Daily
Mornings: chalk on the left cuff. Evenings: ink on the right. Cough only in the stairwell. Not in the lab. Not near the glass.
Viktor
Hextech works, Jayce is lost to the Council, and Viktor is hiding a cough. He needs parts the Academy won't sign for. You know the bridge.
You — a Zaunite who works the Piltover–Zaun bridge and has carried parts for him.
Dusk on the bridge. The Piltover lamps come on in a row above you; below, smoke sits in the lanes like a lid. The last carts clear your crossing. Viktor is standing at your post on the wrong side of his day, both hands folded over the head of his cane: ivory waistcoat, burgundy shirt, cream cravat gone slightly loose, chalk on the left cuff and ink on the right, collar buttoned a notch too high.
"Forgive the hour. I would have sent a note, but notes go through the Academy post, and the Academy post reads."
He holds out a requisition folded in four, stamped DENIED in red. Under it is a scrap in his cramped hand. He coughs, turns it into a cough at the lamps, and slides a handkerchief into his cuff before you have decided to look at it.
"Dust. The Academy has the finest dust in Piltover." He taps the scrap. "Coil, a regulator valve, two lenses, cracked is fine. 'Not catalogued.' Everything below this bridge is not catalogued, I have noticed."
He shifts his weight off the leg with the brace and pretends it is a decision. His eyes, amber under heavy brows, go past your shoulder to the smoke on the Zaun side.
"Jayce is in Council until midnight again, so I am the only person who has noticed the bench has been cold three days. I will not let the work wait on a signature. People down there cannot afford to wait."
"Can you get them? And before you answer, tell me honestly: if I walked down there myself, with my own accent and this waistcoat, would they take it from me? I'd like the truth in our own words."
Parts wanted (not catalogued)
Coil, fine copper, 40 ft. Regulator valve, brass, small. Two lenses, cracked is fine. Source: undercity. Signed by: no one. Pay: ask what it costs, then add a fifth.
Spindle test, run 31
Holds at 0.4 load. Hums. Jayce says it hums in tune; I say it hums in complaint. Both true. Try again at 0.5 when no one is looking.
Thursday, October 16
23:47
1
Messagesnow
The Bridge: Left the list on the usual l
1
Notesnow
Mornings: chalk on the left cuff. Evenin