Chapter Text
"With the crystal's energy working as a battery, we wouldn't need an external source of fuel." Viktor explained in his heavy accent, as he gesticulated towards a model on top of the table of a big helix covered by metal plates, sucking all the air from one side of the contraption and sending it all straight to a metallic pipe on the other side. "We could have a ventilation system all over the Lanes pumping the lethal gasses directly from the source and out of the city."
Professor Heimerdinger scratched his chin in concentration as he got closer to the model "Indeed, it would cut back a lot on material usage..."
"Not only that, but with HexTech energy we could scale the dimensions down to a minimum." Jayce exclaimed, grinning. His hands moved, emphasizing his speech. "This would cause the system to impact very little on the Undercity morphology."
"Hmmm... You boys might be onto something, for sure." Heimerdinger muttered, now carefully tinkering with the device. "Of course, this kind of implementation demands further knowledge on the Undercity morphology, as well as its habitants lives and routines."
"We're planning some trips down the Lanes to gather more data on that." Viktor said, looking at Jayce that nodded in confirmation. "The material we found in the Library and at the Academy Archives is long outdated..."
The yordle turned to Viktor with furrowed brows. "Didn't you check the UDS?"
"The UDS, professor?" Jayce blurted out loud.
"The Undercity Development Section." The yordle retorted as if it was obvious, not facing Jayce. "At the Academy Architecture and Urban Planning Division."
"We didn't know there was such a section." Viktor voiced, lifting an eyebrow at Jayce that looked back at him with the same confusion in his eyes. He directed his attention back to the Professor. "We did ask for the Architecture and Urban Planning Division's material on the Undercity, but they didn't have anything substantial."
Heimerdinger sighed with a side glance. "This doesn't surprise me. I don't believe many people even remember its existence." He turned his attention back to the scientists. "Her office is not even on the same floor as the rest of the Division. Let me scribble its location down to you, yes?"
"No wonder nobody knows about this place." Jayce looked up at the dusty door sign, Undercity Development Section engraved on it. "This floor is supposed to be lined only with storage rooms."
"Obviously the Undercity section would be treated with low prestige." Viktor sighed, leaning on his cane. "By the state of this place it probably doesn't get much funds. This will probably be a waste of time, we'll end up having to gather data ourselves."
"We're already here, might as well check what data they have." Jayce patted Viktor on the back, trying to cheer his partner up. The other scientist sighed in defeat as he knocked on the door, giving in to Jayce's optimism.
No one answered. Jayce leaned over, pressing an ear to the door. Viktor followed. The duo couldn't hear anything more than faint music being played in the background.
"Well, someone's here." Jayce concluded out loud as he reached for the doorknob. To his surprise, it clicked open.
"This is very impolite." Viktor scolded his partner, grabbing Jayce's arm to stop him from opening the door. "We should really just knock again and wait."
"C'mon, V. You're the one saying this would be a waste of time." Jayce retorted, taking Victor's hand off of his arm. "We might as well just get in and get this over with."
Viktor sighed in frustration at the other one's manners, glancing sideways, Jayce took it as a sign to carry on. The taller scientist slowly creaked the door open, the music louder now that it wasn't being entirely blocked by the door. He carefully entered the office, his partner reluctantly following him behind.
What they saw was a badly lit large rectangular room with a high ceiling, two sets of glass sheets windows lined up the walls from the floor up - frames way less sophisticated than the ones of the windows on the rest of the Academy. This was supposed to be a storage room made into an office, Viktor thought to himself. The walls were covered in gigantic sheets of parchment paper scribbled all over them - notes here and there, longer paragraphs too. A myriad of maps, charts and diagrams everywhere. Wicker containers were scattered around the floor, packed full of what seemed the same type of parchment paper rolled up in tubes. A series of lab tables lined the perimeter of the room, loaded with piles of books, journals, all sorts of stationary material and a single record player responsible for the tune that filled the room. There were models of buildings as well that Viktor readily recognized as being common types of housing from the Undercity, but the most impressive part was what layed in the middle of the room - a big scaled down model of the Undercity was being held by three lab tables vertically lined next to each other.
Viktor was mesmerized.
At the center of the model, a single figure laying with her stomach on top of a hill, tinkered with the model pieces while consulting a journal open beside her. She seemed so engrossed with her work she didn't notice the two men barging inside unannounced.
Jayce cleared his throat. "Pardon our interruption, Miss."
The girl inhaled sharply, clearly taken aback by the interruption. She looked up from the model, her eyes darting quickly from Jayce to Viktor behind thick-framed glasses.
"Oh yes! Welcome to the UDS!" She replied while turning the music player off. "My name is [y/n][y/l/n]! How can I help you today?"
Jayce motioned as he started to answer the girl, but he was cut short by Viktor's interjection.
"Remarkable!" The leaner scientist made his way to the center of the room as fast as he could, completely drawn by the city model. Leaning over the model with his two hands on the table, his eyes glistened with fascination as he slowly recognized each location. The model wasn't life-like, it was more schematic much like a three-dimensional diagram. He soon realized there was a logic about how each piece was colored.
The girl smirked, fixing her glasses with one hand. "So, you're from the Undercity."
Viktor took a moment to register her words before facing her. She had her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, her academy uniform wrinkled up and with paint smears from laying on top of the model for so long . Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, flyways everywhere. She clearly wasn't expecting to see other people today.
There was something about her ruffled but practical look that was quite charming, Viktor mentally noted.
"Yes!" He exclaimed more enthusiastically than he anticipated. He took his gaze back at the model, trying to take it in even more. "I've never seen such a detailed depiction of the Lanes before, I didn't even know what it looked like from above." He got his head a little closer to a specific area of the model, his eyes squinting as he tried to recognize it. "I'm just not sure what this open space is."
The girl approached Viktor, looking at the same point on the model. "That's Hound Square, right beside The Last Drop." She answered nonchalantly. "It's a small urban intervention we completed some years ago.There used to be an abandoned building here with badly irreversible structural damage that needed to go or else it could fall. We did a whole operation to put the building down safely and make a public square in its place." She looked up at the scientist. "It has been a while since you last visited the Lanes, hasn't it?"
Viktor was a bit fazed by her question. After some time enrolled in the Academy, he'd stopped visiting the Undercity altogether, deciding it was better to focus on his academic ascension and forget about mundane things. Of course he wouldn't know about the simpler changes in the Lanes such as a public square. "So this is a model of a recent version of the Undercity?"
"Recent?" She scoffed, crossing her arms. "This baby here is absolutely up to date! She's how I keep track visually of what's going on down there. I was just making some modifications when you two entered."
"So, I take you visit the Lanes regularly?" Viktor asked. She nodded.
"Urban analysis needs fresh data all the time, otherwise I'd be acting as an historian and not an urbanist."
Jayce interrupted their exchange loudly clearing his throat. Both the girl and Viktor turned their attention to him.
"So, Miss [y/ln]." Jayce continued, clapping his hands together. "We have a project we are working on in the Undercity that greatly needs geopolitical data for its completion. We were wondering if you could assist us?"
The girl frowned. "What project?"
"Yes, we're working on a ventilation system." Viktor clarified, looking down at [y/n]. He was amused at how he towered over her. "The goal is air purification."
The girl closed her eyes, sighing in frustration. She brought one hand to her waist while the other pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I have a project on Air Purification in the Undercity." she barked, frowning. Eyes still closed. "It's been ready for implementation since last year, but the board vetoed the funds." She opened her eyes, sighing again, the hand on her nose falling to her side. "Who exactly are you two?"
"Ah, my apologies, Miss [y/ln]". Viktor straightened up, a faint blush on his cheeks. Had him not been awe-struck by the model, he would have been way more polite. He scolded himself mentally by his slip. "I'm Viktor, he' s Jayce Talis. We're from the HexTech Research Division."
Her eyes widened as she took another look at both men.
"Oh my gods, you're Viktor and Jayce from HexTech?! It's such an honor to meet you!" She looked around and quickly stumbled over the direction of some wicker containers and started examining the rolled up sheets inside it. "You'll need a general chart of the Undercity, as well as a chart containing geographical data." She started taking paper roll after paper roll out of the containers, reading its label out loud. "This is a graphic on wind direction in the Undercity over the course of five years, and hmmm... Yes!" She crawled over some other containers further away from her, paying no mind to the dust on the floor on her clothes. "Here are some section drawings of the Undercity. This will help you guys better understand the morphology.
Viktor was surprised at the sudden change of demeanor. He was right, this section must be severely underfunded, otherwise how could such a substantial project to the well-being of the undercitizens be declined? He took another glance around the room. Despite that, this researcher seemed to do her job tirelessly, to the point of keeping all her data up to date. Watching more carefully at the parchment sheets on the walls, he could recognize concepts of potential projects - a drainage system to help with the flooding seasons, a water purification plant that would distribute clean water around the city. All of them had pretty recent dates written on... She mentioned Hound Square was done a few years back, that probably means she had some funding for that. Why not for all those others that seemed to be way more important?
"Bigger scale projects like these must be way more expensive." Viktor murmured to himself. "How many other people work in this section with you?"
She looked back at him with a weak smile.
"People have been leaving to work for others... more prestigious projects." She returned her attention to the paper roll she had in her hands. "Nowadays, I manage everything by myself around here."
Viktor was baffled. HexTech has had a major influx of funds ever since he and Jayce started working with it. They had never needed to worry how much their experiments would cost, they had plenty of room to iterate as much as they needed. In fact, most of their work relied on trial and error. She on the other hand had nothing, she'd work nonstop, gathering and cataloging data to ensure maximum error mitigation. And yet...
Of course she'd get frustrated having her work absolutely ignored.
"[Y/n]?" Viktor called out, looking over at the mess of a person hugging a dozen paper rolls against her body with one hand while analyzing another with the other hand. She looked back at him curiously. "You don't think we could have your material on that Ventilation System project you mentioned you've developed as well? I think it would be beneficial for our project if we had a strong reference in hand."
"O...of course!" She quickly stood up doing a beeline in Jayce's direction. "Please, hold these." The taller scientist obliged with a muffled 'sure'. [Y/n] proceed to shuffle around a stack of files on one of the lab tables. "Aha!" She triumphantly exclaimed as she held a file filled to the brim with papers. She turned in Viktors direction and offered him her prize.
The leaner man walked up to where she was standing and took the file in his hands, 'Undercity Ventilation System Project' written on its cover.
"Just... Please take care of all of these." She pleaded. Viktor smiled softly.
"Don't worry, Miss [y/n]. You clearly care a lot about your work." He whispered. "I'll make sure we'll take this back to you in pristine condition." The girl nodded with relief.
And with that, the two men were on their way.