[ i close my eyes as I make up how much silco would know about fantasy ]
Interesting line of study. Do you think that there is a natural connection between the augmented and the soul?
As for mine, I assume it's something that drinks blood. It's clearly not anything I've ever encountered. I have seen some that are birds, and some that are wolves. Nothing like this.
Even the bats in the undercity were nothing like this.
[ He doesn't think it's a bat. That doesn't help, but it's something. ]
I think the Natural Soul might be attuning to us, in some way that drives the path of the corruption, the form of our Shifts.
[ Parts of his corruption mirror hex gems too much to be a coincidence. Mel's are trying to integrate her tattoos. Viktor's form... well, it's too similar to the way the hexcore transformed him to ignore. ]
I was given a list of possible Natural Soul types by Patho-Gen. With all those teeth, yours could be Carnivora, Reptilia, Glire...
[ yeah well it's either the creepy eye or he lets it go blind so ]
Correct. None of these seem to fit.
Which means either your list is incomplete or my shift goes further. I have not been able to process it beyond where it goes, and I can assure you I have tried.
[ After all, it is power. ]
Perhaps Patho-Gen hasn't been forthright with you.
But now that's also going to nag at him while he attempts to balance his distrust for Patho-Gen with the need to work with him to actually get anything done.
He is also... not going to offer any advice on how to advance Silco's shift, if that's the issue. ]
[ because you're a nice person jayce, unlike SILCO... ]
You mean the people who took me forcibly from my room, injected me with drugs, and then forced me to spend an hour with a variety of other augmented whenever they felt like it? Some of which would have killed me on the spot if I had not thought quickly enough? [ Vander ]
If what I do is called terrorizing, then what is it called when you all do it?
Generations of poisoning us? Putting us in the mines since we're old enough to do a full day of hard labor? Our water is unfit to drink, poisoning us day by day. Our air unfit to breathe. Many of us can barely afford food, or shelter. We ask for little: legitimacy and respect. We ask to be treated like humans, and what do we get in return, hm?
Enforcer violence, oh, apologies, that's merely law enforcement, isn't it? It can't be called violence, because it's only violence and terror when it comes from beneath your feet, isn't that right?
So what is it called? The routine, the way we've been treated for generations? It can only be violence when we've hit the breaking point, after all.
We tried your way. Generations of trying it that way. Did you think that it would never happen? That one of us would never become the monster we needed to become? That we wouldn't finally see the necessity in doing things differently?
Oh, you say I am the monster, but how many more people died year after year in the mines? What harm I do? I also bring prosperity, and jobs, and wealth into the undercity like we've never had before.
Shimmer is addictive, but how could it not be, to experience power like that for the first time in our lives? To know what it is to not be pushed around if we dare look at an enforcer the wrong way?
Fine. It's something I accepted years ago. When I received this scar. When we were pushed to the breaking point, when we were killed and gunned down like little more than dogs.
Ah, but that's always your tactic, isn't it? Keep us out when you have to confront what we have to be to survive, isn't it?
Blockades, arrests, executions. I've seen it all, you know.
Ah yes, but that's right. It's fine to say nothing about the way we were treated was right, but the moment we break the boots on our necks, we're the ones causing harm.
We have a cause, and we will hurt for our cause, yes. I'm no more immune to that than anyone else, after all. We're Zaunites. Hurting each other is in our blood, in our culture.
After all, we can hardly hurt you all, can we? That rage must go somewhere.
Ah, but what am I saying? Clearly you're uninterested. I'm "blocked", after all.
How funny, I wonder if it had all worked out, how long you would have taken before you threw me in Stillwater for the crime of being "difficult to work with", hm?
[ Jayce is enjoying a short tea break at the cabin with Mel and Viktor when his Syntrofos blows up with all of these messages.
He does not immediately read them, though the other two might get a peek over his shoulder when he opens the screed.
Later, back at the Valentia, he considers deleting them without bothering to read them at all.
But he does read it, even as his eyes glaze over parts.
It takes another day to decide how to bother responding. ]
What the hell do you want from me?
[ Do you want him to feel guilty? He does. Do you want him to suffer too? He's watching - twice now, generations of Piltover's negligence and harm done to Zaun actively killing his partner, knowing there's little he can do about it here. ]
I want you to cease with this high-horse nonsense and recognize that neither of us are the heroes in this story, Talis. We've all done things we aren't proud of.
Making me out to be the villain in all of this only weakens your position, and only works when there is the potential to work together on something more important than your bad feelings about dealing with me, or the fact that you hate my methods.
It is noted, but they are successful.
So either you learn to work with me, or you'll find me to be a rather annoying thorn in your side.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
It's a fairly new development.
[ In all seriousness: ]
We're collecting data on the Natural Souls and corruption progression.
[ Not exactly a secret. ]
no subject
[ He sure as hell wasn't craving blood before he... you know. Died. ]
And what has your data found thus far? Anything actionable?
[ Look! See! He's talking! Asking questions! Not even being a total bitch. ]
no subject
No. But we're working on a theory relating to the taxonomy of the Natural Soul and compatibility.
Do you know what yours is?
no subject
Interesting line of study. Do you think that there is a natural connection between the augmented and the soul?
As for mine, I assume it's something that drinks blood. It's clearly not anything I've ever encountered. I have seen some that are birds, and some that are wolves. Nothing like this.
Even the bats in the undercity were nothing like this.
[ He doesn't think it's a bat. That doesn't help, but it's something. ]
no subject
[ Parts of his corruption mirror hex gems too much to be a coincidence. Mel's are trying to integrate her tattoos. Viktor's form... well, it's too similar to the way the hexcore transformed him to ignore. ]
I was given a list of possible Natural Soul types by Patho-Gen. With all those teeth, yours could be Carnivora, Reptilia, Glire...
no subject
[ He thinks of the bullet wounds in his middle. The pictured lung. The electric-zing of shimmer mixing with his blood. Like it had with hers...
Silco doesn't know about the fingerprints on his neck yet. The other signs.
He's a network of injuries that he carries with himself. ]
You received a list. That doesn't seem to be the full list, given what I have seen from others.
I think, however, I am not the same as some of those. They seem... easy to distinguish from the others.
no subject
No. You still looked mostly human. Is that as far as you Shift?
Aves, Anthropoda, Cephalopoda fit even less. The last type is Spectral, but you seemed fairly solid to me.
no subject
Correct. None of these seem to fit.
Which means either your list is incomplete or my shift goes further. I have not been able to process it beyond where it goes, and I can assure you I have tried.
[ After all, it is power. ]
Perhaps Patho-Gen hasn't been forthright with you.
no subject
[ 'no SHIT?'
But now that's also going to nag at him while he attempts to balance his distrust for Patho-Gen with the need to work with him to actually get anything done.
He is also... not going to offer any advice on how to advance Silco's shift, if that's the issue. ]
no subject
You know what I have learned about you, scientific types?
Sometimes, the obvious is just beneath your nose, but you're too busy staring at your equations to look down. Consider it my attempt at being helpful.
[ Also being an ass. And sowing paranoia. It can be all three. ]
Did they give you more descriptors of the names? Do they match to everyone who is here that you have encountered?
[ This is a self-serving question, of course. ]
no subject
Have you thought about asking them yourself?
no subject
You mean the people who took me forcibly from my room, injected me with drugs, and then forced me to spend an hour with a variety of other augmented whenever they felt like it? Some of which would have killed me on the spot if I had not thought quickly enough? [ Vander ]
Good question. Why don't I?
no subject
It almost sounds like a situation you would feel right at home in. Although, I guess you're used to being the one doing the terrorizing.
1/2
[ oh boy, here we go ]
no subject
Generations of poisoning us? Putting us in the mines since we're old enough to do a full day of hard labor? Our water is unfit to drink, poisoning us day by day. Our air unfit to breathe. Many of us can barely afford food, or shelter. We ask for little: legitimacy and respect. We ask to be treated like humans, and what do we get in return, hm?
Enforcer violence, oh, apologies, that's merely law enforcement, isn't it? It can't be called violence, because it's only violence and terror when it comes from beneath your feet, isn't that right?
So what is it called? The routine, the way we've been treated for generations? It can only be violence when we've hit the breaking point, after all.
Isn't that an interesting distinction?
1/2
Nothing about the way Piltover's treated Zaun is right, we agree about that.
My problem is that you wield it to worm your way out of any and all responsibility for all the harm YOU caused to your own people too.
2/2
[ This is him actually trying to block his number for real before he throws his phone into the wall. ]
1/??? A GIFT FOR JAYCE WHEN THE BLOCK DROPS
Here is the thing, Talis, I do so with intention.
2/????
3/???
How typical.
4/???
Oh, you say I am the monster, but how many more people died year after year in the mines? What harm I do? I also bring prosperity, and jobs, and wealth into the undercity like we've never had before.
Shimmer is addictive, but how could it not be, to experience power like that for the first time in our lives? To know what it is to not be pushed around if we dare look at an enforcer the wrong way?
5/???
Fine. It's something I accepted years ago. When I received this scar. When we were pushed to the breaking point, when we were killed and gunned down like little more than dogs.
Ah, but that's always your tactic, isn't it? Keep us out when you have to confront what we have to be to survive, isn't it?
Blockades, arrests, executions. I've seen it all, you know.
6/6 I'M SO SORRY....
We have a cause, and we will hurt for our cause, yes. I'm no more immune to that than anyone else, after all. We're Zaunites. Hurting each other is in our blood, in our culture.
After all, we can hardly hurt you all, can we? That rage must go somewhere.
Ah, but what am I saying? Clearly you're uninterested. I'm "blocked", after all.
How funny, I wonder if it had all worked out, how long you would have taken before you threw me in Stillwater for the crime of being "difficult to work with", hm?
a week later....
He does not immediately read them, though the other two might get a peek over his shoulder when he opens the screed.
Later, back at the Valentia, he considers deleting them without bothering to read them at all.
But he does read it, even as his eyes glaze over parts.
It takes another day to decide how to bother responding. ]
What the hell do you want from me?
[ Do you want him to feel guilty? He does. Do you want him to suffer too? He's watching - twice now, generations of Piltover's negligence and harm done to Zaun actively killing his partner, knowing there's little he can do about it here. ]
no subject
I want you to cease with this high-horse nonsense and recognize that neither of us are the heroes in this story, Talis. We've all done things we aren't proud of.
Making me out to be the villain in all of this only weakens your position, and only works when there is the potential to work together on something more important than your bad feelings about dealing with me, or the fact that you hate my methods.
It is noted, but they are successful.
So either you learn to work with me, or you'll find me to be a rather annoying thorn in your side.
[ Via Mel. :) ]
(no subject)