glencolareef | (no subject)

No. He can be a bit… exuberant, but I believe him. Things would have been much more difficult for me if he hadn't come here.

It doesn't mean he can't be helpful. But good to know.

[ Maybe he's too quick to trust her opinion, considering the two seem to have nothing but good things to say about each other... but she's seemed reliable so far. ]

[ Anyway, that's that then. Moving onto the next thing. He holds up his walkie. ]

...Do you know how to send a message in writing on this thing?

[Listen, when you've decided to buy the 'diseases are caused by tiny animals getting into your blood' thing, you've got to believe everything]

I think he enjoys sharing his facts too much to lie about such things.

[Oh yes, the radio. It's honestly a bit of a relief to find someone else who doesn't know much about it]

You can dictate a message to it using this button [she indicates a button on her own radio - he can't read it but it's in the same spot], which is easiest but inconvenient if you're trying to avoid making noise. Otherwise, you can press the buttons here to make your chosen letter appear.

[The version of Norse that Randvi uses has way fewer runes than later versions so it's way easier for her than for everyone else]

[ Gross. That's why you constantly lather everything with soap obviously. ]

You may be right.

[ Senku certainly talks a lot, and it would be exhausting to lie as much... then again, he definitely knows some good liars who could make quite the speech. ]

[ He watches the explanations with a frown. He can't read the symbols on her radio, but he recognizes the ones on his own. How odd. Did somebody personalize these bloody things before dropping them off on them? Does that mean that their arrival was preplanned? This had to take some time and resources. ]

So you just gather words one letter at a time?

[ That's not too different from writing, at least the way he does it, in neat printed letters. He tries to poke at the buttons, but since he's not holding down the "talk" button, it doesn't work. ]

...It's not doing anything.

Yes. The space is the strange symbol that looks like a smile.

[Oh, oops. It had taken her a while to figure out the talk button on the side, too]

You need to push this “talk” button first. To speak, you hold it down the whole time.

[ He tries to hold the button down and type at the same time and frowns. ]

That's cumbersome.

[ But it can a fair price to hide one's voice, he supposes. ]

What's the protocol for this? Do I write my name at the end?

[ He wouldn't want to stand out from all these radio letter writing weirdos-- and of course he's thinking about it as he would a normal letter. ]

These people love to make things more difficult for themselves and call it convenience. If you're alone and not concerned about being overheard, dictation is much easier.

It is not necessary to sign. The “call sign” - mine is VL121R - is unique to your device and as far as we know it cannot be hidden or altered. Thus far, no one else here can read runes so if you are receiving a message from VL121R you can be certain that it's me. I use it to identify new arrivals here.

If you are using text you can also make images - K does this often - or faces. I suppose they're meant to indicate a tone.

[This guy has only made one face the whole time she's seen him - perhaps :/ or -_- - so perhaps he wouldn't need that, but he should know]

[ He almost wants to ask who "these people" are exactly, but he figures it must be whoever came up with this contrived method of communication. It's fine. ]

[ He types up the simple message while Randvi explains callsigns to him. Does he have one? It seems so, though the combination of letters and numbers doesn't mean anything to him. Well, his last name supposedly starts with an A, but other than that... ]

Faces? [ He thinks of a book with pictures drawn in it, but this doesn't look anything close to a book page. But he supposes having tone indications can be useful in a written message. ]

[Randvi rifles through her desk and draws out another small stack of papers, full of arcane symbols like :3 and (ﾒ￣▽￣)¤=[]:::::> ]

Like these.

[ He stares at it. Frowns. ]

...I don't get it.

[ Turn the sheet 90 degrees, Levi! ]

Martin showed me how to make these.

[She gestures at the humble :) ]

This is a smile, see?

How--

[ It takes him a moment longer -- maybe Randvi gets to point out how the dots are eyes and the bendy thing is mouth, or maybe it just takes some more staring -- but finally it clicks. ]

Oh. That's clever.

[ It can definitely be hard to read people's emotions over written form, so he can see how such tonal indicators may be helpful! ]

[ He sends another message, then gestures a little between his and Randvi's devices. ]

Yours has more parts on it.

[ Explain. ]

What - oh, yes. I found this lamp while searching through the larger longhouse and Senku showed me how to port it to my radio.

[She shows him where it plugs in]

It draws the light from inside the device, I think.

[ He watches with some fascination. Who could think a little useless clump of metal could actually provide a function like that! ]

...that's useful.

[ He does take a moment to examine the USB ports, just in case he finds something like that in the future. ]

[ Then he fiddles with his own transceiver for a bit and scowls. ]

This "RE419S" guy isn't very helpful.

Really? When I spoke with him he was very intent on telling everyone where it was.

[He insulted her and she's still mad]

[ SO THE WHOLE TRANSCEIVER PART OF CONVERSATION MAY HAVE HAPPENED A FEW DAYS EARLIER ACTUALLY. DON'T THINK ABOUT IT TOO HARD. Anyway. ]

Really. He played coy when I called him, and was vague when he finally did cough up the information. Am I supposed to know what "Martin's jail" is?

[ This is probably said loud enough for Martin to hear and be more intensely sad about it, oops. ]

The detective said that?

[Coy and callous don't sound like him at all]

When we first arrived, Martin was captured by one of those drones that Senku is working on - they have since been killed, so it's safe - and taken to a prison here. [She indicates the jail on the map] He nearly died there.

Detective?

[ He's suddenly regretting trying to speak to them at all. Not only they're an asshole, but a cop too? ]

I see. That narrows it down.

[ So with knowing where this jail is and the rest of what "RE419S" said he can actually pinpoint it somewhat accurately. It'll have to do. ]

[Listen, she barely even knows what that is. She only found out detective wasn't his name like 4 days ago]

Martin says that they handle disputes in large cities.

I think I can narrow down the distance from the coast now that I am certain of the island’s outline.

[ Understandable. As far as Levi knows that stuff is "handled" by the Military Police about as well as they handle everything. There's a reason Kenny went uncaught for decades despite slaughtering them left and right. ]

That would be helpful. We can also measure the distance from the shore to here for reference.

[ Imagine that, making a map in correct proportions! ]

[ A small pause. ]

How is... Martin? You said he almost died.

[ He doesn't know him, but he's concerned? ]

Steph and I had been working on that before the storm, but of course neither of us know any units of measurement that the other does so it's moving slowly.

Martin is… physically he's recovered. He was taken to the jail by a drone but of course it is no longer staffed. He nearly died of dehydration but was rescued by a small group who were able to locate him in time.

[She had been so convinced that he wasn't going to make it that she’d tried to sneak him into Valhalla]

If you've heard him now talking about waystations, I think that's why.

...I see.

[ He uses metric and he's pretty good at approximating it with steps, so he could probably help out with that once the storm passes. ]

[ He's not sure how the waystations are supposed to help if you get grabbed and dragged somewhere without supplies... unless the drones didn't take away your stuff, then he supposes it might help if somebody happens not to have any water on them when they land here. ]

He doesn't want anyone else to go through that.

[ It's more affirmation than statement; he doesn't know the man but if this is the case then he's probably a decent guy. ]

Yes, to defend others against suffering.

The same thing will likely not occur again as the drones have all been killed, but I noticed that he is reluctant to travel through areas that are not near water.

[Her impression is that people from these large cities are unaccustomed to deprivation]

[ That's a decent cause. Maybe he'll consider helping. At the additional information, he just makes a vague noise of acknowledgement. He's seen things like that, shellshock or whatever you want to call it, though his experience usually included... situations more immediately traumatic than just being locked up and forgotten. ]

[ Levi's a little too accustomed to deprivation, but then, his "large city" was a little different. ]

[ He seems happy to end the conversation there unless Randvi says something else. ]