[ PROJECT UNIVERSE ] Vayne's in-game interactions with Jhin don't reflect what the lore revealed
The PROJECT skinline is my favourite one of all the ones Riot created so far.
I've always loved high-tech and futuristic stuff, so the PROJECT universe is everything I could ask. The designs for the skins are downright awesome. ( it's a pain to draw but it looks awesome, so it's worth it in the end )
My interest with the PROJECT universe began with PROJECT : Jhin. The skin is simply amazing. It is Jhin's best skin to me. The shots feel more impactful than with any other skins : it's loud, ominous : you know it's gonna hurt.
Recently, I've been playing Kai'Sa a lot. Then, I wanted to try Vayne out, since her gameplay is similar to Kai'Sa's.
As I expected, Vayne is very fun to play. Her PROJECT skin makes the gameplay even more enjoyable : the animations, the new voice, the new SFX/VFX...this skin is good. ( and it's fricking PROJECT, what's it not to like )
Even though I like the PROJECT skinline, I've never read the lore about the Champions I play until recently. When you go to your Collection, a description comes with the Splash Art of the Champion you're watching if the skin itself is part of a specific universe. ( PROJECT, Immortal Journey, High Noon, and so on )
This is PROJECT : Jhin's description :
https://i.imgur.com/JcIpjW8.jpg[/img]
"After a botched surgery, Jhin went from being a black-market augmented hacker to a notorious mechanized killer for hire. Still programmed with a taste for high-clearance upgrades, the tech Jhin takes from his victims has left him with a severe personality fragmentation, and a dark vision for the future of PROJECT… and humanity."
Below is PROJECT : Vayne's description :
https://i.imgur.com/Ds4yoVU.jpg[/img]
"Augmented with classified tech, Vayne was once a member of PROJECT’s counter espionage unit. After she was betrayed by the corporation she served, she now stalks the shadows as a vigilante, searching for ways to break PROJECT and the technology that haunts her soul."
If you don't read the lore, you wouldn't know that these two are actually connected.
#WARNING : IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PROJECT : HUNTERS LORE AND WISH TO DISCOVER IT YOURSELF, SKIP THE TEXT IN THE BOX
https://i.imgur.com/MsXIGx7.jpg[/img]
The lore is being told from Vi's point of view.
I pulled a chair over to Mosley’s table. The table light flickered and I noted that the booth had also recently served as a makeshift medical bay for neural surgery, evidenced by the small bucket of teeth sitting next to Mosley’s drink. Those without Central sanctioned data ports jacked into whatever nerve bundles were available—the ones beneath the molars were especially easy to tap.
Mosley looked up at Vayne. “Y-you didn’t say you were bringing a friend, Vi.”
"An upgrade,” Vayne corrected.
I leaned forward, putting both gloved fists on the table, nearly upsetting the tooth bucket. I flipped my light shade up so I could look Mosley in his real, fragile eyes.
"Thought I might need some backup in a place like this. You don’t come to the Heap unless you’re looking for something. What were you looking for, Mosley?”
The knuckles of my gauntlets itched with unspent energy.
"He didn’t want what I had… and then I told him about your upgrade.” Mosley’s voice wavered and his eyes watered. “Figured if he was interested, I could get you to sell it to me. He said… he said if I could get you down here…” “Where’s your buyer?” Vayne scanned the crowd of miscreants milling around.
A thin beam of red light flicked on, centered directly on the hollow of Mosley’s chest.
A preternaturally calm voice came over the building’s old crowd comm link. “Right here, my dear.”
I looked over to see Vayne’s face had erupted into a snarl. Every lower sector enforcer knew that voice pattern. “Jhin,” she growled.
"Special Lieutenant Vayne, what a delightful surprise. You’re looking so much better. Sad, what happened to your squad, but you do wear them so well. That crossbolt upgrade is especially nice.”
"Jhin? Your buyer is Khada Jhin, Mosley?” I looked at the simpering fool that was my newly assigned partner. He nodded meekly. Jhin was a notorious augment hacker with a taste for high-clearance upgrades. Word was, he had been a black-market tech that had almost gotten completely wiped in a rough job. Severe personality fragmentation. Last bulletin I downloaded said he’d been taking the shiny bits of other people ever since. Even if he hadn’t started out fragged, there couldn’t be much sanity left after so many pieces of other people had been plugged into him. And it sounded like he and Vayne knew each other from a previous engagement.
"This day keeps getting better and better,” I said under my breath.
Jhin laughed. The psychopathy under the distortion sent a chill up my spine.
"I will break you piece by piece, you virus.” Vayne said to the disembodied voice. She was wire-taut.
"Maybe later, my dear. This is about what I want.” Jhin’s voice faded to a low, unnerving hum. “The upgrade.”
"It’s not hers to sell.” Vayne withdrew the data cube and held it up.
"Disappointing,” Jhin sighed. “I had so hoped you’d installed it first. Ah, well—I will have to rewrite the third act.”
There was a high-pitched whine as an arc of red plasma seared the air between me and Mosley. Without my light shade up, the high intensity light left me visionless. The background noise of people and tech stopped and was replaced with panic. The smell of fear and seared silicon filled my nose. My eyes teared up and I blinked to clear the neon burn.
Through the after-images, I could see the knuckles of one gauntlet were singed and there was a hole in Mosley that went right on through to the other side. I didn’t need a Central forensics kit to tell me it was the same weapon that melted the doc on the bridge.
"That rat is here,” Vayne said over our comm link, “and I’m going to kill it. He wants this.” She tossed me the promotion cube. “Try not to get shot.”
I caught the upgrade as Vayne vanished into stealth mode. The Heap was nearly empty. Nothing like a pulse of de-ionizing plasma to get people moving. I charged the coupler in my gauntlets and their amber glow lit up the darkness. Jhin’s mechanized laugh echoed off the walls. There was a hiss of static in the crowd comm.
"Ah, ah, ah, detective. A cat in gloves catches no mice,” he purred.
"Khada Jhin,” I announced, “you are wanted on multiple counts of murder.” I watched the upper areas of an open loft, looking for the tell-tale red light. “And you melted my partner, too.”
"You didn’t like him anyway. What was it you said?” There was a crackle and another hiss as an audio file was searched. “Ah, yes. Here we are...”
The hissing stopped. I heard my own voice in the crowd comm. “I don’t trust upgrades.”
"Nice trick.” I stepped around the discarded piles of old tech, continuing my hunt. “I have what you want.”
"Your new friend didn’t like the gift?” More laughter echoed around me. Movement grazed the corner of a piece of mirror-glass that had cracked into a web of broken reflections. “She doesn’t like upgrades either. Did she tell you about her last partners? About her team?”
I did not reply. I continued to advance toward his last position.
"They all died.” I could hear Jhin’s dark smile. He was delighted, if a man that was mostly machine could still feel anything like that. “Especially Special Lieutenant Shauna Vayne. They rebuilt her of course. She was special.”
"Who?” I asked, hoping if I kept him talking, he would be more prone to mistakes. “Who rebuilt her?”
"PROJECT of course, you silly kitten. They rebuild all of us.” His cackle broke the high frequency and distorted painfully in my ear. “But they may have a much harder time with you when I’m done...”
A cylinder of metal shot out of the darkness. I dove out of the way—It hit a pile of debris, a small explosion ripping through the scrap, before bouncing and exploding against a second pile.
"Did she tell you how they died?” I could hear Jhin’s excited breathing over the comm. I stood up slowly, to find a pinpoint of red light centered on my belly. Fifty meters away, I could read the tall, metal shadow taking aim. Jhin cackled with laughter again. “It was—”
"A trap,” Vayne’s voice came over our internal link, her outline decloaking right next to him.
I took off at a run, watching as Vayne’s crossbolt lit the dark once, twice, three times, but each time she tumbled away as Jhin returned fire. His weapon was less accurate at point-blank range, but still blew out the nearby walls quite effectively.
Vayne leapt towards him, taking the metal shadow down to the ground. I was almost to them.
"Are you ready, my kittens?” Jhin hissed. “It’s time to see how well you run.”
A digitized voice announced, “Manual override. Demolition sequence engaged. Sector refactoring imminent.” Amber lights and slumbering klaxons awakened under the grime of the condemned building. Ill-fated sectors like this one were regularly sealed and collapsed to provide new foundations for the towering structures above.
I couldn’t hear if there was more to the warning, as a series of small explosions began to rip through the Heap. Metal whined as concrete supports gave way.
Jhin and Vayne broke apart, and she rolled to her feet. I stopped short, completing the standoff. It was the first time I had seen Jhin up close. He reset a servo in his shoulder with an unsettling, mechanical pop. I don’t think there was any flesh left to the man. He had no face, only a spider-like drone seated on a neck of steel.
"Go on, lieutenant. Shoot me.” Jhin opened his arms wide as if he would embrace Vayne. “It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
She unslung the larger crossbow from her back, its metal arms unfolding from the barrel.
"Vayne!” I shouted over the din. “We have to go! Now!”
"This hunt is over,” Vayne growled, taking careful aim. “You are a dead man.”
"If only I were still merely a man,” Jhin said, too calmly.
She fired the bolt. It hit him in the chest, knocking him back off his feet and spearing him into a concrete column. He was pinned. Jhin’s metal skeleton gave a shocked vibration as it de-powered. His spider-like face went dark. “Vayne!” I looked at her, but she didn’t see me. She didn’t see anyone but Jhin.
A tick later, the glossy black drone that was Jhin’s face lit up with spots of red neon. Servos disengaged and it scuttled down the body, looking to make its escape.
"Smash that thing!” Vayne yelled. She fired small bolts of plasma from her wrist, but the drone dodged them with insect-like reflexes.
It landed on a nearby column. I punched the concrete hard, the web of plastic mesh exploding, and the drone was launched towards the ceiling. Vayne continued shooting at the spidery thing as it skittered into a crack in the corner, and disappeared into the darkness.
Another piece of the ceiling came loose over Vayne’s head. There was no time to ask permission—I tucked my shoulder and ran at her, knocking her through a blacked-out window into a neighboring structure.
We landed hard, a shower of glass raining down. I watched in disbelief as the stacked weight of Central crushed the current Heap into a pile of nothing.
I noticed that Vayne, in the PROJECT lore, HATED Jhin. She wants to kill him in order to avenge her deceased teammates.
Her hatred towards him can be seen in multiple extracts :
https://i.imgur.com/11veYUW.jpg[/img]
A preternaturally calm voice came over the building’s old crowd comm link. “Right here, my dear.”
I looked over to see Vayne’s face had erupted into a snarl. Every lower sector enforcer knew that voice pattern. “Jhin,” she growled.
As soon as Vayne hears Jhin's voice, her face changes and anger takes over. Her voice is also affected by it. She's usually cold and doesn't show much emotion, but when it's about Jhin, it's a different story.
"I will break you piece by piece, you virus.” Vayne said to the disembodied voice. She was wire-taut.
I don't think she wants to fix him. She clearly wants him dead.
"That rat is here,” Vayne said over our comm link, “and I’m going to kill it. He wants this.” She tossed me the promotion cube. “Try not to get shot.”
Vayne sees Jhin as a rat that she must kill, a virus that needs to disappear.
"Go on, lieutenant. Shoot me.” Jhin opened his arms wide as if he would embrace Vayne. “It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
She unslung the larger crossbow from her back, its metal arms unfolding from the barrel.
"Vayne!” I shouted over the din. “We have to go! Now!”
"This hunt is over,” Vayne growled, taking careful aim. “You are a dead man.”
Jhin himself knows how much hatred Vayne bears towards him. "You've always wanted to kill me ever since what I've done to your team and you."
"Vayne!” I looked at her, but she didn’t see me. She didn’t see anyone but Jhin.
She's so obsessed with the fact that Jhin can be killed right here, right there that she doesn't see anything else. Someone could be trying to kill her that she wouldn't even notice.
She got to her feet, seething with waves of anger. The light in her eyes focused into points of intense rage. There was an arc and a hiss, and a final waft of ozone filled the air as Vayne vanished into the night.
"You took a piece of my vengeance from me, detective,” her voice echoed in my mind. “An upgrade cannot settle that debt.”
After Vi's failed attempt to kill the insect-like drone that is Jhin's face, Vayne is fuming. To her, Jhin was dead, and Vi let him escape. They might have been temporary allies in order to arrest/kill Jhin, but now, it seems like she could be hostile towards Vi because of this.
So, according to the PROJECT lore, Vayne hates Jhin because he killed her entire squad, her included. She wants to kill him because of this.
How does it reflect in her in-game quotes?
https://i.imgur.com/Ryf0310.jpg[/img]
Upon attacking an Enemy PROJECT : Jhin :
_- "Your code is beyond saving."
- "I'll correct your malfunctions."
- "Yours is a narrow mind."
- "You will destroy us all." _
Only one quote seems like it follows the lore, as in "I will kill you." and it's "Your code is beyond saving."
If Jhin's code is beyond saving, that means once he's killed, it's over. He's too far gone to be fixed.
Her next quote contradicts what has been revealed in the lore.
##"I'll correct your malfunctions." VS
“That rat is here,” Vayne said over our comm link, “and I’m going to kill it."
I'm confused as to why her quotes aren't filled with anger and hatred towards Jhin. She doesn't even have quotes when killing PROJECT : Jhin. ( the only quotes that will play when killing him are the ones that play with every other PROJECT skin )
