speak no evil.

"Don’ worry about it, shit happens an’ it’s somethin’ that’s important t’ y’er daily life. ‘Ah ‘course y’er gonna freak out over it." He chuckled, pushing his hand in his pocket as he reached up with the other to his shades. "I uploaded th’ah image you drew of it t’ my shades. So I can run it through ‘ah program an’ get ‘ah render ‘ah it so my shades can focal in on it if I glance over it." It seemed he was doing just that, the first part anyways. He really was pulling out all the stops to find this voice box.

"Jus’ remember, if y’ah panic when y’er lookin’ f’er somethin’, you’ll overlook it every time." He said, gesturing that he was going to start his individual search. Honestly, he figured it’d probably be somewhere where it could’ve gotten snagged at. So he started his search where one would have to bend, crouch, or reach for something. It didn’t take him long to hone in on the small piece, especially when his shades blared the alert at him. But alas, what he find wasn’t in good shape.

While Bro wandered away to another part of his apartment, John checked the usual places again, just in case he glossed over it. There were nooks (ew) and crannies that were not lit very well, so he could have easily not noticed it the first time in his panic. Well, he was more calm now! Maybe he'd have better luck this double-check. Until he heard Bro speak again.

"Uhm... No. That's the only one I have." Adjusting his glasses, he trotted over to the older man and - oh. Oh no. Mouth dropped open a little, hands creeping up to his cheeks. "F...fuck. No." Wheezing out his words, caught up in the devastation of his voice box being broken, he couldn't help not concentrating on not winding himself - and couldn't stop the frustrated tears welling in his eyes.

"It’s no problem. Jus’ remember, this is only temporary. I’d’ah cooked up somethin’ more ideal if I had th’ah parts an’ ‘ah couple hours on me, but hey, y’ah can only do so much with limits." He flashed a brighter smile before he looked around, squinting a little. Well, he should probably take the glasses off. Up close and personal was what he had problems with now a days, far away is what he could see fine. So he switched his glasses for his shades and hooked the ones not being used back on his shirt.

"Hold up." He said, rifling through his sylladex for a moment. Looking around, he made sure the space between him and everything else was adequate before he got his hover board out and set it in front of him. It only took him a few minutes more to pull out a multi-tool and a few parts that he kept around. With the idea he had, he figured it should work no problem for a temporary fix. Though he’d probably go about giving a more sound one later on if they couldn’t find the voicebox John was searching for.

He pushed his shades up, tugging his glasses out of his pocket to get a better look at what he was doing. After a few moments, he had put together a temporary patch like structure. “Here.” Dirk tossed the remnants of the parts and his board back into his sylladex before going near the other. “This is only temporary, I used th’ah chip fr’m Hal’s previous android body, specifically th’ah vocal chip. It wont be y’er voice, but it’ll pick up th’ah wave lengths of y’er brain by reading th’ah electrical signals it sends t’ y’er vocal cords when y’ah try t’ah say something. It’ll burn out in ‘ah couple of hours though because it only has a very small battery in it. When it does, it’ll jus’ stop workin’ an’ th’ah chip’ll be fried fr’m the short.”

John watched him as he pulled stuff out, honestly frustrated enough that he was already blinking back tears. This happened so often, you think he would have learned by now. Maybe he should have just superglued it to his forehead or something. He'd never lose it that way. Huff. (Extra embarrassment came in to where he actually needed help. Ughhhh.)

Looking up when Bro spoke again, he was startled by the press to his throat; hands immediately lifting to inspect what had been put there. It was small, and just a teeny bit warm. Baby blues watched him as he gave instruction, feeling another little wash of an odd combination of shame and gratitude flood over him. Shaky little fingers signed 'Thank you' (legitimately one of the only things he could ever remember) before taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

—————

It wasn’t like he’d abandon the idea of helping someone out. All in all, it’s what he did best. Though he was wary, he wasn’t too concerned about it. If anything did happen, he’d defend himself and then bounce out. He pulled on his jacket and shades, putting the coordinates into the transportalizer before he whisked himself away to the home. Upon arrival, he just pocketed his hands and offered up a smile.

He heard his transportalizer go off and spun around, immediately reaching for where the voicebox usually sat between his collarbones and groping nothing. But habit won out, and before he could stop himself he was speaking in that damaged little whisper.

"My voi-" Same hand lifted to cover his mouth, the boy's cheeks turning dark red. He was shit at sign language. Ugh. Hanging his head a little, he shuffled to his desk and grabbed a notepad and a marker, scrawling on it.

He held it up, chewing on his thumbnail nervously.

They could, and then y’ah just need t’ah put it in th’ah same terms I did. Ain’t much anyone can say ‘r do about it now. Y’ah jus’ got’ah keep movin’. Might be ‘ah lil fucked up, but y’er breathin’ so that gives way t’ah healin’. If you’ve made it this far, then I’m sure y’ah can keep it up.

well, sort of breathing! i mean, breathing, but not without difficulties. ha, ha! irony is always funny.

Couldn’ fault y’ah either way. Strategics in hell make y’ah decide on th’ah best choice at th’ah time. Right ‘r wrong, y’ah made th’ah one that looked th’ah most ideal f’er y’er situation.

Take it fr’m ‘ah guy who comes fr’m ‘ah glitched session an’ walked through it twice. Once as ‘ah kid myself, an’ th’ah second as ‘ah guardian. There are no right or wrong decisions in war, but th’ah consequences’ll bite y’ah even if they are right.

well, they COULD, but i get what you're saying. and yikes, that's terrible. i'm sorry. i only had to do it once, but as i mentioned it still hecked me up pretty bad.

ten bucks says it never ends »BU

and we'll see, won't we?

im glad you picked the right choice and stayed

i'll see how long this decision lasts. :p