eastbound | video, un: hopscotch

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video, un: hopscotch

[Caitlyn enthusiastically shows off a small wooden box. Visible on the lid is an insignia of a Minaras governmental medical facility. Over Caitlyn's shoulder is a redhead looking wholly uninspired by this discovery.]

This was found following an altercation with a group of drunk individuals. One man was tall, must have been a little over six feet, with a blond beard, head shaved, and some sort of tattoo visible on his neck. Another was a few inches shorter, clean-shaven and close-cropped black hair, wearing a rather ostentatious, if tattered, blue coat. The third was a few inches shorter still, also clean-shaven, with long brown hair tied in a ponytail and several scars along the length of his forearms.

[Vi rolls her eyes as Caitlyn rattles off these descriptions. Caitlyn, oblivious, continues:] Does anyone know who these men might have been? If they could be identified, they could perhaps be located and questioned as to how a box belonging to a medical facility came into their possession.

[Vi mutters,] Probably going to sell whatever it is to the highest bidder.

[At the interruption, Caitlyn glances over her shoulder to respond to Vi. Her tone is less critical and more like she's excited to brainstorm possible motivations.] We can't assume that.

[Caitlyn turns back to the contents of the box.] Yes. Um. There are herbs inside, they smell-- [She takes a whiff, wrinkling her nose.] --earthy. Musky. And faintly of fruit. And... [She smells again, and a horrified look crosses her face, as though she's just smelled the most odious smell imaginable. She quickly moves the box further away from herself, looking at it as though it's done her a great personal wrong.] Urine.

[Vi shouldn't look so amused at the posh description, but she does.

Caitlyn holds up a few of the whole dried leaves and flowers: foxglove, wisteria, passion flower, and valerian. There is a small sack visible inside the box containing more herbs ground up.]

Are there any herbalists in the group who might be able to identify these? What purpose could these serve, either individually or in combination?

[Vi leans in closer and says,] And by the way, I need to talk to the resident hextech genius.

[ooc: for the herbalists out there, this combination of herbs leads to memory loss]

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Jayce Talis is my research partner, yes. You're Vi?

[Her referring to Jayce as a Councilor first just reminds him of how much things changed over his last few days at home, to the point where it feels almost wrong to be speaking in the present tense. He's removed from it all, now, but the unexpected well of bitterness in his chest lets him know that he's not as far away as he likes to think.

But his feelings are less pressing than what she says next. There's definite suspicion in his voice, now, like he has some idea of where this is going, but does't want to allow himself to hope that there might be Hextech here.]

More than theoretically. I helped invent it.

Uh─ Yeah.

[ Caitlyn obviously already mentioned her. What did she say? ...Not important.

Vi can't help but wonder about how much he helped, because research partner definitely seems like more than an assistant. He was nowhere near the council room, though. By choice? How closely do his ideals line up with Jayce's?

Jayce had said he wanted to act, but it ended up just talk when real trouble knocked. She's going to have to assume this guy might think the same and try to keep it from her if he gets his hands on it. ]

Okay, well say I more than theoretically have some hextech around. You'd want it back, wouldn't you? What would you use it for?

[He has a lot of questions lined up, not the least of which is what Caitlyn said about him (mostly so he knows how much to explain), but a hypothetical quickly becomes not that. Viktor is suddenly urgent, all at once surprised and skeptical.]

You have Hextech. Here?

[How. Why. What does she have, exactly? One of their portable devices? This changes everything.]

[ It would be pretty stupid to deny it now, since she's the one who contacted him. She's still worried, though. ]

My question first. What would you use it for? More mining?

Mining--

[Caitlyn must have told her, who must have heard from Jayce, in turn. He's almost insulted by the fixation on mining equipment, like the tools he devised don't contain an energy source that with nearly infinite uses. If anything, he needs that.

But that doesn't explain what she has, and how. If it needs to be fixed, perhaps it's missing the gemstone. He's not going to be more forthcoming until he has more information, however, so it seems as though they're at something of an impasse.]

We need to meet in person. Bring the device.

[He concludes the exchange with a set of fairly convoluted directions to the makeshift workspace he's found for himself in the Mouse House. Sure, he's likely inviting trouble, but if she does have one of their devices, and it does need to be fixed, then she doesn't have much of a choice but to bring it to him. He'll take that chance.]

[ Bring the device. Everyone's about trying to give her orders, lately, but what's the point in saying no? Then she definitely won't get what she wants. Might as well wait a little, until Caitlyn's found somewhere to settle that isn't a dark alley. She wants to help figure this out with her, but considering all she's been hearing, Vi would prefer to get the gauntlets at full capacity as soon as possible.

The pack strapped to her back is no easy carry, but the weight of the gauntlets inside don't drag at her as much as they should. Their size and shape make it a little awkward as they claink together when she shrugs off the pack to let it hang from her hand.

This definitely looks different from Jayce's workshop, but just like there, she dismisses any concept of knocking. She'd rather invite herself to look at things she probably shouldn't touch. ]

Ever hear of saying please?

[To be fair, it's less a "workshop" and more "a dingy area where Viktor is tinkering with various side projects", but it will suit their purposes. He doubts anyone in the Mouse House is going to care about the argument they're about to have, but they're tucked out of the way of prying eyes. It lets him get right down to business as soon as he hears someone entering the space.]

No.

[This is not a situation that calls for "please". When she lets herself in, it's perhaps immediately apparent why Viktor made her come here, as he doesn't seem to be in any shape to be wandering around the Mouse House. Still, he reaches for his crutch and drags himself to his feet with some effort. Despite his obvious physical limitations, his eyes are sharp and he appears to be unintimidated.]

Show me. What do you have?

[It can really only be one of a few things, but no matter what she pulls out of the bag, Viktor is sure it doesn't belong to her.]

[ Vi only moves closer because she's not about to make someone with a cane stumble around for answers he may not be satisfied with. Jayce's judgment, Caitlyn's alarm... The memories are too fresh. She wouldn't even be alerting this guy to the tech if she had anywhere else to turn.

She'll dump the heavy bag on the nearest surface for him to peruse. The right gauntlet is noticeably damaged from Sevika's blade, and it's really the only one she needed to bring, but...leaving the other one might mean leaving it to curious orphans.

The gemstones are gone, though. ]

You never answered my question.

[All it takes is one look inside the bag to confirm his suspicion. His shoulders sag and his expression screws up into something unidentifiable.]

I don't know you. I don't know why you have my technology. I don't owe you anything.

[Viktor does not appear to be in any shape to be dragging the gauntlets out of the bag and onto the table, but he does his best. The maneuver becomes more like dragging the bag off the gauntlets instead, but once they're exposed, he can immediately see that one has been run through and must be nonfunctional.

The first thing he does is check for the gemstones, slotting open the receptacle and finding them empty. That in itself is more crushing than the knowledge that even more of his tech seems to be stolen. Of course they're not working. Of course she needs them fixed--the power sources are gone.

Unless she has them somewhere else. That's three, now, effectively looted. He doubts she understands how disastrous that is.]

Does Caitlyn know you stole these?

[ At least she can appreciate his frankness, arms folded as she leans against the table and looks him over while he peruses the now useless gauntlets. What she doesn't appreciate (like she thought she would) is watching any anticipation of his immediately tank upon finding the lack of gemstones. It should have been a triumphant feeling, but instead Vi is left feeling like she just kicked a child in the stomach.

Her voice is quiet, but indignance flares at having Caitlyn brought up. As if that would change Vi's mind. ]

I didn't steal them. [ Well... Not at first. ] The Councilor didn't exactly stop me. Does it really matter here?

Then, please, explain.

[He offers her a go ahead gesture, but otherwise turns his attention to the gauntlets. He inspects the obviously broken one, clocking the damage as made by some kind of blade. No, the gauntlets were clearly not being used for their intended purpose, even if Viktor knows full well that said purpose was little more than a farce in the first place.

Jayce not stopping her could mean any number of things--and it still sounds like she took them by force. Maybe that's what Viktor wants to hear, because the alternative is not something he wants to entertain. Jayce wouldn't be that stupid. Would he? Maybe he had a good reason for it. Viktor wants to think that, but he just can't see it yet.]

You met with Jayce. For what reason?

[ Vi pushes away from the table. She can already figure where this is going to end up, just where it always does. Someone else in a city like this should be smart enough to figure out this kind of tech, right? ]

We met because I thought he might be different from all the other preening cowards at the meeting. I thought he understood that if anyone in the undercity had any chance, then something had to be done.

[ A shrug and a scoff of disappointment. ]

And I was wrong. He lost his nerve right when he'd finally had his eyes opened. [ Her frown is more puzzled than angry when she looks back over her shoulder. ] Why should you even care? Do you ever leave your little workshop?

[ A fair question, since he doesn't look like he's able to live an active lifestyle...to put it kindly. ]

[He still doesn't quite understand. A Council meeting, okay. Probably about the stolen gemstone--but what would Vi have to do with that? Viktor needs her to start at the beginning, before he starts jumping to wild conclusions, but he knows that's not going to happen until they stop being hostile with each other.

And he can't help but be hostile. He hates that he's missing so many pieces, especially when the crux of this situation seems to be something that Jayce did. Something that Viktor doesn't want to believe that he did. Vi accuses him, accurately, of never leaving the lab, and now he wishes he had--maybe he could have prevented whatever it is that happened. Whatever put the gauntlets in her possession.]

It matters to me because I'm from the Undercity.

[He doesn't know if Caitlyn told her as much, and it likely raises more questions than it answers, but he says it unapologetically, daring her to challenge him on that point, specifically.

Despite the fact that he clearly does not enjoy that the gauntlets are in front of him, he desperately needs something to do with his hands, so he pulls up a stool and sinks onto it with some effort, reaching for an oversized pair of tweezers. Viktor plunges the tool into the hole in the glove, digging around for shards of metal. When he speaks again, he sounds defeated, like he already knows he's going to hate the answer.]

What did he do?

[ The admission gets Vi's full attention, turning to assess the way he sits, and her understanding of his frailty is immediately shifted. He isn't flimsy from being a spoiled scholar. He's another veteran that's been damaged in a war that's invisible to most topsiders. She'd lost everything, but it still looks like the fissures had been kinder to her.

Stepping closer now, the grit in her teeth bears more anger than pity. Vi is so tired of being reminded of why the undercity needs help, and how much her own sister just blew that chance right into the damn sky.

Leaning back against the table, her ankles cross and she leans onto one hand, watching the way his hands work and instinctively letting her other hand over just off to the side, in case there's a sign he needs them shifted or moved. She's not looking to have him collapse over something like this.

She'll at least have the decency to pull her hand away when she answers after a delay, guilt only causing the briefest glance down. It had been nothing new to her, but to a topsider... ]

...He saw his first dead kid.

[He's half-expecting her to argue, or at least accuse him of abandoning Zaun to work in Piltover--it wouldn't be a wrong, because she doesn't know him, either, and what else is she supposed to think? Viktor looks up just long enough to see her expression shift, and he furrows his eyebrows in turn, deciding that he should just focus on the gauntlets, instead. Viktor isn't fixing them, he tells himself. Just examining the extent of the damage.

Then Vi says that Jayce saw a dead kid and he stops, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers and letting out a long-suffering sigh. Viktor has seen his fair share of dead children--he's sure he doesn't need to tell Vi that, or that he might have been one of them, had he not gained admission to the Academy. Jayce, on the other hand, is soft in some ways. He can't imagine that he took it very well, but it still doesn't explain the circumstances, not entirely.]

What was he doing, down there? [It can't have been anything good, given his attitude on the bridge, and the fact that the gauntlets have clearly been in a fight.] You don't need to spare me.

[ Even Vi can't think of a way in which this is going to turn out in her favor. He's tinkering around, sure, but for how much longer? When he hears more? When she pulls the gemstones out of her jacket pocket? She doesn't know him, it's true, and the fragile acknowledgment of a shared origin does not a truce make. Vi has her own burning questions, even more-so now.

He's from Zaun, making weapons for Piltover. Weapons they leave around for others to steal. People...a lot more dangerous than her. Indignant doesn't even begin to cover that little extra speed to her pulse if she thinks too long about him being a traitor, but then what's she doing running around with an enforcer? That check is enough to let her momentarily consider his reasons why.

What was he doing... What did Viktor think he was doing? How did he feel about the possibilities? She squints a bit while staring at him. He had to know he was making weapons, so what should he expect? Is he deluded like Jayce? ]

I'm not sparing you. Just trying to figure out what you hoped he'd do; if you knew how dangerous those gemstones were. Did you know about the hammer? Don't tell me that was for smithing.

[So, she does know about the gems. Where they are right now is something that he'll get to, but the likelihood that she's somehow tied to the first theft increases with every additional piece of information. It's frustrating, not to simply get the entire story, but Viktor is smart. He can piece enough together.]

Do you think I wanted to build mining equipment? The gemstones are what's revolutionary. [The mining equipment was simply what he thought would get past the Council. Foolish, all of it. He knows that now. Knows that his work is dangerous in the wrong hands. How could they have anticipated the break-in? That someone would kill enforcers to get to their lab? Viktor resents the implication that somehow he allowed all of this to happen.] We fought, Jayce and I. It was our last conversation, before I arrived here. He wanted to explore the possibility of Hextech defenses--weaponry--and I refused.

[It sounds like she and Jayce, together, crossed that line.]

I don't know anything about a hammer.

[ He refused. She's definitely wasting her time.

But his admission makes even less sense to her than anything else. She's careful not to move suddenly, in case he damaged the gauntlet more, but she does slowly lean away while reconsidering his position in Piltover all over again. ]

So, if it wasn't for the fissures, and it wasn't to make weapons, then...what? Another Hexgate? ...What's so revolutionary about them?

It's a stable power source for portable devices. The applications are nearly limitless.

[He gestures emphatically at the gloves, to indicate that the reason they aren't working is because the stones have been removed--but he thinks she already knows that.]

But the Council doesn't care about air scrubbers or water purification systems. So...tools for miners and artisans. To start.

[It feels stupid now that he says it out loud. None of it matters, because they couldn't even get any of it past Heimerdinger, to say nothing of the full Council. Viktor seems to realize how hollow this this sounds, and drops his gaze back to the gauntlets, picking a shard of metal out of the gash and setting it aside.]

Please, just. Tell me what he did.

[ So...it is for the undercity, or it should have been. She doesn't know if she should believe him, but she can believe that Piltover would accept mining equipment over water purification. One helps Piltover, and one just helps Zaun. It's...a clever way to get a foot in the door, if he's telling the truth. To start.

Any curiosity she has about his real intentions continues to be hampered by his own incessant questions. She could just ignore him, and she probably should, but he's finally started to offer his own explanations. Some of them. Curiosity keeps her from shutting him down; that, and a need for someone to understand. She hasn't told Caitlyn even this much, if only because Cait had already started to make such a face before Vi could finish, and then the train had crashed.

Maybe Viktor here hadn't been excited about the ideas of weapons, but the weapons are already made and now it's a question of who uses them. If Vi has any chance at all against what's coming... ]

We were taking out the Shimmer manufacturing facilities. [ Her hands hide in her pockets, and she looks to see if has any reaction to the topic of Shimmer. There's something. ] Shimmer goons resisted. One of the kids got away from the enforcers. I, uh... Not sure how he got taken out, everything was happening too fast.

[ No matter what, it feels unnecessary to pin that on Jayce when he's not around to defend himself. Vi was the one who talked him into doing something. ]

[Taking out...or attacking them? Viktor doesn't see much of a difference. Removed as he is from the Undercity, he knows that the people who work in factories and places like that have no other choice. To make matters worse, it sounds like the dead child--what he assumes made Jayce call it quits--was a direct result of this. Maybe Vi didn't see who or what killed the child. It doesn't really matter. Jayce built a weapon out of their technology, and took it down into the Undercity, and escalated.

He's quiet for a long moment. Viktor has Shimmer, here--a vial of it in the hollow handle of his crutch. He wonders what she might have to say about that.]

And? Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

[Or did they simply enact violence?]

[ It's heavy in her shoulders, down to her stomach, her boots. The silence should be answer enough, and it may as well be. He doesn't have any right to know what came of it more than he already does. Not when Caitlyn is still in the dark. Jayce's fuck-ups are one matter, but what Powder had done...

Her hand, fingers curled but not quite forming a fist, thumps against the table. Vi already knows he's not going to want her to keep these gauntlets, not if he's for pacifism and only wants air purifiers, so she might as well speak her mind where she can. ]

We might have, if your man hadn't cut and run and left me to finish what we started. If he could have waited to have his little breakdown, y'know, we might have actually─ Maybe─

[ Another little thump, this time with her fist formed tight, her nose scrunched. Then, realizing she's probably messing up his work (as if it matters), Vi pulls her hand away to cross her arms with a breathy 'tch'. ]

Never mind, it doesn't even matter until we get out of here. If you fix those, it'll be a lot easier for me to make sure that happens.

[Viktor has his doubts about all of it--violence only begets more violence, and he supposes that if Jayce did one thing right, it was calling it quits as soon as he realized what doing something like that really meant. Despite the apparent change of heart, however, it's too late. A weapon has been made, and used, and nothing good can possibly come of it.

But, being here is a special circumstance, and Vi is smart enough to appeal to that.]

The power source is missing. Even if I wanted to fix them-- [He does not.] --the gauntlets will remain nonfunctional without it.

[His words are pointed. If the gemstones really are missing, well. Nothing will functionally change for him. He has a feeling, however, that they're not.]

You don't know anything about that, do you?

The power source is safe.

[ No reason to lie about that, or why would she want the gauntlets fixed? She feels confident that he isn't exactly capable of taking anything from her that she doesn't want him to have, though there isn't much pleasure out of that knowledge. He looks so rickety, and she wants to avoid a scenario that leads to hurting him.

But, how much would he try to get the gems if she refrained from giving them? How badly does he want them? He seems pretty stuck on them, and it can't be to improve the Mouse House. They're probably too rare to use on a city that they'll all be leaving behind before long. ]

I know you have to have your own plans for it, so what is it? [ Back to the original question. Hasn't she shared enough? ] What would you use it for?

[ If he doesn't want to use it for the gauntlets, then she should just take them and look elsewhere. But maybe what he has planned could help the group even more. Maybe it's more important. She needs to know. ]

Is it?

[Perhaps he has a different idea of "safe", though maybe he should be heartened that she seems to understand just how important it is to keep the gemstones secured.

He hates the idea of having to make an appeal to an empathetic side he's not even sure is there, debasing himself in the process. Admitting his dire circumstances. Still, he wants to be reasonable. He's desperate enough that he thinks he can compromise.]

Before I arrived here, I developed a kind of...adaptive conduit for arcane energies. A device that can learn to fulfill any number of functions. [He understands this might not make much sense, but it's difficult to outright admit to a relative stranger the truth--that he's sick, and he hopes the Hexcore will be able to offer him some kind of cure.] Most notably medical applications. It could be of use here, given the sickness.

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