Viktor doesn't say anything for a moment, letting Blake stumble through all of this. There's a flicker of disappointment on his face, to realize that the conversation opener was perhaps just an excuse to re-litigate a discussion they've had several times now.

The idea that entertaining the children with a science project might not have been a genuine proposal suddenly stings, unexpectedly, to say nothing of the immediate rejection of a benign physics exercise for reasons that seem to be...a stretch. Does Blake actually want Viktor to accompany him on a visit to the miners?

"As a former exploited child," he says, cooly, in an attempt to disguise what might be hurt feelings, "I might have liked the friendly competition of a soapbox race."

Something he could have participated in--or been a vital part of, instead of being left on the sidelines while the others quite literally outran him. As a result, Viktor finds himself uninterested in entertaining Blake's anxieties, especially when nothing he says or does seems to help. It has him wondering, again, what keeps him here in this workshop. If he shouldn't just dismiss him, at this point.

But as much as Viktor doesn't appreciate this continued line of questioning, he dislikes giving up on someone even more.

"Perhaps you can tell me what sort of project you'd like to work on. For the children, or otherwise."