So be it. [viktor repeats with a one shouldered shrug, because that really was it. so be it, this was where they landed.] Our research is promising regardless, and every dead end is just another possibility to cross off the list and narrow it ever down.

When you're feeling particularly generous you can even call it exciting. [a touch dry but not entirely untrue, he thinks. there is something to standing at the start of some great understanding, when the possibilities still feel endless. it wears you down quickly but it has its moments.

with the hug over viktor offers a crooked sort of smile, a final squeeze of pal's arm with his hand before he's flopping back again. maybe before he'd make some kind of joke, about never being much of a hugger before pal, but there's too much rolling in his mind about that for it to feel appropriate.]

No fundraisers, no galas, no council breathing down our necks- maybe we actually are in the superior world. [a joke. sort of. sort of a joke. he'll admit, he does miss funding, that was nice when they actually got their hands on it.] No... Oversight Body, was it?

It does put a lot more responsibility on not pushing where we should not, I suppose.