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1.
The first time Mel realized she might have invested her money in insane people, it was actually because of something harmless.
It was odd, sure, but if it was only that, she could have overlooked.
Happened a bit after the first month of Hextech. They still didn’t have their own lab and were using a borrowed one from the academy, but they had some equipments of their own already.
She came in to check if everything they had requested was in order. Just a quick visit, to ask if they needed something.
But as she walked into the room, the first thing she sees is the small counter they were using as a makeshift coffee spot.
And the coffee maker was full of – Noodles?
She stops right there, stuck in place by the unexpected view. Jayce is the one who comes to talk with her.
“Hey, Mel! We were expecting you.”
“Why are you using the coffee maker for cooking?” She can’t help but ask.
“Oh. That.” He looks at it like it’s a total normal sight. “Well, we found out that the coffeepot had a large enough opening for the noodles without the need to break it.”
“And it warms its own water. It’s more efficient.” Viktor said from somewhere.
She walks deeper into the lab, just so she can look at both of them. Like it would somehow make everything more reasonable.
“You asked for a coffee maker to be able to cook instant noodles?”
“Of course not!” Viktor furrowed his browns from where he was sitting, the table in front of him full of blueprints and annotations. “That would be silly.”
“We really asked for the coffee. We just found out the noodle problem later.” Jayce justified, looking a bit sheepish at least.
She was going to let it go, but she realized there was a lingering aroma of coffee in the lab.
“... Where do you brew your coffee, then?”
They both look at one direction at the same time. She follows their gaze.
She sees a flask full of coffee. The flask is… Those type that you see in chemistry sets. But it doesn't stop there. There’s… Something long on the top of it, where she presumes is the coffee strainer. And another thing on top of it. The whole thing is tall . Comically so for the size of the flask.
“It’s a very interesting process, actually.” Jayce sounds proud as he explains. Proud. “We use the soxhlet extractor for brewing. It does require a lot of water though.”
And the crazy thing is, it probably is somehow ingenious.
“But… Why not making it in the coffee maker?” At this point, she doesn’t even know why she still asks.
“Because… We’re using for the noodles?” Viktor asks slowly, as if somehow it’s her that isn’t following the logic.
“And the noodles don’t fit in a flat bottom flask.” Jayce adds.
“Ok. Ok. ” She takes a deep breath and rubs her face. “Do you want another coffee maker? Or a cooking top? Anything?”
They look at each other, confused.
“No. We’re good, thanks.” Jayce replies for them.
Mel decides to let it go. If that’s how they want to go, ok. There were worse things in life than being a little eccentric.
She proceeded with her to-do list, asking about the actual things she came to ask, trying to not look at the makeshift coffee maker and laugh.
2.
The second time was a lot more worrisome.
It happened when they already had their own lab. Maybe they were feeling more daring, more confident. She wasn’t even going to talk with them on that day.
But an explosion could be heard by the whole building. And Mel felt the need to go check if everything was alright, especially because everyone else she met just said it was a normal occurrence and shrugged.
She really didn’t remember about any explosions in their last report.
Walking into the lab without knocking, she was greeted by the sound of the two of them giggling.
Giggling , uncontrollably. She approached.
They were sitting side by side, their hair wild with magical electricity – she could still see little flecks of it in the surrounding air – Jayce hiding his face on his arm, leaning on the desk and Viktor with a hand on his forearm, clutching the fabric and laughing freely.
“Gentleman?” She called, with a raised eyebrow.
They looked at her, but didn’t stop laughing.
“M-Mel! Good to see you.” Jayce greeted. “Did you hear the explosion? Don’t worry, everything is ok.”
“I did. And it seems like it’s a common occurrence?”
“Well. It’s a new thing. It’s because Viktor— Viktor, stop laughing, we need to take this seriously–” He said, himself laughing too.
“Don’t put any blame on me! Whose flat was blown away by an explosion?”
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! I worked for years in secret with very volatile material and did just fine! Without explosions! This is all your terrible influence!”
“Sorry if I made you stop being a pussy then.”
They kept giggling and ignoring her. She actually almost smiled at the scene, but she wasn’t supposed to be happy. She crossed her arms, trying to look stern, but Jayce was looking at his partner and Viktor was rubbing at his eyes.
“You know, Jayce, the next time I think I will really wear the safety goggles. You were right about the brightness.”
“I told you! See, you can’t ignore all security protocols!”
“I don’t ignore all. But what’s the fun of science without a little explosion?”
“You’re mad!”
She shook her head, fully knowing that her job there was to be dissatisfied and ask them to be more professional with the risks.
But Hextech was, in fact, seeming to go well. And there was that smile fighting to make it to the surface.
It was not her fault they were sort of… Endearing. It was different, seeing them like that. Felt authentic. Free.
“I will leave you to your explosions, then.” She said, turning her back to them.
Jayce still managed a “Bye, Mel!” between giggles.
Explosions usually evoked to her the smell of gunpowder and smoked meat, ingrained in her brain from years living in a land that survived on wars. But maybe she could now think about two scientists having fun with their experiments too.
3.
The third time she witnessed the length of their scientific madness, it mostly put her in awe.
She was not a very science person per se, and even if she prided herself on actually understanding most of the stuff they talked about, she just accepted that their brains were wired differently.
Their lab was always crowded with papers, prototypes, equations on the walls and the kind of mess you would expect in a place of discoveries and studies. She was always curious about what was going on, but it took her at least a year to feel like she wasn’t stepping on anything or being unprofessional by asking for some explanations, just for the sake of it.
They just finished presenting to her their new discovery – hextech could be used to teleport things, and they were now trying to understand the limitations of that.
But that was just one corner of the lab. The others had weird little prototypes and equations they didn’t mention anything about.
“I look forward to seeing more about this, later. I do believe it is a very promising discovery.”
Jayce smiled and stuffed his chest, clearly proud of himself. Viktor was more subtle, but she could tell he was pleased by the curves of his lips and the brightness in his eyes.
“Now… Can I ask what’s all of those other things?” She asks, wondering if they can feel the nuance of her using a more personal tone, or if it was just something she imagined.
“What things?” Jayce asked, confused.
“Well, this, for example.” She pointed to one table nearby.
“ Oh. Oh, ok. It’s nothing important, really. My mother’s heater broke again, and I decided to take it, so I could fix it and maybe make it better, so it breaks less. It’s, uh, a side project.”
“What about this?” She pointed to another table.
“Protheses I’m working on.” Answers Viktor. “To send to the Undercity.”
She looked at those two things curiously, and they let her. She stopped near the blackboard. “And those equations are for what?”
“Nothing, actually.” Viktor answers too quickly.
“We were… Guessing people’s height using objects as reference. It’s just a pastime.” Jayce indulged her.
“... That’s a curious pastime to have.” She says, eyeing again the calculations, trying to make sense of them.
“... By the way, what’s your height?” Viktor asks, a note of curiosity in his voice.
“1,72 meters.” She answers, looking back at them.
Viktor grimaces and turns to Jayce.
“Eh, you win this one. I didn’t pay enough attention to the heels.”
Jayce seemed proud, but humble.
“I still have to congratulate you. Calculating using the council’s chairs height was actually very well thought. It would have been way easier if I went for that route.”
“Are you doing all of that at the same time?” She asked, amused and surprised.
They looked guilty and shrugged.
“Yes. Keeping the mind active and doing different tasks is actually very mentally stimulating.” Viktor explained.
She just snorted softly and covered her face in embarrassment. Now that was something very unprofessional to let them see.
“I see. Well, thank you for the tour.” She tried to regain her composure, with a more serious tone. “See you next month.” She made her way quickly to the door, feeling still a little silly and embarrassed, even if she was still wondering what Jayce used to calculate her height.
4.
One of the funniest moments she had with them, was actually without them.
Reading their official reports was… Something else.
Yes, it was full of technical descriptions. Yes, it had scientific jargon. Yes, it could be a dense read at some points.
But there were always some points where they let out some of their humor blend in.
The first time she noticed it, she was just scanning the text, not thinking she would actually want to read. But then she caught note of a footnote that was as follows:
The authors would like to clarify that this paper is written by Jayce Talis, with the loose supervision of Viktor, who choose to be excused from tall tasks after gaining a game of Strawman Tarock. Jayce Talis would like to clarify that he had never played or even heard about this game before, thus making his defeat unfair. Even so, as good manners and chivalry demands, he gracefully takes the task at hand not as punishment, but as an honor. Future papers may or may not be chosen again by using games as a method of elimination, but strawman tarock is banned as far as Jayce Talis is concerned, as Viktor seems keen of abusing his (apparently large but undisclosed) experience in his advantage.
It was so unexpected that Mel burst out laughing, startling Elora who was working nearby.
She looked at her sheepishly, waving a hand and trying to regain her composure. Elora smiled and shook her head, but let her be, for now.
Mel knew she would have to come up with an explanation for her friend later.
Seriously, those men.
5.
The thing is. She started to just get used to their antics. It stopped surprising her as much. And she started to actually have fun with them.
She realized it during one of their scheduled meetings, where she was reviewing their reports. Apparently, after she discovered that explosion, they stopped trying to minimize their mishaps.
“It says here damaged lab coat from fire related accident? What happened?”
She eyed the two of them, who looked at each other amusedly.
“So… It was my fault.” Jayce started. “I got too close to the bunsen burner and my coat caught fire.”
Viktor was covering his mouth to keep from laughing.
“This is not all there is to this story, is it?” Mel prompted, a smile of her own on her lips.
“No.” Jayce snorted. “Well, uh, we have a shower at the lab for accidents, you know? But…” And he looked at Viktor here.
“Eh, I may have used it as extra storage space. It’s just so rare that we need a shower for anything!”
“... So I had nowhere to go. I had to run down the corridors while catching fire to get to the gym showers. It was… The look on the faces of everyone who saw me was pretty funny.”
They laughed.
“And where was Viktor when that happened?”
“Sleeping.” He answered while Jayce said. “Completely passed out on his desk! I was literally screaming, and he wouldn’t wake up! What if there was a fire in the whole lab?”
“There wasn’t.” Viktor waved away the concern. “I’m just sad I lost the scene. It might have been very funny.”
“It was terrifying!”
Mel found herself giggling, not her normal polite laugh, but a more genuine one, that she tried to hide behind her hand without much success.
It wasn’t the first time that happened. But they both looked at each other and at her like they were proud of what they were doing, and she finally realized what was happening.
So they weren’t reporting their mishaps because there wasn’t a point in covering them anymore. They were telling because they realized it was entertaining her.
They really were two little shits, professionalism be damned.
+1.
It took years.
She got used to their antics and had fun when around them. They seemed to be … more comfortable sharing stuff with her. Jayce specially had always been, but she felt like Viktor was letting her in as well.
It was nice. A respite from her world of politics.
She started to just accept they would always be kind of like mad scientists. And that she liked it.
Still, walking into the lab and seeing them trying (and failing) to play table tennis with what looked like the unstable arcane gem, was truly something else.
They pushed a desk to the center of the lab and were using it as their table. The racket was a crude, makeshift one, probably made quickly out of metal. Jayce tried to beat the gem to Viktor, failed and the gem just fell in the floor. He made to grab it, but Viktor saw her and his eyes went wide.
“Aah, Jayce?”
He looked at her too.
The three of them stared at each other.
“Look, it’s not what it looks like.” Jayce started. “We… Designed a new way to contain the Arcane in the stone. It’s a polished version. We already made the first tests and all…”
“This is just further testing. Won’t explode any buildings.”
She looked at them. Really looked.
This certainly was the most unprofessional thing she ever caught them doing. By far.
“... You’re horrible at table tennis, Jayce.” She said.
Viktor laughed first. Soon, Jayce was smiling too.
“I know. Do you want to try?” He offered the racket to her.
She slowly closed the door behind her.
“Gladly.”
Taking the racket, she feels the gem a bit, throwing it in the air a few times to feel the weight, before finally giving it a powerful strike. The little gem bounces on the table once and goes in Viktor’s direction. He seems surprised by the speed and strikes it clumsily, misdirecting it, and failing to make it to her side.
“One point to you, I guess.” He says, trying to sound neutral, but his eyes showed he was impressed.
Maybe she wasn’t exactly a mad scientist. But as they smiled excitedly at her, maybe she could be a little mad herself, if it was with them.
