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]

We'll both hate this, but I need to know more.

[ If he doesn't understand this thing he won't know how risky it is to attack it. ]

I need to know what kind of infection it is. There might be a more effective way to attack it.

[ Magical chemotherapy instead of magical dialysis. If he thinks about it in terms he understands he gets less of a headache. ]

[hexcope]

To most people, magic's not alive. In my world, it can be.

Sentience in the way we understand it is questionable, but we've seen it be "reactionary." Maybe that's like ascribing personality to opposite magnetic fields, but "wild runes" as Viktor and I have been calling them, are under researched, even by us.

I'll summarize what I can. Our Hextech research, and the way we've been utilizing magic, is somewhat comparable to nuclear power. The Hexgate, our biggest work, is a massive tower that uses magic to instantly transport airships across the world. Multiple transports a day, over the course of several years. The structure of the tower had a base- the heart- underground, to help power and cool it. Turns out even with how far down we buried the heart, contaminates still spread to other areas- areas where people lived, most likely by water, but I can't rule out by air either. Their plants would show signs of infection that caused rapid decay. A young student implied the constant use of the Hexgates caused that infection- magic retaliating from overuse.

[It's not the end of the story, but he'll give Robert a second to digest it.]

[badlydisarmed]

Radiation poisoning that behaves like a fungal infection?

[ Not intelligent, but living. That'd make a sort of sense.

It also makes it less dangerous than something like illness by demonic possession, so he's hoping he's right. ]

cw: body grossness

[hexcope]

Maybe?

[He's not versed well in either- he's not a doctor, after all. But if that's what Robert thinks it is...]

All of that happened before I was infected. I went to the heart, and there was something... completely alien there. Time folding in on itself. I was sent into the future, where everyone was turned to stone, or a robotic mannequin.

[He meets Robert's eyes when he mentions the petrification. Is it a a coincidence that it's relevant in both these cases?]

I was stupid. Fell down into a ravine, hit every stone on the way down, and my hammer landed on my leg. Had to, um.

[It's a little nauseating to even talk about still.]

Shove the bone back in, after I regained consciousness.

[If Robert looked at his calf under an x-ray, it'd probably be a mess.]

There wasn't any clean water to wash it out with- only contaminated sources. If that wasn't the point of infection, then the equally contaminated animals I was eating would have still got me.

[badlydisarmed]

[ His first question is "why were you left unsupervised" but he suspects asking that wouldn't help. And he does want to help, despite himself, but really, doesn't this guy have friends? Don't they know him well enough not to let him go into the magic heart or whatever? ]

I need some scans and a blood sample, but it sounds like two separate problems. One's a badly healed fracture, maybe, which I could fix. The second is the whole magic infection, which we can probably treat with one or more of the many machines that came with the hospital wing, but that'll take some reading.

[hexcope]

[Funny story about that, Robert.]

I love reading.

[Said with a little more self-awareness than enthusiasm.]

But really, I'm up for whatever you think will work, as long as there's some distance between you and me when I go into whatever machine you're going to stick me in. If it reacts badly, a wall should be enough of a barrier to protect you.

[badlydisarmed]

I would be furious if your magic fungi blew up my arm. Come on, I'll show you the cool machines.

[ He's getting x-rays first to figure out how fucked up that leg is. ]

[hexcope]

[Jayce follows.]

There's machines that deal with magic that you don't know as well, but then there's also machines you work with on a regular basis, is that right?

[badlydisarmed]

Yes, all the non-magic machines are my friends. There's one magic machine that's a close acquaintance, and the rest of the magic machines are mysterious strangers I wish I didn't have to interact with.

But I will because I'm such a good person.

[ The X-Ray machine is a friend, and while normally he'd bother with protective gear he's reached a point in his life where he doesn't think a little radiation will hurt him. ]

This one takes pictures of your bones.

[hexcope]

Wow.

[He does not sit on the table yet, instead looking at the part of the xray machine that takes the picture. He runs his fingers over it, leaning in close to get as good a look as he can from his angle.]

It just sees straight through clothes and skin? How does it know to stop at the bone? Is it detecting bone based on chemical composition, or density of content?

[badlydisarmed]

Density; soft tissue appears grey or black, hard tissue shows up brighter. It's a form of radiation but it's not unsafe if done once or twice.

You'll have to take off the brace and sit still. I'll send you the manual so you can obsess over it.

[ He assumes this is a nice thing to do because clearly Jayce loves obsessing over things. ]

[hexcope]

Right.

["Radiation" doesn't even phase him at this point. He's been irradiated enough by magic that whatever radiation this does is probably not going to be the thing that kills him before something else does. It takes him a few minutes to undo the brace- it wasn't made to take off easily- and lays down on the bed-table.]

[badlydisarmed]

[ While Jayce removes the brace, Robert calls over one of the bots to help with the machine. Sure, Robert can operate it himself but he shouldn't have to, besides, the bot is better at it.

As soon as that's done, Robert hands Jayce back his brace, taking the chance to take a good look at it. Jayce can make fully functioning prosthetic limbs, if he doesn't have a fantastic brace that would tell him something about his priorities. ]

[hexcope]

[It is not a fantastic brace. It's functional, symmetrically designed with leather straps and buckles, and it takes the weight off his calf with a ratchet gear that prioritizes standing than sitting. It certainly doesn't look like something he spent a lot of time on, nor iterated on. He starts putting it back on, starting at the ankle.]

How soon can we see the pictures?

[badlydisarmed]

Ten minutes. Once we have those I can tell you the options.

[ Back when he was a surgeon in a world that made sense to him, he rarely suggested anything other than surgery. He was usually sure he could make things better by going in and fixing it.

He's less bold nowadays even though the equipment here makes it so much harder to make a mistake. ]

You'll need a better brace regardless. That one's built for function, but it looks uncomfortable, especially after a few hours.

[hexcope]

I know, I know. It's a prototype. Remember that one guy that was... [how to say this nicely...] Dirty and had impolite? He never told me his real name, but he needed a brace for his leg, so I mocked this one up first. I was hoping I wouldn't have to make a new one.

[badlydisarmed]

I do not, but I assume you're talking about one of the terrorists from your world.

[ One of them talked about weaponizing his arm, but Robert doesn't really keep tabs on people he doesn't like. ]

You don't have to make a new one, I'm sure there's equipment here.

[hexcope]

One, no. That's Sevika, and she's not a terrorist. Two, he came with you from that other bubble city.

[Max literally had Jayce calling him "GUY" so there's no way he can explain more...]

I don't want to have to use crutches.

[badlydisarmed]

Oh. Rex. I think.

[ It's not obvious whether he remembers the actual name or not. ]

He never let me near his fucking brace. He sort of growled whenever I asked.

[hexcope]

[Jayce finishes strapping himself up in his brace and it clanks and jingles a little, per usual.]

He didn't trust me much either, but he did let me do that for him.

[He hops down off the table, and stiffens for a second because sudden movements of gravity like that still have repercussions.]

We'd be in a much rougher spot if you weren't here. I'm glad you stayed.

[badlydisarmed]

I don't have a place to go back to. It's this or whatever afterlife I'm assigned to.

[ And only if this isn't some kind of purgatory.

The bot comes back with the x-rays, and Robert sticks them up on a light screen so they can both look at them. ]

How did this end up happening to you?

[hexcope]

You're going to laugh.

[The initial injury was like this followed by him forcing the bone back into place, bandaging it up, never getting clean water to tend to it with, no medication, an infection, and then him walking around on it for weeks before he got it healed somewhat via magic. So whatever all that would look like on an x-ray.]

[badlydisarmed]

What I'm picturing is someone crushed your leg with a gigantic mallet, then someone with a very vague idea of how bones should be aligned set it, wrong, without even thinking about all these bone fragments around.

[ He points at the x-ray. ]

The bone started healing, but it was either set wrong or it moved halfway through. I can't believe you're making me round up magic healers.

[ On the bright side, he could fix it with surgery. On the not so bright side, optimistically speaking, it'd take two months to heal on its own and this place never lets them have that much time uninterrupted. ]

Do you often feel stabbing pain for no apparent reason?

[hexcope]

How are you so good at this...?

[All astounding accurate assessments. He won't bother to correct Robert that the one who crushed his leg with a gigantic mallet was himself and gravity as his cohort.]

Yeah, I do. But most of the time I don't feel any pain there.

[That would be the nerve damage.]

[badlydisarmed]

That'd be nerve damage. You can't see it here, we'd need a different kind of imaging— but I think it'd be a waste of time until you decide what you want to do.

[ He points at the break. ]

You can see it was blunt force based on the type of break, and all these little light points around it are bone fragments. You're lucky it didn't get infected, you could've easily lost the leg.