[ that's because nobody in the government is smart.
anyway they look at him like they're startled he asked. ]
My. Blender? I mean sure? Probably should clean it first.
[ but yes. building. they nod to this. ]
I don't know about a legacy, I think I would just like to build a place people would enjoy and get use out of. I've built some things already and they've been standing steady, but I'm still learning. I'd eventually like to build something huge. Not a hotel, really, but the same idea.
Maybe if you ever come back to this place it'll be done by then. I'll have decided what to do with it. But I also kind of hope that won't be for a while. I've made some things around here though. The Tavern was described to me by the brothers, and I put it into play.
[ they don't elaborate on that because they're busy blinking at the empty glass. ]
[This is probably not the meeting Gabriel expected from a guy who sounded a little less insane if a bit more traumatized through letter, then showed up looking like the Renaissance art movement version of Jesus, but here we are.
He has destroyed a tall glass of chocolate milkshake and is about to destroy the blender next.]
Thank you, but maybe I will get one to take with me when I leave.
[He is trying not to make Gabriel need the blender when he is ready to be nosy.]
You did a good job, at least. [Glancing around.] It isn't exactly the same as The Last Drop in the Lanes of Zaun, but it gives the same impression.
[ this description is so funny because it's also not technically wrong I guess. but they nod because sure, they can make a to-go milkshake. instead they will pass over the blender for him to obliterate as they lean against the counter to watch. ]
Careful with the blades. [ an idle, gentle warning. ] But thanks. If it feels like something familiar to multiple people means we did the job right. Tell me about The Last Drop. Was it somewhere a lot of people went?
I'm not sure how much I could tell you from my own experience.
[First, he simply inspects the blender to see the way it is shaped and its cursory functions. And to commit how it looks to memory. He has no tools, sadly, but he doesn't need any when he has become the tool himself.
He begins pulling the bladed base of the cup apart from the reservoir. The blades are what he is interested in, sorry to Gabriel's warning. He turns it around, then lifts his right hand to pull the magic up through his palm, pulsing. The mechanisms quiver before beginning to unpiece from each other.]
It was a bar in the Lanes, and I wasn't allowed to go very often since I was a child even though children could go inside. The owner's name was Vander. Zaun was still polluted and barely livable, and there was no leader because it was a part of Piltover, but Vander made it relatively peaceful as an interim one.
I was already a student in Piltover's academy above by the time he was said to be murdered. But... I met him recently. It is strange how life comes back around. Two girls who were like his daughters brought him to me to be healed. He had been mutated experimentally by a former mentor of mine, but his humanity was still inside. It was difficult to get through to him.
[The pieces settle on the bar in front of him, and he sorts through them one by one, inspecting.]
I saw his life, his time at the bar. He was a good man. He cared about the people of Zaun. His bar was a place people of Zaun could go when they were tired, when they needed a drink or to talk.
[ well. that's fine, he's just watching like "what the fuck" and letting viktor do what he's doing while listening. ]
Yeah, well, kids probably shouldn't be in bars anyway. But I get where some places might allow it, especially if the rest of the place is just... you know. Trying to get by.
... sounds like a pretty good guy. I always kind of thought bars were meant to be that way. Like a retreat, you know? Hide out when the world goes to shit, and talk to someone who can just hear you out even without fully knowing the situation. [ go back to the healing thing though. ] How... were you able to heal him?
[Kids shouldn't be in bars? Looks directly at you.]
I will admit, I was never really a bar sort of young man, so perhaps I am not the best person to agree.
[He was a nerd, and he spent more time by himself being a nerd more than anything. No one is going to want to party or drink with a cripple from the Undercity anyway. Not in Piltover.
He spins the blender blades in the air without touching them, and then he begins piecing things together again.]
Once a connection was established between us, I could enter his mind and search for the man he once was. We... Sky and I... traversed this space to see if we could open where it was hidden.
No, you seem more like the "sit in a library with a pot of tea and a prayer" kind of guy. [ not even because of the cripple thing, just in general. viktor gives off kind of a quieter vibe despite being played by you. ]
Sounds like a lot of deepdiving. A person's mind can be really busy. How did you know what to really search for? [ also who's sky? ]
Okay, you're a nerd. Which is fine, I kind of like nerds. [ it's cute when they're passionate about stuff, an attractive quality in a person when your own will to live is rock bottom. ]
So it was kind of a blind search and hoping for the best. Even if it was possible you wouldn't find it. Did you and Sky do this a lot? What if... what if someone's humanity didn't exist anymore?
[Do not be attracted to nerds, for god's (lol) sake. The worst decision you could make.]
Yes, the search was blind initially, but as we went along, went deeper, we could tell what paths to take. We had never done a case this... serious before. One with a man mutated so heavily. He had become a beast on the outside, fueled only by instinct and aggression.
I'm not sure. I have never met anyone without their humanity. If they had it at the start, I believe there would always be a piece of them you could reach.
[ just nods in agreement... this makes sense, sure. ]
Sounds like rough work. Being someone who can heal people, but only if you figure out how to reach them the right way. I think people keeping their humanity is what makes people people, really. So maybe it's a good thing you've never met anyone without it. So long as their lives aren't altered enough that they could lose it later.
[Looking at Gabriel in this thread which is before the time he can really look at Gabriel in this thread.]
...
[He just can't find a single person who believes in the mindless hivemind of peace, can he? He frowns at the parts in front of him. Each piece of the blender works seamlessly in tandem with the rest to make it function, to produce the results everyone enjoys the most: drinks.
Isn't that how it should be? They have no feelings, no thoughts.]
Does being a blender without humanity, despite what all it can accomplish and provide, make it less necessary and worthy of its existence?
[ no! no he cannot! but gabriel's just watching him go, thinking about what viktor says and does. people are not machines though. ]
A blender doesn't have a soul, Viktor. Unless you're about to tell me something I don't know, at which case I might owe my blender an apology. Besides, can you really call those accomplishments those of the blender if they're preprogrammed by something else?
[The blender comes together again, and the arcane he pushes through it makes it run for a moment without being connected to the base.]
Do we not act on a predetermined will ourselves? Instinct, emotions, society, religion.
It is the only way for a peaceful world. Do people not care... about a peaceful world? About a world without pain or suffering? They want it, but... they do not want to do what is required to get there.
I don't know. That's then suggesting that we're all just God's puppets and don't actually have free will, and I don't know if I agree with that choice either. Of course people care about a peaceful world, but what you're suggesting to get there also takes away the positives of what would make a world peaceful. There's a difference between comfortable acceptance and true peace, maybe.
... besides, it also just feels like a lot to put on one person to be the center point.
[He says this, but the vibes don't seem to lean too heavily into it. More like when two friends just say some shit to each other to rile the other one up.]
When people do not work together because of their own emotions and personal goals, would one person not have to be the center for change?
I know what you will say: that person might not have the best interest in mind.
They would have to evolve beyond. They would have to become more impartial.
[The blender, fixed again, he offers back to Gabriel with a nod. Thank you. Zaun will now have milkshakes.]
[ this conversation is going to hit so differently in a few days. but he seems to accept the vibes without thinking too heavily about it. ]
And then you would know that I would say that asking someone to evolve and become more impartial is basically asking them to change everything about them, lose their own identity, all for the sake of unifying people in a way that may not always work.
[ but he does seem to think this over before taking the blender back. ]
... but that's where you're at, isn't it. Evolved beyond and impartial enough.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
anyway they look at him like they're startled he asked. ]
My. Blender? I mean sure? Probably should clean it first.
[ but yes. building. they nod to this. ]
I don't know about a legacy, I think I would just like to build a place people would enjoy and get use out of. I've built some things already and they've been standing steady, but I'm still learning. I'd eventually like to build something huge. Not a hotel, really, but the same idea.
no subject
[Luckily, he is very smart, and he will be able to put it back together again afterward, so Gabriel won't be down a blender.]
It's good to have big dreams. I would like to see your "huge" building, though I am not sure if I ever will.
What have you made so far?
[A glance down... The milkshake is already gone. He just got it. Sadly, it was good, and he drank it too quickly. Hubris.]
no subject
Maybe if you ever come back to this place it'll be done by then. I'll have decided what to do with it. But I also kind of hope that won't be for a while. I've made some things around here though. The Tavern was described to me by the brothers, and I put it into play.
[ they don't elaborate on that because they're busy blinking at the empty glass. ]
I'm. [ HELLO? ] Do you want another one or...?
no subject
He has destroyed a tall glass of chocolate milkshake and is about to destroy the blender next.]
Thank you, but maybe I will get one to take with me when I leave.
[He is trying not to make Gabriel need the blender when he is ready to be nosy.]
You did a good job, at least. [Glancing around.] It isn't exactly the same as The Last Drop in the Lanes of Zaun, but it gives the same impression.
no subject
Careful with the blades. [ an idle, gentle warning. ] But thanks. If it feels like something familiar to multiple people means we did the job right. Tell me about The Last Drop. Was it somewhere a lot of people went?
no subject
[First, he simply inspects the blender to see the way it is shaped and its cursory functions. And to commit how it looks to memory. He has no tools, sadly, but he doesn't need any when he has become the tool himself.
He begins pulling the bladed base of the cup apart from the reservoir. The blades are what he is interested in, sorry to Gabriel's warning. He turns it around, then lifts his right hand to pull the magic up through his palm, pulsing. The mechanisms quiver before beginning to unpiece from each other.]
It was a bar in the Lanes, and I wasn't allowed to go very often since I was a child even though children could go inside. The owner's name was Vander. Zaun was still polluted and barely livable, and there was no leader because it was a part of Piltover, but Vander made it relatively peaceful as an interim one.
I was already a student in Piltover's academy above by the time he was said to be murdered. But... I met him recently. It is strange how life comes back around. Two girls who were like his daughters brought him to me to be healed. He had been mutated experimentally by a former mentor of mine, but his humanity was still inside. It was difficult to get through to him.
[The pieces settle on the bar in front of him, and he sorts through them one by one, inspecting.]
I saw his life, his time at the bar. He was a good man. He cared about the people of Zaun. His bar was a place people of Zaun could go when they were tired, when they needed a drink or to talk.
no subject
Yeah, well, kids probably shouldn't be in bars anyway. But I get where some places might allow it, especially if the rest of the place is just... you know. Trying to get by.
... sounds like a pretty good guy. I always kind of thought bars were meant to be that way. Like a retreat, you know? Hide out when the world goes to shit, and talk to someone who can just hear you out even without fully knowing the situation. [ go back to the healing thing though. ] How... were you able to heal him?
no subject
I will admit, I was never really a bar sort of young man, so perhaps I am not the best person to agree.
[He was a nerd, and he spent more time by himself being a nerd more than anything. No one is going to want to party or drink with a cripple from the Undercity anyway. Not in Piltover.
He spins the blender blades in the air without touching them, and then he begins piecing things together again.]
Once a connection was established between us, I could enter his mind and search for the man he once was. We... Sky and I... traversed this space to see if we could open where it was hidden.
no subject
No, you seem more like the "sit in a library with a pot of tea and a prayer" kind of guy. [ not even because of the cripple thing, just in general. viktor gives off kind of a quieter vibe despite being played by you. ]
Sounds like a lot of deepdiving. A person's mind can be really busy. How did you know what to really search for? [ also who's sky? ]
no subject
[There is still a hopeful sliver of Viktor somewhere down in there based on the sass.]
We didn't. We knew we would understand when we found it, whatever piece of Vander's humanity was left. We would know when we came across it.
[Don't ask, damn.]
She was our lab assistant.
no subject
So it was kind of a blind search and hoping for the best. Even if it was possible you wouldn't find it. Did you and Sky do this a lot? What if... what if someone's humanity didn't exist anymore?
no subject
Yes, the search was blind initially, but as we went along, went deeper, we could tell what paths to take. We had never done a case this... serious before. One with a man mutated so heavily. He had become a beast on the outside, fueled only by instinct and aggression.
I'm not sure. I have never met anyone without their humanity. If they had it at the start, I believe there would always be a piece of them you could reach.
no subject
Sounds like rough work. Being someone who can heal people, but only if you figure out how to reach them the right way. I think people keeping their humanity is what makes people people, really. So maybe it's a good thing you've never met anyone without it. So long as their lives aren't altered enough that they could lose it later.
no subject
...
[He just can't find a single person who believes in the mindless hivemind of peace, can he? He frowns at the parts in front of him. Each piece of the blender works seamlessly in tandem with the rest to make it function, to produce the results everyone enjoys the most: drinks.
Isn't that how it should be? They have no feelings, no thoughts.]
Does being a blender without humanity, despite what all it can accomplish and provide, make it less necessary and worthy of its existence?
no subject
A blender doesn't have a soul, Viktor. Unless you're about to tell me something I don't know, at which case I might owe my blender an apology. Besides, can you really call those accomplishments those of the blender if they're preprogrammed by something else?
no subject
Do we not act on a predetermined will ourselves? Instinct, emotions, society, religion.
It is the only way for a peaceful world. Do people not care... about a peaceful world? About a world without pain or suffering? They want it, but... they do not want to do what is required to get there.
no subject
I don't know. That's then suggesting that we're all just God's puppets and don't actually have free will, and I don't know if I agree with that choice either. Of course people care about a peaceful world, but what you're suggesting to get there also takes away the positives of what would make a world peaceful. There's a difference between comfortable acceptance and true peace, maybe.
... besides, it also just feels like a lot to put on one person to be the center point.
no subject
[He says this, but the vibes don't seem to lean too heavily into it. More like when two friends just say some shit to each other to rile the other one up.]
When people do not work together because of their own emotions and personal goals, would one person not have to be the center for change?
I know what you will say: that person might not have the best interest in mind.
They would have to evolve beyond. They would have to become more impartial.
[The blender, fixed again, he offers back to Gabriel with a nod. Thank you. Zaun will now have milkshakes.]
no subject
And then you would know that I would say that asking someone to evolve and become more impartial is basically asking them to change everything about them, lose their own identity, all for the sake of unifying people in a way that may not always work.
[ but he does seem to think this over before taking the blender back. ]
... but that's where you're at, isn't it. Evolved beyond and impartial enough.