Etraya Inbox

[hexcope]

𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 | 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 | 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

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[querulus]

/See, I knew you could be reasonable./

[Do you regret this yet, Jayce? You should.]

/Right, so. It's been ages since I talked to someone smart. All himbos and beauty queens over here, plus a couple feral kids and... whatever the fuck Deadpool is. And they're cute and all, don't get me wrong, just not, you know. Intellectually stimulating. Anyway, my brain is a-tro-phy-ing. It's true agony.

Here's the deal: tell me something interesting, and I'll teach you how to beef up those mental defenses of yours. How's that sound?/

[hexcope]

[He doesn't. Yet.]

/Depends on what you think is interesting. I'm just a scientist. Math, 𝑚̥̊⃝𝑎̥̊⃝𝑔̥̊⃝𝑖̥̊⃝𝑐̥̊⃝, physics, metallurgy?/

[querulus]

/What was that second thing?/

[Bruh.]

[hexcope]

[Immediate panic.]

/Physics?/

[He's clearly trying very hard to not think about it.]

[querulus]

[SUS.]

/Bro, are you seriously trying to lie to someone who can read your mind?/

[hexcope]

/Yes.

No.

...Yes.

I've had a rough day, and you're already starting off on the wrong foot by, one, being in my mind unasked for, and two, identifying as a superhero. Pick a topic from the THREE I've listed./

[querulus]

/Uh, yeah, and I'm also the guy who's offering to help you with your whole brain security problem. So how about you calm your tits and quit bein' shady?

Tell me what the second thing was, and I'll ask about one of the other three. Deal?/

[hexcope]

[Feeling the equivalent of this.]

/Magic./

[querulus]

/Now, see, doesn't it feel better to get it off your chest? Trust a little? Sure, it does.

Also, yuck, magic fucking sucks. I'd also be embarrassed to call myself a scientist if I did magic bullshit./

[Yes, he knows "embarrassment" isn't what made Jayce lie about that. Look, just take the freebie, okay?]

/Fine, uhhhh, sure. Metallurgy. Why not./

[hexcope]

[NOW he's regretting this.]

/You're an idiot, actually./

[Is the first thought out of his mind the second Quentin says magic sucks. He doesn't have a brain filter at all.]

/I mean. I didn't mean that./

[Yes, he did. He's going to pretend he didn't, now.]

/The metals here have a different melting point than the metals of my world. Which means their chemical composition is different, if just slightly. We're breathing the same air, we're drinking the same water, but this means that somehow, the chemicals are bonded differently, or maybe contain different elements than I'm expecting. That's pretty interesting./

[querulus]

[The fuck was that??]

/Look, man, I can leave you to Regina George over here if you want. She'll figure out how to get around your math shit eventually, and then good fucking luck to you. She's not as nice as I am./

1/2

[hexcope]

/I thought her name was Sophie?

Oh, that's a joke./

[hexcope]

/I don't know what you want from me. You're in my head and you're expecting there to not be stream-of-conscious thought?

You keep insisting you're the nice one, but all I'm hearing is someone with just as much of an attitude problem and less honesty about it./

[querulus]

/Hm, touché. Fine. I'll let it slide, 'cause you're a newbie.

But also counterpoint: I said I was nice-r, not nice. You think anyone can hear other people's thoughts and end up a nice person? Pfft.

Whatever. Okay, weird metals or whatever. How do you know the air and water's the same?/

[hexcope]

/Sophie implied she could turn it off, and is choosing not to. At that point, whatever you hear and react to is on you, not the person you're snooping on.

I don't, but we're not being poisoned by it, as far as we can tell, so it either means the metal in my world is weird, or this one's is. Something I'd follow up on, if I didn't have twelve other projects more important./

[querulus]

/Unless we're just being poisoned really, really slowly. Not like we'd be able to tell.

Oh, and no, it doesn't "turn off." Do you turn off your ears when you don't want to listen to something? No. Same thing./

[hexcope]

/Technically we're being poisoned really, really slowly by air itself even in our ideal environments./

[☝️🤓]

/Fine. Tell me how to make it so she can't hear my thoughts, and that will solve both our problems./

[querulus]

[Don't you "well ackshully" him you son of a bitch—]

/Ugh, fine.

Look, when someone says "don't think about pink elephants," what do you do? Think about pink elephants. And the harder you try not to think about them, the more you're actually thinking about them. Right? Right.

My voice in your head is the pinkest elephant you've ever thought about. You want me to fuck off? Stop trying to stop thinking about me and just... stop.

Make sense?/

[hexcope]

/...That's it?/

[querulus]

/What do you mean "that's it"?

It's baby's first psychic defense. That's you. Psychic defense baby. Now where's my "thank you"?/

[hexcope]

[The "thank you" comes in the form of Jayce trying it out- trying to not think about Quentin. Which comes in the form of him thinking very purposefully about nothing but the roaring fires of his forge, the flicker of flames that reflect off the warm anvil and the almost claustrophobic heat that comes with standing close enough to it.]

[querulus]

[Quentin gives him... probably a cruel amount of time in silence to feel like he succeeded, when in fact all he's doing is giving Quentin the telepathic equivalent of a 10 hour fireplace youtube video. Why a cruel amount of time, you ask? Because Jayce had the Audacity, that's why.

Five minutes later, Quentin's voice pops into Jayce's head again. Sorry, Jayce, you're not free from The Menace yet.]

/You're doing it wrong./

[hexcope]

/Good, because that was stupid. I can't keep that up, I felt like I was trying to make myself fall asleep./

[He has actually taken the wrong interpretation of Quentin's silence, thinking that it was not an intentional trolling, but rather waiting for Jayce to get it right and still failing. ]

[querulus]

[Oh, Jayce. Buddy. You think too highly of Quentin.]

/Yeah, no. Honestly kinda makes you easier to read, but eh, whatever. Not important./

[This trolling? This is just because Jayce a) corrected him and b) didn't say thank you. Quentin is Petty.]

/Look, say I was there. Physically. In your Library of Brooding and shit. And I was pestering you like this. How would you get rid of me?/

[hexcope]

[He doesn't even think that highly of him, but there's still a part of him that wants to see the best in people.]

/How does it make me easier to read?

Depends on where we were. If it was in Piltover, I'd call Enforcers to escort you out. Here? If you wouldn't leave, I guess I would?/

[This is probably not helping his hypothetical.]