[open] january/february catchall

[techmaturgy]

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: January through early February
Where: Cadens, the Horizon
What: open stuff, closed stuff, dangerous and illicit magical surgery, the usual
Warnings: the usual references to terminal illness including a steep decline and medical procedures/surgery. will list additional warnings as needed.

[open and closed starters in comments! This is also a general catch-all for Viktor’s do-or-die attempt to cure himself, and the events leading up to it, and his recovery (to come later). If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. full horizon details are here for any and all wildcarding needs. For everything else, I’m on plurk at whitticus and on discord at whitticus#8139.]

Comments

[techmaturgy]

I suppose they did.

[Heimerdinger wouldn’t have pulled him out of the Undercity if he didn’t recognize Viktor’s potential, but he’d been stifled from the start. An assistant was all he could hope to aspire to, given the politics of the Academy and the optics of someone from the Undercity achieving too much. If he hadn’t risked it all on Hextech, he doesn’t think he would have made it anywhere.

The truth of it is easier to admit, now.]

What patron would fund my research? No one would have taken that risk on someone like me. Financially, socially. That assistantship was the best I could have hoped for, until I found Jayce.

[blackeyedprince]

[Kell listens with furrowed brows. He understands. The Arnesian Empire was no beacon of sainthood, but he likes to think someone would have recognized true genius and gave him opportunities he deserved. Putting your most talented people to tasks they excel at is not only logical, but beneficial both for them and the crown.
Only when Viktor mentions Jayce, it's when Kell's scowl goes away. He smiles at the memory.]

I'm really glad that you did. You two make such a good team. It's a joy to watch.

[techmaturgy]

[He offers a small, bittersweet laugh.]

You wouldn't find many back home who would share that opinion.

[As in, Viktor was generally inconvenient to Jayce's marketability, so it was for the best that he stayed in the shadows. Sometimes he wonders what might have happened if he'd pushed to share the spotlight, but given the rest of Piltover, he knows it wouldn't have amounted to anything good.]

I'm glad that you think so. Working with him has been...one of the greater privileges of my life.

[blackeyedprince]

Then they are fools.

[Kell spats his opinion with no hesitation. Well, he was the boring one always. Some said he makes Rhy look bad. His luck that such opinions always had been thoroughly and aggressively ignored by Rhy. But he's not blind or stupid not to realize that it could have been otherwise.]

Well, you're clearly happy together and it shows. And I don't mean just work. [Now he hesitates. Those are things he doesn't have clever words for.] It is a gift, and a privilege, to have a person in your life who gets you. It makes all the difference.

[For him, it's Rhy. It always has been and always will be Rhy.]

[techmaturgy]

Yes, they were.

[He can say that freely about Piltover, now, without reservation. There are no social niceties to keep up with, here. He isn’t in danger of losing his tenuous station and everyone, Summoned and locals alike, don’t question his and Jayce’s partnership. Despite his complicated feelings about being here, he recognizes the importance of what it’s afforded him.

And he knows that Kell understands. It’s not hard to deduce that he’s talking about Rhy.]

Jayce was the first person who did. [Get him, that is.] I know how valuable that is. It’s why I have to survive this.

[At any cost.]

wrap this one too? it looks like a good place to

[blackeyedprince]

You will.

[Someone could say it is cruel of Kell to say things like that with such conviction. He has no way of knowing what the result of their risky procedure will be. There's nothing he can do to make it less risky, no way he can help. But Kell has some experience with impossible things. There are times, times like this, when you just can't accept another outcome. Times when you just must demand of the universe to bend your way. Will it, is another matter. Entirely out of your control. But demand you must...and just hope it will work.]