(voice)

[hexrot]

—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.

(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. ]

Comments

[justiceobjects]

[Apollo leans in to take a look at what he's written down, frowning a little. It was pretty similar to the one he received, with all the talk about moon blessings. That part about being hunted was pretty alarming, though.]

Or commandments. So if the people here were moon worshipers, do you think that was before or after the moon went 'kablooey'?

[He can't begin to imagine what effect the destroyed moon would have on the tides here, but hopefully they won't end up close enough to an ocean to find out. There's plenty of other more pressing questions about this place that Apollo's far more interested in as it is.]

If you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at your notes once you've got it all written down. I'm not a researcher by any means, but I'm sure that any clues we collect about this place could end up being a big help later on.

[hexrot]

[ jayce nods; there's an abundance of notes he needs to organize, and that's if . . . he even has time for that. this information was for everyone to use, to put their heads together and navigate their own way through this world. if he could leave something worthwhile for them behind, that was alright, he supposed. he made a bit of a difference.

it often felt that something else was guiding them . . . and jayce did not have faith in trustinng something unknown so blindly. just. following along, near aimless. the hints to all this being ruins from some time ago is alarming. old recordings and not a single soul to greet them, no. only husks of what used to be, and monsters that wished to attack them. what was awaiting them? it could be anything from what is being promised to a spot in a slaughter house.

to answer the question, jayce offers his opinion: ]

It's hard to say. The lack of native society makes me consider . . . Before. [ he then adds, with a dip: ] That's subject to change.

[justiceobjects]

Yeah, could be. ... I wonder if we'll ever find out what happened to them.

[It was an uncomfortable thing to say out loud, and it reflects on Apollo's face. The husks looked like they might've once been people, but you couldn't exactly determine a cause of death that way. The moon might've been a little wrecked, but it doesn't seem to have affected life on the surface of the planet all that badly. There were still plants, and the monsters probably counted as animals, twisted as they were.

The buildings and cars being intact was a pretty big mystery, too. It meant that whatever took out the previous residents didn't destroy anything else; only time seemed to have done its work in decaying it all. That narrowed the causes down, but Apollo didn't think he could safely guess at anything in particular yet.]

Well, if I find anything else, I'll let you know. I'd be thrilled if we stumbled across a newspaper at this point.

[hexrot]

[ hah. anything, really. right now it's just rusty playback recordings.with an uncomfy bit of silence beginning to build do to a bout of strain and aches on jayce's part, he rides the wave through and feels like he should . . . lay down, soon. at the very least just rest his bones. they ache to even stay upright. ]

You should look for Viktor, or Serph, [ he has to pausse, to save his breath, ] if I'm not around.