(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

[hexrot]

[ what a proficient last name. while jayce appreciates the sentiment if it's real (sometimes he still gets the itch at the back of his mind that he shouldn't trust so blindly again, so he keeps it a length from his heart), he murmurs, his voice a scratchy drawl: ]

A doctor won't fix me.

[justiceobjects]

Won't fix you...?

[That's an interesting choice of words. And ominous ones. As concerned as Apollo is, he's far from being a doctor himself, so there's not much he could really do for the guy either way.]

Uh, well, I ended up with one of those messages too. Do you still want visitors, or should I just read it out loud for you?

[hexrot]

[ jayce would say it's up to the stranger if he wants to come over or not, it's not like he's contagious. but . . . factors he should consider: ]

Is it a Domain or a Tenant?

[justiceobjects]

There's more than one type? Uh, it's a Tenant.

[hexrot]

[ 'ah', he goes, although it's dragged enough to sound like a deep sigh. ]

You can read it, [ if it's easier; if it's a tenant then more than likely it doesn't have a symbol with it. and if it did, jayce has the feeling that would be mentioned. ] But I won't stop you from coming.

[ he's impartial. too much quiet rakes at his brain, but he knows looking at a dead man isn't anything special either. unless, he's just a young man after some scientific rambling. he won't reject that. ]

action;

[justiceobjects]

[There's a brief pause as Apollo weighs the pros and cons, ultimately deciding that it was probably a better idea to make sure that Jayce wasn't about to keel over. They were all stuck in this mess together, and as luck would have it Apollo has met at least one doctor in their little group so far. He wasn't afraid to force the matter if he was that bad off.]

I'll be there in a few minutes. Uh, Justice out.

[As promised, Apollo leaves his car parked and goes walking, keeping his eyes peeled for this 'butterfly truck' that was mentioned in the original message. It's... not hard to spot. In fact, he can't help but stop and stare for a moment. Was that the thing that had been casting annoying light reflections the whole time the convoy had been moving?

As he approaches it, Apollo's already wondering if he could bribe Jayce into never, ever washing his truck, just because a layer of dirt would be an improvement.]

Wow. I've seen some showy cars before, but this one is... new.

action;

[hexrot]

[ justice out? a cute baby . . .

luckily, jayce does not care enough about cleaning the truck to drive it around and show of the shimmer like a trophy. it's just a means of transportation. there's so much more to worry about that material that wasn't even his and held no sentimental value. he's sat on the back of the pick-up, notes splayed across the entirity of the cargo bed. symbols and runes and crazy equations. jayce himself looks . . .

well, he doesn't look healthy. he looks just as bad as he sounds. haggard, afflicted and clammy, the cold sweat glistening his face and staining his collar. he takes a peek through the fall of his messy hair and bobs his head into a nod. ]

Starting to look a little better.

[ the dust and mud splatters make it less . . . less. ]

[justiceobjects]

That much we can agree on.

[Apollo is immediately concerned, because Jayce looks like he has the mother of all fevers. He should probably be laying down with a blanket and some chicken soup, not trying to sort out all this weird stuff. But if this is how he wants to keep himself occupied while he's sick, well, Apollo can't really argue with that.]

Do me a favor and don't get up. I don't know how it happened, but...

[Apollo already wears his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, but he also has a clean rag wrapped around his right hand in the form of a makeshift bandage. He plucks at the knot to untie it, showing that the shrine had burned a few sentences vertically against the back of his right hand and partially down his wrist.

The Fourth Tenant: Companionship
“I will always seek out those blessed against Stasis, and bring them into our order. Those blessed by the moon are my kin, companions, and teachers. I will learn from them and guide them.” ]

I don't know what it means by 'Stasis', but it must be important to get a capital letter, right?

[hexrot]

[ jayce doesn't object to staying seated— he doesn't even move to stand, so things . . . may not be so good. he nods at least, in quiet acknowledgement for his general state. consideration isnt the same as pity, so it's silent thanks. the best he does is lean from his slump with some effort to read, and sluggishly begin writing it down himself. he's not going to make more work for himself, so it's easier to take the note he wrote of the tenant burned onto himself, holding the sheet out as he writes. ]

I got this one.

[ it reads: The Third Tenant: Hunters Hunted: “Trust no hunter of monsters, treat no Warden as anything but a rival or as prey. As they shun the moon and its blessings, so shall you shun them.” ]

Tenants are occupants. [ he taks a pause for his breathing, ] These sound like directives.

[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.