[viktor shakes his head, any lingering defensiveness falling to that increasingly familiar defeated feeling. it doesn't matter, not now, then and certainly not here. there should be some comfort to that. maybe in time there will be, but now it all mostly feels like failure far too long in the making.

he sighs, readjusts his grip on his crutch before moving. not closer or farther, more just for the sake of moving, eyes scanning the rather unsettling area. when he glances back to vi he notices a fungus not unlike those from the fissures growing out her neck, a dull bioluminescence that makes her look pale. a blink and it's still there, dismissed for the hallucination it is.]

The last time I went was shortly before ending up here. [he answers belatedly] It was the first time I've been down since the attack during Progress Day. Tensions on the bridge were... troubling. The state of the undercity was not much better.