#if Jayce was denied any access to his son

[goddessofroyalty]

So that ask about Viktor coming back to the lanes in tears after an argument with Jayce has absolutely not left my head since last night.

Like. It's just a random occasion here and there to separate and cool off before Naphs born and they reconcile easily. But the more the conversation leans away from heated arguments about Hextech, it tilts into war and hex weaponry. He goes home to the lanes more frequently and more hysterical. Coming to a point where he's ran away/left completely with Naph after Jayce overrides his word/work is stolen. And his family's reaction, I just, the drama.

I think part of what makes it interesting to me is Silco at least does more side with Jayce's position in the argument (most of the family does), he absolutely is team "sometimes violence is necessary to protect your family/home". So while it won't stop him from being mad at Jayce for making his son cry he also isn't so un-self-aware to not realise that he was one of the voices encouraging them to at least explore the weapons capability of their work. And while he understands why his son might be reluctant to go down that path he also... still thinks they should. And, hell, he's probably slightly hypocritical for being mad at Jayce for going behind Viktor's back because I think Vander doesn't know as much as Silco does about the non-medicinal uses of Shimmer (partially because Silco has never had cause to use it which is exactly what Jayce is saying he had hoped would happen when not telling Viktor about weaponising Hextech).

At least until Jayce does override Viktor's say in Hextech in order to go down the weaponizing path fully. Because then he's no longer treating it like a partnership. Of course for it to reach that point the looming threat is probably... looming large. And Silco and the family are not so stupid to threaten civil war then because that'd basically be a green light for whatever threat is looming to attack what would become a massively destablised nation.

So it becomes a really tense political atmosphere between them where they have to work somewhat together to handle the greater threat while also being pretty salty (Vi at least gets a punch in at Jayce in a very "I had to do it, you deserved it, now we can actually deal with the problem at hand" way).

On the other hand I do like the split being an only temporary thing but it happens to line up when Viktor's illness gets bad enough that he's pushed to explore Hextech's more magical side and somewhat mechanicalise his body. So when they do reconcile Jayce gets to have the fun-surprise of in the however long they were separated Viktor now has purple limbs, and rune-scars and some definitively enhanced strength.