You were the catalyst. [ they seem to understand that, a hand coming up to where their chin probably is as they prop their head up. ] Was it your goal to bring everyone into one? If the infrastructure crumbled by removing one key component instead of triggering the next operation, are you sure that was the right way to go?
[ they ask this neutrally rather than trying to sway him one way or another. it's difficult to say how curious they might be, but they're listening closely. ]
[His lips thin into a line. This is fine by him, he never thought he should even be alive. He supposes he isn't now.
But something else beneath the surface thinks otherwise. This is the way.]
The ultimate outcome is to simply exist at the highest state of being, [and the echo is slotted under his voice again. His eyes turn up to the three-dimensional blueprint.] They could have all been free. No more pain, or suffering, or violence.
[ oh they really hate that echo, actually. unfortunately, their ass is standing here going "i bet i could fix him."
they do not say this. ]
I'm not sure how going back might work out on our end of things. [ they did not really discuss that part. ] Are you really living if you're only existing though?
His brows furrow like before. The inner debating. It sounds like something Jayce would say - the "new" Jayce who blew a hole in him.]
He said it was a curse... but no one would ever suffer again if they were all one, if they could hear each other's thoughts. If they lacked everything which made them commit the worst evils against each other.
But if you do that, you have to think about other emotions that could still cause them to commit the worst evils. Such as love. If you take away all emotion, are their minds the same?
What greater love than to be at peace with everything inside one collective...?
[Something about the logic of what Kiraman says and what his Eldritch brain insists is a painful contradiction, though. His face winces, and then he squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth. He can hear her voice again through the constant hum.
Instead of just his head, his whole body wheels around to look.] I can't see you! [He sounds a tad more desperate than intended, but it's weird to him she isn't manifesting.
You and I have different ideas of a collective. [ you know, better kiraman than one of the others actually because they do not seem remotely bothered that viktor is yelling like a crazy person. they are about to ask a question, but they change their mind a moment later. ]
Who's usually with you? [ tell them about your hallucinations. ]
He stands there searching the horizon as if something will suddenly appear and relieve him. He doesn't like hearing her voice, but not being able to see her anywhere... That's weird.]
Our assistant, Sky.
[It sounds less insane saying only that and not explaining Sky got vaporized by his idiocy. Since most people would say she was dead. But she isn't! :') She is in the arcane...]
[This doesn't seem like a dodge, more of a warning to Kiraman. No Sky appears to him, so he slowly backs up until his legs bump the fountain, and then he sits down.]
Jayce wanted to create magic, and I thought his work had potential, so I decided to help him. [The echo is decidedly quiet while he's talking about this.] We invented Hextech, the joining of the arcane and technology. We wanted... to give it to the people, to make their lives better. To help them.
The Hexcore was... a side project. A runic matrix of arcanic possibility. But we could never figure out the pattern... and I was running out of time.
I learned it could evolve. It could become more organic. It could heal, but it wasn't stabilized. What it healed would soon wither and die. I did everything I could to find the missing piece. In desperation, I decided to test on myself.
[ they do not seem bothered by the fact it is a long story. if anything, it means they put the laptop aside for a moment to give viktor their attention. ]
Arcane magic. Right, of course. [ said in the tone of someone who has never experienced magic but is relating it in a separate way. ] So you became business partners to... try and do better for humanity. To prolong their life, even past what might have been possible. And combining magic and technology built the bridge to let each cross over. A web.
[ they are getting it. ]
Finding the root was what you were missing. Trying to solve for X. If you could find that answer, you could plug it into the rest of the formulas, open up the patterns and resolve the complexities. [ it's always about solving for x. ] And since you tested it on yourself, it meant you healed, but there was still the decay rate. The side-effect of an unstable organic being that caused a tiny fissure just large enough to make the frame collapse if enough pressure is applied.
But you didn't let that happen. [ not said in a "because you fixed everything" sort of way, but in a "because you refused to let it" kind. ]
We just wanted to help the quality of life of others, especially those in the polluted Undercity. We had no intentions of avoiding death initially, not until... I became ill. Even then, it was less about living forever and more about just being able to live at all.
[He peers off into the middle distance thoughtfully.]
We were in a council meeting. There was growing unrest between the Undercity and Piltover. An explosion happened, and I would died.
But Jayce fused me with the Hexcore. He said... it was as if we were connected. We were, I suppose. I had tested it on myself.
This is the result of that transmutation.
[He lifts one arm and turns it and the hand slowly so Kiraman can see the flesh, indigo and glowing, pieced together with metal.]
Through me, the arcane works its miracles. So I took our magic to the people like we always wanted.
[ they stay quiet, listening to viktor thoughtfully and letting him say his piece. ]
Just... how bad was the Undercity? Was it always that way? What did Piltover want?
[ what explosion. how. why. but... ]
Even before Jayce put you here. You knew you were going to die, so it didn't matter if you tested it on yourself. [ context clues... ] And then you became the prophet against your will. Someone other people came to follow even when you never thought or wanted it before. Because there wasn't another option after that.
[ they stare at viktor's hand, taking a moment to examine it before flexing their own hand subconsciously. they remain quiet, but they have thoughts. ]
... I knew that dying would save the world. Or, I guess, I knew that in order to save the world I would have to die. But dying gave me the chance to do things I couldn't have before. Connected me to things I couldn't reach on my own, accomplish what nobody else could. But it was for the freedom of other people. The choice to be individuals. Becoming a part of a collective without that unique component... would've gone against my mission. All to extend life, eventually.
He doesn't answer them yet, lets Kiraman finish, lowering his arm to his lap. His head aches when he tries to think about the logic behind the good of that outcome. Being in a collective longevity with all uniqueness intact isn't unwanted, just a struggle to obtain. For him. He thinks.]
The Undercity's actual name is Zaun. It's called the Undercity because, as you can guess, it sits below Piltover. It became Piltover's dumping grounds, a city rife with disease and pollution and, later, addiction. Piltover outcasts were shunned there. Zaunites wanted independence and acceptance, but they could barely live much less vie for their autonomy.
After I awoke from the transmutation with the Hexcore, I was convinced I should have died, yes. But once I began helping my people, I realized... I could turn what I had been given into something beneficial.
But there was always those who didn't mind seeing it ruined. Who brought their wars and disagreements and oppressions into my commune.
[ yeah, sometimes that is what they do. lailah and mary are stuck with this tool. ]
So it's a classism thing then. [ they don't sound too surprised, more neutral about why viktor was wanting to make a change. ] That's the thing about people in power. When they have it, they refuse to let go until someone else comes along to overpower them.
How did you discover the arcane to connect into the hexcore?
[Preaching to the choir, my guy. Preaching to the choir...]
Yes, that was beginning to happen again.
[He shakes his head a little.]
The arcane is ever present in Runeterra, but unharnessed and forbidden. The dean I worked for said he had seen many wars fought over it, the ability to wield it.
But it was Jayce. [Affectionate, despite the attack.] He said when he was a boy, he and his mother were trapped in a blizzard. Someone came out of the snow and used magic to transport them elsewhere, saving their lives. The person gave Jayce a shard with a rune on it. That was the start of the hex crystals, the foundation on which we later built Hextech.
Wild magic. [ incredulously. again, not a magic person, so they are just trying to slot this into a little puzzle they're building in their head. ]
I think I can see how he decided to make it his goal to figure it out, seeing its power. And Hextech was a shell to contain and control the arcane. So how'd you partner up?
[ sorry, they actually laugh at that. it's soft and a little quiet, but it's genuinely amused. ]
Trial and error. How else will you ever find the answer? [ though they also find that a little funny. ] You went behind the dean's back to ask for a collaboration.
[ an assumption, but they vaguely recognize that piece of a creator's mind. the one that says when you find even a hunch, you sink your teeth into it and follow the rabbithole down. ]
You do what you need to do for scientific progress.
Until we had the breakthrough in creating the baseline for Hextech. The building blocks of the Hexgates. They had burst through the door right as we finished.
That happened a lot later. [He doesn't say this rudely. Just clarifying.] About six or so years later when we weren't boys anymore.
Hextech had become a pivot part of our society. Travel, industry, trade, everything. It took a great deal of Jayce's convincing for them not to be wary of our endeavor.
[THEY WERE RIGHT]
The last meeting was about the fate of the disagreements between Piltover and Zaun. Of course, the council situated in Piltover was the one who was meeting to decide what to do about Zaun.
It takes years to perfect a project. For better or worse. [ the way they say this is a little clipped, but they move on. ]
It took years for the people on Earth to come around to our—my project. It didn't become common use until years after I was gone, but people's lives began to improve. But even then there were people who were afraid of letting go of the old way of living and opposed the idea. Resistance groups rose up and tried to do everything to overthrow the new way of life. And even when we met with the council for humanity, the chancellor wasn't on my side. Not originally.
[ there's a scoff. ]
And Piltover should decide Zaun's fate... why, again?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
You were the catalyst. [ they seem to understand that, a hand coming up to where their chin probably is as they prop their head up. ] Was it your goal to bring everyone into one? If the infrastructure crumbled by removing one key component instead of triggering the next operation, are you sure that was the right way to go?
[ they ask this neutrally rather than trying to sway him one way or another. it's difficult to say how curious they might be, but they're listening closely. ]
no subject
But something else beneath the surface thinks otherwise. This is the way.]
The ultimate outcome is to simply exist at the highest state of being, [and the echo is slotted under his voice again. His eyes turn up to the three-dimensional blueprint.] They could have all been free. No more pain, or suffering, or violence.
I need to go back... to help them.
no subject
they do not say this. ]
I'm not sure how going back might work out on our end of things. [ they did not really discuss that part. ] Are you really living if you're only existing though?
no subject
[also why....... get therapy idiot.
His brows furrow like before. The inner debating. It sounds like something Jayce would say - the "new" Jayce who blew a hole in him.]
He said it was a curse... but no one would ever suffer again if they were all one, if they could hear each other's thoughts. If they lacked everything which made them commit the worst evils against each other.
Their minds would live.
no subject
But if you do that, you have to think about other emotions that could still cause them to commit the worst evils. Such as love. If you take away all emotion, are their minds the same?
no subject
What greater love than to be at peace with everything inside one collective...?
[Something about the logic of what Kiraman says and what his Eldritch brain insists is a painful contradiction, though. His face winces, and then he squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth. He can hear her voice again through the constant hum.
Instead of just his head, his whole body wheels around to look.] I can't see you! [He sounds a tad more desperate than intended, but it's weird to him she isn't manifesting.
Sorry they got the unhinged dude.]
no subject
Who's usually with you? [ tell them about your hallucinations. ]
no subject
He stands there searching the horizon as if something will suddenly appear and relieve him. He doesn't like hearing her voice, but not being able to see her anywhere... That's weird.]
Our assistant, Sky.
[It sounds less insane saying only that and not explaining Sky got vaporized by his idiocy. Since most people would say she was dead. But she isn't! :') She is in the arcane...]
no subject
Yours and Jayce's. You said you created the hexcore. Explain.
[ not a question this time, actually a statement. they want to ask about the arcane, too, but maybe they're tied together. ]
no subject
[This doesn't seem like a dodge, more of a warning to Kiraman. No Sky appears to him, so he slowly backs up until his legs bump the fountain, and then he sits down.]
Jayce wanted to create magic, and I thought his work had potential, so I decided to help him. [The echo is decidedly quiet while he's talking about this.] We invented Hextech, the joining of the arcane and technology. We wanted... to give it to the people, to make their lives better. To help them.
The Hexcore was... a side project. A runic matrix of arcanic possibility. But we could never figure out the pattern... and I was running out of time.
I learned it could evolve. It could become more organic. It could heal, but it wasn't stabilized. What it healed would soon wither and die. I did everything I could to find the missing piece. In desperation, I decided to test on myself.
no subject
Arcane magic. Right, of course. [ said in the tone of someone who has never experienced magic but is relating it in a separate way. ] So you became business partners to... try and do better for humanity. To prolong their life, even past what might have been possible. And combining magic and technology built the bridge to let each cross over. A web.
[ they are getting it. ]
Finding the root was what you were missing. Trying to solve for X. If you could find that answer, you could plug it into the rest of the formulas, open up the patterns and resolve the complexities. [ it's always about solving for x. ] And since you tested it on yourself, it meant you healed, but there was still the decay rate. The side-effect of an unstable organic being that caused a tiny fissure just large enough to make the frame collapse if enough pressure is applied.
But you didn't let that happen. [ not said in a "because you fixed everything" sort of way, but in a "because you refused to let it" kind. ]
no subject
[He peers off into the middle distance thoughtfully.]
We were in a council meeting. There was growing unrest between the Undercity and Piltover. An explosion happened, and I would died.
But Jayce fused me with the Hexcore. He said... it was as if we were connected. We were, I suppose. I had tested it on myself.
This is the result of that transmutation.
[He lifts one arm and turns it and the hand slowly so Kiraman can see the flesh, indigo and glowing, pieced together with metal.]
Through me, the arcane works its miracles. So I took our magic to the people like we always wanted.
no subject
Just... how bad was the Undercity? Was it always that way? What did Piltover want?
[ what explosion. how. why. but... ]
Even before Jayce put you here. You knew you were going to die, so it didn't matter if you tested it on yourself. [ context clues... ] And then you became the prophet against your will. Someone other people came to follow even when you never thought or wanted it before. Because there wasn't another option after that.
[ they stare at viktor's hand, taking a moment to examine it before flexing their own hand subconsciously. they remain quiet, but they have thoughts. ]
... I knew that dying would save the world. Or, I guess, I knew that in order to save the world I would have to die. But dying gave me the chance to do things I couldn't have before. Connected me to things I couldn't reach on my own, accomplish what nobody else could. But it was for the freedom of other people. The choice to be individuals. Becoming a part of a collective without that unique component... would've gone against my mission. All to extend life, eventually.
no subject
He doesn't answer them yet, lets Kiraman finish, lowering his arm to his lap. His head aches when he tries to think about the logic behind the good of that outcome. Being in a collective longevity with all uniqueness intact isn't unwanted, just a struggle to obtain. For him. He thinks.]
The Undercity's actual name is Zaun. It's called the Undercity because, as you can guess, it sits below Piltover. It became Piltover's dumping grounds, a city rife with disease and pollution and, later, addiction. Piltover outcasts were shunned there. Zaunites wanted independence and acceptance, but they could barely live much less vie for their autonomy.
After I awoke from the transmutation with the Hexcore, I was convinced I should have died, yes. But once I began helping my people, I realized... I could turn what I had been given into something beneficial.
But there was always those who didn't mind seeing it ruined. Who brought their wars and disagreements and oppressions into my commune.
no subject
So it's a classism thing then. [ they don't sound too surprised, more neutral about why viktor was wanting to make a change. ] That's the thing about people in power. When they have it, they refuse to let go until someone else comes along to overpower them.
How did you discover the arcane to connect into the hexcore?
no subject
Yes, that was beginning to happen again.
[He shakes his head a little.]
The arcane is ever present in Runeterra, but unharnessed and forbidden. The dean I worked for said he had seen many wars fought over it, the ability to wield it.
But it was Jayce. [Affectionate, despite the attack.] He said when he was a boy, he and his mother were trapped in a blizzard. Someone came out of the snow and used magic to transport them elsewhere, saving their lives. The person gave Jayce a shard with a rune on it. That was the start of the hex crystals, the foundation on which we later built Hextech.
no subject
I think I can see how he decided to make it his goal to figure it out, seeing its power. And Hextech was a shell to contain and control the arcane. So how'd you partner up?
no subject
The edges of his lips twitch slightly.]
The crystals weren't refined at first and were volatile. He blew a hole in his apartment while illegally studying magic as an academy student.
The dean sent me to question him and confiscate anything dangerous. I... may have looked through his journal.
no subject
Trial and error. How else will you ever find the answer? [ though they also find that a little funny. ] You went behind the dean's back to ask for a collaboration.
[ an assumption, but they vaguely recognize that piece of a creator's mind. the one that says when you find even a hunch, you sink your teeth into it and follow the rabbithole down. ]
no subject
[So yes. But!]
And then I went behind the dean's back to get us both in his lab so we could experiment.
[It was worse.]
no subject
How long did you get away with it?
no subject
Until we had the breakthrough in creating the baseline for Hextech. The building blocks of the Hexgates. They had burst through the door right as we finished.
[He sounds fondly nostalgic.]
no subject
And then the rest happened? The meeting, the explosion, and the fusion. Were they really so scared of the fact it would work?
no subject
Hextech had become a pivot part of our society. Travel, industry, trade, everything. It took a great deal
of Jayce's convincing for them not to be wary of our endeavor.
[THEY WERE RIGHT]
The last meeting was about the fate of the disagreements between Piltover and Zaun. Of course, the council situated in Piltover was the one who was meeting to decide what to do about Zaun.
no subject
It took years for the people on Earth to come around to our—my project. It didn't become common use until years after I was gone, but people's lives began to improve. But even then there were people who were afraid of letting go of the old way of living and opposed the idea. Resistance groups rose up and tried to do everything to overthrow the new way of life. And even when we met with the council for humanity, the chancellor wasn't on my side. Not originally.
[ there's a scoff. ]
And Piltover should decide Zaun's fate... why, again?
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