(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

[fists_of_funny]

"A power that's a manifestation of my soul. Everyone back on Remnant's got one." Yang explains. "Mine lets me store up the power from hits I take and send it back amplified." A brawler's power, in essence, though Yang is trying to be smarter about how she uses it. "They've all got names, and mine is, well...Burn." She points to her hair. "It's cause my hair gets all glowy." Like she's trailing fire, in fact. So the fact that her rune is a stylized fire definitely caught her attention.

"It almost makes me think there's some kind of force at play here. Like, an intelligence. Does that make sense?" Obviously, someone had to draw those summoning circles, but how long had they been there before people started coming through?

[hexrot]

You're not far off my assumptions.

[ intelligence could belong to anything, it wasn't something limited to living beings, creatures or humanity. the hexcore learned. he'd call that intelligence, too. ]

That— or we fall into predetermined categories, [ that was another theory; jayce rubs as his face and scratches his beard during, ] like a fingerprint match.

[fists_of_funny]

"That makes it sound more automated." Yang points out. "Like it's just boxes being checked off or something." She crosses her arms over her chest. "I'm not sure which I'd actually prefer." If there was some sort of intelligence or will behind this, it reeks of Ozpin's using of people like game pieces on a board, and Yang is quite frankly done with being used like that.

But if this is just some mindless program running off a script, then...whatever purpose for which it's running might be long over. And she doesn't like the implications of that one bit.

[hexrot]

Not exactly automated, [ he adds, a tired sigh pushing through his nose— it's not any of yang's fault, just his body failing him. it hurts and sweats and chills to a summit point where jayce only needs a moment of recomposure, to rub at his face, and pad his slick brows with the edges of his shirt. ] Sorry, I . . .

[ distracted. he's searching for his train of thought again. it requires some brain power that he's happy to provide, despite his body's protests. ]

I, envision— [ he bobs an open hand, up and down, ] this was on purpose, but— [ using both hands he uses his fingers to rotate around each other. this would be better done practically. the way he knows how to delude his thoughts into something more understandable. ] Give me something green.

[ it's an actual inquiry, and he's watching her, making another urging gesture for her to grab anything around them to match the description. ]

[fists_of_funny]

"It's okay." Yang replies. He looks like he's on the verge of passing out, so she's not taking it personally. "Just take your time."

When Jayce asks for something green, Yang looks around. Something green...ah, okay. A faded, and damaged magazine of some kind, left lying around the camp and probably taken from a house or gas station or something. The words on the cover aren't very readable, but the cover is recognizably green. She walks back over to Jayce and holds it up. "Will this work?" She asks.

[hexrot]

It's green.

[ so he motions to have the tattered magazine in his hand, then gestures with it, to prove his point. ]

If it's anything like the Arcane I know, "spells" could . . . Work similarly. The request is made, through runes— The magic operates under instructions it could understand. Finds "something green" in the universe. Or blue, gold, [ and so on; the characteristics are endless depending on the number of monster types they're looking at, ] and snatches one of us that fits the description.

The runes itself— The instructions— are man-made. What the Arcane does with that is beyond presaging.