un: jaycetalis | voice

[hexcope]

[The voice of a mid-thirties man, who sounds absolutely exhausted:]

So.

Who broke it?

I'm not mad. I just want to know. And have a long conversation about respecting shared resources.

[This is, of course, in reference to the now damaged blue trolley line.]

Comments

[hexcope]

We also weren't present for any of that. We don't know what it took.

[ascarylady]

[ For the love of... ]

What? Have you run out of busy work or something?

[ Don't fix the trolley, Talis. ]

[hexcope]

Not even a little bit. But clearly we can't just assume everyone's going to treat public services with kindness.

[So maybe he's going to fix it and add laser cannons to the top as a security measure. Who knows.]

[ascarylady]

[ Stop adding lasers to things??? ]

Anyone who assumed that in the first place isn't too bright.

[ Public things get used by the public, which is terrible. ]

Where have you been, anyway? I've been looking for you and now you just pop back up out of nowhere to complain about a trolley?

[hexcope]

[There's a larger conversation he'd have with anyone but Sevika about how you should be able to trust the public to not ruin things, but she derails that entirely.]

I... went back.

[ascarylady]

[ Aha, there it is. ]

Yeah? [ There's a pause from Sevika, sure, but she won't let it linger, instead filling the air with an uninterested 'yeah' and carrying on. ] And now you're here again. Let me know when you're at your forge. I have a delivery for you.

[hexcope]

I'm not going back there any time soon. I'll just come to you.

[ascarylady]

...fine. I'm staying at 8 Grandage Place. It's the big, fancy-ass-looking place across from the apartments. Drop by there whenever you're done with this mess.

[hexcope]

[He sighs.]

Going to take me a few hours to get back there. If you plan on drinking while you wait, mind sharing a glass?

[ascarylady]

I can wait until you show up to crack open a bottle. A few hours makes no difference to me.

[ Jayce, she doesn't just sit around drinking for hours (that's a lie, she does). ]

> action?

[hexcope]

Okay. Thanks.

[It takes a few hours, like he said it would, but he's there knocking on the doors to this very huge house. Makes sense she would take up residence here, really. Why have all these big empty houses, and chose to live in those tiny apartments?]

[ascarylady]

[ It's not exactly abandoned, per se. Ives is out doing something and has left Sevika to watch the place since she'd been taking refuge here from Silco's tantrums already. Easy enough to stay a bit longer, keep an eye on it, although it's hardly necessary in a place like Etraya...

At the knocking, Sevika gets up to open the heavy steel door that stands between indoors and the rest of the world. It creaks ominously -- mostly because it can't do anything except that -- but only reveals her, hand on a hip as she eyes him up and down. He said he'd gone back. She isn't sure she sees much difference, which means he isn't the one she'd met in passing, back on Runeterra, as shit really hit the fan.

After that moment of consideration, she steps aside and waves him in. Inside the looming manor is a wild collection of old furniture, books, taxidermied animals, and a variety of decor from all over Earth, not that Sevika would know that last part particularly well. It's like a stuffy old museum shoved into somewhere it was never quite meant to fit. ]

Have fun cleaning up the trolley?

[hexcope]

[The size paired with the way the large door creaks open reminds Jayce simultaneously of some high-placed House's manor, and also of someplace deeply haunted. Seeing Sevika standing there behind said door almost seems comical. It seems fitting, she would live in a haunted house of sorts, and the stuffed animal heads on the wall isn't working to dissuade him.]

No? Who has fun cleaning up someone else's mess?

[He asks to the Queen of doing exactly that.]

[ascarylady]

[ Oh, she thinks it, but she won't say it. That's been her whooole life, Talis. ]

Figured you might see it as an excuse to redesign the trolley or something nerdy like that, so who knows?

[ Anyway, yeah, this house is haunted as shit. Enter at thy own risk. ]

[hexcope]

Funny you should say that. I did come up with an idea on how to make it faster, but that'll come after a few other projects.

[So, he's predictable.]

So I'm here for a letter, sent by my future self? And I gave it to you?

[ascarylady]

[ What a nerd... ]

Yeah, you did give it to me. Problem with that?

[ Not that Sevika feels particularly inclined to make it a problem. Still, it's annoying. She's been far better to him than he deserves during their stay in Etraya. Regardless of the answer, she'll still lead him to the guest lounge the manor house has.

Where... a poro is sniffing at the lone letter on the table. She scowls at it. ]

You. Off. Leave it be.

[ She points to the floor and the poro doesn't actually listen immediately. Bitey bares its teeth at the two and growls, leaving it and Sevika in a bit of a standoff for about three or four seconds, but then? It grumbles and turns to slink off the table. ]

[hexcope]

I can't tell if you actually like having a poro or not...

[He frowns a little sympathetically at the creature who slinks off in defeat.]

You have treats for it, right?

[Avoiding the subject of the letter, even as he walks over to it and picks it up. Maybe if they talk about Sevika's pet, they don't have to talk about whatever's so important he wrote to himself.]

[ascarylady]

As long as it doesn't mess with my stuff, it gets to stay.

[ It's a mystery. Maybe she does like it, maybe the two just tolerate one another. It did look healthy, at least, so if nothing else, she isn't neglecting the poro. ]

And it gets treats when it behaves. How the hell else do you think I trained it?

[ So, yes, she has treats for it, but now that the poro has found a spot under a side table to glare relentlessly at Jayce from, she goes to sit on one of the couches. ]

[hexcope]

I don't know, I never had a pet.

[He slides his thumb over the envelope. Blank on the front. Sealed on the back. Unopened. He thumbs at the seal, still hesitant. He hasn't asked anyone about his "future" self, mostly because he didn't think it would be anything worth hearing. To know there's a future him, means he's the past. Not very Man Of Progress to already know you're an outdated model.]

So how was he- me?

[ascarylady]

[ It'll be up to him to read it or not in the end. Sevika had only promised to deliver it if it was written. ]

He had the beard. Upon longer consideration, maybe skip growing one, actually. It makes you look depressed.

[ Probably because he was exactly that. ]

[hexcope]

Good to know I can hide it better by shaving.

[After a few moments of consideration about the letter, he flicks it and tucks it into his jacket.]

I hope neither you nor him was expecting me to read this in front of you.

[ascarylady]

I don't expect you to do anything at all. I've delivered it. That's the end of my business with it.

[ He can read it, ignore it, hide it, burn it; it isn't her business anymore. ]

The letter was just a part of my deal with him. He goes back and I deliver it. You can do what you want with it now.

[hexcope]

He wanted to replace me pretty badly, didn't he?

[Which is a weird thought, but... he understands it. He wouldn't want to be replaced by a younger version of himself. Past Jayce was an idiot, after all.]

[ascarylady]

Seemed that way, yeah.

[ But she won't dive into much more detail on that. It'll either be in the letter or it won't, weird or not. Moreso, she doesn't want to break it to him that she had her own concerns; that the man was dying, that the man was infected with some weird arcane illness, that...

There was a lot of 'thats' to worry about. ]

I'm beginning to think I lucked out that the future me that showed up didn't want to stick around at all.

[hexcope]

She wanted to hurry up and get back to playing blackjack at a brothel or something?

[Surely future Sevika was just happy to be back home in Zaun, right?]