un: jaycetalis | video

[hexcope]

[If anyone hasn’t seen Jayce within the past few months, he looks quite a bit different. His hair is longer, he has a beard, and doesn’t seem quite as full of energy as he might have in the past. He’s also not dressing as uptight as he used to— a lack of vest and tie, exchanged for just a simple button up shirt. The background is once again S.T.A.R. labs, although he’s not trying to hide it this time.]

Hey, Etrayans. For those new to this whole thing, welcome. I’m Jayce Talis. For those who came from Pollux, also welcome. I can say with full confidence Aurora’s better at this than Castor is.

[Aurora probably won’t appreciate that comment, but whatever. He stands by it. But that aside…]

I’m putting out a call for fellow scientists to come together and work collaboratively on research involving what we know about Etraya, and more importantly, what we don’t know. This could also include strategizing developments to improve our lives here, and solving problems with our understanding in our respective fields. 


Something that we have here that we lack in our own worlds is the variety of perspectives. In my world, some of our greatest achievements are beyond what’s possible in other worlds, but we don’t have plastics or microwaves. Think of this as an opportunity for all of us to better ourselves, in this… transient existence we’re all stuck in.

Meetings would be here, in S.T.A.R. labs, every Thursday morning. No requirements if you want to participate other than an open mind, and a good attitude. No shooting down suggestions without hearing things out, and if you happen to have some sort of grudge against any of the participants here, you leave it at the door when you come in, or you’re not coming in.

[OOC: Feel free to threadjack around if you'd like!]

Comments

[badlydisarmed]

But the seed of doubt has been planted and you'll be unable to rest until you make sure.

Come on, I'll get us pizza.

[hexcope]

[He's right.]

This is taking advantage my condition and using it against me.

Fine. The hospital?

[badlydisarmed]

[ This is Jayce's fault for not getting better friends. ]

Of course. I'm available during office hours 😘

[hexcope]

[Still somehow one of his better friends, Robert.]

Which would be now, since you said ASAP.

[badlydisarmed]

Yes, yes. Please, the pizza is getting cold.

[ He will have pizza ready for Jace, and possibly a series of questions about whatever pain he's in. ]

action

[hexcope]

[He arrives looking just as he does in his video, but in person it's much easier to see he has far more stress wrinkles and dark circles around his eyes than he had when Robert last saw him. What was also hidden from the video, since it was only of his chest upward, is the brace on his left leg. His gait is slower because of it, and noisier as the metal clinks with each step. Something that isn't as apparent on the video is that his body seems a little smaller too- the muscular build he had before is a little thinner.

When he finally makes eye contact with Robert, he gestures toward himself, knowing how he looks. The grand gesture is in self-mockery.]

Happy?

[badlydisarmed]

[ He knew Jayce would look bad; the depression beard, even the weight loss is more or less expected. The leg brace is a surprise. ]

Thrilled.

[ He gestures with his new arm, which seems to be working perfectly. ]

What are your thoughts on pineapple on pizza?

[ To Robert's credit, he doesn't look alarmed. He sounds very much like himself, self-assured, low-key annoyed, but the pizza offer is genuine. Jayce is a friend, or as close to one as Robert can have. He can get the man some pizza and see if he can help with his leg. ]

[hexcope]

What's a pineapple? Sounds like a fruit?

[He's been here a year, and somehow, pineapples have never come up, even as a casual thing. Jayce steps further into the room, notably not wincing when he steps, so the brace is doing it's job on supporting him.]

[badlydisarmed]

I worry about you, Talis.

[ He does have pizza set in his little office. There are two chairs, paper plates, sodas. He assumed this would be a food and conversation break for Jayce, though the leg brace is concerning. ]

What happened to you?

[ Tact has never been Robert's strong suit. ]

[hexcope]

Because I don't know what pineapple is?

[He takes a seat heavily, like he's truly letting a load off, and he reaches for the pizza slice.]

A lot. All from home. All... relatively self-inflicted.

[He takes a bite from the pizza and closes his eyes.]

I forgot how good pizza is. We don't have this where I'm from- which seems like a huge oversight. It's just bread and cheese and tomato, and... pineapple? Give or take on that part.

[badlydisarmed]

That one has ham on it too. But there's pepperoni without pineapple.

[ Jayce must have left Etraya and come back. He knows that happens though he'd never seen it. ]

So you were out for... how long? Months? Years?

[ How quickly can a man get this fucked up? ]

[hexcope]

I don't know. Lost track of time.

[He starts to pick off, of all things, the ham bits.]

I kept track as far as a month, as much as I can tell, but it could have been more, or less.

[He takes another bite, stalling the answer Robert's clearly looking for. He doesn't like talking about it, but the pizza's a successful distraction.]

I went too far with magic, and found myself in a future where almost all life was dead. I saw... bodies, transformed into sculptures, frozen in fear. Children, adults. Didn't matter. Nothing survived, aside from some lizards. The only thing that seemed to move was these strange mechanical beings. They gave chase- and maybe they weren't actually dangerous, but I didn't know that. I was terrified.

There's a lot of gorges in the Piltover and Zaun area. One wrong step, and you're falling hundreds of feet down. Hitting every rock along the way. Second stupidest thing you could do when falling is if you happened to be carrying a six foot tall, approximately [he waves his hand a little to gesture for an estimation] hundred pound hammer. First stupidest thing you could do is fall down before the hammer does.

[badlydisarmed]

So, you're telling me you fell hundreds of feet down and then a hundred pound hammer fell on you?

[ A mildly fucked up leg is getting off easy. ]

Have you gotten any medical attention since you came back?

[hexcope]

Yes and yes.

[A pause.]

I had a mage here work on it.

[He looks guilty now. Robert's probably not going to like that answer.]

[badlydisarmed]

Which mage?

[ He's not against magical healing, a mage fixed him up when he was shot. But Jayce is still wearing a leg brace so clearly it wasn't one of the really good ones. ]

[hexcope]

Lune. She's from that group of "French" people?

[How alien!]

She's a magic healer, and fairly experienced in her field. Came recommended by Maelle.

[badlydisarmed]

I haven't met the French. Probably for the best, I'd feel all awkward not being the biggest dick in the room.

[ He gestures at the leg brace. ]

Why are you wearing that if she healed you?

[ He makes no attempt to disguise how much he is judging this healer. ]

[hexcope]

Hey! They're not rude at all. They're very kind and helpful.

[Robert!! He can sense the judgement.]

It didn't heal all the way. Magic is a lot like a language. Her form of magic is different from my world's form of magic, they speak different languages but there's "borrow words" in a sense. She did what she could, without knowing the language itself and on top of that, what's affecting me is kind of like... a dialect. Even I don't know that dialect of the magic I've studied for almost a decade. So before you get all high-and-mighty, you couldn't fix this either.

[badlydisarmed]

I could if I had magic.

[ Wait, he sort of does have magic. He added a whole wing for magic nonsense to the hospital. ]

Actually... tell me more about this dialect. If it's in your blood I have a specific treatment for that. If it's not I have a bunch of machines I haven't used. You're the sort of guy who loves reading instruction manuals, aren't you?

[hexcope]

That confident, huh?

[He'll admit, that level of self-confidence is admirable.]

It... is.

[Jayce answers carefully, because honestly, he's not entirely sure where it stops and starts. His blood's infected, that much he knows, but the rest has been mostly guesswork.]

I can give you some to look at? What kind of treatment are you talking about? And machines?

[Unlike Viktor, Jayce doesn't really "get sick." He'll get a cold or a flu, and it'll be the worst thing in the world, but anything that could be considered serious conditions or chronic illness are completely alien to him personally.]

[badlydisarmed]

I added a new wing to the hospital for magical nonsense. For my crush.

[ He's probably kidding about the last bit, though it's hard to tell with how dry his delivery is. ]

One of the machines gets rid of... magical impurities? It's a headache to explain, but to stick to your language metaphor, the language doesn't actually matter because the machine eats all the words.

[hexcope]

You have a crush? On who?

[The way dry humor goes right over his head.]

Wait... really? And you just have this? Aurora gave it to you?

[badlydisarmed]

[ This is his own fault for not knowing his audience, so he's just outright ignoring the first question. ]

I paid for it with Aurora points.

[ He could've paid for an arm instead, but no, he paid for a hospital wing and waited to get the arm. It worked out though, his new arm is great. ]

And it's working out for people with the turning to stone disease. It's not a fix, because the thing is chronic, but it reverses the effects to a point.

[hexcope]

[Turning to stone disease- ah. He gets the crush thing now.]

That's incredible! You said there's an instruction manual? What does it do with the waste product?

[He's about five seconds away from saying "throw me in there, doctor."]

[badlydisarmed]

[ If Jayce weren't suck a workaholic Robert would've mentioned the wing sooner. As it is he's thinking this is probably a mistake, the man will read every manual about every machine and forget to sleep for a week. ]

It seems to use what it can use as a power source, and the rest is filtered out. There's instructions on how to clean the filters, but it hasn't been used enough for me to have to do it yet.

[ He doesn't understand magic so it makes him cranky. He did read the manual though, and he knows how to use the machine, but he feels like a trained goldfish about the whole thing. Pressing the button gives him what he wants, but he has no idea of how or why he's getting what he wants. ]