#viktor ferros

viktor ends up attending the academy and still becomes assistant to the dean, heimerdinger. he wants to do something great to give something to his name outside of his house’s assets and accomplishments. something to set him apart from the rest of his family. he is a witty, ambitious, and brilliant young man and is seen as a promising future head of the ferros house. viktor is well-acquainted with the other council members due to his relation with heimerdinger and due to his house being prominent enough to attend the same galas and events as the council members.

meanwhile, jayce works in a forge in the undercity and seeks to use his skills to repair parts of the lanes. alongside that, he studies magic and wants to find a way to create something that can channel the energy of magic. he ends up getting his hands on synthetic hex-crystals (ones that originally belonged to the ferros house; that are less powerful but were easier to get his hands on) and he begins applying them to his studies with hextech. something that he wants to create to bring more innovations to the lanes and improve the quality of life. jayce is still a very sweet guy and he means well, but he is also hardened by life in the undercity (like a dog who also knows how to bite).

one day, a bundle of hex-crystals he had procured causes an explosion that drew the attention of the enforcers. being that hex-crystals are a trademark material of the ferros house, viktor is tasked to do damage control and handle the situation. where he meets jayce and he becomes interested in his dream of hextech.

jayce is sentenced to stillwater for his “illegal” possession of synthetic hex-crystals and for reckless use of magical items. but viktor visits him before he’s transferred there and offers a proposition. being that viktor will help jayce complete his research and in return, viktor to use his own influence to make ensure that jayce isn’t sent to stillwater. jayce questions if viktor can even do that, and viktor simply states that piltover will know potential when they see it and they won’t be too keen on throwing it away (meaning = they won’t send you to prison since you’re involved in this). jayce is wondering if he’s willing to bet everything on viktor’s confidence in that but he thinks he has nothing to lose anyway.

That said, what is he doing in the love's paradox au after Jayce throws the divorce papers at him? Because I refuse to believe he would be normal about it

Yeah. Real talk, I think Viktor is the true "obsessed" one in this relationship. But they're also both kind of messes, but I get more “obsessive ex energy” from Viktor from than from Jayce. Like, even after Jayce blew a hole through his chest, Viktor was STILL out here trying to get him to join him. He full on strut walked into the council room, kicked Jayce around a bit before restraining him and leaning mere inches from his face and asking them to be partners again. And then when Jayce says "No" Viktor jumps onto him AGAIN and starts choking him. And even then, he seems to be acting like this is just a typical lovers' quarrel with how pouty he was looking in the astral plane. Not to mention the blanket and the whole him gently holding the cog right up until Jayce kills him.

And Piltovian Viktor is just the same. I mean, man literally arranged it so that he could wear a MATCHING set of outfits with Jayce (almost like they’re married). In his own house's colors mind do. On top of whatever other accessories and outfits Jayce is given by the Ferros House. Like, if that doesn't feel like Viktor saying "he's mine" I don't know what does. He was subtly claiming Jayce there, and I'm sure that Jayce had no idea about that. Though that also just confirms that Viktor for all his confidence, is still a gay disaster, because how do you do all of that and still not confess?

Anyways, yeah, he is NOT normal about the fact that his best friend (not-husband) just left him after he performed questionable-magical-heart surgery on him (he full on opened up Jayce’s chest btw). I bet he didn't even sign those theoretical divorce papers, because he is in denial about Jayce actually leaving him.

He is probably still hoping that Jayce will come back, so he doesn’t move any of the stuff Jayce left behind in the labs. And, he’s definitely not going back through all of Jayce’s old notes and reminiscing about simpler times. The gay yearning is very real here.

Viktor is kind of going through the motions of life right now and on the verge of just collapsing from the emotional weight of it all. Mel and her presence are literally the only reasons he isn't completely falling into pieces. That and all the responsibilities he is still left with. Such as, having to deal with the aftermath of half of the Council being killed and the whole thing with Jinx. Which, yeah, he’s also not the biggest fan of Jinx… and while he is still hesitant about making weapons, he kind of also wants her gone. Especially, since she’s the reason that Jayce was killed (he’s not about to let that go).

Mel’s support is helping him not fall off the deep end and her resistance to all-out war helps him stay on course. When Mel suggests using the division in Zaun against them and pinning an immense reward on Jinx. He backs her up fully and without wavering. Viktor did just go through his own arc of “there is always a choice” and now he’s putting his foot down and standing by Mel. However, it will get much harder for him very soon.

After all, why not take the opportunity to turn people of Zaun against Jinx by saying that the Council was just about to grant them independence until she exploded the council room? He deems it the lesser of the two extremes in this case. The “better” option.

Even when there is resistance to this from Shoola and Salo regarding the city’s safety, Viktor retorts that he has his own solution to this. He offers to refortify Piltover with Hextech to ensure their own safety, while they put the reward for Jinx in motion. He doesn’t want to make weapons, and he doesn’t want to wage outright war. So, he takes the only option he sees and that’s building up defenses to make people feel safe. To which, the Council finally comes to an agreement.

But then the plan gets more complicated when more attacks begin to happen, and the defensive option shifts needing a more offensive one.

All the while, his mother’s words of “Privilege comes with sacrifice.” is playing in his head. And even as he tries to hold firm to his choices, he is still struggling with whether or not they are the best choices to make. And whether he needs to continue making more sacrifices for the good of everyone else. He doesn’t want to put weapons in the hands of the enforcers, so he devises an alternative solution to needed security. Why not create robots who would follow his orders precisely and could effectively help/protect the people? Thus, he begins creating a collection of Hextech golems that will protect the city of Piltover as its new security force.

Also, yes, that means he creates Blitzcrank. Can’t have him making a system of hextech robot security with him also creating Blitzcrank.

Among other things, like such as Hextech augmentations because if he managed to make a whole functional heart that revived a person, what else can he make? He may or may not be working on that as a kind of obsession with anatomy and figuring out how people work and how to fit the pieces together to make them function with Hextech (*cough* he’s thinking about Jayce *cough*). Even with a war is directly looming over them, Viktor is still being a mad scientist.

Him also coping with his partner being gone and using it as an excuse to look back through all the notes he was taking about Jayce’s new hexcore heart. Definitely not that. He literally will have one or several of the golems sit in the labs with him so he can talk to them about his ideas. Viktor got used to having someone around who would actually listen to him and add to his ramblings, so time to fill the void with robots.

YEAH EXACTLY.

Viktor promising Jayce that he wouldn’t do it, but the moment he loses him. The moment he sees Jayce’s lifeless body and his empty dead eyes in the explosion aftermath. He doesn’t hesitate to cut Jayce open and place the hexcore in his chest, in a desperate attempt to revive him. To save him. The one thing that he thought might work. The one thing that might allow him to keep Jayce with him. Even if it meant breaking his promise to Jayce.

Him being covered in blood, Jayce’s blood, after the hexcore attaches itself and begins to fuse to Jayce’s body as his new “heart”. Was he mesmerized by the sight? Seeing the hexcore infuse itself in Jayce’s chest and begin to glow in rhythm with his heartbeat? Was his face just wet from the blood and sweat, or was it also from his own tears? Was him shaking just a part of still being in shock from the explosion, or was it from him letting out shaky relieved breaths at the sight of Jayce’s heart restarting?

And however long it took for Jayce to wake up after the fact, Viktor never leaving his side unless he absolutely has to. Holding Jayce’s hand, saying it’s just to check his pulse. But maybe he just wants to hold Jayce’s hands and feel that they’re still warm. Still alive. Checking his eyes for any sign of brain activity with pupil dilation, but maybe he just wants an excuse to gently brush the hair from Jayce’s face and gently caress his cheek.

Oh, Viktor does not know for the 7 years they knew each other and worked together that Jayce was slowly dying/was sick that whole time.

Jayce didn’t tell him about it at all. Mostly, because Jayce isn’t used to telling people about his problems. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Viktor at that time, it’s that he’s been taught that when it comes to work, your own well-being doesn’t really matter that much.

When he was in Zaun, he couldn’t stop working when he has to provide for himself and his mom. He couldn’t stop just because he was tired or his limbs were aching or when he was suffering from heat exhaustion or when he’s having trouble breathing. He was taught not to complain, not to voice any weakness/discomfort because that doesn’t put food on the table.

He’s been working since he was a child, so work is kind of a majority of what he knows. Work, and by extension providing for others, is his life and he can’t just stop now. Especially not when there is too much riding on HexTech and its success. And unfortunately that means that he isn’t going to be talking about or thinking about his own health.

A lot of his own self worth/self image hinges on his ability to do the work that others want/need of him. If he doesn’t keep working, he feels like he’s lost a core part of himself. Not to mention, he’s kind of only valued in Piltover for the work that he does. If he doesn’t have that, he loses that value.

in love’s paradox, viktor noticing that jayce doesn’t have a last name. he might ask jayce why sky has a last name when jayce doesn’t, when they’re both from zaun. and jayce just shrugs and says that she just has one and he doesn’t, not giving it much thought.

Kind of like how it’s revealed Viktor is dying in the show, the circumstances might be a little different, but some things would be similar.

Jayce would’ve been showing signs of progressing illness and deterioration as the silicosis starts to show itself, until it finally comes to a head and makes him collapse. And Sky was the one who found him passed out and unmoving on the floor like that and called the hospital. And Viktor is one of Jayce’s emergency contacts (Sky is the other one), so he was notified of the situation and he practically rushed to the hospital.

And at that point, Jayce was still unconscious, so Viktor had a talk with the doctors who basically told him that Jayce doesn’t have much longer to live. It would’ve been one of the only times Viktor has ever cried in public, or in front of another person, because he would’ve been sitting next to Jayce’s hospital bed and silently crying his eyes out and shrinking in on himself.

Sky was equally distraught about it. She very likely thought Jayce was actually dead on the floor when she found him, so can imagine the panic she must’ve felt. I’m sure that she would’ve put two and two together after hearing Jayce’s prognosis that the Grey, or the long-term effects of it, is what is killing Jayce. And she probably feels immense guilt that she was “spared” while Jayce wasn’t. Even though, it’s not her fault, she would feel like it is.

And this culminates in when she finds out that Viktor is planning to build an artificial core to use to save Jayce. She wants in. He might protest at first, but Sky just goes “he’s my friend too” and doesn’t take no for an answer. So, you have both of them working on a life-saving solution.