abraxaslogs | OPEN: We Vow To Keep Pressing Forward

Making you into a floor hazard, and someone likely to develop back problems.

[And Viktor has to balance the cane as well. Alucard can't actually imagine how well that's working out, and he isn't inclined to try.

Truth be told, he hadn't assumed anything about a relationship. If it was pertinent, someone would have told him (probably Jayce, Alucard can say that much with confidence.) All he can assume is that they fuond a temporary arrangement and it is not ideal.]

I'm not inclined to poke at someone's private medical matters. Nor do I carry the privilage of years of partnership there.

[Meaning, you ask, I'll come up with a design. Alucard doesn't pry because he doesn't want other people prying in turn. It is a code that has served him well in Cadens thus far.]

No one here is really good at the concept of subtle, you'll find.

[At least, no one that he has met. So Alucard leaves the matter be, happy to get away from it, truth be told.

A shake of his head no is the answer, but it deserves elaboration. Without too many details, admittedly.] I am not. My father was a polymath and my mother was a doctor, I was exposed to a number of the arts and sciences growing up, giving me a larger knowledge base than most.

Exactly. So that's problem number one to solve.

[ For someone who has never been poor, Jayce is pretty good at hustling when he needs to. And they definitely need to. He actively worries about Viktor hurting himself more tripping over him, but neither of them has suggested or even considered not staying in the same room.

Jayce gets what he means and nods. This is a good man, he intends to tell Viktor that. Whether his friend admits it or not, Jayce's opinion does matter to him, but he's not surprised at all that he likes Viktor's friends easily. Alucard is considerate of Viktor's situation and not inserting himself into it without permission, it's good. Thoughtful. ]

I'll bring it up to him and let him know to contact you if he's interested in more details.

[ Jayce might be relieved to know he's not the only one who isn't good at subtle. It's honestly astonishing he managed to keep his project secret so long since he's really bad at lying, but that was the benefit of having an apartment outside of the academy's eyes. And coming up with an idea no one had ever had before.

He is very interested in Alucard's response and it makes sense that he's the child of academics, he has that sort of curiosity and interest in him, quiet though he may be, that speaks of bright minds. ]

So it's not a surprise that the history of this place and its buildings would appeal to you. Being something of a polymath yourself.

It will at least be the easiest.

[Maybe not easy, but the most straight forward for sure. There's nothing much to contend with, just a clear need to deal with a problem that has no complications attached. New rooms open up every day, and those aren't mired in politics.

Jayce, stop using the f-word so freely??? Alucard can't speak for Viktor, but he's emotionally constipated and a mess, admitting he even has friends here has been a weird minefield. Someone else looking at the situation from the outside and saying it is just a lot?????]

That'll do.

[It puts the weight on Viktor to make a call both if he wants this and how comfortable with disclosure he actually is. That's fair and then some as far as Alucard is concerned.]

I have more defined preferences though. [Dracula dabbled in everything, such as it is.] Polymaths, in my experience, jump around far more.

[ Jayce is deceptively good at seeming extroverted and good with people, but at his core he has always struggled making lasting connections with people. He only has three friends, but growing up he was treated as strange and intense and there was no one who stood up for him when arrested. So he claims friendships and clings to people who might notice him from that place of loneliness, don't mind him.

He will bring it up to Viktor later, he knows his friend will be prickly since he doesn't like other people talking about his leg, but hopefully he'll remember it's coming from a good place. Jayce's been here many times before, so he is probably the better person to approach it, yeah. ]

Surely even polymaths have some preferences. I can't imagine equally caring about every subject out there. Although if I had the time to learn everything, I probably would.

[ Jayce generally has excelled at everything he's put his mind to, but he put all of that weight into science and engineering for his one primary goal. Now he's looking at a lot of options for education and magic and he knows where to start, but it feels like walking into a huge feast and being starving but not knowing what dish to taste first. ]

Have you attended the medical school or any healing magic types of things here? I've started there, it's technically a new field of study.

[ His mother was a doctor so it seems logical to see if he has similar interests. And it is not coming out of no where, Jayce is only interested in medicine and healing because of Viktor. It has no real drive for him otherwise, but it is the most powerful drive he has. ]

They might, but it would be in darker magic.

[Alucard is not about to dig into the whole my father hired necromancers for a war thing or even he literally could summon demons from the pits of hell bit either. He is simply going to hope that the firm tone will signal that it is not a good conversation path, especially for someone he's just met.

But it does say something that Jayce has that desire to keep learning and discovering. It is a sign of someone Alucard's more inclined to like.]

Early on, I did sit in on several of the medical lectures, if only to see what the state of medical science is at the moment. I've been too occupied since to attend further. [He's absolutely measuring against Dracula's knowledge.] Does the current schedule allow for you to do the blacksmithing work and continue to attend lectures and labs?

[ Jayce may be oblivious sometimes and willing to talk about anything off the top of his head, but his partner is Viktor so he is good at knowing when to drop a topic from a tone. So he nods to show he understands although don't think he won't remember that in the back of his mind for another time if it comes up. He rarely forgets these things. ]

I've always been good at biology so medical science is going to take a lot of studying and memorizing, but I think I'll be able to adjust. Even if physics and engineering are more my thing.

[ Jayce is more focused on healing magic because he thinks it's a quicker shorthand to getting Viktor relief, even if they don't have any proof healing magic can in fact fix him. He's surely gone to a magical healer at this point, so in the end, a mix of science, medicine, and healing magic will probably be the only long-term solution. Jayce doesn't think Hexcore will be the perfect cure Viktor thinks it is, but he's trying everything at this point.

He chuckles, shaking his head. ]

Honestly, not really, but I don't need a lot of sleep so I'm blocking out all hours of the day and most of the night to hit everything. I never had much free time in the first place. Between our work and ... [ He pauses and sighs. ] Becoming a politician.

[ He says it distastefully now because he feels that way about it after his experience, but he did what he did, and he can't change that. Now back home the only answer is he has to fix his own mistakes. But he doesn't want to get involved in the same thing here, which is why Goro in general sets off his alarm bells. ]

[Oh buddy, you're gonna have a time of dark magic soon.]

It may help to think of the body in those terms as you move further along in study then. A human is just a number of different systems that is a functioning whole, after all.

[Alucard realizes only after he speaks that his word choice is...very much a choice there. But it isn't as if his fangs are subtle either, nor has he ever been so secretive as to deny the fact he isn't fully human either.

He's also in no position to comment about sleeping. This is the same man who took a year long nap.]

It's a shame that progress and inventing always gets tied to politics and those hungry for power regardless of cost. [The intonation is deep and serious, and Alucard knows that it may beg questions. Family matters will be the answer, curt and implying far too much.] I do hope you can avoid the matter here.

That's a very logical way of looking at it, I like it. I'm just trying to remind myself not to annoy these professors like I did mine. They were forced to put up with me.

[ Jayce is indicating a joke there though, his tone humorous, although it has some realness to it. He was always that eager and outspoken student, curious to a fault, sometimes annoying in his ideas and opinions. Viktor was more of a 'well, actually' student and Jayce was more of a 'but what about this, this, and this' student. He was Heimerdinger's favorite, his prized pupil, for the very reason the other teachers got frustrated by him.

Jayce sighs at the reference to politics and power hunger and boy does he relate, in the most unfortunate of ways. ]

It was one of those well sure, getting involved in these things has led other people down bad paths, but I'm different, I'll do it right. You know, like an idiot.

[ He can mock himself about it now, after a fall from grace. ]

If it's up to me, I'm staying as far out of it as I can here. Forcing our way into the political system here is wrong anyway in my opinion, this isn't our world. We shouldn't make decisions for them.

[ Jayce did it for his people and that at least he isn't entirely ashamed of. But he wouldn't like if an outsider tried to force their way into it, like Mel's mother did. It was immediately unacceptable. ]

You can always find a spell to keep yourself quiet for an hour.

[Alucard's tone is serious, making it harder to tell if he's kidding or not. He can be dry as the desert outside of Cadens, aftr all.]

At least you know you were an idiot in retrospect. That's worthy of some note in and of itself. [Alucard himself is too young to suggest another factor might be youth, enthusiasm, or anything else along those lines. Which is probably for the better, as he would come off as far too condescending.]

So long as your hand isn't forced. [For obvious reasons and concerns.] I've wondered how likely it is that simply existing here and functioning within their systems counts as interfering or making decisions.

[To invent is to potentially impact the world here, it seems.]

[ Viktor also has a dry sense of humor but Jayce has known him for years, so he's not entirely certain he can guess with Alucard. He thinks it's funny though, so he's going to lean toward joking. ]

I'd probably just start writing questions down.

[ His sense of humor is much more obvious, like everything about him. Jayce sombers though about the topic of his stupidity and he shrugs. ]

All I've ever really wanted to do was make our city better, it's why we started Hextech too, so when given the opportunity to try and change things on a higher level, I thought I should do it.

[ It's a wistful thought, remembering the genuine need to help people, the good intentions that drove him to where he was. But a junior politician should never have ended up the head of the council, and he walked into a war situation with no real knowledge. It was probably always going to not work out. ]

But I didn't know enough about how things work, about how to actually enact change or deal with a corrupt system. It was a naive and kind of arrogant idea that I could come in blind and fix everything that had been wrong for a century.

[ Again, Jayce is very upfront, opening a window into his past and his heart to strangers, because this is all weighing on his mind, and he wonders if there aren't lessons in there for more than him. Not that Alucard needs a lesson in anything, but Jayce never really got much of a chance to talk through it either. It all just sort of happened and spiraled out of control. He talks off the top of his head, it's a thing. ]

Sorry to ramble. Anyway, I'd like to avoid that again. But you're not at all wrong. By changing things about this city, whether it's restoration or creating new technology, it could be interfering. Maybe it's worth it if it's a net good?

That'd probably be a little more endearing.

[Only slightly though.

Alucard is quiet as he hears the full of it. In all of that explanation, it becomes clear that what was created was always going to have political tie ups, and it would inevitably become an issue that no one could truly control. Not coming into things with a personality like Jayce's and not being able to predict some cynicism either.

There's a note of the familar there, although Alucard is loathe to poke too much at it for the time being. Helping and assuming the best. It always ends up in flames, doesn't it?

At least the man can own up to arrogance. That counts for a lot.] No need. It is enlightening, and reassuring that you can anticipate potential problems in recreating your technology here.

[As for the real crux of it, the dhampir shakes his head.] But a net good for whom? For the people here? Perhaps. For those in Thorne and Solvunn? They may not agree, and tensions continue to rise even without help. [He knows how cynical it sounds. Alucard's accepted that cynicism is where he resides now.]

My mentor was a strong believer in being cautious about big discoveries because there was no way to guarantee the consequences. We didn't see eye to eye on a lot, but I'm keeping it in mind.

[ Jayce was the catalyst for Heimerdinger's expulsion from his role on the Council and his withdrawing from Piltover entirely. It is not something he is proud of, and more things in hindsight make him regret how it all came about. Jayce still believes what he said about him, but it was easier to be angry and protect Viktor than listen. And since he doesn't think he'll see him again, they will never get any kind of closure. ]

Right now we don't have anything big to share with Cadens or anyone else, but it's something to think about when we do. Thank you for talking this out with me, Alucard.

OPEN: We Vow To Keep Pressing Forward

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Do you want to aim to wrap this so we can focus on event soon?

absolutely we can wrap here and say that they chatted for a little while longer