Oh, sorry. [ Jayce’s heart is still racing, a loud thunderous sound that drowns out everything else around him. It’s distracting, leaving him feeling lightheaded, and he doesn’t see the person he almost walks into until he’s almost stumbled over them. Offering an apologetic smile, he runs his hands over his face, a habit he’s tried to break himself from for years and he’s always failed. ] Are you alright?

[ The tips of his fingers are cold, his hands shaking, so he wraps his fingers around a railing nearby for support. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s passed out, but he doesn’t really want to end up on the floor in front of a complete stranger if he can help it. It’s hard, because his mind keeps replaying the sound of cracking glass, the memory of heat washing over him lingers on his skin, but here’s here.

Here.

Far from home, with no memory of how he got here, or why. It feels like magic, one moment standing on the edge of something infinitely greater than himself and then next, being completely humbled by it.

Jayce is trying to listen to the conversations happening around him, but his eyes are fixed on a nebula just past the window. It’s breathtaking, surreal, like watching oil shifting on the surface of water, reflecting light in strange ways. Picking out his favorite colors, Jayce opens his mouth to say something only for the words to disappear, his tongue like lead in his mouth.

It looks like him. It’s him, looking down at himself, eyes wet with tears. It’s worse because Jayce keeps thinking about that night in the hospital, the night he stopped being able to not see the reality of Viktor’s sickness. Jayce can’t look away, but he feels his shoulders shaking, like he’s trapped in that memory. The words he manages are choked out. ] It… does it look like anything to you?

[ The mess hall reminds him of his time in the Academy, his nervous stomach and picky sensitivities almost always getting in the way of him finding anything he’d like. Jayce used to say he was spoiled by his mother’s talent with cooking, but really, he was spoiled by the fact that she always made him what he liked and she’d learned early in his childhood that Jayce was weirdly particular about the strangest things.

Jayce has a bottle of CHERRY COLA!™ in his hands, picking at the label with his fingernail. There’s something about the printed face that makes him uneasy, but it’s the least offensive thing he could find amongst the options sitting out for them. For years, Jayce had promised himself that he’d be a little more adventurous when it came to food, only to stick to the same handful of things he knew he liked. Looking at the fish head staring back at him though was not inspiring him to eat it.

Leaning in, he studies the bowl with the red meat. It’s never been his favorite but something about it just seems enticing, even if it looks like something he’s seen Viktor eat from that stand that’s by the bridge. ] Do you think the spikes are edible?

[ Filing into the docking back, Jayce is wandering around with newfound excitement. Jayce had left Piltover only a handful of times his whole life and the idea of being able to see new places, to go out there and do things was intoxicating. Since being put on the council, Jayce felt like he's been wasting away, trapped in the banal bureaucracy of red tape and paperwork, and for a scientist, it was a fate worse than death.

Jayce lives for discovery, for creating things with his hands, and he's eager to take up a role here and hopeful he's finding a way back to the man he used to be, the one he wants to be. ]

Have you ever seen one of these before? [ Jayce is circling one of the ships sitting in the bay. It's like nothing he's ever interacted with before and he's itching to get inside, to play around with it, even though he should be tempering his excitement. He feels like a kid again, seeing magic for the first time, except this is something equally fantastic, a technology so far past what he's ever known. ] And that hologram. [ He's almost giddy. ] Wow.

(( open to anything! hit me up at brutallyamish to plot or just toss something at me! ))