There was a time when Viktor might not have accepted the lurid temptation of mystery chemicals in the pursuit of progress... but that time had come and gone, and now he's reaping the consequences. He'd been warned of the side effects, to a degree, and they'd been as he'd expected at first. Unpleasant, but a minor inconvenience in the larger scheme; the grand strides he was making far outweighed the negatives. And even if he had walked the streets and alleys of Zaun, and seen what shimmer had done to the desperate masses, that was one of the many things he hoped to fix.
His first mistake hadn't been trusting Silco, because he never had-- his first mistake was thinking that he could be different, somehow.
As he sits there, with a white-knuckle grip on a folio of papers resting in his lap, he mulls over the situation he's found himself in. How nice it would be to throw away all logic and blame his poor choices on the man in front of him. How much he wishes to be almost anywhere else, and how he would be, if others hadn't started noticing a shift in his demeanor. If Jayce hadn't said something.
For a moment, he impulsively leans into the touch, his shoulders shuddering as a jolt pulsed through his nerves. And then the question asked of him brings him back into reality, just enough for him to tilt his chin up, and sit up straight.
"It's nothing," he lies, brazenly, knowing that he's fooling no one. He makes an effort to maintain an unaffected tone, for all it'll do. "I've made some discoveries, and I thought you might be interested. I owe much of them to you, after all."
It's a pretense, but not completely falsified. He does have notes to share, but that's not the game they're playing. He's sidestepping out of check again, knowing full well he'll be back in it against in the next move.
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Date: 2021-11-30 05:58 pm (UTC)His first mistake hadn't been trusting Silco, because he never had-- his first mistake was thinking that he could be different, somehow.
As he sits there, with a white-knuckle grip on a folio of papers resting in his lap, he mulls over the situation he's found himself in. How nice it would be to throw away all logic and blame his poor choices on the man in front of him. How much he wishes to be almost anywhere else, and how he would be, if others hadn't started noticing a shift in his demeanor. If Jayce hadn't said something.
For a moment, he impulsively leans into the touch, his shoulders shuddering as a jolt pulsed through his nerves. And then the question asked of him brings him back into reality, just enough for him to tilt his chin up, and sit up straight.
"It's nothing," he lies, brazenly, knowing that he's fooling no one. He makes an effort to maintain an unaffected tone, for all it'll do. "I've made some discoveries, and I thought you might be interested. I owe much of them to you, after all."
It's a pretense, but not completely falsified. He does have notes to share, but that's not the game they're playing. He's sidestepping out of check again, knowing full well he'll be back in it against in the next move.