ic contact.

[deushexmachina]

"Hi, probably just easier to find me in the lab. I'll get back to you."

Comments

[deushexmachina]

[His throat holds his breath. His mind flashes with vicious sequence; the explosion, his arrest, the hours soaked in anxiety, the trial, his mother's betrayal, his banishment, his near-suicide. Jayce shakes his head. Viktor intervening, Viktor's peer review, their new calculations, their breaking and entering, the final experiment, the birth of Hextech.

Bad with the good.

He exhales.]

It took some time, [he says, focusing on her interest.] Refining them into gemstones. Oscillations were just the beginning.

— You actively ignited explosive? In a dormant reactor?

[jinxs]

Something I was wondering is if they could be made smaller. If they could be divided, they could probably fit in more portable things-- without the powering container being too big. Mhm-- thought for later. Can we saw one?

(shitty idea, jinx, shitty idea?

but it seems like her brain is working overtime on it, so much that she barely registered the last question, shoulders raising in a shrug before she takes her notebook to herself, fumbling for a quill.)

Oh, yeah, all the time, actually.

[deushexmachina]

Smaller — that's conceivable, sure. I'm not sure about cutting one in half, though. [Possibly on the level of splitting an atom, times hundreds.] Even refining them from a crystalline form compounded the size a little.

[jinxs]

Where did you even get the idea for these things? Arcane stuff is just-- I don't know. Never seen it.

(but her hand doesn't stop making notes in her notebook, scratching, rewriting, all out of order and incomprehensible to another's eyes.)

[deushexmachina]

It was something that happened to me, as a child. My mother and I were traversing a dangerous land—icy, frozen—and we were going to die. My mother fell, I screamed for help. [Exhale.] And he showed up. The mage. He used magic to instantaneously transport us.

He used magic to save us.

[jinxs]

... Oh. Woah. Yeah, I can see that having a big impact. Transport-- like the Hexgates? Just like, nyoom?

(her hand flies in front of her, as to punctuate her last words.)

Vik told me he had a really cool thingie for drawing, with Hextech. What else did you make?

[deushexmachina]

The Atlas gloves, [he isn't aware of Vi just taking those,] which are mechanized gloves intended to make impossibly heavy objects easier to lift. The Hexclaw, which shoots lasers from a hand. For artistry reasons.

[jinxs]

Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that one. I've seen it. Long story, you don't wanna know.

(or maybe he DOES, since it's his damn creation??)

You know, considering this place is magic, we should see if we could create something like hextec with what we have here. What do you think of that?

[deushexmachina]

[His mouth presses into a little line—you don't wanna know—and the turmoil whirls within him. He both did and did not want to know, his curiosity softened by the trepidation of Jinx's ephemeral knowledge of the future.]

Hm, [a clear war wages on his face.] It's not... bad... is it?

[On the subject change, his shoulders relax:] I've been working on that, actually. Data gathering about the magic here, and the magic that other people bring in from their own worlds. If there is a universal theory to the arcane, then the same runic equations that Viktor and I discovered should work.

[jinxs]

It depends to whom? Not to you, I'm sure-- unless Vi stole it? She's not above it.

(a little shrug of her shoulders. it's not like she knows that jayce and vi went on a little trip to shimmer paradise, anyway.)

That's a big 'if', Jaycey.

[deushexmachina]

Why does this keep happening?

[jinxs]

My theory still stands, stronger than ever! Man, I'm such a genius.

(a small fist clenched of victory.)

I think you don't remember not having it because, as far as you know, it hasn't happened to you. I can describe the thing in detail, and exactly how it feels around your hand, but to you, it never left your lab. Different timelines, Jaycey, it's the only thing that makes sense-- unless incense affects your memory, but then, that theory is flawed to the max! Why wouldn't it affect my memory, or Silco's, or Ekko's, or Vi's, or even the Enforcer's? Why just you two? Makes no sense.

[deushexmachina]

Oh yes, certainly on the time-skips, parallel timelines, I'm aware of that. I mean why does your family keep stealing from me, specifically?

[If he had a nickel for every time at least one sister stole from him...]

[jinxs]

Oh. Because you have fun shit.

(obviously.)

[deushexmachina]

Oh, well. That is true. [Can he be mad at such pristine logic? No, she's right.]

[jinxs]

If it makes you feel any better, I just stole from you once? You didn't get my loyalty card, get robbed 10 times and on the 11th, I give you a prize.

[deushexmachina]

I don't want that. Please don't steal from me again.

[jinxs]

Fine, fine.

(empty hands up, see?)

I can make my own fun stuff, it's fine.

[deushexmachina]

I'll help you, [he says, warmth in his throat.] If you need it, of course. You've gotten far without much help.

[jinxs]

I would like that, but I just can't imagine you making, you know, guns and explosives and bombs, which is really what I like doing. Would you?

(and most importantly, does he trust her enough to let her have it if he has a hand on it.)

[deushexmachina]

Well — true, yes. We don't make weapons. [He and Viktor already have, even if they don't fully realize it.] But you could do so much more, and I can help you with that.

[jinxs]

Like what? I don't really like anything else.

(she just likes the boom, jayce.)

[deushexmachina]

I've been designing mechanics for sounds. Loud sounds.

[jinxs]

... Silencers?

(jinx there is more in the world than guns)

[deushexmachina]

I was considering the opposite direction, with flash-bang distractions. But we could make a silencers, sure. [Jayce is far more inclined to bend the moral rules than Viktor, regarding weaponry.]