Etraya Inbox

[hexcope]

𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 | 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 | 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

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[hexcope]

Months ago, in Piltover. Nothing's been stolen from me as long as I've been in Etraya, and certainly not any time in this lab. Jinx brought the stolen gemstone to Etraya, and even if it wouldn't return it to me in Piltover, I wanted it back while we were here.

[ornithologist]

[ Harold hadn't known where the theft occurred or that it was someone named Jinx, and he's certain Jayce had been trying not to tell him when they spoke earlier, so this just reinforces his sense of hopelessness at Jayce's ability to keep things secure. Not that he's about to point that out again when he's currently using it to his advantage. ]

I applaud your refusal to make weapons, but doing this is going to create a potential target, [ he says mildly instead. ] You must realize that if we make something capable of curing cancer, it will also be capable of causing cancer. Irrevocably.

[ And it could be used against people with extraordinary resilience, who might have few other weaknesses. In other words: it is a weapon. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just tilts his head and listens. That's his role now. But the way his eyebrows shoot up is telling enough. Ah, they're doing the whole mad scientist thing. Fun. ]

[hexcope]

[He knows he's slipped up by mentioning Jinx, taken off guard by needing to suddenly argue his case all over again and now in front of a stranger. He slipped up, and he knows it, lips forming a thinner line and swallowing thickly. He instead covers that up by standing up straighter, and gestures aggressively with an open palm. Something he doesn't do on purpose: making himself seem bigger when he feels threatened, like an animal would do.]

Etraya has a population of less than one hundred people. Dozens of them could have broken in at any time and stolen anything. Nothing like that happened to me, here, in over six months, even when this lab was unattended and unsecured. It's a different situation than Runeterra and Earth, and comparing it to your preexisting fears is only going to make us both distrust each other. I'm considering the move, and I agreed to your other demands, so do me the favor of sparing me more lectures on your paranoia when we both know one guy, no matter how many traps he sets, isn't going to stop anyone with actual mutant abilities.

[Sorry Carver, you're "one guy" now.]

[ornithologist]

[ Fortunately for Jayce, Harold is an eminently tolerant person who truly takes everyone's best interests to heart, including Jayce's and Viktor's. In some respects it's for the best for him to get this all out with this kind of audience -- Harold is not about to take advantage of it, and he wouldn't have asked Carver here if he weren't sure he would follow his lead in that regard. He's earned himself that much trust.

And he doesn't actually intend to come off all professorial at Jayce, jokes aside. The way he reacts like he's been threatened, turning assertive, tells Harold he needs to lay off on the sardonicism and speak to him as empathetic equals.

He turns to look at him directly, somber and serious. ]

It's not my intent to lecture, though I realize that's been the effect. What you've found here is remarkable. It has the capacity to do immense good -- healing your partner being only the first thing on the list.

I'd like to make sure that good is all it does, and I believe you intend the same. [ That isn't a light statement coming from Harold, or a platitude; he'd thought that through before deciding to trust Jayce's intentions, if not his execution. ]

I'll respect your expertise if you respect mine -- and that includes the potential for technology to do harm.

[ He thinks that's a deal they can make honestly. Jayce knows now that Harold had paid a terrible price for his lack of sufficient caution earlier in life, and then he'd been paranoid already. Carver, actually, knows what had happened with Nathan, but not why. They each have the opposite piece of the puzzle in that regard. But each piece says enough on its own, which is that Harold has personal reasons and personal tragedy behind his dour doomsaying. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ I could, Carver doesn't say. I fucking could if Harold gave me leave. He doesn't voice it because he knows his role here, in this moment, in this place, but nobody said he had to be nice so his smile says it just fine for him. It feels good to needle someone else, with or without cause. It makes him feel like he's a part of something again, part of a unified force for once. He's been missing it, Carver realizes. And now he has it back and he doesn't want to lose it. It could've been anything that Harold asked him to say. Jayce is almost an afterthought except for all the ways he's crucial. ]

You could let me trap the place. For real this time.

[ His tone is mild, though. He could do a whole lot to secure this place if given leave to. Harold might. And then at least they wouldn't be bored. ]

[hexcope]

[Empathy, when turned on Jayce, always makes him crumble. Whatever combativeness he had been working himself up toward dissipates in an instant, and Jayce’s shoulders sink, deflating his puffed out chest. It makes him such an easy read, he knows this too, but he’s so accustomed to arguments that whenever he’s given a crumb of appreciation, he leaps on it like a starving man.

He rubs at his left wrist, specifically at the bracelet, in a self-soothing motion, as he turns away from Harold and Carver both to look over at one of his whiteboards. Mostly to avoid eye contact. He doesn’t need to make it apparent any more than the obvious ways how he’s having a moment of vulnerability just from Harold’s words alone.]

Fine. Do… whatever you need to do.

[ornithologist]

[ Funny how empathy always gets him so much farther than confrontation. It's when he has to switch to confrontation that Harold is out of his depth -- but here, it works, and he's greatly relieved. Part of what makes it an effective tactic for Harold is that he, of course, does not rub it in when it works. He is quietly respectful and appreciative of every person's right to nurse their wounds alone, without comment, as he himself prefers.

He decides it's impolitic to tell Carver not to set anything lethal, and instead gives him a mild glance that he hopes serves as sufficient reminder. ] I have some cameras in my bag for you to set up, if you would, [ he says instead, before turning back to Jayce. ]

Would you walk me through the rest of it, while he does that?

I would, actually, dearly like to have a mathematical set of rules for magic. [ He wasn't kidding about that earlier. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ It always helps to have a job. Something concrete to do. He notes the look Harold gives him, mild enough that it doesn't come with edges, and just inclines his head. Respectful. ]

Yeah, okay.

[ He goes to get the cameras. He knows where to place them, how to take advantage of angles. And there's only so much he can needle Jayce before it starts causing problems. ]