route666radio | [Audio / Pre-Event because I'm great at timing guys]

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[Audio / Pre-Event because I'm great at timing guys]

Soooo.... Has anyone else bothered to try tapping into the creepy networks around here outside of the Convoy one? Then again I guess there's very little around here that isn't creepy.

Actually I wouldn't recommend it given it starts messing with things pretty bad. Not nearly enough to damage a computer system, thankfully, but I had to do a hard reset to clear out the screen. Kind of glad I didn't try it with my own computer- I mean, my firewalls and security are top-notch but I don't think what's coming through is...normal.

[One can practically picture the look of distaste as he says it. Ugh he hates this place.]

And those tiny screen talisman things are cute but I don't know if their dying message is something to be concerned about.

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[ oh, talisman things—? sudden ping! ]

Do you have images of them?

I do. I took some pictures with my phone since screenshotting seemed out of the question. I've even recorded it too, since it's in constant fluctuation, but so far as I can tell, it's the same sort of weird symbols and cyborg hate messages.

I'd like to see them. The runes.

Edited 2025-05-12 16:26 (UTC)

Sure thing. Shooould I just come and find you? Actually, if you come to the Turtle Tank I can even just give you a live demonstration as well. But whatever works.

[ .... turtle tank..... but from the voice and the fact that he's actually seen the vehicle in question— ]

I'll find you.

[ it doesn't take long; the convoy isn't exactly a massive amount of ground to cover, despite jayce having his difficulties with walking in general . . . eh. nothing a little zombie shuffling won't solve. so trek he does, with hooves and a distinct limp. a cane might actually be a good idea at this point— he's leaning a hold onto parked car frames, in the meantime. ]

Got it. I'll lower the rear hatch.

[Easier still is the fact that Donnie's vehicle is utterly massive and easily dwarfs many of the more standard ones.

The hatch at the back lowers into a ramp, making it much more accessible than having to clamber up the side to reach the doors, which are easily five feet from the ground.

Donnie's sitting on the floor just inside, surrounded by a few pieces of machinery, the internal systems he's pulled from the inside of a cyborg's vehicle, hooked up to one of...quite a few car batteries that he must have also salvaged and has neatly set against one wall of the Tank. There's...also a pile of robotic limbs and parts off to the other side but he hasn't had much time to go through and properly sort and dismantle things.]

[ a slow clo-clop of hooves on metalic floors resound as jayce enters, using the walls to guide himself inside until he's forced to drift away from the aids and rely more on his balance and brace. even after a month, it hasn't been easy walking on these strangely angled legs.

dark. the only lights are from soft glowing technology. jayce relaxes, especially around the flop of his ears and the creases from his stress-wrinkles— feels like the lab. like home. ]

You've got some nice quarters in here . . .

[ he trails off just because he's looking around, taking in all the screens and parts; his words are meaningful, though. ]

Closest thing to home.

[Even though most of his upgrades and gadgetry seemed to be outright missing if not simply non-functioning when he'd found it. But it's still something, and he figures in a place like this, he can't be picky.]

Not exactly how I remember her but she is still my precious baby.

[Donnie looks up at Jayce, brow knitting in some vague sense of sympathy now that he knows how weird it is having your legs stretched out and bent in ways you never had to worry about before. The bird feet are gone thanks to Leo's...magical unicorn powers, but he's not sure how permanent anything is around here.]

Here.

[He gets up and starts stacking some of the things to make things a little higher as he sets the screen and the connected components up on top of them.]

So when I first arrived, I noticed there were some other network signals, not very strong but I figured, worth checking out. Made the mistake of trying it once on my own computer, thankfully fixed with a reset, but I didn't feel inclined to risk that again on my own system.

[He pulls up said computer by sweeping a hand over his left forearm, bringing up the holoscreen just above it.]

[ precious baby . . . that tracks with what jayce thinks about his own little corners of comfort and creation. jayce is following everything, thankfully. techbros to techbros, despite different specialties. he's had enough time to familiarize himself with how a computer system should work, but he's attentive to absorb more. ]

This sort of tech isn't my forte, [ but he's curious, regardless. and impressed with the kid's ability around them. leo was right about liking donnie, for starters. ] this is valuable. What happened to your systems?

Short answer? -network's haunted. Long answer- better explained by demonstration.

[Donnie starts tapping at the keyboard he pulls up on his bracer computer, the physical screen he'd propped up for easier viewing, bringing up windows as he navigates to the available network signals and sets up a connection to one of them.

Almost immediately there's a flicker of static, innocuous enough that one would simply think it's just something to expect from the worn tech. But progressively interference of some sort crosses the screen, gradual at first, but Jayce being familiar with such glyphs would probably catch them instantly if he's paying attention.

It steadily increases to the point that trying to read anything on the screen is completely illegible, the information displayed a mess of ever-shifting symbols and glitching static.]

[ "haunted" uhhhh. jayce is not a fan of jumping to spiritual conclusions only because he's a scientist in heart and core. but, his attention is caught immediately upon the flash of the first glyphs, his deer ears flipping up and forward. he catches them and darts his eyes to follow, to try and understand with what little he's already gathered—

but it's too fast. and after a moment more, it's impossible to pick out. ]

Damn it, [ he huffs, ] there's no way to slow it down?

[The interference only becomes worse the longer the connection is held. Donnie shakes his head.]

No, because I have no control of what's coming through. It's like putting in a pipeline to a new waterline but that source is contaminated and the basic filters installed can't catch the smaller particles.

[He holds up his arm and swipes through a few screens on the holocomputer to bring up recordings he'd made of it with his phone, playing it slower.]

But there are workarounds. Don't know how much it helps to see them in slower playback though. They seem pretty random, but I'm not the rune expert.

It's a shot in the dark, but a shot.

[ jayce will take a look at them; he came prepared with papers in his back pocket, at least. taking notes on which runes come and the meaning behind each one will take some time to decipher. he has a great memory, but it's best to leave the cracking for when he's at a desk. ]

We'll find out.

[Donnie nods, letting the recording play through while Jayce takes his notes.

He looks over at the other screen, practically filled with glitching, ever shifting symbols by now.]

Aaand that's what happens if you try anything too long. You just can't do anything. But it only seems to be a surface issue, as none of the internal systems are compromised.

[Once his playback is done, he reaches over to hard reset the other computer, letting it reboot.]

There's another network, more connected to the cyborgs. But gleaning anything from it is pretty much the same, just with all their weird beliefs and stuff. I think it might just be heavily encrypted, but it's very scrambled and I can't really pull anything up from it otherwise.

[He'll connect to that one once the computer's ready. Fragmented data comes up, the screen flickering with new windows for each thing, creeds as are typical of the single-minded goals of cyborgs wanting to purify the land.]

[ a cyborg network . . . jayce is listening even if he's writing things down and looking at seperate screens, but while one ear is falling flat, the other is flagging into donnie's direction.

he wonders if he would benefit from something being built, but first, ]

Do you think it's worth decrypting?

Hard to say. I'd be more interested in trying to trace the source. Like, possibly a mainframe giving them their directives or something. I'm not sure how much we know about those guys aside from the obvious.

Is there anything you need for that?

[ might as well offer, if he's one of the only few engineer here. ]

A stronger receiver, definitely. And I wonder if the cyborgs themselves have any sort of reception built in. More parts to make a better computer, or manage to get the systems that I should have in the Tank, functional again.

[ hm. he's already sketching schematics in his head. he still has cyborg scraps he could give more attention to detail to, and he's certainly resourceful enough to understand something if he's picking it apart and putting it back together. plus, it gives him something to do. ]

I'll look into it, [ like literally. ] and start building.

[It's a brief, almost baffled look that touches Donnie's face then. Not that he questions Jayce's ability, having seen for himself something of how he works.]

Ah, sorry. [He ducks his head, grimacing briefly as he apologizes for the mental stall.] I'm not used to having people who understand what I'm talking about, much less be willing to work on it. But that sounds good. Let me know if there's anything needed and I can look through the parts I've collected as well.

[ only because jayce is a smart enough engineer. back in the day he'd be quite insistent to have his accomplishments recognized, but he could care less today. donnie gets his acknowledgement. he might be a little understanding. how many kids didn't want to hang out with him growing up because he was the insufferable science guy? ]

I'm not that well versed in [ he waves his hand a bit, ] computers, but I can crack a receiver.

[ he'll take his leave, though! ]

You can find me at the forge.

[ ford. forge. both. there is a forge at the back of his ford. ]

Still!

[It's refreshing having someone competent to work with!]

Forge... Wait, you have one?

[He must have missed that note, but it had been very...busy, the past few weeks.]

A few technicalities away from function, [ maybe a few location changes and hell it is very crude a forge, but it's a ingenious one. made from scraps and a mind fertile to create with. ] but it should work.

[ it's fairly new, and jayce has only advertized any forgework only once or twice after its birth. ]

If you need something done, I can probably make it.

[ he doesn't mean that in a way that blares his own horn, but he does imply, with reserved yet firm confidence that he can and does have the capabilities to provide. count on him. ]

...cool.

[It's only one word, but he understands it to be no small feat, making a forge of any operational order.]

I can use my mystic-tech for one, but it probably wouldn't work out very well between my having to concentrate on holding everything to function and simultaneously banging anything out. ...but maybe if you're doing the physical part, we can get more parts together to make your forge fully functional.

I'm in the market for a new staff- collapsible. I can melt down metal into more manageable pieces if you can help with that.

[ "mystic-tech". that makes jayce's eyes lift in a way that could only be described as surprise, then distant nostalgia. the plan thereafter seems plausible enough that it finally gets the whiskers of jayce's upper lip to twinge and follow his small smile. ]

I've made plenty of collapsibles in my time. [ coupled with his creations to help viktor's mobility, a staff wouldn't be too far off his knowledge. he could make something satisfying. ] If you get the parts [ for the forge, ], and the materials [ for his staff, ], leave the rest to me.

[ melting, moulding— it'll give him something to do. and he'll make a damn good collapsible staff. ]

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