Viktor and Janna Short (4 Minutes Read)
He felt her presence right behind him, the moment she appeared a breeze went down his back. He paid her no heed though, and went back to his meticulous work, yet another in a long line of devices he was creating. This specific design, no larger than a child's finger, was to be implanted in the brain, and if working correctly, would keep the person from getting lost in thought, keep them from losing focus, to have their mind run as smooth and efficiently as a machine. No more disgusting human error.
"I'm sorry." She finally spoke, her soft voice hiding the pity in her words. She always started with sorry, yet he had no idea why she was, and did not concern himself with finding the reason.
Still he gave her no attention, his gaze firmly set on the blueprints of his device. The prototype had unfortunately malfunctioned, and subsequently killed all the people who had volunteered. It brought him no joy, and if he had allowed himself his emotions, he would have wept and mourned for them. But there was always a price to pay to move forward, to reach progress, to reach evolution.
Suddenly, her hand was atop his shoulder, fingers grasping the metal that now formed his body. "You don't have to do this, there are better ways you can help people."
"Better they rely on machinery and science than the inconcistencies of a fake goddess." He finally spoke, words quick and sharp, but his gaze was still towards his lab desk. The last time she visited him was little over a week ago, with each visit being quite repetitive. The same argument, the same words. To him it was pointless. He was helping people, far more than she ever could.
"Viktor." She spoke, now with more assertion than she had before.
Knowing she would not leave until he spoke to her directly, finally he turned. She looked as beautiful as ever. Long flaxen hair that flowed in a breeze that wasn't there, pale shimmering, near ethereal, skin, and tapered ears. It was her eyes that were the most intriguing. Deep blue, like an empty sky, and pupiless as well, with a seemingly unending depth to them. They pierced past flesh, or in his case metal, and looked into the soul. Even her eyes were enough to make his mechanical heart falter, but only for a mere second.
Arms outstretched, she went for an embrace, levitating down to be at his height. He did not bother to stop her, but he didn't return the favor. When he had tried to keep her away before, his arms went right through her, as though she was made of air itself. Her arms wrapped around his chest, Viktor felt nothing, only the scent of fresh air and rain coming from her hair as it floated into his face. As she embraced him there was a long silence, only the clanking of metal and shouts from the outside world filling the emptiness of his laboratory. "Janna." He spoke solemnly, his words echoing through the building.
"You're going beyond helping people, you're robbing them of their humanity." She said, her eyes staring directly into his. "You're stealing what makes them human."
"The only thing I'm doing is improving them. I have rid them of human error, helped them see the light of a better way of life, the right way of life." He replied bitterly, eyes staring back into her eyes without hesitation or weakness. "Because of my work I've saved hundreds of people from making mistakes." Every time she came, he was always forced to explain himself to her.
"But it's through mistakes that they learn." Her words as passionate as ever. "I watched you when you were a child, I saw you grow, I saw the hope inside you. You can still do great things, Viktor. It's not to late."
Though physically he never grew exhausted anymore, he had well since evolved such things, improving his body to perfection through metal, he could not say the same for his mind. He cared not to explain himself to her for perhaps the hundreth time. Walking straight through her, he resigned himself back to his desk, going back to ignoring her presence. He had to fix whatever went wrong in prototype.
"I see." She said quietly, eyes averted downwards.
He didn't even need to look back to know that she was gone now. Back in the comfort of his own soltitude, he grabbed his pen and went back to redrawing the outlines. Yet, something nagged at him, unlike it had before. Why did she say sorry? She had said it countless times before, but something was different this time. The thought persisted until he could no longer focus on his project, driving him to his own form of madness. The countless mechancial additions to his brain did little to help. Instantly, it dawned upon him.
"Why are you sorry?" He asked, turning back to meet her. He would have smirked if he allowed himself to do so.
Just like he expected, she had reappeared, a small sympathetic smile on her face, eyes filled with regret, eyebrows furrowed in worry, and said in a sad, caring voice, "Because I let you fall so far."
"I'm not going to give up on you, Viktor." She said with the more compassion than he knew was logically possible, her body dissipating into the air as the words fell from her lips.
So this is just a small short story I came up with. Before anybody asks, no, I do not "ship" Janna and Viktor (JANNA X YASUO FOREVER) I just saw that these two characters are a great foil for each other. Both of them strive to do good for the peopl of Zaun, Janna in the more morally upright postion, and Viktor through less than ethical ways. Viktor's status as more of a misunderstood anti-hero works well with Janna's more chaotic good stance. Also, I always thought it would be interesting for these character to meet as Janna is a representation of faith, hope, where Viktor represents logic and science, and science and faith often clash in the real world. Originally I wanted to make this longer, around a 15 minute read, and get more into the relationship and history between these two, but I figured most people would only be able to get half way through it before getting bored if I made it that long.
I know it's incredibly unlikely that they would, or that they would even notice this, but I give full consent for Riot to use this if they want to. All I ask is for my name to be put in the credits.
