Jack Russel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wereperrito) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route666radio2025-04-23 06:28 pm
wereperrito) wrote in route666radio2025-04-23 06:28 pm
[Video+Action, post moon-warp]
Hello all!
This is Jack, from my little nook in the convoy where I make and repair clothes.
[He smiles at the camera, showing off the fluffy little fox ears he is now sporting instead of regular ears, and the white streaks in his blue-gray hair, then turns his radio device around to show the little shop. It is, frankly, less like a shop and more like a workspace, with fabric in cabinets on the walls and a pair of tables and some chairs, with more fabric strewn across them, some in good condition and some in less-good condition.]
I just wanted all of our new people to know that if the moon warp ruined your clothes, I can probably help. I have mostly figured out trousers, I think, and I am still working on proper shirts, though I can make, um, cloaks and drapes and things.
[He sets the camera down on one of the tables, and sits down to face it.]
I did want to, er, also tell everyone something else. I know we are all... changing. Into something we might call monsters, some of us. I just wanted to say I was a monster before I came here. Not a-- not a bad person, no, not a cruel person, but a werewolf. I turn into a beast once a month on the full moon, like moon warps here.
So. So I just wanted everyone to know, I have done this before. This changing, this becoming something else for a time. I don't know if it will help anyone, but if it can-- I wanted everyone to know.
[He has "come out" piecemeal to various people, here and there, and it's gone well. But now he's doing it to everyone, to people he's never talked to. It's a little scary, but he's doing it.
And now that he's done it, he hesitates, then fumbles for the radio to turn it off without further comment.
He will be available in his shop most evenings, for people to come by to get clothing repaired or measured for, or for people to ask questions, and of course he's around the convoy or in his van during the day when they're on the move.]
This is Jack, from my little nook in the convoy where I make and repair clothes.
[He smiles at the camera, showing off the fluffy little fox ears he is now sporting instead of regular ears, and the white streaks in his blue-gray hair, then turns his radio device around to show the little shop. It is, frankly, less like a shop and more like a workspace, with fabric in cabinets on the walls and a pair of tables and some chairs, with more fabric strewn across them, some in good condition and some in less-good condition.]
I just wanted all of our new people to know that if the moon warp ruined your clothes, I can probably help. I have mostly figured out trousers, I think, and I am still working on proper shirts, though I can make, um, cloaks and drapes and things.
[He sets the camera down on one of the tables, and sits down to face it.]
I did want to, er, also tell everyone something else. I know we are all... changing. Into something we might call monsters, some of us. I just wanted to say I was a monster before I came here. Not a-- not a bad person, no, not a cruel person, but a werewolf. I turn into a beast once a month on the full moon, like moon warps here.
So. So I just wanted everyone to know, I have done this before. This changing, this becoming something else for a time. I don't know if it will help anyone, but if it can-- I wanted everyone to know.
[He has "come out" piecemeal to various people, here and there, and it's gone well. But now he's doing it to everyone, to people he's never talked to. It's a little scary, but he's doing it.
And now that he's done it, he hesitates, then fumbles for the radio to turn it off without further comment.
He will be available in his shop most evenings, for people to come by to get clothing repaired or measured for, or for people to ask questions, and of course he's around the convoy or in his van during the day when they're on the move.]
no subject
Doesn't mean it has to like it, though. It gets a warning for stressed components in its jaw, though it's hard to say whether it's just clenching it that much or the new weird components are just... that breakable.]
It's new.
[Jack had a chance to see it without the mask that first night, but given how much it's been hiding its face away since then, it's a reasonable question. Even if SecUnit obviously hates answering it.]
no subject
[Jack chews on his lip a moment, gaze unfocusing as he thinks.]
I don't think I can make you a whole helmet to replace the last one, I can't shape materials like that, but I can make you cloth masks with a few layers for reinforcement and shape. Will that be good enough?
no subject
How many measurements do you need.
no subject
[He gestures on his own face, covering it briefly with his hands like the mask would.]
--without needing more than one number, one wrap of my tape around, but it will not be tight against your cheeks and jaw, probably.
no subject
not something that it likes, but something that is the better of the shitty options. Honestly it should have thought of this before, but it doesn't actually want to touch the weird changes either, so it holds out a hand.]
It can't be loose. Tell me where you need the measurements and I'll do it.
no subject
Okay. You will need to hold the tape in place a moment so I can see the number. I'll let you know when to move it.
[He offers the tape measure and gestures how to wrap it around its head, first.]
Did you lose your helmet in the moon warp?
no subject
[Terse and lacking detail is SecUnit's usual when it comes to itself, but it's leaning hard on that right now, as it takes the tape and does a first pass at the measurement, making sure to hold the tape in the spot that Jack indicated.]
I'm fine. [Sure there are a few more tears and stains on its clothing, but - those could definitely be dirt, right? Or from the thorns.
its performance reliability hasn't gotten above 85 since this started but that's a completely unrelated problem.]
no subject
Did you, er, run into some monsters out there during the moon warp?
no subject
...Some. Mostly with backup.
[The hum is back, making its voice sound more like a whole cicada chorus than just one person.]
no subject
You really do not like those changes.
[It's really more of a statement than a question. This is the whole reason he told everyone about the werewolf thing, hoping to help people come to terms with the changes-- well, that and safety, though considering they all can go a bit mad during the moon warp, it's less of a concern than it could be. He's not sure SecUnit will want to talk about it. It doesn't seem big on talking, in general, let alone about feelings.]
I wish there was something more I could do...
no subject
[There's a lot more intensity behind those words than it realizes it's put in. It's seen enough human horror media to think that they'd get the horror of your body being changed against your will, and this isn't normal levels of being trashed in a fight.
It's already had to change itself so much, and that was by its own reluctant choice. It grew hair. It literally cut off pieces of itself, with ART's help. This is - not that.
SecUnit can't say it's fine, because the situation so categorically isn't that it has no idea what it would say instead. So instead it just. Stands there like an idiot, because it's not like there's anything Jack can do to fix it.]
no subject
Is it the parts themselves, or just that you have changed and you could not control it?
[He's guessing it's the latter, but he can't move forward without making sure SecUnit just doesn't have a horror of bug mandibles.]
no subject
I'm a SecUnit.
[That means nothing to Jack, and it knows that, but the words are surprisingly frustrating to get out.]
When I'm not in control, people die.
[That, and if this turns out to be alien remnant contamination, it's going to lose its shit.]
no subject
SecUnit, I do not believe you will lose control in that way. I honestly do not. Especially not from a physical change like this. You are still you no matter what, and I have never seen you be anything other than careful and protective.
[He shrugs a little, and adds,]
I don't know if that will help you, but that is what I believe. One more measurement, please, along this line. Then I should have all that I need.
[He touches the bridge of his nose, and traces a finger down to his chin.]
no subject
It's a mean thing to think, which is why the words don't leave its mouth, but what escapes instead is just as spiteful.]
Everyone believes that right up until there’s a pile of dead humans on the floor.
[It can hear ART's voice in the back of its head - stop talking. It's losing control of the conversation now too, and it knows it. It tries to make up for the failure by taking the measurement, as though that's a distraction from the shit it just said.]
no subject
[Sometimes it was even on purpose. Sometimes it had been people he cared about. He holds out his hand for the measuring tape back, refusing to be baited into trading angry words.]
If you are worried, SecUnit, then we will come up with plans. The way I do for my wolf form. That way you and everyone around you will know what to do if you become a danger. With all of us having these changes, not many people are helpless humans anymore.
no subject
Sure.
[It wants to say it's different somehow, but it's fought the wolf. It knows that it's actually pretty hard to effectively contain something it doesn't want to kill when it's a wild animal and not a weak human. So even though it wants to argue, it just. Doesn't. Because that'd be shitty to Jack. Also, more importantly;]
... Tying up or whatever isn't going to work. For either of us.
no subject
[He collects his measuring tape and turns back to his table, sorting through piles of fabric.]
Chains do work, though, for the most part. Do you have a preference for color?