Vander | Hound of the Underground (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cantilevers) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
etraya2025-03-01 03:40 pm
cantilevers) wrote in etraya2025-03-01 03:40 pm
01. un: hound - [Voice]
[He was still learning this whole earpiece device, so excuse him for it turning on and there sound like someone was fiddling with the setting. Where was his far more technologically inclined smart kid to help him? Ah well, he did realize it was on sooner than later thankfully.]
Uh... sorry? [Chagrin tone.] I was curious about an idea, since I still consider myself fairly new to this situation. Here's hoping you all with entertain me here:
What does a sense of community mean or feel like to you?
[A beat of a pause.]
Is it friends and family? Is it gathering places and camaraderie? How about a sense of people uniting for a specific purpose in mind? Everyone here has their own agendas and their own interests, and, with no overt crime present at the moment, it's curious to me how we could build a sense of community around these parts.
Uh... sorry? [Chagrin tone.] I was curious about an idea, since I still consider myself fairly new to this situation. Here's hoping you all with entertain me here:
What does a sense of community mean or feel like to you?
[A beat of a pause.]
Is it friends and family? Is it gathering places and camaraderie? How about a sense of people uniting for a specific purpose in mind? Everyone here has their own agendas and their own interests, and, with no overt crime present at the moment, it's curious to me how we could build a sense of community around these parts.
voice
We? Please, let's not make something out of nothing. You're looking for ideas from the rest of them, but there is no we in this greater community. You can't hope to link everyone together for...
[ Here it turns to something a little closer to a sneer: ] A nice, quiet, sleepy little community of arrivals, to while away their time between events.
You and I have very different ideas on that. I don't think a "community" is necessary, after all. Only purpose.
[ WONDER WHY...? ]
voice
I disagree. We are all here for the same purpose, and there's not reason we can't form a community around that goal. People helping each other, teaching skills, supporting one another. We are stronger as a group most of the time.
[He knew he was talking to a brick wall, but he was keen to keep up appearances and not give away that Silco of course irked him.]
Even with the purpose provided, it will never been good enough for you. You'll consider another path that benefits you and yours only.
voice
[ His tone sounds like he thinks it's funny, faux amusement that flickers through the boredom. ]
You've always wanted to assume selfishness of me, because it makes you feel like you're in the right, doesn't it? If I'm the one who would only look out for mine, and you look out for a Community, then that makes me worse.
You and I both know that your "community" is much the same, isn't it? You'll do anything do defend that, and now you want to build something like that here, hm?
Who are you going to try to kill to make it happen this time?
If you want to talk about a "we", let's talk about how we all know your communities are built on shaky foundations.
voice
[There was actual pause because Vander was taking a deep breath, holding it and letting it out again to calm himself. This was one subject he and Silco continually disagreed upon. Old wounds and all that.]
You weren't interested in the sacrifices that the community had to make in order to buoyed your dreams. There are some sacrifices that are too far, and I'm aware that you understand that these days.
Why shouldn't we build something here? We're stuck with the same objective, and it would be a heck of a lot easier to accomplish if we worked together for that. Strength in numbers and united in purpose.
[He ignored the killing barb. It wasn't relevant and they weren't rolling out all their dirty laundry publicly. If he was smart, he would turn this conversation to private, but fiddling with technology right now would potentially lose something.]
We would know that, wouldn't we? You helped me lay the last foundation.
voice
[ He's thinking of the drowning. It was built on his dead body, supposedly dead body. The one that drifted to the bottom of the river, or should have, if Vander had gotten his way. ]
You talk a lot about being united in purpose for someone who doesn't actually believe in what he's preaching.
[ He's careful with his words. He doesn't say anything outright, let's Vander tie the noose, working his way to trapping him verbally. He doesn't have to admit it, they both know who threw the first punch, who actually started this. Vander loved to talk about how none of it was good enough for Silco, about how terrible it was that he had never had his hunger sated. Silco knew it for what it was.
A guilty man trying to level blame on his shoulders. He could turn it private, but he doesn't. He does this purposefully. Silco won't say everything, but he's laying it out that Vander isn't quite as affable as he wants them all to believe, without sharing much else. ]
But do go on. You say I'm not interested in the sacrifices, but we both know it is you that couldn't stomach them, when it comes to things greater than you and yours. I at least, don't give up and roll over like a dog.
voice
[This was too public to discuss the nitty gritty of the sacrifices that were made for the foundation of their Nation of Zaun. He also considered it very personal, and he wasn't going to provide details of their fall-out.]
That's your opinion. The goal was always uniting people together.
[However, he didn't deny that his past was filthy with blood and broken bodies as he and Silco had carved out this foundation. He had earned the moniker "Hound of the Underground" for a very specific reason, long before the Day of Ash had made that namesake spread beyond the Lanes.
Vander also could see Silco laying the ground work for the social trap, and he was wise enough to do what he could in order to side-step it. At this point, they were both keeping this public for their own reasons, and as far as he was concerned, the older man looked far worse so far than he did.]
Oh, I'm fully aware that you're willing to sacrifice most people for your goals. However, even you have limits. We all do. [His tone shifted to levity.] Well, I am called Hound of the Underground. [So yeah, make the dog references.]
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[ He wouldn't. Ever. Oh, he would not give them Jinx, but that was just an opportunity to take a new tactic, a new approach. Perhaps he would have thrown them a bone, a decoy. Someone to take the fall. Cut their tongue out and dispensed them for Talis and told him there was Jinx, while the real one was safe. Maybe he would have just opted for war. They had the shimmer, they had the resources. He knew Noxus was coming now.
It would have been the perfect setup, to be here, to know the things he knew, make the plans, go back after.
He doesn't get that choice now, does he? But that is not the fault of his own shortcomings. That's —
No. He won't linger on that. ]
Unlike you, you'll look at the whole lot of your community here, find them each too precious to allow to do what they must, and then nothing will get done. Saving the worlds? Laughable. Whatever event it is? Why, just tuck your heads into the sand, and let it all wash over you.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will do all the hard, necessary work to make it happen. While your community curls in on itself as a shield.
no subject
[Perhaps the freezing hadn't lasted a particularly long time, but there were moments when it was clear that Silco was frozen physically and briefly mentally. That was the fear, an emotion they all shared at one point or another. He hadn't been afraid for himself even in the twilight of his life, but he had been indecisive and held tight on the leash at times with the deal that was meant to keep them safe.
And if any of the tales he had spoken had been even close to the truth, Silco had stopped the ultimate conquest. The deal to set Zaun free, and it had faltered at the finish line. Oh, Silco would have come up with something; the man was conniving and strategic enough to twist it all up and potentially even make it work.
For a time. Then they were right back to where things had been when Vander had been alive: cleaning up their own house with its long standing problems.
He sighed at the tirade, its familiarity almost a comfort at this point. He seemed to almost settle into the usual back and forth that he and Silco engaged it. Yet, much like the other man, he too was looking for an opening in the topic to drive a point home.]
People here are fully capable of operating on their own strengths. Community to is protect those that need assistance depending on the circumstance. A hand up isn't weakness.
[Yet, there was a pause.]
I can't. If Runeterra falls, I lose Vi. Jinx is here, so we both are fighting for Vi, for everyone else that still had a right and a will to live. [Unlike us, goes unspoken.]
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It's something he knows, he understands, but Silco also knows how to move past it. How to control it. Vander never did. He couldn't, because he was too afraid. Afraid of losing them, coddling those children and stifling them.
Jinx was perfect, wild and free like she was. A torrent in human form, shimmer flooding her veins — a necessity, lest he lose her — and she would never have been like that, if it weren't for his (
Enabling) influence. He recognized that. He was the only one who could, just like with Zaun, who needed a strong, controlling hand, but one who recognized their soul. Who wouldn't sacrifice it to play nice with Enforcers.A soft hiss. ]
Ah, you think it isn't? Then why is it something you so often denied everything outside of the Lanes? Because they didn't play be the rules? If you thought it was so useful, then why wasn't it given to the rest of Zaun? All those dark corners you all like to pretend don't exist?
At least I do not lie about it.
[ Gotcha.
Which is good, because he isn't talking about saving the whole lot of the world, because while Silco believes in Zaun, right now? The most important thing he has is here. The rest of it? It could have burned, if Jinx hadn't asked him to do otherwise.
There was only one reason he was playing along, and it was because she'd
told himasked. She was here, it takes everything in him to not selfishly hold onto that and only that. ]no subject
Yet, he didn't deny that he had felt fear for the twilight of his life. He'd been caught, leashed and held from striving for productivity both by his own fear of losing what he had left and the looming threat of Piltover being ready and able to stamp out the good of what they had built with her. The Lanes was as much her legacy as it was his and Silco's, and Vander had hoped to someday pass it down to her children, his final gift of her memory soaked into the essence of that place.]
Believe what you want, but I had my reasons. None of them will ever satisfy you, and I won't waste my breath here in this circular argument that ends with neither of us finding a resolution.
[But things were different now. He had lost almost everything, so he would have to fight for what was left. Silco had showed him that he was capable, for better or worse - probably worse.]
Either get on board helping save our world, or go back to the shadows cultivating your little niche here.
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[ It's sharp, and immediate. He didn't actually care what Vander did — he would say — but he doesn't want him getting in the way. Of his business, his dealings, or his own attempts to do what he thought was the right way to go about it.
Oh, he'll take issue, he knows he will. Because he cannot help but meddle. But Silco knows also that putting the line in the sand will remind him that he doesn't have to step forward.
In fact, he would prefer if he doesn't. ]
You are the one who has decided time and again to bother with business. Perhaps if you didn't, I wouldn't feel the need to point out your hypocrisy.
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[Vander very much cared what Silco did because he had seen first hand on multiple occasions the damage that it was causing to everyone else. He knew that sacrifices were worth the cause in Silco's head, and that didn't seem to be a fact the other man could move passed even here.
And Vander was used to being an effective distraction at this point. It was temporary, but if he could expose Silco, perhaps a group effort could be used to keep the man in line in Etraya.]
It's bad business, so I meddle. If you don't like it, you know what to do.
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[ Annoyed. Sharp. ]
You would never pester another, when they make decisions you don't like, now would you? No, it is because it's me. It's because you don't like it.
Very well. Your distaste has been noted. Now run along and play community-man. Let's see how well that goes.
[ He'll incite him from the sides, if he has to. He knows what to do. He's already forming a plan, thinking his way into something dangerous.
Be careful, Vander, what you wish for. You want Silco to keep quiet? That's even worse, and you know it. ]
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[Vander sounded amused. He had no issue disagreeing with a plan.]
That's been our dynamic in the past, so I don't see why it needs to change here. You make plans and decisions, and I poke holes in the flaws in it. I seem to recall you would do similar to me.
Well, why should I run along when this is my post? I think you should show yourself out.
[Vander knew better than to let Silco be silent all the time. It was what had gotten him killed just before arriving here.]