reincarnesiac | (retired) etraya inbox

Thank you. [ ?

Gorgug's own question mark is less audible, mainly because Gorgug doesn't know if being very American? is a good thing or not, but he's assuming a compliment? Right?

Except, his voice isn't his--it's somebody else's (read: it's definitely the voice of the guy whose face he's wearing), so how that sounds is entirely dependent on Alex. Regardless, as Alex directs Gorgug where to go--or this very American-looking man--, he walks on in, looking for the mentioned elevator, but heading for the nodded to staircase.

He'll wait for Alex through the door, holding it open for her (manners!), before going any further. He's a good...American!

(Would this be the best time to mention that Aurora didn't this to him? Maybe. That doesn't mean Gorgug's thought to do it, solely focused on the reason he came all this way.) ]

( Alex will be left to her assumptions (she doesn't have any idea of what individuals can or can't do until they tell her, she's not that kind of investigator. Point her at a problem she can punch or tenaciously pursue and then punch, she's much better) and heads in, smiling up at Gorgug before she's walking in her house slippers back into the living area. There's a large blue button-like device sitting on the coffee table. )

That's the thing I mentioned on the phone.

( The silence sphere generator. Once he's closer, he may even see that in a different shade of blue, it has an icon of a monkey with hands over its mouth. It's part of a line, hear no, see no, speak no. )

Hit it and within three meters of it any direction, we'll be encased.

[ Gorgug (as this random man) walks into the house when invited, will take slippers too if she does offer any; regardless, he goes into the space he's motioned into, and that's where--

There's a button. A blue button, which isn't a red button, and is commonly the colour that large buttons should be? But it's a button.

Gorgug's man face doesn't change beyond raised eyebrows. But internally? Internally... he is a boy, and that is a button. That Gorgug is being given apparent permission to press. ]

...

[ He goes over, and presses the button to watch it expand. Show him the future, button! Even if externally, he is a face of calm. ]

Edited 2025-08-21 17:37 (UTC)

( Alex watches the barrier form, a sort of shimmering blue that reminds her of computer monitors when all the lights are off in a room. Probably that's intentional, but now the both of them are encased on that gently shimmering blue.

Alex plants her hands on her hips and lifts her eyebrows. )

Pretty neat, huh? Worst part is the battery is internal and the charger is proprietary. That's how you know villains made it.

( Or Apple. )

[ That is cool. Gorgug is paying attention to the way that the blue of the shield goes around, but even when he's turned, his nose does crinkle to the news of the battery and charger. ]

I can try and change that. [ How dare something try to stop them!! Maybe it's some of his Bad Kids spirit trying to rebel against a design when he has a thousand other projects, too.

But Gorgug turns back to Alex, hesitating for a second, that stubborn confidence faltering for the actual topic he came here for. ]

There's one more thing... I just need to do something.

[ He says that as he does the something, or starts to. Gorgug takes off his earpiece, taking out from his jean pocket a tool, similar to a Doctor Who screwdriver, but with metal points that seem to adjust shape as Gorgug presses one of the buttons on the side. He brings down his goggles, and kneels to the coffee table, placing his earpiece onto the surface, and then looks up at Alex in his work goggles. ]

Can I borrow yours?

[ He points to his ear on the side she wears hers, and if Alex inspects the version he put down, it's a different colour from the one he's worn before, a green that would usually match the colour of his skin. ]

( Alex reaches out to touch her palm against the barrier. It resists, much like how cellophane over a bowl resists, but she thinks with enough pressure it'd break. She's still smiling, but the way Gorgug looks back to her has her eyebrows lifting without her saying a word.

He needs to do something with the earpiece? Alex comes to kneel across the coffee table from him, reaching up to take her earpiece off and set it down on the table. She slides it toward Gorgug with two fingers, then pulls her hand away.

She wonders what language it is he speaks. Probably not Mandarin or English, her two strongest. What is it he needs to do? Is that one on the table his usual one? Alex can be good at details, but it's highly likely she wasn't being the right kind of detail oriented with the earpieces.

So she settles in and watches whatever he's about to do. Worst comes to worst, at least she'll be able to get by with an accent in the United States. )

I'd love to know what that tool you're using is called.

[ That Alex slides it over without question isn't missed. Gorgug doesn't think he's an overly suspicious guy, but he can be self-conscious, and while they've gotten along well, he does wonder if the request is weird, but thankful when Alex accepts it. He moves it just to have within his line of sight with his own earpiece, which is actually a good thing that she doesn't say anything at the time.

Because when she does speak, Gorgug showing the illusion of his form when he puts his hand to his head and makes the goggles that he commonly wears show as he takes them from his actual head and slides them over his eyes. His illusion-hair flickers, then adjusts to accept the work goggles as a piece it should be showing, and they fit over the illusion's eyes as they would Gorgug's.

(He could've turned it off, but hasn't thought about it. That's the thing when you're not looking at yourself, or when you're distracted.)

He doesn't get to work, though. Looks at Alex when he hears her speak, but the words are--not recognised, and he winces apologetically. ]

I can't understand you, [ he says back in Common, pointing to his mouth, then the earpieces and then an ear. He puts up a forefinger, nodding, trying to get across visually: ] One second. I'll be quick.

[ There's an adjustment on his tool, and he sets it to bring back the pongs (that shift from tool heads of a wrench, screwdriver, potential pliers) to expose the stone underneath, glowing soft. The view from his goggles are comfortable, familiar when he works, and each of their earpieces are in his line of vision.

And in the air, from Alex's perspective, he starts to... write. Perhaps, or make motions similar. From his side, Gorgug starts with his earpiece: he sees that there's only one, where it is, its dimensions, shape. Circles it with his pen in the air, which shows as a glowing mark through the setting of his goggles--a way of taking notes, usually, on other projects.

Here, he's pointing to himself where he wants the copy to go on the table right beside it, before writing the quantity of the same item from '1' to '2', making a tick motion (perhaps the one thing that can be understood, depending on the angle Alex sees it from), and there, in a blink of an eye, a third earpiece sits on the table.

It doesn't materialise. It doesn't form itself. It just is, like it was always there. The same object as Gorgug's, from colour to shape.

Gorgug doesn't stop. He presses the tip of the tinkerer's tool, and erases the notes and writings from his goggles, and moves onto the next part: rewriting the design of Alex's to the newer earpiece. It's not too fussy, thankfully: the earpiece moulds are similar enough to not bump into the interior workings, and the differences of their shell are small. Gorgug's studied the earpieces out of fascination to making his own versions before, and so he knows what he's working with.

He just needs to change the dimensions of the newer earpiece to match Alex's, and the same ticking motion is followed by a change that might not even register to Alex. But Gorgug sighs, that way that a person does when they think thy're done, and lifts his goggles back up, taking the newer earpiece and handing it to Alex.

...and for her original, he takes it, looking at the barrier, but uh-- he doesn't know if he can just scoot it outside. So he holds that out for Alex, waiting for her to put in the newer earpiece. ]

Can you-- shut it off?

[ He'll put his own earpiece back in, he promises! And Alex will have no issue once she puts this newer one in to understanding him. ]

Oooh, that's what you sound like...

( Speaking another language she doesn't recognize, but she gives him a thumbs up and a smile. That much, if he sees it, she figures is self explanatory. Then she simply settles in to watch. Wide eyed and intensely curious, until something is there that she logically knows hadn't been. Only now it is? )

How in the world did you do that?

( She murmurs this, since she knows he can't understand, and even if she wasn't speaking Mandarin, he still wouldn't understand. Only when he is trying to slide her old earpiece out, and looking back to her and speaking again, does she reach forward and tap the big blue button. There's a momentary electrical hum, almost a static charge to the air, and the blue barrier around them dissipates like a soap bubble bursting.

Still holding the new earpiece, she lifts her eyebrows... and taps the blue button again once the original is outside its general sphere of influence.

... Yeah, Gorgug, sorry, she got distracted and is indeed still holding the new earpiece. It's when the barrier is back in place that she realizes she still has it in her hand, laughs a little under her breath in embarrassment, and places it over her ear once more. )

Sorry, I realize you probably meant for me to put this in sooner.

( Does he know what she's saying? Her body language might give him a hint if his own earpiece remains out for the time being. )

[ Gorgug was waiting there, kneeling, seeing that Alex hadn't put in the earpiece, but he also couldn't exactly say anything about it-- other than her name, said at least in the same way that he always does.

But he has his own earpiece back in by the time that Alex speaks up (now in a language he can understand), and the shape of the smile he makes is sheepish, a shrug following it. ]

It's okay, I know this is sudden, but I wanted to talk to you about Etraya. Nothing's happened, where-- there's never been a clue that Aurora listens to us, but she told me that Echo knows everything she gets told, so I... wanted to be careful for what I wanted to talk to you about.

[ He's practising caution!! Even if it feels weird to do, regardless. ]

( Alex shakes her head, knowing she's the one who caused the delay. With this average adult male human looking Gorgug. Still such a choice! )

Are we concerned that Echo's judging us beyond anything we know in this ridiculous reality television life we're trapped in? No, sorry, bad references... stage play that we're living in. You know, I was wondering. Do you think Aurora can watch as well as hear us or read what we write on the earpieces?

( She may need to be brought around to a point, but now that Gorgug is asking anything sort of (he has asked nothing at all at this point) she just wants to say what's been knocking around in her head. CCTV lifetimes in her homeworld doesn't mean she can't question it here in multiversal death match naked and afraid! )

[ He really wants to say that he knows what television is.

In that way where he's been the one to correct himself to a more longer-lived form of entertainment too, and Gorgug figures that's what Alex is doing to him. It's in his skin, in his bones! But he holds back on it, stays on track. ]

It wouldn't be hard, if that's what she wanted to do. I don't know if she is-- I've never asked, but, she's an AI, and she's a really good one. She could be doing it even if she didn't want to.

[ Because that's the thing about Aurora: she has to comply to her programming. What Echo wants, they get.

At the same time, there's a pause, and he admits: ] We could probably ask her. If she can tell you, she does. There's a lot she says that people think she won't.

[ In his experience. But a lot of people are more sceptical about Aurora than him. ...even if he's the one making alternate earpieces to keep out of her ear. ]

... Yeah... that's a problem with the advanced mechanical intelligences back home, too. How much is their programming overwriting what they might do on their own, versus how much is done just in programmed limits. It's one of those really questionable things about freedom and free will... and stuff.

( Philosophy is not her subject except in moments where it seems to click. This is not one of those moments, so he gets rewarded with whatever that was. )

Huh. I guess I can ask when we're back? Or later today, but I think it's easier when we're back in Etraya. Fewer weird things going on.

( She gestures vaguely toward the window, as if to say, everything out there is the weird thing going on. )

[ 'Free will... and stuff.' Gorgug nods regardless of how the words might say, since yeah, there's a lot of questions all the time. He read about that in a textbook once.

Gorgug nods once more, when Alex says her potential plan. ]

She's-- nice. [ There's some hesitation; some he might never get rid of, regardless of his time in Etraya. ] Yeah, you should, if you want to. I just wanted to.. I guess I wanted to talk to you about Etraya, and, figuring a way to get more information. I've been here for about a year, but a lot of people get stuck doing this for years, and, actually, the whole thing's been going on for a really long time.

[ His gaze averts, but in that way it sometimes does when he feels awkward, out of his element. Which is often. But he looks back at Alex properly. ]

I don't know if you would... want to... get involved with that? Rock the boat if we had to?

[ So to speak. ]

( Gorgug asks such a question to the physical enduring embodiment of the force of destruction for her universe: Alex. ~~Not that she knows.~~

Alex, predictably, looks serious before she nods her head and says: )

Absolutely. Yes.

Okay. [ Gorgug knows, not knowing of this physical enduring embodiment of force of destruction that he's engaging with, but instead: ] You, uh, you sounded good with investigating, and I know not everyone... I know people who don't know what to do because they're not, they don't get involved with this kind of stuff.

[ A pause. ]

They're just really normal people, [ he says, not trying to go for an insult, but: ] Who don't get into trouble on purpose.

[ There! That makes sense! (He could probably just say 'they're civilians'...) ]

( Alex smiles, sitting there on the floor as she is. She knows what he means. It's what drove her to take all the tests and all the extra schooling to qualify to join the Hunter's Association when she was out of university. People who embrace that trouble are the ones who have to protect the people who just want to be okay, and normal, and usual. )

Like civilians... the people we're trying to protect. Doing all the stuff they wouldn't want to, because it's what we feel we need to do. Right?

( It's not that she thinks it's that simple. People have all sorts of valid reasons to live the lives they live. She's just ready and willing to throw herself into problem solving in ways most people might think twice about.

Like setting herself up to get double kidnapped. Ah, but that plan did technically work out. )

Though I don't think Fabian is all that impressed by my versions of purposeful trouble so far.

[ Gorgug nods at Alex's assessment, though there's something that makes him wonder if it is that simple. Or even like that for him, but it works for now. There's people who don't know how to get involved, and then those that think they can, or are willing to try. Put themselves and potentially their universes on the line.

But there's curiosity, a look in his eye at the mention of his boyfriend's name. ]

What did you tell him?

... That we could outrun the bots up the stairs to the big slide?

( She taps her chin, trying to remember what it was, exactly. )

Or getting the bot to go into a reboot cycle? I can't think of too many deliberately bad things I did from my teen years...

( ............... Alex. You're not even twenty-five. )

[ Oh. Yeah. Fabian's reaction makes sense, and Gorgug nods once to himself. ]

Fabian doesn't like the bots. If you suggested breaking them apart or maybe throwing them in the water, then he'd, he might've liked that. He really hates everything to do with Etraya. He's been mad with me talking to the bots.

[ It's just one of those things, where Gorgug shares it as a matter of fact, but nothing more. How does he feel about them? It's difficult. He's backed away over time, but he doesn't shun them like Fabian does. ]

We kinda... we're adventurers, or in adventuring school back home, so we're about, killing and retrieving, sealing up big evils. Finding clues, except-- our clue finder got sent on a different mission.

[ Now he's sheepish, the face he makes (on this human man) trying for sheepish, maybe... but he just looks concerned. ]

Me and Fabian aren't good at finding clues.

[ Unfortunately. ]

Oh, I suggested pushing one in, he said it wasn't bad enough.

( She sounds amused, which is an accurate read for her mood in that moment. )

How's he been doing with you all stuck here for so long?

( It's still weird to have Incredibly Average Man sitting there and be talking with Gorgug, but they're also on another world, with powers, and kidnapped to a multiuniversal competition. Nothing here is normal. )

Ah... I feel that. I'm not bad at finding clues? I get stubborn following after them. But some people are really, really good at that stuff. Also with the killing big evils, there's a whole school for that? Sounds so much more direct than the nonsense we're dealing with here.

He doesn't like it.

[ It's simple, and yet the most direct answer, a tug at ~~Henry's~~ Gorgug's features that makes him look more sad in that still stern way. ]

And, yeah, we go to school. Some people don't, but, it's a good way to do it. You do field work. [ Which is good, right? Gorgug doesn't have a comparison, pros or cons next to doing it another way, and he shrugs slightly. ] And get used to team work.

Which I like better than trying to figure everything out on my own.

[ It's so hard... he can't be stubborn about it!! ]

That's fair. Not a lot to like about this whole thing, right?

( Alex sighs, absently running her finger over the new earpiece. )

Mmm, sounds like a smart way to run things. We have school for things... not exactly the same, but for other careers. We had a sort of specialized intensive training course for hunters, but we're not set out in field work until we're accepted into the Association.

( She shrugs, feeling like it's part of what you get in a fairly young org. It's only been around for thirteen years or so. )

It sounds smarter. We got up to things that were pretty messed up for people in their second year.

[ To be fair, to be frank. And yet, saving the world was worth 60% of their grade, so who were they to argue--or to change anything, really? School is like Etraya, in that sense. ]

If you want to know about anything, or figure something out, I guess you, you can always call on me. And I've asked other people-- other friends. Some of them have come and gone, so it's hard to get anything going...

[ And that's the thing about being a guy like him: organising isn't his forte, just reaching out to others, hoping something good comes from it. ]

Oh... yeah. When it's people who come and go, and we just don't know what's happening... it all gets harder, huh?

( She breathes out in a soft sigh. )

And yeah, sorry, your school sounds way more intense than any of mine. And I was in like, four or five over the last however many years.

It is. But I-- I got a lot out of it. I learned a lot, and made good friends. My first best friends.

[ So he can't really say that the experience has been negative, even as hard as parts have been. He misses some of it, really.

And all of this, coming from the face of an adult human man....

He nods to her. ] You can keep that. [ ... oh, wait: ] The earpiece. And, uh, if you want anyone else to have one for, for a second communication, I can make them again. It's really easy right now. They just-- appear.

[ He makes a motion with his hand. It's not really that straightforward, but when you're making materials materialise? It might as well be. ]

(retired) etraya inbox

no subject

no subject

hope alex gets to bump into ordinary man henry townshend in the future

will she even recognize him he may be too ordinary for memory

this is true 😔

meets him later... and five threads after that recognizes him as earth-2 gorgug

tl;dr gorgug makes a new earpiece for alex

he is a wizard of tech in her eyes now

thank u, he is a great wizard in canon (in everyone's hearts)

officially the only wizard she knows (in and out of her heart)

i will keep this going to hopefully give alex Info!!

this works for me!!!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject