Etraya Inbox

[hexcope]

𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 | 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 | 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Comments

[hexcope]

[He can't take her seriously even when she's angry because she's still only like 2 feet tall and has tiny paw hands.]

I'm joking. Relax. What do you want for a drink?

[rudelanguage]

[three feet you bastard!!! but yes she is goddamn adorable, and currently kicking her leggies in annoyance under the table.]

Water. [they don't know the other breeds of drink beyond mead and they're too antsy to learn right now.

aforementioned tiny paw hands press flat on the tabletop and press down.]

Was there anything else? Like, did she confirm you and whoever else's been stuck here for so long fixed something?

[hexcope]

[Jayce waves over a companion bot waiter to place Antigone's order for her, with a black coffee for himself, and waits until it leaves before continuing.]

No. Only that we'd be told if we failed. We "helped" people. But no confirmation we fixed anything.

[rudelanguage]

[throughout the order, Antigone pointedly makes no attempt to regard the machine, instead looking down and askance, only swinging back to focus on Jayce when it's tromped on its way to prep food.]

That sucks. [it's said point-blank, a neutral, obvious statement without vitriol.] This Aurora lady might suck.

[hexcope]

[Twice now Antigone has shied around the companion bots. Noted.]

She's not malicious, she just can't do much. If I'm honest, I don't think Echo speaks with her much at all. She's on her own in handling the upkeep of this place. So if her answers are unsatisfactory, it's because she doesn't know it either.

[rudelanguage]

[one hand slaps the table. pap.] That sucks, too! What gives! Did we even get a deadline for all of this?!

[hexcope]

No. And the longest someone's been here so far has been over a year, if I'm doing the math right.

[rudelanguage]

[the hand lifts and drags under her eye - said eye is averted when drinks are set on the table. drinks and...whatever these funny little sticks are. she picks it up and idly fiddles with the bendy part.] I can't be the first person to ask about this. I can't. Who else is asking about this? Do you know?

[hexcope]

There's at least a hundred other people here, I'm sure someone's been digging into this deeper than I have. My sister Caitlyn is here and she's been investigating things but...

[He hasn't been totally following. She's a brilliant investigator and detective, even if they aren't seeing eye-to-eye right now.]

If you really want to get deeper into this, you should ask the network. Now, I'm going to ask you a question.

[His brow furrows just a little bit as he leans in.]

Why are you afraid of the companion bots?

[rudelanguage]

[her brow knits. that...network-thing...all the people talking through the earpiece...

sounds horrid. how does it keep from everyone talking all at once!? it--HUH??

Antigone's head whips back to Jayce, eyes big, incredulous. Scared?! Me!] I'm not-! Y-! [well! y'know!

she ducks her head a little, sitting back down so her nose is almost level with the table.]

I've seen 'em get rough. I don't wanna mess with...with weird, metal slaves.

[hexcope]

Get rough with you? And they aren't slaves- they aren't even sentient. It's a mimicry of our behavior.

[rudelanguage]

[mimicry. hff.

her fingers grip the edge of the table, nails digging in a big.]

Slave-seeming enough for me to not like it. And I don't want them touching me. I don't like it.

[hexcope]

Okay. You don't have to. But avoiding eye contact with them doesn't do anything for you, or for them. Just makes it obvious you're afraid.

[This one's a bigger swing, but he thinks he has enough evidence to prove it, so...]

Kind of like how you're afraid of the network?

[rudelanguage]

[she scowls.

defensively:] Being apprehensive of stuff you don't know is normal. [i'm normal!!!] It's safer to keep a distance.

[hexcope]

And learning how to use it so you don't stay afraid of it is also normal. It's been proven to be safe, we all use it, and it's been beneficial to organization and rallying the community.

[Sorry Antigone, you've found the one guy who's never going to be on the side of "we should be afraid of things we don't understand."]

[rudelanguage]

[she huffs, ears flattening.]

I don't know if anything can be safely proven here, guy... I really don't know about that.

And anyway, I-- [beat.

engh...]

N-never mind. You can be right, if you want. [One more fucking thing I get to be stupid about. Yay.]

[hexcope]

It's as safe as it can be without doubting the safety of everything. And at that point, what are you really doing?

[He's ready to engage in a further discussion about this, but then she trails off and gives up.]

... I'm not trying to be right for the sake of it. I'm... trying to assuage your doubts.

[rudelanguage]

I'm gonna guess...that a lot of that stuff... the metal-workers, [slaves, but Knife's trying to be agreeable.] the network-stuff, Aurora... It's not far from whatever you'd call normal. Or at least close enough that it's comfortable to settle into.

[hexcope]

Not even close. None of this is normal where I'm from.

[He takes out his earbud communicator, and holds it between two fingers.]

This is far beyond anything we have at home- and I helped develop instantaneous teleportation.

[He puts it back into his ear again.]

Networks, phones, computers... we don't have any of that. Most form of communication is by letter. Our "metal-workers" are uncoordinated novelties that can maybe play a song if oiled right.

There's gaps in my knowledge here too. I haven't seen a movie. I still don't know what "bluetooth" is. I took my first "antibiotics" like, two months ago. There's going to be discomfort in not knowing what you're doing but I'd rather be uncomfortable for a little while as I figure things out than be afraid of trying for the rest of my life.

[rudelanguage]

[if Knife knew how to read, they'd be very certain none of those words were in the Bible. whatever the fuck that is. Antigone looks pained as more alien words get strung together, but like...what can they do about it? just drown, apparently. drown and be afraid.

unhappily:] Easy to say when people aren't giving you crap every second when nothing makes sense. [with resentment:] Folks here are so cozy and act like it, it's weird that I'd find it kind of insane, because it is! It's not my fault people got used to this funny...funny prison-thing! And it's not my fault I don't know half this junk! And getting told how I should just deal with it doesn't really inspire me to try, you know?!

[their forehead bumps the edge of the table with a dull thump, sighing.]

[hexcope]

[Ah. An unwilling student. The hardest kind.

Jayce's coffee finally arrives, and he takes a sip of it, thinking how to navigate this. He understands frustration, he understands what it's like to try something a hundred thousand times and fail each time. What he found inspiration in was... obsession. Which is maybe not the most relatable topic for most people.

For someone who's afraid, what's the best way to get them out of their fear? Reduce it until it's small enough to conquer, maybe? Work someone up to multiplication by introducing addition first?]

Okay. Let's start another way. Did you always know how to talk?

[rudelanguage]

[her head peeks up, but just to the eyes, which squint.

I don't know. I can't remember the day I was made. all those earliest days in the cell are hazy; time was indistinct, its passage seemingly only broken by the master's entry, dragging along some subject to demand to be molded, mimicked.

but that's Knife, not Antigone.

Shit, what are baby kitsunes like. I don't fucking know!]

I dunno.

[hexcope]

Okay, I'll be honest, I was expecting a more straightforward "no" on that one. No baby knows how to talk. It's part of our development into society. We're taught the language of the person who raised us.

Let's try this: Do you think it's hard for a baby to learn how to talk?

[rudelanguage]

[a couple nails scrape on the table, an ear flicking. she eyes the glass of water nearby, but doesn't make for it just yet.]

I dunno. I never met a baby. [...

wait that's stupid, normal people have interacted with babies.]

That is-- I...I don't keep company with them. To know that. But you're getting at the whole...starting from zero thing either way, aren't you.

[hexcope]

Yeah, that's my point, I just got really into the simile of it.

Point is, you learned it at some point. I'm not expecting you to already know things you don't know. I'm not telling you to "deal with it" just to make it more convenient to me. You should try new things for you.