holyspirits | Audience

[Goodbye.

Can't believe they are asking him this, wow. He looks mildly exasperated.]

I built the Hexgates.

[This means nothing to them probably.]

We used the hex crystals to manifest a double waypoint migration system. A portal with two end points. That was our breakthrough in the dean's lab right before they came in.

After we crafted the schematic blueprints for the encasement gates, they were built between Piltover and other cities for travel and commerce.

[ judging by the lack of change in their slouchy posture, it does not. the explanation is entirely understandable though. ]

So how'd you stabilize the crystals to keep the network open and protect from outside agents?

They had to be... cranked, as Jayce called it. The high velocity pressurized them into stability.

The fortification was Jayce's job as one of Piltover's later councilors. [Yay, politics.] No one else could understand the workings of Hextech, but there were encryptions placed on the gates, a toll that acknowledged what was passing through, and they could be shut down if necessary.

[ this makes sense to them so there's a sound of acknowledgment. yeah, high velocity to basically force the crystals into permanent resonance. tracks. ]

So it acted as a scanner to sort out what was and wasn't using the gates appropriately while Jayce was in Piltover shaking hands and making nice and probably making promises he wouldn't keep. [ they do not like politics. ] ... I get it. Work with the people to strike a deal, even if you don't always agree with those people's position.

Then maybe you do have a better understanding of what the problem is with our way out.

Jayce was doing the best he could.

[Eyes lowered, he looks very briefly annoyed at himself for saying that. Who takes up for the dude who blasted you? Anyway...]

Do you mean there is something more than only a mysteriously broken system? There is always many moving cogs in the machine, after all.

I get it. The chancellor for the embodied was... doing their best, too, even if they were in a difficult position. You can't judge too harshly when you know someone for so long and know what they're thinking. Usually.

[ a nod though. ]

I think it's a bigger and deeper problem that I'm tracing back to the source. It's going to take time to untangle it and put it back together when I find the root, but finding the root is a problem itself. Especially if more of you end up here.

I understand.

[THINKING ABOUT JAYBE...]

What do you have so far? Do you know if it's on this side, or on that side? They seem to be affected more than us here...? Does that mean it began there?

[ truly this man is so gay and for what. ]

I don't know. Things are still happening over here that are happening there. Those side-effects. [ you still have weekly effects, asshole. ] I think... it must be in the middle. The bridge used to be there, and then it disconnected. I'm tapping into this place as much as I can, but searching the build is taking a while. I've overclocked a couple of times to cover more ground, but nothing's come up.

[Stop don't look at that. ALSO I KEEP FORGETTINGGGG MY AFFECTION WEEK. Well, his emotions are dulled is my excuse.........]

I mostly meant the murder. [But the other stuff is (not) fine, too.] Do you think it's hidden, or do you think something or someone is blocking your access?

You would at least see the wall, in that case, I assume. Unless... the wall is hidden.

Oh, yeah. [ a pause. ] If anyone murders here, they'll have to answer to me, and no one will like that.

[ just so they're clear. to the rest... ]

I think something got deleted, but finding where that breakdown is has been a pain in the ass. It's about finding it, and writing it back in. [ metaphorically speaking. they aren't sure it's a real code but this is about the best they can figure is something was removed and now they have to find the component and fix it. ]

[He glances up slowly with a single lifted brow. Will they...? Threats...]

Deleted. [HE SEES. After their long algebraic word problem, he realizes this may not be literal.] Do you know someone who would be interested in disrupting things in such a way?

[Satan.......]

Who would want things to potentially fail?

[ they will. ]

Nope. [ just flat-out nope. ] Heaven's pretty separated from outside influences. Has been for even further than current history can record. Even this part of it hasn't been touched and should be untouchable. Which means there's a breakdown somewhere internally.

Which... makes sense, when this is a place for the damaged.

[Hmmm. He glances over the cover of the comics he has pilfered with idle thought. His indigo fingers brush over the one about the bionic man, but slow to a stop.]

...

[Very slowly, he lifts his eyes again, and a frown creases his mouth.]

I'm the anomaly?

You're an anomaly. Things were already done by the time you got here. They're two separate things I'm trying to understand.

[ the bionic man comic is about a man who has to figure out his place in the world saving people but not quite being human or robot, enjoy. ]

[Hello, don't just make it that. This is not even a relief!! It simply adds more questions.]

I'm not a science experiment.

[ oh. they don't like that. ]

I never said you were. [ short, clipped, and to the point. this is their own fault for making viktor think that's what they meant, and yet. ]

[The terse correction doesn't seem to bother him really.]

Then why does it interest you so much?

[

just doesn't fuckin answer and turns around to start pulling some comics from the shelf. ]

[Damn, okay. Bratty.

Exasperated by the silence, he also turns away to look at things elsewhere in the shop.]

[ they are a brat yeah. but they browse in silence for a few minutes before kiraman proposes a question. ]

Why is it bad to be interested and ask questions?

[Now you wanna talk, buddy??? He doesn't answer for a long moment on purpose, continuing to pick through things. Brat and brat.

Finally:] I never said it was. I spent my whole life being interested and asking questions.

I was just curious why I mattered so much to you in a place like this.

[ this is a fair question, because for all intents and purposes viktor should not matter when the situation is very different. and yet despite already telling the man they never wanted to be a savior, they have a savior complex and they know this about themselves and they hate it. ]

Think you're exempt because you appeared out of nowhere?

You have astounding agility in dodging my questions.

[The teasing it very dry.]

I assume it is less about being exempt and more about the mystery of my circumstances intriguing you more.

[Because he would be the same. Nerd to nerd communication.]

I'm the equation you want to solve.

[ an incline of the head because, well, yeah. and they reach for another comic. it is transformation week though, so i will give you that viktor can see the faint flash of what looks like a robotic hand before the glow is intense again. ]

Want to, have to, it's the same to me. [ so yes. ] But you are still a person outside of an equation.

[Not the Robotnik hand. Viktor is already an Eldritch horror, so you get nothing for right this minute.

It's familiar, though.]

I apologize for what I said. [He is some kind of understanding Herald, so he can be open.] I doubt you would be in a place like this if you didn't care at least a little about the people you want to help.

Have you been accused of that before?

[It struck such a nerve.]

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