[Like a petulant teenager, he will not look at Sidon directly, but continues idly piddling with things. The pouting doesn't exactly feel like it's directed at Sidon, at least.
This is a very Science Men Dispute sort of pout.]
I do not have it. The heart disappeared the next morning after the trial.
[ pouting... our science blorbos are just so silly. the way that even if this was a lie he would accept it so his mouth just scrunches up in a disgruntled line. ]
Disappeared? Where could it have...
[ well, that's something viktor wouldn't know either, so he moves on. ]
I'll see if I can't track it down. Thank you, Viktor. [ then, a curious lilt rises in his voice. ] You're very quick to have taken it. [ HIS LIL SNEAKY FLY HANDS ] What did you intend to do?
[Probably the pods maybe, but he has not checked himself to verify this, and there was only so little they could see of yesterday.
Finally, he glances back at Sidon, probably because he feels there's an implication against his reputation.]
Someone brought it to me, and I chose to look at it. [He glances away again.] I asked Scien to share some of his knowledge about escaping death first, but he refused. So I looked a little inside the heart to see if I could study his research.
[ the fog pods do make it inconvenient, but maybe the senior staff know for when i get audiences done in like four days. dies.
he meets viktor's eyes for as long as he raises them, thoughtful. ]
He was very protective of his research. [ the way scien's request was not worded nearly as nicely as sidon ended up putting it ] I wasn't very close to Scien, but I don't think he had ill intentions by it. Did you two not see eye to eye?
[His right hand is preoccupied digging through the brain sort of games while the crutch has been relegated to the opposite left side. His hand squeezes the handle gently.]
I did not speak to him much aside from the day Dahut was dead and after the trial. He told me I was a thief, I couldn't hope to help anyone when I couldn't bother helping myself without someone else, and I was better off dead.
[ he just watches, unblinking, listening, and there is one quick lash of his tail. it's stronger than a mammalian twitch, like the muscular, agitated bend of a serpent. as serious as he has ever been, ]
[The air cutting of the tail gets him to finally look back and not look away. His expression is not anything in particular, neither hurt, nor angry, nor amused, nor scared.]
Shoma assured me those things were spoken out of whatever malady he suffered, but I do not think that is entirely true.
[Scientists.]
In any case... I do not need his help or his research to find a cure for myself. He can keep it.
[ he holds the gaze, a bright yellow stare that's too intense not to hold some emotion, some frustration directed mostly inward, but eventually shakes his head. ]
I don't think it is either.
[ maybe it was partly because scien was mind-addled, but even then, he thinks it was probably only a small part, at most. ]
...But that is for the best anyway. My apologies, Viktor. I worried you might've been ready to endanger yourself over this technology, as we did once in Hyrule.
...It's part of my world's history. In short, when I was a child, there was a Great Calamity. An ancient evil returned, and we sought to defeat it with a just as ancient technology, one far more advanced than our own.
Except the machines that should have protected us—they were corrupted. Our reliance on them chaned to helpless destruction when they were turned against us. The calamity was stopped, but countless Hylians died. Culture and history, lost. Our champions—...we deal with the ramifications to this day.
[ he sighs, straightening up. ]
I don't wish to bore you with the details! My world's troubles are not your own. But it affected me very deeply. I feared when this ship started to malfunction—and I feared what that heart could do to us, and your mind and body.
[Very slowly, he begins to turn in place to face Sidon. Full attention as he listens.]
You aren't a bore.
[Firstly.
Thank God there is no more emotion share, or he would be found out. But Viktor also isn't a gifted actor. A pensive, nervous sort of look bypasses his face. He turns his head away to glance around them, not looking at anything in particular.]
I already... understand those fears. I work with Hextech, of course. There has always been a level of that in the work I do with it. I still believe... technology can help. I know the risk is it can be turned against us.
But so can people, too. Machines... I can fix. People, I can't.
I am sorry about your land and your people.
[Just in case Sidon thought he wasn't because he's so hard-headed about tech.]
[ he studies the nervous little tells on viktor's face; he's always a bit skittish, not one to hold a gaze, but this is more than usual.
even so, once he's done speaking, he puts a hand on viktor's shoulder, as he's done before. a gentle squeeze. ]
I don't think there's anything wrong with considering all the resources available to you. [ he doesn't even think that the guardians were a mistake, per se. they worked once, and their other options were slim. ] I just wonder, in our case—had we instead looked for another way, would we have found one?
[ had they been blinded? manipulated by the course of time into calamity ganon's next plot? is there a world where they had done something differently, and mipha didn't die alone, in the heart of some machine?
maybe it's all pointless questioning now, but at least it gives him some perspective. ]
You're stubborn! I don't expect you to change yourself or your path for my sake, or Scien's wishes. [ nor does he want him to, really. ] But I hope while you tread ever forward, you take care and mind your step.
[you think about how we did this thread moments before disaster
The shoulder sort of slumps under Sidon's hand, not from the weight, not because it's painful, but because he's so... Burdened.]
You would have found one. There isn't any question about something like that. But you didn't have time, did you? The problem is... not having enough time to find a better alternative.
he gives his shoulder a little pat finally before drawing his hand back. ]
That's true.
[ viktor will mention time again in a sweeter context, but it's sad here. ]
I know time is a different concept between you and I. [ he'd already expected from feeling the weakness in viktor's body for himself that it may not last another—what is the average for a hylian? another 40, 50 years? he hopes it comes close to that, at least. ] It is a precious resource either way. But perhaps even moreso to a human than a Zora.
[ his perspective on time is different. more grounded in history and wider spans of years, decades, centuries. he can't pretend he completely understands what it would mean to someone with less than a hundred years to spend. ]
[He sort of hangs his head in an almost resigned way. Sidon reminds him of Heimerdinger. A being whose lifespan is already long, who doesn't have any sort of ailment to shorten it.
Would they be desperate, too, if so?]
It's alright. I understand. I don't think what any of you tried to do was wrong. You tried the options you had available. You tried what you thought would work.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
if he notices viktor's reaction, he doesn't say anything to the point. he sits near him instead, calm. ]
His last wishes were that his research be completely destroyed. And to that end—you are involved, because you have Dahut's heart.
no subject
This is a very Science Men Dispute sort of pout.]
I do not have it. The heart disappeared the next morning after the trial.
no subject
Disappeared? Where could it have...
[ well, that's something viktor wouldn't know either, so he moves on. ]
I'll see if I can't track it down. Thank you, Viktor. [ then, a curious lilt rises in his voice. ] You're very quick to have taken it. [ HIS LIL SNEAKY FLY HANDS ] What did you intend to do?
no subject
My guess is wherever everything else went.
[Probably the pods maybe, but he has not checked himself to verify this, and there was only so little they could see of yesterday.
Finally, he glances back at Sidon, probably because he feels there's an implication against his reputation.]
Someone brought it to me, and I chose to look at it. [He glances away again.] I asked Scien to share some of his knowledge about escaping death first, but he refused. So I looked a little inside the heart to see if I could study his research.
no subject
he meets viktor's eyes for as long as he raises them, thoughtful. ]
He was very protective of his research. [ the way scien's request was not worded nearly as nicely as sidon ended up putting it ] I wasn't very close to Scien, but I don't think he had ill intentions by it. Did you two not see eye to eye?
no subject
I did not speak to him much aside from the day Dahut was dead and after the trial. He told me I was a thief, I couldn't hope to help anyone when I couldn't bother helping myself without someone else, and I was better off dead.
So no, I suppose we do not see eye to eye.
no subject
You are none of those things.
no subject
Shoma assured me those things were spoken out of whatever malady he suffered, but I do not think that is entirely true.
[Scientists.]
In any case... I do not need his help or his research to find a cure for myself. He can keep it.
no subject
I don't think it is either.
[ maybe it was partly because scien was mind-addled, but even then, he thinks it was probably only a small part, at most. ]
...But that is for the best anyway. My apologies, Viktor. I worried you might've been ready to endanger yourself over this technology, as we did once in Hyrule.
no subject
Thank you for agreeing with him, of course he thinks people are nice to the baby among them. Why wouldn't they be? But not adults. Adult are awful.
ALSO HAHA................about that]
...What do you mean?
no subject
...It's part of my world's history. In short, when I was a child, there was a Great Calamity. An ancient evil returned, and we sought to defeat it with a just as ancient technology, one far more advanced than our own.
Except the machines that should have protected us—they were corrupted. Our reliance on them chaned to helpless destruction when they were turned against us. The calamity was stopped, but countless Hylians died. Culture and history, lost. Our champions—...we deal with the ramifications to this day.
[ he sighs, straightening up. ]
I don't wish to bore you with the details! My world's troubles are not your own. But it affected me very deeply. I feared when this ship started to malfunction—and I feared what that heart could do to us, and your mind and body.
no subject
[Very slowly, he begins to turn in place to face Sidon. Full attention as he listens.]
You aren't a bore.
[Firstly.
Thank God there is no more emotion share, or he would be found out. But Viktor also isn't a gifted actor. A pensive, nervous sort of look bypasses his face. He turns his head away to glance around them, not looking at anything in particular.]
I already... understand those fears. I work with Hextech, of course. There has always been a level of that in the work I do with it. I still believe... technology can help. I know the risk is it can be turned against us.
But so can people, too. Machines... I can fix. People, I can't.
I am sorry about your land and your people.
[Just in case Sidon thought he wasn't because he's so hard-headed about tech.]
no subject
even so, once he's done speaking, he puts a hand on viktor's shoulder, as he's done before. a gentle squeeze. ]
I don't think there's anything wrong with considering all the resources available to you. [ he doesn't even think that the guardians were a mistake, per se. they worked once, and their other options were slim. ] I just wonder, in our case—had we instead looked for another way, would we have found one?
[ had they been blinded? manipulated by the course of time into calamity ganon's next plot? is there a world where they had done something differently, and mipha didn't die alone, in the heart of some machine?
maybe it's all pointless questioning now, but at least it gives him some perspective. ]
You're stubborn! I don't expect you to change yourself or your path for my sake, or Scien's wishes. [ nor does he want him to, really. ] But I hope while you tread ever forward, you take care and mind your step.
no subject
The shoulder sort of slumps under Sidon's hand, not from the weight, not because it's painful, but because he's so... Burdened.]
You would have found one. There isn't any question about something like that. But you didn't have time, did you? The problem is... not having enough time to find a better alternative.
[He understands that! Sidon is too nice to him.]
I will...
no subject
he gives his shoulder a little pat finally before drawing his hand back. ]
That's true.
[ viktor will mention time again in a sweeter context, but it's sad here. ]
I know time is a different concept between you and I. [ he'd already expected from feeling the weakness in viktor's body for himself that it may not last another—what is the average for a hylian? another 40, 50 years? he hopes it comes close to that, at least. ] It is a precious resource either way. But perhaps even moreso to a human than a Zora.
[ his perspective on time is different. more grounded in history and wider spans of years, decades, centuries. he can't pretend he completely understands what it would mean to someone with less than a hundred years to spend. ]
no subject
Would they be desperate, too, if so?]
It's alright. I understand. I don't think what any of you tried to do was wrong. You tried the options you had available. You tried what you thought would work.