jayce "yaoi hand proportions" talis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hexrot) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route666radio2025-02-10 01:22 pm
hexrot) wrote in route666radio2025-02-10 01:22 pm
(voice)
—This is Jayce Talis. [ that's not going to mean anything, to anyone. this man's voice is rasping, dragging, in between sounded exhausted, heavy and ill. ] I'm a scientist. I researched . . . The Arcane, with my . . . With my partner, Viktor— most of my life.
[ frequent pauses are a must. he almost feels out of breath if he doesn't, and that puffs through the radio, ragged and sluggish. ]
All of us— seem to have a symbol. A rune, on our bodies. If you've been to the Shrine, then I'm sure . . . You have something else, now. Maybe a message. Please, if you could show it to me. I'll be . . . [ another hushed pause, ] Outside the Common Room. There's a truck, with . . . Butterflies, [ the irony in his voice is dry. ] That's— Where I'll be.
If it helps get us anywhere, I . . . Need, to crack it, I . . . [ i promised, he mutters, before swiftly adding, through a strain that's tight in his throat: ] That's all.
it's what keeps him from giving into sleep. ]
[ frequent pauses are a must. he almost feels out of breath if he doesn't, and that puffs through the radio, ragged and sluggish. ]
All of us— seem to have a symbol. A rune, on our bodies. If you've been to the Shrine, then I'm sure . . . You have something else, now. Maybe a message. Please, if you could show it to me. I'll be . . . [ another hushed pause, ] Outside the Common Room. There's a truck, with . . . Butterflies, [ the irony in his voice is dry. ] That's— Where I'll be.
If it helps get us anywhere, I . . . Need, to crack it, I . . . [ i promised, he mutters, before swiftly adding, through a strain that's tight in his throat: ] That's all.
(action/flavor)
[ jayce is rebounding hard on his magic sepsis as his first symptom to becoming undead! so he is not visibly well for anyone who wants to come see him, but he is trying deathly hard with the symbols and trying to fight the clock with obsession. the iridescent pick up near one of the camp lights is a mess of papers in the front seats as much as the flatbed behind it, spread out and held in place with pebbles or stones, littered with those very symbols as well as formulas he's trying to link and complete like a map.
it's what keeps him from giving into sleep. ]
voice
[No callsign, no introduction - hopefully Jayce remembers "Eden"'s voice, because the reference to that conversation is the first and only hint that Murderbot bothers giving. Especially since it's already compiling the images, plucking up its clunky phone to go searching for the vehicle in question once it's done. No point sending them over a radio when there's no proper data network, they'll end up lossy as fuck.]
voice > action
[ he remembers, and he remembers the only one he specifically spoke to it about. it's about the only thing jayce says, there's not much when location has already been spoken.
a rugged man sits on the cargo bed of the only rainbow pick up, here, scrawling and talking to himself as he switches variables and redoes equations. the vehicle itself is switched on, spreading its headlights and becoming a beacon to find. ]
no subject
It's acquired an accessory or two since it last saw Jayce, in the form of a motorcycle helmet and gloves, but as it approaches it takes off the helmet so that its face is momentarily visible, remembering just how jumpy Jayce had been on first approach.
Of course, it ruins any attempt at a unstartling entrance by just popping up out of the surroundings with no preamble or greeting.]
Where is it?
no subject
with his chest heaving, he takes a moment to breathe, and swallow tight. damn it. god damn it.
that wouldn't have ended well. ]
Please, don't do that.
[ sliding off the cargo bed, jayce staggers over to the open front doors. the modules are on, and he gestures to them, finding a spot in the driver's seat to sit sideways. ]
no subject
Right.
[Not an apology, but as close as it'll probably get to one. It follows Jayce's staggering path to the front of the vehicle, taking a moment to examine him and reach the conclusion that whatever the fuck is wrong with this human, he might actually be dying of it after all. (Which feels... surprisingly shitty, actually, in a way that Murderbot shoves all the way back down. Dr. Bharadwaj would probably say something about having empathy; well empathy fucking sucks.
To escape thoughts of that, the SecUnit slides in to the other side of the cab. The motorcycle helmet gets clunked down on the dash as "Eden" leans in to examine the console.]
It'll work.
[It'll have to enhance the images some so the details come through despite the ancient quality of the screen, but that's easy. Time to get to work, which involves rolling back one already-tattered sleeve to reveal one forearm, marked with lines and pieces of metal around the energy weapon ports. Then it goes further, peeling back a section of skin to further expose the mechanical components underneath.]
no subject
What kind of modification, [ a small pause, he tried, ] is that?
no subject
Yeah, would've been nice if he'd continued not to ask, but it's unrealistic to expect even a sick human to ignore what it's doing. SecUnit busies itself with connecting to the tablet screen, but it's shifted some in the seat of the car, to keep Jayce in its peripheral vision. Tense, wary - someone who does not expect being questioned to end well.]
My interface augment is internal. There's no Feed so this is the best way to deliver the images.
[It's... an answer. Not entirely the answer to the question asked, but hopefully that'll do - and some day maybe it'll remember it can just tell random humans to fuck off and that's private, shit.]
no subject
You're . . . Made of tech?
no subject
Partially.
[There's human neural tissue in there, not to mention the face and skin and organic components around there, though it's such a blend that the tech is an integrated part of it.
Upload faster - fucking shitty ancient tech. Fucking images. It considers the excuse it used on Tapan, the there's not much of me that's human line, and discards it. Instead;]
You don't have any augments on your planet?
no subject
There're prosthetics. Robotic, [ a gesture, but it's mostly to fill the space of his pause, ] enhancements. But nothing as advanced, as yours.
no subject
[Liar liar, Murderbot. It slouches down in the seat some, bracing its feet against the truck bed as it glares at the dash hard enough to melt holes in it.
From this angle, with its arm exposed and its face directed forward, the more obvious pieces of modification are visible, particularly the dataport in the back of its neck and the sections of its arm where the energy weapon folds out. Not quite prosthetics, not at first or second glance.]
Accessing the Feed just needs an interface, not an augment. Or it would, if this shitty planet had one.
no subject
jayce has quelled that particular hunger in him. he doesn't have . . . that dangerous audacity in him anymore. its been kicked out, replaced with survival, reality and tremendous guilt for taking the simpler things for granted. his eyes sweep over what he could see, reminiscing over that particular flavor of jayce, dried up in the well, and drops the back of his head against a rest. ]
I would've loved this.
no subject
[It doesn't come out sarcastic, just awkward - it's hard to imagine not living half-in the Feed, even if its access is currently cut off. They already hate being cut off from it here, and this planet almost certainly wouldn't have the parts of the feed it actually wants.
Just in time the central screen flickers to life, cycling through images as SecUnit finishes its upload. There's one still of the runes in their context, and more that clip out and enhance individual symbols - a few more of the graffiti found around the place, for good measure.]
Here. Do you want any more?
no subject
If you have more, I'll take them. [ the angle, different symbols, anything he could get his hands on to start sketching out and placing them in the back to complete the first step of his work— it deserves at least his attention for this, as jayce turns his gaze to the other in the car. nothing overt. but it is genuine. ] . . . Thank you.
no subject
Until things are three-quarters of the way done, when it says;]
Wherever this is, there's a ship with an advanced Medical system coming to find us.
no subject
he asks anyway, with haggard eyes through the fissures of his hair: ]
How do you know that?
no subject
[It has to hesitate just for a moment. Imperceptible to most people, but it struggles to formulate an answer in a way that doesn't sound alarming, because My Spaceship is going to be furious and it has a stockpile of warheads it's looking for an excuse to use isn't comforting to most people. (It's comforting to Murderbots but it already knows it's fucking weird.)]
- I was in contact with it before being kidnapped, and the crew is on high alert about abductions already. And the ship has a wormhole drive.
[... Which needs to be cleared of alien contamination first. Shit. It snaps its jaw shut again, trying not to look grim at the thought.]
no subject
Does that amount to interdimensional travel?
no subject
[No. It's... more a conscious lie this time. But it's confident that these humans are wrong about what's happening here. Dimensional travel is something out of fucking stories. Even alien remnants can't do that.
And if it accepts that ART can't find it -
Sharply, almost angrily
almost anxiously, it starts untangling its arm from the console at the center, spooling away wires and pieces and prodding the overlying organic parts back into place, its expression stony.]What are you going to do with the runes.
no subject
why would it lie about that—? ]
Decipher them.
no subject
Denial."Eden" flexes its hand to ensure all that the pieces, organic and synthetic both, are back more or less where they belong, still staring ahead and avoiding Jayce's eyes. It's been doing that the entire time, but still, it's particularly noticable, now.]
And then what. Decoding's fine but for it to mean anything you have to do shit with it.
no subject
[ eden, you are not fooling anyone. but . . . it doesn't feel like it's something— should he say, personal toward jayce? he should ask, but. not right now. ]
If those runes brought us here, they could take us back.
no subject
[It's not like it has a better suggestion for what these humans should be doing. But - it's also done with its errand, so it snags its helmet off the dashboard and starts to climb out of the car. It'll leave Jayce to whatever the fuck he's doing, and -
Something occurs to it, just long enough to make it pause. Since Jayce has seen the mechanical components without too much freaking out, and since he seems at least partially more stable than that first day, it should... probably clear up that initial misconception.
Not going to help Jayce's impression of it, but sooner or later it's going to be caught in the lie anyway.]
Don't call for Eden if you need more images.
no subject
[ it may just be caught as is; jayce comes off a little more irked than necessary; he's hangry. maybe not the best of answers for someone already anxious, but lying is a recent sore spot for jayce. he's been used too much in lies. ]
no subject
It doesn't, because it's not great at humans but even it knows that will come across as further alienation and cause for suspicion when it's already making itself so trustworthy.]
Me. [Not answering the question he's actually asking, Murderbot, so quit stalling. Not like he knows what a fucking SecUnit even is. For all it knows he'll here it as a weird name, and not the kind of designation that implies thing.] Just ask for SecUnit.
(no subject)