest-dwelling recluse. Happiest when doting and caring for others and most anxious when others are either not caring for themselves or behaving recklessly.

Communicates through telepathy, << denoted with this format. >>

( anya looks super neat! any faves / ideas for how to blend sci-fi spacey stuff with pogeymans? i'm definitely open to discussion here. )

[ota.]

[ Current to relevant "canon," as such. His backstory involves him (a demon) falling for a Catholic nun, so this tracks. ]

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Can't be together?

marius domitius | original character | ota

Daenys Targaryen | ASOIAF | OTA

jayce talis | arcane

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yk lemme cw: body horror as best practice I can rewrite if that's not your speed

he will wtf when he sees, lol

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Rey || Star Wars || F/M

Obi-Wan Kenobi | Star Wars | OTA

Xiao Xingchen | The Untamed | M/M

nero | devil may cry | ota

nicole demara ( zzz )

navia ( genshin impact )

topaz ( honkai: star rail )

mualani ( genshin impact )

lumine ( genshin impact )

march 7th ( honkai: star rail )

Logan Howlett/Worst Wolverine | MCU | OTA as long as you understand he's a sad wet beast

lilith sahl ʚɞ trinity blood

Rey | Star Wars | OTA

Cassian Andor | Rogue One | OTA

akito sohma — fruits basket

Anya 💖 Pokemon OC 💖 OTA

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hiori yo ( blue lock ) m/m

princess serenity | sailor moon | ota

castorice / hsr

"tailor ghoul" | ghost

Soshiro Hoshina | Kaiju no. 8

Barcus Wroot | Baldur's Gate 3