[ 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?
We ran into much resistance as well. [Quietly:] Unfortunately, I didn't have years. [Not angrily said, of course.] I would have been dead long before I ever saw my work changing people's lives. Much like you.
[And, of course, that hurt immeasurably. His pride, his work ethic.]
It's the question many Zaunites asked themselves for a long time and the cause of their growing animosity. It's why Zaun wanted their independence, but that made Piltover afraid.
People are scared of change. Almost as much as they're scared of dying. [ they look at viktor curiously for a bit. ] And even if you died for it, it would've still been enough if you did what you were meant to do.
[ an assumption? an understanding? something like that. ]
The people who work in the shadows are always afraid of their pawns finding out the truth. Keep someone under your thumb long enough? You should be afraid. [ okay, edgelord. ] Maybe a revolution is exactly what they deserved. But it feels... disjointing. To see the aftermath in a way you weren't expecting, because you weren't expecting it at all.
[His brows are low, pensive. His eyes search the ground in front of them, but his expression is thoughtful, distant. It's strange... He's not sure he remembers what it felt like to worry about dying.
One hand settles on the egg. The image of this is very mpreg, I'm sorry. IT'S JUST A SOUL EGG.]
I never wanted to be a part of the fighting between Piltover and Zaun. Not... at the end. I was attempting to keep things such as that from happening at all. To keep suffering from happening.
[ it is difficult to say where kiraman's eyes are, but it's possible they are still glued to viktor's face as they let him go through his five stages of grief with his mpreg egg. his mpregg. ]
I never wanted to be a savior. [ so, mood. ] You said you started the commune for people who came to you for healing. Is that how Jayce found you?
His expression crumples - confusion, mostly, but under it, Viktor himself, and hurt, sadness, frustration.]
Yes. I asked him, through the body of a council member he once knew, to come see me, to see what I had accomplished. He said Hextech... was a curse. He was different... He had touched the arcane, and it had changed him. [The echo returns to his voice.] Then he came. We brought him to me.
[It wavers back out.]
But when I opened my eyes, the look in his eyes... He had no other goal except to end me. I could see it.
So you used someone else to show off your new abilities, to someone who didn't understand, someone who was going to... judge, perhaps. But was it Jayce the arcane changed? Or was it you?
[ and all your creepy little hivemind echos. ]
... I wanted to make a god. Something like it, anyway. A just god, one to combat against someone who created something that would destroy millions of lives. In his prime, he was considered a genius. Me? Well, couldn't have been that smart if I solved something he spent his whole life failing to reach. He had to be stopped. Didn't matter everything he created, everything he'd done with his life. He was corrupted. And maybe... when someone's that warped, the only way to save it is from themselves.
[ it's clear that they only apply this kind of mercy killing to viktor, but the principle is the same. if something grows too out of hand, you may have to kill the thing to fix it. ]
And from there you can rebuild it. Rewire how it thinks, take it out of its framework and adjust the program so that the processes it runs become a new product. [ that is more said as an aside because the analogy got away from them a bit. ]
I thought Jayce would understand. [His voice doesn't rise, but the echo is back, fighting for the usual monotonous neutrality over the rankle of his usual sound.] We were both changed.
[He just doesn't know what divine inspiration Jayce saw. What was it?]
You're saying I should have been killed.
[He's looking at Kiraman now, the blue embedded in his eyes chilly. No. He can't accept that. He was nearly perfect? The epitome of the highest form of advancement. The peak of evolution.] We had the power to bestow upon everyone a salvation in a coalescent paradise, free of the humanity which destroys them again and again. [And free of everything else, including resistance.]
That is the glorious evolution.
[They're right. Sometimes, your compassion becomes twisted too far.]
[ hm. dislike. this is a lot of dislike, but kiraman holds their ground and appears entirely unruffled by this. ]
No. That is deconstruction. [ they point this out first, choosing to work their way backwards in the conversation. ] I never said you should have been killed, but if that was your takeaway... why did that resonate? It was just an assessment of character.
[ because it's the same point. because it's exactly the same thing, it's someone pushed by their ideas too far that they went to absolutely insane lengths to accomplish them until someone was willing to challenge and kill them. ]
Without you, who needed a partnership to begin with. You, who asked for the partnership because you knew you couldn't do it alone. [ a reminder. ]
The way your dream manifested might've become his nightmare. You and the arcane. You're almost one in the same now. [ and if the arcane is uncontrolled and not contained, wouldn't the thing that would unravel be viktor himself? ]
[He shakes his head, not in disagreement, but confusion.]
He made me what I am. Then he decided to regret it? [Just an educated guessing. A musing.] He would rather I be dead than be what he created? The arcane is wonderful. What reason could it be a nightmare to him?
[Sorry your Frankenstein's monster has become sentient, Jayce!!]
I wanted us to continue our dream together as partners. Why wouldn't he want that?
[Someone else has abandoned him!! Of course! He is just some nobody from the Undercity after all.]
[ this is a vaguely uncomfortable conversation for them for a few reasons, but they're ignoring that. ]
Some people think they have everything under control. That they know exactly what they're doing, or they're so driven by their goal that the results of how it gets there don't matter. Even to the point of destroying the creation.
[ yeah, weird how that happens. ]
You manipulated someone else to reach out to him in a show of power he's never seen. [ though, more curiously: ] Did you get to talk to him before he killed you?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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?
no subject
[And, of course, that hurt immeasurably. His pride, his work ethic.]
It's the question many Zaunites asked themselves for a long time and the cause of their growing animosity. It's why Zaun wanted their independence, but that made Piltover afraid.
no subject
[ an assumption? an understanding? something like that. ]
The people who work in the shadows are always afraid of their pawns finding out the truth. Keep someone under your thumb long enough? You should be afraid. [ okay, edgelord. ] Maybe a revolution is exactly what they deserved. But it feels... disjointing. To see the aftermath in a way you weren't expecting, because you weren't expecting it at all.
no subject
One hand settles on the egg. The image of this is very mpreg, I'm sorry. IT'S JUST A SOUL EGG.]
I never wanted to be a part of the fighting between Piltover and Zaun. Not... at the end. I was attempting to keep things such as that from happening at all. To keep suffering from happening.
no subject
I never wanted to be a savior. [ so, mood. ] You said you started the commune for people who came to you for healing. Is that how Jayce found you?
[ "why exactly did jayce kill you." ]
no subject
His expression crumples - confusion, mostly, but under it, Viktor himself, and hurt, sadness, frustration.]
Yes. I asked him, through the body of a council member he once knew, to come see me, to see what I had accomplished. He said Hextech... was a curse. He was different... He had touched the arcane, and it had changed him. [The echo returns to his voice.] Then he came. We brought him to me.
[It wavers back out.]
But when I opened my eyes, the look in his eyes... He had no other goal except to end me. I could see it.
no subject
[ and all your creepy little hivemind echos. ]
... I wanted to make a god. Something like it, anyway. A just god, one to combat against someone who created something that would destroy millions of lives. In his prime, he was considered a genius. Me? Well, couldn't have been that smart if I solved something he spent his whole life failing to reach. He had to be stopped. Didn't matter everything he created, everything he'd done with his life. He was corrupted. And maybe... when someone's that warped, the only way to save it is from themselves.
[ it's clear that they only apply this kind of mercy killing to viktor, but the principle is the same. if something grows too out of hand, you may have to kill the thing to fix it. ]
And from there you can rebuild it. Rewire how it thinks, take it out of its framework and adjust the program so that the processes it runs become a new product. [ that is more said as an aside because the analogy got away from them a bit. ]
no subject
[He just doesn't know what divine inspiration Jayce saw. What was it?]
You're saying I should have been killed.
[He's looking at Kiraman now, the blue embedded in his eyes chilly. No. He can't accept that. He was nearly perfect? The epitome of the highest form of advancement. The peak of evolution.] We had the power to bestow upon everyone a salvation in a coalescent paradise, free of the humanity which destroys them again and again. [And free of everything else, including resistance.]
That is the glorious evolution.
[They're right. Sometimes, your compassion becomes twisted too far.]
no subject
No. That is deconstruction. [ they point this out first, choosing to work their way backwards in the conversation. ] I never said you should have been killed, but if that was your takeaway... why did that resonate? It was just an assessment of character.
[ because it's the same point. because it's exactly the same thing, it's someone pushed by their ideas too far that they went to absolutely insane lengths to accomplish them until someone was willing to challenge and kill them. ]
How did Jayce change?
no subject
Was his discontent for me... greater than our dream together?
[He was the hub, the circuit in which the malformed arcane flowed through into the rest, and Jayce had destroyed him without even hesitating.]
I don't know. He did not look like himself. I could feel the arcane within him, the same humming song. But he had abandoned our dream.
no subject
The way your dream manifested might've become his nightmare. You and the arcane. You're almost one in the same now. [ and if the arcane is uncontrolled and not contained, wouldn't the thing that would unravel be viktor himself? ]
no subject
He made me what I am. Then he decided to regret it? [Just an educated guessing. A musing.] He would rather I be dead than be what he created? The arcane is wonderful. What reason could it be a nightmare to him?
[Sorry your Frankenstein's monster has become sentient, Jayce!!]
I wanted us to continue our dream together as partners. Why wouldn't he want that?
[Someone else has abandoned him!! Of course! He is just some nobody from the Undercity after all.]
I would show him how amazing it could be.
no subject
Some people think they have everything under control. That they know exactly what they're doing, or they're so driven by their goal that the results of how it gets there don't matter. Even to the point of destroying the creation.
[ yeah, weird how that happens. ]
You manipulated someone else to reach out to him in a show of power he's never seen. [ though, more curiously: ] Did you get to talk to him before he killed you?
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